Uncle Tom's Surprise

Welcome to the July 4th celebration, or atleast that's what Uncle Tom thought....

Here he comes, unsuspecting ....that it's actually a 50th surprise party for him.
He was totally surprised!!
(The leaning (on purpose) cake made by the cake lady, Liv.)

Uncle Toms mother and sister (Mary)

Sweet lil Liberty.

Java Momma's Club Members.

Mrs. Stokes and Thomas

Rachel and Haley

Markie and Stacy

My favorite kind of dog :)

They danced all night....

(Sounds good, but the truth is far from that!!)

Fireside Chat (without the fire).

Uncle Tom and some of his guests.

Waiting for the fireworks.

(The fireworks show was incredible.)

Mrs. Stokes and Mrs. P had fun making these (far from professional) cupcakes,

but it sure was sweet fun ;) (literally)

Thanks for coming to the party.

We enjoyed your company.

Shop Til We Drop

Putting final touches on the shop.

(No pics of putting up drywall.)

(The idea was to get the drywall up and be done with it, no time for pics!!) The Painting Party

Reach Liv, reach, you can do it!!

Dad and Gabriel always enjoy working together.

It must be getting late :)

It is late. About 1:00 A.M. the workers decided to have an ice cream social.

Etiquette?? Not at 1:00 A.M., sorry.

Best Friends

Those Klondike bars hit the spot, now back to work.

Michael and Gabriel making tables and shelves.

Organization will come later.

"Everything must be square."

"You will definitely need this tool."

"And this tool."

"For cleaning things."

Part of the sanding and staining crew.

and another part.

Finishing one of the many tables.

Organization really will come later.

One of the shelves finished.

Too many hours in the shop can cause emotions to fly in ALL directions!

The shop is now finished with all the shelves and tables in place

and everything is organized as I promised.

Now it's time to move on to the next project(s) :)

The Plentiful Peas

One of the main reasons we had to cut our trip to New York short, was because of the harvest, which we are so grateful for.

Thank you, Lord, for your many blessings.

Bountiful Harvest = Lots of Work

Work.....
and Sweat, and sweat, and sweat. Yep, you guessed it, HOT!
Another bucket full and 5000 to go, whew.

(Anybody have a drink they wanta donate?)
Thanks!!! Did somebody say drink???

Ju enjoying the harvest. (I think)

Momma cleaning out the yellows.

(Actually they're the best for shelling.)

Truck is full and time to deliver.

This is the ticket for shelling peas in a short amount of time.....

but it's sure not as cozy as doing it the old fashioned way,
with good conversation to go along with it.

It's also alot safer!Sometimes a perfectly attached nail gets pulled completely off,

if you get your finger stuck in the pea sheller.

Extremely Painful!!!!

(No, this isn't a nail painted with red nail polish.)

Liv sifting through and removing things that don't belong.

(When you sell these shelled, they have to be clean.)

Our New Living Room Floor.Grading and Packing. Shells go to the cows. They love em.
OkraPicking Okra is like picking insulation.

That explains the gloves and long sleeves in Florida.
To Arms
Okay, I'm tired of waiting for lunch. Our first pickins of okra in this garden.

We sure look forward to the storms.

Atleast things get cooled off while the storms are brewing.

(Speaking of brewing, I think it's time for a coffee break :)