But, we've got the garden weeded, the flower beds are weeded--for now, and as the temps go back into the high 90's and 100's I might stitch a wee bit more in the evenings. Maybe I'll get this page finished before Volleyball season starts!
Wednesday, July 03, 2013
page four continued
But, we've got the garden weeded, the flower beds are weeded--for now, and as the temps go back into the high 90's and 100's I might stitch a wee bit more in the evenings. Maybe I'll get this page finished before Volleyball season starts!
Tuesday, July 02, 2013
Vacations...
Growing up as the child of Ranchers/Cow folk, I didn't go on vacation every summer. Reasons for this include:
Not having the money for a vacation
Summers are busy times with harvest, and County Fairs, and getting ready for County Fairs
Dad didn't trust anyone else to take care of the cattle
Really, the first and last ones there were the biggest reasons we didn't do vacations. Actually, the last reason is the main reason we didn't take vacations!
I can remember three vacations...one trip to Colorado Springs/Limon, Colorado for a Woodruff/Smiley reunion. I was 5 or 6. The second vacation was to Red River, New Mexico when I was 8 or 9 and the last one was when I was 15 or 16 and we went to Branson, Missouri.
On our Colorado trip, I really remember bits and pieces of being at the Family Reunion and going to the North Pole near Colorado Springs. The trip to Red River, I remember we stayed in a cabin. I remember it got cold at night and Steve and I loved playing in the creek--which was COLD! I also remember watching hummingbirds.
I do remember more of the Branson trip. I remember we packed a lunch and ate it in a park in Winfield, Kansas. I remember Mom worrying about us being able to find a hotel room in Branson and Dad telling her to not worry, they'd have plenty of rooms. I remember Mom also being worried that we wouldn't be able to find our way out to Silver Dollar City, and Dad telling her that he'd bet all we'd have to do was follow the traffic. (Dad's more fly by the seat of his pants, and Mom's more of a planner. On this trip, we tended to "fly" which caused Mom some stress, but she did really well!) I remember the traffic crawling all the way out to Silver Dollar City, and thinking we'd N.E.V.E.R. get there!
I remember loving the "Fire in the Hole" ride. I remember Mom picking out a mirrored picture with dried flowers behind glass. It hung in our living room for years and years. (Do you still have it Mom? Because I think I could find a spot for it at my house!) I remember being fascinated by the craft demonstrations. And I remember that on the next day, we went to a water park and had a blast.
It's interesting...like my family, Kevin's family didn't do many "real" vacations. They spent most of their vacations back in Ohio, visiting family. So neither Kev nor I have a real tradition of taking vacations. We neither one feel neglected, or feel like we've missed out on anything.
We always intended to go on vacations. We went to Ohio three times to visit family and one summer, we, with Kev's folks, drove to Niagara Falls. We vacationed once in Corpus Christi. We spent several summers camping with friends and family up near Steamboat Springs. But there have also been several summers when we've not taken a vacation. And the only vacation where it was "just" we four was the trip to Corpus Christi!
Our family vacations have been at the forefront of my mind these past couple of weeks because Kev and I "planned" a rather spontaneous vacation to Branson for our family this past week.
Andy graduated from college last month. He earned his Fire Science/EMT degree, passed his National exams and found a job. In three weeks, he'll begin his career as a Firefighter/EMT for the City of Liberal Kansas. For some reason, it hit Kevin and I that this could be our last chance for a family vacation that would consist of "just we four."
So, Kev told me to figure out a place we could go that was relatively close and somewhere we'd never gone before. I picked Branson--probably because it was the last vacation destination that my family had gone on, I have fond memories of it, and it was somewhere new for Kev and the kids. So, unlike my folks, and thanks to the Web, I booked a room in advance, bought tickets to Silver Dollar City in advance, and we went on vacation.
We had a great time!
