Chuck’s Bed

I thought I would show you all Hubby’s latest project. He has been working on making a bed for Chuck. It is almost finished. The headboard and footboard used to be our dining table benches. When we first made our dining table we made benches to go with it. Years later I decided I was tired of the benches and wanted chairs. So he made me chairs. (He’s so good about things like that!) Anyway the benches moved up to the building for a while and now they are being remade into a bed. I like that.

We have been busy with our garden here. Canning is in full swing. I love it!!! Lots of good food being saved for winter time. Our cucumbers are just about gone. I thought about planting some more seeds but I don’t think they would have time to do anything. We have been blessed with lots of cucumbers this year so we have made several batches of pickles. I put the recipe for the Christmas pickles over into my recipe file under canning if any of you are interested. We had our first taste of fresh corn this past week. YUM! I love fresh garden corn. When I was younger and it was time to put up the corn, my mom would always cook corn on the cob for breakfast. She said it put us in the right frame of mind.

We had our annual Sunday School Breakfast this morning. We usually have it at SmartView Park here on the Blue Ridge Parkway. For some reason (that I will never understand) the Parkway has decided not to open many of the picnic areas this year. So we couldn’t have our breakfast there. The road is still washed out going down to the river so we had our breakfast at the Coon Hunters Club. Yes, ladies, coon hunting IS a sport here. We have never participated in it but many people do. Anyway, we had tons of good food!! It was a really nice way to start off the service.

Tomorrow, I will be helping Hubby texture a ceiling. After that we have some tomatoes to can. I think we will make spaghetti sauce with them. In the meantime, I have a new book from the library, a cup of tea and a green swing that is calling my name. I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

August 4, 2013 5

Christmas Play

Sunday our youth performed their Christmas play. They always do such a great job.

It was hard to get a good picture that showed everyone. All the youth participate and even some of the adults. Our pastor said he thought this years play was the best one yet (of course, he says that every year!)

This beautiful kingfisher came by for a visit the other day. Grace did a good job of getting his picture.

She also took this picture of our sky the other day. We have been having beautiful weather here. We are in the low 50’s right now. It is cloudy today though with wind. I think we are supposed to get some rain later on. We are hoping it holds off for a little while as Hubby is working on my car. I don’t know if I mentioned it or not but my car is not working. Hubby thinks it might be the distributor cap. He is replacing that today. We are all praying that fixes it.

We have been doing school this morning, laundry, etc. All the things that seem to build up during busy weekends. I am making some homemade rolls to go with supper and I also am trying a new recipe for homemade yogurt. I’ll let you all know how it turns out. I really like the idea of homemade yogurt but I REALLY prefer the taste of flavored store bought yogurts. I am just not very fond of plain yogurt-kinda tastes like sour cream to me. Anyway, this recipe has jelly in it. We’ll see. I don’t want to say much about it until I have tested it.

Time for lunch for us. We are having homemade chicken noodle soup. Tonight’s supper will be meatloaf sandwiches (on homemade buns), fries (using our home grown potatoes) corn on the cob (frozen from our garden). I love it. Eating fresh made and home grown. I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless.

December 10, 2012 7

Blueberries

Just look at all these beautiful blueberries! I think I mentioned we planted 3 blueberriy bushes this year. Well, this is one of them. They all have lots of blueberries on them but I think this one has the most. They seem to be doing very well so far.

Monday, we worked around the house. The girls and I made a batch of cherry jam. It is very tasty! Yesterday, we worked in both gardens, hoeing and weeding. We then took down the greenhouse and put it away for next year, cleaned the fish tank, and did several odd chores that have been needed to get done for a while. The girls worked on history and science while I ran into little town to get chick feed. Supper last night was hamburgers, corn on the cob, and pineapple all fixed on the grill. I love cooking on the grill. Not near as much clean up involved and the kitchen doesn’t get heated up.

Well, today we will be cleaning out the chicken house and working on the nests. Definitely not my favorite job, but it is a little cooler this morning so hopefully that will make it a little easier. This morning I am making kefir and buttermilk. I have shared before how I make my buttermilk but maybe someone is reading this that hasn’t read it before, so I thought I would share it again. It tastes a lot like kefir. Heres what I do. First add 1/4 cup of whole milk buttermilk purchased from the store to a quart jar. I suppose you could use lowfat or fat free for this, we just prefer whole buttermilk. Finish filling up the jar with milk. I use raw milk but any milk will do. I leave the cream on but you can take it off. I then shake it up and sit it out on the counter for about 20 hrs. There is no set time for how long to leave it out. It all depends on the temperature of your house. This same rule applies to kefir. The warmer the temperature the quicker it will set. It is ready when you turn the jar over and it all leaves the side of the jar in one clump. Shake the jar for about 5 min and put in the fridge to chill. Now to making kefir, I use kefir grains when making my kefir. Jess bought the grains for me a little while back. Before that I used the powdered starter. The grains will continue to produce indefinitely. I store them in the fridge in a jar covered with milk. When I want to make kefir, which is usually every other day, I take them out, finish filling the jar 2/3 full with raw milk and leave it out on the counter for about 24 hrs. This time is also dependent upon the temperature in your home. Kefir is very good for us. You can read about the benefits of kefir online. It is full of good stuff. It tastes very good in smoothies. I think it is good to drink plain with just a little sweetener.

Well, I guess we better get busy with our day. God bless.

May 30, 2012 5

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

Baby Ducks

We finally managed to get some pictures of the baby ducks. They have grown so much. When she first brought them off the nest, they were so tiny. We could hardly see them in the grass.

She is getting very brave with them now. In these pictures, she is in the edge of the yard. Maybe not too smart with all the cats we have running around here.

Today has been rather hot here. Hubby worked some on putting the vinyl siding on the new room we built last fall. He almost got it all finished. We washed clothes and hung them out. They dried pretty quick. Todays “lupper” was wilted lettuce and onions with crumbled bacon, pinto beans and corn on the cob. I also baked some corn bread and made some flitters, watermelon for dessert.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

June 7, 2011 5

Pears

Look at these beautiful pears! We went down to Jessica’s over the weekend and Saturday we went to David’s Moms. She gave us lots of beautiful apples and pears. We have 3 boxes of apples and 1 box of pears. Thanks, Donna! I think we will start on the pears today. I am thinking I will freeze them. They are very juicy pears. I’m not sure if they would hold up to canning them. The girls had a great time swimming Saturday afternoon in Donna’s pool. Daniel is making great progress learning to swim (with his lifejacket on). He can move all around the pool by himself and of course does not want any help. We also enjoyed hamburgers on the grill with corn on the cob and mac and cheese. We had a lot of fun but it was soon time to come home. Time goes so quickly.

It was a very pleasant day here yesterday. Sunshine and nice temperatures. Upper 70’s to low 80’s. After church, we came home and did our lesson for Sunday night class. I spent some time reading outside on my swing. For our evening meal at church we had polish sausage with peppers, onions and potatoes, sauerkraut, corn pudding, rolls, cucumbers, tomatoes, cole slaw, peach pie, pound cake with ice cream and brownies. I think that’s all! Really good food. We have decided to do II Corinthians next. We are almost finished with I Corinthians.

Grace took this picture the other day. I think she did a good job. Yes, Jess, I know you do not like butterfly pictures.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

August 9, 2010 2

Flowers

This lily has had a rough beginning. In early spring, it was trampled and broken by a big footed pup. It seems to have survived nicely though. I have waited all spring to see what it would look like. I think it looks pretty next to the purple flowers. I most definitely will have to separate some of these flowers next year. The bed is extremely crowded. Yesterday was a busy day. The girls and I cleaned out both of the big freezers-making room for this year’s harvest. This took a major portion of the day. Then I helped Hubby by mowing some before he came in from work. For supper, I used some of the pork tenderloin I had cooked the day before. I like to cook a large amount of meat at one time and then use it in different dishes for another meal. So I put the tenderloin in the oven with some potatoes and roasted them. We also had corn on the cob from our freezer, biscuits with butter and homemade blackberry jam for dessert. Today is starting out to be a beautiful day here is Floyd. Lots of sunshine. Tomorrow our church is doing a horseshoe tournament down by the river. We will play horseshoes, eat lots of good food, listen to good music and in general have a great time. It amazes me some people think Christian life is boring. We have a blast at my church! We are small in number but we do lots of things together. We are family. I will try to get some pictures to post of our activities. This is the first year we have done this and we are hoping many will come. Baby Sam and Mom are still doing good. Daniel says he loves his baby brother. Thanks so much for your prayers. I hope to go down to see them soon and get more pictures. Take care and God bless.

June 11, 2010 1

Thursday’s Fun

Here are some pictures of the fun we had last Thursday on Jess and Daniel’s visit. In the first picture, we are outside playing, the next picture is coltsfoot (one of our earliest wildflowers to bloom). We took a ride around the farm in “MawMaw’s bumpy truck”. On the tractor road, we spotted these kildeer walking on the road. Jess took the picture from the truck. I think they might have a nest somewhere close as they did not want to leave thier area. The last picture is Daniel, thinking. I am not exactly sure but it looks like he is trying to figure out how to get the sawdust in his wheelbarrow. We had lots of fun!

Tonight’s menu is pork tenderloin on the grill, french fries and corn on the cob-frozen from our garden last year. I gathered some rhubarb today and plan to make rhubarb dumplings for dessert.

Rosemary Marinade Recipe

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp minced garlic

2-4 tsp dried rosemary-crushed

Combine all ingredients. Pour over beef, chicken, or pork. (I use this on all types of meat). School is finished for today. Time to enjoy the sun. We got our bikes out today, pumped up the tires,and oiled the chains. We rode for a little while. Long enough for me to discover how out of shape I am. It will take a while before I can keep up with the girls. I hope to work some on the garden this evening. We have some clean up to do before Hubby can plow. I hope you all enjoy your evening. Take care and God bless.

April 6, 2010 1

More Signs of Spring

I could hardly wait to post these pictures! The crocus are so bright and beautiful. The rhubarb is coming up nicely. I LOVE SPRING! This has been a busy week for us. All day Tuesday spent in Roanoke at the eye doctor. Wednesday was a fun day spent with our friends, the Horns. Today has been a beautiful day here. Temperature around 60 degrees. We can hardly believe it. I hung our clothes out on the line-they will smell sooooo good! I plan on having london broil on the grill tonight, probably home fries and corn on the cob (from our garden last year). I purchased some strawberries at the store today. I usually don’t do that this early in the season but they looked so good. Strawberry Shortcake for dessert tonight. We usually go down to Jessica’s in early May. There is a” pick your own” strawberry patch. We love it. We try to pick a lot, freeze them for winter. We also make lots of fresh strawberry jam. YUM! Anyway I have a praise. My truck is fixed!!!! Hubby and his brother worked until dark last night but we are back on the road. I never imagined how much I would miss that old truck until I had to jiggle my schedule with Hubby’s. One vehicle can be a little trying to say the least. The girls and I don’t go a lot of places but it sure is nice to be able to go when we want to. I guess I better get busy cooking supper, Hubby is looking in the pantry so he must be hungry. Take care and God bless.

March 18, 2010 2