Onion Seedlings

Tonight, I sit here mentally bracing myself for Winter Storm Q to arrive tomorrow morning.  I'm not sure how hard we will be hit, but perhaps it will miss us completely.  From the looks of the forecast maps we are on the edge of where the storm will hit.  So there IS hope of missing out on all of that wintery stuff altogether.  (fingers crossed)

When did I stop liking winter?  When did I start wishing for the heat of summer as opposed to the cold, snow and ice of winter?  Just a couple of years ago I remember vividly hating the hot weather.  I remember boasting of how easy it was to get warm in winter compared to trying to stay cool in the summer.  Sheesh!  I think I'm getting old!!  :-)

I long to enjoy all of the seasons with their own benefits and charms.  But I'm just not feeling it for winter this year.  I long to be outdoors, puttering around in the gardens and feeling warm for a change! 

When the cabin fever sets in it helps to plant the garden seeds that need to be started indoors.  I love the planning stages of gardening--the perfect garden in my mind where there are no pests or weeds and no ripe veggie is missed and all is handled in due time with tender loving care.

This year I got an early start by planting the Yellow Sweet Spanish Onions that I ordered. 

I didn't count the seeds but there were supposed to be 200. I planted them on February 2nd.

By February 9th they had pushed up a good ways through the seed starter soil.

Most of them were just about an inch+ tall

A few days later they had literally had a growth explosion!! 
 

Funny little plants.

They remind me of sunflowers in the way that they follow the sun.

See how they are all leaning to the right?

I had just turned them around so that they could reach to the other side for the sunshine--and by the end of the day they will all be leaning to the left where the sun shines in through the window.

I am exercising them.  :-)

Tomorrow I plan to start potting them up into their own little pots to grow happily until it's time to set them out into the garden this spring.     This is my first year to have my onion seeds actually sprout.  Normally I buy the seeds and then don't get around to planting them.  I always think, "I'll just plant them next year when I'm more prepared".  Ha!  As if!!  But this year I set my mind to do it, ordered the seeds, and here we are.  Yay!!    In another week and a half I'll be starting my broccoli, cauliflower and cabbages.    Little by little I am making it through this winter.  One dream at a time.

Miscellany Around the Homestead

Wow...  Where does the time go?  I think I must be in some secret time warp or something.  I realize that being busy has that effect on a person but this does seem excessive.  :-)

So what have I been up to?  We're still working on cleaning up the garden spaces since we kept everything going until the last minute.  It was much more easy/pleasurable to clean up the tomato cages when the plants were dead and brittle than when heavy and still green.  One advantage to procrastination, maybe. 

I've been working things out in my head as to what our garden placement will be next year.  I like to rotate everything and this year I am working toward more companion planting. 

Already I have moved my tea roses where they get more sun than in the spot we hurriedly shoved them into last year when we moved.  I've planted a semi-circle of chives around them (dividing them up and getting them out of the pot that they had grown in for the past 4 or 5 years) to help deter the pests.  I'm eager to see how it looks this summer.

I've got a couple crazy garden ideas in mind, such as... 

1) We are saving all of our empty toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls to make our own seed starters this year.  I got the idea from Whole Larder Love...  (One of my very favorite homesteading blogs!!)

Then I found some simple directions on how to do it at SimplyForties.  It's a neat little tutorial.  :-) 

What an awesomely inexpensive and green project.  If this turns out to be as nice as the Jiffy Peat Pellets that I use I will be very happy because the cost will be about half of what I pay for the pellets.

2) I am saving all of my 2 liter bottles and will hopefully have enough to sink halfway into the ground to make a border for a raised bed for my pepper plant next year.  I plan to plant carrot seeds in the soda bottles.  There's a lot of garden projects using 2 liter bottles but so far I haven't seen my idea done.  There may be a good reason for that, right?  Ha Ha!!  But we'll see.  The hardest part will be getting DH to part with the cash needed to get some really good top soil to fill in the bed and bottles.  :-)

Some of my indoor projects have been decluttering and organizing.  I've also resumed my kombucha culturing and have begun a batch of soda culture to make some Ginger Beer (not alcoholic).  It's been a while since I've made any and I've been hankering for some.  It's so delicious. 

