My Spring/Summer garden did not fare well, at all .  We got a late start, planted without doing enough soil preparation, and just didn't have a good season. 

The pepper plants are hanging in there, and actually look great.  The okra is trying to produce, but as soon as a tiny pod appears, the ants swarm it and cover it up with little bits of "grass" or something.  Very strange.....  I've decided they must need it more than I do, so it's all theirs; this time. 

I still have a few chard plants that are growing ever so slowly, and a few other things are trying to survive the heat.

The heat is making me long for Fall!  I love the cool, crisp days of Autumn. 

In the midst of playing the "waiting game" regarding our upcoming move; one that is coming just 4 short months after our last move...I'm planning for Fall and planting seeds to get a head start.  I've already got seedlings for cucumbers, squash, tomatoes and chard.  They really sprouted fast- I guess it was the heat.  I also rooted  suckers from the tomato plants in the garden.  I just cut off healthy stems, plopped them into a jar of water, and put them in the kitchen window.  They rooted in just a few days and are going into containers a.s.a.p.  I plan to attempt to transplant the peppers and eggplant from the garden into containers.  I don't yet know whether I'll have a "real" garden this Fall, or whether it will be limited to the flower bed and some containers.  Either way, I plan to grow some veggies! 

I was inspired by the sustainable backyard garden video to try growing at least a few little patches of grain, too.  I'll have to do some research to find out more about growing those.  But, I love an adventure, and it should be fun, as well as educational, for us all.  I really want to work on growing as much of our food as possible in the coming days. 

The guys plan to do some work on the lot we are going to use for a community garden tonight.  Once they've gotten some of the weeds and poison ivy  under control, I can get in there and see how many raised beds we'll be able to make.  I also want to do some small fruit trees and, oh, lots of other things there !  First we will have to do some fencing to keep the deer from devouring everything we plant.  Poor things are hungry this year because it has been such a dry season; just not much for them to graze on.

OK, that's a little update from the Love home.  More on the move when I have something definite.  Should be within the month for sure.

Blessings,

Catherine

FOR SALE : Tons of Books, CD's and Curriculum that I need to clear off my shelves--all priced to move!  Paypal. Media Mail shipping or expedited shipping and/or insurance at buyers choice/expense.

HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM (all BRAND NEW!)

Polished Cornerstones by DOORPOSTS—BRAND NEW!  $45.00

KONOS In a Bag : RUSSIA (full kit! brand new!)  $25.00

Veritas Press ; GENESIS THRU JOSHUA (like new with cards!) $20.00

Art Basics for Children - Visual Manna $10.00

Visual Manna's Master Drawing  $10.00

Barker Creek's :Draw Write Now Book 6 Animals & Habitats $5.00

Rod n Staff English 9/10 Teacher Book only—BRAND NEW---$15.00

Rod n Staff English 2 Teacher and Student books $15.00 set (these are used--but still in goodshape!)

ABEKA : Our America Student and Teacher Book Set  $10.00

CHRISTIAN LIBERTY PRESS : Our Fathers World Student & Teacher Book Set $10.00

Bob Jones Press : A Servants Heart : Bible Truths 2 TEACHER EDITION $15.00

Books: (Used--but in good or great shape!)

HISTORY OF US : Liberty for All BOOK 5; Joy Hakim $7.00

Savage Sam : Fred Gipson $2.50

From Submarine to Steamboat: Robert Fulton (hardcover/dust jacket) $5.00 (brand new--!)

