Keeping Up With The Del Benes!

It took until August before anyone in my family ventured out to South Carolina to visit. (I know- this blog is tragically behind.)

My dad came out to visit Joe and myself, and help work on our house. While he was here he helped take down the old ceiling in the kitchen and also removed the beams from the false ceiling in the parlor. In fact, he worked so hard on our house that he wore me out! And we had to practically trick him into taking time off. We did manage to go to the state museum and even made it out to Folly Beach to visit with my cousin Joe and his family.

On the way back from Folly Beach, we detoured over to Charleston, where we took a boat out to Fort Sumter, to tour the island and learn about the place where the civil war began. After returning to the main land, we strolled through the market and walked around town to look at all of the old houses, before enjoying a wonderful seafood dinner.

After a couple of weeks in the South, my dad and I headed up to Ohio to visit some more family. We went to the county fair with my Aunt Dot and Aunt Pauline, where my dad and I had our picture taken (in the pumpkin cutout above) before innocently cutting in line to view the award winning squash. No really! We didn't realize that people were winding their way around the room to see giant pumpkins. We just walked right up.... I think they were so large that they had their own gravitational pull! (Those are the official weights painted onto the pumpkins.)

As luck would have it, we our visit overlapped with my cousin Mark's Surprise 50th Birthday Party! It was a blast to be able to help celebrate and to see so much of our family at once! We were very glad that they were able to squeeze two more in.

Here is a group shot of everyone who was there. That is one good looking group of people! (Excellent genes, I think.)

Next we traveled to Virginia to visit my Aunt Noreen, Uncle Loren, and cousin Paula. While there, we toured George Washington's home, Mount Vernon. We took a tour to learn a little about the life of the slaves who lived at Mount Vernon and stopped to chat with a farmer that worked on the grounds using the same tools that were available in the 18th century. Here is a picture of my Aunt Pauline and my dad talking to him about his historically accurate boots.

It had been too many years since I've been able to make a trip to the East Coast to visit my family. Now that I live on this side of the country, I promise that it won't be so long between visits. Here is a picture of me with my Aunt Norene and My Uncle Loren right before we drove back to Ohio to catch our planes home.

See you soon!

Farm Kids

Meet our miniature dairy herd...


FoxRun is a registered Pygmy buck, born in February 12, 2008.


Joe has nicknamed FoxRun "B.B." It could stand for many things (such as baby boy), but this photo illustrates the nickname's real origin.


Batman is also a registered Pygmy buck who was born on February 27, 2007. Batman is FoxRun's mentor and is teaching him all the things he needs to know to be a buck.


FoxRun may look up to Batman, but being under 24 inches tall both bucks look up to me!


Though not registered, our does are pampered even more than our fancy-pants bucks. If all goes well, they will be providing us with yummy dairy starting next spring!


Jett (named after Joan Jett) is full Pygmy and was born in November 2007. She will be the first of our does to go on a chaperoned date night with a lucky buck.


Willow is half Nigerian Dwarf and half Pygmy. She was the first goat we bought and was born on February 23, 2008.


See you soon!

Breaking up is hard to do...

It has been busy at the homestead.


(Esso signs off of the shed)

A huge thank you goes out to everyone who came out to our Demo-Party last month. A mighty crew, armed with a few tools and their brute strength, dismantled the old well house and an Esso sign shed, to make room for the plumbing from the new well to the house. To show our gratitude, we cooked up some bratwurst to feed the hungry crowd.


(The "after" photo of where the old well house had been. There is no "before" because we blinked and the building was gone!)


(Here is a "before" photo of the Esso sign shed with just one wall down)


(...and then with the whole crew gathered to watch it fall.)


(The edge of the roof landed just inches from the new well!)


A special thank you Rose (age 10) for photo documenting the Demo-Party.

Late breaking news: We now have temporary power! Next, the pump can be added to our new well and we will have running water! (...by the end of next week.)

Florida Sunshine!

