Beautiful Sunrise!

God was certainly showing off yesterday morning. We had an absolutely beautiful sunrise. The colors were so vibrant. These pictures DO NOT do it justice but I wanted to share it with you all anyway.

We were not the only ones who noticed how beautiful it was. I turned the tv on yesterday evening to catch the weather and the weatherman was talking about all the sunrise pictures they had been getting in.

The girls and I went down to Jessica’s yesterday to watch the kids while Dave and Jess went out on a date. David will be traveling to Las Vegas next week for a conference and they were wanting a little alone time. It was a good day.

Today is back to school. We originally had planned on Dave and Jess coming up today but little Sam is sick. I hope you all have a good day and God bless.

January 1, 2013 7

Wednesday

Hi everyone! Just a short post on how our day is (hopefully) going to progress. We are first working on tomatoes. We picked about 3/4 of a bushel yesterday evening. After the tomatoes are done, we plan on working with grapes. I have a plan of working up about 1/2 bushel everyday. We made 14 pts of grape jelly yesterday so today all the grapes will go to making juice. We had some fresh grape juice this morning with breakfast. Also some of the grape jelly. Both were delicious. They taste like eating fresh grapes. I used the Pamona Pectin to make the jelly. I really like it. With SureJell, to make a batch of jelly you need 5 cups of juice and 7 cups of sugar. With the Pamona, 4 cups of juice and only 2 cups of sugar. That is a really big difference.

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

August 29, 2012 4

Thursday

I thought I would share with you all this picture of a beautiful hawk we saw the other day on one of our rides in the bumpy truck. I know the picture is a little blurred but you can still see how pretty he is.

Yesterday, the girls and I made 13 pts of pizza sauce. The Horn’s came over for a visit. We had 15 bean soup, sourdough biscuits and molasses cookies for dessert. It was a fun visit. We had planned on picking apples but when we got up to the tree, we discovered a huge hornets nest on one of the limbs. We decided to wait to pick apples.

Today we are making salsa. I hope to make either ketchup or spaghetti sauce tomorrow. We will pick tomatoes this evening and see how many we get. I mentioned we had sourdough biscuits with our soup yesterday evening. Well, I think I have finally found a biscuit recipe that we like. I am not very good at making biscuits but these turned out really well. I made them again this morning and they were really good with sausage gravy. (But then almost everything is good with sausage gravy).

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

August 16, 2012 3

Rainbow

Hello everyone! Sorry that I haven’t posted as much as usual. Things just seem busy here right now. Anyway, yesterday evening the Lord gave us this beautiful rainbow. If you look close you can see it was a double rainbow but the one on the left is fading. This picture was taken at the top of our driveway.

Yesterday, we went to help Hubby on the job site. It is coming along nicely. After school, the girls were entertained by this guy. He and a few of his buddies were very busy in the walnut tree.

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We did get some much needed rain yesterday evening. The garden is all in, however, the birds have already discovered it and destroyed about 1/3 of the tomato plants. They love the tender young leaves so all that is left is the stem. Has anyone else experienced this problem? Any solutions?

Hubby has been working all week on my car. He has replaced the rotors on the front and today we picked up rotors for the back. I am so thankful he knows how to do all this. His knowledge saves us lots of money. Well, I will leave you ladies with a picture of the purple flowers that are blooming everywhere here. I don’t know the name of them but we think they are beautiful.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

May 22, 2012 8

Irises

Our irises are in full bloom! These were given to us several years ago by a friend from church. It has taken them a while to get going but I think they are looking pretty good this year.

We have been busy this week. Does any one think this is becoming the norm? Seems like spring is a busy time. Anyway, we went to the dentist on Tuesday. Both girls got a good report. Then on Wednesday, we went to Sam’s club and bought our bulk items. Yesterday, we went down to Jessica’s. Today is full as well. Our church is doing a Mother/Daughter banquet this evening. I am bringing rolls. I also have to take Hubby’s van in to Little Town to get 2 tires put on. I was hoping the girls and I could get the nests made today for the little chicks. Hubby also wants to work on the floor for the new boxed in part of the back porch when he gets in from the job site. We’ll see.

