Tweetsie Trip

Hello everyone! I am sorry that it has been a while since I made a post. Seems like we have been super busy here. Last Tuesday, the girls and I went to Sam’s Club. Wednesday, we went to the Pastor’s. They gave us 2 bushels of grapes and I have no idea how much corn-enough to make 31 qts in the freezer. So, I guess you know what we did Thursday. Friday we finished up the grapes and corn, cleaned the church and started revival. Saturday, we decided it was time to play. We met Dave, Jess and kids at Tweetsie for a fun day. We left about 9:00 A.M. and got back home about 9:00 P.M. It was a long day but SO much fun. Sunday finished up our revival. Today we are making peach and grape jelly.

They have these horses all around Tweetsie. The boys climbed up on them as soon as we got there. They really enjoyed seeing MawMaw climb on one. My mother was such a fun person. She loved doing things out of the box. She always wore a hat. One of her favorites was a bright silver one. As soon as I climbed up on the horse, Jess said all I needed was a silver hat. I think that is how I want my children and grandchildren to remember me. I want to be a person who is fun to be with.

Some of you mentioned that you were interested in knowing how to cook the dried beans. I’m sure there are lots of ways to cook them but the way we always do is just put them in a kettle, cover with water, add some bacon grease, salt and pepper. Mom always added a some navy beans to cook with them. It takes a while for them to cook and you will have to add water as needed. In my opinion, these are best with corn bread, but then most things are.

Well, I better get busy. I have so many blogs to get caught up on reading. Enjoy your day and God bless.

September 9, 2013 4

Beautiful Corn

The girls and I have been busy working up corn. At first, we didn’t think it would do very well because of all the rain we had but it seems to have not hurt it any. We put up 104 ears in the freezer. That should do us nicely through the winter.

I wanted to share the view with you all from my back porch. It was a beautiful morning here in Floyd. Our temperature this morning was 48 degrees. Amazing! Grace and I wore jeans to the garden this morning to pull the corn.

This is a picture of some flowers we planted at the edge of the garden. They sure do add color to the space and look very cheerful.

I have shown you all this flower before. We researched it and found some people call them “naked ladies”. Well, this year, we found out more about them. They are also called “resurrection lily”. I like that name so much better. In early spring, they will come out as foliage, then they die back and in late July or early August these beautiful flowers come up. Amazing how God works! All the years we have lived here, the green foliage has come up and I just thought it didn’t have bloom on it. I never made the connection between the foliage and the flower. Remember last week when I helped Hubby texture a ceiling, the lady who owned the house gave me all this information. She had them growing in her yard as well.

Well, that’s about it. Time for us to eat lunch. I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

August 15, 2013 6

Wendy’s Frosty

Homemade Chocolate Frosty
Makes 1 quart

2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup (4 ounces) chocolate syrup
1 (7 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Whisk together the milk, chocolate syrup, and condensed milk, and refrigerate until chilled, at least one hour. In a separate mixing bowl, beat the heavy cream and vanilla until soft peaks just begin to form. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Pour the chocolate milk mixture into the bowl of the ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturers instructions (about 15 – 20 minutes in my Cuisinart). Once the ice cream is thick, turn the maker off, remove the paddle, and fold in the chilled whipped cream until it is completely incorporated.

Serve immediately, or transfer to a covered, freezer-safe container and freeze. (If freezing, let ice cream soften a few minutes before serving; you want it to be the consistency of a milkshake.)

I got this recipe from http://www.thekitchn.com/restaurant-recipe-homemade-chocolate-frosty-171084

June 26, 2013 0

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

How Many Snows?

There is an old saying that if you count the number of fogs you have in August, that’s how many snows you will have that winter.

I’m not sure how true that is but so far this month we had have 3 mornings with fog.

The geese don’t seem to mind though.

The girls and I picked a bushel of corn this morning. We put 40 ears in the freezer, keep out enough for supper, and had a few bags of corn cut off the cob for the freezer. We also picked almost 1/2 bushel of tomatoes. We will be using these to make spaghetti sauce one day this week. I am also trying a recipe for sourdough bread using my bread machine to work the dough. I’ll let you all know how it turned out.

We had a great weekend with the grandkids. Chuck brought these scooters for everyone to ride.

And a toy for him to play with.

We then went for a ride in the bumpy truck. Irma had never ridden in the back of a truck before. (I know, I just couldn’t believe it either). Sunday we had our church breakfast at Smart View Park. David and Jess came up. They had Katie dressed in the little dress and hat the girls had made her. She looked so cute in it. Later in the afternoon, we all went for another ride in the bumpy truck. Daniel so loves riding in “his” bumpy truck.

