Well...incase you thought I disappeared...I've just been busy:)

Here is the update...
  Garden News.. Well it started to look bad after the heat of August and September really stressed alot of plants out.  I ended up pulling up those things that really didn't fair that well...watermelon, cantelope, summer squash, etc... and started planning for the fall and winter garden season.  Yes... I may be nuts but I planted over 50 cabbage seedlings, several beds of various lettuce and spinach mix and a handful of broccoli and cauliflower plants.  I still have tomatoes like crazy...trying to take over every available space. I also nursed back a few bean vines that are really producing now and planted some peas.  We will see how things will fair as the cooler weather starts to move our way.  For now we are still very busy in the garden:) I am beginning to see my spring and summer chores turn into a year round task.  I have found it very rewarding...it is a blessing to be able to provide fresh food for the family from only a few feet from the house. 
  Horse News... There is good news and bad news.... the bad news first. About a month ago we lost our yearling stud colt.  He was out in a paddock with his sire and full brother Tank.   Our cousins found him dropped dead in the middle of the field.  When I came to him it was evident he had been gone for many hours.  It was very sad.  Such a beautiful colt...we had hoped to do sooo much with.  So many scriptures fled through my mind.  The mind of man plans his way but the Lord directs his paths... there is a time and place for everything...the Lord gives and takes...etc.  We buried him next to Sissy under the oak over looking the beautiful valley in the back of the property.  Aaron said it was one of the sadder things he has had to do.  But we realize how we have faired really well over the years and haven't lost many horses,   by Gods grace. The good news, Camile is doing really well.  Aaron has really helped me to realize some of the finer conscepts in horsemanship and I think she is showing the results of that.  She has been a joy to ride.  I hope that she will be well recieved at the Triangle sale in January. She really is a nice filly.  On another note... Moomoo has really shown an interest in horses.  She would ride Bella rain or shine, day or night I think if we let her.  She likes to brush and bath them and feed them horse cookies ... "with hand flat" she would instruct you. We have gone on several trail rides together ..."up to gwampaws house" and she really like to "chop" (trot).  She is very cute:)
  Kiddo News...  The babies are all growing up.  Bowen started school and has really enjoyed it. He calls it all Math, but he does like all the subjuects.  Baby Sara has proved to be just as much an outdoor babies as her siblings.  She is commonly covered in dirt and now that she is on her feet she runs from place to place.  She really is an all terrain baby.  Moomoo has been really telling stories these days...she will tell you all about her day and yesterday and "Marrow"... the high topic is usually horses "Bella and Mile" specifically.
 Thats it for now...more later, Lord Willing

The Garden ...or should I say Jungle

Well the garden continues to grow...on its own and as we continue to add to it. We recently added more potatoes and 6 rows of corn. With continual planting I hope to have continual harvests deep into the late fall.




The tomatoes are on the verge of explosion and the 30 or so Jalapenos are waiting to meet them in the food processor for some HOT homemade salsa!!! Wahoo.



In other garden news, the Japanese beetles have been trying to devour my beans ( now over 12 feet tall) and all my fruit trees (except the pears and apples). They are all really trying to put out new growth, some even doubling in size since we planted in the spring. But I am sure the onslaught of leaf destruction by the beetles will set them back a little. I am trying to combat them with a trap and spraying every other evening as the sun goes down (spray in the day causes scorch to the leaves...maybe equally as devastating as beetle bites. Supposedly they have a short adult life span ....A MONTH!! So hopefully, if I can eliminate most of the visible adults I can decrease their numbers... and possible help the plants thrive.



Also, we have harvested a few of our first Ichiban Eggplant. Bowen was thrilled. I cooked my first one chopped in a slew with a roast in the oven... the meal turned out great! It also had a few Bell Peppers from the garden.


Sorry no pictures I am waiting for a battery charger to come in the mail so I can continue to document the garden... although it really just looks like a jungle these days.  Hard to tell where one plant ends and another begins...or are there really any walkways in the midst of the green:) Praise the Lord for His kindness...