School has taken a back burner this week with all that has been going on. We only lack 15 more lessons in math and we’ll be finished with it for the summer. We are calling quits to language when math is finished. Then we plan on doing history and science during June and July and taking August and September off. These two months are so busy here with canning. It is much easier for us to take those months off.

I also hope to make strawberry jam today. Yesterday, while down at Jessica’s we got 2 gal. of strawberries. I put one gallon in the freezer yesterday evening and hope to make jam with the other gallon today. I think Jessica is planning on making jam tomorrow. I am going to try using the liquid certo this time. I just haven’t been having success with the powdered sure jell.

Well, that’s about it for now. I better get busy if I am going to get anything done. I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

May 4, 2012 5

Fruit Trees

Yesterday evening the girls and I planted 6 fruit trees. Grace dug every hole. She was very excited about getting fruit trees. As you can see, she has good helpers- the cats and the chickens.

And, of course, our ever faithful Shadow.

We planted an asian pear, bartlett pear, plum tree, golden delicious apple tree, golden transparent apple tree, and a nectarine tree. We hope to get 2 cherry trees in April. While we were working on the trees, Hubby was busy trimming the blackberries.

It was a nice, productive evening. After we finished planting, we went to get the clothes off the line and a huge flock of geese flew directly over our heads to land in the field. Of course, we had already put the camera up so I couldn’t get a picture. It would have made a beautiful picture though.

Today will be school as usual. Hopefully, with more outside work afterward. Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 29, 2012 4

More Fall Pictures

Here are a few more fall pictures. These was taken last Saturday during our hike at Bottom Creek Gorge.

Fall is such a beautiful time of the year. We have been working on school, cleaning up the garden for fall plowing and working on an afgan. Not a lot going on. Yesterday evening we gave Mr. Rooster away. YEAH! We gave him to a family that wants to hatch baby chicks for their young daughter to take of. He will be so happy.

Yesterday, it was rainy and foggy here. Then the temperatures dropped quite a bit during the night. It was 36 degrees this morning when we got up. The sun is out now though and it looks like it will be a beautiful day. Yesterday, I was reading a blogger friend’s post, http://theboydbunch.wordpress.com/, and she was having crockpot parmesan chicken for supper. I thought that sounded good and I had already planned on having chicken for supper so I looked up a recipe for it. I’m not sure if this is the same recipe she used or not but it was really good. I got my recipe from betty crocker. I did make a few changes.

Slow Cooker Chicken Parmesan with Penne Pasta

1 egg, 1/3 cup bread crumbs, 1/3 cup parmesan cheese, 1/2 tsp. italian seasoning, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. pepper, 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast, 1 jar spaghetti sauce, 1/2 cup shredded cheese, 2 2/3 cups penne pasta.

1. Spray crockpot

2. In a small bowl, beat egg until foamy. In another bowl, mix bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Dip chicken into egg, then coat with bread crumb mixture. place in crockpot. Cover chicken with spaghetti sauce.

3. Cover and cook on low for 5 to 6 hrs. (I cooked mine on high for 4 1/2 hrs.)

4. Cook and drain pasta. Serve chicken on top of pasta. Sprinkle shredded cheese on top. (I used mozarella).

Makes 4 servings.

I hope you all enjoy your day and God bless.

October 20, 2011 6

Sunflowers

I just love sunflowers. I think they are so cheerful and fun. These come up underneath the feeder and I think they add so much to the area. The cats have played there so much though that a lot of them are drooping down to the ground. They still look pretty though.

