Behind the Scenes: My Garden

So, I may be cheating just a little bit in today's Behind the Scenes, but I just have to add more than one photo... Please take note: these are the garden items that are producing, because I can't "SHOW" you the failures, I just have to tell you about them! :)

I am a first year gardener! This is a big deal because I am a girly girl and don't like getting my hands dirty. The biggest thing that has held me back from having a garden is dirt... and weeds! I don't want to have to deal with them. Enter my garden gloves (I used them profusely for the one year we had chickens). I also am kinda lazy, not really a fan of hard work... but when you have four kids, work is a given, so God's working on me in this area.

But back to my garden... some of my successful items are tomatoes and zucchini... but can't just about anybody grow those?  I told my husband the other day that zucchini were a best bet when starting a garden because you just can't kill them, they just keep multiplying! To which he replied, "Doesn't that make them a WEED?" ... isn't he funny?



And tomatoes, I have soo many, but not many red ones!





But in reality, I have no idea what I'm doing. My dear husband bought me the book Square Foot Gardening, and I have been trying to follow that method for the most part. It was a huge investment in dirt and set up, but the good news is there is hardly any weeds!! Even when the garden went unattended during the first 2 weeks of July when my life followed God's plan instead of my plan.

Another tiny success in my garden is the strawberries... they are supposed to be "ever-producing" or something like that! My daughter, who has been begging for a garden for some time now (years) also begged for strawberries, so these were planted for her.  But the behind the scenes is the birds that I love so much were caught picking at them the other day! I'm not sure how much fruit WE will enjoy from this plant, but it was still fun... and I *think* they come back every year, so who knows!



And then, Watermelon... also one of those, "I doubt they will work, but we will try it" plants! and they are growing and there are at least 4 of them already and lots more flowers, so I might even have some to give away!!



What I'm not showing you are the pea plants that never happened, the green beans that have maybe THREE beans hanging, the lettuce that bolted, and the pepper plant that is being crowded by the weeds... I mean, zucchini! I also have some pathetic looking grape tomato plants that I'm still holding out hope for!!

By the way, since I took these photos last week, the watermelon has almost tripled in size, I found 2 tomatoes actually turning red and fresh strawberries that have NOT been pecked... yet!

Community Conversation: Do you have a garden? What are your favorite plants? Any gardening advice for this newbie? 

This Moment: #LoveNotesFromGod

{this moment}

A Friday ritual (on Saturday). A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

inspired by Soule Mama

My camera has been lying dormant for far too long... and the quality of my Instragram shots is less than desirable... But it's still good to pause, savor and remember! 

Community Conversation: Have you had any #lovenotesfromGod lately?

Five Minute Friday: Song

It's Friday, and I'm actually attempting Five Minute Friday on Friday... that time to just write without worrying if you get it right!

My writing has been sparse lately... too sparse and I'm considering a blogging fast or social media, or internet, or something...

but today, I'm writing and I'm writing with the community of writers and encouragers who meet at Lisa-Jo Baker's place on Fridays.

...Today, it's about SONG.

My bones have a little chill to them, still trying to thaw out from the few nights of frost we had earlier this week. Up here on the mountain the breeze is still cool coming in my open windows. So I head outside to soak in some sunshine and much needed Vitamin D. My heart is down, my soul a little discouraged. I want to write, but just can't find the words. I want them to be positive words.

So I head outside and I take a little walk around my back yard. I head over to my new "Square Foot Gardening" area and smile at the few little plants that are there. I have dreams for more, but don't want to overwhelm myself with too much, too soon. I smile at the fence my darling husband is installing to protect said plants from the rabbits, deer, and maybe even bear that roam "our woods."

Then I head over to my swing... I love my swing. Pull out a cushion and sit on the side that is basking in sun. And I sit, and I soak sun, and I listen.  The birds are all around me, each one singing it's own song, praises to its Creator. Each one unique, each one beautiful.

One sings and another responds and isn't that the way it is here in our internet communities. Leave comments, encourage--fill in that verse that I just couldn't think of when I wrote my thoughts.

Sing a short song, or a long song; each have their place. Sometimes we hear a song that just doesn't quite resonate with us--but others hear it and respond. I love to listen to the birds sing their song. I love to read the words my friends post... especially on Five Minute Friday.

