recipe

i had the urge to try making mozz. cheese.  I found a recipe on making it in 30 minutes.  It uses the microwave which i don't like to do.  but it made it go much quicker so i opted to try this version:

http://www.simplebites.net/the-best-party-trick-ever-how-to-make-thirty-minute-mozzarella/

it was fun, tastes like string cheese!  i do need to try again though and get the texture stretchier. 

it was good warm, right after it was made.  so now i got that urge out of the way :) 

i have extra of these ingredients if anyone needs them...

last bit of summer

i've tried keeping the calendar clear this week and next to enjoy the last bit of summer here on the homefront. 
this week's highlights include.....baby guineas!!  (of course an animal would be involved) we didn't know we had a male guinea, but low and behold we had 6 eggs hatch, after mama sat on them for 3 weeks!
she is a good mama. 

and likely a stressed out mama at times like these....

The boys have been riding this thing non stop.  It's a total gas hog, we have to fill it almost every day! 
They've arranged themselves in just about every combination you can think of. 

even in their dress up customes.  you don't see this every day!

Oh these boys make me tired.  They go go go all day long.  But they sleep like logs all night.  It's been a good summer.  Hard to believe it's soon over. 

swimmer

we're helping with the neighbors pool again for several days.  adam wanted the grandmas to see that "I can swim now!"  he obviously never took lessons- the nose holding and doggie paddling gives that away :)  but i am still proud of him!  He's teaching himself how to swim. 

photo shoot

Adam has a friend in school whose father does some photography.  we lined him up a couple weeks ago and he got some pictures around our place, of just the boys.  the photo shoot contained so many circus-like moments....adam breaking a piece of his equipment, clay not holding still, and the crazy wind storm to name a few.  but it was a good time, and i didn't really have any expectations.  it was a good way to get to know the family a little better, and give him some business. 
considering what we were dealing with - 4 orneries- he did a very good job!

individual pics worked better then the 4 together...

look how grown up..

Ben...

Brad....

the 4...

The clouds were amazing during this wind storm....no rain, so we kept snapping pictures..they started to throw hay at the photographer..

And we're done. 

Rod and i are feeling blessed by the connections we've been making within our community over the past year.  Most of that is due to Adam being in school now.  And that was Rod's main reason for wanting to start the boys at public school.  Being connected in the community is a neat thing.   We were invited to a pig roast last weekend, through one of the families at farmdale.  I was really looking forward to going but didn't think we'd know anyone.  We ended up knowing about half the people and there were at least 100 people there!  All community connections, (school, rod's work, awana).  Adam's teacher from last year was there, it was wonderful to see her.  Even though the school doesn't notify parents who their kids teachers will be until the week before school, Mrs. Leonard told me she has the twins this year!  i was so excited.  i think she knew that when i started jumping up and down.  She's an amazing teacher.  so happy to work with her again this year.  We don't know whether Farmdale is our long term choice, but for now we are enjoying the benefits of this school, the impressive staff there, and the connections we are making.

recent harvests and bird feeders...

my garden is giving us so much goodness this year!  i credit that to timely rains, mushroom mulch, and the steaming we gave it back in the spring. 

the garden is mostly my baby, but it has been a whole family affair when it comes to the fun stuff :) 
I canned carrots for the first time.  I usually freeze them, but canning allows for quicker meal prep work, and they taste better then frozen!

Nothing like home grown potatoes!  fun to dig and they are huge and disease free this year.  the potato bugs were bad though but didn't seem to affect them.  We have many more bucket fulls still in the ground...This was our first picking. 

(clay was called a girl at mcdonalds with this blue baseball outfit on...seriously!?)

Making tomato juice...

Lots of access to sweet corn.  I probably should have froze more, but it was easier to give it away!

This has been a strange year for my green beans.  the season was cut short due to the hot hot weather and no rain...now a month later they have produced new greens, flowers, and i'm harvesting them again!  I'm not complaining! 

The pole bean teepee sorta, kinda worked..

We've been having 2 hummingbirds come around very often lately.  and staying longer so i could get a picture.  They've never fed at the same time though. 

I told the boys i wanted to make a homemade bird feeder and i had an idea in mind (or found on pinterest:)  Adam said "no i know how to make those, a friend from school brought one in for sharing"  So he totally took over and made this himself. 

It's just a water jug, with a hole cut out., peanut butter spread over the outside and roll it in bird seed.  Put more birdseed inside the container.  We have yet to see a bird feed here, but hopefully it will happen!

Pond day

Last year Andrea and i took the kids to Elk Neck State Park, which was a lot of fun.  But this year we agreed that they would enjoy Mel's pond just as much, and since it's right behind the farm, it made good sense to do that instead!  So we packed up for a day at the pond.  It got cut a little short due to thunder, but they sure had a blast.Hightlights for the kids was the big tube and the boggie boards... 

Is Grandma looking??

I grew up going to this pond, it's neat to bring my kids here now! 

wild edibles

Rod's aunt took some ladies and kids on a nature walk today to show us what's edible and what's not out there in the woods/in nature. 
it was quite interesting.  i really wanted to remember everything, but i'm afraid it didn't happen.  i took notes and pictures of plants that were discussed. 

discoveries from today:
Clay was a handful, that's not a new discovery. 

Wood Sorrel.  Everything is edible here, it looks like clover, has yellow flowers, tastes like lemon.  This grows all over my garden.

Burdock.  All parts are edible here, the fuzzy purple flowers are like velcro. 

this is Dock, another edible.  All the above plants discussed are good on salads, or even cooked and thrown in casseroles, lasagna, soups, etc.

This is Jewel Weed, and is not edible, but it prevents you from getting poison if you rub it on your skin after having contact with poison ivy.  It's usually grows right around where you see poison.  thanks God :)
It gets an orange flower during late summer.

Sumac. Tasty stuff, the boys loved it. 

I don't like spiders, but how could you not stare at this beauty..

DO NOT EAT!  Anything that looks like Queen Anne's Lace...It might be this stuff, called Hemlock. and it's very poisonous. 

We also learned about Nettle, Field Cress, Wild Mustard, and Red Root.  All edible plants.  Can't wait to walk around our woods and see what we can find!