Here piggy ,piggy, Kristi and Ee

I am sharing pictures of Kristi and her pet sow Ee.  Ee is from our old sow Tuna.  Kristi picked Ee out as soon as she was born.  She told us with her cute little smile and batting her eyelashes " this is my baby".   With that cute look how could we say no.   Her brother begged Kristi so much to let him have her, but Kristi held firm on it, NO!!

This is Kristi and Ee when Ee was about 3 weeks old:

Don't they look cute!!

Here is Ee on her 1st birthday.  Kristi made her a birthday cake :

Here is Kristi playing with Ee at night:

Here is a head shot of Ee next to Kristi:

Kristi hurt her knee one day and the Dr told her no horse back riding for 2 weeks.  So what does she do??? See for your self :

A real piggy back ride!!  We took a picture to show her Dr. her "New ride".   Our Dr. knowing our family ( a bunch of smart butts, Dr. is also one)  just laughed and went around showing the nurses and other Dr.'s her new ride!!!

Here is Ee's mom Tuna:

Last we have some of Ee's puppies (babies I every baby a puppy)

One more. This is Ee with her children Tommie and Heffa:

We still have Ee and Tommi , but we sold Heffa to a neighbor.  We did not have enough room in our freezer for her.

God Bless, mj

It's Snowing!

I woke to snow falling from the sky this morning--not something we see very often in my neck of the woods--I am not a snow person and would like to live further south where there is no snow--But since I don't I will have to deal with what we get here--The snow is pretty, but I do not like the cold temps--for those with muscle/Joint issues its really hard on them and I fall into that category--if it wasn't for illness I might enjoy it more--Not sure how much accumulation if any we will get--most likely none since the ground temps are so warm and Thursday it was almost 70 degrees here--LOL--now snow--and highs this week reaching almost 60--we have such roller coaster weather--I did snap a few pictures of the snow will post them later--of course to those of you up north they will seem trivial--LOL--But for us southern folks any snow is something to photograph!!

~Kris

Gettin' Closer

Well, its official--we will be moved from here by April 1st! I am so excited even though there is soooooo much to do to prepare for the move to our 18 acre farm!! Hubby and I are working on a plan for a home, since the land does not have one on it--we have some things in the works--we were really hoping that this place(my dads home) would sell and I could take the money he was going to pay me commission and either buy something used or use it for a down payment on something--but it doesn't look like its gonna sell--so we feel its time to just come up with plan number 2-- We are still trying to sell the place, but we are not gonna 'bank on it' anymore--I am just so excited about the moving on all that land with all that potential--LOL--yes, it needs work, but with time we will get it done!

~Kris

Update on Christmas cards for soldiers

After my post a few days ago about sending cards to Recovering Soldiers, I found out that is not going to work.  Walter Reed gets so many that they cannot handle them, so the Red Cross has a program to distribute cards in many areas.   Following is some information and the address to use.  Please disregard the previous post I made, sorry for the confusion. 

Also note that the cards must be sent by Dec. 10!

Another thought I had was to plan to do something for patients in your local V.A. hospital.

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I have been cooking and baking up a storm!!

Wish you all could have seen the whirl wind of mixing and baking and such that has been going on in my kitchen in the last few hours!!!  LOL  My friends Marcia and Caina came by today to help me get ready for the big dinner party tomorrow, and we got more done in a couple of hours than I might haven gotten done all day long.  Marcia is a slave driver and fast with her hands, so she stepped in to mix everything as I chopped some onions, grabbed utensils and ingredients for her and kept Noah occupied playing in the sink with some soapy water and a few mixing spoons and cups.  (He had a blast and by the time we were done, he was drenched from head to toe and my socks were drenched with water he had flung on the floor too!  LMSO  Now, before you say Why would you let him do this??? Listen people, it is just soapy water, and I changed his clothes before his nap, and well, the floor was going to be mopped after all the baking anyway.  LMSO  Now I have one spot of the floor that doesn't need that uch scrubbing.  LMSO)

The girls needed to go to the store for a few items, and they are bringing back 2 missing ingredients that hubby forgot to get me last night while my Noah (he was getting tired after all the water play! *giggles* naps and I keep my eye on the things in the oven.