Join in the chorus of writers today over at Lisa-Jo's.

Community Conversation: Do you ever just listen to the birds sing? And for fun, What's your favorite song these days? (I'll go first in the comments)

Five Minute Friday --Welcome

It's Friday and I barely have 5 minutes to write, but I still make the time for Five Minute Friday, even if all the laundry doesn't get done!

Prompt - WELCOME

START

On Sunday, the count was 55. By Wednesday night it had reached 83! 83 people all signed up to come to my house! Just a simple bonfire with hotdogs and S'mores. It turned into a large gathering of brothers and sisters-in-Christ... and all of their children! I'm so excited!

This is community. Everyone brings a dish to pass and the most important S'mores supplies. Friends filling in the gaps, bringing tables, chairs... even an extra grill.  Just looking forward to kicking the weekend off with a lot of fun, a lot of fellowship, and a lot of S'mores.

A few years ago, this would not have been possible... No way for 55 people, much less 83 to fit in our trailer lot. But God graciously gave us this home to use for now and I want to open it (or at least the yard) to friends, a part of our church community. Welcoming in new families, while embracing and encouraging those that have been around a while.

and praying that it doesn't rain...

STOP!

Our large property (and the view)... last Spring

S'more fixins'

the firepit

Looking forward to a great time of fun and fellowship, welcoming our ABF (adult bible fellowship) church community... and ALL THE KIDS!! :)

PS. what's the largest group you have ever welcomed to your home?

Project 52 --Birds/Flying

I love birds... big ones, little ones, middle sized ones! They all impress me! and I love how they show the diversity of God!! I've taken lots of great pictures of birds over the years, mostly since I moved out to the country. Birds abound out here!! 

I thought for sure, I would see geese flying south this week and I was looking forward to grabbing my camera and capturing the moment for this week's Project 52 theme... but alas, that hasn't happened yet! I was sitting in my bedroom one day and heard the honking out my window, but by the time I found my camera and went running to the back porch and then to the front door, they were nowhere to be seen... :( 

So here are a few of my favorite bird pictures!!

teeny tiny hummingbird sitting on my clothesline on a rainy day this summer

normally you think of robins in the Spring, but every time I see one now, I wonder if it's the last one of the season.

although they aren't flying in this picture, the springtime turkeys never cease in impress me!

previous Project 52 posts

Hobbies
Back to School
Endless Summer
Heat
Ice

Five Minute Friday --Graceful

It's Friday... Five Minute Friday write time! This great idea started by Lisa-Jo which has just grown into quite a community! You should really check it out!! :)

 

Today's Prompt --Graceful

Two little blond haired girls in pink tights and black leotards, dancing around my bedroom.

Tendue, Passe, Tendue, Passe, Releve

They are practicing the moves they learned last year, in high anticipation for a new year of ballet classes.

Graceful --it's necessary for ballet, but also necessary for life in an inner graceful ... How do I teach my girls that? .. when I'm still learning myself.

Graceful -- characterized by elegance or beauty of form. To have such a word define me, define my girls. And not just an outward elegance, but the inner beauty that comes from accepting God's grace and living out accordingly.

I fail, a million times I fail! 

We get to the Discount Ballet Supply at 6:20, only to discover they close at six and I get MAD and she starts crying and I get mad at her for crying, And God's grace, His Holy Spirit checks me and says "Are you responding right?" and I am filled with His unending supply of grace.

And we head to Target, make a return, find a few things and head to the coffee aisle ... and the Archer Farms Pumpkin Spice shelf is empty, EMPTY and I respond wrong again. (This time just an inner pout, but still not pretty)

So we head home and right there, before our driveway, at the neighboring farm ... a brand new calf, stark white and black, Oreo cows we call them, skipping and running in and around the older cows; and we stop, we smile, I take pictures and I'm reminded that God's grace is full, overflowing and He showers me with grace, He showers me with gifts. (tweet it!) 


And I say Thank you, Jesus.

In full disclosure: this took me more than 5 minutes, but it was on my heart and I wanted to get it out! Thanks for grace! :)

Photography Decor (& a Poem)

 

I've always wanted to create a sign using Photography Letters.. and being that it is Photography Week at CSI Project, it gave me the push to do something I've been thinking about for a long time ... and like I said last week, I involved my kids.

