Happy Easter and other Stuff

It is Easter Sunday and we hope you all have a blessed day with your family and friends.

The big bunny came for a visit, and he really had a sense of humor being that today is not only Easter but April Fools Day , that darn bunny replaced candy with grapes wrapped in tin foil.  It made for a funny morning. 

Senior has put ribs on the smoker and I will be making a mac and cheese along with deviled eggs. A nice peach cobbler will round out our day for dessert.  

Seeds Catalogs are a spring time right of passage for me. Don't ask why but I like getting them in the mail. Its kind of like Christmas.  Baker Heirloom is a pretty good company with fast shipping. 

Ordered these seeds from them a few weeks ago and with every order you get a pack of free seeds. With our order they sent a "Black Tomato"  okay its not really black but purplish.  We are really excited about the Red Okra seeds we ordered, this variety is from Vietnam and should do really well when the temps get steamy, and as always to add in with our corn, I got some sunflowers.   Yesterday we got our corn in the ground and later today we will lay out our water lines..

So as you can tell, things are busy, busy, busy...We are just so darn happy for warmer temps and nice dry weather and finally being able to be outside doing stuff.   

We Know!!!!

That is has been a while since we last posted..  I assure you we are all alive and well. Just busy.  February was unseasonably warm, now March is here and its back freezing .Go Figure!!!!!
We did get our potatoes in the ground, along with some carrots and radishes. So far all is going well with them.
Then we have all been sick..fortunately not with the Flu but, with upper respiratory stuff  (aka: a really bad cold)

And  one day in February one of us had a birthday (okay it was me jugm)  the family made it nice, I got a Bill O'Reilly book "Killing England" which is really good, and a new 1000 piece mountain theme puzzle.

We also couldn't help ourselves and reconstructed our pig pen.  Then Senior went to an auction with our neighbor Farmer D and brought these two little girls home:

We named them "Penny and Dotty" which seemed kind of appropriate for their colors.  One thing I did not like is the agricultural people and auction house hot glued a tag to them. Once we got them home we had to hold them both down and pull the tags off, well a whole patch of hair came off too!..It looked awful.  But we have them settled now and they are adjusting to their new area. We have noticed that they are less active with the recent cold snap and stay bedded down more then on the warmer days.  But I know that as we head more into spring time and warmer temperatures they will once again be more active. I must say that I ( jugm) actually missed having pigs. I missed giving them our leftovers and watching them learn new things. They are quite intelligent.
Other news is both boys have started Spring Baseball....so we are there with practice twice a week. Somehow our team got lucky this season with no away games-- whoop whoop!

We have also noticed some new people have clicked our follow button...so welcome to you all.

-Senior and Jugm

camping out and a buck

One of the greatest advantages of living in the woods is having free space to do whatever you want. It has been our goal for a while to clear out an area and make it our personal camping grounds. Senior and the boys worked hard on this particular spot. However finding the right time proved a big challenge. Fall baseball consumed our weekends as well as trips down to check on mom, finally this past weekend our calendar was clear and the weather was nice so the guys pitched their Hennessy Hammocks, packed a small cooler, and headed out into the woods.

I, JUGM did not camp this time, but did hike out for a visit and dinner with them around the campfire. Then a little rain hit, but that did not dampen their spirits, Senior and his boys had a great time bonding and simply relaxing.

The week before Halloween, I was checking the trail camera and looked what popped up! A nice little 8 point. So have appropriately named him "8-ball". While out camping Saturday night Senior and NW caught site of him about 30 yards away, and I tell ya he is a big boy. We were amazed that he ventured so close to the camping spot, especially since they were not Scent blocked. The next morning they checked some of the trees and saw where he has been rubbing his antlers.

Rabbit to left, Buck to the center right (date correct, time wrong)

Last weekend we also took down what was left of the summer garden. Our freezer is now packed with green beans, and okra. The cabinets are packed with homemade tomato sauce and pickled okra. All that is left is the row of collard greens and food plots. It saddens me in a way, but I am also happy for the break.

As I said above we have been back and forth to see mom.. All I can ask for  is prayer please? The situation with her house, and her deteriorating health is bad. We pray every day for Gods mercy....

