daniel

I received this picture from Dave and could’nt wait to put it on my blog. Ain’t he just the cutest thing? Nothing says boy more than a baseball cap and a truck. Temperatures here have warmed up greatly. Highs in the upper 40’s to low 50’s. The girls have spent much time outside playing which of course Jasper (the pup) loves. The forecast however is calling for freezing rain Thursday night and Friday morning. Oh well, it is just the middle of January. Grace did find a dandelion in bloom yesterday, just to remind us spring is coming. Not much longer until we see some flowers in bloom. We normally have some early wildflowers that bloom here about the end of March- blood root, colts foot, and periwinkle. We get so excited when we see them. Only about 6 more weeks to go. In the mountains where I was raised, my Mom always planted lettuce, peas and onions on Valentines day. Can’t do that here. We have had frost as late as the end of May. I guess I better quit dream about spring and garden food and get to work. God Bless.

January 20, 2010 0

Pumpkin Cake

I guess this is why I always gain weight in the winter. There’s just something about winter that makes me want to bake and try out new recipes. This pumpkin cake and cream cheese frosting recipe came from my (and Jessica’s) favorite cookbook. Mennonite Country-Style Recipes and Kitchen Secrets. If you get an opportunity to own the cookbook, it is fantastic. I don’t think I’ve made anything from it that was bad. All has been good. I made 15 bean soup for church last night. It turned out really good. I basically follow the instructions on the bag except I add some browned sausage and hamburger to the recipe. Also instead of canned tomatoes, I use spaghetti sauce. It is a very affordable soup. If I didn’t miss count anything, it will feed about 20 people for about .50 cents a serving. Pretty good huh. I’m always looking for ways to feed my family inexpensively but healthy. Sometimes these two words do not go together. You know, like at Wendys. Do we buy the $1.00 chicken sandwich or the $5.00 salad? Depends on the cash flow this week. Honestly though we very seldom eat out, so the $1.00 chicken sandwich is a big treat for us all. Well speaking of eating, time for me to cook supper. Tonights menu-sauteed (fried) cabbage with hamburger, potatoes, onions, garlic, green peppers, and spinach. It’s a one dish meal, inexpensive, healthy and delicious. Of course a meal like this has to have cornbread with it. Remember I grind my own corn to make the cornmeal, and of course for the dessert, the pumpkin cake. Gotta go, I’m getting hungry. God Bless.

January 18, 2010 0

My Sticky Buns

Well, what do you all think? Not to be bragging, but they look pretty good, huh. Okay so maybe I am bragging a little! They did turn out pretty good though and they tasted good too. The good news is we finally have water in our bathroom. On Wednesday, our temperatures got above freezing, finally. I’m not completely sure but I think we have not been above freezing since Dec. 18 when the snow came. Actually there were many days were didn’t get out of the single digits. I know you all have heard this before, but I really don’t like cold weather. Anyway, yesterday, we got in the lower 40’s. The girls thought it was spring time. On Wednesday we went to visit our friends, the Horn’s. We returned to find no water pressure in the house, which of course indicates a problem. Usually this means a water leak somewhere. After much checking, we discover a busted water line in the little house building (where my wringer washer is). The line had frozen and when it thawed the old pipe just couldn’t take the pressure. This required much quick thinking on part of Hubby, as water is gushing out of the pipe. Thank God for hubbies! He quickly fixed this problem and before the night was out our bathroom thawed also. Thankfully, no leaks. School today as usual. We are not meeting for our Friday Ladies Class. One of our ladies is gone on a trip and the other one has car trouble. Hopefully next week all will fall back in place. I really miss when we don’t get to meet. These ladies are like family to me. Well, I better get to work. Oh, I wanted to let you all know, it is 9:00 A.M. and the temperature is already 30 degrees. WOW! God Bless.

January 15, 2010 1

Near Disaster

Sometimes I wonder at the intelligence of this pup we have brought here to the farm. About 2:00 this morning, I hear what I think is the coyotes going through. This is not uncommon as we have quite a few coyotes here in Floyd. Then I hear Shadow(old dog) barking like crazy. Still not uncommon as he does not allow the coyotes to come to close to the house. After this my sleep induced brain makes out another sound. Jasper (young dog) in great distress. I open the upstairs window but cannot see him, however, his distress is getting louder. Hubby gets up and we quickly run outside to see what is going on. Jasper has somehow managed to get in the pond. However, he cannot get out because of the ice. He is whimpering so loud and struggling to get out of the water with his front paws, however they can’t get any traction on the ice. We have no idea how long this had been going on before we were awakened but he seemed to be pretty tired and definitely very scared. I run back up to the house and get a long pole. George uses it to break the ice on the edge but it was frozen so thick he couldn’t do much good. Finally he has some success. He takes the pole and pushes Jasper down the edge of the ice until he gets to the closest place to the ground. The pup is still struggling to get out but can’t. I lay down flat on the ice and stretch forward and manage to grasp a front paw and pull him out. He was extremely grateful and extremely cold. We brought him into the house and dried him off as best we could. As a special reward for all his hard work (and ours) he stayed in the house the remainder of the night to warm up. I think he liked that part. Here is another picture showing more details.

This entire adventure took about 1 hour. We are very thankful for the warmer temperature last night. This would have been terrible with below zero temps. We are also thankful Jasper seems okay, as we have all come to love him. Well, that was our night. God Bless.