 
We did a little bit of experimenting and here are the three results. Now to decide which group to actually print and place in the frames for my fall mantle!! :)


We started with sticks and the kids took turns making letters (hey, maybe I could homeschool, haha)! The kids really enjoyed this participation and started making all sorts of letters, not just the ones I needed! So it was lots of fun!

 Then we moved to "people" letters (can you read it?)  This one was a little more challenging, apparently the grass was a little prickly, but they still had lots of fun!!

Then I did a little bit more of what I was thinking and a few of them came with me and helped me out. This was walking all over our property and it was starting to get hot... but I still had some help making the U and finding more letters!

our picnic table, rocks on the driveway, more sticks, our swing, leaves, and the barn door...

And I wrote a poem to go with it:

Apple picking, apple cider, apple pies
Uniforms coming out... for school, for football
Trees shedding leaves, piles for jumping
Under the setting sun: bonfires, sweatshirts, S'mores
Mugs full of hot cocoa, bowls full of soup
Nights cooler, clear; first frost is coming.

What's your favorite thing about Autumn?

Everybody Say... Awww

Sweet Shot Tuesday...

I've been struggling in the using my camera department... it just became un-fun for some reason. And I went a whole week and took pictures of only ONE thing!  But then, Twitter (and Kent Weakley) inspired me ...and this is one of the first photos I took when I pulled my camera out again.

The "Oreo" cows on the neighboring farm gave birth this week. 

Here's one of the newborns

it was just soo cute all wobbly and enjoying a field of buttercups! 

I used my camera A LOT this week... there were a lot of blurry and deletable photos, but the point is, I used my camera!!

Now go shoot something...

May Joy Dare: Week 4

I did so much better this week at taking a moment to think through my day and count my blessings!

May 21
461. My 8YO son overcoming some fears at swim lessons today!

462. My 4YO just singing her own song while we were shopping today...
        And the smiles it put on the faces of those we passed.
463. Finding a love note from our 7YO before bed.
464. and my 5YO and her flyaway hair...

May 22
465. Listening to my kids find animals and characters in the clouds. (this one's Santa's sleigh)

466. Watching a newborn calf on wobbly legs; (come back tomorrow to see the pic)
467. enjoying a preschool, K5-2nd grade choir sing cowboy songs! (focus on my 2 cowgirls)

May 23 gifts found in community:
468. encouragement
469. accountability (a kick in the pants)
470. laughter

May 24
471. homemade pizza,
472. birthday packages arriving for my son next week
473. Making cake mix cookies with the girls
474. encouragement found in the Psalms

May 25 hard gifts to give thanks for...
475. Confusing disagreements
476. disciplining children
477. being needed by 4 kids all at once

Bonus gifts

478. sticky hands from s'mores
479. the smell of campfire on my clothes
480. the sounds of summer
481. sliver moon

May 26
482. WHITE frosting on chocolate cupcakes

483. WHISPERED prayers in the midst of frustration
484. comfy jammies WORN at end of day
485. Listening to the cows on the neighboring farm through open windows

May 27 gifts found in church (but I was home sick...)
486. hearing the church bells in the valley, while I'm home sick
487. having "church" on my sun porch
488. friends missing me
489. my 7YO sharing her church notes with me
490. reading the message passage on my own

This week was not perfect by far, but I am so thankful for being more aware of the daily gifts from God!!

What can you give thanks for today?


Also want to give thanks on this Memorial Day for those who have given their lives in service to our county and our communities!

Chicken ****

I'm sorry for the title, it's just how I feel right now... and so I am going to share my chicken saga with you!

So it was exactly a year ago that I got sucked into this crazy backyard chicken idea... not that I hadn't already had the seed planted in my mind. When we moved out to the country, I thought briefly about having chickens, planting a garden, doing some country living type things... but LATER, like when the kids are old enough to do most of the work later. :)

Then a friend from church called me. They live in town and had gotten chickens, and then found out that it wasn't quite allowed or something like that, so they needed a country home. 
WHAT WAS I THINKING!??!?!  We said yes!

Enter Sunshine and Mocha...

 Look how SMALL they are...  Considering I am always in desperate need of some Vitamin D, and I had most recently become addicted to coffee, I really thought this was God's sense of humor in giving me some "sunshine and mocha."  See, the people we got them from considered them pets (their kids actually PLAYED with them)!

