MerryHeartCrafts.comMountain Momma… Country Living

Today was spent running errands.  The girls had dentists appointments this morning.  We left home at 9:00 as it takes about an hour to get to Roanoke from here.    After their appointments, we spent some time in Lifeway.  I picked out several studies I think the ladies will enjoy doing.  Then we went to Toys R Us.  The girls wanted to look around.

  When the girls were younger, we always called Roanoke “big big town, Christiansburg was “big town” and Floyd (our town) was called “little town” .  So we came back, went to “little town” and picked up the wheat I had ordered.  It is called Prairie Gold.  It is a hard white spring wheat.  It can be used in all baking, from bread to cookies.  The price was $25.00 for a 50 lb. bag.  Pretty good price.  Tomorrow I hope to make cinnamon rolls to share with a friend on Thursday.  If I’m really industrious, maybe a loaf of bread too.  Our snow is melting more each day.  Temperature today was about 60 degrees.  I went out on my back porch and sat on my porch swing.  I love porch swings.  When I was a little girl, my grandmother had a porch swing and I have loved them ever since.  To me, nothing says relaxing more than a swing, so I have 1 porch swing and 2 yard swings.  All made for me by my loving Hubby.  The girls have had 2 tree swings since they were very small and still enjoy them.  I guess we’re just “a swingin” bunch.   Take care and God bless.

I took these pictures this afternoon after church.  This road connects to our road.  About 3 weeks ago when the first drifts came, they cleared this road.  I was told it took 12 hours to clear it.  I can only imagine how tall the snow was then, if it still looks like this 3 weeks later.  Church today was very good, communion with a fellowship meal, then a business meeting.  I went alone as Julie is still sick.   Hubby volunteered to stay home with them.  I very seldom go anywhere alone, so it felt very strange.  Julie is feeling some better though so I pray she is on the mend.   The young pup Jasper seems to be on the mend too.  Take care and God bless.

I apologize for not posting anything is several days.  Things have been a little busy here.  Julie is sick with a sore throat and head cold.  We took her to the doctor yesterday.  Thankfully it is not strep throat.  But she feels yucky just the same.  Rest and lots of liquids for her.  Also we have been doctoring Jasper’s (young dog) paw.  He seems to have stepped on somthing and run it through his paw in 3 different places.   The first day it happened he just limped, the second day it was swollen 3 times normal size, the third day it bled alot, then finally it has started ( I hope) to improve.  The swelling is down, he still can’t put any weight on it, but it looks much better.  Of course, he has been allowed to sleep on the enclosed porch, which I am thinking he likes WAY too much.  Cold temperatures here-below zero wind chills.  Wind gusts of about 60 mph.  We had to let the fire go out in the wood stove.  It was just too much smoke coming in the house, especially with Julie sick.  This is definitely on Hubby’s to-do list to fix this problem this summer. 

The pictures are of drifts in our side yard.  They are a little darker than I had hoped but you can get the idea anyway.  I estimate them to be over 4 ft.  Yesterday when we took Julie to the doctor,  the main road was pretty bad.  3-4 ft. drifts blocking one side of the road.  Lots of places had only 1 lane open.  When we came back, the road crews had cleared them.  Our road crews have definitely spent a lot of time working this winter.  Speaking of work, I guess I better get busy.  Take care and God bless.

About 3 weeks ago, I posted the first  picture showing the amount of snow we had gotten.  The second picture was taken this morning.   Not a lot of change, but I know spring is coming.  Our birds are starting to make the nesting calls.  Surely they know things we don’t.  Hopefully we will get to do bible study tomorrow.  Hubby did get the van out this morning.  It took him 5 trys but he did it.  The truck wheel is still locked up so it is not going anywhere.  I will wait until this evening when he returns to find out how bad our road is, hopefully not too bad, so the ladies will be able to come.  We are supposed to start Esther by Beth Moore.  I am very excited about this study.  I love Beth Moore studies.  School today as usual.   The girls and I are watching the entire series of Anne of Green Gables videos.  There have been really good so far.  Well, I guess it is time for school.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

We have been entertained all day today by these beautiful birds.  Many, many birds.  Every time I looked out my dining room window, I would see 50-60 birds in our yard.  Probably 20 of these were doves.  We love feeding the birds.  They love sunflower seeds.  This morning as Hubby and I were sharing our coffee together, we listened as they sang morning praises to the Lord.  Beautiful!  We take care of them by feeding them and they take care of us by providing beautiful praise music.  I think that’s a fair trade.  It was a little distracting doing school and watching the birds, though.  Well, the fog has moved in here.  Super foggy.  High wind warnings for tomorrow and Thursday 25-30 mph  with gusts up to 50 mph.  This will be for Wednesday and Thursday.    I never knew what fog and wind could be like until we moved to Floyd.  No church tomorrow night-it’s already cancelled.  I guess it isn’t done snowing yet.  I just looked out and the snow is pouring down.  Oh well.  We are warm inside our home, our tummy’s are full and our children are happy.  Life is good!  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.

