Learning new things

Yep I'm learning new things.  I changed the oil in our gas generator yesterday.  What a pain!  Why they put it behind a bar almost on the underside of the generator I don't know but it makes it difficult to change the oil.  I had to tip it one way to get the oil out and then tip it the other way to put new oil in. And that thing is heavy.  I did spill oil...oh well it's done anyway.

I wanted to show you the owls I made my mom.  I got the kit from Mary Maxim.

Sorry that some of them are a little blurry.  I took the pics with my phone.  Something else I learned.  Aren't they cute though?  I sent them as a surprise before Thanksgiving.  They are made out of felt with little touches of embroidery.  I even got myself a kit to make them too  :)  Mary Maxim even has Halloween owls and Christmas owls too. I just loved the mummy one.  Think I'll have to get the kits for those too and some for my mom as well.  She loved them.  Cost me to ship them to her but they didn't weigh anything it was the size of the box I had to put them in so they didn't get crushed.  I never worked with felt before so this is also something I learned.  I'll try to get some more pics on here.  I know everyone loves pics.

Next, learning how to service the riding lawnmower which I haven't done before and then cutting the grass (which I have done before when DH would let me - it's his toy not mine LOL) 

Hope everyone enjoys the spring weather - summer's just around the corner!

And still more pics!

I think this is the last of them on my camera for now.

DH on the mower.  This part of the land is really stony.  He's already hit a few rocks and will need to sharpen the blades soon.   Oh for you guys out there, it's a John Deere.

Two views of our new land the second time DH mowed.  We've been going out every other week.

My Christmas cactus blooming in May.  I put it outside on my porch every year for the summer.  It loves the heat and humidity but has never bloomed out there.

This is my other lavender.  This is what I use for my lavender jelly.  If you look really closely you might see the bees.  We have a lot of mason bees but not too many honey bees.  That's OK we love all the pollinators ;)

Isn't this pretty!  The blooms have just started on this.  I will try to get a pic when all the blooms are out.

Our grapes.  We need a few more rains for them to plump up.  These are concord grapes.

This is my frog I have in with my lavender...DH got a little carried away with the weed eater.  He came in and said he took the eyes off my frog.  We have a little toad that lives in our backyard and I thought he meant that he had hurt the toad.  I was very upset but then when he showed it to me I just laughed.  The frog is just a decoration, the toad on the other hand eats the bugs.  I love my toad but only like my frog.  Guess Mr. Froggy is going to have to visit the garbage can...LOL.  (Oh and I don't know what happened to his eyes, I couldn't find them.  Maybe the weed eater pulverized them)

Here are my sunflowers.  These are the first ones that I have had that are short and stocky.  I didn't plant them.  These are from the sunflower seeds that the chicks didn't eat.  We had about six come up.  These ones here and three in the chicken pasture.  Needless to say the ones in the chick area did not make it.  They ate them down to nubs.  When these get big enough and start to dry out in the fall, we'll put the seeds into the chicken feed.  I might scatter a few in with the oats DH grows.  Amazing he didn't mow these down LOL.  

These are our blueberries.  They are starting to come off now and I am overloaded with them.  Whatever we don't eat fresh will be frozen to be canned later.  The branches are so loaded with berries they are hanging on the ground.  I pick them every day.

Raspberries in April.  I have picked most of them  now.

Roxy.  He's our oldest now and a very good mouser.

Blueberries in April.  I just started picking them this week and boy are the branches loaded this year.

These are the boysenberries in April.  I have picked all of them and the branches were really full of berries and this is only two bushes!  These have really big thorns on the branches too.

These are my walking onions with scapes on the tops.  You just pick those off and saute them in a little butter or oil.  Very light tasting onion flavor.  Yum!

My lilac bush (really a tree) that my mom brought  me from PA a couple of years ago.  This is what happens when your DH mows it down the first year you have it LOL.  It actually is about 7 foot tall and has leaves down on the lower half not shown in the pic.  It got flowers on it for the first time this year but they didn't open up.  I think it got a bad frost this spring and it killed them before they could open up.  I'm hoping to get some more branches on that bare middle.  Poor thing she's kind of top heavy and bottom heavy not unlike me rotflmbo....

