Holidays, family time, now the flu

Once again it has been a while since I posted here and let you all know I am still kickin. Damn time has a way of getting away from me somehow. We had a relaxing family holiday with the kids all here. Rob and Amoy got here with lil man Liam on the 27th of December and stayed till January 4th when they had to fly home. We sure enjoyed having them here and getting time to see Liam grow. They learn things so fast at this young age it still amazes me. He decided he does not like a sippy cup but will drink all you will let him have from a bottle or regular glass. Of course he got his Ale8 fix by buttering up his daddy.

 Don't panic, its not beer, its just a regional drink here in Ky. Soft drink that is.  Rob and Amoy try to get their fill while they are here visiting because they wont get any Ale8 till we visit in April and take some to them in Nevada. But lil man sure did like it too. They had a busy week trying to see as many family members and friends as possible in a short time.  Liam got to spend lots of quality time with papaw too. Papaw is the one who takes lil humans outside barefoot to look at chickens.

As you can tell, papaw thinks this lil boy is pretty special. As do I. He is trying to get his nerve up to stand alone and let go but mostly loses his nerve and sits down really quick before his bottom hits the floor. Such a precious age. I look at this lil boy and wonder what things he will do in his life. He has wonderful parents to guide him so I see him doing great things.

We took Rob and Amoy and Liam to the airport on Saturday and had dinner out with them before they left. They made it home to their house on Sunday safe and sound. Their flight took them to Salt Lake and they stayed the night as opposed to driving 3 more hours on home and getting there very late and too tired.

Sunday the weather here was so nice and Rodger and I decided it was time to clean out the chicken house before the sub-zero temps set in the first part of this past week. We did not get to take the manure to the garden as it was far to wet to get in there with the tractor or it may still be there. So it is piled out at the edge of the woods to break down over winter and we can spread the compost later. I cleaned out the cob webs and next boxes in the house while Rodger shoveled manure. Got them all bedded down well for the cold snap. Then we took some plywood and made a dog house under the front porch for Luna. She did not stay on her bed on the porch that I had fixed for her. But I knew the weather was pose to be windy and very cold. I put a pallet down and we put up plywood sides on each end of the pallet for wind breaks an put her blanket and pillows in there and she is a happy camper. At least she will stay in there out of the weather and off the ground. She comes out in the mornings all shiny and new, dry and happy. In all this process and having the outbuildings open, somehow our big cat Possum decided he was gonna hide out in the building. By Monday the cold had hit and it was bitter cold. By Wednesday I ask Rodger if he had seen Possum and he had not. On Thursday morning he just happened to think that just maybe he was in the outbuilding. And sure enough he was. He had been closed up in there since probably Sunday. Poor guy was hungry and seemed kinda weak when he came to the porch to eat later that day. He stayed warm but he sure didn't have any food or water in there unless he happened upon a mouse or 3.

On Tuesday I went to help Jason at his house for a bit. He was thawing out some of his water lines that had froze because his heater under the house had malfunctioned and didn't keep it warm enough. I was not outside for more than 10 minutes, tops. I got back in the house and started chilling. Then I spiked a fever. For the ones of you that know me well enough know the meds I take for the arthritis suppresses the immune system and I don't get symptoms of being sick till I am deathly ill. Well folks, I am deathly ill. I went to bed by 6 that evening an didn't get up till 9 the next morning. My head hurt, my whole body hurt. I had an awful sinus infection. I started taking antibiotics for the sinus and chest congestion with high hopes that's all it was. I am now thinkin it is likely the flu. I still hurt and from time to time still spike a fever. I am just a miserable pup. I must get better to die. Not really much can be done for the flu other than keep hydrated and treat the symptoms. I can do that will chicken soup and teas we have here.

Sometime during all this chaos I found a recipe for cinnamon rolls made in the bread machine. I had to try them as they sounded almost too good to be true. Well folks, lemme tell ya, they are damn good. And really easy to make. No work to em really. So here is the recipe that I used.

