Posted in On the Homestead
You ever go by your home that you lived in when you were a kid and see the old trees that you played around still standing tall as ever? Everything seemed bigger to when you were kid. Or how about the Lilac's on your grandparents home.
Remembering the good will out weigh any ol bad memories hands down, and heres the part I like, we have the choice. I like those good memories cuz it makes me smile. And the simplier they are the more I smile :) Blessing to ya |
Posted in On the Homestead
This weekend the Daffodils should be doing there showing, it seems like forever but it won't be long now. The Grandkiddies were out today with their kites, nice sunny day but no wind, March is suppose to have wind. Run hard and fast and you might get em going, there ya go!!!!! Ahhh let go of my kite little brother!!!!!!! MOM!!!!!!!!
Setting and enjoying the warm sunshine on us this little saga went on with a stone chicken, let me share. Hey this chicken has no head,
Poor Chicken,
I'll pull grass and feed your chick,
Sad face, the chick won't eat : (
Its ok little brother,
Hey brother whould you look at this, I think she's going to lay an egg!!!!
Don't bother me I'm happy now I got my thumb!!!!!
Isn't grandma coooool, she has carpet outside!!!!!!
Well that carpet is for a purpose, to kill weeds so I can have a butterfly garden in that spot. But it sure was warm sitting on it and watching the kids play and explore the outdoors. Finding tiny flowers, we called them fairy flowers. When my kids were little I took the girls barbie doll out and made foot prints by the little flowers and told them that fairies walk barefoot among the flowers and pick them. They still remember and laugh about the bardie doll trick. We'er going to try another day on kite flyin, just need a nice breeze and we'll be up and flyin. Have a great weekend with lots of Blessings linda |
Posted in On the Homestead
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Posted in On the Homestead
That time of year again when its calm, cool and early spring. Before any activity of wildlife in the fields , birds esp. I like to burn off the rough looking stuff so the field will green up pretty for spring. And can see all the birds looking for worms and bugs. Each day it will grow greener. Heres a pic of the burning, it did get rather big, fire creates its own weather and can whip up the wind. Our neighbor came over with his tractor and made some nice fire breaks. The ground is so soggy so once the tall stuff burned off it pretty much went out by itself. Its so peaceful out at this time, just the sound of the crackling fire. With the temps dropping you tend to get a little closer to the fire to get warm, ahhhhh this is a little to close Now we got field on fire on one side and just look whats showing on the west side, a beautiful sun setting over the hill, our field sits in a small valley so we get the tips of the sunsets from this area of the homestead, but oh how pretty, looks like the sun is burning fields too Heres the field burnt off, the rest is woods on three sides w/ a big garden and our home overlooking the field. After I took this picture I picked up that wicker chair that blew over, Oh well, not all is picture perfect : ) Heres a picture of a section I will use that old carpet (from my other post)and work another wildflower garden in here. I want to attract hummingbirds and butterflies as well as bees and other pollinators to the gardens. Plus have a nice bouquet of wildflowers all season long for the tables. Well I was sure glad our neighbor came over to lend a hand on my burnings. He also help drag out a dead colt out of our creek. DH found the small horse yesterday when he went walking on our trails. Poor little thing, not sure what happen, didn't look tangled or anything and not even attacted from animals that we could see. We have cougar here but I would think it would have eaten the horse. So DH goes to our nighbors to find out whos horse it is, sure enough its our neighbor south east of us. DH had to go over twice to see if they were going to get their dead horse out of our creek. We have nothing big enough to get the horse out. So we waited and waited, and no show. So our other neighbor with his big tractor came to the recuse. He wanted to know where we want to put the horse. I said take it over to the owers, so DH and he took it over and dropped it off next to their driveway. I like to be and like to have nice neighbors but I sure think if you have animals you should take care of them while they are living and when they die. I didn't think we should have to bury their horse. Now thinkin about how this neighbor didn't even come over and help get his horse out of our creek and knowing we don't have the means to get it out. I think the poor little horse was running away from that hayseed. I think the man was just thinking of letting his horse just rot in our creek. I sure would not have left it there if I had to pull it apart to get it out of the water. Our grandkids along with us walk those paths and I sure would not want them to see dead animals in a creek. And the sight of a dead baby horse in the water is very sad to see. I have not met this neighbor yet but when I do I will say my piece. And to top it off, the horse has been missing for two weeks. You would think the man would have came by to ask if we seen a colt running around or keep a look out. I would have been looking all this time. Shame on that neighbor :( Oh well thank God for the beautiful sunsets, that we can get upset and that we can calm down. Garden stuff: More winter sowing yesterday and more seeds planted indoors under grow lights. Busy week coming up, oh oh oh, I seen this beautiful bird, first ever. It was purple and red , pretty, I grabbed my camera to take pic, it was just right here, right here mind you, just a glass between us, and before I could get a shot, off he went :( looking through the bird book I think its a Purple Finch. But not absolute for sure. I do hope he/she comes back : ) All have a great week, tc Many Blessings linda _________________________________________________________________________________ Seen A Robin Yet ???