I am STILL canning tomatoes as they ripen.  My table is still covered in ripening tomatoes!!!  One day I thought, "How crazy!!  Who else in Missouri is canning tomatoes in November?"  But I had been complaining about not making my quota what with the drought and extreme heat that we had this summer.  When most gardeners were calling it quits we were really just getting hammered with overabundance.  The nice thing is that I have lots of green tomatoes to share with family!  :-)

When I have spare time I'm usually on Pinterest or researching herbs and natural healing.  It is my dream to someday soon open an herb store.  :-)

This Thanksgiving week will be a busy one for us with a get-together with my family and also a big dinner here at our little homestead with Son #1 and his family and also Son #3 coming in for that. 

My camera is STILL missing and I am getting worried.  The last time that we used it was Halloween day when we took pictures of our little Dachshund Uno had an allergic reaction (probably to a pecan that got dropped on the floor!) and we took pictures of how swollen up he was before we took him to the vet.  It was a mixed up and stressful day and who knows where that camera's final landing spot was.  It certainly wasn't in any of it's usual spots!  I'd really like to have my camera for the holiday!!

More Pecan Miscellany

I took my boys plus my youngest nephew to the Conservation Area again today.  We had actually went back to pick persimmons but that was on the tail end of the journey.  While they played on the rocks and shuffled around in the leaves I picked more pecans.  I hadn't intended on doing it but I looked around and noticed how nicely the ones laying there on the ground looked--like the ones I picked last year.  Bigger, browner and with prettier markings.  We had recently had some heavy rains and winds so it appears that the nuts that were left on the tree were knocked down.  And there were lots of them.  I managed to pick, on my own, a little over half as much as last time (with the 4 of us picking) in about half of the time.  Not bad.  (No pictures today because my camera is missing.  I'm sure it will turn up soon.)

Our little local grocery store sells cracked pecans from King Hill Farms located in Brunswick, MO. 

A few years ago we visited their farm and little store while DH and I were on a drive.  Great place!!  They sold the largest hickory nuts I had ever seen.  :-)

Anyway...  I decided to buy a bag of the cracked pecans from our little local grocery store because I was curious to know how large their pecans turned out this year compared to the ones at the conservation area.  And here's what I discovered...

King Hill Pecans on the left.

My foraged pecans on the right.

Theirs are bigger and more nicely colored.

Probably a different variety of tree.

Still yet.

They seem quite small. 

No matter.  They will be greatly enjoyed.

Also wanted to mention...  I've decided to use word code verification when posting comments here for awhile.  I know it's a pain but someone is spamming me and I'm getting a bunch of comments for a bunch of junk.  Thankfully it's just going to my spam folder but I'm getting tired of it.  Sigh.

Feeling Over-Blessed!!

Knowing that we would have a hard frost last night, and that we have more chilly nights in store these next few days, I sent the children out with grocery bags yesterday to strip the tomato vines.  I knew that there were a lot of tomatoes on them but I confess that I'm a bit overwhelmed.  OK, a LOT overwhelmed!!

My 3'x6' table.

Totally loaded!!!

These are just from the vines in the front garden.  There are still 10 or so vines beside our mobile home that we decided to put tarps over because the poor table just can't hold anymore and we don't know where else to put them. 

As fate would have it, I woke up this morning with a migraine and ended up going back to bed after I had made lunch for the family.  Amazingly, I slept all day.  I knew I needed to be busy doing something--anything--with my "overabundance" but I think the burden of it all really got to me.  I realize that I've just gotta suck it up and deal with it--but WOW!!  The green ones will hold out for a while but the red ones need to be dealt with right away.  I have two other bags of ripe ones that isn't pictured that need to be processed too.  I'll give it my best shot and we'll see how it goes.  :-)

2nd Annual Pecan Gathereing

Yesterday we visited the Cuivre Island Conservation Area for our 2nd Annual Pecan Gathering. :-) I hope to make this a yearly event. It's a lot of fun--well, at least for me.  I took the boys along to help.

Son #4, Son #6, Son #5

Pretty little pale lilac colored flower

A beautiful fungus

It looked almost magical and I half expected a fairy to be hiding nearby.

Another type of fungus

I don't know anything about what's safe and what's not.

So I just take pictures of them.  :-)

On a fallen log at the edge of Cuivre River

A new addition this year...

Large boulders lining the sides across from the parking area.

They don't have any graffitti on them yet and are very nice.

A big hit with my boys, in fact.

Son #5 listening to an Adventures in Odyssey.

He wasn't thrilled about picking pecans.

