A Little Decorating

As our morning low was 37 degrees, the girls and I decided it was time for a little fall decoration. Now at this time in my life I am not a lot on seasonal decorating. I have no idea why. I love to look at other people decorating and I think it makes the home look so good. I guess I’ve just gotten lazy about it.

On our enclosed front porch, we have two tables. They are now ready for fall.

Inside we did the mantle. That’s it-that is the extent of our fall decorating. Not too much. Easy to take down but enough to make it look a little different.

Hubby is working on the other two chairs today. Hopefully, they will soon be finished and we can get it all painted. I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

September 17, 2013 5

Last Thursday

I thought I would show you all what it looked like here last Thursday.

Can you believe it? Snow!

We ended up with about 3 inches! Amazing! It was very beautiful but I am ready for sunshine instead of snow. By Friday evening, most of it was gone except in some really shady areas. Saturday we went down to the Farmers Market in Greensboro. An old friend of ours, Retia, went with us. She had never been to Jess and Dave’s since they bought their home. We stopped there first. After coffee and a delicious pound cake Jess had made for us, we were off to the market. Jess found some beautiful ferns for her front porch and some herbs to plant. We had a great day with warm temperatures and sunshine. It was a perfect day for looking around at all the flowers and plants.

We started a new bible study Sunday night at church. It is called “Experiencing God”. It is a really good study. Hubby and I have done it before. Some in our class have taken it and others have not. I am looking forward to all the Lord has planned to show us with this study. Every time I do it, I get something new and different from it.

This week has been absolutely beautiful here in Floyd. Temperatures in the low 70’s. I LOVE it!! Hubby tillered some of the lower garden yesterday. Today, he is working on building a raised bed. We have wanted to do raised beds for years. It just seems to be one of those things we talk about but never get around to doing. That is changing today. He already has it built and is working now on filling it with dirt. We will see how we like using this one and then decide if we want more.

The girls and I are almost finished with school for the day. All we lack is math. Then we are going outside to help. We need to get the upper garden ready for plowing. It will soon be time to get things in the ground. I hope to get some cabbage plants, onion sets, spinach seeds and lettuce seeds the next time we go into town.

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

April 9, 2013 5

More Snow Pictures

I thought I would show you all a few more snow pictures. This picture is of our road.

Icicles hanging from the front porch. I love the blue of the sky!

Floyd is full of old barns.

Papa Goose standing guard. Mama Goose is already nesting! Hopefully, we will soon have lots of goslings swimming around. We are not sure of Mama Duck is nesting or not. I guess time will tell.

I am trying a new recipe for hamburger buns. I got the recipe from here. http://penniesandpancakes.blogspot.ca/ I’ll let you all know how they turn out. I am making them using all whole wheat flour. I’m not sure how that will go over with everyone. I usually do half whole wheat and half all purpose but I am hoping to move us over to more all whole wheat. We are having hamburgers (on the homemade buns), french fries and cole slaw for supper.

I also wanted to tell you all how much we like the new yogurt recipe I have been making. I have the recipe here vanilla yogurt. I am making another batch today for us and will be making one tomorrow to take down to Jessica when we go. This yogurt is kinda sweet and flavored. It is delicious served with fresh fruit. We like that much better than plain yogurt. I think I will substitute strawberry flavoring for the vanilla next time and see how that turns out.

Well, time for lunch. Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 26, 2013 1

Grapes

This picture of our grapevine was taken on April 12. This is what it looked like last week.

It seems to be growing every day and full of baby grapes!

This makes me very happy. I hope to make some jelly this year and lots and lots of grape juice! We so enjoy having our own juice to drink.

