MerryHeartCrafts.comMountain Momma… Country Living

Monday afternoon the rain stopped and the wind really picked up.  The girls finished their outside chores and wanted to stay outside for awhile.  Do you see the two little dots in the distance?   Well, that’s them.   I took  these  this pictures from the house as they were walking the field. 

They are never out without company.  The cats always follow them any time they walk outside.  I zoomed this picture in so you could see them better.

And, of course, Shadow.  He would never dream of allowing them to be out of his sight.  I’m not sure why this picture turned out so dark but you can still see him. 

Yesterday was a beautiful day.  The girls and I were at Jessica’s.  The temperature at her house was in the 60′s so I know it was probably in the 50′s here.  I love this weather-makes me think about spring.  Today is supposed to be nice too and then rain is in the forecast.  The girls and I are going to the Horn’s today after school.  YEAH!  We are soooo looking forward to it.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

We have had a BEAUTIFUL day here in Floyd.  The temperature right now is 60 degrees!!!!!!!!!!!!  I absolutely love it.  The girls and I worked on cleaning the house this morning, then we started on school.  Hubby is working on a chair design for us.  He made our kitchen table several years ago and he made benches to go with it.  Well, you know how we women are, now I want chairs instead of benches. 

After he worked some on the chair, he decided to cut wood.  He went up on the hill and cut wood while we finished school.  Then we all worked together splitting the wood and stacking it.  It was a great day for outside work.  My menu plan for tonight has changed.  I had planned on meatloaf, fried potatoes and pinto beans but it is a little too late to do meatloaf.  Hubby said he would like hotdogs so we are having hotdogs and pintos.  Tomorrow we will have the meatloaf. 

I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

Yesterday, Hubby, myself and the girls did some wood cutting.  It was a beautiful day for outside work.  Temperature was warm close to 50 degrees.  Sunshine.  We cut one truck load of wood, brought it home, split and stacked it.  We also split and stacked another truckload that we already had cut. 

Our faithful truck.  We bought this truck from Hubby’s dad several years ago.  He bought it new.  It definitely earns its keep. 

Another faithful member of our wood cutting crew. 

And my Grace, who after working hard yesterday got hit with a stomach virus last night.  It started about 1:30 a.m.  She seems to be feeling better this evening but it has been a rough night and day.  We are praying no one else gets it but I guess time will tell. 

Enjoy your day and God bless.

Today is a beautiful day here in Floyd.  The sun is shining.  Temperature is 55 degrees.  I LOVE IT!  I know there are lots of people who enjoy winter and cold weather.  I am not one of them.  For my part, it could just stay like this until spring.  I’m pretty sure it won’t though.  We have lots of geese on the pond today.  Probably close to 50.  They seem to be enjoying the warmer temps too.

We have been busy today making treats for Jessica’s “goodie” basket.  So far, we have made chocolate chip cookies and Russian tea cakes.  We still have Martha Washington balls and peanut butter balls to make.  She always wants ritz crackers with peanut butter spread between them, dipped in white chocolate with an m & m on top(I have no idea what this is called but it is one of her favorites).  Tomorrow I will be baking a ham and making homemade rolls.  Other things on the menu (as of right now)-pasta salad, green beans, cocktail weiner, angel punch and sausage balls. 

I guess I better get busy-more candy to make.  I love this time of year.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Today has been a beautiful day here in Floyd.  Plenty of sunshine with a good breeze.  Perfect for drying clothes on the line.   I love to see clothes flapping in the wind.  This means they will dry quickly and will be so soft. 

I tried a new homemade coffee creamer today.  It is Almond Coffee Creamer.  I changed the recipe some to suit our tastes.  3/4 cup powdered sugar, 3/4 cup non-dairy coffee creamer, 3/4 cup powdered milk, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1 tsp almond extract.  Put all ingredients into blender and blend well.  I must admit I had some trouble getting it to blend together  but I just keep on trying.  I like almond extract in other things so I thought it would be worth trying.  I do like it and think it would definitely be worth making again.   I was wondering if I could  use this same recipe with different extracts, peppermint for example.  I’m not sure how the cinnamon would go with the peppermint though. 

Enjoy your day and God bless.

I thought I would give you all a break from festival pictures today.  Underneath these two trees sits my “green swing” which as you know I dearly love.

This is a picture of a late blooming hollyhock.  See how tall it is.  Our house is a two story house and if you look in the upper left corner of the picture you can see the edge of the roof on the house.  Just look at how blue the sky is today.  God is so good!

Our grapevine getting ready to rest for the winter.

Cows in the field behind our house.

Today I am trying a new recipe.  Well, not completely new, I have made it once before.  The other time I made it in the oven.  Today, I am making it in the crockpot.    The recipe is called Honey Baked Lentils and Rice.  

1 cup lentils, 1 cup brown rice, 4 1/2 cups water, 2 tbsp honey, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp minced onion, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste (I used 1/4 tsp each).  Place in crockpot, cook on low for about 4 hrs or until lentils are done.  You can also cook this in the oven in a casserole dish for 1 1/2 hrs at 350 degrees.

School today as usual.  It is an absolutely beautiful day here in Floyd.  I am doing another batch of apples in the steam juicer and will be making applesauce later on today.  I also want to go up on the hill and gather some mullein leaves to dry for making tea.   This tea is very good hot or cold and it is very good for respiratory ailments.  I usually just pick it in the summer and make a cold tea from it.  I have never tried drying it before. 

