Family Fun

Finally got to have a Grab Your Granny Day this year. I named it this because this is a day we take once a week or once every two weeks and I call my momma up and say, ” Hey, you wanna go somewhere or do something?” Or I simply call her and tell her I’m coming to get her and be ready. She’s always game for something. But this year this Covid stuff has threw us off. However, we got to get together yesterday for Grab Your Granny Day. We love to go swimming at one of our favorite places and we love to pack a picnic lunch. It was not crowded since it was the middle of the week.
We had such a great time.

 

Great 4th of July

We had a great time with family and friends with food, fellowship and fireworks.
We will always make sure freedom rings at our house.

 

 

 

 

 

Happy 4th of July From 4D Farms

Today, I am feeling extremely patriotic because I live in a country that I love and I will keep fighting for it and defending my home. I will pray very hard for those who seek to destroy it. May God have mercy on them.
Today of all days we should be thankful,  proud and renew our commitment to fight for our country’s freedoms and principles this country was formed on. God Bless America. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting Ready For The 4th

We are working hard trying to get everything ready for our July 4th get together we host at our house every year. We so look forward to it every year.

Tonight, I took left over spaghetti and made spaghetti bake and I made some bruschetta with some of dear hubby’s cheese he made, and a summer salad with cabbage, zucchini and squash all from the garden. It was yummy. 

We have laughed at our cat and this bird. Lastweekend,  we were in the pool and saw Annie going to the end of the house all the sudden we saw her running lickity split back around the house through the back yard with a bird chasing her. We all just laughed.  Well, the next day, we were eating supper on the back porch and Atleigh noticed Annie’s tail bleeding, so I doctored it. Well, today, I’m sitting on the couch in the living room and hear this noise outside the window behind me. It is this mockingbird squaking at Annie and she is trying to sleep on the table.  I think these two have a rivalry history. 😂😂

Then it will start flying up and down behind her. It may have been what got a hold of her tail. We will see how this turns out.

The flood waters have gone down in our town and people are trying to clean up.

,

 

 

Flooding and Zombie

It has been an exhausting night for us. Our area has had thunderstorms all night and flooding. First, we got a call from our oldest son around 11pm last night that our youngest wanted to come home after changing his mind about spending the night with big brother. It was storming and Dakota did not want Dallas driving home in it by himself so he told Dallas to follow him. He said one minute he saw him in the rearview mirror and the next he didn’t.  He called to check on him and Dallas said he don’t know what happened but he just couldn’t see the road and he hit a ditch and mailbox.  The road was already covered in water and it was raining so hard both boys said they were having trouble seeing in front of them. They were only going around 30mph. Dakota said Dallas’ airbags deployed and Dallas must have hit his airbag and the seatbelt took some hide off of his neck and jaw. Dakota was so worried over his brother. He has always been so protective and a second dad when I need him. When he got Dallas to his house, he carried him in over his shoulder and put him on the couch and told Jossie to check him. They were both so scared and worried.  Bless them. Dad got up and threw on some clothes and went to pick up Dallas. They went back to Dallas truck and had to call a cop to come out so we could file a report for insurance. Thank goodness for full coverage insurance because it is going to cover the peoples mailbox damage. The front wheels on his truck are underneath the front of his truck and came up through the floorboard on the passenger’s side. They finally got home around 2am.
Dad made Dallas stay awake for a few hours and make sure there was no concussion and to monitor him. They finally went to bed around 4am. I finally got in bed but it thundered and lightened all night and was so bad at times it shook the ground. Needless to say we didn’t get much sleep.
However, after dad picked up Dallas from Dakotas, Dakota got called into work for power outages. Dakota was out in the storms all night with over 300 strikes of lightning in several hours. He was soaking wet and exhausted. He never got to go home last night.
We woke up this morning to flooding and washed out roads and flooded bridges. Our local mayor has declared our city a state of emergency. Businesses and vehicles are still underwater as of 6pm this evening. And it is thunderstorming again and pouring down rain. I had to get up this morning and take my MIL to the eye dr. I had to have some strong coffee since I only had about 3 hrs sleep. We made it though. I got home and had to lie down because I just could not function anymore. Only slept an hr. 😡
Oh well, I will sleep good tonight.
Dear hubby has been on the phone with insurance company most of the day. Looks like we will be truck shopping again.
This morning when I did get up, I needed to check on things outside like the garden. All I could do was pray and hold my breath. To my relief only a few stalks of corn got blowed down. Everything looks good. I did capture this though:

Look carefully in front of the corn stalks. She’s mad cause she can’t get into the garden.  😄😄 so she’s just gonna plop down right there.

Enjoying Life and Working

Everything is going great here on the farm. Flowers are blooming, although this time of year we are battling June Beetles. 😞

The lily in this flower bed I planted a few years ago and it never grew. Well now it did. It is beautiful.

