peppysis

Weekend Full Of...

2012-02-19T18:57:00.000-06:00

Forcing Forsythia, laundry from the clothesline.

Wrapping a bit of string or ribbon around stems a couple of times then tying helps them stay together in a wide mouth vase... or jar.. instead of falling to the edges.

I got the brief case. It needs some cleaning but it's here :)

How fantastically vintage is the interior!

I got to watch the Lawrence Welk Show on NPT Saturday night. And what kind of looney takes a pic of the screen? This kind! No really I was captured by this backdrop and want to draw it. Unfortunately the pictures didn't turn out that well because they kept moving!

I collected more than three gallons of rain water....

for making lye soap with our lard. It's a long process and I think I'll make myself a chemist certificate to hang on the wall if it all works out.

Finally! It's been a while since I have had a magazine, besides Country Living British edition, suck me in. But at my Mom's today for my sister's birthday gathering I found the latest edition. Then Mom sent me home with four!

Current library books. I will wind up buying the two kid cook books for the DC when it opens.

I have had a lot of fun with the BUG drawing book that has super easy instructions on how to draw bugs and a few flowers. The soap making book is too complicated, I cannot follow. The Critters one gives you all kinds of projects to do for your pet. Not what I thought it was when I checked it out but still cute. I am hoping to have new library books on the hold shelf for me this week. I have requested several.

Shaun and I worked on my future job all day Saturday and the fencing man has been given the green light. This new adventure is happenning and soon I will be sharing my creativity every day with little ones. That's what we're praying for anyway. At this point I need encouragement and prayers most of all. xo

Sausage Casserole

2012-02-15T20:46:00.000-06:00

Granny made this casserole one evening at her house when we all came over for dinner. It was so good that I thought about it and thought about it and finally called her a got the recipe. I have made it twice now for the two of us. The first time I followed the recipe like a good girl and it turned out wonderful. The second time was tonight and I veered from the recipe just a touch and guess what... still wonderful.

Sausage Casserole

1 Lb Sausage
1 Can Cream of Mushroom Soup
3/4 Cup Milk
1/2 Cup Chopped Onion
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1/4 Teaspoon Pepper
3 Cups Peeled, Sliced Potatoes
2 Cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brown sausage in skillet, drain on paper towels. Mix together soup, milk, salt and pepper. In a two quart greased casserole dish layer potatoes and onion, soup mixture, sausage and cheese. Repeat layers but omit cheese. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for one hour. Uncover, add remaining cheese and bake for five minutes.

Tonight, in my second version, I browned the sausage with onions and green peppers. Then drained on paper towels. I used canned potatoes on the bottom layer then the soup mixture, then sausage and topped with cheese and baked for thirty minutes. Turned out great.

This could be served as supper or breakfast!

Raising your own hogs for meat is the way to go here! Cook til the meat is lightly browned and onions are translucent.

Canned potatoes, canned soup.

Easier whisked.

These I named Shirley Reds after Granny's friend Shirley shared them with me last summer.

Layered.

The rolls got a little too brown on top whilst watching Idol. Woops.

My Mother is the inspiration for the cheese on pears on lettuce salad. This lovely concotion used to grace our supper plates when we were growing up. It can even be found in some cookbooks.

Thanks for the recipe Granny!

What I'm Crushin On

2012-02-13T20:13:00.002-06:00

OH MY! I have run upon a website that I am currently drooling over. Not the site so much as what the site offers which is books upon books. I know you can get books any time at amazone or barnes and noblest but this site seems to display in categories of art and craft, poetry and design. I can't stop jumping back and forth from their site to my library typing in names and titles and unluckily coming up with an empty library cart. These books are just too new. But they have led me to a few books of interest that I might not have found otherwise.

Here are a few books I am crushing on. Ah... a Valentine Crush. Shhh don't tell the hubby!

I have always wondered how they print fabric and how that whole thing works.

Haven't you?

I found something close to this book at my library. This one will be checked out one day!

I HAVE to do this!

Can I just have this cover please?

I badly want to be a farm that can grow food for others. Ahhh if only one had more time.

I am a Mad Woman! Somebody stop me!!!!

Amen.

How stinkin cute is this book?!?! I want to be one! A Mom of style.

The five year old inside me just hollared "Nuh Uh!" This is a coloring book and it has tracing paper that resembles parchment paper in it. I just fell in love with Rosie Flo!

OK. Please go check out Chronicle Books. I have to go get my crush on whilst the real Valentine in my life is snoozing on the couch!

P.S. Happy Valentine's Day!

P.S.S. The website is Chronicle Books! I was so excited I published this and had to go back and add the main link! What a book nerd!

Freezer Paper Stencil

2012-02-12T20:34:00.000-06:00

Freezer paper stencil is the coolest thing. Well, it's the coolest thing I could come up with to craft on Saturday which was bitterly cold on the outside and warm on the inside. I started with a bargain tank but have done this with everything from regular t-shirts to dish towels. I found the item in which I wanted to trace and today it was feathers. I used one guinea feather, one crow feather and one owl feather. I placed them on my shirt to get an idea of where I wanted them then put them on to a sheet of freezer paper on the dry side, not the shiny side. Then I traced the feathers with a pencil.

I taped the piece of freezer paper to a cutting board and cut out the shapes using an Exacto knife. I have also just cut out the shapes with scissors as that works just as well. Next I took my tank top and two pieces of freezer paper, one with the stencil, to my ironing board. With my iron set on cotton high, I placed the solid piece of freezer paper shiny side up inside the shirt and the stenciled pieced shiny side down on the front of the tank where I wanted the design to go. Then I ironed the top piece. The heat makes the shiny side stick to the fabric. Make sure to stick all pieces now especially if you have a more intricate design.

I used regular craft paint and went over my pattern several times then let it dry for an hour or so. When it is dry, peel the freezer paper off gently to reveal your design. Take it back to the ironing board. Place a dry rag or piece of scrap fabric inside the shirt and another one of top. Go over the top towel that is on top of your design several times with a hot iron to "set" the paint or sort of burn it to the fibers so it doesn't wash out easily.

This is an easy, fantastic way to make a solid or drab shirt your very own, one-of-a-kind design.

Layout out objects of inspiration.

Use this stuff.

Trace objects onto non-shiny side of freezer paper.

If you are doing a harder design you have to envision what to cut out.

Cut out stencil.

Shiny side up on the inside, down on the outside.

Iron on freezer paper stencil.

Paint using craft paint.

Use several coats and allow to dry completely.

Peel off freezer paper stencil.

Heat set with scrap fabric inside tank and on top of design.

Laurie is wearing a tank that she seems very proud of. :)

Finished and Fabulous!

Trust me.. once you get started it's hard to stop!

This was a different weekend when I was crafting with my sister and niece.

Recognize this logo anyone?

On a tea towel.

I love my camera dish towel.

It's a lot of fun and so easy to do! Haave Fun!

Where am I Looking

2012-02-11T11:57:00.000-06:00

I think everybody has their own special sites and blogs that they follow. Here are two sites that I have been following for simply years.

The first is a Baking Accessory site that I adore. I first found them in what I am pretty sure was a Martha Stewart magazine but could have been Country Living. It was the Christmas edition and it had a back part that flipped over. I saw kitchen bakers twine and had to have some of my own! I bought red/white and tan/white from Layer Cake Shop. That was about three years ago and since then I have enjoyed finding unique and vintage items for cakes and cupcakes, flavorings and colors for icing and I have especially enjoyed the fun twist ties and have used them for one million and a half uses. Their products are at such a reasonable price and shipping and service is fast and friendly. Sometimes I like to visit just to look around and get inspiration. Thanks Gals!

One of my many home decorating websites that I like to visit is PapaStour. This site I also found in a magazine where they were featured. The company is compiled of artists from Scotland and they are based out of Scotland. I desperately want one of their deerskins and love these teeny baby booties. When I need a different sense of decorating and need inspiration this is definately one place that I turn.

Country Ham Cookin 101

2012-02-08T21:03:00.000-06:00

I don't really know what the 101 means but I think it's basically "how's it's done."

As you should know, because I believe country ham is sold in all parts of the country and if it isn't it should be, country ham can be bought by the whole ham or by the slice or slices. Around here you are likely to come across one maybe around Christmas because people like to give the hams as corporate gifts. But here at our house... we grow 'em ourselves. Not all of them of course but as you already may know from previous posts, the part of the pigs that we raised over summer 2011 were smoked in order for us to get bacon, hog jawl, lard and country ham.

Here is a sample of the easiest and best way to cook up a slice at our house.

Take the slice of country ham and trim the fat. Be sure and leave some of the healthy fat on there mainly because you don't want it to stick. Discard the fat and cut the ham slice in to several slices, cutting around and discarding the bone. Please pieces in a skillet and cover with water. Bring water to a boil over medium heat. This will kind of soak the salt out of the ham. Don't skip this step even if you are a lover of salt like my sister that licks her finger to pick up the left over salt at the bottom of her popcorn bowl. Boil just for a few minutes until the meat turns a bit whitish looking. Drain water in to sink. Put skillet back on the burner and cook ham on each side until brown and yummy pressing down on the pieces with your spatula so they don't curl. Take off when done and put on a paper towel to absorb grease if any. Place on a hot biscuit with cheese and egg. Perfect country breakfast... or supper!

Y'all ready for this?

This photo is by Shaun.

Oh my.

The be Texas Pete hot sauce. Just a dab. I think it's smiling at you!

On work mornings I use the frozen kind. Pillsbury. Good as Ms. Winners.

As Shaun would say "now that's a six dollar biscuit!"

DANG IT! I can't wait until breakfast!

Now wipe your mouth and go get some country ham.

Give Away Time

2012-02-07T19:49:00.000-06:00

This Christmas, same as last Christmas, I had calendars made with my lovely photography of life here on our farm for my Mother and sisters. I normally order enough to give to other family members and friends too. This year I ordered them good and early but I ordered them from a different company than I did last year. Big mistake. When I got the calendars they were not good quality, my pictures looked big time enhanced and you couldn't even write on them without the ink going through. Luckily, the place I ordered them from gave me a full refund and I will continue to order some things from them, just not calendars.

I turned around and ordered my calendars from a source that I knew had good, thick, quality products which is Lulu. Christmas was on Sunday this year and my calendars arrived on Friday afternoon. Whew. Unfortunately, I didn't get to hand them out to all the people that I normally would have.

Needless to say I have a couple left and I know it is already February and everyone probably already has their yearly calendars hanging up but what else am I to do with them but offer them up. They are my work of art for crying out loud!

I have two of them and would be more than happy to find them a good home. After all.. there are ten whole months left that you could be enjoying new snapshots each month. The first two peeps to leave a comment or email me at peppysis1973@yahoo.com with their address will be the wonderful recipient of a genuine Hulsey 2012 Calendar!

Skinning and Cooking Quail and Feather Usage

2012-02-04T09:45:00.001-06:00

I am pretty pumped about this. This is my first video to make... ever. I did guest star in a couple of videos that my nieces and nephew made that were pretty cool... here's one .

This video is a little different as it shows the process of skinning a bird. A Tennessee Bob White Quail to be exact. Shaun has gone bird hunting a couple of times lately and I think it is interesting and could be useful to some. My loving husband is the demonstrator in the video and also the narrator. If I only had actual video footage with the way he explains things. You'd love it. I tried to put it into his words as much as I could.

*Please excuse the imperfections on the breast. One of the hunting dogs brought this one back and looks like she held it a little hard.*

After you skin and clean the quail, it needs to soak in a cold, salt water bath in the refrigerator at least over night. After that, rinse off the legs and breast in water and dry them on paper towels. In a bowl, add one egg and 1/4 cup milk and a few drops of Texas Pete hot sauce and stir rapidly with a fork until combined. In a separate bowl, prepare a mixture of flour and add a bit of Butt Rub and black pepper or whatever kind of spices float your boat, but not too much... the quail is too fine to over spice.

Dredge breast and legs in egg mixture then toss in flour mixture and place on a plate or directly in to your skillet with about a quarter inch of hot fat or lard or oil. Allow to cook turning after several minutes until brown all over. The legs will be done before the breast. The breast take about 15 minutes total time at medium heat. You can also check their internal temperature to 160 degrees or just cut one open to check for doneness.

Roll that beautiful Quail footage.

Throw some of the flour from the pre-fry into the skillet and work around with a whisk. Then add milk and whisk while you pour. Keep pouring until you get it to the right runny consistency to your likings. This'll be your gravy. I use between a half cup and a cup depending on if it's just me and Shaun or if Otis stops by because he smelled the quail cooking at his house. I swear I don't know how he knows but I am always willing to share.

You can also use the beautiful feather from the quail for just about any craft you can come up with. This dream catcher necklace is what my niece Jessica made for us for Christmas. She was smart to call me for feathers as I plucked these myself. Aren't they gorgeous?

Tub O Lard

2012-01-31T21:25:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago we sent our piggies off to be "processed" a little differently. Different as in Shaun got to go through the entire process of seeing first hand each step of take our pigs from field to freezer. Let's just say I was green with envy when he came home telling me all the details. Next time I will be taking a vacation day from work, you can bet on that.

Tonight we got our smoked meat back. The rest was brought home after they processed it and went into the freezer. We now have one huge country ham, two slabs of bacon, hog jawl and one huge Tub of Lard! I had asked for the lard and knew they were cooking it down. I really didn't expect the entire thing. I guess I'm the only coocoo bird that wants it to make biscuits and suet and who knows what else!

Feeding My Soul

2012-01-30T21:21:00.000-06:00

Sometimes I don't even think we realize what is missing. It might be something we enjoyed doing years and years ago that was simply put aside or an activity, like mine, that takes up so much time only certain times of the year. On Saturday I tapped in to the canning part of my soul and realized just how much I miss it and how much of a part of my soul it has become. It may sound odd if you have never canned food that you spent time with. From seeds saved or bought, I planted it and watched it grow, worrying at times if there was enough water or not enough fertilizer. Then took time to do something with it. Saving for winter by learning the art of putting by, putting up and savoring flavors of summer.

Last year I grew black beans for the first time. In my mind, I judge the quality of a Mexican restaurant by if they serve black beans as a side dish. Not many do. The experience of growing the beans was very satisfying and we wound up harvesting about... well more than a my largest Mason jar full from five plants. I loved sitting on our porch on hot summer nights shelling beans. There is just something about shelling beans and breaking beans that is very therapeutic. Sometimes I will take them to summertime family gatherings to have help. Plus I have a sister who loves breaking green beans.

I have gone through the whole process of letting the dried beans soak overnight or trying the quick soak method. I've let them cook in the crock pot for hours at a time and don't mind that process if I know what's for supper tomorrow night and think that far ahead. It wasn't until I read The Barefoot Farmer, as seen in a previous post, that it hit me and I could not wait until the weekend. I had something else to do with my dried beans. He said that they take their dried beans, fill a hot jar only half full of beans and the rest of the way with boiling water and a tad of salt if you wish. Then process them at 10 pounds pressure in your pressure canner for 40 minutes. That's it. Easy as breaking beans and at the same time so extremely therapeutic to my canning soul. The pride of what I made came rushing back in when those jars came out of the canner. So beautiful and the next time we are having tacos or burritos for supper, all I have to do is open up a jar of summertime black beans and they are ready to heat up and season.

