Squeaky Windmill

I finally couldn’t stand to wait anymore and I cut into the soap that I made over the weekend. Shazam! It looks pretty much how I wanted it to look. Who would have thought? The fragrance is ‘Soapy Clean’ and I’m kinda diggin’ how it looks.

And guess what? I also got my first official soap order. Not to be snotty – but take that you doubters!! I have to work on getting some of the logistics done for my business and also what my logo is going to be. So many things to figure out, but what a fun ride it’s going to be.

Check out my soap

1st Soap for my business - Squeaky Windmill

1st Soap for my business – Squeaky Windmill

Posted in Soap | 2 Comments

Before the storms blew through

We haven’t had much of a chance lately to take the Chevelle out and just drive around. But this afternoon the weather looked like it was going to cooperate and it didn’t take long until I could hear the car sitting in the driveway. Now when I say that I could literally hear the car in the driveway, I seriously mean it. It’s one of those cars that for some reason just kind of roars. I think it’s a guy thing if you ask me.

But who cares right? We were off to find a new place for dinner. We got to the highway and have you ever looked east and then looked west and was wondering which way you should go? You kind of look like you’re in a movie or something at the fork in the road. Well if you have done this before, then you’ll know what I’m talking about when I said we got to the stop sign and ‘took a look both ways’

We decided to head Northwest to a town that we didn’t even know if they had a restaurant or not, but it was a road trip and seriously who cares right? Worse case is that we grab something from a gas station. But we did find a very busy drive in and that was the spot for us.

Checking out the food joint along the side of the road. Great choice!

Checking out the food joint along the side of the road. Great choice!

Just hangin'

Just hangin’

The food was great (notice the ice cream sundae with chocolate and caramel, then topped in pecans and whipped topping – yea.. that’s mine!!) and since we were in the neighborhood of where some of Daryl’s family lives, we spent the afternoon having a fun visit with them.

Now we did run into some spotted rain showers, but we got home in time before the next front came through. Even though the clouds were a little intimidating, they were also pretty cool. Check them out.

Crazy clouds were moving in along with some awesome colors in the sky

Crazy clouds were moving in along with some awesome colors in the sky

Our windmill stands proud in not matter what type of weaher

Our windmill stands proud in not matter what type of weaher

The reason that they were even more cool was that we didn’t get any type of storm with the front that was passing through. Thank goodness! You could just feel the weather changing and that’s never a good thing!

Posted in Family | 1 Comment

Memorial Day

I decided for this post I was just going to post some pictures that I took at our Memorial Day celebration in our town. Every year I am as impressed or even more impressed on just how cool this day is and how almost all of our town comes out to celebrate just a small part of their day with each other.

Yea, pretty cool. So here are some of the pictures that I took of the day:

Veterans lined up along with the Auxiliary and others marching from downtown to our MemorialDSCN9932

Here comes the band – they are awesome! DSCN9939

Opening ceremonyDSCN9945

Speeches from the contest winners at our school and local servicemanDSCN9949

Hanging out in the back during the ceremony to snap this picture.
DSCN9952

and finally a crowd shotlawler

Now I ask you, how can you not be proud of your Country, your local Servicemen, and your town on days like this?

 

 

Posted in Community, Pictures, Places to visit | Comments Off on Memorial Day

Soapy Sunday – week # 1

I found out these past couple of days that people actually would like to buy my soap. Who would have thought right? 

But…SCORE! 

Now of course it’s not like a billion people are standing in line , but hey you have to start somewhere.  Well that’s where I’m at and I’m pretty excited. But now that I’ve got a couple people that would like to buy my soap I better get in gear and get some made. Because once you have soap made it takes 6 weeks to cure and get hard and then you can sell it. So it’s not like I can make a bunch and sell it next week or anything like that. I better get a plan. 

So what’s my plan?    No really what is my plan? 🙂

OK, this is what I’m going to start out with. I’m going to do like the Amish since I like their style so much. They set aside one day a week for a specific task and I think I’ll start with making my soap on Sundays. Come to think of it, they don’t really work on Sundays do they?  OK, so I’ll make my soap on Saturdays. Well we’ve got a bunch of weddings coming up on Saturdays…. Oh shoot, I guess I’ll try to just make it on the weekend sometime. So much for the Amish way of life! 

