 Have you ever thought about how much of life is waiting? Waiting for Christmas. Waiting for birthdays. Waiting for a special event. Waiting at the doctor's office. Waiting for things to get better. Waiting for rain. Waiting for cool weather. Waiting for hot weather ........ The list can go on and on. We are waiting for harvest. ...  The sunrise always signifies a new day, a new beginning filled with renewed hopes and dreams. I have said it before and it still holds true - west Texas has the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets. I realize this is because there are no trees and you can see the whole horizon but still, they ...  When it comes to paint color, for me there is no choice other than yellow. In most cases anyway. The outside of our house in Alabama was yellow. I enjoyed it, so why mess with a good thing? The natural choice for the new house was yellow. The problem is it is so difficult to ...  Once the first floor of our new house is added, this will be the view: That first dark green line, in the distance, is the vineyard. The house is positioned so as to overlook the vineyard. The plan is, Lord willing, to continue adding acreage to the vineyard and bring it closer to the house. ...  You may have noticed that there was no post Tuesday. Normally, the reason for me not posting could be any of the following: there was nothing going on and I could not think of anything to say, the internet is down, I am sick or there is no reason. But Tuesday was different. I, we, the whole family, ...  Thermo Plastic Olefin (TPO) is a durable plastic roofing material used for flat roofs. Since our basement roof will be flat until we add the first floor and my brother-in-law was able to get a wonderful deal on it, we are using TPO for our temporary roof. We had several 10 ft wide pieces, as well ...  Framing, TPO roofing, work, work and more work! If you remember, my brother-in-law leaves today, Monday. He has been here a bit over a week and we have had so much fun! While he came out to help build the new house, I think he may have worked harder than he anticipated! These guys have worked every ...  Pickled Okra is a wonderful addition to many meals. Our family especially enjoys it as a side to Cheese Fondue. Our daughter-in-law has made it for the past 2 years and shares it with us. Thursday, I made my first batch and it was amazingly easy. The following recipe calls for pints but I use ...  Once we hand harvested the Montepulciano, we were able to start work on the house again. Hopefully, we can get a lot done before next week's harvest. John's brother is visiting so, the goal is to get the roof on before he leaves! Since we used Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF), the exterior walls went up very ...  I can not believe how time is flying! Christmas will be here before we know it! Until then, we have a lot of work ahead of us. We harvested our first Montepulciano (a red Italian grape) by hand. From 5 acres we harvested a bit over 2 tons. These 5 acres were planted in 2009 and ... |
     
 
God has amazingly blessed me, Dina-Marie, with a wonderful husband and 10 beautiful children. Moving from our "secure" life in Alabama to the "exciting" life of starting a vineyard in west Texas has definitely been challenging. Besides frugality, farm life and simple living, I have learned the importance of diet, quality of food and traditional cooking. Through the GAPS diet, I am successfully reversing my rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis and food allergies. I hope to encourage you to make the most of where you are and what you have as I share my life with you. 
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