Mountain Mama… Country Living
I wanted to show you all the table and chairs we have been working on. Hubby made us the table years ago. We just painted it to match the new chairs. I think they look very nice!
This chair used to sit on my mom’s porch.
Then just a few flower pictures Grace took the other day.
Enjoy your day and God bless.
Hi everyone! It has been a while since I posted pictures of what it looks like here in yard. Today we worked on the gardens. Both gardens are planted. I am so happy. It has been a wet, cold spring here making it hard to get the gardens planted.
This one is just beans and corn.
Remember when I said Hubby was working on making a raised bed. Well, here it is and it is doing very well I think. We made another one today and planted herb seeds in it and another row of carrots. I think I like this raised bed gardening. Hoeing is so hard on my back.
Our rhubarb is doing nicely this year. I think it is time for some rhubarb dumplings, strawberry rhubarb jam, rhubarb pie,…….!!
This picture is looking at the back side of the house from the corner edge of the garden.
Irises.
A fern and hen and chicks. Thanks for the ferns, Jess! These hen and chicks belonged first to my grandmother, then to my mom and now to me. I love things like that. I found the metal thing up in the field above our home. I have no idea what it originally was but I think it makes a great container for them.
Our strawberries survived the winter and are blooming! Some already have small strawberries on them.
Lovage. It will get huge, over 6 ft. tall!
Clematis.
A nice place to relax. I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.
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.
Hello ladies, I hope everyone is having a great weekend so far. We worked today on putting a fence around the gardens.
The “ladies” were very glad. They had not been free all week as we had not had time to get the fences up. We knew the minute they were turned loose they would head straight to the gardens. To express their dislike of not being turned loose they cut back on their laying. We usually get 11 or 12 eggs every day. This week we got 7 or 8. I told them I expected full quota next week. No excuses.
We found this drift netting at the barn, rolled it out and cut it in two pieces. The posts are cut from old wood we got from the job site. Not bad-zero expense. I am hoping the plastic bags that you see will keep the birds away. So far it seems to be working. I replaced the 14 plants they had eaten and so far all is well. It took us 4 hrs to put this fence up. Hubby helped or it would have taken much longer.
The rose bush at the green swing is in full bloom. I think it is lovely this year.
Another picture of the rose bush.
I realized it had been a very long time since I put a picture of Jasper on here.
He is our farm dog in training. Shadow has been teaching him all the tricks. (Most times, Shadow just tolerates him). Well, that’s about it for today. Supper was hotdogs and beans. Simple because Mom was tired. I hope you all have a great Memorial Day Weekend and God bless.
Hello ladies. I had intention of having pictures to go along with this post but somehow managed to completely forget to take any. Sorry. Anyway, yesterday the girls and I attempted something new for us. We rendered fat into lard. What I thought would be fairly easy, of course, WAS NOT. Things are usually more difficult the first time you try to do it so we are hoping-if- we try it again it will go smoother. First off, we tried to do it on the propane burner we use for canning. We couldn’t turn it down low enough without it going out. Then we put it into the crockpots. That went better. We have 3 crockpots. We filled them up and let them simmer for about 5 hours. Then we strained the fat through a colendar and a cheesecloth. We then had enough to fill 2 crockpots with fat and start the process again. We finished last night about 8:00 P.M. Long day. I’m not really positive we did it right though. I was probably about 14 the last time we butchered a hog and my Mom was in charge of rendering the fat. I think I should have paid more attention.
Then today we went to Jessica’s and attempted to make soap. Key work, attempted. We have made soap before with lard purchased from the store but not rendered lard. For some reason, we could not get the soap to trace. We finally just poured it into the molds and said a prayer. We’ll see how it turns out. We made regular lye soap and a laundry soap bar. Even if it doesn’t turn out, we sure had a lot of fun doing it. I’ll keep you all posted on the outcome.
Well, it’s been a long two days and I am tired. I hope you all have a great evening. God bless.
Daniel is SO into Star Wars right now. He has a light saber and everything. He earned his light saber. He has just recently been promoted to a booster seat and was having trouble getting his seat belt to buckle. His mom told him if he could buckle himself in 10 times on his own, they would buy him a light saber. Motivation, you know. Well, it took him a while but he has it down pat now. He was super excited because when they went to purchase his light saber, they found a place on line where they could get 3 light sabers for the same price as one at Wal-Mart. Daniel says he got himself one, Daddy one, and Sam one so they can all be Jedi. Way to go, Daniel.