He was hungry, bored and quite grumpy.

He really doesn't like going places.

Son #4 hopping across the boulders.

He jumped across each one of them.

Son #6

He had a lot of fun and even enjoyed picking the pecans.

There were woodpeckers everywhere.

It's hard to see but this is a Redheaded Woodpecker.

Leaving the conservation area.

Beautiful fall scene.

The sun broke through the clouds on our way out.

Our booty!

The quarter is in there for reference to the size of the pecans.

Small.

The heat and drought conditions were NOT a friend to the

pecan trees even though they were so close to the river.

The pecans to the left of the quarter are this year's pecans.

The pecans to the right are some I saved from last year.

Can you see the difference in the size and color?

And I thought that they were small last year!!

No matter.  We will use these with thankfulness

and enjoy each delicious bite!  :-)

Now my girls want me to take them out there next!!

This and That

It's been quiet around the homestead lately.  In between storms we've been working outside to get all the odds and ends wrapped up.  Cleaning up the remodeling debris is the worst. 

I've also been working on planting my order from Northern Trading Co. that I got earlier than I expected.  So far I've gotten everything planted that they've sent (all but my apple tree)--so that's a load off my mind.  They sent a Robin Hood rose and some hyacinth and crocus bulbs as free gifts.  Everything looks fantastic!!!  I can hardly wait for spring now to see it all grow!

Another project I have coming up is to pull up the poison ivy along the fence line to plant daffodils and the hyacinth/crocus bulbs.  The last time I attempted such a feat (in 2004) I was laid up in bed for 2 weeks afterwards with poison ivy on my face and chest (I was breastfeeding Son #6 at the time and I didn't know that I was covered in the oil when I nursed him.  He proceeded to help spread it on me though he didn't have any reaction himself--Praise God!!).  Sadly, I didn't realize that all those stringy roots I pulled up was poison ivy until after the fact because the leaves had fallen off already.

This was BEFORE it got really bad!!!

The best memory from the whole ordeal was when Son #4 said to Son #5...

"Don't kiss Mommy or you'll get poison ivy and you'll

be UGLY too!"  It still makes me laugh. 

The children constantly told me how much I looked like Gothmog

on Return of the King (Lord of the Rings)

Honestly, they were just about right!!!

It really was horrible!

They almost admitted me to the hospital but I was allowed to agonize at home on my own with the help of lots of Benedryl and some serious steriods! 

This time I'll pull the ivy while I know what and where they are and I will be prepared by wearing rubber gloves, jersy gloves, long sleeves, and pants with all of it coming off as soon as I'm done and being thrown into the washer immediatly.  Then I'll wash up with Dermoplast Poison Ivy Treatment/Wash.

I will never be without this most excellent product again!!!

It truly is miraculous!!!

I must do this dreaded job myself as I don't want anyone else to suffer if it goes badly.  I've got lots of experience in how to avoid it now while working in/around it.  I ignored pulling it up last year and it went forth and multiplied.  I cannot ignore it any longer. 

And now, on to happier thoughts.  :-)

A well camouflaged grey tree frog on our weathered window sill.

He's so cute!

Our chickens are moulting.  We've kept chickens for almost 15 years and I've never seen any look this pathetic!!  I'm giving them hard boiled eggs (crushed up, shell and all) for extra protein as well as their regular feed and scratch. 

From left to right...

Wellsummer, Americauna, Gold Laced Wyandott.

The Wyandott doesn't really appear to be moulting (the fuzz

on her tail is from the other hens pulling at her feathers.  Brutes!)

I still get an egg from her almost every day. 

But the other two are terrible--feathers missing, they're not laying

and they've lost weight.

I'll be glad when they're new feathers come in and they look

whole and healthy once again!

Just look at all those pinfeathers!!

I'm so excited about this little thrift shop find!  Dh had a pretty good day last week and we went shopping.  One of our stops was at our local Goodwill where I found this tiny little desk...

Toddler size!

As I looked closer I realized that I knew that little clown face in the

center of the upper part of the desk.

And those little red knobs.

The neurons in my brain were firing furiously.

Revelation...

I realized that I had a desk very similar when I was little.

Very little.

My most vivid memories of my desk are of wiping chalk

dust off of the inside groove where the chalkboard top rests

when it's closed.

When you erase the chalk marks some of the dust gets

caught underneath.

