Faith Farm

My blessed day

Germs and The Days Plans

 Today and everyday!

Good Friday afternoon Friends and Family~

I pray this day finds you all well and healthy. We are doing well today but some of us are not so healthy. This has been a *germy* week around our house. There is a nasty cold going around and it all of the kids have it.

DD (18) picked it up from the camp she is working at. She said that there were A LOT of sick staff there last week. Some so sick that they couldn't get out of bed. She just managed to to get the sore throat and cold symptoms from it. She was able to keep going the rest of week with it and did a good job of not complaining.

The other 2 kids have had a harder time with it. Dd (15) has been really tired and just wore out from it. DS (10) had a really bad night of it last night with his asthma. All head colds always end up in his chest and it just brings on the asthma.I took him to the Dr. this morning and they gave him some antibiotics for it. Prayerfully he will be better soon as well as DD (15).

Hubby is off today. A good thing and a bad thing at the same time. It means less money for next weeks paycheck, but more time with his family. I'll take the time with us over the hours lost. GOD will take care of our needs and always does.

Hubby is also out visiting with some shut ins from our church. He took them some butter and milk. The lady he is visiting is about 80 years old and always had a cow when she was able to get out and about. He thought she might like some *old fashioned* milk and butter. Nothing is better than that in my opinion. 

I've had to change my plans for the 4th. We were to go to the beach tomorrow (a 4th tradition.) With 2 sick kids, we will have to forgo the beach for the weekend. We are blessed though in the fact that we can go when they are feeling better, seeing we live about an hour away. We'll just stay home and take care of some *undone business* around the house (there is ALWAYS UNDONE BUSINESS AROUND HERE.)

Here is what the rest of the day holds for me:

 ~Cook and debone chicken for Sundays dinner
~ Make a dessert for tomorrows dinner
~Make butter
~ Cut grass and weed eat
~ Make a Homemade pizza for dinner tonight
~ Then there are the *usual* days activities to deal with

Have a blessed day in THE LORD! Stay safe this July 4th weekend! Pray for our country and for our President's salvation!

Vacation Time

Well my husband has about a week and a half off from work. We were going to make a trip to Indiana, to visit my husbands side of the family, but that didn't work out. So we decided to stay at home and the plan was to get things done around the house. We are wanting to move from here to Indiana, but we have so much to do. So we were going to attack the house. We didn't exactly get  much done yet. Hubby has been off for 4 days and not much on this list has been done.

But that is OK. We have had some wonderful family time. Hubby and our oldest (14) have been doing some fishing. Here in South Mississippi they always have a Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo around July 4th. So the last 2 mornings they have went out to some of the piers and have been fishing. Yesterday they caught several fish and one was able to be entered into the fishing rodeo. Our son caught a flounder and boy was he so proud. So we had to travel about a half an hour to turn in the fish. We are so proud. He has been wanting to enter in this rodeo for several years, but hasn't caught anything that was allowed in the rodeo. He is going to talk about the fishing rodeo on his blog ( The Fishing Hole) so I don't want to steal his thunder.

We will see how much gets done around the house this week. But if we don't that is OK. We are doing what we are supposed to.

Have a great day.
Karen

continuing blessing

Well our friend did it again and passed along some garden produce. We are very grateful for it. I must admit, I don't know how he is producing so many cucumbers. We were blessed with some more cucumbers, tomatoes and this time some peppers. The peppers we are going to cut up and freeze to use in recipes and on homemade pizza. Our friend said, his garden is feeding their family, ours and his mom and dad. I really Thank the Lord for his generosity. The extra garden stuff sure has come in handy. If he only knew how much we needed what he dropped off, but that is the point. God knows the need and this person is the instrument in how the need is being met, and doesn't even know it, but is just doing what he is led to do.

In exchange for the produce we gave him some cucumber spears, that we canned from some of the cucumbers he gave us before. We gave him one to drop off at his parents house also.

We have even passed along some of the produce he has giving to us to others, since there was so much, we couldn't possible eat it all.

Continuing to count my blessings,
Karen

Life is a Bowl of Cherries!

Blessings!

   Well, it's that time of year again...time for CANNING!!!

   I didn't take any pictures of our Strawberry and Strawbluey adventure (that was last week) but I DID take pictures of todays Cherry-ganza!:P

   First we have 67.8 lbs of cherries (yep you read that right:P)After washing them they are pitted. Here is Miss Mary-Ann taking care of that sticky chore:PLove my cherry pitter:)Once pitted they are put into a large bowl and sent to the cutting stationI had a little help from Miss Sarah (she did a little cutting but mostly did the cooking part)All cut and measured to send to the cooking stationThen the sugar needs to be measured out.

Miss Sarah mixes in the pectin and sugarThe jars are heated up while the fruit is cooking down

Time to fill the jars (me giving "the look":P)Not sure it will fill the last jarYay! it fits!!So pretty:)

Needless to say we are exhausted! But wow what yummy stuff this will be in the winter months when we begin yearning for spring once again:)

A bounty of provision. A blessing from the Heavenly Father. Thank you Jesus!

God be with thee!

Sister Lori

Summer Days

Due to some Flickr problems I wasn't able to upload some photos ealier, but now I can.  Hmmm.

These are pics of my sweet Itty Bitty enjoying Father's Day with her great-grandpa

These are the big kids while we were camping.  Itty Bitty was off playing somewhere and not interested in having her picture taken

Tomatoes are starting to show up in the garden.  I'm excited to start canning!

