Burritos, Baby it's Cold Outside & Baby Goats

 We had several days in a row that were below freezing....and when it started to thaw, we got a day of ice!  Very slick, but very pretty.

 Even inside the rabbit house the water bottles froze and I had to hook up a small heater.

 The kids were warm & comfy in the barn under their heat lamp.  You can see that Shultz is full of attitude in both these pictures.  All three kids are growing like weeds!  They each drink a 20 ounce pop bottle of lovely, warm goat milk twice a day at milking time.

 We've got an abundance of milk since two of the mama goats are giving a gallon a day and the other is close behind.  It's about time to scout around for a bottle-calf to use up the excess.

 E-Goat wonders if it's milking time yet.

 Paxton has decided that it's too cold and she can't be bothered.  She's going to wait until Spring.

 All we got was a pathetic dusting of snow.  I was very disappointed.  On my list of favorite things, LOTS OF SNOW ranks right up there with squirrels, acorns, coffee and sewing machines.

 Our little quilting group had a Christmas gift exchange and I received these fun items:  a Scrap Quilting book, a quilting UFO (un-finished object) and some quilt labels & patterns.  Fun!

 Can you say....BURRITOs?   Oh...YUM!  Get your deep-fryer out, make sure there's sufficient oil in it and turn it up to about 400*.

Brown some hamburger.  Make sure it's nice, lean stuff - who needs all that fat?

I use the smaller soft flour tortillas.

 Drain & rinse a can of black beans; or any old kind you like - kidney or pintos are good, too.

 Add taco seasoning to taste.  I buy it in bulk, but you can use those individual little packets instead, if you prefer.

 Mix it all up in your frying pan.

 Grate some cheddar and as you spoon your taco mix on the tortillas, throw a bit of cheese on there, too.

 Coming along nicely.

 You could, of course, add lettuce, tomato & black olives and then a little sour cream & salsa and eat these as soft tacos now.  But, if you want a really good treat, you'll keep going and finish up these burritos!

 Roll 'em, secure with wooden toothpicks....

 When you've got them all ready to go (I used a pound of burger and 10 small tortillas, by the way), you can begin to deep fry!

 It only takes a couple of minutes - until they're a nice golden brown color.  Be very very careful.  Hot grease is, well, dangerous.

As you take them out of the fryer (with tongs), drain them on paper towels placed over a cookie rack.

Then pile them up on a plate in the oven at 170* (low) or so.  I always take the toothpicks out so no one accidentally eats one ;-)

Serve with salsa & sour cream and LOTS of napkins. 

Now, wasn't that easy and tasty?? 

That was today's dinner.  Now I'm catching up on my Ebay and Etsy stores and then I'm going to read just a couple chapters in a novel I started before I call it a night and head off to bed.

Easy granola recipe, the woods are green and the Baby Goats are Here!

Time marches on and we've made it through the holidays and into the New Year.

I think we had record rainfall for December but there was a break long enough for a lovely walk to the valley.  The creek was high and the fields were flowing with water making me glad I walked in rubber boots.





The new trail didn't have a chance to grow any grass before Old Man Winter set up residence.  It's actually quite a hill, though the picture is deceiving.

Our woods are always green, even in the winter.

 Two roads diverged in a.....well, a very green wood.  I took the one MORE traveled by, and it made the difference as the more traveled one leads back to the house!

 The days have been chilly and my Oval cookstove is doing an excellent job heating the house, as usual.  It is not an antique, but a fairly air-tight and pretty efficient stove.

The power has only been out once this Fall/Winter season, but I whipped out the percolator and made a pot of coffee....just because I could!

 This is a lovely gift from my DH.  If you heat with wood, you KNOW that NO ONE wants to be the one to have to step outside, split kindling, gather little tinder, and crunch up paper.  My man left this for me so I wouldn't have to!  Love that guy!

 Fruitcake.  It's what's for Christmas.  We have a favorite family recipe and make it faithfully every year.  This year we had raisins my daughter had picked & dried herself.  Also, she candied orange and lemon peel, some of which she grew on a lemon bush in her room!

 Ready to bake and...............

 .....ta da!  Fruitcake.  It is delicious.

 I also made granola.  SUPER EASY RECIPE:
Mix together:
10 cups of oats
1 cup chopped nuts or sunflower seeds
2 cups coconut
1 1/2 cups maple syrup (yes, real)
Bake @ 350* for 30-45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes until golden brown.  Makes a decent gallon.

