Nine years today..

It has been nine years today that this wonderful man departed this life and "went home to rest". I still miss him as much today as the day he passed away.

This picture was taken in the old home place where I was raised here on the farm on dads 90th birthday. The house still looks the same only he is missing from us.

Not a day goes by that I don't think of something that I learned from him. I guess I am more like dad than I used to think. His motto was, work hard and make an honest living, let your word be your bond, treat others like you want to be treated. And this is how he lived his life. Dad worked hard on the farm doing what he loved most, growing things. He would drive his tractor around the farm checking on crops and he enjoyed seeing things grow. I guess its in the blood. I enjoy the same things. Guess maybe that explains why I always plant way too much of everything. Just to watch it grow. The sweet memories this man left behind. Now he is resting in a rocking chair on the front porch of heaven.

Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

We have been blessed this year

I was just thinking today how blessed we really are here. It has been a busy year but successful one. We started the year with a nice vacation to see Rob and Amoy and spend time with them. They took us to Las Vegas for a few days. That was fun. Back home to being busy with the gardens and summer time stuff. Our gardens and crops did great this year in spite of the dry season. So thankful for that. I did can lots of veggies to last us thru the winter and beyond I hope. We did have several chickens to butcher this year as well. Still have some that need to go in the jars. I have a bunch of young roosters our setting hens hatched off that are mature enough to be harassing the hens. Much to the annoyance of the king of the flock. So seems there is a constant brawl going on in the chicken house. I am getting far more eggs than we can use. Hopefully Rodger's niece and her hubby can come get some of em soon. When I butcher off the excess roosters I think I will cull my laying flock as well. I surely don't need that many hens. I probably have 20 or more. Have not really took time to count them lately.
In November deer season Rodger came home with 3 deer total. Very thankful for the meat in the freezer. Then in muzzle loader season in December he got another doe. So more meat in the freezer. I spent the 2 weeks of muzzle loader season in west Ky at my aunts lodge again to help her out with that. We normally don't have hunters for muzzle loader season but this year she did have 8 hunters in camp. That kept me busy. And the guys were so nice, fun to talk to, just all around great guys. ALL of them have either beat cancer or some other major medical issue in their lives. So they were also great moral support for Aunt Ann. So far she has tolerated her chemo really well, not been sick, just tired and weaker than normal. But doing OK. For this I am so thankful. Please continue to keep her in your prayers.
After a busy couple weeks I am finally back home so I can hibernate for the winter. I did bring home some sewing projects from Aunt Ann's too. That should keep me occupied when the weather goes to crap. I have some quilt tops, some of which my late aunt Connie made that I would like to quilt and get finished. Also Aunt Ann gave me some embroidered quilt squares that my grandmother McKinney made. I think I might have those made into a baby quilt for a lil grand baby. I think I have enough squares to make 3 quilts. Hmmm.
Rodger spent the day getting our other corn crib cleaned out and ready to put the white corn in so we can shell and dry some to have ground into meal. And then whats left will be used as chicken feed. In winter the chickens will eat a lot of corn. It helps keep them warmer with all the carbs in it. Makes beautiful dark yellow yolks in the eggs too.
Rodger and I decided to make a trip to Walmart yesterday to get a few things we needed. Good grief, people are crazy this time of year. We did get the things we had on our list and didn't come home too broke. We stopped to see Tammy on our way home. She is coping as well as can be expected with  losing Carl last month. She still needs continued prayers to get her life back together after that sudden lose. He surely is missed by all of us. Love spending time with Tammy, wonderful lady. I am blessed to have great sisters in law. They are good christian ladies that love their families.
Tomorrow I think Rodger is gonna process his deer he brought home last week and get her in the freezer. Than maybe he can help me butcher the roosters and get them off the feed bill and stop the chicken house brawls. Just maybe. But would it be wrong to make a feller work on his birthday? I don't think Rodger would think much of spending his 55th birthday butchering. Guess only one way to find out eh? If I never update my blog again you all will know that didn't end well.
I really need to get busy in the house and do some closet cleaning and organizing. Thas what I do in winter time when I cant be out in the gardens and yard. Might even find more sewing projects to do this winter. I would like to make a big crocheted rag runner for the kitchen. I am betting if I clean closets I can find enough worn out clothes to make a big one.
Rodger did get online and order parts to fix our electric furnace today. So when we get those maybe we can get his neices' boyfriend to install them for a reasonable price and then we will have 3 sources of heat again. But even if we can fix the electric furnace we will still just heat with propane and the fireplace in the den. We find it is much cheaper to do that than to pay for electric but in the event the propane tank runs out in the middle of the night someone don't have to freeze to go switch tanks.
Not really much happening around here on the farm. But just reflecting on the years blessings and being thankful for the life we have. Till next time, blessings and Merry Christmas from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Busy couple weeks