During a cold wet weekend in April, Team Jones headed South to sunny Florida!

We visited with Amanda's Aunt Joyce who lives on Siesta Key and enjoyed a local brunch of bloody marys and sauerkraut hot dogs before heading to Saint Petersburg for Derrick and Megan's wedding.

Derrick and Megan had their wedding in the beautiful Sunken Gardens in St. Pete. We had a lot of fun celebrating with their family and friends. Here is a photo of Sue, Derrick and Joe who had a mini gamecock reunion during the reception.

We stayed at the Inn at the Bay in St. Petersburg. We chose this bed and breakfast because of its two course gourmet breakfast, and we were not disappointed. The first morning we had a crab cake with lemon sauce and young asparagus tips, followed by coconut cranberry pancakes. It was exquisite. Breakfast the second day had a tough act to follow, but it was delicious with an egg benedict, followed by a berry crumble. So good.

The Inn at the Bay was located just two blocks from the beach and walking distance to everything downtown. We walked everywhere, and one of us had the blisters to prove it after sprinting to Derrick and Megan's rehearsal dinner, in heels. The dinner was at a fabulous Cuban restaurant at the end of the pier. Again, the food, and the sangria, were amazing. We did arrive and check into our room with plenty of time to spare, but we were running late because the feather bed in our room was too comfy and we were lulled into a nap.

While in St. Pete. we enjoyed the beaches, strolled through an art festival and had some delicious gelato for lunch. I know... Gelato? ...for lunch? Yes! It was our vacation.

Even better than the food was the time we were able to spend with friends, both old and new. Two warm and interesting people we met were Derrick's best man and neighbor, Kevin and his wife, Laurel. Kevin and Laurel keep bees and invited us to check out their hives before driving back to South Carolina. This was an opportunity we could not pass up. Here is Kevin and Joe dressed in bee keeper gear.

We learned a lot and were even sent home with some yummy honey.
Thank you Kevin and Laurel!
On the drive back we stopped and bought some Florida grapefruit.
We couldn't pass up the opportunity to buy fresh citrus.
It was a great trip filled with family, friends, delicious food, and sunshine.

Here is the bee version of "Where's Waldo." Do you see the queen?

Our First Goats!

Welcome Willow and Lyra.

After extensive searching, Kristen and I brought home our first goats, which we purchased from Holly Ridge Farm in Salley, SC. The one in the foreground is my goat, Willow, who is a Pygmy/Nigerian mix. Next to her, is Kristen's goat, Lyra, an unregistered Pygmy. They are 8 weeks old. Since they are herd animals and like the company of other goats, they are temporarily bunking together at
Kristen and Ben's farm (Five Leaves Farm). Luckily, we only live 1/2 mile apart and can spend a lot of time bonding with our mini dairy goats. This is the first time they have eaten the food we offered to them (day 2), though they have been browsing in their pen.

Kristen takes a turn feeding the babies. This is also the first time they have been willing to come up to us. Can you tell we are relieved!?

Maaaaaa!

A picture of Joe watching the goat show, and Willow showing off.

Here they are next to a 5 gallon bucket, for scale. When full grown we think their shoulders will be at about knee height.
The End (for now)

April Showers...

...mean the Irises are blooming!
A big Thank You to Uncle Bill who plowed our garden for us, earlier this month. Our soil test came back near perfect. We have already planted some onions, which were donated by Ben at Five Leaves Farm. The rest of the veggies will be planted in the next couple of weeks.
Also this month our septic system was installed! Yea!
I painted our mailbox and "planted" it near our driveway.
And Foxie and I saw our first Luna moth walking back from the farm one evening. It was so gorgeous that I went home, picked-up my camera, and went back to find it (and take this photo).
Now you are all caught up.... Well, almost.

Spring Has Sprung!

Good-bye Winter. Hello Spring!
... and not a moment too soon.
Enjoy these photos of spring blooms around our farm.

