July Highlights

Since I've been making my laundry soap for a while, I decided to try making dishwasher detergent.  The first batch was supposed to be powder but it hardened to cement.  I had to chop it out of the jar piece by piece with an ice pick.  Before making the second batch, I did a little more internet research and found a hint to mold it in ice cube trays.  It worked better, but it took 3 days to dry, the cubes were a little too big for my dishwasher dispenser cup, and it seems that the glassware is looking cloudy.  I'm back to commercial dishwasher detergent.

We grew watermelons!  We are usually successful with green beans and such but not watermelons.  This year has been the year of the watermelon.  

Caleb, Jack, Sam, and Jaclyn came to visit.  Of course we made our grandsons pick beans.  What you can't see from this picture is that it was raining.  We earned extra grandparent points for making them pick beans in the rain!  We canned the beans they picked so at least they get to eat the fruit of their labors.

Jack and Michael cooked supper for us.  It was delicious!  Jack also baked his famous, best in the world brownies.  There's no picture of the brownies because when Jack bakes brownies, nobody is thinking about taking a picture of them.  We're only thinking about eating them.

Caleb and I proved to be an unbeatable team at Taboo.  Hannah and Jack never stood a chance against us. There were some accusations of cheating, but Caleb and I didn't need to cheat to beat.

We made ice cream every day they were here.  Sam is watching the ice cream maker at work.  Each of the boys chose a flavor.  On Sam's night I did something wrong and we ended up with more of a Frosty texture instead, so Sam got two ice cream nights.  There were no complaints. 

A Really Big Book

Emily gave her dad an Amazon gift card for his birthday/Father's Day.  He used it to buy a book, a really big book, Encyclopedia of North Carolina. It is 1,314 pages of random facts about North Carolina.  He loves it.  He keeps it on the table beside his chair and regularly shares interesting North Carolina trivia with us.  A lot of his sentences now begin with, "Listen to this ..."

So, listen to this:

Wampus is the name of a semimythical creature believed to inhabit Iredell County and adjacent counties.

North Carolina reportedly has the highest incidence of kidney stones in the nation.

Saluda Grade is the steepest standard-gauge main line railway grade in the United States.  

Scuppernong Grape was named the state fruit of North Carolina in 2001.

Tweetsie Railroad, the central attraction of a "Wild West" theme park in Watauga County, dates back to 1866, when the Tennessee legislature granted the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina Railroad permission to construct a 34-mile line through the rugged Blue Ridge chain from Johnson City, TN to the iron mines in Cranberry, SC.  

Wilmington-born Anna Mathilda McNeill Whistler was the mother of artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler and the subject of his most famous painting.

Windmills were so common along the North Carolina coast at the time of the Civil War that Charles F. Johnson, a Union soldier stationed on Hatteras Island, wrote that there were "a greater number than I supposed were in existence in the whole country."

June Smiles

June was a busy month.  We started the month by attending Pops in the Park, a tradition we've had for a long time.  We took a picnic supper and enjoyed the music.  The cannons firing during the 1812 Overture was Phillip's favorite part.

We had fun getting together to celebrate both Phillip's 64th birthday and Father's Day.

Rachel gave him beef jerky that she made in her dehydrator.  He enjoyed that.

Jason and Jennifer fixed their famous ribs.  He enjoyed that, too.

Laura and Hannah enjoyed some "sister time."  They're both so busy that they don't get to spend much time together anymore.

Jonas tried on a couple of hats.  The boy likes hats.

Lilly lost a tooth.

Lucy and Jimmy got their pictures taken.  

We saw a rainbow.

Phillip and Jonas hoed the corn patch.

 One of my favorite June events:  Sam's Birthday!  This year we got to give him his gifts in person.  I can't believe our Samuel Paul is 6 years old!

We hosted a wedding shower for Michael and Laura.  Emily and Jaclyn were able to come from Virginia, which made it very special, indeed.  They received some nice gifts and one rock.  Of course, there was a nice gift card attached to the rock.  It was from Rachel.  Our family is like that sometimes, giving a rock as a wedding present, but we love one another anyway.

We went to Carolina Beach for a few days.  The ice cream at Squiggley's was really good. 

 The weather was perfect and the beach wasn't crowded at all.

We came home to a bountiful garden.  Hopefully, these are only the first of many more quarts of beans we'll can.  There are more to pick next week, and Phillip planted more yesterday.

And that was June, busy but fun. 

May Flowers and Other Things

 April showers really did bring May flowers to our yard.  I need to move the fire pokers but I don't know where to put them.  Mom's amaryllis  trumpeted bright red this year.  The wildflowers beside the shed are starting to bloom.  They'll bloom through frost and we always enjoy them.

The garden is flourishing.  The sugar snap peas have outgrown their stakes.  We have baby tomatoes and peppers.  We are picking broccoli and kohlrabi.  We've never grown kohlrabi and it's delicious, sort of like a sweet turnip.  We'll be planting it again. We transplanted the strawberries from pots into raised beds and they're doing well.  So far we've picked 16 strawberries.  That was our entire harvest last year so we'll at least be equal.  Something is eating the strawberries, though. Phillip thinks it's slugs. We are battling them by putting eggshells around the plants. 

Phillip took the base of an old treadle sewing machine and a vanity top that he found in the outbuilding and made a garden sink for me.  He did a great job.  The water drains to the bucket underneath and I use it to water the gardens.  It is handy to wash the vegetables before we bring them in to the kitchen. 

The old washing machine stopped working, with a full tub of water and a load of Phillip's work jeans, of course.  We decided not to buy a front loader or an HE, just a regular machine.  So far, I've been pleased with it.  

 I'll close this post with pictures taken at our Memorial Day cookout. The weather was perfect and we had a really good time.  Jason brought his Kubb game and even Jonas got into the spirit of the Vikings.  Jason was our chief cook but everyone contributed to the meal.  It was all delicious and I ate way too much. 

 

In April

We celebrated birthdays.

Rachel's - obviously not a current photo

Jonas

Jason - another photo from a birthday long past

  

                                                                          I bought new cookware.  I love the way it stacks together so neatly.

Phillip worked in the gardens,

and things are growing.

See the baby broccoli!  We've never grown broccoli before.  This may be the entire harvest but we're very pleased with it.

Mama's irises bloomed.  They smell so sweet.

I finished copying the book of Joshua. I started in December.  One of my goals is to copy the whole Bible before I die.  I have a tendency to read things very quickly.  Copying scripture word for word is a way to force myself to slow down and really see what it's saying.  It's one of the best things I've ever done.

I got a new sewing machine, but I really miss my old one.  Jaclyn had given it to me and it was the best machine I've ever used.  I knew it and it knew me and we got along well.  One day it just stopped.  Since I was in the middle of sewing dresses to send to the mission in Haiti, I feel that it gave its life in service to the Lord.  This new one has quite a lot to live up to.