Mountain Mama… Country Living
Homemade Mosquito Repellent
Materials:
15 drops lavender oil
3 Tbsp of vanilla extract
10 drops of citronella oil or lemon-eucalyptus oil
1/4 Cup lemon juice
Spray bottle
Directions:
Combine above ingredients in spray bottle. Fill remainder of bottle with water, water/vodka or water/witch hazel mixture.
Spray yourself and any objects or areas you wish to keep mosquito free!
Hello everyone! I thought I would share a few sunrise pictures from yesterday morning. It was a beautiful sky.
Saturday was very cold here. We ended up not doing much outside as it was just too cold. Sunday was cold in the morning but warmed up nicely as the day went on. A good thing too as it was parade day here in Floyd. We LOVE our Christmas parade. It is always so much fun. Pastor Tom and Mrs. Sally came home with us after church. We had taco soup and applesauce for lunch. Then we left for the parade. Our church did a float this year for the first time. Julie, Grace and several others walked behind the float and gave out candy. It was a lot of fun.
In this picture is Pastor Tom, Mrs. Sally, myself, Julie and Grace. Our float was one of the earlier ones, so everyone got to watch the remainder of the parade.
We are getting back into our routine today after a week break from school. We are working on science now. We have already finished bible and history. It promises to be a nice day here. It has warmed up already. Our temperature is upper 40’s with lots of sunshine.
Well, I better get busy. Enjoy your day and God bless.
Yesterday we divided up to get more done. This is not something we usually do. We normally all work together on projects, However, Hubby wanted to start boxing in the remainder of the back porch and we had lots of tomatoes to work up. So Julie helped me with the tomatoes and Grace helped Hubby with the porch.
The girls worked with me today on more tomatoes and Hubby worked alone. We had to run into little town first to get a few supplies that he needed .The walls are now up and there is a window where they are standing at. He still has to put a door on and the siding but it is almost finished. T.
I better get busy working on my Sunday School lesson. I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.
Some of you all might remember this picture from last year. Last year’s post was titled “Snowball bloom” because it only had one bloom on it. This year it looks like this.
It has lots and lots of bloom on it.
Today is foggy here. Very damp. I was hoping to hang clothes outside on the line to dry but I don’t think that is going to happen. It is fairly warm though-55 degrees. We are working on school this morning. Then I have an appointment to get two tires put on the car and get an inspection sticker. I guess that will fill up my afternoon. By the time I get back it will be time for supper. We are having homemade soup this evening with grilled cheese sandwiches. I used the remainder of the pork that I cooked Saturday for the soup. the girls and I are having chocolate gravy for lunch. It is one of their favorites.
Well, it is time for me to go check math problems. I hope you all have a great day and God bless.
I thought I would show you all how big these goslings are. It always amazes me how fast they grow. They are however ravenous eaters. We also have ducklings (we think). She hatched them off and took them up into the field. We have not seen them since. Mama and Papa Duck are still around though so we are confident the ducklings are too. Mama is just keeping them well hidden.
I forgot to mention in yesterdays post about the chick house, all the planks and the door are from the old farmhouse we are working on. He said we could have all the old wood. We have been thinking of ways to reuse it. I think some of it will go to box in the remainder of our back porch. Today is a nice day here in Floyd. Temperature is 66 degrees. We have had some sun but it is overcast now and I think rain is coming.
Tonights menu at church is kraut and weiners, pinto beans, cornbread, cole slaw and strawberry rhubarb pie. (Thats just what I know about). For a class of 10-12 people, we sure do eat good. Time for me to start getting everything ready. Enjoy your evening and God bless.
Every Christmas Eve our church has a candlelight service. I wanted to show you all how beautiful it is but the pictures just didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped. We light all our oil lamps and they serve as our lighting for the service. We sing Christmas songs and the pastor reads the Christmas story. Then we have communion.
Next, we make a circle around the sanctuary and light our little hand held candle, sing a few more Christmas songs and leave. It is always such a moving service reminding us of the TRUE reason we celebrate.