So we didn't really have time to plan and make a coop for cheap, etc. So we bought this handy dandy little coop off the internet and assembled it.  It's nice, it's small. Holds 4-5 chickens comfortably and has 2 nice nesting boxes on the side.  It works great!

Then not even 2 months later we had our first unwelcome visitor. He/She just wandered around and wandered off.

Then, Mocha started CROWING, and growing a pretty, plummy tail... and I began to suspect he was a Rooster and not a hen!!  Can I just say that ONE hen isn't going to provide enough eggs for a family of 6!!

The end of July is when we got our first egg... I was sooo excited, this is what I so wanted.

shortly after that I found a friend of a friend that sold us 2 Buff Orpingtons to help fill our egg cartons

And fill it they did... This makes me happy...

Our chickens did a great job of surviving our very mild winter... I'm pretty sure this was from October's snowstorm, one of 2 or 3 we had all year!

I confess, when you want to leave town to visit family and friends... chickens can be a real pain. because nobody else enjoys them like you do... nobody else gets excited about the farm fresh eggs... nobody else wants to be responsible for putting food out every morning and putting it away in the garage every night... opening the coop and closing the coop, to protect these fun birds. ...Nobody!

So over Christmas break when we were only going to be gone for 2 nights, we chanced it. Bought a water heater to keep the water from freezing overnight, filled the feeder with some extra feed and wrapped plastic around the chicken wire for added protection.  ... and they survived just fine!!

Besides the great eggs they provide, they also provide some entertainment... like this game of "Queen of the Roost"

and skritch/scratching around the yard and in the leaves... etc.  --although having my kids panic when Mocha is "attacking" or "hurting" one of the hens isn't something I bargained for (another negative of a rooster)

SO when we decided to go away for Easter, I figured we could do the same thing... Problem is, bears aren't hibernating anymore, and the plastic wasn't wrapped around the chicken wire anymore, and we were gone for 3 nights... and we came home to this... (horrible quality pic, and I had already righted the run, and picked up the food dish) the coop is on it's side... wood pieces broken off and the water dispenser and food dispenser were each in pieces... surprisingly all four chickens were still there!

We righted the coop and set the run aside; it was pretty wobbly and my chickens became completely free range chickens.  A few days later, my husband heard a ruckus outside in the middle of the night, went to investigate and found a bear had snapped the nesting boxes off the coop and flipped the coop AGAIN!!  Only one chicken was in the coop when he went to investigate...

But early the next morning, I heard my rooster crowing away again... and all the hens were in the yard!!


Then 2 weeks later, my husband was out of town for five days... and I'm not a light sleeper, so I didn't hear the ruckus... and I woke up to THIS!!

So, my kids were late to school that day! I was a little panicked... how am I supposed to deal with these things with my hubby out of town???!!?  and there were an awful lot of feathers there in the run and not a chicken in sight. But I couldn't go searching... kids needed fed, lunches needed gathered, children needed to get to school!!

When I returned home later that day, I wandered around a little bit... and these appeared... MINUS ONE!

I tried not to cry over one lost chicken... but my husband was out of town, and I was exhausted, and discouraged, and my afternoon was spent trying to reassemble and secure the broken coop so that the remaining chickens would have a chance of survival. It was pathetic to say the least.

SO... now I just don't know what to do... was this just a fling, a fad?!!?  What do I do next? I have one rooster, one hen that isn't laying and one hen is...Not much!  Do I build a bigger, better coop? Buy more chickens and make it worth my while?  Or do I find a farm who wants some more chickens??!?!  and when we want to go visit family and I can't find anyone willing to check in on my chickens.... then what??!?!  Is it worth the stress?!?!  .... help!!

My sweet husband is so awesome. He has repaired the coop a few times now... added some wood supports, lots more screws, etc. But he's pretty sure it won't last another bear visit.

 

He is so awesome that he is willing to help me in my endeavors, but he hates to see me get worked up over finding a "chicken sitter" and worrying about the bears and all....  So the decision is mine... but I don't know what to do!!!??!!!   ... anybody wanna come chicken sit for me on occasion!?!?

Any advice?!?!?  any suggestions?!??!  I'm taking votes... keep the chickens or get rid of them?!