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

Its not so bad after all

I thought our poor garden was gonna be a total bust this year, but its not so bad after all. Although we still have plenty grass in there that is covering up some things it is still decent. We have made enough pickles to last a year even if we don't have any more. The vines are nice and green, just no cukes or even bloom on them. Not sure about why that happened. But we good either way. Our taters are not visible for the grass but the vines have already died back and its time to dig those. Most likely we will do that this weekend if no more rain till then. Well probably Rodger, Jason and Miranda will get em out. My pepper plants are short but have lots of lil peppers on them and still growing. The tomatoes are nice size plants, green and have lots of little tomatoes. They will just be a lil later than we are use to because we planted everything later this year. I hope to have sweet corn in a week or so. And I think we will have plenty to last us.  Watermelons and cantaloupes are coming along too. Beans are starting to bloom. Not sure why they came up so spotty but we should have enough to last us. The corn we planted for cornmeal is huge and the ears are huge as well.

Rodger is 5'11 and the corn is twice as tall as he is. This is the Reid's yellow dent. An old fashioned open pollinated variety that we save our own seed for. So far we are happy with this variety for stock feed an to make corn meal. The chickens sure do like this stuff shelled. They don't eat much of it in summer but in winter it is a different story. Makes nice dark yellow egg yolks too. Rich and healthy for ya.
I am making progress on the herb bed, finally. I did get my new lavender plants planted in the herb bed and some sage plants that I had started in the greenhouse. They have been in pots for a several weeks to get some growth before transplant. Sure makes a difference in how hearty they are in the ground. I got some mulch put down too around the mature sage plants as well as the new ones.

I plan to try to get the sage cut for drying tomorrow as the weather has been much less humid for a few days. Rodger helped me last evening to get the rest of the weeds pulled so we could lay down black plastic to kill out weeds in the far end of the bed. By time we finished it was too dark to get a good picture, but trust me, it sure looked better.

This section of the herb bed has been established for a few years and has filled in pretty good and it has mulch so not much problem with weeds growing in here. A few strays that are easy to pull out here and there. The section that will have the black plastic on it for a few weeks is gonna be used this fall for  a few cabbage, maybe broccoli and brussel sprouts for a fall crop. After I harvest the sage tomorrow I plan to make a spot to sow some parsley seed to cut this fall. I am guessin if I plant it late I can let it come back in the spring an go to seed for a new crop next year without reseeding. Kinda takes care of itself. I have lost my tarragon plants. They got over run by the oregano and mint. Suppose I will have to obtain some new plants next spring. I still have enough dried to last a few more years. Seems like on the farm, its feast or famine. In those "feast" years I can and dry everything I can get my grubby lil paws on so we don't run short in the "famine" years. It has worked well for me so far. My strawberry plants near the driveway are still producing some. I did get the bed weeded, it just needs mulch put down now to keep the weeds out. Same with the bed in back of the house.
My new lil beans that I planted in the bed out back came up rather spotty but the ones that are up look nice and healthy. I will trellis those for extra beans to can and save seed from. I feel better now that we kinda have a handle on the weeding here. That got pretty depressing for a while with all the rain an heat and not being able to get any thing done about the over growth.
The excess rain has sure made nice berries this year. My 1 thornless black berry plant that my friend Rosie gave me a couple years ago had lots of nice big berries on it. I know this because I stood out there a few days ago an picked and ate about 2 big hands full. So sweet and juicy. I still have more than enough berries canned to last a few more years without having to pick any in the awful heat. So I took the lazy way out this year.
I finally got my car in today to get the right seal put on the moon roof to keep it from leaking. It seals nice and tight now. The mechanic also unclogged the drain hole so it don't get water inside anymore even if the seal should leak. He did say this is a rather common problem with these vehicles. Now to get the duck tape residue off the top of the car. Maybe I can get that done tomorrow too if it don't get too hot or rain on me.
I know this subject is touchy with most people but some of us still smoke. Yeah I do, and yeah I know its bad for ya. Now get off my case. With that said, we turn our attention to the ones of us who still do smoke. My friend Anna sent us a cigarette rolling machine. Bless her heart, so kind of her and her hubby. Hubby and I can both smoke for about half what it was costing for cigarettes. The machine is so dang neat. Much improved over the ones of long ago like I have of my dads that you had to lay the paper in, put the tobacco on the paper and dampen the edge, manually roll the lil handle to roll the cigarette up. Hell I would have to stop smoking if I had to do that. I have "NO" experience rolling. Nuff said about that. But when we go to the big city we plan to get our tobacco to start rolling our own smokes. I like menthol so I guess I will be finding the menthol filters to roll with. So if you still smoke it is well worth lookin into purchasing the rolling machine that basically shoves the bakker into the filter cigarette thingys. But if ya wanna really cut down or quit, by all means do so or roll ya own. Anna also sent me a huge bag of lavender that she had dried. I love love love the smell of lavender. So very relaxing to me. My plan is to make some lil sachets or bags and fill them with the dried lavender and store with bed linens. I will likely make a pretty one to just hang on the head of my bed and hope it helps me sleep a lil better. Hell any thing that will help a lil. Maybe if I do enough things that help a "lil" that all those "lil's" will add up to a good nights sleep. One can alas dream, er hope to dream.
Not much else happening here on the farm, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Wet season, garden is pitiful

