My New Garden Hat

It took me awhile to find me a garden hat. I picked this up at Walmart last week. I liked it because it was already all bent. You can't see it much but there is a pin on top that says "Sam" my sister Marta made it with beads. Tom has a hat similar but he's floats he says hahaha

Well I pulled my first radish today it was ready to pick I was so excited I ate it before I could take a picture of it haha. We had a bq at our church today it was soooooo hot I tried to stay in the church as much as possible. Tomorrow we go back to church again and we will probably eat there again because there was so much food left we decided to do that again.

The girls were walking in the pecan orchard today when they saw a snake curled up, my daughters friend started poking it and it moved so they told us about it. Hubby went to go shoot it when he did he missed the first time and it struck out at him missing and striking itself. I have never seen that before.

We put it over the fence belly up "old wise tale that it will make it rain now" :) Hey don't laugh we can use all the help we can get. Daughter and friend have a new rule now. If you see a snake you DONT poke it sigh........

Well its late I need to get to bed.

Sam

Sheep in playground

No the sheep didnt sneak it I let them in our back yard so they could eat the grass and weeds back there. Is it a ploy for me not to mow the grass? Maybe :)

Problem was where I took the picture right behind me is some of my elephant ear plants and boy did that look tasty to them. I had to sit there and guard my plants from them. Especially my goat barrels if you look at the second picture you will see her standing there waiting for me to blink or nod off to sleep so she could sneak in.

Later on today she escaped to the front yard and ate one of my rose bushes..sigh..told her she can't come in with the sheep anymore she has been banned. She is suppose to have her baby any day now I am hoping she pops soon I want to know what she has.

I am really excited today I got in a touch with a nice lady from Sequin who occasionally has cows to sale. Hopefully when the time comes I will be able to get one from her. Sequin is not too far from us. Its the closet I have seen for ages someone selling a cow :)

Got to go its humid today and it has made me really tired.

Sam

Garden Update

Well my garden has been updated a lot. I took off the chicken wire around it because it was squishing my garden. My husband put a fence around it so now Bobo the dog wont be digging or laying in it.

I bought this week the tomatoe wires from Walmart in Hondo. I had looked for them all over San Antonio at 3 other walmarts and Lowes but only found the huge ones for about $6.00 each these only cost around $1.23 each. These were smaller and fit perfect in my square foot garden.

If you look really close you will see the small green tomotoes growing :)

If you look close too you will see my new watering system that I got from walmart. It was a 75ft long seeper flat soaker hose. It was made out of Nylon Mesh a lot different from the other soakers I had seen. I didnt like the others. This one was flat and as soon as I put the hose on it inflated and soaked up everything really fast. I was really impressed.

I bought two of them at $15 each I think it was a great bargain. I pulled weeds today and also mowed the lawn. It was a good day. It sprinkled for a bit today but later it just got sunny I think it was in the high 80's today lovely.

Sam

Trip to the Apple Seed Project near Temple Texas

Hubby and Miranda were at the Apple Seed project for two nights and had a blast. They brought me the targets they shot at and we were both very impressed with Miranda's shots. Hubby said she did just as well as the other full grown men there. They said she was a trooper not ever complaining and following instructions even through thatat 100' weather they had that day.

The instructors even told her if she improved some more to make the 220 they would love for her to become a female instructor. Hubby couldnt say enough good stuff about the instructors there he said they were very patient with all of them and never raised their voices.

It was fun and very educational talking about not only the revolution war but also the Texas revolution war. They have another one in June but we will be very busy during that month so I think the next might be in November but that might be the instructor one I will have to find out when the next apple project will be.

Hubby said he learned more there in those two days of instruction then he learned while being in the army. Some of the guys there that had taken $3000 gun instructions seminars said they learned a lot more that day then during that instruction that they paid for isnt that a hoot.

Sam

The AppleSeed project

Above: Tom and Randy target shooting before they leave.

Well hubby and daughter are off this weekend to the AppleSeed project near Temple Texas. No they are not going to plant apple trees hahaha. The AppleSeed project is part of the Revolutionary War Veterans Association.

Here is a quote from their website "designed to take you from being a simple rifle owner to being a true rifleman. All throughout American history, the rifleman has been defined as a marksman capable of hitting a man-sized target from 500 yards away — no ifs, ands or buts about it. This 500-yard range is traditionally known as "the rifleman's quarter-mile;" a rifleman can hit just about any target he can see. This skill was particulary evident in the birth of our country, and was the difference in winning the Revolutionary War. More on it http://www.appleseedinfo.org/

They of course do a lot of gun safety stuff. Hubby was really excited about going and Miranda too, today they did some practice shots at a target and Miranda hit the bulls eyes. She takes after her mommy what can I say haha shhh don't tell Tom.

Personally I think anyone that owns a gun should take some sort of gun safety course. I realize a lot of people don't believe in guns and well that is fine and dandy its your right not to bear arms if you don't want too. Hey don't you just love America. Just don't think you have the right to take my guns away.

Living on a ranch and growing up on a ranch we have guns its simple. If you have a rattlesnake that has cornered your kid on a porch I would rather much take my chances trying to shoot it then trying to kill it with a rake or call the police who know telling when they will show up at your place, this is just one simple example.

Miranda has instructions to take pictures of the camp ground while they are there to show me. Maybe next time when my dad is back home Tommy and I can go as well. We can man the camp while they go off to the shoot range on the ranch.

