My Tulip Tree is Blooming!

My tulip tree finally bloomed! I bought the tree nearly 10 years ago when I was delivering mail with some money I had received. An elderly neighbor of ours when I was growing up planted one and we watched it grow as we did. One day she called by Mom-all excited-her tulip tree was finally blooming! Today I finally understand her joy! I can only see 2 blooms at the moment-and they are really up high. When we added on to the porch last year-Jeff wanted to cut it down-but I talked him into just kinda building around it-so far so good! Now it might just get to stay!!

Newest pic of the garden-although it was taken on 4/5. We are due some really tough weather here shortly-and we fertilized and plowed them for the 2nd time yesterday-so I'll try and remember to take a new pic in a few days! Everything is growing like weeds this year-we are SO very thankful to God! We tend to get a little tickled at each other-we'll walk down and check on it in the morning (I'm still in fear the deer will find it and wipe us out like they did last year!)-when we check again in the evening-we can see the growth from earlier in the day! It really is amazing! Kaytlynn & Mady played in the corn yesterday-just running up and down the rows. I can't wait for it to be taller than them and really watch them play in it. We kept catching Kaytlynn just laying out in the rows-staring up at the sky-oh the days of being young!!

Spring is Arriving Early on the Farm!

The 3 eggs we collected today-one of each color!! I am so tickled! Finally got a green one after all these months. And even better news-we have 3 turkey eggs as well!! And a litter of bunnies was born today, too! And all this while I was at work! Jeff is having all the fun! He got the big tiller up and running today and tilled up our big garden-it hasn't been worked in several years-and also got his Mom's tilled as well. She was ready to go buy seeds and start planting!
Jeff is nearly finished with the greenhouse, too! It is looking great! Even better when you realize most of the materials were free-Yeah! And he picked up the steer from the locker plant last Friday-282 lbs of fresh beef! YUMMY! We had t-bones the first night-not much bigger than the size of your palm-just the right serving size! And very tender! Had round steak the other night-good eatin', too!
We've got several home improvement jobs to do in the next few weeks-got to get to our bathroom first. Got a leak somewhere in there-and the old gardentub is just getting to be a little bit difficult for Jeff to get out of-so we're gonna take it out and tile in a walk in shower-It'll be really nice when it's done. Also want to move the stove and frig around-so we can get a new frig-ours is over 15 years old and in a pretty tight space-so they will swap places so we can get a side by side. We've also got to replace some yard and garden fences before we plant.
The weather's been warm-then cool-then rainy-I'm ready for some sunshine and warm-It's comin' and then it'll be HOT. Have a good one!

Great Spring Break!

Fresh-homegrown grilled hamburgers & link sausage-YumYum!!

Here are the bitties we hatched-only got 7-of 'em-and 2 aren't doing very well-but we'll take 'em!

Here are the snow peas-they are finally taking off-with the help of a few daily visits from the water hose-I sure hate to have to start watering already!

And 1 of the 20 or so tomatoes we planted this week-Early Girl-Beef Steak-Rutgers-Celebrity-Big Boy and 1 Black Cherry.

And 3 days worth of eggs-Aren't they a welcome sight-No more store bought ones for awhile!!

Well the week did go by fast-as usual-and we never did make it to the lake to go fishing-but it was way too windy this week to get the boat out on the water. We worked on a small section of fence, planted the tomatoes and peppers-bell, jalapeno and a type to pickle, stayed 1 night at Mom and Shorty's, went to the Livestock Show, Jeff gave blood, bought groceries, etc.-So we did keep busy. The kids all seem to be ready to go back to school tomorrow. We sure do need it to rain, though!!

February Update

Where has this month gone to? Seem like I would almost have to get out the calendar to keep track of where we've been and what we've been doing! The weather has finally warmed up nicely-we still have had a few cool mornings-and a few cooler days are expected for this next week-but things are beginning to bloom-the redbud tree in the front yard is beginning to turn purple and a few of the spring bulbs have been showing their beautiful colors!
We spent more than a few days hunting down a u-joint that was needed for Shorty's tiller that goes behind the tractor-only to find out that it had to be bought from the dealer in Mississippi-Then when it got here-it had been redesigned-so the one at Tractor Supply would have worked all along! But the garden is all worked and tilled-Best of all-the potatoes have been planted-this last week along with carrots and beets.

