Across Generations..

When Shane and I were married 22 yrs (really??) ago.  I was blessed with a mother-in-law who was willing to take me under her wing and teach me how to manage a large family.  She had eight children and I was certain I would have twelve so there was MUCH to be learned..

Back then there was no internet.  One could not learn any skill or access any recipe she wanted with the click of a mouse.   No, instead I was given a great gift of many hours spent in her kitchen gleaning as she had done from the generations before her. Little did I know then that our time of tutoring would be so short.  We would lose her to cancer in 1999 with my girls never having known her.

~&~

Through out the summer the girls and I do a lot of canning.  The apple pie filling is always my favorite. This year, as we were placing the last batch of jars in the cooker, Bethany pushed back a strand of hair from her face and looking around exclaimed "This kitchen will never recover from this. I think this is the messiest batch yet!"   The three of us had a good laugh and sat to take a break.    On the table lay the recipe for our pie filling.  Grace leaned over and picked it up... "Momma, your recipe is so old and tattered, you could recopy it you know, and make it look better."  I slowly took it from her, staring at the familiar handwriting, and instantly the tears welled.

For in my hand I held Great Grandma Walters recipe, copied in Grandma Mabel's handwriting and scarred from 22 years of use in my family.  In my hand I held a bridge for several generations of beautiful women that never had the privilege of meeting each other.  The recipe bore my history as well... There was the year I decided 10 cups of water took entirely too long to thicken and changed it to seven, only to find that those gals knew what they were doing and I was left scrubbing thick, sticky goo out of the bottom of my pan... and also the year when I was chasing four tiny boys around my kitchen and somehow in the process I set the recipe too close to the burner, nearly burning it to ashes.... It also held the splatters from years past as the chubby fingers of my little girls now graceful and skilled would handle the card leaving behind smears of love and smudges of memories.

No.. I shook my head.  "Somethings are meant to be kept, Gracie." But looking at it I knew she was right. The writing was fading. The fold tearing apart.
After all, Shell, we are talking about a piece of paper. Come on lady!

So.. today, I took my daughters hands, I told them of the lives of these two women, we walked across that bridge and then we made it our own.

 I now have two cards. A crisp fresh card tucked in the box right next to my old one. Both written by beautiful ladies who share the same middle name.  And just maybe, years from now, if the Lord wills that I should live. I will open my recipe box and as I pull out a tattered old recipe, the one bearing those memories that are yet to come, perhaps my granddaughter will say "Granny, this old card is so tattered why don't you recopy it and make it look better?" After I share with her the history of all the beautiful women of her past, I will reach in my desk drawer, pull out a fresh crisp card and ask her to do just that.

Forget the Needle, Find the Pig

With a pretty good ice storm heading our way, the boys and I spent Wednesday morning strawing the animals.. the pigs made good use of their ration... can you see them?

 

 

 

how about now....

 

 

or now.....

I had to show Gub last... his color gives him away a little more....

all in all I think they gave new meaning to pigs in a blanket! =)



True Womanhood..

"A true wife makes a man's life nobler, stronger, grander, by the omnipotence of her love 'turning all the forces of manhood upward and heavenward.' While she clings to him in holy confidence and loving dependence she brings out in him whatever is nobles and richest in his being. She inspires him with her courage and earnestness. She beautifies his life. She softens whatever is rude and harsh in his habits or his spirit. She clothes him with the gentler graces of refined and cultured manhood. While she yields to him and never disregards his lightest wish, she is really his queen, ruling his whole life and leading him onward and upward in every proper path. -JR Miller

Cookin' Pumpkin...

This is a reprint from Beth and Grace's blog a few years back.  We do things a little different now. like use a blender instead of a potato masher, the family has grown and we have to put up more than we use to, the blender speeds things up a bit. Also, now that we have moved to a longer growing season we have tried other squash. The Georgia Candy is still our favorite! 

Monday, October 12, 2009

Time for Pumpkin Muffins

For Pumpkin muffins we prefer not to use true pumpkin, it is too stringy. This one is a Georgia Candy Roaster, a squash, we were not sure when we bought the seeds if it would grow here because it requires 120 days and that is a little longer than our season allows. But I am glad we tried because it is a sweet and very good tasting squash. Other squash we use are hubbard, banana, or acorn. We grow tons of pumpkins and squash for our livestock so there is always a lot to choose from.

