Thursday, July 30, 2009

Juicy July

Time to "ketch-up" hey? Another photo journal since time is of an essense around here these days. Ach no, forgot the com-cam....Quickly run outside....OK, here it is!


Well, what's keeping us busy these days? Gardening yes. Here are a few shots of some of the produce - well, tomatoes, I see...



Buckets full





To preserve those we don't give away and eat immediately, I tried dehydrating this year. We have a very good dehydrator but are discovering the electric bill is quite high....so, we'll have to see whether it'll be worth it in the long run. The good thing is that it can keep for a very long time....
Other produce harvested lately: corn; bell peppers; green beans (also bucketfulls); yellow squash - slowing down now; and spinach. We also have eggplant, ochra, cantaloupe and cabbages showing promise. The cucumbers have been slow for me this year but we've had a few.


And now for some VBS photos:
Crocodile Dock (and Rock, I might add!!)


And having a supper at the other VBS with our kids.  I have more pics of them but they don't seem to be downloaded onto the desktop right now....(My camera is "over re-cording" photos lately so I don't want to accidently write over another one.)


We also visited the CDM last week and here are a couple pics from that:
Successful arch builder.


Keeping shop at the farm stall.


And that'll be all for now!
Adios!

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Hey Julle, it's July!!

For those not in the know, "julle", is "you'all, ya'll, you's, all of you" etc, - you get the picture - in Afrikaans. Ja-nee, once in a while, I 'spreek die taal' just so's I won't forget, jy weet? (ya know?)
We had a nice Independence Day last week this time. Our fireworks and ETSO concert was on Thursday evening due to Sabbath falling on the 4th this year. The 'kids' all went to Beech Bottoms again - 4th time in a row for some!
This is what they call the "hot-tub".


Both photos are taken of some of the shallower sections of the river. Upstream we were swimming in a pool at least 8-10 ft deep.

Too bad we live so far from natural waterholes and swimming opportunities. Guess I was spoiled having lived so long in the Cape only minutes from the beach! (Mom, did you hear that?)

Here's a lovely family picture of M and D.
D has been swotting like crazy for boards on Aug 4 and M has been taking master's classes at the university. Can't believe their time is almost up and they'll be going back to AZ in 2 weeks! Time passes waaaay too quickly.

And now for the crowning piece of my engineering and woodworking creations from the last 2 weeks. A little (here, unfinished) greenhouse for early starts and maybe even a few over-wintering plants....we'll see! The empty pots are merely for encouragement!


And the funny looking boards in the front are to try and keep the cats out while still building.



Since this I've added wood bracing across the top, a fold-down door and more plastic in various places. These photos are more of the proto-type so.....keep posted for more exciting photos of the final solution creation!

Next week will be the "2 VBS" week of hecticity. Will keep you posted if we survive!