Our weekend was a busy one. I didn’t get to tell all about it on yesterdays post. It was late and I was tired. Anyway, on Friday, our church had a mother/daughter banquet. It was lots of fun with about 25 ladies attending. Then on Saturday, we had to go to Jessica’s to start working on some things her ins. agency said needed to be done. After we got there, Hubby realized we would need the scaffold, so we came back home Saturday evening. We went back down on Sunday and finished it up. Jess, the kids, myself, Julie and Grace went to the Farmers Market on Sunday. We had a great time just walking around looking at everything. Okay, so I have to tell you, we rode Jessica’s van to the market. 7 of us. We took the double stroller and the small stroller, plus, of course, all the other stuff you need for small kids. Needless to say, her van was packed. Then when we get there, the first thing Jess sees-2 HUGE hanging baskets, that would look just perfect on her front porch. Now if you would like to have seen something funny, you should have been there in the parking lot watching us try to get all that stuff back in the van. It really was hilarious!! We finally did it though and didn’t even damage her new hanging baskets. I guess we are just talented.

Our lunch break is over and so I must get back to school. Enjoy your day and God bless.

May 8, 2012 5

Thursday

I took this picture this morning as Hubby and I were sharing our morning coffee on the front porch. You all remember our glassed in front porch we worked so hard to redo not too long ago. It definitely gets lots of use. We have our morning coffee on it, the girls and I do school out there, we love it.

The Horn’s came over for a visit today. I had to show Vicki our new chicks. They are doing very well. We were a little concerned the other morning when we got up our temperature was 17 degrees. That was the actual temperature not the wind chill. I went to check on them but they were all nice and warm under the heat lamp. So I am hoping this means they are hardy little ladies.

Yesterday was beautiful here. Sunshine and temperatures in the upper 50’s. Today we are getting some rain. It is still warm though- upper 40’s. I tried a new recipe for supper last night. It is called Crockpot Teriyaki Pork. I got the recipe from http://homesteadinghomemaker.blogspot.com/ It was very good. I will definitely be making it again. Sorry about the print being different. I’m not sure what is going on.

Lunch is over and time for school to start. Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 8, 2012 2

Old Things

I am a keeper of old things. This canister set belonged to my mom. It is the only set I can remember her owning. I love them. When I open the lid to get flour, sugar, or whatever I am getting, it gives me much pleasure to know she used it before me. I have my mom’s cast iron skillet, my grandmother’s bread bowl and many more things that have been handed down. They don’t have to have belonged in the family. I just like old things. I am always on the lookout at thrift stores or yard sales for things with character (older).

Today has been windy and fairly chilly here in Floyd. Without the wind, it would have been kinda nice. We have sunshine and that is always good. We did school as usual. I did two loads of laundry. One is drying on the front porch. I don’t like to hang clothes on the line when we have a fire. It always makes the clothes smell like smoke. The other load I will put on the drying rack tonight and it will be dry in the morning. I really enjoy using it.

Time for me to get busy cooking supper. We are trying a new recipe tonight. I’ll let you all know if it is a keeper. Enjoy your day and God bless.

January 18, 2012 5

A Dirt Road

I love dirt roads. Yes, for those of you who live or have lived on a dirt road, you are probably thinking that I’m a little bit crazy. Well, yes, I am that but I do think dirt roads have a yesterday feel to them. Forget about the fact that your vehicle is always dirty, either with dust or with mud. They just have a slower type atmosphere about them, which I love.

Yesterday, we went to play with the boys while Jess went to the doctor. She and Katie are both doing well. Time is ticking down for them, just a few more weeks to go. Well, I’m going to tell you all, those boys sure know how to pull on MawMaw’s heart strings. I made the comment that it was getting time to go and Sam immediately wants MawMaw, following me everywhere, wanting me to hold him. Daniel doesn’t want us to leave either. We finally get out the door and I am almost to the car when Daniel opens the back door and says “MawMaw, I wish you could just stay forever and ever.” I tell you, I sure love those boys. They will be coming up this weekend. Saturday, our pastor is having a men’s shoot at his house. David and Hubby will be going to that.