This is week # 1 and today I made the soap ‘Squeaky Windmill’.  It’s named after our windmill that I absolutely LOVE and it does squeak a lot. This soap is made out of coconut oil, olive oil, castor oil, and palm oil as the base with a Soapy Clean fragrance. I mixed in some blue color and now I’m anxious to get it cut. I took it out of the mold after 24 hours and it’s way too soft to cut. Because I’m not the most patient person in the world, I put the soap someplace where I couldn’t see it and will have to wait a day or two until it’s more firm. I can’t wait to see just how it looks. 

But until then – here is what it looks like unmolded and waiting to be cutDSCN9982

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Long weekend – Memorial weekend

Whooo Hooo!! It’s a long holiday weekend and life is good!

Today’s weather was absolutely beautiful and even though we really wanted to go and do some fun things – well that didn’t happen and we acted like responsible adults. Man this being responsible thing can sometimes be a drag can’t it? But we did get some things done that we’ve either been waiting for better weather to do it or just needed to catch up on.

I spent the day doing some errands in the morning and then spent the afternoon working in the house. I know bummer right? But our house looked like a train wreck and I was just glad to get the top layer cleaned up by the end of the day. With laundry done and the house some what picked up, it was a really good start on the weekend’s to do list.

Daryl and Kyle spent most of the day cleaning the front porch and patio and then getting it sprayed with a sealer. When we remodeled a couple of years ago we weren’t sure what material we were going to use to build the porch. You know how you debate what would look best and all that stuff? Well we also wanted to think about the next 20 years and what it would mean to us to keep it up. We finally decided to go with stamped cement and thank goodness! Because it’s really easy to care for and all you need to do is every year put a couple of coats of sealer on it. Well, I’m talking like I did it right? Nope, like I said that this job was done by Daryl and Kyle and it sure looks good.

Working on sealing the porch

Working on sealing the porch

And while Daryl was working outside today, I asked him if he’ll spray the weeds in the garden. Now I know that this garden looks absolutely terrible, but I wanted the grass to grow a little bit so that we can get most of it killed. To be honest I wasn’t sure we should spray it or just call it this year. For anyone who has a garden, it’s really kind of a lot of work isn’t it? I mean it’s a commitment. But everything tastes so much better out of your own garden and so I’m going to give it another chance. The reason that I wanted to spray it this year is because the grass has those crazy roots that travel and new grass grows. I try to pull it out when I’m weeding the best that I can, but sometimes at the end of the day I say the heck with it and only pull the top of the weeds and never get the roots. Yup, that’s probably why I’m in the situation that I am in now. So hopefully this spraying will get things back under control.  Keep your fingers and toes crossed!

Yup, this garden looks a little sad right now!

Yup, this garden looks a little sad right now!

But because the cement was sprayed and there was chemicals on the grass, that meant that the chickens had to be locked up for the day. I laughed at them because if you would walk past the chicken coop they acted like they were in jail or something and would just go to the window and stare at you when you walked by. Here is a picture of those Chickens with an attitude!

Jailhouse or Chicken house - these chickens think today it's probably both!

Jailhouse or Chicken house – these chickens think today it’s probably both!

To end the day, Ma sent over some fresh warm chocolate chip cookies and a graduation party was in store to finish up the night. Good friends and a good time. Yup, also a good way to start a long weekend!

Warm chocolate chip cookies.... Thanks Ma!

Warm chocolate chip cookies…. Thanks Ma!

Check out the picture of the day. Miss Smoochie thinks that just because the flowers aren’t planted yet that this container sitting by the front door is the best place to hang out. Seriously? I mean she’s got about 85 billion other spots to nap on the farm. But she’s kind of one of those stealth cats that once you open the front door she’s in the kitchen way before you even know it. So I guess she probably thinks that if she’s laying in the dirt we wouldn’t notice her or something.  Kind of a crazy cat don’t you think?DSCN9915

Posted in Farming, Gardening, Picture of the day | Comments Off on Long weekend – Memorial weekend

Living a little ‘Greener’ today

Today’s post is all about some healthy stuff. Now before you roll your eyes hear me out. 