-JUGM

wildlife and the garden

Sorry for the lack of post. All I can say is we have just been busy with work, fall baseball, and school. So here is a update on all that's been going on around here:

Recently, we put out some more deer feeders, and planted our food plots. With the unseasonably warm weather we have had the past month the deer were slow to show. Then this past week a cold front moved through, Senior said to be on the look out because they move around more in cooler weather. Well,  this morning the dogs started barking, I  looked out the window and saw this doe and her two fawns smack in the middle of our driveway of all places eating acorns. Then they drifted to the edge of the woods and hung out there for another 30 minutes. I quickly grabbed my camera to show Senior and the boys.

Usually, when we see deer its at night on our trail camera, or they are running across the road in front of us. We never see them this close to the house but here they were just right outside our front door. I got to tell how serene and peaceful the moment was to sit there and watch nature at its best.

Again being surrounded by woods makes for lots of wildlife..one morning I sat on the porch with camera in hand watching the hummingbirds:

We have had two male cardinals around the property on a regular basis. I usually see them early in the mornings

  Things in the garden are starting to come to a seasonal end, we have given away so much okra that we could have opened our own road side stand and made a nice profit ( hmmmm   ideas for next year).  Senior and the boys love it pickled, so I made a few jars enhanced with red peppers

  Tomato's have been coming off the vines like tic- tacs, so I processed some sauce:

  Then there are the Collard Greens..  leaves so big they look like elephant ears. I was approached by a local culinary school about them, the head instructor wanted some for a function his students were cooking for. He also wanted to give a lesson in cooking traditional southern foods, so I loaded up a garbage bag full and donated them to the culinary school. They have also started buying eggs from us as well...that helps with the chicken feed cost.

The summer growing season has been long and I think we are all ready for a rest. We love being so self sufficient and able to store away all the good things we have grown. I will miss our daily chore of picking our veggies, but spring will be here before you know it and planning for next season has already started.

-JUGM and SENIOR

Update on the Garden, Solar Eclipse, Preparing for Operation Bacon, and some thoughts

    Took the day off from work. Kids only had a half day as we are in the path of the eclipse. We are projected to be at 98 here. I don't really care to go to a city that has 100%, mainly because of the traffic. Took some pictures yesterday in the garden of the tomatoes, collards, and squash. I added pictures from 2 weeks ago of the mater's and greens to show the growth. Now I know there are some amateur pepper's out there that get their "Panties" in a wad when they pull up parts of their gardens and blame the heat and sun for their plants demise. Here is a pro-tip for ya, how about water your stuff...... Trust me it works. Also proper fertilization helps too.

Tomatoes

08/06/2017

08/20/17(zoom in for the tomatoes)

Collards

08/06/2017

08/20/17

Squash (picture is from 08/20/17)

Notice the stress from the heat

No need to pull them up and be a quitter, water does amazing things

yesterday's bounty

     This coming weekend, "Operation Bacon" will begin. Joanie, Katherine, and Lisa will make their way to the processor. Operation will commence at 0600 and Winchester report to follow. In preparations for the event, there were a few things to do. We have stopped buying 16% pig feed and switched strictly to corn for their last few days. Once they are gone I can use the corn for deer season.
This morning we both took the kids to school then headed to get another barrel filled

at the grain mill

    So with their last meals on hand, next was to prep the storage of those cuts of meat. We went and purchased another freezer Sunday. We already had a 14.3 cuft upright and we added a 16 cuft chest to take us up to 30.3 cuft of cold storage. Making sure we could use all available space in the upright, I pulled it out of the building today and defrosted and cleaned it.

     Now, once they are ready to go, I was intending on taking the tractor and picking them up and dropping them in the back of my truck, but with all 3 it might be a tight fit for all, so this past weekend went and got 3 new tires for the trailer, hell the tires were 7 years old and still looked good but there is that little "Murphy's Law" standing on my shoulder putting thoughts' in my head of having a blow-out with 600 lbs. of pork sitting on the side of the road in the hot sun. I figured it would be a good time to change them out. While changing the tires, I pulled both hubs off, checked the bearings, and packed and put new grease in there. So with the tarp already layed out, all we have to do is back it down the hill to load up.

