Raspberry time

We (Darrel, Lorelle and I) picked raspberries at Lakeview Farm. We picked about 10 pounds of raspberries and 5 pounds of strawberries yesterday. We arrived at the farm at about 7:30 am and were finished picking by about 9:30. It was hot!!!! There were lots of berries! We started on one side of a row and didn't even get half way down when we had enough berries. It was a good thing that we started early, since it was a very hot day (we broke the record for May) and there were a lot of people there since it is Memorial Day weekend.

I made two batches of raspberry jam, four pints of raspberry pie filling and froze a bag of raspberries. We had delicious strawberry shortcake for dessert last night.

We picked two of these boxes of raspberries.

It is staying light a lot longer now. It's about 8:30 pm before it really starts getting dark. The fireflies are out now. I tried to take a picture of one but it didn't turn out. This is what I got:

It has been so hot (90s plus) lately and we decided it was too hot to close the coop pophole for the chickens. We noticed last week that the chickens put themselves to bed in the coop when it gets dark, so I am not trying to put them in earlier anymore when it's convenient for me. If we leave the pophole open all night, they can get up when it's light and go to bed when it's dark enough. I just hope they are safe enough inside the enclosure from predators. Darrel keeps telling me that it is tight and secure. I hope so.

We found an outlet mall in St. Louis last week and went shopping. Lorelle found lots of stuff to take home to Australia. She keeps telling me that things are so much cheaper here. I think she is having fun shopping. One more week and then she goes home. We still have lots of St. Louis sights to see this coming week. It will be fun!



Beautiful Nauvoo and Carthage Jail

The Nauvoo Temple is very beautiful. That is Lorelle and Lachie standing on the steps in front of the temple. We went there to walk around after spending the day in Historic Nauvoo. Nauvoo is a very special place and the spirit of the Lord is so strong there. I love visiting it! We spent Tuesday and Wednesday, May 22 and 23 there. It takes about 2 1/2 hours to drive there from our house.

The original temple was completed in 1846 and then destroyed by mobs, fire and eventually a tornado. It was rebuilt in 2002.

This is one of only two (I think) original sunstones remaining from the 1846 temple. There are 30 of these on the temple.

Joseph Smith's home in Nauvoo.

Joseph, Emma, and Hyrum Smith are buried here, as well as Joseph Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith.

The Red Brick Store

The monument near the bank of the Mississippi River where the Trail of Hope ends. This is where the Saints took their wagons and crossed the river into Iowa on the way west in February 1846.

This is what the barges looked like that carrried the wagons across the river. There was an incredible snow storm that froze the Mississippi river solid and allowed the wagons to cross on ice that February of 1846. It was amazing.



We also went to the women's garden outside the visitor's center. The statues honoring women are so wonderful. I took a few pictures.

I bought a book about Emma Smith, called Judge Me Dear Reader. I would like to know more about this remarkable woman who endured so much. I will let you know what I think when I am finished reading.

Carthage Jail is a special place - a sacred place even. There is such a wonderful spirit there. The deaths of Joseph and Hyrum Smith were violent but their lives and testimonies were not in vain. Each time I have been here my own testimony has been strengthened. I did not take any pictures today at Carthage.

This statue stands in front of the Nauvoo Temple. It is one of my favorites of Joseph and Hyrum.



I know the gospel is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I am so grateful to have this in my life.

Cherries! Blueberries!

On Saturday, May 19 Lorelle, Leah, my sister Annette and I went to Thierbach Berry Farms in Marthasville and picked sour cherries. They are actually Montmorency tart cherries. They were beautiful! and very sour. Perfect for pies and baking. Annette picked about 8 pounds and we picked 17 pounds of cherries. Leah picked 2 very large quart boxes of blueberries while we were picking cherries. They were sooooo good!

I froze the blueberries and canned 7 quarts of cherries and made one batch of sour cherry jam. It is delicious! It was a busy day because we also worked in the garden before going to the berry farm. Lorelle had never picked cherries and was quite a trooper. She picked lots and lots. I bought a cherry pitter at the farm. It worked great!!! It was so easy to use and very fast.

The pitter fit on top of a canning jar and the pits went into the jar.

Aren't they pretty? I love home canned goods. And the taste is fantastic!



The Saga of Charlie the Chicken and the E.R. Again..

Charlie the chicken turned out to be a meat bird. She was getting quite big and we decided she would make a good chicken dinner. Darrel was all ready to do the dirty work, but the girls said they would NOT eat Charlie. I can see why you should not name anything that might become dinner one day.

Well, we ended up giving Charlie to a nice family we know at church who have raised chickens before. Since they did not know Charlie like we did, they had no problem with her being the star of their dinner. I will miss Charlie's girlish crow every morning, but since she would never have laid a single egg, she would not have been very useful to us in our henhouse.

A good lesson has been learned from all this drama about not wanting to eat a chicken we had raised. I think that Darrel and I could raise meat birds, but definitely no names, treated humanely, but not like pets like our laying hens. I think it is a good thing to know where your food is coming from and to show proper respect and gratitude for the sacrifice of the animal that becomes our dinner.