It has been abnormally wet this season and our garden sure has suffered for it. Not that I can complain much tho. So far we have not had to haul any water for the well as it is up to the top full right now. The grass got a big head start in the garden and it sure makes it hard to trellis beans when its hard to find them in the grass. But it was dry enough this evening that Rodger did get the beans plowed out and he said if no rain tomorrow evening he will try to stick one patch of beans. I feel so bad that I cant stand the heat and get out and help him but the heat makes me very ill. I get dehydrated really quick and sick if I get hot. So seems I am banished to the house for now till cooler weather. We for sure must plan the garden better next year so as to not get so far behind and have to fight the grass in the mud. Rodger got the grape vines in the vineyard tied up to the trellises last evening and he came back in soaked it was so hot. Cant imagine how hot it will be to try and pick blackberries. They are getting ripe too. Rodger brought in about a pint other day when he was out driving the farm and found some ripe. I would like to have a few gallons canned but not sure about getting out in the heat unless we get a drop in temps for a few days. Which is not suppose to happen till this weekend. We shall see.

I finally got around to making my lil "saddle bags" for my car. Just bags to hang across the gear shift to stash things in like cell phone, inverter and such. I kinda like em>

 

I like the pink tiger stripe. Guess this will keep the fellers from wanting to drive my car. Naw, they will just take em off and toss em in the back till they get out. I know them. Anyway the evening I was working on the bags I had to go out to the car to measure the length I needed for the handles and got a heck of a surprise. My passenger floor was full of water. I was a little upset to say the least. We drove the car thru monsoon Mary and it didn't leak a drop and sitting in the drive way its full of water. We assumed it was coming from the moon roof and ordered a new seal for the window. Until it comes in I ran the risk of sucking water out of the floor every day after it rained so I coerced Rodger into helping me solve the problem till we can get the seal installed. This is the result and it works like a charm.

 With duct tape, WD-40 and baling twine you can damn near fix any thing on the farm. I told Rodger when I take the car to the shop to have it fixed I will take full responsibility for the duct tape repair. So I am sure the shop will get a good laugh out of this. But by dang my carpet wont be ruined in the meantime. Rob thinks we are true rednecks. But we raised him so am thinkin that makes him one too. His just don't show so much. 

So far this summer we have made 18 quarts of bread and butter pickles and more to come. Tomorrow we should have more cukes ready to pick. I think we will be making some dill slices from those tho. I am still working on getting the 50 lb bag of big onions dried and stored. Then it will be on to the celery and carrots. So I will start more onions in the dehydrator in the morning and they will be done the next day. Its taking a longer time to dry them crisp with all the humidity right now but they need to be dried. 

After I start the onions in the morning I am gonna try to get some weeding done in the herb bed before it gets hot outside an I cant take it no more. Then maybe try to get some carpet cleaned and major house cleaning. At least I can do that if I am gonna have to be stuck in the house. So we shall see what all tomorrow holds when we wake up. 

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

Stella

I like to tinker

I am probably the worst person for not following directions or recipes or instructions. Not sure if it my adventurous side or rebellious side coming out. Either way I like to tinker and that is what I have done today. Now that I have this nifty sewing machine that can do most anything but jumping jacks, sewing and altering has been my focus for a week or so. I spent most of today going thru my closet and getting clothes sorted, I guess thas the right term, for winter and summer wear. I also tried on lots of pant to make sure they fit and put them on hangers in order of wear. Such as dressy, casual, jeans, sweats. Tops I did the same way. I loveeee tee-shirts. I live in those things. I have some that fit at the top and sleeves and are just a tad too long. So now that I have those pulled out I think maybe put elastic in the seams vertically on each side so kinda scrunch the sides to make them a lil shorter and more to my liking.Then I have some 3/4 length sleeve long tail button up shirts that are too long as well. Soon I will come up with a plan for those so I can at least get some wear out of them.  Then I found many articles of clothing that is in desperate need of ironing. So add ironing to that list of things to do. Did I mention I had to iron stuff? Well I do. If it ever gets warm enough to be outside during the day I wont have much time to sew and craft and tinker inside. I got lots of beds that will need my attention. Gosh we already have some ornamental things starting to bud out here and the temps are pose to be below 20 tonight an tomorrow night. Damn this global warming stuff. What the hell happened to spring?

