MerryHeartCrafts.comMountain Momma… Country Living

Meet one of our new ladies.  We have been blessed to receive 5 new hens and 1 rooster for free.  A family that lives across the Parkway from us purchased these chickens on Easter weekend.  That makes them about 1 month younger than ours.  They decided chickens were not for them.  They gave them to us with the coup.  We brought them to their new home today.  Julie will have to work on petting them up but I don’t think it will take her long.  We are going to increase the size of our fenced in area and then put them all together.  We think our older ladies like having a rooster around.  We received 6 eggs today and one of them was a double yoke.   We do not really want the rooster though.  We are thinking of giving him away.

It is HOT here.  Temperature is 95 degrees.  I’m not sure what the heat index is but it is definitely hot.  Enjoy your day, stay cool and God bless.

Look at what Grace found!!  We are all very excited to get this first one.  Remember the big tomato plant we bought early in the spring and put in a bucket.  Well, the tomatoes are starting to get ripe on it.  All our other plants are, of course, way behind this one.  Tonight we will divide this one four ways so we can all have a little nibble.  So much fun, sharing the first of the harvest.

This morning the girls and I went out early and started working on the hen house.  It needed to be cleaned out and we wanted to get their nests ready as we are hoping soon to get eggs-maybe by the end of next month.  We just barely got finished before it started to sprinkle rain.  I think though it has already stopped.  What we need is a good steady rain but I know many blogger friends who are in severe drought conditions.

Our chicken yesterday evening was delicious.  I will definitely be making it again.  I was thinking that the spice mixture would be good on pork or beef as well.  I took the chicken off the bone and put the bones and skin back in the pot with the broth that had cooked out of the chicken.  I then added water -enough to fill up the crock pot.  Then I turned it on low and this morning I will be freezing delicious homemade chicken broth for soups and such.  YUM! 

I better get busy.  I want to make some hamburger buns for supper this evening.  We will be having pork bbq, fries, corn on the cob and cantelope for dessert.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

We are starting to enjoy the fruit of our labor.  I know its a small amount but the first is always the best.  We love it when the garden starts coming in. 

Yesterday we went over to the Horn’s.  Vicki put some of my old schoolbooks on ebay for me.  I have never sold anything on ebay.  They only allowed us to put 10 items.  Hopefully, they will sell and then we will put more.  We’ll see.  Anyway, thanks again Vicki, for helping me.  The girls had a great time playing as usual.  Vicki showed me some pictures of projects she wants to do this summer.  It was a really good visit.  After that we had piano lessons.  While the girls did their lessons, I did some grocery shopping.  We were out of chick feed so I picked some up.  They are starting on the layer crumbles now.  Hopefully, soon, we will be gathering eggs.  So exciting.

I better get busy.  Clothes to hang on the line (as usual).  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Yesterday Dave, Jess and the boys came for a quick visit.   They had purchased a butchered hog in Burnt Chimney, which is kinda close to here.  They had one of the hams cured for a country ham.  It has to hang for 3 months.  They brought it by here to hang in one of our buildings.  They also generously shared some of the pork with us.  Thanks!  We enjoyed fresh sausage this morning with our eggs and cooked pears.  Sooooooo good!!!

Daniel is ready to go to work in this picture.  He has his hat on and my shovel in his hand.  This picture was my first attempt at learning how to crop pictures on my computer.  I should have made it bigger but I’m just learning.  We had some ice fall during the night, now we are getting snow.  Hopefully, it will just be snow from now on.  I really do not like ice.   No church today.  I think it will be a snuggle in day.  Make some candy or cookies-maybe both. 

Enjoy your day and God bless.

We have a new car.  Well, new to us.  It is a 1991 Ford Taurus and seems to be in excellent condition.  It gets really good gas mileage.  We took it down to Jessica’s yesterday and got about 27 mpg.  This sounds great to us as “ol Red” only gets about 8 mpg.  Please don’t get me wrong, we are very thankful for ol Red.  It is just not exactly a family vehicle.   The girls and I used ol Red as our vehicle to ride into town for piano and other things.   We have had to use the van (Hubby’s work vehicle) for work and leisure.  Not a lot of fun.  We had to unload all the tools when we were going somewhere, then reload them back when we got home.  Times have been hard.  These are choices you make in order to make ends meet.  But now by the grace of God we have another car.  Paid for-no payments.  Thank you, Lord.  Tonight’s menu at church is Ham loaf, deviled eggs, corn, green beans, cole slaw and corn bread.  I am bringing the green beans (home canned) and the corn bread.  I use my grinder and grind corn to make the corn meal.  It is baking in the oven now and smells soooooo good.  I also cut up some fresh strawberries from yesterday.  We are having pound cake with strawberries and ice cream for dessert.  It all sound delicious!  It has been very windy here today.  I wanted to work on my bible study outside but it was just too windy.  The girls say God is blow drying the earth when the wind blows like this.  I guess that’s as good a description as any.  Smells like my cornbread is done.  I better get it out of the oven.  Take care and God bless.

Daniel is having fun on his new swing set.  I think it was the highlight of his weekend.  We had a great visit.  Lots of good food and sunshine.  The temperature was extremely nice which made for an easy time hiding and hunting for eggs.  Temperature here is nice too.  Mid 70′s.  I love it.   Flowers are popping up everywhere.  It is so exciting!   I pray everyone had a nice Easter.  Take care and God bless.

This is my honey bun cake recipe.  It is really easy but oh so delicious.   1 box yellow cake mix, 4 eggs, 3/4 cup oil, 8 oz.sour cream (or sour cream substitute).  Mix ingredients, spread 1/2 mixture in a greased 9X13 cake pan.  Sprinkle 1/2 of the following mixture on top–1 cup brown sugar, 1 tbsp cinnamon.  Spread remainder of cake batter on top sprinkle remaining brown sugar mixture on top of this.  Swirl batter with a butter knife.  Bake at 350 degrees 35 minutes or until done.  For the glaze I use 2 cups powdered sugar, 2 tsp. vanilla and 5-6 tbsp evaporated milk.    Drizzle glaze on while cake is still warm and enjoy.  I would like to take a minute to thank my friend Marie for this recipe.  She is one of the best cooks I have ever known.  Unfortunately, Alzheimers has robbed her memory of many great recipes but every time I make this cake I think of her.  I hope you all enjoy it as much as we do.  God Bless.