Newest Addition to the Family

Well, I have been asked when I would ever get around to posting pictures of the new grand baby so I guess I better get it done. After all she is already 11 days old. She is a real sweetie and it was really hard to leave after helping Krista out for a few days. Good thing they don't live too far away.

Keira Elaine

This is one of my favorite pictures so far. She looks like a real thinker here!

Kayleigh and Keira

Big sister is pretty proud here. Wish I would have remembered to turn off the date and time stamp on my camera.

Kayleigh, Cousin Evan and KeiraEvan wanted to hold Keira but Kayleigh wasn't going to be left out. So I told them both to sit in the recliner and I would help them each hold her. It ended up being a joint effort. Keira was not really too happy about the situation though.

Brooklyn and Sadie at workSometimes Brooklyn is at work with me and she loves to play with the paper out of my shredder. Usually it ends up all over the place but it sure keeps her entertained. Sadie was right in the middle of everything this time too.

One of these days I hope to get better about posting a little more often but in the mean time bear with me and I will get here as often as I can. Guess life, work, grandkids, kids, etc. just keep me too busy to get on here as often as I would like. Not to mention the garden which was very productive this year. In fact we picked tomatoes and jalepeno peppers just a few days ago. We had numerous watermelon and cantaloup and a bumper crop of onions too. The biggest watermelon weighed in at 47 pounds. Many weighed between 35 and 40 pounds! Not too many years that we can still be picking melons off the vine on October 11th. We still have not had a killing frost and the temperature today was in the 70's.

Summer is coming to a close

Well, it has been weeks since I posted and summer is nearly over. School started this week so life for most people will get back to a normal routine. (Whatever that is!) The garden has been keeping me busy and I have a few pictures to show you whats up in that department. I don't have a picture of the cabbage as they are all in the crock downstairs turning into sauerkraut. I think we got about 5 gallons this year. It will be ready to freeze in another day or two. I have made about 20 quarts of pickles so far and some hot dilly beans. There are some beans in the freezer and we have eaten a bunch. The corn is good and sweet and we eat it nearly every night. Now it is time to pick the rest and get it in the freezer. I picked peppers this morning and will probably pickle most of them. Usually make some salsa but the tomatoes are very slow this year. We have only picked a couple of handsful of tomatoes. Gary is pretty proud of his black diamond watermelon patch so I am including a picture of that too. Onions, potatoes, squash, carrots and cantaloup are all doing well also. It's a lot of work but sure enjoy the fresh flavors when the snow flys.

Black Diamond Watermelons (YUMMY!!!!)

Jalapeno garlic dill pickles and dilly beans (also with a hot chili pepper in them).

First picking of jalapeno peppers. We only have 5 plants total and there are still lots of little ones I will let grow for another week or so.


This is the extent of our first grape harvest but the vines are doing well and if they survive the winter I am sure we will have a much bigger crop next year.

At the beginning of the month we helped Kris and Scott build a shed in their backyard. The guys worked hard for 12 hours but got everything except the trim, shingles and painting done.

All of these pictures were taken with the camera on my phone so aren't of the best quality but shows you what took place on that Saturday. Kara and Jaret helped move all the stuff from the garage into the shed so now Krista can finally park her new car in the garage.

Maybe I will find time later this week to post some new pics of all the grandkids. Joc pretty well keeps everyone updated on Brooklyn so I need to get some pics of the other grandkids posted again.

Hope everyone enjoys what is left of the summer.