First you need to cut it in half and scrape out all the seeds. Then put it face down on a rimmed baking sheet and bake at 400*  until it is tender.

Once the squash is cooked all the way through the shell will pull off easily.

cut the squash into chunks then use a potato masher until the squash is creamy.

Then you can use it in any recipe that calls for canned pumpkin. If you have left over squash you can freeze it, we usually don't. I will post my recipe for pumpkin muffins as soon as I get a chance. They make the best breakfast on a crisp morning with a mug of spiced cider.

D.O.A.

Yesterday my washer kicked it... I bawled. I HATE buying appliances. they cost too much, never work like promised and never ever, ever last long at our house...


Shane came home, tried to hide his laughter as I bawled and loads me up in the truck headed for Lowes... Soon we meet "The Salesman"..  if there is anything I hate more than buying appliances it is dealing with salesmen.  He was a young kid, full of energy and he started right in with his spill wanting to tell me all the great features that each machine boasts........ I couldn't stand it so two minutes in to his recital ~ I interrupt~

look... I'm short on time and I only care about clean clothes so if you have one that has a

 'hey mom! these coveralls with two day old crusty cow poop on 'em might need washed.. feature'

or a

 ' I've been trimming the feet of and vaccinating rutting goats all day....man that bill is rank! feature'

or even a

 'Mom!  104* is sure hot to be putting up fence,  do you think you can get the B.O. outta my shirt? feature'.........

Then I'll take it, other wise you might just have to step back and let me look!" 


the way the salesman  paused made me hopeful that they might have my dream machine but as Shane gently cleared his throat and indicated I was being a little harsh ~I realized that my salesman was simply trying to keep his lunch down.....

Shane asks "What is the best value for the money?" I roll my eyes... the best value is me and a rock on the river bank but then again I bet I could even wear out a rock...  it was enough, however, for the salesman to regain his footing and off he leads to find my washer.

We settled on a whirlpool.... I think.  We brought that bad boy home and the very first load it flashes a little light "sensing"...... I stood there flustered "WHAT IS SENSING????" apparently it is like "getting in touch with your inner self" for washing machines.  It takes a whole five minutes to determine if the load is distributed correctly and adjust it if necessary. I'm not impressed.... "Honey, there had better be a way to turn off your little yoga session or this is going to be a strained relationship...NOBODY gets a five minute break around here before they even start working!"

So today I am taking my owners manual with me while the children are at the dentist, we can both be tortured at the same time. But I also, think I will start taking bets... My last washer was purchased  March 13th 2010  after I washed a pocket full of BB's and tore up the older one beyond repair.  So I made it two and a half years this time.... Here is how it will work, each participant kicks in $5 and guesses the date I will have to replace this new washing machine. The one who is closest to the date wins!! And the best part is, the lucky winner will have the privilege of donating all his winnings to me and my quest..... the quest for the long lasting washing machine.=).... if only energizer would build one...

Song of The South

Have you ever wondered how cotton grew.... I have. I know, I have way too much time on my hands. I planted several experimental crops this year to see what would grow and how well it would do. Cotton was one of them. I didn't know this until it was already planted right in the middle of my garden but cotton can be grown as a perennial. Mine will only be an annual this year, because the cows are going to get it. Now before I share my pictures of growing cotton with you here is the disclaimer... * you are not allowed to look at the weeds in the picture. It is a sad, sad day when a body decides due to the drought, she will let the weeds grow in her garden and when she is done she can turn the cows in and they will actually have a few days of green feed. It's pathetic if you ask me but it is what this year has reduced us to.

 Cotton Plant

 Cotton Blossom

 Bee doing all the work

Cotton Boll, when this is dry it will open up and expose the cotton, I will post that picture then.

For I Know....

When we moved to our home in Archer Idaho, Grace was six months old.  The old farm house was severely neglected and required a lot of work on our part. Grace, because of her age, never saw this.  The garden, fruit trees and berry patches grew up around her as she learned to walk and run and climb.  She never saw the fields weedy and grown over because by the time she could see over the window sills we had dug ditches for irrigation and  had animals that kept the pastures trim and neat. She was never part of hauling 5 gallon buckets of weeds out of our garden, by the time she understood weeds we had all but a few annoying handfuls under control. She enjoyed the fire pit but didn't understand the labor that went into hauling rocks and leveling ground that produced the pit.  To put it in a nutshell, she took our farm for granted because it was all she had ever known.