Sunday morning, Hubby and I got up and enjoyed our morning coffee together as usual. Then the girls got up, we opened our gifts, ate breakfast and got ready for church. It was a very nice service. We did not have Sunday School. We came home, ate homemade soup. I made it from the leftovers from Friday’s dinner. Then we just relaxed the remainder of the day. We didn’t have Sunday night church.
We had planned on taking down the Christmas tree and all the decorations today but I think that will have to be another day. It is raining pretty hard here and it is cold. Temperature is 28 degrees with a fairly strong wind. All our decorations are stored up in one of our buildings. I’m not too big on carrying all that up in the cold rain. Maybe tomorrow.
Enjoy your day and God bless.
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.
Our newest addition. Ain’t they cute! The girls are soooooo excited. They never thought of having kittens to play with this late in the year. They belong to “Stripes”. You all have seen pictures of her in previous posts. They seem to be very healthy and she is a wonderful mama.
Today we had to go to Roanoke to the dentist. Afterward we went to Sam’s club. Sam’s does this thing called click and pull. You can go on line, order your stuff and they will pull it for you. They will have it waiting at customer service. All you have to do is walk in, give them your name, pay for it and walk out the door. Pretty amazing, I think. This made our day so much easier. We even made it home it time to do some school.
Yesterday, for supper, we had chicken and dumplings with green beans. I used the remainder of the chicken and made southwest chicken soup for supper tonight. Easy stuff. We will be having mexican cornbread with this and honey baked apples for dessert.
We just finished having a tremendous hail storm here. Lots of rain and high winds. The temperature dropped about 14 degrees in just a few minutes. It had been very warm before the storm came through. Enjoy your evening and God bless.
Time to enjoy some of the fruits of our labor. Our first zucchini, our first squash, and our first peas. Delicious!! I think it is so exciting when the garden first starts coming in. I combined all these together with a few other ingredients and had a wonderful stir fry for supper last night. I am eating the remainder of it for lunch today. Today is ladies bible study day. We are on our third lesson. It is about being a true servant of God and how we can encourage our church leaders. I think it is a very interesting study. Many times in churches today, the members can’t encourage their leaders because they are too busy criticizing them. This lesson shows us ways to avoid that trap. The girls and I cleaned house yesterday, found some new kittens (which are adorable) and in general just enjoyed the day. Dale and his mom came by for a visit and to pick up his wood splitter. They came right when I was taking some homemade rolls out of the oven. It was so much fun to be able to share them. Hot and buttery. YUM! Food is so good when it’s shared.
Can you believe this is the baby geese? They are almost as big as mama and papa. It certainly has been entertaining to watch them grow. This morning as Hubby and I enjoyed our morning coffee together, there were lots of wildlife activity here on the farm. The geese were playing at the pond, a deer was grazing in the field straight in front of us, and a coyote was passing through on the ridge to our right. Some mornings we don’t see anything but cows and birds. Other times there are lots to watch. I so enjoy our morning time together. We think its worth getting up a little earlier for. The ladies will soon be here so I guess I better get ready. We are going to Jessica’s tomorrow. PawPaw has yet to see his new grandson. Take care and God bless.
This is my honey bun cake recipe. It is really easy but oh so delicious. 1 box yellow cake mix, 4 eggs, 3/4 cup oil, 8 oz.sour cream (or sour cream substitute). Mix ingredients, spread 1/2 mixture in a greased 9X13 cake pan. Sprinkle 1/2 of the following mixture on top–1 cup brown sugar, 1 tbsp cinnamon. Spread remainder of cake batter on top sprinkle remaining brown sugar mixture on top of this. Swirl batter with a butter knife. Bake at 350 degrees 35 minutes or until done. For the glaze I use 2 cups powdered sugar, 2 tsp. vanilla and 5-6 tbsp evaporated milk. Drizzle glaze on while cake is still warm and enjoy. I would like to take a minute to thank my friend Marie for this recipe. She is one of the best cooks I have ever known. Unfortunately, Alzheimers has robbed her memory of many great recipes but every time I make this cake I think of her. I hope you all enjoy it as much as we do. God Bless.
Merry Heart Crafts 