OK, maybe I’ve been getting a little bit more involved with some of the greener choices lately – but honestly is that all so bad? Not only is it better for the earth but it just might also be better for you. Also I’m thinking that my dish soap might have cost me about $0.10 to $0.15 to make,  so that’s not all that bad is it? 

Enough of the speeches. So here is my Green Blog for the month. 

Homemade Dish Soapnow this is the first time I made this, but so far so good on the bubbles and stability of it. 

1 ¼ cup boiling water
¼ cup (tightly packed) grated bar soap. * I used my homemade soap 🙂IMG_2891

Dissolve soap in hot waterIMG_2892

Add 1 Tbsp washing soad (more for thicker soap) and stir

Add ¼ cup liquid castile soap and stir

Let mixture cool and add essential oils if you like (I added lemon)IMG_2893

Transfer to repurposed dispenser and if it’s too thick just add a little water to thin
Shake before you use itDSCN9918

The next thing I made was some breakfast cookies that don’t have any sugar in them. Check them out

No Bake Breakfast Cookies (Amy’s recipe)

Mix in a large pot on the stove:
½ cup coconut oil
½ cup honey 
6 Tbsp cocoa
¼ cup peanut butter
½ cup milk

I used local fresh honey - Yum!

I used local fresh honey – Yum!

Bring to a boil for 1 minute and remove from the heat.
Add:
1 tsp. vanilla
3 cups quick oats
½ c ground flax seed (I used wheat germ)

Spoon on wax paper or parchment paper to coolIMG_2900

And last on my list is a detox method for your bath. Yea, after all that healthy stuff right? Well here is that mixture. What you do is to put it in your bath and after about 20 minutes you get out and take a quick cool shower. Oh yea, you’re supposed to drink a bunch of water before and after. I’m thinking this bath soak is on my to do list this weekend.

Detox Bath Salt

In a container (I used a canning jar) add 2 cups of Epson Salt, 1 cup baking soda, and about 10 drops of essential oil if you like.DSCN9917

Shake and then enjoy a nice warm bath

Posted in In the kitchen | Comments Off on Living a little ‘Greener’ today

Next Project

Life gets crazy doesn’t it? I mean we are all have about 50 more things on our list that we should do and it’s like a breath of fresh air when you actually could be getting close to getting one done.

That’s where I’m at right now. Kyle and I have been helping out with making the next book for our upcoming town’s festival – Irish Fest, and the clock is ticking to when we need to have it done. So we’re at the final stages of the game and it sure is a good feeling. The book team has worked really hard in making it as accurate as possible and with the most amount of information. What we’re hoping for is that in the future other people can use it as a reference for our town. But… we’re close to getting it done and my next thing that I want to work on is the old milk house on our farm.

I want to make it into a soap shed (Milk House Soaps) . Kinda cool name huh? Well, for now when I want to make soap I have to prep the kitchen and make double and triple sure that I get it all cleaned up. You know that lye stuff isn’t too good for you 🙂

And once I get the milk house all cool and everything I’ll switch it over for when we have the Daryl’s family Fun Day at our farm in June for the little girls. The girls try to find their own hiding spot away from the boys when they’re together and this soap shed will turn into a playhouse for one weekend of the year. By now I’m sure you’re thinking to yourself – she is a genius!

So my next adventure starts hopefully this weekend. I don’t know if you have ever done this, but I needed to clean out a different shed earlier this spring so that stuff was put in this milk house as a quick fix that wasn’t supposed to be a long term solution. Well, it’s kind of going on the long term solution thing right now so I better get started.

The milk house as it stands today.

The milk house as it stands today.

As I was thinking of what I need in there and how I should have it set up, at lunch earlier this week I was checking out some stuff on my phone and then I saw it. It was an old tin shelving unit. It was like a sign or something that I should get it. I Loved it! I also couldn’t quit thinking about it. To justify buying it, in my head I had it used in almost every part of our house along with the milk house. Score! That’s where I’ll use it. So I contacted the person and said I’ll take it and that I’ll pick it up tonight.

