Happy birthday to my son Richard! He is my oldest child.. and definitely not a “child” anymore! He turned 26 yesterday.. hard to believe where all the years have gone!
Richard is in the Army and currently deployed in Iraq. His unit will be back in North Carolina (Ft.Bragg) in 5 weeks! And then home to us in Washington in time for Christmas! The family can’t wait to see him!!
Today started out so gloomy and cold as the rain brought in such frigid temperatures. But I needed to go out to my favorite Old Order German Baptist farm dairy this morning to get some more whole milk and brown eggs. Even on gloomy days, that little trip brings a smile to me face. It's a nice 15-20 minute drive and I had my sweet little dog, Maggie, w/me and I put my CD of the music from PBS's "Frontier House" in the player and we were off.
There was some sort of 'big doin's' at the Old Order meeting house this morning b/c I passed no fewer than 11 horses and buggies on my errand. That's always such a wonderful sight.
When I got home, I fixed dh's favorite Saturday morning breakfast, Amish French Toast (http://www.homesteadblogger.com/wannabeone/105269/) and don't you know that 2 (TWO!!) of the eggs I cracked open had double yokes!!
Then, about an hour later, the weather got cold enough that our rain turned to giant, fluffy snowflakes for about 2-1/2 hours. What a lovely sight on a dark, quiet (except for the Ohio State Buckeye football game! ) Saturday.
It's the little things in life that mean the most. PTL.
My 4 inch by, oh, maybe 14 inch, chuck roast won't fit in my roaster :o(
Well, let me rephrase myself. It fits...with some tucking in along the sides, and I do have a bit of space on the ends. But overall, my cast iron roaster is simply too small. My mother said cut it in half and use 2 pans. Oh, the indignity of whacking this wonderful, marbled roast in half! Isn't it a beauty?
No, I don't usually covet meat like this, but this is special :o) I'm used to rolled roasts, or rump roasts...something more akin to the size of a regulation football. In our area here, pork is the meat of choice it seems. Boston Butts, Loins, etc. They are more readily available in the stores. Beef roasts, even a simple chuck roast, just aren't what I think of as a roast. Most around here are what I'd consider more of a thick steak than anything of a roast.
But I got this at the butcher yesterday when I ordered my bulk meats. The owner was cutting up a half a steer and his wife brought out some small cuts to cut them down more. I saw this one on the table and asked about it. She was going to cut it at least in half, if not thirds. No way -- it was just perfect, I thought. So I bought it.
Me.
Home alone here with no husband, no eldest son and fiance, no eldest daughter. Just me and 7 children. Seven younger children.
This roast could last us most of the week if I play it right.
I managed to get about 4 potatoes cut in half alongside the roast on the ends, and maybe 3 or 4 carrots cut into lengths as well. But my usual broth/gravy concoction doesn't stand a chance of being in there. Not without a serious drip shield along that pan! I simply mixed a bit of stock with a touch of flour to thicken slightly and poured it over. It will be covered and cook all day now. Around 5 or 6 pm we'll eat dinner :o)
Can you imagine how tender this baby will be? I probably shouldn't have bought it, being here with just the children, but I lack self-restraint. It just looked too good to pass up.
I imagine when Dewey reads this his mouth will be watering all over the computer :o) I could FedEx a plate overnight to you honey....
We have a home !!!!
Posted on Saturday, November 15, 2008 at 11:07 AM by FaithfulAcres - 3 Comments - Link
Well here we are...... Let me first say that moving or making the move does not come without trials....lol
Ya, now I can laugh about things but I can tell you that I wasn't laughing when they did happen.
Everyone is looking for thier perverbial " Garden of Eden" here on earth and or heaven on earth
to live peacably while we wait for the Lord's return. Perhaps if our little homestead was in heaven
we would all be happy and content right ?
While we found a 2 bedroom mobile home, 2 bathrooms 14 x 60. In the country of course.
The girls are happy the landlords daughter has 2 horses pastured out here behind our place.
They are ok with us having our goats and fencing in an area for them here. We have a nice sized
porch to sit out on , so that is good . Have to watch out for the fire ant hills but that is part of TN.
OK so for the trials.... The Second night we had a electrical fire in the furnace, house was filling with smoke
we got out and tried to wake up neighbours and no luck. Well the guy up the road was up shotting cyottes
so he called the landlord for us. We aired out the house and then slept well , after the landlord brought us space heaters to use.
Happy Birthday to Eli... Oct. 30th. Carlie Jean... her first time on skates, Nov. 2nd. Shannon and Abram at the Skating Rink, pretending to play a game... shhh, don't tell Abram. :) Lovely Cameo... My Beautiful Pregnant Sister... at her shower Nov. 9th. My Sister, My Mom and My Two Girls! :)
Have a wonderful weekend friends... I hope you all enjoy your day.
Blessings to each of you.
My Cup Runneth Over...
I think I must have the happiest dog in the world right now - NOT!!!!! A few weeks ago Jake was outside playing with the other two dogs on the property. There is a squirrel that loves to torment the dogs by chittering at them from the safety of the crabapple trees - Jake has decided that he is going to learn how to climb those trees so that he can get to the squirrel. It is actually quite funny to watch as he jumps up over and over and over again trying to get up into the tree.
What isn't funny is how scratched up his belly gets from landing on the underbrush around the crabapple trees. He managed to get a couple of really good scratches right where his back legs attach to his belly - on both sides. I wasn't to worried about them because he was keeping the scratches clean, however because he was licking them so much they became chapped .... now he won't leave them alone because they are driving him bonkers.
A friend of mine loaned me an Elizabethan collar for him and when I put it on him I make sure that I rub some vaseline on the chapped parts of his belly so that it will hopefully help to heal him up. I managed to get a picture of him today - he didn't seem very impressed with that either, lol:
Doesn't he just look sooooooo happy? Well, at least it is preventing him from licking the scratches all the time. He isn't able to wear it at night because when he wears it in his kennel he can't turn around so it gets taken off at the end of the day and is put on again in the morning.
I can't get over how windy it has been today - I was kind of hoping that it would blow all the pigeons away .... no such luck, though.
We are starting to get quite a flock of pigeons where we live, we first noticed that two of them were there (two is all it takes, right) and now we are well past 30 of them. They are living inside one of the grain bins on the property - they used to eat the grain out of the one that sits beside their "house" but our landlord closed that one up. Unfortunately we can't close the other one up because there isn't a lid for the top of it.
I'd really like to get rid of them, I'm tired of them using our deck, vehicles, camper and house as their personal bathroom - anyone know how I can get rid of them? I've been told I could shoot them, however, I have never shot at anything with the intent to kill it (I've discovered that I'm not a bad shot with Don's BB gun, though - those tin cans didn't stand a chance, lol).
Seriously, though, if you have any advice on how to get rid of them I would love to hear about it (or read about it, as the case may be ).
You are my Peace
Posted on Nov. 13, 2008 at 5:34 by Kayinpa - 0 Comments - Link
During these turbulent times, it is good to remember where our source of peace comes from. This music video have family pictures set to music that the Lord inspired my sister to write.
I hope your day is full of sweetness.
) Saturday.
Happy Birthday to Eli... Oct. 30th.
Carlie Jean... her first time on skates, Nov. 2nd.
Shannon and Abram at the Skating Rink, pretending to play a game... shhh, don't tell Abram. :)
Lovely Cameo...
My Beautiful Pregnant Sister... at her shower Nov. 9th.
My Sister, My Mom and My Two Girls! :)
).
I'm here to learn more about gardening, preserving, and general homemaking. I have 5 wonderful children, we homeschool and live in New England.