Blogging Break

Due to the craziness of the garden and our life, I have decided to take a two week blogging break. I hope y'all come back and rejoin me again for more garden updates and farm living when I get back to blogging. Summer on the farm is one of my favorite times, but it is also the busiest. We did get the rest of our garden planted over the last week so I will have lots of great pictures to post about our garden experience when I return! Who knows what wonderful dishes will cross our dinner table between now and then. If I find any treasures, I will be sure to post the recipes. Did I mention that today was the last day of school for my children? I don't know which of us is happier...me or them!!! I am ready to celebrate!!!! It is the time of year to fire up the grill and plug in the electric ice cream maker. We have turned our carport into an outside family dining area, and we have eaten out there almost every night for the past week. It is so nice to have the breeze blowing and wind chimes ringing during dinner. Enjoy your next few weeks, and I am sure I will enjoy mine! See ya soon!!!!

grace and peace,
julie

Graduation: Mission Accomplished

We have been busy in the garden, and now we are starting to reap the rewards. Fresh broccoli is so wonderful. I am thinking about making a creme of broccoli soup with homemade bread for dinner tonight. Don't forget to add a huge garden salad to the mix. It is tasty and cheap so what could be better?


My flowers decided to bloom at just the right time this year. I had a beautiful vase for the entire weekend. I got to share them with the out of town family that came to celebrate the graduation with us.

And speaking of graduation...it was wonderful. I am thankful that the weekend went so well. We all had a lot of fun!
Matthew had asked his dad if he could have a big camp out with some of his graduating friends on Saturday night. They were going to camp out by our pond and fish all night. My husband said yes, but he forgot to mention it to me. By the time I found out about it, it was pouring down rain and all the extra boys ended up in our basement. They had a ball, and I was happy that they found a safe place to spend graduation night. We have one major rule at our house for sleepovers with teenagers. We make all teenagers leave their car keys in our bedroom at night. This way they can't leave without our knowledge. This was my husband's idea...I wonder what he did at sleepovers when he was a teenager????

grace and peace,

julie

Life is Good

Garden progress is continuing rather slowly, but at least it is getting accomplished. If the wind stops blowing so hard, I plan on finishing planting the green beans. If the wind keeps blowing, I am going to head to the basement and watch t.v. How is that for taking my lemons and making some lemon aide?

We have a super busy weekend and I am trying to get myself together to make sure everything is in order. Our oldest son is graduating this weekend, and our third son is playing a travel ball tournament against his most feared opponents. To make things even more stressful, our son will be pitching for one of the games. I already have butterflies in my stomach over this! We will be having out of town family coming for both events. Too bad that the three ballgames are played an hour away at the same time the graduation is scheduled. Of course we will all be at the graduation except for our baseball player pitching to his most dreaded opponent. I feel like we have left him out to dry all alone since none of us will be there to support his efforts.

I was going to host a huge graduation dinner, but I knew when to throw up the white flag of surrender. I did that two weeks ago, and our graduate didn't mind one little bit. We offered to take him and his grandparents out to Carraba's as a celebration. He was good with that so I got myself off the hook for hosting a huge dinner. I will make a special cake for us all to enjoy later that evening. I don't like to say I can't do it all, but sometimes that is the only sensible thing to do. I don't like the fact that we can't be two places at once, but there are times that it just doesn't work out the way I would like.

I have worked on getting our house in order for our company so that the last minute cleaning thing won't be so overwhelming. I have also planned my menu and I will buy the groceries on Friday. If all goes well, I will bring two weeks worth of groceries home to a clean house! I will then bake a cake and greet relatives. I will then be watching my first born graduate and be wondering what my little man is doing on the pitcher's mound. Life is good, and I wouldn't change a thing...except the time of the graduation!!!!

grace and peace,

julie

Garden Tidbits

Our sunflowers are coming up wonderfully this year. This picture was taken with last year's supply of sunflowers. The sunflowers didn't do much last year. I don't know the problem, but this year I planted more and more and more sunflower seeds just to make sure we didn't have a repeat failure. I see lots of different types of sunflower seeds poking up their pretty little petals down in our garden area. We didn't get as much done in the garden on Mother's Day as I had hoped, but we sure had a nice day. I have spent much of my day out there today working hard. I am hoping a husband or a son will come home and get the tiller going this evening so I can finish up the planting in the big garden. We have had so much rain this year and I am so thankful, but it has slowed us down a bit planting the garden.

