good quote

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."
Theodore Roosevelt

"Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them."
W. Clement Stone

just when you think all is well

it's not!!!
 We had down pours of rain yesterday. Got about 4 inches. My earth worms are now water logged. There were tons on top of the soil trying to dry out!! hahaha. Seriously. That was quite a day, slopping around in the rain and wind to get chores done. Made it though.
Then today we've had wind. I know I've told ya all about the wind we get on this hill, and open spaces. Mostly I love the wind. But on occasion we loose things. The door to the sap house, the wall to the barn, buckets, clothes. You get the picture. Well today the kiddos and I are sitting around the table doing home school. Then Maggie starts mooing loudly and running around her pasture. I look out the window and the tractor tent is GONE! We have a portable tent for one of the tractors, not really what we want, but due to our current situation that is what we have. It's blown down the road right into the telephone poles! OH GREAT! I grab my jacket, and camera, and run down the road to assess the situation. Oh and my husband is currently working WAY out of town, you know like New Hampshire. Ya.

 Once seeing that it's not going to kill me or anyone else I run back to the house and call my beloved. I need some help. The kiddos and I are not going to be able to pull this sucker safely with all this wind. Our tractor is currently broken down. Poo. The hydraulic hose broke, just need to get the part to fix it. I called my neighbor, but he's not home, the other neighbor is still in high school and his parents are not home either. My husband made some calls. His dad is gone, his brother is at work. AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I'm praying that it doesn't blow up into the wires and really cause damage or worse. I put the cow in the barn. She was really bothered by this whole thing and I didn't need to be chasing her on top of the tent!! I didn't want the kiddos out anywhere near this. Who knows with all this wind if it will pick up and blow the tent away into the lines.

Then I'm in the house waiting to hear back from my husband. The power goes out. AWESOME!! I sprint to get the "old fashioned" phone, you know the kind you are actually attached to the base of it! I was thinking the tent had somehow knocked the lines. And look out the window. It's still there. Suddenly everyone has to go to the bathroom, ahem, present company excused, of course. Why is it 30 seconds after the power goes out everyone had to go?! Well come to find out a tree has fallen on the power lines and knocked them clear off the lines and the power to three towns! Not my tent! Phew! My husband told me to leave it alone and his brother and a friend will come over when they get outta work and help me. Oh good. One of the other neighbors ends up coming over and helps to drag it across the field and I tied it down, three corners of it. Tied it down to secure equipment. Now it won't fly away or hit the power lines! My father, mother, brother in law, along with a friend of ours, came over late this afternoon to help me more if I needed it. I wanted them to check it and make sure it wasn't going anywhere. I guess it was secure enough. I was grateful to them for stopping by to help me out. They all got a good chuckle out of it. I guess in the big picture it was kinda funny.  I'm kinda glad the poles were there because who knows how far the wind would have taken it and what damage would have been done. I'm just glad no one got hurt.

This is how far it blew. I'm standing where the tent is supposed to be. Yup.
Oh and we got our power back two hours after it went out.
Have a great evening all!

monday confessions

I'm not a big fan of PBJ's. Nope not at all. I'll eat them, but I'd rather not.

I have days I'd rather stay in the house and not go out and do the chores. Like today...

If you look really closely you can see that it is POURING outside today. I zoomed it in.This is part of my driveway. It's a little pool. My kiddos wanna go swimming in the driveway! We do need this rain, really badly, it's so dry here. I can't wait to see how the rain and then the heat later in the week will improve the grass and the tree buds!!! They will surely come out!!!!

This is what happens when I collect the eggs and don't have the basket. It's one of the kiddos jobs, but they "forgot". In the shirt they go. At least they were fairly clean.

 I don't always remember to make laundry soap in time and it has to sit for 24 hours before you use it, and the monster of laundry gets bigger. Then you miss out on perfect, free solar power to dry your clothes and have to use the dryer, because it's raining. Ugh. I've been making my own laundry soap for probably a year now. Most people who know me don't know that. I'm not one for sharing, unless it's on this blog, and even then it's thought over and rewritten to share only what I want. Kinda like pictures. I love the edit button. Which I need to download on this computer to do a better job of editing my pics!! Some things are better left unsaid!! Besides who wants to see all my dirty dishes?!!

