Chicken Day

Friday was chicken butchering day for us and the Horns. We had a really good day, learned a lot and had lots of good fellowship. All together we butchered 10 roosters. We were kinda amazed at how big they looked before we butchered them versus how small they looked when finished. Huge difference. We are kinda talking about going with the bigger meat birds next year. We’re not sure yet though.

Our pastor made us these killing cones. They are really neat. I would recommend anyone butchering their own chickens to have one. They make it a lot easier. Saturday, the girls and I went down to Jessica’s. We watched the kids while Dave and Jess had a date afternoon to celebrate their anniversary. They have been married 12 years. They went to the movies and David brought us back sushi to try. We had never eaten it before. It was actually pretty good. Grace really liked it.

Sunday, I went to church alone as Julie, Grace and Hubby were not feeling very well. Julie and Grace seem to have a cold-congestion with lots of coughing. Hubby is having tummy troubles. Hopefully all will be well soon. Today is a beautiful day here in Floyd. Sunshine with temperatures in the mid 30’s. It could be a little warmer for my taste but the sun is beautiful. I have a pork tenderloin cooking away on top of the wood stove. It smells yummy. I think I will have potatoes, green beans and cornbread with it.

Well, we are starting school so I better get off. I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

November 13, 2012 3

New Project

Here is a picture of my lastest project. This picture is of one I did several years ago. Grace has requested one so I am working on hers now. I have finished the pink and blue rows and will be starting on the red. I also have found a new favorite way of making popcorn. I am not found of microwave popcorn. It always leaves a yucky taste in my mouth. I have been making this recipe for microwave kettle corn and we all love it. You can make it sweet like the recipe says or just leave out the sugar and make regular popcorn.

Much has been going on here for the last week. That’s one reason why I haven’t made a post in a while. First off, last week I threw my back out. I used my mom’s old cane to walk around the last part of the week. I am so thankful that I do not have chronic back problems. It was intensely painful. Then on Saturday we went down to Jessica’s for a pumpkin carving day. We have never carved pumpkins before. It was a lot of fun.

Jess made this cheesecake. It was the first cheesecake she had made. It was very good.

Everyone had a great time.

Then Saturday evening we went to the “Critter Chompin”. It is a wild game banquet that our church sponsors. We do door prizes and I won a new bible “The Story”. Have any of you ever heard of it? It is supposed to be the bible but told in a story form Later on that night though we had some bad news. Hubby Dad had been taken to Pikeville hospital with a heart attack. We went down to see him on Monday-11 hrs driving. Hard day in MANY ways. He is on a ventilator and unable to breathe on his own. Later in the week, he had to undergo surgery for a preforated bowel. Today he is still in extremely critical condition. I would ask if anyone feels led to pray, we would certainly appreciate your prayers. He is 81 years old, a Christian man, and wasn’t in very good health before all this happened. Hubby and I are praying for God’s will to be done.

Well, that’s about it. I will try to keep everyone posted. Enjoy your day and God bless.

October 26, 2012 3

Birthday Cake

Yesterday was David’s mom’s birthday. Jess is learning how to make and decorate cakes. She did this one for David’s mom. We think she did a very good job. It looked and tasted delicious. I did manage to get this picture of Katie while we were there.

Hard to believe but next month she’ll be a year old. Time marches on. We are chilly here this morning-30 degrees with wind. I built a fire as soon as we got up. It was 59 degrees in the house. I now have a big kettle of homemade soup on the woodstove simmering for supper tonight. The girls and I are going to do school and then heading outside to work. We need to dig potatoes, clean off the garden and clean out the chicken houses. I’m not sure all that will get done today but we hope to at least get some of it done. The sun is shining beautifully so I think it will be a good day to be outside.

Time for school. Enjoy your day and God bless.

October 11, 2012 5

Wednesday

Hi everyone. I’m sorry about no pictures lately but I have been having trouble with my computer. Hopefully all is fixed now. Saturday, Dave, Jess and kids came up for a visit. Dave and Hubby went to Pastor Tom’s shoot. They had a great time. Then on Saturday afternoon, Chuck and his kids came over too. I was one happy mawmaw. All my grandbabies here at one time. I hope this becomes a habit. We all went to cut wood. I so wish I had taken my camera. It was so cute seeing them all carrying wood to load in the truck. Everyone went. We even had Katie and Sam in the stroller, which did not make Sam happy. He kept saying, “I wanna help PawPaw too.” We thought Sam might be a little too much “help.”

We had a great supper of pork, pintos, mashed potatoes, rolls, peaches and pears. After cutting, loading and unloading two truck loads of wood, everyone was hungry. As they were leaving, I gave them all an apple for the road. Alexius was getting in the car and got her finger shut in the car door. Chuck asked her how she managed to do that and she said, “I was trying to hold my apple and I wanted to give MawMaw another hug”. I felt so sorry for her.