Just do it.  When you serve it, you can add whatever strikes you - raisins or what have you.

 You can also cook it like oatmeal, if you can tolerate such stuff.  Many years ago, my mother sat me in front of a bowl of hot oatmeal.  I gagged and sat there.  She made me sit for ages, telling me I HAD to eat it.  I couldn't and gagged some more.  She finally relented and let me escape.  I've never been able to tolerate the smell of cooked oatmeal since.  And I loved her anyhow, lol.

 Primitives continue to fly out of my sewing room (pun intended).  These birdies were no exception and they have flown off to new homes.

 I sew and paint every day and still the ideas continue to pop into my head.  I keep notebooks and sticky pads everywhere so I can jot them down!

 SURPRISE!!!  Look who arrived on December 23rd!  It's MarvelAnne!  Then, about 3 days later she was followed by Schultz and then just yesterday, Ellie.  I'll get pictures of them on the next blog post.

Now, twice daily we trek to the barn for milking chores.  I stop by my daughter's place on the way to the barn and she comes down to help milk & feed.  Younger daughter does the evening milking (less milk in the evening since we don't milk on a 12 hour schedule....)

 Merrieanne, Shiloh and E-Goat are all milking fabulously.  Fresh milk every day - my coffee is greatly improved, once again!

Do you keep YOUR goat milk in canning jars?

Well, my Christmas tree & decorations are still up.  We're enjoying their cheery lights and warm glow.  We all caught a rotten cold that lasted for over 3 weeks in mid-December, so we're sort of stretching our holiday out to make up for it.

Our holidays weren't the same without my Mom, of course, but God is gracious and my heart is healing.  I'd give anything for one more conversation, one more hug, one more day with her but I'm holding on to the knowledge that she's whole and healed, waiting for that glorious family reunion we'll have when the Lord returns.

The sun has set on another day so I'd better sign off and go get my rest.  The weather has been below freezing here for the last several days, making it difficult to keep the rabbits watered since their bottles freeze, even inside their greenhouse building.  Makes for long & chilly chore time!  My fingers get so cold that I can't stay out for very long at a time.

Tomorrow I need to clean rabbit pans, do milking & bottle feeding baby goat chores, and bake bread.  I've got about 5 primitive orders to finish up as well, so it'll be another busy day on the farm!

(Don't forget - you can click on the pics to make them bigger!)

Elk for dinner, Turkey soup all Canned and Fruitcake soon to come! It's December!

 They find me.  Ok, so I actually sort of, well, look for them...slightly.  Anyhow, 37 sewing machines followed us home the other day.  Can I keep them?   NO.  That's not what I was going to say!  Here's the real story:  In a round about way, I found out that within a mere two hour drive there were sewing machines languishing in a barn.  Now, that might be okay if you live somewhere dry (are there such places??), but I live in wet western Washington and let me tell you, it is not dry.
We drove, we saw, we obtained.  None are show pieces.  About 4 are going to stay.  The others will be restored, if possible, and made available to once again, well, sew!  Some, sadly will become parts donors.

I shall not lack for something to do.

 Poor, poor things.  (Now I'm speaking of both my daughter and I AND the machines!)

The day we drove & collected them was a stormy, windy & rainy day.  Each machine had to be stuffed into a plastic bag, set on a cart that held 4 machines and then wheeled through the rain, wind & mud to my truck.......maybe 30 or 40 yards away.  Pure insanity.  Each one weighs about 30 to 40 pounds as well.

The couple who sold them to us were like as out of a fairy tale.  They fussed over us and seated us at their table to drink coffee, eat cake....They wanted to feed us sandwiches (and maybe keep us?) but the machines were calling and the drive was long.  By the time the truck was loaded, we were mud from head to toe.  Well, maybe from toe to knee.

 On a brighter note, THIS is my beautiful new collectible quality addition to my little museum.  It is a New England style hand crank.  Very small and very cute.

 This is what remains of our Thanksgiving Day turkey dinner.  I made broth from the carcass and then used the leftover turkey to can this convenient turkey soup. 

Now I have a cold and I think I'll open one up for my lunch as a remedy!

 During the bleak and dreary days of November there comes a season that riles up the menfolk.  It's called Elk hunting season!  

