Today has been a beautiful day here in Floyd.  Temperature as I type this is 72 degrees with a slight breeze.  An absolutely georgeous day.  Thank you, Lord. 

This is a picture Grace took yesterday.  This is the view from the back yard of the house Hubby is working on.  The girls and I have  been working on plums today.  We did one batch of freezer jam.  I am trying out the ponoma pectin that my blog friend Cheryl at http://holcombhappenings.wordpress.com/ uses.  You only have to use a small amount of sugar with it.  I have some now on in the steam juicer.  I wonder how plum juice will taste? One thing for sure,  the  house smells delicious! 

 I am also making yogurt today.  This is a new recipe for me.  I got it from Cheryl too.  The recipe is Sweet Yogurt:
7 cups milk
1 pkg unflavored gelatin
2/3 cups instant milk
1/2 cup sugar
4 Tablespoon yogurt

In a small bowl, measure yogurt and let it sit. Mix ingredients (except yogurt) in a large saucepan and cook to 180º; do not boil. Cool to 112º in pan. Stir in a small amount of milk into the yogurt and then mix it all into saucepan. Stir well. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla (if desired). Divide into 2 quart jars, cover with lid and band. Wrap in a towel and set over a pilot light or on a heating pad covered with a large pot. Check in 4 hours.

The only thing I did different is use my yogurt machine.  Well, actually, it is Jessica’s machine.  She is letting me borrow it.  The recipe filled up the yogurt machine with about 1 pt left over.  I put that pint in the oven and turned the oven light on.  I want to see how that works.  I’ll let you all know. 

Well, the juice is almost done so I better get busy.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

A later note to this post.  The girls and I were working on the plums when the house started shaking.  David, my son-in-law called almost immediately to see if we were okay.  Evidently, there was an earthquake somewhere close to Richmond VA.  We have never felt an earthquake here.  It definitely was strange. Our friends, the Horn’s, felt it at their house also.   We said a prayer of thanks to the Good Lord for his protection over us.  We also prayed for the safety of others.  I will let you all know more about this as I learn of it.  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.

Fall must be quickly approaching Floyd.  The geese are back.  Lots of geese.  We counted at least 40 this morning on our pond.  They are very interesting to watch however they are quite loud.  I haven’t posted anything in a day or so as we have been really busy.  We went back to Jess on Monday and worked more on her bathroom.  It is started to look more like a bathroom now.    We were planning on going back tomorrow but they all have a cold so I think we will just stay here.  We went on a picnic today with good friends of ours at a little park here on the parkway.  We took the puppy so all the kids had a great time playing together(especially the puppy)

I wanted to show you this strange cucumber(yes it is a cucumber)  I raised it on the back porch in a large pot.  The plant did fairly well but this one is pretty strange.  I put some tomatoes and cucumbers in pots this year.  They did okay but required me to remember to water and I am not really good at this.  All in all though it was a good experiment.  Night has fallen here on the farm.  Katydids and crickets are making a joyful noise unto the Lord.  I think I will go out on my swing and enjoy.