This is a bush I got at Tractor Supply one year.  It's about three years old now.  I pruned it back this past winter and it really gave me beautiful blooms.  I think it is a weigela (sorry not sure of the spelling).  It blooms in April.

Pics

Just thought you might like some random photos since I haven't posted any lately:

DH with Lucy.  I think they have something going on out there in the chicken coop she gets so much attention ;)

Penny wanting back in

One of these things is not like the others.  It was the size of a quarter.

My early lavender.  Don't know what kind it is but I brought it with me from PA and it's doing really well down here in AL.  It gets really big heads on it, it blooms in April and the bees love it. (yes most of these pics are from Feb-March)  So sad I'm so slow on posting pics really it is.

Too Funny!

This is Penny.  Penny isnt supposed to be in with the chickens.  I went to let the cats in and she didnt come in so I called to her and I hear this little mournful meow coming from the chicken area...I dont know how she did it but she was inside the fence.  I think maybe she was chasing a sparrow and jumped over.  I made her wait until I got the camera LOL.  Of course the chicks thought I was bringing them something to eat.  Poor little Penny.  Those birds are bigger than she is ;)  Still makes me laugh looking at it.

No cats or chickens were harmed in the making of this pic.  My cats actually get along with the chickens.

Canning pics

Here is a pic of the wheat that grew from our wheat grass.  DH went out and cut it and we are now drying it and maybe just maybe we might have enough to grind...maybe.

Here is a photo of the potatoes from our garden that I canned.  I just did pints...maybe I should have done quarts.

Here is a pic of the blueberries, boysenberries and raspberries that I picked.  The boysenberries are done but I wonder if they refruit in the fall.  The yellow raspberries keep fruiting throughout the summer and sure are yummy.  This year I might get enough to make some jam.  I did do some blueberry jam last night and some peach butter so that leaves me with one basket of peaches yet to do and 8 quarts and counting of blueberries.

This pic is of my lavender drying.  I just let it dry for a couple of weeks and then pull off all the buds and store in a jar.  I will be making some more lavender jelly and I did find a recipe for peach and lavender jam as well...mmmmm.

And finally pics of my hair, yes that's right I cut it off for the cancer patients.  The ponytails were almost 13 inches long.  I will be sending the hair out this week so they can make a wig out of it.  It was really bothering me, too hot for all the hot summer weather and hot flashes that I've been having.

I did even up the cut after I took this pic.

and it's really hard to take a decent picture of yourself by yourself...

Well gotta go back to work, hope your day is going well.

Denise

It's been over a week

Sorry about that. I just didnt have much to write about I guess. On the 29th I went out to lunch with my co-workers. We went to Rosie's Mexican Restaurant. The music was very interesting. Mexican rap is just not right somehow. But we had a nice time although it was so noisy we had a hard time hearing each other. The food was very good and they even had vegetarian selections which I dont remember seeing the last time we were there. I got the spinach enchaladas. They were excellent. Some of the gang has given up the diet sodas which is great and are feeling much better and losing weight. Wish I could say that's what my problem is :( but I have no excuse for be so heavy other than just being too lazy to exercise. Today dh is out rototilling the new beds for vegetables. I ordered seeds from Bob's tomatoes and they finally came. I dont know about growing tomatoes from seeds but we'll see what we can do. We will probably plant some grapes this year too. The blueberries last year were so good. You just cant get the flavor from store bought.

On the knitting front, I'm still working on those darn OD soldier socks and started knitting another set of socks for myself. I will try to post some pics if I can get my camera to download. Vista is such a pain. Cant wait to see what they come up with next, it's supposed to be better although that's what they said about Vista.

My one cat, Penny (seen above in my husbands lunchbox), surprised me today by jumping up on my shoulder. She's only done that one other time and scared the heck out of me. She's such a buddy to me. Luckily she's sleeping right now or I wouldnt be able to type which in my line of work can be a problem. I'm a transcriptionist and not typing kind of cuts into my paycheck...lol. The boys, Molly, Roxy and Tikki, usually sleep most of the day although if Penny is lonely she'll get Roxy up and then they wrestle. I dont have any kids so they are it and life would be very empty without them.

Well til next time keep busy and hug those around you that you love!

Denise