I was in the mood to test another lotion recipe today too. Now this is where my tinkering came into play big time. I now have on hand several oils and butters that each add their own great quality to lotions and creams. Not one recipe could I find online that included all the things that I wanted in my lotions. So off I go to create my own. I broke all the cardinal rules of lotion making too by not weighing or measuring the ingredients. The only thing I did was weigh the total of the oils, butters and water so I could get the correct amount of Germall Plus(preservative) in the lotion. This is to make sure the lotion will be shelf stable and not turn into a petre dish after you stick your fingers in there to use the lotion or cream. I had also got a bottle of vanilla essential oil for use in making the lotions and oh my it smelled so nice. If you close your eyes you can smell vanilla cookies with a hint of chocolate in there. Almost smells good enough to eat. But the lotion was great. I put almond, apricot, coconut castor, avocado oils with shea and mango butter and some cocoa butter. I used my homemade herbal tea blend as the liquid or water part. I did use the vegetable emulsifier wax and a bit of stearic acid as an emulsifier and thickener. Turned out perfect, just nice and thick and not greasy. I am a happy camper with my summer supply of lotion made now. Yippee!!!

I am a lil bit concerned after my baby chicks did not arrive today in the mail. The post office always calls me when they come in and no call today and our sweet mail lady didn't deliver them either. So am sure hoping they arrive in the morning. If not tomorrow for sure I will have to refuse the shipment. Baby chicks can live fine for 72 hours after hatching without food or drink but longer than that they will be so very weak and not likely to live or thrive. I got online and tracked the order and it was due to be delivered today. Not sure what happened to em but wont be happy if they someone drops the ball and lets my lil birds die. But I have everything ready for them, a large tote with straw and a feeder, a water jar ready to give them electrolytes and vitamins as soon as they arrive and a heat light for them to keep em warm. Just sure do hope they arrive and are OK.

Once I get the lil ones settled in and happy I need to get my trays from the old greenhouse and get the potting mix in them to start seeds. Rodger don't have my benches in the new greenhouse yet so I will probably just get the soil in the trays and the seeds in and put them in the summer kitchen till the benches are ready. That wont be a problem cause the kitchen is near the new greenhouse. Not to mention I am not starting near as many plants as I have in the past years. (I don't think anyway) But I do get accused of not starting enough, but alas starting toooo many. But my thinkin is , "is better to have em and not need em than to need em an not have em". So I just keep planting .

My 3 lil setting hens are still setting and not a peep yet. I sure hope they at least hatch a few chicks. I like to use the standard breeds for making stock and canned chicken. It is better canned because I can let the chicks free range with their mommas till they are big enough to butcher or when I get time to butcher em and they by then are usually a bit tougher. So much better canned for soup and casseroles and such. But I got to hatch chicks to can chicks, so maybe best not count my chicks before they hatch.

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

Stella

I learn something new almost every day

Ya know I think we get busy with life and don't pay attention to things in our life. Not quite sure how this happens but I am convinced it does. But its little things that amaze me. But I am easily entertained. I have played with my sewing machine for the past couple days to learn how to use it for all the things it is good for. No the machine is not new. I bought it probably in 1981 or 82 when I was a young newly wed. Every home needs a sewing machine of some sort and you should have the ability to use it to do what ever repairs or sewing you need or want to do in your home. I have used my sewing machine a lot over the past 30 plus years. It is still in perfect shape. It does embroidery, yep I knew that. What I did not know is just how many different things it can do. My machine has 30 cams with it. Each cam will do 3 different designs. Who knew? I sure didn't. I knew I had cams, just had no clue how to use em. SO I started looking online to see if I could find a users manual to it and located one. So I downloaded it and had Rodger print it off and put it in a book for me. (Nice book to by the way) I was reading in the book about the different presser feet the machine has. Hell to me up to that point they were just lil odd shaped pieces of metal. I find that 1 attachment can do rolled hems, another can do a blind stitch used for hemming garments. One of the attachments will hold a button in place while you sew it on with the machine. Who knew? Well long story short, I have a sewing machine that is top of the line and I didn't even know. Good thing I have kept it and taken care of it all these years. I am guessing that a new sewing machine that will do all the things that mine will would run about $400 or more. I cant remember what I paid many years ago but I know I would not have paid much for it. So I decided today to get out the cams and see what they would do. What fun, really neat tools. I had some fabric and got some out and proceeded to make myself an apron to suit my personal needs. I wanted an apron that would cover the upper front part of my shirts and the front of my clothes. So when I am cooking or frying especially I don't end up with grease stains on my tops that are impossible to get out. Most aprons I have seen have a really narrow top section and if something pops about the only thing covered is the center part of your shirt. I made my apron wider at the top to cover more (can we say no more grease stains on my boobs) an long enough that I don't spill stuff down the front of my clothes. I just had fun making it and kinda custom designed it to suit me. I like being able to do that. I am happy with my new apron. I will get some pics tomorrow, my camera is charging right now. I was thinking as I worked on the apron that I might like to have some new sweat pants to wear around the house. I have a pair of jammies already cut out somewhere in this house so I need to locate those and finish them. Then I can use the same pattern to make me some sweats in the style that I like. Most sweat pants you see now are low cut or Capri length and I don't like either of those. About the only ones that are to my liking are in the men's department. I think I might make another trip to Hobby Lobby this weekend and get some fabric to sew up a couple pairs. The ones I have right now are just beyond pitiful. I am sure I will think of other cool things to do with my new learned tricks and sewing machine.

