MerryHeartCrafts.comMountain Momma… Country Living

Hello everyone.  It has been a busy week here in Floyd.  David is gone to a conference in Vegas so Monday evening we went down to help Jess with the kids for a few days.  We also had some electrical work Hubby and I needed to do for her.  We finished most of it up on Tuesday.  Wednesday morning, Hubby put a dimmer switch on her lights in the living room.  We then left to come home. 

David is having a great time in Vegas.  He gave a speech the other night at the conference.   He said he spoke to about 22,ooo people.   Amazing.  We are all very proud of him. 

Today was school as usual.  We had planned on going over to the Horn’s this evening but Vicki is sick.  Please pray for her.  She thinks she has a stomach virus.  It has been very rough on her.  I called today at lunch and Quentin said she wasn’t any better yet.  She is never sick.  Hubby has been working on cutting out the material for our chairs.  I so appreciate all your advice on what color to paint them.  I still haven’t completely decided yet but I have a while before he will be at that stage.   I am thinking of going with the dark brown and putting chair cushions in them.  That way I can change them whenever I want and today I happened to think “Wow, I could make a tablecloth for  the table to match the cushions”  Maybe I’ll go that route. 

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

Thursday evening we went to our pastor’s home for a visit.    We ate supper with them and had a wonderful visit.  Mrs. Sally, pastor’s wife, had lots of beautiful Christmas decorations up.  This nativity scene was purchased in Israel.  It is made of olive wood.  Very pretty.

This carousel came from Germany.  You can’t really see it but on top of the carousel are propellers.  The heat from the candles cause the carousel to go around. 

This is Miss Izzy.  Pastor Tom tells her all the time she is the most beautiful cat God ever created.  I think she believes him.

Julie and Sadie had a great time together.

Mrs. Sally is a great seamstress.  I think I have mentioned before she is teaching my girls to sew.  This quilt was so bright and colorful.   I thought you all would enjoy seeing it too.

We have still been having vehicle troubles.  Today, we took the girls over to church for play practice.  Our youth christmas play is tomorrow.  Hubby thought the alternator was going bad on the van.  We were going over to C-burg to Auto Zone to have them check it.  We started having more serious trouble with it, so Hubby thought we should just try to make it home.  We didn’t make it.  About 4 miles from home, the van decided that was just all it could do.  It stopped right in the middle of the road.    I’m here to tell you all God is good!  Not more that 5 min. after the van quit a young man came by that we used to go to church with.  He went up to his Grandpaws and got a pickup truck and a chain.  He and Hubby hooked the van up to the truck and he pulled us all the way home.  No charge!    Anyway, it is the alternator.   So I guess the van will have to be parked for a few days until Hubby can get it fixed. 

Well, that’s been our day.  I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

Hello, ladies.  Seems like we have been busy here for the last few days.   Friday, I worked all day (in my spare time) on aprons.  I managed to get two finished.  I took them down to the Bread Basket for selling.  She had sold all my aprons except one.  YEAH!  This month is our month to clean the church and mow the churchyard.  We went Friday evening to do this.  Grace took this picture of the sky on our way over to the church.    Hubby did the mowing and weed eating while the girls and I cleaned inside.   Our homecoming is tomorrow morning and then our revival starts tomorrow evening.   Here is a picture of the inside of our church. 

Twice a year, our church sponsors a clay shoot at the Coonhunter Club here in Floyd.  Today we had about 25 shooters.    The girls and I stayed for a while and then we had to go to C-burg to buy ink.  Monday we will be starting school and I needed a few supplies.  

I guess I better get busy.  We will be having a fellowship meal following services tomorrow.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Beautiful grapes!  Last night a friend of ours called and said they had some grapes that we could have if we wanted them.  They had already used all they wanted so we loaded up and went over to pick.  We picked about 3 bushels.  The girls and I have been busy all day, processing them.    We are using the steam juicer.  I think we will end up with about 20 qts, maybe more.    What a blessing.  God is so good!

Guess what?  We have a broody hen!  Well, where I come from we call them setting hens but here most folks call them broody.  Anyway, she is only 4 months old.  I don’t think I have ever known one to set that young.  We have kept Mr. Rooster separate from the hens so her eggs would not hatch but she doesn’t seem to know that.  The girls and I wanted to put her back in the coup with Mr. Rooster so we could let her set but Hubby said no.  No more chickens-(this year).  Anyway, we moved her out into her own little coup for a few days.  The other hens were glad as she was hogging the only nest they will use.  They have two other nests but for some reason they all prefer to use just this one. 

I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless.

We have been working on peaches for a few days.  I think I mentioned that we saved the peelings and put them into the steam juicer.  Well, the above picture shows the 2 qts of juice we got from the peelings.  We had 2 gal. of peelings and got 2 1/2 qts of juice.  This will yield over a gal of peach juice.  YUM!  I definitely will do that again with our next batch of peaches. 

I picked about 1 gal. of blackberries this morning.  Pretty good for the first picking.  I am trying something new for us.  I am making blackberry syrup to use with pancakes, french toast, etc.  Have any of you ever made this?  It sounds good and sometimes I just want something different.  I’ll let you know how it turns out.  I have the blackberries on in the steam juicer now.  Julie and I went up to the cellar this morning and organized it.  I think “little green men” come along over the winter and just scatter all my canned goods.  Anyway, all is in order now and ready for the new cans to fill it up.  Grace worked inside doing household chores while Julie and I worked on the cellar.  Hubby worked on mowing the yard.  It has been a long time since he mowed.  It is just so hot and dry.  He thought it was starting to look a little wild. 

Well, time to check on the blackberries.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

I just love sunflowers.  I think they are so cheerful and fun.  These come up underneath the feeder and I think they add so much to the area.  The cats have played there so much though that a lot of them are drooping down to the ground.  They still look pretty though.