So far today we have:

1. Made a double batch of hot rolls (they are baked and cooling now.  I will warm them up for the dinner tomorrow)

2.  Made a double batch of pecan pie muffins (which fell apart when we were taking them from the muffin pan, but man do they taste good.  we may make another batch in muffin papers if we still have time)

3.  Mixed up a batch of sweet and sour meatballs (they are in the fridge with sauce awaiting to be cooked tomorrow)

4.  Made a double batch of wrapped little smokies( they are in the oven now and making me sooooo hungry!!  You take little smokies, wrap them in a small piece of bacon, secure with a toothpick, and then pour a mixture of brown sugar and water over the top..........YUMMO)

5.  Put a large pork loin in the crockpot (with broth and onion soup mix on LOW)

When the girls get back:

1.  Mix up spinach dip and cheeseball

2.  Make cornbread dressing (will bake today and heat up tomorrow)

3.  Mix up green bean casserole (bake tomorrow???)

4.  Make up a seven layer lettuce salad

5. Mix up and pour cheesecakse into a crust

Matthew bought 2 pumpkin pies last night at the store because I told him I had a new recipe I wanted to try on pumpkin dessert in the crockpot.  He wrinkled his nose and said he would buy 2 pies.  LMSO  Isn't he funny?? Oh well, maybe I will try the recipe for Christmas instead.

Well, the smokies in the oven are calling my name.  I think I should go and taste test them before the girls get back. LMSO

See ya later!

Homemade Ideas for a 15 year old: for tcrossland and others

I am having a blast making homemade gifts for my friends and family members this year!!!  How about you guys???  Well recently I posted a blog about homemade Christmas and how our family is cutting WAY back on gift giving.  Some of the reason of course is a tight budget and the seemingly always rise of cost of living expenses.  The other reason??? Because some (not all, don't think I am preaching, because I am not) store bought gifts are thoughtless, and think about it.  Is that person going to use it, or stuff it in a drawer and sell it at their next yard or garage sale?  LMSO

I wanted our Christmas this year to be filled with joy and not fretting over what to give.  I want all the presents we give to be from the heart and for us this year, alot of that means homemade.  I am putting alot of thought into each person's gift and I hope they appreciate all the time and effort I am going into making them as well!!

I had a commenter ask ifI had any homemade ideas for a 15 year old boy, and I thought,  sure, I will just right a blog about it!!

I have a few upper teen and lower twenties guys I am going to be making for, so here are a few of my ideas for them:

1.  A "special pillowcase" with lots of zippered and other pockets in it to carry stuff in.  An ipod shaped pocket of course is a must!

2.  An ipod cozy!!!  You can crochet these, sew them, make them from felt.  Google ipod cozy and you should find many ideas on this one.

3.  A  T-shirt quilt!  This is one I am using for my hubby this year.  He has a collecton of old (and very well worn, little pinholes in them, etc.) Christian T-shirts that he will not let go of.  I have bouught him new ones and he loves the new ones, but he still wears the ratty ones.  To get them out of circulation, I am going to cut the designs out, sew them together with fabric strips and make them into a blanket.  This one will be a 9 t-shirt quilt, but if your boy has many many t's....then make them into a twin sized cover or larger.  (This is an excellent idea for a boy going off to college to display his quilt on his bed at college!!)

4.  A fleece scarf or fleece blanket.  You can buy all kinds of fleece now, some with college team logos on them even.  Find out his favorite team and buy some fleece and sew up a scarf or blanket, or if you don't sew, cut you can blanket stitch or just cut and fringe the ends!  Let him show off his team spirit with a wonderful homemade gift.

5.  A blue jean blanket.  I am making one of these for my 22 year old nephew.  He recently married my neice and he is a farm boy through and through.  I think he will love the blanket and of course I am making it big enough so he and his new wife can cuddle under it together.  I have been collecting jeans from friends and family as they clean out their closets, and buying bags full at the thrift shop for only 10 cents a piece, so this is a cheap present. 

As I said before, some of these presents I have intentions in making before Christmas for presents, so when I get them done, I will post pics of them on my craft blog:  www.homesteadblogger.com/craftypudding

Feel free to visit my posts there anytime to get ideas or inspiration for your own craftiness!!!

Stuff to die for?