January 12, 2010 0

Ice Skating

I know I’m going from one extreme to the next with my pictures, but I thought you all might enjoy a view from my front window. It’s actually quite pretty( if you like the look of ice). I am getting a little tired of looking at it though. We’re hoping for a warm up soon, especially concerning the bathroom water lines. I don’t think I mentioned yesterday but our potatoes also froze in the canning building. Ok, enough “woe is me” stuff. Life is still good and God is still in control. Today is the start of a new week. School as usual. I am thinking of making another batch of cinnamon rolls as the first ones seemed to go pretty good. Sometimes, making desserts here is a waste of time and money as we do not eat a lot of sweets. I think this time I will try the sticky bun recipe. I have read a lot about sticky buns in Amish books and think I would like to try them. Well time for school. Take care and God Bless.

January 11, 2010 0

Summer Anyone?

Ok, so I’m really getting tired of cold weather and I thought I would have a little summer . Garden growing, clothes drying on the line. Mr. Scarecrow on duty. That’s right. Stop. Take a deep breath. Imagine summer in full swing. Not wind chills below zero, frozen water lines etc. Today has been a nice day, church was good. The bad news was yesterday. I went up to my cellar to get some canned goods and discovered my canned green beans had frozen. I counted 40 quarts frozen and decided I didn’t want to count anymore. I just shut the door and walked away. I have never had cans to freeze before so I’m not exactly sure what to do. I researched this and from what I have discovered, as long as they stay sealed they should be okay. I pray this is so. So much work to lose them all. Anyway, it’s all part of life. I’ve been busy making aprons and discloths to sell. I have 3 aprons finished and working on the 4th one. I have about 4 dishcloths made. I am also working on another wall hanging. This one will be for Julie. Oh yea, I also have an afghan in the works. This is all done in my spare time. (What spare time?) Well, it’s time for bible study. Tonight’s menu includes brunswick stew, green beans(guess who’s bringing them) cornbread, mac & cheese and 2 different desserts, unknown at this time. God Bless.

January 10, 2010 0

Cinnamon Rolls

I made cinnamon rolls yesterday. Sorry for the small picture. I am having trouble with my blog pictures. I need some help, Dave!! Anyway this was my first attempt at cinnamon rolls. Jess has made them several times so I thought I would try my hand at them. They turned out pretty good. Well, it is still cold here. About 5 degrees with a wind chill of about -15 or more. Wind gusts of about 40 miles an hour today and tomorrow. Needless to say our water in the bathroom is still frozen. The girls had their first experience with washing their hair the old way today. Not a lot of fun but better than nothing, at least we are clean. It’s time for school to start so I better get busy. Stay warm and God Bless.

January 8, 2010 0

Apron

My first out of state order. Okay, so it goes to my cousin in Kansas but it counts anyway. Well, the big news here is Jess went yesterday for her ultra sound and IT’S A BOY!!!! My heart is happy. It amazes me to think of how good the God I serve is. To come from being a woman who thought she would have no babies to being blessed with children is just an example of how God loves to surprise His children. God is good!! Temperatures here are still cold. The high today is 24 degrees, wind chill of about 15. This is the warmest temperatures we have had in about one week. We have managed to keep the water running in the kitchen, but the bathroom has been frozen for several days. Oh well, at least we still have water. We went down to Jessica’s yesterday to watch Daniel while she went for her ultra sound. It was 32 degrees when we left her house, got back home to 16 degrees with a wind chill of about zero or below. Have I mentioned I do not like cold weather? This will make me appreciate spring more when it comes, right. I am making homemade rolls today and it is time to put them in the oven. Better go. God Bless.

January 6, 2010 1

Wall Hanging

This is my latest project. What do you’ll think? I have never been very good at hand sewing, however I have decided to hand sew each of my girls a wall hanging. Notice I did not say quilt(much too big a project). I thought though that a wall hanging would be do-able for me. I gave this one to Jess and plan to start one for Julie soon, then Grace. It really was a lot of fun. I guess because it was kinda different for me. I always enjoy trying new projects. Well the big news around here is the temperature. COLD!!! The actual temperature was around zero this morning with a wind chill of somewhere around 15 or 20 below. VERY COLD!!! Dave and Jess and Daniel came up this weekend. Of course, they are now accustomed to more southernly temperatures so they were very cold. But then we were very cold too. I really pray it doesn’t stay this cold all winter but I do recall one January about 5 years ago, the temperatures stayed like this for the entire month. Have I mentioned I don’t really like cold. Oh well, maybe this will kill out all the squash bugs that attacked our garden last year. We will (hopefully) find out Tuesday if Jess is having a boy or a girl. Sometimes those babies are shy and don’t want to let anyone know. Anyway she is starting to show her pregnancy and getting some flutterings which is very exciting. It was very good to have them up this weekend, they had not been here since Halloween and thats way too long. It’s almost time for our Sunday Night Study so I guess I better get busy. I’m taking leftovers from yesterday’s feast. God Bless.

January 3, 2010 0

Doll Bunkbed

Hubby’s latest project. A doll bed for Barbara’s grandchild. I hope she likes it. It was a lot of fun making. It fits the American girl dolls or any 18″ dolls. We will deliver it this evening. We are going over to our friends, the Horns, for tacos tonight. The girls can hardly wait. The ice storm predicted for this morning didn’t happen. I’m glad. Dave, Jess, and Daniel will be here tomorrow about lunch time. I think we’ll have ham, baked beans, pasta salad and homemade rolls. Maybe red velvet cake for dessert. Sounds pretty good! Guess I better get started on some of that food. Happy New Year and God Bless.

December 31, 2009 0