Finally a decent moon shot!  I've tried to get this right so many times that I finally gave up.  

A good camera makes all the difference.

Loving the way it captures the sparkles on the snow.

As far as clarity and true color in my photos, I couldn't ask for more.

We've been trying to get outside everyday, so CC and I make a cup of coffee or green tea and hit the road to see what we can photograph.

When moose fly!

I captured this first thing in the morning.  I loved the way the mountains were "pink" while everything else surrounding the photo was gray, black and white.  It's just about the only color here this time of year.

Looking Back on 2016

2017 is here and as usual I'm late getting a "Looking Back" post or any post for that matter up on the blog.

Better late than never!

So the little man on the left joined us in February during the Super Bowl half time show, and made us Grampy and Grammy for a second time! 

He's such a cutie! 

This guy moved back to Maine!  Woot woot!!!

On Easter this year, they announced they were expecting their first baby!

It was such a wonderful surprise!

Miss Ella Rose arrived early to celebrate Thanksgiving with all of us.  

A happy and healthy baby girl! 

They are amazing parents!

She arrived on CC's birthday! 

An awesome birthday gift of becoming an aunt to this sweet baby girl!

Their first Christmas with Ella 

CC, David, Scott and I headed out the last weekend in November to cut down our tree!

It was our first Christmas in our new home!  We absolutely love where we live and I haven't any regrets! 

Ready for Christmas!

This was Timmy's first Christmas!

He was so much fun! 

Ben turned three this year and was so fun to watch.  His squeals and excitement made everyone laugh!

This was Ella's first Christmas too.  She loves her mommy and daddy so much. 

She is just a joy to look at, hold, and talk to.

My heart is full!

Living in our new home here in town, I'm finding I actually enjoy snowstorms.

There is hardly any wind here and makes going outside so much more bearable. 

This is our biggest storm yet! 24 inches at once!

Happy New Year!

My one weakness…...

I've never been good at journaling.  "It's my one weakness", to quote Dorcas Lane in Lark Rise To Candleford. I love the idea of it and I love notebooks and journals, but I just can't seem to form a habit of it.  I guess that is why there has been such a long absence here on my blog.  It's an online journal. So the past several months have been filled with gardening, canning, freezing, baking, preparing meals, and hunkering down for a long winter! It has been a horribly long winter! Freezing temperatures, lots of snow (or as I sometimes mistype "snot"), and freezing rain.  I started my seeds today just to lift my spirits and get a jump on our short season.  45 different varieties and 460 seeds!! I loved the looks of our big farm table, all covered end to end with the different packets of seeds promising me what is on the front! They are good seed and certainly produced a good crop last year.

My son's girlfriend has new puppies! So adorable and they come to visit often! Lola is white and her brother Nacho is brown.  They are little balls of energy and we are enjoying watching them grow and play.

My cowboy is off in Oklahoma, at Oklahoma State Horseshoeing School.  He's having a blast and learning a lot.  Dean and his wife are expecting their first baby (Benjamin Thomas) boy in June.  TJ was hired at a Toyota company and is loving it!  He graduates in May.  Acelia is doing great in her studies and will be raising a few pigs this summer along with tending her goats and caring for the horses.  She is in hopes of getting a summer job this year.  

We've all kept pretty busy and this spring promises to be busy as well!

Catching up

WOW!!! I've been gone a loooooong time! Since February my blog has been silent!  I'm so sorry.  I'm not really sure if I even have any readers left or had any to begin with! I'm a bad blogger.  I blame Facebook!  So I guess it's time to catch up!  So let's go waaaaaaaay back to February..............

• My son Dean started dating a wonderful girl, Rachel in January.
• Dean and Rachel became engaged around Easter. Yay!!!!!! Very exciting! (Photo's above)
• I started my journey on having 12 amalgams removed in April, and what a process!! I'm glad it is done and that poison is out of me!!!
• We bought a herd of Dexter cattle.  7 of them to be exact.  I'm not sure if that qualifies as a "herd" but it does around here!
• We bought two new piglets to raise and sent the three from last fall to the butcher. Love having organic/nonGMO pork, beef and chicken! 
• We had a wedding in June! Dean and Rachel!
• Our third arrow, David, started interning at a local vet clinic.  He is doing what he loves and is awesome at it!
• I had my garden planted by the end of the first week in June and it has done amazing!!! I'm so thrilled with it.
• The first of July I started my detox to rid metals and other toxins from my body.  It ended in 21 days and I made it the whole 21 days without cheating!! 
• We received 153 freedom ranger chickens, raised them and processed them ourselves with our own equipment.   
• Our 4th arrow, CC decided to raise Nigerian Dwarf Goats and bought her first little buck....Hudson, named after Rock Hudson of course!
• We bought her, her first little doe.....Fran, named after "The Nanny".
• She then bought Fran's mother, Fern and we are currently milking her.
• We bought Fern's sister, Onyx and are waiting for the arrival of her twins!!
• Somewhere in the middle of all this we took on two adorable little kittens, brothers, Harry and Marv, named after the two hooligans from Home Alone, one of CC favorite movies! They are a hoot to watch! Aptly named!
• We currently finished putting up hay! The most wretched job of farming as far as I'm concerned!