Well, that’s about it for now. I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

August 6, 2012 5

Birthday, Recital, and Bramwell Trip

We certainly have had a lot of fun things going on here. Thursday we went down to Jessica’s. We got 2 more gallon of fresh strawberries. We put 1 gal. into the freezer and just enjoyed the other gallon. Friday was Hubby’s birthday and the girls piano recital. We celebrated Hubby’s birthday with burgers and cake. Then got ready for the recital. Saturday, the ladies from our church made a trip to Bramwell WV. It is a town where the extremely rich coal barons lived. Very fancy and extravagant houses. The above picture shows the town from one of the houses.

Our group-such fine looking ladies!

Most of the houses had amazing lawns-huge. The kind you know had to have several gardeners just to keep them looking nice.

Several houses had cooper sinks in the kitchen. When the wealthy were living there, they all had servants to do the work.

I think every house had stained glass windows. This one was in a bathroom.

A cozy little nook in one of the houses.

One of the houses-notice the brick road.

Another house. Altogether we toured 9 houses. It took over 3 hrs to walk through them all. On the third floor of one of the houses, there was a ballroom. We did not get to see it though.

Every house had tables set with old dishes, Mrs. Faye. You would have loved them.

The old furniture in these houses was amazing. The wood floors, cabinets, everything. I have so many pictures it was hard to choose which ones to show you first. We had a great day!

I hope each and every one of you had a great Mother’s Day. God bless.

May 14, 2012 6

Irises

Our irises are in full bloom! These were given to us several years ago by a friend from church. It has taken them a while to get going but I think they are looking pretty good this year.

We have been busy this week. Does any one think this is becoming the norm? Seems like spring is a busy time. Anyway, we went to the dentist on Tuesday. Both girls got a good report. Then on Wednesday, we went to Sam’s club and bought our bulk items. Yesterday, we went down to Jessica’s. Today is full as well. Our church is doing a Mother/Daughter banquet this evening. I am bringing rolls. I also have to take Hubby’s van in to Little Town to get 2 tires put on. I was hoping the girls and I could get the nests made today for the little chicks. Hubby also wants to work on the floor for the new boxed in part of the back porch when he gets in from the job site. We’ll see.

School has taken a back burner this week with all that has been going on. We only lack 15 more lessons in math and we’ll be finished with it for the summer. We are calling quits to language when math is finished. Then we plan on doing history and science during June and July and taking August and September off. These two months are so busy here with canning. It is much easier for us to take those months off.

I also hope to make strawberry jam today. Yesterday, while down at Jessica’s we got 2 gal. of strawberries. I put one gallon in the freezer yesterday evening and hope to make jam with the other gallon today. I think Jessica is planning on making jam tomorrow. I am going to try using the liquid certo this time. I just haven’t been having success with the powdered sure jell.

Well, that’s about it for now. I better get busy if I am going to get anything done. I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

May 4, 2012 5

Finished with Deer

No picture-just wanted to let you all know we have finished working up the deer. We got 20 qts canned, 16 roasts in the freezer and 15 bags of tenderloin. YEAH! We are all tired and so I think tonights supper will be left over homemade chicken noodle soup. Enjoy your day and God bless.

November 12, 2011 7

An Old Barn

This is an old barn that is at our pastor’s house. I love old things, even old barns. Yesterday we worked with the corn. We got it all shucked. We put some up in the freezer on the cob and some we are cutting off the cob. We will be finishing working it up today and then we will start on the peaches.

Our temperature this morning was 50 degrees. Amazing! All indications are that we will have an early fall. Yesterday, we noticed the geese were forming groups. Several groups flew over with about 40 geese in a group. They were flying in the “V” formation. So pretty! This is another picture from our pastor’s house. I hope I don’t bore you all too much with these but the girls took lots of pretty pictures at his house that I want to share with you all.

This is the view from his front porch. Lovely! Well, our little break is over so I guess I should get busy. Enjoy your day and God bless.

August 17, 2011 7

Wednesday

I hope you all are not tired of sunrise pictures. I just love a beautiful sunrise and we get some amazing ones here. I thought this one this morning was especially beautiful.

Today while the girls worked on school, I worked on the dreaded refrigerators. We have two refrigerators here in the house. One is a side by side and the other is just a regular refrigerator with the freezer on top. So many little cups of this and cups of that had been stored over the holidays. It was getting impossible to find space to put new cups of this and that. I decided enough was enough. I cleaned both of them out completely, removed the shelves and washed them. I stood back and looked at them and was amazed at how much better they looked. Empty but better. So good that I decided to do the freezers too. Amazing! I actually have space in the fridges and the freezers now. I thought I would never get all those containers washed. I decided since the girls were working so hard on school, I would let them out of that chore today. Thats one job I am glad to have done.

While we were inside working on this Hubby was busy splitting wood. (Dave, he has your splitting maul sharpened and ready for you!) After we were finished inside, we went out and helped him move all the split wood inside the wood building. It was a fairly nice day for working outside. Temperature was around 30 degrees with occasional sunshine.

Enjoy your evening and God bless.

January 5, 2011 3