Little Bo Peep

From time to time I try to hatch some baby chicks in my 2 little flying saucer incubators. I don't remember where I got them, I think it was off of ebay though. I have had them about 1 & 1/2 years now and have hatched 4 little chickens in them. Then we lost our rooster and had to wait for a new one to grow up before we could try again.

Here he is just starting to peck out of his shell, you can see on the right side of the egg.





Here are 2 other pictures of him shortly after he hatched.





He is still wet and has to stay in the incubator till he dries off.

















Well .....here is our little Bo Peep, aptly named because he NEVER shuts up!.


He has got to be a rooster...only males need this much coddling! He is about 2 weeks old now and doing fine...his saucer mates didnt' fair so well.


We are trying again with some new eggs.

Halloween Decorations

I spent Monday and Tuesday evening blowing off and mopping the front porch because it hadn't been done since the hurricane and it REALLY needed it. Of course Yankee & June Bug(our 2 big dogs) and Wendy and Little Joe (our 2 cats) could have contributed some of the mess. Seems they really like to muddy up the place and make it more homey. I don't know how others with big front porches keep them so clean! Any tips greatly appreciated :)

Saturday we picked up some bales of hay and Sunday I finally got around to getting some Halloween decorations on the front porch. Though probably no one will see them but me and Dan, I still enjoy celebrating the season.

When I was a child this was one of my favorite holidays. My siblings and I would go house to house in our neighborhood with our paper sacks singing"Trick or Treat". We never dreamed of tricking anyone or, God forbid, someone purposefully altering our treats. Times sure have changed, sometimes for the worse.

I really like this witch made from a gourd. Isn't she cute. Maybe I can make some like her if I can get some gourds to grow next summer.

Survived Hurricane Gustav

We survived the Hurricane of 2008 with little damage to our house. My daughter did not fair as well though. Her house flooded with 6 inches of water from all the rain. They didn't have elec for a week and they are now living in our travel trailer parked in their driveway. They are slowly getting things fixed up and repainted.

We had a few trees fall in our yard, but not on our house, thank the Lord. We had 6 adults and 5 children staying at our house after the storm. We didn't have electricity for about 10 days. After the 3rd day with no elec, the girls decided to head out to Florida and stay with my son and his wife and children. They were great! We stayed with them about 4 days till my children here in LA had elec. Then we came home.

There was so much devestation in our area, mostly roof damage and trees down. The news is saying this is the worst storm to hit our area since they have been keeping records. We were blessed that Ike didn't come our way, but are sorry for the folks it did hit.

We still haven't finished cleaning up from Gustav. My MIL has been staying with us since her heart surgery. She has been here almost 4 weeks now. My husband, since he is a carpenter has been helping everyone except us! This weekend was the first weekend since Sept 1 that we have been home all weekend together. That's all for this post.

HOT...HOT...HOT!!!

Need I say....it's been hot here in Louisiana. The temps have been in the upper 90's , and with the humidity so high the heat index is in the 100's. I call that HOT! The air-conditioner has been running almost constantly. I mentioned in the last post as an effort to save energy and because I really like the smell and feel of line dried clothes, I got my husband to erect a clothesline for me. Two loads of clothes have been hung this morning. I have been using it for the past few weeks and thoroughly enjoy it...except for maybe dealing with the heat when I hang out the clothes. Surely it will be more pleasant in the fall. Let me reign myself in and remember, I need to enjoy each day and NOT wish away the month of August.

The garden is done. Dan is mowing down all the weeds and cleaning things up for our fall garden. Looking forward to some cooler weather, now is the time to start some seeds of cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower for planting in Sept.

My housework is calling in a VERY loud voice...I have been neglecting most things since we went on our trip to Kentucky with 2 of our granddaughters. Laundry has been demanding my limited time. Today I plan to sweep, mop and vacuum the floors. I have decided not to obsess about housework....I will take things one at a time and hopefully one day I will be de-cluttered and clean

Later this afternoon I want to start sewing pillows for 2 of my granddaughters. (the twins). They like cats and kittens so I found some cute fabric with cats on it. I am going to attempt to embroider their initials on each pillow, so they can tell them apart. I will take photos during the process and post when done.

Last of the Summer Garden

Here it is the end of July and our garden has given us its best. The tomatoes are still coming in but the cucumbers and squash have finished. There are still peppers coming. I haven't had time to check the garden since last week. We have been vacationing in Kentucky. Maybe this afternoon when it cools off a little I will check it out.
I have been washing clothes all morning. 4 loads already and they are all hung on my new clothes line. The clothes smell soooo good now. I LOVE my clothes line!
Later I will blog about all the good things I put up from the garden this summer. I was so busy canning and freezing our produce, I didn't have time to blog.