I guess I don't need to say that our move to Missouri put my little blond bombshell into shock.  While her brothers and older sister rejoiced that there was no lawn to mow and ran through the trees discovering all the wild critters (mostly ticks) that only Missouri can grow...little Grace, stood wide eyed and wondered how we would ever survive without raspberry jam and strawberries, huckleberries and apples... a chicken coop or a milk stand. She had entered the desert place. Her dismay grew when we planted a garden and it failed because momma had not yet mastered Missouri dirt. As I planted our garden a second time she made vocal her fears..."We should have brought dirt with us, and probably Mrs. Howell (our neighbor in Idaho) too."

I tried to help her adjust. When the blueberries were ripe on a neighboring farm, I loaded her and Beth up and went down to pick  a few gallons. She raised an eyebrow as I paid the lady at the farm~ we were always the ones who were paid for our berries not the other way around, but she smiled as we laid them on cookie sheets and froze them for the coming winter. When the blackberries were ripe we headed out to our fields with buckets in tow. I tried to comfort her with the verse in Deuteronomy where God allows us to eat from vineyards and olive trees we did not plant and  I explained how God was taking care of us by planting wild blackberries and grapes for us to enjoy. Her dissatisfaction was evident as she replied. "Well, I wish He would 'o talked to me first cuz I'd a told Him to plant the kind without pokies!"

As spring approaches, and with it, the arrival of our orders of fruit trees, berry bushes and bees. I smile. My daughter is entering into the land of plenty. Her days of being down in the valley are coming to a close.  I have already witnessed her joy in gathering the first eggs here. As she squealed with delight and compared the different colors of the eggs, I think back to the summer before we left Idaho when gathering eggs was a "chore" instead of a privilege. I catch her stretching out and giving a contented sigh as she lays in front of the fire with her reading lessons. I listen to her remind me of how hot it was the day we picked blueberries as she sits down to a bowl of them swimming in sugar and cream from her favorite cow, Buttermilk.  I smile because my daughter is also entering into the land of work... she will help us dig holes and pull weeds until our fingers are sore. She will groan about the heat and the bugs. She will know that life is not handed to us but available if we should choose to pursue it.  And she will go after it because she knows the reward that is waiting and will no longer take it for granted.  THAT is living.

So too it is with our walk as a Christian, if it were not for the valleys, the mountain tops would have no joy. If it were not for the valleys, the mountain tops themselves would become work. Our Father, in His loving wisdom,  allows us to walk through valleys. But he does not send us alone nor does he leave us destitute. Behind the thorns, we will find the sweet berries. In the chores we will find joy. And when we think we can go no further He will lift us up and we will breath deep of that crisp mountain air.  We must praise Him whether the path is low or high because in the mixture of both we will find the definition of living.....

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, 

thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

Enter into His Gates with Thanksgiving

My new home is little... for months on end that has been the only word that I have found to describe it, and as unintentional as it was I had become like the stiff necked Jews when the Lord led them from Egypt into the promised land. Ungrateful..

Oh, I never out and out griped about my little house but I always found myself saying things like "The girls and I are use to having miles of counter top...bumping elbows while we cook is something new for us." Or how about this one.. "I had three living rooms at our old house" as the visitor steps around a lego city that was constructed in my only (gasp) living room. Ah yes, pride glorious pride....

Sigh... I don't know sometimes why the Lord puts up with me. Lately, however, I have felt something change inside. I feel that peace... I love that peace.

The menfolk are in Idaho. Andrew drew a ram tag before we left so they are there seeing if they can't fill it, that and bringing me back IDAHO potatoes, since these things hauled in from Maine are proving unfit to eat. :)

While they hunt the girls and I always have a list of domestic duties we want to get accomplished. Usually canning, sewing, decorating and such. The list always includes window washing as well. Going into winter we need to allow as much light into the home as possible. This year the task (one of my least favorite) was finished inside and out in less than two hours...unheard of, normally it would have taken all day and an entire bottle of Tylenol!! The girls and I spent the rest of the day playing on the deer trails in our wooded pastures and picking nuts.. As I tucked myself in bed later that night I was praising God for the wonderful day we had spent and it was only then that I realized... I was praising him for my little house.
My little house sits back in the woods of our property, I can see no other house around or see the cars that may travel down our dirt road. Today I went out and milked my cow in my p.j.'s and no one knew. I buried my face in the side of my cow and breathed deep of sweet grass and leather as I rejoiced at being completely alone. Life is good. My little house has hardwood floors (what I have always wanted), a wood burning stove to keep it toasty warm, a library for our books, three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

I am blessed indeed.