I was so amazed at how the beans expanded. Just like I had let them soak all night long and cook after that. They may still have to cook for a bit when the jars are opened. That is yet to be seen. We are still eating left overs from my other suppers from over the weekend. Canning just feeds my soul. The fact that I can make something myself and put it away for several suppers to come and not have to worry about picking it up at the store just tickles me.

I couldn't even wait to to take a picture. I should have wiped the jars off first!

I also canned three parsnips and one big turnip that my boss had given me while the pressure cooker was out. Might as well!

Meet Miss Kitty

2012-01-29T21:02:00.000-06:00

Miss Kitty or Kitty, which is the name she answered to most promptly since she came to live with us, is Shaun's new barn. He says she is my cat but that is only because I think he doesn't want to admit that he likes a cat.

Shaun met Miss Kitty while working on a job clearing and cleaning out a junk man's place. R.C. was literally a junk man. He had building after building full of stuff. If you needed a piece of a certain kind of chain, he had it. And he had tons of it. He passed away this past October and after he passed the family had to move his wife in with kinfolk up North because she wasn't in a state to live by herself. Sadly since then she too has passed away. Well, Shaun and his bull dozer were hired to tackle a big part of the "clean up" of this property by the family. It was there that he met Miss Kitty who previously belonged to R.C. and was left by the family. She was an outside cat and was fending for herself sleeping in the barns and where ever. She and Shaun became pals. He shared his lunch with her several days.

One day he and a friend tried to get Miss Kitty in to one of the animal crates that was there and she was having no part of that. A couple of weeks later we stopped by after days of rain to see if it was dry enough for him to work the next day. Sure enough as soon as Miss Kitty heard him she came running and meowing as if to say "Here I am! I'm ready to go home with you now!" Shaun picked her up and she just purred and meowed. Then he handed her to me and we got in the truck and brought her home.

She is living in Shaun's shop and enjoying it. It is well insulated and she's got all the food, mice and birds that one kit can handle. She really responds to love and is slowly learning how to play. She isn't fond of going outside much. Maybe it's because Dottie ran her up a tree. I figure once it warms up and the doors are open for longer periods of time she'll venture out more. For now she's making her home and seems to enjoy herself and the love she is getting from us.

Today during the sunshine, I opened the door and sat out on the concrete. Directly she came out with me, rolled around on the ground and explored the tree line a little bit. I am proud of her and am happy that Shaun thought enough of her to want to give her a new life with people that love her.

She has been with us since December. I did get her to play with a stick on her belly just a little today. Sweet girl.

Our Compost Pile

2012-01-29T20:12:00.000-06:00

How we made our compost pile Saturday morning.

First we hit the top field and gathered corn stalks.

Next, we cleaned out the chicken house and laying boxes. We gathered all the straw (poo included) and lined the house, boxes and muddy ground with all new straw.

The chickens immediately started scratching around. I don't know if they liked it or not but surely so, their little feet were tromping in mud.

Now they are kicking and scratching around. I threw a little sunflower seeds down to give them something to look for. They liked that.

This is how much chicken poo I gathered from the top of their house where some of them roost. Gross I know but oddly enough I was tickled to death!

This shows the cornstalks on the bottom then a layer of chicken poo straw and one chore down.

Since we currently have no pigs I thought it would be a great idea to get the bedding straw from the inside of their house which also has poo in it. Still stinky in fact. I had to put a bandanna over my face. But it'll make for great fertilizer.

Piggie house straw layer. I didn't take it all because a couple of field mice ran out so I thought I'd leave them some warmth.

This is our final product. Oh.. I didn't make a picture of dirt clods I dug out of the garden. I put the layer of chicken poo on top and then the garden dirt and kitchen veggie scraps. I gave it a good soaking with the hose and now she's off to rot on her own. I plan on turning it once a week and when I add scraps from our kitchen. It is so nice to have somewhere to put my scraps now that the pigs are gone. I cannot wait to experiment with our compost this summer as garden fertilizer.

These were blooming in the woods. Don't they know it's January?!?! With this unseasonable weather we've been having I reckon not! I brought these in the house. I couldn't resist.

I also couldn't resist using the clothesline despite how windy it was. I didn't have to chase anything down so it turned out alright.

I had an extremely productive Saturday. The compost pile was just the morning chore. And it was a fun one.. stinky but fun!

The Music

2012-01-26T21:24:00.000-06:00

I seriously hope that the music featured here on my blog doesn't offend you or bother you. My playlists are a compilation of songs that I enjoy and I hope you do too. Sometimes when I am in my kitchen I'll crank up the laptop and click on peppysis just to listen. Where else can you dial up Ella Fitzgerald and it's right there?

Today I am choosing to share a pack of TV theme songs that I find take me back a few years. OK! A lot of years! But there sure are some good ones. I remember summers when school was out watching a lot of these shows. I know each one of my sisters could close their eyes and names each show within a beat or two. Not that we were stuck to the television growing up. One of the shows on my playlist, excuse me, two of the shows featured we were not allowed to watch. Threes Company and The Facts of Life. I really never got that one. Not sure Mom ever really watched it to deem it unsuitable, she just didn't like the name. Every one loved Tootie... c'mon Mom!

If only I could find Mama's Family theme song for my list!

I really hope you like them and truly hope it doesn't deter anyone from visiting. If you don't like it... turn your speakers down! Love ya! Seriously.

Creative Moments

2012-01-25T21:02:00.000-06:00

A very special Aunt of mine gave me a very special box. I don't really think she even knows just how special this box was, maybe she did.

A lot of the time creative outlets can be snubbed out by lack of the right supplies. I may not have the right kind of paper for water coloring or a perfectly flat chalk board for drawing. And then sometimes you learn to use what you've got instead of rushing out to by supplies that won't be used but the one time.

When I got home and went through the box that came from her sweet, sweet Mother that we all loved dearly, I discovered paint brushes, exacto knives, drawing pencils, coloring pencils (real ones!) and two sleeves of pastels. I have to say I am taking it slow with the new found supplies. But this past weekend while spending two hours away from home and having a little "me time" I ran across a low priced sketchbook at a book store. I felt the pages for paper weight and they felt just perfect for the pastels and even water color. It was thicker than any paper I had at home and had one hundred and ninety two, acid-free pages. For $9.99 I bought it.

That evening I used the pastels for the first time. I had such a ball. I doodled some flowers in a tea cup on the first page. On the second page I decided to copy some work I had seen. I am not a big fan of copying other's work but how else can you learn sometimes but to look, draw, look, draw. After all, famous sculptors have been copying God's work of human art for centuries.

The Art Box and Sketchbook.

The Art Box Supplies. I adore these paint brushes.

Sleeve of Pastels.

The Original Artist's Work.

The Copy Cat's Work. a.k.a. Me

Not too bad I don't think. I wasn't much pleased with the balcony on the upper left. I just couldn't get that curve right. Something to work on. I did change a few things up because the proportions turned out differently. Working with the pastels was su much fun. It has a chalk feel and I guess it kind of is like chalk. You can make a few squiggles with a piece and then blend it with the tip of your finger to fill the space or combine with a color closeby. I definately cannot wait to add more pastel work to this book. I hope to fill the entire book with colorful artwork of my own. I did note at the beginning of the book the date that I started it. That could differ greatly from the day I finish the book huh?!

Did I mention the pages are perforated?

Seeds on Their Way

2012-01-24T20:59:00.001-06:00

Sometimes I have so much on my mind that I want to blog about that it is terribly hard to pick just one. Because the moment might have and probably has passed for the ones that I don't choose. So, you just get left out.

I received my new seed catalog in the mail several weeks ago. Which has left me drooling over new varieties of all kinds of vegetables and flowers. I get a real odd feeling when I don't know what the fruit or vegetable is going to taste like because the hybrid is NEW. Frankly, it scares me. Is it suitable for this area? Will I have to do something weird to the soil? Am I paying too much for something I don't know will work?

I like to save seeds from our garden that I know have done well and that we have tested and approve of. Those seeds become heirloom seeds. I learned today that you shouldn't save hybrid seeds from year to year because they can loose something and go back to their parent state. Meaning if you bought a flower hybrid seed that is red with white stripes down the middle and save the seeds from it, the next year's crop may only be red and loose the concocted stripe that made it a hybrid. I don't totally understand how they cross them up in the first place... well I sort of do but I could be wrong. I saw them cross up orchids on channel eight one time.

I didn't get my seeds from the big commercial catalog that I had to buy my garlic from last year. Honestly, they are just too expensive. So I decided to check with a gal who's blog I visit from time to time and fellow gardener to see where she has bought her seeds in the past because I trust her....even though she doesn't know me. OK I just totally got stuck on her blog going to get the link.

She wound up sending me to Renees Garden. I found a ton of seeds, pictures of the results, growing instructions and all for a not so bad price. Actually the price was half of what the big time catalog was charging and the flowers that I chose are going to be beautiful. I mainly bought flowers that I am familiar with. I got Zinnias and Cosmos in different colors than I have grown in the past, Portulaca which I have planted in the past but never from seed, Dahlias because I couldn't resist and have to have something new to grow, and Hidcote Lavender... please wish me luck. I have never done well with lavender and I don't know why. But I keep trying. I would show you pictures but I won't swipe without permission so I promise to share when the flowers are gracing me with their beauty this summer!

I'd like to let you in on a book I happened upon in the library yesterday. I actually put it down twice because it was not the subject I came in there to search for. I gave in and geez I have been attached to this book ever since! It is The Barefoot Farmer by Jeff Poppen. It seems more like journal entries about gardening and homesteading for real and the best part is that this fellow is local. I say local... it would probably take 45 minutes to get there from here but it would be mostly back roads. Anyway, I have learned so much from this book already and he has given me the confidence to... wait for it... compost. I have such a farm girl plan for this weekend. While I was reading the compost pages last night, I got up out of bed, got my journal and a pen and started making a list of resources that I already have on our farm. Rotten hay, pig poo, chicken poo, decaying leaves, corn stalks. For the first time I felt silly for having all the goods right here that I need to fertilize my own garden and plants with. Why am I holding back? I can't wait to dig my hands into some pig poo on Saturday! With gloves on ofcourse!

The New Chickens Are Here

2012-01-19T20:17:00.000-06:00

Funny thing happened when we ventured to Amish country a weekend or two ago on a quest to buy a few new laying hens. We have one rooster (that hates me on random days), one hen who lays one egg every day and one hen who lays no eggs on any days. I'm not real sure she knows she's a hen. Maybe she's just one of those workers hens like the worker bees... female but no Queen. It has been a passed time around here that it is costing us more to feed these chickens than our return is. Which is usually the way it goes. So, on a Thursday, my loving husband turns to me and says "what are you doing this Saturday" and I say "not much" and he says " want to go to Kentucky and get some new hens?" I say "heck yeah!" I buy two eighteen packs of eggs every two weeks. I cook breakfast every morning. If I can not have to buy eggs... I'm in.

So the two of us, along with one dog and two friends, also interested in purchasing laying hens, ventured to Amish country early Saturday morning. We looked everywhere. We stopped at stores, and at an Amish butcher's farm (who had plenty running around but none for sale) and even at a "small game swap meet" that wasn't having a swap meet that day but had an abundance of fowl running around everywhere... still no chickens for sale. All the while, my husband kept mentioning a place called "Gold City" which I envisioned, from all the talk and turns trying to find it, looking something like Opryland or a huge indoor flea market that sold livestock on nice pretty Saturday's to eager searchers such as ourselves. After directions here and there and highway this and state route that and not even knowing we were on the right track in the distance appears... Gold City ... city limits sign! We were there!

Turns out Gold City, KY has a feed mill and an old general store and from where we were, that appeared to be it. Not downgrading the town by any means here. It's just all the hype and hooplaa led me to believe different. We were very hungry for a bite at this point and the dog needed to tinkle. We went in the store which had more deer heads mounted on the wall than our living room, I was quite impressed. We went to the counter and each ordered a sandwich that turned out to be hugemongo. deli sliced meat and cheese of almost whatever type you wanted on white or wheat. I wound up having to share some of my roast beef with Dot and she appreciated that! We go to sit down at the table that had chairs which also had someone eating there already who promtly told us to "have a seat, I won't bite you... unless you taste like country ham." I liked him and he was the talkingest thing! He talked about Elvis and Graceland (fittin convo, that day being the eve of Elvis' birth and all) and his daughter who was up texting all night and his wife that didn't want to take a motorcycle ride with him that day. He was a rambler I tell you. Finally he asked what we were doing in Gold City. We told him about our morning and how we hadn't had any luck finding any laying hens. At that point, our new found friend, proceeded to turn around and hollar to the whole store "Hey! Anybody got any laying hens for sale!!" The other table of diners all shook their heads no with big smiles on their faces while we sat there half red faced with our mouths open as our eyes were led to the gal working behind the counter with her hand raised. The husbands went and had a chat with her while the gals went outside to tend to the dog.

Turns out, Amy, who's mom and dad own the store, lives 3 miles down the road and has been raising chickens on their little piece of heaven on earth. We followed her to her house and met her husband there who helped us catch up eight hens. Four cinnamon and four black and white speckled ones. They were just the nicest couple of people we could have met. We left there with eight chickens, two dozen eggs and two canning jars of bean and barley protein for the chickens that she had made. Sweet as pie they were!

Four of the chickens stayed with us and four went home with our friends. We are now up to two eggs a day which isn't bad for the middle of January I'm told. Amy said the black and white ones should start laying eggs in April. Our rooster, J.R. as Shaun calls him (you don't want to know what I call him) has temporarily stopped flogging and stomping his feet at me since he's gotten some new girlfriends. The new hens have settled in nicely and by this summer we will have to move their hen house and maybe give them some more room too.

We currently call the man who announced our need to the whole store, Elvis. He disappeared into the distance on his Harley moments after... his work there was done. Thanks Elvis.

Valentine Memory Game

2012-01-15T16:30:00.000-06:00

As a child, one of my favorite games was Memory. Where you have the little cardboard squares with pictures on them and have to match up the pictures. Mine was adult and baby animals. You would turn over a square cow, for example, and try and turn over the baby calf to match. Or chicken to chick, dog to puppy, you get the picture.

Well, I am always looking for ways to use my old canning lids and last week I had a thought of placing stickers on one side... a memory game was born. This is so very simple and delightful at the same time. Also it's a great way to re-purpose 20 or 24 used canning jar lids!

You can really use any kind of pictures or stickers that you want. This game uses different colored hearts with two of each color for matching. Simply click here for a copy of the pdf hearts. Cut them out and glue them on to the top of the canning lid. I used Mod Podge cause I'm that kind of girl. You can use plain ole school glue if you have it. Once they are dry, you are ready for an old fashioned, homemade game of memory! Shaun even played a game or two with me! We each won one round so I'm pretty sure we need a tie breaker... maybe later :)

I will tell you that the pdf of hearts for you to upload lost one set of hearts somehow. So you can choose to omit one color of hearts. This resulted in twenty two hearts which would leave your board uneven. It's up to you. Have fun!

Black Bean Delish Side Dish

2012-01-14T11:50:00.000-06:00

I have had a thing for black beans for some time now. I love a good tasty heap of well-seasoned black beans on a chip with a nice dollop of sour cream resting on top. When I cook black beans as a side dish it's hard for me to keep a spoon out of the pot while they are cooking!

