Berry Picking

It's fruit season here at Valley View Farm.  The Dr and I went outside this evening and picked about 2 cups of blueberries.  YUM...  I love our orchard, but for some reason, we don't have much luck with the trees, but our bushes and vines are amazing.  Following are pictures of the blueberry bushes and  grape vines.  Any suggestions for what to do with blueberries besides muffins and pancakes (and eating raw) are greatly appreciated...

Accountability...and an Update

I need accountability in my life.  I have a ton of fabric that was given to me and I must do something with it.   Some of it is going toward my English Paper Piecing hexagon swap quilt.  But I don't plan on making that big of a quilt.  I spent a few days dividing it into like colors and ironing and folding all of it...  a lot of ironing!!

I have several scrappy quilts that I want to make and I am going to keep my progress here. Hopefully I can get more done if I know that people are waiting with baited breath for me to finish...LOL


First an update on our family.  Aaron graduated... Praise Jesus!!!! He is on the waiting list for mechanics school.  We decided that it would be best if he attended the one that is the same distance away but in a small town that we frequent more often.  It is smaller and he may have to wait until January, but it is a better fit for him with a smaller class size.   So, he needed a job to keep him busy.  Well, God provided.  He stopped in at a car lot to look at a truck that he liked and the owner came out and started talking to him.  He asked Aaron if he needed a job and offered him a job.  He will be detailing the cars, and running errands.  It's not much, but hopefully he will make connections. And driving different cars makes it exciting.   He also met his birth mom and her family.  It was a sweet time and I am happy that we were able to keep in touch through the years and make the visits that he had special.  He is loved!!

As you can see here... Zane is sneaking in a hug... Aaron is letting him.....LOL

Aaron's birth mom and her mom and step dad. This family has blessed us so much and we are happy to know them and consider them part of our family...  The Dr didn't get the "wear blue" memo....

 Zane is entering his Jr year of high school at FCA and loving every minute of it.  He is still playing football and is so happy with the coach and staff.  I can't wait for our first Friday night!!  We have a scrimmage this Friday.  He is hoping to get back into drama and singing.  He also got his license and his first truck.  It is an 84 Dodge D100 pick up and fits him to a T..  He and The Dr have been tinkering with it to get it just right. But, it is finally road worthy and he is happy.

Lydia is going into 10th grade and is turning into a typical teenager..LOL  That is good and bad....  Her art is amazing and I wish we could send her to an art school.  Her little school has one art class and she will be taking it this year.  Hopefully the teacher can make connections for her.

The Dr is still teaching and we are settling into life with 3 teenagers... counting down the years until Lydia graduates and starting to prep our "empty" nest. It's going to be good...  We know, because we had 9 years practice when we were first married...LOL

I am still canning, although this year I didn't do as much as I have in the past. We did have our first grape harvest and I made jelly...we are big PBJ fans here, so grape jelly is a must.  We didn't get many grapes, but out of our 3 vines 2 were old enough to produce and it was their first year...Out of my meager harvest I did manage 17 half pints of jelly..  not too shabby.

Well...hopefully I can update you all with a few quilt pictures and keep this blog active...

Starting over and a bargain find.

Ok, I am going to try to start this blog thing again.  The Dr wants me to keep track of farm life and since I already have this one going I figured I might as well use it.

So lets go on a journey.....

Back in May, when my parents were visiting, we stopped in at a Goodwill.  This is not normal shopping for us to do, but the restaurant that we wanted to go to wasn't open and a GW was across the street.. and A wanted to go.  So, Mom went to the books, A to the T-shirts and Daddy and I looked at the kitchen stuff..  We wandered around and there, in the midst of bread machines and coffee makers was this... look at all the trays....and look at that price!!!

 Daddy and I plugged it in and it turned on.. it smelled a little dusty, but we figured it needed a good cleaning.  So I put it in the basket and called my Bro who had recently purchased a new one.   He said it was a good price..YAY!  Well, fast forward to July and I am just getting around to cleaning it up.  I untaped it (yes, I am slow) and was excited to find the fruit roll tray inside and the screen for drying smallish items!!    I plugged it in and the dusty smell went away!  Now, I can do something will all the onions that we have growing... first the sun needs to come out so that I can cure them.....
The potatoes are curing in an old fridge that we have.   I am just waiting for my tomatoes to decide to turn red.  It has been cool here but they need heat to ripen.  I am thinking of putting a greenhouse tent over them to help them along, then I get to play with my other new gadgets!