What's New On The Farm?

Six healthy puppies!

As many of you know, I took in a stray dog that I named LizzieBelle.  If you're new or visiting you can read the story HERE.  She had been running around our church for almost a week.  I knew she had some health issues but little did I know that she was pregnant!

Here's LizzieBelle last Friday morning.  She's sleeping in and enjoying the Sleep Number bed!

Ah, the life of a pregnant, spoiled puppy!

She weighed in at 15 lbs that day.

She went SUV shopping all day the following Monday with Country Boy and I.  We even stopped at Lowes where she got LOTS of attention from customers and staff.  She was a little nervous with all the attention but she was so good.  (And no, we did not get an SUV.  Still looking.)

Monday evening she did not eat any supper and she was antsy all night and couldn't get comfortable.  (I guess car shopping wore her slap out!)

When she did not eat breakfast Tuesday morning I told Country Boy that it won't be long till she has her puppies.

We took our coffee out on the front porch.  After the first cup I decided to check on her and lo and behold she'd already had one puppy!  I was so thankful that she didn't have any problems with the delivery since I wasn't there to help her if necessary.  We were nervous about the size of the pups since we didn't know the size of the dog that she bred with.

Of course I had my second cup of coffee sitting on the floor in our bathroom!

Next up was a huge black & white puppy.

LizzieBelle quietly went to work on cleaning the next puppy.

Shortly after she'd finished eating the afterbirth out popped another one.

All three were so very different in color.

She continued this routine four more times.

Yes, I said four.  Unfortunately, one puppy had not completely developed and it did not make it.

LizzieBelle is a great Mama.  I still find it hard to believe that she was able to carry and deliver seven puppies with ease.  Only twice did I have to help her break the sac; on the undeveloped puppy (which was puppy #5) and on the last puppy.  I think she was pooped by then.  I know I would be!

I have no idea what she bred with so it will be interesting to see how they develop over the next couple of months.

Aren't they adorable?

I'm praying we'll find good homes for all of them where they'll be loved on and spoiled rotten! 

Till next time,

One Week Ago...

... today my family and I said our I Love You's and Goodbyes to our Mom, Sister and Wife.

Mom on Mother's Day 2012

It was an exhausting two weeks after Mom's surgery.  She came through the surgery fine and was slowly recovering. We will never understand the serious and unfortunate events that took place after the surgery but we do know that God was in control and that He was fulfilling His plan. 

And although last Tuesday was a difficult and emotional day for those of us left behind we all know that Mom is happy, healthy, whole and walking the streets of gold right now while singing praises at the top of her lungs.

Mom was a devout, Christian lady who loved and served her Heavenly Father.

Mom loved her family dearly and always wanted the best for us.

Mom always let you know her opinion on a matter whether you wanted to hear it or not!

Mom had a few health concerns later on in life but none that slowed her down and none that kept her on a ton of medication.  She volunteered at the local hospital.  She taught a ladies Bible Study.  She loved to read, go shopping and could make a mighty fine chili.

As an old friend put it, Mom was a smiley, upbeat woman.

During this past week, I found myself thinking of things that I needed to remember to tell Mom.  Then, it hits me.  I know this will happen for a while and it will take time for the pain of loss to lessen.

Thankfully, I know that I will see my Mom again one day which helps ease the pain of loss.  I told her to pick out a nice farm up in Heaven for CountryBoy and I!  Even though she won't be on the farm (been there done that in her younger days) she'll be near by!

I want to thank all of you who said they would be sending up prayers and thinking of us over the past several weeks.  My family truly felt the prayers and were at peace during this difficult time.  The power of prayer is amazing and your encouraging comments were uplifting!  Again, a huge, heartfelt thank you!

Till next time,

 

Trust

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Proverbs 3:5-6 KJV 

Photo of frog the size of my index fingernail taken with my new Raynox DCR-250 macro lens

My family and I are having to trust the Lord right now.

Twelve days ago my Mom underwent a complicated surgery.

She came through that.

Her recovery has been up and down; in and out of ICU.

Due to some poor decisions by the hospital

and a negligent nurse, my Mom is now struggling to survive.

It just goes to show you that we can not put our trust in people.

Not even trained professionals.

We know God is in control but we are praying for a miracle.

Please pray for her.

Linking with Weekly Top Shot and Your Sunday Best

Till next time,

 

 

Fun New Stuff

I recently sold some stuff from my Etsy store and on ebay.

