Happy birthday to a wonderful 15 year old

Do you know how beautiful you are to me?

Do you know the hopes and dreams I have for your life?

Flowers picked by her brother to decorate the table

Not birthday cake.. rather a milk tart :)

Fruit salad at her request.. I fancied it up a little ;)

Happy birthday sweetheart, I love watching you turn into a wonderful Godly young woman.

Macaroni and Cheese Casserole.

Growing up, my mom used to make a macaroni, egg, tomato and cheese casserole.  I have no idea exactly how to make it, only that the cheese went on over the tomatoes and it made a good dinner.

I can't find the exact recipe I used, but it was good and my family all gave it a thumbs up!

Yum!

Silkworms

This year I tracked down a source for silkworms so my kids could experience raising them.  DH and I had them when we were kids, and it was always interesting to watch them grow and then see the cycle of their lives.  If you have an abundance of mulberry trees, you should try some yourself :)  The cocoons from these little guys is where silk comes from.. yes, really.

Munching on mulberry leaves

Spinning his silk cocoon

Everything's growing

 The flowers are growing beautifully....

The corn is growing, thirsty work keeping them weeded....

 Bandit is growing, as are the weeds....

The collection of farm junk is growing... (but this WILL be a nice little trailer someday!)

 and... the piglets are growing!

I love this life.

Blackberry jam

A friend was nice enough to invite us over for a morning of blackberry picking.  We picked.. and picked... and picked.

And made 7 lovely jars of blackberry jam :)

A goat milkstand for a friend

My hubby built this goat milking stand for a friend.  She needed one a little sturdier than ours though, since she wanted it for boer goats, and for doing hooves, worming, etc.  So DH put sides on it, and used 4 x 4 posts for the legs.  That should hold them nicely!

Pig housing revised

After losing some piglets which were possibly squished or otherwise abused by our boar, we decided to give our two sows each their own secure quarters.  The pig shed got split down the middle and we built two pens for them.  Bubbles (the boar) got to free roam in the larger pasture.

Little Miss, down to only one little piglet