Our table is filled with fresh garden lettuce of all different varieties, spinach, broccoli, green onions, and a few strawberries. The squash, cucumbers, okra, and zucchini plants are doing nicely, but still way too small to produce anything as of yet. I have an entire bed full of beautiful peas. I also have some beets, radishes, and cabbage plants that are growing. I will be succession planting more lettuce and spinach very soon. I may also do another planting of squash and zucchini. My goal for tonight is to plant green beans. Surely, I can get that done!!!!

grace and peace,

julie

Happy Mother's Day

"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward."
Psalm 127:3

I pray y'all enjoy your special day and the family that the Lord has given to you.

grace and peace,

julie

Pantry Count and Clean Up

I finally conquered the cleaning of our laundry room/pantry area. It was a job that came complete with me threatening to throw excess shoes belonging to the children into the neighbor's donkey field. Apparently they all believed me because amazingly everyone took their shoes and put them away in a safe location. With the cleaning of the laundry room came me counting and organizing my mason jars. Remember that last year I had EVERY jar we owned filled with something yummy to eat. We have eaten our way through lots of the canned goods, but we still have lots left so I am pleased.

After counting the remaining jars, I know I will not have to can cinnamon applesauce, jalapenos, green tomato relish, red tomato relish, dill pickles, or lime pickles for this upcoming season. We still have plenty to last us another complete year. This will save me a lot of time this year, and of course I am thrilled about that. I encourage you to take count of your remaining items in the pantry. I was blindly assuming that I would have to can both kinds of pickles this year so I was planning on planting an entire bed of cucumbers. Now that I realize my pickle supply is good, I will only plant a half bed of cucumbers for eating and sharing.

The thing I hate about organizing is that I spent the entire morning working and the laundry room is the only thing that looks nice. The rest of the house looks like a bomb went off during the day! My day today will be cleaning the rest of the house and making a nice dinner. By the way, we are having our first meal with garden broccoli for this season. I am looking forward to that!!!!

grace and peace,

julie

Gardening

Our garden is growing nicely. I am going to harvest broccoli and some strawberries today. I could cut some lettuce, but it doesn't go with my supper menu so I will leave it to grow for another day. I have many plants sitting on my patio table waiting to be planted, but the rain won't stop long enough. I am waiting and hoping that by Sunday it will be dry enough to plant. I planted an entire bed of baby zinnias, but something happened and they are all gone. Zinnias are my all time favorite flower so you can bet your bottom dollar that as soon as it dries up I will be planting lots of zinnia seeds. I do have some sunflowers poking through the ground. I love to make flower arrangements with different varieties of sunflowers. They are so cheerful placed in pretty vases throughout the house.

In some ways, it seems like a slow going garden season. I know that shortly we will be living, eating, and breathing garden produce so I am o.k. for now.

grace and peace,

julie

Mother's Day Desires

My love language is acts of service. I enjoy a nice gift, but I LOVE when somebody does an act of service for me. This brings me to Mother's Day. Every year I ask for the same Mother's Day gift. My oldest son already is dreading his part. He has a job now, and he would rather spend $$ on me than what I really want. He knows me well enough to know that won't work. So he is preparing himself for the day ahead. My desire is that everybody work in the garden with me, and be HAPPY about it. We will finish planting, and we will set up the drip works to the beds that are already planted. We will weed the strawberries and just get everything in tip top shape in the garden. In the past, I have spotted our two oldest boys doing a rain dance on Mother's Day. If you want to see happy kids, come to my house on Mother's Day if it is raining HARD outside. This happened last year. Truth be told I just like all of us to be together on Mother's Day, and if we can do it in the garden that is just a bonus for me! The one thing I don't want to do on Mother's Day is to go to a restaurant. I like having my men folk grill a nice meal, and I don't even mind chipping in and helping in the kitchen. Some may call me weird, but I would so much rather eat at our own table than at a busy restaurant. How about you? What do you enjoy doing on Mother's Day?

grace and peace,
julie

Want Some?