For Dough:
1 cup warm milk (110 degrees F)
2 eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup butter, melted
4 ½ cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup white sugar
2 ½ teaspoons bread machine yeast

For Filling:
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, softened

For Frosting:
1 (3 ounce) pkg. of cream cheese, softened
¼ cup butter, softened
1 ½ cup confectioners’ sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
⅛ teaspoon salt





1) Place all roll ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Then select the dough setting and press start.
2) Let the dough double in size, then turn it out on a lightly floured surface. Cover with a towel and let it rest for 10 minutes. Meantime, grab a small bowl and combine butter, brown sugar,  and cinnamon.
3) Roll dough into a large rectangle (16×21). Spread the dough with the butter/brown sugar/ cinnamon mixture. Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in two lightly greased round pie pans. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled in size, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.4) Bake the rolls until golden brown, about 15 minutes. While rolls are baking, make the frosting. Beat together cream cheese, ¼ cup butter, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla extract and salt. Spread the frosting on as soon as the rolls come out of the oven.

I actually don't think the rolls needed to bake this long. At this length of time they get pretty brown. I think they are better when they are very light brown and still soft. But I tell ya, these are the bestest. I actually used a lasagna pan to put my rolls in, it was dark, and they did get a lil browner than I wanted on the bottom and top. Next time I will put maybe 5 rolls in an 8 inch cake pan and see how they do in that. They do rise really nice too.






Not much else happening here on the homestead right now. Not long till garden time tho. Just a couple months till we start up the greenhouse for cabbage and such. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Home is best, people are crazy

It is so nice to retreat to "home" where things are more along the lines of serene and calm. Good grief!! We had to go to the big city today to the dentist. How we messed up and made a dentist appointment this close to Christmas I will never know. Or worse yet, what the hell were we thinkin? We made a couple stops to do a lil shopping for a few grocery items and such. And to get lil man a few things for Christmas. People were in such a hurry to get "somewhere" it was like tryin to walk the tracks during a NASCAR race. Move quick, look over your shoulder or there is a damn good chance ya gonna get run over. People almost seemed desperate to get to "something". Like thieves, hurry and grab this or that so we can get out of here. Just makes a person want to say "dumb ass why the rush" it will still be there in 2 minutes when granny gets her cart out of the way soon as she digs in her purse and cant find the grocery list she made. I was real happy to survive getting the few things we went for and beat a hasty retreat to the safety of our house. I tell ya people are crazy. Maybe that is why I like my dog. Always pleasant, never a rush, loves unconditionally, loyal and dependable. Guess that is why they say the dog is mans best friend.

Other than crazy hurried people our day went well. An uneventful visit to the dentist for a cleaning, a lil shopping and home again. Now I really want to hibernate. Our weather is supposed to get pretty cold this week and maybe some snow flurries mixed in. I bet I can find plenty to do right here at home. My mind makes big plans then my body laughs at me when I set those plans in motion. I should and maybe will get some of our potatoes out of the cellar that are not keeping as well as we thought an can those. We wont be having our family Christmas till Sunday after Rob, Amoy and Liam get here. So I got all week to do "stuff". Rodger is on call at work for Christmas Eve and day but hopefully he wont have to go out. We sure could stand to do some cleaning and organizing in the closets here. Some damn critter keeps getting in my closet and seaming up my clothes while I am not looking. Seems every time I pull something out to wear it is a lil tighter than it was last time. Its underwear gnomes, thas it, thas what they do when they cant steal underwear. WE made an attempt at organizing the pantry here in the kitchen yesterday. Not that that went very well. Dang still cant find stuff in there. All joking aside, one of these days I will invest in one of those roll out shelf units that fits in the pantry and holds all kinds of stuff all neat and pretty. I am certain they make better use of space than just having extra deep shelves that would accommodate a family of squatters and a person would never find them. We humans are never happy. But really I am thankful I have the problem of a full pantry, over loaded shelves, chugged to the top freezers. It may be hard to find what I am looking for at the moment, a minor inconvenience,  but we can eat well and live on what is in there. There are poor folks in this country that would be thankful to just have enough to eat. What has happened to charity in our once great country? People have got so many handouts from our government that they don't for one second appreciate a real helping hand. They have been trained like a pet monkey to depend on a hand out. Most of them sold their soul for a lil bit of money that most times wont provide their basic needs and all they have to do to get that pitiful amount is to do nothing. Don't work the government will take care of you. No thank you!! I will make my own way and keep my freedom and my pride. And we wonder why young people are growing up the way they are with the attitude they have that the world owes them. We made em that way by giving them everything. I saw a lil girl in Walmart today, no more than maybe 7 or 8, with a cell phone. Who the hell does a small child need to call? Kids don't know how to talk to anyone or even each other. They are all too busy stuck to some kind of electronic device, texting, playing games or who knows what. No such things as human interaction any more. I remember not many years ago, just a few, cell phones were a new thing. I would see someone talking and no one near them and think for a time they were crazy and talking to themselves. Later to find they had a blue tooth and were on the phone talking to someone. Now today it seems perfectly normal to see people walking around talking to themselves. I just cant bring myself to be one of em. I can do enough stupid shit on a normal day to let the cat out of the bag without walking around in public talking to myself. Humans, funny animals aren't they?

