Peaches, peaches, and more peaches! Also yogurt and cheese!

Ben's uncle (or great uncle, somehow related!) has a farm. Well every year we usually get some produce from them. Ben's parents went and brought back some peaches for us. So we decided to try out our new dehydrator.
Let me tell you about the deal we got! When I was in SC they had a dehydrator in the marked-down rack at the grocery store. It was on sale for $30 with 14 $1 off coupons. So I thought why not? Even if it is a cheap one, for $16 we can experiment with it. We had been wanting one for a while. Well when I got to the counter it was actually $20, so with the coupons I got it for $6!!
So our first venture with it was the peaches. They turned out real good! I love them. I have taken them to school and left on my desk for when I get the munchies.
All said and done with all the peaches plus some more we got at market, we dehydrated a couple batches, and put up almost 30 jars of organic sugar freezer jam!! Yum yum!!
Well the little cooker I am, I have also been experimenting with making yogurt. It has turned out pretty good and pretty cheap, which is good since we practically drink it! I am still perfecting it. One night I forgot to turn the heat in the crock pot off and the milk sat in the jar in the heat all night. Well needless to say, I killed any cultures so I did not have yogurt. However I did have some curds and whey separation going on. So I thought, hmmm I will try to make cream cheese. So I hung the curds up in a very thin towel to get all the whey out, and after a while and few squeezes, I had my cream cheese! It tastes delicious on my zucchini bread or toast with the peach jam on top!! Peach cheese cake!!

South Carolina

Tim and Matt have been staying at our house all summer. Well it was about time for Matt to return home to finish his last year of high school. So Tim took him home and I went along for the ride to see my family for the weekend. We had a great time and it was nice to see them again.
Friday we left so early in the morning (to miss Atlanta traffic) that we came home and slept for a bit. We went and did a little shopping, or browsing for me at the mall.
Saturday, Pop, Tim, Matt and I went to Table Rock State Park and went canoeing. I wanted to take pics but didn't bring my waterproof sack for my camera in case of an accident. Well no accident but it sure did rain, so we didn't get to canoe as long as we wanted but that's ok, it was still fun. It continued to drizzle so we just took a little walk in the rain and waded in the stream.
That evening we all went mini-golfing in down town Greenville. That was a blast! We took a walk through the park on the way back! A beautiful evening!
Well we were going to leave and come back to AL after church Sunday afternoon. Well Saturday evening as Tim and Matt took their 'last' joy ride in Tim's car, it died on him, in the middle of downtown! Well I think Tim's pride might have been taken down a notch. Here is Tim and Matt pushing the car into a parking spot, that happened to be open, in the middle of busy downtown, where all kinds of people are watching and talking and trying to help, some drunk! He can't start it. So he calls Pop. Oh did I tell you that it was almost midnight and he was only supposed to be getting gas down the street, not joy driving downtown! LOL Well anyways we stayed an extra day till Tim could get the belt replaced! LOL

We had a great trip, just a day later that I planned on finishing up my classroom! Oh well, it got done. Part of the golf course was in a black light room! It was pretty cool!

Umm Tim and Matt.....need I say more!

Hit it Pop!!!

The beautiful bridge at the park

Home Again Home Again, Jiggity Jig

Well I keep saying I am going to update the blog with good intentions and never get to it, but here I am, finally! We do not have internet at our house, so I have to beg borrow or steal internet. Since we have arrived home, we hit the ground running it seems.
A couple days after we arrived home, God opened up doors for me to go back to teaching after a two year break. I am teaching at Bible Methodist Christian School, 1st and 2nd grade, the same place, and grade I taught before. Well needless to say I was excited but also a little nervous! I had about 2 weeks till school started, to get my room set up, lessons together etc.
Ben also felt a pull back into education. He received a part-time position teaching a couple classes in High School.
So the next couple weeks were busy but God helped me to relax and not stress and it all came together! Here are a few pics of my classroom. The color scheme was already in place, but seemed to fit with my frog theme.

The rocker I covered to match the curtians

All the staff eating out during in-service at Jim N Nick's
(thanks to our church!)

