MerryHeartCrafts.comMountain Momma… Country Living

I thought I would show you all Mama Goose on her nest.  She is nesting on the little island on our pond.  Somewhere close to her but invisible to us is Mama Duck.  From what we can figure, they both starting setting at about the same time.  We look forward to seeing babies soon.

The girls and I had a fun day yesterday.  Julie does have to start wearing glasses though.  The eye doctor called them part time glasses.  He said for her to wear them when she was doing school, reading, doing computer work, etc.  To which I said well, that’s pretty much full time glasses.  But anyway, she was just glad they didn’t put drops in her eyes.  She was SO dreading that.  After the eye appointment we went to Goodwill, Wal-Mart, Barnes and Noble, Home Depot and Lowes.  We were looking for a certain color of stain for outside but we couldn’t find the color we have always used.   We then ate lunch at Little Caesar’s (the girls favorite eat out place).  After that, we came towards home-stopped and spent some much needed time at the Horn’s.  It had been so long since we had been able to get together.  We had a great visit but time just went by too quickly.  It seemed like we had been there no time and it was time to go.  She made me a nice hot biscuit so I could sample her dandelion syrup.  It was really good.  You can read about it here on her new blog http://oneandahalfacrehomestead.wordpress.com/2012/04/01/dandelion-syrup-tastes-like-honey/  My dandelion jelly did not set up.  I used powdered pection that I had on hand instead of the liquid (Sorry, Mrs. Faye, I will listen to you next time) so my jelly will now be called syrup.  I used some this morning to sweeten coffee and it was very good.

We had rain early this morning.  Everything is very wet and the temperature is chilly-low 40′s.  I think we will probably get a frost tonight and maybe tomorrow night.  I am hoping it doesn’t damage any of our fruit.  When I walked out toward the pond to get the picture of Mama Goose, I turned back toward the house and took this picture of our hens.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

Hello Ladies, it has been another busy week for us.  Monday we went with Hubby to the job site.  This is a picture of one of the rooms he is working on.  He has gutted all the upstairs and  Monday we put the new subflooring down in 2 of the rooms. 

He put these on the rafters upstairs to give them extra support.  This is a very old house (over 100 years old).  He will be running new electrical throughout the house, hanging sheetrock, lots of updates.  We are VERY thankful to the Lord for this job.  It is the biggest job he has had in several years. 

We took our school books and when the girls had finished with school they wanted to go exploring.  

Then on Tuesday, Grace had an eye doctor appointment in Salem.  This usually takes all day.  It takes about an hour to get there from our home.  Wednesday, we did school in the morning and then went to help Hubby again.  Today, we went back to Salem to pick up Grace’s eye glasses prescription and then made a trip to Rocky Mount Wal-Mart to get the prescription filled.  Tomorrow we are going down to Jessica’s.  A week spent on the road. 

It has been warm here this week.  A beautiful week for being outside.  We slept last night with our bedroom window open a little.  I love falling asleep listening to the frogs.  We are getting rain now.  The rain and the warm temperatures will get everything blooming and greening up.  So exciting!  I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

Daniel is SO into Star Wars right now.  He has a light saber and everything.  He earned his light saber.    He has just recently been promoted to a booster seat and was having trouble getting his seat belt to buckle.  His mom told him if he could buckle himself in 10 times on his own, they would buy him a light saber.  Motivation, you know.  Well, it took him a while but he has it down pat now.   He was super excited because when they went to purchase his light saber, they found a place on line where they could get 3 light sabers for the same price as one at Wal-Mart.  Daniel says he got himself one, Daddy one, and Sam one so they can all be Jedi.  Way to go, Daniel.

Today is a BEAUTIFUL day here in Floyd.  The sun is shining and the temperature is already 40 degrees.  We have gotten a great start on our day.  The house chores are done and we even have a few minutes of relaxation before school starts.  I was wondering if any of you ladies make kefir and if you do, do you use the powdered starter or the grains?  I have made it a lot using the powdered starter but am wondering if the grains would be better.  Any opinions?