I've canned a few quarts of beans and chicken broth and froze some peas, pea pods, zucchini, blueberries (bought), and some parsley.
So that is it in a nut shell!

Hello!

Quite a blogging break I took!

First let me say Happy New Years to everyone!  We had a rough start to the holiday season due a horrible cold/flu that made it's rounds in the house, but we all recovered and was able to celebrate the holidays with friends and family.

 So to back up a bit.......

This is what occurred right before I went down with the flu.....

Our littlest piglet, named Elephant, wasn't doing so well...the cold, his smallness, and the fact that he was the runt of the litter was taking a toll on him.  We almost lost him, but thanks to some raw milk, Pedialyte, Med's, and some mothering for 36 hours from CC and I he bounced right back!

He turned in a little "monster piglet" the second day, not being happy sleeping in his tote!  He wanted to be swaddled and held! CC and I were tired from being up every hour, so I woke Scott up at 3:00 A.M. the second morning and we put him right back out in the barn with the others.

 It took him no time to settle into the hourly routine! We gave him warm milk, wrapped him in his towel and held him till he went to sleep, just like a baby!! Then put him down to sleep.  CC and I pumped up the air mattress and slept downstairs with him.

At 3:00 A.M. the first morning, he turned the corner and we knew he was going to be ok and he spent another 24 hours in the house.  He is currently healthy and happy and gaining weight daily.

CC and David were able to get us a real Christmas Tree from off our property once they were feeling better.  Sadly I didn't take a picture of it this year :(

We were thankful to have snow for Christmas!! This is one of my sugar pie pumpkins I grew.  I woke up one morning and Jack Frost had touched it!  I thought it looked just like one of those sugared fruits you buy in the store!

Our holidays were very quite and we enjoyed that!  My two boys that are living away came home and the six of us were together again.  They have since gone back and the house is quiet again with just the 4 of us here.  Lot's of plans are being made for spring with the garden and the barn yard.  It will be here before we know it!

Whirlwind weekend!

It's been a while since I've been here on my blog.  I've been cooking up a storm, and though I'm not responsible for Sandy, my kitchen over the weekend looked like it took a direct hit!!

My oldest turned 20!!! Unbelievable!!

We entertained friends Friday night and had lobster with potato salad and cole slaw that I made with the potatoes, cabbage and carrots I grew! It is so satisfying when I can run to the barn and grab a few fresh vegetables and make something.  I need to catalog those times and remember them when hard work begins in the spring! 

So with all the talk of Sandy and 7 teenagers in the house, I set to work cooking!

I made these homemade marshmallows! It was the first time I ever made these and they were a hit!! 

Acelia had requested more for her hot chocolate! Maybe I'll surprise her and make peppermint ones!

I absolutely love "Life Beautiful" magazine and this month there was a big article on a lovely woman who bakes cakes for people and events.  She doesn't do it for money but because she loves to!  I made Dean this Red Velvet cake for his birthday from scratch! 

Saturday morning, I made these Starbucks Pumpkin muffins, I'll be posting the recipe soon! Perfect before everyone left to go hunting.  I was able to take a short break and have a cup of tea and read my favorite blogs!

Next up on the cooking list was this cranberry apple crisp!  Not too sweet! Just perfect!

I also made chili , (using the meat from Acelia's deer) and some cornbread!  We were well stocked on food and sweets if we lost power during Sandy.   We did lose power, but only for a couple of hours.  

All in a days work!

As I write this post, at 4:00, I'm sitting out on my front porch watching Acelia and Honey work!

It was such a beautiful day outside and I spent a good part of the day working outside.

Rain is on the way for tonight and into tomorrow so I thought I'd get a few things wrapped up outside.  I am really loving our new tractor!!!! I was able to get twice the work done!

I found this little gem hiding under a cauliflower plant that I pulled out of my garden!

 Just to give you some perspective....it was bigger than our basketball!!!

I decorated the barn post with the corn stalks from my garden and some small sugar pie pumpkins.

I don't know how many calendula seeds I've collected and there are tons more, so Sunday afternoon I'll finish collecting them and call it good.

Here's the main garden all emptied out.  I really need to rethink this garden this year.  I can't have more than I can keep up with! 

Here's my garlic bed.  I put in about 200 or so bulbs.  It took me just an hour or so to make it and get it planted with that tractor!!! 

Finally.......It appears I'm in the market for a new lamp post! Don't ask! Let me just say that it didn't involve me or the tractor!