Pickled Eggs

Every year at Easter and Christmas, I make pickled eggs as a special treat for my Hubby. He and David both like them so I will be taking them down with me for our Easter dinner. Don’t they look so colorful in the jar?

Yesterday we had some pretty hard wind. Our plastic is still on our greenhouse, YEAH. I had clothes on the line drying and looked out our dining room window and a pair of Hubby’s jeans had blown off the line and into the dogwood tree. I should have taken a picture of them hanging from the limb but I didn’t think of it in time. Anyway, the wind is not as bad today. Our clothes are all still on the line. Hubby and his brother are working on the van window. Hopefully, they will be able to fix it. It has been more difficult than he first thought it would be.

Well, time for us to start back on school. Enjoy your day and God bless.

April 21, 2011 3

Wild Mustard

I thought I would share these pictures of a field of wild mustard. This field is on our way into town.

I think it is absolutely beautiful!

So of course I took several pictures from several different views.

Last one. As I was taking these pictures another man was up in another driveway taking pictures too. He of course had a very fancy camera with a tripod. Obviously, I am not the only one who thinks it is beautiful.

We are overcast still today but it is supposed to be fairly warm. I am getting ready to take clothes to the line to dry. We still have some wind but not too bad. We are hoping the wind dies down soon. We have not burned the brush pile off the lower garden yet. We need to get it burned as Hubby will soon need to tiller it. School today as usual. Yesterday we only did half school as we had to go to piano practice in the afternoon. We stopped by the library and Julie found plenty of books she was interested in reading. Grace found a few but not as many as Julie did. Sometimes it is difficult to find books we want to read. The librarian told me it probably meant we had already read all the good ones. We do enjoy reading. Enjoy your day and God bless.

April 19, 2011 5

More Babies

We have more babies!! This morning Mama Goose came off her nest with 6 little ones. Very exciting. I could hardly wait to get pictures and show you all. They had six little ones last year and we so enjoyed watching them grow up. We are looking forward to watching these grow up as well.

Saturday we had a great visit with my aunt and uncle-just didn’t seem long enough. The time went by so quickly and we had so much to catch up on. We hope to get to see them again soon. Yesterday’s church message was very good. He preached on how the Jews missed recognizing Jesus as the Messiah and how the same reasons still apply to the world today. It was very interesting.

We will be doing school today as usual. I have to help Hubby fix the drivers window on the van. It has somehow managed to get off track. He has to take the door panel off. Hopefully, it will not be too difficult to fix. I know I have said this before but I am so thankful Hubby is talented in the area of fixing things. I think it is going to be a fairly nice day here in Floyd. It is a little overcast but I think the forecast is just partly cloudy.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

April 18, 2011 5

Finished

The front porch is finished. I wanted to show you the finished product. I’m not sure the picture does a good job of showing it or not.

I rolled the blinds down some so you all could see them too. When we do school out here, we roll them down some to eliminate the glare. They also help keep it cooler in the summer. We now have cleaned and mopped the floor and returned all the furniture to the porch. It is so nice. Thanks, Hubby.

Yesterday was spent down at Jessica’s watching the boys while she went for her ultra sound. She saw the heart beat so all is well in Mama’s world. She is 8 weeks and her due date is Nov. 9th. Very close to Grace’s birthday. Today will be catch up at school and getting the house cleaned for tomorrow’s bible study. It is my turn for dessert and I am planning on making cinnamon rolls. We are going over to the Horn’s tomorrow evening to eat and visit with them. I am making enough cinnamon rolls to take over there as well.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 31, 2011 6

Out Like a Lion

We have a saying here, “if March comes in like a lamb it will go out like a lion” or vice versa. I think this would qualify as going out like a lion.

Yesterday morning we awoke to ice. We did have church but several people were absent due to the icy roads. This morning we awoke to snow.

It is very pretty, though, I must admit I prefer sunshine and warm.

The snow is still coming down and our temperature is 29 degrees. I guess this means hanging clothes inside today. Hubby is almost finished with the inside trim on the porch but I don’t think he will get to work on it today, hopefully tomorrow.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 28, 2011 5

Project

This is the big project we have been working on all week. The first year we lived here we enclosed the front porch with glass. Hubby had gotten these glass doors free from a job site years before. This porch stayed wet all the time. So he took the glass doors out of their frames and framed them up on the porch. We love this this area. All winter it is used for coffee drinking, book reading. In the summer, it is a favorite spot to sit and look at the stars, the lightning bugs, summer storms. It is a well used porch. However, this winter we discovered a problem. The wood underneath the porch had rotted so badly the windows were falling down. Not good. So Hubby decided we had to fix this before it became a disaster.

First step was to remove the glass. In this picture, he has already replaced some of the rotten wood but you can still see some of it. We had to jack the porch up and put new wood under it. We also had to replace some of the wood flooring.

