Heritage Hill Homestead
Prayers Needed
First let me say that I havn't been blogging much of late due to the fact that "LIFE" is happening all around me, so please forgive me. I do intend to come back full time once things settle down.
My mom is going down hill a little more with each new day. As of yesterday she has blood in her catherter bag, lots of blood. We knew that the catherter would cause infections, so there it goes. Things not any better with my husband, divorce more than likely still happening.
But even that is not the worst of things going on right now. As many of you are aware there is a storm, Gustav, in the Gulf of Mexico. Well they are predicting it's land fall, as of now, to be none other than on yours truly, lol. Yes it is headed straight for us. We live approx 50 or so miles north of the gulf. And with my home being an older one, it can no longer be insured, so we would lose everything. My car is on the blink right now so leaving is out of the question, and even if we did have a good vehicle, mom can't travel.
When I tell you I have never been so scared, it's not a lie. I have lived through so many storms here in Louisiana and none has ever effected me like this one is. That is why I am asking for you wonderful people to pray for us down here in the south. I know it's hard to pray for it to go somewhere else, cuz that would mean it has to hit some one else. I am a nervous wreck to say the least. I have been on the edge for several weeks now about mom and her condition and this storm is kicking my butt but good. All of this is taking a great toll on me physically too. I have lost almost 20 lbs in the last two weeks. Although I am excited about the weigth loss, it's not the healthiest of ways to do it. I am feeling the effects of the stress on my body, and I have to say, I'm a little worried about that too.
SOOOOOOO ladies, PLEASE pray for us. I am a firm believer in the power of prayer and that is why I am posting this. I will probably be without power for sometime if hits us ( i hope that is the worst of it, I can live with that), so I will update as soon as I can.
PLEASE KEEP US IN YOUR PRAYERS...................MUCH LOVE......KITTY
So Pretty
I got an early start today on the tomatoes. I went to harvest what was ready, not too many but enough. I decided to cut a few up just to eat and try the new varieties I planted. My MIL and Austin joined in on the taste testing. Austin liked them all. I thought the Lemon Boy was pretty good and MIL said she liked the orange one but still thinks red tomatoes are the best. I have to agree with her. I don't know/remember all the different varieties I planted. I have lost the diagram I had. 
Anyhow, thanks for the replies on yesterday's blog. Austin tells me that the gal he got the fruit from called it a onion cucumber but all of you thought it was a lemon cucmber. I have to say a lemon cucumber makes more sense, it really doesn't look like a onion.
I did get a chance to to make some tomato sauce with my Sauce Maker. What a time saver! No peeling or coring the tomatoes. I love it. I'm sure its going to make great applesauce.
I better go, chores need to be done.
Carol
Daily Devotion 242
August 30
Be True to Your Word
Let your communication be yea, yea; nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
Matthew 5:37
The Duke of Burgundy was presiding over the Cabinet Council of France. A proposal was made that would violate an existing treaty but secure important advantages for the country. Many “good” reasons were offered to justify this action. When all had spoken, the duke closed the conference without giving his approval to the proposal. Placing his hand on a copy of the original agreement, he said with firmness in his voice, “Gentlemen, we have a treaty.”
Our life is to glorify God. To do so is to always be true to our word. In today’s setting there is a strong temptation to think that keeping our word is not really important. After all, many people do not expect it of us. To lie, cheat, and misrepresent truth is common in our society.
As a brotherhood, we have an agreement on rules of conduct, but many feel free to violate these rules. If you are tempted by the world’s ambitions and entertainment, remember you have a treaty. If you have made a commitment, keep it. If non-Christians can trust us in business, they will have more reason to believe us when we present the Gospel to them.
Today’s Scripture reading gives priceless instruction for everyday living. But if we are not true to our word, all else is done in vain.
Melvin Yoder, Gambier, OH
God always stands true to His Word. Do You?
Bible Reading: Matthew 5:33–48
One Year Bible Reading Plan:
1 Corinthians 10:14–33
Psalms 141—143
Used by Permission of Vision Publishers
PO Box 190, Harrisonburg, VA 22803
Phone: 877-488-0901
E-Mail: [cs@vision-publishers.com]
I need your prayers again........