I decided to take the money and run.  (Sorry, couldn't resist the phrase!)

No really, I decided to buy a few goodies for my camera.

The fist thing that arrived in yesterday's mail was a 4, 6 and 8 star filter set.

Of course I had to try one of them out during last nights walk with LizzieBelle so I grabbed the 6 star filter and off we went to the slough.

I definitely need to practice with them but I think they'll add some fun touches to some of my photos!

I really enjoy macro photography and after seeing images from two other bloggers, Louisiana Belle and Pieces of Contentment, that have used the Raynox DCR-250 2.5x Super Macro Lens I decided to check it out for myself.  So, I ordered that along with a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens. and they should be arriving today, woot!

I can't wait until they arrive and I can start 'playing' with them!

Happy Friday y'all!  I hope you have a great weekend!

I'm off to do some gardening therapy at a friends.  Flowers not vegetables (in case you read yesterday's post!) and then heading to the hospital for a visit with Mom!

Till next time,

Over It

I try to keep my blog upbeat and happy because so many people need a place to 'escape' to and I've been told that they like to come here for that.

But, my blog is also about life here on the wanna-be farm/homestead so every now and then you'll get a glimpse of reality and the not-so-nice parts of the wanna-be farm/homestead.

And today's post, my friends, is just one of those posts so bare with me...

Every winter Country Boy and I start talking about the vegetables we want to plant in the garden come spring.  We get excited!  We enjoy gardening and we especially enjoy eating the fruits of our labor.

After deciding what we want to grow we purchase the seeds and start cleaning up the garden and amending the sand soil.  I start many of the seeds in the greenhouse during the winter months so that we'll have a jump start before spring actually arrives.

Every year the plants begin to grow and start looking lush and beautiful.  You can read HERE how this year's garden was coming along.

And every year, we hardly get any yield from those lush, beautiful plants, sigh.

I'm over it!

I read a blog this morning that was showing beautiful images of their crops.  I was so happy for them.  I really was cuz I'm not the jealous type.  I started to leave a comment but decided against it because I didn't want to come across as jealous or complaining about my own lack of yield.  But, it got me thinking about our crop and what little we bring in year after year for one reason or another and how I was feeling about the whole gardening thing... I'm disappointed and over it!

So, I grabbed my camera so that I could show you what our garden looks like now.

My tomato plants...

A couple of days ago something ate every leaf on all 24 of my tomato plants... overnight!

I had big dreams of canning tomato sauce, tomato paste, salsa, you name it.

The yield from said tomato plants?  About six small tomatoes.

Here's the lima beans...

They don't like a lot of rain and we've had a lot of rain.  (Sorry to those of you in the midst of a drought.)

The yield for lima beans?  About one half a sandwich baggie.

I didn't bother taking a picture of the blackeye peas or potatoes.  They're pretty much dead.

Blackeye pea yield?  About one half a sandwich baggie.

Potato yield?  I've only checked a couple of rows but I got two tiny potatoes the size of my thumbnail.

What IS doing OK and still slowly producing you may ask?

The okra.

And my rescued green pepper plant from the compost bin is beginning to produce some green peppers.

Apparently they both don't mind our amended sand soil. 

While I love to show y'all pretty pictures of life here on the wanna-be farm/homestead the subject of the pictures is not always that pretty.

Country Boy and I are at a loss as to what we need to do to actually get some vegetables from our lush, beautiful plants.

I know we're over it right now but come winter, we'll probably get excited again about growing some vegetables and we'll try it again.  It's who we are.  We want a farm.  We want home grown vegetables, dad gummit!  And preferably our own!

Thankfully, I have still been able to do a bit of canning this summer thanks to some generous people who can actually grow stuff and had an abundance of their crops.

In other 'over it' news...

I'm over PC's and all their issues.

Some day I will own a Mac, sigh.

Well, that's reality here on the wanna-be farm/homestead.  It's not all fun and games and pretty pictures, haha!

Linking with

Till next time,

 

I've Been Given A Bag of Hard Pears

Now what?

A sweet lady at church gave me a bag of hard pears from her pear tree.  She said she has taken several dozens of eggs that I have brought to church and she wanted to repay me in some way.

I told her it was unnecessary but I was excited to get the pears even though, at the time, I didn't know what I would do with them!

Thank goodness for the Internet and Google!

I searched 'hard pears' and found THIS recipe for Spiced Pears.  Since I wanted to can them I thought this would be perfect.  Since I had all the necessary ingredients on hand, I put my apron on and got to work washing and peeling the pears.