Tommy is too young to do this now, Tom hopes to become an instructor in time if he really likes it, maybe even start one closer to San Antonio someday? Anyways they will be gone for the weekend. Tommy and I are going to the new Farmers market tomorrow, my sister Marta might go with us. I bought a slip and slide for Tommy and his cousins to play on today and tomorrow its really hot today here in Texas

Well I need to finish cleaning still sooooo poof

Sam

How does your garden grow

Yes that is chicken wire around my garden and its not even put up right just drapped around my garden. The dog got in one day and tore up two of my tomotoe plants and some onions. The really big green stuff is green beans growing it seems to be doing the best. I've had to spray it recently with a mixture of water, hot sauce and starch to keep the peel bugs away.

So far its been working but its only been a day/night and I didnt see any on them this afternoon. Time will tell, everything else is growing really nice and I got tomotoes growing already in my bush near my roses I am so excited. Our fruit trees have some apples, plums and aproicots growing too.

My chicks are doing really good they are sort of skitish when I get near them they scare really easily. So far I havent seen any dead chicks and the temp is keeping ok, I opened up the side window to it to let some air in.

I went to go pick up my local veggies today in Castroville and found out they will be having a farmers market once a month in Castroville it got me thinking about selling eggs someday there when the chicks are grown. Its only once a month but that is enough time for me. Maybe if I get my garden going more I can sell some of that along with honey and pecans too. Right now I have all the cutomers I can handle for all the stuff we have on our farm.

Speaking of honey I bought some locally in San Antonio the other day just to compare and have some in stock, boy was it light, in fact it was too light. It didn't have much taste it was like it was strained or something I didnt really like it. I won't buy from there again. I am sure everyone else loves it from the group but if you have had some of our honey or even the honey from the old man in Devine that sells it you would see the difference.

Honey season is coming up in August. I have to remember to save some of the cone for my highschool friend Leah. She asked me last year and I completly forgot, hopefully I will remember this year. I need more jars! I saw some at the thrift shop Hospice the other day for 25 cents each I am not sure if that is a good price or not I need to compare.

Well thats about it for today I need to go do chores and close up my dads pecan house for the night. He should be back in June he said. Our income tax check rebate thingie came in today so I sent him $300 since we claim him in our taxes.

The lady at the tax office said it was better to let us claim him then give him some money so that we we can get the tax credit on our income tax. It worked out really good. Dad said he is going to use the money to make it back home from California. He said he was hoping the gas will go down but I told him not to count on it. He was going to wait till July but I think he wants to come back sooner.

Got to do chores

Sam

Chicks are here! all 100 of them!

The Postmaster here called us at 5:45 am this morning to let us know the chicks were in already. I rolled over in the bed and said to my husband, "I am a mommy again" hahaha

I guess they called early because they don't want the chirping all morning long at the post office. My husband went to go pick them up which I was so thankful for because I have been driving every single day since I took the week off. Having to drive all over slows me down on my spring cleaning.

Anyways I got the daughter up and turned on all the lights outside because it was still dark and we prepared for the chicks arrival getting water, newspaper and the feed. We turned on the lights last night in the chick brooder to make sure the temp was at 100'

When hubby came back we took one at a time and gave them water and showed them where the food was and set them free to roam in the brooder. This was the second time that we didnt have any squished chicks they all survived including the 5 extra they put in the box.

The first week is going to be crucial to see who is going to survive or not. My friend who had ordered the 25 chicks is not going to be here so I have to take care of them for a week till they get back from the coast, I have to chick sit hehe

I am sad about this because they dont get the experience for taking care of them and seeing them so small within a week they will be a lot larger. The good thing about this is that I will get them stronger before they go with their new owners so they will have a better chance of surving when little kids pick them up so much.

I let them order them with me because its cheaper in the long run for both of us and they didnt have the knowledge yet on what kinds to get, I got straight run sex links. They are all female chicks and this breed will start laying a lot earlier then any other breed plus they were born to be pasture raised chickens. Its a favorite of my Pasture Poultry yahoo group. By the way did I mention I became owner of my Pasture Poultry group? It has over 2500 members from all over the world and I have been moderating it for over a year now, The owner passed it on over to me she was busy with other projects.

Anyways by the time we finished with the chicks the sun had risen a bit, its a bit cloudy outside still so no real sun yet. I went to go let my chickens go at the coop and feed the goat while hubby went to take a shower and daughter went back to bed.

Tommy my son slept through the whole thing but he was up and about for breakfast this morning. It was a real treat to drink coffee with hubby this morning and talk a bit. I like these times.

I am going to rest up a bit before I tackle any more stuff today.

Sam

Late-Spring Cleaning

Two full size garbage bags, one donation bag later my sons room is finally clean. It took most the day to to it. I was going to take a before picture but I was too embarrased, you couldnt even walk in the room it was that bad. Above he is playing with his army men he has been really happy. He helped me the whole time I was cleaning most the day, till the last hour I let him go watch tv for a bit so he can get out of the way while I did the finish touches to his room.

I decided awhile back that I needed a week to clean the house I kept saying that till my husband finally said why dont you? So I canceled all appointments and made sure it was not on a milk/egg/veggie run week and decided to do it.

My sister is staying in town baby sitting her grandkids so she was not here to distract me otherwise I would be going next door a lot to take breaks. I decided on my sons room first for two reasons, one because it is the messier room of the house but also because it will keep him busy playing in the room (its like christmas for him finding toys all together, hasnt seen for awhile) so I can tackle the rest of the house.

Tomorrow I might have to pick up the chicks early in the morning I am hoping they wont come till Wed morning. I also have to do a few errands getting some more cleaning supplies and stopping by to get some feed for my chickens, hopefully it wont take me that long to do that.

I think I will do the living room and the dining room for my next project, besides picking up I plan to rearrange the living room a bit. I have no idea what I am going to do maybe it will come to me tonight.

I am really tired right now, my throat hurts I think from all the dust from today. I will go to bed early tonight. I have to put out the trash and I didnt do it tonight because it looked like it might rain.

later

Sam