I was up early and on the porch yesterday morning. I was going to post this yesterday but didn't get the chance.

WOW!

And this too!

Have a great and blessed Sunday!

One of our many friendly neighbors told us awhile ago that she had a friend that harvests her own honey each fall. Since we like to use honey a lot she said she would give us a holler when it was ready.(actually she said call but in the country it sounds better to say give a holler)  It's ready!

Here is an explanation of what honey is:

Honeyis a thick liquid produced by certain types of bees from the nectar of flowers.  While many species of insects consume nectar, honeybees refine and concentrate nectar to make honey.  Indeed, they make lots of honey so they will have plenty of food for times when flower nectar is unavailable, such as winter.  Unlike most insects, honeybees remain active through the winter, consuming and metabolizing honey in order to keep from freezing to death.  Early humans probably watched bears and other mammals raid bee hives for honey and then tried it themselves.  Once people found out what honey was, next they had to learn how to get it from the bees safely!

Well, we are getting it safely and not going straight to the hive like Winnie-the-Pooh. Will we look like this after eating all that honey?

We found this on our front door the other day. My d said it was a leaf bug and it is also called by that name. It actually does look like a leaf even with the veins.

I found a cute blog article about them HERE. 

I cannot vouch for them singing as we have so many crickets, cicadas, flies, and other insect  sounds that I wouldn't know what it sounds like.

Blessings.

To see my other homestead blog articles go HERE.

Hurrah! I now have a library card from the local town. It turned out it is one dollar cheaper than the other local town where I did not get one last week. I figure it is worth it since I read a lot evenn in one year. The librarian also mentioned that Indiana libaries are great. We live in Illinois. She said that all of them are free in the state of Indiana. You do not have to have local taxes and township taxes etc but the state funds them somehow.

Hmmm... that is something to think about here in Illinois for the next governmental elections. Our governor is closing state parks because of money issues here. That hurts the economy since so many jobs are tied to the state parks whether working at the park or at local stores that supply the needs for patrons of the parks. At least the county parks are still going to be open.

 I don't know what is going on her but this is cute anyway. Big sissy with little sissy.

Porch is decorated for the fall.

After living here in the country for almost 3 months I finally decided to get a library card. I just kept putting it off since I had some books here to read and of course have plenty to do otherwise. So I finally ventured out yesterday to a local town that is listed in our address. I had called them before and they had told me just bring in an address ID. But when i got there it got complicated.

First I forgot the street it was one but hey, this is a town you can drive through in ten seconds so how hard could it be to find a library. But I couldn't even find it after driving up and down the streets of town. So I saw an elderly lady walking and pulled over to her hoping she wouldn't panic and start hitting me with an umbrella or something. Actually she didn't have anything to hit me with but I was sure she would worry about a car following her. It turned out she wasn't worried a bit. I guess all the dust and dead bugs on my car assured her I was a local. And the library was one block down only. How did I miss it! It was in a beautiful old building and smelled like my grandmother Gussie's basement which now smells like our farmhouse basement. Too bad I did not bring my camera. The proprietor was very nice and in fact she is the only library worker there it is so small. But I saw a computer so they are up to snuff on the latest stuff.

But then the bad news came out. After a call to my daughter to find out what township we lived in (which how in the world would I know this) I was told our township does not pay library taxes so we cannot get a free card anywhere. May I repeat that? NOT ANYWHERE!! Plus since this library is not the closest to us she said I might as well try the other town if we were going to go to that one all the time.(The other one is closer and much larger too.)  She also told me how much a card would cost  since we don't belong to her township and that gave me a heart attack right there on the spot. After she revived me I repeated the amount - $56  for a family which is just me, yes that's right. I have to pay to check out books in the United States of America because our farm is not in the right township.  And I did not even think about the fact that I probably have to pay every year then. Don't know yet cuz when I went to the other library I found they are closed for remodeling this week. So that means I cannot talk to them till next week.

And the other question is whether we can all join as a family or do I have to pay separately from my daughter and family. She also told me they might just not know the rules depending on who I talk to  so I would have to tell them the rules. My daughter is not too happy to pay anyway since there is so much needed at the farm now. But I have to have a library card. I cannot live without one. I cannot afford to buy all the books I want to read.

The lady was very nice about it all. She was so sorry too. She did say that if we can't join the other one she would let us join hers even if it is a little farther from us. And unless she changes her mind we could all be considered one family. (She may get the rule book out.)