I love spotting those Robins in the yard , Spring is here. Oh we might get another snow, and its still cold in the mornings , but seeing the Robins searching for the worm and pulling and tugging it out of the ground is a sure rot'in toot'in signs of spring. Top pic is some forced Forsythia's branches I snipped of the bushes that are over at the folks homestead, planted many years from my grandmothers plant. Thats another sign of spring are the bushes budding and ready for the show. Last year was beautiful then the dreadful hard freeze came and stayed for a few days , wipping out fruit trees and damage to much. Been busy like everyone with planting in the garden and starting seeds, its full blast here on out. No time to look at seed catalogs, it time to do the real thing. I have crossed over to the flower world, not just reg flwoers everyone grows, but flowers that I never heard of and learning the Latin names. I'm looking at having butterfly and Hummingbird gardens. Flowers everywhere. Through Co-ops and other gardeners I have recieved hundreds of new seeds. Co-op plants will be here closer to the end of month in perfect time for planting. New types of plants for me. I have been clearing out the woods close to the side of the house for the plants that need shade. Putting in a bigger fish and lily pond with water fall. Last week picked up goat and horse manure for veggie garden,its nice and decomposed so will work well into the garden beds. Lots of new herbs and heirloom seeds this year. Heirloom tomatoes are up in the flats and under grow lights, again new for me this year as well. Trying the grow lights instead of dinning room window. It will be a test to see which is the better way to go. Now I know why we had a flood of 4" of water in our house last year and take out carpet. This was one reason.
Coal, a pee and poop reason,its so much easier to clean up on tile then on carpet. She like to go outside and inside :/. She is growing and full of energy, she is so much fun and smart to. The vet thought she was all lab and was surprise that she is not. I hope she has the traits of a Lab, they are a really nice type dog. And heres is the other reason for the flood:
Naw I'm not carpeting the outside, lol. I'm killing the weeds in this area that is always bare in some spots and everyone wants ot back up on this area which helps in keeping it bare and rough looking. So problem will be solved with a pretting wildflower area, perfect of the butterflies and hummers. Some decorative rocks and fun things will be fun walking through into the woods. The area gets lots of sun so should be great to start a large patch of wildflowers. I got this box of wildflower seeds that contains 80,000 seeds "WOW" and will cover an area 2,000 sq ft. If every flower takes and then they have seeds, OMGoodness. I will have many seedsto share : ). This is a recycle that I like. Old carpet from our home and used to get rid of weeds. I will be using this carpet in different spots for wildflowers only. Not in the veggie garden, cardboard will be used for that purpose in the veggie garden. I want my veggies to be as organic as can be and a carpet is not organic. It won't take but about a week or so to kill out weeds and grass and then I can start to plant wildflower seeds. Then with some of the carpet ,it will be used under the liner of the fish pond for protection of rocks. So this flood of work out good in the long run. With the snow and rains our wild woods ponds are full and the frogs are chripping away. Its a ruugh looking pond but I just love it. The cookout camp over looks the pond and just a nice place for a gathering or sit a spell and just be in peace.
