Pictures

This post will just be a conglomeration of pictures, so enjoy.


HULK THE FROG



This is the coon that I caught about two weeks ago.






We canned some tomatoes that we got for a bargain at the local produce market. Here is a bad picture of one that is floating in boiling water so that we can peel that skin off. And the next one is of the chopped tomatoes.



Here is a picture of some herbs from our garden that I made into iced tea.


These are some plaques that I stenciled on and sold. I have been doing a lot of these for selling, but I never seem to be able to get them into a store, because I sell them almost immediately. The Frau Meister's Mercantile said I can sell them in their store in Santa Anna.



Here is a picture mom snapped while I was making Sugar Cookies. I made a pink frosting with strawberry extract for flavoring, and it worked out great.


Our sweet potatoes are flowering, and Robert got a wonderful photo of one of the blooms.


That is all for now. Have a blessed day.

Tracy

Auctions, Coons and Hulk the frog.

Well, it has been a little bit since our last post but I will fill y'all in.

The raccoons have been thick out here lately and so we have been setting traps and closing the animals up extra tight. Ms. Irby lost some chickens, and so did Mr. Plumley and Mr. Woods. I caught a big coon ( with a live trap ) down at the pigs a couple of weeks ago. They like to eat the pig food from the feeders.

I have been keeping the rabbits in a big cage that sits on the grass, it growing up so fast here lately. I put them in the cage in the morning, and put the back in their little cages at night. They are so much happier now. The grass is very good for them and the exercise is great for their little metabolisms. It is so much better than being in a little cage and sleeping all day. They still sleep during the day, but not half as much as before. And the grass also cleans out their insides. So I think I will be building some rabbit tractors here shortly. Dad gave me some lumber and I have some scrap wire, so I am working on plans for them right now. I have seen rabbit tractors before at a friend's house, but never really looked at the design.

I also went to an auction in Coleman this week with Ms. Irby and Mrs. Sifford. I loved it and the stuff went for crazy cheap. I bought a stoneware dishes set for Jennifer's hope chest for only 2.00 ! The set was cute and had ten dinner plates, ten dessert plates, ten saucers and ten cups. It was white with blue, yellow and pink lines around the edges and the cups were blue. I bought 9 large drinking glasses for 2.00 and 8 frosted scotch glasses for the same price. I kept 4 of each type of glasses for my hope chest and the others for everyday use. Then I bought 5 ice trays for 1.00 because we Dad has been wanting to start making ice ( which we did last night and it worked great) and a ice bucket for 2.00. I bought some other stuff for Mom's kitchen as well.

The children have been keeping busy digging little tunnels in the dirt hill from the double dug beds, and I have to say that they are pretty impressive. They have multiple entries and twist and turn every which way. They look like the inside of anthills. They also brought out their bats and balls that we got from the McCauleys in California. They have been playing with those a lot lately, too. Jennifer caught a huge frog from our front pond the other day. I mean this thing is HUGE. They named it Hulk, and the name fits.

Well, I could go on and on, but I have to go help make supper.

The Bunker Eldest

Wet and Cool at the Ranch

Hello again, Tracy here with the latest updates.

The Sunday meal was excellent! We had beef brisket, cold pasta salad, stewed sweet potatoes, Alfredo pasta, mesquite bread, tomatoes with garlic sauce, green beans with bacon, watermelon, "Peanut Butter Oatmeal M&M" cookies and cherry cheesecake( My absolute favorite dessert!). Needless to say, we came home stuffed. Mr. Plumley brought us some sweet potato chips from H*E*B, and they were very good. So when we dig up our sweet potatoes I will try to find a recipe for those.

It is rainy here today. We have gotton about three inches total since last night. Praise the Lord for His provision.

Dad bought 3 10 pound boxes of bacon at the Bangs Grocer on Tuesday. And today we are in the process of canning it. I might post our process for canning bacon later, but now I have to go settle some children down.

The Bunker Teen

Our Process Driven Week

This week has been very slow and steady. Very..... Process driven. But it has been interesting in it's own way. On Monday we did a lot of prep work on our fall garden. We weeded the millions of weeds out of it, and gave them to the chickens. And then we cultivated the beds and replanted the walking onions. They are doing very well after the rains we had the last few weeks. Tuesday was shopping day, and we went to town and bought groceries. Wednesday was Laundry Day and we ( the children and I) did a lot of handwashables. Then on Thursday we just did basic cleaning and I caught up on some reading. We also took showers that night. Then on Friday, the Preparation of the Sabbath we did just that, cleaning and polishing and dusting and washing and shining and all that good stuff. And Jennifer and I went up to the Sifford barn to be trained to milk Winnie, the LaMancha goat. We will be taking care of the and her little kid, Minnie (a.k.a. Minnie Winnie) while Mr. and Mrs. Sifford go on a little trip to Southern Texas.That day we also watered the animals twice, so as to avoid unnecessary work on the Sabbath. Then on Saturday we read and rested. What a nice, enjoyable way to end the week!

We are getting geared up for SUPER Ranchfest here at the land, also! The ladies have been planning meals and lots of exciting things for us to do during Ranchfest.

Well, we have to go clean the Motorhome, do dishes, and put away some clean laundry, so that is it for now.

The Bunker Cleaning Crew

Giveaway at My Mountain Morning

Over at Mrs. Bush's blog, she is giving away this neat book. Go check it out at http://mountainmorning.blogspot.com/. She has many neat givaways, and Mom won a Quilting book from her last giveaway.

Tracy