I guess this whole post really explains why I really like to stay here on the farm at home. People may think I am crazy but I refuse to get out in public and act the part an confirm all suspicions.
Not much happening here on the farm. Just planning on relaxing and enjoying a lil down time with family to celebrate the birth of Christ our saviour. So I wish each of you the blessings of Gods grace. Have a merry Christmas and enjoy time with family and friends. Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Time flys when you are having fun

Or at least that is what they say. I just know for sure time has flown by this year. Mostly this fall. It seems like I have been away from home since early last fall. I guess I kinda have tho. Starting in September with the hunting lodge, the loss of my Aunt Ann, home for a bit, house sitting, another hunting season at the lodge, home for a few days and the final round of the hunting lodge. I think the hunting season is over for this year till September at least. Unless Carl comes up with another brainy idea. And knowing him, its possible. But I do enjoying helping out at the hunting lodge and it keeps my aunts memory alive for me.

Back at home not much to do in the way of gardening or farming. Other than keep the chickens fed and watered. Water is not much of a problem with all the rain we have had and are presently having. The temperatures are nice tho. I wont complain at all about that. It was in the 60's here today. I even had the patio door open for a while. I guess it helps that the patio door is off the kitchen and I was cooking supper adding to the heat in here. Rodger came home from work feeling like crap. He said he had been so tired all day and just felt bad. I think he went to bed around 6 , right after supper. Not normal for him. But he was up a lil bit ago and said his back did feel better. He has had several people off work with the flu and such. Some schools in surrounding counties considered calling off school due to illness. For what ever reason my arthritis has flared up pretty bad today. Not sure if its over use of my joints, the weather or just plain age. But dang, its hurty. I guess the one joint that has most of my attention right now is my big toe. OK laugh it up. But do you know how annoying it is to walk with your big toes sore, stiff an hurting? Well it hurts. I guess if that is the worst of my problems, its all good. With all the work at the hunting lodge this fall, I feel really good about my over-all well being. I did well. Not as much pain as usual. Not as much soreness as usual. I can live with this. I do still have major bouts with fatigue but IF time and events allow I can most times sleep that off. That is IF I can crash and sleep 12 to 14 hours straight. It may take a couple days but I feel better after the fact. With fibro, rest is essential or your mental clarity goes out the window. It seems life and your whole body just stalls. I guess it kinda does.

Any who, its almost Christmas time and time to spend some quality time with family an friends. In our case mostly family. Our kids, Rob, Amoy and lil Liam will be home end of this week. Cant wait to see them. We have not seen our Rob since April when we were in Nevada for Liam's birth. That lil boy has grown bunches too and is crawling, pulling up, and will probably be trying to walk soon. Time flys when ya have a lil one, they change daily. So this grammy needs to get some junk food made to spoil the lil one with while he is home.

