HOMESTEADING: DOING IT YOURSELF

I made wine! It's part of the homesteading lifestyle. Of course, Ron doesn't drink. At all. And I can keep one fifth of wine for a year or two before throwing the remainder out. But we have so many wild blueberry bushes and wild grapes growing in the area that I thought I would give wine-making a try. What fun!

I started with blueberries several weeks ago. Yesterday I bottled my first batch. Here it is. I bought the
supplies, the bottles, and the gold cap
seals at a brewers' supply shop in Pensacola.
Friends gave me their empties.
I made the labels myself. This one
is a little crooked. But it says
Yvonne's Homemade Blueberry Wine 2008.

One gallon of wine makes 5 bottles (5 fifths, duh) of wine.

I have cherry wine fermenting as I write. In about 3 months, I'll bottle that.

L@@k at the cherry wine fermenting! It is now in
the carboy, the secondary
fermenter. See the "must" in the bottom!
That is dead yeast cells and cherry pulp.
I will rack it again in about 4 weeks.
I'll do this several times until the yeast
is no longer active. Right now the bottle is
bubbling like crazy. That's CO2, a by-product of
fermentation. The CO2 escapes into the airlock on
top which makes a plopping sound when the air escapes
into the liquid. When all the movement stops, I will
have cherry wine! Then I'll bottle it.

The wine will make great gifts! At least for the friends who gave me their empties :-)

More later....

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Homesteading: Gearing up for the Winter

Fall is coming! Here on the farm, the last traces of summer are disappearing:

Ron is mowing the hay for what
he hopes is the last time this summer.

The last crop of the season (figs)
has been preserved. Here are fig preserves.

The last visitor of the summer, my friend Ann, has just

completed a lovely visit and gone back to Michigan. By the way, Ann took everyone of the photos here except for this one of her. She's a great photographer as well as a great friend and guest! Come back soon, Ann!

The last blooms on the

Pampas Grass are fading.

Bingo has received his last
"summer buzz" cut.

The baby goats are weaned.

The Poke Berries are ripening. Poke Salat is a southern thing. The plant grows wild
along the side of the road. Although the whole plant is poisonous, the young leaves can be eaten after cooking them using two changes of water. In late summer, the beautiful magenta poke berries ripen. birds love the berries. The juice of the berries leaves a permanent stain. Back when people hung their clothes out on the line, birds decorated the laundry with magenta droppings.

The hens have stopped molting and are

getting their new winter feathers.

And the ever-watchful Trudy,
our beautiful tortoise shell cat, is
amassing a lovely, thick winter coat.

Here on the homestead, I think we are ready for winter. We'll see. Homesteading means never leaving anything to chance. We are prepared.

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Homesteading: Growing Old Together

You grow old regardless of where you live. Homesteaders grow old peacefully. Surrounded by the sound of crickets and tree frogs and the sight of deer, rabbits, wild turkeys, and an occasional fox somehow makes growing old a slower process.

We had a "growing old" experience this week. Ron had to go to the emergency room. He had been having some trouble catching his breath for a few days. Sunday he said he thought he was all better. Monday he woke me up at 5 AM with the words, "I need for you to drive me to the emergency room."

Those are words no spouse likes to hear. I tried to get him to let me call the ambulance but he insisted I drive him. The ambulance would have taken him to the small (but very good) hospital in Crestview. He knew it was fluid around his heart, congestive heart failure, and wanted to be at West Florida Hospital where our excellent cardiologist practices. As long as he was sitting down, he was okay.

The hospital is about 90 miles away. I got him to the emergency room pretty quickly because it's interstate all the way. He had agreed that as we passed by the two towns between here and Pensacola, he would tell me if he needed to go to the local ER.

Here is West Florida Hospital.It used to be called West Florida University Hospital. It has recently been merged with Baptist Hospital. WF is an excellent hospital. It is a teaching hospital. Ron had a bevy of beauties stopping in frequently to see if he needed anything.

He enjoyed the attention.

Sure enough, he had a fluid buildup. His BNP (measures the fluid buildup) should have been 100. It was 1100! By the next morning it was 450. By the next night it was back to normal. I got to bring him home Thursday. These flare-ups do happen. He had it happen once before but didn't need to be hospitalized. This time he just let it go too long. THAT will never happen again!!!

Some people might think I'm overprotective of him. I don't think there is such thing as being too protective of my Ronnie's health. But what I do is make up for his sometimes too-casual attitude toward his own care.