My dear husband was napping in his easy chair one morning.  I tapped him on the foot and suggested that he might want to leap from his chair, arm himself and bag us some meat!  He did just that and a nice cow elk now resides in my freezer!  Of course, it was a  long slow process getting there, but we'll just gloss over all that hard work and see the finished product....

 Dinner!  Nothing like elk tenderloin (think Filet Mignon...super lean).

I pan fried it with onions, peppers, a few sprigs of rosemary...freshly ground salt & pepper, dash of thyme.

Out of the oven we took our parmesan roasted asparagus spears and sweet potato (yam, actually) fries and VOILA, a delectable meal, fit for a king. 

 Here's my next December/Christmas season project....The fixings for homemade fruitcake.  I realize there are two camps on fruitcake - the lovers and the haters.  I actually like both store-bought AND homemade, but if you've never had homemade, you can't vote fruitcake out.  It's just not the same.  Kind of like the difference between homemade bread and store-bought.  Just not the same animal.  Anyhow, soon I shall begin the fruitcake process and then we will snack with thin slices alongside our steaming hot coffee!

 This is my comfy spot.  Oh, and my husband's, too.  As the years go by we seem to add to them.  Now he's got a pillow for his back and I've got one for my feet.  We each have a warm blanket, I've got my phone & laptop handy, pile of books & magazines, notepads & pens.  And, of course, the most important pieces......coasters for the coffee, of course!  At least we don't stack our barn boots handy nearby!

 With my sweet mother's passing, we had an extra room downstairs.  It is now my sewing machine collection!  Well, part of my collection.  In this room reside most of my treadles and handcranks.  I have others scattered about as furniture in the house and all my electric machines are upstairs in my sewing room, but the main people-powered ones are down in this room.

 Once in awhile, someone will ask me (usually in a stinky tone) just how many sewing machines I actually NEED.  I don't collect them out of need, but out of a sense of preserving them for future generations.  The current fads of recycling, reusing etc. are destroying many old machines and I just want to preserve this bit of history.  I'm an old soul at heart and these old gals have much of the long ago seeped into their wood & iron. 

 I'd love to know where they've been & see just a bit of the life that played out around them.

 The lower part of this one is a Wheeler & Wilson in a library cabinet.  The faux books and beveled glass mirror apparently made it a nicer piece for your home decorating with your sewing machine hidden nicely inside.

The drawer belongs to the Boye needle case, which both contain needles & shuttles in small wooden tubes and bobbins for long-bobbin machines.

 Well, Thanksgiving is past and Christmas is just ahead.  We had a quiet and enjoyable Thanksgiving Day with just the family here.  Other than me bursting into tears when we first sat down to dinner without my mama at the end of the table, we did pretty well.  One daughter fetched kleenex for me and for the other daughter who was kind enough to join me ;-)

My Christmas shopping is done and we're trying to slow things down.  I've actually worked on a couple of puzzles and we've watched a couple Christmas movies.

I've got several primitive orders to fill, so will be sewing this week for sure.  I've caught a cold, so am feeling a bit sorry for myself.  This cherry pie helped....but for some reason it didn't last long.  I did share, by the way.

That's it from the hilltop for today.  Be sure to count your blessings every day - each and every good thing is from God our Father, who is the same yesterday, today and forever!   I cling to the blessed hope & promise that I WILL see my mother again someday!  Don't wait til tomorrow to do that nice thing you've wanted to do, or say the loving words you know you should say.  Hug your mama & all those others that you love!  Merry Christmas to you all!

Crockpot Beef Stew to Comfort you in Bleak November!

No sun - no moon!
No morn - no noon -
No dawn - no dusk - no proper time of day.
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member -
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds! -
November!

Thomas Hood

 I love this poem by Mr. Hood!  I laugh every time I read it as I picture him sitting with his coffee on a bleak November morning, contemplating the long winter ahead and the joys of summer all behind.  Sounds like a bit of a pity-party going on there!

Joy is a choice, for sure.  We can look on the bleak & dark side and let it suck us in or we can make the choice for JOY!   Each and every day is a gift and November is no exception! 

This is my cookstove.  We've had exactly ONE fire so far, only to find that the chimney should have been cleaned and so we put it out (the fire, not the chimney).  Above pictured are the ashes just under the cooktop.  That's just one spot to clean.  Hubby used his muscles to scrooch all 500 or so pounds of cast iron, steel & nickel forward so we could pull the black stack chimney pipes out & scrape them as well.

