Happy Halloween!

Oops I certainly didn't do a very good job of blogging more often this month did I? Don't have a good excuse either, just haven't had a whole lot to say I guess, which if you know me that is not like me, I usually have something to say...
Well let see our new chickens have fit in very well, (we added 6 hens a couple weeks ago) and they are doing good, Mr. Buff (rooster) is very happy since we added to his harem,  6 eggs yesterday, a couple of the hens we bought were going through molt, plus with the weather cooling off, I am happy with 4-6 new eggs a day, and we did get a couple of leghorns which lay white eggs, so we have white,brown, and blue pretty combo actually. 
It's halloween, we had our annual harvest party at church on saturday night, and it went very well, we had 441 people come through the doors which was the best turn out yet, and it sure was fun, I usually help in the kitchen and Steve works one of the games, the kids just have a riot!  It's safe and fun and they walk out with tons of candy.
Where we live we don't have any trick or treaters, which actually is ok with me.
I have been busy making soaps and lotions, sales are good and hoping that they will even get better as we get closer to Christmas, yikes Christmas already, the older I get the faster it goes for sure, I'm sure God has a very good reason for that :) 
My girlfriend and I are planning a road trip this saturday, goin to the bitchen kitchen, can't wait!!
Well I will leave you with some new pictures and I won't promise to blog more often as that doesn't seem to happen. 

Mr. Mac and Sylvester sunning 

My first boy doll

tote I made for my niece

Sylvester thinking he is a dog.

Mr. Mac   aka   punkin boy 

A day off?

So I took today as a vacation day, just because the weather has been sooo nice, and I figured hey why not?  ok it's 1:30 in the afternoon, I haven't been outside yet and just now sat down, hmmm gonna have to rethink vacation days I'm thinking.. 
Well it's been a while since I have had the time to sit down and catch up on my blogging, and now that I'm here not all that much to report I quess, either I lead a really boring life, or just a busy dull one?  lol  We did have a not so nice incident last week we lost Mrs. Buff  (Buff our only rooster, favorite hen) his name is Buff so it was only appropriate to name her Mrs. Buff.  We lost her to prolapse and unless you have ever raised chickens you might not now what that really means, it's not very pretty nor very nice to really talk about, we really tried to save her, but just wasn't going to be. It is truly one of the grossest things I have ever had to deal with I think.  So we are down to two hens and one rooster, just praying God will bless us with chicks, it's possible :)
Went to a women's retreat last weekend, oh had such a wonderful time, truly a blessing and relaxing time, so fun to spend time like that with other christian women I don't think we realize how important community is with other believers, lately God has really been pointing that out to me in many different ways, love when He shows you things like that in different ways but with the same meaning, know what I mean?  Our retreat was held at http://www.graceadventures.org/ we went a couple of years ago too it is a really nice place to spend time at. We are planning on going again next year, we stayed at a friends cabin about 1/2hr from the camp, (it was cheaper that way) or you can stay at the camp itself, but staying at the cabin was really nice!  Saturday afternoon we had time to run into Pentwater and shop the shops (a few of them) stumbled upon http://www.youtube.com/watch?  v=zR7AMQy3o6s&noredirect=1 the bitchen kitchen it was the neatest kitchen store I have ever been in, we are going to do a road trip before the snow flies up there, I think you could spend all day and not see the whole store, very very cool!  
Had to make a few orders of lotion today, was going to try and get a few batches of soap in too, but I guess that waits for a few days, I kind of ran out of day. My display is almost done for my soaps to put in my friends office, kind of nervous yet excited for that.  The soap is so nice though I guess you don't realize the difference between home made and store bought until you start using it, but what a huge difference it is.
Finished my little lamb, and am now working on a boy doll, he's turning out really pretty cute, anxious to get him done. I thought that would make a unique baby gift, to go along with my blanket I'm making and also some homemade baby soap., we shall see :) 
Sarah came out for the girls yesterday, haven't been seeing them as often as in the summer, but we all get busy don't we?  Now that Kamilah is in school I know time is even more precious to Sarah. They are two sweet little girls.  Well I will leave you with a couple of pictures and hopefully I won't wait so long to blog again.

our two kids - Mr Mac (black) and Allie 

my little lamb

Kamilah and Jazzy

Kamilah (left) has a ladybug on her hand

and of course Jazzy wants to hold it.

