Sugar Bend Farm

A Few More Garden Pics For Your Viewing Pleasure

Yellow and white with purple splashes!

I really like this one!  Only one bloom and it didn't last long.  I am glad I got the picture.

Feverfew and Peonies

Cute Children and pets pictures

My Mom sends me some cute e-mails.  I love these one and had to share with you all.

Who is walking who?

I look like you or is it you look like me?

Ah, can I keep him?  (the dog is asking):

Um mom, why am I wearing clothes and his is not??

Look Mom at what I learned :

Just one little bite that's all:

Are you sure they taste like chicken??

Are you sure they are in here???

That's all for now, Blessings,Mj

Yes, another entry! :)

Each evening, we take a ride up top to check on our cows. Last night, we were rewarded with seeing a new bull calf! Had we been there 10 minutes sooner, we could have watched him being born.

What an amazing thing birth is. I am in awe of it. Animal births are so different than human births. We treat animal births as a natural event, and very few need any help or intervention. Human birth, on the other hand, is treated as some sort of illness that simply must be treated and have intervention. Whether the intervention is to "move things along with pitocin", or to "monitor to be sure all is well" or to "take the baby". God designed the female body to reproduce. I think we'd do well to let His design do the work, not the medical community.

I digress...sorry...birth is such an incredible event...I hate to see women give that time of their life over to the medical community. God is doing so much more than just bringing a new life into the world...though that's awesome in and of itself....He can use that time to grow you as a person. As a couple. As a child. As a parent. But, if you're all doped up, can't feel the labor pain, and can't move....you kind of remove Him from the situation, don't you?

Okay, okay....moving on.....

We're going to a cookout tomorrow for the 4th. Thomas wanted fireworks, so we may have to have our own private show another day. Wish our town put on a fireworks show. I remember living in NY, there was always a big show to go see. Even in FL, there were fireworks on the beach.

Honey starts a new schedule soon. He'll be working on the inventory prep crew. Instead of his normal 5am to 2pm shift, he'll work 2pm to 11pm. We all see this is a really good thing for the summer. It's light out so late that it makes getting to bed on time difficult. And it's too warm to sleep comfortably...course, in the morning, it's quite cool and pleasant, so sleeping in is really easy to do. (ask me how I know this to be true?!)

Mom's night out is next week. I didn't go last month, so I'm really looking forward to going this month. It's always a good time with fun friends. Sure, some seem to have their own agendas......and that I surely don't understand....but I do like my time out with friends.

Mary has a couple of loose teeth. So does Natalie. They just keep growing up....

Rebecca is going on a trip with my family later this year. My folks, Aunt Nina, brother and his family and cousin and his family are going to Cozumel, Mexico over Thanksgiving. Aunt Nina invited Rebecca since my niece will be there too. She's footing the entire bill, from her passport to her flight to her time there. How incredibly generous of her!!!! Rebecca is quite excited about this opportunity...and I am too....though I know I will miss her terribly.

Natalie and Mary have decided we need to do something special while Rebecca is away. They've tossed out some wild ideas....we shall see what the future holds...

Honey is stopping at the sawmill on his way home today to get the rest of our lumber for the corral. This needs to be finished up for so many reasons....one of which being just to cross off a HUGE to do on the never-ending list. What a blessing it will be to have this finished!!!

I need to get my July menu finished up so we can do our big monthly grocery shopping tomorrow. The cupboards are looking a bit bare. The pantry needs re-stocking. I will have a most happy family to have cheese in the house again. We ran out of all but mozzarella earlier this week....and I've heard many a comment about this tragedy.

I'm off to work on said menu.....Happy Fourth of July!!!

July? Already??

Is it just me or is this year flying by with lightning speed??

We're having a fun, busy summer. We've really enjoyed spending time with friends, gardening, going to the creek, reading, and just generally enjoying our time together.

I'm realizing how short my time with Rebecca is getting to be. Not that I expect her to go anywhere right after graduation, but she's going to be in 11th grade this coming year....who knows what the Lord has in store for her. I want to soak up every minute with her...and her siblings, of course.

