We’re ready

Posted on November 26, 2015 by farm2011

We are ready for company! The Roadhouse is cleaned and set up for a party and the house has been dusted and scrubbed. Now when we’re getting ready for company it always reminds me that we seriously need to dust and scrub more often and I think that should be on of my New Year’s Resolutions!

I had to laugh when I went into the Roadhouse a little bit ago, I’ve got candles on each table and a scented potpourri thing going in the corner and guess what you smell when you walk into the room? You smell hot sauce.  I’ve got a crock pot of cheese with salsa in it for chips later and that pretty much is taking over the room. Well there could be worse things to smell I guess on a farm 🙂

And for now we’re in the waiting mode. We got up early and we got as much done as we are planning to and are just hanging out until the first family arrives.  It seems like you either run like crazy and then just wait or your not quite done before your guests come. I think being done before hand is the better of the two choices if you ask me. For today I was hoping to have a bon fire going outside in the afternoon,  but we’re in some kind of a monsoon season here and it’s been raining quite a bit. No bon fire today! Good thing we’ve got the bean bags all ready to be set up inside the Roadhouse.

You know what? I’m getting kinda hungry…. I think I better go check on that cheese sauceDSCN8363

 

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Getting ready

Posted on November 25, 2015 by farm2011

We’re getting ready for a Thanksgiving party tomorrow and it’s going to be a great time I just know it! The party is for Daryl’s side of the family and it’s at our farm. Now Daryl and I always have the motto that you should host at least one thing a year because, well it makes you get things organized and cleaned up that you probably have been putting off. And for us that’s exactly what happens. I know that we mean well to dust the top of the refrigerator more often, but this way it actually gets done!

So even though I still have things to do tomorrow morning before the gang all comes, the majority of the ‘to do’ list has been checked off the list. The Roadhouse is all set up for around 40 people and with the weather predicted to be on the wet side (100 % chance of rain) we’ll be able to stay inside where it’s warm and dry, enjoying both a Thanksgiving meal and some birthday cake for Daryl’s sister. Yup, it’s going to be a great time!

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It’s a Good Day

Posted on November 23, 2015 by farm2011

Now there are good days and well there are Good Days… and today is a Good Day! Why you ask? Well both boys are safe under our roof for a little while and it makes me really happy. With all the crazy stuff going on in the world these days, it’s not too often that you can have your kids safe in your home.  I love it!

So with the kids home, also brings the question on what we should eat. So I went and got groceries on Saturday and I must admit it was a little bit of a challenge. See with only Daryl and I home, there are nights when we literally have cereal or (I hate to admit this) just potato chips for supper. OK, not the most nutritious but seriously probably the most easiest. But now with William, Jude, and Kyle here on and off for a week and then Kelcie coming next weekend I sure hope my cooking isn’t too far out of practice. So for dinner yesterday we had grilled steak, fluff salad. smashed potatoes, and green bean casserole. For supper tonight I had made a ham in the oven and had some sides of tater tots, corn, left over smashed potatoes, and rice krispie bars for something sweet. And what’s on the menu tomorrow night for supper? We’re having lasagna, garlic toast, lettuce salads, and brownies with ice cream and chocolate sauce. Yea, I can feel the old thighs just expanding as I’m writing this!

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Winter has arrived

Posted on November 21, 2015 by farm2011

Yup, we’ve got winter alright! Now I’m not the best at knowing just exactly how much snow we got but I’ve seen others in our area say that we got around 9 inches last night,  so I guess that’s the number that I’ll use. Honestly I would have thought even more because we sure got dumped on.

So while the bacon was frying this morning and I had my jammies on,  I hurried up and put on some big old snow boots and went outside to snap a couple of pictures. Being able to be dressed like a dork to quickly do something outside is definitely one of the perks of living in the country. What you do have to remember though is to listen really close to hear if someone is coming up the gravel road. Why? Well, just in case you don’t want to be seen you need to find a quick building or tree to hide behind. I remember one time I wanted to quickly sweep snow off our front porch and of course I had on some winter pajamas and big old snow boots. And when I say big, I mean they were Daryl’s boots. Well I didn’t know that someone had driven by and of course I found out later it was someone that we knew. Man oh man can you get teased when you meet up with them again. For some reason people who have a hard time seeing, can see really well when they drive by! So now, I’m like a girl version of James Bond. I’m sneaky and you won’t be able to catch me. And an even better plan it to just change out of my pajamas earlier in the day! (To be honest I’m not that fast and sneaky)DSC_0333DSC_0336DSC_0337

 

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Here it comes!

Posted on November 20, 2015 by farm2011

It was a good thing that we turned our furnace on last might because Holy Smokes it’s snowing tonight! It started around 2:00 in the afternoon and by the time I got home form work, snow piles were starting to form in the yard.DSC_0329

and I’m guessing that it just might be the end of our outside flowers, don’t you think?DSC_0331

We all knew that it would come sooner or later, but it’s one of those things when you don’t quite want to believe it until it’s actually here. Then it just kind of slaps you in the face with the snow and cold air. Our original plans was to head out for the weekend, but I’m afraid that tomorrow is going to bring a lot of snow shoveling and time spent with the tractor and bucket instead. Seriously not as fun – I’m just saying!

