Grandchildren :) Hay :) Raspberries :)

By the time you read this, Naomi and Aaron will be back home in Tennesee.  One thing we loved watching was Esther. She was really into the twirling thing until she got dizzy and fell down.  Over and over she did this making Anna laugh.  I've never seen a baby her age laugh so hard!  I would guess Esther taught her sister how to giggle and laugh with her.  Waht fun those two have!

Saw my father-in-law unloading a hay trailer the other day.  We bought this trailer of hay as we won't have enough off of our fields this year.  Thankfully we've finished the first crop of hay and hope to get a second.

And then Arthur was up in the hayshed grabbing the bales as they fell off the elevator.  Miriam is up higher stacking the bales.

Prsicilla was really good at making Esther laugh by making faces and saying funny things.  Can you tell we miss them? ;(

Last year I decided that this year I would deal with herbs earlier in the summer.  So yesterday I tackled some of them.  We dehydrated parsley and mint.  Froze dill and summer savory for soups this winter.  Froze basil, oregano, and cut up chives in little pieces and froze them.  I left enough for fresh use and enough to put fresh oregano in canned spaghetti sauce this year.  The kitchen smelled quite good!

The girls picked raspberries again yesterday. Yes, it really is as jungly as it looks! We got lots of volunteer sunflowers this year and just didn't have the heart to pull them with the weeds. Actually, there are tons of weeds in this picture but somehow God lets the plants produce even when we're too busy to weed. I guess we put on enough fertilizer for both the plants and the weeds!  (It really doesn't look this bad all over!)  A good year for raspberries although I think with more rain they would've been bigger.  We've frozen lots, canned lots of jam for us and to sell at the maze, made lots of raspberry fruit leather, and eaten tons!

 Have a great day enjoying God's blessings!