Rebecca and Mary were discussing how old each of them would be in "so many years". When Mary turns 16, Rebecca will be 26. If she's anything like me, Rebecca will have a couple of children by that time. Strange to think about it that way....

If she did follow me...Rebecca would be married in 5 short years..and a Mama in 7. Doesn't seem that far away....

Okay...I'm going to get all teary-eyed if I keep on...so I'll stop and just love the time NOW.

Rebecca and I taught Natalie and Mary how to play Dutch Blitz. We have two more girls who love to play this game! Mary is the Uno girl..but she likes the Dutch Blitz too! What fun we have playing. We should get another deck of cards, since there's only cards enough for 4 players....

We're all getting nice tans. I'm loving this weather. Could be cooler for my taste, but I'll take it. It's not overwhelmingly hot as it has been the last few years. The a/c isn't running non-stop. It's not unbearable outside. Most days, we've had a nice breeze which makes such a difference. It's warm enough to make me want to swim, yet not so warm that makes me want to stay indoors. I'm quite thankful for this weather!!!!

Honey is going to the dentist next week. He's lost one of his crowns for the 3rd time. The dentist told him if it comes off again, there was nothing he could do to put it back on. It started out with one pin holding it in place...he now has 3 pins...and it still comes off. So, he's going in so the dentist can remove the pins....one less tooth for my beloved. I feel badly for him. I so wish someone had taught him...and emphasised to him...the importance of taking care of your teeth.

We've done some organizing and re-arranging...with more to be done. I have a pile here in the office....quite the pile...of things to sell. I'm not sure I want to deal with the hassle of eBaying them...but then....I've done two book sales and am left with this pile. The pile was MUCH larger before the sales, so I've done pretty well at downsizing it...but I want it GONE altogether!

Guess that job won't do itself.....I should spend some computer time taking care of such things....

7-2-09 Up-date

Kristi was board earlier today and decided to play wii.  She played monopoly with Hope!  Hope is our soon to be 10 year old golden medical alert service dog.  We train the dog to all kinds of stuff some funny and silly but this is too much!

Titus is doing great in his service dog training.  We took him out for the first time to go shopping and he was wonderful.  If we stopped and looked or spoke to someone he would lay down with out being told to.  I thought it was odd, so I kept testing him.  I would walk and stop not look at him he would just lay down .  That is amazing for a six month old puppy to do on his first outing in stores.  I wonder if Kristi is going to teach Titus to play monopoly??

We start training them as soon as they are born.  Also having good parents helps too.  It took me two years to find his parents, to find the lines I was looking for.  Now we need one more female golden.  We might get one from Alex's breeder.

Blessings, Mj

My Garden, Inspired by Tasha Tudor

It has been 2 years since I went to Vermont and met up with several total strangers!  Well, they weren't complete strangers.  I had known them from the internet for at least 5 years prior.  I felt like I knew each one of them.  We all gathered in Brattleboro, VT and then took a little trip to see Tasha Tudor's garden.  It is great fun to be able to say I've walked in her garden!  We had a great time.  Memories I will cherish always.

Here is my own flower garden, a work in progress, inspired by Tasha's garden book and then that lovely walk through it for real.

That is the south side of our house.

Some gorgeous irises.

The one below is unreal!  Purple and lavender!

Kristi and Mya's new adventure in pictures

Okay, Janet is in trouble she let Kristi and Mya run free on the mountain.  Worse yet with a camera .  Here are some pictures of the adventure.

1. Is Kristi finding out there are more than one of her:

2. Mya discover pine cones, do pine nuts come from pine cones??:

3. Is Kristi playing cars (she is the car)

4. Maybe I will be a better car sitting down??

5. Better yet I will play speed bump!! Did I send Kristi with her insuance card???

6. Mya discovers a cow and gives it a kiss !!

7. Milk comes from here ???? I know the poor thing , will she ever get over the shock???

8. Then they made friends with the locals:

JANET!!!!, we do not let the girls play speed bump in the middle of the Road!!! /.    We need to let the girls out of the house once in a while.  Poor Mya was so lost as to where milk comes from!! And did not know what a pine cone was!!!   Poor Kristi she thought there was more than one of her!!  Look at the locals nails on that local, see how long they are?? They could hurt the girls!!