The past couple weeks have kinda been a blur for me. I did get to see my sweet aunt Ann and her family for a week or so during the modern gun hunting season this year. I kinda managed the hunting lodge for her. She was starting some medical treatments at the same time and was getting pretty tired. I did call and talk to her today and she is positive and sounds great. I think I will try to go see her for a few days in December before the weather gets too bad. Love her bunches and just hate she was feeling rotten. But we are looking forward to next year when we can cook for the deer hunters in her lodge again. We always had such fun doing that.
I came home on the Sunday before Thanksgiving and made it to the house just a few hours before Rob and Amoy got here. Loved having my kids home for a visit.

  

Are these 2 cute together or what? I think this lil momma is gettin a lil belly. We are sure looking forward to May and a lil grand baby.

 

These 2 are the perfect match. I am so blessed with the best future daughters in law. Both beautiful ladies. And this one has blessed us with a sweet step granddaughter as well. Love this kid to pieces.

Above is Miranda and her momma Mary Kay. Mary Kay made cake for the thanksgiving dinner on Saturday. 

We didn't have our usual family thanksgiving dinner at Tammy's house this year. It has really been a tough holiday for her an her kids. Her hubby Carl, our brother in law got injured on Monday helping an older man move an out building and lost his battle on Wednesday. It sure broke our hearts. Carl was a wonderful brother in law, husband, father and friend to all who knew him. His immediate family made his funeral arrangements on Friday and we had family Thanksgiving dinner at our house on Saturday. ALL the families were here at our house, and it was full. I think we had a good dinner and I hope everyone had a lil time to just chill and relax for a lil while from all the stress and sadness. We have 2 new babies in the family this year so Rob and Amoy got a lil practice with the lil babies. 

Rob and Amoy had to leave our house at midnight on Saturday night to get to Louisville airport to catch their flight at 6am. They arrived at 4 am or so all to find that their flight never existed. Rob was so mad. They booked their flight thru Orbitz on Frontier airlines. I would NOT recommend either of these to anyone. They ended up not getting a flight out till after 4 pm on Sunday. So they spent the whole day sitting in the airport an finally arrived at their house in Elko Nevada 12 hours later than planned. I don't think I needed the stress of them being stuck there any more than they did. I know Amoy had to be really tired an stressed an she sure didn't need that right now. 

Sunday evening we went to visitation for Carl in Irvine. Not sure I have known any man that was so loved an respected as he was. I am certain there were at least 500 people who visited the family that evening. The funeral service on Sunday was beautiful. It was a good tribute to him, sad, lots of tears shed. I know I did my share. Then it was like a sudden cool breeze in summer time, I felt peace and comfort, and after that shed no more tears. Prayers for comfort do get answered. I know they did at that moment. God does work in mysterious ways for sure. 

In the midst of all this chaos, our furnace stopped working. No heat! oh my, but at least we do have a working wood fireplace in the den an a propane stove in the other end of the house, so technically we do have heat. That is as long as Rodger can keep the propane tanks filled at work. Right now the meter is not working on the big tank at work so we have to use the propane sparingly. During our family Thanksgiving dinner, Robbie, our step neices' boyfriend works in heating an air so he looked at the heating unit and we thought we had it fixed. Not sure now what ails it. But maybe he can look at it again and see if he can fix it or replace something to get us thru the winter till we can afforded to get a different heat and cooling system.