As I watched my evening news and heard of the tragic death of a wal-mart employee it made me sick! A human being trampled to death by shoppers! Is stuff really that important--that other people could kill someone for it?? I don't get it--Have we as a society have lost so much of our roots and grounding in the word that we have all but lost sight of the holiday season?? I guess so!--I totally get that Christmas is not even when Christ was born--but aside from all of that it is a day that some of us have set aside to observe Jesus' birth--again I will reiterate I am a simple person, with a simple life, on a simple little farm, with simple little critters, that simply love the Lord--STUFF is not my cup of tea--for pete's sake a man was killed for material possessions--Wonder if the plasma t.v. or the ipod was worth his life??? People actually got angry when they were told the store had to close due to an employee death!!--WOW! -- Sad thing is--the family of that man will not have him this year--but the people that killed him will have their families and their stuff!!-- I guess I am more simple minded than even I care to admit, because I truly just do not get all the hub-bub with shopping and great deals-- Its just possessions--when we leave this ol' world to make the trip to heaven it can not come with us, so what is it gonna matter?-- Many purchase expensive gifts for their children on credit cards and are still paying on it well beyond next Christmas-- We pay hard, cold cash-- We have taught our children that if you don't have cash, you don't buy it--if its that important to you--save your cash for it-- Black Friday sales are really kinda silly--they mark down 'stuff' to get shoppers in to purchase it--people buy it and in 6 months no one remembers they have it--LOL--This year someone lost their life for worldly possessions--This is not taking into account the people shot to death at Toys-R-Us--We have got to get our priorites in order--time is short--stay home--hug your children and tell them you love them--that my friends will mean more later down the road than any package under the tree!!! And the best part--It's Free and no crowds to kill ya!

~Kris

Busy Week and a happy Thanksgiving

5 a Day for 5 Days

Here's the final 5 of my 5 a day.  I intend to keep these short and sweet!

1.  Australian Licorice from Costco gifted from my friend, Sarah.

2.  Dove dark chocolate.

3.  The ability to sleep in this morning.  Even when I can, I can't! 

4.  Above zero temperatures!  Makes chores A LOT easier!

5.  Leftovers!  No cooking today!

Tuckered out

That's what we both are tonight!  Hubby announced this morning that he was going to back a trailer into the shed and we were going to start cleaning it out.  Well all I could say was WooHoo!   I should have taken a picture of the mess we had, but honestly it was a little too bad.  It is a shed that is open to the south and we use it for shelter for the goats.  They have been using the front half, but there was a cattle panel across the middle and the back half was total junk!  When we moved here 71/2 years ago, we stored things we didn't know what to do with there..........well, you know boxes got damp and gave out and stuff just got to be a total mess.  I have had the best intentions every year to get it cleaned out so the goats could use all of the building as well as just getting the junk cleared out.  But everytime I looked at it, it just seemed like too big of a job to start on myself, so I would just walk away.  So when hubby was in the mood to start on it this morning, I was overjoyed!  A lot of work, but a good tired at the end of the day.  I am guessing we burned 10 or more trash bags full, plus some boxes that we just carried to the burn pile.  Besides a trailer pretty full of stuff to haul to the dump tomorrow.  There is a huge pile of used lumber along one side that my Dad had stored there, so we will have to start on that tomorrow too.  We are thinking some of it may be no good, but some can be  salvaged.  Then of course there is a row of "stuff" that we want to keep that will need to find a home before we can say we are finished. I doubt that we can finish it tomorrow, but we sure have made a good start and I am thrilled.

This shed is where we hold the Live Nativity that we host each year.  So that is another reason to be happy to get this project done now before Christmas.  Past years we have just hung a tarp across, covering up the mess.

Today was a perfect day to work outside, we were out of the wind, so not cold, but just right to work and not get hot either.  There was very little wind, so we were able to keep the burn pile going and get rid of the burnable stuff right away.

One more blessing to share with you.  I send out a newsletter from our farm, and in the one I did last week I added a wish list of things we could use here that folks might have laying around and want to get rid of.  Included was a baby monitor,  jelly jars, concrete wire, and pieces of chain link fence to cover gates.  In response, a friend emailed and offered some fencing.  We borrowed a trailer and picked it up yesterday when we were in the area for Thanksgiving.  There was part of a roll of wire, several hog panels, some are bent, but we cut them up and use the pieces for hay feeders, a chain link walk thru gate, some steel posts.  And they also gave us 2 rubber buckets, a rubber feed pan, some metal wash tubs.  I think that is everything........  We were so happy to be blessed with these items and she told me she had wondered for 2 years what she was going to do with this stuff.  So we helped her out as well.  Isn't God Good!!!

I have 2 pies to bake by noon tomorrow.  Being busy all day and worn out tonight, I was very happy that I had made an extra single pie crust last week and put it in the freezer.   I stirred up  the filling for a custard pie in no time and it baked while I got the dishes from the day caught up.  In the morning when I have a little more energy, I will make an apple and be done baking till Monday I hope!

Country Blessings,

Marilyn~at Heritage Hill Homestead