Pickles, Pickles, Pickles

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Well summer is definetly here in Louisiana. The temperatures have been in the 90's for about 3 weeks now. The humidty is very high also, making it almost unbearable to be outside during the middle of the day.

I have been busy picking, canning and freezing vegetables from our garden, not to mention eating them! Oh, don't let me forget pickling....and pickling and pickling. I made some sweet gherkin, cucumber sandwich, kosher dill, and bread and butter pickles. The first two were recipes in the Ball Blue Book.

I haven't tasted them yet, since you are supposed to wait 4 to 6 weeks for them to cure. For the 1st time ever I am trying to process some cukes in brine to make pickles later, so far so good. This weekend I hope to make some Icicle pickles, also from the Ball Blue book. They have been soaking for a week now.

Great Giveaway

Here is a blog site for a wonderful giveaway. It ends May 26th.

http://gladtidingsprimitivesandfolkart.blogspot.com/

All of these gals were generous in their giving, and there is plenty here for you to make an apron or two, or something along these lines. The one primitive fabric shown here was actually hand stamped -- can you believe that????? --- and has been heat set, so it is washable. Other items include coordinating fabric with floss to match, hand crocheted trim, buttons, pins, thread, vintage apron pattern, sewing notions, vintage linens, and a handmade hussif (needle case).
I’m sure this will be a great prize for anyone who loves to sew, or for a beginner just starting out!

Just got back from a 4 day trip to Florida. My granddaughter made her 1st communion.

Our short trip to the beach was wonderful, but the weather was still just a little cool. The kids had fun swimming the hotel pool though.

The summer squash is just coming in and so are the pickling cukes. I hope I can find some good recipes for both. I made a squash & crawfish cassarole last night for supper. We also had fresh green beans with potatoes. Everyone enjoyed the good veggies. I even made a strawberry pie with our own strawberries.

I started some bread and butter pickles and will post pictures when they are done. Hopefully they will taste good as I haven't used this recipe before.

Good Buys

Last weekend I went antiquing with 2 of my sisters in Covington, LA. We shopped and had lunch in the antique district which consists of old homes in the downtown area filled with most anything old. There was an art show going on in the street and the weather was perfect. I found some beautiful lace, but don't know what I will use it for yet.

Last night I found some very pretty fabric covered boxes at our local Hobby Lobby. I was looking for something to keep my sewing supplies and whatever I am working on handy. I think these will work fine. I can store things in them and place them under the side table within easy reach of my recliner. The price was right too at 50% off. I also found a metal boot jack for the back porch for $5.00.

Work

I have to take an MS Access class today....all day.
Working 10 hour days doesn't leave much time for doing anything creative in the evenings during the week.
Dan and I went to my grandson's baseball game last night. After we all went out to eat at a nice little grill in Zachary, Louisiana. I had a dish called Acadiana catfish. Yummy!!! It was fried catfish topped with crawfish ettoufee, which is like a crawfish stew. Delicious!

Rainy Day

It's raining! :) Finally! I fertilized my fruit trees, (Lemon, Orange, Blueberry, Satsuma, Kumquat, and Fig) 2 days ago and was hoping for some rain to soak it in the ground. The Meyers lemon is full of flowers and smells wonderful. I have a few blooms on my blueberry bushes, hope I get some berries this year....last year I had 2 blueberries. I was waiting to pick them and then......a bird got them :(

Feel like starting an afghan. I found a new pattern I think will be nice.

Shrimp stir-fry for supper tonight. I have some homegrown carrots to use.

Tomatoes in the ground

I made some strawberry jam with the berries we grew in the garden this year. I used the recipe on the Ball Pectin box. I didn't have enough fresh berries so I improvised and used some frozen ones. It came out pretty good. I made some homemade biscuits this morning to have with the jam....Yummy.

We finally got some tomatoes in the garden this weekend. We put in Creole, Big Beef, Beefsteak, Roma, and Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes. I still have some Celebrity and more Romas coming.

I have several kinds of peppers that will probably go in on Sunday.

Here is a picture of my peppers.

Welcome to my back porch!

This is my first attempt at a blog....I thought it might be fun to keep a journal of my daily - weekly attempts at being a country gal.
In January I started some tomato and pepper seeds, along with some zinnas, marigolds & cosmos seeds. They are ready to be set out in the garden this weekend. I will post some pictures when I figure out how to do it.