It's called love.

And here on the farm, we have a lot of that.

More later.....

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HOMESTEADING: I'm Queen of the World!

We celebrated our 10Th anniversary Thursday, August 7. Little did we know that a BIG surprise was in store for us!!! Read to the bottom to see what I mean. We had a wonderful time! But then, we always have a wonderful time.

Ron and I can go to the grocery store and have fun. We are together 24/7 and never get tired of each other. I had a friend in college whose husband was in the Navy. He came home every 6 months. Their marriage was wonderful for the 10 years he was in service. Within a year after he left the military, they were divorced. Once they had to spend extended amounts of time together, they found out that they didn't really like each other! We are blessed. We like each other and we love each other. It really does take both. We make each other laugh. Humor is very important in a marriage. And respect. We have lots of that, too.

About that surprise.... We went to Panama City Beach for our anniversary. We got there on Wednesday, August 6. The next day, our anniversary, was the hottest day of the year. It was unbearable! We drove straight to a window tinting place and had our car windows tinted as dark as the law allows. It helped some.

After that, we went back and got ready

for the big sunset cruise

aboard the Lady Anderson. L@@k at this boat!

We were so excited about the cruise. We went to the dock at the appointed time and picked up our tickets. Then sat facing the water letting the breeze dry the sweat from our brows. I happened to glance at the ticket and saw the words GOSPEL CRUISE. What a surprise. Ron Gordon on a Gentile Gospel cruise! We had to laugh.

Then the buses started pulling up. All from local evangelical churches. Out spilled dozens of people... All older than us. Ron turned to me and said, "I think we are the youngest people here!" At that time, he was right!!! Later a young couple arrived with 4 children. A beautiful family with the best-behaved children I have EVER seen.

Ron and I were cracking up at the idea of our being on a Gospel cruise. It proves the old Jewish adage: When man plans, G-d laughs.

But the cruise was wonderful. I went up top, leaned out over the water and shouted, "I'M QUEEN OF THE WORLD!!!" I think I saw 4 people praying for me.

The food was the best I've ever eaten--prime rib, shrimp, vegetarian pasta, vegetables and other delicacies.

Then the "entertainment" started. The group was good. Not great but good. We enjoyed the music and didn't mind the preaching. They only preached about 10% of the time so that wasn't bad. Ron did mention to me that we were probably the only Jews on the cruise. I'm sure he was right.

A photographer went around asking
everyone if they wanted their photo
taken. Since foolish me had forgotten my camera,
we went for it.

L@@k!!
Here we are in our full
blurriness. She wasn't the best
photographer but I actually appreciate
the blurriness. I'll insist on it for all my future photos.

We are now starting our 11Th year of wedded bliss. We pray that we will be blessed with another 10 then another 10 and so on and so on. I highly recommend marriage. It has really made me feel that

I'M QUEEN OF THE WORLD!!!

More later....

HOMESTEADING: SHARING THE LOVE

I find it very hard to believe, but this coming Thursday, August 7, 2008, Ron and I will celebrate our 10th anniversary! Ten years! Seems like only yesterday in some ways. But in other ways it seems as if we have always been together and a part of each other's life. Kismet.

We have a wonderful life together...even though Bingo, the wonder dog, does get into every picture.



Ron often mentions, sadly, that he wishes he had met me many years earlier. I remind him that I'm 10 years younger. Earlier probably wouldn't have worked. After all, he was already married with 4 sons before I graduated from high school!
So we are thankful for what we have and only pray that we live long enough to celebrate many more anniversaries.


We are going to Panama City Beach for our anniversary. He is taking me on a lovely sunset dinner cruise on the Lady Anderson. I like that.

Panama City Beach is our favorite beach area. L@@k at that green water!






Sand dunes are beautiful. They are protected by law!




The day after our dinner cruise, Ron will go with me so that I can do some fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. Ron doesn't fish much any more. It tires him too much and he just doesn't have the patience. He always said he thought he liked to fish until he met me. I could go fishing every day. The first year we lived in Florida, I actually did go fishing every day!


One of my favorite things to do in Panama City, FL, is to go watch the commercial fishing boats come in. You can sometimes buy great fish right off the boat. But it's just fun to watch.



L@@k at the commercial shrimp trawler coming in for the day. It had a crew of trainees that day. It was fun watching them dock. They got it docked after only 3 tries!








More later....

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