Not having the money for a vacation
Summers are busy times with harvest, and County Fairs, and getting ready for County Fairs
Dad didn't trust anyone else to take care of the cattle
Really, the first and last ones there were the biggest reasons we didn't do vacations. Actually, the last reason is the main reason we didn't take vacations!
I can remember three vacations...one trip to Colorado Springs/Limon, Colorado for a Woodruff/Smiley reunion. I was 5 or 6. The second vacation was to Red River, New Mexico when I was 8 or 9 and the last one was when I was 15 or 16 and we went to Branson, Missouri.
On our Colorado trip, I really remember bits and pieces of being at the Family Reunion and going to the North Pole near Colorado Springs. The trip to Red River, I remember we stayed in a cabin. I remember it got cold at night and Steve and I loved playing in the creek--which was COLD! I also remember watching hummingbirds.
I do remember more of the Branson trip. I remember we packed a lunch and ate it in a park in Winfield, Kansas. I remember Mom worrying about us being able to find a hotel room in Branson and Dad telling her to not worry, they'd have plenty of rooms. I remember Mom also being worried that we wouldn't be able to find our way out to Silver Dollar City, and Dad telling her that he'd bet all we'd have to do was follow the traffic. (Dad's more fly by the seat of his pants, and Mom's more of a planner. On this trip, we tended to "fly" which caused Mom some stress, but she did really well!) I remember the traffic crawling all the way out to Silver Dollar City, and thinking we'd N.E.V.E.R. get there!
I remember loving the "Fire in the Hole" ride. I remember Mom picking out a mirrored picture with dried flowers behind glass. It hung in our living room for years and years. (Do you still have it Mom? Because I think I could find a spot for it at my house!) I remember being fascinated by the craft demonstrations. And I remember that on the next day, we went to a water park and had a blast.
It's interesting...like my family, Kevin's family didn't do many "real" vacations. They spent most of their vacations back in Ohio, visiting family. So neither Kev nor I have a real tradition of taking vacations. We neither one feel neglected, or feel like we've missed out on anything.
We always intended to go on vacations. We went to Ohio three times to visit family and one summer, we, with Kev's folks, drove to Niagara Falls. We vacationed once in Corpus Christi. We spent several summers camping with friends and family up near Steamboat Springs. But there have also been several summers when we've not taken a vacation. And the only vacation where it was "just" we four was the trip to Corpus Christi!
Our family vacations have been at the forefront of my mind these past couple of weeks because Kev and I "planned" a rather spontaneous vacation to Branson for our family this past week.
Andy graduated from college last month. He earned his Fire Science/EMT degree, passed his National exams and found a job. In three weeks, he'll begin his career as a Firefighter/EMT for the City of Liberal Kansas. For some reason, it hit Kevin and I that this could be our last chance for a family vacation that would consist of "just we four."
So, Kev told me to figure out a place we could go that was relatively close and somewhere we'd never gone before. I picked Branson--probably because it was the last vacation destination that my family had gone on, I have fond memories of it, and it was somewhere new for Kev and the kids. So, unlike my folks, and thanks to the Web, I booked a room in advance, bought tickets to Silver Dollar City in advance, and we went on vacation.
We had a great time!
Thursday, June 06, 2013
Page 3 finished!
Of course with summer upon us, I may or may not spend much time stitching, but seeing progress is so fun! To be honest, seeing this photo brings the detail out much more to me than being up close to it day after day. Here, I see the shadings much more fully than when I'm working on it.
Monday, June 03, 2013
If I die in the Chicken house
Yesterday I spent a little bit of time out with the Girls.
The ones with feathers who live out in the Chicken Mansion.
I spend time out there regularly, I just don't take the camera. I've got two baby chicks I'm raising. I started with three, but one got out and was pecked to death. With the price of pullet chicks these days, I wasn't very happy with the adult girls and chewed them up one side and down the other.
They're just like my kids and ignored me.