Last summer, I tried my hand a growing black beans in our garden. What an easy thing to do and such fantastic surprise to shell the dried bean pods. I ended up with a couple of quart sized canning jars full and a big smile from me! It is probably cheaper to buy a bag or can of beans at the store but it's not near as much fun. And a gardener's job should always be rewarding. That's why I like to try new things in the garden. I've already been seed shopping and have my magazine marked with sharpie and post-its all throughout.

Black Bean Delish Side Dish

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

water

1 packet Sazon

1/4 cup ketchup

a handful each of green pepper, red pepper and onion chopped (how's that for measuring)

1 clove garlic minced

4 or 5 dashes hot sauce (please do not omit this, and please use Texas Pete)

a few dashes black pepper

In a sauce pot, cover black beans with water, doubled (meaning about an inch over the beans.) Add all ingredients to pot and cook at a simmer for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

If you choose to use dry beans, soak the beans overnight. Drain beans the next day. Use the steps in the canned bean recipe except increase cooking time by an hour and water by 2 cups.

I seriously wish I had a picture of the finished product but sometimes you gotta blog when the moment hits you. I am making my black beans for lunch and they have another 30 minutes to cook so. You'll just have to make them and see!

BTW - if you don't have a garlic mincer or don't feel like getting it out and washing it after, here's an easy trick.

Place the peeled garlic clove between a small folded sheet of wax paper. Lay a wide knife on top of the garlic and give it a good whack or two. Chop slightly and you're good to go. You dont' have to use a knife, just anything non-breakable with a solid surface for crushing.

January Day 2: Junk Day

2012-01-02T20:39:00.000-06:00

My sister sent me a text last week itching to visit the antique barn in Springfield. I said "how about Monday?" I was on holiday from my job today so we took our happy selves there just a tad after they opened this morning.

I love these paintings. There were two of them.

I did buy this teeny angel candle holder for next year.

This angel found something that once belonged to her! Sold at her yard sale, it still has her initials on the bottom!

Why the heck I cannot come off of fifteen bucks for a fabulous Samsonite pink briefcase I have no idea. I love it.

I love this iddy frog.

This one inspired me somehow. One of those shelves that I just stopped and stared at for a minute.

Contrary to my personal tradition, my Christmas decorations were not down before New Year's Eve. My neck has been out of whack for several days now and after my third day in a row to visit my chiropractor he advised me to STOP. No lifting, vacuuming... does he know me??? Rarely do I sit down, rarely do I watch TV, rarely do I blog like I would like to because I cannot be still! That was Friday. Today, after the junk shopping, I managed, at my own pace to get the things taken apart and neatly put away. It was actually a good thing that I got some inspiration this morning because I redid my mantle with things that I collect from out woods and creek and ... barn floors.

It does look better in real life. Plus it is a showcase of things that I love.

The rocks that I have collected, feathers found in the woods on my beloved walks and even three owl pellets found on Christmas Eve this year when we spotted an owl in the barn. He had obviously been roosting in there for a while. I started looking around the floor and found them. Sick... I know... owl hair balls. Hey.. we had to dissect them in biology!

A Shelf For The Tub

2012-01-01T18:52:00.000-06:00

I have the most wonderful husband in the world. I really do.

And this is what he made me for Christmas.

I saw something like this in a home decor book from the library.

I showed it to him and took a picture of it but never printed it out for him.

I didn't really think another thing about it.

Until I unwrapped it Christmas Eve night when we felt we had waited long enough on opening just one present. He opened a dvd. I opened this.

It is a bathtub shelf. Made out of tobacco sticks.

The sticks aren't really of tobacco stalks,

but of other wood and are used in hanging tobacco in the barns.

The dark color is stained by years of firing and curing the tobacco in the barns.

It has such a spa feel to it.

Yesterday morning I piled all my bathy things on it before my bath like my wash cloth, soap, shaving cream, razor, and a cup for rinsing off.

I never knew how useful this invention would prove itself to be.

I no longer have to reach up on to the sink cabinet nor stretch to the back side of the tub to the stool while splashing water onto the floor.

I truly love it and he knew I would.

Contact with the outside world

2011-12-26T09:31:00.001-06:00

I am very sad that I cannot call you this morning. Shaun and Mike took off into the woods earlier and I felt all contact with the outside world was gone. I thought... oh I'll drink my coffee and call her. But alas.. there my little phone lay dead on the bench. PooPoo. I guess I have to get ready and go out. Oh Well. That's what I get for getting snockered and doing jumping jacks with a hoodie on.

I wanted to share this ladies' website with you before Christmas and didn't because I planned on making the clothespin ornaments instead of the bird seed wreaths but I didn't have enough clothespins that I wanted to get rid of. I completely plan on having a clothesline at the day care trailer and didn't see the sense in wasting them. So I only made one and kept it.

Anyhow, here it is. It's not Pinterest but it's goooood. She has got some fabulous ideas.

http://www.bystephanielynn.com/

I LOVE the pots in wooden frames. Fab idea and why have I never used Gorilla glue. It expands. I have to buy some today.

I might make cinnamon rolls when I get back from the phone store in a bit if you want to come over and play.

P.S. I already started taking down Christmas stuff. I can't bear to take the tree down yet. It's so me and so very pretty bird.

Laurie

not sure why my glasses look tined with blue. huh

Quick Cake Mix Cookies

2011-12-17T15:49:00.000-06:00

While browsing through a lovely Christmas open house in Crossplains, TN two weekends ago, I stumbled upon the refreshments. Being the lemon lover that I am, I immediately snatched a yellow cookie with powdered sugar on it. To my delight it was lemon and wonderful! So soft, so light... I could have eaten the whole plate. But then I may not have been invited back to next year's open house :)

I thought about these cookies for more than a week. Finally I looked up in every book I have and came up empty. Then decided to internet search pictures of lemon cookies and at last came up with a recipe. I have to share! These are so very easy to make and take under an hour from start to finish.

Cake Mix Cookies

1 cake mix, any flavor, I recommend lemon

1 tub cool whip 8 ounce

1 egg

powdered sugar - about 1/3 cup

Mix cake mix, egg and cool whip with a blender. The batter will be sticky. Drop one spoonful at a time into powdered sugar and drop onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Allow to cool and try like heck not to eat them all. Unless they are only for you... then go ahead.

Salt dough Ornaments

2011-12-11T15:35:00.000-06:00

Sometimes, simple is key. When it came down to thinking of decorations for my four foot Christmas tree in the kitchen I wanted something simple, bake-y and kitchen-y. So I chose a recipe that I found in a library book and I am sorry but I don't remember which one it was. I rented it last summer and jotted down the recipe just not which book it came from. My apologies.

Never-the-less, here's what I did last Sunday for my little kitchen tree.

Salt Dough Ornaments

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup salt

1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Whisk flour and salt together. Add water and stir until well blended. Turn out on to a floured surface and knead until smooth, about 8-10 minutes. Do not let the dough become rubbery. Roll out dough with rolling pin and cut ornaments using cookie cutters or whatever you wish. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet or on parchment paper. They can be placed 1/2 inch apart as they don't really expand much. Poke a hole for hanging with a straw. Bake for 2 hours.

Please tilt your head to the left to get the full affect.

P.S. this recipe made about 24 ornaments

I know 2 hours sounds like a loooong time but seriously... go do something else!

Christmas Coffee Table Style

2011-12-08T20:58:00.000-06:00

The lovely coffee table. The center piece of most living rooms and dens. What to do with it? Here's what we did with mine.

To go along with the burlap I used for a make-shift tree skirt, I dug out this old coffee bean bag. It was in terrible need of ironing and smelled quite odd when I put the heat to it.

We chose one of my enamel pitchers and stuck some cedar tree clippings inside from a tree along the driveway. It may have helped keep the trimmings fresh if I added a bit of water to the pitcher... but there's a hole in the bottom. Not good for water.

The marble game is always on the coffee table. It was my Grandmother's and the old jelly jar came from Uncle Randy. The red and white striped marble was a gift from my new best friend that owns Phillips General Store. He doesn't really know he is my new best friend but he is. I had visions of cleaning up the Halloween decorations that are still in his yard. Poor Cobbler. No time for himself. What a darling fellow.

Anyone who has been to my home knows good and well that I have been gladly suffering from an enamelware addiction for years. I knew my vintage glass ornaments (the smelly ones) would look perfect in a medium sized enamel bowl. I thought I needed a stand for the bowl and it just so happens that I found out the fruit bowl stand from Longaberger nestles the heck out of my prized enamel bowl. It worked out quite well.

And to add a not so good picture, here is the metal star I have had forever with a coffee scented candle that I bought in Bellbuckle a while back. My sweet sister added the fresh but previously frozen cranberries that I think made a nice touch and completion to my Christmas Coffee Table look. Don't you think? And don't worry, kids are only likely to eat one cranberry before they probably won't touch them again and will cringe when the see the canned, jellied stuff at Thanksgiving. Or they may love them?!

It really took no time to put together a spread that we will enjoy the entire month of December.

Christmas Mail is Fun

2011-12-07T20:55:00.000-06:00

Remember my Mistletoe Hunt gifts I sent to far away family? Sending Kisses? Scroll down to see that post. Well I received a package of my own in Tuesday's mail. How exciting to come in from a long day at work and 45 minutes worth of driving home traffic to see a tiny box on top of the mail on the table with my name on it! I knew I hadn't ordered anything online, at least nothing that was being shipped to this address. I play Secret Santa and have everything shipped to my sister's house. Sneaky :)

I quickly opened the box to find a card from a mistletoe recipient. I dug further to find a fantastic full apron with little ladies hanging laundry on the clothesline on the front of it! How perfect for me! This morning I wore it making breakfast and thought I'd snap a pic or two to share.

Thank you Aunt Dea for thinking of me! I love you and Merry Christmas!

I reckon I had already cleaned up breakfast.

I sometimes wish I was as willing to have my picture made, or good enough to take decent picture of myself without cutting my head off, like some of the blogs that I follow. Sometimes I would like to take pics of outfits from the thrift store that I put together. This morning I just so happen to have the camera out and a thrift store bargain outfit on. So... here's possibly the one and only outfit that I will share. Or maybe the first and you'll just have to put up with my photography errors and goofy faces.

Sweater: ThriftSmart $3.00

Wool Lined Skirt: Ladies of Charity thrift sale $6.00

Leather Waist Belt: Ladies of Charity thrift sale $2.00

Copper Hawk Necklace: Hand me down from Aunt Charlie Ann

Boots and Knee Socks: actually these I purchased last Friday at Off Broadway shoes. Boots $34.00 Socks $9 for three pair which scrunch at the top either over or under the knee (black, white, ivory)

Christmas Inspiration

2011-12-06T21:07:00.001-06:00

The two page spread in my 2011 journal labeled "These two pages are for Christmas Only" began on September 6th. I have been excited about giving, crafting, music and Jesus' birthday for months. It's no wonder that when it got here I found myself a little drained. A lot drained. Thanksgiving weekend passed without a single tree going up in my house. I didn't even want to listen to holiday music.

Luckily, I pre-planned for my mental block. After going to the Webb School craft fair in October in Bellbuckle, and finding a huge awestruck love for Phillips General Store, I knew what I was going to need. I planned a Friday off from work and my sister and I drove down in search of inspiration.

Guess what..... we found it.

All white and silver mantle.

Used it..... you'll see.

Bowl of vintage Bwalls. :)

See the white one ... brought it home.

I love the old stuff on the upper walls... and the old stuff on the ... everywhere!

Yes Girl... I know. I couldn't believe it either.

Totally inspired to cut up a Christmas bridgecloth... maybe.... yes..... maybe.

If you get a chance.. GO! We were on a Christmas high for the rest of the weekend!

You'll find more pics of our Bellbuckle visit Christmas Style here.

Sending Kisses

2011-12-04T10:36:00.000-06:00

And before we knew it a new tradition for us was born this year.

Friday, the Friday after Thanksgiving, we gathered as planned at the farm of our friends' in Goodlettsville where I had spied bunches of mistletoe last winter when sledding. Our farm does not have mistletoe anywhere. I have searched and searched with no luck. Matter of fact there's just not much up here on the hill. Maybe it's the slight change of altitude. But downhill there's mistletoe a plenty as you can see from our final kill shot of five full plastic grocery bags full (and we could have gotten more!)

Five of us anxiously headed out into the woods, shotguns and bags in hand, on four wheelers. We shot and caught and gathered for a couple of hours. Such fun... every bit I thought it would be. We wound up with tons! We hung some here and there and still had a lot left. My thoughts got a little farther away wondering if mistletoe grew in Texas and in Florida where I have family. Then I thought "hey!... Kisses from Tennessee!" I tied ribbons on springs and tucked them into small jewelry sized boxes. I went to my favorite vintage graphics site, The Graphics Fairy, and snagged a nice vintage deer with antlers pic in red (because my silly printer refuses to print in black and will soon be replaced with a printer that will.) I printed the tiny cards on white card stock, cut them and folded them. I placed a loving message to three far away family members, tucked the small boxes into mailing envelopes and sent them on their merry way on my lunch break on Monday.

I don't know what about using our mail system to mail something special gives me the fuzzies but it does. To think that one day mistletoe was hanging at the tip tops of trees and a few days later it is hopefully adorning the doorway thirteen hours away by car. Fuzzy.

Comfort Food

2011-11-27T21:28:00.000-06:00

When we left to go to church this morning, our thermometer said 60 degrees. When we got back.. it was 45 degrees. Now that's a front. Two hours, in the middle of the day, dropping fifteen degrees and it's just downright not fair. I am a summer girl at heart that's for sure. I would much rather go in to church with it a tad cool and come out to a warm sunny afternoon. I always have trouble adjusting and it can just downright put me in a mood.

I did, however, welcome this evening's chill outside with warm, comfort food thoughts. Several years ago I bought a packet of Corn Chowder mix from a Tastefully Simple party and fell in love the minute I tasted this soup. Unlucky for me the company took the mix out of it's main line and hasn't brought it back since. But this fall I ran across an easy and oh-so-good recipe here. That Pioneer Woman is fantastic. So tonight I made the chowder along with beer cheese bread that is so easy it's silly and invited a few family members over to eat.

Oh, P.S. I also added teeny, weeny shrimp to the chowder. YUM

Have a wonderful week!

P.S.S.

Isn't this the most lovely looking salt you have ever laid eyes on?!? It came from a friend who is in a salt club. Have you ever heard of such? It looks and feels like sand but tastes like salt heaven.

What keeps me amused

2011-10-30T19:36:00.000-05:00

One thing I have always said about myself is "that I could have fun by myself in a paper bag." Huh.. so can my cat. Great minds I guess. And also let it not be said that Aunt Laurie doesn't know how to have a good time.

Yesterday, after my recovery from what I called "the day after our wedding reenactment," I finally made myself go outside and take a walk. I didn't so much want to head up the driveway to get the mail... too much wind. And the breeze yesterday and today had a Northern chill to it. So I meandered along the edge of the woods behind our house and along the back field. I saw that the electric fence around the pig lot apparently wasn't working because I spotted a piggie toosh up in the air from across the field as he was trying to dig out. I was hoping to find a feather or two, but there were none to be found. I wound up back at the front porch watering pansies and trying to freeze water droplets in action. Isn't it amazing that our eye doesn't work this fast but motion does?