Oh its so nice to be home in my own world, sleeping in my own bed, on the down side, I have to eat all my own cooking. I have a mental list of several projects I want to get done this winter. Yeas I said
"mental" list. I have a couple quilts I want to finish. Some crochet projects I want to work on and a few embroidery pieces I want to do. Not sure where I got the silly notion I want to make a bunch of embroidery pieces to later set up into a quilt. But the idea is kinda stuck in my mind. Although it may change after I complete one square. But those projects are for when I am house bound in really cold nasty weather if we have any later this winter. But for now I really should be in the summer kitchen getting more of our potatoes canned up so we don't have such a large loss on them. They just are not keeping as well as they should. Not sure if it has to do with the wet growing season or a disease or just what their problem is. But if I get busy and can the good ones they for sure will stay edible till spring. We had to buy sweet potatoes this fall for the first time in forever. Ours did nothing. Well they did the best they could in the grass that took over. They yielded about 2/3 of a 5 gallon bucket in 2 rows 100ft long. May as well say they did nothing. But I got those lil fellows canned up last fall too so its all good. We can use the ones we have stored fresh first before they sprout and save the canned ones will we run out of fresh. They will keep in the jar. I never did but still want to make an can some goulash like my friend Rosie makes. I still remember the taste and it was so dang good. Meat, beef or in my case venison, cooked long with lots of onion in a tomato like sauce. I remember she served it with kraut. Oh my, so good. I guess I should get her recipe to make sure I can get close to the same taste. Nothing in life is more disappointing that having your taste buds set for a certain taste and then it not meet up to your specifications.

I think tomorrow will be a chicken noodle soup day. Rodger not feeling good, its cool and rainy. Yep a good soup day. Good ole comfort food. Nothing better.

Not much else happening here, so till next time, Merry Christmas and many blessings from the McGuire homestead to your family.

Stella

It is officially winter time here

I think winter time just hit us head on. We had lots of rain for a couple days. And last night it all turned to freezing rain and everything is coated with a lil layer of ice this morning. Not as cold as they had predicted tho. In the mid 30's here and the layer of ice is melting off the back deck. Mind you I have not been out there. I have hard enough time staying upright on a good day, not gonna risk breaking some body part with ice on the ground.
Rodger went out earlier to let the chickens out. They are none to happy about not being able to stay upright either. For the most part they darted back in the building. Not a chance of them catching a worm or bug on a day not fit for man or beast. My hens are not laying well right now and haven't been since early fall. I think it is about time to order a new flock of birds and start over with some young hens next spring. Some of my hens are close to 4 years old now and time for them to make soup and dumplings.
Before it started raining and getting all nasty I went out to the herb bed and cut the last of my lil cabbage from last fall. Oh they were sweet as can be and made perfect coleslaw. They were not huge or any size to write home about but sure were tasty. I wanted to get some turnips out before the ice came and they are not big enough for anything yet. I guess I did plant them a lil later than normal. Someone had given me some turnips one fall and I still had some in the fridge to snack on several months later. The longer they sit the better they taste. I don't like them cooked at all but love to just peel and eat them like apples. With a lil salt makes a tasty snack in the winter. I remember dad use to "hole" up our potatoes in the fall and one year he pulled an put a bunch of turnips in a pile with the taters and in the middle of winter he got some out. Talk about sweet and good. I still remember that taste. I did see some small rutabagas in the bed tho. That was my first time planting those. Next time I make soup from scratch I plan to cube up some of the rutabagas to put in as well. Those as well as turnips are cool weather crops that store well and get better with age in storage. Time and cool turns the starch to sugars in these root veggies and makes them more nutritious as well as tasting better.
My herb bed needs some minor fence repair come spring tho. I just put up deer netting about 2 ft tall to keep critters like cats and the dog from walking in the bed and it has seen some accidents and incidents since it was first installed. Lots of places it sags and looks bad and has some tears and some of the post are leaning. The beds out back need repair as well. I did have some metal "T" post driven in there to hold the net up and all was well till Rodger swiped the side of his truck down one post and bent it over messing up the fence. Now the hens can get in if they happen to be inclined to. Not to mention the dent in the new truck from the gas tank to the rear bumper. Ugh! Its always something here. He had backed up the back yard to unload deer and when he pulled back out he slid down the hill against the fence post and at that point was not a happy camper I bet. Glad I was not home at the time.
With it being nasty weather I guess its time to hibernate and drag out the quilt and knitting stuff and get busy. I have a quilt top that my aunt Connie had made that I do want to finish this winter for sure. And I still have lots of tee shirt yarn to make another throw rug for the kitchen. I enjoy my hibernating weather for sure. Just hate the guys have to get out an go work in this kinda mess. But am very thankful for the blessing of being able to be home and keep the home fires burning so to speak. Got to work on baby-proofing the house too. Cant have lil Liam getting hurt when they get home in about 3 weeks. Cant wait to see that lil fellow again. He grows so fast and its amazing to see him in pictures and videos as he discovers his lil world and learns new things. Thanks to my beautiful daughter in law for taking time to share all those precious memories with us long distance. She is so great and catching him doing cute things and sending pictures and lil videos. Love this one of him as he gets this "crawling" thing down pat. He will be a lil speed demon by time we get to see him.