Dear friends, my little grand daughter, Velvet Rose, is in the hospital. She is Bi-Polar ( according to the DR's) and threatened to kill herself. Velvet is 11 years old. Pray the Lord will touch this young life and keep it for His Glory. My heart is broken. Pray our family as we deal with .A Busy Week
It has been a busy week.....since going back to work, the days do not have enough hours. I am blessed to have a job that allows me to work around my schedule as much as possible. I work a couple hours in the morning, come home to do the animal chores, fresh water and feed for the critters, fixing lunch for hubby, and any shopping or feed to buy falls into this time slot. Then I rest for about an hour and get ready to go back to put in more hours. I laugh at hubby, I love to read, and he loves to read, so he always has to come and lay down and read the same time I do. At times he has to laugh about something he has read, and will read it aloud to me. It is the same in the morning with breakfast, I get up early and start coffee and get breakfast ready, he comes to sit, drink coffee, eat, and read the paper. I read only the headlines...he reads headlines, sport,and the funny paper. I never read it, so I have to listen to his rendering of the funnies, and he is funnier than what he is reading and always makes me laugh out loud. He enjoys a big breakfast and home-made jellys. He is very spoiled. We have been very busy this week with Senior Citizens in town. Seems rumors are running rampant that they are trying to oust them again. What is wrong with people. These are the pillars of the community. They are ageing and love to be with others their own age, they play card games, dominoes, enjoy friendship, eat together, Benny is very involved with delivering Meals on Wheels, and then along comes the ENEMY, willing to destroy all this for the wrong cause. We will continue to help fight the battle, they deserve to stay where they are, they deserve a good meal, and the best of life, the Devil be Damned. When I get angry, I will not back down, and right now, I am very upset with the way they are being treated. And then I realize, at my age, I am considered one of them....LOL....I guess my mind is younger than my body. I peeked in the greenhouse this week and found some of the tiny onions popping up out of the dirt. I only planted them a week ago, I have so much more to plant, lettuce, collards,spinach, good old cold weather crops. Looks like we will be getting storms later in the week, so the animals outside need to have extra care this week. I have pears cooking in the crockpot for pear honey for winter use, and more pears to pare tomoroow..now that is a tongue twister. Next month I will start my sour dough starter for the winter months. So much to do, so little time. We do not even get out of school on Labor Day...we have to work.I guess we need to be thankful we have jobs to bring in extra money to pay bills. I loved seeing a woman chosen today to run for the office of the Vice-President. This is a very interesting time of life for all of us to be in, a time of history on all sides.
Canning and seed saving
You just haven’t lived until you’ve put a supply of fresh food by for your family. The feeling is exquisite. I’ve been freezing tomatoes and peppers for pasta-sauce, planning on doing the cooking and canning on one of those chilly fall days. I’ve done salsa and some fridge-style dills (they are sooo good) and canned 5 qrts of dill spears. But yesterday (after a loooong but over-all good day at the doctor and running errands) I tackled bread & butter pickles. I was really looking forward to this as B&Bs stand out in my memory above all the things my mom ever canned or preserved. I suppose because nothing else smelled so strong. (They say the sense of smell triggers memories quicker than anything else.) Now the smell of boiling vinegar and spices will be burned in my own childrens’ nostrils memories forever. Ahhh... yesterday it smelled just like home. Farra came in from playing and said something to the effect of, "What is that nasty smell?" Seth came in and said, "Mmm. Smells like yummy pickles."
I’m totally hooked on seed saving. We let one of the cukes grow until it started to get soft... the thing was ridiculously huge, yellowish/greenish white. There’s more seeds in one cuke than I’ll need next year. I also saved some tomato seeds, which is easier than I thought it would be. The tomatoes only have to be good and ripe and once you get the seeds out you can still make use of the fruit, unlike the cuke (well, we tasted the fruit and it tasted kinda like watermelon rind - should have pickled it).
The method for both is the same. Put the seeds in a dish, cover with water. Let it sit for 1-3 days to ferment, which occurs faster in a warm room or in the sun. There’s a checmical in the gel-like sack surrounding each seed that keeps it from germinating in the fruit and the fermentation kills this chemical. If they set too long (when the stinky tomato goo forms mold across the entire top it’s done) they’ll actually begin to germinate in the dish. When it’s time, add a lot of water and stir vigorously. The good seeds settle on the bottom and you pour off the mold, bad seeds and other debris. Add water and pour it off a couple times to clean, then dump the seeds in a strainer to drain off as much water as possible. You can spread them on a plastic or glass/stone plate to dry (they stick too much to paper plates or towels). Spreading them on a coffee filter helps wick away moisture and they don’t stick to it at all.