I have been helping Hubby all this week with a bathroom remodel. We finished it today. Tomorrow, he will start installing the cabinets at the old farmhouse he has been working on. We plan on going with the Horn’s this Saturday to Grayson Highlands for their fall festival. We are looking forward to it. It sounds like lots of fun. Well, I think that’s about all that is happening around here. I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

September 26, 2012 3

Our Trip

Hello everyone! I thought I would tell you all a little about our trip yesterday. I did not get any pictures-sorry. We didn’t actually go down into the town of Mt. Airy so we didn’t see any Andy Griffith stuff. We did have a great time though. We left here about 8:30 yesterday morning and got home about 6:00. A full day. We stopped at lots of produce stands. They were all stocked with beautiful fall mums, pumpkins and such. We ate lunch at Libby Hill. We enjoyed it a lot. We then walked around inside the Mayberry Mall for a while and had ice cream as a treat while in the mall. On the way home, we stopped at a few more produce/farmer market type places. Hubby bought 2 knives that he thinks will be good knives for working up deer and other meats. I bought 10 lbs of pintos, 5 lb. kidney beans, 4 lb. black beans, 3 lb. yellow eyed beans, some white sweet potatoes and a cushaw. I am hoping to can most of the beans to have on hand when I need them quickly.

We are working on our last sack of apples today. I am ready to start canning something else (beans, soups, and chili). Temperatures here are beautiful. Much cooler with lots of sunshine (after our downpour the other day). Dave, Jess and kids are coming up tomorrow. The pastor has a clay shoot at his house every year. Dave and Hubby are going to it while the rest of us go check out some yard sales and maybe a trip to Michaels. Jess has requested an oatmeal pie for tomorrow. I plan on making that this evening. It is a very good pie that tastes like pecan pie, just less expensive to make.

Well, I guess that is about all that’s happening here. I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

September 21, 2012 5

Tuesday

Hi everyone! Today is a beautiful day here in Floyd. Actually it has been a beautiful week so far. Our nighttime temperatures have been in the mid 40’s and daytime highs are low 70’s. Perfect temps in my opinion.

Sunday we took the girls to Tweetsie Railroad for a day out. We had actually planned on going with Dave, Jess and kids but the kids had some type of virus going on. Daniel and Sam had it earlier in the week and we thought maybe Katie had escaped getting it. However, Saturday afternoon Katie came down with it so they did not get to go with us. Hubby actually decided to go with us at the last minute. He is not much for amusement parks but I think he didn’t want us going alone. We had a really fun day but kept missing Jess and crew. Sam so loves trains.

Today we are working with apples, SURPRISE! We also had 4 more l00 lb sacks of apples gave to us Friday evening. We will have plenty of apples this winter. I am juicing most of the ones gave to us Friday. We are making applesauce and applebutter too. Our steam juicer and our sauce maker sure do make this work go faster. I am very glad we have them.

Seems like we have been so busy here. I haven’t had time to make a post or read anyone else’s posts. I will try to catch up some today. Enjoy your day and God bless.

September 11, 2012 8

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

Tweetsie

Yesterday we went to Tweetsie Railroad with Dave, Jess, and the kids. We had a great time.

Cany you tell by Sam’s face?

It’s hard to get this boy to be still long enough for a picture.

The highlight of the day was meeting this guy. For those of you who don’t know him, this is Thomas the Train. We all rode Thomas. Every time during the day that we would hear his whistle blow, Sam would say “You hear that train, MawMaw?” This was his birthday gift from his mom and dad. His birthday was June 7th. He is now 2 yrs old. Amazing.

I think this picture says LOVE. When a man the size of David squeezes himself into a car the size of this one just so your little boy can drive, that has to say love.

I think they are conspiring a plan!

My cowgirl!

Can you tell we are tired? Well, everyone except …..

Miss Katie. Enjoy your day and God bless.

June 9, 2012 6

Birthday and Cherries

Today we celebrated my Julie’s 14th birthday. My, my, how time has flown by. Seems like just the other day, my Lord was surprising me by giving her to me. God is SO good. We celebrated at Groundhog Mountain with hamburgers, hotdogs and chocolate cake. The Horn’s came with us and Dave, Jess and the kids met us on the Blue Ridge Parkway at Meadows of Dan. We had a wonderful day!!

Mrs. Vicki bringing trucks for the boys to play with. You will notice she has on a jacket. It was kinda chilly here this morning. 42 degrees when we got up. I think it is supposed to be about that chilly tonight too. It was a nice day though-definitely not too hot.