This will be Liam's first Christmas and this grammy has already sent him several toys to unwrap at home. Not to mention he will get some new clothes and a small toy to have when he is here shortly after Christmas with us. He sure did not seem too thrilled with the Christmas tree tho. Maybe he was just having a bad day. He is cutting more teeth and that makes lil ones cranky. But cute none the less.

I have to wonder how long the tree will stay pretty with him crawling now. He will for sure keep his momma busy or building a fence around the tree. But thas why lil ones have good parents, to teach them things that will keep them safe. He loves their lil dog Abby, now if he can just catch her he will be a happy lil man.

Not much else happening here on the farm, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Back on the farm

I am finally back on the farm for a while. It is a little hard to post about things that happen here when you are not here, right? Yep I been gone for almost a month. For the past 5 years now I went to western Ky to help my late Aunt Ann cook at the hunting lodge. So this year I was ask to do the same. Been back on this end of the state for just a few days and those days have been busy at best. Got home on Tuesday, had doctor appointment on Wednesday, Thanksgiving with Rodgers family on Thursday, stayed home all day on Friday then went to Lexington yesterday(Saturday) to the gun show and to do a lil stocking up and shopping. OH, did I tell ya I hate shopping. No one in their right mind should be shopping on a first of the month 3 weeks before Christmas. Good grief!! what were we thinking? Anyway, we did make a trip to Sam's club for some staples to re-stock the pantry so I can hibernate this winter, maybe. I can physically work a full time job due to the fibro and RA so I do some seasonal and part time work when I can. So the job working an cooking at the lodge in the fall is about my only income. In the past we have also had hunters during the December muzzle load season and I am kinda hoping we do this year as well. Another small amount of income to help out here.
In the meantime, back on the farm. We still have things to do before the winter weather sets in for good. I still need to get the hen house cleaned out and new bedding in for the hens to keep them toasty this winter. I think I might just move the manure and old bedding down to the 3 beds that are out back and just cover it over to rot thru the winter. Then in spring it will be ready to plant with early spring goodies such as carrots, onions, lettuce and things of that sort. I am actually looking forward to the spring garden season and the big garden this summer. I think I will feel much better and am more able to help with it this coming year. Last summer was just a blur for me. Gosh so nice to be off some meds that were sure not helping me. Our orchard needs some attention very soon. The deer are still doing lots of damage to the young trees. Not sure why the big bucks choose to rub on the lil young fruit trees with all the bigger trees that surround the fields. I found a post on Pinterest that intrigued me a good deal. Using like 2 liter soda bottles and cut small slits in the side of the bottle and put the lid on, mount to a stick or post of some sort and anchor in the ground. When the wind blows it makes a howling noise, almost eerie and depending on the size slit somewhat high pitched. I am thinking that maybe if I make a few of these it will make enough strange noise to keep the deer at bay. Maybe? At least for a while? When I make some I will post more details an pictures for ya so you will know if they work or not. I guess I wont know till I try. We did hang pieces of Irish Spring soap in onion bags around and it did seem to work as long as the soap was there. Deer are not stupid critters that some would tend to think. I also think next hunting season the fellers might think about hunting here and getting rid of a few of these destructive varmints. Beautiful they are, destructive to crops as well.

It is hard to believe it is December already. Where the heck did summer and fall go? Or did I just miss it somehow? It is a true statement that the older you get the faster time flys by. Or so it seems. I am looking forward to the Christmas holiday this year tho more than usual. Maybe because our lil grandson will be here to visit with his momma and daddy too this time. We haven't got to see Rob since we saw him in April when Liam was born. This momma is having some serious withdrawal. I do OK for a few months then I want to see my lil boy too. Guess its just something about mommas and their lil boys that only mommas with lil boys can understand. But they will be here around the 27th of December to spend about a week with us. Plenty of time to spoil Liam a good bit too. Really looking forward to seeing them all.

