Author: Julia

I am a retired software solutions architect. I have been married to my husband, Bruce, for over forty years. We went full-time RVing for 3.5 years and saw much of the United States. After deciding to stop RVing, we bought a ranch house halfway up a hill on five acres. After Bruce and I talked about names for our five acres, we settled on Blackberry Homestead as a homage to the wild blackberries on the hill. We are working on creating our homestead. I love cooking and enjoy sharing recipes. I am also an artist, and I’ll share my current projects. Gardening and reading are my favorite hobbies.

Flower of the Day – Violets

March 19, 2025 The violets are making a carpet of purple underneath the trees.

Putting Up Our DeRubeis Artwork

March 18, 2024 On Sunday (March 16), I took a garden rake and started raking gravel back into the driveway, trying to fill up the washed out section on the hill. I finished that and went to the bottom of the driveway. As I was raking gravel, Bruce came out with a couple of shovels. […]

Checking for Damage from the Flood

March 16, 2025 This morning, we walked down to the bottom of the driveway, where the water had been rushing over the driveway. I put my mug down for reference. It is a standard size coffee mug. The lower flags were underwater. You can see the grass on the flags. We had at least 12 […]

Other News from Yesterday

March 16, 2025 Yesterday morning, I noticed the radishes had sprouted. The loose leaf lettuce had also sprouted. We shopped in the morning. Ollie’s Bargain Outlet had advertised quart canning jars for a great price. We saw a couple with two shopping carts loaded with boxes of canning jars leaving the store as we approached […]

Where Did Our Driveway Go? Creek Overflowed and Flooded the Front Yard

March 15, 2025 We’ve been having some ferocious weather today: a tornado watch, severe thunderstorms with warnings of flash floods and hail, a tornado warning and another tornado warning. We got some small pea sized hail, not the ping pong ball that was suggested. After the tornado warning expired at 3:15 PM, I looked out […]

Pi Day and Herbs Arrive Today!

March 14, 2024 I realized I didn’t take a picture of the heeled in apple and peach whips, waiting to be planted. I took two pictures today to share. We got the RV’s replacement theater seating switch in the mail today. Bruce went to the RV and replaced the switch. He was happy to report […]

Apple, Peach and Pecan Trees Arrived

March 14, 2023 Oh, today is Pi day. What kind of pie should I make? I enjoyed seeing the flowers while walking around Blackberry Homestead yesterday morning. Yesterday, to make it easier to fill up holes in the yard with rocks, Bruce hooked up the cart to the mower. Nox wanted to ride the mower […]

Finishing Cleaning the Interior of the RV

March 12, 2025 This morning, we got up and loaded the three RV chairs we bought home from Colorado into the truck. Bruce also put some tools in the truck. He wanted to determine why my side of the theater seating in the RV wasn’t working. We stopped and ate breakfast at Millie’s Place before […]

Making Soil for My Five Gallon Buckets

March 12, 2025 By yesterday, Nox had gotten very smelly since her last bath, so it was time for her to get squeaky clean again. In the morning, I washed her in the shower. After getting toweled dry, Nox sat outside in the sunshine with me. After lunch, we sat outside on the front porch […]

Another Box of Books!

March 11, 2025 Yesterday, after breakfast, I went outside to see if I could identify some of the plants in the yard. Afterwards, I headed over to the garden to plant seeds. I planted Georgia Green collards, arugula, Roquette arugula, Misome (Asian greens), Palla Rossa radicchio, Florida Broadleaf Mustard greens, and Mizuna Mustard Greens (Asian […]