I am tickled pink to be able to go get my lil greenhouse this weekend. I have to get our seeds started right away or we are gonna be far behind. Its time to get tomatoes, cabbage and other things started that we usually transplant to the garden. Hard to imagine it being time to start thinking seriously about gardens when we got a good half inch of snow this morning. But it melted by this afternoon tho. Sure didn't hurt my feelings a bit. We surely have had typical March weather here this month. Almost hot one day and snow the next. I worked in the yard on Sunday and today, snow. We have some of our young fruit trees starting to bud, and several of my ornamental things have swollen buds on them. Hope we don't get frost or a hard freeze. Might put an end to the possibility of fruit again this year.

I "thought" I had ordered my baby chicks back in February before we went to Las Vegas and when I called today they said it was obvious that my Internet order had not gone thru. But the nice lady at Cackle hatchery said she could ship some chicks out to me today if I wanted. How nice is that? Good customer service is so hard to find but very much appreciated these days. So I have chicks ordered that will be here next week. About Wednesday. Yippee!!!! So I guess I added another task to our ever growing  list for this weekend. Have to get the building ready for babies.Not a lot to do other than get the old bedding out and put in fresh straw and get feeders and waterers set in place for them. Rodger said we have to run a new extension cord for the heat light cause he hit the other one last year with the lawn mower. Guess I need to remember to pick up some high protein feed when we go out of town to get the greenhouse this weekend.

I had to call the vet today about my Luna. She has some sore spots on her that she keeps scratching at and a couple of them are really raw looking sores now. We are so lucky to have a nice vet that will come out to your house for a dog. Most of em wont. They tell you to being the dog into the clinic when its open. Well if you have a lil small dog you can put in the car or truck and tote off the see the doc thas great. I can not see me getting Luna into the truck at no price. Not no way, not no how. For one thing she weighs far more than I can lift and another is she does not like riding in a vehicle. But I called the vet and tole him what was happening and he said most likely mange. Oh my goodness. I thought only neglected malnourished dogs got mange. But I find that mange is caused by a tiny lil mite that buries under the skin and then the dog scratches till they dig the hair off and get sores. Not sure where she got this crap but I don't like it. He said he has seen more cases of mange this year so far than is normal. But any way he gave me some medicine that she has to take twice a week for a month and it will kill the mites on her body that are causing the intense itching and she will be fine. I was so afraid he was gonna tell me I had to bath her in some kind of solution for every but he said he knows that is not alas possible with big dogs. She does not like even a water hose much less being put in water and soaked. Can you imagine how would get the most dip on them in this process? Pretty sure I would be flea free for a long time. Anyway while he was here he gave her the rabies vaccine and got her up to date on all her other shots. I was very surprised that he only charged $60 for a house call, meds and shots. I was happy with that. He did say that in just a few days she will be much more comfortable when the medicine starts working but it might take a good bit longer before her hair grows back on her leg and ear. She don't look bad but I just hate to see her so miserable constantly scratching. I know what its like to have chiggers and the vet said these mites on dogs that cause the mange are comparable to chiggers on a person.
This is the same vet that fixed lil Abby's leg when she was just a baby and jumped out of Robs hand and hit the floor and broke her lil leg. The vets in Richmond wanted $1000 to fix Abby and do surgery and Rob brought her up here to Joey and he put a cast on her leg an tole Rob to take it off in 6 or 8 weeks and she would be fine. You cant tell she ever had anything wrong with her now. So living in a small town does have some advantages.