 

Garden is growing wonderfully. We have got green tomatoes, peppers growing like crazy. My DIL is excited about her one watermelon vine that she planted. The others never came up, so we are hanging on to this one as much as possible. The broccoli and cauliflower are done. We did not freeze any. We have just been eating it fresh. The girls have gotten a taste for it and like it some especially dipped in Ranch dressing. I have purple cabbage left and it is doing great. I picked a few squash and zucchini this morning. I am so pleased with how the garden is doing this year. It want be long until we will be harvesting our first two rows of corn.

 

 

With the last of the green cabbage, I am trying my hand at fermenting sauerkraut this time. I watched several YouTube videos and found the best one I liked. All I did was cut up my cabbage, put into gallon jug or if you have a crock, that is great, you add salt to the cabbage to bring out the moisture. Now, you have to be careful with the salt. You can start out with 1tsp salt per head of cabbage. If you need to add more, add gradually. Taste test as you go, trust me. I started out with too much salt and had to add more cabbage. You will need to punch down the cabbage until the water comes above the cabbage. The cabbage has to stay under the water in order to not get mold. You can use a dowel or your hand to punch down the kraut. Then in order to keep it under the water, you will need a weight of some kind to keep the cabbage down. I used ziploc bags with water in them. If you are using a crock of some sort and it has a wide opening, you could probably find a saucer or plate even to use as a weight. You can even use some rocks or brick wrapped in a ziploc bag. Then cover it with lid and then a cloth. Keep in a cool, dry, dark place for two weeks. Then start taste testing and stirring. You can ferment longer or as is. When it is done fermenting, you can move it to the refrigerator and eat out of it. However, I want to can mine for longer shelf life. I will pack it into jars, and add more brine if need be, and process in water bath for 15 minutes. I’ll be sure to post the process of that.

 

Things just got real for Dallas. All Sr’s had appointments for their Sr portraits for the upcoming school year. We are choosing to have our DIL’aws mother do our casual pics. This formal is for the year book. She will also do us another formal for him seeings though he has a hat ring around his head. 😞

We are not sure how this school year is going to go as of this moment with this pandemic. They have come up with two options for our district. Students can either continue virtual schooling or return to classroom. The thing with returning to the school is there will be so many restrictions like desks being apart, wearing masks, which I know my kid is not going to do. I can’t wear one either due to hyperventilating. Just yesterday our state governor put us under state of emergency again and here we go again. Just when things were starting to get better. I don’t understand why its ok to riot and loot and be shoulder to shoulder and not wear masks and the CDC not say a word, yet we can’t go to school, work, church, etc without them coming down hard on us. It will end when election is over probably. OOOOPPPPPPSSSSS! Did I say that out loud? Oh well. Enough about that, that is a whole new soap box and I’m not even gonna get on it.

Dallas is doing good with his PT for the Marine Corp Program. He loves it. He is also liking his summer job on weekends. He is working for a guy doing Hydroponics. I am hoping he can learn alot and then teach me.

Dear hubby tried his hand at making cheese one day and he did a superb job.

I was so excited to get this in the mail thanks to my sweetheart. This is a set of books that started me on my journey teaching our boys how to read. 22 yrs ago, dear hubby bought me this set for

Dakota

when he was born. Then I used them with

Dallas.

Then, I made the mistake of passing them down to someone who didn’t keep them like they said they would and I lost them. Thanks to E-bay we found another set. I absolutely love these books and will never pass them to anyone again outside this family. I will be using these to teach all my grandchildren.

Over the weekend, dear hubby took  the boys on a much needed father sons fishing trip for Fathers day. I believe they had a very good time. They are not much of picture takers, so I only got a few. Their fun time is competing to see who can catch the most fish. Dad wound up winning, Dakota was 2nd and I think Dallas just got tired of competing after a while. He is like me, we have a little trouble figuring out how to work each different kind of baits. All in all, they had a blast.

Meanwhile, us girls had a time here at my house. Much needed girl time. We invited Brylee, Dallas’ girlfriend to stay with us. We did crafts with the girls, swam, cooked, did yoga, manicures, pedicures, walked them through the garden to see everything, needless to say, they were excited to see everything growing and their hard work paying off.

 

 

 

When the guys got home, they were truly missed. These girls ran outside to Poppie.

One day dear hubby and I took the boat out, cause we could. I let him fish which he is in his element, I soak up the sun, which is my element.

We had the girls spend a night with us one weekend. We played outside, we read books, we colored, and the most fun, I let them make a fairy garden. They had to show Poppie. They were so proud.

 

This little girl loves to look at birds and flower books with me.

I hope everyone is doing ok during this pandemic and all this other crazy stuff. Just try to remain safe and use common sense. I wish we could go back to the days when we could all agree to disagree and not get offended and still be friends. I wish we could teach real history to our children but some where down the line that all got erased from our history books. We need to fall on our face before God and cry out to him in this time.

Taking A Pause

Today we took a pause from working on projects to spend time with family. My Momma and Daddy came to eat with us as did our oldest son with his family for Father’s Day.
We always try to get together the Saturday before because that Sunday they can spend within their own family.

Dakota had to go back to work and then Dallas had to leave to go to work.

After everyone left,  we took a much needed nap.