Happy Fall

Well it's officially fall, and I must say I'm rather glad it is!  Fall is my favorite time of year, I love the warm windy days, just that smell of fall in the air, leaves burning, leaves falling to the ground, all the weeds dying off, I do realize what comes after fall, but I wouldn't want to live anyplace that didn't have such a nice change of seasons.  We got the garden pulled last weekend, it was a really nice windy afternoon, and it was time for it to go, we weren't going to be getting anything more out of it.  Steve picked all the pumpkins, our largest one weighed in at 107#, our pumpkins did better this year than they have in the past, we also had quite a few watermelons but even though they looked good so far the insides haven't been quite ripe I guess.  Made applesauce last night, oh did it ever turn out yummy!! I ended up with 17 pints plenty for us, and I actually put the pressure canner away today, glad to get that out of the way, it's been out since green beans and it takes up so much room on the stove, but yet it's a hassle to put away and take out everytime you need it to, know what I mean? If you can I'm sure you do. I didn't do any tomatoes this year, I still have salsa, and stewed tomatoes and bbq sauce from last year, and we lost most of our tomatoes to those big ugly greenworms,  maybe next year....
Going to a women's retreat with women from church next weekend, looking forward to that, it's always so nice to spend a weekend with sisters in Christ, such good fellowship, and I'm sure we will be blessed!
Tomorrow we are going to have a spagetti dinner fundraiser for our retreat to help deter some of the cost, we also sold cookbooks and did pretty good with that too, we have 13 women going,  yep I'm looking forward to it!
Finally figured out some packaging for my soaps, and they are selling pretty well, I don't know if you have ever used homemade soaps, but there is just no comparison between homemade and store bought, what a difference, like everything else homemade, you just can't buy it in the store! 
Had my two granddaughters here for the day, what a treat, they haven't been coming out much lately, don't want to leave their mom, which I feel bad that she doesn't get any time away, and I don't get to see them as often as I would like either. 
Well I will leave you with some pictures and hopefully blog at you before too terribly long.
Enjoy your fall!

some of my soaps

Steve with one of the bigger pumpkins

nice little loot

this is the 107# one

and more soap

Val

A successful saturday

Why is it saturdays have to just go so fast? I sure don't pack into a saturday what I used to be able to pack into a saturday, seems as though the older I get the shorter the days, good thing I have tomorrow afternoon, cuz I'm making soap!!  I have another 1/2 bushel of corn on the cob to can, but that is going to wait until monday after work I guess, did get 1/2 done today though, and we also squeezed a gallon worth of our concord grapes, Steve is making wine out of that, I am going to try my hand at making grape juice, trust me we have plenty of grapes, I am just amazed how well our grapes did this year, not sure if it's a bumper crop year for grapes or what, but out of a 5 gallon bucket we got about 1 gallon of juice. Used my new sauce master, stopped yesterday and got the spiral attachment for grapes, and that thing works really slick!  I can hardly wait to do apples this year, mmmm homemade applesauce is just my favorite!
The kids came out today, it was nice to send them home with a dozen eggs and Sarah loaded up on bar soap, what an awesome feeling to know I will never buy store bought bar soap again and I think I'm safe to say she won't either. 
I made my own dishsoap this evening, it made about 10 dawn bottles worth, so about $20 worth, and I think I'm really gonna like it, I used tea tree and eucalyptus essential oils I got the recipe here :http://lizzylanefarm.wordpress.com/2008/11/17/homemade-liquid-dish-soap/  I did use white vinegar instead of lemon juice though thought that might cut grease better, and I had a bar of zest to get rid of and used that for the bar soap worked perfect grated to just 2 cups.
I will say I am pretty tired tonight, got up about 7ish this morning and trust me thats sleeping in for me, when you are used to getting up at 4:30 every morning 7 has a really nice ring to it and NO ALARM CLOCK! 
and have been going pretty much ever since, my legs hurt today and I know why, cuz I was on them ALL day. 
Well I will leave you with some random pictures, check out the garden pictures and the knitting section my finished baby blanket is there.
Well hope you all have a very blessed Sunday, I am so looking forward to going to praise and worship my Heavenly Father tomorrow,  we missed last week as we were up north really miss it when I don't go to church.  
Blog at you soon!

the girls on grandpa's tractor

some awesome clouds this past week.

Val

LOOK WHAT I GOT!

This was my handmade surprise from my Heart Swap partner in South Africa, It's so pretty actually this picture doesn't do it justice,  it sure was fun, I think everyone likes surprises no matter how old we get right?  Thanks Marie!!
Well I'll be back later I have house work to do :(  where is that maid?