Those pesky deer

Deer are lovely creatures and I like to see them from time to time, but not in MY garden!!! Last week as I was picking the tomatoes to can, I noticed several of MY sunflowers were missing their heads. I don't mean something was chewing on them. I mean they were completely gone.

Surely those squash bugs wouldn't do that. It took me a couple of minutes to figure out it was deer coming in at night to eat MY sunflowers that I have been looking forward to all summer. The neighbor's dogs are completely falling down on their job as official deer chasers (my dogs live in the lap of luxury inside). Anyway, my bright idea was to tie a couple of aluminum pie plates on the end of long stakes to scare them away.

Guess what? It worked.....for about a week. MY sunflowers still have their heads but the deer have now moved on to MY okra. Sigh!!!!

Awesome junk (I mean treasures)!!

The husband and daughter have gone to Ohio over the weekend to see his grandmother and play in a tennis tournament, leaving me and my little "wildman" home. The "wildman" has run out of steam and is down for a much needed nap. I really need one too but I thought I would take advantage of this hour or so and share some of the awesome treasures I have found over the summer.

The little stool was found at a local antique mall with the MOST hideous paint color ever - bright neon blue. Needless to say it recieved a facelift. The old cast iron and iron shoe forms are from Carol Bennett of Antiques and Uniques. Check out her blog at http://antiquesanduniques.blogspot.com/. The funnel was found at an antique mall just inside the Georgia border heading north out of Florida on I-75. For the life of me, I can't recall the name. While we were in Florida, I picked up the BEST magazine I have found in a long time and on page 55 was my funnel!!

You'll find bargains galore if you dare to dig through the clutter that most antiques malls are full of. I found all of this at local malls for $26.00.

The very best bargains are of course the free kind! The washboard and enamel dishpan were FREE!!! A friend of my husband was moving and gave them to me.

My helper and resident "wildman" thought my display needed a little rearranging. The big long wooden object is called a "tree" and it is used to harness horses together. It is in great condition with the hardware intact. I'm not sure where its "home" will be just yet, but I worry about that after I buy!! Surely I'm not the only person who buys first and then figures out what to do with it later. The other little object is a hog scraper. I'm going to put a hole through the collar and attach to the bathroom wall to use as a towel hook. I need at least two more. The best bargain of all was my little guy!!!

My most favorite primitive shop in the whole wide world is closing. This is the final week for Simply the Past located in Lafayette, Georgia. The hooked runner and the great old wheelbarrow came from their shop. Becky Howard, her sister Nokie and their mother are closing their downtown location to open separate businesses. Becky will now operate "Pigeon Creek Cabin" out of a really old log cabin at her house. Nokie and her mom will have their hand made primitives online at "Cat Creek Primitives". So sad they are closing but looking forward to their new ventures. Check out Becky's site at www.picturetrail.com/pigeoncreekcabin and Nokie's site at www.picturetrail.com/catcreekprimitives.

The things we find

My husband and I get excited over very different things. For example, yesterday we were in an antique mall and I'm usually the one buying. He seldom buys anything. We were taking turns controlling our little "wildman" and believe me it takes a tag team. He was pitching one more fit because he wanted to touch every breakable object in the store. I heard my husband say "I found something I want". Thats unusual. I turned to look at him and he was holding an eight track tape player in fire engine red and the tag said it worked and it did work. I have listened to Abba all morning!!!

A few days ago, I was taking tomatoes to a neighbor and I found a little boy box turtle. I think its a boy? I remember reading somewhere that boy box turtles have red eyes and girl box turtles have brown eyes. Being the good citizen, I moved him out of the middle of the road and was going to take his picture again, but I made him mad. He was not coming out for a photo op!

Down a country road

I have a neighbor who has this cute cabin on his property. I'm working up my nerve to ask if he would consider selling it to me. I'm not sure what I would do with it just yet, but I think it would make an awesome little shop, potting shed or chicken coop. I'm also working up my nerve to mention it to my husband.

I'm feeling mighty blessed to live where I do. These are scenes from last nights walk.

Mama tried to teach me!

Way back when I was fourteen or so and that was a way back then, my mama tried to teach me how to can. I'm a little leary now as I was then because all I could think about was the time she blew the pressure cooker up and beans were stuck to our kitchen ceiling. The imprint of those beans lasted for several years until Daddy painted the ceiling. I was having none of it...teach my sister instead, please!!! I wish I would have listened. I'm now teaching myself how to can without the benefit of my mama or my mamaw being around. They have both gone on to heaven. This all came about because I planted a very small garden this spring and I mean very small, hardly 8'x10'. But, I have tomatoes coming out my ears. So I bought myself a boiling water canner, a dozen pint jars and a Ball Blue Book, a must have when learning to can.







But first, back to the garden. I planted Rutger tomatoes, straight neck squash, jubilee watermelon, corn, okra, bell peppers and sunflowers. We had an abundance of squash until the bugs finally ate the plants up. I'm overrun with okra. I love fried okra but you couldn't pay me to eat stewed okra. My mamaw loved it and fixed it every chance she got. There wasn't much my mamaw fixed that I wouldn't eat, but I drew the line at stewed okra. Anyway, I have a lot of it and can't eat it fast enough. This was the "take" this morning....more tomatoes, okra and the first of the corn.












I do not use a pressure cooker....yet. I'm working my way up from the boiling water canner (can't blow that up) to the pressure cooker. These are my lovely tomatoes from this morning and a few from a couple of days ago and how they looked as they were being processed.
















The aftermath!!!














All that for three pint jars!!!!