Story of Liberty (BRAND NEW!)  $10.00

Mama’s Torah   (BRAND NEW)   $5.00

Alice in Wonderland: Lewis Carroll  $2.00

The Race : Golden Filly Series Book 1  by Lauraine Snelling $1.00

Eagles Wings : Golden Filly Series Book 2  by Lauraine Snelling $1.00

Worldwide Guide to Homeschooling : Dr. Brian Ray  $2.50

Homeschooling:The Journey is the Reward : Pamela Berthume $3.00

If Mama Ain't Happy, Ain't Nobody Happy : Lindsey O'Connor $3.00

The Purpose Driven Life : Rick Warren (hardcover/dust jacket) $3.00

Walking Wisely : Charles Stanley (hardcover/dust jacket) $3.00

The Kingdom Series: Kingdoms Quest Book 5 : Chuck Black $3.00

Civil War Ghosts : Daniel Cohen $2.50

Left Behind : Tim LaHaye / Jerry Jenkins $2.50

Just Like Jesus : Max Lucado $2.50

Molly Saves the Day (American Girls Series) $2.00

Happy Birthday Kirsten (American Girls Series) $2.00

Black Beauty (shorter childrens version-hardcover) MJ Carr $1.00

The Sleepytime Ponies Trick a Trickster : Lana Jordan  (hardcover/dust jacket--signed by author) $2.50

The Tightwad Gazette II : Amy Dacyczyn (Hardcover) $2.50

Nightlight For Parents : James Dobson (hardcover/dust jacket) $2.50

The New Nation (A History of the US) Teaching Guide 3rd Ed. $5.00

Super Science Concoctions: Jill Frankel Hauser $4.00

Water Dance : Thomas Locker $2.00 (Hardcover)

Manatee Winter : Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld $2.00 (Hardcover)

The Children’s Book of Home and Family : William J. Bennett  $5.00 (Hardcover)

Millstones & Stumbling Blocks : Bradley Heath $5.00

Message of the Mountain: ABEKA Book $3.00

These Books are from a set-- beautiful leather bound, silk ribbon bookmarked, gold paged classics! $5.00 each OR $30.00 for all !

Michel De Montaigne Essays

The Ambassadors: Henry James

Henrik Ibsen Plays

Candide : Voltaire

Swann's Way : Marcel Proust

The Annals : Tacitus

Faust : Johann Wolfgang VonGoethe

CDs  (ALL BRAND NEW!):  $3.00 each

Hey Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek Level One, The Reader, Level Two : GREEK N STUFF

Fearfully & Wonderfully Made : ANSWERS IN GENESIS

Hi I'm Riff!  (Barney CD)

World Book 2001 Encyclopedia

Sabbath Rest- No Greater Joy

Rainy Day Art (over 30 hands on projects)

Families of Costa Rica

Thanks for looking~

Lisa

Lisa@HomesteadOriginals.com

Okay---so who wants to win a copy of the BRAND NEW Summer issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine? It's HOT off the presses....not even in stores yet! :) 

 Well.....I have a few copies I'll give away, each day until July 31st!  So how to win? Just CLICK HERE to leave a comment with your contact info so I can get a hold of you when you win!  We'll draw a name each morning (actually, my 1.5yo son will) out of a hat and post the winner. 

Enter everyday, post on your blog and leave me the link in a seperate comment for an additional entry too :)

 Thanks for playing along!

Lisa

OK...I'm going to see if I can get this to work 'cause the link is LONG!

Staples is having their annual Teacher Appreciation Days.  I take advantage of this every year.  In case you don't know, homeschoolers CAN get a Staples Teacher Rewards card/key ring tag!!  Be sure to let the clerk swipe it at every visit.

Here is the link that you can go to and find out the date of your local Staples' Teacher Appreciation Day.

Hope this works...

http://www.staples.com/sbd/cre/marketing/tad_2008/?storeId=10001&cm_ven=Glamour&cm_ite=teacherday&cm_mmc=email_retail_TRW-_-CORP_TRW-_-TRW-_-TeacherDay&cm_lm=ex:WOLFHOMESCHOOL@NETZERO.COM

Blessings from Ohio, Kim Wolf<><

This is a good video for those interested in sustainable agriculture.  It is particularly helpful for those of us who are renting or have limited space.

Anyone here with advice on this subject, please share it with us, too!  This is something our family and a few good friends are looking at putting into practice in the very near future. 

