Wonderful Summer!

We are enjoying a beautiful summer. We get a great breeze up here on the hill, so the July heat isn't all that bad. Here are a few things we've been doing....and the reason I've not posted since April! :)












This is the Eggmobile for our laying hens. We'll move them to a different area to forage every 4 or 5 days. They'll come in at night and we can open the back door to gather their eggs from the laying boxes each day.














We are transferring some of the older fryers to another chicken tractor to make room for new chicks.


My cousin, Don Martindale, gave me a recipe for disaster...disaster for insects, that is. It works very well:

Use a garden sprayer with "adjustable dial setting" for controlling the amount of mixture added to the water supplied by a garden hose. Fill garden sprayer about 3/4 full of "lemon scented" dish washing liquid. Add (3) tablespoons of canola oil. Add (3) tablespoons of baking soda.

Another spray that worked for me on squash bugs was a mixture of cayenne pepper, garlic, lemon dish soap, and molasses. Not sure why it calls for molasses...but it works! The squash bugs looked as if they were playing freeze tag. It stopped them dead in their tracks.

I had an horrible infestation of striped cucumber beetles. I planted flowers and the correct companion plants to attract the necessary insects to kill them, but they weren't in the right growth stage to actually work yet. So....I ordered an army of 1,500 Lady Bugs, and they must have arrived hungry. :) The kids and I released them (which they thoroughly enjoyed!) and the next morning, I saw only ONE cucumber beetle in the whole garden. It was just wild. I believe! I believe! I believe! Gardening organically is the most awesome adventure, and I'm a real believer in doing it God's way instead of using pesticides.



















An answer for an organic weed killer and substitute for Round-Up, is Vinegar. J.R. was amazed and thinks it's the best thing since sliced bread. I read that canning vinegar is stronger and works even better, but I used what was on my shelf - just regular white vinegar - and I love it. I just put it in a five gallon sprayer and walked the fence line and garden beds while spraying. Even the mist from the sprayer or any hint of vinegar will kill the plants you want to keep though. So thankfully, it all made it to the weeds and none on my plants.

Clay with an armload of radishes. I planted a circle of radishes around the cucumber and watermelon plants. It has really kept the pests away.













So far, I've put up 33 jars of plum jelly and 18 jars of blackberry jelly. We stand on the tailgate of the pick up while picking blackberries to avoid the chiggers. I think we all love it - except Clay. He'd rather go over to the pond and throw rocks....

Laura lost her two front teeth this summer. To me, this is one of the sweetest stages of childhood.













Barley turned 16 on May 29th. He began driving on back roads and around our land when he was really young, and after getting his permit at 14 yo, J.R. and I never drove. I wanted him to experience all driving conditions while we were with him...not when he was alone. He drove in blinding rain, snow, ice, storms, big cities like Houston and Dallas, you name it - he drove through or during it! I just hope I have the where-with-all to do this all over again when Laura and Clay reach this age. :) This is a picture of the vehicle he saved up for.













Play Time Before Bed Time!