Kaytlynn's Day of Cooking!

 We spent a good part of the day today-COOKING! She had a blast and so did I! We started out with a new bread recipe and moved on to a new pot pie one.

 Kaytlynn learning to knead bread dough

 The bread rising in the loaf pan

 Ready to go into the oven!

 Loaf is done!

 Next-cooking the filling for the pot pie-rabbit-carrots-onions, celery, etc.-She really was enjoying the stirring-despite the look of what seems disgust on her face.

The finished pie-we were so anxious to eat it-I forgot to take a picture of it before we dug in! And boy-was it good-so was the bread! The only thing that would have made it better would have been if we'd have had fresh, homemade butter to go on it instead of store bought.

We still are having cold weather and a little damp-I'm having a hard time getting outside to get anything done. Kaytlynn and I went out for a few minutes this morning-while the  bread was rising-and filled up 2 of the bird feeders and got so cold-we had to come back inside. Jordan worked for a little while taking some of the outside Christmas lights down for me-he came back in after a bit as well. Now if they have a plan of outside play-they'll stay out until noses are red and fingers are hurting. The weather still isn't warming up much-some warm sunshine would sure be nice!

The hens are really putting out the eggs of late-yea! We got 6 yesterday and 7 today-they are so beautiful! We have 2 litters of bunnies due next week-looking forward to new babies.

New Year's Eve

We spent last night at our friends-Alfred & Sheila-cabin on the Trinity River. They offered it to us for the night-and we took them up on the offer! It was so peaceful and such a wonderful evening and it rained most of the night-yeah we need the rain.

 Jeff and Alfred looking out over the river this morning-we still are getting a few rain showers now and then and it is a little cool and windy-note the fire they are keeping warm (an old joke!)

 And did I mention-this cabin has no electricity or running water-another plus for spending some quiet time here! Hence the "necessity" house-yes they have an outhouse.

 And this is our mode of transportation for the day-you can't drive your truck down here-so we have to use our cub cadet. And due to the rain-Jeff had to tie a tarp to it to keep our stuff from getting wet on the way down.

Last but not least-the heater that stands in the middle of the cabin. We cooked deer burgers and sausage on it last night for supper-then eggs and reheated the sausage for breakfast. Needless to say-coffee is always cooking when we are around!

We've had quite a bit of quiet time this morning and time to talk without being interrupted. We don't make new years resolutions-but we are determined to work very hard this year to get ourselves out of debt. This has become a very high priority to us and we feel God is wanting us to do this. There are a few things we want to do this month-getting our concealed handgun licenses is one of them-that we know are going to cost us more money than we currently feel comfortable spending-but we feel that it may be to our best advantage to do so. We'll just have to see where the money comes from to take the class and get an approved pistol. We got out and shot the ones we have yesterday for practice-but they aren't a high enough caliber to take the class with. Just another one of the things we get to do when we are at the cabin on the river.

I also found a website a few days ago with LOTS of recipes and ideas. I printed out lots of ideas from her-recipes for homemade laundry detergent-homemade deoderant-canning homemade chicken broth-and a few other things. I can't wait to get started on these as well-but I only have a few days left of my Christmas break and haven't got much of what I planned to do done. It's just been too cold and miserable outside to get much done out there-and I do have 2 sheds that need MAJOR clean outs-yes I do mean outs-there is too much stuff in them-mostly that doesn't even belong to Jeff & I and we can't use them for what we need to-so some of this stuff has to go! Ok maybe I'll get to it when it warms up a bit.

Have a Happy New Year!

Busy Times!

We have been pretty busy around here the last few weeks-but are hoping to slow down a little this afternoon-then by late tomorrow as well. We've had 2 deaths in our little community this week-one to be expected when God calls an elderly man home-but the other quite a shock when He calls home a man not much older than yourselves when he's just had stints added to his heart and should have been getting better. Funerals are today and tomorrow. Sad times here at Christmas!
We've had a good bit of cold weather/frost here as well over the last few weeks. Even after covering things in the garden-frost got the last of nearly everything-even the broccoli. We've never had the frost bother it before. Had to harvest it up fast! I'm sitting in the dark as I type-we are without power this morning-which is really strange considering that we had high winds this last week and it never even blinked off once!
 I posted the last 6 of the bunnies for sale as Christmas bunnies and sold them all in less than 24 hours-Whew! Off the fed bill! The little pigs we bought are doing well-had a little concern over them for a week or so. They kinda got sick with coughs-then scours. But we finally got them all cleared up-they never stopped eating though!
Jeff finally got a deer-thank you Lord! And a friend trapped 2 hogs on his place and gave them to us as well. Ed only wants a couple of links of sausage-which will most likely be delivered to him today!
School's out for the Christmas break-I go back on 1/7/13-so I have some time off. I hope to get some work done on my quilt and a little work on arranging some things in the house as well as getting started on the income taxes-yuck! But I have a whole drawer of receipts that have to be organized-and I do this every year-Heah-maybe that's a good job for the grandkids one day-I can put them to sorting and putting in order! I think I just solved that one!
Have a wonderful weekend!

