Spring Garden

I love a spring garden!! The bugs are not bad yet so the maintenance is easier and we always enjoy the baby lettuces from our first harvest. This picture is a couple of weeks old but it was from my picking one morning. I have red romaine, oakleaf, green romaine and buttercrunch lettuces planted and they are all so delicious!!
I only wish our cucumbers were ready to go along with this tasty salad. The summer squash is coming in faster than we can eat it! This is just one day's picking and we gather it every day most days. If we wait 2 days the squash gets too big and hard. We have done nothing but water and weed the garden. No chemicals and no fertilizer has been used! While shopping at Publix just the other day I noticed their organic summer squash. It comes shrink wrapped in PLASTIC and guess how much just ONE squash cost???? $2.99!!!! With a family the size of mine that is unthinkable!

We have had so much squash we have been giving it away to friends and family along with the lettuces. I have also been blanching and freezing the squash. Here are some bags ready to vacuum seal. Have any of you ever used the Foodsaver type bags and have you ever had problems with the liquid being vacuumed up to the top of the bag so it breaks the seal? I have and I had just about given up on using my Foodsaver until I read on one of my favorite websites (www.pickyourown.org) that if you freeze the vegetables/fruits with the bag open as shown below and then used the vacuum seal you shouldn't have any problems. What a great idea! I wish there were some alternative to freezing with plastic but I know of none.

If you enjoy fresh produce, you should visit the website I mentioned. I have found it to be so very helpful for many different things. You simply type in the area you live in and it gives u-pick farms, detailed canning and freezing instructions with pictures, and where to purchase all equipment needed for your task at hand. I love it!

While I am patiently waiting for some delicious southern peas to be ready to pick along with okra, corn, watermelon, cantaloupe and greenbeans, I have high hopes for at least one tomato. Last year I had over 80 plants and not one tomato!! I have had many others tell me the same thing happened with their tomatoes last summer. Strange. Oh well, I guess that's what keeps gardening interesting!

Our Fingers Are Crossed

We have been waiting for quite some time for our Rhode Island Red hens to hatch some new chicks for us. Each spring we get excited because when we go out to gather eggs we will find a hen sitting on her eggs. Unfortunately, she would lose interest after about a week and we were left with rotten eggs. Brandon and Bryce always love this though. I mean what could be more fun than throwing rotten eggs??? They must throw them way out in the back pasture...Mom's rule!! We have hatched a few eggs on our own with an incubator but we must raise them until they are almost grown before we can put them in with the adult hens. If we put them in too soon the other hens will peck them to death. So, having a momma hen hatch her own chicks is the easiest way to raise a new batch.

This spring our hopes are high once again. We have a bantam hen sitting on a nest and she has been there for over two weeks now!!! Isn't she beautiful? I have tried to get some eggs in the nest next to her and she is NOT happy about me being near her nest. We decided to put a few Bantam hens in with our Reds because they are better "sitting hens". Our newly hatched chicks may not be full-blooded Rhode Island Reds but that is okay, we just want fresh eggs for eating!! Looks like our plan may be working!!!This hen is really in the mothering mood! She keeps stealing eggs in the other nests and hoarding them. She has so many eggs that she can't cover them all!
And the greatest and most interesting thing has happened. The "sitting fever" has caught on! Just look! We now have 3 hens that are serious about sitting....so far. The Rhode Island Red on the far left flew off shortly after I took this picture. She only had two eggs under her which I promptly removed before Mrs. Greedy took them!

According to my recordkeeping we should have some chicks hatching next week from the light colored hen. She was the first to start sitting. Hopefully, the other two will stay put until their eggs hatch too! In the meantime, we are rationing our egg eating. Once you get accustomed to fresh farm eggs the grocery store eggs are just not good, even the expensive, free-range ones. And who knows, if all these eggs hatch we may be in the egg selling business again!

A Special Mother's Day Wish

Our family has so much to be thankful for this Mother's Day. We have been blessed beyond measure with answered prayer!! My niece, Rhonda, was able to take her beautiful baby boy home from the hospital this week. I can't think of a better Mother's Day gift, can you? This little fellow entered the world 10 weeks early at a little over 2 lbs. He has had a tough battle but with a will to live, the prayers of many, and a mother's loving touch he has reached 4 lbs and 6 oz. Way to go Cameron!!

Here is a picture of Mommy and Cameron just prior to leaving the hospital. He has grown so much! I can't wait to hold that little guy and give him lots of kisses!!

An especially heart-felt Mother's Day wish goes out to you, "RhondaBerry"!! I love you dearly and I will continue to pray for Cameron to grow stronger each day!

What Would You Do??

I was alone outside one morning recently doing my chores. On my way out to feed the chickens everything was normal. Nothing out of the ordinary. Now mind you I am ALWAYS on the look out for my two worst phobias....snakes and flying roaches. The roaches are the big brown ones that can be a couple of inches long and they ALWAYS want to fly on me!!!! EWWWWW!!! For those of you who do not live in Florida you may not know what I am talking about-be thankful!

So, after feeding the chickens I was on my way back up to the house and suddenly I froze in my tracks! This is what I saw! Now that guy was NOT there on my way out to the chicken pen. Hmmmm....... I quickly ran through my options in my head. Do I turn and run? Where would I run, back to the chicken pen? No, that won't work. I could run around the house to the front door but it would be locked. By the way, were my boys awake yet to help me???? I decided to begin yelling for some help while keeping my eyes fixed on this little beast in case my screams startled him and he decided to "spray". I had visions of sitting in tomato juice. Oh no, this just can't be happening!

Thankfully we had not turned on the house air-conditioning yet so my windows were open. Now if I could just get the boys to hear my cries for help.

It didn't take long for Brandon to come to my rescue. He was brave enough to walk right up to this skunk. And boy did we have a good laugh. Here is my "skunk". It actually IS a real skunk skin. It had been in the shed for quite some time and I had forgotten about it.

The boys have a new puppy and that mischievous little thing is always into something. Turns out she found this skunk hat while I was busy with my chores. She drug it out to play with and left it in the grass, right in my path. Whew. What a happy ending!