Golden Hills

This was the view this morning from my kitchen window as I washed the morning dishes. Am I a blessed woman or what? We did get to have our Ladies Study today. Hallelujah! The snow has not started yet. They are predicting 10-13 inches. This will probably mean no church on Sunday which of course makes for a long week. However if all goes as planned Jess and crew will be coming up next weekend. She wants us to sew her some maternity clothes. We will be going to a local fabric store called Schoolhouse Fabrics. They have 3 stories full of nothing but cloth. Then we will come home and snuggle in for 2 days of sewing, and of course lots of MawMaw time. I can hardly wait! It is almost supper time. Tonights menu is one of Hubby’s favorite. Fried chicken, gravy, corn and biscuits. I think I’ll throw in some cooked apples too. YUM! Are you hungry yet? Well, I am. Guess I better get started frying that chicken. God Bless.

January 29, 2010 2

Pond

I thought the pond looked very pretty this morning. The sun was shining and the water looks beautiful. We need to enjoy this sunshine while we can. Weather reports are calling for a winter storm tomorrow with significant amount of accumulation. The girls are excited about this. Sledding! Prayerfully we will get to meet tomorrow for Ladies Study. We are going to meet earlier in the day to avoid anyone getting caught in the snow. In the 6 years we have been doing this study, I don’t think it has ever been this long since we met. I counted it up yesterday. This Friday will make 7 weeks. No wonder I miss those ladies. Today will be filled with the usual things. School, house cleaning, cooking, eating. Enjoying the love of family. I pray I never take the little things for granted. They are all gifts from God. Feel free to sit on my porch for a while. Bring a cup of coffe or tea and enjoy the view. Warning though, it can become habit forming. God Bless.

January 28, 2010 0

Dreaming of Summer

I’ve probably posted this picture before, but I thought we might all need a little color today. The Butterfly bush and the Rose of Sharon are always full of brillant color. The rocks came from over the hill on the farm. I got Marvin to bring them over on the tractor. He said this was a first for him, usually people want to get the rocks out of their yard not put them in. I think however it adds to the charm. Today temperatures will probably be in the upper 20’s. They say a chance of wintry mix for Friday. February is almost here though. Somehow in my mind, in February, my thoughts turn to spring, gardening, flowers, sunshine. Winter,however, does allow more time for things like sewing, quilting, crocheting. I am almost finished with Julie’s quilted wall hanging. I will post a picture of it when I’m finished. I attempted to make homemade hamburger buns yesterday. I do not own a hamburger bun pan so I thought I might could put them in my cast iron biscuit pan. Not a good idea. The tasted good, however, they looked like jumbo muffins. We ate them last night covered with cooked deer and gravy and mashed potatoes. No one seemed to mind how they looked. I don’t like to give up though so I will try another approach next time. Well, better get started on school. God Bless.

January 26, 2010 0

Wall hanging

We went over to our friends house today to celebrate her daughter’s birthday. We had homemade pizza and birthday cake. It was delicious. Thanks again Vicki. Then she gave me a surprise. She made me this beautiful wall hanging! I could’nt wait to get home and put it on my wall. I think it looks just perfect in my dining room. To me, nothing says you care about people more than hand made items. I LOVE IT! Tonight’s menu at church is baked spaghetti, salad, bread, green beans, corn, and cake with ice cream. Sounds good, huh. Weather here is rain, rain, and then maybe some more rain. Oh well, at least its not ice. We now have mud everywhere. The snow has melted and the ice has melted and they say there is a chance for flooding. I’m glad the Good Lord is in charge of all this and not me. Well, I better get busy getting those green beans ready. God Bless.

January 24, 2010 2

Ice

Well the forecast for freezing rain was correct. Not as much as they first thought but enough. The first picture is from my dining room window. It shows the accumulation on the trees. The second picture is from our kitchen door. Yes, I know it looks like water running down the yard but it is actually ice. I’m not very good at guessing ice accumulation but I would think at least a 1/4 of an inch. Oh well, temperatures are supposed to get above freezing tomorrow so maybe this storm will be short-lived. More rain coming in on Sunday, though. School has went very well this week. We have stayed on schedule and this always makes school more fun. No bible study today because of the ice. I certainly do miss those ladies. It’s been several weeks since we met. This does happen frequently though in January. I guess I better get busy. No bible study means school day. God Bless.

January 22, 2010 0

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