Goodbye Charlie. I will miss you.

We made another trip to the Emergency Room on Monday afternoon. This time it was Darrel. He thought he had appendicitis because he was having such terrible pain in his side. He had pain the day before but it had gone away. He called me on his way home from work in the afternoon and asked me to meet him in the E.R. I texted Leah and she called our hometeacher, but he was gone, so his wife called some other men in the high priests group and they came and gave Darrel a blessing. I was very grateful for that.

 After a CT scan and lots of pain killers, the doctor told us that Darrel had a 2 mm kidney stone. The nurse gave him some more pain killers and stuff in his IV and then we went home. We stopped at the pharmacy on the way home, luckily Walgreens was still open at 9:30 pm. I picked up some more pain killers for him in case he needed them and we finally went home. It was late but Darrel thought he wouldn't be able to go to sleep so I started watching TV. He fell asleep right away, yeah, and didn't wake until morning. (He never did take any of the prescriptions I got for him.) He got up, passed the stone (without pain) and that was that. It was amazing since he had been in so much pain the night before. The Lord truly blessed him. And I hope he doesn't (or anyone else I know) have to go through that again. Ever.

Lorelle and Lachland got here Tuesday afternoon and we have been having a wonderful visit with them. We are going to see a lot of historic places in Missouri over the next 2 weeks. It should be lots of fun! Plus they brought us tons of yummy Australian candy. I am going to have to hide most of it and take it out slowly so we all don't get fat eating too much!

This morning we had a visitor on our deck. Here is a picture:

I am surprised it took this long for a squirrel to find our bird feeders, but I was hoping they wouldn't try to get into it. This guy (or girl) climbed up the pole and slipped right down again. He did manage to grab something out of the feeder before he slipped. You can see he has something in his paw in the picture. He explored the deck a bit and then went out to the chicken coop. The chickens weren't sure what to think of the squirrel. They followed him around watching what he did.

He circled the coop and then jumped on the wood pile and scurried off to the woods. I am sure he will come back. The squirrels always do when they find food.

I got a few pictures of a Red Winged Black Bird that has been coming to our feeder lately. I wish I had got a picture that showed the beautiful wings spread out.

 

I planted cantaloupes, honeydew and watermelons the other day, as well as sunflowers. I now have three rows of green beans and lots of summer squash coming up. I still have lots more to plant in the garden, but it will have to wait until the cool part of the day to get done. We have had beautiful, but very warm weather this week. I am hoping for a little rain soon. I am getting spoiled and love it when I don't have to worry about watering!

 

We are off the orthodontist and then the Farmer's Market this afternoon.

 

 

Strawberries, the E.R. , family and feathered friends

What a week!

I found a strawberry farm in Wright City, which was only about 10 miles from our house. I bought 10 lbs. of strawberries for $20.00! The berries were divine and the farmer was great. I didn't even have to pick the berries! Picking strawberries is back breaking labor and I do not enjoy it. I'm just saying. I was able to make two batches of jam (17 jars) and freeze a sheet pan of berries. Yummy.

I love, love, love strawberries!

Darrel's brother, Doug, and his wife, Cathy, arrived late Wednesday night. It was a crazy day at our house on Wednesday. Leah was not feeling well and got progressively worse. She had a terrible pain in her right side and we thought maybe she had appendicitis. A friend, Cheryl, who is a nurse came over and poked Leah a bit and we let her rest to see how the pain went. In the afternoon Cheryl called to ask about Leah and told me I should probably take her to the doctor to make sure she didn't have appendicitis. We went right in and they sent us to the emergency room to have tests done. We spent many hours there waiting for tests and results.

 It turned out that Leah had a cyst on an ovary that burst and that was the source of pain, etc. It was a long night. Our home teacher came over to help Darrel give her a blessing before all the tests. That was so kind and helpful. The hospital is a 30 minute drive from where we live, and a little longer for him, so it was very nice that Bro. Fuller came.

Thankfully, Leah is much better today and feeling pretty darn good. We are very blessed!

So, we came home from the hospital and took showers, (I ate dinner, sort of, at about 10:30) and went to bed after 11. Darrel got up at 2:20 am when Doug and Cathy arrived. Short night.

We have had a really great visit with them! We went to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis yesterday afternoon and found a terrific BBQ place. Sooooo good! Doug loves watching the birds as much as I do and took a ton of pictures! I took a few as well. Here are some from yesterday:

A nuthatch

Young Cardinal

Rose Breasted Grosbeak

Red Headed Woodpecker

The Pileated Woodpecker was back - on the suet feeder. So awesome! He is so big!

Charlie, our white hen, has started crowing everyday in the morning and randomly during the day. She IS a hen, not a rooster. And she has gotten to be very large. I did a little research and I think that she is NOT a White Plymouth Rock, but a Cornish Cross, which is a meat bird. Charlie looks like a Cornish Cross, gained weight very quickly, moves slower than the others, sits a lot, and just acts differently, and she also cost less than the others.