Hard pears soaking in water and lemon juice during peeling process

I only had four pounds of pears but the recipe worked the same. I just didn't have as many jars at the end and had extra syrup left over.

Pears simmering in sweet, spicy syrup

I thoroughly enjoyed preserving these pears that were home grown and given to me as a thank you.  What a blessing!

In fact, I've been blessed quite often by other church family members who have brought in goodies from their gardens.   Which has been nice because even though our garden didn't do so well this year, I've still been able to put up some veggies for winter.

We eat well at our church... farm fresh eggs and home grown fruits and veggies that are shared amongst each other.  Isn't that the way it oughta' be?

I sampled a piece of pear before canning 'em.   Mmmmmm...  so yummy!

Oh, and these jars?  Also given to me by a church member who wasn't using them and wanted to get rid of them.  Double blessing!

And the chickens and ducks that started this whole thing?  Enjoyed the peelings and scraps from the pears, woohoo!

Linking with

Sunday Blessings

Pleasant words are a honeycomb,

sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

Proverbs 16:24 NIV

Zebra Longwing butterflies

I had two different species of butterflies enjoying the sweet nectar of the Lantanas in my front yard the other day.  There must've been five or six of them flitting from flower to flower.

The Gulf Fritillaries were not cooperating with me so I didn't get any good shots of them.

I hope y'all are having a good weekend!  

Linking with

Till next time,

Another LizzieBelle Update

It's been over five weeks since LizzieBelle came

to live here on the wanna-be homestead and farm.

We've enjoyed getting to know each other and have

quickly fallen into a routine that works for us.

She's such a sweetie-pie.

I just can NOT get over her sweet disposition and temperament.

And, she's not a barker unless someone comes to the door, yay!

She's had one heart worm treatment.

The fleas and tapeworms are gone and her hair is slowly growing in the bare spots.

Then again, y'all know all that from the last update.

What you didn't know is that I found out last weekend that she's pregnant!

Yep.

 At first I thought her healthy appetite and weight

gain was because the tape worms were gone.

Then I realized that the weight gain was not an all

over weight gain but in a localized area.

Yikes!

I was concerned about her ability to carry and have the puppies

because of the heart worms so I took her to the vet last weekend

where it was confirmed that she is pregnant.  The vet said that her body

is adapting to being pregnant and she's handling it just fine.

I was also concerned about the medications she's on and how they would affect the puppies.

We stopped the antibiotics she was taking that helps to get rid of the

heart worms from the first treatment and we've also stopped

giving her the heart worm pill.

Once the puppies are born (and possibly even weaned) then the

heart worm treatments will resume.

I have no idea what breed of dog(s) bred with her nor do I know when.

I'm hoping they weren't large dogs (sigh).

I do know that she was at the end of her heat cycle when I got her.

But, from doing a little math from the time frame that I've had her,

my guess is that we'll be having some puppies

in the house possibly as soon as some time next week.

This morning she weighed 14.6 lbs!  I hope she doesn't gain too much more.

Say a little prayer for us that all goes well during the births.

Never a dull moment here at the wanna-be homestead and farm!

Till next time,

An Emotionally Exhausting Week

My apologies for being silent this week.

It's been a long week.

I haven't even taken any pictures which oughta tell ya' something!

 (These pictures are from last week after a good rain.)

My Mom had major surgery this week to repair an Abdominal Aortic Aneurism.

If you know anything about AAA's, if  left untreated they could rupture and the chances of survival are slim.

We are thanking the Lord that hers was caught several years ago

by a very thorough doctor and has been monitored ever since.

It wasn't until recently that it grew quickly to an operable size.

The surgeon said he normally wouldn't do this type of surgery on someone her age

but because she was so healthy otherwise he had no qualms about performing the surgery on her.

The surgery was long.

Four hours long.

It was quite complicated due to the size and placement of the aneurism.

But, the doctor was amazing and relied on a higher Power while performing the surgery!

For that we are so very thankful!

The waiting was difficult and emotionally draining.

I think the waiting was more exhausting than a hard days work.

During the surgery, we knew that family, friends and several church families were praying.

What a comfort!

Mom is doing well and is still recovering in ICU.

We're hoping she will get moved to a room today or tomorrow.

Meanwhile, we've all had a chance to get some rest and are feeling much better.

We are so thankful for a successful surgery and are praying for a speedy recovery.

Till next time,