Staying in on a cold wet day

It's chilly this morning so I built the fire again.

I started my morning doing some cleaning and cooking. I put a chicken on the stove to make some stock. Love the smell of chicken cooking. Maybe it's the herbs I put in with it. It just makes me feel comfy! I ironed the quilt top again. I have to say I'm really excited about it. I added the red border and it really sets it off. I am inspired to make more. I even spent the evening cutting strips of fabric to make a dresdane plate quilt.

I took a few of the pumpkins, dropped off for the goats, and baked them off. I just couldn't see feeding the goats perfectly good pie pumpkins. They will get all the others!

As I was writing out the menu plan for the next two weeks, and the grocery list, I thought I'd make some snacks. I have all this pumpkin now so I made pumpkin bread.

Then I made another pumpkin bar cake that is still in the oven. I have to make the caramel frosting for that when it cools. So the house is warm and toasty. It smells of chicken and pumpkin/cinnamon, and the children will have homemade snacks for after school. Tonight's dinner is not chicken but pasta, because we have to go to a Pack meeting for my little Tiger Scout. Tomorrow we will be eating Chicken BBQ with Ranch potato wedges. I got that recipe from Heavenly Homemakers---love her blog! Now it's off to toss the laundry, and prepare for the whirlwind of children coming home from school!

pinwheel baby quilt project

I set aside my sampler quilt to make a baby quilt. I didn't use the traditional pinks mostly because I didn't like any of the pinks I had and I really love these reds. I hope the mama likes this. I've never made a baby quilt or any quilt for that matter. I'm not sure if I should make a border or not. I have enough of the dark red fabric to do a border but not the light.

Notice the red ironing board cover? I made that too. I even have a draw string through it to keep it tight around the board.(Very proud of that)

This went together rather quickly. I used the sandwich method to make the half square triangle blocks. My Hubby laughed last night because I was a bit frustrated that I could whip out a baby blanket but it seems like my sampler is just taking way too long. I can see me making alot of baby blankets because it's instant gratification! So this week I have to go to the Quilt shop and get batting and a backing fabric. I'm thinking a flannel? I want it to be soft. And I'm going to attempt to hand quilt it because I have plenty of time and it isn't that big. I just need to find out how to hand quilt! lol .... So if anyone has any ideas about a border or hand quilting please let me know!

Lessons from the farm

Stay on your own side of the fence...or you'll get all caught up.

Poor Potter. He doesn't belong in the chicken pen, but he sneaked in when one of the kiddos wasn't paying attention. Trying to get out the small chicken door didn't work well for him. I don't know how he got his head in there but it wasn't going back through. So I had to humiliate him by taking his picture before rescuing him. See how annoyed he is. Robert grabbed the screw gun out of the barn and I took the top board off and pushed his head back through the door. He was quite happy to get to his own side of the fence! I guess I saw in farm world what we sometimes do in the real world. Get a little too curious, maybe covet what someone else has and we cross a line, get past a gate, climb a fence. Once there we realize it's not we we want, where we need to be, or very good for us. And then we discover we are stuck, trapped, alone. And to get out of the situation we have to deal with some uncomfortable attention.

Freezer is Full

Not one freezer... all of them. In fact I don't think I can buy ice cream or anything else because I have no room! Two upright freezers and two refridgerator freezers filled with chicken, beef, turkey, flour, oat meal, and whatever fruits and veggies I managed to freeze this summer. It feels good to have that food stored away. Like a weight lifted. Hubby is sleeping now, he's working night shift this week. I am going to go out and move the goats out to the field so they can eat up the grass while it is still green. Then off to do errands. I'm stocking up on tissues and dishwashing detergent. I'm going to make more laundry soap. I was reading Rhonda's post on Down to Earth, about using homeade liquid laundry soap for a household cleaner. I'm going to try that out. I really think I'm addicted to Lestoil. I thought it was the pine oil that I enjoy smelling, but I think it's the petroleum products in it! Well, the goats are calling me!!!!

Quilt blocks

I worked on another block yesterday. It's amazing what you can get accomplished in one day when you want to reward yourself with "me" time! This is Turkey Tracks or Wandering Feet... I made this yesterday. I don't have alot of the measuring tools you're supposed to have so I had to use what was available. Not too bad I think. I just didn't get one square right which throws off the look. But I guess making a quilt is a learning experience and a journey of sorts so I don't mind the irregularity too much.

Here I am...

I know. I seemed to fall off the face of the earth. Life is crazy. The chickens are butchered and in my freezer. The steer is hanging out at the butcher's place. Sold four of the dairy goats. I've canned what I could, froze whatever was left. Some how the batteries disappeared from the house and I kept forgetting to get more from Hubby's truck. I needed the batteries for the camera. I could have had more interesting pictures of what's gone on since my last post .

This is the homemade pasta I made last night for dinner. My Aunt bought me a pasta machine for Christmas one year. I love it. Last night, my youngest and I took turns cranking the pasta through the rollers and then the cutters. The kids think it is fun and tastes better.

Pasta is simple to make. This batch I used 4Cups of flour, 4 eggs, 1t. salt, and a 1/2 C warm water. I used my dough hook on my mixer and then ran it through the pasta machine in batches. Hung it to dry a bit before cooking it. It takes a little time and muscle but it is cheaper than buying it. Plus I know what I put in it!

These are peppermint patties. I found the redipe in the Lancaster Farmer Newspaper. Simple and yummy. 1/4C karo syrup, 1/3C butter, 1/2t peppermint extract or to taste, 1lb 10x sugar, Chocolate wafers(coating chocolate)

Mix the first four ingredients together and form into patties. Freeze for 20 minutes while melting the chocolate. Coat the patties with the chocolate and allow to set. Less than an hour and you are a super mom!

Archery season is here and John had Charlie out practicing his form. It's best to take him by himself. All three boys with bows and arrows is not such a good idea. This child is the reason BB guns are banned from my house. two windshields at the cost of $212 each.

This is Charlies leg after he picked at a bug bite in his sleep. He ended up at the urgicenter on a Sunday morning getting antibiotics.

We went to the apple orchard on a Saturday. Dropped apples were $3 dollars a bushel.

They are such good apple pickers. I had to talk to the youngest about shaking the trees to make the apples drop...

Yummy...Best car freshener ever!

This is the view from the orchard. Worth the ride just for this!

This is my latest sewing project. I'm determined to get this quilt done. It's a sampler quilt with 13 blocks. This is block 8, the Dresdane Plate.

Last week John's grandfather passed away. It's sad but it was expected. Pap was a great guy. He loved his family and it is a large one at that, 97 decendents. Father, Grandfather, Great Grandfather and Great Great Grandfather.

Pap was a JunkMan. He went to sales and auctions and bought up stuff and sold it at the flea market. My girlfriends loved going to his place and rooting through the sheds. It was like digging for gold. Whatever you were looking for, he had. You just had to find it. And Haggling the price was just as much fun. Even if he paid a dollar for the box full of junk he would charge 5 for one item you found. If you tried to argue down he would tell you, "Well, I gotta have somethin for haulin it"

We did have an unexpected loss on the homestead. One of the little brown does died yesterday. She had taken sick last week. I'm pretty sure it was pneumonia and I thought we had it taken care of, she was doing much better Monday even playing with the children and escaping her pen. We had her isolated from the other goats. But yesterday morning when they went out to do chores she was lathargic and couldn't get her head up. We tried a energy drink of corn oil,molasses,and karo syrup, but it was too late. It was a hard one for the kiddos. But I guess it's another life lesson from the farm.

Home made Vanilla