Tuesday

I thought I would give you all a break from festival pictures today. Underneath these two trees sits my “green swing” which as you know I dearly love.

This is a picture of a late blooming hollyhock. See how tall it is. Our house is a two story house and if you look in the upper left corner of the picture you can see the edge of the roof on the house. Just look at how blue the sky is today. God is so good!

Our grapevine getting ready to rest for the winter.

Cows in the field behind our house.

Today I am trying a new recipe. Well, not completely new, I have made it once before. The other time I made it in the oven. Today, I am making it in the crockpot. The recipe is called Honey Baked Lentils and Rice.

1 cup lentils, 1 cup brown rice, 4 1/2 cups water, 2 tbsp honey, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp minced onion, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste (I used 1/4 tsp each). Place in crockpot, cook on low for about 4 hrs or until lentils are done. You can also cook this in the oven in a casserole dish for 1 1/2 hrs at 350 degrees.

School today as usual. It is an absolutely beautiful day here in Floyd. I am doing another batch of apples in the steam juicer and will be making applesauce later on today. I also want to go up on the hill and gather some mullein leaves to dry for making tea. This tea is very good hot or cold and it is very good for respiratory ailments. I usually just pick it in the summer and make a cold tea from it. I have never tried drying it before.

Our supper tonight will be bbq made from the remainder of the roast I coooked yesterday. Homemade buns, home fries and the honey baked lentils. I think we will have peaches for dessert. Enjoy your day and God bless.

October 25, 2011 8

More Festival Pictures

I have so many pictures to share. Here are a few more from our day at the Festival.

Here the horses are grinding the cane into juice for making molasses.

The man in charge of making the molasses was very nice. He took the girls through the entire process step by step. He even let them have a turn skimming off the foam.

Spinning wool.

An old baby cradle.

Today we have been busy with school. I did a batch of apples in the steam juicer. Washed several loads of laundry. I have a roast in crockpot for supper. We will be having potato gravy, green beans and homemade rolls with it. Enjoy your day and God bless.

October 24, 2011 6

Blue Ridge Folklife Festival

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Yesterday we did a field trip to Ferrum College. We had so much fun and I have so many pictures that it will take me several days to show you all them. The first thing we came to when we got there was this music museum. It had the history of the dulcimer. Very interesting.

Guess what this is? A sewing machine! All I can say is, we’ve come a long way, ladies.

Several places were demonstrating how corn was ground into meal. This one however gave away free samples.

I think I’ll grind ours a little finer in my grinder. The corn we grind for corn meal is white so this will be a little different.

Who remembers these? Growing up, I would have loved to have one of these. Well, that all for today. I’ll post more pictures tomorrow. It’s almost time to leave for bible study. Enjoy your day and God bless.

October 23, 2011 5

Homemade Laundry Soap and Bluing

I have just discovered this product. Some of you ladies may already know about it but I had never heard of it. You all know that I have made my own laundry soap for years. I have always had trouble with it leaving my clothes looking dingy. I would make a batch and by the time I used it up my clothes would be looking like I hadn’t even washed them. YUCK! Then I would buy a box of store bought detergent and use it up so my clothes would look clean again. Then repeat the process. So I was reading on line and one of the recipes was saying you could add bluing to your detergent. What? I immediately jump up to the google bar and type in, “What is bluing?” It is something you add to your wash to make your white clothes remain white. You can buy it online. Our local supermarket carried it. Can you believe that? I had never even noticed it before. Well, as of right now, I am thinking it is the best thing since sliced bread. I have been using it for about 2 weeks. My whites are still white. I think I have found my solution. Also when using homemade laundry soap, my towels usually become water resistent. They would not absorp water. This has not happened since I started using the bluing. YEAH! I hope this post doesn’t sound like a commercial for bluing. I just wanted you ladies to know, in case any of you have been having the same problem. I also bit the bullet and purchased some lavender essential oil to add to it. I avoided buying it for years because, well, everything you add to it makes the cost go up more and I wanted to keep it cost effecient. But I really like for my clothes to smell nice after they have been washed. I admit it. I like smelly things (good smelly things).