    Well I put in the title that I had some thoughts so here you go (Reader discretion is advised). I want to talk about this "Statue Issue" that the left has just been in an uproar since Charlottesville. First off, why do you wait until Obama is out of office to pitch-a-bitch? The first 2 years of his first term, you could have made farting in public a felony. So why now do you all of a sudden have a problem with Confederate Statues? I know, because there is a non-career politician that is white in the presidency that is trying to make this country successful again. When I heard that Nancy Pelosi wanted to remove the confederate statues from the capital rotunda after the stupid bitch has walked past them for how many years, I started to laugh. Just shows you how many stupid asses there are in her district in California.

    So these white-supremacists, neo-Nazi's, or whatever you call them this week in the media, they applied for a permit to exercise their freedom-of-speech and had every right under the law to be there and spread whatever message they wanted too. Some may like it, some may not but who are you to prohibit them from exercising that right under the Constitution? Well let's add social media, probably the media and a few other liberal organizations getting involved to set up a counter protest, without a permit and setting up camp to stir up trouble and violence as they always do, then all these media outlets show up expecting to see violence, well that's what they got. It's a shame that someone lost their life in the protesting.

     Why have we come to this? I feel that the liberals are trying every avenue, to include the race card to derail the current president from office because the are so pissed that their "Wonder-Girl" lost again, but this time to a white guy...... Let's look at the left and remind them of a few things......

Democratic party was established by President Andrew Jackson. remember him from the trail of tears.

Democratic party was prevalent in the south during the civil war and from what you liberals know that the south was about slavery, but you all vote democrat during elections even today.... Sorry, scratching my head while trying to figure out why all of you are "FUCKING DUMB-ASSES"? I apologize, I had a senior chief moment.

Democratic party was strongly against the passing of the Civil Rights Act but you still continue to support and vote Democrat.. LMAO

Republicans under President Abraham Lincoln passed the Emancipation Proclamation to end slavery, not the democrats, but you still vote for those turds.

Last but not least, I am sure way back in time, there was no hunting season in Africa for slaves. You were sold out by your own people, the strong selling off the weak to benefit their bottom line so I think if you really want to protest and actually make a real justification for your actions, do your research and find the family's that were involved in the slave trade and go after them. That's where it starts!

You cannot erase history, you can learn from the mistakes from the past and build on them to make our country successful. Remember that. One thing I can say is that in a time of emergency in the navy, we never chose who we would save from a flooded or burning space nor never leave a shipmate alone on the beach to get attacked. One thing I will always remember from standing the mid-watch on Delta pier at Naval Station Mayport. There was a writing on the wall in the Sentry's shacks that stated "Why is it when we are overseas we are American's, but in homeport we are white, black, Asian, or Hispanic"? Think about that.....

Senior

things here...

Apologies for the lack of post over the past month, but we have been quite busy here at our little estate, and time just seems to get away from us. I looked on here and realized the last post was on July 11th.

A our neighbor down the road told us about a local feed store that sells empty barrels, but will then also fill them up with whatever feed you are in need of. It has proven to be more economical instead of buying bags of feed and loading and unloading it all.  On our first trip we had it filled with corn.

Senior got his deer tags in the mail the other day. so once we butcher the pigs the extra corn will go to attract the deer. We are planting food plots, and some nights we can sit out on our porch and see them down at the bottom of the garden feeding. That is another  reason why I love the country and rural life, we don't have to worry about finding some place to go hunt, the deer come to us. And not just one or two...sometimes its a small little herd.

 That's a lot of corn!!!!

Our okra is about shoulder high , and kicking it off like crazy. We have to be out there every evening now rain or shine, if not then the pods will triple in size. The past few weeks it has been bone dry, but finally this week we got into a rainy pattern and have some much needed rainfall.

Our panels and elevated irrigation system is working really well with the tomatoes, We put in these Parks Whoppers about 3 weeks ago and they are already kicking off tomato's.

 Since our new favorite thing is elevating our irrigation lines we decided to do it with our collards. I picked up a tray of Blue Max this past Saturday and got them all in the ground on Sunday.

Water is flowing quite nicely...

About an 80 foot row of collards.. Good thing our neighbors like them.  I am just really stoked about our fall garden, as everything is looking really amazing right now.

