With the recent rains, our gardens have grown leaps and bounds. It's getting to the time that the canners will have to come out of storage, jars will need to be washed, flats and rings sterilized, and the cellar shelves filled. The supper table is set with plenty of squash, cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, taters, cabbage, corn (thanks, Papal - ours isn't ready), and CARROTS! We were just going to thin the patch, but came out with a bunch to eat that evening. Honey glazed with butter - yummoo! Little girl LOVES them. As tempting as it iwas to pick beans, there aren't enough for the first mess, yet. That should happen next week - double yummooo!

Though they aren't very big nor plentiful this year, the new grapes are growing better than we'd hoped for their first year. Sheep manure works wonders! Sorry if the word manure is too graphic for you, but it's a fact of life and totally organic. That's GREEN nowadays, don't you know?!

The last few weeks have been filled with lots of stormy weather, along with incredibly HOT temperatures - the reason why the storms have been so prominent. We have seen the near-drought change to soaked grounds and growing gardens. We are grateful for the much-needed rain and the fact that the fierce lightning and claps of thunder have been nothing more than a light show and rumbles in the air. Grateful that high winds weren't anything more than a nuisance that blew chairs off the porch and feed troughs through the fence.

We are grateful this morning that we have our children to hug and to enjoy our
breakfast together. Our prayers are with the families of those in Colorado who
are grieving for their lost ones in the horrific shootings in Aurora. It makes a
person realize how life shouldn't be taken for granted.

Let's just say, it's good to be back to normal life. The last two weeks have involved many new and interesting events. The Storm of 2012 hit the area like a whirlwind, literally and figuratively, which left many in our area without power. We were fortunate to only have lost electricity for just a short time, while others near us were without for 13 days or longer. We were home to ten people for 8 of  those days, along with their refrigerators and freezers. It was a vacation we will never forget, especially to us since we got a new back porch out of the (or)deal. There were many a meal cooked and devoured by the crew - we even laughed about all the pounds of sugar and flour and gallons of tea and water that were consumed during those 8 days. The gardens started providing for homemade french fries and mashed potates, fried squash, and cucumbers and onions...and the best of all, tomatoes for sandwiches and cottage cheese. Life here centers around the dinner table, can you tell?!