Good Night!!! Irene!!!

Well, I have spent the last three days preping for miss Irene's visit.  Some things just don't wait for an invitation.  So unsouthern.  We've boarded up the big front windows and have extra plywood for any other emergencies.  I've picked up all of Jim's toys that were lying around and all of my potting acutrements (sp?)    I didn't know we had so much scattered around.

The propane tank is full for the generator when we need it.  I've set my front porch plants on the back porch and moved all the patio furniture into the shed.  Our sheds are now so full, they look like a shot from the hoarders series. I plan on going to the dump today and get extra gas while I am out.

I am doing laundry so we will have clean clothes to start with.  I am also doing some cooking to tide us over

I will be moving all the cockers into one coop, which should be a blast.  I don't know how they will integrate.  The baybay's house can go inside the big coop, but the buppies are going to have to hang out with the adults.

So this may be my last communication until after the storm.

Lastly, my latest bug art says it all:

The eternal question.

bak bak

Driftin Away

Yes folks, the year is indeed, drifting away.  Almost through August and Fall is in the air here.  The past few mornings have been in the mid 60's.  Perfect for walkies.  Here's some pics

Spider Spider glowing white, in the forest's morning light

grapes gone wild!

now where was that other flower?

hey butterfly, hey hey, butterfly, hey over here

Lily, will you look at these guns?

Oh man!  Can we just walk?

We've also gotten a bit of rain.  Not near enough to fill the pond, but enough to keep the okra going and the new cukes growing and the weeds thriving.

Jim picked up a new used mower for the church last week, but it was too big to fit in the shed, so I am taking my old mower over there.  I got a push mower for the church yard too, so no excuses as to why I haven't cut the grass.  While we were there, we put the lock on the door and got stung by some VERY aggressive wasps.  I don't usually get stung, but these were vicious, so we had to destroy their nest.  I felt bad, but I can't get stung every time I mow.  I also put up our wildlife habitat sign.  Our church yard is certified as a habitat.  I don't think any other church in our synod has this.  Too cool.  Thanks God.

Oh, I forgot bug art from walkies.

lizard casting a spell

flying snake

bunny rabbit

And one tree art

mosquito?

We have managed to go through 3/4 of the free case of wine already.  I need another contest.  I am also reconsidering entering my strawberry wine in some sort of contest as well.  It seems to be aging well in the bottle and is clearing up.  I'll have to see what kind of contests are available.  A lot of the wineries have them and so does the state fair and the muscadine wine fest in kenansville.  

AATC:

the baybays are getting so big.  They just grow too fast.  The rooster buppies are starting to get their tail feathers.  I have pretty much decided that I am getting rid of all four roosters when Jim takes his to market.  By that time, the hen buppie will be ready to join the rest of the flock, and I think one of the baybay's will be a rooster, so I will have one in the future, but I do NOT want anymore chicks for a while.

eat eat eat grow grow grow

So, the drought is over, the mornings are cool, there is wine, life is good.

bak bak

Whoa, Would You Look At The Time!

Sorry for the late post.  Time is getting away from me lately.  The minutes just seem to go by.

We had a lovely rain today, about 1.5 inches and more due tomorrow.  I am hoping that the drought is over for us, but those minutes will tell.

I'm getting SO much okra from the garden, I can't keep up.  I think I could fill the big freezer with just okra, eat it every day and still have some left to give away.  My weed crop is loverly.  My new cukes are flowering, but you can't see them very well in the grass.  My volunteer tomatoes are still producing.  The rest is pretty much done.  I should start to pull up the old plants to make way for the new, but it is still pretty hot and humid during the day.

I have started walkies again and man are the dogs and I out of shape.  I took some pics of the cove this AM.  It is the lowest that I have ever seen.  I was walking on the bottom of the swamp area, which is now dry ground.

I also got some more bug art.

polar bear

not sure

upside down moose

I went to pick up my case of wine from the contest last saturday.  It was really a good mix.  All of their best wines.  I have now gotten 1/2 way through it, with a little help from Mom and Jim.  I bottled my own blueberry wine yesterday.  It is OK, but again, a little too citrusy for my taste.  I'm working on it.

The baybays are growing like weeds.  They are now fully on their own.  The young adults are almost full grown.  Another month I think, then I will probably be having trouble between the new roosters and JW.  I'm putting that decision off until the last possible moment.  I now have three broodies and one who is laying eggs in one of my porch plants.  I just don't get it.  But then I am not a cocker, in this life.  Maybe in a former one.  Maybe a chicken to the Pharoh.  

Well the days are getting shorter, so it's time to put the cockers up.

bak bak

Picky Picky

LOOONG day today.

I started when Jim woke me when he went to work at 5 AM.  I woke up tired as I dreamed all night of the auction tomorrow.  It should be a good one.  They have lots of Madam Alexander dolls from an estate.  I don't really collect dolls, but they have one that looks a lot like one I had when I was little.  I abused her horribly, even cutting her hair!  As I remember, she was captured when I was playing cowboy and indians when I was little, and we scalped her.  I was very hard on my toys, many of which would be considered collectable today.  Mom had an original Shirley Temple doll, which I totally ruined.  What can I say.  They were toys.  I played with them.  Not nicely.  You should have seen my Barbies when I was through.

Anyhoo, then it was chicken time.  The baybays are now fledged and Minion is back with the flock.  They are still whiny.  It takes a few days for them to realize that Mom isn't going to feed them anymore.

I'm just in here for the food...

Then I scooted over to the friendly neighborhood organic farmer's place to help him pick.  We picked blueberries from 7:30 to 10:30.  Then I picked cherry tomatoes from 10:30 to 12:45.  The poor man has lost all his help through one thing and another.  Thank goodness the season is almost over.

I came home and bottled my strawberry wine.  It is still a bit hazy and has too much citrus finish, but it is drinkable.  I am still refining my recipe.  I think I am close.  Maybe next year it will be good enough to enter at the state fair.  I tried to make a label, but I just don't get the graphics design programs and you have to know how to use them to understand the tutorials.  I got frustrated and quit.

Speaking of wine, here is my winning entry for the whining for wine contest:

I'm going to pick up my free case tomorrow.

After bottling the strawberry, I moved the blueberry wine into the kitchen for clearing and bottling.

Then I froze some peppers that my friendly organic farmer gave me yesterday, watered the plants on the front porch, fed some old peaches to the cockers, at which point we got a little rain shower.  We got 3/4 inches yesterday, so I didn't have to water the garden today.  The okra is going crazy.  We have to pick every day.

I was so pooped, I shut the chickens up, did my blog now I am going to bed, even though there is okra to pickle, goat cheese to make and laundry to do.  It's not a emergency.

Bak Bak