And the photo of the day is a picture when I went to check out the cattle tonight after work. I had to laugh at Scarlet because she’s looking at me and I swear saying  ‘what is this?’DSC_0327

Posted in Farm animals, Farming | 2 Comments

Turning the furnace on

Posted on November 19, 2015 by farm2011

Well we finally bit the bullet tonight. Now granted our house has been a little chilly lately and that’s because we haven’t turned on the furnace yet. I was hoping to get to Thanksgiving, but with having a winter storm warning for us tonight and with the high of 28 degrees on Saturday afternoon and a very chilly 8 degrees that night – well it’s about time I guess and we did it.

And it’s sure nice and toasty in our house! Even though the thermostat is only set to 68 degrees, it’s like a sauna in here 🙂

But now to think about tomorrow. With some predictions for the first snow fall anywhere from 6 to 10 inches of snow with high winds – well I guess it’s that time of year again. It’s sure a good thing that I finally got my winter clothes switched with my summer clothes in our closet and oh yea, that we turned our furnace on!

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Christmas Cards

Posted on November 17, 2015 by farm2011

I have no idea how something so small can be so stressful! I’m talking about getting the family Christmas cards formatted and ordered. I guess I’m always hoping that one year our family picture will be just awesome and everyone’s hair will be laying flat, no one is squinting while looking at the camera and sun,  and my arms flab won’t be swinging in the wind. In reality I’m not sure that we can ever have just that one perfect photo for Christmas.

But I’ve learned a long time ago that even if the photo isn’t perfect, that’s OK. Now I’m not trying to get too sappy here – but really life isn’t perfect so why should we think our pictures should be?

But after countless hours these past couple of days – I finally got the card that I want organized and ordered. Thank Goodness! Like I said, it’s such a small thing in the whole scheme of things, but holy smokes it sure feels good once they are ordered! Now I just need to remember where my address list went!!

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Arts and Crafts

Posted on November 16, 2015 by farm2011

I’ve been working hard lately to build up my soap inventory and I must say I’m kinda diggin’ how some of them are turning out. I’ve come a long way from how my first soaps looked and hopefully I’ll continue to get better and even more creative.

So like I said I’ve been making some soap lately and I was able to get done another batch of Sassy Come Home (milk, honey, and oatmeal soap), Barefoot in the Grass, Lazy Lavender (which looks the best that I’ve done so far with that soap)20151115_12565120151115_130041 and oh my gosh… my most favorite and newest to the collection  – St. Nicholas Day. Yup you guessed it, it’s named after another Catholic Saint celebration! But seriously this soap is just plain awesome! I don’t know how to describe it, but it smells like Christmas trees and really good candles going. OK, not the best description, but when I took it out of the mold honestly I went back to where it was drying A LOT to smell it. I loved it so much that I ordered a couple more bottles of it the next day to make more soap with it before Christmas. The only thing that I’m not too crazy about it how I layered it in the mold. Not the worst, but I’m hoping to do better next time. I even made a couple of Hanging with Ed soap balls scented for Christmas 🙂20151113_153929

So after all that soap making, I wanted to make a sympathy card to mail out this week. So here is a nice simple design. I think I need to expand my color pallet from only blue bottles though. 20151112_055814

 

Posted in Cards, Soap | 2 Comments

St. Albert the Great Day!

Posted on November 15, 2015 by farm2011

Now I’m sure many of you don’t know what St. Albert the Great day is, but if you had a Dad named Albert and a son’s middle name Albert – well you get to know November 15th really fast! Quick history lesson for the day : Albert the Great was one of the Church’s greatest intellects. He studied at the University of Padua and later taught at Hildesheim, Freiburg-im-Breisgau, Regensburg, and Strasbourg. He then taught at the University of Paris, where he received his doctorate in 1245. He was among the first and greatest of the natural scientists, gaining a reputation for expertise in biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, geography, metaphysics, and mathematics. So you can just about imagine why we had to celebrate the day if you have someone named Albert in your Catholic family right?

And in our family we usually celebrated it in not your normal way. See Dad always loved homemade beef and barley soup, but us kids would much rather eat the homemade beef noodle soup. So when November 15th would roll around we would always have to pray twice for supper because more than once we would be having soup. And just to keep the fighting down – Ma would have make both kinds.

Well with just Daryl and I at home now, and Daryl not necessarily liking homemade noodle soup so much – it makes figuring out just what kind of soup to make on November 15th pretty easy. Yup, you guessed it! Homemade noodle soup. Now where are my sweat pants?

Noodles drying on the counter

Noodles drying on the counter

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Exciting news!

Posted on November 14, 2015 by farm2011

We have big news for our family! William and Jude are engaged! Whooo Hoooo!!! They got engaged this afternoon and we couldn’t be happier for them.

Right now the plan is to wait a little until they are both out of school, so the wedding might not be for over a year. I can’t tell you how excited we are for both of them and all the unknown adventures that will await them. Congratulations!!

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