So no library card yet. No free card anymore, boo hoo.

All was not lost on my adventure yesterday. I had a free coupon for a local place called Kathy's to cut my hair. It was empty the whole time I was there. I made an appt. but no one else ever came in. I picked the right day.  And I got Kathy to do my hair too, wow, the owner of the salon. Usually in the city you don't even know who owns the place. I must say she did a great job, let me tell her what I wanted, made suggestions and waited for me to tell her yes or no. So I am quite happy with it.

Right next to Kathy's is the Best Burger place. I don't know if that means in town, in the state or in the country.  But since people were flocking in, people of all ages, young, old, in trucks, in cars, were pulling up at 11:15 for burgers, I knew I should try it. When you go in you place your order, get a number and then go to the other line to pick up your food. This went very quickly I might add.  The food was cheap and did taste good and fresh. Burgers were small and lettuce and tomato were extra. They only serve burgers and sandwiches, not sure whether there were fries on the board, don't think so. The sandwiches were all listed on the wall board and you could purchase soda with it.

P.S. Just went back there the other day for burgers for all of us and they do have fries.

Blessings.

Legos are popular here even with the littlest ones. They are so excited when they are old enough to be trusted not to put them in there mouth.

B thinks we can't see him sneaking back down the stairs and into the living room after he was put to bed.

Blessings.

Baby L of the family likes to sit up now so she does not like it for too long in the infant seat on the floor leaning back. The high chair has been sitting dormant for awhile now while B sat on a stool and Princess C moved to a regular chair.

She seems surprised.

My daughter also attempted taking a picture of her sitting alone on the couch till she would fall over.

You can see the little fingers of brother D ready to grab her. I didn't post the pics of the brothers trying to hold her and protect her before mom got this picture.

Blessings.

I am looking forward to making our own healthy kefir. My oldest son who is 37 years old this year used to love it when I stopped by our local drive-in dairy for a little bottle of kefir. He would sit in the middle of the back seat looking drunk and euphoric with that tell tale kefir moustache.

And yes, in California about 33 years ago Altadena Dairy had a local drive thru dairy where we could pick up their raw milk, kefir and maybe the newspaper. It was so great to be able to do that. 

Kefir is a cultured milk drink that can be plain or flavored.  Lifeway makes many brands of kefir today. If you buy the kefir grains you can make your own using milk or even coconut milk. I only hesitate to make it until I have a reliable source of non-homogenized/pasturized/full of hormones and antibiotics milk.

Now the grandchildren enjoy it when I buy it.

 Kefir does a body good, right.

Blessings.

Another book I have read is the Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. I read other novels by Barbara but it was quite a few years ago. I enjoyed the beginning of the book but less so the end. I really got tired of reading it and wished it would end. I did continue reading only to see what happened to each one hoping for resolution to their emotional dilemnas. The book followed one family as they started out as missionaries in Africa and then followed them in the future. It gave a little insight into African politics and history. It is definately not a happy book as life was difficult and survival was the name of the game later on.  But it gives you a lot of insight into the inner workings of this particular family and how circumstances affected their behaviors. It also makes one think about how affluent countries can influence poor countries and how we are all tied together somehow in politics and economics.

My current reading list is this:

Goats by Sue Weaver

Sheep by Sue Weaver

Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow

Four season Harvest by Eliot Coleman

and other things around here like Mother Earth News and Grit and websites for info. That is where my mindset is these days..... garden and food to raise.

Blessings.

I finished a few books since July, some on my trip to Cally and some since then. Since I haven't had time to join the library here I have been reading books on my shelves that I just never read only because there were so many available at the library.

I finished  books one and two by Craig Parshall in the Chambers of Justice series called the Resurrection File and the Custody of the State. My daughter had gotten these for a Christmas present several years ago and then gave them to me to read but I just never got around till I had a long plane ride to California. I enjoyed both of them because of the suspense in wondering what would happen next. They are alos Christian novels so I did not have to worry about the content having swearing or s-x in them. There is the main character Will Chambers an attorney takes cases theat are challenging and difficult to win. There are several more in the series which I am going to try to look into getting hopefully through the library system.

I read Never Look Back by Kathy Herman which was given to me by fellow blogger Melissa Markham. Melissa also read this and the first in the Phantom Hollow series called Ever Present Danger. You can check her archives to find her most excellent review also.  I would like to read the next one in the series and possibly the first one. The only thing that bothered me about the one I read was the parallel mysteries that were solved that were way too similar. One would have been enough. These were also Christian novels.