Won't be long when everything will be all green again : ) Winter Sowing: Oh boy is this fun and I have things sprouting in milk jugs and other containes. I have over 132 containers of different flowers, each one with lots of plants in them. I will be a plantin fool soon : ) I have a load of containers down by the garden but started to put some up on the deck, now some would think this looks down right ulgy and I would have agreed with ya a few weeks ago , but now I see it in a differet light, Winter Sowing. More room to grow your plants, seeds coming up in their own time. Letting nature waking up those tiny seeds when its ready. I love going out brushing off the snow and peaking in the jugs and seeing tiny sprouts coming up. I'm sold on this way of gardening. Now take a look , is this ulgy or not, its in the eye of the beholder, and I see plants : ) and I see Spring all over : )
Happy Holidays coming up, we got St Pat. and Easter this month. And Spring to and Day light savings time to boot. Also and the main one, our youngest Gson turn a whole year old yesterday "Happy Birthday" , we will celebrate when other DD gets home and will have a party in the woods with a cookout. Theres 150 lbs of potato seeds to plant come St Patricks Day, rain sleet or snow. So times getting close. I'm even gravin cornbeef and cabbage w a big helping of cornbread, oozing with butter, yum. Well I think thats about it, just running around like a chicken with me head off!!!!! And oh yes, one more thing, the old gals started layin again. The eggs are on the long side, but their a layin. New chick will be ordered this month , can't wait for those : ) All have a great weekend and be chatting soon Blessings linda |
Posted in On the Homestead
Shes a little new, born the first part of Jan. Part Lab and Cocker. My sister found her for me out on the Walmart parking lot, family was giving her and her sisters and brothers away.
Good thing she gets easily distracted , she's off to something else to make trouble
Her name is more of a boy dog name maybe, but she is so black, and like a little black bear. Plus dh likes the name Coal as well, so Coal she is.
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Posted in In My Garden
"Crocus" Gentle Crocus, neath the sod, Placed there by the hand of God. To spring up, when we are weary, Of this long cold winter dreary. Yes dear Crocus, we remember, You've been thought of since November. We know all through Winter harsh, You'll spring up again in March. E.H. Coe 1973
It won't be long before we see these little guys popping up all over. They can come up through snow. Always checking to see but they must do it when I'm not looking. I'm getting my spring fever up with our warm temps off and on. Today is a mix of everything. This morn was a real nice thunder storm, felt like spring for sure. It sounded so good. Watched the birds on the deck eating the bird seed I put out for them. I think they loved it, many birds showed up. Got my bird book close at hand to ID them. Then the rain came, all took cover, then hail , oh my whats next. Been organizing my seeds and ordering them. And working on my winter sowing. The group I'm on in Dave's Garden , a member sent me a great collection of flowers, 35 different seeds packages, oh it felt like Christmas seeing seeds and names I havn't grown before. Lots of studing to see when and were I will plant them. I always did vegetables so this new world of flowers will be a fun challenge for me. But the best part is bringing the butterflies and hummers and bees to the gardens. And also meeting others that enjoy gardening. Check out DG if you love to garden, bird watch, grow butterflies, thats right learn how to grow butterflies!!!!!!. Dave's Garden has everything for everyone that loves nature and wants to do better on your own homestead and surrounding areas. Busy week coming up , working in the work shop and going into town to meet up with clients. Breaks will be planting seeds in either milk jugs for winter sowing or in flats for inside growing. Its on forward in the gardening and no let up. Plans for growing enough plants for the Farmers Market , but this may not happen until next year, saving seeds and having plenty to share and grow plants for family and friends first. Joined in my very first COOP , this was in my DG group. It was a fast one and many plants, Tall Phlox were bought. The more that was bought the less we had to pay for each plant. It went down to 89 cents for each plant. I bought 40 plants with 4 different varieties, can't wait to see them growing, great for the hummers and butterflies. I'm going to be a seed savin garden lady this coming Autumn and well love the part when I can give back what I have been given. I'll be making a seed sharing list with seeds that I'll have for fall for next years season. I sure love snow but I'm so ready for spring : ) Blessings linda
