Finishing Up

The final tomato cage has been stored for winter, the okra has been allowed to go to seed, the garden is now empty. We won't be enjoying a fall garden this year but definitely will next go around. Fall is here and it is kind of sad to make those final preperations for winter. The hummingbird feeders are coming down until next spring as the wee ones make their trek to warmer winds. As we say goodbye to our little friends, they will be quickly replaced by all the beautiful birds we feed through the winter.

The house plants have come inside from the porches and the enclosed back porch is being re-vamped into a temporary green house. This is where we will winter some flowers and plants, as well as start new seeds later on for the garden. Soon we will be building a cold frame just off the patio to see if we can successfully make use of it. Most of the black walnuts have been gathered and hulled, hanging to cure. Those will be tasty when they are ready to be shelled and stored.

We have changed over to the "green" light bulbs in the coop and barn. These are supposed to have a longer life and use less energy. While our family is not big believers in the whole "Global warming" issue, we do believe that we have a responsibility to be as good to the Earth as we can. A quote that really hit home with us was this, "The Earth is not a gift from our parents, it is a loan to us from our children." We believe that we should treat it as such.

The days are getting shorter, with dark coming on earlier and a chill in the air. This is the time we turn our attention to more indoor work. We have lots of projects lined up, some carpentry, some organization and some for fun and function. Here are a few more of the crochet projects that I have just finished up....

A baby Koala for Sarah.

A "Dammit Doll" for Paul.

A Ninja doll for Daniel.

And a Gir for Taylor.

Introductions, Goodnights and Projects

Now that we are expanding this blog to include more, I am not sure where to start. I think we will just start and add in some backstory as we move forward.


This is Sunshine, or Sunny. She is technically Sarah's dog but she loves us all. We adopted her and Dixie from the animal shelter shortly after moving here to Redbud. They have been total blessings to our family. Sunny is a Border Collie/Terrier mix and she loves to herd things, anything and everything. We keep her chained up because she likes to herd cars. This actually works out well though because she can stay cool in the barn or lay out in the grass, she has plenty of leash to roam and romp and she loves jumping through the window in the barn. The best thing is that since she is a herder and NEEDS to have something to herd and guard, she is next to the chicken run. She protects the girls and even though they are inside wire and can't get away, she thinks she is keeping them together. At any given time you will see her sitting or laying at the corner of the run, like in the picture, watching them and feeling like she is doing her job.

This is Dixie. We are not sure exactly what she is and I don't think she does either. Sometimes she thinks she is a cat, sometimes a goat, you just never know with this one. We originally chose her to be Daniel's dog. We thought maybe we could train her to be an alert dog for Daniel's diabetes. She has a good sniffer but she is dumb as a rock. Actually Sunshine has alerted Daniel on several occasions that he was low, but Dixie, not so much. We love her just the same. She is a funny, funny dog. We could let her roam loose but it makes Sunny jealous, so it is just easier to keep her chained up too. If you are having a tough day, Dixie is the one to cheer you up even when she doesn't intend to do so.

Fall is here and the trees are starting to turn. I love this time of year, nature is going to sleep but not without a colorful goodnight message.



The Sunflowers are still trying to hold on, they are not ready to sleep yet, which is fine with me.


Well, the garden is about gone, the canning is done, so I guess other than some fall plantings and transplants it is time to move indoors for some projects. I have a quilt top to get quilted. Daniel is wanting his blanket to be made. I need to finish the hole I cut for Sarah's closet and varnish the wall I uncovered. I have already started some crochet projects in the evenings.

Here is one of my latest crochet projects. I just finished it a few days ago. This thing is loooong, the leg part alone is about 33". I used Black and Cream yarns, it is cute.

The next one I did was this polka-dotted stocking. I thought it would be cool to alternate the color order on each of the circles but now I think it would have been better to do them all the same.

I can't wait to start planning Spring. I want to turn the back porch into a temporary green house so we can get a head start on the garden. The plantings and doo-dads for my family roots project went rather well this year, I can't wait to add to them. I have started my bottle tree but it looks a bit ragged yet so as I get it to where it needs to be I will add pictures of that. I want to research fruit and nut trees that work in this area. We have a black walnut tree out back near the creek that has furnished us with quite a few nuts this year. I know everything will come together in time but I am so anxious to get everything up and running. =)

Poultry Pictures