I need to check my notebook list and my bookshelves to see if there are some more I have forgotten to list.

Blessings.

Our main interest on the farm lately is spiders and more spiders. We could barely get out of the house  without running into a web wire attached from the gutter to the lawnchair. Then later in the day I was going to the IGA and was stopped by a web blocking my way from the bush to the side of my car. While bending down to pick up a stick to get rid of that web I almost stuck my head into another web on the bushes. Well I did make it to town for my ice cream, the day before the sale started, of course, but not without taking my life into my hands to get there.

He would not uncurl himself to see what kind he was. We do know orb weaver because of his web.

In the kitchen garden window on the ground.

This one was from bush to bush.  You have to be careful out here.

Can you see it or not? Look closely.

My son-in-law says I am obsesses with spiders. It's hard not to be when they are all over the walls, floors, bushes, EVERYTHINGGGGGGGGGG...... And he just told me there was nother web on my car froom the car to the antenna. The spider was on the antenna so he pulled it back to send the spidey guy sailing away. Good!

Blessings.

Be sure to check out my other BLOG too.

We had a new sight and sound on the farm. We spotted a woodpecker in one of our walnut trees. Then we saw a second one and then a third one. They are called Northern Flickers. My daughter said she had seen one once in our old houses's yard in the suburbs. We thought they had flown away in the morning but later in the afternoon we heard one still in a tree somewhere. If you follow the link you will find a site about this bird and you also can listen to the sound. Here is our picture. And this was the clearest one we could get. i was afraid that if I went out I would scare them away. You can see one in the crook of the tree and onehigher up on the left. The other one was much higher in the tree.

We also found these on our potted tomato plant. We saw one tomato hornworm then a second one and then a third one. Its a good thing nothing is pregnant around here and due this being a triplet day. It seems kind of late in the year/summer for finding them.  The third one cannot be seen in this pic because we finally spotted it while we were staring at the others. The adult stage is a moth not a butterfly in case you were wondering.

And did you know about this item being a draw for butterflies in your gardens? Do you know what this is that they are alighted on?

This is the newly turned garden area where we just threw some horse manure.

The clouded sulfur butterflies are more numerous on it than the painted ladies. There are more patches of them on it too.

Blessings.

Sunday Photos

Ditch across  the road from the house.

Corn field behind us. There is this little patch of land that the farmer cannot grow corn right behind us. You can see why.

Sedum sitting in water that would not drain since the weed cover is so thick here.

Water on the outside of it too. No butterflies out there today.

In the basement. It poured all morning, heavy rain, nonstop so this is what happened in our leaky basement. This is why everything is stored in the garage or the back shed.

Some things did have to be moved though like the cat food, and few misc. items. For awhile the water just kept coming in. There is a drain hole but we figure it must have has so much water on the outside that it wasn't  or wouldn't drain.

Since we moved to the farm we usually hang up clothes outside on the clotheslline to dry them. It saves on using the propane that we will need for heating and cooking. 

I had complaints that the towels were ripping the skin off of some of the users so now we put them in the dryer on fluff without heat to soften them up. I really didn't notice anything since I grew up with towels dried on the line. When it was winter they were hung in the basement. My mom had a dryer but she rarely used it.

Since the weather has changed from the hot dry days of late summer to rain on and off now the wash day is any day it is not supposed to rain. Or if rain is predicted later in the day we usually try to do some wash before the rain comes.

I have this problem when I hang up anything. I have to organize it. Everyone's clothes must be put together plus shirts go together and pants or shorts within that person's area. When I hang up towels I have to separate them into kinds of towels also even though I have to throw them into the dryer to fluff up. I just think it looks better on the line too. This one had a row of dish towels and then hand towels, then a row of larger towels and finally a row of washcloths. I love hanging it all up.

This is a Black Swallowtail. We only see one at the most at a time and then not everyday. I found it next to the barn in the weeds. It was very difficult to get a picture as it would not sit still long. Everytime I would move closer or balance on a log it would seem to get skittish and flutter around.

Blessings.

Besides having the whole house to myself, computering, blogging, visiting a way to expensive local coop, quilting, and eating I baked a cake from a recipe posted by Suzanne McMinn of Chickens in the Road. Thanks Suzanne!

i do believe that home made barometer is working after all. I think we just need to adjust the card higher. The pencil was previously pointing way up past the card when we were having great sunny clear weather. But now that the weather has turned cloudy and rainy it has gone down some.

