Around the House

Today, I thought I would show you all a few pictures from around the house. These are the cosmos flowers we planted at the lower garden. I am amazed at how tall they have grown!

These are marigolds. Vicki gave me the seed. Ain’t they pretty! I love the different colors in them. I have already been collected seeds from both flowers to plant next year.

I wanted you all to see these carrots we pulled the other day from one of the raised beds. I have never had success raising carrots before but I think maybe the raised beds helped.

Here’s a picture of the lower garden. See how tall the cosmos flowers are. Underneath them are tons of marigolds. I definitely know not to plant them together next year.

This is the upper garden and the raised beds. I really didn’t know if I would like using raised beds or not, but I think they are pretty good for certain types of veggies.

Last week we re-purposed this gate. It was a gate we used at another house probably 12 years ago. We took it apart as some of the boards were no good. We built another frame and used the gate boards to make another gate for the chicken lot. Remember how we used the old crib springs for the gate.

Well, we have never really been happy with this gate. For one thing, it is not wide enough for the wheel barrow to fit through and for another thing it keeps falling out of the hook that is supposed to hold it up. So we built another one. Much better and way more convenient. The new gate is really close to the feed building. You see all the corn shucks piled up. We cut those out of the garden yesterday and plan on giving them a little at a time to the chickies for a treat.

We are canning pintos today. We canned 12 qts yesterday and will be finishing up a 10 lb bag today. I smell them cooking so I better check on them. I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless.

August 27, 2013 4

Update

Hello everyone! I hope all is well in your life. I still do not have my computer back but I thought I would post a little update while I had access to a computer. The keyboard Dave ordered for Grace’s computer did not work so she is still using mine. Oh well, the things we do for our children!

We have been busy here. The garden is doing fairly well. We have had tons of rain though. We have been harvesting beets, cucumbers, carrots and such. We planted a new type of beet this year. They are called Chioggia beets or candy striped beets. They look like this http://www.rareseeds.com/chioggia-bassano-beet. They are really pretty. I will definitely be planted them again. I want to try out a new pickled beet recipe refrigerator pickled beets.

We picked blueberries last week. We made blueberry freezer jam using the pomona pectin. I really like using it. Thanks, Cheryl, for telling me about it. We also made homemade blueberry ice cream. So good!!!

I’m sure there is lots more going on around here but I just can’t seem to remember it all. That’s what happens I guess when I don’t do a post for a long time. I hope you all have a great Sunday and God bless.

July 14, 2013 5

VBS

Hello everyone! I hope you are all having a good week so far. Last week was pretty busy for us. Seems like VBS is always a busy time. Our theme this year was “Hip Hopping for Jesus”. The kids all seemed to have a great time.

Julie dressed for the part. All the workers dressed in 50’s style. I somehow didn’t get a picture of Grace.

We enjoyed our moon last week and finally (after years of trying) managed to get a good moon picture. Our place was so bright at night, we had a cat bird that sang all night. I guess he didn’t know if it was night or day.

We have also been enjoying some of our fresh produce from the garden. So far we have had salad greens, green onions, beets, radishes, carrots, yellow squash and a few cucumbers. We love it!!

I hope you all have a good evening and God bless.

July 1, 2013 4

Mostly Pictures

Hi everyone! It has been a while since I posted pictures of what it looks like here in yard. Today we worked on the gardens. Both gardens are planted. I am so happy. It has been a wet, cold spring here making it hard to get the gardens planted.

This one is just beans and corn.

Remember when I said Hubby was working on making a raised bed. Well, here it is and it is doing very well I think. We made another one today and planted herb seeds in it and another row of carrots. I think I like this raised bed gardening. Hoeing is so hard on my back.

Our rhubarb is doing nicely this year. I think it is time for some rhubarb dumplings, strawberry rhubarb jam, rhubarb pie,…….!!

This picture is looking at the back side of the house from the corner edge of the garden.

Irises.

A fern and hen and chicks. Thanks for the ferns, Jess! These hen and chicks belonged first to my grandmother, then to my mom and now to me. I love things like that. I found the metal thing up in the field above our home. I have no idea what it originally was but I think it makes a great container for them.

Our strawberries survived the winter and are blooming! Some already have small strawberries on them.

Lovage. It will get huge, over 6 ft. tall!

Clematis.