I can also remember the way the pegboard smelled when you

lifted the lid.

$12 for a little piece of my past.

I'm working to replace a few little things that I've lost through the

years (to our many moves as a child and getting flooded a

couple of times in my married life).

Funny how I didn't even remember this little piece of my life until

I saw it sitting there--waiting for me to come and take it home.

Now to get it cleaned up and find it a comfy spot in our home.

 I'm so happy to have this little jewel (back) in my life!

What I don't remember though is the little attatched seat.  Perhaps my desk didn't have a seat.  I'll have to see if my mom can remember.  :-)  It boggles my mind that this desk could be 40+ years old and in such wonderful shape.

It's the little things in life that give me so much pleasure.  :-)

Crock Pot Salsa

Yesterday I cooked up another batch of salsa. This was my third batch this year. The 15 pints that I made in August lasted a month. Yes, only ONE month! It was major salsa indulgence!!

After we ran out of the first batch Daughter #3 was having some serious withdrawal symptoms and decided to get out the big jug of picante sauce that had been sitting, neglected, in the fridge for weeks--and poured some into a small bowl. A couple of chips later she set the bowl down angrily and exclaimed “This is NOT the same!!!” I had to smile, partly because I knew exactly how she felt and partly because she didn't realize that anyone was party to her discontentment (she is my least likely of children to complain--this was a big deal).

So I made up a second batch--only I pressure canned it. I had concerns about the safety of just doing water bath canning and I decided to go the safest route. It was terrible. We couldn’t really tell the difference between it and store bought salsa.  No one will eat it.  Alas, we’ve become salsa snobs!!

For this newest batch I halved the recipe I’ve been using and cooked it in my Crock Pot. I decided to freeze it instead of canning this time. The flavor is awesome and my family is happy again.

Here’s my yummy salsa recipe…

Crock Pot Salsa

• 15-20 tomatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 green bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped
• 5 cups onions, chopped 
• 5 cloves garlic, minced (my kids actually prefer salsa without garlic but since I've been up to my armpits in minced garlic I put some in this time.)
• ½ cup jalapenos, seeded and finely chopped (Be sure to use rubber gloves when chopping hot peppers and make sure that you are careful not to touch your face while chopping.  I speak from painful experience!!  Respect the hot pepper!!)
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 cup vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar)
• 4 teaspoons sea salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 small cans tomato paste

Combine all ingredients and cook for approximately 4 hours on high in a large Crock Pot, stirring occasionally.  At the end of cooking time add a handful of cilantro if desired. Allow to cool. Place in desired freezer containers and freeze. Thaw when ready to use. Enjoy.  Makes 8 pints (give or take).

I chop everything by hand (as opposed to using a food processor) so when making the standard size batch it's an all day adventure for me.  I've also chopped all the veggies except for the tomatoes on one day and did the tomatoes and cooking on the next--to break up the tedium.  It's a labor intensive project but oh, so worth it!!  :-)

The beauty of this recipe is that, since it goes into the freezer, you can vary any of the vegetables to your own taste. I used the peppers I had available which were red, white, brown and orange and my tomatoes were red, green (the ripe kind of green), and orange. If you like your salsa hot just add hotter peppers. If you like it super child-mild add fewer hot peppers--or even omit them completely.  Experiment.  Have fun. There's a lot of play in this recipe--since it goes into the freezer.

Be sure that if you are canning salsa to follow a proven canning recipe so you don't get sick--or worse!!

This salsa turns out pleasantly chunky and is also a great substitute for canned Rotel tomatoes.  If you don't like "chunks" just toss it into the blender for a bit before packing it away in the freezer. 

Before I run out of tomatoes and peppers this harvest season I plan to cook up a nice big batch of Black Bean and Corn Salsa as well. It’s my absolute favorite salsa--especially spooned over scrambled eggs and cheese!! Oh the deliciousness!! Hopefully I’ll have enough ripe veggies soon!

Fall Is Around The Corner

Happy September everybody!! 

We've been having some rain lately.  Our tally from Isaac was almost 3 inches.  So that was nice.  And not a single gully washer!!  ;-)  There's talk of more rain in the forceast tonight and tomorrow.  Yay!