This was the view this morning from my kitchen window as I washed the morning dishes.  Am I a blessed woman or what?  We did get to have our Ladies Study today.  Hallelujah!  The snow has not started yet.  They are predicting 10-13 inches.  This will probably mean no church on Sunday which of course makes for a long week.  However if all goes as planned Jess and crew will be coming up next weekend.  She wants us to sew her some maternity clothes.  We will be going to a local fabric store called Schoolhouse Fabrics.  They have 3 stories full of nothing but cloth.  Then we will come home and snuggle in for 2 days of sewing, and of course lots of MawMaw time.  I can hardly wait!  It is almost supper time.  Tonights menu is one of Hubby’s favorite.  Fried chicken, gravy, corn and biscuits.  I think I’ll throw in some cooked apples too.  YUM!  Are you hungry yet?  Well, I am.  Guess I better get started frying that chicken.  God Bless.

Well, what do you all think?  Not to be bragging,  but they look pretty good, huh.  Okay so maybe I am bragging a little!  They did turn out pretty good though and they tasted good too.  The good news is we finally have water in our bathroom.   On Wednesday, our temperatures got above freezing, finally.  I’m not completely sure but I think we have not been above freezing since Dec. 18 when the snow came.  Actually there were many days were didn’t get out of the single digits.  I know you all have heard this before, but I really don’t like cold weather.  Anyway, yesterday, we got in the lower 40’s.  The girls thought it was spring time.  On Wednesday we went to visit our friends, the Horn’s.  We returned to find no water pressure in the house, which of course indicates a problem.  Usually this means a water leak somewhere.  After much checking, we discover a busted water line in the little house building (where my wringer washer is).  The line had frozen and when it thawed the old pipe just couldn’t take the pressure.  This required much quick thinking on part of Hubby, as water is gushing out of the pipe.  Thank God for hubbies!  He quickly fixed this problem and before the night was out our bathroom thawed  also.  Thankfully, no leaks.  School today as usual.  We are not meeting for our Friday Ladies Class.  One of our ladies is gone on a trip and the other one has car trouble.  Hopefully next week all will fall back in place.  I really miss when we don’t get to meet.  These ladies are like family to me.  Well, I better get to work.  Oh, I wanted to let you all know, it is 9:00 A.M. and the temperature is already 30 degrees.  WOW!  God Bless.

Sometimes I wonder at the intelligence of this pup we have brought here to the farm.  About 2:00 this morning, I hear what I think is the coyotes going through.  This is not uncommon as we have quite a few coyotes here in Floyd.  Then I hear Shadow(old dog) barking like crazy.  Still not uncommon as he does not allow the coyotes to come to close to the house.  After this my sleep induced brain makes out another sound.  Jasper (young dog) in great distress.  I open the upstairs window but cannot see him, however, his distress is getting louder.  Hubby gets up and we quickly run outside to see what is going on.  Jasper has somehow managed to get in the pond.  However, he cannot get out because of the ice.  He is whimpering so loud and struggling to get out of the water with his front paws, however they can’t get any traction on the ice.  We have no idea how long this had been going on before we were awakened but he seemed to be pretty tired and definitely very scared.  I run back up to the house and get a long pole.  George uses it to break the ice on the edge but it was frozen so thick he couldn’t do much good.  Finally he has some success.  He takes the pole and pushes Jasper down the edge of the ice until  he gets to the closest place to the ground.  The pup is still struggling to get out but can’t.  I lay down flat on the ice and stretch forward and manage to grasp a front paw and pull him out.  He was extremely grateful and extremely cold.  We brought him into the house and dried him off as best we could.  As a special reward for all his hard work (and ours) he stayed in the house the remainder of the night to warm up.  I think he liked that part.  Here is another picture showing more details.

This entire adventure took about 1 hour.  We are very thankful for the warmer temperature last night.  This would have been terrible with below zero temps.  We are also thankful Jasper seems okay, as we have all come to love him.  Well, that was our night.  God Bless.

Hubby’s latest  project.  A doll bed for Barbara’s grandchild.  I hope she likes it.  It was a lot of fun making.  It fits the American girl dolls or any 18″ dolls.  We will deliver it this evening.  We are going over to our friends, the Horns, for tacos tonight.   The girls can hardly wait.  The ice storm predicted for this morning didn’t happen.  I’m glad.  Dave, Jess, and Daniel will be here tomorrow about lunch time.  I think we’ll have ham, baked beans, pasta salad and homemade rolls.  Maybe red velvet cake for dessert.  Sounds pretty good!  Guess I better get started on some of that food.  Happy New Year and God Bless.