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

Stella

Its March already

Where the heck does time go? Seems like just a few days ago I finished up canning the last of the  garden stuff. And here it is almost time to start more seeds for another crop. Or maybe its just that I have gotten older and times just seems to go by faster. Not sure, but this new year has took off to a running start. And just when I thought winter might be behind us, we get snow. It is snowing here as I write this. Big ole flakes too!! It most likely wont amount to much but we have a lil on the ground from it. It is cold out and with the snow I guess we can say March is coming in like a lion. So we can hope it goes out like a lamb. Not much gets done around here when the weather is cold and nasty. I have stayed in and puttered in the house. I did finally get started on the lil cocoon I was telling you about in earlier post. I guess you could say I cheated. I used a knitting loom. I makes really pretty stitches and a nice pattern. This is what it looks like.

 The loom has 2 rows of 18 pegs. I made the back panel of the cocoon using all 18 pegs for the correct width. Then made 2 more panels using only 9 pegs and the same length as the back. You can use a crochet hook to finish off the piece once you have the panels made. I wanted the front to be open a lil bit at the top. So here is what it looks like finished. (sorry I didn't take pics as I progressed) You know how well I remember to do that stuff.

With wrong sides together you crochet stitch the sides and bottom and up the front leaving about 1/4 open at the top center. I just put it on the floor to get a pic so I had dark contrast. I really did not follow a pattern for this. I looked online for ideas of cocoons that I liked and would not be hard to use  with a wiggling wee one and started knitting on the loom. I think I would like to have a round loom to make the lil hat to go with this cocoon. This cocoon measure about 18 inches long and 12 inches wide. Just right for a wee one. I made a "tool" to cast on the knitting loom with. I am sure you can use prettier ones but this did the job for me. It is hard to weave the yarn around those lil pegs with your fingers. This makes it much faster.

Yes I took apart an ink pen, fed the yarn thru the pen barrel and it was much easier to cast stitches on the loom. Made for faster work too. Thas called hillbilly ingenuity right there. Or skin flint for not buying the "tool". So my lil grandson will at least have his cocoon.

I checked on my vinegar start today and it had got invaded with some strange mold. So I had to toss it. I did save the mother and placed it in some apple juice for now. I am really just toying with this vinegar making idea as I have no clue what I am doing. All I know is I inoculated the first batch of apple cider with raw apple cider vinegar and that is where I got the mother to develop. That part is pretty easy. I think maybe it needs to be warmer to work better. It is warm enough in the house for us but not for making vinegar. Any who, we got the mother in juice for now till I get some apple cider.

I also strained my Kefir grains and put them in new sugar/molasses water to brew. I have Kefir grains all over. I have 1 quart jar stored in the fridge for if and when I manage to kill the ones that I am using. The jar on the left is extra grains headed for the fridge, the jar on the right is kefir with added strawberries for flavor and added nutrition. This will probably be my saving grace this summer as I usually lose all my potassium if I sweat the least lil bit. Hopefully the kefir water will add back the minerals that I lose.

This is the kefir grains that will go back in fresh water with sugar, molasses and a piece of clean egg shell (for added calcium) and allowed to ferment for a couple days. This is how much the grains have multiplied since I received them from Ivie.

I started out with grains about to the line on a quart jar and compare to above photos to know how they have multiplied. They seem to grow by leaps and bounds if you give them extra calcium such as egg shell. Fun to grow and good to the body. Me thinks me kitchen has become a science lab of sorts. Next I want to try to start sour dough starter. Don't laugh, I will do it just to see if I can.

I went to close up the chickens this evening and to gather the eggs. They are such pretty colors.

A whole range of color from white to beige to brown to light green and occasionally some that look light blue. I love getting colored eggs. I also have 2 lil hens setting on nest. They had been having problems with other hens laying in the nest box with them. So last evening I out a "fence" of sorts around the 2 nest boxes they are setting in so they can still get off the nest to eat, drink and do their business and not have other hens hopping on the nest to lay. And the others still have 4 other boxes to lay in. I should have babies in about 3 weeks.

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

Stella

All done, on to the next project

I worked on the baby quilt last night till the wee hours of this morning. I got it tacked and it looked pretty good. The extra padding behind the lil bear blocks sure made a difference.

This  is with the tacking done. Now the tricky part is getting the borders on and finishing the whole thing. I worked on that today and finally finished.

 

Here it is, all done and ready to take with me this week and give it to Rob and Amoy for the lil one. You know how they say you cant always see the forest for the trees. My friend Anna and I were talking on the phone last night and she brought some differences to my attention. The bears are all the same at first glance, but upon looking at the details they are all different. Really the only thing they have in common is that they are all in some shade of blue. Each bear has a different expression on its face, their bows are different colors, and some of them don't have hands. Hell I had not noticed the lil things. I didn't see the forest for the trees. Thanks sissy  for bringing this to my attention. My poor lil grandson will get my very first attempt at making a quilt. I sure learned a lot making this lil project.