Oh, don't mistake me for perfect. I still have a honey do list that includes new cabinets and wainscoting and ~oh don't get me started~ BUT, I am finally at home in my llittle home and I am grateful in my heart that God, as always, is good.

By Faith

Where reason cannot wade there faith may swim.

—Thomas Watson


I have often wondered why life can be such a challenge.. Why the life the Lord leads us through can seem so eccentric, muddled, and scattered. I never ever get something right the first time. I always do things the hard way. It can be so frustrating yet, I know that it is not I but HE who orchestrates the affairs of man so if I am to be honest, I am not frustrated with the situation but with my Saviour.

How ungrateful can I be? That the one who gave his all for and to me should frustrate me so. I am spoiled. The past week I feel as if we are walking in mud.. Missouri mud, the kind that sticks to your shoes and the more you walk the more it sticks until your legs are heavy and hard to lift. I have so quickly forgotten the blessing of last week when our house in Idaho closed while others have sat with homes they cannot afford on the market for months upon months and I am free. Free to fuss because our power upgrade for the shop cost us six hundred dollars. Free to fuss because I have my heart set on an additional tract of land that I would like to purchase but the owner has completely vanished. Free to fuss because I am running six different directions on any given day. Life is scattered but I am free. If I but live by faith instead of by fuss I would find that things go better than I could ever imagine.
Many nights ago Shane was able to get in touch with the son of Mick, who owns the land next to ours. When Shane told the son that we were looking to purchase it he laughed and said he didn't think his dad was interested in selling but gave us Micky's number and said we could try. I'll be honest my guts were tied in knots but I said " It doesn't matter, it isn't up to him...It isn't even up to Mick...it's up to God." For days on end we called that number but he would not answer. One night out of the blue we received a call from Mick. He stated that he had missed a call from us. When Shane explained what we were calling for, Mick immediately said he would sell. The next week we closed. At the closing Mick said that he never had any intention on selling that land but at the moment he and Shane spoke he knew that he was to sell it to us. His words that followed make my heart sing. "I don't know why I all the sudden got the urge to change my mind but I guess it was just time for me to let it go."
I know why, because of a loving Saviour who cares for me more than I will ever understand.

By Him all things were made....

Lunar Moth

Regal Walnut Moth

Early Pictures

Sold!

When we left Idaho for Missouri, we did so without selling our old farm house there.  It was an act of faith..... a lot of faith.  We put the house on the market the night before we left and received an excellent offer fourteen days later.

I have never been able to bargain with the Lord, I cannot come before Him and say "If you will just get me out of this spot I promise I will do......"  I know and He knows that I would fail at any promise I would make so I find it best to be honest and say "Father, I don't deserve it but I need............. and the only way it can happen is if you do it." 

He has never failed me, and I'd just like to praise him for that.

Changes

I've had a hard time trying to decide what to do with my blog.  So much has changed in the past few months that I just wanted to delete my old blog and start over.  My children objected, saying the stories were still about  them and we haven't changed.  I decided instead to transfer my writings over here. For a fresh start that still hangs on to the memories....



The corner we have turned is one that I hope will leave a heritage for my childrens children. And I am excited to see how the Lord will write this story.

They're Here!!!

In three days we delivered 17 baby goats and only lost one!  I'm a happy gal. We had a lot of singles this year... they were breeding just about the time my mother passed and I didn't have their mineral licks out there like I should have. Oh well, there are still plenty to sell and I will be milking in four weeks!!  Two more mommas will have their babies by the weekend and then we will be done until the first of March when five more moms plus Jerling will finish off our kidding/calving season.  I'll post pictures as soon as I get more Aleeve and coffee in me LOL.

Well now that was a joke.  I just took about 30 pictures and they are all a complete blur except for these few... will have to try it again when the little jumping beans are wore out .

These last four have already been sold as bottle babies ~  some people believe that makes them a better goat... me personally, I don't think God gave us the instincts that he gave those old momma goats and you get a healthier baby if you leave them with her. Not to mention you get more sleep. :)

Don't they just melt your heart?

