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

Horseshoe Picnic

Yesterday was our second annual horseshoe pitching picnic. I thought I would share a few pictures with you all. We had a great time with lots of good food (of course), good fellowship and good music. I think that hammock is calling my name!

A few of the people sitting around enjoying themselves.

What do you think he might be looking at?

Deer, right across the river from where we were.

The creek.

The Lord blessed us with a beautiful day.

Our VBS starts tonight. The girls will be playing the music all 5 nights. Julie is in charge of the games tomorrow night. When did my babies become workers instead of just participants? Well, it does this mama’s heart good to see them serving the Lord.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

June 26, 2011 4

First Ripe Tomato

Look at what Grace found!! We are all very excited to get this first one. Remember the big tomato plant we bought early in the spring and put in a bucket. Well, the tomatoes are starting to get ripe on it. All our other plants are, of course, way behind this one. Tonight we will divide this one four ways so we can all have a little nibble. So much fun, sharing the first of the harvest.

This morning the girls and I went out early and started working on the hen house. It needed to be cleaned out and we wanted to get their nests ready as we are hoping soon to get eggs-maybe by the end of next month. We just barely got finished before it started to sprinkle rain. I think though it has already stopped. What we need is a good steady rain but I know many blogger friends who are in severe drought conditions.

Our chicken yesterday evening was delicious. I will definitely be making it again. I was thinking that the spice mixture would be good on pork or beef as well. I took the chicken off the bone and put the bones and skin back in the pot with the broth that had cooked out of the chicken. I then added water -enough to fill up the crock pot. Then I turned it on low and this morning I will be freezing delicious homemade chicken broth for soups and such. YUM!

I better get busy. I want to make some hamburger buns for supper this evening. We will be having pork bbq, fries, corn on the cob and cantelope for dessert. Enjoy your day and God bless.

June 23, 2011 5

Little Okie

Here’s a picture of the little kitten the girls have decided to give lots of love to. He is the runt of the liter. His mother is one of the wild cats that stay here but he is anything but wild. He is definitely a people kitty. He loves being where we are and will come running when they call his name. His mother’s name is Mexico so they decided to call him Oklahoma-Okie for short. We have been feeding him special food hoping he will catch up to his brothers and sisters.

I have a whole chicken in the crock pot for supper. I tried a new recipe that I found online. This is the first time I’ve tried it so I’ll have to let you know if we like it but it smells delicious. I think I have mentioned before I want to try out new crock pot recipes more this summer. Hopefully, it will mean easier for me and less heat in the kitchen. Along with the chicken we will be having stir fry veggies-fresh from our garden. Squash, zucchini, green onions and peas. YUM!! The recipe is as follows.

4 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 large roasting chicken
1 cup chopped onion

Directions:

In a small bowl, combine the spices.
Remove any giblets from chicken and clean chicken.
Rub spice mixture onto the chicken.
When ready to cook, put chopped onion in bottom of crock pot.
Add chicken. No liquid is needed, the chicken will make it’s own juices.
Cook on low 4-8 hours.

Today is a beautiful day here in Floyd. Temperature is about 72 degrees right now. We have a strong breeze and the sun is shining. We got a little rain last night which our plants really appreciated. I have clothes to hang on the line. My girls are doing school on the front porch. My Hubby is at work and our supper is cooking in the crockpot. God is SO good. I am indeed a truly blessed woman.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

June 22, 2011 2