We are having our late Thanksgiving dinner here today for us and Jason and his lil family. I am making the turkey breast and all the trimmings and Jason is making the ham. He makes good ham. AND he has the big crock pot to fix it in so that makes him the elected one to do ham. He covers the ham with apple cider and a good deal of brown sugar mixed in and bastes the ham thru the cooking process which will take around 6 to 8 hours on low in a crock pot. Makes for a sweet tender ham. Just the way we like it. We will eat around 2 or so this afternoon. But I sure feel a nap coming on after getting most of my prep work done and dinner started. Nap, yes thas a good idea.

Not much else happening here on the farm. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Farm work is hard work

I knew this all along but dang the older I get the more I become aware of this fact. Anything you do on a farm is hard work. We have been busy all day as usual playing catch-up. I needed to dig some horseradish for a friend so I could ship it out in the mail tomorrow and as I normally do I walk around the house with fork in hand to dig for roots. I passed by my wisteria that has been sitting in a pot for 2 years now. I stopped and dug a hole to put the plant in near the pole that runs up to our cell phone booster at the end of the house. Damn who knew there were that many rocks out there. I should have after all the holes we have dug to plant things over time. But I got'er done! Now I wont have to baby my plant and worry about the roots freezing and killing it this winter. One task down, many to go. I decided to fore go canning more mustard and turnip greens as I have more than enough for me and the kids to use. But I did dig some horseradish roots for my good friend Anna and those are in the box with the sage, homemade lotion and home grown cornmeal that I promised to ship to her. So off that will go tomorrow on my way out of town.

Rodger hauled water for us this morning and finally finished that up about noon. He had the yucky job of cleaning out our corn crib to get ready to put the new corn in when it gets a lil drier and he has time to pick it. I needed to help him with that and had to put off the job of cleaning the chicken house out for now. Maybe next nice day when I am home again. We had a good bit of corn left from last year and the year before in the lil crib here at the house. We use the corn elevator and wagon to load it to take to the field and dump for the wild critters to feed on till its gone. That should attract a few deer and many turkeys. Not to mention it will feed lots of lil birds for quite some time too. Lots of corn shells off when it gets run thru the elevator so the chickens will have lots to pick up and eat when they are out roaming about. This project involved lots of raking and fork work not to mention having to push the elevator to fill the wagon level and not spill over the top in some spots. Talk about hard on this ole gal. I already slept wrong night before last and had a pulled muscle in my neck and using the rake sure did not do it any good. Needless to say my neck is very sore and stiff about now.
Maybe I will sleep good tonight an feel much better tomorrow. Maybe......

But I do love fall. I think it is one of my favorite seasons of the year. The trees with all their beautiful color, cooler air, no humidity, just perfect weather. To me fall is like the last hour at work. You know its not long till you can get off work and rest up for the next round. That's kinda how it is here for me. We work out butts off all spring and summer with gardens and such, then in fall we wind down the work with the harvest and then you can rest for a while till its time to start over. Poor Rodger has to do stuff here and then STILL go to a job. I guess I enjoy it more because I can kinda hibernate after all the harvesting and butchering is done and the gardens put to bed for the season. I get to stay in and just do things I really enjoy for a few months. After a few months of that stuff tho I am so ready to get my hands in the dirt again and start planting things. This year I will be cooking for the deer hunters at the Drake Lodge in west Ky and for Snipe creek outfitters. I love doing this but it will be a little different this your without Aunt Ann. I have some really big shoes to walk in there. I helped her for about the past 4 years with the cooking and the lodge so its nothing new. Its just that this year she is not with us. Lots of hunters have been coming there for several years, some already know she passed away, some don't and that will be the hard part when they ask about her. The repeat hunters knew she was sick last year but some I had not phone numbers for to be able to contact them. I just hope I can do as well as she would have and do my best to make the hunters comfortable and make sure they are well fed. This I can do in her memory. I am looking forward to all this and the final hunting season in December. Then I get to be home for a while hopefully. I know I will be home for a good bit around Christmas cause Rob, Amoy and my lil Liam will be home for a week or so. Cant wait to see that lil man again. He got to go trick or treating for halloween. His momma got him a lil monkey suit for his costume. So cute don't ya think?