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

Today, I made hot pepper jelly.  This is a favorite of ours.  We serve it with cream cheese and Ritz crackers.  When I take it to church on Sunday night, it goes super fast.  I did not have enough hot peppers to make it but the pastor’s wife gave me enough.  I have been so blessed this year.  Even though our garden did not do as well as I would have liked, others have given us so much.  Anyway, the recipe I use is on the sure-jell  recipe instruction pamphlet.  I guess the only different thing I do is that I put the pepper mixture into the blender and pulse  instead of trying to chop them up finely.  I’m lazy that way.  I always put the hot pepper jelly in half pint jars.  I did not have enough empty ones so I bought a dozen yesterday at Wal-Mart.  I think they are soooo cute, don’t you?  The lids came with them. 

Saturday, we did go with the Horn’s to Paint Bank.  However, I forgot the camera.   For those of you who have been reading my blog for awhile, this probably does not come as a surprise.  What might surprise you though, is that Vicki forgot their camera too.  We did take a few pictures with the phone but I am not sure how to get them off.  Well, anyway, we went to the fish hatchery, to the general store, ate lunch at the Swinging Bridge Restaurant (which was way over priced in our opinion), saw the buffalo, and walked around some at the campground.    It was such a fun day.

Yesterday, we went to Sam’s.  It rained off and on all day and then in the evening the heavy rains came.  We have probably gotten over 5 inches.  Our power was off for about 5 hours.  We lit some candles and went out to the glassed in front porch.  Hubby played guitar for us and we told the girls stories of when we were young.  It was fun.   We are still getting heavy rain in spurts.  We really needed rain-just not the whole years worth in one day. 

I also wanted to share this soup recipe with you all.  Our local supermarket sells a 15 bean soup mixture.   They have it with the dried beans. The brand they carry is  http://www.hurstbeans.com/.  I follow the instructions on the back of the bag (kinda).  Well, I did cook the beans like it said.  I added kielbasa sausage to it and a can of my homemade salsa.  I used a qt of our fresh canned tomatoes.  I then added some potatoes, corn, peas, and spinach to it.  It is a really good hearty soup and fairly inexpensive.    It is really good without adding the veggies.  Either way you like it.  I have made it with hamburger, ground turkey, whatever I have on hand.  It is also good without any meat but Hubby is a meat eater.   We serve it with hot cornbread. YUM!  Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, I do not use the ham powder base that comes inside the bag of beans.  Just my personal preference.

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

So I finally got around to making the blackberry syrup this morning.  I used about 3/4 gal. of blackberries and got three pts of syrup.  Pretty good.  I’m not sure how it will turn out but it tasted really good when I sampled it.  I put the blackberries in the steam juicer.  This is what it looks like.

This is a very handy piece of equipment.   We bought ours at our local Farmers Supply.  I’m not sure if they sell them at Wal-Mart or not but I know you can order them online.  You might even find them on Ebay.  The name brand of ours is “Back to Basics”.

This is the bottom of the juicer.  You put 3 qts of water in this.

This fits directly on the water container.  This catches the juice as it comes out of the fruit.

You put the fruit or veggies in this basket.  It fits directly on top of the other container.  Then put the lid on.  You see in the first picture the tubing.  This is how you drain your juice into jars.  Put it on your stove and when it starts to steam, you start timing.  Different things need to steam for different times.  Blackberries steam for 60 min.  You can then use the juice for whatever you want to make.  The pulp that remains in the basket from your fruit or veggies is still usable too.  I will show you all another time what I do with the leftover pulp.

Here is the recipe I used for making the blackberry syrup.  I got it from the internet and it is very simple.  I hope it will be good.

4 cups blackberry juice, 4 cups sugar, 1 tsp. lemon peel.  Combine all ingredients and bring to a boil.  Boil for 2 min.  Fill jars. (I used a strainer here as I did not want the lemon peel in the syrup)  Process 10 min. in water bath canner.

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.

Monday we made jerky.  Jerky is one of our favorite things to dehydrate.  As some of you may remember, we were blessed last year to have a beef given to us.  As it was an old bull , we made hamburger out of most of it.  Above is a picture of our dehydrator, our jerky shooter and the type of jerky mix we use.  All this came from Wal-Mart.  There a lots of jerky mixes out there, this is just the one we use. 