I've been asked how do you DO all that you do? I smile, and think to myself, I don't know. It's my life, I just live my life.
Not many people that I know do what I do, and that's fine. Each to their own. Maybe that's why I get asked. Maybe it seems like a lot to them, and to me it's just another day in the life of me. It didn't happen overnight. Thankfully! I guess you could say I'm determined. I love a challenge. Farming has it's share of challenges;-) Working with my kiddos and husband present problems of there own, but we do it together and learn. It's us. The dance of life and farm life together. I just take it one day at a time, and with the grace of the Lord I get done what I can!

Well that's enough sharing for one rainy Monday! Have a good one!!

beautiful site

Oh how I love this site!! So beautiful. Our Jersey cow happily outside munching on any blade of grass she can find. Can't wait to put her out on a bigger pasture, and see how our milk changes along with the amount of cream!!! Oh yummy!!

Yup ole Maggie moo out eating grass. Such a wonderful day. Such a perty cow too!
Have a fabulous weekend all!

{this moment}

My version of this moment!! 

my boy

Just gotta say I'm glad last week is over. It was a great week, just really busy.
Yesterday was a beautiful day. The weather was amazing!!!
We all over slept on Sunday morning. Not the best day to oversleep. But we were able to get all the chores, kiddos and ourselves ready and out the door for church. It was close but we made it on time! I think we all were still over tired from last week really!
Anyways we had to rush right off after church to get to our son's very last Pinewood Derby with the Cub Scouts. He's raced for 5 years. For his last year he came in first for the fastest!!! He took it all in stride. He smiled, and chatted with the other boys, and never really seemed to get too concerned about where his car was in the race. He's not really got that competitive spirit like his mom, he's laid back like his dad. Which is fine. We're all different. He's a good sport and that is important. Whether you win or loose is not the point, we tell him, it's how you play and conduct yourself. Really truly it is. I hate to see poor sportsmanship in any sport. Takes the fun out of it. You can be competitive and win, and still be a good sport about it. Or vice versa!
Here is the winning picture of the last race! His is the John Deere car!!

All the boys that entered did a great job too, and the cars were great! Fun to see all the different cars they make.

Here he is with all his cars. Yes he has a theme. Why do you ask?  He liked to keep the same design too. Why change a good thing was his thought. He was happy, had a good time, and congratulated the other racers on their wins. Good sportsmanship is key with us as well. This May he will be "crossing over" into Boy Scouts. sniff, sniff. My boy is growing up so fast. He started in Tiger scouts. wwwwaaaahhhhhhhhhhh. Makes me happy, proud, and sad all at the same time.
When we got home from the race we all changed and went outside to enjoy the rest of the afternoon. The kiddos played and had fun in the sun. My Man and I sat in lawn chairs beside each other and chatted. Sigh. It was a really great, restful Sunday.
Today the weather is beautiful as well! I'm so glad. So I shall go outside and enjoy some of this wonderful sun we have!!
Have a great day all! 

