Lady on the Ranch

A New Love

2012-02-14T14:45:00.000-07:00

Just in time for Valentine's Day! A mama and her love for her new twins.

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

Mary's first lamb! She was quite curious about this dirty little creature. Soon its fleece will be white as snow once its mama gets ahold of it.

Another Month Gone Away

2012-02-05T09:39:00.001-07:00

January was a whirlwind of a month in our hose. We started the month off all fine and dandy with Mary's 1st birthday. She got a ladybug birthday cake and some family to help her celebrate the big day.

Can you tell she's enjoying it? We can't let any icing escape so we lick it off! She can walk and say:

mama

dada

back pack (from her sister)

bottle

yes

echo (from her sister)

bye-bye

hello

The day after Mary's birthday we celebrated hubby's 28th birthday, but later that week is when it started going down hill. We went to church Sunday night and I was feeling just fine, but the next day I started having problems with my gall bladder again and couldn't keep anything down, not even water. So after two days of nothing to eat or drink we headed to the doctor's office and the doc said it was time to go in for surgery and get my gall bladder removed once and for all. Yay....not. Amazingly enough, the idea of surgery wasn't scary for me, but the possibility that my gall bladder wasn't the problem and that even after the surgery it wouldn't be fixed is what scared me the most. Conviently enough I hadn't had food or drink for the required 6 hours before, so they whisked me to the surgery center next door, explained a few things, knocked me out, and I woke up all better!

It was amazing how much better I felt after getting that yucky thing out. I had a few days of nausea and a lot of sleeping, but recovered pretty quick and I now have 3 little dashes across my abdomen as proof that its gone. Hubby got to play house for a few days on top of his chores and I must say there is nothing better looking than seeing your husband do the dishes, take out the trash and take care of the kiddos when you're sick. The poor guy was exhaused after the week was through. The doc said he was almost a 100% positive that I would have had another problem with my gall bladder acting up had we decide to have another baby, so for me this was a no brainer to just get it out and be done.

On a more positive note, we have been enjoying some of the most beautiful weather that I've ever seen for January and February. We've even had some days reach 50*. Amazing!! We've had very little snow and warm sunny days around here. By warm I mean 30's an 40's. I'm knocking on the fake wood of my computer desk as I type, but I'm sure we're in for some pretty cold and snowy weather here soon. We'll be starting lambing here soon so I'm hoping the weather holds out a little longer for the new babies and I'll post pictures when they get here.

Have a great week everyone!

The Coming New Year

2011-12-28T11:22:00.003-07:00

The tree is down, the stockings put away, and the lights all taken down from outside. It's the end of another year and soon we'll be welcoming 2012. Is it just me, or does it seem like the 90's were only 10 years ago? Someday my grandchildren are going to think I'm old because I was born in the 1980's just like 1930 and 1940 are old to me. Amazing isn't it?

I'm looking forward to another year because my baby will be turning 1 in a few short weeks, February will bring a new bunch of lambs, March through May will bring many new calves, Spring will bring green pastures again, the Summer will bring our other little girl's 4th birthday and the haying season, and then we'll be back to Thanksgiving and Christmas again before we know it.

I haven't made any resolutions. I've decided I'm going to just take it one day at a time and enjoy the year as it comes at me and make some changes here and there along the way. What are some of your New Year Resolutions?

May you have a blessed and Happy New Year to come!

Merry Christmas To All

2011-12-25T08:56:00.000-07:00

Merry Christmas!

Holiday Preperations

2011-12-13T13:22:00.000-07:00

The tree is lit, the presents are neatly wrapped below, the stockings are accumulating more and more goodies, and the Christmas lights are glowing way out here in the midddle of no where. Chrismas is in the air around our little home.

This year we decided to go with a fake tree since Mary is at the lovely age where EVERYTHING goes into her mouth. I can just imagine her with a mouth full of spruce tree needles and trying to dig those out every five minutes. So instead, we went with this little guy and perched it up on my sewing machine to keep little hands away which has worked out quite nice.

I would like to introduce you to "Hoo" and "Oot." They're new ornaments from my MIL, and they're the hit of the Christmas tree. Hubby especially loves them, though of course he'd never admit it to anyone outside of this house for fear of ruining his manly reputation.

Hazel was begging for me to make some goodies the other day so I decided I'd make some Sour Cream Cookies. Adam is in love with these and I wanted to take a shot at using cookie cutters for the first time so I thought, why not? Well, as you can tell from the picture above it wasn't a success the first time around. I rolled out the dough a little thicker than usual because we like these soft and fluffy rather than crispy but they puffed up a little too much. The second go round was better (below).

They sort of look like snowflakes and a snowman right? Maybe if you squint a little?

Yesterday and today we've woken up to some thick fog and lots of frost build up. Its so pretty when it does this, but on the other hand the power lines are covered in frost and the power is out for the time being so we're running on generators.

One day while we were out and about being tourists for the day, we stopped at the local Scadinavian store (there's a lot Norwegians up here in the north, me being counted among them) and I came upon some board books. I just love board books because they stand up to little hands and roughness better than regular books. Anywho, I found a couple classics from Jan Brett, who I just love, and this new book called, Who is Coming to Our House. Its a story about a mouse who tells all the animals in the barn that they will have some visitors to their home very soon. The animals clean the barn and get ready for their company. Who comes you ask? Well, Mary and Joseph and of course the birth of baby Jesus. I just loved how simple the message of the book was and it has quickly become one of my new favorites for the kiddos.

On a final note, look at my splash of color. After seeing how well my mother-in-law's Christmas cactus has done, I decided that this year I would give it a shot and see what would come. I don't know when she'll bloom but I'll try to keep her alive until then and share with you.

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and blessed New Year!

First Snow of the Season

2011-11-20T10:48:00.001-07:00

The first snow of the season means...

Bundling up for the chilly weather outside

Making snow angels

Clearing all the snow off the slide

Daddy getting out the calf sled and taking us for a quick ride

Fall Cleaning

2011-11-07T09:10:00.001-07:00

Unfortunately its that time of year again to deep clean the house and ready it for the long winter months ahead. I've tried those plans where you clean so much each week so you'll never have to do spring/fall cleaning again, and I've come to realize they just don't work for me. I'll stick to my twice a year feel good. Gram decided that she wanted the girls on Saturday so I decided to spend the morning getting stuff cleaned so that I could enjoy a guilt free afternoon of doing absolutely nothing in my quiet house. Thank you Gram!

In the afternoon I decided to catch up on some reading and magazines that have been sitting for a while. I pulled out one of my favorite books, Country Living Simple Country Wisdom: 501 Old Fashioned Ideas to Simplify Your Life. It's one of those simple reads full of tips for your home, and I while I was skimming through for cleaning tips I came upon an Order of Clean List. Who would have thought to make this thing? Martha Stewart probably. As I was reading I wondered why I had never done things in order like this before so I thought I would share this with you if you do a fall cleaning.

The Order of Clean

from Country Living Simple Country Wisdom: 501 Old Fashioned Ideas to Simplify Your Life

1. Remove anything that doesn't belong in the room

2. Put away objects that belong in the room but are out of place. Hang up clothes, return books to shelves, put away toys and crafts.

3. Gather up rugs, slipcovers, throws, table clothes, and anything else in the room that needs washing. Get a load of laundry going.

4. Start at the top. Dust overhead lighting fixture, ceiling fans, coffers and open beams, drapery rods and cornices.

5. Unless they are too heavy to handle, take art work, mirrors, pictures, and other ornaments off the walls. Put them in the center of the room .

6. Dust the window frames, door frames, and doors.

7. Dust the wall from the top to bottom. Hint: I've heard that you can use a Swiffer dry mop (like what you use on wood floors) with a dust cloth and wipe down the walls super fast.

8. By this time, your load of wash should be done. Transfer it to the dryer.

9. Return mirrors and pictures to the wall, dusting each one as you hang them up.

10. Dust the furniture, lamps, counter tops, and electronics in the room.

11. Pick one thing to do in the room that isn't absolutely necessary, such as straightening

drawers, washing the windows, or sorting through an old stack of magazines.

12. Dust the base boards

13. Vacuum upholstered furniture.

14. Vacuum the floor.

15. Open a widow to air out the room

16. Finish the room's laundry and return anything that's dry to the room.

17. Close the window and leave the door open.

Its a lot of work to do all this but it just makes the house feel so nice and refreshed. Happy Cleaning everyone!

Ranger Bin

2011-10-24T19:45:00.004-06:00

We're into re-purposing old things around here on our ranch even if its a piece of tin, fence post, barn wood, or even an old cake bin like the one above. If it can be used for another purpose, then why not? This past weekend the guys of the family got together and fancied up (I say that very loosely) this old cake bin so that the hubs can use it as a garage for his Ranger that he drives everywhere. They put in a roller door and a small window on the side.

It will also serve as a little bit of extra storage for me to put my outdoor stuff such as hoses, pots, soil and lawn mower in for the winter. I know she's not very pretty right now, but next spring I think we'll get it painted, maybe a light sage color, and I even might sneak some little shutters and a flower box around the window just to spruce it up to a ladies standards. If the hubs had his way he would just leave it as is, but lucky me, I have a husband who doesn't really care too much what his wife does to make things look nice.