We love Dessert Pizza. It is a nice make ahead dessert that always hits the spot! If you want to make it yourself, here is the recipe that I use. For the crust, I use a Walmart brand sugar cookie roll. This stuff NEVER comes into our house unless I am making dessert pizza. It has a lemony flavor that is nice. You could make a homemade sugar cookie crust if you wanted.

For the crust: Spread out one roll of sugar cookie dough onto a regular pizza pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes. Take out and cool completely.

Mix a regular package of softened creme cheese and 1/4 cup powder sugar, 1 Tablespoon half and half, plus a teaspoon of vanilla. When crust is cooled, spread creme cheese mixture over the cookie crust.

Use any assortment of fruit that you like for the topping. We always use sliced kiwi, sliced strawberries, and blueberries. Often times I also add some sliced pineapples. Cover it and refrigerate until ready to use. I usually make it in the morning and serve it in the evening. It is still good the next day. This is a great dessert for picnics!

grace and peace,

julie

Farm Thoughts

I found an article today written by another farmer. Wow, did he hit the nail on the head of what we have been feeling here on our little homestead. I encourage you to go read it at the following link: http://midlandagrarian.blogspot.com/2009/05/agrarian-rat-race.html

I have had these exact same thoughts. I may not MAKE any extra income, but if I can save $10,000 from not having to buy items at the grocery store then that is quite an income indeed! We still have a large grocery bill even though we raise most of our own vegetables. The real savings comes when we no longer have to purchase our meat at the store. It won't be much longer now seeing as how the cow, the sheep, and the chickens are all growing by the day! We also drink an enormous amount of milk in our house. I could save a ton of money by milking the cow. Perhaps one day I can really achieve that goal, but for today I will be happy with meat and veggies!

grace and peace,

julie

Bittersweet

I found our horses a new home yesterday. I am so excited that they are going to a good home with older girls that will care for them. I know the horses will be trained and brushed like they never were here. I am excited. However, this means that my days of horse ownership will soon be coming to a close. I will miss their sweet loves and the sound of their hooves running down the hill. I have so enjoyed these big babies, but I know we are making the right decision. I didn't think it would be easy to give them away, but the Lord has given me such peace about it. They will remain on our farm until June. This will give me a few more weeks to enjoy them.

grace and peace,
julie

Another Year

We are celebrating the birth of our first born son. He turns 18. Trust me...I am way too young to have an 18 year old!!! The young man wanted meat and more meat for his birthday meal... so I obliged and made Italian Beef Subs. I also made a cheesecake with fresh strawberries. I am sure the resident health nut will eat a piece of his birthday cake...well, at least I hope he will. I did notice him splurging on some Captain Crunch cereal this morning, but never fear, I did make a huge omelet to fill up his growling birthday stomach! And just last week, the resident health nut won a huge weight lifting competition for his weight class. It was a big deal, and to say the least he was thrilled. Do you know what he wants for his birthday? He wants to take Mix Martial Arts class. You know the one where they can kick, hit, judo chop, and wrestle you to the death or at least until you "tap out". Now somehow I just don't see that fitting into my peaceful home. I can hear all my boys going at it!!! It ought to be fun and exciting and LOUD!!! Such is the life of a momma with 4 boys and 1 sweet girl!
grace and peace,
julie

