October/November

AWWW.... Nice Cool Weather . Perfect for Ghosts,Monsters,Turkey and Dressing. This is our favorite tie of the year. This is the time when we enjoy warm bread from the oven. Maybe cuddle by the wood burning stove.
I better stop there! We recently enjoyed a little trip to the pumpkin farm. It was fun!! We stuffed a scarecrow, and picked out several pumpkins for carving. See pictures below. If you want the address sent me an email and I will send you the link. I will post more pictures as I download them.

August 2011

We are having a blast! We started volunteering on the Austin Steam Association every other weekend. It is a fun way to spend a weekend!

Starting in  couple weeks we will also be volunteering at the Baptist Children's home. Sandra will be baking and Steffon will be doing electrical and building maintenance.  We hope to enjoy this as much as we enjoy Austin Steam Train.

Our garden did not survive the heat this year. But at least it lasted till the end of July. Sandra is looking into getting a hoop house kit so that we can start the garden during the winter and have it finished by early summer.

June/July/August 2011

We are all doing good. We recently we out to Sandra's favorite peach farm and got peaches.  Boy they were good!!! So good the bushel lasted a week! She has plans to go back in Aug. to get more peaches. The garden is doing well. We hope it continues even in the Texas heat!
Steffon is enjoying school and learning alot. He survived his first test and if he keeps up the good work will be at the top of his class. We are all excited for him!

Sandra has picked up a teaching job starting in January. She will be teaching self sufficiency starting January 10 2012 at Austin Community College. She is so excited and thrilled to share her knowledge and skills with other people in the community.

We all recently took a field trip to the local Lavender farm. If you have never been invest in the time to go. It is a good experience and the smell of the lavender is awesome!

February,March & April

We have been busy. Hopefully we will get everything done in a few weeks.
The Garden has been dug up and planted for spring. Plans are in the making for the fall Garden. We are hoping that all the plants we planted will produce all summer. We planted 12 tomato's, 6 watermelon, 12 pepper plants, potato's, onion's , garlic, grapes,blackberry, raspberry and blueberry.
  Quilts and other projects have been run through Sandra's sewing machine right and left. She has set a goal of getting her sewing projects done. And getting all 4 sewing storage containers down to 1. I think she is down to 2 1/2 containers now.. Go Sandra! You can do it!
Steffon has been busy with training and learning the electrical trade, and in my free time reorganizing and repacking stuff in storage. I helped Sandra with the garden.

We have also stayed busy with our four legged children. Our Golden Retrievers Bo and Luke. They love to run and chase each other in the yard.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! We are looking forward to the New Year and all the exciting activities that are heading our way.

   Bo and Luke are a year old now. Wow! they are big boys now. There favorite activites are Sleeping, Doggy Treats and being chased in the yard.

  Our garden is in the process of getting ready for spring. We are adding new plants, berries and fruits. We are hoping all our fruits and vegetables will do very well this year. With the time we spent reading books, studying magazines and all the back breaking work. We are keeping our fingers crossed for a successful garden.

   Sandra is getting her canning list together for some canning now and when the garden is ready. She is digging through all her booking and pulling the best recipes from last year and adding new recipes to try.

She is hoping to coordinate the canning with her cooking recipes in hopes to cut the grocery bill even more than what she has. Her goal is to only buy what you cannot make, to keep the grocery bill for 4 adults at 80.00 every two weeks.

 We added two homesteading items to our homestead this year. We added a wood burning stove and a cast iron bath tub with claw feet. Steffon already refinished the stove and we have enjoyed it several times. The Tub will need a professional finish and we hope to get that done soon. Both will be in full use on our future farm.

Our Christmas was wonderful! We spent it with our family's and enjoyed all the good cooking, visiting.

August And September 2010

The Texas Weather is Hot, Hot, Hot this month! But we are surviving!!!
Steffon Started Home Inspection School  August 16th. We never found a contractor for the Electrical School. But it is still on his list. We both are very excited about this. The market looks good for this as a home based business.
I'm  currently reorganizing and relabeling our things. In some cases repacking. After so many moves the boxes give out. Sigh! I will get it done so when we move it will go smooth.  My sewing, lately I have been making  small things,  Table runners, napkin rings, dog bandannas, etc. My goal is to use up all of my supplies, then start fresh with new fabrics and more complicated patterns.
 But ...... On the other hand lately I have enjoyed the cooking/baking scene. Don't get me wrong my first hobby is quilting/sewing. My second hobby is the cooking/baking. With this hobby I have enjoyed the cooking Cd's. These Cd's are wonderful! I can add recipes, organize them, print a grocery list and go! The baking I have enjoyed and will might continue at home. I see bread/cakes everyday . so the Idea of cake decorating/bread making at home. Well.. I will probably not do it as much at home. Maybe just on Holidays! But my plan is to wow my guests in every way with my cooking/baking and Steffon's grilling!
The garden is still producing hot peppers, banana peppers, and tomato's . We now a have our fall garden planted, which consists of carrots, spinach, onions and cantaloupe. We are keeping our fingers crossed, due to the fact the spinach, carrots did not make it in the first garden. We are trying again!he
Bo and Luke are doing great and growing like weeds. They love the water and love playing ball in the yard.
But they really enjoy waking up Steffon in the morning, sometimes even wrestle over who is waking him up first!

June and July 2010

We have been  staying busy. Keeping our garden plants alive with this Texas heat things tend to dry up and die easily! So far our garden has produced onions and tomatoes.The potatoes didn't do too well. We will try growing them again.Possibly using some different gardening tips and tricks we have picked up along the way.

Canning is going well. We just upgraded our canning equipment, so we are still learning the tricks of the trade. I had only one issue during the canning of salsa it didn't seal properly, so I lost a batch. We will be canning more later as our garden becomes ready.