"When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen."
Ernest Hemmingway

more busy days

What a busy week. With Easter weekend, school, birthday's and sleep overs, shopping, getting my hair done!! Phew! Been going all week. That's been my week. I think I need another coffee!
The grass is slowly starting to turn green in my area. The cow is leaving her hay and looking for the smallest bit of green to eat. Thankfully we only have her in her winter paddock, and not the whole pasture. The horses like to go out with her too and eat the grass they find, and her hay. I told you how we planted some red clover, but never got any pics because my camera decided to go funk and quit on me. We are hoping it comes in. It will help with the cows milk! Mmmmm yummy! And I'm sure Maggie will love it, and Dandie too!
We had to put up a temporary fence to keep the sheep out of the road and from going over to our neighbors. His lawn looks greener to then ours I guess. So far the fence is working.
The laying hens are burring themselves in any dirt patch they can find and spending lots of time taking dirt baths when the sun is out in full force, then lots of time looking for bugs and worms.
Dandie lost her horn stumps, finally. Now they are almost all healed over! And looks better. She goes out in the afternoon and runs around and leaps in the air. Funny to watch her. She comes right in when I call her at night, and sticks her head right in her stanchion and eats her grain. I'm so thankful for that. We bought a collar for her to catch her in case she gets out. Now we need to work on leading her. That'll be fun...
Our seedlings have literally taken off this week. The sun has been hot in the windows in the afternoon, when we don't get a 30 second rain shower, or hail, or snow, or all three. Weird weather this week. The peppers and melons have finally decided to come up too. I didn't think they were going to for a while there. Gotta wait until they get bigger and thin some of them out. Seeing how well they are doing makes me antsy to garden! Oh I can't wait, and am praying for another bountiful harvest! Not that I'm wanting to rush summer, I love summer! I can't wait to get dirt under my nails and plant some more food for my family. And wear flip flops! Not in the garden though!
It's almost time to shear the sheep too, for us! I'll be sure to post pics when we do. They look huge right now, but won't when they are naked!
One of my sisters came over one afternoon and we cooked up some yummolishous food! I love to cook with her. It's fun, we talk and giggle, and eat! She has Pioneer Woman's new cookbook and we tried some new recipes. Let's see, it was fried mozzarella sticks, I used my own homemade cheese and made them small and they were good. I don't usually like it, but I think by not having lots of cheese in them I liked it. We made Pesto with Cream Sauce! Oh I love pesto, it was soooooo good. We made a drink for the kiddos. Cherry Lime soda. Then the mother load was Knock You Naked Brownies! Yup! Nuff said.
On that note I have to run! Got lots to do today.
Have a great day all!

my weekend

Me driving the tractor in front, towing the one behind!

Pretty sweet I think!
We had to move some of our equipment out of a barn. We have a John Deere tractor we bought last fall, that we had to move. Well, it didn't want to start. So I got to drive the big tractor and tow my husband down the road! Yup I told my man "I'll tow you any day baby!!" He smiled and winked at me, and I returned it! We did get it started, but I had fun driving the big tractor! I mean it's a diesel after all. I did forget to wear ear plugs and it's really loud. The previous owner put glass packs on it. It was ssssssssooooooooo cold. I was wishing I had put on my Carharts. I had some layers on, but was still cold. But once we were done moving things around we had a fire in the stove and I had a glass of iced coffee. I know I should have had hot cocoa, but I wanted coffee! That's just me though.

We had a nice Easter. Morning chores, church, home to check on the animals, to my in-laws for a late lunch. Mmmm yummy ham, Easter egg hunt for all the kiddos, well the younger ones. There were 16 of the 17 grand children at my in laws yesterday! Yup you read that right. What a family heritage my in laws have! One was home with his parents because he was sick, poor little guy. Home for evening chores, jelly bean hunt, kiddos to bed, my man and I had a glass of wine and chilled on the couch together, by the fire place! Phew! Busy, but good!

My beautiful kiddos. They each had a new outfit for Easter Sunday! They are getting so big. Wwwwaaaahhhhhh. Love them so much it hurts. I love to see the amazing young people they are becoming. What a blessing they are to us.
Have a great day all!

good quote

"It is virtually important that we continue to say, with absolute conviction, that organic farming delivers the highest quality, best-tasting food, producing without artificial chemicals or genetic modification, and with respect for animal welfare and the environment, while helping to maintain the landscape and rural communities."
Prince Charles

"The first supermarket supposedly appeared on the American landscape in 1946. That was not very long ago. Until then, where was all the food? Dear folks, the food was in homes, gardens, local fields and forests. It was near kitchens, near tables, near bedsides. It was in the pantry, the cellar, the back yard."
Joel Salatin - "Folks, This Ain't Normal"

what's cooking in my kitchen

Anyone that has followed my blog or knows me personally knows that I have an on going love affair with blueberries, ahem (and chocolate)! In my homemade yogurt, pancakes, muffins, pie, with cream, cake... you get the picture! My husband bought me 60lbs of blueberries, local. I'm so glad too. Last year was not a good year for blueberries, here anyways.

