Yup. Summer is almost here and it's only April. Supposed to be in the 80s this weekend.
We're going to Raleigh to see the brother-in-law, go to the farmer's market and probably the flea market.
And I'm hoping to go fishing this Sunday.

I hope you all have a great weekend.

And an early Happy Birthday to my granddaughter! ;)

We received a message yesterday that a good family friend had passed away on Friday. I did not know him long, my husband's family knew him for about 30 years.
But while I did not know him long, for the short while I did know him, he was a true country gentleman. I had hoped to learn a bit about farming from him, but hopefully I can still learn from his wife.
We'll be seeing her in a couple of weeks when we make our planned trip to the property in Louisiana.
God bless. I'm sure he's having a very pleasant conversation with my mother-in-law in Heaven today.

Since I know absolutely nothing about raising your own food - other than  playing at gardening a few times - I have been doing lots of reading. Hubby knows, or knew, a lot about it, having grown up on a farm; and I expect it's like riding a bike - you never really forget.

His grandmother raised chickens. A bunch of big white chickens, haha. I saw pictures of them and that's all I know about them. I do know that we tore down the chicken coop the year we lived there in 94, because hubby said it couldn't be salvaged. It hadn't been used in decades. :/

Anyway, I read blogs of interest to me to see what other people do and think; as well as Grit, Hobby Farms, Countryside and Small Stock Journal, and Backyard Chickens. I'm also reading Old House Journal. And whenever an issue grabs my attention, I read Mother Earth News, Hobby Farm Home, and other random magazines. Sometimes I wish I had a photographic memory, but I guess I read all this stuff hoping that some of it will stick.

He wants a chicken that lays Jumbo brown eggs. From what I've read, you only get jumbo eggs from chickens that are just starting to lay eggs. Then again, there is a place that advertises in Backyard Chickens, claiming all their chickens always lay jumbo brown eggs. Braggs Mountain Buff, I think it was. My memory is definitely not photographic, haha. But I've read differing opinions - normal, I'm sure - some have not had a problem, some have had lots of egg bound hens. Many haven't tried them because they're a small strain available only from the one breeder. They're a strain of the Buff Orpingtons.

The reading I did today, for some heritage breeds, I liked Australorp, Dominique, Sussex and Wyandotte. They all have brown eggs, not sure the size. But they're adaptable, the Dominique is recommended as a good free range breed, while the Sussex and Wyandotte are supposed to be good tempered.

Oh well. Much more reading to do. Still have a year or so, I think, before we can actually have any. We're also thinking some ducks - he wants domestic mallards. Likes the color. And probably a couple of guinea hens and a pig. He says we'll get a couple calves from one of the local dairies, but from what I've read about dairy farms, I'm not real comfortable about that. Maybe if they're small local dairies it'll be okay.

I thought about goats, too; not just because Pam's are so darn cute, but because they're supposed to be good for eating poison ivy and other brush. And we definitely get a lot of poison ivy around there. Maybe we can just 'rent' some when we have stuff to clear.
I am really hoping we'll get the poison ivy cleared before we get a lot of animals. Right now we rely on Round-up and calm burn days.

Oh well, that's enough contemplation for today. ;)

So we went fishing this morning. Was nice out. Cool. But quite breezy. We wanted to use up the last of the worms we bought last week.
I'm glad we did. We had a good enough day. Not spectacular (this is only North Carolina, after all. Eastern NC at that, haha), but enough for a meal tonight.



Almost a dozen nice bluegill and pumpkin seed. They had pretty much stopped biting by the time we used the last of the worms.
We also caught a couple bass, but tossed them back. Saw a gar about 3 feet long, but didn't try to catch that. If we had caught it, we'd have brought it home and fed it to one of the pecan trees. ;)

Have a great weekend, all. :)

This is one of our cats, Spider, with her latest find. A little twist-tie.

She spent a bit of time playing with it.

Even flipped over once. Such a weird (normal) cat. haha.

And that's it from me today. ;) Happy Wednesday to you! :)

So, to sum it up.
1 vehicle down. Hopefully no more than $300 to fix.
1 water pump down. New last year, was not happy to hear that.
1 friend losing a father. My heart and prayers go out to her. I have been in her shoes, I know how hard it is. :(


*Hugs and blessings* to all my readers. I hope you have a good week. ♥

The weather has been really nice this weekend. A cool front came through. The nights have been in the 40s. We took the granddaughter fishing yesterday. For such nice weather, the fishing was not too good. But we did catch a couple.
A bass, which we let go, as we don't like bass.

And a couple bluegill/pumpkinseed - one of which we let go because it was a female getting ready to lay eggs.


We also went to Harris Teeter last night. They often have really nice naval oranges. And they did. So we got 8 nice, almost softball size oranges. And much to my surprise, they had smelt!  I fried some up with the bluegill that we kept. Yummy!

And here's a picture of just the smelt. :)

Really brought back memories of when my dad and older brother would get up really early to go up to Northern Michigan for the smelt run. I loved eating them growing up and I still love them when I can find them. I was just thinking of them last week, too! :)

Hope you've all had a really nice weekend, too.

Short post. Went to Raleigh. Hubby said he read they are giving more tickets to help make up the budget shortfall, so we drove the speed limit all the way there, all the way to Fayetteville and all the way home. :|
Took a good hour or more than usual.

We bypassed the Farmer's Market because we got there later than we like, but we did go to the Flea Market and Whole Foods; and of course we got Popeye's Chicken before coming home. ;)

Good to be home.

Happy Easter, everyone! :)

So my husband had a semi-annual checkup with his diabetes specialist. He has Type-2 and is doing so well that he only goes to the specialist twice a year now. I don't remember all the numbers - I fail at memory things sometimes - but his cholesterol, blood pressure and A1C were all excellent! The doctor was quite happy. So yay!

This Saturday we're going to Raleigh. They have a big Farmer's Market ( 7 days a week, actually, but 3 hours one way is too far to drive every day) and a big flea market at their fair grounds that we like to go to. And after that, we're going to Whole Foods. A little pricey, but so worth it for all they have there. And lots of organic stuff too.

But afterwards, we're probably going to drive to Fayetteville to get some Popeye's chicken, because he loves it and a 3 hour drive is as close as we can go to get it. Not 3 hours from Raleigh though, only about 40 minutes or so. So yeah, full day Saturday.

The pear trees we got to take to the farm in May seem to be doing well in their buckets. Hopefully they will transfer well. I think they will. The catalpa trees certainly did. Want to get an apple tree next. He prefers Delicious, so will probably be that. Been thinking about a Walnut tree, too. I like fresh walnuts. Not sure if there is a market for them there, though. Or if they will grow there, though I expect it would. The big market there, of course, is pecans though. We'll need to plant a few more, as the last few hurricanes have not been kind to the pecan trees there.

May 15th is getting closer. Looking forward to that. :)