More Hens and another Guinea Hen ........................

( Three of the Elders )

( Here's the male guinea trying to get a glimpse of the new Guinea Hen , she's hiding behind that piece of tin , playing hard to get ~ LOL ~)

Saturday afternoon , my Mom and I went to a friend's house to pick-up some hens he wanted to get rid of. They're older hens , but he said they were still laying. We'll probably prepare them for the freezer this Fall , it's just to hot to tackle that job in the heat we've been having. He gave us 5 hens and 1 guinea hen. I made the mistake of introducing the hens to the other hens to soon , but it's so hot I didn't want to leave them in the small plastic coops. I tried to put them in a small fenced area within the fenced run , but 3 of them flew out , so I just let them be. When I went back that afternoon to check on them I had 2 dead hens. I lost Dandelion and one the hens we had just brought home. I think they may have fought until they died of a heat stroke , it was very hot that day.
We've had another guinea sitting on a nest for about 3 weeks , but she came off of it for some reason last week and didn't go back. I checked the nest a few days later , there were no eggs or shells. I think maybe a snake had made a visit before I did. I haven't had any hens go broody , so I couldn't take the eggs and try to hatch them like I did last year. The friend who gave us these hens has an incubator , so I'm hoping when I find the next guinea nest I can borrow his incubator and hatch a few keets. One of the male guinea has already claimed that new guinea hen , he's been staying real close by. So I guess he's happy that I brought her home , she was the only guinea at the other farm and looked out of place with all the chickens. I'm not sure if she'll join the guinea flock , yesterday afternoon she did go out with them for little while , but she came back to the coop to roost last night. Time will tell , maybe she'll stay with the chickens and lay her eggs in the coop nest , that would be great.

Hope everyone is having a good week , we've finally had a break with the heat and it feels wonderful. So I need to get this posted and head back out to the gardens , time to weed , weed , weed.

Thanks for all the comments about the honey prices yesterday , I guess were're somewhere in the middle range with honey prices.

~ Many Blessings ~
JoyceAnn

Ahhh Sugar ...... Ahhhh Honey .... Honey

Dh bought honey from our local beekeeper yesterday and the price had skyrocketed. Last year we paid 8.50 for a quart , but when we went to buy more , he didn't have any and said last year wasn't very productive. So I bought a quart from the marketplace , it was 12.99 a qt , I knew the price was going to be higher there. But now the local beekeeper has raised his price to 12.00 a quart , it's getting so expensive. We bought 4 quarts , so we'll have honey for a little while. I had planned to get a bee hive within two years , but I may have to get one sooner. So how much do you pay for a quart of local honey were you live ?

~ Bee Blessed ~

JoyceAnn

~ National Pollinator Week Celebration ~

This past Saturday , Curious J and I visited our local organic marketplace , the N.C. Cooperative Extension and the Chatham County Beekeepers were having a National Pollinator Week celebration.

Curious J watching the demonstration of a beekeeper working with his bees , we saw a baby bee emerging from it's egg.


This nice lady was showing him how to make a beeswax candle .

................... you roll it , slow and steady.

This display had the Queen Bee marked with a blue dot and if you found her , you received a paper button that said " I found the Queen Bee ". We spotted her so we both got a button.

There were different flavors of honey you could taste , they all tasted wonderful. My favorites were the lavender and the tupelo honey.

This lady was demonstrating paper making , all the children made a small sheet of paper.

The herb gardens are beautiful at the marketplace , there was a band playing up on the deck.

Another corner of the herb garden .......................

I hope to have an herb garden that's as beautiful as this one one day and some honey bees to help pollinate it. We had a wonderful time , Curious J really enjoyed learning about honey bees and it was a very relaxing event.

~ Bee Blessed ~

JoyceAnn

~ Sunday's Blessing ~

Hope Your Day is Blessed with Much Beauty !!

JoyceAnn

~ Mother Moon's Blogiversary Giveaway ~

There's a wonderful giveaway happening in blogland , so blop over to Mother Moon's Message and check it out , just click the button on my sidebar to read about giveaway.

~ Peaceful Blessings to Everyone ~

JoyceAnn

~ ~ Blackberry Picking Time ~ ~

Basket and Boots .........................


Early Morning ..................... Long Shadow



Loaded Vines ..........................................



Blackberry Cobbler and Jelly in the making , Yummo !




Hope Your Weekend's Blessed !
JoyceAnn

Green beans , Tomatoes ....................................