Blessings,

Catherine

Here is a family favorite I thought I would share w/you.  Our family has had the pleasure of going to Holmes County, Ohio ~ the largest Amish settlement in the world ~ a few times.  Once my dh and I enjoyed the most wonderful long weekend at an Bed & Breakfast there.  The husband had grown up Amish but left them to marry.  Their B&B was built by his Amish family members and looks just like an incredible Amish home.  The difference being that the whole 1st floor is made up of lovely, themed guest rooms (we stayed in Grandpa's Room) w/a good 1/3 of the 1st floor being a HUGE country kitchen and a wonderful country gathering room w/several tables and chairs (for those incredible breakfasts and freshly made pie in the evening!) and a relaxing living-area w/a fireplace, piano and comfy couch and chairs.  There is also a wrap-around porch.  The family that funs the B&B has the entire upstairs as their own "house."  That, of course, is a private area.    It's been a while since we've been there, if you're interested, I believe it's called Miller Haus.  It sets on the highest knoll of Holmes County.

Anyway...one of our incredible breakfasts while there was Amish French Toast!  I have made this from-time-to-time ever since!  If you try this, you will be in food heaven!    Let me know how you LOVE it! 

Blessings from Ohio, Kim Wolf<><

Amish French Toast

eggs

milk

butter

bread

syrup

powdered sugar

~Mix w/fork 2 eggs and enough milk to cover (this you will do as necessary for each slice of bread)

~Melt butter into med/hot skillet (do this for each serving.  IF you MUST use margarine, use one that is non-hydrogenated like Earth Balance – I have to do this for one of my girls)

~Crack egg into skillet

~IMMEDIATELY soak a slice of bread in the egg/milk mixture and lay on top of the egg in the skillet; fry for about a minute or so until bottom egg is cooked through.

~Flip egg and bread – together – and let bread toast on other side.

~You MAY need to flip over on each side again until egg is fried to your satisfaction.

~Move egg/toast to a plate and top w/syrup and powdered sugar.

~ENJOY!!!!!!!!!

Mark your calendar: The 2008 Perseid meteor shower peaks on August 12th and it should be a good show.

"The time to look is during the dark hours before dawn on Tuesday, August 12th," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center. "There should be plenty of meteors--perhaps one or two every minute."

The source of the shower is Comet Swift-Tuttle. Although the comet is far away, currently located beyond the orbit of Uranus, a trail of debris from the comet stretches all the way back to Earth. Crossing the trail in August, Earth will be pelted by specks of comet dust hitting the atmosphere at 132,000 mph. At that speed, even a flimsy speck of dust makes a vivid streak of light when it disintegrates--a meteor! Because, Swift-Tuttle's meteors streak out of the constellation Perseus, they are called "Perseids."

(Note: In the narrative that follows, all times are local. For instance, 9:00 pm means 9:00 pm in your time zone, where you live. )

Serious meteor hunters will begin their watch early, on Monday evening, August 11th, around 9 pm when Perseus first rises in the northeast. This is the time to look for Perseid Earthgrazers--meteors that approach from the horizon and skim the atmosphere overhead like a stone skipping across the surface of a pond.

"Earthgrazers are long, slow and colorful; they are among the most beautiful of meteors," says Cooke. He cautions that an hour of watching may net only a few of these at most, but seeing even one can make the whole night worthwhile.

A warm summer night. Bright meteors skipping overhead. And the peak is yet to come. What could be better?

The answer lies halfway up the southern sky: Jupiter and the gibbous Moon converge on August 11th and 12th for a close encounter in the constellation Sagittarius: sky map. It's a grand sight visible even from light-polluted cities.

For a while the beautiful Moon will interfere with the Perseids, lunar glare wiping out all but the brightest meteors. Yin-yang. The situation reverses itself at 2 am on Tuesday morning, August 12th, when the Moon sets and leaves behind a dark sky for the Perseids. The shower will surge into the darkness, peppering the sky with dozens and perhaps hundreds of meteors until dawn.

Above: The eastern sky viewed during the hours before sunrise on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2008.

For maximum effect, "get away from city lights," Cooke advises. The brightest Perseids can be seen from cities, he allows, but the greater flurry of faint, delicate meteors is visible only from the countryside. (Scouts, this is a good time to go camping.)

The Perseids are coming. Enjoy the show!

Click HERE to subscribe to the NASA Science email updates

Ok...what do you do with pigs that eat chicken?

I know the obvious...put them in the freezer. But, in this instance, that isn't the best answer, although I am seriously pondering learning the butchering trade right now!  UGH!