A nice place to relax. I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

May 28, 2013 6

Mongolian Beef

This recipe from thefamilyhomestead.com Crystal Miller

2 lbs round steak, cut into small pieces

2 T soy sauce

2 T cornstarch

4 carrots, peeled and sliced very think

1 bunch green onions, cut into 2 lengths

6 large mushrooms, sliced very thin

¼ cup olive oil, divided

Sauce

¼ c soy sauce

1 T cornstarch

1 t cane juice crystals

2 t red pepper flakes (this makes this dish quite spicy.. so reduce if you dont like your food real spicy)

1 t salt

pepper, a few shakes

1 ½ cups water

In a medium size bowl combine meat, 2 T soy sauce and 2 T cornstarch and let sit for a few minutes. In a small bowl combine sauce ingredients.

Heat a large frying pan and add half the olive oil. Add meat and cook until meat is no longer pink. Remove from pan and put in a bowl. Add rest of oil to frying pan and add carrots. Cook until the carrots are just tender and add onions and mushrooms. Stir fry these until the veggies are soft. Add the meat and heat. When everything is hot add sauce ingredients and cook and stir until sauce is thick and bubbly.

Serve over brown rice..

¼ c soy sauce

April 30, 2013 0

Mrs. Sally’s Decorations

We love to visit Mrs. Sally and see all her Christmas decorations. Her walls are covered with these beautiful wall hangings she has made.

She also has so many nativity scenes.

This one came from Israel. I think it is my favorite.

She has lots of snowmen.

We had a really nice visit. She cooked a beef roast with potatoes and carrots. I took fresh made rolls and an oatmeal pie.

Not much going on here. Just normal stuff. Hubby is gone to work and I am letting the girls sleep in a little bit. Clothes are in the machine washing and dishes are waiting.

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

December 19, 2012 6

Katie’s Birthday Party

We celebrated Miss Katie’s first birthday this weekend. Her actual birthday was Friday but we partied on Saturday. Jess made these beautiful cupcakes for Katie. They were delicious.

We traveled to Pikeville Hospital Sunday to see George’s Dad. He is still in intensive care but seemed to be improving. I talked to George’s sister today, however, and she said his mind is coming and going now. I am so thankful that when we were there he knew us and even talked some to us.

Yesterday, my baby girl Grace, turned 13 years old. My, my, how time does fly by. We didn’t celebrate yet as she had a sore throat and wanted to wait. We will be doing it on Friday. Friday will be a big day for us. We are butchering our spring roosters. The Horn’s are coming over and bringing their roosters. It will be a fun day. Our pastor and his wife are coming to help. They are the experts, we are novices. I plan on making a huge pot of 15 bean soup. Vicki is bringing drinks and making cupcakes which will serve as Grace’s birthday cake. Doesn’t every girl celebrate her 13th birthday with a chicken butchering day. Well, she’ll always remember it.

That’s about it for now. We are finished with school for the day. I cooked a beef roast on the wood stove for supper. I added some potatoes, turnips, onions, broccoli and carrots to the pot just a fewinutes ago. YUM!.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

November 6, 2012 6

Ice

Yesterday morning we awoke to this. Ice was everywhere. We think the fog froze as we had lots of fog. It was slippery here but once we got on the road it was fine. We awoke this morning to sleet. YUCK! Thankfully, the temps warmed up enough to melt the sleet before Hubby left for work. The rest of the day so far has lots of rain and fog but no sleet. The girls and I had planned on going to Sam’s today but we have postponed that trip until later in the week, for just in case. I do not want to take a chance on running into slick roads.

We have been doing school today and, of course, a little house cleaning as well. Supper tonight will be beef roast with potatoes and carrots and homemade rolls (which I better get busy making). I will leave you all with one more picture. This was taken yesterday about 5:00 p.m. while we were on our way to church. Still a little icy with a little fog.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

January 23, 2012 7

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

Spring Time

Our forsynthia bush is in full bloom. I love the bright yellow color, so cheerful. Today is beautiful here in Floyd. Temperature is mid 50’s, the sun is shining and the wind is not too aggressive. Very nice. I have one load of clothes on the line and another on the way. We are busy with school and have plans for outside time this afternoon.

Yesterday was a nice day too. Church was very nice and our evening study went very well with lots of discussion. Our menu last night was beef roast with potatoes and carrots, green beans, macaroni salad, cookies and peaches. Very good. We did hamburgers on the grill for lunch yesterday, with grilled onions and asparagus. I love cooking on the grill. I think it makes everything taste so good.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

April 4, 2011 3