Other than that, we're weaning some more calves, hubs and his parents are working the sheep today to trim around some of their eyes so they won't be wool blind. When a sheep is wool blind it means their wool grows so thick that it covers their eyes and they literally can't see where they are going with all that fluff and ice build-up around their eyes, so we trim it away. We decorated pumpkins and roasted the seeds last night and we tried again to tell Hazel what happens on Halloween. All she can remember is that she gets to dress up like a cowgirl, not very original I know, but that's what she loves at the moment, and she gets to go ask for treats. Oh to be a kid again!

I hope you all have a Happy Halloween!

Simple Sunday

2011-10-16T08:20:00.001-06:00

Happy Fall everyone! Our internet has been on the fritz

and has barely been running for about a month now. Sorry the pictures are so tiny, thats the only way I could get them up on here. Hopefully we get this internet this fixed soon!

I had quite a harvest this fall, freezing some sweet corn, sour cherries for homemade cherry pie, and next I'll be getting the carrots pulled up to blanch and then freeze for stews and such this winter.

Here is a recipe you should try. Its called Sopapilla Cheesecake and its so YUMMY. I cut the recipe in half and its perfect for the two of us and some sweet tooth kiddos.

Here are my niece, Cupcake's, new shoes. They were super cute, but the strap was still a little off. I've learned not to do a shoe with a strap like this because they have to be in just the right spot to get their little feet in and stay on.

Here is one of the first of many loads of hay that are headed down to drought stricken Texas. Hubs has been working super hard to make connections work with ranchers and truckers to get some hay down to those in need.

Have a great week everyone!

Never Forget

2011-09-11T07:12:00.003-06:00

from Life Magazine

Never forget those fathers, mothers, children, brothers, sisters, friends and family that lost their lives that day. Don't forget to thank our soldiers for fighting for the freedoms that we Americans take for granted everyday.

God Bless America!

Catching Up

2011-08-03T14:49:00.000-06:00

Little hands learning about all the little creatures of the summer. This little guy, along with quite a few of his buddies, have taken up residence in our yard lately. Hazel is not one to shy away from touching something, so she went ahead and gave him and little back rub. And to prove that it was okay and that I wasn't totally creeped out by the guy, when in all actuality I truly was, I went ahead and gave him a little pat on the back too. What us mama's do for our babies.

The garden in finally in full swing and looking great. Now we're just picking at it a little bit at a time and waiting for it to really start producing.

In the front of our house, I have a flower bed that runs the majority of the length of the house, and each year I plant wild flowers in it and just let them take off. Right now the poppies are taking over. There's orange, red, pink and there are a few bachelor buttons, baby's breath, toad flax coming in and soon the cosmos will be blooming away too.

Don't these look yummy? Adam's grandpa sent out some of his raspberry plants last spring and they're finally producing this year. I've been getting about a handful every three days or so. I'm trying to save some so I can make a small batch of jam at the end of the season, but they're so yummy they don't always make it into the house.

I have been on a sewing spree lately. I have a list a mile long of the things I would like to make. Now getting through all of them is another story. I've come to realize that if the finished products weren't so cute, I would just give up sewing all together. I'd rather be embroidering. These are a set of potholders that I made for hubby's cousin who got married a couple weeks ago. All I did was use a Charm pack to make the fronts. I'm now convinced those are one of the best things to have on hand to whip up something quick.

Next on my sewing list were some pretty cute doorstops that you can find here. I will give you a heads up though, these directions were really hard to read since the file is a little blurry, so I would recommend getting some blurry glasses that help you read them, or have a little bit of a background in sewing so that you have some idea of whats happening in the parts of the directions that you can make out. Over all, it was a pretty simple project for the beginner sewer and they look a lot better than the weed killer bottle or the gallon of paint that have been holding my mudroom and laundry room doors open.

After those were done, I decided to start on some goodies for Mary and my youngest niece, Cupcake. I found this cute pattern for Mary Jane's the other day and I just couldn't resist. Now just so you know these are the test run and didn't turn out so hot, as you can probably tell. This is my first time trying to make baby shoes and I will tell ya, they are a pain. I put the straps in two different places because I wanted to see what was going to be most comfortable on little Cupcake's feet. Once I know which strap works better, and if they're the right size, I'll get to work on some super cute ones and show those off to you. Next on my list for fun little shoes are these for this winter.

And finally, I wanted to show off my new pretty. I just love the old blue Ball canning jars. I picked this one and a couple other fun looking ones up at the local antique store for a pretty reasonable price. They make great vases, but I've also seen them used to hold powdered sugar, brown sugar, and even powdered laundry soap. Also, I was AMAZED by how much some of these old jars can cost. There were a couple of them for $100 and even one for $200! The lady said it all depended on how old they were and that the amount of bubbles in the glass made them worth more. Who knew? I just know I'm not that hard core of a collector to spend that much on one jar.

"Live in each season as it passes."

-Henry David Thoreau-

Rain, Hail, and Funnel Clouds...Oh my!

2011-07-03T08:16:00.000-06:00

It all started on a dark dark night, a long time ago...well actually is was a pretty decent night, Thursday night to be exact, when a nasty storm blew in from the west. We didn't think it was going to do much to us besides rain a little since it seemed to be heading south away from us. At the last minute it decided to switch directions a little bit and drop some marble sized hail, heavy rain, and strong winds on us. My garden is in real bad shape and some of our hay fields are pretty much ruined from the hail and winds. We got about in inch and a half of rain that caused the creek bed next to my in-laws house to flood over the road and into their yard. My father-in-law said he's only seen that happen one other time in his life. We've been seeing a lot of unsual weather out here on the ranch this year.

View from the front porch

Whats left of some of our hay fields. All the hay and grass is laying flat and the the alfalfa is mostly broken stems with the leaves torn off.

Then on Friday this guy decided to show up to the east of the houses. It never did anything but its presence what enough for me to pack up the girls and head over to the in-laws basement for a while.

Summer Times

2011-06-29T09:48:00.000-06:00

The days are getting longer, warmer, and more busy for us out here on the ranch. We started haying a couple of days ago and that will carry on for quite some time. Hubs has been swathing (pictures below) so we decided to take lunch out to him and have a family picnic, or "tiknik" if you ask Hazel.

I made some sandwiches, packed some carrots, chips and drinks and headed out to our big hayfield. I made this purse earlier this year but I'm not sure I showed it to you all. I wasn't as crazy about the color scheme once I had made it as I had been when it was in my head, so I haven't used it as a real purse. For now its serving as a carrier bag.

Here's hubby swathing. Think of a giant lawnmower that piles the hay in a nice row, called a wind row, after he's cut it.

These are some of the windrows out in the hayfield. This is just a tiny, itsy-bitsy bit of our big hayfield.

This is my favorite wild flower that bloom out here on the Montana prairie. It doesn't actually grow out in the pasture, but along the roads in the sandy soil. Its called Scarlet Globemallow and the Plains Indians would chew the mucilage and gums in the stems, and they used the herb as a medicine.

Here is a closer look at the flowers. I just love orange flowers!

We've been crafting here at our house to get ready for the 4th of July that's coming up next week. All of these are from Martha Stewart's website. We made a few changes that made them a little more practical for us. The rockets are actually supposed to be party favors. The hanging decorations are actually supposed to be used as fans. The blue "dot", is actually supposed to be a drink parasol, but we just cut out the cute circles and taped them to the wall. Take that Martha!

Its time to start making baby food again! Mary is going to turn 6 months in a couple of weeks so its time for me to get in gear and get to making her some food. These are sweet potatoes, not my favorite, but Hazel sure loves them and I'm hoping Mary will as well. First I baked the potatoes in the oven, them scooped them out of the peel, chop them up and put in blender with a little bit of butter for taste and a little water. Blend away! Add enough water to make the potatoes the consistency you need for your little one. Next on my list is carrots and when we get some peas from the garden I'll do those next.

Look at Hazel and Mary's new playground! The guys of the family rallied together and got this thing built in about four hours. Now she lives on it! It's a good thing because it keeps her entertained while I work around in the garden.

Have a good week!

Musical Blessing

2011-06-15T12:01:00.000-06:00

You must listen to this girl! She's a 10 year old opera singer with an amazing voice. In this video she sings "When You Wish Upon a Star" from Pinocchio. The video below that is "All I Ask of You" from The Phantom of the Opera, which is one of my favorite musicals. Enjoy!

2011-06-13T11:05:00.001-06:00

Have you ever heard of the website Pinterest? I came across it as a I was reading a gal's blog and was amazed by some of the stuff on there. Its a place where you can keep track of all sorts of things that interest you such as fashion, decor, baking, outdoor spaces, artwork, sayings, crafting and so on. Some things on there are pretty neat and of course, some are just weird. I just wanted to share with you some of the fun things I've found on there. I'm also including some pictures from a couple other sites I frequent. On some of these pictures I will only be crediting Pinterest because I was just a beginner to the site and didn't realize that they had links that went with each pictures. Sorry!

What a neat idea? Here is the tutorial to go with it.

Here's another take on the tree cake pedestal. I thought this would be a fun woodland theme for a child's party.