The ripples looked like a flower to me.

I love the ripples in the burst going upward and also the reflection.

This one is my favorite. Frozen motion that happened so fast this was the only way I could see it well.

My sister called while I was taking these and the four of us plus my nephew wound up going to eat Mexican... which only furthered the reenactment. If I had only eaten at the party the night before I feel as if I could have avoided a wasted day. Was it wasted or semi what my body needed... rest.

Creepy Thoughts

2011-10-26T20:58:00.001-05:00

Things that are stuffed. By things I mean animals. Living in the country, having a husband who hunts and apparently being the red-neck-lady-bird, or Laurie Bird as Aunt Lynda calls me, we have lots of taxidermied animals adorning the walls and corners of our home. Some women care and don't allow their husband's hunting trophies to be hung inside the house claiming they would "look better" in the man cave. I could care less. I like the way the coyote looks on the landing and the sets of antlers above each door looks. Pick up a copy of Elle Decor anytime and you'll find antlers on a table or a fox fur on the coffee table. It's chic! Get with it peeps.

Here are a few examples of lovely, furred art that were available over the weekend. All you have to do is look and purchase items for your own home and you too could move into the world of high fur fashion in your home.

A nice Buck. Looks fantastic over a fireplace or consider a Doe... like mine... over the bathtub.

Some sort of a pheasant or duckling. Very nice especially sitting comfortably on a bed of ivy.

Comes with it's own box. And I'm pretty sure it's smiling.

I think this dove has seen better days but then think about it... it is probably pretty difficult to skin and stuff a delicate mourning dove and keep it from looking too sickly. Nevertheless... not too bad.

Cage not included.

I do not know what kind of rat dog this was but notice the inner front leg and how the fur comes together. Yes folks... someone had FooFoo stuffed.

EEEE, EEEE, EEEE, EEEE! A STUFFED HEAD!

See... Creepy Thoughts. Good fun for a Halloween weekend coming up! Be Safe Kids!

Weekend Faves

2011-10-17T20:57:00.000-05:00

An incredible weekend. An incredible craft fair. Two of my sisters, myself, three nieces and one nephew got up extra early and headed south-east to the ting town of Bellbuckle, Tennessee. We walked, laughed, scoured and awed at each booth and antique shop around. One in particular was so utterly exciting I wanted to hug the owner and decorator for being so brill!

This is my last full day of the thirty-seventh chapter of my book of life. Tomorrow begins thirty-eight and I have to say I am excited. I truly feel as if it is New Year's Eve. I have a few resolutions, a few goals and big hopes and dreams for this year. And a new cousin to kick it off!

Here are a few glimpses of my favorite store's decor from Bellbuckle this year.

Inside Philip's General Store.

Caskets were all a theme in Halloween decor this year.

A touch of Dorothy... brilliant.

Creepy, stuffed creatures found here and there.

Vintage photographs darned displays all over. Which some own a creepiness of their own.

At $3.00 a scoop these teeny, weeny pumpkins, which were actually some sort of seed pods from India, were a fabulous steal!

And I spy three shoppers I know too well!

I realized my jaw was on the floor minutes after entering this fabulous shop. The pictures do not do the justice it deserves. I cannot wait to go back to ohh and aah over the Christmas Displays.

Happy Birthday to me!

A Colorful Journey

2011-10-05T21:54:00.000-05:00

Last week my friend Jenn opened my eyes to a new kind of journaling. A-Picture-A-Day. Now you don't have to be a trained artist or even know how to draw to be able to create something beautiful. And it's for your eyes so does it really matter?

I am a little tired this evening as I haven't been sleeping well. But I wanted to share my little creations the last five days. I began my Colorful Journey on Saturday, October 1st. I plan on filling the month up with whatever strikes me when my pen hits the paper.

For the paint I am using regular, cheap-o acrylic craft paint and water. I cut an egg carton, add a teaspoon size or less of water to each egg carton cup and a drop of paint. Stir it up and paint away.

For the paper, I don't have any special watercolor or drawing paper. I don't like to buy a bunch of crap at the craft store with good intentions. I prefer to make do with what I have. So my paper is simply a heavy pound of copy paper folded in half. After I add the paint I let it dry for five or ten minutes then put it in between a couple of heavy books to help flatten it out.

Here's what I have so far... provided the up loader let's me put tall pics on here. You may have to turn your head slightly to the left.

Or to the right :)

I've not a clue how this one cooperated.

I got mad a while back and actually have it written in my journal I CAN DRAW! Just tell yourself you can, sit down and DO IT! It's not going to come out unless you let it. And a whole month of a Colorful Journey will give anyone plenty of practice!

The Love Goes On

2011-09-25T21:38:00.000-05:00

While feeling as if my chores could be put off until the afternoon on Saturday, I called my sister having the feeling they were yard sailing. Yes.. I meant sailing.. you do drift from one sale to another. Luckily they hadn't embarked as of 8:30 AM which is late for them to be heading out. I invited them in for sausage, eggs and cinnamon rolls and we were off.

It was a great day for sailing. I didn't buy a whole, whole lot but what I did buy I HAD to have. Such as a lamp for fifty cents that doesn't work, a canning jar for ten cents that will work, some Pyrex saucers with tiny green flowers and, oh did I mention, old sheets! We were at a sale later in our journey where I found brand new (vintage) dish towels with cooky flowers and teapots from the dollar store that still had their thirty three cent price tags on them. I don't remember dish towels being under a dollar at the dollar store. We were about to leave this sale, had already paid my two dollars for six dish towels, a shell covered box for M.E. and an old Ball box of canning lids when I spotted a whole row we hadn't gone to. I think we almost walked off even after saying "Hey... we did y'all go down there?"

We wound up finding a table and three boxes full of old sheets. Not yucky, smelly old stained up sheets like one might think. Actually I usually only find the top sheets, the flat sheet, which is probably a good thing. I got four new sets of pillowcases and one beautiful flower covered flat sheet. These are the type things that make me done for the day, I'm ready for these suckers to be washed and on the clothesline. Which is just what we did... called it a day. And lucky for my sister, her husband was at home getting ready to put a clothesline up for her so she really needed to head in anyway.

Who are these lucky girls?!?!

The olive green at the end is terribly gorgeous.

So Ultra colorful!

Ugh the beauty! The just don't make 'em like they used to.

The red is the hair towel I got, same sale, same twenty five cent price tag.

That's one of the lucky girls!

And P.S. I did get my chores done when I got home!

Oink Oink Mmmmmm

2011-09-20T21:16:00.000-05:00

So, we got our processed pigs back today. Shaun went and picked them up and thawed us two packs of pork chops to eat tonight. Unfortunately, two packs were needed as these chops were not near as big as the last hogs we raised and had about three fourths of an inch of fat around them which I trimmed. Fortunately, they tasted fantastic... even the small ring of fat that I left on that I don't normally eat. I soaked them in Moore's which is a marinade kinda like Dale's but less salty. Small size, big taste, "what's the problem" I asked! We have three more small hogs, well two hogs one sow, that will be sausage in the morning and if they taste anything like these chops I absolutely can't wait. I can't wait anyway.

Our supper tonight was a "totally summer" supper. We had hog that we raised all summer, tomatoes and okra that I canned from our garden this summer and sweet potatoes from our garden this summer. We also had biscuits that I technically bought during the summer seeing as how I heard the first day of Fall isn't until this Thursday, I think.

Let's talk about that honker of a sweet potato. (gee whiz, Shaun is complaining about the size of the hogs again on the phone) This is the first year we tried to raise sweet potatoes. I really bought them as a sort of after thought from Wal-Mart after we planted the garden. We always leave room for stragglers. Our plants produced the biggest sweet potatoes I have ever seen. I kid you not, I was coming down the driveway two weeks ago and Shaun was holding one up... let's just say they're huge. I cooked one... one... for supper tonight for the both of us and we couldn't finish the dish by any means.

Sweet Potatoes: wash and peel 2 potatoes and cut into chunks. Place in a saucepan, cover with water and boil for 25 minutes or until a for or knife goes right in. Drain, mash with a potato masher. Add 1/2 milk, one egg and 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Pour mixture into a small casserole. Combine 1/2 brown sugar, 1/2 stick butter, 1/4 cup flour and 1/2 cup chopped pecans with a fork and crumble on top of potato mixture. Bake for 25 minutes.

Recipe adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/10/soul-sweet-taters-step-by-step-recipe/ which by the way if you don't know how to cook or don't like to cook The Pioneer Woman WILL change your mind. Her step by step instruction of dishes makes it easy.

This isn't even the biggest one! Dang I should have weighed it.

Chops marinating in Moore's... aaaaahhhhhh.

Sweet Potato Chunks.

Beauty, Goodness, Truth... even though they are small.

Hey Jenn.. what do you think about this one?

P.S. The Antiques Roadshow and Dancing with the Stars was a wonderful whirlwind of channel changing that my husband got a tad dizzy from but it was fantastic. Luckily the garden has played out because after months of no T.V. watching for me, I am front and center on Monday night. You should see my dance moves! Ciao!

Well.. Here's to Best Friends

2011-09-19T18:26:00.001-05:00

It's Monday evening. A very exciting Monday evening IF you are an Antiques Roadshow watcher like me. This evening's shot is called Jackpot! I just know, and hope, that the most expensive item ever to hit the Roadshow is going to be on there... I just know it. On the downside, my other favorite show and Shaun's, Dancing with the Stars also begins tonight and they are both aired at the same time. Boy.. these networks really know how to torcher a gal!

I have already made chili. But not just any chili. Chili made with a fantastic mix made by friends of ours at Tennessee Hills. It is a Black Bean Chili Mix which only requires the maker to brown one pound of meat and have water and two cans of tomatoes on hand. The first time I made this chili I knew I had to have more. I made it with ground venison and tomatoes canned fresh from our garden. You absolutely cannot beat it. It has dehydrated black beans for crying out loud! That part really stumped me until I could ask J.T. how all that happened at the Dove hunt. You can find them at http://www.sulfurforkstation.com/ or give me a hollar and I'll put your order in for you and make sure you getcha some girl!

Luckily I was the "Good Girl" at work today which means I got to leave at 1:00. So I went to the library where I checked out seven new books, three of which are Christmas books because I am pouring over what I am decorating my Christmas Tree with this year. I'll let you in on a little secret.. it is going to have a Bird theme. Saturday I collected eighteen feather from a woods and creek walk on our farm. That was a good haul! I did however have to finally return a book that I have had a hard time letting go of. It's so good I found one on Amazon and sent it to my darling sister Marty who promptly ordered it for me for my birthday. As I was giving the cover of the book a soft goodbye pat I made my mind up to take my sister up on her offer of an early birthday gift. I called her and popped by to get my very own copy of the 1974 book A Naturalist's Guide to Cooking with Wild Plants by Connie & Arnold Krochmal. Remember the May Pops story? Did I tell the May Pops story here? If not I will another time. Point made it was simply fate that brought this book to me... sniff, sniff.

After I picked my fabulous new, perfect condition, with dust jacket in tact, book I headed to have my fifth round of fertility acupuncture. No it doesn't hurt and if you want me to tell more about that... well just let me know. I don't normally get that personal here but I know there are more people that have and could benefit from this. I will say that it sure is waking up my thirty seven year old reproductive system... I know that much.

With the smell of County Fair Cake battling Black Bean chili in my kitchen I have forty one minutes to eat and get situated, remote in hand, to flip back and forth for an hour between two awesome shows.

Good Night and Good Luck!
Laurie

A Make-It Box Birthday

2011-09-08T21:20:00.001-05:00

When I was growing up one of my favorite gifts, and gifts to ask for, were Make-It boxes from Grandmother Brown. She would find a good sized box and fill it with all sorts of school supplies, office stuff and crafty things. I would open it on my birthday to find a plethora of construction paper, pencils, new scissors, paper clips, etc. You name it.

This year I have made three Make-It boxes for three nieces, two birthdays and one college Make-It box that kind of added a different meaning to the name Make-It. It more had extras in it. Back up stuff so to speak. Pens, a spiral, bottle of aspirin, minis, roman noodles.. that type of stuff you know. But these boxes are so fun to make and also fun to shop for. I thought I'd share my most recent Make-It box for my niece Katelyn who turned sweet sixteen today!

I used an office box that envelopes come packaged in. I covered it with vintage wallpaper that I spray glued on. Then added goodies that I have been collecting just for K.K. You can go wild and shop for all kinds of stuff and miss the point of things. We keep a birthday budget most of the time of twenty five bucks and under since there's so darned many of us! Here's a look at the loot.

I covered the box on the outside of this one. Just measure, cut, spray and stick.

Vintage Pyrex coffee cup with chocolate mint B&B Works hand sanitizer.

Spiral, journal, bobby pins, ink pens, turquoise feather head band and earrings.

ModPodge, be-dazzle rhinestones, lip gloss and a special something wrapped up.

Topped off with a vintage scarf to top off that drab outfit.

Elastic rick rack to hold it all together.

Isn't she just gorgeous! Happy Birthday K!

This & That

2011-09-04T19:10:00.000-05:00

*Juvenile Ruby Throated Hummingbird

*Amish Store Goodies - should have bought some

*A Trip To Scottsville, KY to Amish Life

*Truck Pulls at the Robertson County Fair Friday Night

*Me... Fair Winner :) 10 ribbons total this year

*My Mom

*Sweet 16 Birthday Cake for KK

You got new leags Lt Dan

2011-08-31T21:04:00.000-05:00

I once read on a fellow blogger's blog that you should never blog as if you are talking to your best friend. In some ways I agree. You really don't want to know everything my best friend and I talk about well... mostly because you would think we were nuts most of the time. We jive very well. But this comment about blog "do's and don'ts" makes me hold back at times. Maybe because I think I will be made fun of, thought badly of or just plain... no one really gives a poo. So... I have come to the realization that I am just gonna tell ya .. ok!

So.. all that said here's my "You got new leags Lt Dan".... from Forest Gump.. you know! I went to the eye doctor at Wal-Mart in the spring to get a new eye exam simply because I needed new contacts. Whilst I was there... browsing the eyeglass frames and trying many, many pairs on as any curious kid would... I spotted the perfect pair. This pair of glasses had pink frames, they fit impecibly well, they wouldn't allow me to look underneath my glasses and have to look down to see, and they reminded me of something Grandma Covington wore... large frames. I knew they were the ones for me, but wait... frames are expensive and lenses are even more expensive and I am here for an exam and contacts today. I put them back on the plastic faux nose on the wall, said good bye and walked away with my new contacts.

I thought about these glasses more than a few times over the next month or two but toned down my desire for them by telling myself over and over I didn't need them. Well I gave in when I had the thought of finishing the dove hunt magazine and having extra money when it was done. I told myself I could have them... finally as a consolation prize and award for a job well done.

