Sunday Night post

It's hard to get started back with something you've dropped for awhile.  

All the while knowing that little memories that could be saved are slipping away.

So, I'm trying to get back in the saddle: refresh & refocus.

We battled the flu this past week.  The full week.  A real wipe out.  Levi missed most of the school week & my 'getting ready for holiday company' time got shortened by half.

Our hens have stepped up the pace & I found myself at the end of the week with at least 4 dozen eggs in the house.  I'd put off emptying the laying boxes until I'd done something with the ones I already had inside, until Levi decided to do it himself.  He came pulling up a small wagon onto the back deck with 22 more!  Heavens!  I made some calls & gifted several dozen over the weekend.

We had our first substantial rain here in several months, and the weak patch of greens (mustard/collard/turnip mix) suddenly looks lush.  My broccoli is beginning to put on heads.  We've lettuce galore.  Carrots putting on mass.  Cabbages heading.  Eating kale.  And just newly acquired:  asparagus.

Some random pics from the last few weeks.

bedtime stories

tree trimming 

long enough for PIGTAILS!

Levi & Willa - he is quite fond of babies

one of the goats in Wildwood

in Wildwood for Thanksgiving

Our first fire in the new shop

We brought back a forge from Wildwood & set up our own shop this weekend.  Thanks to Granddaddy & Dad for all the gear!  Everything we needed to start - even a bucket of coal!  Thank you.

Sunday afternoon in Jennings, Florida

we grow a mean radish

cherry belle & french breakfast

the first bed harvested

afternoon

on a Friday

The shelf in the carport which catches Levi's comings & goings. 
Here's his bow (handmade by Joe), 2 arrows, flint he's been napping, and some eggs that never made it into the house.

Oft used items:  hammer, bike helmet, heavy canvas quail bag.

Too warm temps made for spotty snow pea germination. 
We've re-seeded the empty spots.  Now just waiting.

A great find - an old wire egg basket. 
The hens have slowed down a bit - I'm not feeling run over by eggs now.

I love finding the speckled eggs best.

mid-October mood

Wildwood Pumpkins sit alongside one of the gourds from the pecan tree (up 40 some feet).  Joe got it down with a single shot from a .22

a freshly planted pot of pansies

cassia

sasanqua

a flat of arugula waiting to be planted

first 50-foot row of swiss chard in

row garden taking shape: broccoli, kale, cabbage, swiss chard

radish bed

nearing maturity, reminds me I need to replant another bed

still working on the herb bed & repurposing some nameplates

a toad house in the garden - Levi made - replete with a feather & shells - an impressive tunnel is within

getting bigger still, bet it will be over 20 pounds

a front moved thru yesterday, bringing us rain & cooler temps this morn

Soccer has Begun

sweet Indi

two of his best buds:  Connor & Brynlea

Our glass garden

The largest of the Wildwood pumpkins just starting to color.
They will mature to a buff color.

Two medium sized pumpkins about ready to pick.

A volunteer tomato just starting to set fruit - our first frost date is around November 15th, so about 6 weeks to go for this guy.

Letting my garden evolve as I see what's working & what's not.
Here I'm creating a perennial bed on the border of the garden - leaving a majority of the space open to get the tractor through. 

I've been reading a lot of Eliot Coleman lately & thinking about his ideas of interplanting in succession.  And especially about use of space.  This is my first experiment in 30 inch beds densely planted.  The first seedlings are just up - we'll see how it goes.

Beets up about an inch.

Gainey Family Reunion 2012

We attended the Gainey family reunion on Saturday in the little community of Reno, Georgia, just a 10 minute drive from Cairo.  Joe's grandfather is Papa Bill Gainey.  And the Gainey family has been in this area for a long while.  

The old homeplace, nestled at the end of a dirt road, is nearby.  It's in fine shape, & still has a Gainey family in resident.  Joe's great-great grandfather, James T. Gainey, walked all the way home from Columbus after his discharge from the Confederate Army, and his final steps were on that same dirt road.

taking The Grit's (of Athens) Mac & Cheese

the dessert table - I counted 36

80 something covered dishes

it's held at the old Reno school (now community center), which in its time held grades 1st thru 9th - some elderly attendees spent their school-days here
in the background is the stage of the auditorium

130+ sat down to dinner 

all distant cousins (Indi on far left)

Indi trying to plant a kiss.  These two are fourth cousins and seven days apart in age.

Indi running around visiting during the clean-up