Our new pigs, those pregnant sows we picked Saturday, they ate 2 of my laying hens.  Didn't have a chance-- just attacked them and then proceeded to pull them apart like some warped game of tug-o-war or something.

Our chickens have their home in the barn, and a nice, fenced yard.  I have 3, however, who are definitely roamers.  If we clip their wings any further, they won't have but a bare bone frame over on that side, yet they still manage to climb that fence and roam the yard.  They have a route...they ceck out the goats and puppies for a day or so, even roost in the puppy pen with them.  No one has ever cared (athough those blasted puppies have enjoyed playing with the younger pullets....and have killed a handful of them as well).

But, the pigs...they are in the other side of the barn, along the outside pens.  The chickens go through the horse lot there into the timber to wander.  A couple ended up in the pigs confinement and well....tug-o-war time.

I can break those puppies of playing tag with my chickens, but what do you do with a pig who has a taste for chicken now?  It rather worries me that the children don't typically think much of getting into the barn, and they help with the feeding and such.  As far as I'm concerned, these are dangerous pigs.  You know, around here, the standard was that when the Revenue men cam poking around and causing trouble, you just tossed them into the pig pen and let the hogs have them.  Nothing left to dispose of.

Now I have pigs that have shown a very dangerous side to themselves.  I'm not really interested in the additions to the freezer menu anymore, no matter how wonderful the other tastes.

You may have noticed that I've locked a couple of posts.
My brother stopped by this little bloggy home and advised me that I should be more careful with what I say.
And I agree.
I like to think I maintain a bit of anonimity here with code names and not naming specific nearby places and such but one never knows.
You just never know.
I keep this blog for myself, the joy of writing, sharing that writing and hearing back from others. It's a grand thing.
I've never gone out of my way to share this blog with my family and friends- its not a way to stay in touch with far-flung kin--- its just me being a bit more me than I can be at times and at the same time a bit more anonymous than I can be at times.
I remember my surprise when I found that a friend had found my little blog here and had been reading it anonymously for quite some time. It was a bit unnerving and for awhile I found myself changing my writing style because of it.
Just my long winded way of saying I must "proceed with caution".
Oh and go here to check out my brother's business blog.
Hi Roo!

We got our oven yesterday.  We are all so happy.  I can't imagine not having one.  I know people who wouldn't have hurt without an oven, but for us it was torture.  LOL!  Even my little  3yo understood we couldn't make bread, cake, muffins, etc. 

Last night to break in the stove we made a half batch of sugar cookies.  After I got to starting on them I was freaking out with each ingredient... sugar?  (I threw out the open sugar, do I have any other sugar?),   Cream of tartar (we threw out most every spice in the cupboard, but I had a spare new one in the bulk cupboard), almond extract?  (I knew I threw it out, but I had recently bought some new that I hadn't opened and it was ok).  I didn't have any regular white flour, but I did have bread flour... the cookies ended up a bit heavy, I imagine from the higher gluten content.  I imagine we won't eat the entire batch anyways... Steve and I are trying to eat healthier and the girls are just not woofing down the sweets.  It was more of an effort to give Paige some Mommy time.  She saw the oven and said... Mommy, I want to make cookies.  She wanted some "normal" back into her life... so we made cookies. 

As we were placing the cookie dough onto the sheets Paige looks up to me and says so sweetly... Mother, I am glad our oven is back... with a soft sigh. 

The oven does look almost identical to our other one... which we were told to replace as close as possible.  Even thought we had just bought the oven this January, the model is not a current one, even thought it was new.  So, we had to find something as close as possible with the current models.  We lost our warming burner.. .to get it was another $100, but we didn't use it and it was in the way.  But now all the burners are able to cook with two different sizes... so it was a trade off.  I am happy with the exchange.  I would have liked to have gone back to a gas top /bottom electric oven, but that was more yet and not comparible in price... I just find I am not crazy about the flat top stove.  It is not flexible in my mind and the pans swim on the top surface... driving me crazy!  But DH loves it and I will eventually get used to it.  Dh says if I can't manage after a year he'll buy me an LP stovetop... But that seems silly to me altogether! 

Anyways, we all just sighed when the oven came... life is feeling more normal. 

Warmly, ~Melissa