My Gardens

 My daughter came over today to help me with pictures. So here are some of my gardens. These are the tomato plants.

 A pretty squash flower.

 I am doing rows between grass this year. I think I need to make the rows a little tighter because I am having to go down each row twice. Taking too much time with the mower. So to the right are potatoes, then kale, then cabbage and Swiss chard, then more potatoes. I planted red, white, blue, yellow and pink. They are all so good.

 More squask plants. But I do believe these may be last year's.

 Cabbage. Some of the many I have that I planted way back in February and just now am getting a few with cabbage heads. I had a time with cabbage moths and worms. Now come the Japanese beetles.

 These are some Ruby cabbage. So pretty.

 Some of my flowers beds. The day lillies are so beautiful this year.

 And one of 2 volunteer sunflowers. Just gorgeous!

 Again, I think this is last year's garden. Oopps!

 One of my window boxes I am really proud of. I got the geraniums for just a few bucks each and they are amazing.

 My rock garden. When we first moved to this house they had to put in a new septic tank. Well, they put it right in the front yard. And as you can see from the next picture, our house is made of limestone rocks, probably dug right from this property. So they dug up a lot of huge rocks. They asked me where I wanted to put them and I said just put them over in the corner of the yard, I'll do something with them. Well, I have looked at this pile of rocks for 7 years, trying to think what to do with them. Last year I started putting perennials in the little crevices and cracks. This year they all came back. So I started adding other flowers and little bushes. It has turned out beautifully. I love it now. And the bottom picture is of my lettuce bed under a cedar tree in the garden. I am still picking lettuce. It is shaded but doing really good in the heat. Thank you for looking.

Iris and Iris

SO, never name a goat after your mother. Remember this. I have the sweetest most gentle mother ever. And the little devil, I mean goat kid,  she's holding was born the day after her birthday. And she was so cute and sweet. So I decided to name her after my mother, Iris. BIG MISTAKE! If I could have chosen 2 people and animals totally different, I did a great job. Most of the time, Iris the goat is driving me crazy. I want to kill her. Iris the goat, not my mom. She is the most annoying of goats I have ever had. And I will not be keeping any more of Abby's kids. EVER! Really. I mean it. Because I also have her doe kid from last year. Zarah. Another little devil goat. I should have learned from her. She was just a few months old when she broke her leg. I have never had a goat with a broken leg til her.

So, never name an animal after any family members. Especially a goat after your mother. I am here to tell you it's NOT a good idea at all. I say things to Iris the goat that I would never let my mother hear me say.

And I got Abby because that's my youngest daughter's name. And then I have named my first 3 ewes after my grandkids middle names. But the sheep are really sweet good animals. Really.

Just remember this. Even though they LOOK like they are the sweetest thing you ever did see and want to remember them always and honor your mother, DON'T do it!

Great Day To Make Soap

It is really hot outside.  The dogs are already back inside under the ceiling fan. Smart animals, they are. I did go out this morning after feeding critters and finished up the mowing in the orchard. It kind of looks like it might just rain some. Fine with me.

So I am making soap. And bread. More on that in a minute.

First batch is from the  base I made a few weeks ago. I remelted 3 lbs. with 36oz. of goat milk. Then when it was all melted really good, I added lots of Patchouli EO and Sweet Orange EO. And some grated orange rind. Put some orange rind on top in the mold. It smells SO GOOD! This is my very favorite soap ever.

Next I made a veggie base. Then added at trace about 2 1/2 T of finely ground coconut and about 2 1/2 oz. of rosewood EO. I put coconut on top in the mold.

I am now waiting on the lye to get near 100 degrees to melt the oil for some peppermint soap. I'll add about 2 oz. of peppermint EO and some crushed dried peppermint leaves from my herb garden. Then put some on top as well. So 3 batches of soap today. Not bad.

I was just thinking how comfortable I am now making soap. Maybe a little too comfortable. I usually wear gloves and do the lye on the back porch. Today I did it in the kitchen. With no gloves. I know I should be way more careful with the lye solution. But it's just way too hot outside for it to cool. So I am doing it the slow way and just letting it cool on it's own in the kitchen.  I have plenty of time. While it's cooling I get the oils in the pot and set on the stove and get my molds ready and all the oils lined up. And the blankets on the dining room table.

So now the bread. I have been making the best bread ever. I just love crunchy chewy sour dough type breads. And they are about $4-$6 at Wholefoods. So I found a recipe in a Mother Earth News magazine. I make it at least once a week now. But yesterday I added chopped crushed fresh rosemary leaves and crushed garlic cloves chopped up. It just came out of the oven and smells so good. The only bad part about this bread is I have to wait an hour to eat it after it comes out of the oven.

I have made the cranberry walnut bread too. So yummy! If anyone wants the recipe, I can post it. I am taking pictures of all this so when I learn how to get them in here again, I'll show all this good stuff.

I am waiting on my order from Brambleberry to come hopefully tomorrow. Then I will make some more soaps. This is fun! And makes my house smell really good and clean.