Work is a BLESSING

 

 

 

Hope everyone had a wonderful and memorable Thanksgiving.  We traveled down to the farm and spent time with both sides of the family.  I had all my kids, their spouses and my grandson for the Holiday.  We had such an amazing time.  I took advantage of all the "help".  Well, with only standing room in the little red house we needed something to do other than stepping on each others toes.
I promised they could have Thanksgiving Day off and then it was work, work, work for the next couple of days.
 We went deep into the mountains after a big load of wood,

 

 watched the most beautiful pinto and line-back-dun mustangs run through the brush with their long tails and manes flowing in the wind, honked before we went over every cattle-guard, about 10 of them, to warn the troll's so we wouldn't run over their fingers.  My cute little daughter in-law insisted we honk ( she sure fit's in with our crazy bunch)
              
                                                      we laid pennies on the train tracks

 

 

                                                              and danced on the rails

 

 

 

                     We hand- tilled the gardens after digging out all the sunflowers and weeds.
                              Cleaned out the big greenhouse and planted garlic and onions.

 

 

 

 

Collected seeds of chard, purple and white heirloom carrots, aragula and lettuce.
 Played basketball, trimmed the goat's hooves, moved the buck in with the does, cooked almost non-stop and had the best slumber parties with all the family wall to wall on the floor.......remember, it is a little house.
Made cookie s'mores outside after dark in the freezing cold, but warmed by the fire, and even had time for a game of scum.
Whew, I'm exhausted.
  And then we had to leave the serenity and peace (and relaxation) of the farm and travel in bumper to bumper holiday freeway  traffic for hours and hours, but it was worth it. 

                                                                     I  am truly BLESSED.
                                                           Too many blessings to even count!
                                                 

AROUND THE KITCHEN TABLE

This post was inspired by my little sis.  She just built a kitchen table of her dreams, a long, sturdy table, ready to hold up 6 sets of little elbows.  It made me stop to think of how important the kitchen table is.  It stands ready and waiting for after school snack crumbs to be scattered across it's surface,  it's legs kicked by muddy shoes, and forks stabbed into it's grainy top.
Meals shared with family, friends, neighbors, and the occasional lost wanderer.

                                          We have had several kitchen tables over the years.

 Our first table, Grandma Bower's little metal table, sat in the kitchen of an old, old, home we rented when my husband first taught school.  It now resides beside the milk stanchion.

  Our next table and chairs Glen made out of pine boards.  We used an old, second-hand metal outdoor dinning set, we repainted it and replaced the top of the table and the back and bottom of the chairs with pine boards to match the kitchen counters and cupboards he custom built for the kitchen ......... that he had to replace when he came home from work and discovered I had torn them all out and put in a heap on the front lawn.........well, they were ugly fiberboard, old second hand trailer house cupboard that had been put in a house we had just purchased.  It took several years for him to get the cupboards built, but they were beautiful when he got them finished............wish I had a picture of them.

 

 

 

 

Here's an old barn door we used for a coffee table for many years.

It sat on 12 inch cedar logs we brought in from the wood pile.

Jeramie, my oldest, had lot's of tea parties at this table

 Sassy, the cat, always enjoyed them

and the stroller rides after tea

honestly, this cat would sit in the stroller for hours

 

 

 

 

here is our table we had in Nevada

an old, old antique

wide- wood, hand- hewn, planked

that I painted bright blue

I let the kids pick out their favorite colors to paint their chairs

red, yellow, blue, green

cute little Meadow is now married

and mentioned to me the other day that isn't is funny that

the style now-days is old, painted, distressed, furniture

and back then is was just necessity for us to

make old second-hand items look great

with a new coat of paint.......

well, I did remind her I also fed her home-made goat cheese

and people thought we were NUTS

and now you find it in all the fancy restaurants

 

 

 

 

 

The blue table was replaced with this table that had a bench so it could be slid up to the wall.

We had just bought the single wide mobile home and moved it on the farm.   There wasn't much room, but it sure beat living the prior 6 months in a tent with 5 kids, the youngest being 3 weeks old.

 

The kids drew with markers all over the bottom underneath, I was saddened when we moved yet again and sold this table with the priceless art work underneath.  I have decided that over the holidays we are going to be drawing with markers under the kitchen table in the little red house at the farm......just  because that's what we do at our house.  Oh, we still have the blue table.