These are some of the best cookies I've ever had!! I've been wanting to find a new recipe that I could share with you all, but they've all been a little blah. This one is a great summer cookie with a light lemon flavor. I did make a substitution because the recipe called to use real lemon juice and lemon zest, which I didn't have, so I just used about 1/4-1/2 tsp. of lemon extract and they tasted great. Enjoy!

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

½ cups butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

½ teaspoons vanilla extract

1 whole egg

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice

¼ teaspoons salt

¼ teaspoons baking powder

⅛ teaspoons baking soda

1-½ cup all-purpose flour

½ cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease light colored baking sheets with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest, and juice. Scrape sides and mix again. Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte {not melty or shiny}. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

*If using a non-stick darker baking tray, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes.

How cute is this little baby sack. You have to buy this one from the website, but it would sure be fun to try to make.

I can't tell you how much I love hexagon quilts, but after making a small baby blanket size one, I'm not sure I would want to embark on making a nice queen size one for our bed. This is a picture I got off of Pinterest but didn't get the link.

Here is a fun idea for a growth chart for the kiddos. I went to my sister-in-law's- baby shower a couple months back and she received an hanging growth chart as a gift. The lady who gave it to her said that she had marked all her kids growth on a wall in their home and now she couldn't paint that wall. This chart is decorated with embroidery and stamps so the possibilities are endless!

Photo from Pinterest

This would be a fun poster to hang in a little boys room.

Photo from House of Turquoise

What a fancy mudroom! All the white would never be practical for this ranch family. It'd all be brown in a day or two, but its so pretty to look at.

Photo from House of Turquoise

What gorgeous carved beds!

Photo from Oh Dee Oh

A Leggo wall for a little boys room. Does this mean the Leggos would stay off the floor? Oh Dee Oh is a fun website with all sorts of decorating, crafts, and cooking ideas for children.

Photo from Oh Dee Oh

This is a good idea for a caddy for little kids things, but I thought it was a better idea for a rustic looking cupcake holder.

Photo from Oh Dee Oh

Neat pencil holder. Not that the pencils would ever stay in it at our house.

Photo from Pinterest

What a good idea for storage under the stairs. It would be a nice place to hide all your books.

Photo from Pinterest

Another clever pantry idea.

Photo from House of Turquoise

This is my dream bathroom. I love the tub, love the color of the wood, love the wall color, I just love everything about it! I never knew there was such a thing as a wooden tub until I saw it in this post. Too bad it costs $8,200 for a single, $9,600 for a double. Sigh...I guess I can always dream.

Have a good week everyone!

Garden Happenings

2011-06-07T14:02:00.001-06:00

Most of this week has been spent outside getting the garden and yard ready for the summer. We got a late start this year because a couple weeks ago we got over 7 inches of rain in one week, and for the month of May we've had almost 9 inches of moisture, only a couple inches under the amount of moisture that we're supposed to get in a whole year! Plants , seeds and flowers are finally in the ground and really to grow.

The hubs moved one of my raised beds so it can get a little more sunshine and built me another one to match so now I have everything planted in raised beds. Its going to be so nice not having a large garden to pick weeds out of all year.

Columbine in full bloom. I just love the flowers!

This morning we woke up to find Adam's Ranger in the middle of the back yard. Last night we had a nasty storm blow in around 1:30 a.m. with some very strong winds. I felt like I was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and that we were going to be carried off to some magical world. When your bed is shaking because of the wind outside you know its strong.

Earlier this week I whipped up this quick little fleece sack for Mary since she's had a really bad habit of trying to smother herself by throwing blankets over her face while sleeping. Lucky for us, she would cry every time she would get the blanket stuck on her face. However, there is only so much of this that a mama can take before the situation needed to be fixed. I just folded some fleece in half and sewed up the sides and presto! She's even been sleeping through the night since I made this. I'm not sure if its because she's staying warm in the sack or if she's just at that age, and was ready to sleep a little better, but either way this tired mama will take it!

Isn't this cool? I think I might try to convince the hubs to do this for the small walkway between my raised beds. I'm sorry but I can't remember where I found this picture, but I wanted to share it with you all.

And after all that hard work a girl needs a little bit of chocolate. See all the melted chocolate inside the bag. Its just a tragedy... what a waste of perfectly good chocolate! We went grocery shopping earlier this week and had to take a pick up since I had plants and gardening supplies to pick up. Of course it was about 90* that day and while we tried to make sure that everything that needed to be inside in the cool air was in, somehow these bits of goodness got left in the back of the truck where they proceeded to melt into a giant blob of dark chocolate. Bummer.

Bits of Color

2011-05-18T18:21:00.001-06:00

The Goldfinches have moved in for the time being, making it look like we have a bunch of bright yellow ornaments hanging on the trees

Little Mary hanging out on her daddy. This doesn't happen too often anymore as she's getting older. She'll be 5 months in a couple of weeks. The time is flying fast.

Its been raining like crazy this past week so we've been spending a lot of time indoors and we've been busy painting with watercolors. It makes me feel like a kid in art class again picking up that paintbrush and coloring whatever comes to mind.

Here is a picture of the new flooring through out the house. Lots of warm browns. One of my favorite colors and so much better than blue carpet and white linoleum.

Mary is soon approaching the time to move out of her little bouncer seat and into her Bumbo seat. She has become quite an escape artist and its getting a little dangerous even with the straps. She gets a little time in right now, but she can't stay in it too long yet. These are the best thing to carry them around the house in once they've out grown their bouncers.

A handful of wild sweet peas the hubs picked for me out in the pasture. I love it when he brings home wildflowers.

This has been my coffee table book for the moment since all sorts of birds are coming back or passing through for the warmer temps. Hazel loves looking at all the different birds and naming all of their colors.

Spring Happenings

2011-05-16T20:53:00.001-06:00

Here's a little spring boquet for you

It has been a busy month out here on the ranch. Spring has officially sprung and of course that means the annual spring cleaning, yard work, and home projects. Our house has been torn apart from top to bottom this past month. After much convincing, I got hubby to agree to new linoleum floors in the kitchen and bathrooms. We had some really worn blue carpet in the house and yes, even in the bathrooms, yuck! Well, on top of that he decided that we needed to replace the carpet in the living room and hallway since there wasn't much carpet left for them to stretch back after putting the linoleum down. So we got into the DIY spirit (it always looks so fast and easy on t.v.) and pulled up the old linoleum and carpet to save some extra $$. It wasn't too bad at all actually, but the amount of dirt that came up from under the carpet blew me away! We got almost a whole grocery bag of dust/dirt from under the carpet. I clean the carpet twice a year and it was still that dirty...eeeewwww!

So now that the flooring is down, I of course couldn't let that be the only project to be done. My mom bought Hazel Peach some flower and butterfly wall decals from Target and I decided that they just couldn't go on the sage green colored walls in Hazel's room while her bedding is pink and red. So I broke down, much to my two and half year old's excitement, and decided that I would paint her room pink. We headed to the local Wal-Mart to pick out a pale pale pale pink, but as we were looking at all the color swatches, the man who worked the counter said he had a gallon of pink paint that was a mistint. The downside, it was a cute pink, but it was quite a bit brighter than I had wanted. On the positive side, it was only $3.50 for the gallon! I know, that's crazy! So I just couldn't pass that up. The pink went on the walls and the stickers the next day. I really wish I had recorded the moment that Hazel saw her room. It was priceless and made it worth it.

Now its on to the outdoors. Its still a little too cold at night for plants but I'm getting really excited about picking out flowers. Onions are in the ground but I can't plant too much else because its been so stinking cold here. I also bought some bushes for around the front of the house, and hopefully if our nasty 40 mph winds die down later this week I can get those planted as well.

I've been able to catch a few photos of some of the critters out around the house

This is Snickers, the newest addition to our family. She's a collie/mini-australian shepherd mix and has mixed with the family very well so far. She's a cutie and loves to lick her new little masters, Hazel and Mary, especially the left over milk on Mary : )

A Bluejay came and made a quick visit to bird bath for a small drink. My husband makes fun of me for having this thing, but its for moments like this. His grandpa was kind enough to pass this on to me and it reminds me of the birdbath my nanny had in her backyard when we were little kids.

The bum lambs are still living in the tree patch in the front of the house. Hazel just loves having them for company.

This little one is a Mourning dove who decided to take a walk down our colorful walkway.

Yesterday the twig was brown and bare;

To-day the glint of green is there;

Tomorrow will be leaflets spare;

I know no thing so wondrous fair,

No miracle so strangely rare.

I wonder what will next be there!
~L.H. Bailey

Well, I hope you all are having a happy spring so far and enjoying all the green and flowers coming up.

Caking Day

2011-04-03T20:07:00.000-06:00

This morning the hubs came and picked us up to do a little bit of caking. No we don't feed our animals cake for breakfast. Alfalfa cake is a pellet that is made up of compressed alfalfa hay.

The ewes (girl sheep) and their lambs are living in the pasture right in front of our house for the time being. When they saw the hubs pull the caker truck up in the driveway they decided to patiently wait at the car gate for us to come and feed them.

It took a little bit of engine revving to get these girls and babies out of the way so that we could drive through and get them fed.

From there we went on to the cows that will start calving in a couple weeks. These ladies are some big mama's-to-be and they want their yummy treat.