Our supper tonight will be bbq made from the remainder of the roast I coooked yesterday.  Homemade buns, home fries and the honey baked lentils.   I think we will have peaches for dessert.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Here are a few more fall pictures.  These was taken last Saturday during our hike at Bottom Creek Gorge.

Fall is such a beautiful time of the year.  We have been working on school, cleaning up the garden for fall plowing and working on an afgan.  Not a lot going on.  Yesterday evening we gave Mr. Rooster away.  YEAH!  We gave him to a family that wants to hatch baby chicks for their young daughter to take of.   He will be so happy.

Yesterday, it was rainy and foggy here.  Then the temperatures dropped quite a bit during the night.  It was 36 degrees this morning when we got up.  The sun is out now though and it looks like it will be a beautiful day.  Yesterday, I was reading a blogger friend’s post, http://theboydbunch.wordpress.com/, and she was having crockpot parmesan chicken for supper.  I thought that sounded good and I had already planned on having chicken for supper so I looked up a recipe for it.  I’m not sure if this is the same recipe she used or not but it was really good.  I got my recipe from betty crocker.  I did make a few changes. 

Slow Cooker Chicken Parmesan with Penne Pasta

1 egg, 1/3 cup bread crumbs, 1/3 cup parmesan cheese, 1/2 tsp. italian seasoning, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. pepper, 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast, 1 jar spaghetti sauce, 1/2 cup shredded cheese, 2 2/3 cups penne pasta.

1.  Spray crockpot

2.  In a small bowl, beat egg until foamy.  In another bowl, mix bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, italian seasoning, salt and pepper.  Dip chicken into egg, then coat with bread crumb mixture.  place in crockpot.  Cover chicken with spaghetti sauce.

3.  Cover and  cook on low for 5 to 6 hrs.   (I cooked mine on high for 4 1/2 hrs.)

4.  Cook and drain pasta.  Serve chicken on top of pasta.   Sprinkle shredded cheese on top.  (I used mozarella).

Makes 4 servings.

I hope you all enjoy your day and God bless.

Today has been a beautiful day here in Floyd.  Temperature as I type this is 72 degrees with a slight breeze.  An absolutely georgeous day.  Thank you, Lord. 

This is a picture Grace took yesterday.  This is the view from the back yard of the house Hubby is working on.  The girls and I have  been working on plums today.  We did one batch of freezer jam.  I am trying out the ponoma pectin that my blog friend Cheryl at http://holcombhappenings.wordpress.com/ uses.  You only have to use a small amount of sugar with it.  I have some now on in the steam juicer.  I wonder how plum juice will taste? One thing for sure,  the  house smells delicious! 

 I am also making yogurt today.  This is a new recipe for me.  I got it from Cheryl too.  The recipe is Sweet Yogurt:
7 cups milk
1 pkg unflavored gelatin
2/3 cups instant milk
1/2 cup sugar
4 Tablespoon yogurt

In a small bowl, measure yogurt and let it sit. Mix ingredients (except yogurt) in a large saucepan and cook to 180º; do not boil. Cool to 112º in pan. Stir in a small amount of milk into the yogurt and then mix it all into saucepan. Stir well. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla (if desired). Divide into 2 quart jars, cover with lid and band. Wrap in a towel and set over a pilot light or on a heating pad covered with a large pot. Check in 4 hours.

The only thing I did different is use my yogurt machine.  Well, actually, it is Jessica’s machine.  She is letting me borrow it.  The recipe filled up the yogurt machine with about 1 pt left over.  I put that pint in the oven and turned the oven light on.  I want to see how that works.  I’ll let you all know. 

Well, the juice is almost done so I better get busy.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

A later note to this post.  The girls and I were working on the plums when the house started shaking.  David, my son-in-law called almost immediately to see if we were okay.  Evidently, there was an earthquake somewhere close to Richmond VA.  We have never felt an earthquake here.  It definitely was strange. Our friends, the Horn’s, felt it at their house also.   We said a prayer of thanks to the Good Lord for his protection over us.  We also prayed for the safety of others.  I will let you all know more about this as I learn of it.  God bless.

The ducks and the geese were in the yard together this morning.  Look how much they have grown.  The mama duck has 5 babies that have survived.  One goose is missing.  We are hoping it is not mama or papa.  From what I can understand they mate for life.  If something has happened to one of them it would mean no more babies, which would be very sad.

Our VBS has been a lot of fun so far.  2 more nights to go.  Thursday night is family night.  We went with Hubby yesterday.  He had a little repair job at this house on Claytor Lake.  We worked on school while he did the job.  Then we went down to the lake for a picnic.  It was a nice day.  I, of course, forgot the camera so no beautiful lake pictures.

Today is a beautiful day here in Floyd.  Temperature is in the lower 70′s as of now.  The sun is shining and we have a slight breeze.  Very nice.  We are hoping for nice temperatures this weekend as Dave, Jess, and the boys are coming up.  We hope to go into town on Saturday night and watch the fireworks. 

I have clothes ready for the line so I better get busy.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Yesterday was our second annual horseshoe pitching picnic.  I thought I would share a few pictures with you all.  We had a great time with lots of good food (of course), good fellowship and good music.   I think that hammock is calling my name!

A few of the people sitting around enjoying themselves.

What do you think he might be looking at?

Deer, right across the river from where we were. 

The creek.

The Lord blessed us with a beautiful day. 

Our VBS starts tonight.  The girls will be playing the music all 5 nights.  Julie is in charge of the games tomorrow night.  When did my babies become workers instead of just participants?  Well, it does this mama’s heart good to see them serving the Lord. 

Enjoy your day and God bless.