The day came. I stopped at Wal-Mart after work on a Friday and although I had not yet gotten my payday I did have enough to go ahead and order them so I thought. I am pretty sure if I had been clocked on the way in the store I would have gotten a ticket. I went straight for them, tried them on and felt the "Oh Yeah... these are the ones" feeling once again. They are large and in charge and I can see the world with these! I quickly turned to my left answering the eyeglass sales lady's question of "can I help you." "How much are these frames?" I said. She answered "Nine Dollars." Hmmm? My first thought was ... and I waited all this time? Ok.. "how much are the lenses for these frames?" Well, she said, if you just get the normal plastic lenses that fit those frames they are 14.95 per lense. My total coming to a wopping $38.95 for a fabulous pair of frames that I adored. I couldn't believe it. I never imagined, nor have I ever spent less than 150.00, that my new glasses would have only been forty bucks.

I am glad that I didn't ask the day I got my contacts how much the glasses were nor notice the 9.00 tag right underneath the set... mainly because I didn't have my new contacts in at the time. I walked away with a new pair of glasses and for a steal of a deal. And my... don't I look smart!

MayPops Jelly

2011-08-30T21:33:00.001-05:00

What are May Pops did you say?? May Pops... Wild Apricots as Shaun calls them... or Passion Fruit from the passion fruit vine that grows wild as Christmas at the Denton's. Here's a couple of pics of what they are.

Notice the beauty of it all. The purple flowers are gorgeous and the fruits look like limes.. but they sure don't taste like limes.

In all my lust for natural items on our farm (free stuff you can eat) I read in several library books that the fruits of this vine are edible. If you have ever stepped on one out in a field you know that they make a pop sound and there's really not much to them but rind and seeds.

I must say that I have found this to be very intriguing as I found a recipe online and started making jelly. These fruits smell wonderful and come to find out they taste wonderful too. I have had samplers of the jelly say that it tasted like white grapes, honey, and pear preserves .. without the pears in it.

So my short but sweet story on the recipe is this... I found one online and made it. The jelly turned out so thick a knife would stand straight up in it. In my mind I either added too much pectin or cooked the sugar mix too long. The odd twist to this story is that I went to the library to pick up a book I had on hold called A Naturalist's Guide to Cooking with Wild Plants by Connie and Arnold Krochmal (which I have on order for my birthday) and the very recipe was in this book. What are the chances.. I mean really. The only difference in the online recipe and the recipe I found in the book was the amount of pectin to use.... key! The book recipe said to use half of a 1.75 oz package of pectin... not 1.75 ounces of pectin.. which would cause it to harden up like a baseball... like it did the first time.

I got to work when I finished cleaning up supper dishes that very evening, this recipe truly only takes about 45 minutes, start to finish. I made the recipe with half a package of pectin and it turned out great. The color was prettier, the consistency while not quite as set as I think it should be, was much better, and the taste is wild and wonderful.

MayPops Jelly

2 cups ripe maypops, sliced

1 cup water

2 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 package pectin that is 1.75 oz

Combine the maypops and water in a 3 quart saucepan and boil gently for 5 minutes. Strain through a colander pressing to extract as much juice as you can. Toss the skins and seeds(throw away.) Combine the liquid and sugar and bring to a full rolling boil. Add the pectin and again bring to a full boil. Remove from heat, pour into hot sterilized jars, top with hot lids and seal.

Makes 2 1/2 pints.

P.S. This is a rolling boil... when the boil can't be stirred down.

So I got a little carried away! Saturday I made four batches. It seriously didn't take but a few hours and for a winter's full of maypop jelly... it's well worth it!

Growing Fun

2011-08-16T21:38:00.000-05:00

Every year, in our garden, I like to grow something fun and different. Something outside of our regular tomatoes, corn, squash, okra and zucchini and all the other "normal" things that we grow. Two years ago it was bird house gourds and luffa. Last year it was Tennessee Twister gourds, luffa again and scarlet runner beans with the addition of flowers to cut and several herbs.

This year we planted several things that neither of us had any experience with. So far we have had a small crop out of each new venture. We have black beans and green peas that have already been harvested. Sweet potatoes and peanuts that aren't ready to be harvested. My most exciting are the tomatillos! So far I have picked five that were ready. Since they normally grow in hot areas like Mexico I feel our hot summer here in Tennessee has been quite adequate for them to flourish. I made roasted tomatillo salsa Sunday night that was fantastic (recipe link) Wonderful taste and very easy to do.

I am so thankful for my green thumbs and dirt under my fingernails!

Oh my goodness... So good! We didn't have any tortilla chips so I cut a few flour tortillas and fried them in oil. Super Yum... UBER!

Our Afternoon Walk

2011-08-14T21:45:00.000-05:00

Lots of times I ask... "hey, want to walk in the creek with me?" I don't usually get the answer that I want but today I did. Shaun and Dottie and me took a hike to the creek then down the creek one way and back up the other. Then through one field, through a fence, around the pond and back home. I loved it... as I always do. I feel like a kid when I am in that creek and playing in the woods. There's just something about the way I connect with it that comforts my soul... until it gets dark... then I'm ready to be home although I feel that I know the woods well enough to find my way in the dark. I've closed my eyes down there before.

It is amazing that an hour spent with someone you love can produce a lifetime of memories. I love this place.

Seed Packet dos

2011-08-13T11:59:00.001-05:00

Here to share another seed packet design! It's definately that time of year for collecting garden seeds and flower seeds. For my seed packet you will need a printer, paper, scissors, tape and seeds. Oh and a pencil for writing the contents on the front. Enjoy and for seed safety please tape around the corners so none of your tiny gatherings end up on the floor!

For your free seed packet template, please click here

Canned Tomato Basil Sauce

2011-08-11T20:32:00.000-05:00

I finally gathered enough tomatoes to can something! Garden-wise, our tomato crop of 53 plants had a rough beginning, as did everyone I talked to near and far around this area, not just up here on the hill. We had a lot of heavy rains early on this summer followed by very hot, dry days in the 95-100 degree range. Soaked soil + hot on top isn't good for tender roots of tomato plants apparently, at least that's all we came up with as an excuse. When our tomatoes did start to turn red on the bottom they also started to rot on the bottom. Or the tops began bleaching out before the whole thing had a chance to finish turning. I had to start picking the tomatoes as soon as I saw them even slightly begin to turn colors.

Once our tomatoes seemed to be doing alright, they ALL started to turn. After having thoughts of "we are never going to have tomatoes" and "just weed-eat and mow 'em down, they are breaking my heart" to "wow here they are... this is going to be a fast and short season!" I am thankful for what we have gotten and have tried my hardest to make the most of what we have been blessed with. I also made the most of what our neighbor Mr. Butler shared from his tomato patch in which I didn't have to be told twice to get what I wanted out of!

Since August 4th I have managed to can 7 pints of tomatoes and okra, 4 pints of seasoned tomato sauce, 5 pints of pasta sauce using Mrs. Wages mix (which is my favorite and seems to be obsolete around here) and 12 pints of tomato-basil sauce. All in all I have used somewhere around 64 pounds of tomatoes. I would like to put up at least two more batches of sauce that can be used in recipes from spaghetti to minestrone soup throughout the winter so we'll see.

I would also like to share the recipe I used to can the tomato basil sauce. I wish it only took an hour start to finish and I wish you would end up with mega pints of sauce but sadly... no and no. But the recipe will be a wonderful base for many dishes that call for pasta sauce and can be seasoned later on with garlic, Italian seasonings, vegetables... whatever you wish. I know it smells fabulous cooking in the kitchen and will aid in keeping us healthy until next year.

Tomato Basil Sauce

10 pounds tomatoes
3 Tablespoons fresh, chopped basil, or 1 tablespoon dried
Lemon juice
Salt

Peel tomatoes by dipping in to boiling water for about one minute. Allow to cool to the touch and easily remove skins. Core tomatoes (cut the top off) and cut in to quarters. Place half of the tomatoes into a large, stainless steel stock pot and bring to a boil, crushing with a potato masher. Add remaining tomatoes, turn to a lower temperature and allow to simmer uncovered for two hours stirring often as to prevent sticking. Remove from heat and stir in basil. Put 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 1/2 teaspoon salt (I use canning salt) into each hot pint jar. Ladle hot sauce into jars, wipe rims clean, add hot lids and screw bands on finger-tip tight. Process in a boiling water canning bath for 35 minutes. Allow to cool. Label jar contents and store. Enjoy as you wish during the coming, fresh tomato-less months.

A Farm Documentary

2011-07-31T14:57:00.000-05:00

I have been so fascinated with herbs and herb books lately. I want someone to come to our farm, walk around with me, and tell me what each and every wildflower, tree and possible herb is growing here. There are tons of plants that I could make up names all day long for, just as I have certain areas or our farm. But it would never be it's true name and kind of like Nell.. I would be the only one who understood it!

After my fifth checked out herb book from the library last week (not all in the same week!) it hit me. I should make an herb/wildflower book of our farm! With glued trimmings, sketches, the works! I had to get started.. after all.. this book will be around for a good while and as I find something new I could add to it and finally, maybe, identify some of the beauties for myself even when they are not in season.

I decided, after coming up with this project on Friday, that I should begin on Saturday, after all... I have all the stuff I need to get started... except a friend. I called my sister and got permission to kidnap my niece to help. She actually came quite willingly... who wouldn't!?!?

Saturday morning came and so did some rain. It put off our adventure for and hour which put us an hour into a hot morning. We documented fifteen plants with pictures, location, measurements, details of smell and feel, a sketch or two and glued on card stock clippings. We were only out for maybe two hours and wanted more than that but we had a bit of four wheeler trouble and it was awfully hot and muggy but we had fun!

The book is no where near finished if it ever will be!

Grilled Summer Squash

2011-07-25T20:52:00.001-05:00

In our household there's just nothing like the smell of squash, picked from our garden, frying in a pan. Dipped in milk then breaded, simply in flour, with a teeny dash of salt and pepper is how we like them.

Until today...

I do have to say that I am a bigger fan than Shaun of the recipe I am about to share. He is a generalist and likes to stick with what works most of the time. Although he will try anything and I mean anything that I cook. He always say "Mmmm that's the best I have ever tasted!" He's goood.

It is July 25th and we are just a smidgen over run with yellow, crooked neck squash right now. I, for one, am just not happy with freezing squash. Last year I even breaded and froze it with high hopes that were disappointed this past winter when all the breading stuck to the freezer foil. I don't want to be let down again so I am trying my best to use what we've got. Nuff said... here's the recipe!

Grilled Summer Squash

3-4 medium sized squash
olive oil
sea salt
pepper
butt rub... that's right.. Butt Rub (if you don't got it... get it!)

Slice both ends off each squash. Half the body of the squash. Brush olive oil on each flat side of the squash. Sprinkle sea salt, pepper and butt rub on to each piece. Place on the grill at the same time your steaks and corn (or whatev) are cooking with the skin side down. After about ten minutes turn the squash over to have the flat side down. Cook about ten more minutes and remove to a plate.

See.. that was easy! dang they were good too. Like I said I like them better than Shaun did. He ate skin and all. I kindof ate mine like watermelon and just ate the inside leaving the skin on my plate. A great addition to our lovely summer meal tonight.

Twin Topic Thursday

2011-07-07T21:37:00.004-05:00

My friend Jenn and I are giving this a try for fun. We decided to pick a topic and both write a short piece about it. Then link to each other's blogs, which we already do, so each of our readers can see and possibly be even more inspired about our topic. Here goes for the first edition.

Topic: If you had the time, right now, to learn and apply a new trade to your life what would it be and why?

My new trade would be Bee Keeping. Since I have moved to the country and have mucho room for gardening and growing flowers, I have desired to learn more about bee keeping but constantly pull back on putting this idea into practice. I want the hives, the worker bees, the queen bee, the honey, the guts to put on the suit and go in to my hive hands first. I want to help the honey bee population in our area as there doesn't seem to be near the amount of honey bees as there seemed to be when I was a child.

I read about bee keeping in library books, I've read blogs of people who keep bees, I know it would be beneficial to all that we do on our farm. I can talk myself right into it and right back out of it.

I will venture into bee keeping one of these days but if I had the time, right now, to learn, buy the stuff and put the interest into practice, that is just what I would do.

Now, please go and check out what my darling friend Jenn what trade would pick up and learn if time permitted. jennthepen70.blogspot.com

Thank you! And now the topic goes to you! If you had the time, right now, to learn and apply a new trade to your life what would it be and why?

Have fun!

A Few of My Favorite Things

2011-07-06T21:00:00.002-05:00

Canning: especially canning using vegetables that came from a thoughtful and very sweet source. Granny's friend Shirley. Thank you for thinking of me.

Butterfly Hill: which is what I call the hill at the back of our farm that is too steep to bush hog. It always has unique wildflowers and tons of butterflies and hummingbirds hang out there. This is the top of it... the flowers here... not that hill over there.

Flowers: I planted these coneflowers on Sipsey's grave two years ago and this is the first time they have bloomed. I love that.

Me Time: Our over sized claw foot tub that I can turn over in, watch the stars, and soak my cares away in. I like the backless chair I got in BellBuckle too. I knew exactly where in our new home it was going even before the house was anywhere near finished.

Library Books: and the evolving of my reading habits. I was truly never a reader growing up. It was only about three years ago that I overcame my fear of being kicked out of libraries and started checking out books. I haven't stopped yet. I am quite spoiled by the Davidson County Library, even though I have to pay once a year for the privilege because I don't live in that County. It is near work.

And Finally Today: Dottie Girl trying to smell our supper through the back door glass. This is the second time we have caught her doing this. Clever way to get our attention huh?

Thank you for your time and attention.

Love, Laurie

A Tropical Adventure

2011-06-28T08:19:00.000-05:00

It’s summer. Everyone is going to the beach and on vacation adventures, and while in my heart I don’t really want to go, I still feel a tad of sadness and a bit of jealousy because most of my family is in Florida and my best friend is sharing the same coast. Although, I admired and agreed with a passage in a book I read earlier that said “there’s no where I want to go because there’s really nothing I want to get away from,” and “we live like we are on vacation.” Not exactly the wording, I thought I wrote it in my journal but didn’t. Alas… I wish I was there with them all to cook, play, sleep, read, eat…. at the beach.

But last night I too went on a tropical adventure, to an island. I allowed myself, in the quietness of our room, to drift away to a sandy beach and beautiful blue water lagoon with warm breezes blowing and four friends along. We explored the island and found a waterfall with crystal clear, clean water and a jumping rock perfect for diving. We swam and sat in the sun. We found coconuts and breadfruit and cannibals…Eeesh! Luckily I was safe in my bed and eventually my friends were too, all within the pages of my book.

I smiled and thought “I just had my own tropical adventure too… thank you Lord, I don’t feel so left out.” It’s amazing where a good book can take you if you allow it to.

This week’s read: Bed-Knob and Broomstick, by Mary Norton. Yet becoming another favorite… quickly.

Help Wanted

2011-06-24T15:04:00.000-05:00

As you may or may not know, I design and spend many, many hours compiling stories, creating ads and putting a magazine together for Sleepin' Bear Lodge and Farms annual Dove Hunt.

I have three covers designed and would love your input on which cover to go with. Please leave your comment and choose either cover A, B or C.

Eager Beaver!

2011-06-21T21:30:00.001-05:00

Howdy Doo. I am knee deep in yet another book by Edward Eager. I'm stuck in the juvenile section and stuck on this author! It's just child-like imaginative fun and has really sucked me right in. After the second book, Half-Magic, I sought more on the library website and currently have two in my possession. One of which I am reading now. I was so utterly excited when I started reading this one, The Well-Wishers, because it is a continuation of the first book of his that I read in the beginning of this little book journey of mine.