Everything is greening up nicely again.  Seems odd that normally, at this time of year, everything is turning brown and getting ready for fall.  What's "normal" anymore anyway?  :-P

For DH's birthday and our 31st anniversary this past week we were gifted with some money from DH's parents--and I have gleefully already spent my share of the booty!!  I was wanting to put in some fruits and ornamentals in a few of the limited spots that need some TLC around our place.  We miss our blackberries, raspberries, apples and peaches from the old place and wanted to try to stuff a few things in here at the new place.  I was searching for a small, disease resistant apple tree and discovered a new source of admiration and desire!!...

I bought (pictures are all from their website)...

Liberty Apple Tree

Small tree

Disease resistant

Crisp, sweet and tart.

Self pollinating!!

Perfect!

Elderberry Combo

2 different types for pollination.

Not only are the berries my heart's desire but

the leaves can be dried and crushed to put on

squash plants to repel Squash Bugs!  Yippee!!

Ours at the old place would have bore properly this year.

Dwarf Sand Cherry

Interesting history: A treat for the Westward

Pioneer as they crossed the Prairies.

Pink Rosa Rugosa

I've been wanting some of these for a long time

for those large, edible hips.  :-)

Mixed Butterfly Bush

Sadly, the one that Son #3 bought me for Mother's

Day a few years ago died after I dug it up when we

moved.  :-(

Chinese Wisteria

I've been wanting one of these vines for awhile but

have been afraid of how they can run wild.

I'll have to give it a go and hopefully it'll be

spectacular!

The prices were fantastic!!!  I'm going to go bonkers waiting for them to ship in November though!  :-)  My order qualified for 2 free trees so I'm hoping we'll get something wonderful!!  We shall see.  I'm excited!

Aside from this I am trying to figure out where to plant my fall garden and WHAT to plant.  I saw a neat idea on Pinterest for using an old trampoline frame for a garden coldframe/greenhouse.

The tutorial was at HowDoesShe but I didn't have any luck

getting to it.  I'm surethat DH can figure out how to design it 

easily--It's what he does.  :-)

(when he's having a good

day and isn't doing something else!)

But isn't this cool?!?!

If we decide to do this I will certainly post about it!

Fall is my most absolute favorite time of year!!  So much to do!  How about you?  Do you have any fall dreams or projects in mind?

Catching Up

Sorry I haven't posted more often.  Busy, busy, busy!!!  :-)

Aside from normal everyday stuff, I am working to preserve the veggies that have survived the horrible, killing heat.  I recently canned 15 pints of the best salsa I ever tasted!!  You can find out how to do it here.  And my latest project was "gummy worms" made from zucchini which you can learn about here.  None of my own pictures since I've just been too rushed. 

Our tomato plants are in a lull.  There are a few tomatoes that we have left to ripen and we have many new blooms but the tsunami of tomatoes is over for now.  I'm hoping for another go around in a few weeks or so.  I still haven't come close to meeting my quota of diced tomatoes that I had hoped for (100 pints and 50 quarts).  I managed, give or take, 25 quarts and 15 pints so far.  We eat them sliced for meals or for mid-day snacks too (and we do share with extended family and friends).  Plus there was the salsa mentioned above.  Not too bad, all things considered.  Sadly, I let a big batch get away from me when I couldn't find the time to process them and they ended up in the compost pile.  :-(  Ripe vegetables wait for no man (or woman!).

I've replanted cucumber seeds since the heat killed the others.  I did put up about 5 gallons of pickles and 30 smaller jars of relish.  I'm hoping to be able to process many more jars of pickles to get us through the winter--the ones that I made are already pretty much gone  The relish is from my all time favorite recipe found here.  I LOVE it!!

I bought some new green bean seeds to replant as well since I only ended up getting a meal's worth from ours (the heat burned the bush beans up and my pole beans got a mosaic virus so I pulled them up).  Gonna try to get those planted today.  Unless something weird happens weather-wise I should get a nice harvest before the cold weather truly hits.  I'm hoping for the best but considering how this year has went so far, I'm not holding my breath.  :-) 

My garlic harvest was disappointing.  The heads/cloves all turned out pretty small but I guess that I should be thankful that they survived at all.

It's time to be getting ready for a winter garden.  I'm hoping to make some coldframes like we did here.  I'd love to try winter cabbage and carrots especially.

And like most gardeners, I am already thinking about next year's garden and how to improve things.  We would really love to have all of the garden area close by and since our front yard was decimated by the chickens last fall/winter we're thinking about building a bunch of raised beds there for everything.  Thankfully we don't have neighbors or any home owners associations to throw a fit and we are rural enough that we don't have to worry about any city officials coming to demand we tear it all out since "front yards are for grass only".  Didn't you know?  Grrrrrrr!!

