Friday

Hello everyone! I hope you all are having a wonderful Friday. Things are good here. School is finished for the week. The girls and I are getting ready to clean out the chicken house. Definitely not a fun job but necessary. It is a nice day here in Floyd so that will make it a fairly pleasant job to do. We have been really cold here in the mornings though. Temperatures all this week have been mid to upper teens when we get up. CHILLY! However it warms up nicely during the day.

Chuck is coming tomorrow to help Hubby do some maintenance repairs on my car. I don’t think I have mentioned it before but please be in prayer for him as he is laid off from his work. We are praying he will get called back soon.

Well, I have lots to get done. Enjoy your day and God bless.

November 16, 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

Sunrise, Geese and Jasper

Not much going on here this morning. Grace is practicing piano and Julie has already practiced. Then we will do the regular morning chores of sweeping, shaking rugs, etc. Then time for school.

It is a beautiful day here. Lots of sunshine. We were a little cool last night-mid 30’s. I will probably have to build a fire by this evening. It is chilly in the house-62 degrees-but I am hoping it warms up in here as the day goes by. I have clothes in the washer ready to go on the line to dry.

I took this picture of Jasper this morning as he was on duty. There are calves that get out continuously. Jasper takes his duty very seriously. He makes sure they know their boundaries. He does not allow them in the yard. He has learned well this summer. I think he will be a very good farm dog.

Well, Grace is almost done practicing so I better get busy. I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

October 16, 2012 4

Grayson Highlands Festival

I thought I would share with you all some of our pictures from our visit to the Grayson Highlands Festival today with the Horn’s. We saw lots of crafts and hand made items.

This was one of the biggest attractions. The making of molasses.

Here they are pouring the hot fresh made molasses into jars for selling. We, of course, bought one.

There was lots of food and lots of music.

But these little guys were the main attraction. They auction off these wild ponies every year. We stayed for a little of the auction but the rain finally forced us to leave.

It was a really fun day. I will show you some more of the pictures with the fall colors in my next post. I hope you all have a great weekend and God bless.

September 29, 2012 4

Wednesday

Hi everyone! Just a short post on how our day is (hopefully) going to progress. We are first working on tomatoes. We picked about 3/4 of a bushel yesterday evening. After the tomatoes are done, we plan on working with grapes. I have a plan of working up about 1/2 bushel everyday. We made 14 pts of grape jelly yesterday so today all the grapes will go to making juice. We had some fresh grape juice this morning with breakfast. Also some of the grape jelly. Both were delicious. They taste like eating fresh grapes. I used the Pamona Pectin to make the jelly. I really like it. With SureJell, to make a batch of jelly you need 5 cups of juice and 7 cups of sugar. With the Pamona, 4 cups of juice and only 2 cups of sugar. That is a really big difference.

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

August 29, 2012 4

Thursday

I thought I would share with you all this picture of a beautiful hawk we saw the other day on one of our rides in the bumpy truck. I know the picture is a little blurred but you can still see how pretty he is.

Yesterday, the girls and I made 13 pts of pizza sauce. The Horn’s came over for a visit. We had 15 bean soup, sourdough biscuits and molasses cookies for dessert. It was a fun visit. We had planned on picking apples but when we got up to the tree, we discovered a huge hornets nest on one of the limbs. We decided to wait to pick apples.

Today we are making salsa. I hope to make either ketchup or spaghetti sauce tomorrow. We will pick tomatoes this evening and see how many we get. I mentioned we had sourdough biscuits with our soup yesterday evening. Well, I think I have finally found a biscuit recipe that we like. I am not very good at making biscuits but these turned out really well. I made them again this morning and they were really good with sausage gravy. (But then almost everything is good with sausage gravy).

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

August 16, 2012 3

Tuesday

This picture was taken on the back side of the farm. If you look in the right hand corner, you will see the little white house Dave and Jess lived in for a while.

Today we have to go to Rocky Mount to get Grace’s nose piece put back on her glasses. She has not had these glasses very long. I hope this is not an indication of how they are going to hold up. Yesterday, we picked the last of our beans and got about half of them worked up. We hope to finish them today when we get back. We also pulled the last of our corn and got all of it put into the freezer. We picked about 1/2 bushel of tomatoes. I am borrowing Mrs. Sally’s kettle for this week as well. I am definitely on the lookout for one of those kettles. I really liked it. I hope to make salsa and another batch of spaghetti sauce from the tomatoes we picked yesterday.

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

August 14, 2012 4

A New Dress for Katie

Remember how I told you all Mrs. Sally (our pastor’s wife) is teaching my girls how to sew. Well, this is their latest sewing project. Julie made the dress and Grace made the hat. I think they did a great job.