This was our attempt to keep the cats out. LOL As you can guess, it did not work but it did keep the rain out which was our real objective. We had a lot of rain Wednesday evening. Lots of wind, thunder and lightning but the porch, Praise the Lord, stayed dry.

We now have all the posts replaced and the 3 big panes of glass back in. We will be working on the last section today and then hopefully start replacing the trim. He wants to cover the front boards with metal. This will keep the weather from doing too much damage. He had to work alone yesterday as the girls and I had to go to Roanoke for a dentist appointment and other errands. Hopefully we will get most of it finished today. Rain is in the forecast for the weekend. We are still working on our surprise project. We just had to stop working on it to get this finished. Priorities, you know. I’ll try to have more pictures to show you all tomorrow.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 25, 2011 5

Turtles

Here are a few of the turtle pictures we took while at Pandapas Pond the other day.

They were pretty skittish so we had to sneak upon them to get the pictures.

Grace did a great job!

A beaver lodge on the pond. Several geese were resting on top of it.

We have several things planned to work on today. Rain is in the forecast though so we may not get any of it done. We’ll just have to wait and see. I am going to use the remainder of the pork tenderloin this evening to make bbq sandwiches for supper. I have enough rolls left from last night to use for buns. I think I will do homesfries and coleslaw with it. I like to cook enough meat to make several meals from it. This makes it a little easier I think. We have dentist appointments tomorrow in Roanoke, then we are going to Sam’s Club to pick up a few things. After that, we are going to pick out Grace’s frames for her new glasses. The Horns are supposed to come by tomorrow evening to visit. YEAH! It has been a while since we have got to visit.

I better get busy. Hubby and I are working on a big outside project. I’ll try to show pictures next time I make a post. Anyway, he is wanting to get started so that hopefully we can get some of it done before it starts raining. Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 23, 2011 5

Pandapas Pond

Yesterday we decided to take the day off from school. Hubby had to run a few errands in Blacksburg. This little pond is close to B-burg so we thought it would be a nice to have a picnic and hike around the pond. We had a really fun day.

This is one of the side trails you can walk on. We stayed on the main trail that goes around the pond.

We saw lots of ducks and geese. Also turtles. I will show the turtle pictures and some more of the scenery tomorrow. Temperature is so nice here this morning. The birds are singing beautifully. I have bread rising and a pork tenderloin roast ready to put in the oven for supper. I think it is going to be a good day.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 22, 2011 7

More Farm Pictures

This is a far off picture of the graveyard that is on the farm. This picture was taken from the top of our driveway.

This is a closer shot. Right beside the graveyard is a hay barn.

I’m sure Jess will recognize this picture. On the left of this picture at the bottom of the hill is an old farmhouse. Dave and Jess lived there for several years before they moved to N.C.

Today will be school as usual, though we have not gotten our early start. We are running a little behind as Hubby and I did not wake up as early as usual. Saturday, we worked on cleaning up an area where we used to have the swimming pool. This was a major job which required almost 5 hrs. to finish. We had the back of the truck completely full of trash to haul to the dumpster. We had to cut the pool liner in pieces. It was too heavy to move in one solid piece. We kept the parts of the pool we thought we might could reuse. We were all muddy from head to toe, including the “bumpy truck”. But I am so glad to get this job done. Vicki and Quintin are giving us some strawberry plants and we plan on putting them in that space.

Yesterday’s menu at church was pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes, green beans, cole slaw, beef strogonoff, key lime pie and cookies. We started our new study on Galatians. I think it will be a very good study. I better get busy or school will be starting really late. Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 21, 2011 4

Lilac Bush

Our lilac bush has lots of buds on it. YEAH! If all goes well, it will have lots of beautiful, sweet smelling flowers soon. We have a small bush we just planted a few years ago at the edge of the garden and it is full of buds too. I love spring. I think our rain has stopped for a few days. It is still very cloudy but the forecast is for the sun to come peeping through this afternoon. It is already warmer than it was all day yesterday so that is a good sign. We are hoping to do some more outside work after school. We have been trying to start school a little earlier so that we can be finished around lunch. Then we have the afternoon for work and play. It seems to be working out well so far.

Yesterday, while the girls were at their piano lessons, I went into our local thrift store-Angels in the Attic. It operates entirely on donations and volunteers. All the profit each month is given to help local needs. It is amazing. They have moved 3 times because they keep growing. The last time they moved, they purchased the building and in about 2 years had it paid off. Since all workers are volunteer they have very little expense. It has really helped our community. The lady who thought it up is a Christian and tells everyone she can “It is all God”. Anyway I said all that to say this. Many years ago, my sister-in-law gave Hubby a coffee cup. He loves this cup and uses it every morning. Well, guess what I found. One that looks just like it at Angels for 25 cents. How exciting! This morning I put my coffee in the new cup so that our cups matched. Cute! Ialso found this pretty glass. I love old dishes and this glass just so wanted to come home with me.

I better get busy. It’s almost time for school. Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 16, 2011 5