June

Oops....Haven't been here in a while. Animals, garden, and work have kept us very busy. The garden is coming in now. We have been enjoying lots of delicious tomato sandwiches. Tomato sandwiches have been taken to a whole new level with addition of fresh basil pesto. Yum!!! The Cornish Rock Cross chickens have been raised and butchered. We lost almost a third of these chickens due to the extreme heat. It was triple digit temps here for at least week the middle of the month. We ended up butchering 98 out of 150 chickens. The other 300 chickens are growing and doing well. Running around the yard and scratching for bugs. Jacob has gotten his drivers license so he has been able to drive himself to REACH drama classes. Those classes only lasted 2 weeks so now he is staying up too late(or early) at night and sleeping too late in the morning. Jeff is still sleeping in his tent. He only missed one night due to the extreme heat and humidity. After a rain storm last week he moved his camp site to higher ground. He has covered the tent with mosquito netting so he can sleep with the end flaps open for more ventilation. Lora is still working at Piggly Wiggly but looking for a better paying job. She sent out about 30 resumes but nothing has worked out so far. Russell has been advertising on Craigslist for someone who wants cedar trees to come and cut ours down. He wants all the cedar trees surrounding our field taken down as he is planning to fence the field in the near future. Several people have come and cut quite a few trees but you can hardly tell it. When all the trees are gone, we may have to change the name of our farm as most of our "sunny cedars" will be gone! Well, this has been life on the farm for June...raising food, animals and trying to stay cool!

Shawfest 2010

Saturday we spent the day at Shaw Air Force Base watching an airshow. It was a very warm, sunny day (around 90 degrees) but there was a nice breeze and a beautiful blue sky. We knew the traffic would be bad because it was expect there would be about 70,000 people there. We rode a shuttle bus from the mall and were dropped just outside the hangar. That was much better than fighting traffic and walking to the flightline. We met Amber and Loren Purcell, Nate Purcell and Joe Singleton and the workers, Jim Holt and Warren Harper on the flightline around noon. There were lots of interesting shows and air demonstrations such as Wing Walking and Air Ballet but the main attractions was the U.S. Airforce Thunderbirds. They started their show around 3:30 and it was as good as always. The F-16 is an amazing plane and certainly puts you in awe of the US Airforce. We had a very enjoyable day and only got a little sunburned. Getting off the base was more diffcult that getting on due to communication problems as to where to load the buses going to different places. We had a very nice day but the air conditioning felt good in the van!

Shawfest 2010

Thunderbirds preparing to fly.

All eyes on the sky

Amber and her friend, Amanda

Jeff and Warren Harper

Shawfest 2010

Jim Holt

Loren and Nate Purcell awed by the show!

Showing off the Thunderbird design on the bottom of the plane as they go by in a knife edge pass.

4 Thunderbirds in flight

Thunderbirds lined up on the flightline after the show

Shawfest 2010

All 6 Thunderbirds flying in classic formation.


A lone Thunderbird
Jeff at a display


Jeff on a jet

Jeff at a static display

Jeff's tent

Jeff ordered a US Army surplus pup tent from E-Bay for $8. He has had a great time getting it all set up and sleeping under the stars. He says the fresh air makes him sleep better. He has slept in his tent everynight but one for almost 2 weeks. It rained one night but he stayed dry with the rain fly he put over the tent.

4/14/10 spring time garden

Working a little along to get my garden back in order. I planted Swiss Chard and Spinach and covered it with a row cover. I was surprised to uncover it today and find such lovely plants. I ended up picking 4 baskets of chard and 2 baskets of spinach.



Colorful Swiss Chard

Broccoli and Cabbage. Rosemary in the pot.

April 8- new chicks

Russell and Jeff went to the post office this morning and pick up 800 chicks. I think the postal employees were glad to have them off their dock. 800 chicks make a lot of noise! 300 of the chicks went home with a friend, Todd Brown. Russell and Jeff had the job of unboxing the remaining 500 chicks. They were divided up in to 12 brooder boxes with heat lamps to keep them warm and food and sugar water. We have 100 Cornish Rock Cross chicks which will be our meat chickens and 50 Golden Comets that will be our laying chickens. The rest will be to sell.


A cute little Barred Rock chick.


A handful of fluff...2 Cornish Rock Chicks in Jeffs hands


Trying out the new watering system we installed this spring.


Happy chicks staying warm in the brooder pen.

Pig kissing 3/2010

Sunny Cedars Farm provided the pig for the Tuomey pig kissing contest. This is an annual fundraiser for the March of Dimes. A dollar will buy one vote for your favorite Tuomey employee. The 5 employees with the most votes get to kiss a pig. March 26, we caught Miss Penny and brought her in the house and gave her a good scrubbing. Once with "people shampoo" and once with dog shampoo. She really objected to being in the water but she sort of liked the scrubbing. Dr Grier was the recipient of the most votes.

Miss Penny after her spa treatment.

Comforting a nervous piggy.

Dana Oxendine from L&D and her daughter, Marley who wanted to kiss the pig, as well.


Dr. Grier holding Penny.

March 21, 2010

We are preparing for the shipment of 400 baby chicks that will be coming April 7. We have poured a concrete floor in the brooder house. We are excited about no longer having to shovel out the dirty sand and shovel in fresh sand each spring prior to chicks coming each spring. We will put wood shavings in the floor of each pen and rake it out and replenish it as needed. The discarded shavings will be good for the garden. We are also putting in an automatic gravity watering system. Russell and I worked on it all day Thursday and got most of the watering system plumbed. We tested it and were thrilled when it actually worked!! It is all taking shape. I'll post pictures soon.

Weekend at Ron and Cindy's 3-13-10

Weekend at Ron and Cindy's 3-13-10 --Sat am BBQ pics

We have had a great weekend with Ron and Cindy. We went up Friday night and stayed till Sunday afternoon. Jacob had drama things going on so he stayed home to do that and feed the dogs. We went by Columbia and picked up Lora and got to Ron and Cindy's about 9pm. Jacob called about 9:30 when he got home from drama and was locked out of the house. After much consternation, we decided for him to try to get off the storm window on one of the screen porch windows. The storm window broke (which was ok) and with Papa's help, they got the window pried open and he was able to get in the house.
Saturday, Ron and Cindy took us to Charlotte to ride the new Lynx lightrail commuter train and visit the Museum of the New South. We happened upon a St. Patrick's day parade and stopped to watch. The weather was beautiful and we had a really nice day.
On the way to Charlotte Saturday morning, we stopped to see Cindy's brother-in-law Tim who was cooking 116 Boston Butts for a church fundraiser. He and his Dad had built the gas grill with electric rotisserie and smoke box. It was complete with piggy decoration. Russell was impressed.
Boston Butts cooking
decorative piggy on top
motor for totisserie
smoker box for hickory logs

Weekend at Ron and Cindy's....more pics-St.Patty's parade and Lynx

Russell and Jeff at the Lynx
Ron, Jeff, and Cindy
Lynx stop downtown Charlotte
Loch Norman Bagpipers
Leapin' leprechauns

Weekend at Ron and Cindy's....more pics-downtown Charlotte

Russell, Ron and Cindy in front of art work
Taking a break
at the library

Clouds relected in the skyscrapers

Weekend at Ron and Cindy's....more pics

Cindy invited Linda and Lloyd over for a delicious Sunday dinner. It was nice to be together and have a relaxing afternoon.




Ron and Cindy Gillis
Jeff said he wasn't going to take a nap but the recliner got the best of him.
Russell visiting with Lloyd and Ron
Me and Linda