The hubs and Hazel Peach coming back in from letting the chute down on the cake feeder. You can see the cows giving their "hurry up" look while they wait for the hubs to get back inside the truck. Sorry for the splotchy windows, its been real muddy out here lately.

And lastly here are the herd bulls, our big boys. They're so pretty! I'm sure they wouldn't be so happy if they knew I was calling them pretty since they're such manly looking bulls. I think its so funny that the guy on the right can pick his nose with his tongue.

Well its a blustery day with a little bit of sleet out here on the Montana prairie with chances for more snow/rain in the next couple of days. Its been a nice day to relax and spend inside with the family. I hope you all have a good week!

Bread Dance

2011-03-19T16:59:00.001-06:00

I did a little bit of a bread dance this morning because my dough turned out the best it ever has since I've been making bread and other goods. It starts with a BIG smile, followed by some clapping, and lastly, jumping up and down in the kitchen while your children and husband look at you like you've gone crazy. Just look how smooth my dough turned out. I'm so proud!

Along with some cinnamon rolls that have been coated with a green icing left over from St. Patty's Day, I made these rolls as well. I've made rolls before but they've always been lumpy and never quite round like they should be, but at least they always tasted good. These are so pretty. Practice is definitely helping out.

For Christmas hubby bought me my big mixer that I'd been eyeing for a couple of years but just couldn't justify spending the money on when I had my hands and a handheld mixer right at my fingertips. However, now that I have it, I love to use it, especially when making bread because it kneads the bread just right and I could never figure out how to properly do it by hand.

This powerhouse is the Bosh Universal Plus mixer and I picked it over the popular Kitchen Aid mixers for a couple of reasons. Number one being that my MIL has one that she has had for many, many years that has been used to make too many to count loaves of bread, cookies, and other things for a family of seven and its still running strong. The second reason I picked this was because of how easy it is to add ingredients on top unlike the Kitchen Aid mixers which have the head hanging over the bowl. After watching the Food Network for years now, I've seen all of their cooks have a fun time trying to add ingredients, like flour, into the mixer very carefully. With this mixer it has a splash guard on top (clear ring) that you can use if you want to or not, but either way you still have easy access to dump or pour things in.

You can get this mixer with a blender, nutrimill, food processor and other attachments. You can see on the right side of the mixer where all the attachments fit in. There's even a series of videos on Youtube demonstrating that this mixer has the capacity and power to hold enough dough to make 9 loaves of bread. That's a lot of dough!

Spring Is Coming

2011-03-17T10:39:00.001-06:00

We've been enjoying some beautiful days in the 50's this week and look who I spotted basking in the warm sun.

I first heard this Meadowlark as I was cleaning the house. It was such nice day I had the windows open and he started singing to me! I was so surprised I jumped up, grabbed the camera and started looking for where the chirping was coming from.

Here is the Robbin that I spotted from the living room window. It was another grab the camera real fast moment. I know you think I'm silly, but the return of these birds means that spring is on its way to the northern prairies. Plus, its so nice to hear their melodies after all the cold and dark days of winter.

Simple Sunday

2011-03-13T06:15:00.044-06:00

The first calf of the season was born Friday night. We have many more to come.

I read about this new Breathable Baby Bumper in the latest Parenting Magazine so I decided I'd give it a try.

A couple of onsies I made for "Cupcake," my sister-in-laws baby that is due on Easter.

The love of an older sister for her new baby sister.

Making time to go build a snowman and snow angel with Hazel Peach before all the snow melted in this heat wave we're having.

Its been too cold, too snowy, and now to wet and muddy to ride outside so we broke down and rode through the house.

Have a good week ahead everyone!

Woodworking

2011-03-09T11:32:00.001-07:00

Adam has been trying to convince me to get a bench put in our mudroom for a while and I have been resisting because his idea of a nice bench and mine aren't the same. He wanted to build one out of a old bench seat that came out of his old suburban and I just wasn't going to have that in my house. He can be so crazy sometimes.

I'd had this woodworking website saved for just a time like this. I had been looking for a way to build some simple picture frames when I came across Knock Off Wood, now known as Ana-White.com. She has plans for all sorts of furniture for your home. I came across her farmhouse table and fell in love. I decided to use plans she had for the bench that goes with the table and here is what the hubs made for the mudroom after a little nudging from me.

However, on Anna's site she lists a disclaimer that she hasn't built all the plans that are on her website so they might not all be accurate. She asks that if you notice any discrepancies with her plans that you list them in the comment section for that plan so that others can make the changes as well. I encourage you to read through all the comments just to make sure everything went well for the people who have already built the project. On this bench there were a few changes made by Don, who commented on a couple material and cut mistakes he found in the plans.

I left a comment for the changes we made to our own bench.

The Latest Happenings

2011-03-09T10:56:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone! Its been quite a while since my last post. I've found that you stay quite a bit busier when you have two little ones and a house to take care of. I've had stuff to post about but just haven't had the time to really sit down to write. When you have free time you tend to use it wisely because it doesn't happen too often.

Out here on the ranch it's lambing season which has been keeping hubs and the neighbors (in-laws) quite busy for the past couple of weeks. As of this morning, the last ewe is lambing and then we'll be done. Its been a pretty good lambing season with lots of new babies, but we have 8 bums that will need multiple bottle feedings each day for quite some time. Most bum lambs come from a ewe that has had triplets and she can't support all of them. Others come from mothers who are sick or have died. Bum lambs are SO cute, but they take a lot of work to take care of.

In about a week we'll be heading into calving season. We start off with the heifers that are first time moms, which keeps everyone very busy. It makes for a lot of watching and even some pulling of calves for hubs and father-in-law. I love this time of year, full of new babies and life. Its just another step in the cycle of life, and it means that Spring will soon be knocking on our doors.

On the home front I'm happy to say that we're finally settling into somewhat of a routine. Mary will be 2 months in a couple of days and she has been growing like a weed! We lovingly call her "Mary Dairy" because she just can't get enough of mama's milk and its starting to show in all the fat rolls on her thighs, neck and chubby cheeks. So cute! You just can't help kissing those chubby cheeks and neck. Earlier last week we moved her out of the bassinet and into her crib because she was just getting too big for it and wasn't sleeping comfortably in it. It's been the best sleep ~~she's~~ we've had in two weeks.

I'll try to get some pictures of all the new lambs and post them on here soon. I haven't really had the chance to get out much with the cold weather and these colds that we've been passing back and forth between everyone in the house.

I hope the rest of your week goes well and stay healthy!

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T19:43:00.001-07:00

Today is the day of love and boy do I have a few things for you that I just LOVE! The first one is a new recipe for you to try out. How do Red Velvet cupcakes sound? Yahoo recently posted an article on the 8 essential ingredients that should be in every red velvet recipe. Here they are:

1. The cake must have some cocoa, but not too much because it is not a chocolate cake.

2. The cake must have red food coloring; beet juice does not add the right kind of red.

3. The cake must have cream cheese frosting.

4. There should be pecans. (This was news to me.)

5. You must use high-quality ingredients, including White Lily flour, a Southern specialty flour.

6. Precise measurements and meticulous attention to detail are key for this cake; therefore, it must be made in small, easy-to handle, family-sized batches. (Mass-produced batter just doesn't cut it. Sorry, large-scale bakeries.)
7. You must use a hand-held electric mixer, not a stand mixer: Larger machines can over-mix the batter, which sometimes prevents the cake from rising properly.

8. Red velvet cake batter needs vegetable oil, not butter or shortening. Oil yields a very moist cake.

Now, we have our own family recipe from my great grandma, but it includes a lot of the ingredients that you're not supposed to have in your recipe so I decided to give this one a try. Here it is.

Paula Deen’s Red Velvet Cupcakes from Food Network

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cocoa powder

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 tablespoons red food coloring
1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 (12-cup) muffin pans with cupcake papers. In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. In a large bowl gently beat together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla with a handheld electric mixer. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet and mix until smooth and thoroughly combined. Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake tins about 2/3 filled. Bake in oven for about 20 to 22 minutes, turning the pans once, half way through. Test the cupcakes with a toothpick for doneness. Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

1 pound cream cheese, softened
2 sticks butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

Chopped pecans and fresh raspberries or strawberries, for garnish

In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla together until smooth. Add the sugar and on low speed, beat until incorporated. Increase the speed to high and mix until very light and fluffy. Garnish with chopped pecans, fresh raspberry or strawberry, or sprinkles.

And finally here is my second favorite thing besides baked goodies. Fresh sheets off the line! We've been having some mild weather in the 50's so I decided to get some clothes on the line today and I'll be enjoying the smell of fresh air and sunshine when I crawl into bed tonight.

Simple Sewing Project

2011-02-05T15:44:00.000-07:00

Here is a simple sewing project for the beginner or the experienced sewer. I love those grocery bag holders that you hang up and pull out one bag at a time when you need it, instead of the giant mess of bags stuffed under the kitchen sink or where ever they managed to get stashed.

In my very little spare time, I decided to make two of these bag holders, one for the kitchen and one for the nursery to hold bags for the diaper pail. I followed a tutorial that I found here. In between nursings and burpings I manged to get these done fairly quickly. I just used a couple of fat quarters, 18x22 inch piece of fabric, to make these. I just trimmed the bottom piece to the length that I wanted for the bag. Happy sewing!