Before.....

And now......

 Well, how about that.....

Blessings.

When the adults were working the other day the students/children were doing their own kind of work.

First you try to catch all manner of crawling things.

Once you catch something you put it in whatever container is handy. Find some leaves or grass or plant material that the insect likes.

If your brother's insect gets away while you are replenishing the leaf matter you had better run across the field to retrieve it. The dog might help if she wasn't so intent on finding the ball I am throwing.

Help each other.

Put larger specimens like praying mantis' in a nicer container.

Food for the mantis. If we had a dollar for every cricket alive or dead we would be super rich.

Find some cute fuzzy wuzzies. Hey I will find out what it is but I just don't have all the time in the world you know.

Make sure you keep the dog busy and happy too.

Blessings.

Here on the farm we have been having trouble with our computers, or with our router or just with the internet service. I actually do not know which or if it is all three. So on some days or in some hours or  mornings or evenings we just have such slow service that it makes doing anything on here difficult if not impossible.

So without further ado I will just post what I managed to post one my homestead blog yesterday.  Duh-Dahhhhhhhhh!

We have had some confusion here about what the actual name for this spider is. We thought it was a Golden Orb but since we do not live in a rainforest we have ruled that out.

What we have here is the Black and Yellow Argiope or Argiope Aurantia! It is also called the black and yellow garden spider because you do find it in the garden. We have them in Illinois and they are one of the largest orb weavers we have. The web has a zigzag design right in the middle which may be more attractive to prey. It is beneficial to the garden in that it eats other insects.  They do bite but if you are not allergic to them you don't have to worry. Doesn't that make you feel better!  An orb weaver is different than a cobweb spider. Apparently cobweb spider webs are described as messy and disorganized.  I will have to look more closely now to verify that. Orb weavers have 8 eyes too but I do not think I will check this out anytime soon. Females are larger than males.

Dinner time!!!

The University of Kentucky Entomology department has a great website for information.

It lives in tall grass and weeds. 

Blessings.

I was nominated by my bloggy friend Melissa at Yesterday’s Hopes. Thank you for this honor.

I tried and tried posting the blog award picture here too but with no success.

Uh, my daughter just got up and I asked her how to do it. But don't ask me to put it in the middle or size it. Forget it. No way. No NO!

I am nominating five blogs that I read regularly.

1. Classic Adventures

2. Homeschooling in Illinois

3. TNfarmgirl

4. KSmilkmaid

5. Off the grid in the Montana Rockies

From Alabama Classic Adventures in her forever home to momanna and her homeschooling adventures in Illinois to Tennessee and then to Kansas(now somewhere else) and ending in Montana all of these ladies have different stories to tell and information to share about their lives in very different locations and climates. I read many blogs, too many but I nominate these today. Try them and you will enjoy what they have to say.

Blessings.

New schoolbooks arrived today. My daughter was using an odd assortment of math materials for N who is in second grade this year. She used Saxon Math previously and really liked it plus she was quite used to its constant review of items previously covered within each lesson. So with her hubby’s approval she ordered it.

We also needed um I mean wanted a Moody Science video that could be used with our weather curriculum. D is interested in Science and has only had bird and insect curriculum so his mom decided to expand with some Chemistry. (Christian Kids Explore Chemistry) She read good reviews about this book.

My daughter is also hoping to finish the first Story of the World book and move on to the second one covering the Middle Ages.  Plus the boys really enjoy the Draw, Write, Now series of books so she got a couple more of those. They spent the entire rainy afternoon drawing endless examples in the books today.

We have had some great examples of clouds lately.

 And these.

And the barometer well, it has not moved down at all in spite of the fact that storms and a cold front are moving through so not much success with the homemade barometer. Maybe it needs to be outside.

Blessings.

Grandbaby Saturday

The littlest L  And I did edit this and remove the red eye but it kept coming back as I inserted it here.

B  who still wants to be a baby but has finally "started" going on the potty. He keeps sneaking this from wherever it is hidden and he never even had one. He uses his two fingers when going to sleep.

Princess C in her new outfit from Aunt Y and Uncle B of Cally.

The barometer went sky high when the rain moved out and clear weather moved in. We think it really works though we may have to adjust where the card should be. The straw came unglued one day too.

When the rains moved in.

After the weather cleared.