MerryHeartCrafts.comMountain Momma… Country Living

Grace and Sam are pretty big buddies.  She is usually his watcher and Julie has Daniel.  As you can see, Sam must be barricaded away from the construction zone.  He is just a little bit too much help. 

He looks a little sad, don’t he? 

The electrical is all done and the ceiling is hung.  Monday we will hang the walls and start putting the mud on (hopefully).  After that, the new floor goes down.   Hubby will be building her a pantry to go beside her new stove.  

The boys were very happy when they were allowed inside the construction zone to help.  They worked very hard pulling up the old tile.  Daniel would pull it up with his special tool and Sam would carry it to the trash.  Very good helpers.

Temperatures here are very cold.  Wind gusts of about 40 mph with an actual temperature of 13 degrees, putting the wind chill below zero.  Our wood stove has been working hard keeping us nice and warm inside though.  I hope you all have a great weekend and stay warm.  God bless.

We have snow here in Floyd.  The girls are very happy.   It was not a lot of snow but hopefully enough for snow cream later today. 

I worked on aprons most of the day yesterday.  I made 4 little aprons and 2 adult size.  I made the adult one a little different and was able to get one child size and one adult size from one pillowcase.  

I made the back much shorter.  It just comes over the shoulder and that gave me enough extra material for the small waist apron. 

This one has a child one to match.  I didn’t take a picture of it because I didn’t get it completely finished yesterday.  I ran out of the white binding.

I was prowling around in the trunk where we store extra material the other day and found this veggie tales material.  There was not a lot of it but enough to make these two little aprons.  I think they are very cute.    Anyway, that was my day yesterday.  I wanted to make a few different styles of aprons to kinda get an idea for what sells the best. 

I cooked a deer roast on the wood stove yesterday for supper.  We had baked potatoes,  home canned green beans, fresh homemade rolls and home canned applesauce for supper.  It was very good.  I think today I will shred the deer roast and have deer bbq and fries.  I already have buns baking as I type this.  I made a buttermilk chocolate cake the other day so that will be our dessert.  It all sounds pretty easy.  There was not church today because of the snow so I think today is a take it easy kind of day.  I will leave you all with one more snow picture. 

Enjoy your day and God bless.

We took this picture of Katie Sunday when they came for a visit.  She really is growing and seems to be a very content little lady.  You all remember how I said it was cold here Monday.  Well, Tuesday morning it was 10 degrees with the wind chill below zero.  Our water froze in the bathroom and the new laundry room.  A little disappointing as Hubby thought he had it fixed so it would not freeze.  I tell you all, when the wind blows hard like that it can find the tiniest little hole to get in and freeze pipes.  Anyway, he thawed out the water and insulated more around the pipes, so hopefuly it is fixed now.  Wednesday morning was cold too.  Temperature was 10 degrees again but not near as much wind so it didn’t feel as cold.  Our hard working wood stove is very much appreciated.  Today however has been very nice-low 40′s.   Thank you, Lord. 

Well, I guess that’s about all the excitement we have had going on here.  I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

I thought I would share a few more festival pictures today.  These handmade baskets were beautiful!  Too pricey for me but very, very pretty. 

Darling sheep.  They had a sheep herding demonstration.  The dogs were very well trained. 

And a horse pulling competition.  Huge horses.  16 pair of them altogether.   They had some in a trailer and you could come by and pet them.  Julie loved it.  There was one pair of mules but they did not pull anything.  They hooked them up to the load but the mules just stood there.  I’m not sure if it was too heavy for them or if they were just being stubborn. 

Believe it or not, we actually had some snow flurries this morning.  Our temperature is in the lower 30′s.  We have a fire built in the wood stove, with homemade beef stew simmering on it.  I am getting ready to make some rolls to go with the stew.  It is a snuggle in kind of day.  I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

Baby Sam LOVES food.  Yesterday, he discovered blackberries.  This boy loves every type of food he has sampled so far.  Brother Daniel, however, is a totally different subject.  Whereas Sam eats and loves everything, to Daniel almost everything is YUCKY.  Jess has to disquise all the fruit he eats.  They eat a lot of “purple snack” (blueberries combined with other fruit and pureed into total smoothness).    He can’t even suspect he is eating fruit.

Today temperature is not near as nice as yesterday.  Wind chills around zero this morning when we go up.  It has warmed up some though-mid 20′s with wind chill around 10 degrees.  Needless to say, I did not hang clothes on the line outside today.  We are doing school as usual, working on history now.   They are learning about Egypt.  Tonight’s menu is undetermined at this time.  I know, though, it will revolve around a deer roast, which is cooking on the wood stove as I type.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

Good morning!  No picture today.  I just couldn’t find anything I thought  was interesting.  We had a really nice weekend.  We went down to Jessica’s on Saturday, planning on coming home that evening.  Things happened and we ended up staying the night and coming home on Sunday.  It was a nice visit.  I got to play some games with Daniel and got plenty of beautiful smiles from Sam.  I just wish I had taken my camera then I would have some pictures to post today.  

