MerryHeartCrafts.comMountain Momma… Country Living

Our gooseberry bush promises to have lots of fruit on it this year.  We’ve glad as we really like them.  We spent today making a swing for our neighbor.  She is in her upper 70′s and loves to swing in her yard swing after working in the garden.  We first intended to  repair her old swing but it was just too far gone.  Hubby made her a new one exactly like her old one.  We took it down and hung it up for her.  She was very happy.  We so enjoy doing things that make others happy. 

Today has been a nice day here in Floyd.  A slight breeze with warm temperatures.  You all will not believe how much our plants have grown in the greenhouse.  I will try to take a picture of them soon to let you see them.  Well, it is late and we are all hungry.  I’m frying chicken for supper with gravy, corn and biscuits.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

This cat’s name is Panther but somehow Grace started calling him Pan-Pan and now everyone  calls him that.  He is a very loving and playful cat.  Here he is thinking about “attacking” another cat that is walking by.

We seem to be on the mend here.  Grace (I think) is almost over it and Julie is feeling better than she was.   Hopefully we will soon be completely better.   Jess had planned on coming up this week with the boys and spending a few days with us while David is gone on a business trip.   This won’t be happening now.  Oh well, we hope to go down on Easter Sunday to spend the day with them.   Yesterday was a beautiful day here.  We had sunshine and warm temperatures after the fog lifted.  Today is slightly overcast but the temperature is warm.  I have clothes on the line outside to dry.  Our birds are singing beautifully.  I think it will be a nice day. 

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.

We are finished with health!  Isn’t that great?  The girls decided yesterday that since we were so close to being finished, they would just work on through to the end.  (This decision was made all on their own, I didn’t even suggest it)  I think that is amazing in itself but so typical of homeschool kids. 

Today is a very nice day.  Lots of sunshine.  Temperatures are in the low 40′s.  Amazing!  I have clothes on the line, I love it.  The girls and I have been walking down to the barn to get milk this week.   Today’s walking should be fairly nice except for the mud.  I know, complain, complain.  But I really do not like walking in mud.  Good exercise though. 

Tonights menu will be kielbasa with sauteed mushrooms, onion, garlic and green peppers served over brown rice.  I haven’t decided what to have for dessert yet , maybe a peach cobbler.  I have made little progress on the matching aprons.  I am very frustrated with myself.  I made an unfixabe error on the little girl apron.  I will have to transform it into a doll apron.  At least, it will be usable for something.  Well, that’s how you learn, I reckon. 

I hope you all have lots of sunshine today and warm temperatures and that you are able to go outside and enjoy the beauty of the day.  God bless.

Tired of buying this out of the store?  Well, today Jess and I came across a recipe to make our own.  We found it in our Mennonite cookbook.   I needed to make sausage balls for our thanksgiving meal and of course my store bought bisquick mix was out of date.   I will  be making this mix today but I felt confident enough in Mrs. Shank’s recipe to post it without trying it first.  I very seldom do that but every recipe I have tried from this cookbook has been excellent.  I feel confident this one will be also.   The recipe is:

8 cups all purpose flour, 1/3 cup baking powder, 2 tsp. cream of tartar, 3 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp salt, 1 1/2 cups dry milk powder.  Mix together thoroughly.  2 cups vegetable shortening.  Cut in until mixture is fine uniform crumbs.  Store in airtight container in cool dry place.  Yield  13 cups mix which makes 45-50 biscuits.  To make biscuits, blend together 3 1/2 cups mix and 2/3 cup water.  Stir just until liquid is mixed into the dough.  Form into a ball and knead slightly.  Pat or roll out to 1/2″ thickness.  Cut with biscuit cutter.  Place on greased baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 min.  Makes 12 large biscuits.

Temperatures are nice here today but the clouds are moving in.  I have clothes on the line, hoping they will dry.  Yesterday was a beautiful day with lots of sunshine.  I certainly am enjoying these warm temperatures.  I was looking on our calendar.  Last year on Dec. 5th we had our first snow and it snowed all winter.   It was a beautiful but hard winter.  I wonder what the Lord has in mind for this winter.

Time for school.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Hubby took this picture from our dining room window.  I think the dogwood is looking very pretty.  Yesterday was a busy day.  Remodeling always makes the whole house a mess, not just the area where you are working.  Our house seemed to me to be very chaotic.  The girls and I took some time before school to straighten up a little.  Then we decided to take a morning walk.  It would have made a good picture.  Myself, Julie, Grace, our two dogs and one kitty cat.  The little black cat, Moon, always loves to go on walks.  She was very tired when we got back and had to take a long nap under the maple tree.  Hubby got the first coat of mud on the drywall yesterday evening.  It is starting to look more and more like a room now.  Gets me excited thinking things will soon get back in order. 

Today seems to be another beautiful day.  Yesterday was very nice-sunshine, warm temperatures, breezy, a nice day for drying clothes outside.  We made homemade doughnuts yesterday.  They turned out okay, I guess.  The girls and I did not care a lot for them, but Hubby thought they were good.  He likes doughnuts much more than we do.  I made the dough in my bread machine and then fried them.  If I do them again, I think I will try baking them.  A blogger friend of mine bakes hers and they like them better.  I did discover though, the doughnut dough is excellent for making garlic bread sticks.  The girls liked them better than the ones I did the other evening.  The recipe I used is:

1 1/4 cups milk, 1 beaten egg, 1/4 cup shortening, 3 1/2 cups flour,1/4 cup sugar, 1 tsp. salt, 1 1/2 tsp. yeast.  I put this in my bread machine in the order listed.  Set it on dough cycle and let it work.  I love that. 

  Today I think we will make some cookies-chocolate chip of course.  They are the girls favorite-not mine.  I am not much of a chocolate person.  I know that goes against all nature-for a woman to not like chocolate- but I just don’t care a lot for it.   Well, we better get started on our day.  Take care and God bless.

Coming home from church Sunday, we had this wonderful surprise.  An eagle perched high in the top of this tree.  We have saw a few eagles here on the farm before but never got a picture this good.  It was very exciting.  Today is a very pleasant day here in Floyd.  Sunshine, warm temperatures, and wind.  Of course wind.  School has been going very well today.  Several tests but good grades on all.  I like it when they make good grades, makes me think they must be listening.  Tonight is church night.  We are still doing the Beth Moore study on fruits of the spirit.  It is going very well.  A very interesting study.  For those of you who have done Beth Moore studies you know she does such a great job.  Well lunch break is over. School Time.  God Bless.

Tonight our church sponsors something called a Sportman’s Banquet, or as we call it The Critter Chompin.  Our church has a really great men’s ministry that reaches out to the hunters in our community.  Many women and youth from our church are hunters too.  So this is a great opportunity for them (and us) to enjoy the fruits of their labor.  They will bring lots of wild game especially deer as they are in abundance here.   We’ve taking turkey chili and it is simmering now in the pot.  It smells SO GOOD in here.  I can hardly wait to sample all the good food tonight.   We give away door prizes and have people give testimonies to what Christ has done in their life.  A very nice way to spend an evening.  Today has been a georgeous day in Floyd.   Sunshine, wind, warm temperatures.  Just wonderful.   I think I’ll go enjoy some outside time before we have to leave.  God Bless.