I recently went to the farm to check on the garden and the bees. While there, I noticed some dead branches in the Lilac bush. Since I didn’t want to go to the barn to get the clippers, I reached in and broke off the dead branches. A while later my hand began to itch. Then my arm. Then my face. Yep! I hadn’t paid any attention to the other growth in the bush. Poison Ivy. I’ve never had that…
My bees don’t have a lot of flowers to work on, so I decided to make them a wildflower garden. I tried planting some wildflower seeds I bought from the hardware store last spring. Nothing came up but weeds. Then I learned from a car salesman at work that those seeds are not indigenous to this area. He told me to buy Aromatic Aster, Showy Goldenrod, Purple Beardtongue, and Wild Bergamot seeds from www.mowildflowes.net My next project was to buy…
Are you familiar with that saying, some days you’re the dog and some days you’re the fire hydrant? That’s how I felt last Saturday. A friend and I had planned for a long time to extract honey from her hives. I haven’t gotten any from my hives this year, but she had, and I had an extractor. For 40 years I’d stored that thing in my basement in its original box. I belonged to my dad. He’d planned to reestablish…
At the end of each year I choose a different version of the Bible to read through for the coming year. This year I picked a new version called The Readable Bible. Many times when reading a new version, I see with fresh vision. This year, I felt the Lord challenging me to read this version out loud. (Gulp!) Getting through all the begats and genealogies wasn’t easy, but I made a stab at all those names anyway. I’m happy to…
Last Sunday night the ladies of our church met in the heat in our church garden to enjoy fellowship. We had a lady who brought her butterfly presentation and I was invited to share about bees. We enjoyed yummy desserts made from our garden produce also. These are some of the facts I shared with the women and girls: A queen lays up to 1,500 eggs a day for two to three years. She only leaves the hive once on…
God Gave us some commands for us to live by. They are commonly called the Ten Commandments. They are recorded for us in Exodus 20: 2-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21. The very first one is “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” That’s because only He is worthy of our worship. In our society today, it is considered very desirable to have objects in our homes that represent other gods–like Buddhas. When I thought about it, that goes against what…
This year, the grapes that grow on the fence out-did themselves so I decided to make grape jelly. I tried to make them with honey, but had to add sugar and reboil them to get any resemblance to jelly. It’s a lot of work. I think next year I’ll just buy it at the store. Pictured above is what happens after the grapes have been boiled at first. Below is a recipe I used, if you care to try it….
This year I decided to jump in and plant a raised garden at my church surrounded by a twelve-foot fence to keep the varmints out. It’s only four by twelve feet but has produced abundantly. To date, I’ve harvested 38 zucchini off three plants, 11 green peppers, 15 pounds of potatoes, four pounds of green beans, 2 okra, and 81 tomatoes. Currently growing are more green beans, tomatoes, okra, and cantaloupe. I plan to remove the plants that are finished…
Blackberries make wonderful pies. The only drawback, they’re ready to pick in the hottest months of the year! I went to the blackberry patch in Louisburg, KS last week when it was only 80 degrees at 8:00 a.m. As you can see, there will be a lot more soon. I managed to pick enough for nine pies, so I’ll have to ration myself to one every six weeks or so to make them last. Here’s a recipe for a great…
This past week I took a morning to go to a movie, which I rarely do. The movie I chose was The Sound of Freedom. It is described as: “After rescuing a boy from ruthless child traffickers, a federal agent learns the boy’s sister is still captive and decides to embark on a dangerous mission to save her. With time running out, he quits his job and journeys deep into the Colombian jungle, putting his life on the line to…