If it ain't one thing its 3. But Josh brought us 2 deer when he came down on Friday night. We will likely skin those out this coming weekend. More meat for the freezer. Also there is another muzzle loader season coming up in mid December. Guess the guys will be hunting that one too. If Jason don't go hunting I might go just to visit with Josh's parents and maybe sit in the stands with Dana. Loved hunting with her. We have not been able to hunt together for several years since I got hurt at work. I know it would be so fun. 

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

Stella

A hot busy weekend

The weather here is so dang hot especially if you need to work outside. The humidity is high along with the heat makes for some tough garden harvesting. But none the less we have picked sweet corn everyday this weekend and been cutting it off the cob and freezing it. On Saturday we picked 14 of the 50 lb feed bags full of corn. We cleaned 4 bags and cut that off for us to freeze and sent the other 10 bags home with Josh for him and his parents. I still have more corn than I know what to do with. Rodger and I pulled 6 more feed bags full and brought it to the house. Got 3 bags cleaned, cut off and froze. The other 3 bags will need to be done early in the morning and its all up to me on those. We did pick a few tomatoes this evening and enough cukes to make 4 pints of dill pickle spears. Tomorrow evening we will be going to visitation for my aunt Geraldine (dads youngest sister, last one living) that passed away on Friday afternoon at the age of 89. I did get time in all this canning frenzy to visit with family a bit. Her funeral will be on Tuesday morning and she will be laid to rest in the cemetery where my dad is buried. As I was picking corn on Saturday I had to reflect and remember that I am a lot like aunt Geraldine with my gardening and canning. She always had a huge garden and canned everything she could every year. Her root cellar still sits with all her jars of canned stuff lining the shelves. It has been there for several years now and is probably not good. Most likely with the door not insulated the jars have frozen and thawed and probably unsealed. But her place sits as it always has. She loved pretty things and kept everything people gave her. And her lil house reflects this. Rest in peace Auntie,. You surely will be missed.
Probably on Tuesday afternoon I will be picking green beans again. I think we will only be planting 1 variety next year. It will likely be the Ky Wonder bush beans. No staking needed, they produce well and are really good tasting beans. I do still have some Tobacco worm beans and they are good also but we never got time to trellis them and they are a mess to try and pick. I think next time I pick those I will just pull the vines out and pick off all the beans and let that be it. I might leave a few plants and let them go to seed just to keep the seed as they are an old heirloom variety. Will also need to leave some sweet corn on the stalks to mature for seed for next year as well. I really do need to get cabbage seed sown soon or there will be no late cabbage on this farm. So much to do and the season is quickly passing like life itself.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

In memory of Jackie........

This post is in memory of my friend Jackie Cooper who lost her battle with Lupus on Wednesday March 16th at the age of 46. Jackie was diagnosed with lupus several years ago and is one of those hard working people who fell through the cracks of no medical insurance. At times she worked several part-time jobs to make ends meet and none of them afforded her health insurance. She had a bad flare up of lupus several weeks ago when I was in west Ky working. I was so glad I got to see her, although she was in the hospital at the time. I got home and a few days later got a text message from her that she was released to go home. The week I was there she finally got approved for disability albeit too late. After being home for about a week she had another flare up and was back in the local hospital and ended up on a vent. Even with the vent her body was failing and the decision was made to remove the vent. Jackie would not have wanted to be an invalid. She passed away shortly after she was taken off the vent with her family and friends at her side. She had an appointment at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee for March 17th, one day too late. So sad the life of a dear sweet lady was lost due to not being able to afford the right medical care sooner. The docs at her local hospital did all they could do for her with the Lupus winning the battle for her life. A memorial service will be held Monday March 21st for her. She wished to be cremated and her kids honored that wish. Some of her ashes will be buried in west Ky near her brother and remainder will be taken by Aunt Ann and some of Jackie's friends to Panama City Beach Florida and scattered on the beach. Jackie's favorite place. Rest in peace Jackie. Love ya and will miss you.

Blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella