Monday

I wonder what they are doing?

Someone is feeding them. I see a hand behind the tree.

Of course, it is my sweet Julie, who can’t resist feeding cows no matter where she is. We went with Hubby today to help him hang ceilings. The girls went in search of something to do. What do farm girls do when they are bored? Feed cows, of course. We had a nice day, enjoyed a picnic lunch with Hubby, then came home and went to piano lessons. Temperatures here have been nice. Upper 70’s with a nice breeze. Feeling more like fall every day. Enjoy your day and God bless.

August 22, 2011 4

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

A Good Day

Yesterday was such a fun day. Daniel and Sam spend the day with us. We went riding in the “bumpy truck.” When we came back Daniel told me “That SURE was a fun ride, MawMaw.” I love it. Children are so easy to please. Just simple things make them so happy.

Wild strawberries we saw blooming on our ride.

PawPaw, of course, pointed out the deer trials. It was a very nice day here yesterday, warm with lots of sunshine. This allowed for lots of outside playing. They saw the chicks, the new kitties, the baby calves and the goslings. A full day in little boy world.

We had a storm pass through last night with thunder, lightning and lots of rain. I’m not sure what the day will hold. Right now it is cloudy and everything is soaked. Maybe not a good day for hanging clothes on the line. We’ll see.

This rosebush came up on its own at the fence line. It has had a tough time getting started. The cows keep wanting to eat it. This year though it is huge and full of buds. It has never bloomed before so we are excited to see what it looks like. I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

May 11, 2011 4

Hidden Beauty

Look at these beautiful little violas! They were hidden away beside some other larger flowers. I think they are so cute. They reminded me about how sometimes the beautiful things of God are hidden. He wants us to put forth a little effort to find them. Reading and studying His word, praying. These are all things He wants us to do in order to see His beauty. But I think also He wants us to listen. This seems to be the hardest part for me. Satan obviously knows this because he continuously puts things in my path to distract me and, of course, I allow it to work. I want to do better. Spend more time with Him.

What better place to spend more time with Him than right here. My front yard-looking down at the field. The cows are up for their morning snack. The sun is shining and for today (just today) we are almost caught up with the canning. The girls and I are going to have a “girl day”. We have some errands to run and then maybe do some fun stuff in town. We are thinking about going to Goodwill or the Salvation Army, maybe both. We might even go to Books-A-Million. I’m not sure yet what we will do, other than have fun.

One more flower picture. I thought you all might be getting tired of seeing pictures of canning jars. A little color was needed. We’re off to enjoy our day. God bless.

August 5, 2010 1

Enjoyment

Time to enjoy some of the fruits of our labor. Our first zucchini, our first squash, and our first peas. Delicious!! I think it is so exciting when the garden first starts coming in. I combined all these together with a few other ingredients and had a wonderful stir fry for supper last night. I am eating the remainder of it for lunch today. Today is ladies bible study day. We are on our third lesson. It is about being a true servant of God and how we can encourage our church leaders. I think it is a very interesting study. Many times in churches today, the members can’t encourage their leaders because they are too busy criticizing them. This lesson shows us ways to avoid that trap. The girls and I cleaned house yesterday, found some new kittens (which are adorable) and in general just enjoyed the day. Dale and his mom came by for a visit and to pick up his wood splitter. They came right when I was taking some homemade rolls out of the oven. It was so much fun to be able to share them. Hot and buttery. YUM! Food is so good when it’s shared.

Can you believe this is the baby geese? They are almost as big as mama and papa. It certainly has been entertaining to watch them grow. This morning as Hubby and I enjoyed our morning coffee together, there were lots of wildlife activity here on the farm. The geese were playing at the pond, a deer was grazing in the field straight in front of us, and a coyote was passing through on the ridge to our right. Some mornings we don’t see anything but cows and birds. Other times there are lots to watch. I so enjoy our morning time together. We think its worth getting up a little earlier for. The ladies will soon be here so I guess I better get ready. We are going to Jessica’s tomorrow. PawPaw has yet to see his new grandson. Take care and God bless.

June 18, 2010 1

More Snow Pictures

I wanted to get some pictures showing how deep the drifts had gotten. Unfortunately by the time we went back down to the barn it was almost too dark to get really good pictures. This picture shows going down to the milk barn.

This is the side of the road at the milk barn.

This picture is coming up from the milk barn.

These pictures do not show it as well as I wanted them to. There was not enough light. Anyway you can get an idea of how it looks. The road crews have not even thought about our road yet. Fortunately for us, Marvin clears this part of the road with his tractor so he can get up to his cows. If not, there would be no path cleared. The wind, praise God, has slowed down. Temperatures were in the lower 20’s. The weather man says to expect below normal temperatures for the next 10 day, so I guess none of this will be melting any time soon. Chance of more snow coming in on Monday. At least we can get the truck down to the barn now. No bible study tomorrow. No one could get here. I guess I better get busy, getting things done. God Bless.

February 11, 2010 5