My remaining two chicks--two Americana's--are doing well and growing quickly. I gave them a strawberry yesterday, but they didn't know what to do with it. It was still there this morning. I imagine I should just give up and give it to the adults. THEY know what to do with a strawberry! Anyway, while delivering the strawberry, I noticed that the young chicks were out of feed. So I grabbed the feed sack to remedy that situation.
I was minding my own business, chatting to the young things, as I opened the feed sack when something jumped out at me and ran up my arm! I let out a shriek, dropped the scoop, stood up, tried to knock that thing off me, at the same time it ran back down my arm and across the back of the chick pen behind the adult's feed barrel.
It's a wonder I didn't wet my pants too.
Once my heartbeat resumed it's normal pace, I calmly finished feeding the chicks and exited the building.
No one heard me shriek--and it was a shriek! No one came to see what was wrong. No one seemed to notice I wasn't in the house. It was almost like the day I locked myself in the Chicken Mansion...no one noticed.
So, if there comes a time when you don't hear from me for a couple of months or more--call my family and have them check the Chicken house to see if I'm in there, dead. Obviously, they won't notice if I'm gone!
The ones with feathers who live out in the Chicken Mansion.
I spend time out there regularly, I just don't take the camera. I've got two baby chicks I'm raising. I started with three, but one got out and was pecked to death. With the price of pullet chicks these days, I wasn't very happy with the adult girls and chewed them up one side and down the other.
They're just like my kids and ignored me.
My remaining two chicks--two Americana's--are doing well and growing quickly. I gave them a strawberry yesterday, but they didn't know what to do with it. It was still there this morning. I imagine I should just give up and give it to the adults. THEY know what to do with a strawberry! Anyway, while delivering the strawberry, I noticed that the young chicks were out of feed. So I grabbed the feed sack to remedy that situation.
I was minding my own business, chatting to the young things, as I opened the feed sack when something jumped out at me and ran up my arm! I let out a shriek, dropped the scoop, stood up, tried to knock that thing off me, at the same time it ran back down my arm and across the back of the chick pen behind the adult's feed barrel.
It's a wonder I didn't wet my pants too.
Once my heartbeat resumed it's normal pace, I calmly finished feeding the chicks and exited the building.
No one heard me shriek--and it was a shriek! No one came to see what was wrong. No one seemed to notice I wasn't in the house. It was almost like the day I locked myself in the Chicken Mansion...no one noticed.
So, if there comes a time when you don't hear from me for a couple of months or more--call my family and have them check the Chicken house to see if I'm in there, dead. Obviously, they won't notice if I'm gone!
Friday, May 31, 2013
Cool Canning labels & BBQ sauce
A couple of years ago, we found a recipe for homemade BBQ sauce. We made it one weekend, loved it, and since then, I've made all our BBQ sauce. Sometimes, I even add finely chopped jalepenos to spice it up. (Kev's favorite.) We have a very good friend who always makes his sauce every time he grills or barbecues. While I love his sauce, it's never the same twice, and I like the convenience of having a jar of it in the pantry when I need it.
So, one day last week, I canned up a batch of sauce. I made 6 pints and a "short" pint which I put in one of my Weck jars. (It's the tall juice jar in the back.)
Recently, while I was browsing on the web, I found some shrink-wrap canning labels. From Modern Harvest, they make 4 designs and I couldn't decide which one I liked the most. Fortunately they have a "sampler" pack.
Now that I didn't have to try to pick out a design, I placed an order for labels for pint jars, quart jars and 1/2 pint jars (or jelly jars.) Very reasonably priced. (Each package of 36 labels is $6.99.)
I liked the premise that these were shrink wrap labels, I liked the large writing area and I liked the back side which lets you mark the month and year you canned the item. Since I hate writing on lids, and hate the little Ball labels that were never big enough, didn't fit nicely on the jars, and were a pain to scrub off empty jars, this seemed to be a perfect answer for me.
I'm actually now looking forward to canning season so I can play with my labels! I'm also eyeballing that multi-pack of Sharpie pens so I can get really creative and colorful with my labels.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)