MerryHeartCrafts.comMountain Momma… Country Living

Here are a few more fall pictures.  These was taken last Saturday during our hike at Bottom Creek Gorge.

Fall is such a beautiful time of the year.  We have been working on school, cleaning up the garden for fall plowing and working on an afgan.  Not a lot going on.  Yesterday evening we gave Mr. Rooster away.  YEAH!  We gave him to a family that wants to hatch baby chicks for their young daughter to take of.   He will be so happy.

Yesterday, it was rainy and foggy here.  Then the temperatures dropped quite a bit during the night.  It was 36 degrees this morning when we got up.  The sun is out now though and it looks like it will be a beautiful day.  Yesterday, I was reading a blogger friend’s post, http://theboydbunch.wordpress.com/, and she was having crockpot parmesan chicken for supper.  I thought that sounded good and I had already planned on having chicken for supper so I looked up a recipe for it.  I’m not sure if this is the same recipe she used or not but it was really good.  I got my recipe from betty crocker.  I did make a few changes. 

Slow Cooker Chicken Parmesan with Penne Pasta

1 egg, 1/3 cup bread crumbs, 1/3 cup parmesan cheese, 1/2 tsp. italian seasoning, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. pepper, 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast, 1 jar spaghetti sauce, 1/2 cup shredded cheese, 2 2/3 cups penne pasta.

1.  Spray crockpot

2.  In a small bowl, beat egg until foamy.  In another bowl, mix bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, italian seasoning, salt and pepper.  Dip chicken into egg, then coat with bread crumb mixture.  place in crockpot.  Cover chicken with spaghetti sauce.

3.  Cover and  cook on low for 5 to 6 hrs.   (I cooked mine on high for 4 1/2 hrs.)

4.  Cook and drain pasta.  Serve chicken on top of pasta.   Sprinkle shredded cheese on top.  (I used mozarella).

Makes 4 servings.

I hope you all enjoy your day and God bless.

I just love sunflowers.  I think they are so cheerful and fun.  These come up underneath the feeder and I think they add so much to the area.  The cats have played there so much though that a lot of them are drooping down to the ground.  They still look pretty though.

I have been kinda busy for the past few days.  As you all know, we went down to Jessica’s on Friday.  We had a great visit and enjoyed play time with the boys.  Then we went to pick the apples.  She didn’t have very many but we got what was on the tree.  I haven’t worked them up yet so no picture of pink applesauce.  On Saturday, we went to pick apples at Faye’s sisters house.  We ended up with about 4 bushel.  When we got home I started working on them.  I have told Faye all about our steam juicer and sauce maker.  She has been wanting to buy them for herself.  Sunday evening at church Gene (her husband) said he was going to buy them for her.  We met them yesterday morning in town at the Farmers Supply.  He bought the steam juicer, the sauce maker and a steam canner for her.  She was so excited.  We then went home with them and showed them how to operater their new equipment.  She had a 5 gal. bucket of apples to work up.  From that she got 2 qts of juice and 5 qts of applesauce.  It was a really fun day.  I really want one of those steam canners.  It takes my water bath canner about 1 hr. to start to boil.  The steam canner is ready in about 10-15 min.  Amazing.  We definitely would be saving on the amount of gas we use.    Hopefully, we will be able to get one soon.  Much faster and more economical.

I worked up some more of our apples yesterday evening after we came back from Faye’s house.  We will be working on them more today.  So far, we have 8 qts of applesauce and 4 qts of apple juice.   Grace has been taking some more pictures.  This is a picture of the sunset God gave us yesterday.

I forgot to tell you ladies about the nice weekend we had.  Remember Thursday evening I said temperatures were cooling off.  Well, Friday and Saturday morning the temperature when we got up was 58 degrees.  Can you believe that?  Then Sunday and Monday morning it was 61 degrees.  The highs for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were only in the mid 70′s.  Wonderful!!  Thank you Lord!!  Yesterday, it started warming back up and today I think it will be back to normal but it certainly was wonderful to enjoy a few fall-like days in summer.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Look at what Grace found!!  We are all very excited to get this first one.  Remember the big tomato plant we bought early in the spring and put in a bucket.  Well, the tomatoes are starting to get ripe on it.  All our other plants are, of course, way behind this one.  Tonight we will divide this one four ways so we can all have a little nibble.  So much fun, sharing the first of the harvest.

This morning the girls and I went out early and started working on the hen house.  It needed to be cleaned out and we wanted to get their nests ready as we are hoping soon to get eggs-maybe by the end of next month.  We just barely got finished before it started to sprinkle rain.  I think though it has already stopped.  What we need is a good steady rain but I know many blogger friends who are in severe drought conditions.

Our chicken yesterday evening was delicious.  I will definitely be making it again.  I was thinking that the spice mixture would be good on pork or beef as well.  I took the chicken off the bone and put the bones and skin back in the pot with the broth that had cooked out of the chicken.  I then added water -enough to fill up the crock pot.  Then I turned it on low and this morning I will be freezing delicious homemade chicken broth for soups and such.  YUM! 

I better get busy.  I want to make some hamburger buns for supper this evening.  We will be having pork bbq, fries, corn on the cob and cantelope for dessert.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Remember a similar picture from last year.  Same little girl perched on the drainpipe.  Obviously she really likes the spot.