Bell pepper seeds (I grew California Wonder) were even easier. Carefully scrape them out of a ripe pepper and onto a plate to dry. Bag and label. Eat the pepper.
So little trouble to get a great start on next year’s garden. By growing open-pollinated or "heirloom" varieties (you can save and grow seeds from hybrids but it won’t result in the same kind of plant as the one you saved from - oh and in some cases it’s against the law as the seeds are actually patented by Big Ag) you not only save money, help preserve varieties that big seed companies are trying to stomp out (thus helping to ensure our future)... but when, year after year, you save seeds from your best plants, your plants are adapting to YOUR climate, YOUR backyard, YOUR gardening style. I think that’s fantastic.
Much ado about nothing... as usual
I was rather nervous on the way to see the doc yesterday morning. My sister went with me and I took Blue along because it’s just no fun going anywhere without at least one of my kids. I was nervous thinking what I would say... do I put my foot down immediately and make sure she knows where I stand? Do I just go with the flow? Then I’d remember the idea was to let the Lord have HIS way and I’d relax and pray for humilty. My dear sister was so patient with my nervous jabbering the whole time.
It went worse than I expected and better at the same time. Sonja works directly for the hospital now and I was rather disappointed in the atmosphere. There was a TV on in every room, which didn’t help. I hate being asaulted by media. The rooms were cold and bland with birth control advertisements (3 months, 3 years, permantent - I wanted to cry!) being the only other things to look at. But here’s a happy sidetrack... My sister and I were digging in our purses looking for something to entertain Blue who was naturally drawn to the cartoons on the TV. I looked over at my sister at one point and saw her pulling out a wad of cash from her purse. I noticed some hundred dollar bills and wondered what on earth she was doing with that much cash and why she was flashing it so. Then I saw her face, her dropped jaw, saw the paper the money was folded up in... and I realized she had just found it in there. She looked at me, stuffed the money back in her purse and read the paper. It said, "For the baby, from Jesus and us" with some other encouraging words that gave no clue as to the giver. It was even printed from a computer, no handwriting. "Praise the Lord!" I said, having had similar things happen myself. "How much?" I pestered. She carefully pulled the money out and counted seven $100 bills. She almost cried. Maybe she did... I almost did. That was quite the highlight of the day. Not so much the money, though that helps, but that people have the heart to do that sort of thing. She had no idea who it could be or how long it had even been in there (not long, she’s only been pregnant a month).
Well, back to my appointment.... I’ve long since realized that an appointment at 10am means only that you should get in line around 10am and has no bearing at all on what time you might see the doctor. I think we went in at 10:45. I’ll spare you the details, it was a regular prenatal exam with pap smear and all that uncomfortable stuff I was hoping to avoid. I hugged Sonja when I saw her and tried to be friendly and it’s not that she was unfriendly... But it definitely confirmed that when I saw her before and felt like I had no time with her it was because of her, not because of the "rules" of the practice she was with. I really think it’s just a job to her, like a factory job. She cruised through my (easy) medical history, did the necessaries and was gone. I had questions... she never asked if I had questions. I’d like to say it was because of our past... but that’s the way our past was! I think the reason I upset her before was because I made her aware that her patients are individuals, with individual needs, that require more of her than she is willing or able to give. I don’t want to make her sound inhuman... she’s a very nice person and just the fact that she’s willing to see me again after last time shows her heart (I keep saying that - am I trying to convince myself?)... but maybe she just has a hard time carrying these things over into her work. Hmmm.
Enough of that. I have an ultrasound on the 10th. She also scheduled me for a 1hr glucose screen that day. I guess that means she didn’t catch my specific request for care. I’ll refuse the screen on the grounds that I already know my BG is wacky and don’t want to send it sky-high with Poison-Cola when it’s unnecessary. Can’t wait to see how she takes that.
But, it wasn’t all bad. When the nurse, who was about my parents’ age, was drawing my blood she asked if this was my first baby. This type of question just gets more and more fun with each pregnancy. I wonder if my friends, who have 10, 11, and 12 kids, just bust up laughing when asked. I just grinned real big.
"No, this is my sixth."
"Oh. Well, you should have just stayed at home and had this one," says she. What a pleasant surprise. Or was she joking?
"I plan to," says I. "I’ve had most of my others at home." Cool as a cucumber.
