MerryHeartCrafts.comMountain Momma… Country Living

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.

I thought I would show you all a few pictures of around our house.  This picture is one of the old walnut trees that is in the yard.  The faithful horse you see has survived Julie and Grace and is now being enjoyed by grandchildren.

This picture is looking out my dining room window.

As you come down our driveway, this is one of the first things you see.  Hubby built the bench a few years ago.  The swing was one purchased from Wal-Mart.  When the cloth seats gave out, Hubby made a wood swing to hang on the frame.  Can you tell we love to sit outside here?

This picture looks up into the field from the side yard.  You can see our grapevine and garden.  Well, I have a few more pictures but they will have to wait for another day.  Time for us to leave for church.  Tonight’s menu is meatloaf, mac & cheese, corn, rolls, cole slaw, cooked apples and watermelon.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Our grapevine. You can see another smaller “brash” pile in the second garden.   We are hoping to have lots and lots of grapes this year.  Now that we have our steamer juicer, we are looking forward to making lots of grape juice .   We certainly did enjoy the apple juice we made last year.  I want to experiment with other types of fruit to make juice.

Today is another beautiful day here in Floyd.  Very windy though, as usual.  Temperature is already in the 50′s.  Forecast is for rain over the weekend.  I was hoping for sunshine and warm temperatures but I know we did rain too.   The ladies will be coming in a little bit.  We are planning on doing some more outside work after our study is finished.  The girls work on school while the ladies and I are doing our bible study.    We are working on a surprise outside which I will show you all when we get it finished. 

Enjoy your day and God bless.

This is a picture of our church.  It is a very small church that is out in the country.  My kind of church.  Today the pastor’s message was about what makes up a church.  It was a very good message. 

This is the view from the backside.  Isn’t that grapevine pretty?  You can’t really see it but there is a nice garden behind the grape vine and over to the right is a nice small orchard with apples, pears, and plums.  A very nice setting.

We came home from church and for lunch we had homemade bbq using the  rolls Grace and I made yesterday for the buns.  We also had fresh corn from the garden and I made a macaroni salad.  For dessert we had the applesauce muffins we made yesterday.  Tonight’s menu at church will be pigs in a blanket, chicken casserole, green beans, potatoes, with pie and a cake for dessert.  Tonight will be our last lesson on I Corinthians.  We will start II Corinthians on Sept. 19. 

Today has been another nice day here in Floyd.  Temperature right now is 82 degrees with a slight breeze.  Very enjoyable.  Time for me to go enjoy some of that nice weather.  God bless.

Our grapevine is looking very good this year.  Last year we only had a few grapes, thanks to a late frost.  Hopefully we will have much more this year.  When we bought the vines I thought I was getting blue concord grapes.  However these are green in color.  They taste like concord grapes though and make great jelly-it’s just green instead of purple.  They seem to be hardy and very productive and that’s what counts.

My mint is doing very well this year.  I have to keep a close eye on it though as it loves to take over the garden.  I think I will make mint tea today.  I make mine by using 2 cups chopped mint leaves with 4 cups of water.  Bring to a boil and remove from heat.  Let sit for 15 min.  Sweeten to taste and refrigerate.  This will make 1 qt. of tea.  Delicious served cold with ice.

This mint is called pineapple mint.  Very colorful.  It makes a beautiful border and very good tea as well.  Sometimes I mix the two mints together.  I love making fresh tea.  Today is my friend Vicki’s birthday.  We are going over to her house for a cook out and to help her celebrate.  I think I will take some fresh tea for her to try.  The girls have started the housework so I guess I best help.  Take care, enjoy your day and God bless.