blueberry picking, old man in the tree, sewing, fresh cow milk

This week has been filled with activities. After reading Cheryl's post on her blueberry picking, I could not hold off the urge and packed the kids up for a day of it. We reached our goal of entire bucket filled for the day. Frog was more active this year- but not helping in the picking department. She would sneak berries from our buckets as we dropped them in. Her wagon was brougt along and she would take breaks from all her sneaking sitting in there- eating her handful of berries. As you can see in the photo, the Blueberry shack has lots of bushes. Over 5,ooo. we are centered in the mid-line of rows. It goes all the way back to the woods. More blueberries will be picked this upcoming weekend with my Mother in law. The price went up from last year at $1 a pound to $1.20 a pound. It is still worth every penny.





Remember the man in in the tree?
Well on our return trip from the blueberry shack, I spotted another! I just love these carvings. We have it in the plans to have one of our very own when we purchase our next property. Right by the driveway to greet all who drive up the long path. How amazingly beautiful to use carve a dying tree's trunk instead of disturbing the earth & destroying all signs of its existence. Truly an "aw inspiring" moment.
A few rainy days lead into lots of sewing time. I found this great pink canvas like material with all the "O" 's - which made me think of our niece whose name starts with O and had a birthday party this last weekend. So I made her a purse she can fill with markers, crayons, coloring books or even baby dolls if she liked. we bought a few gifts along with giving her the purse. I Made one for panda too who loves it! I feel it has a messenger bag look and feel without the flap. Love how it wraps the body but could also be thrown to the back and still be comfortable to wear. Frog was not to be left out. Looking through her closet she had nothing to wear to the party so I whipped up a dress with some fun fabric and a thrift store found vintage 70's pattern in her size. My first try at making /sewing my own binding, so its not perfect. it still got lots of "Thats so cute. Where did you buy it" comments. I did not attend the party. The Captain was in charge of the day (his family so he was in charge-were weird like that), while I made a trip for fresh milk & firebricks- more about that in a minute. The captain said no one could believe the dress was homemade and even made the comment "She made it? It doesn't look homemade"- ummm thats the idea.... So Thank you- I guess.... smiling...
So while he attended the kids party I was off picking up fresh cows milk(5 gallons) to make some cheese and other yummies plus trade a complete set of old skis for 32 firebricks. I really want to make an outdoor oven for bread and pizza making. the firebricks go on the inside- obviously. the plan i found to be easiest so far, is this one. But the materials are bit much. there has to be less "extras" in a plan that works- somewhere. I will continue my search and hopefully get started on that oven before the Fall. Yes, i realize some may find building an outdoor oven when we are trying to sell our home may seem a bit "duh". No, this is a practice oven. This one will make me more prepared for the next properties Oven. i can learn from my mistakes and improve on other things from the experience of building here- and not having to tare it down to only build another.
This week a trip to the auction is planned. All these ducklings and extra chickens need to be cut back. I hate to do it, but the offensive odor from the little escapees are too much to handle. They hang around our deck and I'm sick of stepping in bird poo. The 3 brahma bantams serve no purpose other then eye candy, so they gotta go along with 8 muscovy ducklings. Out of the 9 left, we will keep a female and the rest go to the processor in the fall (for $4 a bird- ouch! add it to the cost of raising them & imagine if we did all 17...). Maybe I have not mentioned this before but just as an FYI, we are not allowed to butcher any animal on our property in this township. That is my reason for bringing the animals to someone else. It will change once we move.
The garden is calling and the "goat girls" would like to browse sometime today....
Harvest dreams,
~Tammie