I have been kinda busy for the past few days.  As you all know, we went down to Jessica’s on Friday.  We had a great visit and enjoyed play time with the boys.  Then we went to pick the apples.  She didn’t have very many but we got what was on the tree.  I haven’t worked them up yet so no picture of pink applesauce.  On Saturday, we went to pick apples at Faye’s sisters house.  We ended up with about 4 bushel.  When we got home I started working on them.  I have told Faye all about our steam juicer and sauce maker.  She has been wanting to buy them for herself.  Sunday evening at church Gene (her husband) said he was going to buy them for her.  We met them yesterday morning in town at the Farmers Supply.  He bought the steam juicer, the sauce maker and a steam canner for her.  She was so excited.  We then went home with them and showed them how to operater their new equipment.  She had a 5 gal. bucket of apples to work up.  From that she got 2 qts of juice and 5 qts of applesauce.  It was a really fun day.  I really want one of those steam canners.  It takes my water bath canner about 1 hr. to start to boil.  The steam canner is ready in about 10-15 min.  Amazing.  We definitely would be saving on the amount of gas we use.    Hopefully, we will be able to get one soon.  Much faster and more economical.

I worked up some more of our apples yesterday evening after we came back from Faye’s house.  We will be working on them more today.  So far, we have 8 qts of applesauce and 4 qts of apple juice.   Grace has been taking some more pictures.  This is a picture of the sunset God gave us yesterday.

I forgot to tell you ladies about the nice weekend we had.  Remember Thursday evening I said temperatures were cooling off.  Well, Friday and Saturday morning the temperature when we got up was 58 degrees.  Can you believe that?  Then Sunday and Monday morning it was 61 degrees.  The highs for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were only in the mid 70′s.  Wonderful!!  Thank you Lord!!  Yesterday, it started warming back up and today I think it will be back to normal but it certainly was wonderful to enjoy a few fall-like days in summer.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

How much more fun is school when you can sit outside under a big shady tree and watch the kittens play?  We have had hot temperatures here for the last few days.  Not as hot as it is at Jessica’s but hot for us, anyway.  I went out early this morning in the garden to work.  Hoping to get it finished before it got too hot.  I left Julie and Grace inside doing dishes and other inside chores.  I much gather work outside than in, even if it is hot.  Anyway, I got the garden finished weeding, replanted some tomato plants, planted some beans and some corn.  Everything is in the ground now so we’ll see how it does.

I thought you all might enjoy seeing how big the baby geese are.  They are almost as big as their parents.  Geese are definitely good parents.  They are very watchful and protective-always together.

We have piano practice this afternoon so I better get busy.  We have another load of clothes to put on the line before we leave and a folded basket to put away.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

This cat’s name is Panther but somehow Grace started calling him Pan-Pan and now everyone  calls him that.  He is a very loving and playful cat.  Here he is thinking about “attacking” another cat that is walking by.

We seem to be on the mend here.  Grace (I think) is almost over it and Julie is feeling better than she was.   Hopefully we will soon be completely better.   Jess had planned on coming up this week with the boys and spending a few days with us while David is gone on a business trip.   This won’t be happening now.  Oh well, we hope to go down on Easter Sunday to spend the day with them.   Yesterday was a beautiful day here.  We had sunshine and warm temperatures after the fog lifted.  Today is slightly overcast but the temperature is warm.  I have clothes on the line outside to dry.  Our birds are singing beautifully.  I think it will be a nice day. 

Enjoy your day and God bless.

Our lilac bush has lots of buds on it. YEAH!  If all goes well, it will have lots of beautiful, sweet smelling flowers soon.  We have a small bush we just planted a few years ago at the edge of the garden and it is full of buds too.  I love spring.   I think our rain has stopped for a few days.  It is still very cloudy but the forecast is for the sun to come peeping through this afternoon.  It is already warmer than it was all day yesterday so that is a good sign.   We are hoping to do some more outside work after school.  We have been trying to start school a little earlier so that we can be finished around lunch.  Then we have the afternoon for work and play.  It seems to be working out well so far. 

Yesterday, while the girls were at their piano lessons, I went into our local thrift store-Angels in the Attic.  It operates entirely on donations and volunteers.  All the profit each month is given to help local needs.  It is amazing.  They have moved 3 times because they keep growing.  The last time they moved, they purchased the building and in about 2 years had it paid off.   Since all workers are volunteer they have very little expense.  It has really helped our community.  The lady who thought it up is a Christian and tells everyone she can “It is all God”.  Anyway I said all that to say this.  Many years ago, my sister-in-law gave Hubby a coffee cup.  He loves this cup and uses it every morning.  Well, guess what I found.  One that looks just like it at Angels for 25 cents.  How exciting!  This morning I put my coffee in the new cup so that our cups matched.  Cute!  Ialso found this pretty glass.  I love old dishes and this glass just so wanted to come home with me. 

I better get busy.  It’s almost time for school.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

We have been very busy this week.  Dave, Jess, and boys came up for a visit.   We have been watching the boys while she had some business to take care of.  The first evening they were here, part of her back tooth broke off.  She has been in quite a lot of pain from this.  She has a dentist appt. tomorrow to get it checked.  We will be going down in the morning to watch the boys while she gets this taken care of.  I’m not sure but we might stay a few days so Hubby can put up the chair railing in her livingroom.

Temperatures here have been very nice-warm, sunshine, and just a slight breeze (20 mph wind).   Daniel has had so much fun playing outside.  He has “helped” MawMaw with all her work.  He is quite an eager helper.    Sam, of course, has helped too.  He is crawling now and loves to get into everything, especially places where he is not supposed to.    I love MawMaw time.

Enjoy your day and God bless.