Now it's all cleaned up and ready for the winter burning season!  Yep, all smooth & easy sailing now....just cut kindling, haul in some firewood, rustle up some paper....more firewood....fill the woodbox....Well, you get the picture!

 What do you do when life gives you November?  Well, make a nice big crockpot of beef stew, of course!

A very good friend with an exceptionally green thumb gave us veggies from his late Fall garden - great stuff like parsnips & leeks and I added fresh carrots from the Farmer's Market, some spuds, rutabaga, onions & garlic.  Beef from our freezer...Oh I DO love those two troublesome steers much better in little frozen packages!

 How to make Stew:

Toss cubes of beef in flour seasoned with garlic, salt & pepper.  Brown in shortening of choice in a skillet.  Toss into your crockpot.  Add a cup or two of water to your skillet to loosen browned bits (cleans the skillet nicely, too!) and pour over beef.
Now chop up veggies of choice!  I routinely use potatoes, carrots, rutabaga, onion, garlic and this time I threw in some parsnips and leek because I had them.  Cabbage is nice, too.

 Now you can pour beef broth (aren't you glad you've got it in the cellar from canning season?  Oh, you don't???  Well, you should have thought of that earlier, but you can get away with using store-bought beef broth or just water and beef bouillion.)  Season with salt, pepper, bay leaves, what-have-you.

Slap the lid on that puppy, turn it on low and go to work for the day.  If you're impatient, you can turn it on high and eat earlier.

 Whip out a batch of fresh bread rolls and (drum roll inserted here) TA DA!  November is no longer bleak, but cozy and warm!

Throw another log on the fire and we're good.

 Here's the view from my front porch.  This is what a nice day in November looks like.  It's even more interesting on a nasty day in November. 

The hills are beautiful year 'round, but I love them best when it snows.

I'm so thankful for this farm I live on and the family that God has given me.  I am blessed.

 Fasten your seatbelts - like it or not, Thanksgiving Day is a mere 2 1/2 weeks ahead and Christmas Day is only 6 1/2 weeks down the calendar!

Get your Christmas gift shopping done early and beat the crowds!  Plan a party!  Dig out the puzzles (I'll take the big easy pieces one......) Where are those games?  Start on the holiday goodies and EAT YOUR WAY THROUGH THE HOLIDAYS!  Listen to Christmas music, write a holiday letter, CALL YOUR MOM.....OFTEN!  Take a 'hostess' gift to any gathering you attend!  Leave little gifts for the postman, favorite bank tellers, your dentist!  (Ok, maybe NOT the dentist.)

 I've been working on Olde World Father Christmas/Santa Claus dolls and have a few in my Ebay shop and will have some in my Etsy store, too, by Monday.

Crows were requested, so I've made a trio of them so far.  This pesky fellow is getting the most attention.

 These guys are fun for me to make.  Each one is similar, but unique.  This fellow's clothing is homespun fabric and he's holding a fat red bird.

 This one is also homespun but has a burlap sack of goodies and a very bushy wool beard.  Some of them are dressed in woolen clothing.  All depends on my whim at the moment.

It's very satisfying to start with a couple bolts of fabric, a little paint, some wire and other misc. stuff and create SOMETHING!  I expect that God was quite pleased when he started with nothing and put together Adam & Eve!

 My attention span is short and my sewing room is a disaster as I flit from one project to another, then back again!  In between Santas I made myself this wool Crow pinkeep/pincushion.  He is LARGE.  The spool is an industrial size and all together it is about 8 inches tall.

I used to draw when I was younger.  This is an original 'selfie'!  Last time I was in town I bought a sketch pad & drawing pencils and I'm going to see if I can still do a bit of drawing.  In my spare time........

The last couple of weeks have flown by with some joyous times with some wonderful friends and sweet children visitors.  We laughed and played.

Other days I've struggled to focus on the JOYS of life.  Grief is a hard path to trod.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18King James Version (KJV)

¹³ But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
¹⁴ For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
¹⁵ For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
¹⁶ For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
¹⁷ Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
¹⁸ Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

And then I am comforted.   

My coffee is cold now so I shall get up, refill and begin another day (it's now about 7am).  I've got Christmas gifts to work on and time is going fast!  Be comforted!  Be blessed!  Call your mom.