With utmost sincerity she says, "Well good for you!" Okay, color me tickled. She asked me about midwives and I explained the situation. We didn’t chat long, but it was delightful. I wish she were a midwife or a doctor... I wonder if I’ll get the chance to talk more with her? Will it go somewhere or was it just one of those encouraging moments? It’s strange to find such people in such places. "Natural" minded people in the medical field. A couple guys in my fellowship that are totally pro-homeschool teach at the local high school. What if some parent confided, "I’m thinking of pulling my son out of school and teaching him at home..." or "my daughter is really struggling with her studies... I wish there were another way," my brothers would be such an encouragment! I think it’s wonderful that some have the temperament/calling to do that. I’m too hard-headed (hearted?). Too judgemental. We’re working on that.
A Busy Wee,
oops
I started off my day by tarring the roof of the bathhouse/now storage house. I can't afford to reroof it this year so I got some thin roofing tar and rolled a nice layer of tar on top of the asphalt shingles. It all worked out really well. Then I ran to a neighboring farm and got some wheat. Now I was ready to tackle my "tomato soup to die for". I make several quarts every year. It is so yummy. Well I was at the second to the last step of the recipe...............1 cup of sugar and 1/4 cup of salt...........................I really must have been preoccupied with something in my mind because I poured out 1/2 cup of salt!!!!!!!!!!! I finished up the last step and put it to simmering. Just before I laddled it into the jars I tasted it.............
I could have sat down and cried as I came to the realization of what I had done. Then I remembered that if you slice a potato and put it in whatever you have salted too much, the potato will absorb the salt. but 1/4 of a cup of salt is a lot of salt to absorb. So I sliced 6 potatos and put it into my soup. It did absorb a lot of the salt, but not enough. I canned it anyway because I didn't have enough ingredients to make another batch and add the two batches together. I will mark a big S on the lid and will only use these bottles when I make a casserole.
TOMATO SOUP TO DIE FOR
6 medium onions, cut in chunks
1 bunch celery, cut off bottom then cut into inch-long slices (wash after cutting with plenty of water, the drain)
8 quarts fresh tomatoes, washed and cut in wedges. Place onions and celery in 16 quart pot. Add an ich of two of water and cook while preparing tomatoes. Add tomatoes and cook until tender.
Put all contents of pot through a food mill, Victorio strainer, or attachment for Kitchen-Aid...I use and old fashioned colonder and some elbow grease.
put pot back of medium heat and add:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup salt
In a separate saucepan combine:
1 cup butter (unsalted, real) melted
1 cup flour
Add butter-flour mixture to soup. Stir will. Simmer 10 minutes and put in quart jars leaving 1-inch headspace. Pressure cook according to where you live. Check your pressure canner book for detailes. I do mine at 15 lbs and the time for all is 30 minutes.
any questions let me know.
All moved in...mostly unpacked
The last two weeks have been utterly crazy! Actually, we really haven't had a normal schedule since Jeff and Kelly came to visit at the end of July!! So much for the great start to our homeschool year. We have already taken a break to get all of our stuff packed and moved over to the new house. This break will be followed shortly for the break we are taking to go to Jeffrey's wedding in Vegas, so maybe we should postpone the whole year till we get home??
Anyways, we are in the new place, without phone, internet or cable...so if you have tried to get a hold of us, we are sorry. We won't have any service until at least September 4, and then it will be a new number, unfortunately.
We have most everything unpacked, but there is still that last load of "stuff" at the other house, so we will spend "Labor" day over there cleaning and laboring!
We have our new school house all set up.The kids and grandpa carpeted it and put a big "F" in the middle for Fletchall Academy..pictures to follow later. Looking forward to our first classes in there.
We love the new neighborhood..the kids are already bringing home new friends and taking over the nearby park by trying to dam up the little creek and create their own swimming hole. They have met two girls that are also homeschooled, so we are looking forward to meeting their mother. The boys they have met also attended the same Awana program, so they are pretty happy about that.
I just have to look out my bedroom window and I can see the four t.v. antennas that sit on my brother and his family's "yard". Every night before bed, I look out and see those flashing red lights and have a visible sign that I am loved..as my sister in law says "each time they blink it means I love you each one of you..remember that "...I do!! Having them near makes it feel more like home. Can't say that I didn't try to convince my other brother to stay as well..then it would be close to perfect
!
Well, back to pizza and movie night...can't wait to see you all in the next couple of weeks!!
Blessings!
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