Baby Calf-Finally!!!

 Sugar finally had her calf today-a little heifer!! So cute-looks almost exactly like her older sister-Oreo-but this one has a little more black on her face. CayCay gets to name this one-I believe she has chosen Sally-we'll see if it suits her or not. Jeff texted me a picture of her when he found her-I had to show my boss. I laughed and told her when you have 30 cows it's no big deal-but when you've only got 1 cow-it's front page family news!!

Kylie got to meet a rabbit tonight as well-she loved it! I couldn't get a pic fast enough-she was giving it kisses. Alana even put her in the hutch with them-she had a ball-her own little petting zoo!

Well, December is almost upon us and our calendars are beginning to fill up. It always is a busy time of the year-but much to be thankful for and happy about-I love it. I've tried to commit to not getting caught up in too much of the commercialism this year-to slow down and just enjoy the season this year. We've got most of our shopping done-only a few more gifts to buy-yeah-then we're finished and gonna sit back and enjoy it!

Fall Garden Pics

 Isn't this one of the cutest things ever? It's a baby eggplant-only about the size of a quarter. Hopefully it will have time to mature before we get any really bad freezing weather! It's supposed to be up near 80 by Sunday with our next front due early next week.

 One of the leftover tomatoes-with a smaller one in the background-still lots of blooms on them, too. We do have a few plants in the greenhouse. May have a few this winter!!

 The cabbage patch!

 One of the heads of broccoli-we finally got it to grow-after putting up a fence around them to keep out the rabbits!

And the potatoes-grown in old tree stumps and a 5 gallon bucket-we haven't tried this before-let you know how it turns out.

New Pigs!

We bought 2 new pigs today after church. Jordan went with us and we took a trip into Cleveland to the old auction barn where people set up to sell their animals. Jeff and I had gone on Wednesday- but saw nothing we wanted to spend any money on! We thought we'd give it another chance today-boy were we glad! The first people with pigs wanted $90-100 each-and we really thought about getting one-they were really nice looking. We decided to keep looking and just a few trucks down-we found these for $60 a piece! We got a Poland China boar and a Duroc gilt. They are between 3 and 4 months old and are just as fat and healthy as can be. We still want to get Lucy bred and I guess she'll have just one more shot at it when this guy gets big enough.

And we got 9 eggs today-what a blessing to have fresh eggs and meat in the house. So many people these days have no idea where their food comes from-much less what the animals were fed or what they died of! It makes me sick just thinking about it sometimes! YUCK!!

It's back to work and school tomorrow-and I know that I'm blessed to have a job that I really do love! So many people are out of work or just working seasonal jobs at the moment-it is so sad. We are so fortunate and sometimes just way to forgetful of everything God has given to us. As we enter into this season of celebrating His birth-let's try to remember most of all what we are here for and what the real reason for Christmas is. Let's keep Christ in Christmas!!

Have a great week!

Happy Thanksgiving (a day late!) & Wonderful News!

Hope everyone's Thanksgiving was as great as ours was-lots of family-although not as many as normal-but way too much food! We ate at Jeff's mom's and had family in and out all day. Randy & Casey came from home and even stayed the night before leaving for the Dallas area this morning to meet up with her family. And they surprised us with the most wonderful news-they are expecting! She hasn't been to the doc yet-but looks like baby is due in July. Two of Jeff's nieces are also pregnant and due right about the same time-so we'll have 3 new babies next summer!

Alana, Kylee and me did a little Black Friday shopping-if you want to call it that! We didn't get to the store until nearly 10 and hit just a few places-then came on back home. It still was much more crowded than last year-I felt like nearly the only person shopping last year.

Jeff is out hunting again right now-we are going to meet with Sheila & Alfred shortly to go out and eat. Jeff's gonna hunt again in the morning-he still hasn't even seen a deer-but a cool front is moving in-so he's hoping it will stir them up. Jason is coming out next weekend and they are gonna hunt together.

Here is a picture of the smoked ham when Jeff took it out of the smokehouse-oh my gosh it is SO good! He took the bacon down at the same time. I cooked a pot of great white northern beans with some of the ham in them-oh they were good! We are still getting eggs from the pullets-you can see a few in the background-no green ones that day though. And we had 2 litters of bunnies born-only 3 in each-so 6 Christmas bunnies will be available for sale!!