Help our local Foodbank of the VA Peninsula Win a Truck Load of Food!!

We're Connecting Needy Souls with Giving Hearts

Help our local Foodbank of the VA Peninsula Win a Truck Load of Food!!

The push is on to help fight hunger on the Peninsula!!

September is Hunger Action Month & with ONE day left, if we ALL pitch in, our foodbank could WIN a TRUCKLOAD of food!!

We are currently in 5th place to win a truck load of food!!

We could win it with the help of our ENTIRE community!!!

A truck load of food will provide 35,000 meals!! So…..

If you haven't already taken the pledge to help fight hunger, please visit www.hungeractionmonth.org before the end of day on September 30th.

You only have to enter your name/address information. No monetary donation is required.

After YOU have taken the pledge, PLEASE forward this message to EVERYONE ELSE that you know!! Ask them to take the pledge also!!

Once again, the foodbank with the most pledges (based on population percentages) will WIN a truck load of food!

Thank you so very much for your pledge to help fight hunger!!

Jewel Thinking, Composing, Expressing...

Jewel often times when feeling thoughtful and pondering likes to sit at the piano and just play... I think it's a form of therapy for her as she grows into a young lady.


All music posted in this blog is property of Jewel Spivey and may not be used without her expressed permission.

Concrete Find...

Most who know me, know that I'm a real thrifty shopper and love to be active in organizations like Freecycle. Well, recently someone offered a pair of concrete benches for free. Based on the description, I imagined a plain pair of rectangular concrete benches with square edges. I was happy with that as it would be a nice firm weather resistant seating for around our planned pond. How pleasantly surprised I was when we arrived to pick them up and saw the lovely curves and designs in the concrete benches. They could use a new coat of concrete paint, but there's also something about that aged look that is so appealing too. Only time will tell what I decide to do.

Our new concrete benches






Designs on the supports & edgeing of the seat


Hot tub shells we received a while ago from Freecycle that we plan on sinking into the ground to create a nice pond in the backyard and filling with Koi and surrounding with plants of course.

Beautiful Chickens & their Feathers

We really have been in awe at how lovely the chickens are looking. Their feathers have been so incredibly soft, colorful, and full. Even the Black Australorps that we pretty much expected to be plain black with maybe a hint of green sheen have really turned to be one of our favorite birds as they're so beautiful. One of the Australorps, Tender, happens to be one of the most docile and likes to be with us the most. It's been fun to watch the personalities develop and their antics.

One of our Black Australorp's feathers


Que, one of our older Welsummer's Feathers


Interesting steel blue eyes of the largest of the baby welsummers. One of our welsummers has gold eyes, one has green and one blue.


Beautiful wings of the largest of the baby Welsummer


Baby Welsummers


Our Rhode Island Red, Bar, getting ready to bother our dog Patch


Our Rhode Island Red, Be


Our Black Australorp, McNugget with our Rhode Island Red, Be looking on


Our oldest Welsummer, Que


Que


The baby Golden Laced Wyandotte - beautiful


The baby chicks on the wood pile roosting

Chicken Coop Construction

Well, as our chickies have gotten bigger and the weather slowly reminding us that winter is on the way, we got into action into building a bigger chicken coop for our flock. Our new coop will be 10'x 10'. It will have a full roof on it to cover the chickies even on rainy days and within the covered coop there will be a 4'x 8' fully enclosed coop for protection, with a heat lamp for warmth, roosting perches for sleeping, and 8 nest boxes for egg laying. Unfortunately the rain has slowed down our building progress a little, so we'll utilize that time to go get more supplies we need so when the weather improves we can get it up and completed as soon as possible.







Jewel with the our dogs Patch and Falcor and baby chicks with one of the older welsummer chicks Que


Jewel with one of the little welsummer chicks

My hobby... Photography

Photography has always been a hobby I've enjoyed. Thought I would show some photos I've taken. I'll post some more another day.

Lunar Moth


"Little Girl Blue"


"Fire Creature"


World War II Memorial, Washington D.C.


Victims of Tropical Storm Ernesto


"The Devil's Doorman"


Teskinas Creek, York River State Park


"Quacker"


"Old Man of the Marsh"


Mt. Vernon's Servant Kitchen


Mt. Vernon from Vault looking at Main House


Mt. Vernon Baking Oven


"Lost My Way..."


George Washington's Stables


Crape Myrtle Blossom


"Bread Line"


"Blowing in the Wind"


"Beauty & the Brick"


"Angel of Mercy," Vietnam Nurses Memorial, Washington D.C.


"After the Rain"


"Like Father, Like Daughter"


"Yellow Blossom Cafe"


All photos are property of Blogger Rachel D. Spivey and cannot be used without permission.

Jewel's Birthday Campout!

Jewel had her 13th Birthday on September 7th! Can you believe it? Our Jewel is 13! Well, this years birthday wish was a fun one. Jewel wanted to go camping with some close friends overnight. It was a lot of fun and thankfully there were no microburst storms this time! What made it even better is that we had the entire area all to ourselves! Just one of the perks of homeschooling and having a birthday the night of the first day of the traditional school year!


Jewel Receiving those special calls from long distance relatives that she misses so much!!


Mmmmm.... Pork ribs marinating in a homemade sauce!


Our new tent courtesty of the storm from our last campout!


Our campsite! It's huge! And check out the waterfront view too!






Ken cooking (his favorite part of the campout I think) dinner and breakfast!






Setting the table for breakfast!


Campfire Stories


Canoeing






We brought our (Jewel's) little dog Patch with us. He was loved and loved every minute of being adored, and fed those tasty rib bones after we had consumed all that we could consume! After Patch could no longer eat anymore ribs, he buried the remaining bones, of course being the little hoarder he is. Unfortunately upon waking in the morning and searching for his bones, Patch found that his bones were all gone. The local wildlife had dug them all up in the evening and taken them away. It was a pitiful sight to see.








Patchy - All tired out after a vigilant night of protecting his people from those noisy woodland critters & being the wonderful poseable puppy.