I am having fun with these books and can't wait to see what I'll pick up next. The books I have chosen are fun, fast reads. And so far, the Eager books have peaked my imagination.

After popular request, not really just my lovely friend Stacy, I decided to creatively save my book journal page as a picture and post it here. Feel free to blow it up, right click and copy it, print it or whatev! So here it is.. have fun!

Product Review Time!

2011-06-19T21:56:00.000-05:00

Time and time again while working in my kitchen I reach for one of my very favorite items... my herb scissors. Herb Scissors operate just like regular scissors except the have five blades instead of one so chopping fresh herbs is easy as pie.

This morning I was making potato salad for the big FDC 2011, (Father's Day Celebration) I popped out to the garden, cut some green onions, came back inside, washed them and cut them in to perfect slices in no time.

My memory is foggy when I try to think of where I first saw a picture of herb scissors. It must have been a magazine or maybe a kitchen website that I used to get emails from and on occasion a look book. However I came to find them I do remember my jaw dropping and my eyes getting wide. I actually got mine for free through my rewards on my credit card. They aren't expensive at all so I had enough points to buy them. I received them within a few days and have enjoyed them ever since.

I know you can use a cutting board and chop the with a real sharp knife but truthfully, unless it's serrated, I'm not that good with a knife. I like to hold my celery up and fhump the knife through it letting the ends fall into the sink. I use my Pampered Chef food chopper to chop nuts. I like my kitchen gadgets to an extent and if I were P.W. I'd have five pair of these hunnies to give away right now. But I'm not so I can only pass on where you can get them for a very fine price.

Herb scissors are a very handy kitchen tool to own. They even come with a little friend that helps slide leaves and pieces from between the blades. Here's where you can find a pair of your very own.

Casa de Pollo

2011-06-13T21:15:00.001-05:00

Our second wedding anniversary was last Monday, June 6th, and as time was leading up to this day Shaun kept asking if there was something that I wanted. One thing that has been on my mind for a while is to have a couple of chairs re-caned that are in desperate need of it. There is a lady over on 41 in Greenbrier that does it but neither of us has had the time to drive over there and get her number. I wasn't real sure if she was still in business or not. The closer the day came I decided to think of something else and while I was at lunch one day the thought hit me. I was actually driving back from the library and saw a fella on a small motorcycle with an old milk crate strapped to the back with freshly bought potted herbs in it and a bag of potting soil under his feet. The guy was on a mission (where's the camera when you really need it?) Why this made my mind jump to chickens I've not a clue but I called Shaun to let him in on my big idea for our weekend.

We have been throwing the idea of getting some chickens back and forth for a while and I thought our anniversary would be a good occasion to welcome a handful of them to our farm. We spent the whole weekend preceding our anniversary together building our chicken coop. We used Miss Pepper's dog pen which she doesn't use anymore so she said it was OK.

We built a house for them to get in out of the rain and cold. We hung chicken wire around the bottom and onto the ground, wiring it to the fence and hooking it into the ground to try and keep predators from digging under the fence.

Shaun put boards and tin across the top of the fence and placed several heavy tires on top for that Sanford and Son look. Naw I'm just kidding.... again to keep predators out. However I do sometimes mouth the theme song out loud... wadom wadom, wadom wadom wadom wadom waw, wadow wadow. You get the picture.

We added an old metal nesting box that Shaun's Dad had and a couple of roosts for them.

What we didn't finish over the weekend we worked on when we could during the next week and finished up this past Saturday. After my Granddaddy's 91st birthday party on Sunday we drove to our friend's house to chase down chickens. My husband is quite the chicken catcher I must say. He caught four and we had them in the carrier box and then decided that we thought we had three roosters and one hen. Mind you they are still pretty young so to us it's hard to tell the sex. So he went back in and fetched us two more making sure to get what we think are the hens. So we came home with three of each... we think.

They are enjoying their new home so far. They've been on top of the nesting boxes, on the roosts, on top of the house.. you name it. They are eating and drinking very well. I am looking forward to our first egg, and the second, and the third! Happy Anniversary to us!

P.S. He also got me a nice pair of farm work boots and some socks to go with. Ain't he just the sweetest! I needed them badly! I can't keep wearing my rain boots all summer.. they're hot!

Summertime Reading

2011-06-07T20:31:00.000-05:00

I got inspired to have a summer reading program called "A Book A Week" after seeing a flickr friend's picture of some library books. I am always interested to see what others are reading. Her comments about the books peaked my interest enough to go on my library's website and search for them. I got a few books headed in my direction, went and picked them up when they arrived in Inglewood and started reading. Now mind you I'm not a speed reader nor do I have a ton of time on my hands. I read before bed, on my lunch break at work and if it's a good book I'll spend some time on the weekends on my porch reading. I finished one of the books within a week and started in on another.

Another computer friend inspired part two of my summer reading program. I really, really want to review the books that I read but the questions and comments that I was coming up with were too complicated and I was trying to be more literal than I am. I had almost given up until today when a blog post changed my mind. www.mommycoddle.com posted a book journal that she has going for her children. Juvenile and simple as it may be, it was the simplicity that I needed to review my summertime books. I made my own version, sticking with the points she used, and printed it on a regular sheet of paper, cut it in to fours, and taped it in my journal. I will stick to just one journal and cram it with all sorts of things... including this.

A Book A Week - Week One

Title: Magic or Not?
Author: Edward Eager
Dates Read: May 25-31, 2011
Rating: 5 stars

Thoughts: This will be one of those reads that I revert back to in my imagination for a while. I loved how vivid a picture that author painted and I was able to see each character and place like a dream. I really enjoyed the way the stories in each chapter came together full circle and magically tied in at the end.

I don't want to give away what the books are about. I had no idea what they were about until I checked them out and started reading. For instance, book one is a juvenile fiction book. I don't even venture to that area of my library until now. And I have been back since then I tell you! That is part of the fun of it. The "Thoughts" section of the review is simple.. so I will keep it that way.

I would love to hear what you are reading and also your thoughts on the books I am going to be listing if you pick them up for yourself.

I can also email you a pdf file of the Book Journal entry sheet that I made if you so wish!

Shoo Fly Don't Bother Me

2011-06-05T20:32:00.000-05:00

Did you learn that song as a kid? I did... and the dance moves. You needed a few partners for that one. I'm pretty sure it was more of a square dance. Well in this case it's not flies I am shooing but gnats. Tiny, annoying gnats that in some cases are called fruit flies. I'm not sure why they want to hang out in here. I don't leave food out, or fruit. I can't figure what it is they are attracted to but they will buzz in your face like they are telling you to open the door and let them out or leave some fruit out please. Regardless I complained about it in front of the right person at work and she dropped a really good hint that has worked. Not that we were infested or anything but one or two is enough to want them gone. Try it if you need to... I promise... it works!

Fruit Fly Gnat Magic!

1 cup water

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1 tablespoon dish washing liquid

Stir ingredients together and pour into a few small bowls or glasses. Make sure everyone in your home knows not to drink it... it resembles lemonade! Place in areas that you have seen the gnats. The gnats are attracted to the smell of the cider vinegar and when they pop in for a drink the dish wash soap gets them and they sink to the bottom. It's quite lovely!

Working up the garden

2011-06-04T22:10:00.000-05:00

When I hear my wonderful husband say, "I'm going to work up the garden!" it means he is fixing to till between the rows in order to loosen that hard as a rock dirt so the roots of the plants can breathe better. This is a wonderful thing and very necessary and if I'm out there while this is going on everything is usually alright. It is when I am not out there that things go awry.

The night before last I planted dill seeds (for the second time) and lavender seeds it two little nice and neat rows in the front right part of the garden which belongs solely to me and contains mostly herbs. Needless to say if I had the following little project completed at the time of working up the garden this morning I would still have the two lavender rows that I planted. Bless his heart, he felt so bad. No big deal.. I have seeds soaking to replant them tomorrow and in the mean time I made some markers to my herbs so next time he'll know what I've done.

This is a simple, quick craft that requires only a few household items that most people I know already have.

Items needed: used canning lids, wire coat hangers, pliers, a hammer, one nail and a permanent marker.

First cut pieces of the coat hanger using the pliers or wire cutters. They can be any length you choose. I got three out of each hanger. Next hammer a hole in to the canning jar lid with the nail. I stuck mine between pieces of wood on our porch. It worked great and I didn't poke a hole in anything other than the lid... the second time.

Next take the wire pliers and bend one end of the wire cutting over to make a loop. Thread the canning lid onto the wire and loop it on over so the lid doesn't come off. Label the jar lid and you are ready to stick it in the ground or pot where you need to label what you've planted. So as to savor your efforts.

HACKED!

2011-05-31T21:18:00.000-05:00

I'm back online!!!! Wwhhhhew. My advise for today is... keep up to date with your anti-virus if you want to remain a PC user. I have always been very meticulous about keeping virus scans, updates, software and subscriptions current but given the current status of my bank account I opted out. Not a good decision. I could have lost it all! Luckily... I have a computer angel who saved my files and my little laptop. What a jewel to have someone like that!

It turns out that I contacted a virus on May 21st that totally took over and hid all of my files and programs and pictures and bloggy material on May 23rd. I noticed something was wrong but it totally kicked me off and in to recovery mode.

Today, I am back up and running although it took me almost an hour to find my internet connection. The virus put all of my programs and files into "Hidden" mode. So whatever my wizard did not unlock I have to find along the way and fix myself. I almost called him a while ago and thought nope... I can figure this out myself. And I did.

So right now I have all of these blog post wonders swirling around in my head. I have begun a Summer Reading Program that I want to share, along with a recipe or two but I feel as if I need to attach pictures of what I am talking about within my posts. So until I find my uploader... it's good to be back!

Happy Late Memorial Day! I hope you had a good one! My was camping in the Blazer under the stars with wonderful friends and PC free... kinda like the old days!

Jiffy Granola Bars

2011-05-19T21:22:00.000-05:00

On a recent browse down the baking aisle at WalMart I spied a couple of new items on the bottom shelf. I have always been a fan of Jiffy brand mixes. Once on a bus trip to the basket factory in Ohio with my sister, we popped into a small town grocery store to get out of the rain. I was so excited when I found several different boxes of Jiffy mixes. I had no idea they made more then yellow cake and cornbread mixes. There was a whole Jiffy world out there I knew nothing about. I wrote to the company and they sent me a couple of cook books. One of them being a camping cook book using all Jiffy mixes in the recipes. I was thrilled and to this day I still have them and have written to the company for updated books since then and have them too.

On my grocery trip last week I found that our local WalMart has started carrying chocolate chip cookie and oatmeal cookie mixes. I snatched up a couple of each. Jiffy mixes are very handy to have. One, they are cheap and two, they don't make a ton of cookies or cake or muffins. When cooking and baking for a two person household, these mixes work out fabulously because by the time the twelve to fifteen cookies are gone we're pretty much over them for the day anyway.

While using the oatmeal cookie mix last week I got to thinking that I could make granola out of it somehow. What I came up with wasn't granola but granola bars! My loving husband likes to have granola bars for a snack in his lunch box and I'll generally carry one in my packed lunch as well. They are easy to make and very versatile because you can add raisins, chocolate chips, almonds, etc. The possibilities are almost endless. Have fun!

Jiffy Granola Bars

1 box Jiffy brand Oatmeal Cookie Mix
1/2 cup cereal (granola, corn flakes, whatever you have)
1/3 cup honey
1 beaten egg
3 Tablespoons canola oil
1/4 cup fun stuff like chocolate chips, dried cranberries, chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line an 8x8 inch pan with aluminum foil and spray lightly with cooking spray or brush with oil. Mix all ingredients in a bowl and spoon into prepared pan. Spread/press mixture throughout pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until light brown around the edges. Allow to cool on a wire rack. Lift foil and goods out and remove the foil. Cut once down the middle and five times across to make ten bars total. Wrap each bar in plastic wrap and store in a Ziploc bag. Eat whenever!

Jam Session's Almost Here

2011-05-11T20:17:00.000-05:00

EEEEEEEEE! I am so excited to teach this class!! My Jam Session books are finished, notes and outline complete, goodies from the Jarden Company, Ball and freshpreserving.com are here and tomorrow... it's strawberry picking time! If you seriously want to learn how to can it's not too late to get your name in the pot for this class.

Saturday Morning Jam Session is this Saturday, May 14th from 9:00 A.M. until 12:00 P.M. I have a lot planned for the morning. It's going to be a little bit of work and a whole lot of fun!

Send me an email if you would like to sign up!

10 Tips to Thrift

2011-05-03T20:33:00.000-05:00

Being the avid thrift store shopper that I am, I feel as if I need to pass on a few thrifting tips to those who wish to indulge in thrifty shopping. Mind you in the last year and a half I can only recollect clothes shopping outside of a thrift store three times. Once at Ann Taylor when I started my new job, a trip to WalMart for shirts to craft on and one time at the GAP meeting my friend Jenn, I had a printed tee suck me right in. Do keep in mind that I do buy undergarments new, in case you were wondering. Of course while these products are available at thrift stores, I choose not to.. that's just me.

Now on to the tips. I have ten tips to share but since I wrote this blog I have come up with more so there may be a Tips to Thrift Part Deux.

1. Do not be afraid. These clothes are not nasty, dirty, stinky or all bent out of shape and not all clothes are from the seventies and eighties in here. Most stores thoroughly inspect all clothes and pass up anything completely undesirable. Picture the clothing coming from your own closet or the closet of a friend or big sister. I have always thought that I thrift well because of being the fourth child and used to hand-me-downs but I have friends that are not from one girl families or one child families that are excellent thrifters so... you can do it! I know it's not all NEW. Get over it!

2. Find a thrift store close to where you live or work. A store that you could visit at least once a week. It has been my experience that the turn over in my favorite thrift store is high. If I don't frequent it I miss it. Someone (and it just had to be same person) dropped off a whole bunch of Ann Taylor dresses and BCBG and I wound up buying three for super prices but I know there was more!

3. Stick to a moderate budget. Only allot yourself ten dollars per visit. Pick up a flowy floral skirt and a top or a nice pair of work slacks and a vintage scarf. Just make sure not to go over your budget. If it's not under ten dollars you can't have it.

4. Always check the shoes. While I am not really a big fan of used shoes, there is a big difference between worn and barely worn shoes. I have purchased brand new shoes from time to time. My favorite pair that I get tons of compliments on are a pair of Nine West, slip on, cow hide fur print boots that I got at my loving thrift.

5. Watch for Half Off sales. Thrift stores generally color code the product tags as to what day they are put out. Each day a different color tag, and sometimes two, will be the half off color of the day. Hint: if you find something that catches your eye but is priced a tad too high you can ask what day the color will be on sale and try your luck by visiting back on that day. If it is not still there you probably didn't need it anyway. I have purchased a few items this way... the cow boots were one of them.

6. Housewares - take it or leave it? I always skim the housewares department. I have managed to find deals on things from canning jars to antiques, like a vintage wooden water ski I bought to make a shelf out of (half eye roll from the husband.) But I have found items lately like metal pots to plant in. Keep your mind open as to how you decorate your home to the way you look at items.