Road to Recovery

2011-01-24T13:52:00.000-07:00

Its been two weeks since we welcomed little Mary to the family, and I'm now finally starting to recover and feel good. I was having bad pains in my right side, chest and back right after coming from the hospital. I was nauseous and was having a hard time eating and keeping things down.

At first I just thought that it was the after effects of the labor, even though I had never felt this bad after Hazel, but after a week of pain that wasn't going away with pain meds and not having eaten anything but yogurt and a little chicken dumpling soup we broke down and headed to the Emergency room. After some chest x-rays the doc decided that I had pneumonia and that it was causing the pain in my upper body. He put me on some antibiotics, but the pain still wasn't getting any better and I was so hungry that it was making my nausea even worse.

So this past week we headed back to the doctors to get some more tests done. I had a CT scan to see if I had some how gotten a blood clot in my lungs and to see if the pneumonia was getting better. Well, the results came back negative for both. No clot, and there wasn't even pneumonia, so I had been taking antibiotics for nothing. The next thing on the doc's list to check was my gallbladder. So we had an ultrasound, but it didn't show that anything was wrong with it physically. The next step was to get a HIDA Scan to see if it is functioning properly. They inject you with some radioactive stuff so that they can take pictures of it for the first hour, and then they inject you with a chemical that makes the gall bladder work so they can take pictures for half an hour to see if its working properly.

As it turns out, mine isn't working right, so now we'll be setting up surgery to have it removed in the next couple of weeks. For right now I'm running on Zantac to help keep it under control, and when its under control I don't feel any pain or nausea. YAY! The doctor who did the HIDA Scan told me that its very common for pregnant or postpartum women to experience these kinds of problems with their gall bladders.

I'm so grateful the doctors were able to figure things out and I won't have to worry about problems in the future. I think the hardest thing about going through all of this was not being able to take care of my family and house the way they needed. I will admit this once and I'm sure you will never hear such horrible words uttered from my mouth again as long as I live, but I really missed being able to cook a meal and clean the house. Now that I'm on the mend for the moment, I've been napping and cleaning the house as much as I can. It just feels good to have a clean home again and a good meal on the table that I can actually eat and enjoy! Its amazing the "chores" we take for granted on a day to day basis.

Introducing Our Bundle of Joy

2011-01-13T09:52:00.000-07:00

We welcomed our second child Monday evening.

Mary came in at 8lbs. 9oz. and 20 inches long.

Mom and baby are doing great and we can't wait to

get to know our new little one as she grows!

Holidays and Nesting

2011-01-06T10:19:00.000-07:00

It was a nice holiday season out here on the ranch with a little bit of the white stuff and heavy fog to make for a beautiful time. For Christmas my mom, sister and two nieces came out and stayed over night with us...the poor hubs was in a house full of estrogen and screaming and giggling little girls. He managed pretty darn good, and even took the girls out for a little bit of "sledding," Adam style. And as a sign of how "old" we're getting around here, for New Years Eve we went over to the neighbors and were home and in bed by 10:00 and we hadn't even opened our bottle of sparkling grape juice to ring in the New Year early. We're so sad.

Hubs tied up a calf sled, which is what we use to haul in calves born out in the pasture, to the back of his Ranger and pull the girls around until they were rosy in the cheeks. They had a blast. My youngest niece, 4, wasn't so keen to jump in at first, but when she saw Hazel and her sister laughing and zooming around, she gave in and joined in on all the fun.

Earlier this year the guys cleaned out the tree patch down by the shed where we lamb, and came up with a huge pile of dead tree branches to burn. The weather was finally just right and they lit a bon-fire Christmas night. My oldest niece, whose about to turn 5, didn't want to go down and see it because she didn't want to have to sit in it : ) Silly girl! Can you see the star in the background? My MIL puts it up every year on the lambing shed so we have a little something out here in the middle of nowhere.

I was cruising blogs the other day and I read on a ladies blog that what was the point of having pretty candles if you were going to burn them? Well, why not? Usually my pretty candles don't get burned, but I gave in a lit them and it was definitely worth it!

Now that things have calmed down, I've have been guilty of nesting like crazy. I've been going from one room to the next finding things that should have been cleaned, thrown out, or moved a long time ago. Its really amazing all the things you find wrong around the place when you're stuck in the house due to less than friendly weather. Things are progressing just great with the baby and hopefully we'll meet our little one pretty soon according to the doctor. In the meantime, I'm just trying to keep dishes done and the majority of the house cleaned so we're not coming back home to a mess with a new one. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and the next time I post it'll be to share the big news of if the addition is a boy or a girl!

Merry Christmas

2010-12-24T09:37:00.002-07:00

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

A Mother's Thoughts and Crafts

2010-12-11T11:47:00.001-07:00

The other night we were sitting in the living room when Hazel crawls up on my lap and starts talking to me about whatever she can think of: toys, tractors, grammie and papa, pine cones, and so on. Then she says to me, "So....whadda ya think mama." We talked back and forth for a while, but then it was time to put her down for the night. She now makes sure we have a proper hug and kiss before she goes to bed and runs through the checklist to make sure she has her manekit (blanket), peep-peep (her stuffed yellow chick from her great nanna), turtle (who she think says "ribbit, ribbit), and last of all her sippee in case she gets thirsty in the middle of the night.

After we laid her down for the night I asked the hubs, "Do you think we'll always remember this 2 1/2 year version of our daughter.? How she talks, acts, and even how small she is?" I'm not sure of the answer, but I hope that I always do. She's growing up fast and is changing everyday.

I gave her her first hair cut a couple nights ago. I took an inch and a half of her blond curls off.

I wanted to find some easy crafts for us to do and something that would help me remember just how small she was as the years go by. For Thanksgiving I traced her hands and made little turkeys out of them. For Christmas I found this simple reindeer project. I covered them all with contact paper so that they'll last and I can take them out year after year. Now that we've been tracing her hands and feet she really enjoys it, and even tries to trace her toy animals feet while telling them, "hold still."

Lastly, this project was something I did for the Christmas tree since we still don't have a star or angel to put on top of our Christmas tree. I used this tutorial on Gumbo Lily and I used some vintage paper patterns from my Repro Depot books.

Visitors

2010-12-07T13:46:00.000-07:00

I've had some neat visitors around the house lately...

This handsome fellow is a young White Tail Buck that comes around almost every morning and tries to scavenge whats left of the green grass buried under the snow in the back yard.

This beauty has been hanging around outside our tree patch for the past couple of days. Did you know that young bald eagles don't have the signature white head and tail? They resemble more of an adult Golden Eagle because they are mostly brown and have a black beak instead of the yellow one like an adult Bald Eagle.

We have a large nest in a old Cottonwood Tree further up the road and we can usually spot a pair of eagles perched up high looking over the land. I never knew that eagles lived out on a prairie like ours, I've always imagined them in some place like Alaska. It still amazes me every time I see one of these beautiful birds.

The Sharp-Tail Grouse have been making the tree patch behind our back yard their home and shelter so far this winter. We went outside to play and I found these cute little tracks all over the back yard.

And this lovely arrived in my porch last week. Its a Cath Kidston coffee mug and a pair of knitted dish scrubbies from my MIL. What a fun surprise! I love looking through the Cath Kidston catalog and I always seem to fall for all her pretty coffee mugs. They've finally set up a U.S. website that you can order from, yay!

Here is one of our gorgeous sunsets that a camera can never do justice, no matter how hard I try to take a good picture to share with you all.

Have a great week!

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T06:30:00.001-07:00

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

May your stuffing be tasty

May your turkey plump,

May your potatoes and gravy

Have nary a lump.

May your yams be delicious

And your pies take the prize,

And may your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off your thighs!

~Author Unknown

I couldn't resist this last one ; )

Winter Catch Up

2010-11-22T16:19:00.000-07:00

Up here on the prairie we've been in the teens for temperatures this past week and this morning we woke up to 5-6 inches of snow. On Wednesday we're expecting single digits and a low of -15* that night. Brr! All this weather has left Hazel and I locked up in the house most of the day so we've been trying to come up with things to keeps us busy.

This morning we bundled up and went outside to shovel snow. Sometimes I just need to get out of the house and get some fresh air and I know Hazel agrees. Here is my latest bird sighting, a Hazel bird. She loves to eat the fresh snow and it looks like today's came from the birdbath.

Here is my new nursing cover that I made from the new Amy Butler Love Collection. I used a tutorial found here. Its a super simple tutorial to follow and only takes about 45 minutes to make.

How about tea for two? I was able to get going on Christmas gifts this week. I found this Tea Set PDF pattern on Etsty and got to work. I know it'll be a perfect gift for Hazel this year.

And here is the project that I'm working on now. Its a new diaper bag that's more for mama than baby. I figure I'll be the one carrying it around so why not have a super cute bag? I got the book, "Sew, So Cute" by Mary Engelbreit as a birthday present and found this new bag in here. I had already been looking at a very similar pattern here that you can use instead. I decided that this time around I was going to try a messenger style bag and see if it holds things in a little better than my plain open top bag.

Well, I suppose that I better get back to folding my laundry and figuring out whats for dinner so I can get back to work on the diaper bag. Hope you all have a good week and Thanksgiving.