Waiting Is an Art

Waiting is an art that our impatient age has forgotten. It wants to break open the ripe fruit when it has hardly finished planting the shoot. But all too often the greedy eyes are only deceived; the fruit that seemed so precious is still green on the inside, and disrespectful hands ungratefully toss aside what has so disappointed them.
Whoever does not know the austere blessedness of waiting—that is, of hopefully doing without—will never experience the full blessing of fulfillment.
Those who do not know how it feels to struggle anxiously with the deepest questions of life, of their life, and to patiently look forward with anticipation until the truth is revealed, cannot even dream of the splendor of the moment in which clarity is illuminated for them.

And for those who do not want to win the friendship and love of another person—who do not expectantly open up their soul to the soul of the other person, until friendship and love come, until they make their entrance—for such people the deepest blessing of the one life of two intertwined souls will remain forever hidden.

For the greatest, most profound, tenderest things in the world, we must wait. It happens not here in a storm but according to the divine laws of sprouting, growing, and becoming.

~CBD

Cody's buck

Deer season is over and Cody now joins the ranks with his brothers as having bagged a big game animal this year.... It is a pretty nice buck but we only Euro mounted him as Cody already has one bigger on the wall.  Great job son, now let's go make some jerky!  The only hunting left now is trapping and an elk tag to fill the first of December.

Jerling..

Is pregnant!!!  In all the chaos that has surrounded my life this past year one tiny miracle almost went unnoticed by me...

Jerling, the mini cow I bought a year and a half ago is going to have a baby next spring!  The Vet said either the end of March or the first part of April.  We were preparing to move them from their summer pasture and bring them home.  I wanted her toes trimmed so I made an appointment with the vet and while we were there I had him do a preg check.  I was so shocked when he immediately said  "Oh, yeah, she's definitely pregnant.."  And shrugged it off like it was nothing......I had to forgive him for his casual announcement because not everyone knows the struggle it has been to get her to settle.  :)

But settle she has and just the other side of this winter I will have more milk and cream than I will know what to do with.  Yeah!!!!  I hope it's a girl....

Psalm 126

When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion,

We were like them that dream.

Then was our mouth filled with laughter,

and our tongue with singing:

then said they among the heathen,

THE LORD HATH DONE GREAT THINGS FOR THEM.

The Lord hath done great things for us;

whereof we are glad.

Turn again our captivity, O Lord,

as the streams in the south.

They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.

He that goeth forth and weepeth,

bearing precious seed, 

shall doutless come again with rejoicing,

bringing his sheaves with him.

This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good sucess.

Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage, be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. 

Joshua 1:8,9

Why I Write...

I began this blog in February of  2009.  Until that time I wrote in a journal...  Page after smeared page from a left handed writer now sit in my bottom drawer waiting for a time when my children want to be reminded of their mothers love for them.
I like my blog a lot better, no smears, I can reword any section I want with a click of the mouse and best of all SPELL CHECK!!!! :)

I started sharing my blog with others a few months later.  Something I often wish I hadn't done.


You see, I don't write "for all of the world to read" but for Shane and my children. If the Lord wills that I should live to be old, there will come a time when my mind has betrayed me and my footsteps are ragged and slow.  I want them to have a written remembrance of my love.  Or should my last day be today and I never have a chance for that final  "I love you" ....I want them to find it here.

I want my children and husband to forever understand that I do not have a heart beat of my own but simply the echo of their heart, beating in my chest .  Why I do the things I do and believe what I believe... that is here also.

I think this blog is a great way for those we don't see very often to keep up with what we are doing, it makes it easy for me too. For that reason alone, I leave it public.  But there are others, others who sometimes make my blog hard to write.

If you disagree with something I write...the comment box is there. I don't mind that they see opposition.. it causes us to research our beliefs more thoughtfully and our beliefs become more concrete by that.  If I offend you, however,....... tough.  I won't apologize and I certainly won't change it.  I didn't write it for you, and while it is sitting here for you to read, that doesn't mean you have to.

Maybe I should put at the top... This blog is dedicated to my God and the men and women who make my life worth living......if you don't like it ~ make yer own.  Ahhh, but then my attitude would be showing wouldn't it?

At any rate, children get to doing what you do best...making your momma proud.  I can't wait to see what I write next.