Sheepdom

A little foray into a sheep abode.  Hope you all are well.

Peace!

It's Amazing, What You Can Live Without.....

I live on a ridge, with a million dollar view,

in a crooked little house,

with ants.  And in the winter there will be mice.

There's a resident groundhog, who must go, under the 85 year old house.

 Deer come in the orchard and eat the apples, peaches, and plums.

There is a lovely statue, guarding the tree, but the deer aren't afraid of it.

This place has an old oak board fence, and myrtles.

Some spots are very civil-war-battlefield

-looking-ish, with lots of

hickory and oak trees.
And rocks.

And old farm equipment.
We are in the throws of optimism and exhaustion at the same time.
Exhilaration at the view and the coolness of the weather.
Exhaustion from the work needed to make this place shine again.

We have no house to speak of, but we do have shelter.
We haven't got a lot of room, but we have a bed to sleep in;
a small place to cook and eat.
There's something to be said for little house living.
It's just amazing what you can do without.
~~~
Jesus, I trust in You.

Farm in the Mist

My Favorite Tree

Web

Nest in the Myrtle

Dandelion Spider

Maple tree

Hollyhock from seed

Spanky

Mushroom

Pecan trees

Turnip Greens

Old house

Morning Glory

This Week On the Farm......

The fog is fogging.....

(The cool autumn air makes me a little giddy.  I just can't help but say these things in a childish way....)

the mushrooms are mushing....

...the dog is waiting....

...the clouds are clouding...

...the ants are anting....

...the walnut tree is nutting...

... a butterfly is resting....

...Bog boots are bogging....

....Autumn is autuming....

...one Hydrangea is blooming (!).....

...the Camellia is budding....

...a Blue Heron is visiting....

...a bird is warblering....

...the pellet stove is pelleting...

...and all is beautiful and well.

Beets- Window to My World

There's really nothing prettier than beets in jar! 

You can see part of my backyard in the jar reflection.

(For PICKLED BEET SYRUP recipe, scroll towards the

bottom of this posting.)

Here's our good 'ol canning equipment.

Water is so luscious, isn't it? 

A humble unpeeled beet, steaming in the pot.

Boiling beets are pretty/ugly- look like little monsters!

Then you peel 'dem beets!

An' stick 'em in a jar witch-yor syrup!

An' before ya know it, ya got more jars joinin' da party!!

Well, all done, so I'm hangin' up my apron for the day!

But before I go, I'm going to give you my recipe for the beet syrup.

Don't forget to follow the canning instructions from companies like Ball or Kerr to make sure your beets are safe to eat come winter time!  I do not give you complete canning instructions here because they can tell it better than I can.  Link to Ball by clicking HERE.

~

Pickled Beet Syrup

Enough to fill 6 (six) Quart Sized Jars ) with beets in them.

4 cups white vinegar (5% acidity) to 2 cups granulated white sugar

. Of course you’ll have to adjust how much you make according to how many beets/filled jars you have, but that is a pretty accurate ratio of sugar to vinegar. You need to warm this on the stove and make sure the sugar is dissolved. I like to taste it and make sure it doesn’t make me pucker up when tasting. If I do, then I add some more sugar.

~~

Another little tidbit:

This reminds me of the story of the little Red Hen- how she wanted everyone to help her with harvesting the wheat for the bread.– no one wanted to help, but she did it anyway and then they all wanted to eat the bread without doing the work. The Good Little Red Hen gave them some anyway.. There’s a lot of steps to processing your own food out of the garden, but it’s worth it. America , at one time, was an agrarian society. Just about everyone had a garden. No more...The last thing I have to say is- thank God for farmers - because without them, we wouldn’t have all the food we have to eat. So if you want to go back to your "roots," plant a garden, or a least a little pot of tomatoes.

~~

And as Forrest Gump would say:

"Have a Nice......Day!"

XXOO, BB