I have been kinda busy for the past few days. As you all know, we went down to Jessica’s on Friday. We had a great visit and enjoyed play time with the boys. Then we went to pick the apples. She didn’t have very many but we got what was on the tree. I haven’t worked them up yet so no picture of pink applesauce. On Saturday, we went to pick apples at Faye’s sisters house. We ended up with about 4 bushel. When we got home I started working on them. I have told Faye all about our steam juicer and sauce maker. She has been wanting to buy them for herself. Sunday evening at church Gene (her husband) said he was going to buy them for her. We met them yesterday morning in town at the Farmers Supply. He bought the steam juicer, the sauce maker and a steam canner for her. She was so excited. We then went home with them and showed them how to operater their new equipment. She had a 5 gal. bucket of apples to work up. From that she got 2 qts of juice and 5 qts of applesauce. It was a really fun day. I really want one of those steam canners. It takes my water bath canner about 1 hr. to start to boil. The steam canner is ready in about 10-15 min. Amazing. We definitely would be saving on the amount of gas we use. Hopefully, we will be able to get one soon. Much faster and more economical.

I worked up some more of our apples yesterday evening after we came back from Faye’s house. We will be working on them more today. So far, we have 8 qts of applesauce and 4 qts of apple juice. Grace has been taking some more pictures. This is a picture of the sunset God gave us yesterday.

I forgot to tell you ladies about the nice weekend we had. Remember Thursday evening I said temperatures were cooling off. Well, Friday and Saturday morning the temperature when we got up was 58 degrees. Can you believe that? Then Sunday and Monday morning it was 61 degrees. The highs for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were only in the mid 70’s. Wonderful!! Thank you Lord!! Yesterday, it started warming back up and today I think it will be back to normal but it certainly was wonderful to enjoy a few fall-like days in summer. Enjoy your day and God bless.

July 19, 2011 6

First Ripe Tomato

Look at what Grace found!! We are all very excited to get this first one. Remember the big tomato plant we bought early in the spring and put in a bucket. Well, the tomatoes are starting to get ripe on it. All our other plants are, of course, way behind this one. Tonight we will divide this one four ways so we can all have a little nibble. So much fun, sharing the first of the harvest.

This morning the girls and I went out early and started working on the hen house. It needed to be cleaned out and we wanted to get their nests ready as we are hoping soon to get eggs-maybe by the end of next month. We just barely got finished before it started to sprinkle rain. I think though it has already stopped. What we need is a good steady rain but I know many blogger friends who are in severe drought conditions.

Our chicken yesterday evening was delicious. I will definitely be making it again. I was thinking that the spice mixture would be good on pork or beef as well. I took the chicken off the bone and put the bones and skin back in the pot with the broth that had cooked out of the chicken. I then added water -enough to fill up the crock pot. Then I turned it on low and this morning I will be freezing delicious homemade chicken broth for soups and such. YUM!

I better get busy. I want to make some hamburger buns for supper this evening. We will be having pork bbq, fries, corn on the cob and cantelope for dessert. Enjoy your day and God bless.

June 23, 2011 5

Trout Fest

Remember a similar picture from last year. Same little girl perched on the drainpipe. Obviously she really likes the spot.

Now its brothers turn to sit for a while. We really had a nice day with about 90 people showing up all total. After we came home from the fishing we worked in the upper garden. Hubby tilled, and the girls and I set out the plants. They looked great. But then they wilted badly. We watered them when we planted them, again the next morning and again yesterday evening before we went to church. Last night the Lord watered them for us so we are hoping they look better now. I haven’t went up to the garden yet to check on them. If they do not perk up, I am afraid they will not survive. We’ll just have to wait and see.

We plan on going over to the Horns today for lunch and some play time then on to piano practice. I don’t think I told you all but we have ducklings now-12 of them. They are very shy and it is hard to get a picture of them. Mama duck keeps them hid most of the time. I’ll keep trying though.

Time for us to get busy. I have a load of clothes to hang out on the line and several more to get done. Enjoy your day and God bless.

May 23, 2011 5