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Posted in On the Homestead
Over on my other blog site, Jen at 'Maters & 'Taters put on a best tomato recipe contest. And I won, yippeee. I was so surprised. I won her over to my Tuscan Tomato Sauce, I had seen recipe somewhere and kind of added a little this and that to make it my own. But the main thing was the Rosemary in the sauce, yum. This gal knows her tomatoes and she had a bumper crop and needed to have new recipes for all those maters she grew. So the contest was on. I and another tied and the prize was this wonderful homemade jar of Jardienne, oh is it tasty and pretty too, loaded with all kinds of goodies. Jen has a great web blog page and has many interesting gardening subjects. Also involved in Farmers Market. Check out her website for more info on her products. Jen's All - Natural is just that. I made my first jars of roasted basil tomatoes thanks to Jens instructions. Oh was that so good, the olive oil and roasting the tomatoes brought out the sweetness of the tomatoes. And then packed them with sweet basil, oh mercy, are they good This contest was in the fall, but you know when you read something and its out of reason and you tend to forget, (well I do), well this is a jump start to the new growing season. Get heads up on tomatoes and recipes and canning. So head on over and check Jens gardening ideas and grow you some tomatoes. Nothing finer then fresh tomatoes. Thank you Jen, I love your site and I ordered my heirloom tomatoes. Homestead update: Got that water leak fixed over at Mom's. But the dirt we took out is froze like a rock. Even in 60* weather that dirt has not thawed. Cleaned the Hen Den out so the ol gals have their spring cleaning done. I think the chickens were smiling, they went in and walked around looking happy. Chicken with a happy face, yep thats what I saw : ) All the break down of leaves and chicken droppings made for good compost for the garden beds. So got the coop cleaned and a few garden beds with compost. With the very high gust of winds today I was worried about my compost flying away along with my winter sowing milk jugs. But all was still intacked. It was not a day to walk in the woods : ( Snow showers , rain showers calling for tomorrow, so was glad to have a couple of days in the 60*. Blessing to ya linda
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Posted in On the Homestead
Thats what was on one of the forums that I have My Garden Journal on . Its been fun to read what its like to "know your in the country when", you see a cow on a front porch, a neighbor calls and needs help gettin his bull out of your pasture or see pigs chasing a horse or maybe that was the other way around. Clothes frozen on the clothes line or bales of straw for lawn funiture. How about waiting for the cows to cross the road. A whole list of things that makes country life look just a bit different from the city. City life has its own funny things , I lived in both country and city and in between. So it was nothing today to say you know your in the country when your out digging and trying to find a water leak : ( . Thats just what sis and I did today. The waterman told Mom she had a major water break and the meter was spinning, So off sis and I went a digging. Cold and muddy the dig went. I kept asking if this was the right place and sis said yes, so we dug and dug. We complained, where are our men folk at times like these, wouldn't it be easier to move Mom to another homestead, don't fling mud on my face again, your not digging as much as I am, were to old to do this. Things like that were said, we are not nice diggers. Heres a picture of our first hole that wasn't even close to the break,
Thank heavins for sump pumps ,this came in real handy for the water run off, notice the snow still on the ground
Heres the mound we'll have to put back, and the leak wasn't even there , ths sis
Yep ,you know your in the country when your knees look like this , wet cold and muddy
We did find where the leak was and we'll have to get parts to fix. The hard part is finding the leak . The sun went down and we were pooped so Mom had coffee for us and we got back to being nice after we took off all the muddy clothes and got warm clothes on again. Sis is making me some homemade french fries cus I was doing this blog over here on Moms pc and sis was turning off the water heater (because of no water on) and hit the wrong breaker and knock off all my blog, gone , poof!!!! So she said oops and asked if I want french fries , oh well I'm to tried to yell but not to tired to have a nice hot bowl of fries : ) I wish I had some pretty pictures to share for winter but the truth is "You know your in the country when the color of winter is mud". My old body update: sore, sore and more sore from skating the other day and sore from digging today : ( Take good care all and many Blessings linda