Today is a BEAUTIFUL day here in Floyd. The sun is shining and the temperature is already 40 degrees. We have gotten a great start on our day. The house chores are done and we even have a few minutes of relaxation before school starts. I was wondering if any of you ladies make kefir and if you do, do you use the powdered starter or the grains? I have made it a lot using the powdered starter but am wondering if the grains would be better. Any opinions?
I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless.
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.
Today has been a good day here in Floyd. The girls and I decided it was definitely time to put up the Christmas tree. We had lots of fun. We put on some Christmas music and got busy. They decorated the gingerbread house. Then we put up the tree, the nativity, and a few other decorations. Simple, nothing too complex. Temperatures here have been much warmer than normal. I like that.
Our van is fixed. YEAH! Dave, Jess and the kids came up Sunday so Dave could help Hubby work on it. Thanks so much, Dave! Hubby finished getting it all put back together Monday. Monday evening we rode it to the feed store to get chicken feed and everything worked fine. Yesterday, the girls and I rode it to Sam’s. No problems!! I am so glad.
Yesterday, the boys had a terrible stomach virus. They were both very sick. Daniel was hit especially hard. He told his mom he felt like he was living in a bad dream. Today they both seem on the mend. We are all praying no one else gets it. Jess said that baby Sam was calling for his “Maw” when he was sick in the night. You know that just touches my heart. We are hoping to go down Saturday to do Christmas with them. Lots of good food planned.
Well, I guess that’s about all that has been going on here. Enjoy your day and God bless.
Here are a few more pictures from our trip Sunday. This little waterfall was very pretty.
See all the cracks in the rocks.
And last, just a little stream to listen to. So relaxing.
The girls and I went to Roanoke yesterday. They had a dentist appointment. After the appointment, we did a few things they enjoy doing. We went to Books-A-Million, which is one of their favorite places to go. We went to Sam’s Club to pick up a few things we needed. We then walked around a little bit in the mall. Joann’s Fabric had fleece on sale so we wanted to go by there. Grace will be making a top with it for her next sewing project with Mrs. Sally. We discovered that Joann’s was no longer there. We were very disappointed. We wanted to stop at Fresh Market to get some pumpkin spice coffee. It is a specialty coffee they only have in the fall. Well, we were pulling into the shopping center and one of the girls said, “Mom, look, there’s Joann’s.” Yea! So, Grace got her fleece and Mom got her coffee. Grace chose a red with white snowflakes on it. I think it will look very good.
I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.
The hummingbirds are really enjoying the feeders. We have this feeder at the old building and another one at the green swing. I think hummers are so much fun to watch.
Today, Hubby and I decided to put an outside faucet on the side of the new room. When we built the new room we had to take the old outside faucet off. Well, plumbing never seems to go as you think it will. We run the pipe and got everything connected, turned the water back on and amazingly, no leaks. Then we go outside, turn the faucet on and amazingly, no leaks. Well, of course, we are patting ourselves on the back now thinking wow, that was easy. Hubby turns the outside faucet off and guess what-it won’t turn off. It was a brand new faucet so we’re not sure what was wrong with it. Of course, we have no cut off valve in our collection of plumbing supplies so we have to shut the water off again, drive 30 minutes to the local hardware, get a cut off valve and a new outside faucet. When we get home, he put the cut off valve on so we could turn the water back on. He had to go look at a job possibility so the other faucet will have to wait. He will have to take the one that doesn’t work back out of the wall so he can put the other one in. Hopefully this one will work.
Well, that’s our day. Temperatures here today have been wonderful. Low 80’s. It is now almost 6:00 p.m. and the temperature is 75 degrees with a great breeze. Thank you, Lord. Tomorrow we will be going down to Jessica’s. She has a doctors appointment. We will be watching the boys and then going over to David’s mom’s to pick some apples. Remember last year, she gave us those pink apples. Well, they are ready to pick. They make such pretty applesauce.
Enjoy your day and God bless.
Merry Heart Crafts 