(click on the picture to read about the "war on gardens"!)

I mean honestly, this is an enviable work of art!!!

The other day I was walking around outside and saw this enormous wasp kind of thing buzzing clumsily about and wondered what in the world it was.  I had seen them before but never could keep it close long enough to identify it.  Then yesterday the kiddos skimmed this creature out of our pool...

Can you see the size of that stinger?  Ouch!

I finally got a chance to identify it at my leisure and discovered that it is a Cicada Killer.  I know that Cicadas do a lot of damage to the trees and such but I do love their buzzing in the dry days of summer.  In fact I can even tell you when I heard my first one this year... June 20th.  :-)  We have a lot of fun finding the empty Cicada shells (exoskeletons that they outgrow) and "playing" with them (putting them on our clothes or in our hair--the brave children put them on their faces.  :-P)

Son #3 in 2000 while we were in Michigan for the

birth of Son #5 (who was diagnosed with Hypoplastic

Left Heart Syndrome but was healed in the womb).

Excuse the bad exposure of this scanned photo!  ;-)

Daughter #1 with her Cicada "skins". 

Apparently she doesn't like them on her face like her

brother did!  :-)

I hope that everyone is enjoying their last few days of summer before Memorial Day hits and we have to truly start thinking about fall.  :-)

I'm Back

Break's over. 

I can't say that I have enjoyed not blogging.  Quite the opposite, me thinks.  I do like blogging and always seem to think of things to write about... until I sit down to do it, of course!!  ;-)

Honestly, I considered quitting and deleting my blog (again).  Why?  Life is hard.  It's difficult for me to put my thoughts and feelings down when my life is in turmoil and everything around me is, well... hard.  But the Lord calls me to carry on.  I don't know why.  So, for what it's worth, I'm back.

One of the things that's been really hard for me is to watch my beloved garden plants fry in the practically continuous triple digit temps.  We are in a severe drought area here in Missouri.  I try to conserve water as best as I can while trying my best to keep the useful plants alive.  I spot water as opposed to using sprinklers.  It's been a lot of work trying to keep up.  The lettuce, broccoli and cauliflower bit the dust long ago.  I was able to harvest a few of the broccoli plants but the cauliflower plants never even bore since it got too hot too soon.  We've lost the bush green beans and quite a few of our cucumber plants.  My pole beans got a mosaic virus and they are history too.  I will try to plant new bush beans and lettuce in mid August and hopefully they will do well.

I still have not recovered from the loss of my chickens.

On the bright side, I have tomatoes galore.  I've already canned 15 quarts and 8 pints of diced tomatoes while we have eaten them freely and shared with family and friends.  And there are still many more yet to harvest.  So I am happy about that for sure!!  :-)  The cucumbers were doing really well for quite some time and I made several gallons of pickles and 25 jars of sweet cucumber relish.

This is a sample of about how much I harvest of tomatoes,

cucumbers and peppers that I havest about every other day.

And that's with this killer heat and no rain!

Notice the dead, dry, brown grass.  :-(

We are in an area where the farmer's corn and soybean crops have dried and shrivelled in the sun, heat and lack of rain.  Even though I am very sure that it's probably all GMO stuff it still is hard for me to see all those dying plants.

Across the highway from us.

This would look normal in September--NOT July.

Can you see the dead tree to the right?  :-(

I'm worried about the effects that this drought is going to have on food supply and cost.  We are already having trouble making ends meet without higher food prices!!  And although I'm not a die-hard survivalist/prepper I wonder what we would do if our only food supply was what we could grow and forage for ourselves.  I suspect we would be mighty hungry!!  Not a pleasant thought.
 
On a lighter note, I saw this the other day while out watering the garden...

 At first I laughed and wondered what that crazy squirrel was doing.

After watching him for about 15 minutes I got rather concerned

that he wasn't moving and assumed that he must've been dead. 

The "bigger picture".

I was going to have DH help me get him down so that he wasn't just hanging there but when I came back he was gone.  I wondered if he might have fallen while doing his high-wire gymnastics and got the wind knocked out of him. 

Poof!  He's gone.  :-)

I'm sure glad he wasn't dead!!

Ah, it feels good to be back.  :-)