Dancing in the Flowers

Hope and I went out yesterday to take some pictures. Every spring, our neighbor's hay field gives us a spectacular display of blue flowers. I haven't taken the time that I usually do to take pictures. Could it be that I am too busy doing the other stuff in life? So while the grill was heating up yesterday for dinner, we ran down to the hay field and had some fun. I would have loved to stay longer, but everybody was waiting for dinner. It is a beautiful time of the year to capture lovely pictures! I remember going on drives with my dad often in the spring looking for beautiful things to photograph. It was always like a treasure hunt...finding the perfect flower or the perfect scene to capture through the camera lens. That was the way I spent many hours with my dad from the time I was a teenager right up to the very end of his life. I got to spend time sharing his passion for photography. I didn't even know it until after his death that he too had passed along that same passion to me. Someday when all the busyness subsides around me I would love to purchase a REALLY nice camera and take photography classes. Someday... but for now, I just enjoy being a mom in the craziness of my world and I take a few pictures whenever I can carve out the time!

grace and peace,
julie

Pantry Items Going Fast

I canned a lot of food last year from our garden's bounty. I spent countless hours in the garden and then the kitchen and filled every quart and pint jar that we owned. There are a lot of them, and I was amazed that they were all filled. We have now emptied many of those jars. Sometimes they seem to be flowing out of our ears. Empty jars can be a storage frustration, but when the summer harvest comes they are worth all the effort. We have used well over half of the canned and frozen goods that we put up last year. The green beans are gone and the tomato sauce will be used up shortly. One of the greatest new canning finds last year was the apple pie filling that I made. I have used it for breakfast treats and desserts. Our family loves it on homemade dessert pizza. I will can Apple Pie filling again this year. It will be among the staples in our pantry.

I will spend the next few days working in our pantry area getting ready for this year's garden bounty. I only have a small window of time before my hands are once again filled with major garden and canning projects. I am trying to make the next month count with a lot of indoor projects that I just won't have time to complete once garden season is in full swing. I am also needing to get our freezers defrosted and organized. The freezers are getting empty. There is still some corn and jam left, but the bottom can be seen. All the pork is gone. Soon we will be adding 6 lambs and 1 beef cow so now is the time to get those freezers cleaned. I am almost certain we will have to buy another freezer for all the meat.

I am satisfied with the amount of food we stored last year. I know that we were covered in the event of an emergency. I am hoping to fill all of our jars again this year.

grace and peace,
julie

Garden Production

We spent some time Sunday evening working in our garden. We planted squash, zucchini, okra, and cucumbers. I also planted an entire bed of flowers. I truly love the flowers that we grow because they are an inexpensive way to brighten our summer. My favorite cut flowers are zinnias. They are so easy to grow and to work with in arrangements. They look great in a vase or they are also wonderful to use as the focal point in a multi flower arrangement. I also planted Bachelor Buttons and Gompheria. I went down to the potato patch and planted an entire area of sunflowers. I can't wait to see all the different varieties of sunflowers growing. I can see this area clearly from our kitchen window so it should be a beautiful summer time show.

It is time to succession plant more lettuce. Our lettuce is beautiful and will be ready in the next few weeks. I will start another bed of lettuce so when we are finished eating this first bed, the second bed will be ready to harvest. I also have to get my green beans in the ground. I think we are going to put them in the potato patch to free up our raised beds for tomatoes and peppers. Our tomato and peppers are still a bit too small to plant so they will remain in the shop area until they get a bit bigger. Our garden is off to a good start. Our pantry is dwindling fast so I am looking forward to filling my quart and pint jars once again!

grace and peace,
julie

Sunday Scripture

"Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him." Psalm 37:7

The Lion and the Lamb on the Porch

Lilly Bit decided this morning that we weren't getting her bottle quick enough so she walked herself to the front porch. We heard her head butting the front door. Of course we were quick to deliver her a bottle of milk. Missy had to get in on the action. Do you see a trend here? Missy doesn't like to be left out of anything. After enjoying milk and cookies on the front porch, it was time to head back to the pasture with the other sheep. I hope Lilly Bit grows out of being demanding! However, with Missy whispering in ear, she may never be any different!!!!

grace and peace,
julie

Senior Pictures

Some may think we are cheap. I like to view it as practical. I didn't like the pictures that the professional photographer took of our son for his senior pictures so I chose to do them myself. This was his best picture. Too bad I had branches coming out of his head!!! I should have thought about that, but I was too busy trying to get Missy to behave and listening to Matthew about how much he needed me to hurry.

