MerryHeartCrafts.comMountain Momma… Country Living

This is the big project we have been working on all week.  The first year we lived here we enclosed the front porch with glass.  Hubby had gotten these glass doors free from a job site years before.  This porch stayed wet all the time.  So he took the glass doors out of their frames and framed them up on the porch.  We love this this area.  All winter it is used for coffee drinking, book reading.  In the summer, it is a favorite spot to sit and look at the stars, the lightning bugs, summer storms.   It is a well used porch.  However, this winter we discovered a problem.  The wood underneath the porch had rotted so badly the windows were falling down.  Not good.  So Hubby decided we had to fix this before it became a disaster. 

First step was to remove the glass.  In this picture, he has already replaced some of the rotten wood but you can still see some of it.  We had to jack the porch up and put new wood under it.  We also had to replace some of the wood flooring.

This was our attempt to keep the cats out. LOL  As you can guess, it did not work but it did keep the rain out which was our real objective.  We had a lot of rain Wednesday evening.  Lots of wind, thunder and lightning but the porch, Praise the Lord, stayed dry. 

We now have all the posts replaced and the 3 big panes of glass back in.  We will be working on the last section today and then hopefully start replacing the trim.  He wants to cover  the front boards with metal.  This will keep the weather from doing too much damage.  He had to work alone yesterday as the girls and I had to go to Roanoke for a dentist appointment and other errands.   Hopefully we will get most of it finished today.  Rain is in the forecast for the weekend.  We are still working on our surprise project.  We just had to stop working on it to get this finished.  Priorities, you know.   I’ll try to have more pictures to show you all tomorrow.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

I took this picture this morning looking out from our enclosed front porch.  Yes, it really is as cold as it looks.  Actual temperature this morning was zero with wind chills about -15.  Maybe its warmer up north.   We certainly were thankful for the added warmth of the gas logs.   We went yesterday to get the tires on the car.  When we returned our water was frozen.  This never happens during day time hours.  We hooked up the heat light and PRAISE THE LORD it started running again around 8:30 P.M.  Needless to say, we left it on slightly last night. 

We have to take the car back today.  Something isn’t quite right with the right tire.  The car has a bad vibration in it.  I must say I do not look forward to going out in this cold weather but it has to be done.  

I know I’ve already posted a picture of the village but I thought it looked so good with the frost on the window behind it.  Enjoy your day, stay warm and God bless.

I know many of you are thinking “what is this picture of”.  Did she make a mistake?  No, this is the view from my front porch this morning as I comtemplated my walk.  It was raining, the wind was blowing, everything was muddy and as you can see, it was foggy.  Today was the first test of my determination to walk every day.  It would have been so easy to just say YUCK!  I’m not going today.  I’ll do something else (which I knew I would not).  I did finally put on my raincoat, gloves, hiking boots-which of course was another excuse not to go because I do not like to wear all this.  I then stepped out in the yuck and began my walk.  Guess what?  It was exhilarating!!!!!!!!  I really did enjoy it.  Yes, I did get wet, my pants and my face and that was not too pleasant but it wasn’t too bad either.  I really want to walk as long as weather will permit so I know I just have to stick to it.   Pray that I will continue to be strong.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

What a wonderful way to start a Sunday morning!  Sitting on my front porch, drinking a cup of coffee with my favorite man in the whole wide world, and looking at this special presentation from the Lord.  Beautiful!  We had a really good weekend.  We watched the movie “Fireproof” Saturday evening with some friends from church.  Then our Sunday School lesson was on marriage.  This was not planned to be that way-just our Lord at work.  I said we had an unplanned marriage retreat weekend.  We started the day with the beautiful sunrise and then on the way to church last evening the Lord gave a beautiful sunset to look at all the way to church.  (of course, I did not have the camera with me then)  How good is the Lord we serve?

Here is a picture of my first attempt to make english muffins.  They turned out pretty good-a little dense I thought but good.  I used a recipe I found on line to make the dough in my bread machine.  Next time I think I will try making them by hand to see if they are different.  I am trying really hard to make as much of our food at home as possible.  This really lowers the grocery bill and of course is healthier for us and usually tastes much better.  Well enjoy your day and God bless.

Here is a picture of my juicer/steamer in action.  Yesterday it was raining very hard.  It would have been difficult for me to go outside to do the juice.  Hubby set up the propane burner on our enclosed front porch.  It worked extremely well.  So much better than out in the shed.  We just opened up the windows for ventilation.  We got another 2 gal. of juice yesterday and 3 qts of applesauce and 4 qts of applebutter.  The mountain of apples is getting smaller now.  Soon we will be starting on the pears. 

I thought you all might enjoy another fall shot.  I snapped this as we were going down the road toward Floyd.  I thought maybe it would be blurred but it turned out nice, I think.  Today we will be working on more apples and school.  It is very foggy here today.  A dreary day.  A day for lighting candles.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

I thought we might all enjoy some flowers.  There are not many left as fall is quickly approaching. 

I thought sure these marigolds were not going to come up this year.  They were really late coming up but I think  just in time for the fall show.  They look very pretty beside my front porch.

All the flowers in this bed had already bloomed and gone to seed when SURPRISE these late bloomers just popped out beautifully.  They give such a splash of color to the yard. 

Enjoy your day and God bless.

More snow!  We already have about 3 more inches and as you can see it is still coming down.  It is supposed to snow all day today and tomorrow.  Wow!  I think it is going to be a snuggle in weekend.  I hope to work on Grace’s quilt this weekend, maybe make a few aprons, have fun with my girls, make a pot of coffee to share with my hubby.  Our front porch is enclosed with glass.  We love to sit out there, drink coffee and watch it snow.  All the beauty without the cold.  I have a beef roast on the wood stove cooking.  I haven’t decided what to put with this yet, probably potatoes and carrots.  Yesterday’s menu was meatloaft, mashed potatoes, green beans, mac & cheese, and biscuits.  School today as usual, maybe make some snow cream later.  Enjoy your day and God Bless.