Project 1, Project 2, Project 3

Project 1:

It's been windy here in southwest Florida, temperatures are spectacular, and all of us Floridians are loving it!   The wind, however, is causing my tomato plants to bend way, way down....and I can't have that!  I went out to visit with them one windy day and realized their dilemma was now a crisis.  If we didn't get them tied up soon, their stalks were going to break.  I figured out what needed to be done but am not muscular enough to do the labor.  Just in time my dear husband comes home.  He, of course, has it taken care of in no time.  Now for all you out there that don't have husbands like I do...I'm sorry.  This guy is so good at helping me even when he has to delay what he was working on at the time.  I love him for that!  He also is very particular with everything, so to build a "thing" to tie the tomato plants to required a hammer, screwdriver, nails, screws, boards, saw, and a level.  We measured, cut, hammered, screwed, and yes, leveled, then ta-da..... a nice sturdy "thing" to tie my plants to.

We figured it will be multi-functional.  We can set a sprinkler on top to gently water the garden when needed.  When we have frost warnings we can use it to hold up a tarp to cover the plants.  Ingenious indeed!  :) 

At home, Mom used to occasionally make fried, green tomatoes.  I've been hankering for some of those again.  Mm-m!

This week I picked peas....all six of them!  

Oh, were they good!  KaShondra called home around lunch time that day and asked what I was doing.  

I told her, "I picked peas today."

It sounded good and almost made me feel like I should take a rest or something! ha!  I only planted several plants of them to see how they would do and dear husband and dear oldest daughter 

keep the fresh ones picked AND EATEN for me.

The cauliflour is still going crazy.  

I don't see any heads forming yet but the leaves are humongous. 

 I don't know if this is normal or not.

My parents plan to come a week from tomorrow and then I can 

turn the gardening over to them.  They know so much more 

about this kind of thing than I do.

Project 2:

JR is putting together some cabinetry for closets and storage in the bedroom my parents stay in when they are here.  We found some really nice cabinetry at Lowe's so he spent some time this afternoon putting that together while I worked on:

Project 3:

OK, but only a "sneak peak".

I got some free furniture from a friend of mine.  I have been looking for a chest of drawers for the boys for quite awhile and I have refused to pay $65. for a chest of drawers at Goodwill or Habitat for Humanity.  Seriously!  And I have also refused to pay $99.00 for a cheap chest of drawers from Walmart or Target.  Then along came not one, but four pieces of furniture for free.  JR and I went and picked it up, the boys looked at it and mumbled something like "that is some UGLY furniture" and something else about "not wanting it in their bedroom"!  After telling them how great it could look painted....they wondered about it and me! 

So here is the "sneak peak".  

Before:

Primed and drying:

And:

Sorry, final pics not in yet but put it this way....kids are quite impressed!   Oh yeah!

Project 4:

FLEX.....FLEX....FLEXIBILITY

JR found out this afternoon that his Uncle Vernon from Virginia passed away last evening so he (JR), along with his parents, brother, and sister are making plans to leave tomorrow for the funeral.  Uncle Vernon had alzheimers disease for the past years and had steadily become worse.  Of course, when someone passes on you remember the memories of them.  While I didn't know him real well, we had good times when they would come to visit. His wife, Aunt Frances, isn't well either so JR and his family are looking forward to seeing her and their cousins again.  

Meanwhile, here at home, we rearrange all our scheduled plans for the weekend. 

 We FLEX!  :)

Harvest Time is Coming!

It's Thanksgiving time and harvest here comes after Thanksgiving instead of before.  Even though our garden is a couple weeks behind, it is still growing and the fruit of the vines are beginning to appear!  It is so exciting!
The tomato plants are huge but they are taking over....it appears like the onions have been crowded out so that is a lesson for next time.

A green pepper!

Sweet peas on the vine!

Loads of radishes!

The little squiggly looking weeds are the onions 

that probably aren't going to produce much.

Cauliflour!

Our two lone strawberry plants!

Hope to have lots more of them next time.

And lots of tomatoes appearing!  Can't wait to eat them!

On another subject...

Here are a few pictures of Erica's home made lotion project.

Her lotion and the green salve will be available at 

our church's annual Quilt Sale in February.

Green Salve

Our latest project is Green Salve, similar to Eden Salve.  It is made from an organic mixture of herbs:  plantain leaf, calendula flower, comfrey leaf, yarrow flower, rosemary leaf, echinacea leaf, and echinacea root., organic beeswax, olive oil, and a couple drops of vitamin E for a preservative.  It stays good for five years.

Green Salve is used for insect bites and itchies of many kinds.

Fill a mason jar 2/3 full of herbs, fill one inch from the top with oil and keep warm in crock pot for three days.

Stain through cheesecloth and add beeswax and vitamin E to herb-infused oil.

Herb-infused oil without beeswax makes an excellent massage oil.

Pour into containers

We have prepared a batch to sell at Pinecraft Days this weekend, along with Erica's homemade lotion.

The Blessing of Blessing Others

We have a neighbor who does not know the Lord personally.  She has an addiction problem which stems back quite a few years from a back problem.   Her lawn is overwhelming to her so it has been left to grow wildly for many years.  For quite awhile JR and the boys mowed her front yard for her when they mowed our yard but since we sold lawn business it has been mowed probably one time.  The back yard had become a jungle to say the least.  The youth group graciously consented to come over Saturday morning and bless her with a yard clean-up (with her permission, of course).  We started cleaning around 8:30 a.m. and it was mind-boggling how quickly a group of people with energy can make a BIG job seem small!  They were done before 11:00 a.m.!!!

