FREE Red "T" - in Canada

Check your nearest grocery isle. Buy a box of General Mills cereal with the FREE red "Signature" T-shirt offer. Each box has a special code to use to request your FREE T-shirt, shipping included to Canadian addresses only. No limit per household ... but there are only 400,000 available for request. Offer ends October 31st, 2009.

What do You do with Chives?

Chives are ready early in spring. Though this year we're already into summer ... can you believe it??

Chives is something I look forward to using lavishly in our meals. They add color, nutritional health benefits and taste to our diet, waking up the taste buds to summer selections.

Chive cheese was introduced to us by some dear friends a few years ago. It is now a staple spread at our house throughout the summer:

Chive Cheese

1/2 cup chives, chopped
8 oz. cream cheese, softened

Use chive cheese: on bread, crackers, veggies, in egg, fish, or meat sandwiches ... and it is super good with a burger - it can even redeem a lowly hotdog!

- add chives to salads: green salads, macaroni salad, potato salad or egg salad.

- add to soups, sauces & casseroles.

- chop & freeze for use later in soups, sauces & casseroles


Did you know that the chive flowers are edible? Not only edible, but decorative as well. The chive flowers can be torn & tossed in salads adding a delightful color along with their delicate taste. Or use the whole blossom to garnish a dish.

Pet Pleasures

Wally, one of our grey tabbies, had five kittens yesterday:



Goof, our other grey tabby, had three kittens the same afternoon:



Then Corbyn came home from a volunteer work project and nearly drove over an Eastern Painted Turtle on the road. He brought it home to show his brothers because they had never seen one like that before. We had a pet painted turtle for two days, then let it go out into its natural habitat :



The same evening, just as we were heading to bed, Misty, our dog, caught a kangaroo mouse. Though it was a dire end for the mouse, it was an interesting event for us ... and a tasty snack for one new mama cat:



It was an interesting day from start to finish!!

In case you hadn't guessed, our young men enjoy the fawna of God's green earth!



Watch for a flora post ... they enjoy that too!

Chicks on Pasture

The weather is so nice now that our little chicks have already been put out on grass in their new portable chicken shelters:





In about 7 weeks they will be ready for the freezer ... or the table. Whichever comes first!!! Click on the photo below to visit our website for more info:

It's a Hummer

A hummingbird at rest in our flowerbed. We've never had such a close-up view before.

Simply beautiful!!!!!!!!!!

Reason to Rejoice

A few short years ago, we were blessed with a second son. Much has transpired since then and Carsyn has made good use of his time - he has packed 12 years of school work into 10. He was only in Grade 3 when he first voiced the idea that he wanted to finish his schooling early.

Acceptance, diligence, perseverance, precision, loyalty, determination and wisdom are a few of the character qualities that God has built in Carsyn through his life's journey thus far.

On Saturday, June 13th, at the graduation ceremony, the fathers each had opportunity to encourage their son. Ken chose to encourage Carsyn to attempt great things for God & the furtherance of His Kingdom. Philppians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." This verse was the theme verse we chose for Carsyn. He has demonstrated great tenacity in accomplishing his goals, now he was encouraged to seek the Lord in setting further goals and relying on God's strength to accomplish those as well.

We celebrated Carsyn's high school graduation along with two other young men of the local homeschool group. Numerous family & friends joined us in the celebration which began with a pit roasted pork supper for the Grads, their families and Grandparents.

Flowers for Mama

My young men treat me like a queen. I enjoy flowers and they know it. The older boys bring me offerings of amazing pictures of beauty. I love the perspectives they capture.

Sometimes they add Scripture to their image giving it true eternal value:


My little men gallantly venture into the deep grasses to gather up a large cluster of golden treasure - just because I said one time that those brilliant yellow flowers are actually kind of pretty. They heard that and now they know how to please Mama:

Sunny Day Sights

Way back at the end of May we did have some "hot" days though the nights dipped way down then too. We snapped some warm photos - maybe these will warm your hearts a little till the sun shines again.

Misty has found a cool bed - it is a half-barrel filled with pinecone mulch that we were using for flowerbed mulching - Misty seems to like it as a bed. It must be cool. We do know it is comfortable for her because she constantly uses it as her bed - and I'd MUCH rather she uses that than digging a "nest" in my flower beds - so we've let her adopt this as her bed:



After a long stint working at planting the orchard trees, the younger boys thought it was warm enough try out their water slide idea: a roll of poly from Cover-All shelters with a garden hose "watering" from the top.





Helping me make roll-kuchen to enjoy with watermelon for our supper:

Some Cool Garden Photos

This past night we had frost AGAIN so we had water sprinklers running to keep the plants from being damaged by the frost. We also had smoke fires burning which also helps keep the frost off.

It did not work because the white part you see in the garden is ice.

Some close ups of the onions, rhubarb, and peas show the ice build up.

Beauty in Burl

Our young men have taken an interest in wood. A few weeks ago they discovered a tree that had been dozed down along a fence line near the park which had an extraordinary amount of burl. Even the roots had burl.

They took some friends along when they showed their Dad the find:



Timothy sitting atop the biggest burl on the base of the fallen tree:



We're all left to wonder what the inside will look like and what could and/or will be created out of this natural blight...

Little Chicks, Big Day

It is an exciting day when we get little chicks!

The laying hens in their new portable yard/shelter. Every day they will get a new serving of greens & fresh bedding when we move them to a new spot ... and our grass will get even lusher & greener!

Simple Solution

Vinegar, sprayed full strength on dandelions & weeds, is a simple, effective & inexpensive solution to weeds around flower beds, in walkway cracks or on a graveled yard.



In this photo you can see the weeds inside the flowerbed are lush and green while the ones outside were sprayed with vinegar 24 hours earlier. Be careful not to spray the plants you want to keep though because the vinegar will kill it all.