I also tried something new today. I made my own fabric softener. The recipe I used is:

1 cup baking soda
6 cups distilled white vinegar
8 cups water
10 -15 drops orangeessential oils (optional) or 10 -15 drops lemonessential oils (optional) or 10 -15 drops essential oils, of choice (optional)

Directions:

You will need a one gallon container.
First add the baking soda to the plastic container.
Next add 1 cup of water to start with.
Slowly add the vinegar to the bottle as the vinegar and baking soda will start to fizz.
Then add the rest of the water swirling around & cover venting the top a few times.
Last add the essential oil.
Add 1 cup in your final rinse cycle for each load but give the bottle a good shake to stir up the essential oil if using.

I got this recipe from food.com. I want to remind you all that baking soda and vinegar fizzes at lot when mixed together. Now, I knew this but for some reason I put my baking soda in and then just started pouring in the vinegar. HUGE MESS! My thanks to my darling girls who came to Mom’s rescue with lots of towels. Anyway just a reminder. I used lavender essential oil in mine, so now I have lavender laundry detergent and lavender fabric softener. My clothes should smell great.

Well, that’s my day. I hope you have a great evening and God bless.

October 21, 2011 6

More Fall Pictures

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.

October 20, 2011 6

Gingerbread Coffee Creamer

Today I tried a new recipe. Gingerbread coffee creamer. I got the recipe from food.com I added 1 cup powdered milk to the recipe, as I like mine extra creamy.

2 cups non-dairy powdered coffee creamer or 2 cups powdered nonfat dry creamer or 2 cups powdered coffee creamer
1/4 cup Splenda brown sugar blend or 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon ginger
1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon clove

Directions:

Blend well in a blender.

You will see specks of the spice in the mixture. I have already tried this recipe and I thought it turned out great. I think I really like making all these flavored coffee creamer.

I will leave you all with another fall picture.

And a sunrise picture Grace took this morning. Enjoy your day and God bless.

October 17, 2011 6

Bottom Creek Gorge

Yesterday we went with the Horn’s to Bottom Creek Gorge. It was absolutely beautiful! So many beautiful colors.

We stopped at an overlook and I took these pictures.

We had a great time. We hiked and then came back on the Parkway to picnic. Such a wonderful day. I have so many beautiful pictures to show you all. Enjoy your day and God bless.

October 16, 2011 7

From My Front Yard

I thought I would share this picture with you all. This is the view from our front yard. Our God certainly loves color!

Not much going on here today. Just the normal stuff-school, laundry, lunch. We have had rain and fog this morning. The rain has stopped and the fog seems to be lifting. Hopefully, we will soon see lots of sunshine. Everything is a soggy mess right now.

I think I’ll go have a cup of pumpkin spice coffee with my Hubby. I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

October 13, 2011 5

Wednesday

Today, we have been busy with school. We did a batch of apples in the steam juicer. We got 1 gal and 1 qt. of juice. We then run the apples through the Roma sauce maker and got enough applesauce to make 3 qts of applebutter. YUM! I also made a batch of homemade laundry soap.

Colors here are at their peak this week. I hope to get more pictures to share. We have been having rain but it looks like it will clear up this evening. Hubby has been busy making a king size bed for Jess and Dave. I will show you all pictures when he gets it finished. I think it looks beautiful. Here he is working on one of the posts for the headboard. I think I actually managed to get this picture without him knowing it. He was deep in concentration.

Tonights supper will be baked pork chops with potatoes and carrots, pumpkin pie for dessert. I guess I better get busy, I think everyone is getting hungry. Enjoy your day and God bless.

October 12, 2011 5

A Quilt for Katie

I thought I would show you all a quilt the girls made for Katie. They did everything including heming it on the machine. I thought they did a really good job. I just finished crocheting an afgan for her but we forgot to take a picture of it. I’ll try to get one next time we go down.

Today has been rainy and overcast here. The air has become chillier as the day progressed. Not much else going on here. We did school and then Hubby and I went in to town to get some chicken feed. They have been doing really well with their laying. I had sold enough eggs to pay for the feed except for $2.00. I thought that was pretty good.

Supper tonight is deer tenderloin, gravy, corn, biscuits and plum jelly. YUM! Here are a few fall shots we took the other day.

This one is the field behind our house.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

October 11, 2011 5