7. Costume Jewelry - most of the time in a case. Although I do not often buy jewelry unless it absolutely intrigues me, I will say that one of my all time favorite necklaces came from a Goodwill store and purchased when I was nineteen. Be selective.

8. Time constraints can be a good thing. I find that I buy less when I have less time to to be selective. Rather, I am quick to say no to something if I have less time to decide. For this reason I located a thrift shop close to my office and go there and back usually within thirty minutes. Five to six minutes to drive there, fifteen minutes to look and five to six minutes to drive back leaving me with just enough time for a quick browse. Even if I don't hit all the departments I make sure to scan the area I am most interested in that day. If I feel like a new dress I'll head straight for the dress rack. If I need a frame for a craft project I'll head to housewares.

9. Don't look by the current look of apparel. Or don't judge a book by it's cover. Keep your own personal style in mind while browsing. If you spy a springy blouse picture which scarf at home you could pair it with or which heels you could wear with that cutesy dress. You do have a style of your own. Find which pieces can add to your wardrobe.

10. As always in living frugally - do not buy it if you don't need it. Bargains can be found, extremely low pricing located and deals scored but face the facts, do you need another Scrabble game (Laurie?) Know when to say NO to yourself.

Finally, don't forget to donate. It helps the cause of the thrift store to donate items from your own closet just as much as it helps to shop there.

Six Hogs and a Sow

2011-05-02T20:44:00.001-05:00

The new hogs are here, the new hogs are here! Quick, name that movie. Not the exact same line but just picture me jumping up and down while saying it.
Yesterday we got our yearly hogs. Last year we had two that I have been everly grateful to and for since the day we met. This year we have seven. Needless to say if you live close and want to save your scraps... DO! Bring them over, dump them over the fence. I have to say that I, along with Granny, had gotten so used to saving scraps from egg shells to chicken bones and leftovers that I felt guilty all winter long about having to throw them away. I even thought about composting, which I cannot grasp how to do.

Part of having a farm and animals is their proper care and when you are raising pigs for food there are certain things that you have to do. I admit I don't fully understand why but the hogs have to be castrated and all tails snipped. The castration to keep the meat from becoming too strong and too tough once they come in to their own (nicely put) and the tails because apparently it is a proven fact that it takes more to feed them with the tails on. Something around eight bushels more per season per pig. Regardless it is what is done here.

So yesterday was the big day. When Shaun and Nick arrived with the pigs the surgery had to begin before they went in to the pen. (Not that it wouldn't have been amusing to see the pigs being chased around the farm for a while.) I, like the country girl I signed up to be, got in the trailer with them, in my good Ann Taylor jeans like a D.A., grabbed the iodine and the syringe and jumped right in to help without a second thought. (I am leery on how graphic to get) I felt helpful and was helpful. They could have gotten it done but castrating nine hogs, cutting twelve pigs tails and remembering to give the shots for de-worming and de-pesting is a lot for two people.

I did wind up getting blood on my jeans, wound up with not enough juice in the needle for all twelve pigs (luckily Nick had more... I must have squeezed some out in all the fury,) and got hog bit. Not real hard and I can't say I blame him. But I do give my props to the 19.99 rain boots from TSC. The pig did not bite through and if I hadn't had them on it would have hurt. I also learned how to clean, (ready?!?!) and fry pig nuts. So after an afternoon of doing what we had to do, we had turnip greens, black-eyed peas, cornbread and fried pig nuggets for supper. Now how do you feel. I feel pretty dang country.

P.S. the blood came out of my jeans with a little ivory soap, everyone is healing nicely, they are eating well, apparently are thrilled because they've never seen grass before (they came from a true hog farm which is what this one will look like with seven of them) and the movie is The Jerk, starring Steve Martin. And if you are truly interested and want a more in depth "how to" on castrating, pouring iodine, cutting tails, or frying pig nuts I'm your gal! Shoot me an email.

As if they weren't already pretty!

2011-04-30T14:42:00.000-05:00

While getting ready for my Jam Session photo shoot today, for the look book for the class in two weeks, I decided the jars of jam needed to be a little prettier. This is the simplest thing to do when you want to give your accomplishments away to the most prestigious of friends. Prestigious because they are worthy of your home canned products! Always make sure you have more on hand for just these sort of people when they pop over.

Here's how to dress them up a bit, as if they weren't pretty already!

Skim through your scrap fabric and pick something pretty. If you don't have scrap fabric you can easily, quickly and cheaply get remnants (scrap pieces) at any place that sells fabric. They want to get rid of the scraps and for this ... you want them to... it's a win/win!

Using a round bowl, trace the circumference of the bowl onto the inside of the fabric with a pencil.

Cut out the circle with scissors (like you didn't know that!) Use a rubber band to hold the fabric on the top of the jar of canned goodness. Tie a piece of ribbon, rickrack, dental floss, or whatever you want to keep the material in place and look purdy.

You can even tie on a label of what the contents of your jar is if you want. Which I did not do here. Just thought I'd tell ya.

Canned beauty!

Happy Easter

2011-04-23T21:40:00.000-05:00

When I colored my Easter eggs a couple of weeks ago, my intent was to grow grass in a planter and for it to hold my eggs and look pretty as can be at the center of my table on Easter. Didn't happen. Truthfully the eggs have been sitting on my kitchen counter in the egg carton that they were placed in the minute I got done coloring them. So with Easter being tomorrow and 18-20 guests coming over for dinner I figured I'd better do something with them.

I changed my centerpiece from being on the kitchen table to hovering above the table. I only lost one egg in the making of this brill idea. I wound up gluing multi-colored pastel yarn to the bottom, bringing the yarn up to the top of each egg and tying a bow. Then hanging them from our antler chandelier. It actually turned out pretty classy I think and the yarn gives it a bit of softness. See what you think.

I apologize for the crookedness, or then again no... I meant to do that :).

So I have been meaning to tell something that I learned this year. Back in March, or maybe just because everyone kept saying how late it seemed like Easter was this year. Well, while planning a blog I came across the reason why Easter seemed so late this year. I found it in the dictionary of all places.

Gee whiz.. I feel like I've typed this before... deja-blog! OK Easter seems so late this year because... Easter is observed on the first Sunday after the first full moon that occurs on or after March 21st. This year the moon was full on March 19th which was a Saturday and not again until April 17th - Palm Sunday. Making Easter fall on April 24th. I never knew how Easter was scheduled. Maybe there was a full moon when they discovered the stone had been rolled away from Jesus' tomb. So that's how they remembered when it was? Happy Easter everybody. He is risen!

Beginners Canning Class... Taught By Me

2011-04-20T21:14:00.001-05:00

Afternoon all! I have decided to teach my first canning class. I am so excited! If you live in this area and are truly interested in learning how to can this summer I would love to show you how and hand out tips, recipes and basically instruct "hands on."

In my first class you will learn how to make strawberry preserves or strawberry jam. On Thursday, before the class on Saturday, I am going to Crossplains, TN to pick the strawberries that will be used in class. I will show you each step of the jam making and preserving process from chopping the strawberries to the lids popping, which is music to my ears!

If you would like to sign up, or know someone else interested please email me or call. This is my first class ever to teach outside of teaching a friend or two, one on one. I can't wait and am enjoying my lesson planning and preparing. Home canned produce is just part of our pantry and with a lesson or two on how it's all done your very own jam could be part of your pantry too!

LLLLUCKY MEEEE!

2011-04-19T21:11:00.000-05:00

I am so excitedly tore up! After several attempts and help from others, I have finally found my own Morel Mushrooms!!!!!!! I have combed these woods on our farm for weeks, not constantly.. geez I have to work, looking for mushrooms and finally today it paid off in a big way!

Last Sunday, we went down to our friend's farm to mushroom hunt. They already knew of a couple of patches of mushrooms and so nicely showed them to me so that I would know what exactly I was looking for and what type of environment you can find them in. I think it's sort of luck of the draw on the area to find them because one of the patches that they had was by a creek and the other on a hill. I had heard and read already that they can most likely be found in the woods (of course), close to water, around rotten stumps, poking up through the leaves.

Today, I got off work early and totally meant to spend at least an hour on the Christmas Corner of our attic, but when I got home and heard the attic fans on which come on automatically when the temp in the attic reaches 100 degrees, I decided to find something else to do. I woke Miss Pepper up from her nap, got my rain boots on (cause I can tromp anywhere in them), put my bug spray on and headed into the woods. For a long time we didn't find much except for a box turtle that Pepper tried to become friends with. Then after a while Pepper headed back up to the house and I kept traipsing down a different path.

I was mid talking-to-the-woods, pleading for it to show me where they were hiding. "Just one!" I said out loud. Then to the right of my path I spotted a mushroom. I thought I was imagining. I blinked my eyes real fast like it was going to run or disappear. I seriously could not believe my eyes. I reached down, after snapping a few camera shots, gently broke the stem and put the mushroom in my bag. This was a hot spot because right after I found that one I looked around the same area and wound up finding eight Morel mushrooms. One of them was right on the trail by a big tree. Nothing hiding it at all.

After Shaun came down to check out the mushroom hot spot, we hunted mushrooms for about another hour in different areas but wound up coming out of the woods with the eight mushrooms that I had found there.

Another lucky thing for me was that Sally's Mom had shown me how to fry the mushrooms on Sunday so after soaking and rinsing them for a while I fried them up like a pro. They were wonderful and I got to share them with Shaun, Jody and Stevie. It's always nice to get to share something special. It makes for an extra lucky day!

Easter Eggs... Hollow Style

2011-04-16T20:32:00.000-05:00

I love colored Easter Eggs as everyone should but for some reason hate to waste the inside of the egg. Something about just what that hen went through to create it. Anyway, instead of hard boiling my eggs to color I poke holes and blow out the insides into a bowl and make omelets, use them in cake batter, make a quiche for cryin out loud... I just don't like to waste them.

I saw a documentary of a single lady once that said you can freeze eggs. Not while still in their shells, but as yolk and white. She also said that you could half an egg. By cracking the egg into a bowl, mixing it up and dividing it in two. There's a good hint for the single cook when the recipe calls for one egg.

So to get the insides out of the egg, you gently and I mean gently poke a hole in the top of the egg using a straight pin. Just push the pin into the shell ever so slightly and it will go.

Next put your fore finger over that hole and turn the egg over to have bottoms up and poke three small holes like a triangle and then break out the center. This hole needs to be bigger than the top hole and poking three right together makes it a lot easier to get this one the right size.

Put your thumb and finger over both hole and give it a good shake to break the yolk.

Stop laughing right now so you can do this step!
Over a bowl, put your lips on the top of the egg and blow the insides out into the bowl. If they don't come out very easily, take your pin and either make the bottom hole a little bit bigger or use the pin to mix up the egg. Shake it some more and blow again. Come on... puff those cheeks up!

Run water into the bigger hole to wash any excess yolk out of the egg. We don't want no stankin eggs!

When you color these eggs you have to hold them under the color water obviously because they are empty and not heavy like boiled eggs. They will also retain a little water so drain them well.

To color my eggs I used a coffee cup half full of boiling water, 1 Tablespoon of white vinegar and 5 or 6 drops of food coloring. You don't have to have that store bought stuff.

Waalaa... empty Easter Eggs and no egg guts wasted!

Oh No It broke... Paint it!

2011-04-13T20:34:00.001-05:00

Saturday, while potting flowers and making a dirt mess of my potting station which is what it's for, I discovered that one of my small clay pots was broken. I admit I don't use clay pots much for planting. They are beautiful and have wonderful qualities but if I use them for plants that need to be watered often, I have to water even more often because the clay obsorbes so much of the water. My aloe veras love clay pots. They don't even require water hardly ever.

I didn't let the loss of a pot slow me down. I picked up the pieces and thought... chalk board paint! Then I could write messages on the pieces and place them on top of the dirt in my potted plants. I felt brill! Plus it was yet another use for the paint that I feel like I have a ton of when in fact I only have a quart because that is the only size the hardware store had so I think I'll be using it for a very long time.

I ran upstairs, got the paint brushes and paint and headed back down and amidst the pots, dirt, mulch and plants I started painting pieces. It was super duper easy and looks cute in the pots with messages written in chalk like Smile :) , Pink Petunia, and Hens & Chicks. Plus I didn't have to throw away my teeny broken pot. I wound up painting the other two small clay pots and putting seperated hens and chickens in them. Fun on top of fun :)! I almost couldn't handle it all by myself.

Now, if I could only find chalk that you can sharpen! I always have trouble writing small with a regular piece of chalk.

Pretty Pots to Plant In

2011-04-11T21:28:00.000-05:00

I just cannot be normal. I refuse to purchase normal pots from WalMart to put my summer beauties in. Well, unless they are on serious clearance and big enough to repot an inside plant in. Instead I am like a scavenger when thrifting and at yard sales trying to find items large enough to put plants in.

At my Thrift Store, I call it mine because it's the one I frequent, two weeks ago I looked up to the top of a long clothing rack where they display kitchen glassware at one and and pots and pans at the other, and spotted a big pot. I darted, and I mean darted, towards it, picked it up and immediately admired it's size, age, nice wooden handle and it's price wasn't bad either at six dollars. Six dollars is a tad high but it is a good sized pot that a lovely summer geranium would soon call home.

This spring and summer I ask you to venture out. To break out and find something unusual to plant something wonderful in. Take the kitchen outside, take the laundry room outside, take the bathroom outside (ok not like that!) I am going to show you how to take an old stock pot and turn it in to a planter and also give you more ideas of things you can look for to plant in from the last couple of years.

First select the pot to plant in.

If it has no possible way to drain water you're going to have to make this happen.

If the pot is thin enough, or has rust holes already, simply use a hammer and nail to make the hole. Sometimes you have to use a drill and drill bit.

Line the bottom of your pot with gravel or rocks then top it with potting soil.

It helps to insert the pot your plant comes in into the dirt to get the correct size hole. Then easily remove the plant, dirt and all, from the pot and insert it into the hole that you made.

Fill all around the plant with potting soil and top with mini chunk mulch to help keep the soil moist.

Give your new plant in it's new pot a good drink of water and a smooch of good luck!

Here are some other items I have found are fun to plant in.

Old chip can. Used the lid on a bird feeder.

Large, enamel bowl. It already had thin rusty spots so it was easy to knock holes in. The chair... came with no seat. I did spray it pink. When you're single you can paint anything island pink. Shaun doesn't go for pink so much :)

Yes, it's a hospital pee pot. And I did clean it first :) (enamel pot planted in in the background)

This lovely Pyrex nesting bowl I bought at a yard sale and luckily it already had a hole in the bottom. Who the heck would get rid of this?

This, I thought, was a good idea. I did have a bit of trouble cutting the matting to line it with but it finally worked and did great all summer. Not bad for a twenty five cent old kitchen basket at a garage sale!

Good luck and send me picks of things that you find to plant in! I'd love to see the great ideas!

Easy Rolls For Supper

2011-04-05T20:01:00.000-05:00

Almost every meal deserves the accompaniment of bread of some sort. What else are you going to use to sop up what's left on your plate? I have here a really easy roll recipe that I have had for years upon years and haven't the slightest clue where it came from, which is a tad strange. There are two things I can always remember, where the yard sale was the I got my finds from and where I found a great recipe. I'm thinking a sister? That is highly likely. So if you are my sister and you know and use or have used this recipe and answered the phone when I called looking for a quick and easy roll to make with supper one night, please refresh my memory.

