Heritage Hill Homestead

Brrrrrrr...............its cold!

When I got up this morning it was 26 degrees, it is supposed to be colder tonight!  I was trying to prepare myself last evening for "the freeze" however today the flowers didn't look like they had much damage.  I am sure after tonight they will be gone.  This is such a sad time for me every year, I so enjoy flowers and green things around me.  We have already torn up the garden, so that is not an issue.  Another thing is getting in the mode of not letting the water pans for the animals freeze and break, so changing those out or later on I will just dump each one in the evening so as not to have to deal with a solid block of ice in the mornings.

That thought brings me to a question for those of you who raise rabbits.  What do you water your rabbits with in the winter?  This will be the first year we have had bunnies over the winter other than one for a pet. I am trying to figure out something that won't break and also they won't chew up??  Help please, and thank you.

Well, last week I made 15 pies.  I will not have to make any tomorrow anyway, we will see when the next order comes in.  I tried some different kinds and they went over well.  I knew people like sour cream raisin, so I made one of those.  I had not made that before, but it was easy, so that is good.  I was asked to make a chocolate-peanut butter.  I looked up some recipes and made that also.  It went well as I had to make another one the next day!  I am feeling more comfortable with the cream pies now.  I had not made many and was pretty nervous about that at first.  The Lord, as it turns out is a pretty good cream pie baker............

I am very thankful for this opportunity to provide for our family in this way.  It just came out of the blue at just the right time!  Since we are bartering out food at the restaurant for some of the pies, I took Mom out for dinner after church yesterday. 

Speaking of church, there were 2 people baptized and it was such a nice service.  I had invited a couple to come and visit our church and they were able to come yesterday, I pray they felt a blessing to be there.

Saturday morning hubby will be cooking for the first Men's Saturday morning breakfast at church.  There seems to be a lot of interest, so we hope there is a good turn out. 

Hubby had a stress test on his heart on Thursday last week.  He had gone through the same test several times before, and while he was uncomfortable, they had been nothing like this one.  He was in a lot of pain this time.  So, I am praying that doesn't mean there is more blockage or some reason like that for the difference.  He is not able to take the stress test on the treadmill, so they do it by using medicine to simulate a heart attack.  Pretty scary to me!

Since we were in Topeka for this test, it worked out in the afternoon to go to one of Lexi's volleyball tournament games.  We had not seen her play this year.  They won one and lost one while we were there, but I just found out that they took second overall in the tourney, so Congrats Lex! 

Friday was pie baking day, I made 8 that day.  We went in to the church late afternoon to set up for another funeral dinner.  We served that on Saturday at noon.  It was for a brother of some friends.  Then came home and found out I had to make 4 more pies that evening.

Today has been kind of relaxed for me.  Hubby had to go to Emporia this morning to make some deliveries and pick up some meat at the locker plant.  So while there, he did my grocery shopping for pie baking supplies.  We lit the pilot light in our heating stove this afternoon, so I guess that means we are ready for winter???  Supper tonight was browned chicken breast strips and fried taters ( hubby's most favorite kind of potato) and cornbread muffins.

We are very thankful that gasoline in our little town has dropped to $2.18, I did not think that would happen, sure hope it lasts!

That about brings us up to date of the events of the last week on our homestead.

Country Blessings,

Marilyn~at Heritage Hill Homestead

Untitled Comment

{ 05:17, Tuesday, October 28, 2008 } { Posted by SherKeith }

Hi Marilyn! We've definitely got frost on the pumpkin in Kansas! HA It was good to read what's been going on with your family (WOW, Gal your really making the pies! Way to go!!) but I'm sorry to hear your DH is having problems....Please make him take care of himself as heart problems are very serious!
To help water your outside animals, you might invest in one of those "heaters" that goes in bucket. We used it last last year for our dog and it was a God Send! I never had to worry about his water freezing and it saved me loads of time each evening when I fed him. Drop me a note sometime and maybe we can meet since we live so close! Have a great week. Hugs, Sher

Health

{ 11:10, Tuesday, October 28, 2008 } { Posted by browns71280 }

I'm sorry to hear about your husband. I know what you are going through. My husband just had his third stent put in last month. I know that the stress test are not fun, but is necessary. Has he had a heart cath done yet? That test will tell alot about what is going on.
Keeping you in my thoughts
Debbie

Baby Chicks and Eden Pure Heater...

{ 05:53, Wednesday, October 29, 2008 } { Posted by Glammon }

Hey, I just wanted to give you the scoop on our heater and our chicks. It's a little late to be ordering chicks because of the cold, but we are going to take a chance. We ordered our's in the spring, so they grew all summer and started laying right before winter when they will cut back anyway. Our thinking (a little late) was if we built our flock up now they would grow through the winter and be ready to start laying heavily in the spring. We have an insulated buliding/garage to keep them in and plenty of heat lamps, so as long as they travel okay they should stay warm.

We have had the Eden Pure heater for 2-3 years and love it. They were running a special buy one, get one half off, and we wish now we would have gotten two. Sometimes we close up one room and get it really toasty and sometimes we just let it help heat the whole house to keep our furnace from kicking on in the dead of winter. Two good points, it doesn't take moisture out of the air and it's not hot to the touch. We don't have our heat on and just use it to keep warm in the evenings.

Hope this helps!
~Gretchen

Rabbit water

{ 08:39, Wednesday, October 29, 2008 } { Posted by cradtke }

Hi Marilyn,
I see no one has answered your question about watering rabbits in the winter. We've had rabbits since 2005 and living in "Minnesnowta" I know all about dealing with frozen water for rabbits.
This is what we do. I change all water bottles over to bowls, crocks work really well. Every am and pm we fill the bowls with warm water over the ice. The trick is not to fill the bowls completely so you have room to put warm water in and it melts the ice enough for the rabbit to drink. The rabbits learn real quick to drink when watered. When the bowl gets to full, I dump the ice chuck out or break it out and leave the chunk in the cage. The rabbit will chew on the ice if needed.
If the water bowl is empty, make sure you don't put the warm water in the bowl, use cool water so the rabbit does burn itself. I sometimes just put snow in the bowl and add warm water so I don't have 2 water jugs to carry.
Hope this helps!
Carol

Untitled Comment

{ 09:35, Wednesday, October 29, 2008 } { Posted by LivingSimple }

It was also very cold here this morning--around 26..Brrrrr...the vet did give our little buckling Nuflor and we are taking him back tomorrow for another round of antibiotics--My husband does not like giving shots to the little ones--not much 'meat' to inject in--so we just take them in--our vet is great--only 5.00 for just an injection--I will update my blog as to his progress...

Thanks for visiting my blog!
~Kris--in Arkansas