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Posted in In My Garden
That's what I have been doing this afternoon. Planting my tomato's ,cabbage,herbs and flowers out in containers and tossing them outside to brave the rest of winter. Its hard to believe that many gardeners start their seeds this way with great success. With lows in the negatives and just a little container , these plants do better then starting them inside. My choice of containers to start with is the milk jug, many use these. I had a couple but had to go for search. And the best place to look was over at Moms. Sure enough she had some but they were old and even had some with a pretty Patina look to them. But cleaning was not so pretty, old sour milk, pheweee Heres a pic before the seeds. With drainage holes and watered down. I'm sorta messy. The seeds will be next step
Here they are to spend the rest of winter, thaw,freeze, frozen and snow these jugs will stay put until I see green and ready to plant in the garden. Fancy right, doesn't matter, I'm after plants
They are numbered and I have a journal sheet that has all the info to keep track of each container. I will be using some of my 200+ free buckets from the bakery for Winter Sowing. Theres many more seeds to plant but this is a start. I will be using several types of starting seeds this winter, WS, flates inside by the window and under grow lights. It should be fun to see which is better, but on the garden forums I'm on this winter sowing seems to be the hit. Heres the link to Winter Sowing give it a try this winter Skating update: Granny On Wheels Body feels like jello I have to use hands to lift legs so I can cross them I fell only a couple of times :/ I was laugh at many times I did the limbo, oh my back, oh my body Danced with dh, I had to lead, my backward skating is not to good My twrills were ok , I needed to put WD40 on my wheels I went real fast that my bun in my hair came undone,whooppeeee Hit the wall only once, well twice, ok I lost count Could not walk after I took skates off I'll probably be worst tomorrow Next time I go skating I hope for a better report say in another 50 , 60 years. All have a great week Blessing Overflowing linda
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Posted in On the Homestead
A big truck load of wood came today. We were getting low and our SIL's sister and husband was cutting and selling wood. Yah, just what we needed. I order a couple more loads to carry us into next season's fireplace startup. Unless we have a really hard winter still. Suppose to be real cold tomorrow : (. I love the looks of stacked wood.
We have lots of down limbs and some spent trees to cut down, but we'll wait tell early spring to do some trails and woods clean up. Garden talk: I have been working on organizing my garden seeds, from saved seeds to bought and those that send me seeds,Thank you Jon from OHG. A new place that I joined is so awesome for those that garden called Daves Garden. You can blog and journal all your gardens and homestead projects. Keeping track of all your plants and their botanical names and all the many heirlooms to keep track of. And insert pictures to. The forums are many and you can get lost in there. You do have to join to read posts but keeping a blog and journal is free. I joined and so glad. I'm already on a Round Up to meet other gardeners and A Round Robin for sharing seeds. A whole lot of fun. Heres my link to my personal page but be sure and take a tour of DG's you'll love it. I just have been in a new to me type of gardening "Winter Sowing" theres large groups that talk nothing but WS. You take your seeds that you would start inside , put them in milk jugs or whatever type of containers comparable and set them outside "NOW". Oh my goodness. This sounds like fun and I'm going to do a few containers and see what happens. And thinkin about all this , it was here at Homestead Bloggers that a member gave a link to such site just a few days ago. I wish I remember who that was :? Thank you. Weather around the homestead has been cold but tomorrow, like I mention, well really be cold and make today feel like summer. It did a little snowing today so going to build a fire and have that cup of hot cocoa later tonight. Stay warm and have a great weekend, I'm going skating tomorrow,that be roller skating,inside nice and warm :) Blessings linda
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Posted in Family
Happy Birthday to our oldest granddaughter. She turned 6 yrs old today, wow.