It has not been all work for us, on Sunday we surprised ND with a birthday trip to see our minor league baseball team play.We passed Bank of America Stadium where the Panthers play.

The baseball stadium is smack in the middle of downtown , and one of the prettiest ball fields we have been at. This was the view from our seats..

A good time was had by all, and the boys had a blast watching future MLB players.  In addition to this ND and I made a quick trip down to Florida to see my sister and visit mom. I am happy to report she is doing well. More and more she is up and moving around, and even eating better. Today during my sisters visit she even went outside for a bit and walked around in the fresh air. I was happy she was out of her dark room and being quite mobile.

School here starts back in a week, some days I think the boys are excited and other days I think they aren't. Either way I know we are all ready to get back to a routine.

Garden Stuff

Things in the garden are literally exploding. Beef Steak Tomatoes as well as our Romas are picked every day. And Yes I am making my own sauce this year.

Our peppers are looking good too. We are drying out the chilies and habaneros to make crushed red pepper for seasoning. And all the guys like having banana peppers in salads and etc... 

 I got our cantaloupes for free from the high school plant sale. Now with lots of TLC they are overtaking the bottom half of the garden. It seems like  every day we pick off a nice, sweet, juicy one. I really am going to pat myself on the back for this because when the lady gave the plants to me they had been damaged by a cold snap and she did not have much hope for them so its a proud moment for me.

Fall beans went in this week, Senior and I added  fence panels for supporting the runners we also weaved our irrigation line through the bottom rung so that it would be slightly elevated and provide more drip action. In the back ground of the second picture you can see our okra. It is about waist high and Sunday we cut our first batch.

And for your pig viewing pleasure and because it has been a few weeks since I posted a pic. Here is Lisa attacking Kathryn in order to get to the water hose. Playing in the water is a real treat for them. Good Lord they crack me up.

Baseball,corn and a new book

Sorry for lack of post, but we have been busy in our garden and baseball. NW ( the oldest) made All-Stars and that meant more practice in preparation for the district tournament. He was thrown on a team with kids from the wealthier side of the tracks, kids whose parents spend an obscene amount of money on private baseball lessons and sending their kids to private baseball academies. Some of the kids also play on  travel teams and is supposed to be pretty good...right?
Well when it came time for the tournament we were hammered the first game 33-0. NW only got to play 1/2 of an inning, as you can figure the coaches had their kids in the whole time even though they could not produce one hit.
The next day was game two. This time they play NW the entire game. and wouldn't you know it, the kid from the country who hits rocks with a stick and plays whiffle ball with his brother in the yard  was the only kid who had two solid base hits. And those kids who get formal lessons? Well, they all ended up hitless. We lost that second game as well 15-1. But its okay, our boy ended up on top and personally had a great game. So now officially our season is over until the fall.

Our corn is about ready, and its looking really good. In another few days we will get to picking and shucking it all.

Fathers Day weekend we went and checked out a new camping/survival store. It was larger inside then we first thought, had lots of fun gadgets but a little on the pricey side. We didn't want our trip to be a bust, so Senior and the boys found a new book:

The writer is a former SEAL and inside is all kind of useful information like :

I know! just what the kids need to be reading about...lol

three little pigs update

The girls have nearly tripled since we first brought them home so we decided to make one more extension to the pig pen. The addition was made easier with the post hole digger implement for our tractor and the fence panels from tractor supply. We added an outdoor shelter for their food barrel to give them more room inside the little house.

Lisa, Kathryn and Joanie saying "Good Morning...Now feed us"!

Our corn is now above the kids heads and starting to sprout tassel's, by mid July we should be chomping on some delicious golden queen. By far this is shaping up to be the best crop ever for us. We also set up the Japanese beetle traps earlier this year as opposed to the past couple of years in the hopes to contain the pests better.

And in other news: Kids are out of school we could not ask for better kids both had straight A's all year and NW ( the oldest) finished up with the highest GPA overall for the entire 6th grade. Can you say "WOW" !  tears swelled up in our eyes when we heard his name called at the awards ceremony.
We are so darn proud of both of them and all the hard work they put in over the past school year. God truly blessed us with two wonderful children both academically and in sports.