Sunset

When Dave & Jess were up for the weekend, we all went riding in the “bumpy” truck. This is one of Daniel’s favorite things to do when he comes to our house. It also is one of Grace’s favorite things to do. She took this beautiful picture of the sunset.

Yesterday, we went to a friend’s house. Her sister has thornless blackberries and she had said we could come and pick. We picked about 1 gal. They are very easy to pick. No thorns-I really like that. We then went back to my friend’s house and had a cookout. We had hamburgers, pinto beans, cole slaw and watermelon. It was a really nice day. We got 3 pints of blackberry juice and 4 pts of blackberry jam, plus saved back about a quart to eat.

I have some aprons to deliver today, then we will be going over to the Horn’s for a visit. After that, the girls have piano lessons. I need to get one more apron made before we leave so I guess I better get busy. Enjoy your day and God bless.

July 12, 2011 2

An Old Church

When we went to pick wineberries the other day, we came back on one of the many backroads here in Floyd. This church is one of the old churches here. As far as I know, this church is still being used. The Primitive Baptist and the Old Regular Baptist only meet once a month in a particular church. They rotate meeting each week in a different church building. I suppose this allowed more people to be able to hear the gospel.

Old churches have such character, I think. Enjoy your day and God bless.

July 11, 2011 7

Homemade Coffee Creamer

Honey Vanilla Coffee Creamer

Makes about 2 1/4 cups

Whisk together cream, milk and honey in a medium saucepan over medium heat. When the mixture begins to steam, remove from the heat. Whisk in vanilla. Pour into a glass bottle and store in the refrigerator.

Hubby likes cream in his coffee. I usually buy this from the store. Today in my laziness, (I did not want to drive into town) I decided to see if I could find a recipe to make our own. I went to my favorite place, Google, came across this recipe and many, many more. I chose this one because I had all the ingredients. (Remember I do not want to drive into town). I’ll test it out tomorrow morning and see if he likes it. Anyway, I was very excited about finding this and couldn’t wait to share it with you ladies. I”ll let you know if he likes it. Enjoy your day and God bless.

P.S. I apologize to http://www.deliciouslyorganic.net. I did not mention that this is where I got this recipe. I have been asked to remove the recipe but if anyone is interested in getting it you can go to the above mentioned site.

July 9, 2011 3

Wineberries

Wineberries are starting to get ripe here in our area. They grow wild however we are hoping to get a start of them this fall.

I think they look a lot like red raspberries (maybe they are but folks here call them wineberries). They have a tart taste.

Grace and I picking berries.

Julie picking. We all wore our rubber boots in case we came across any unwanted critters. Next time we will wear long pants as well. We took some down to Sam when we went and he dearly loved them. Daniel would not even try them. As I have mentioned before, he is not a fruit eater. Hubby is gone today with his brother down to Grundy. His Mom has a couple of apple trees that need to be cut. She was afraid they were going to fall on the power line.

I plan on working on a few aprons today and maybe going back to pick a few wineberries. I did make the pickles the other day but I didn’t add the squash. I had enough cucmbers to do one batch so I just made them using all cucumbers. I got 8 pts though instead of 6 as the recipe said. They seem very similar to bread and butter pickles. I think they will be very good.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

July 9, 2011 6

Campfire

While the kids were up this weekend, we had a campfire Friday night. We love doing campfires, smores, wieners-sometimes potatoes. Sometimes we just sit and watch the fire. So relaxing. Grace took this picture for me and I thought you all might like a little campfire too.

Hubby and I have been busy today working on building a shelving unit for the new room. All my stuff is just piled up on the floor in there. Such a mess. Hopefully, by tomorrow, it will look much neater.

I gathered quite a few cucumbers this morning and I am planning on making some pickles this afternoon. I have to check my pantry and see if I have all the ingredients. I got a new recipe from a friend of mine that I want to try out. The recipe is:

Crispy Pickle Slices- 4 qts cuc. sliced, 1/3 cup salt, 6 med onions sliced, 4 cups sugar, 1 1/2 tsp. turmeric, 2 tsp. celery salt, 2 tsp. mustard seed, 4 cups vinegar. Sprinkle sliced cuc. with salt. Stir with hands until salt is dissolved. Cover with crushed ice. Let stand 3 hr. Drain. Add onion. Mix remaining ingredients with vinegar. Pour over drained cuc. & onions. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and gently cook for 5 min. Makes 6 pts.