Yesterday afternoon , Hubby and I rode over to my Mom's to eat supper with her. Afterwards we ventured out to her garden to check-out the sunflowers. I gave her a few seeds from my mammoth sunflowers I grew last year , her sunflowers are around 7-8 ft tall. I'm looking forward to seeing them bloom.

She has running okra planted this year , this is the first time she's ever grown this. My uncle gave us seeds , I haven't planted mine , but I'm curious to see what Mom's look like when it fruits.

Her tomatoes did great this year .......................


she's so proud of these beauties.

When we left Mom's I realized that I had forgot my camera , so we turned around and went back to get the camera. On the way back I saw the most gorgeous sunset , the sun was going down behind a grove of trees , it was such a beautiful bright shade of pink. I wish I would have had my camera to take a pic. I miss seeing the sunsets , since the trees have leaves , I don't have nice views like I did in the winter.

My Mom and I bought some green beans from a local farmer , so I started snapping beans last night. Today I'm canning those wonderful beans. I have green beans growing , but I don't grow as many as we like to can for the winter months.


This morning when I went to the chicken coop , I found Sneaky Snake lounging up top. I tried to get him down to remove him , but he was determined that he wasn't leaving , so DH had to get rid of him.

Who's that in the garden (LOL) !

Hope everyone is having a good week.

~ Garden Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

Little Froggy and I ......................................

headed out to the park Saturday morning. We took the sand toys , but he wasn't interested in playing with them. He wanted to walk and explore , so we hiked up to the small stream that runs through the park. After checking the stream out , we found this huge rock to climb on. There was a little bug on the rock that caught Little Froggy's eye , so he studied it for awhile.

As we were walking I spotted mullein blooming.

I found this beautiful little flower blooming , I don't know what it is and I haven't had time to i.d. it. If you know what it is , please let me know. I wish the photo was better , but it's a bit blurred.

Little Froggy was collecting rocks as we were walking , he picked up a couple that were as big as his head and wanted me to carry them. But I talked him out of that (LOL).

When he saw the park bench , he decided it was time for a rest. He sat there for a few seconds and then he said " I'm hungry " , guess all that walking and picking up rocks , worked up his appetite. So we headed back to the car and came home to eat.

~ Peaceful Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

In the Garden ................

It's been very busy around here , working in the garden and helping with the grands , plus all the other chores. But here's a quick update to show what's happening in the garden

The sunflowers have came up , they're about 2 inches tall.

The squash and jalapeno peppers have been weeded and mulched .

The tomatoes are growing nicely and starting to bloom. I'll be mulching and adding the tomato cages this week.

Looking forward to some salad tomatoes ..............

and the garlic has been hung and is drying , I need to start braiding it this week too.

~ Garden Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

Happy Solstice !!

Awwww ............. the lazy days of summer are upon us !!

~ Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

~ The Herb Garden ...............................

has grown this year. Earlier this Spring , I pulled the Colonel Kentucky Spearmint out of the large garden bed and put it in a tub. I didn't want it spreading in the bed and I haven't decided were I will plant it permanently , so for now it will live in the tub.

The parsley is flowering and going to seed , hope to get some of it removed next week. I also need to weed around the herb bed.


I finally decided were I wanted to plant the two lavender plants I bought awhile back.



My sister gave me some Lamb's Ear and Yarrow sprouts when I visited her this week. I'm not sure were I want to plant them , so I put them in pots for now.


The Echinacea is beautiful this year.
I've been drying the leaves for tea.


This little fellow decided it would be cool to hangout on the moon :)

Hope everyone has a great weekend !

~ Happy Herbal Blessings ~
JoyceAnn

Down to the River ....................................

Curious J has poison ivy , so he couldn't go to his summer daycare provider the past 3 days , so we've been hanging out and doing some fun stuff.

Yesterday we went down to the river to explore , it was a very hot day , so into the water we run.


This is the river were I spent so much time at when I was his age , we would go fishing near this area below the dam. My Daddy loved boating , camping , fishing and swimming , so we spent almost every weekend at the river or the beach. The area has changed though , a few years ago , the old dam was torn down in this area. The old electric plant still stands , so we explored the plant a little while we were there.


Curious J checked out a book from the library this week that featured fun science projects , we made a parachute man to learn about wind resistance.

He's coming in for a landing !

We made this plaque with plaster , Curious J and K Gray painted it. I think they did a great job with the painting. It's been a busy week , but I've enjoyed our adventures.

~ Be Blessed ~

JoyceAnn