Hello everyone!  Things have been kinda busy here.  This is one of the things that has been going on.

On Monday, Jessica dropped one of the big cans (from Sam’s) of green beans on her toe.  Her toe is broken and as you can tell very smashed.  I went down, spent the night and Tuesday helping her out.  She has definitely been in pain with it.

Then on Wednesday, we took Grace to the doctor.  She has bronchitis.  They gave her 3 different medicines so hopefully she will be well soon.  We have a few Christmas decorations up but not many.  We do not do a lot of decorating.  I hope to get the tree up next week but we’ll see.

Well, that’s about it.  Oh by the way, Jasper is completely healed.  He has decided though that he really enjoys being inside with us.  He is kinda an inside/outside dog now.  I hope you all have a great week and God bless.

Not much going on here.  Just the normal things that happen this time of year.  We are going down to Jessica’s for Thanksgiving.  Hopefully, I will get some pictures to show you all.  The kids are growing so much.

We have definitely been having some strange weather.  Last Friday, we didn’t even need a fire.  Today we are 15 degrees with a wind chill of 5.   Yesterday our temperature was 10 degrees with a wind chill of zero.  We have some snow and it  feels like January instead of November.  Hopefully, this will soon be gone and it will warm up some.

Well, that’s about all I have time for today.  Everyone is about ready to leave.  I pray you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends.  God bless.

Hello everyone!  I hope you are all doing well.  Things have been moving right along here.  I’m trying to think of what all has been happening since my last post and the first thing that comes to mind is our sausage making.  Our local supermarket had pork on sale for $1.58 a pound.  So Jess and I got some, the butcher ground it up for us and we made sausage Saturday.  It was a lot of fun.

Another thing that has been happening here concerns our dog Jasper.

About 2 weeks ago, on a Thursday night, we heard him barking and running off the coyotes.  We did not see him all day Friday.  This was very usual as he mostly stays close to home.  On Saturday, we were really getting concerned.  Jess and kids came up.  She and I were going to a friend’s baby shower.  We drove all over the farm looking for him but didn’t see him anywhere.  At the shower, I told all the ladies about him being missing.  On Sunday afternoon, the husband of one of the ladies found him in the woods across the Parkway.  Praise the Lord, he was alive.  We think perhaps he was chasing the coyotes and ran across the parkway and maybe got hit with a car, the damage seemed to be contained to his back and leg.    We will never know for sure.  He was very hungry, very thirsty and could not walk.  Hubby had to carry him out of the woods back up to the truck.  We have been doctoring (babying) him since we brought him home.  He can now walk  but still favors his leg.  He seems to still be in pain but not near as much as when we first found him.  I think it will take a long while for him to recover.  We are thankful to have him back with us.  He would definitely be missed.

Today is a beautiful day here in Floyd.  Lots of sunshine, blue skies, wind.  Temperature is 55 degrees.  A GREAT day for drying clothes on the line.  I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless.

Hello everyone!  I hope you are all doing well.  Things are moving right along here for us.  The pictures I showed you all on my last post were from a little picnic walk we did the other week.  We had went with Hubby to a job site and after lunch we took a little walk down to the river.  It was a beautiful day.

This is the little trail we walked down.

This is what it looked like when we got to the water.

Beautiful.  It was a fun day.  Days like this are just ONE of the reasons I love homeschooling.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Wow, it sure has been a while since I made a post.  Time sure does go by quickly.  I thought I would share a few fall pictures with you all.  Our leaves are mostly gone but we have a few still holding on.

Last week was spent mostly cutting, splitting and stacking wood.  Hard work but fun.  We take a picnic snack and hot chocolate in a thermos.  I think it is enjoyable just being out in the woods with my family.  This year getting the wood is much easier that last year.  You all my remember last year we had to wheelbarrow the wood around the side of the hill to load it in the truck.

This year it is on level ground.  Much easier.  The wood house is 3/4 full.  We think maybe 2 more truck loads and we will be done!!!  “Old Red” aka “the bumpy truck” has really worked hard the last little bit.  Nothing makes me feel more ready for winter than a pantry full of good home canned food and a wood house full of wood.

Hubby and I very seldom have our picture made together.  Do any of you all watch Duck Dynasty?   The girls said we were like Phil and Mrs. Kay in this picture.  We love that show.  Well, our lunch break is over.  Time to finish up school.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Last Saturday, we had a fun day.  We went to Sinkland Farms with Dave, Jess and kids and our friends the Horns.  The kids had a great time playing at the hay maze.

Sam was very busy climbing.  He didn’t have time to stop for a picture!

Daniel did finally stop just long enough for one picture.

Miss Katie just being adorable!

Here we are waiting for the main attraction!

Julie and Madison getting to ride the horses!

They both love horses and very seldom get the opportunity to ride.  They have looked forward to doing this together for a long time.

It was a wonderfully fun day.  After riding, we went to get pizza.  We stopped at a little park and had a pizza picnic.  We came home for a short time and then went to the Coon Hunters Club for our annual “critter chompin”.  I was so happy Dave, Jess and kids got to come with us.  They had not come to the critter chompin in several years.  We all had a great time and there was lots of food.

We are chilly here with frost.  Our temperature this morning was 24 degrees.  I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

Hello everyone!  I wanted to share with you all what I do with the last of our peppers.   I don’t care much for frozen or canned peppers.  I did this last year too and it seemed to work really well.

I gather all that’s left in the garden.  This is a combination of bell, banana, jalapeno and anaheim.  I slice them about 1/2″ thick and dehydrate them.  This took about 6 hrs in my dehydrator.

After they are dry, I put them into a blender.  I didn’t get a picture of this step but you all know what it looks like.  If you are using a lot of hot peppers and you have problems with the fumes from them, at this point you might want to use a mask.  They can be a little powerful coming up from the blender.

This is the finished product.  Isn’t it beautiful.  I store this in an airtight container.  I like to have some on the table in a homemade shaker right beside the salt and pepper.  It is a great seasoning to add to food.  I especially love it sprinkled on my eggs.

If you like this idea, check out http://homejoys.blogspot.com/2013/10/how-to-make-tomato-powder.html and see what she did with tomatoes.  Our tomatoes are gone but I really want to try this next year.  I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

Hello everyone!  I hope you all are having a good week.  Things are good here.  This is a picture of the marigolds that are at the upper garden.  I had no idea they would look so pretty.  I thought I had maybe planted them too close together but I think they look very nice.

We are still working on apples.  We are almost done.  We started school last week.  It has went very well so far.  Of course, usually the first weeks are mostly review.  They are working on history as I make this post.

I am trying to think of what to tell you all we have been doing.  Nothing exciting.  APPLES, school, wood cutting.  Just the normal things that we do.  We cleaned out one of the freezers yesterday and did some organizing.  Something that was much needed.  I wanted to get an idea of what was in there.  Things manage to float to the bottom of the abyss and get lost.  Anyone have any ideas on how to prevent this?  I am wanting to keep up better with what is in there so there won’t be any waste.

Well, another batch of juice is ready so I better get off.  I hope you all have a great day and God bless.