The Camile Update!!

Well my lovely, little filly Camile has been out and about for about a month now.  She is looking really good.  The rest in the pasture with retiree's and Squiggy was just the ticket.  She has grown up a little and gained a lot of weight.  I am looking forward to bringing her back up and putting some more rides on her.  Her 2 year old tooth on one side is still pretty swollen.  Hopefully, it will receed with no big deal.  I will probably wait until then to pull her in. 

Here is the rascally Chadwick Crew, with Camile (sorrel on the outside, left) and Squiggy (the little guy on the right.

Everyone is really doing well.  Fat and frisky for the most part. Now if we could just eleviate the bug infestation...it would be pert'near perfect for them:)

These are a few pictures my cousin took of the flowers that are in full bloom around the garden. I have really enjoyed the color they bring to the garden and hope that they do help with the pesky bugs!

I am still waiting for my sunflowers, which took a hit in the last storm.  I thought I planted the "mini" variety but they stand well over 8 ft and are still growing.  I lost 6-8 large plants, but still have a handful standing and I am looking forward to their blooms:)

The Garden Update

As the days eek by... with watering prunning and watching the garden is begining to put out a few tastey veggies and fruits.  Here is the photo tour of what the garden looks like now...but these will be old before you know it.  It is amazing what God does when you water a little and the sun shines down. 

This is the entrance to the garden...sunflowers in the front (supposed to be the mini variety), two cherry tomatoes and some petunias.

These are the Sugar Snap Peas and the Snow Peas.  We have had two pretty good pickings, about 40 peas each.  The kiddos like eating them fresh picked and I used them in stir fry. 

These are the green beans... you can't see from the photo, but they have extended beyond their five foot trellis by 12 inches...wow.

These are a mixed variety of peppers and our eggplants.  The eggplants have been assulted by bugs recently... I hope they pull through.

This is the squash and zuccini bed number 1.... they are full of blooms and little veggies.

Squash and zuccini patch #2,

This is the Acorn Squash mound and a few little Hubbard squash.  Also mixed marigolds in rows.  The Acorn's need to be trellised badly as every day the grow more and more...reaching thier feelers out for support.

The next few photos are of our latest expansion. The melon patch!

This is a row of small climbing watermellon with alternating Nestersium.

This is the infant cantelope plants, encircled with pest detering flowers. 

These are more juvenille beds, mixed with green and yellow wax beans, zuccini, geraniums, nestersiums, and petunias. 

This is the sweet potatoe patch...also in need of a trellis.

And finally the fruit trees, almost lost in the sea of green.  We still have a few little fruits growing bigger and bigger.  We harvested 6 total Montmorency Cherries.

In an other garden news we have ripped out our broccoli, and lettuce, and are working on filling their vaccancies with more peppers and tomatoes.  They were .25 - .50 cents each so I figured it was worth it.   We also harvested, two blue berries.  Enough to get a taste:)

Lastly, the flowers are also about to really show there stuff. 

This is my favorite bed, petunias spilling out...marigolds and zinnia in the middle and sunflowers as a backdrop.  Should be quite nice in full bloom:)

 

Well it has been a while since my last post, but I wanted to catch up on the adventures with Camile.  I was able to catch her, saddle her and ride her down the road without any hitches. Well... she did want to lay down when I was cinching her up...but I rember Little doing the same thing.  Hmmm...princess pony syndrome:) Anyway, she went down the road well, through the forrest, across logs and puddles....she did wonderful.  We dicided it would be best for her to give her a little more time to mature. She is still very young and being out with  a few of her brothers in the pasture would help her physically and mental mature more naturally.  Out of all of Gyps babies she has the most tender feet, so pounding the rocks as a youngster will hopefully help. 