I agree with Joe, this spring will be like Christmas. All of the plants that were dormant when we arrived in October are waking up and showing us who they are (and in some cases, surprising us that they are still alive!). One of the first blooms to appear in the garden was the Japonica (a.k.a. flowering quince). We were excited to be able to identify this previously unknown jumble of bare branches. I've already looked up recipes for quince jelly.

The narcissus was another early (and fragrant!) bloomer.

Although we lost one peach tree in last week's storm (storm details are in yesterday's entry), this remaining tree is promising to provide us with plenty of peaches for chutneys, salsas, ice cream, and fresh eating.

These snow bells are growing under the grape trellis. I especially like the green dots on the tips of their petals.

Daffodils, popped up everywhere. Like these yellow blooms in the garden...

...And these big fluffy white daffodils outside the kitchen

...And this bi-colored bloom in the front yard.

The garlic that we planted February has started to grow. The garlic patch is my happy place. It is so reassuring to know that it is already in the ground and its slim green leaves are growing every day. Especially since we have not yet been able to plow the rest of the garden due to rain and one very large fallen tree.

All in all, life is good! The skies are blue, the birds are singing, and I haven't had to wear long underwear for a couple of weeks! Happy first day of Spring!

Catching Up... With The Joneses

We know!
You can't keep up with the Joneses,
if the Joneses don't keep up their blog.
We are sorry. We could make excuses
(we were without internet access, we lost our media reader,
when we get home at night we are exhausted...).
But instead, lets just catch up and we will try to up date more frequently.

For the month of January (Yes its been that long- even longer!), we house sat for Ben and Kristen, while they and their two daughters were on vacation in Costa Rica. We were cozy, with us and four dogs (their three, plus Foxie) all living under one roof. One perk was being able to raid the veggie beds at Five Leaves Farm. Here is Joe with some yummy veggies he picked by flashlight.

It was cold. Standing water froze and we wore lots of layers, including long underwear and wool socks while we worked on the house.
We finally found our septic tank. It was a barrel buried behind the house. We have a permit for our new system and even selected a company to do the work, which should start in a couple of weeks.
We have been removing the damaged drywall. In the parlor there were tongue and groove boards behind the drywall. Surprise!
With the help of our friends Julie and Gil, we were able to remove the drywall without damaging the wood. Julie and Gil also helped us move our large farm sink and hulking wood stove out of the kitchen. (Thank You!)
We had our well dug. The large trucks used to do the work got stuck in the mud every few feet on the way in through the goat yard. It took half a day just to get the rig into place! But once they started drilling all went smoothly. We have about 10 gallons per minute at 320 feet deep. (This is great for Cedar Creek!)
Our levee sprung a leak after the beavers moved into our pond. We are currently up to three leaks, though they have slowed down a bit since this photo was taken.
Since it has been raining, the creek that runs through our property is flowing again.
Last Saturday, we dodged a tornado that passed by a mile from here. We had golf ball-sized hail, which dented vehicles and broke some windows. Most impressive was the large pecan tree that fell into our garden. It took out several smaller trees, including a peach that was in full bloom, a few fig trees and the almond tree that was supporting my hammock.
It also landed on Joe's old pickup, which was parked in the garden. Here is a picture, with Joe and Foxie for scale.
The weight of the tree made the truck a low rider and pulled the bed away from the cab.
After half a day of cutting up the part of the tree that was on the the truck, we were able to drive out from under the tree.
Amazingly, the truck was ok. The bed of the truck was banged up. Here is a picture of Joe showing off the tank's new dent. The tank ran like ... well, like a tank, when we took it for a ride through the mud and the forest later that day. The tailgate fell off and fun was had by all.

There is another group of thunderstorms coming through this afternoon, so I'm off to batten down the hatches and make sure the truck is not parked under any trees! I'll leave you with a picture of a gorgeous sunset that was taken at Ben and Kristen's in January. We'll update again soon. No really... we mean it... promise... just check back, ok. Cheers!