The start to our bedspread afghan...

Heres what I've been working on in my spare time, lol. The plan is to make us an afghan for our queen size bed... I've got a long ways to go....

Male Bonding Moment...

I am man here me roar..........
I love when I see my guys hanging out, having a Dad/Uncle bonding moment playing a game of basket ball and now they are getting into lifting weights, which is great cause it will give them something to do this winter :)
These are some of the memories I will cherish FOREVER...

So we've been alittle busy this summer with canning...

Heres a list of what we've done... minis the stuff we've already opened :)

Canning:
Jam - 4 8oz. jars
Beets - 22 Quarts...
Dill pickles - 46 Quarts & 9 pints
Bread and Butter pickles - 7 quarts
14 day sweet pickles - 12 quarts... turned soft yuck
Banana peppers - 8 12oz. jars
jalapeno - 3 quarts (sweet) 5 pints regular
Green beans - 21 quarts
Hot pepper jelly - 3 pints
Hot chow chow - 36 12 oz. jelly jars
Salsa - 6 quarts, 13 pints and 1 12 oz. jelly jar


Frozen Foods:
Berries - 4 gallon bags
Shredded squash/zucchini - 14 gallon bags
Diced/sliced squash/zucchini - 17 gallon bags
Zucchini/squash breads - 12 mini & 2 regular
Zucchini patties - 2 gallon bags
Green beans - 7 gallon bags and 7 quart bags
Pumpkin - 4 gallon bags (6 cups in each bag, 4c.in one bag)
Corn on cob - 30 ears (5 to a bag)
Spaghetti sauce - 2 gallon bags
whole tomatoes - 4 gallon bags and 3 quart bags

Plus we have giving a TON away to family and friends...
Is so great having a garden!

When you have lots of eggs , make Quiche...

Saved up our fresh eggs to make...

Quiches for dinner... plus homemade hash-browns and carrot bread :)

We got 7 eggs last Friday!
(Saturday we got 5 and Sunday we got 8... I didnt take a pic of them )
WE GOT 11 EGGS TODAY... WOOHOOOO
(so thats 52 eggs since 8-4-09)

My Morning in the Coop Waiting for Eggs...

So I spent my morning in the coop waiting and watching for them to lay... I was in there from 6:30 -10:00ish! Within that whole time they gave us 2 eggs, lol. A RIR laid hers around 8:00, then a BO laid around 8:40 and by 10:00 I was ready to come in...

One of our RIR's... Penny... she was VERY camera shy yesterday. I knew she was needing to lay and she just wouldnt do it with me watching, lol. So I walked out of the coop for about 2 seconds to talk to Brian and thats when she laid her egg!

Penny's egg...

Sally Sue sat on my leg alot yesterday morning and if he wasnt on my leg he was beside me or under my legs... lol. Guess he had to keep an eye on me :)

Now this was so cool... I actually got to watch this BO lay her egg! Its the one on the left, the other one is Penny's egg.

Some of the peanut gallery, lol

Here is another RIR... she would sing the egg song all morning, then go in and out of nestboxes...

Then she flew up top where I have hay stored. (on top of the nestbox area) and made a nice nest...

But she didnt lay an egg... think she was being shy too :)

This BO was thinking about laying an egg too...

Here she is in a nestbox and she was really making a good nest...
later when I went back to the coop to check for more eggs I found a BIG egg in this box, so my guess is she laid it. Turned out to be a double yolker :)

So all together the girls gave us 4 eggs yesterday... check out the BIG one at the end!

Store egg, Our BIG egg

Alright I'm sooooo lovin this egg thing....

The girls laid 2 this morning, then I left and was gone for the day.
I checked the coop when I got home around 3:00 and there was 2 more...
then this evening there was alittle bantam egg!
(we have 4 of those and they are so cute and little)

Well we finally have a dozen eggs, plus 1...

So Purtty...

Eggs of the day...
5 eggs in one day, another record at our house, lol cant wait to see what tomorrow brings...
My plans in the morning are to get the kids off to school, grab my camera go to the coop and watch to see who is laying.

Chipmunk and 1st time getting 4 eggs in one day...

Found 3 eggs yesterday morning... (4 by the end of the day)
see the little egg on the right. I'm positive it came from our little Chipmunk (Silver Duckwing OEG Bantam), she laid it on top of our nest box area where I have the hay stored and when I took it away she kept looking for it, then a few minutes later I found her in one of the nest boxes sitting on a golf ball and when I move it away she would move it right back under her so I thought she might be going broody (but I really dont think so now) cause alittle while later there was alittle bantam egg in the nest... guess she just needed to lay and egg :) Then I got to thinking... I guess she laid 2 eggs for the day,I read some chickens can do that? Cool...

This is after I took her egg... shes going back to look for it.

Now shes in the nest box...

Chipmunks eggs... so little and cute :)

By the end of the day we had 4 eggs, so far thats a record for us :)

Sun-Dried Tomatoes...

Well...

I didnt actually dry them with the sun, lol.

Used a dehydrator. I added sea salt, pepper and basil to them.

I have no idea what to do with them but they sure turn out purtty...

I Froze these tomatoes... going to taste so good this winter :)

Simply Beautiful...

"EGGS"

We got 2 eggs today...
the one in the middle and the one on the right are from today.The one on the left is from Wednesday evening.

Rub A Dub Dub... Where's The Tub?

It was Brian's 38th Birthday today! (Happy B-day Honey)
Heres a pic. of the him and the kids :)
We went and rented movies (Race To Witch Mountain, Fireproof and Gran Torino) then to Sonic for ice creams then to the park for a walk... on the drive back home I told the boys they needed to take a shower and jokingly told Dylan that I could just spray him off with the garden hose....
So the next thing I know he's out scrubbing under the hose. lol
We got some silly boys and they really make me wonder sometimes!

Yep... He's A Redneck!