Like a hill of busy ants they worked!

Mitch kept busy the whole time loading the trailer and sawing things up.

The sponsors:  Marv & Sharon evaluating the 'flower beds'.

Cody man-handling the palm branches

Dustin and Kyle cleaning up the south side

Clayton and Javin tearing down Tarzan's swing...

Behold!  A beautiful large oak tree was uncovered

Ah, the joy of a job well done!

And Dustin served up some mouth-watering grilled hamburgers and hot-dogs...

Our neighbor lady was moved beyond words and into tears as she expressed how overwhelmed she felt with the youth kids' kindness. 

 Sometimes our loudest witness is our actions. 

Last night after Bible Study we spent some time in prayer and blessing over Marv and Wanda and presented them with a gift as a small token of appreciation for serving as youth directors for two plus years.  Only those who serve in this way know the behind-the-scenes prayers, time, and tears that go into this.  And with leadership always comes criticism so it's only right that appreciation and affirmation is given.  They have been good examples of faithfulness and took their responsibilities seriously and are loved by many!  Thanks, Marv and Wanda!

Church Camping

How does one sum up church camping weekend?  Once a year our church travels an hour and a quarter north to a Christian Retreat nestled down a dusty, dirt road among the woods and hills of Brooksville.  It is a remote area where you can leave all your stress behind and relax as you enjoy the fun and fellowship of fellow believers.  We have a special spot where we all camp every year and we usually fill that spot full with tents, canopies, trailers, and rv's.  This year about of a third of the normal campers couldn't go, for a variety of reasons, so some of the spots were vacant. Camp doesn't officially start until Friday but whoever wants to can go up on Thursday; so this year we joined the "Thursday group".  We had a special time with a small group of campers and were all set up nicely before the "Friday and Saturday groups" came.  We checked the forecast on the way up and were shocked to see that the forecast had drastically changed!  We were expecting lows in the 60's and had complained about it because we like it to get a little colder so we 'need' the campfires.  Suddenly the forecast was telling us to expect temps down in the mid 40's!  And as the sun went down so did the temperatures.  We loved our campfires as we huddled around them.  

Friday all day the other campers arrived.  From 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.  Our kids and some other youth kids had to work all day Friday so they were the latest arrivals.  We had 12 dwellers on our site....5 in the camper, 4 guys in a tent, and 3 girls in Kyle's enclosed trailer.  This year we did our meals differently.  Normally each family takes care of their own meals except for Saturday evening when we all eat together. This year they divided the families up and our crew was on the Saturday breakfast crew.  For breakfast we made breakfast burritos.  Yummy!  Burritos with choice of toppings: sausage, green peppers & onions, mushrooms, salsa, & cheese sauce made up the burrito.  Then we offered apples, bananas, donuts, coffee, orange juice, and milk.  We each fixed a portion of it, split the costs and our meals were taken care of for the rest of the weekend.  The Saturday evening crew served bbq ribs and chicken grilled by John, luscious salads and a variety of desserts (cakes and ice creams) along with pots of coffee. (regular, decaf, or Santa's white Christmas)
Sunday morning breakfast was pancakes: regular, chocolate chip, or pumpkin, topped with options of peanut butter, syrup, and cool whip.  Mmm!  A tray of fresh fruit (pineapple, apples, and grapes), choices of cranberry, apple, or orange juice along pots of coffee completed the meal. 
We definitely ate better than we would have had we been fixing all our own food...for a fraction of the cost! 

Breakfast was served at 10:00 a.m. to 75 hungry  campers and supper was served at 5:00 p.m. to more.

Golf, Skipbo, Scum, Last Word, Botchy Ball, Pig &  Chicken, and more were enjoyed by young and old alike.

Games are normally played into the late night or 

early morning hours.  I know you northerners will laugh at 

us whimpy southerners but us women rigged up an 

electric heater under our table to keep our legs and feet 

warm while we played our games!  

It felt so good!

The kids enjoyed the game room while the men 

rough-housed in a game of football.

  

Was JR happy just to watch?

Nope!

Was Dustin happy just to watch?

Nope!

Were the girls happy to just watch?

OK, two of them were, one wasn't.

Were there any injuries?!  

What a question!

JR dislocated his finger, Jeremy dislocated his shoulder,

Reggie got hit in the jaw, Landon got hit in the head, 

KaShondra got hit in the head (while watching),

Robin got a bloody nose, Derek and Dustin each suffered leg injuries, Erica got hit in the head with a golf club 

and Melissa sported an arm injury.

After football, some of the guys were pestering some of the ladies so they took things into their own hands 

and lowered their tent on them.

Sunday morning worship can be very worshipful or

very distracting when geese fly overhead honking loudly, or 

when three storks curiously peer in on the service.

So hard to believe how soon it was time to begin the packing up process!  How can a weekend go by so fast?

We had one last surprise when we looked over and saw a "stranger" loading her van.

Her hair had drastically 'yellowed' over the weekend.

Just call her Miss Jane!

So many good memories of 

"Camping 2011"