She will have a skating party on Saturday and she wants to see her grandparents skate. Yippers I haven't skated for a very long time. Last time dh and I danced skated together, it was ok, but I have a hard time skating backwards so I did the leading. Now I can go fast and do twirls like theres no tomorrow( well I use to) , but backwards skating , forget it. Dh's Birthday was yesterday and we had chili and a little surprise b-day party for him. We had fun Little grandson looks like he's ready for ice cream and cake
We woke up to a blanket snow . I called granddaughter to wish her a happy birthday and did she see what God sent her on her b-day , beautiful snow. She likes the snow but she is really excited about her party on Saturday.
I remember this time when dd and sil brought their little baby girl home, there was snow on the ground then , so this has been a very speacial day, Happy Birthday sweetie. Blessing linda |
Posted in Family Trips
What do ya do when someone totals your car and their insurance company gives you a brand pankin new rent- a- car with all expenses paid (not gas of course). ROAD TRIP : ) It was a modest trip, just an hour away from home to Truman Lake. Today the sun was shinning and it just felt like a day trip with my dh. Grab some BBQ and check out the lake , maybe see some wildlife. And take pictures !!!!!! Well in the winter down around the lake not everyone is open for business, and that included our favorite BBQ place. So we searched and searched and came into the town of Warsaw and there it was , not a BBQ joint but a cabin type cafe and the name "Cow Patties" hummmm do we really want to eat at a place called that!!!! So we drove around and then seen "Rusty Skillet". Ok we better not go any further so we went back to Cow Patties. I mean how bad could it really be. It looked old fashion and whats in a name anyway, that rose smellin thing comes in mind.
Now getting inside we sat in a booth and the waitress was super nice and funny. We order breakfast, far cry from BBQ but the whole place felt like a good old fashion breakfast. It was so good. Have you ever went up to anyone and ask if you could take a picture of their food? Well I did, they brought out the biggest hamburgars , were talkin a plate size bun filled with a whole cow. I had to have a picture of those monsters. They were very obliging, so I went about the photo shoot on their lunch. They didn't want to be in the picture (strange people) but I was still very happy to get a shot of those whoppers. Thank you strangers. Could this be why the place is called Cow Patties, those are huge platters and the size of the buns is the size of my large plates. My whole family of five of us could have dined on one of those and still have left overs for the next day.
Be sure and stop in Cow Patties if you get to do a road trip to Warsaw, you'll love it. Now for our first place , well second place to visit we headed to the fish hatchery. I wanted to gather some new material on Missouri Conservation and boy did I , take a look First the calenders, oh boy, this one I bought , beautiful pictures of wildlife, native plants and great information
And this I bought to and can use for plant ID when out on the trails and field
Now the freebie stuff, here ya go, another calender this is big and loaded with info and great sketches, very nice work. I love the site of quail in flight and those little chicks running around. Way cute
Heres a whole heap of info and everything I could ever need to read about conservation in Missouri
Then they loaded my bag of goodies with fun conservation books for the Gkiddies and wooden tokens and wildlife cards too. They are going to have hours of fun with these and will go great in their homeschooling
Now I did feel a little bit like I took to much and even asked. They said go ahead, they want us to have every bit of info we need. Now I know our tax dollars pay for all this , but still. I'm over it, movin on. The fish, this almost looks fake but its real and real fish swimming around
I wonder what the fish think of us, go away!!!!
Now these cats look stuck and the big one seem to be saying something
Heres the inside hatchery, and tiny little fish start out in these, this room is cleaner then my kitchen
Heres just a small part of the outside ponds that hold different size fish they raise, its acres of ponds
Now off we go in search of Eagles. Heres where they said we might see some . This is the visitor center, a must see if your in the area. They also have log cabins and old timey buildings in the woods
No Eagles here , but wouldn't that be fun to climb : ) or not
So we head across the lake still looking for Eagles in flight
And low and behold no Eagles but lookie heres a nest, and its the real McCoy and very ,very big.