I had a ‘cash voucher’ from the boys that I was pegged to use on a Spa Day in town, but I thought this is something that I wanted to have and I’m sure they wouldn’t mind if I used it on this instead. So after work I raced home to switch out the little car for the Pacifica. I didn’t really want to tell Daryl just yet what I was doing and that I might need the truck, and I was pretty sure that it would fit in the Pacifica. Key words here are pretty sure.

After grabbing a Diet Coke and my cash envelope – off I go. I was sure hoping that I liked this, I mean giving up a Spa Day right?

I found the store that had the shelving with no problem and when I walked inside – I knew that it was the right choice. It looked like it came out of someones garage or old store and it was going to be perfect. It has some gunk or grease on it so it’ll need some lovin’ before I use it, but it wasn’t bad.

Now will it fit in the car? The shop owners were helping me and when they saw that I had a car and not a truck – they looked at the car and then they looked at me and asked if it was going to fit. So I mustered up all my confidence and said – ‘You bet!’

And guess what? It did fit! SCORE!!

Can you say.. Close fit?

Can you say.. Close fit?

Now I had the steering wheel jammed under my… well you can about guess what,  and because the seat was pushed so far ahead my knees were almost literally under my chin. But I had the shelf in my car and we were heading home for the next project on my list. Sometimes you know that you just have to pay the price for making it work. And if that price is not really swallowing for about 30 miles because your knees were jamming in your throat – well so be it.

Once I got home, Kyle helped me unload it into the garage and then I showed Daryl.IMG_2876

I laughed when he looked at it and said ‘This is what you traded your Spa Day in for?” I just smiled and said  You bet!. I’m not sure if he’s a fan of it and it’s a good thing he didn’t know that I was originally going to put it in the house 🙂

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Next Project

Mystery Photo 5-20-15

Ready?

Here is the clue IMG_2879

Posted in Wednesday's Challenge Photo | 2 Comments

Answer to Mystery Photo 5-13-15

Impressed! That’s all I can say Bruce is that I’m impressed!

Here was the clueDSCN9909

and here was the answer to the puzzle. Yup, it was the handle to an old chicken feeder. DSCN9909 - Version 2

Posted in Wednesday's Challenge Photo | Comments Off on Answer to Mystery Photo 5-13-15

Just plain naughty!

Well it’s been about a week since I posted something bad about our dogs so I’m due right? 

What happened this week was that our little chicks are getting bigger and bigger as the days go by and they are drinking more water each day. Now the water that they drink out of is a mason jar tipped with one of those adapters on it. The water is stored in the mason jar until the bottom reservoir is getting empty and then it fills it back up again. Yup, pretty slick. 

But as the chickens get bigger, you’ll run out of water pretty fast and unless you want to be on ‘Water Guard’ all day, you want to go to the next step up in the water world and buy a bigger container. 

And that’s where the naughty dogs come in. 

Daryl came home from work and I didn’t think much about it. He was busy doing stuff outside. Pretty normal evening for us on the farm. But then while I was in the kitchen he came in and set a chicken waterer on the table and just shook his head. Now I wasn’t sure what was going on, but seriously it didn’t take a rocket scientist for me to figure out that something went wrong. 

What the problem was that he just bought the new waterer that night on the way home from work and set it down on the water pump in the yard and then he went into the barn. And the dogs must have been watching him from the house and just hoping that he was going to leave it set out. Because when he came out of the barn he said Kaiser had the piece taken apart and was running through the yard with just the water part. If you can imagine what that looked like, you can then almost see that this probably isn’t going to hold water anymore with all the teeth holes poked into the plastic. 

So Kyle and I was looking to see if it was junk or not and we decided to get out the duck tape. I have a friend that would put duck tape on some of the craziest things so why not try it on this? Seriously we weren’t out anything if it didn’t work. I mean now it was looking like a water can that was tipped when we first put water in it. Just spewing water from all sides of the container. 

Now the whole duck tape thing isn’t the best idea but it’s also not the worst idea. It’s holding water for now, but I’m thinking that we’ll probably need to see what else we can find for the little chicks. IMG_2868

Those naughty dogs! Good thing they’re cute.

Posted in Our dogs | 2 Comments