So now that you all have heard the recipe, I have a question. Have any of you ever mixed squash and cucumbers together to make pickles? I was thinking of doing that and just wondered if anyone else had tried it.

Well, I better get busy. Enjoy your day and God bless.

July 7, 2011 5

Surprise!

Yesterday, we went down to watch the boys while Jess went for her ultrasound. This time the baby was not shy. Jess will be having a little girl in November. All seems healthy which of course is the most important thing. About 2 months ago, while in Goodwill, I found this darling little dress. I thought it was so cute I just had to buy it. You know, just in case it was a girl. I figured I could always give it as a gift to someone.

We had quite a lot of rain last night and today has been alternately overcast and then sun. I have clothes on the line hoping to get them dry. It is very humid here with a temperature of 90 but we do still have a slight breeze.

I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

July 6, 2011 9

Fun Weekend

We had a really fun visit with Dave, Jess, and the boys this weekend. Our hammock got lots of attention. This is Sam and Daddy. Sam says he’s not ready for a nap yet.

Looks like Daddy won!

As I said, the hammock got lots of attention this weekend. I hope you all have a great 4th of July. Enjoy your day and God bless.

July 4, 2011 6

Making Butter

When I was living in Grundy, we would buy our milk, butter and buttermilk from a friend of ours who had cows. She made absolutely the best butter I’ve ever tasted. When we moved up here to Floyd, the butter they made tasted completely different. They call it “sweet cream butter” here. Well, don’t get me wrong, it’s really good. But just not the taste I’ve been hankering for. So the other day I called Margie, our friend in Grundy that made the butter. The cows here on the farm are Holsteins and don’t produce much cream so it takes a long time to save up. We wanted to make butter for the weekend for Jessica, so I cheated and bought heavy whipping cream from the store. Here is the recipe she gave me.

1. Put equal amounts of cream and buttermilk in a jar. I used 1 pt cream and 1 pint buttermilk.

2. Let jar sit out on counter overnight or until it becomes very thick-I mean really, really thick.

3. Her instructions were then to churn it. As we do not have a churn, I poured the thickened cream into my mixer with the whisk attachment on-You know my beautiful mixer my wonderful hubby surprised me with at Christmas.

4. Llet this mix about 5 min. (I’m not really sure of the time, it could have been less or more.) This is what it will look like when the butter is ready.

6. Then you do what Margie called “gather” the butter. I put it into a container, added a little salt, took a spoon and worked it around and all the excess buttermilk came out. Drain off the buttermilk as you gather the butter.

The finished product. Chill and enjoy!! Of course, I had to sample it before this. I wanted to make sure it was good before serving it to my family. (lol) It tastes just like Margie’s. Yeah!!!! I am so happy. I am making fresh rolls today for the weekend. Won’t they be good with butter spread on them.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

July 1, 2011 6

Ducks and Geese

The ducks and the geese were in the yard together this morning. Look how much they have grown. The mama duck has 5 babies that have survived. One goose is missing. We are hoping it is not mama or papa. From what I can understand they mate for life. If something has happened to one of them it would mean no more babies, which would be very sad.

Our VBS has been a lot of fun so far. 2 more nights to go. Thursday night is family night. We went with Hubby yesterday. He had a little repair job at this house on Claytor Lake. We worked on school while he did the job. Then we went down to the lake for a picnic. It was a nice day. I, of course, forgot the camera so no beautiful lake pictures.

Today is a beautiful day here in Floyd. Temperature is in the lower 70’s as of now. The sun is shining and we have a slight breeze. Very nice. We are hoping for nice temperatures this weekend as Dave, Jess, and the boys are coming up. We hope to go into town on Saturday night and watch the fireworks.

I have clothes ready for the line so I better get busy. Enjoy your day and God bless.

June 29, 2011 4

VBS

Our VBS went very well last night. Our theme is “Christ Under the Big Top”. I think they did a great job with decorating.

Here we are getting ready to play our first game of the week. The game was called “dress the clown.” Our pastor and his wife volunteered to be the clowns.

Don’t they look great? We are so blessed to have a pastor who loves kids.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

June 27, 2011 4