And-sorry for the double pictures-but this is the new member of the farm-Lucille-or Lucy-for short. She is 11 weeks old and will hopefully become our next brood sow-in time! The pictures aren't to good-due to the cloudy weather-but wanted to get a good starting size picture.

The hens are picking up the pace-ever so slightly-we have now gotten 3 eggs a day-a few times! We also have the incubator going with 19 eggs-and 1 turkey egg-thrown in by our good friends-Bob & Viv! Hoping it hatches too!!

Fozzie bred Glory this past week, too. (Do you see a pattern of Spring here on our farm?) So we'll keep a close watch on her in 3 weeks to see if she took and we can start looking for a new calf in November!

Jeff and the cows-Glory is looking for any extra cubes he might have in his hand!

Alana and Ricky bought a log cabin yesterday and it should be delivered tomorrow or Tuesday. It is just a shell-so they have lots of work ahead of them. Their goal is to be in it before the baby gets here-but it'll take alot of work! I'll get pictures when it gets here and set up.

Got lots more to add-but it's time to leave for Sunday School. Get back with the rest and try to stay on top of the blog better!

Jeff & Rascal

These 2 are just like best friends! She is actually chewing on the snap on his shirt!

I'm finally feeling much better!-still coughing some and feeling a little weak, but I got outside yesterday and piled some limbs and helped Jeff hang his deer feeder(that I got him for Christmas) and move the game camera. He got 132 pictures last night of the does-we haven't seen the buck since Dec. 17th.

The eggs are due to hatch any hour now-I did find 2 pipping this morning-I know-I'm not supposed to open the incubator-but I can't help it! I was thinking they were due yesterday-but we didn't set the eggs until bedtime-so that does kinda throw it to today. I have seen some of them jumping around in there-just can't wait to see what we get!

I'm missing the cows a little bit too-it's bad enough getting rid of them-but the insult of getting such a pitiful amount for them-they were worth SO much more than that! I know-I get just a little too much attached!

We had another COLD morning-but the sun is shining. The weather we got before Christmas tore up the greenhouse-broke the pvc pipe in several places-it'll have to almost be totally rebuilt-don't know when we'll get to it.

Well-I've been invaded by grandkids-Grandpa went and bought doughnuts for everyone this morning! Have a great day!

Rough Week-so Far!

Well-I'm still sick! I finally gave in and went to the urgent care clinic yesterday and got 2 shots and 2 prescriptions. I really don't feel too much better today-but I did get a little bit of my cooking done today. Christmas Eve is tomorrow-no stopping it!
We got the check from the sale barn yesterday, too. What a HUGE disappointment!! Mama cow only brought a little over $100! Total of only $739 for all 3 of them. It will pay our taxes for the year-but nothing left over to repair the fences and buy the goats. :( I weaned the pen of bunnies this morning and bred another doe. This is the last day to turn the eggs-they sit now for 3 days before hopefully hatching!
We are supposed to have rough weather over night-another cold front coming through. There have been some tornados way north of us.
Kaytlynn lost one of the caps off her front teeth yesterday-so Alana had to get her in to the dentist this morning to get it fixed before the holidays. Randy works half a day tomorrow-Julie works the whole day-but does have an earlier shift. I believe everything is in place and we are ready for Christmas!-as ready as we're gonna be!
Merry Christmas everyone!!

Weekly Update

Randy and Ricky grinding the pork-with their advisory board looking on!

The eggs I won off of ebay-including 2 of my own!

This week would be easiest described on a somewhat daily basis:

Monday-Back to School and work! Jeff set the whole day waiting on a phone call from Social Security that never came!

Tuesday- He finally got the call-they got all his paperwork-but he was denied for SSI because I make too much money-now that's a joke!! Rainbow went over the fence and woke us up at 4:00am. We are getting 100 pictures on average a night of deer! Mostly 2-3 does-but every few nights we get some of different bucks!

Wednesday-Jeff took his Dad to the Doc-they wanted to admit him to the hospital-but he wouldn't have it!. Jeff met me after work and we went to New Waverly and picked up a barrel of corn.

Thursday-Jordan rode with us to Dewey's for feed-he almost managed to get one bag in the back of my truck by himself! Randy's friend Justin shot a sow in his Grandpa's pasture and they brought it here to us. The guys got it all skinned and on ice.