Temperatures are chilly here-about 14 degrees with a little snow falling.  Lots of cloud coverage.  I have a deer roast simmering on the wood stove.  It smells so good!  I think we will have mashed potatoes, gravy and green beans with it and, of course, fresh baked rolls.  I have two new aprons cut out and hopefully I will get to work on them today.  It is matching mother/daughter waist aprons.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

Yesterday, we ran a few errands in C-burg.  Our pastor’s wife had told me Joann’s had simplicity patterns on sale for .99 cents.  I found this great vintage apron pattern.  I love old things.  I am in process of redoing the flowered apron.  I just did not like the contrasting material.  No one else did either.   So yesterday, I took it off.    I will be doing something different on the bottom, maybe just a lace ruffle. 

My house smells delicious.  Yesterday while we were out, I got a rotisserie chicken.   For supper, we had chicken, noodles, green beans and fresh baked bread.  Then I took the bones and cooked them all night in my crock pot to make a stock.  Everytime I awoke last night I could smell the stock cooking.  Today I have simmering on the wood stove, chicken and noodle soup.  I got the original  recipe from another blog and it is just delicious.  Of course, I have altered the recipe to suit our taste.

The recipe is:  deboned chicken, stock, carrots, celery, onions.  The amounts of these will depend upon how much chicken you use.  1 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. turmeric, 1/2 tsp pepper, 2 tsp. parsley,  1 tsp. chicken base (if you have it, if not, its just fine without it). I then add about 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. italian seasoning, basil, oregano- or whatever I have on hand.  Let this all simmer for about 30 minutes, add noodles.  Another guessing amount but I think at least 2 cups.  After noodles are done,  mix together 3 tbsp flour and water.  Add this to the soup mixture and let it simmer.  This will cause the soup to thicken.  In this pot, I added some canned corn also.  In the picture, I have not added the flour yet.  You can skip this step, if you want.  I have made it both ways.

Time for school to begin.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Today has been a very pretty day here in Floyd. Beautiful sunshine and as you can see the sky is just amazing. Such a bright, vibrant blue. It is warmer than it has been. 25 degrees with very little wind. All in all, this makes for a fairly nice day.
I wanted to put a picture of my latest apron on, but for some reason I am having difficulties with my pictures. I think I will need some help, Dave.
Tonights menu will be pinto beans(cooked on the wood stove) Kielbasa with cabbage, cornbread and the buttermilk chocolate cake for dessert. Pintos cooked on the wood stove are just sooooo good. I guess they prefer slow cooking.
Enjoy your day and God bless.

I finally have Grace’s quilt finished.  I started it last year after I finished Julie’s.  Gardening came upon us and I had to put the quilt away until winter.  I now have made all 3 girls a wall hanging/quilt that I sewed by hand.   I am not very skilled at sewing things by hand so these will probably be the only ones I do.

Temperatures are still cold here.  Actual temperature this morning was 10 degrees with a -10 wind chill.  When the cold wind blows here it is very difficult to keep the house warm.  The wind seems to find its way inside in places we never thought possible.   Anyway, our wood stove is working overtime.  I am very grateful to have this stove.  It certainly puts out a lot of heat. 

I am working on a new apron and hopefully will be able to show you all a picture of it soon.   School as usual today.  The ladies are coming tomorrow for bible study and it is my turn to make dessert.  I am thinking of making a buttermilk chocolate cake.  I got the  recipe from a blogger friend and it has become a favorite of ours.   I like buttercream frosting with ours.  It reminds me of a cake that was served at school when I was a kid.  They called it wacky cake.  I do not like chocolate very much but this cake is really good.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

Here is another picture from our outing yesterday.  Such beautiful colors.  Today has been busy working on the new room.  We have the vinyl flooring down.  Now I should pause to say “where I come from”  we call this linoleum.  Here they call it vinyl flooring.  Anyway, it is down on the floor.  All the trim is cut, painted and on except for the window trim.  It is really starting to look like a room.  I will try to post a picture of it soon so you all can see our progress. 

We did not have ladies bible study today.  Two of the ladies were unable to come so we just decided to call it off.  Probably for the best, my house is a little cluttered right now.  Hopefully, soon it will all be finished and we can get everything back in order.  Today has been a beautiful day here in Floyd.  Nice temperatures, cool but not too much,  lots of sunshine.  We did have a fire all day which has felt really nice.  I cooked my first kettle of pinto beans on the wood stove today so I guess fall is officially here.  There is no better pinto beans than those cooked on a wood stove-in my opinion. 

Well, still more to get done.  Enjoy your evening and God bless.