After our nap we just wanted to get back outside.  Dear hubby took care of the yards and I reported some herbs I finally just broke down and bought as plants since obviously I can’t get them to grow from seed.

Last night we paused and went out to eat with them and then we took the girls to a little fair in town. They could only ride one little ride but it was enough for Atleigh to say she was not having fun and wanted off. To be honest, me and mommy did too. We were getting dizzy and our supper was fixing to come back up. I’m not as young as I use to be. 🤢🤮

 

 

Projects, Flag Day, and Birthday

We have had so many projects going on the past few weeks. A lot that’s been on our list for almost two years. We have created new beds around trees and our flag pole. Freshened up old flower beds. We always host a big 4th of July cookout at our house. So we have been trying to kick it into gear and get ready for that.

 

 

We have been working tirelessly. When I say tirelessly, I mean it. We fall into bed at night. I’m so glad my sweet hubby knows when I need to take a break and rest. I love it when we work together. We make a good team. Our garden is coming right along. We had to get in and do a little weeding and tilling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, there went that manicure.

 

My mother and I painted these gourds last year and my sweet hubby finally got them hung for me. I already have a blue bird family in one.

 

 

 

My sweet little buddy turned 3yrs old. She is a Gmaws girl.

 

 

First harvests of the garden. Hubby grilled us some cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower one night along with some chicken. Our tomato plants are getting green tomatoes on them. We have little romas too.

 

We got our swimming pool up for our little girls.

 

Every Princess needs a castle.

 

This is Poppies girl. She has to be where   he is and doing what he’s doing.

 

We celebrated Flag Day.

 

 

 

I love it when this man grills for us

 

 

We have got so many more projects to do around here but I’m so glad to be getting them done.

It’s time for me to fall into bed again. Sorry this post has been short but sweet. We are somewhat getting back to normal around our town. Thank Goodness. However, our country needs lots of prayers at this moment. I have spent more time in my Bible. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. You can lead an unbeliever to the Bible but you can’t make them believe. You can spread knowledge to people but can’t make them grasp it. Lord Jesus Help Us.

 

Got Our Poppie Back

I swear I have not dropped off the face of the earth. We have just been so busy around here.

First, Dear Hubby got to come home. His girls have missed him so much. The feeling was quite mutual.

He has been helping me catch up on stuff around the house and garden. I love working in the garden with him.

He loves being on his tractor too. He is preparing a spot where we needed to lay some sod. He even took me for a ride. lol

This man had been missing my cooking and requested some of my homemade cinnamon rolls. I have tweeked the recipe and made a healthier version. I used oat and whole wheat flour and made a cream cheese frosting. The are delicious. Then Dallas wanted some chocolate chip pancakes.

I have been trying to catch up on some reading. I love this book. I love all book on Proverbs 31 Woman or living virtuously, homemaking etc.

I can’t wait to start these books too.

Our daughter in law celebrated her 21st bday and her mom took her on a trip to the set where they filmed Vampire Diaries. They love this show.

While the mommies were gone, the daddies took the kids to the drive thru Safari Park. They loved it. It was good for the dads to have some one on one time with the kids.

I have also been busy putting some things up in the freezer.  On our Canning and Preserving page I have listed my method of how I put up our potatoes different ways.

So Dallas did a thing.  Of course I knew this was coming since he was 5 years old. He has entered a program for students that want to join the Marines but are under age. It is called a Delayed Entry Program. They help train them in physical fitness to get them ready for Boot Camp when they can legally join at 18. This has been his passion since he was a little boy. Every young boy has a dream to earn their right of passage into adulthood. Dakota had his way and this is Dallas’ way. He wants to be so much like his dad. He wants to make dad so proud. We met with the recruiter and we signed his papers for him to enter the program. It is for a year. I believe this is good for Dallas because it will grow him and mature him. Trust me. I does. I have seen it in my Marine. He wanted dad to give him a crew cut. His first day of PT, he said he only died 4 times. lol  He will have PT two times a week during the summer and then it will change when school starts.

The girls got me a charm for my bracelet for Mothers Day. I cried. I always cry. I’m an emotional cry baby.

The girls got to  spend two weekends in a row with us. They literally clung to Poppie and forgot about me sometimes. lol. He so deserved this time with them.

They have been so excited seeing things grow in the garden. They help me look every time they come over.

Our first picking of 2020

The garden is coming along fine.

Poppie bought us a tree stand of our very own last season so us girls could hunt our of. We need to get it up and ready for this fall so we can start teaching these girls.

Every girl needs to learn how to drive a tractor too.

Enjoying some outdoor fun.

We’ve spent the last 3 days laying sod in a section we had to finish just on one end of the house. We are not as young as we use to be. Tomorrow is date day for us.

Dallas had to go to Memphis for all of his physicals for the Delayed Entry Program. After we got word that he passed, they took them to swear into the program. He also has a close friend that is going through it too. We are so proud of him.

We have got so many more projects we are crossing off our to do list. So that is where I have been for the longest.

We have also just been enjoying family time as well.

Memorial Day 2020

May we remember what today is truly about. Your sacrifice will never be forgotten.  Semper Fi!