Now its brothers turn to sit for a while.  We really had a nice day with about 90 people showing up all total.  After we came home from the fishing we worked in the upper garden.  Hubby tilled, and the girls and I set out the plants.  They looked great.  But then they wilted badly.   We watered them when we planted them, again the next morning and again yesterday evening before we went to church.  Last night the Lord watered them for us so we are hoping they look better now.  I haven’t went up to the garden yet to check on them.  If they do not perk up, I am afraid they will not survive.  We’ll just have to wait and see.

We plan on going over to the Horns today for lunch and some play time then on to piano practice.  I don’t think I told you all but we have ducklings now-12 of them.  They are very shy and it is hard to get a picture of them.  Mama duck keeps them hid most of the time.  I’ll keep trying though.

Time for us to get busy.  I have a load of clothes to hang out on the line and several more to get done.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

This is Baby Emily, David’s neice.  She is a very hardy eater and seemed very content in Daddy’s arms.

Daniel and his cousin Zack riding bikes.  Zack is Emily’s older brother.

And baby Sam held prisoner in his walker.    We all had a lot of fun with lots of good fun.  Jess had ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls and banana pudding.  YUM!

Yesterday we went to get the inspection sticker on my car and found out the tie rods ends were bad.  We had to make a run to C-burg to get new ones.   Hubby and his brother put them on yesterday evening.  We went back in this morning and got the inspection sticker.  Hubby still does not have his window fixed on the van.  This has given him much trouble.  He of course is trying to fix the old one instead of buying a new one.  For some reason, the wire is not winding up on the spool correctly. 

We are getting rain today.  Temperatures are warm though so it will be very good for everything.  The girls and I checked our seeds out yesterday underneath our greenhouse.  We have a few tomatoes coming up, cucumbers and broccoli.  Very exciting.   Well, our lunch break is over.  Time for school to start.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Our spirea bush is also in full bloom.  I love spring!

Yesterday, my Grace did not feel well.  She felt worse as the day progressed.  I finally ended up taking her to Urgent Care late yesterday evening.  She has strep throat.  Not good.  We are praying for a speedy recovery and that the rest of us do not get it.

On now to more pleasant things.  We have lots of sunshine today and the forecast is for warmer temperatures.  Yesterday was a mix of rain, snow, and wind.  It was chilly all day.  We are looking forward to warmer temperatures the rest of the week.  Last nights menu was meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans and rolls.  Grace, however, did not eat very much as her throat was hurting.

I plan on only doing half school today.  Sickness and school do not go well together.  I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless.

Yesterday evening the girls convinced me we needed to take a ride around the farm.  Grace took pictures for me.  Thank you, Grace.  First we start up the hill.

I almost forgot, first we must get Shadow in the truck bed with the girls.  When he was a young pup, he would run beside the truck.  Now he rides in the truck bed.  He’s too old and too heavy to jump in the truck bed so we back up to this little incline, let the tail gate down and then he can jump in.  He loves it.  As soon as the girls climb in the back of the truck, he starts getting excited. 

See how the fields are starting to get green!

A little stream in the field.

A view from the top of the hill.  These are just a few pictures Grace took.  I will show more later.  We have sunshine today.  We did get some rain last night but I think it has already passed us by.  We plan on getting some more outside work done today.   Maybe even working some more on our surprise.  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.

Well, we came back home yesterday evening and I did remember to bring the camera.  The problem is the camera card is in Jessica’s pocket book.  So still no pictures.  Anyway, we have got a lot done.  All the walls and ceiling is finished.  Dave and Jess are painting it this weekend while we are home.  She decided to paint the room a light blue, the official name is icy blue.  It sounds really pretty.  We are staying here until Monday morning then going back down to work some more.  We will be coming back home Tuesday evening as Hubby has some work coming up this week.  He still has to lay the tile on the floor and do some more to the electrical.  We will be starting our revival at church tomorrow.  I am really looking forward to hearing the preacher who is bringing the message.  I have never heard him before but others that have say he does a really good job. The youth from his church will be doing the music.  We will be having a fellowship meal tomorrow following the service (of course), you know we gotta eat.  I think I will take potato soup and salisbury steak with gravy.  I’m not sure if I’ll have time to make a dessert or not but there usually is an abundance of desserts.

Temperatures here are cool-mid 50′s.  It has been raining most of the day.  It is also pretty foggy.  I think it will be a nice sleeping night.  I just made some blueberry muffins and they are ready to eat.  I think I’ll see if they are good.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

If I were making a list of things that make me happy, this would definitely be one of them.  I feel so blessed when I go out in my garden and gather delicious food for my family to enjoy.  I know it sounds kinda way out there but it is true.  This evening’s supper will incorporate all these healthy veggies.  I’m just not sure how yet.  Maybe grilled chicken, grilled squash-I’m not sure but I know it will be good.  Today has been busy.  I’ve been trying to get some of the outside work done before it gets too hot.  After seeing the big snake yesterday evening, Hubby immediately started weed-eating.  I started mowing the yard.  We got about half finished before it got to late.  I finished mowing the yard early this morning.  I have been washing clothes and getting them on the line to dry.  They are probably already dry.  It is hot here but we have a really great breeze so it’s not so bad (especially in the shade).  I am going to work some more in the garden after lunch.  I need to tie the tomatoes, get rid of some nasty potatoes bugs.  It also needs to be weeded but I think I’ll save that for this evening.  The girls have been busy inside doing housework.  The ladies come tomorrow for bible study. 

This is a picture of what we call the canning building.  The bottom is our cellar and on top we store all our empty cans, our canners and all our canning supplies.  When the girls were little, they started calling it the canning building and the name has just stuck. 

Well, I think it’s time to get some lunch going.  Enjoy your day and God bless.