That was soooo exciting to see this nest. The picture looks like a reg. ol squirrels nest, but its all Eagle nest. We seen tons of squirrel nest and they look like little dots in comparison. It was a great find. Next time we are planning a real early trip and maybe see the Eagles in the morning hours. It was a great day trip and I got to return the nice new car next week. They gave us a fair amount for my old car and when we finished talking over price and such and hung up she called right back and said she forgot to tell me that I have the car until tuesday, shoot I thought they might have forgot about that brand new car their letting me drive around in , Oh well . Anyway, cars and material things can be replaced and we go through many in our lifetime , but our love ones are the main thing and living life the way God wants us to and thats with a ture heart of love. I just Praise God for the safety of my family that night on Christmas when they were hit. Praise God Thanks for stopping by . If you do get to Missouri check out Truman Lake , lots of fun stuff to do. Blessings linda |
Posted in Harvest Kitchen
I picked up my gas stove this last weekend and it will be perfect in the harvest kitchen. With six heavy duty burners it will hold those heavy pressure canners and my hugh hot water bath pot for canning.
Its a Wolf stove and very heavy duty. I got a super good deal on it for $800 from a client that had it for 2 1/2 years, and she bought it wholesale for $4500. I checked the internet and that one was over $7000 retail. Hot dog !!!!!! She loved cooking with it but was getting a smaller stove. The oven has lots of room for many pies that my dd will use to bake for church events. My use will be for canning. The on the counter eletric range is just not heavy enough for the canning. I put a big pot on it and I can hear the unit cracking and the pots at a tilt, not safe. I'll keep the eletric stove for small cooking and everyday use. Take a look at these heavy burners , wow going to feel like some serious cooking going on here.
Now if not getting a good deal isn't enough when I went to pick up the stove , she is giving me her big 2 door stainless steel fridge, oh its big and 2 stainless steel dishwashers. Shes got a big kitchen and redoing the whole thing. It is beautiful . I will be giving one dishwasher to my dd. I still like doing dishes by hand but it wil be nice to have one when holidays come around : ) Now with a new stove , its time to redo my kitchen, got new floor tile to put down yet , paint and tile on the backs of the counters, putting in French doors to lead out to the outdoor kitchen (this project was set on back burner for awhile) . Our home is an earthcontact, so the kitchen was in the back, very dark with only the dinning room big windows for natural light . So opening this will bring in the light and look right into the woods, with a big fireplace outside and a root cellar on the side with one of those old fashion wine cellar doors. I'm looking for an old world look . Plans have been long in the making with little steps and taking care of things that needed greater attention. My kitchen will be the harvest kichen I have always wanted. Lots of work yet to do but well worth it. Starting my spring cleaning early this year, so when garden time come i'll be outside doing what I love to do. Plant !!!!!! Oh I can't wait and the way time is flying it will be here soon.
Garden talk: In my next blog I'm working on my garden seed list and I will share my new seeds that I will try this season. Getting the store room ready for seed planting with grow lights, will be starting that next month and I'm going to try some peas in the garden next month too. Taters planted in March, Oh My Gosh its almost time for all that : ) Well I need to go through the seed cataloges and do the hard part, picking only a few and not all of them , kind of hard to do but oh so fun and makes the winter go by very fast thumbing through all those seed cataloges and dreaming and making plans for a better garden this year. Blessings linda |
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Oh I am so very sorry that i was adding all my back entries and that it was showing up on the board here : (. did not know they would do that when adding a later date. I was hogging up the recent entries. I feel awful and very sorry. I put them in draft so they could be removed. These entries are from the summer and spring , oh my goodness!!!!!! My other 360 blog is shutting down and i don't want to lose pictures and past blogs. I will need to figure out what to do so I won't overrun recent entries. Again very sorry. way to end the new year : / Happy New Year all Blessings linda |
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Posted in On the Homestead
 Last week ice, this week snow : ). I like the snow so much better, makes for better snowmen building and great snowball fights, not to mention snow icecream : ).