 I still need to get busy and crochet  the lil cocoon  and hat for Liam. I will work on that and ship it later. Hope I have more time to sit still when we get back from the wedding.  Its a good thing that I don't sleep much at night I guess. Come spring I will be busy with the greenhouse and gardens and outdoor stuff so the only time I can tinker with crocheting and such is at night when its too dark to be outside plundering around. I still don't really have my craft room/closet organized well yet. I think I need some shelves to store boxes for crafting stuff and shoes and such. At least it would look a lil better. Thas not really on any list of priorities at this point. It works for me and there should not be anyone in my closet anyway. 

I guess I am the worst for procrastinating. I did finally get out of town yesterday and get my nails done. I had planned on attending a friends Pampered Chef party but that did not work out. I had to wait 2 hours before they got to me to do my nails. Gosh the stupid stuff us girls go thru to look like a lady. I actually like the acrylic nails. They work out well for me. Lower maintenance than real ones. They even look nice if I have to work in the garden with em. Thas my kind of product that can stand up to my abuse. 

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

Stella

The ups and downs of life

Life has its share of ups and downs for everyone I think. But I guess we all have days when we feel like we have more than our share of downs. I think I have fallen in that hole again. Life does wear on you physically and mentally when you live with chronic pain, fatigue and soreness with stiffness in the joints. It makes life twice as hard when you just deal with "normal" daily things but for those of us with fibro and arthritis we have the "normal" things plus we fight the disease factors as well. I have finally come to realize the fact that I cant remember when I can say I have had a day that I actually feel good. The weather the past couple days has been really pleasant considering it is winter still and it would have been nice to get out of bed, have coffee and maybe go outside and walk around and look to see if any new things are starting to prematurely poke thru the ground. But with fibro and the RA by time I get to the point of being able to walk well and make coffee, I am tired. I sit down and while sitting decide to check email and such online. Read news, check mail, drink some coffee, take morning meds and by then feel so tired all I want to do is take a nap. No time for that at this point, so I push the body on. The cats and Luna want to be fed and the chickens need to be let out. Its still pretty cool out so I feed the cats and Luna, put on shoes and coat over jammies to go out and let the hens out. They are happy. Fill their water container and trudge back in the house. Really tired now, sit for a bit more thinking of all the things that need to be done, laundry, clean house, meals. A nap sounds good but cant sleep yet cause we need clean drawers, ya can only turn em over so many times ya know. So off to gather laundry and start a load. Pain meds don't work that well so still hurty all over. Sit down and ponder. Damn, its time to start supper. Where the hell did the day go. This is how the typical day goes for me, and these are just days that are what I can call "easy" days. And by time I get supper started I realize I have not had the energy to take a shower much less go out anywhere. That's pretty bad. So rush off to shower. Dang at this point I would really love to just crawl under the covers and sleep till tomorrow and maybe I would feel better. But much to my disappointment tomorrow is the same. This really is an account of my normal typical day. This is a day that I don't have to force myself to get that shower fast and go out to a doc appointment or to see mom at the nursing home. On those days I just come back home and lay down. I am really drained if I have to leave the house. But to look at me most people may think I am lazy or there is nothing wrong with me. IF only they really knew. And along with all this fatigue and pain  comes lil thinks that add to the mental irritation. Foods that I have always been able to eat and enjoy now really upset my tummy. I can not eat anything with cheese now. If I consume any kind of cheese, never ate much to begin with, but now it seems to totally stall my digestion. Not really pain, just that what ever I eat along with the cheese just sits in my stomach and takes all day to digest. On days that have cheese, I eat only 1 small meal. cant hold any more. Odd I know. Several things that I use to enjoy now do this to me. Trust me it takes a while to figure out what the culprit is sometimes but then ya have an Ah- ha moment. Peanut and canola oil that is used in lots of restaurant deep fryers also do the same thing to my stomach. So eating out is always a challenge. ANY processed food really does me in. I love a bologna sandwich better than steak but really have to limit myself on it and only eat it when I can stay home. Antibiotics that I have taken in the past that have worked now make me deathly ill, sick or just do not work at all. Sometimes I just want to say life sucks, but I would be lying to say that. I am able to stay home, not go out to work, live the life (as best I can) that I have alas loved, see the beauty of the world around me here on the farm, feel safe in my surroundings and be at peace. Sometimes when I fall in that black hole of depression and pain, if I can drag myself out the door and see the world outside here on the farm, it sure helps put things in perspective. Not that life is a bed of roses, but I am learning to manage the thorns. OK enough of my venting, thanks for listening.

Ya know the lil quilt that I was gonna make for lil Liam? Oh yeah I am still gonna do that. But last evening as I was talking on the phone with a friend we were discussing crochet things. I think I would like to make a lil cocoon for the baby. Some people call them snugglies, buntings, and others call them a cocoon. But they are for keeping lil ones snuggled in to make them feel secure. Kinda like the way wee ones are bundled at the hospital after they are born. Yep my brain needs something else to think about. But I sat here for many hours teaching myself new crochet stitches and practicing those. At time I think I may have even invented new ones. Those were the ones I could not un-do when I needed too. Gosh it has been many years since I did any crocheting. But its been fun playing with it again.

