New Year Dinner

I got a new video camera toy and am trying it out today. I have attempted to make a video on how to cut a cabbage. I couldn't turn the recorder off easily so there is some confusion at the end. Here it is.

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.