Although last weeks ice storms was rough on many we faired pretty good, not losing any power and hubby was able to get to work and I just stayed in and worked in my shop. Even at its worst theres always beauty, when the sunshine hit the trees it shined like dimonds and when warmer still the ice would fall and it could be heard throughout the woods. So warm that I could leave the door upstairs open and listen and watch it fall. This was taken just before it was time to fall, it was getting pretty warm out  Now last night and all today snow and its still coming down lightly. We have about 5 inches and their saying another 2" on one place and tapering off on another and something else on another station :/. So I think I might need these this year, dated shoeshoes. Wouldn't these make a good bigfoot story find : )  I'm sure glad I hit the store yesterday but oh boy, it was packed. I did ask at the front if there was any milk left, that was my main thing I needed. There was and I got a shopping cart full, no not milk other stuff. Well I haven't been shopping for food sense before Thanksgiving. I really needed a few things so why not fight the crowds, get in the Holiday Spirit. Picked up some more of those ol fashion peppermint sticks I like to toss in my hot cocoa. Oh and some eggnog to, so being snow bound won't be to bad. Sis and I did meet up with a few clients earlier and she asked if I was glad to get out, cabin fewer you know. I said NO, I like being at home and could be happy as a lark being homestead bound. But it sure is nice to have all my staples and junk foods to : ), So shopping I went. Got some things for the Christmas dinner as well. The snow was so pretty today. I did some cleaning up and still decorating. Still cleaning pans from Thanksgiving : ( ( how long can a pan soak before you give it up to elbow grease?) And still putting the orange colored stuff away. Hello red and green. I put some time in the workshop to and watching the snow come down was really cozy. But tonight I just had to go out in it. Its deep and soft snow , just beautiful. Heres a picture of our home with the Chistmas lights on. We use to , no DH use to put lights all over the house but we have scaled down to just the front.  We didn't light up the woods either this year, with the ice storm and time running out we'll just have to do without. Thats way ok, plans set in stone can be disappointing, winging it can get scary. But just enjoying the season no matter the weather, the dinner , the family here or there. Just plain enjoying and being at peace. Blessings and a Very Merry Christmas linda |
Lets head out and see the ice storm that came through last night.
 Oh boy theres some hangin White Pines. Their pretty good at poppin back up again.  A new look , ice(frost) on the pumpkins, they are suppose go into the Hen Den, they like pumpkin seeds too.  Its thick but could be worst, we still have our power on and I don't hear cracking in the woods from broken tree limbs , yet : (. but that will be fire wood : ). Hey wanta go for a sled ride, hop on and hold on to your hat. Duck, watch out for that limb.  Ok here we go into the woods.  I should be ok walkin in my new hiking shoes, notice my high water , bleached stained sweatpants. The ensemble is just perfect.  Oops spoke to soon, I should have practiced my falling skills for the year, oh and got DH socks on too : ) see where the heel is, I am stylin. Got a cold and wet backside from that fall too : (.  Ok look out for these, those icicles have been known to kill people ( taken from Christmas Story).  Ice covered red berries, just to pretty, they look good enough to eat.  Up this way.  OK, pipe down back there and wrap this around ya, I don't need it cuz i'm pullin ya up this little hill, I'm doing all the huffin an puffin, "I'm sayin under my breath" :/  Have to wait for the ice to get thicker for ice skating, boy that pond is down : (  What!!!!! a pit stop, I'll wait. ( oh dear, no toilet paper, as I search the woods for non-ice covered plants that might work)  I'm getting cold , lets head back Look at this, you must be light as a feather cuz theres only my foot prints and no sled marks, Didn't feel like a feather pullin ya up that hill,again under my breath, Hummmm  I have an idea !!!!!!! , down hill OH yah !!!!!  HANG ON !!!!!!!  Ooppps sorry : (  Lets head back to the house and have some tea, Here ya go. I'm going to knit some while your having your tea.  What fun, love this winter weather, but only when I'm home, don't care driving in it at all. So those that have to travel , be safe. Stay warm and cozy. Thanks for the visit, it was fun. Your pullin the sled next time my friend : ) Blessings linda |
Posted in Words of Inspiration and Quiet Times
This weeks "More than Rubies Monday" I do over on my other blog. Being ice bound I can't get over to use my sister's computer to blog , I can't blog on the other site b/c of computer problems but can blog here on Yahoo page. Its a computer thing and very strange. So please have a visit over at Kris's page |
Posted in On the Homestead