As to other news of late, well, there isn't really much to report from our little mountainside here.  I've been canning some of the harvest from the Amish community south of us as we didn't get a garden in this year.  We finally, after near 2 years of drought, got rained on most of the spring, though we are still a bit below the average for the year-to-date, it made for some muddy clay out here that simply didn't want to dry up.  So far, all I've put up is 2 bushels of potatoes (some 50+ quarts), some green beans (20 or so quarts) and a pathetic little handful of tomatoes into juice.  The main thing we'll be canning is the tomatoes....juice, whole, sauces, etc.  We use a ton of that stuff here.

Everyone is doing well.  Miss Emily goes back for her final visit with her surgeons in a couple of weeks.  Her scar is healing very nicely -- you can see the pencil-thin squiggle on her shoulder, but you can't feel it's there at all.  We can sew normal clothing again -- no more modifying necklines and sleeve insets!  Jacob is healing very well, also.  He still has to keep covered and loaded with sunblock this summer, but so far, it all looks good.  He will always have a rather softly wrinkled look to the backs of his hands, but really, considering what he did look like following the burns, this is wonderful.

That's about all.  We are still looking for some milk goats -- something of an oddity here in north Mississippi I gather as we can't find any of any account at all.  Most tend to go with brush goats (boer crosses) around here.  I want milkers.  And meat rabbits -- I know folks have them, they just don't sell them, I guess.  A friend is checking on some New Zealands for us from a friend of his.  He will bring us some good breeders next month or so.  The chickens, well....they did start laying finally, however we have some roaming hens in the batch who seem to prefer laying in the compost area instead of their nesting boxes at the coop.  Need to break them of that -- I need all the eggs I can get.  We are still buying them by the case at Sam's for around $20....some 60 doz a month!  And thin-shelled ol' white ones, at that.  I want some decent sized rich-yolked brown eggs again...some I know the history of.  Too many chemicals and crud in the food system these days.  Ugh...some of the things we buy to eat at the grocery store....yuk.