I will leave you all with a sunrise picture Grace took the other morning. She was standing on our front porch when she took it. Enjoy your day and God bless.

October 5, 2011 5

Hot Pepper Relish

Today, I made hot pepper jelly. This is a favorite of ours. We serve it with cream cheese and Ritz crackers. When I take it to church on Sunday night, it goes super fast. I did not have enough hot peppers to make it but the pastor’s wife gave me enough. I have been so blessed this year. Even though our garden did not do as well as I would have liked, others have given us so much. Anyway, the recipe I use is on the sure-jell recipe instruction pamphlet. I guess the only different thing I do is that I put the pepper mixture into the blender and pulse instead of trying to chop them up finely. I’m lazy that way. I always put the hot pepper jelly in half pint jars. I did not have enough empty ones so I bought a dozen yesterday at Wal-Mart. I think they are soooo cute, don’t you? The lids came with them.

Saturday, we did go with the Horn’s to Paint Bank. However, I forgot the camera. For those of you who have been reading my blog for awhile, this probably does not come as a surprise. What might surprise you though, is that Vicki forgot their camera too. We did take a few pictures with the phone but I am not sure how to get them off. Well, anyway, we went to the fish hatchery, to the general store, ate lunch at the Swinging Bridge Restaurant (which was way over priced in our opinion), saw the buffalo, and walked around some at the campground. It was such a fun day.

Yesterday, we went to Sam’s. It rained off and on all day and then in the evening the heavy rains came. We have probably gotten over 5 inches. Our power was off for about 5 hours. We lit some candles and went out to the glassed in front porch. Hubby played guitar for us and we told the girls stories of when we were young. It was fun. We are still getting heavy rain in spurts. We really needed rain-just not the whole years worth in one day.

I also wanted to share this soup recipe with you all. Our local supermarket sells a 15 bean soup mixture. They have it with the dried beans. The brand they carry is http://www.hurstbeans.com/. I follow the instructions on the back of the bag (kinda). Well, I did cook the beans like it said. I added kielbasa sausage to it and a can of my homemade salsa. I used a qt of our fresh canned tomatoes. I then added some potatoes, corn, peas, and spinach to it. It is a really good hearty soup and fairly inexpensive. It is really good without adding the veggies. Either way you like it. I have made it with hamburger, ground turkey, whatever I have on hand. It is also good without any meat but Hubby is a meat eater. We serve it with hot cornbread. YUM! Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, I do not use the ham powder base that comes inside the bag of beans. Just my personal preference.

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

September 6, 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

Our First Egg

Very exciting news here today. We got our first egg! I guess maybe we need to get out more, if just getting an egg gets us this excited. But we think it is beautiful.

Well, we finally got the pink apples worked up today. This is what they looked like when we cut them up.

They are so pretty. Remember last year, we purchased the steam juicer and the Roma sauce maker. They have been so helpful already this year. We just quartered the apples, no peeling necessary. Put them in the steam juicer and let them cook.

This is what the juice looks like. Such a beautiful color. We got 5 pts of juice. The juice is concentrated. For every pint you get a quart of juice.

Then after the apples cooked in the steam juicer we ran them through the sauce maker. We got 6 pts of applesauce. Thanks so much, Donna, for sharing these with us. We are working on peaches now. They are canning as I type. We saved the peelings from the peaches. We are going to put them in the steam juicer and make juice from them. I like the fact that there is hardly any waste.

Remember how I said last weekend was unusually cool here. Well, I can hardly remember that now. It has been HOT all week. I know not as hot as many of you but still hot. Temperatures have been in the 90’s outside and about that hot inside our house. I am so thankful to a blogger friend who gave me the idea of using a propane unit to do our canning on. We put it on the front porch and it makes such a difference keeping the house a little cooler. Most of the heat is out there not in the kitchen.

Well, we better get busy doing some cleanup. Enjoy your day and God bless.

July 21, 2011 7