Also, forgive me for not having prep pictures. I decided to share the recipe a little too late in the roll making process.

Easy Rolls

1 Cup Self Rising Flour
1/2 Cup Milk
2 Tablespoons Sugar
1 Tablespoon Melted or Softened Butter

Mix ingredients together in a bowl. Spoon into six, greased muffin cups. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 - 12 minutes or until they begin to brown around the sides.

"Em are mighty fine biscuits." That was a quote from the supper table tonight. I'm not going to say which one of use said it.

Monday Night Minestrone

2011-03-28T21:14:00.000-05:00

It's a big change from my old Monday night routine of a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich with potato chips and a dill pickle spear to go along with the Antiques Roadshow. Not that Shaun minds that yummy combination for a Monday night meal which was my forever go-to when I was a single gal! Seriously, he said that I was going to turn into a bacon, egg and cheese if I wasn't careful. Monday nights have definately taken a turn in especially in the last several weeks since I discovered this delicious concoction.

After trying some of the best soup I'd tasted in a while, I came up with my own version that in my opinion may just have it beat! Gee whiz the smell coming from the kitchen with his soup is fantastic and paired with a simple grilled cheese sandwich it makes for a perfect and quick Monday night meal.

The following recipe is based on what I used that I had on hand. I use pasta sauce and tomatoes that I canned last year. The pasta sauce is purposely pretty chunky with tomatoes and I love it! It's also a great chance to use frozen vegetables that have been laying around in the freezer for who knows how long.

I also used basil that I froze last year from the garden. It's so simple to do and handy to have. You just chop it up fresh, place it by the tablespoonful in ice cube freezer trays, top with water and freeze. Once they are frozen just pop them out and put them in freezer bags to use whenever a recipe calls for fresh basil. Fantastic in soups like this one!

Monday Night Minestrone
1 medium sized can spaghetti sauce or pizza sauce
1 large can diced tomatoes, undrained
2 chicken bullion cubes, or 2 cups chicken broth
4 cups water
1 chopped onion
1 bag mixed vegetables such as a bag of frozen carrots, celery and onion
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 Tablespoon fresh basil or 1 teaspoon dried basil
1 cup each zucchini and squash (from the garden last year)
3/4 cup macaroni noodles, uncooked

In a large pot combine the first 8 ingredients, bring to a boil and let cook for 20 minutes. Add zucchini, squash and noodles. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes more stirring often to prevent noodles from sticking to the bottom.

Serve with shredded Parmesan cheese on top and a grilled cheese sandwich on the side. Absolutely scrump and lucky for me it goes perfect with my Antiques Roadshow!

Maybe sometime I will figure out how I can link the recipe to where it can be printed easily! Now wouldn't that be handy for ya!

Seed Packet Template

2011-03-27T13:05:00.007-05:00

So as I was blogging earlier I was brainstorming too! Multi-tasker that I am! I came up with a template for seed packets for me and to share with you! Click here to print the packet that I created. I also have a blank template that you can download and create your own packet design here. Adding templates and downloads is a first for me here. If it works well I may have more in the future. Please let me know if you have trouble and I'll try my best to fix it so it will work for you. I printed mine on used paper from the office that is a light green color which made it all the more fun. Directions for the seed packets are as follows. Cut out packet along black lines. Make folds along light gray lines. Fold back over, fold over bottom and side flap and glue or tape them down. Once you put seeds in them you can fold down the top flap and glue or tape it shut whichever you prefer. Be sure to label them on the front as to what kind of seeds you are saving.

This one is my first attempt. The template available had better flap sizes. And my make-shift taping job will get better. Hey, I was excited to get this up here!

Have fun!

Seed Balls

2011-03-27T11:36:00.011-05:00

Last year I decided to add flowers to our garden that I could cut for the table. I grew zinnias, cosmos and had one humongo (yea that's a word in my extensive vocabulary)marigold that I grew from seed. I grew them all from seed which makes a gardener all the more proud. They ended up on the table, in beautiful pictures and the remnants of them in seed form found themselves in jars on the top shelf of my goodie cabinet in the kitchen. Over the winter I pondered on what to do with all the seeds. I can just picture them lining the fields of our farm with red, pink and orange blooms. But what are you supposed to do, just throw them out there? Without tilling up the ground where they'll go they would either get eaten by birds or wash away. The areas that I have to put them aren't the best in flat ground. I needed a different approach. I remembered reading about making seed balls out of red clay, potting soil or compost, water and seeds. Combining these ingredients, besides making a mess, creates little balls of seeds with their own ecosystem. You can throw them where ever and they'll stay put. The spring rains will dissolve them in their soil and the seeds will come up without having to break the ground. The clay holds them together.

I found a place in Nashville where you could buy powdered clay pretty cheap and also bought a bag of Black Gold compost potting soil. No I do not compost... I know.. I should and one day I feel that I will take this step in gardening. I am afraid of attracting unwanted critters to eat the scraps it takes to make compost. It's just one of those things.

Back to the balls. There is a really good tutorial here. I realize that I should have made my own tutorial and please forgive me for not doing so but this stuff makes the kind of mess that you don't want to get on your camera. Never-the-less it was fun and I hope that it brings rewards that line our farm with beautiful blooms this summer. In the spots my weed killing husband misses that is!

Pretty Little Things

2011-03-21T20:36:00.014-05:00

I love a good Saturday early morning phone call with my sister that begins with "yard sale" or "estate sale" and ends in "see you in a few." It means there are deals to be hunted for and found. Deals that we are durn near professionals at finding. We aren't the coo coos that show up as the homeowners are rolling out of bed or still unpacking boxes. We figure they get all the junk out of the way so the good stuff can be seen. And good stuff we found this past Saturday! We hit two estate sales but could have actually called it quits after the first one. The prices were oh so right to begin with but as we walked in the door, this being the last day of the sale, we heard the words "Half Off." Music to our ears. The pickin' began and here's what I found.

I ADORE stitch work, needlepoint. These were made by a lady named Betty Smith and range in dates from 1975 to 1979. There were a lot more there than the five that I bought but these were my faves.
These little geese were my first pick ups. No makers mark or dates that I could find. Aren't they just a pair of cuties though. For fifty cents I couldn't say no to them.

This pair of cookbooks turned out to be a real find once I got them home. My guess is that they are part of a book-a-month club. They are full of separate cookbooks on subjects from The French Cookbook to The Lunchbox Cookbook. They are from the mid fifties and are so colorful and jam packed with recipes.

These two prints are actually framed ceramic tiles that could be taken apart and installed. The sayings are from Poor Richard's Almanac (whatever that is)and have great vintage kitchen appeal. Not sure what I'll do with them yet but the more I look at them the more I like them and for a dollar... couldn't leave them behind.
The trunk actually came from a yard sale that I didn't want to stop at. When you can see tons of kid clothes and toys from the road I am liable to opt out. Not my sister... she's a true picker. There were two trunks, this one being a little smaller than the other (and locked!) They had three dollars marked on them and when we showed interest the homeowner dropped the price to two for five dollars... sold. We wound up flipping a dime to see which one got which one. The enamel teapot (enamelware being my other love besides my husband and pets) in it's orange glory was a great find by my sister. We speak an unspoken language when it comes to enamel... I get it. She gets the roosters :) She held it up and I held out my hands and wound up buying it for one dollar. Word to the wise and curious... Trophies are "in" in home decorating. Coming to a mantle near you.
I have to begin summing this up but it is hard to do. I came home with a trunk, and chair and two sacks full of goodies from two estate sales and two yard sales and all was picked, bought and home within a three hour time span. I told you.. we are professionals here. Don't mess with us and don't get in our way... we'll see you at the next sale down the road.

Here's the overview pic. It includes everything but the chair... I think. It may not look like much to you. You may have chosen totally different items. Or you may have sat your happy tail on the couch. But these are my Saturday morning treasures carefully chosen and picked. Keep in mind that the opportunity was there to bring home much, much more but I am married and I want to keep it that way. And the season has just begun.

Oh and here's the chair... and my FooFee. Thanks for your interest in my worldly goods. Not worldly really... just Springfield.

A Helpful Potato Trick

2011-03-20T20:21:00.009-05:00

A wise old dude up at the feed mill (as my husband described him)told Shaun's Dad about this little trick.

Two years ago, as we did not grow potatoes last year, we grew potatoes on our farm and Shaun's Dad grew potatoes on the farm next to ours. While the potatoes did turn out fantastic, both stored and canned, we had a time fighting potato bugs. I have a book, Rodale's, Successful Organic Gardening, Controlling Pests and Diseases, which is handy to have as it has pictures and describes just about any problematic insect one might find in their garden. This book calls our potato bug Colorado Potato Beetle. These little reddish orange bugs with black spots (in their larvae stage) nearly devastated our crop eating leaves and stems which wound up killing several of our plants.

On the next farm over, no bugs were found. Potatoes were put out at the same time only about a quarter of a mile in distance from each other yet Gary's potato plants had no bugs. We found out what he had done and are well on our way to giving it a try for ourselves this year and I am going to share the tip with you. How it works I'm not sure. If it will work... I intend on finding out. The canned potatoes were like gold to me, all the way to the last jar. I aim on canning more this year.

Buy a regular pack of potatoes which you can find at the hardware store or feed mill this time of year in whatever variety you wish. Take each starter potato and cut the ends off. Not a huge chunk just chop off a sliver. Next, in order to make more plants, cut each potato in to fours. If it is a large starter you can make six. Slice across and the across each piece again. Lay the wedges on a tray and store in a safe place, away from bugs or mice, or dogs, or cats. In about a week the potato starters will heal, as Shaun calls it, and will be ready for planting. Once in the ground each one will sprout, a plant will form on top of the ground and little to big potatoes underneath amongst the roots and hopefully this little trick has worked and the bugs for the most part will stay away from the leaves and stalks. Happy Gardening!

A Quick Marinade

2011-03-16T20:12:00.004-05:00

So, Sunday when we got home from church we laid out some venison steaks from the deep freeze to allow them to thaw in the sink in time for supper. Long about four o'clock I got the steaks apart, which were still a tad frozen in the middle, and put them in a cold water salt bath to get any excess blood out. This also takes the "strong" taste out if there is any. While they were soaking I realized that I was out of our normal "go-to" marinade that we like to use. It's a store bought bottle brand that I can usually mix a little water with and get two, maybe three soakings out of.

Now, I've been highly addicted to a couple of sets of The French Chef with Julia Child over the last month that I rented from the library. J.C. drops mention of wine in every show that she does. From using it in dishes to what wines for with the dish that she made. Well.. maybe not the baking, Queen of Sheba cake episode... I'll have to watch it again and see.

Needless to say.. she got me thinking. I drained and rinsed the steaks and put them back in the bowl. I added a generous helping of red wine to the bowl and sprinkled the tops of the steaks with fresh cracked black pepper. YUM. After allowing the steaks to rest for a good half hour, I flipped them over and peppered that side of the steaks. At this point I felt like they were missing something. I wanted a bit of bold taste outside of the red wine and pepper. I looked in the refrigerator and pulled out the Worcestershire sauce, poured in a tablespoon or two and swished it a tad to blend. After about another half hour the grill was hot and the steaks went on. Shaun took it from there. I did tell him it was OK to add a touch of seasoning, McCormick's Garlic and Onion medley, to each side. He likes to chef it up when he's at one with the gas grill.

When the first bite of these steaks went into my mouth I knew I had done something right that day. I absolutely love the smell in my house when I have included wine in a recipe. This marinade didn't exactly fragrance the entire house but it was fantastic. Juicy, elegant, magnificent.

Starting Seeds

2011-03-15T20:50:00.010-05:00

Gardening is one of those things that can yield fantastic rewards. From beginning to end, delight to worry, raw ground to water, the whole experience begins with a single plant. Have you ever thought of starting your garden from seed? I'm going to help you learn how. I have yet to build our entire garden from seed because during spring and early summer I turn into some sort of plant buying nut! I can't resist the beauty in greenhouses and possibilities of what the plants may produce for me someday. Starting plants from seed, purchased seed or seed that was saved from you garden last year, has a different kind of reward. To walk down the rows of veggies and think " knew you when you were just a seedling" feels great. Today let's go over starting tomato seeds.

Now, you're going to need seeds which are available at any hardware store and even at the dollar store this time of year. To prepare the seeds, take one section of paper towel and fold it in half several times. Run the paper towel under water to soak. Place seeds on one end of the paper towel and make one last fold over to cover seeds. Allow seeds to germinate in the wet paper towel for at least 24 hours. Keep the paper towel moist at all times.

Next, you're going to need pots and dirt. You pots can be peat pots, egg shell cartons, re-used six packs and flats from last year. I prefer newspaper pots. They are cheap, a new use for old newspaper and you can plant them right in to the ground. It just makes more sense to me. To make a newspaper pot tear a folded sheet or newspaper down the middle then across the middle. That means that one big folded piece of newspaper would make four pots. Take one of the small sections and fold it long-ways twice. Using a juice glass, roll the newspaper around the glass, fold under the bottom of the glass and, sitting the glass upright, press on a table to make the bottom. Or you can buy a paper pot maker here.

Place dirt in pots leaving 1/2 inch at the top. Place one or two seeds in each pot and cover with 1/4 inch or potting soil. Stores have special "tomato dirt" available, I've not used this before. I find good ole potting soil does the trick just fine. Place the paper pots on a pan with a lip, something that will hold water. Pour water into the pan just enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Within 10 minutes or so the pots and dirt will absorb the water. Cover the pots on the pan with saran wrap and place your pan of pots in a warm location such as on top of the refrigerator until seedlings appear. Water the pots twice a day, morning and evening. Like anything else, if the soil is dry.. water is needed... if it is really moist don't water. You don't want to soak the poor things to death.

Once seedlings appear, and they probably won't all at the same time, place the tray in a sunny window. Keep watering as needed and just baby the heck out of them until they are big enough to go outdoors which would be after the danger of frost. In our area, Middle Tennessee, now is the prime time to begin your seeds. We usually plant our garden on May 15th. Mainly because Shaun's Granddaddy said so. We figure he's done it more times than we have so he probably knew best.

You can begin just about any seeds this way. Be careful to read directions on the packets that you buy. Some herbs need to be planted on top of the soil, some more shallow in dirt than others. Some are just too small to need the paper towel soaking and can be started right in the pots.

Isn't this tine parsley precious?

Small greenhouses can be used inside. Last year I used a bench in our spare bedroom with a heating vent underneath it and draped a thin quilt over the bench to hold in a little heat. It was definitely a make shift green house attempt. This year Santa brought me a small green house to start seeds in. I have it in the basement and have a heater rigged up on the bottom shelf that comes in intermittently keeping it at a tropical temperature between 85-95 degrees.

It has worked great so far and when the seedlings are ready to spend a little quality time in the sun, a little at a time at first, they can do so in this green house, tied down!, without fear of wind or rain abusing them before they are strong enough to handle it. I encourage you to give it a try.

I will offer up a packet of Black Cherry Tomato seeds for free if anyone is interested. Just leave a comment with you email and I'll get in touch with you.