Sorry but I had to write and show the pictures , they are so cute.  I will show more latter.

Blessings Mj

This Just Made Me Think

today was a quiet day

Today was quiet with just my daughter and I at home.. I washed 4 loads of laundry mostly fabric that needed to be washed.. I sewed a slip and long skirt for my daughter but was really getting frustrated with the sewing machine.. Every time I reversed stitched it broke the thread. I have a pretty new machine and had changed needles. I dont know what is going on and I was so ready to quit.. Does anyone have any suggestions why it would be doing this?

It is cooler and cloudy today and it is perfect to have windows open. We run two air units but I hate the moist feeling in the air.. With just fans on its really nice.

Hubby and 2 boys are hauling hay and cutting down hay at the dairy today.. My oldest is helping his grandpa everyday run tractors or combine or big trucks.. depends on the day..

One of my best friends became a grandma at age 36 yesterday.. The baby girl is so cute and sweet.. Mom and baby are doing fine.

Well not much else for today.. Have to figure out what is for evening meal tonight and gather the clothes and fabric on the lines

Have a great rest of the day..

Homegrown Dinner

I made a yummy salad tonight from the garden.  It had green onions, red sails lettuce, swiss chard and beet greens.  I made up some ranch dressing from scratch and threw in some chives.  I had a few leftover cooked shrimp that Rod had caught and sent down for me.  Fresh shrimp are SO good!  This is the first time I've had swiss chard and I really like it!

Tonight I started moving dirt into the last two garden beds.  I filled up the skinny one first to satisfy that part of me that needs to have immediate gratification.  Then I hauled a few loads into the big bed - I have a ways to go on that one. 

Once the skinny bed was full, I planted eight of the red currant bushes that I rooted from thinnings this spring.  I just had them in water to see if they would get roots - which they did!  I have 18 more of them that I think I will plant in pots for now until I decide where they should go.

Last night I potted up some strawberry starts.  The runners take over the garden paths pretty quickly - I and just hate to pulll them up and throw them in the compost, seems like such a waste.  So I dig up the ones that really have roots and plant them in little 3" pots.  I also try to pot as many extra runners as I can.  I set out a bunch of little pots on a bench at the end of the strawberry bed.  I picked up some runners that had little plants starting and put one in each pot, using a rock to hold the runner down until the plant establishes some roots.  Once the plant is secure, I will cut it from the runner.  Then I will start again with more pots.  Strawberry plants make a good barter item  :o)

I've been thinking about trying to propagate some blueberry bushes.  There are some really productive ones over by one of the storage buildings.  I have some powdered rooting hormone that I could use, or I may trim some willow branches from the tree across the street and try that.  Maybe I should try both and see which one works best.  There are blueberry bushes everywhere along the side of the road, but it would be nice to have a good, productive patch of my own.  Then I won't have to worry about someone else finding my favorite picking spot  :o)

Things look pretty good in the garden.  The red currants are just starting to turn pink.  I have two baby zucchini.  The potato plants look good.  I pulled up some radishes and green onions and sent up to Rod in Skagway.  The strawberries are loaded with unripe berries and more blossoms.  The raspberry patch is buzzing - lots of bumble bees on the blossoms.  The new rhubarb patch looks great - I think the plants must have reached down into the layer of chicken manure I put in that bed - they have really taken off in the last week.  In the greenhouse, I have one little green pepper and a bunch more babies just starting to form.  Nothing on the cucumbers yet, but they are getting bigger - I need to put up a trellis for them.  The 3 tomato plants are getting huge - there are 6 little fruits forming now.  I notice though that some of the leaves are turning yellow, brown and dry on the ends.  I need to look that up and see what is going on with them - must be something about being too cold, too much water, or not enough ventilation is my guess.  I picked some mint leaves and calendula blossoms and dehydrated them to use in my soaps.  The chickens are doing good - getting only 3 or 4 eggs per day though.  If they don't pick up soon, we will be putting them in the freezer.