My oldest daughter is a genius for sure. Gets that from her mother! ;-) As we were grocery shopping, she likes to go with me most, we were walking through the frozen section of the store, chatting, she talks my ear off when we are alone together. I like that.  She wanted some raspberries to make the white chocolate raspberry scones. Then she piped up and said "well if you can make raspberry scones I'm sure you could make blueberry scones." I stopped and looked at her. Why didn't I think of that?! I couldn't wait to get home and google that recipe. I just love google! Well then I realized my computer was broken. (insert wwhhaaaa). So the first thing I did when I got my computer back was look up a blueberry scone recipe! Not any shocker there. I found lots, and read through them all and picked the one I thought looked best, and found one that called for a lemon glaze on top! YUM!! So I copied that one. (Yes I have a printer, but it currently is not talking to my computer, so I used a pen and paper). Imagine! I'm also not that computer savvy and haven't felt like fighting with my computer to install it. Yes fighting. I had no idea you had to download something and then install it, oh never mind, long story there. I can hear my sister laughing now, she knows!!
So last night I was finally able to make the scones. I was too impatient to wait until this morning, so we had breakfast for supper last night. Here they are all done! How wonderful do they look?

 Here they are all mixed and getting ready to be cut.

 Cut out 8 scones. And cook 'em. I deleted the picture of them cooked. Oops. So here is another shot of them all cooked and glazed!

We also had egg mcmuffins. With home laid eggs and home raised sausage. I was out of my homemade English muffin bread so we had store bought muffins. Thomas brand are the best I think. Add some pears, peaches or applesauce and tada!! Great meal for us! Oh and don't forget some OJ or milk!

Here is the recipe if ya want it.

Blueberry Scones  (from Martha Stewart)
2 C flour
1 T baking soda
6 T butter, hard (cut into chunks)
3 T sugar
3/4 t salt
1.5 C blueberries (I used frozen, and put the lemon juice in w/ the blueberries)
 1 t lemon juice
2 eggs beaten
1/3 C heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350. Mix dry. Cut in butter. Toss in blueberries. Mix eggs and cream. Add to flour mixture. Mix together to form dough, but don't over mix.
Bake for 20-22 minutes.

Lemon Glaze   (From Tyler Florence)
1/2 C lemon juice
2 C powdered sugar
1 T melted butter
Zest from one lemon (I didn't have any lemons, so I didn't use this ing.)
Mix together, and glaze the scones when they are slightly cooled. (I only made half a recipe of this and it was plenty.) 

things to reclaim

Sigh.

Today she turned 17. 

We both have a few more battle scars.

More lessons learned then you can shake a stick at we have learned together.

She beautiful.

Patient.

Forgiving.

Heart of gold you have to win over.

Smells amazing.

Spirit like a young filly.

Always winnie's at me with her lovely musical winnie when I go outside, or get home.

Always willing to let me tell her everything and cry on her neck.

She loves carrots, apples and raspberries.

Regrets and mistakes made on my part. 

Time to reclaim what I long to do.

I love her.

 

just everyday life

 Life keeps on moving on here. Not a whole lot actually. We sold all our extra maple syrup. So glad of that.
Looks good hu? You can see the difference in the color. One is a little darker, but still they both are good! 

Our little seedlings are finally starting to come up here and there. Can you see them? I like that one still has the seed on the top of it.

My kiddos have been very rambunctious of late too. It's been cold, more like early spring, and windy. Burrrrr. I hung some clothes on the line to dry the other day and it started to spit snow. I ran outside to get them before they got all wet again. I finished them in the dryer. We sent the kiddos outside to run to our neighbors barn and back. They had way too much energy!

One of my nephews came over along with his family and some friends last night for supper. He's a cutie for sure, and I snapped some pictures of him and then showed him. He loved having the camera in his face too. He would smile and say "baby."  He had just enjoyed some chocolate cake with green frosting his mom made. You can see the evidence on his cute little face! Look at his eyes. Oh so blue. They run in the family!

Well that 'bout wraps it up. Still not warm and the grass is still not green. Feels cold and chilly like it should, and I'm ready for some warmer weather. The critters are shedding, and I come back in the house with more hair then they have on them. Mostly in my mouth and on my face. Animal hair just loves to be there for some reason. Reading blogs and seeing all the green and warm temps make me wish it was warmer here. I know, I know it's coming. But sooner would be fine with me!!!
Thanks for stopping by. 
Have a great day!