Happenings on the Homestead in the Appalachian Mountains

 

Weekend Coffee Share

Angel Trumpet, Roll & Read, Trade Day 

Hello there Adventurous Friends & Family, greetings from Georgia. How you doing? I'm sitting out here on the porch today enjoying the fall air & the gentle rain. We've still been getting okra out of the garden & plan to have some for supper tonight with some leftover meatballs & gravy. The dogwoods & poplars are starting to have some color & the angel trumpet is finally blooming. During Homeschool Day this week we talked about Why Leaves Change Colors along with doing some leaf painting & rubbings. We've had a busy several weeks going to the Goat Farm Trade Day & Son in Law's Mother passing away. Kevin did some hog & bear hunting. He watched a bear for a while, saw some squirrels & lots of hog sign. The bear weighed about 40 pounds so not big enough for taking. He's been waiting till a little cooler weather to squirrel hunt & plans to do some muzzle loader hunting in a couple weeks during that season. He got a muzzle loader a while back at a decent price & is anxious to try it out. I hosted a fall farm day, assisted with Daughter's Meet Up at the Park & went to the community recourses Roll & Read. Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage, I'll tell you what the Roll & Read was all about & tell you how we did at the Trade Day. 

I finally have angel trumpet blooms after getting
cuttings from Moma a couple years ago.

I went with Daughter & Youngest Grands to the Roll & Read at the park. It was a fun family event giving details about community recourses that are available for just about every phase of life. Bringing skates, bikes, scooters, strollers & wagons was encouraged for traveling along the trail to each of the booths. There were all kinds of giveaways such as books, pencils, crayons & diapers. We visited each booth & did all the activities & games. The kids had cards that were to be stamped at each booth.  Each fully stamped card holder got to choose a nice size stuffie as a prize at the last booth.

    

Our favorite story time librarian was there
reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear What
Do You See? Each family got a copy of
the book. The book was the theme of all
the booths. 

We met Smokey the Bear. Belle from
Beauty and the Beast was there too.

The playdough molds &
frog tosses were popular.

Older Grand joined us for a while rolling
in on his new wheels. 

Making price posters.

Trade Day was good & fun. We camped overnight along with Grand who came along to help set up her family's booth. The morning was chilly & the afternoon started getting hot. Kevin had the pinto beans & cornbread for lunch. I had the hamburger with everything. There didn't seem to be as much activity as there was at the spring sale, but all was good. Grands had a lot of fun on the bouncy house.

We made it, unloading & getting set up.

  

Played cards & worked a puzzle
 before bedtime.

 

Up early making sales.

Hot chocolate & snacks
for Grands when they arrived.

Walked around to see what we could see:

Grands sold their rabbit cage & squishies.
 The guinea pigs didn't sale. Our chickens
sold & gave away the last little kitten. 

These are some of the things that's been going on in my neck of the woods, how has your week been?

Happenings on the Homestead in the Appalachian Mountains

 

Weekend Coffee Share

Hello there Adventurous Friends & Family, greetings from Georgia. How you doing? The astilbes put on a show for us this week in the gardens. Congrats to all the graduates, best wishes for new adventures ahead. We went on a Jeep ride & ate at Taco Bell. I like their nachos bellgrande with lettuce added, though it has lots of carbs for me that is supposed to be eating low carb & low sugar. Kevin likes their regular burritos & tacos. I read that the crunchwrap supreme is their best-selling menu item nationwide. I might give it a try next time. We made another strawberry pie & should have blackberries here in a few days. I helped host a Summer Kickoff Splash Blast for Grands & Daycare Friends, celebrated Grand's birthday & went to the last baseball game of the season. Kevin had a little job this week replacing all the screws on a metal roof. He said it took right at 1000 screws. He got a deal at the hardware store on some hinges he needed for building a fold out nightstand in the camper. The 6 hinges rung up as $58.12. They were in the $1 bin, a clearance on discontinued hinges & pulls, so the actual cost was $6.48. They do penny rounding up, so the total was $6.50 a savings of $47.94 according to the receipt. Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & I'll tell you what wildflowers we saw blooming this week, then I'm off to Grand's dance recital & Daycare Friend's birthday pool party this weekend.

Meet Oreo, one of the newest additions
to Grand's homeschool pet project. Oreo
is a guinea pig.

Waiting for game time. Football &
cheer have already started with
 signups & uniform fittings.

He ended up getting hit by
the ball & taking a base. 

The lady slippers surprised us
by blooming early this year, as
quickly as they arrived, their 
blooms are gone, a reminder
to slow down & appreciate
nature's beauty while it's here.

      

Fire Pinks

             

Spirea

             

      

Happy 19th Birthday to Grand Chandler.

 

12 years ago on his 7th birthday.

Lemonade popsicle drinks.

      

It feels like summer.

Splashing & laughing.

Grands caught tadpoles back
 in March. It takes 6 to 16 weeks
 for them to turn into frogs.

These are some of the things that's been going on in my neck of the woods, how has your week been? Go out & have a wonderful weekend.

Happenings on the Homestead in the Appalachian Mountains

Weekend Coffee Share

Hello there Adventurous Friends & Family, greetings from Georgia. How you doing? It's officially strawberry season. We've picked lots of strawberries. Kevin made a cake with some & froze some of the others. We went on a good little trail ride, checking out a different off-road area. We had Grandboy Toddlers last weekend while Daughter took Grandgirls on a Girl's Weekend Trip & Son-In-Law took Oldest Grandboys to a Savannah Bananas baseball game. Braden didn't make the top 3 on American Idol, though lots of concerts are being planned in his hometown & around our surrounding area. Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage, let's have a piece of cake & catch up, then I'm going to go start packing for an all-day trail ride Son-In-Law is getting together this weekend, but 1st I've got to put some towels in the wash & clean up the kitchen. 

                

I liked having the kittens around, so soft & fuzzy, checking to see if their eyes had opened, watching them walk around, wondering when they were going to start eating the cat food. They turned 6 weeks old & have moved out. They went to live in homes that have children that are going to love them & give them lots of attention.

The spinach is unreal, it done way better than expected. There is so much of it, way more than I can eat. Kevin planted spinach seeds in several different places hoping to get enough for me a salad. We've talked about freezing some, but I don't know. I eat it fresh & don't cook with it. From what I read about freezing it, it needs to be blanched & then it's good to cook with after it's been frozen. We've pulled a few radishes & been eating on the onions. The onions are still a bit small, about the size of a pecan but they're tasty. The tomato plants have took off good. Several already have blooms. The pepper plants are doing good. Bugs have eat up on the zucchini, squash, tators & pumpkin plants. Kevin has been having to water often. 

Spinach & tomato plants. There
is spinach in another bed too. 
 

  

Radishes & pepper plants.

Onions

     

A little Seven Dust on the tator
plants after trying some dish
soap concoction.

Sweet tator slips that were planted
in the garden.

       

             

Rose the pup & some of the knockout roses.

A Happy Birthday & a Happy Mother's Day goes to this lady, my Moma.

The one thing left to do in the camper is finishing up the bed & putting in the mattresses. 

The mattresses.

  

Building the cabinets.

Making doors.

Foldout dining table & extra
 counter space built in.

These are some of the things that's been going on in my neck of the woods, how has your week been? Go out & have a wonderful weekend.