Matthew wanted one with his dog... 14 pictures later we had an acceptable one to print.

Here they are both showing their teeth!

Missy being her very best. Every time she is near Matthew she wants to lay down for him to rub her belly. That wasn't the best for picture taking.

Missy had finally had enough and the senior was getting impatient too. We did get enough pictures to have some for his graduation announcements!

grace and peace,

julie

The Purpose of the Farm Redefined

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about how we struggle to come to terms with the purpose of our farm. Is it a money maker or is it a hobby? You can read that post here.

As much as we REALLY would love this farm to be a money maker and keep my husband working at home, we know the reality is that it isn't. We are caught between two worlds. We have spent some time these last few weeks praying and evaluating our farm. We have come to the conclusion that it is more than a hobby farm, but less than a working farm. It is here to provide for our family and friends, but that is all for now. We want to be as self sustaining as possible and this farm allows that for us. Sometimes we feel like we are working so hard at work and farm that there is little time to enjoy the rest. Michael loves to hunt. He didn't hunt one time last year. There wasn't time. That may not seem like a bid deal. However, we have 3 boys who WANT to hunt, but need their dad to go with them. The same holds true for fishing. One of our sons spent his birthday money on trout fishing equipment two years ago. He has waited for his dad to take him so they can learn together. I heard them talking last night about going trout fishing this week.

We made our first steps yesterday in making our farm work better for us. We sold almost all of our sheep. I had to fight back the tears when I saw them loaded in the trailer. I didn't want them to go, but I knew it was the right thing. I could see the look of relief on Michael's face after they left. This is a huge stress reliever because it brings our flock down to a much easier to handle number. We kept Peter the Great, and 3 breeding ewes. We kept Lilly Bit just because I love her. She will grow into a breeding ewe someday...maybe, but she will always be a pet. We kept 6 wethers for our own freezer. They aren't fat enough yet to butcher so we will keep feeding them until the time is right. With the flock much smaller, it shouldn't be too long for them to gain the needed weight.

At times I feel like we are going backwards, but I know in reality we are going forward in a very good way. We get caught up in the whole notion of "it wouldn't be that hard to make some extra money", but it does become extremely hard when you aren't equipped for the task at hand. Then it goes from being hard to being stressful and other things are left undone. Our most important task at hand are our children. I don't want them leaving our home being disheartened because their dad never had time to take them hunting or fishing. Because after all, hunting and fishing isn't about the activity as much as it is about the relationships that are built during the time spent doing the activity.

grace and peace,

julie

MONSTER Cookie Recipe

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar
3 eggs
2 cups peanut butter
1 teaspoon light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
4 1/2 cups oats, uncooked
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup candy coated m&m's
1 6 oz. package semisweet chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugar on medium speed of an electric mixer. Add eggs, peanut butter, syrup, and vanilla. Beat well. Add oats, soda, and salt. Stir well. Stir in remaining ingredients. Dough will be stiff.

Pack dough into a 1/4 cup measure cup. Drop dough 4 inches apart onto lightly greased cookie sheet. Lightly press each cookie into a circle with fingertips. Bake at 350 for 12 to 15 minutes (centers of cookies will be slightly soft). Cool slightly on cookie sheets; remove to wire racks and cool completely. Yield: 2 1/2 dozen MONSTER size cookies

Hints: These cookies are a hit with everybody that eats them. If you have young children, you could make the cookies smaller like you would regular cookies. They would also be great made into a bar cookie. Just remember to adjust your cooking times. The dough also freezes nicely so you can bake half now and freeze the rest for later!

grace and peace,
julie