 

 

This is my favorite table

Glen built this over 40 years ago

we eat all our meals during the summer

outside under the trees

around this table

we reminisce of years gone buy

joys and sorrows

we laugh until our sides hurt

 

 

As Thanksgiving is just around the corner, let's all gather around the table, weather it be large or small, fancy and ornate, or held together with baling wire,  and enjoy the good food, the company, and express our gratitude for the blessing of family and a table to gather around.

 

SQUASH PIE/PUMPKIN PIE

 

 

 

Been makin pies.

pumpkin pie

squash pie

apple pie

It's the pie makin time of year. 

 

 

Here is my all time favorite recipe for squash or pumpkin pie

 

 

First make 2 pie crusts using LARD

yes, lard

I have had enough close calls in my life to realize how short is it

so 

use LARD

I don't have a recipe for the crust

just get a bunch of flour

add some salt

stir

add LARD

crumble it into the flour with your hands

I was taught how to make pie crust by my neighbor

HE always said add enough lard to form small peas

add cold water to make a stiff dough

(I'm sure there is a good recipe out there for pie crust)

 

o.k.

now for the pie

cut up your pumpkin or squash into large pieces

place on a baking sheet

or just on the baking rack

 

 

bake 350 degrees til soft

 

 

don't throw away the seeds

 

 

put them aside to make roasted pumpkin seeds

 

 

(Don't wash the seeds, just spread out on a large baking sheet and cook in a low 250 degree oven until seeds are dry.  Stir often.)

Note:  don't use squash seeds to roast, they do not work as well

and aren't very tasty

 

 

scoop flesh into a bowl, mash or puree

I like to freeze 4 cups in a bag so I can just grab a bag pre-measured for pies

drain off liquid after thawing

 

YUMMY PUMPKIN PIE

 

makes 2  pies

 

4 cups pumpkin or squash pulp (I especially like Banana Squash)

6 eggs

 1 cup sugar

1 can evaporated milk

1/2 to 1 tsp. each cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger

1/2 tsp. cloves

Bake 10 mins at 450 degrees

turn oven to 350

and bake until a knife inserted comes out clean

about 35-45 mins

 

This is almost like a thick custard or pudding. 

Absolutely delicious!

 

Top with REAL CREAM of course.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What TIME is it?

I dislike the time change.  Now don't get me wrong I do enjoy having it light sooner after I am up for the day, and the long evenings spent around the nice warm fire because it's to dark to work outside.  I enjoy having the time to gather the kids around and read aloud from one of our favorite classical books.  No, what I dis-like about the time change is that for the next three months I will hear........ " Well, it's really not 8 o'clock, it would be 9 o'clock if we were on the other time."   For the past 28 years  I have been trying to tell my dear, sweet, wonderfully aggravating husband that
                                  "The time is what the time is!!!!!!!!"
We were out of town on Sunday, the day the time changed and I asked Glen, " Do you think the boy's will get up in time to go to their church meetings?"  Then I said,  "Well, they probably won't sleep in because it would really be like............."  and I stopped myself short.  I was NOT going to say it,  after hearing it for 28 years, I was NOT going to say it,  Glen just gave me a look and laughed.
 "Not funny," I replied.
On our way back to Roosevelt later that day, we stopped at my daughter Meadow's for a short visit.  During our conversation she said,  "I get to sleep in, in the morning."  "Oh," I asked, "Don't you have to be to work at 6:00 in the morning."   "Yes,"  she replied, "But with the time change it's like getting to sleep in for an extra hour."  WHAT?,    I GIVE UP, now a whole new generation of the family will be running around pretending what time it is.

I guess it's like the old song,  DOES ANYBODY REALLY KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS? 

Obviously not in my house hold,  but really, I am probably the worst, I never wear a watch and all I know is when it's light you get outside and do your work and when it's dark, you come in and do your work.  I do know this about time however.  It is a thief,  it stole away my precious little ones, it replaced my strong, healthy, skinny, long wavy haired being....... with an old, sore, can't get up once I get down, bone creaking, limping, greying haired, wrinkled faced, person. 
 It is an opportunist, allowing us to obtain our goals, to travel, to live.  So let's take advantage of every second, no matter what time it is.