Charlie is much bigger than the other hens. Cornish Cross are raised for meat and don't really lay eggs. They are usually fed a meat bird feed and then harvested at 8-12 weeks. She is almost 12 weeks old now. Darrel is ready for a chicken dinner and the girls refuse to eat Charlie. I told Darrel he would have to do the dirty work and then I would cook the chicken. I am not sure how this is going to end. I wish those dweebs who worked at Tractor Supply the day we bought our chicks had been a bit more knowledgeable about what kind of chicks they were selling. It's hard to tell yellow chicks apart when they are in the same bin! Oh well. The saga of Charlie will continue.

In the meantime, the garden is liking the weather this week. I need to hill up the potatoes. Again.

The green bean seeds I planted are sprouting, as well as the summer squash seeds. The boxes have lots of beautiful lettuce that is ready to eat now and it looks like we will have turnips big enough to eat soon also. Well, this post is getting long and I should eat lunch, so I will let the pictures do the rest of the talking for me. Enjoy!

Have a great weekend!

More really cool birds - and garden progress

Our kids think that I am obsessed with bird watching. Really I don't think that is the right word to describe it. I just really love watching all the beautiful birds that come to our yard and feeders. I am amazed each day at the variety and beauty of all that God has created. I feel so blessed to be able to enjoy nature here.

Today we had a "new" bird come to our feeders. It was a Red Headed Woodpecker. It is gorgeous! The colors are so vivid and striking. Leah wanted to take the pictures and she tried so hard to get a good one of it when it landed on our deck. The pictures we have are good, but we hope to see this bird again soon and get more pictures. Today has been warm, cloudy and rainy so you can't really see how gorgeous this bird's colors are.

When this woodpecker flies you can really see the color blocking pattern on it's wings. It is so cool! This is the first one of these woodpeckers that we have seen in our yard. Autumn and I saw quite a few at the park a couple of weeks ago - there are many deciduous trees at Binkley Park. We have lots of cedar here but also lots of oak, maple, poplar and dogwood trees (probably other kinds as well) on our property.

Darrel and I worked in the 90 degree heat plus humidity on Saturday, trying to get things done. We had to take breaks every couple of hours, it was just too hot! Darrel worked really hard on our "run off rock bed". The fenced in yard gets so muddy when it rains and the water pools (in a big circle) so that grass isn't growing and Milly is always dirty. We decided we should make a trough or stream bed and filled it with rocks. It works pretty good, but we need to do some tinkering to get it to drain even better.

We started on the fence around the garden boxes and blueberry bushes. We got one side done. Like I said, it was VERY hot and humid. I got my sweet potato slips in the mail and had to plant those, so I also planted one row of green beans. I will plant another in about two weeks. There is always something to do here. I am not complaining. I love being busy and growing things.

We also made some adjustments to the coop enclosure. Darrel hung the big feeder outside and put another roosting bar in the coop. He also levelled some of the cedar stumps so we could put the waterer or a feeder on them. They are now the perfect height for the chickens.

Well, I am off to Home Depot to meet Darrel. Yeah. I am hoping to convince him we need a BBQ grill - before Mother's Day. (Then I won't have to cook that day.) Plus I need stuff - we always need stuff at Home Depot and Rural King. The country life - I love it.



Gardening and Turtles and Visits

May is going to be a very busy month - not only in the garden, but life in general. I am so excited to see family and friends this month. Darrel's brother Doug and his wife are coming to visit next week, and then my dear friend/sister from Australia, Lorelle, is coming! Lorelle is actually in the U.S. now. She arrived last night but will be coming here on May 15. I can't wait to see her! It's been four years since Darrel and I took our fantastic trip down under. Time certainly flies!

I planted all my summer squash yesterday. I planted Zucchini, Yellow Straight Necked Squash, Eight Ball Zucchini, and White Scallop Squash. That ought to be enough squash for us. I also had to hill up the potatoes yesterday. The Yukon Gold and Sangre potatoes were getting tall so I mounded a mixture of compost and peat moss to cover them so they will grow ever taller and hopefully have more potatoes as the shoots grow. The Rio Grande have finally come up and I will soon be mounding them as well.

I had another planting update in my email this morning, and it looks like I need to start planting corn, green beans, melons, cucumbers, peppers, and pumpkins. We need to rototill the rest of the garden!!!! I have such big plans and hopefully enough space for all these veggies!

Yesterday on the way home from seminary we almost ran over a Box Turtle that was in the middle of Hickory Lick Road. I turned the car around and Leah got out and picked up the turtle and we put it in our back yard. It was kind of pretty. And very shy, it hid inside it's shell a while before we saw it's head.

This is a Three Toed Box Turtle, a land turtle that is quite common in Missouri. Apparently they get run over by cars a lot since they like to sunbathe on the road. They actually live in forests and wooded areas.

Today while we were driving home from seminary, we saw two more turtles in the road. We stopped. Twice. Leah got out and took each turtle across the road and out of harms way. Sign us up for Turtle Patrol.

Today is also the last day of Freedom Scholars until we start the new school year. We are going to watch the play the kids did - A Mid Summer's Night Dream. Should be a fun day with our homeschool group.