It has been a busy but productive and fun week for us. Monday we went down to Jessica’s. Tuesday, I helped Hubby and then the Horn’s came over for a visit on Tuesday evening. We had a great visit. We had hamburgers on the grill. The wind was blowing so hard though that we had a little trouble keeping the grill lit. It was a beautiful evening with temperatures in the mid 70’s. We sit outside on my green swing and enjoyed the breeze. You wouldn’t know that today though. It has been hot and humid. Oh well. Yesterday, the girls and I made sweet pickle relish. I have never made relish before. I think it will be very good. Today, we worked on green beans. We canned 28 quarts. It really helps to have two canners going. Grace has an eye appointment tomorrow in Salem. Tomorrow evening we are going to the pastor’s house to cook out, then we will be picking beans as they are so generously sharing with us. I hope to remember my camera so I can show you all some pictures. His apples trees are loaded with apples this year.

Well, it is time for the last canner to come off. YEAH! I think we are all tired. I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

July 26, 2012 5

Tuesday

Hello ladies! I thought I would make a post and give everyone an update on how things are going. We have been busy, isn’t everyone these days? I have been helping Hubby yesterday and today. The sheetrock is being delivered today and he will start hanging tomorrow. The insulators came last week. They sprayed this insulation in that looks and acts very similar to Great Stuff. It was pretty amazing. Anyway, I think he is going to get someone else to help him hang the ceilings. (Someone maybe a little stronger and taller than me). I don’t mind. We have plenty to do here.

Tomorrow morning, we will start picking blackberries. I think there will be plenty for canning, juicing and making jelly. Speaking of making jelly, I still am having no luck getting my jelly to set up. I just don’t understand what could be going on. The other day, the girls and I made 15 pints of peach jelly. None of it set up. Very disappointing and very expensive. I went to our local health food store and purchased the pomona pectin that my blogger friend Cheryl uses and redid it. It finally set up some but it is a soft set definitely not as firm as jelly usually is. So I used the magical powers of google to see if I could find out what was going on. Now I am not a novice at making jelly and jams. I’ve been doing it for years. Anyway one person said they had to switch kettles that they were using and then theirs did just fine. Do you all think it could be the kettle I am using? I tried to remember how long I have been using the kettle and it could coincide with the jelly problem. My old kettle finally gave out and I did switch to a different one. The kettle I am using now is a teflon kettle. The next time I do jelly I am going to try a stainless steel kettle and see if that makes a difference. What type of kettle do you all use?

The girls and I picked a mess of green beans for supper this evening. We also dug our first hill of potatoes. We will be having pork tenderloin, green beans, potatoes, onions and peppers and cucumbers for supper. Everything fresh from our garden (except the pork tenderloin). I can hardly wait. I could just feast on the veggies but Hubby always wants meat.

Our pullets are starting to lay pretty good. Yesterday we got 6 pullet eggs. Our old layers though have slacked off for some reason. Probably the heat. We have been hot for the last several days. Low 90’s. We did get a storm yesterday evening and it brought a pretty good rain with it. Lots of thunder and lightning too.

Well, I guess I better get busy starting supper. Enjoy your day and God bless.

July 17, 2012 6

July 4th

I hope you all had a great 4th of July. This MawMaw was very happy! For the first time, EVER, all our grandkids were here at the same time. Chuck and his crew arrived first.

They managed to find a few ripe blackberries.

We did hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill and sit in the shade most of the day.

My oldest granddaughter, Alexius.

My youngest, Miss Katie.

Everyone was very impressed by the little frogs that are in the “little pond”.

Sam, just being Sam.

The swings got lots of use.

I think the hammock was the most loved though. They spent lots and lots of time making the hammock into a big swing. After we ate, we all took a ride down the Parkway to Mabry Mill. I, of course, forgot my camera but Dave took a picture of everyone there at the mill. He is going to email it to me so if I can figure out how to transfer it over I will post it. I so badly wanted to get a group picture but the day just sped by and it slipped my mind. Then on up to a little place called Meadows of Dan. We ate pizza in a little gazebo there. Thanks Dave! The little boys had tons of fun playing with rocks that were there. We then came home and Dave and Chuck set off some fireworks Dave had brought with him. The first boom sent 3 or 4 deer running out of the cornfield. I guess they thought it was hunting season starting early. After that it was off to “little town” to see the big fireworks display. We all had a great day. From about 10:30 in the morning till about 9:30 that night, my entire immediate family was together. God is good. Now, I wonder when we could do it again!!

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

July 5, 2012 7