Baby Things

2010-11-15T14:37:00.004-07:00

This past week we've been moving our house around making room for Hazel to have a room all to herself and for the baby to have a nursery when the time comes for him/her to move out of the bassinet in our room. Its taken a lot of rearranging, squeezing and really deciding what we need to have in the house as opposed to whats there just as decoration. Its coming along nicely and I'm glad that we've started this early because its taking a little more time than we were expecting.

I wanted to share a few things with you about some fun and helpful baby items.

First of all, I would like to share with you a shop that I found on Etsy that makes custom car seat covers. Its called, Your Car Seat Cover, and she specializes in making replacement Graco infant car seat covers. These aren't a generic cover that will fit any car seat or something that's lose and moves around. She has taken a Graco car seat cover, taken it apart, and used it as a pattern to make you a whole new cover that fits like the original.

When we were pregnant with our first baby I found a travel system, which is the car seat, base, and stroller, at a garage sale for $50 and I just couldn't pass it up since they cost more than $100 new. It was definitely a boy set since it was in all navy blue, but I decided we would make due with that even if we did have a girl. We used it just fine, but I decided I would like to find a cover that was a little more gender neutral. I searched around online and all the covers that I could find were $60-$100. No Way! I might as well just go buy a new car seat for that price. So I decided to look up patterns for a generic car seat cover that I could sew myself. There were some, but I wasn't impressed so I looked on Etsy and I found this lady.

You send her the fabric of your choice and she whips them up in a couple of weeks. To have her just make the cover it only cost me $35. To have her make a replacement cover, canopy, and infant head cushion it only costs $45. WOW! She'll even make strap cover set ($7), handle cover($3), or a winter cover ($12) to match. Her sewing abilities are amazing. This cover looks like it'll stand up to quite a few kids and many washings along the way. I can't wait to use it!

Next on the list is cloth diapers. Now don't run from the room screaming. I know they sound a little intimidating, but cloth diapers these days aren't you're grandma's or even your mom's cloth diapers. These are some fancy, quick and convienient new updates. Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought that I would even consider cloth diapers as an option when my kids came along. My MIL suggested them since she had used them on her little ones, but I still wasn't too sure.

I did a little searching around on the internet and was blown away at all the new options out there. It wasn't just pre-fold diapers with pins and covers. You can even find plenty of sewing patterns out there to make your own diapers and covers if you're up to it. The website that really helped me with explaining all the differences between an All-in-One, Fitted, Pre-fold, Pocket diaper and so on was, Diaper Junction. After talking it over with the hubs, we decided that we were going to give it a try and order a set of the pre-fold diapers just to give it a try. We used those on Hazel during the day for the first six months, then we switched over to the disposable diapers for a couple of months. Let me tell you what, it was a real eye opener to all of the sudden be spending $20-$40 a month on diapers.

I wasn't so crazy about the pre-fold diapers due to the bulk, pins, and trying to fold them to the right size on a squiggling baby so I went back to the website and decided that we would give the fitted diapers a try.

Diaper cover and Fitted diaper

Inside the diaper. Super absorbent.

I love them! They're already shaped like a disposable diaper, they have elastic in the legs, and an adjustable Velcro waist band so its just like using a disposable diaper. However, with the fitted diapers you still have to use a cover over them so you're still getting some bulk in the pants. These are also great for you little one to wear all by themselves to help air out a rash or even to just run around in while playing in the yard on hot days so their bottoms can breathe.

I know that these aren't for everyone but I just want to encourage you to take a look at some of the websites out there and think about it. These days we use mainly disposables, but I have a couple of the larger sizes around just in case we run out since we live an hour away from town. They're definitely worth the investment!

Fall Things

2010-10-11T14:26:00.000-06:00

For us northern folk our growing days are coming to an end and its time to start cleaning up the yard and putting things away and time to get ready for the winter ahead. This week I'm focusing on giving the yard its last manicure of the year.

Mow
Weedwack
Mulch the strawberries and raspberries
Pull up the last of the potatoes and carrots
Cut down the iris
Clean the grill
Put away mower
Roll up hoses and put away
Till up the garden beds so they're ready for next year

After that, it's going to be time to start my fall cleaning around the house. With baby coming in January, I think I'm slipping into nesting mode a little early and trying to get things done before I get too big with little one and don't want or can't do much. We've been spending a lot of time reorganizing our house around to make room for Hazel to have her own room so that baby can have the nursery when the time comes. I figure the more we get adjusted to being moved around now, the less stressful it will be when another member is added into the household.

This week we're pulling the plug on the pacifier. I'm a little nervous that we're going to have some long nights and short naps during the day since those are the only times she gets it, but it has to be done. Wish us luck on this long week!

Last of all I just wanted to share a few goodies with all of you. I saw a neat soap pump made from an old Ball canning jar in my Country Living magazine and couldn't wait to give it a try. I ordered the pump here and found some directions on how to put it together here. Here are a few side notes.

1. I didn't cut the top off from a plastic bottle like she did because I ordered a special collar ring on the website where I got the pump (very bottom of page on the site). Also they make you order a minimum of 6 collars.

2. I didn't use epoxy because my collar ring fit in the drilled hole nice and snug.

With a little drilling from hubs and FIL, and some assembly on my part, here is the finished product.

Isn't it cute!!

The next thing I wanted to share with you are some really neat books that I recently ordered.

The book in the center is the new book by Aimee Ray called, Doodle Stitching: The Motif Collection: 400+ Easy Embroidery Designs. She has some fun and funky embroidery in here that I can't wait to give a try. The book comes with a disc that has over 400 embroidery patterns on it for you to print off and some projects for you to try. I love her artwork, its so much more colorful and creative than anything I could come up with!

The two books on the outside are a couple of books by Repro Depot. One is the Folk Collection and the other is the Flora Collection and each book comes with a disc that has over 200 vintage-inspired patterns that you can print off and use for cards, crafts, decoupage, stationery and so on. The possibilities are endless! All you have to do is pop in the disc and print off the pattern you want and use it for whatever you like. I think I'm going to try to decoupage some light switch covers pretty soon. Oh how fun!

Happy Fall Everyone!

I'm Back!

2010-10-05T14:47:00.001-06:00

It's not that I was planning time away from my blog, it just happened, and now that I finally have something to blog about, here I am! We just celebrated our 5th anniversary this past weekend so the hubby and I left Hazel Peach at the grandparents for a couple of days and headed down to the big city to have some fun and take it slow for once. This was our first time leaving Hazel overnight, so I had to be a good mom and not worry too much, and not call to see how things were going. All went well and she was happy to see us when we got home the next night.

This past week we did ultrasounds on the cows and today hubs, FIL and MIL went to gather the heifers and their calves for weaning, which makes for a couple of loud nights of nights. Later this week the guys will be doing some digging and putting in a couple tire tanks, water tanks made out of big tractor tires, around the place. Next it'll be time to do some more work in the feed lots since we'll be getting some steer calves that we'll be keeping in there over the winter and we'll move our bulls in there when the weather starts to get bad until our bull sale in a couple of months.

Things have been pretty slow around here so I haven't had anything to post about, but here are some pictures.

Down in the big city we have an Airforce base that is one of the two bases where the B-1 bombers are kept and they use the open plains around where we live as a training facility. We're full of buzzing year round, and sometimes they'll even sneak up on you and buzz by pretty low and you won't even know they're coming until they've passed over you and given you a good scare. I think its fun and don't mind that they're using our houses and tractors as target practice. I guess we're going what we can to help our military out : ) Every once in a while they'll do some fun drawings in the sky and its fun to see what they come up with. Above is what I call the lasso, and below is what I call the "Big D."

Here's Hazel taking a stroll with her three kitties, Spaghetti-O, Cheerio, and Fluffy. The two O's were named that because each one has a patch of light colored hair in the shape of an "O" on their sides.

I was pulling up some carrots for lunch today and I came upon this one that reminded me of a mama with her baby sitting on her hip. I know, how cheesy, maybe its because I'm preggers that I see it this way, but I thought I would share it with you anyways.

I finally got down to business and got some sewing done. I figured that I better get my fall table runner done before I waited too long and fall was over. Have I ever told you how awesome Charm Packs are? Well, they are! They're fabric from a collection pre-cut into 5 inch squares and they are so handy. They're great for a fake "quilted" look and they're even more fabulous to make toy blocks with. For this table runner I used Moda's Saltbox Harvest collection.

Simple Sundays

2010-09-12T06:30:00.003-06:00

Sometimes its the simple things in life that make it better...

These are a miracle in a box! Hazel loves to color and sometimes she gets a little carried away and goes off the paper, or decides to drag a purple crayon down the hall as she goes to visit daddy on the computer. With these all you need is water and they wipe right off! Not kidding! We even had a piece of orange get under our recliner and it got smushed under the tracks. On top of that the hubs pulls the recliner out while I push it back in closer to the wall, so needless to say, there was a LONG track of bright orange crayon worn into the carpet. Uh Oh! All it took was a swipe or two over it with a Bissel carpet cleaner and the orange was completely gone!! We won't be using anything but these in the future. I sent the other non-washable crayons out to the shop where the hubs will use them to make marks on metal when he needs to cut it for his projects.

I found this at the local Target store (love that place) and I fell in love. I needed to replace my little 8 inch non-stick pan and I didn't ruin it by using metal utensils in it so I found this nifty whisk. Its silicone covered so it won't scratch the non-stick surface. Fabulous! I also like to use it on my regular pots and pans and it kind of works like a rubber spatula to scrape things off the side while I'm cooking.

This past week I broke down and put out the fall decorations. I love the way a few simple touches here and there and a change in colors can change the whole mood of the house.

Changing of the Seasons

2010-08-29T06:23:00.001-06:00

The changing of the seasons is once again sneaking its way into our weeks a day or two at a time with cooler days and chilly nights. You can just smell Fall in the air while summer is trying its hardest to hang on with a few 90+ days here and there. For us northerners, summer will be over pretty soon and we'll enjoy a bit of fall and then head into the cold and snowy winter.

For right now things are slowing down a little out here on the ranch. The haying is done, so now it will all need to be moved into the hay corrals, the guys have building, tearing down, repairing, and other odd jobs to do. The bulls will be moved into the feedlots soon and before we know it, we'll be getting ready for our annual bull sale in November.

Here are some pictures from around the house.

The plants in my garden are starting to look pretty sad now. The tomatoes are on their way to turning red and the onions have been pulled and are drying out now. Its was a bit of a bummer in the garden this year since my onions didn't get very big and my carrots are so skinny that it won't be worth freezing them this year. Oh well! I'm full of zucchini and I'm proud of my first year strawberries!

Look at these beauties! They just came off the truck today and my MIL and I will definitely be having a canning day this week. These are so yummy to have in the middle of winter and I also like to use them to grind up for baby food instead of buying baby food from the store.

We had a day of hauling in bales and managed to get 700 moved in. Hubby's grandpa comes out and spends the day driving one of the trucks with a flat bed, while the brothers-in-law swap turns with "Purple Haze" (above) and another truck with a flatbed. We'll have to have another day or two of moving since we still have about 2,000 bales left out in the field.

Here are a couple bibs I made as a gift for a friend who welcomed her second little one in July. I just love all the "new retro" (is that an oxymoron? Not sure) prints that they're coming out with now.

Have a good week everyone!

Sewing Season

2010-08-26T10:55:00.000-06:00

My sewing season is fast approaching with Christmas, new baby, and colder weather just around the corner, so today I decided it was time to round-up all the patterns for my projects, get the fabric drawers organized and finally, pick out the fabrics that I will be using.

I like to keep a tote under my craft table so I can stash current and upcoming projects in it so I know what needs to get done. Each pile of fabric is a project and the patterns are neatly put away in page protectors in a three-ring binder. Old Faithful (my sewing machine) has been sitting all alone this summer not doing much of anything but now its time to clean her up and get her oiled for the upcoming marathon of projects.

Here's a list of the projects that are in the tote for now:

1. Going to make some pj pants for my two nieces for Christmas

2. Lil' Cowpokes bib to match a blanket I ordered off of Etsy for some friends who just welcomed their second baby a couple of days ago.

3. A new nursing cover for our little squirmer that we'll be welcoming in January. You can find patterns all over the Internet.

4. A new table runner for the fall season.

5. Cold weather is approaching and the Hazel Peach needs a new warm fleece hat.

6. All sorts of cute Christmas fabric which I need to decided what to do with.

7. I found a new purse pattern that I would like to try.

8. A diaper bag. I think the style might be a little better than a bag I made for Hazel.

I guess its time for me to quit typing and to get to work soon.

A Book of Little Sayings

2010-08-24T08:41:00.000-06:00

Last night hubs was showing me something on the computer and Hazel was out in the living room coloring, when all the sudden she comes running down the hallway yelling, "Uh oh! It's stuck!..."

Hazel: It's stuck, it's stuck!
Us: Whats stuck? Show us.

By this time we're going oh no, there is a lot that a 2 year old can get stuck and we're hoping its nothing too serious. She brings us out into the living room so that we can look out our back window. The moon was rising in the sky coming up over our big tree patch.

Hazel: Moon stuck in the trees! Oh man! Whatarewegonna (all one word) do?

The moon was behind a huge tree that was bare at the top and she thought that her moon had gotten stuck in the trees and was so concerned with what we were going to do to get it out of there. We had to tell her that it was coming unstuck and that it would come out soon. We waited and she got to stay up a little later than normal so she could see that her moon rose above the trees and wasn't stuck anymore.

What a funny girl! I think its time for me to make her a little notebook with all her fun and insightful sayings so that when she's older we can look back and have a laugh.

"I see the moon, and the moon sees me;

God bless the moon,

And God bless me."

-Anonymous

Finished At Last

2010-08-05T18:52:00.002-06:00

I just wanted to post a picture of my table and chairs now that they are finished. Its a lot of hard work to take on a project like this, but its well worth it in the end.

Sweet Relish

2010-07-31T13:55:00.001-06:00

Its finally been getting hot enough around here for the garden to kick it into high gear and start producing some goodies for us. The tomatoes plants are full of green tomatoes waiting to turn red, the zucchini is starting to go crazy, and if I dug a little I would get some yummy new potatoes, carrots, and onions.

It's time to start reaping what we have sown. I'm super excited because this year I planted eight tomatoes plants in hopes of getting a decent crop so that I can preserve some tomatoes so I won't have to buy too many at the store for soups and such this winter. I also planted an extra zucchini plant this year so that I can get enough to make some homemade relish. If you haven't had homemade relish you have no idea what you're missing out on! Usually my MIL is kind enough to send over a few extra jars from her kitchen, but this year I decided that I would give it a go for myself and see what happens. I'm starting off by making a sweet relish and when the next batch of zucchini comes in, I'll make the dill relish, which is my favorite!

Sweet Pickle Relish

1qt. chopped cucumber (I used zucchini)
2 c. chopped onions
1 c. chopped sweet green pepper
1 c. chopped sweet red pepper
1/4 c. salt
3 1/2 c. sugar
1 Tbsp. celery seed
1 Tbsp. mustard seed
2 c. cider vinegar

Combine cucumbers, onions, and peppers in a large bowl; sprinkle with salt and cover with cold water. Let stand 2 hours. Drain; rinse and drain thoroughly. Combine sugar, spices, and vinegar in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil. Add drained vegetables; simmer 10 minutes. Pack hot relish into hot jars, leaving 1/4 in. headspace. Remove air bubbles. Place lid and ring on jar. Process 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner.

Lessons Learned
* Do this on a day when you can open the windows. The vinegar is a pretty potent smell, especially when its cooking.

*Start the hot water canner early to get the water up to a boil so that its ready to go when the jars have been packed and have lids on them. This is my first time using my new hot water canner so it was kind of an experiment. I had added hot water to it, but it needs a while to build up a boil from there.

Decluttering, Making Soap, and Stains

2010-07-29T11:10:00.000-06:00

These past couple of days have been quite busy around the house with all sorts of activities. I've been reading the book, "Sink Reflections" by Marla Cilley a.k.a. the Fly Lady. Right now I'm on the chapter about decluttering the house. It really lit a fire under me realizing that now with the second baby on the way, space is just going to start getting tighter and tighter from here on out. We don't have a big house and its not too full with clutter, but enough that if I were to let it go, the house would start to get uncomfortable and we'd be banging into things all over the house.

So it was time to start emptying out closets, which I would call my hot spots ( a place that collects a bunch of junk or papers all the time). I've done this many times before and kept putting stuff back in that I just kept rationalizing that I would use again someday...eventually...if ever...right? Well, not this time. Mama meant business. Things went out! Most went in the garbage, but a couple of things were in good enough condition that I could send them on to my sister-in-law's garage sale she'll be having this weekend in town. I got all of the closets done! Hallelujah!

A while ago I picked up four or five of the Homestead Blessings DVDs since they were on sale for half off. I really wanted to watch the movie about soap making to see if it would be something I would be interested in trying. It was a really good and informative show.

The process of making soap always scared me away because it looked too picky and detailed to even mess with, so I always just ran in the other direction. Not with these ladies. They made the process simple, well-explained, and gave fun ideas on what you can do with your soap. I headed over to my MIL's house and got to work. Here is a look at the finished product. Sorry I didn't take more pictures, I forgot the camera at home.

We left the soap plain with no scents or any extra additives because we'll be splitting it between my MIL, SIL, and myself. These bars still have another 2-3 weeks of "curing" to do so that they'll be hard and ready to use. After that, we're going to make milled soap, where we'll grate up a couple of bars at a time and melt them down and then add scents or whatever to our own liking.

Last of all, we just bought six new unfinished chairs since ours are starting to go to pieces. We've had this kitchen table and chair set since I was a little girl, so I'd say they've put in their share of hard work. The table is in pretty good shape still and it fits our kitchen space well, so we opted to just get chairs for now. So here I am with six chairs that are being stained with multiple coats of stain and then with a couple coats of polyurethane. Its taking quite some time, but I know it'll be worth it in the end.

Baby #2

2010-07-22T12:43:00.000-06:00

He/she is waving at us

The next baby is on its way and is due in the middle of January. We are so excited! We're 15 weeks and counting. God has been good to us!