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

Stella

Finally finished

I got finished with the second rug at about 4 this morning. I know I should be sleeping but when my hands got busy my mind took a vacation and I lost track of time. Normal for me tho. But any way I did get finished with them. I had some readers ask some questions so now I can answer them and let you see the end result. I cut my strips about an inch and a half wide, I highly recommend if you use a heavy weight fabric like denim cut them no more than an inch. It was tough working with the blue jean material on these rugs. I had a brain fart and put them on the porch today when I swept off the last of the melting snow and forgot to take pics till the rugs had been used. But none the less you can get the idea. Also when I was crocheting these I started just doing single crochet but it will start to curl after a few rounds unless you switch to double crochet. And with heavy fabric like I was using to keep them flat you may have to increase a stitch occasionally to keep it smooth too. I learned this making these. Ya probably ain't gonna believe me but I had to look up "crochet stitches" just to be able to tell you what the stitches were called that I used. Also instead of going thru just one loop in each stitch I went thru both just to add extra strength to the end product. The rugs are oval shaped when they are first put down but with feet wiping goin on they get disheveled and look roundish.

 

Working with heavy fabric will also make it fairly obvious where your stitches stop too. But a good learners project. Would be a great project for kids or someone learning to crochet. And functional too.

In this rug you can see the different shade of blue in the middle. When I was stitching the strips of material together I purposely turned some of the denim wrong side our just so it would vary the colors. Not a good idea if you want a neat pattern. I was just tinkering. Bet you could have guessed that knowing me. But it was a fun project to do. I will do more in the near future as I want a rug on the front porch under my willow chair for summer. Now to raid the closets again. Oh and I read that old tee shirts make great yarn for crocheting things like this. Hmm, that would make a great bath mat. To make tee shirt yarn you cut the tee shirts into 1 inch or half inch strips and then pull them and they roll up like yarn. Cool eh?

An online friend sent me some Kefir grains today in the mail. Have you ever made Kefir? It taste good and is good for ya. It helps put good probiotics back in the gut that is lost with age, taking meds, taking antibiotics, being sicky or just to keep you healthy. With all my issues I will take all the help I can get. I know my routine meds mess up my belly. So thanks Lina for the kefir grains. Gosh and are they lively. When the mail came today I opened up the baggie and made my sugar and molasses water and dropped the grains in there and within 30 minutes I had bubbles in the liquid. Now I will taste it tomorrow and see how it is and maybe wait till the day after to start another jar. It has a tart taste when it is ready. I have had it before and would mix it with juice or just drink it straight. I don't like the taste of plain water so maybe, just maybe I can make me drink more water this way. When I strain the grains out of the liquid I will try to remember to take some pics so ya can see what they look like.

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

Stella

Piddlin on Superbowl Sunday

I am not by any means a football fan nor do I watch. But I have watched 2 in my life. Many years ago in 1979  when Terry Bradshaw was quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers and they won against the Dallas Cowboys in the bowl I watched and today I watched as the Ravens beat the 49ers. I mostly watch for the commercials. I guess my favorite was the Dodge commercial with Paul Harvey and "Then God made a farmer". Guess that just hit home. Now I would have been all in if it had been a Chevy truck. I kinda half watched the game, I was busy cutting more strips and starting my rugs. I had a bright idea of sewing the strips together and make a very long strip and then use my huge crochet hook to "crochet" the strips into a rug.

I had lots of strips when I got tired of cutting them. Notice the huge scissors? And the glove? Well if ya use those scissors ya need that glove or you will have blisters all over your hands pretty quick. Or maybe I am just a wuss. Anyway I had already taken a pile of strips like the one to the left that you see and moved them to the sewing machine so I could stitch the ends together to make a long strip.

At this point I was adding on more strips and crocheting them as I got them attached. This hook is huge.

 

You can kinda get an idea the hook size by comparing it to a finger. It is fairly easy to work with. Although the jeans that I made strips from are a lil harder to manage.

This is what I got done today using the first bunch of light blue fabric from 2 old shirts and the tan is the legs of 1 pair of pants, the outer light blue is from legs of jeans. It is now about 18 or so by 24 inches. A good start for just piddling around with it. I will post more pics as I progress. Don't really like too much and this one will be big enough for the purpose I have in mind. Maybe I will get a chance to work on it some tomorrow evening. Anyway this is a functional use for old clothes that are stained and beyond hope. Not really fit to even donate. If I continue to feel real industrious I may make a really large one to use on the front porch for summer time. I think it would feel nice underfoot out there. Hey I could even make a chair pad for my nice willow porch chair that Aunt Ann gave me. I best quit thinkin before I get in over my head.