This is what it looks like after it has dried.  The rack is not necessary.  I just put it on it to take the picture.  I thought it would show the jerky better.

When finished, it all fits neatly back into this basket and off the the attic it goes to be stored until next time.  We have dehydrated apples and peppers too, a few bananas and grapes.   We used to dry our green beans on a string in the attic when we lived in Grundy.  I wonder how green beans would be dried in a dehydrator.  Anyone out there ever tried this?  I think I will try it this summer and see how it turns out.   We just called them fodder beans but I have heard them referred to as leather britches.  I know they are good no matter what you call them. 

We did get a storm last night but it was only rain.  YEAH!  Temperatures are very nice today.  Mid 40′s already.  Lots of sunshine.  I have clothes outside on the line.  The wind is supposed to pick up after lunch, about 30 mph with gusts in the 50 mph range.  Typical wind for Floyd.  It helps the clothes dry and makes them soft as long as you can keep them on the line. 

Enjoy your day and God bless.

Last night during our fellowship meal, one of the ladies told me she had something for me out in her car.  She had gotten me this beautiful material.  She found it a Wal-Mart.  Our Wal-Mart does not sell material but they had this on clearance, probably from another store.  Each bolt has 5 yards of material on it.   Lots of aprons!   Sometimes God amazes me,  the way He leads us to encourage each other.  I was feeling a little down about messing up the other material and then He surprises me through a generous friend.  God is good.  

Temperatures here have changed drastically from yesterday.  Mid 20′s with lots and lots of cloud coverage.  We are not getting any snow yet but it definitely feels like snow.  

Time for school.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Today we are getting back into the swing of school.  We had too many errands  yesterday to start.  We also visited some with the Horn’s yesterday.  For Christmas, the Horn girls had received a kit from Wal-Mart to make a little girl apron and a little doll apron.  I took some interfacing over and Vicki and I traced out the pattern.  So I now have a little doll apron pattern to make.  I want to make a mother, daughter, and doll apron to match. 

Temperatures here are much nicer than they have been however yesterday morning was pretty cold.  Temperature yesterday was 14 when we got up but it did warm up nicely with lots of sunshine.  Cloudy today though, of course, because I am home and could hang our clothes on the line today.  Oh well, thats how it goes.  Hubby worked on getting some more wood yesterday while the girls and I ran errands. 

Tonights menu is something I really don’t have a name for.  I brown hamburger meat, add onions, cabbage, and potatoes.  The options are limitless as to what you can add.   I sometimes add fresh peppers, zucchini, squash, mushrooms.  I like fresh baked cornbread with it.   I got some  cushaw from the freezer this morning.  I think I will make a pie for dessert. 

Enjoy your day and God bless.

Well, the snow did come yesterday-about 4″.  So no family coming today.  Hopefully, Dave, Jess and the boys will get to come about the middle of the week.  I’m not sure when Chuck will come.  The girls are excited today.  There is enough snow to make snow cream, which is a favorite around here.  There probably will be some sledding today too.  The winds are supposed to start later today so we’ll just have to see how everything goes.  The cows don’t seem to mind the snow at all.

I took these pictures from our dining room window.  Later today, we will be going down to the barn to get milk.  I will try to take more pictures then.

Hubby completely surprised me yesterday morning.  We very seldom get each other gifts at Christmas but this year he got me this wonderful mixer.  He even braved Wal-Mart on Christmas Eve to get it for me.  Complete surprise!  I got up yesterday morning, went to turn the coffee pot on and there it was.  I squealed out loud and he just smiled that beautiful smile of his that always says “I love you”.  He said with all the cooking and baking I do, he thought it would come in handy.  Well, it certainly will.  I made a batch of banana nut muffins in it this morning.  I used a different recipe than I normally use and I think I like it much better.  The recipe is:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I used whole wheat), 2/3 cup sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp. baking soda, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/3 cup applesauce, 2 eggs, 1/4 cup sour cream, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. allspice, 2/3 cup mashed bananas, 1/3 cup chopped walnuts.  Combine all ingredients.   Pour into muffin tin.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 min.  I used my large muffin tin and got 6 muffins.  Very good.

No church today because of the snow.  I sure am glad we got to go Friday night to the candlelight service.  Enjoy your day and God bless.