Friday-Jeff went into town for sausage seasoning and casings. At 10:00-it started SNOWING!! It really stuck in Coldspring-it was beautiful!! But-it didn't stick at all at home-so the kids and me-were very diappointed when we got home! So I wasn't able to get any pictures!! Got the pork off the bones-bythat time Jeff was in so much pain-he had to sit down and leave the grinding and packing to Randy and Ricky and the rest of us! He is just so not used to giving up and having someone help him out! And I forgot to count the packs of sausage and we just left it all in pan.

Saturday-I won an ebay auction for eggs early this morning. The seller is in Livingston-so we'll meet her later this afternoon. And boy did we have a freeze this morning! It was totally white this morning-19 degrees on the back porch! We got all the Christmas stuff out and started decorating the livingroom. We went into Livingston and got our tree-what a bummer-we just got it at Wal-Mart this year. We've decided to just get an artificial one at the end of the season to use from now on. We met Helen-the lady with the eggs-so sweet!! I won 12 and she gave me an extra 6. They are a barnyard mix with 1 aracauna and several marans-the really dark ones! So they went into the incubator before bedtime. I really didn't think this one through very well, though-because the eggs won't be ready to hatch until the day after Christmas. So-we'll have to be very careful of them with a houseful of kids!

Sunday-We have a 50% chance of rain today-so I really don't know what's up for today. Our yard looks awful-FULL of leaves. We need to put up the outside lights and I haven't had the chance to check on the garden since all the cold and snow! We haven't even gotten in the hot tub-although we have talked about it! We've just been too tired to do much of anything different!

Have a great week!

Soft-Shell Egg

One of the hens layed this soft-shelled egg on Sunday. They look really cool-but we just give them to the hogs. The kids-and Ricky-were really facinated by it. We've been told that the hens lay one at the beginning-or end-of their laying cycles. And since none of my hens are new layers-? We have been blessed with MANY eggs so far this year!

Mom is supposed to be coming home from the hospital this morning. HEH!! She finally got in a room yesterday afternoon. They got her a phone in the CCU room-she could only call out-and she called me at work. She sounded SO good! I know she can't wait to get home this morning! I work from 7-9:00am this morning-then I'll go up to their house and see what I can get ready. Aunt Linda went up yesterday and cleaned what she could.

I don't think we'll go to the beach this weekend-anyway that's the plan right now. The hay cutters finally showed up at Shorty's yesterday-they NEVER showed last year! So looks like we're gonna be hauling hay this weekend! But that is DEFINITELY a good thing! We have already bought 10 rolls @ $50 a piece because we were afraid they wouldn't show up again and we'd be scrambling for hay again this winter. At one point, we had to pay $80 a roll last winter! YUCK!!

Guess I better go-gotta get ready for 2 hours at work this morning! Have a good one!

Productive Weekend

Jeff tilling close to the greenhouse.

The first of the new raised beds. There is broccoli and red cabbage in the back one and the lettuce closer up-the potatoes are in the bed to the right.

Even though Jeff had to work 8 hours yesterday-we still managed to get quite a bit of stuff done this weekend. He hasn't been able to get our tiller started this year-so after he got home-we went and borrowed his brothers'. He had to work on it a little bit to get it started, too. So we did get a small area tilled up and ready to go! Today I got out there and started getting the raised beds in-decision-decisions!! I have a hard time deciding exactly where I want everything to be. I had bought nine-packs of brocolli-red cabbage and romaine lettuce yesterday-so I got them in there this afternoon. I planted some potato eyes that Shorty gave me last weekend and still have red onions to plant-but I'll get them in later this week. We cooked a turkey today and we'll have it and ???? for supper tonight. Jeff's made up a batch of yeast rolls-so we'll be eatin' good!!! I also set 19 eggs in the incubator yesterday-they are due to hatch on Valentine's Day-how special!!hehe One of my aracauna hens just up and died this week-after laying her daily egg-what's up with that? And she's not even a year old! And still NO baby pigs-and the sow is HUGE!!!

Pictures

THe last few days have been busy again!! I worked yesterday at school and will again tomorrow. I triedto download some pictures the other day of the farm damage-but they didn't load-I'll try again now.