My Garden

My garden this year has done fabulous!!  It only took three years ;-).  

My beets and cucumbers

(I can't keep up with that nasty Bermuda grass!)

The "chicken garden" in the front - all the veggies the chickens like to eat,

 but I don't -ha! (kale, swiss chard, and green beans)

Onions in the middle (the carrots have been picked already)

and corn in the back

the lime tree in front

tomatoes in back

there are peppers there too 

but hard to distinguish in front of the tomatoes

strawberries

they are my experiment in the desert

the leaves are a bit yellow - iron deficiency

but they should look better in a couple weeks

if they survive the heat!

my citrus trees

grapefruit (2), orange, and clementine

peach (the "half" tree), apple, plum and apricot

the yellow one way in the back is a pomegranate

(it has iron deficiency too - but should look better soon)

the apple tree before I picked it this week

my grapes 

sweet potatoes and garlic

(all the "green" you see in between is dill!

I let the last batch go to seed to collect the seeds

for herbal remedies and boy did it go to seed!)

my pumpkins, butternut squash and broccoli

(also going to seed - I use non-hybrid seeds and 

then collect them for next year)

There is a watermelon too, but forgot to get a picture of  that - oops!

So far my garden has produced:

5 qts apple sauce

(+1 apple pie ;-)

15 qts tomatoes

4 qts grape juice

7 qts pickles

4 qts tomato salsa

6 batches green salsa (I freeze that)

10 pints carrots

10 pints beets

5 pumpkins

2 butternut squash

YUM!!!

Let us labor to enter into His rest

I believe that God created the world on which we live and it is a BEAUTIFUL place.  But I've never really pondered much about HOW he did it.  Maybe I've been influenced too much by the stories of the Greek and Roman Gods, but I've always kind of pictured God resting on a lounge chair and just casually waving his hands and commanding the elements and "voila" the earth was created.  (I told you I've never really thought about it!)  

But this morning as I was reading Hebrews 4 it suddenly dawned on me that creating the world must have been A LOT of work.  After all, when God was finished He needed to "rest".  That doesn't sound like He was just casually waving a hand or two.  It sounds like he worked  for 6 LONG days and didn't stop until everything was finished and pronounced "good".  

I believe that He wants me to do the same.  My time here on earth is in reality VERY short (only 2 1/2 hours in God's time!).  I need to work diligently and tirelessly until my mission is finished and "pronounced good".  And to remind me of His infinite mercy He allows me to follow his pattern:  I work six LONG days and then rest - not "lounging" on the couch" but spending the seventh day totally focused on Him; renewing my spirit and strengthening my soul.

As Paul reminds us..."Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest..." Heb 4:11. 

It's Finished! (well almost)

The chickens (and rabbits) have a home!  My wonderful hubby has finished  the chicken coop (well except for the nesting boxes - but we don't need those yet anyway).

Here's the second batch of chickens (after the cat ate 2 of the first batch)

 - they are a few days old here

The fluffy yellow one (Angel) didn't survive my active children or the dog

 - who decided to "unbury" it and use it as a toy for a few hours before eating it

- can you say GROSS! 

Framing the coop

the (almost) finished coop

I had more pics of the stages in between,

but my kids deleted them off the camera (grrr!)

Here are the "ladies" now.  The speckled and light brown are the

survivors from first batch, the dark ones are from the second batch

(there's another hiding behind Georgina on the block)

And here's our latest addition to the "farm" - two rabbits George and Lily

 (I can't tell them apart!)

I wasn't sure about puting them with the chickens,

but they seem to get along great

(well at least I think so, but since the rabbits are trying to

dig their way out, maybe they would say otherwise :-)

The inside of the coop

 A picture from a distance - and to show off my corn

(and tomatoes on the left)

 (ignore the weeds in the onion patch - I'm still trying to catch up

from 2 weeks of no weeding - and its HOT!!)

And here's Chester (acting all innocent and cute!)

AHHHHH - I need another day!

Well...things have NOT gone as planned this week.  I leave for Girl's camp on Saturday, t-minus 1 day!!!  And I have nothing ready -do you hear me nothing!!  Why you ask?  Because someone (and boy are you lucky I don't know who you are!) shared a NASTY virus with me.  I have been in bed for 2 days - count them - 2 WHOLE days!  I didn't have time to be in bed for 2 days.  Now how am I going to get 3 days worth of - shopping, packing, shopping, finding the gazillion items stored SOMEWHERE in the garage that we just HAVE to have (you know hammer, nails, tape, string), more shopping, and then preparing food for my wonderful hubby who went to college but can't read a recipe - all so that my other beautiful children don't starve while I'm gone - done in ONE day???  (deep breath)
But on the plus side, I have lost 8 pounds!!  Who knew - just stop eating, spend every other hour in the bathroom and voila - easy (not painless) weight loss!  (NOT highly recommended!)
So now that I can actually lift my head off the pillow, I better figure out what I need to pack...