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.

Update on my Father-In-Law’s Condition

January 21, 2025 My father-in-law came through the surgery to put in a drain to relieve pressure just fine. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to preform the second surgery to check to see if he was still bleeding. They started the surgery and discovered he had twisted arteries. Proceeding with the surgery had an unacceptable risk […]

Scary News Concerning My Father-in-law

January 21, 2025 Yesterday, Bruce received a text that his father had been found in his car, confused and disoriented. He was inside the garage, with the car’s trunk open and the hazard lights on. Luckily, this attracted the attention of a neighbor. We think he felt strange and managed to hit the hazard button. […]

Branch Sawing and Pulling Down a Branch

January 19, 2025 Yesterday, it rained on and off during the day. During a break in the rain, I got out and took some pictures of the tree branches Bruce cut up the day before (January 17). I spotted the mocking bird on the pump house. We also decided to go ahead and remove a […]

Dealing with the Shed Roofs, Plus Some Other Things

January 18, 2025 Yesterday, I took Nox out and took some pictures of the work we finished the day before. To see the results of the removal of logs and branches from the ditch in the back pasture, here are the before and after pictures. One large dead bush is left in the ditch. Bruce […]

Random Pictures of Melting Snow Taken Last Sunday

January 18, 2025 I took some pictures of the remaining snow in the morning of January 12 (Sunday). I then took one picture of the backyard from the sliding door. By Wednesday, all the snow was gone. The snow on the north side of the house lingered the longest. This finishes my post on the […]

Tater Tot Breakfast Burrito

This recipe was something I threw together to use up some leftovers from toco night along with some fresh items. It was delicious! Serves 2

Finishing Assembly of the Tall Garden Beds

January 16, 2025 I did want to share this picture I took on Saturday night (January 11). The moon was between Jupiter and Mars. Mars is circled in red at the bottom of the picture and Jupiter is circled in red at the top of the picture. On Monday (January 13), the ground was sopping […]

Things We’ve Done Lately on Blackberry Homestead

January 12, 2025 With the snow coming and trees ordered, it was time to do some sheet mulching to get ready for the pecan trees. On Wednesday (January 8), I took two large cardboard boxes from the barn and flattened them. I carried them out to the front yard. I also brought some large rocks […]

A Scene Straight from Colorado in my Alabama Backyard

January 10, 2024 Last night, I woke up at 4:30 AM to go to the bathroom. I looked out the window to see if it had snowed since the winter storm warning started at midnight. Snow was coming down in large flakes and it looked like a half inch to an inch of accumulation of […]

Checking on the RV and Ordering Topsoil

January 9, 2025 In the early afternoon on January 4 (Saturday), we drove to the Florence Alabama RV Park to make sure the RV was OK. While we were there, Bruce replaced the RV’s propane tank regulator. It had been acting up, so he wanted a new one installed before the cold weather arrived. The […]