Pride of Barbados

    It is over 100 degrees outside and our vibrant orange Pride of Barbados is on the west side of the house getting the brunt of the heat.  But, it is still blooming and doing great!  I love plants like this that can take the heat without extra care and still look beautiful.  I'm thankful my son talked me into to buying it.

Salsa From the Garden

 We had a bumper crop of tomatoes, tomatillos, onions and poblano peppers.  Perfect ingredients to make a salsa.  We just had to buy some jalepenos and bell peppers to make these recipes.  Canning is work but not too hard and very satisfying when you look in the pantry and see the jars lined up in a row.

Ginger

This is Ginger our Longhorn cow.  Isn't she beautiful?  She's the queen of our little farm and very gentle.  Just watch out for the horns when she is swatting flies.  She loves it when we pet her.

 

Pictures by my daughter, Hannah.

Pets always make life more interesting!

     We have two dogs and two cats.  With 4 animals and 3 kids, life is always interesting at our house.  Let's meet the pets!

Meet Bella!

Our border collie who came to us when she was 6 months old and not socialized.  She now loves playing fetch all day long and loves to give lots of kisses.

Meet Jasmine!

Our calico cat with an attitude!  Her ego is bigger than she is.  That's all the explanation she needs.

             Meet Sterling!                                                                                                                                            

Our tom cat that we adopted from PetsMart.  He is our hunter and has us trained to walk him to his food dish.  The kids call him "General Sterling".

Meet Molly!                                                                                                                                                          

Our loveable chocolate lab who is afraid of cameras!  She is 11 years old but still acts like a puppy.

Pictures by my daughter, Hannah.

Butterflies in the Garden

I have a new flower bed in the front of my house which the butterflies love.  I was careful to plant native and adapted plants that attract wildlife. 

Here is a monarch enjoying the Blue-Mist flower (or Greg's Mistflower).  When I walk out the front door, it is usually covered with butterflies. 

Such beauty in God's creation!

Michele





















  Pictures by my daughter, Hannah.

Our bees were generous this year!

  

      A close up of the honeycomb.  This is the first year we have had plenty of honey from our hives.  With the drought so bad last year, the bees barely had enough for themselves.  This year rain came at just the right time for the wildflowers and our bees had plenty of honey to spare. 

 

Here we are un-capping the honey before we extract it.  It's a fascinating process!

 

 

 

Our honey! It tastes wonderful and I love the light color of it!

Sunflower love!

   

 

     I have always loved the color yellow and I love flowers.  So, it is probably not a surprise that one of my favorite flowers is the sunflower.  It's such a happy flower.  We have enjoyed these beautiful sunflowers in our garden this year.  We have a row of these and they are at least 6 ft tall.  We have just harvested the seeds and I will roast them for a yummy snack.

 

Here is a painting of sunflowers in my kitchen.  That is a wasp nest the artist decided to include on the corner of the frame.  I smile everytime is see this picture - one of my favorites.