Not much happening here on the farm right now. Rodger got out today and walked around some on the farm, He said the fields are muddy and water logged. He found lots of deer trails up back of our house.  Just hope the fruit trees I have ordered don't come in too soon. Cant set trees in mud. At least I don't want too. Not only that I would sure hate to move wet chicken manure to mix in the soil to plant them.

Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

February, in like a lion....

.........out like a lamb. At least that's the old saying any way. I just hope it ends that way. I hate to fly and travel when the weather is bad but will if I have too. February started out for us with cold, wind, and now snow. Not just flurries. We actually had a lil snow on the ground this morning. But as the day wore on the snow melted and it seemed to warm up during the day. Not hot mind you but warmer than it was. We are supposed to get snow all weekend. We shall see how much we get. Kinda like sex, never know how much ya gonna get or how long it will last.

We got our new fan assembly that we ordered for the furnace. That was fast too. I ordered it on Wednesday and it came in yesterday. I was impressed. If we need anything else electrical I will for sure order from the same place. This is the place we ordered from. The website was kinda messed up when I placed the order and I could not get it to take my cc info. I was gonna call later in the day and make sure they didn't bill and ship me for 3 blower assemblies but before I could do that THEY called me to assure me they would only send 1 and I would only be billed for 1. That is good customer service and I guess I am a lil old fashioned in the fact that I still appreciate good customer service and human contact. They have replace parts for things mobile home related and sometimes parts can be hard to find for those.

We have not done anything here today other than eat, sleep and watch TV and surf the Internet. Talk about lazy. I have pondered my quilt today and trying to figure out how I can cut the fabric straight and keep it all even without having to buy one of those neat cutting mats and rotary cutter. I finally decided if I want to do it right I may as well suck it up and purchase one. I will need it later to finish the full size quilt from the top my aunt Connie made. So now I am cutting strips from old jeans that Rodger had to make some simple braided rugs to toss outside near the doors to catch some of the crap to keep it out of the house. I could just go buy some cheap rugs and save a ton of time and energy but ya know, I actually enjoy making things to "make do". Not only that I can actually hose the homemade ones off and let em dry and toss em back down. Easy and I am sure they will last much longer than the store bought ones. I have had those in the past and they soon fall apart. When they get too bad to wash and re-use I can toss em and make more. Easy and fast. I will cut the fabric in strips and then twist and braid it, sew the strips together with light weight fishing line and once I get the size I need stop and put em to use. Now if I was going to use them inside and wanted them to look nice I would fold the strips in half kinda like bias tape and sew them down, braid and then sew the braids. But for outside serviceable rugs that will not be necessary. OK I will go back to my strip cutting and let ya know what happens. Maybe I take some pictures along the way.

Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Quilting and sewing

For a hillbilly that is one thing I have not done, make a quilt from start to finish. But some online friends are getting out their sewing stuff so am thinking that might motivate me to work on Liam's baby quilt. As far as needing quilts for use, I don't NEED more per se. I have lots of quilts, some new, some old and some even older. I thought I would share some pics of those with you all.

 

This is the quilt squares that my grandmother embroidered and the fabric that I am using to make the baby quilt for Liam. IF I ever get started on it. 

 

The quilt above was made and finished by my mom and her sister Connie, that is now deceased. Some too pretty to just store away.

 

This quilt is another one that mom and Aunt Connie made when Connie was sick and mom stayed with her.

 

This is a quilt top that Aunt Connie made given to me a few months ago by Aunt Ann. After I get the baby quilt finished I am going to try to finish this quilt. Maybe by then I will have enough knowledge to do it. 

 This is an applique quilt that mom made before dad passed away. She made quilts for a couple years when dad was not doing well and didn't get out much.

This is Rob's baby quilt that Rodgers mom made for him when he was born. I am taking it to them when Liam is born so he can use his daddy's quilt too.

 

 This is some pillow case sets that my maternal grandmother made. I am going to use them. I think these kinds of nice things last just as long being used as they do being stored. I gave Jason and Mary Kay a set to have and will give Rob and Amoy a set too. Just so they can have something made my a great grandmother.

This is an antique quilt that I have, not sure who made this one but it is in excellent shape.

This is a silhouette of Rob that mom used as a pattern to make a quilt for him. Pretty neat eh?

 

This is a neat farm quilt with the tractor and corn applique. Mom also did this one. This is in the master bedroom and the headboard that you see is one that Rodger built several years ago. He does some really nice wood work when he is in the mood. He has to get in the mood soon to build a toy box for a lil boy. 

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

Stella