My cucumber vines are over four feet tall now, and have dozens of baby cukes all over them.  I use my great-grandmother's dill pickle recipe.  It is the best!

Itty Bitty loves being in the garden as much as we do!

The white boxes that I have my squash planted in are old bee hive boxes. 

Happy Trails!

The Harvest Is In!

Good Thursday Morning Fellow Homesteaders! What a beautiful day it is today. Not too humid but still pretty hot. We will be in the lower 90's again today. Such is the season here in southeastern NC.

The harvest here at Piney Woods Homestead is in. The corn is all picked and put up. We ended up with about 200 ears. I left it all on the cob because the ears were so small. It is a far cry from the 500 we were expecting. It is on the other hand the most corn that has come out of our garden in at least 5 years. I am most thankful indeed. 

I am praying that the guy down the road from us will have a good supply of corn up for sale soon. I got about 3 bushels from him last year and it was really good corn. I will be thankful for whatever comes my way. A little or a lot.

The beans are also gone now. I ended up with about 10-12 gallon sized freezer bags. That is also the most our beans have produced in years. Again, I say," Thank you LORD!" for meeting our needs.

The tomatoes we planted have just started getting ripe enough to pick. I chose Romas this year because I wanted to learn to make my own spagetti sauce with them. Well, they seem to be getting black spot on them just as they are ripened. We have managed to pick a few, but not many. What we are getting will be used just to eat with dinners.Again, we have learned A LOT from this garden.

The taters are great! I picked some over a month ago and they are still on my cabinet with none rotting or sprouting. I am seeing how long they will last in my house without having to can them. Once I get a good idea of how long they wil last, we will dig the rest of them up and store them in our *tater box*.

Here is what didn't do so well at all;

Peanuts (A few plants came up, not enough though.)
Popcorn (a bust)
Cucumbers (enough to snack on as needed)

Our field corn that we wanted to use for chicken feed turned into squirrel feed! The little buggers dug up the kernels and ate them as the stalks were first coming up. We thought it was the birds at first. I found out it was the squirrels when I went down there after hearing crows in that area.( I thought they were the problem.) When I got there, I saw the little buggers feasting on the small stalks (seeds.) THAT little experience has also taught us a lot. Live and learn has become the motto for this Homestead. Experience really is the best teacher.

All in all I can say that this is the best garden that we have had in years. It has also taught us A LOT in the way of farming for a small family. Oh well, its now time to start thinking about the Fall garden.

Thank you LORD for meeting our needs and thank you LORD for all that YOU have taught us this summer season!

Blessings,

Avocado Salsa...I could eat this all by my self

Avocado Salsa
Yield: 4 Servings
Sort of a combination of salsa and guacamole, this dip is sure to please lovers of both. If you like your salsa hotter, add another jalapeno or a few drops of Tabasco sauce.

1 avocado, peeled and diced
1/2 c Tomato, Chopped
1/2 c Red Onion, Chopped
1/4 c Green Bell Peppers, Chopped
1 Jalapeño, Finely Chopped
1/2 t Garlic, Minced
2 T red wine vinegar
1 T olive oil

Combine the vegetables in a medium bowl. Mash the garlic with salt in a cup or small bowl. Add the vinegar and oil to the garlic. Pour the dressing over the vegetables and toss to combine the ingredients. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Thursday, 02 July 09

Good morning!  I hope anyone stopping by is doing well.

The strawberry farm is just opening this week. I've heard the berries are on the small side and not very sweet yet so I'm going to wait to pick until late next week. I've got 4-5 flats to pick - 2-3 for me and 2 for my mother. I'm told they are going for $1.30/lb this year which is still cheaper than getting a quart for $1.50 at the store. Anyway, I've still a bit of jam left but will make 1 batch to restock then dehydrate the rest. Gosh but I LOVE the dehydrated ones in my oatmeal or cream of wheat! Yummy! They are good in muffins too. I usually keep a gallon jar of dehydrated Strawberries which lasts close to 5 months if I'm careful. I'm considering on upping it to two gallons of them this year. Something is telling me to up my storage items this year.

Blueberries are begining to look better - It was so dry here I feared they wouldn't amount to anything. I've a couple bags in the freezer yet so am begining to feel the need for those too. It's too soon for the blackberries but hopefully will have a good crop of them too. They are good for jam and syrup - mmmmm.  For a special treat I enjoy taking a bit of syrup and mixing a bit of soda water. Very refreshing.

Now the strawberries are about the only one of the above mentioned I have to pay for. The wild ones aren't plentiful here unless you have a ton of acrage to roam around on.  The rest I have spots along back roads that I can go pick to my hearts content. One gentleman lets me pick blackberries down his mile long driveway in return for a couple jars of jelly.  His berries are always huge and very sweet and he doesn't do a thing to them.  Sometimes a friend of mine has a bunch of extra plums that I cook down into jam or sauce. mmmmmmm to that too.  The best ones are the ones that get a tad bigger than my thumb (trust me, I have chunky fingers so that's pretty good size lol). Nice and sweet. The bummer is the pits but can't have everything.

Well, I'd better go do some chores here at work. There's some cabinets that really need to be cleaned unless we get a patient then it'll have to wait.

Have a great day all!

Michele

Strawberries & Peonies

Our first strawberry harvest of the year:

Pretty peonies:

And the pitfalls of having an older sister...

Blessings.