Lorihadams-- hi guys...been busy!

[old fashioned]

It must be a bad year for cukes all around kinda like tomatoes last year. I've planted my cukes 3 times now & still nothing. I'll try one more time in a different area, then give it up humpf!

For the last couple of years I've worked toward & finally gotten down to only using heirloom & home saved seed (more SS, right?) I even managed to grow out & save cabbage & carrot seed & have a ton of volunteers coming up where I didn't plant them this year but they are still small. I still have a bunch of h's & h/s but the numbers have dwindled considerably from numerous replantings. grrrrr I have ended up saving whatever I have left for another year and bought other seed & plant starts cause we gotta eat for goodness sake, just can't save these seeds.

About the only things I can say are doing great right now? Potatoes & onions. I've planted about 2 pkgs of onion sets at different times to have continual harvest and have another pkg yet to plant. The taters I first planted sprouted ones from store bought, they didn't seem to do much so I bought a bag of seed potatoes and planted in a seperate bed. Now they are all growing, not to mention all the volunteers coming from last years missed spuds & those are all in the wrong places! So about half my garden is in taters Oh well, atleast we'll have a good tater & onion supply-we go thru alot.

Also the raspberries & strawberries are loaded with little green berries & bees buzzing everywhere in that area. I had to tell DS11 to stay away since he's deathly allergic to bees. I just hope they all ripen up here soon.

 

[TanksHill]

I have planted my cuc's 3 times now. Still nothing.

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

We have some homeschoolers at our church but they have older children in their early teens so with a 4 and 6 yr old it is a bit awkward. That being said, we have a homeschooling family down the road from us that we have never met and I seriously need to introduce myself to them. They have young children, I know cause I see them outside every time I drive by. They also have lots of chickens....I know cause I hit one of them with my car at least once a month :/ or know someone else that does.

I am gonna try to see if I can make some contacts when we do VBS this year. Having someone in the family that has been there and done that is nice cause I can always call her and she can talk me down when I am wavering. She told me that one of her "lessons" every day was for her children to watch The Waltons every day from 10 to 11am. She says that it helped instill some family values and break up the schoolwork. She said she also had to threaten her boys with beatings to get them to do seatwork too but they are fine respectable men now.

She also told me that she let them play outside in the afternoons and after several months the boys came to her and said they wanted her to come with them cause they wanted to show her what they had been doing every afternoon for the last few months. They took her back into the woods and they had been cutting down saplings and small trees from the back of the property (and some of the neighbor's land) and had built a 2 story fort!

To this day they say that was one of the best things they ever did as children.

I think the biggest key to making school work well for a boy, is making sure they have plenty of time to move prior to doing sit down work. And having a break or two through it where they can get the wiggles out.
And then the knowledge that wild a wooly play time will always be allowed as long as school and chores are finished.

I will be implementing the Chore Packs system for DD when she is ready to start doing tiny chores.
I have never heard of it failing, so I am excited to try it out.

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

Thanks....on the upside I was able to hoard enough milk away from the kids to make some yogurt today! It is hanging out in a cooler now. We'll see what I have tonight.

I used my raw milk and heated it to 180 degrees and then cooled it to 115, added some plain greek yogurt and put it in water at 120 degrees inside a cooler wrapped in a towel.

It was too easy to work....I'm awaiting a massive yogurt failure

Hopefully it comes out okay....I am planning on adding some strawberry jam, honey and a bit of vanilla to it cause strawberry is our favorite...

My DD, who is 4, just told me that she wants a "Va Cay Shway dress" courtesy of the Old Navy commercial. We're watching Barefoot Contessa, darn commercials. I just told her that's why we went to Goodwill yesterday and got her one from there and now we don't need to go to Old Navy. Think it'll work???

Hey Lori, you do not have to heat it that high. Just to 110 will work just fine. If its thin, just strain it out like you are making greek style yogurt.
I am not getting enough goat milk yet to do much with. Between the kid and DDs formula, I rarely get a taste!

 

[Henrietta23]

Heehee I was at TSC behind a lady who was buying flamingos. She looked up and said, "They're not for me! They're a gag gift!" I just laughed and told her I once bought some as a wedding gift for friends in Alaska. We have a pair in our backyard. They stand guard over the septic tank cover so we can find it when it needs to be emptied.
Someday I will tell my flamingo story but first I have to figure out if it's one of those you had to be there deals that no one else will find funny....

 

[LovinLife]

We were watching Barefoot Catessa yesterday too and that commercial came on. My son (5) said I should get one of those dresses too! That one sure did get the kids attention huh!?

 

[LovinLife]

I'm really sorry about your garden. I know it's incredibly frustrating when things don't grow.

Yeah no kidding, it sounds like you're having a time with the garden. Makes me not feel so bad for giving up on the garden all together this year.

 

[lorihadams]

Well, busy weekend. We got to go to the pool with my BF and her DD, who lost her first tooth yesterday (hubby gave her some pointers), all day Saturday and that was wonderful to get some girl time. I got in a fight with hubby Sunday, joy of joys.

Here's the deal, I didn't want to pay the contractor until the final final inspection was done but hubby said no go on and pay him so he will get off our backs. Well, now the area around the garage door needs to be trimmed out and even though we have the supplies, contractor is giving us excuses. SHOCKER. Yeah, told ya so.

I don't want hubby to do it cause he doesn't know what he's doing and I don't want to have to buy replacement trim pieces at $35 a piece if he screws it up. So we just have to harrass contractor until he comes and does it.

He said he didn't want to waste a day doing nothing yesterday....my response was "How 'bout you hang out with your wife and kids or will that be a waste?"

So he helped me with the bees, our black australorp got out of the fence and when Chad took the kids fishing after our neighbor's birthday party he found the remains down by the pond so I'm guessing the neighbor's dog got her, I fixed the gate where she evidently got out so I won't lose anymore , did all the sheets and towels and got them on and off the line before we got a horrible storm (the second this weekend), and then got the baby ducks taken care of for the night cause they are going through two 1 gallon waterers a day.

I got some really cute pictures of the kids from the campout last weekend and from the party yesterday that I want to share. The party was a cowboy and indian theme so I found some brown fabric in my stash, gathered up some turkey feathers we found on our hike last weekend, and made necklaces out of pop beads and VOILA, two free indian costumes (did I mention that Halloween is done )

And here is from the campout....before we got drenched. Yay S'MORES!!!

hiking on the tractor road on the backside of the family's land

 

[lorihadams]

Oh yeah, and my goats all said "KISS MY A$$"

 

[LovinLife]

Love the pics! on the little indians!