That lil fellow is such a beautiful combination of his momma and daddy. There really is nothing in this world like your grand babies. They are a whole nuther level of love ya didn't know existed.
And look at those 2 lil teeth he has. I can not believe he is old enough to be getting teeth already. Such a precious age.

And they got him a high chair and he looks like he is ready to put those lil teeth to good use here.

After he and Amoy were home for a visit they said he really didn't want his bottle much because he found out there is more tasty things than his bottle. Amoy had got him started eating baby food and for such a lil fellow he did really well at feeding time. UNLESS that was something that got his attention and he was totally distracted and it got a lil challenging to get food in his mouth and not somewhere else on his face. Cant wait till they get home so we can kiss those lil fat cheeks.

OK enough bragging but I earned the right like all grandmothers I think. Not much else happening here on the farm, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Making lotion and herbal seasoning blend

It has been so nice outside today but dang it I didn't get out to enjoy it yet. I have been busy with piddly stuff in the house all day. It is getting closer to cold weather and my need for a good lotion for my winter time dry skin. I was all out. I think I gave Amoy the last 2 jars I had to take home with her. So it was time to make more. So that has been my project for today. Not sure why more folks don't make their own lotion so they can avoid all the heavy perfumes and chemicals in the store bought ones. I have tried and made several different lotions with different recipes and this one has to be the best and my favorite. Very rich, nourishing and creamy. It is more like a cream than a lotion I must warn you. But very simple to make. First I make an herbal tea to use in place of the "water" part called for in most recipes for lotion. I like to use soothing healing herbs that I grow or can purchase organically grown.

Make tea with about 2 cups of water and add in round leaf plantain, chamomile, rose petals, comfrey leaf, and golden seal, equal parts of each herb added to the 2 cups of boiling water and let sit about 10 minutes.
Strain the tea and measure out 1 cup and set aside.
In glass bowl or measuring cup measure 1/2 cup oils that are solid at room temp(coconut oil, shea butter, mango butter, avocado butter, cocoa butter) any mix you like, I use a lil of each.
Then measure out 1/2 cup of oil that is liquid at room temp(almond, apricot, castor oils) Measure out 1/3 cup vegetable emulsifier. Heat the oils in the glass bowl with solid butters and vegetable emulsifier till all are melted and smooth. Let oils cool a lil bit, hot but not scalding. Have the tea to about the same temp as the oils and then add the tea to the oils in a steady stream all the time blending with a stick blender. Once all the tea is in let lotion sit for a bit and blend again, repeat this till it has started to get thick. When lotion starts to thicken like gravy add in about 2 tablespoons of liquid germall plus (preservative, natural) and about 2 tablespoons of Hydrovance for stable consistency and also make the lotion feel silky on the skin. Blend well and pour into desired containers. Let cool completely and put lid on. Great stuff. I get most of my lotion making supplies from this place. Not to mention they always send trial size samples of new products with your order. Very reasonable prices too.

I finally remembered to make more of my herbal seasoning blend that we use on everything as well today. I feel like a chemist on days like this. I try not to get too adventurous tho when it comes to the food stuff. But I got out lots of my different dried herbs and used the spice grinder to grind all the ones that I use in the seasoning we use on chicken, venison, most any meats. Its kinda like Ms Dash only my version. You really can make it to suit your own taste buds by adding more or less of the different herbs. Or even leaving some out. But I added a lil more onions flakes to this mix and a bit of brown sugar. I just have to remember that the sugar will make foods brown much quicker whether in a skillet or on the grill. The recipe for the seasoning blend I make is in  this post from the past.

I brought a cast iron skillet home from Jason's house the other day that had some rust in it and was generally a mess. I think it was given to him and not sure at this minute who. Anyway I scrubbed the rust spots really well and used a Brillo pad on em, washed the skillet really good inside and out. Put it on the burner and coated it really good with oil. I let it get really hot but not smoking then turned it off. I will repeat those steps several times each day as long as I think of it and have time, heat up, cool down till it is re-seasoned. It is a nice size skillet and not as heavy as most I own so it might work really good for me. Hope it fixes the skillet but its not like I need another cast iron skillet. But just cant bring myself to see them get destroyed.

Not much else happening around here, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella