Long time, no blog

It's been a few weeks (or more) since I've posted anything. Life has been busy...but life is good, so I won't complain! :O) What have we been up to lately? Well, for starters, we've been doing the typical summertime things like:
boating, fishing, swimming...

then some not-so-typical things like making homemade cinnamon rolls...

We've also been making alot of homemade ice cream (made with fresh milk). Sorry I didn't take any pictures, but trust me, it was GOOD. :O)
Our garden is doing quite well (even though it's getting really dry). Pretty soon, canning season will be in full swing! We're eating fresh squash, a few beans, red taters, onions, cabbage, jalapeno and cayenne peppers....

I got my hands on a bushel of cucumbers this past week. (What was I thinking...a BUSHEL????? Do you know how many cucumbers are in a bushel?? A million...and they multiply as you work them! :O) Ah, but I had good helpers. My girls are professional cucumbers slicers now. After two days of hard work, we had 34 containers of freezer pickles and a run of bread & butter pickles. I'm set for the winter!

Jacob just got back from an exciting trip. He made the 8 hour trip to visit my Mommy and Daddy (well, it's supposed to be 8 hours...he made it in just over 7 hours...hmmmm). Anyway, he had such a good time. They went trolling in the ocean one day while he was there! He and Cousin Zach caught two nice sized King mackerel. And among all of them, they caught the limit in Spanish mackerel. We'll be frying those babies real soon!!

So, things are good here. Enjoying summer and each other...thankful to the Lord for His blessings of home and family. (We miss you Amy!!) Wishing you all a fun, wonderful summer too!! And don't worry...I'll be posting again soon...just think, it's almost time for those wonderful pictures of all my canning endeavors. Remember those from last year? I know you enjoyed them. :O)

Bye for now!

Since Matt has Mondays off, we always get to enjoy a long weekend. This weekend was no exception. Saturdays are normally spent doing farm and garden stuff. Let's see, we got gardens tilled, tomato plants staked (at least some of them...there are about 70 tomato plants out there!), grass mowed, and lots of other hard work stuff. :O) The Lord's Day was spent in church and visiting. (I missed my Sunday nap!) Then Monday was fun day! Matt and I got up early and headed off to Greenville. I was finally able to get my hands on some fresh cow's milk! Yippee! It resulted in some yummy homemade butter and some buttermilk...not to mention just fresh milk! (I'll be making cheese, Lord willing, today. Oh, and in the picture of the butter...you'll notice some cabbage...fresh out of the garden.) While we were in Greenville, we got some very-fresh-still-warm-doughnuts at a local bakery...Matt's favorite! Then, after accomplishing a few of those had-to-be-done chores, we set out for the lake. It was a beautiful day. Didn't fish today, just boating and swimming, and Katie did some innertubing. :O) You'll see in the bottom picture that it can make a kid really hungry. :O)