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

Surprise!

Yesterday, we went down to watch the boys while Jess went for her ultrasound. This time the baby was not shy. Jess will be having a little girl in November. All seems healthy which of course is the most important thing. About 2 months ago, while in Goodwill, I found this darling little dress. I thought it was so cute I just had to buy it. You know, just in case it was a girl. I figured I could always give it as a gift to someone.

We had quite a lot of rain last night and today has been alternately overcast and then sun. I have clothes on the line hoping to get them dry. It is very humid here with a temperature of 90 but we do still have a slight breeze.

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

July 6, 2011 9

An Old Leather Project

This is a picture of an old leather book bag I made when I was in college. It is roughly 35 years old (I guess I am really telling my age now). As you can see, it gets a lot of use. I’m not even sure what the stain is at the bottom but its been on it for a very long time. I used to work a lot with leather. I have made purses, moccasins, walets, lots and lots of belts. Hubby also has done lots of leather work. He more than me actually. He used to run a leather shop, back when we were younger. He made a knife sheath for our old pastor about 2 years ago. Other than that we have not done leather work in many years. We do still have our tools though. We have talked some about getting them out and working some with the girls. Teaching them how to make things. Leather is just so expensive but I think it would be lots of fun.

This is a picture I did. Once again, many years ago. I won 2nd place in a craft fair with it. Looking at these reminds me of how much fun working with leather is. Well, so much for my walk down memory lane.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

January 21, 2011 5

Fall Colors

Here is another picture from our outing yesterday. Such beautiful colors. Today has been busy working on the new room. We have the vinyl flooring down. Now I should pause to say “where I come from” we call this linoleum. Here they call it vinyl flooring. Anyway, it is down on the floor. All the trim is cut, painted and on except for the window trim. It is really starting to look like a room. I will try to post a picture of it soon so you all can see our progress.

We did not have ladies bible study today. Two of the ladies were unable to come so we just decided to call it off. Probably for the best, my house is a little cluttered right now. Hopefully, soon it will all be finished and we can get everything back in order. Today has been a beautiful day here in Floyd. Nice temperatures, cool but not too much, lots of sunshine. We did have a fire all day which has felt really nice. I cooked my first kettle of pinto beans on the wood stove today so I guess fall is officially here. There is no better pinto beans than those cooked on a wood stove-in my opinion.

Well, still more to get done. Enjoy your evening and God bless.

October 22, 2010 2

Another Sign of Spring

Another indicator of spring. This flower is one of the early ones. I’m not sure what it is but it comes up early every year. Does anyone know it’s name? Anyway it is always such an uplifting sight to see it coming out of the ground. Today has been a little cool here, overcast, kinda dreary. Yesterday was georgeous. Windy but lots of sunshine. Today has been school as usual. We are all looking forward to finishing the year (hopefully) a little early. Our expectations are to be finished around the first of May. I guess that is if we don’t miss too many days between now and then. Spring is the hardest for us. We want to take too many days off and enjoy the sun. I’ve still been working on Grace’s quilt. I’m about 2/3 of the way finished. I really want to get it done soon so I can put the quilting frame away for summer. It always seems to me, spring is the time for new projects and it is hard to get old ones finished when so many new ones are calling. I MUST REMAIN FOCUSED! Tonight’s menu for supper is venison strips, mashed potatoes, corn, gravy and homemade biscuits. Dessert will probably be honey and butter swirled together and put on hot biscuits. YUM! Tomorrow is Ladies Bible Study day. It is going really well. A very good study. I highly recommend it. Well it is time for us to get some house cleaning done and then start on supper. Take care and God Bless.

March 25, 2010 0

Before and Now

I thought you all might enjoy seeing how much snow we have. I wanted to give you something to judge by, so I found the picture of the rock area in summer and then how it looks this morning. And guess what? It’s still snowing. Perhaps most of the day. Wow! This is definitely a record year for snow accumulation here. But you know, even with all the snow we’ve had, I still think it is beautiful. When it is fresh and bright white, it is georgeous. However, one can only stand so much white, right. I am ready to see some yellow, purple, red. Some pansies would be nice, right Jess. Well, everything has a season. I think I want to enjoy this season and what God wants to bless us with instead of wishing for something else. I’m working on this process, anyway.

I made a honey bun cake yesterday. It turned out really good. The recipe called for sour cream. I did not have any and as we are snowed in couldn’t just run to the store to get some. I went on line (what would we do without the internet) and found a substitute for sour cream. Put 1 tbsp vinegar or lemon juice in a cup-add enough milk to make 1 cup. It really works. I could not taste the difference. Well, I thinks I’ll get busy watching the snow. God Bless.

February 6, 2010 2