So we headed out to grain later that evening and decided to take her on out an release her.  I was going to walk her...but I like to say...why walk a horse when you can ride it.  So I hoped on bareback and followed the truck up the hill.  She did great.  My boney behind didn't seem to phase her and she flew up that hill.  Some long trotting and a lot of loping.  Man o'man... riding bareback can sure be a workout. I was pretty sore from holding on with my rarely used upper inside thigh:) But what a blessing to cross another milestone on her before releasing her into the wild:)

She actually didn't want to stay (she probably missed her buddy Bella) but a few encounters with the hot wire changed her direction.  After a few days she is just one of the horses in the herd and I think she looks better then when I stuck her out there:)

I thought I would also do a separate segment on the orchard, now named the 12 apostles …because of the twelve trees that have started our little orchard. Their introduction is as follows; two apples (granny smith and red delicious), two apricots (both tilton), two pear (both moonglow, an Asiatic pear), 3 cherry (Montmorency, Bing, and Tartarian) and 3 plum (Methley, Bruce and Super Sweet). I have documented some of the fruits already on the trees…what a treat…fruit the first year

Red Delicious Apple

Montmerency Cherries

Apricot

 and finally a Super Sweet Plum. 

Well I hope to do a little segment on the blog to follow the growth of the garden. Instead of just posting random photos … I will try to post a few photos following the lives of a few of the little planties

The first set of pictures will introduce the garden

This is the entrance... their are two cherry tomatoes in the green tubs, strawberries in the tan tubs with sunflowers and zinnia in the center. And  a handful of petunias (my new fav flower)

This is the onion/ clover patch...their are mostly red onions but the thick bunchy ones to the right of the photo are OK native wild onions.

 These are the peas, snow and sugar snaps... they are quite tangled but don't seem to be bothered by one another.

These are pole beans on one side of the fence and Radish on the other.  Along with some cute little Marigolds.

This is squash and zuccini patch number 1. This patch we started from seed.

These are the pickling cucumbers and the buckets on the outside of the fence are sunflower, zinnia, and marigold.

This is Squash and zuccini bed number two.  These little plants I purchased at a local nursery.  I also have a run of pickling cucumbers near the back of the bed and a flower bed against the trellis (Snaps, Cosmos, and marigold).

This is the broccoli almost ready to harvest.

This is the Acorn Squash Mound... with a marigold bed in the front and a handful of sunflowers along the lattice.

This is my attempt at a hanging tomatoe plant in a five gal. bucket

These are tomatoes of several varieties...and there are 3 more rows on the other side of the lattice. There are also potatoes in the two far tan tubs.  To the right are peppers, as well as in the near tan tub.

Well I thought I would put a post up about Bella. She is leaving the land of mother hood and getting back into the working horse string! Although, she has been ridden on and off over the last few years…namely by the kiddos taking lessons and trail ridding… she is now official “THE” using horse for Diamond M Livestock. The others, Gyp, Tank, Camille and Squiggy… are in the process of being sold or trained to join Bella in the workforce. She is a very nice mare not only by lineage and parental achievement in a variety of disciplines but also in her individual. She is a one of a kind mare (although, nothing is impossible for God) and everything from her mind to her physique is amazing.

This photo of her warming up is just prior to Aaron roping a hind foot of a few colts, while the boys climb aboard. Bella is sporting a hand-crafted tall curb bit that was made by my uncle, Glenn Schmidt. She really likes the bit and works well in it.

Floral Array

Although, I have mostly been busy gardening in the fruit and vegetable category… I have also put some effort into some floral array around the yard. Not only can some flowers pack a potent punch to pests and other garden intruders but some can really bring beauty to an area. This year has been a great wild flower year and I have seen so many neat flowers all around that God has just placed about.

 I have placed a few bulbs (freesia, hyacinth, and daffodil) along the walk way leading to what used to be our yard (recently removed ). They have been blooming in all sorts of colors, mostly yellow, for a few weeks now.

 But what is really exciting is the Roses! Two roses that Debra got for me late in the season, last year (I think) are heavy with a vibrant fushia-colored rose. They are quite spectacular.

Hope you like my flower photos H2:)