"I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will show forth all thy marvellous works."
                                                                                                                                  Psalm 9:1
Well, summer is coming to an end and we are grateful for the cooler weather. But I have noticed how we are always so thankful for a new season when it begins to change around us. I reckon that's what happens when you live seasonally. Just the other day I heard an elderly lady talking to another about the heat of the summer. She mentioned how unbareable and exshausting the heat was and how she "just could not wait for the winter time to get here." The second lady agreed with her, but then added,
"You know, we always seem to want something other than what we have. Either it's too dry, too wet, too hot or too cold. We are never satisfied"
How true were her words, and I decided right then to try not to complain and bare out the rest of the summer with a joyful and gratetful attitude. And here we are! Autunm is just around the corner!!
   We have stayed very busy the past three months since we have blogged. Canning, gardening, harvesting, swimming and filming. "The Art of Crafting" was finished at the end of July, making it the 11th film we have made. The Lord has blessed us and we are thankful.
 This is just a quick blog to check in with y'all. And here are some pictures to share with y'all from our some of our summer projects.
                                          May the Lord bless and be with y'all!
                                                             Blessings,
                                                                    Cecilia for the West Family

Here are a few friends helping sort Red Wriggler Worms

Mama loves her worms!

Many hands make work light.

Our purple hull pea harvest

A basket full of garden blessings!

Georgia Peaches in a jar and water bathed for 25 minutes

Aren't  they  beautiful!

Pouring up ketchup

Ketchup is so much more fun to can over an open fire!

This is the way we wash the rugs!

Agitate with your bare feet, saves on your back!

We were able to make 16 pints of homemade ketchup!

Taking care of the hickory tree in the goat and sheep pen.

 On a farm we don't ride for fun, we get things done! Look closely, our friend Samuel is bush hogging.

Howdy Y'all!!
   It has been a while since we have blogged  because summertime on the farm brings very busy times!:) Our garden looks more like a jungle now and feels like one too with humidity and all, but somewhere in that jungle we find broccoli, cabbage, onions, peas. Today we canned a few quarts of cream of broccoli soup. That will be so wonderful in the winter when broccoli is scarce.
    Our cherry tree is giving us some cherries now and Hannah baked a most delicious cherry cobbler last Sunday for dinner. Yum!  We also have lots of beautiful tall weeds that we like to pull up and throw back onto the compost pile. It is wonderful "green food" for the garden. We planted cotton for the first time and it is coming up so well!! We are excited. Hope to use for pillow and quilts this winter. Speaking of quilts, we are blessed to announce that the 10th in the Homestead Blessings series, "The Art of Quilting" is now available on our website   www.homestead-blessings.com come by and visit us today!
We are also, for the month of June, giving away  our CD, "Farther Along" with every order of the 3 pack, 6 pack or 9 pack of the Homestead Blessings series, but only at www.homestead-blessings.com.
These pictures are from a couple weeks ago and things are already starting  look different now. We hope to talk to y'all again soon. Thank you for all the kind words of encouragement! Enjoy your gardening and homesteading wherever you may be!!!

                                                                    Blessings,

                                                                        The West Ladies

 

Mama gathering from the garden.

Simple springtime beauties.

View from the back porch.

Out of railroad ties and old pots, life springs forth!

Calendula and Kohlrabi.

Broccoli harvest.

Calendula flower.

Onion bed.

Our little friend makes fresh mint tea.

Squeeze the juice from the leaves...

 And pour it up!

To see more on how to make fresh delicious mint tea go to www.homestead-blessings.com and check out "The Art of Herbs" in the Homestead Blessings DVD series.

Hey Everyone!
  We are having beautiful sunny days which means we have been busy in the garden!!! Yeah! This last weekend we had a family of 15 come from Alabama for a few days and they helped us out on the farm. It was great food, fun and fellowship. They helped us with wood, tin roof on an old shed, tilling the garden, general cleaning up and hauling hay, manure and leaves for mulch. The children loved the worm bin (where Mama grows Red Whiggler Worms for compost) and the creek where they proceeded to "fish" with cane poles and cotton string.
   Then at the beginning of the week we had a family of 10 came to visit as they were making their way back home to Vermont. Once again we had wonderful fellowship and shared a meal with them. We were blessed by their music that they shared with us.

    We have been transplanting starts in the little green house and in the garden. We are planting, and moving herbs around and mulching alot too. We have planted around 600 onion plants and about 75 pounds of potatoes, hopefully we will be planting 75 more soon. We are finding all kinds of woodland herbs popping up in the woods surrounding our home. Mama has been having fun taking pictures of them.
  We are also trying in the meantime to work on the next upcoming DVD on the basics of homestead quilting. We are sewing blocks and patches and making little quilts- and weeding, mulching and planting the garden is kind of like making a big patch work quilt out side!
  Well, I've got a lot of pictures to show y'all- so I better get on to that and then back to  sewing, seeding, weeding and quilting!!  We might get around to eating some supper tonight, but who knows!! :) We could always just munch on the lettuce that is out in the garden. Ha, Ha!
                                                              Blessings to y'all and your Homesteads,
                                                                            Vicki and Cecilia