Hope Grows Farm, Dover GA

Our next venture, I guess you could say Plan C, was Hope Grows Farm in Dover, GA. It is around an hour norwest of Savannah. They are a small farm doing what we want to do so we thought we could learn a lot from them, and we did!! They have a website and blog link from there that you can see more about them. http://www.hopegrowsfarm.com/

They have laying hens, broilers, turkeys and Berkshire pigs, as well as a nice garden. We stayed there for two weeks and were able to see their procedures as well as go to market with them. Thanks for the fun time, even though it was pretty hot. However fans do help a lot in a house with out air conditioning.The garden

The mobile chicken coop. The laying hens are moved to fresh green grass every week

The laying hens

next batch of broiler chicks put out to 'pasture. These guys are moved every day to fresh green grass and sunshine, following the Polyface farm style. Great tasting chicken by the way!!

Oh here is how we know! They took a batch of broilers to process while we were there and one escaped, but not for long. He made a great chicken salad and chicken stock from chicken feet, among other things! Here we are butchering!

At the market in Savannah

Savannah is an awesome city! I want to go back when we have more time to explore it.

River street!

Cobblestone streets laid by slaves

Just romantic!A cool coffee shop/restaurant we ate at while there, note the sign
Another one in there is one that reads, "Food just like your mama should've made! LOL

The farmers, Elliot and Arianne, 'kicking us out"

Ben also got a hair cut while there!

LOL finally got too hot for him!

My First completed quilt

I decided to try to complete a whole quilt on the machine for the first time. What a better reason to begin a quilt then a new niece arriving. And what better size to try it on than a baby quilt size. I found some awesome fabric and found coordinating colors and went to town. I wanted to finish it before the baby was born but finished a few days after. It turned out pretty good, a few bumps but I was pretty pleased and Madelyn Rose Collins sure looked cute and snuggly in it!

Camp meeting, family and new family!

After Michigan we came home for our church camp meeting. It was a great time and was priviledged to have see my family for a lot of the week and the whole family was there on Sunday! It was a great time of spiritual refreshment with some awesome services! We were home for the next week as well and I was able to pick up a few days at Cracker Barrel. We also were able to see our new niece Madelyn Rose Collins. I have a pic but it is not letting me download it from my phone! Anyways I have it on Facebook and she is a cutie pie!

My sister will kill me! LOL after staying up most all night she is sleeping as Mom is trying to leave camp! LOL

Men's quartet singing at camp, Ben on far right singing bass

Everyone came over for Sunday lunch at our house! It was a fun time but to short before afternoon service!

Michigan and Oxen

the young 3-4 month old team they began training for the first time that week!

We went up to Tillers International to take an oxen basics class. (they give a variety of classes all year on all kinds of neat things. For those once again out of the loop, :) read more about them and what they are here http://www.tillersinternational.org) Ben has wanted to take the class for a long time now. So I thought, while we are free this summer, why not broaden our knowledge more! So that is what we did. It was a week long class. The website explains it well,

"This comprehensive class creates skills in driving, training, and yoking in a sequence of hands-on experiences. Enjoy well-trained oxen responding to your voice commands. Learn to select, team, and care for oxen. Use low-stress training to teach calves. Drive teams hitched to various loads, practice field tasks, and try your hand at early shop skills to shape your own small yoke."The class with their yokes

I did not take the class, but was able to tag along, and take lots of pictures. I was able to learn a lot myself. It was all hands-on, and by the end of the week, everyone felt, "You know we can do this, we are doing it already with these calves, it is not too hard."

Ben getting ready to plow

Planning the yokes

drilling the holes in his yoke for the bows

carving out his yoke

The calves, Thomas and Jefferson, so named by the class, had only been taught to walk on a rope and had been with people alot. It was amazing that in one week they could walk through an obsticle course, side by side in their yokes! The first couple times they were taught by themselves then eventually put together

Ben found his twin!!! Jared and Ben were so much alike, in looks and likes and personalities! It was kinda scary!!!

The sheep and donkey, Groovey :) graze the grass. No fences for these guys, except around the gardens

Ben drives Blue and CaesarPlowed this whole field with the oxen the day before and are now disc harrowing it

Saturday they had Moda, Midwest Ox Droves Association festival
Pretty much everyone brought their oxen, showed them off, talked, had competitions etc.
It was pretty neat

Here Paul and Silas give a free ride! It reminded me off Patrick! He would have loved that!

Ben shows off his first pair of oxen. I think we need to make a smaller yoke however.

We also got a one-on-one demonstration of their bees! It was pretty cool