I'm back...sort of

It's been a while... I'm re-evaluating my time and the way I spend it. Not sure what this means for this blog... I guess I am trying to decide why I do it and if it's a reason that justifies the time. On top of that, I don't really have much to say :-). I talk about my chickens, my garden, my kids and family, but I'm not certain it's of any interest to anyone other than my aunt.

For example: Here is a picture of our grapes. Not enough to make wine, but plenty to make homemade grape juice.

It might not look like much, but when you have to take the stems off of all of those grapes...well, it seems like the mountain of grapes don't get any smaller. Handy Man and I worked on these grapes for about 4 hours. Of course, we didn't even get started until 9 o'clock. PM!! Why do we always do that?! By the end of the night/morning, I was in a grape juice induced stupor. I think there was about 50 lbs.

Anyway, once I got the stems off about 8-10 lbs, Handy Man would cook them so that the juice was about to burst out of the grape skins. Then, he'd put the purple blob in a straining bag and allow the juice to drip into a bowl. Once he had squeezed all the juice out of the hot grapes, we'd ladle it into quart jars. We ended up with about 15 quarts of grape juice concentrate. We went ahead and canned the juice in a water bath. Now, we just pop open a jar and add about 2 cups of water... It's heavenly. The yummiest grape juice EVER!! You wouldn't necessarily need to add water, but it still tastes amazing and makes it last longer. Now, I can pretend to be a grownup and have a wine glass of grape juice while Handy Man has his evening glass of red wine...for his heart, of course.

So you won't get lost...

I was looking through a book that I had checked out from the library, and I saw a picture of something similar to this:

I thought it would be fun to have something like this in our backyard since we seem to be utilizing more of our land... We don't want anyone to get lost!

Roger cut out the arrows and I painted the words. I think you can make out most of the words, but for some reason the camera didn't pick up the bottom ones too well. There's school room, garden, chickens, shop, tree house, vineyard and orchard, beehives, and firepit.

And, I mentioned in my last blog post about my hatred of the Japanese Beetles. This is what is hanging from the arbor in my backyard... and if we didn't fight the JB's, these beautiful grapes would be all shrivled and black. Don't you think my hatred is justified?

Ode to the Japanese Beetle

I don't toss around the word "hate" too often, but I have to be honest. I hate Japanese beetles. I hadn't seen too many around until these last two days. They are getting worse each day. I even called Handy Man at work yesterday a little freaked out because I was seeing so many flying around outside as I looked out my kitchen window. They're just evil looking...straight from... well, you know...

These are pictures of some JB on our lovely grape fines!! Argh!! On the picture below, it's hard to see, but there are about 6 beetles on that leaf. Double Argh!!!!

I am so bothered by these horrible creatures, I wrote an Ode.

Ode to a Japanese Beetle

How do I hate thee, let me count the ways.

You fly into my forehead causing me to slap myself unnecessarily.

You land in my hair leading me to dance around flailing like a spasmodic idiot.

But worst of all, you foul creature, you eat the leaves off my lovely fruits and vegetables.

I loathe you.

I dread the time of year you emerge from your hellish cocoon,

roaming to see what you can devour.

(Yes, the biblical analogy is intended.)

We will fight you oh formidable foe...

Insecticide is our friend as we wrestle to save our beautiful, sustaining crops.

Be gone you miserable, repulsive mass.

What do you think? You didn't know I had it in me, did you?