He/she was starting to roll away from all the poking and prodding of the ultrasound lady. Nothing is more amazing or shows you the miracle of God than when you're little baby is only a few inches and you can see it moving aroung inside it's cozy little home.

A Fun Read

2010-07-17T11:41:00.005-06:00

I want to share a fun book with you ladies called "Letters of a Woman Homesteader" by Elinore Pruitt Stewart. It's a series of letters she wrote to her former employer, Mrs. Coney, when she makes the decision to move out of the crowded Denver city, all the way to Burnt Fork, Wyoming to be a woman homesteader with just her young daughter by her side.

She places an add in the paper in hopes of becoming a rancher's housekeeper in order to get to the country so she can file a claim for her own homestead. She's successful in finding a job and filing on her own claim, I won't tell you anymore so that I can't spoil any bits of her story. Her writing style is what makes the book so enjoyable to read, but I really enjoyed the book as another woman living out on the prairie. It's a fast read since its broken up into letters and her descriptions of life and experiences as a woman homesteader are amazing.

Here's a little taste from her first letter as she describes her new Scottish employer Mr. Stewart:

"...Mr. Stewart sat upon a stack of baggage and was dreadfully concerned about something he calls his "Tookie," but I am unable to tell you what that is...Once Mr. Stewart asked me if I did not think it a "gey duir trip." I told him he could call it gay if he wanted to, but it didn't seem very hilarious to me. Every time the stage struck a rock or rut Mr. Stewart would "hoot," until I began to wish we would come to a hollow tree...so he could go in with the rest of the owls."

"At last we "arriv," and everything is just lovely for me...Mr. Stewart is absolutely no trouble, for as soon as he has his meals he retires to his room and plays on his bagipe, only he calls it his "bugpeep." It is " The Campbells Are Coming," without variations all day long and from seven till eleven at night. Sometimes I wish they would make haste and get here already."

There is also a movie based on the book called "Heartland". I think I may just have to add it to my Netflix queue and see if its as good as the book.

Little Helping Hands

2010-07-12T10:28:00.000-06:00

When I was a new mama, my hands always seemed to be full trying to take care of the new baby, the house and the husband all at the same time. Makes me wanna say "Ufda," as my Norwegian ancestors would say. I was nursing, cleaning, cooking, sewing, changing diapers, doing laundry, snuggling and the list can go on.

You adapt and you learn how to do things with a little one under foot. I've learned that there's no point in picking up the toys off the floor 5 times a day because they'll just be back on the floor again for a 6th time. Or that its pointless to vacuum the living room every time something falls on the floor. It was more work than what was needed. I've learned to save cleaning time for when she goes down for a nap and when she goes down at night. It'll last a lot longer then, trust me.

Now that our little Hazel Peach (her nickname) has turned two this weekend, I couldn't help but sit back and think of how her little hands have become little helping hands lately. She loves to help whenever she get the chance.

She helps "wash" dishes, I use this term loosely because she really only helps so that she can play in the bubbles.
She helps me vacuum.
She likes to pull the vacuum cord out of the wall all the time shouting, "PULL, PULL."
She really like to help Grammie feed the chickens and collect eggs.
She picks up her toys for me.
She likes to work with tools to help mama and daddy fix things around the house.
She hands me one piece of laundry at a time out of the basket when we're folding laundry.

All of these things could be done quicker and better if she wasn't helping, but patience is another thing you lean when you become a parent. She wants to be involved and learn how to do things, and who am I to turn her down just because I want to go a little quicker? Her smiles and giggles are worth all the extra time and work.

"I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do." ~Edward Everett Hale

9 Little Ducklings

2010-07-04T20:20:00.000-06:00

Out here on the ranch we're in the middle of our haying season which keeps everyone busy with long days and even some long nights. Today, Hazel and I went out to visit the hubs while he was swathing, which is kind of like a giant lawn mower with a cab on it. He even let me make a couple passes with the swather as he sat beside me.

While he was out a little earlier he accidentally swathed over a nest of baby ducklings and killed their mama. He asked if we, my MIL and I, would come and get them and figure out what to do with them. So I headed back to the house to see what MIL wanted to do since she's a nature expert in my book. We decided to gather them up in a box and we put them in with our chicks, but the chicks weren't having any of that so we changed our plan.

The MIL and FIL thought that it would be best if we took them down to one of our larger dams and see if there were any ducks there that would like to adopt nine little duckies. When we got there, there was a pair of ducks on the water, but they flew away. We left the ducklings close to the water so that when the older ducks came back they would call out to them and follow their "new" parents.

MIL said a quick prayer over them and we're hoping that our nine little duckies have found a new family to love them. When she went back to the dam later to check on them, they were gone but she said there were a couple of pairs of ducks on the water and we're hoping one of these pairs took them in.

Happy Independence Day!

2010-07-04T06:00:00.001-06:00

I want to wish everyone a happy and safe 4th of July. Here is a couple patriotic songs to get you in the spirit! Stay safe!

Sparklies

2010-06-30T11:16:00.000-06:00

Today we're supposed to get up to 95*, which I know for you southerners isn't very hot, and its not too hot for us, but around here we try to get our outside stuff done early in the morning while its still cool, and then spend the hot afternoon inside getting things done around the house.

After breaking the belt on the vacuum, and unloading the washing machine only to find out I've run a diaper through it (what a gel mess!) I decided Hazel and I needed to do something a little fun and take a break from cleaning. I decided that it was about time to paint Hazel's toe nails for the first time! Amazingly enough it went pretty darn good for an active two year old!

I'm sorry its not the greatest picture but, she wouldn't sit still after having "Sparklies" put on her piggies. My sister who has two little girls, 3 and 4, gave me a few pointers on how to get this accomplished without having a mess.

Work fast
Apply a thin coat so it dries fast
And have them wiggle their legs around because they think its a game, but its actually helping those piggies dry faster.

ABC's, 1,2,3's and Zzzzzz's

2010-06-24T11:12:00.000-06:00

We've been having some pretty severe weather out here on the prairie the last couple of days and it finally took its toll on the power lines. There's been heavy rain, flooding, and even some tornado's a little north of us and in the process we had 10 down power lines and no power for two days. Lucky for us they got everything fixed early last evening, but its amazing the things you miss when you don't have the luxury of power.

As for us, we're lucky enough to have generators to run if we need them, but the one we use for our house is smaller since we have a smaller house and you have to choose which appliance you want to run the most or else it bogs down the generator pretty bad. So it's either the stove, the water heater, the air conditioning, microwave and so on. At night we shut them off because they're not needed while we're asleep and when there's no sounds and no lights, its a little disturbing for this town girl. I like the gentle whir of my fan, and the glow of the alarm and oven clocks. I'm don't like pitch black and absolutely no sounds but the crickets outside. I'm a light sleeper and when I can hear all sorts of things outside it makes for a long night! Call me crazy, but I guess that I'm just not a 100% country girl after all.

Here are a few things we're doing around the house now.

As a child we had an alphabet book that I loved to read! Each letter had a picture that was embroidered, appliqued, or painted on the page. My favorite was the letter "S" because you could tie up the shoe laces. I decided that I wanted to pass the same experience on to my kids to so they can enjoy learning their letters.

I did some looking around for an alphabet that I could embroider and came across two choices here. I chose the more old fashioned set rather than the cartoon set because a lot of the pictures are things that our children will be able to relate to out here on the ranch.

Also, as a side note, I was trying to be the green lady and put a picture on the front and back of a page, but as I was trying to trace the picture onto the muslin, I kept getting the two pictures mixed up because you could see both designs through the paper. I ended up putting just one picture on each page and it's working great so far.

Now on the our 1,2,3's. Hazel is really into her numbers right now so I ordered this book, "1 is One" by Tasha Tudor. She has beautiful art and the pages rhyme so it makes it a little more catchy for Hazel to listen to.

I could resist showing you our very first ripe strawberry! YUM-O! There was enough ripe berries for each of us to enjoy one. I'm looking forward to more!

Flower Pounding

2010-06-16T20:52:00.004-06:00

Yesterday my MIL called and invited Hazel and I over so she could teach us how to do some flower pounding as practice to prepare for teaching a 4-H group today. We went and picked all sorts of flowers to try and some came out beautifully and some not so hot. This is a fun project that can be done on cotton fabric, silk, wool, paper, and even on ribbons. A while back, she pounded the flowers on some fabric and then embroidered around the edges of the flowers and framed it so now she has a pretty flowers all year.

I'm excited about giving it a try with all the new wildflowers that I should have around the yard pretty soon. If you're interested in giving this a try I would recommend the book, The Art and Craft of Pounding Flowers by Laura C. Martin. It has all sorts of different projects you can try as well as directions on how to prepare your fabric, which flowers work best, and even how you should lay them to help them turn out the best.

I pounded some Violets, Bleeding Hearts, Bachelor Button, Impatiens, Dame's Rocket, Wall flower, Columbine, and some leaves.

"Flowers have an expression of countenance as much as men or animals. Some seem to smile; some have a sad expression; some are pensive and diffident; others again are plain, honest and upright, like the broad-faced sunflower and the hollyhock." ~Henry Ward Beecher

Catching Up

2010-06-08T11:58:00.001-06:00

Hi there everyone! Sorry for such a long absence, it wasn't planned, its just been pretty boring around here lately. We've been having nice weather for the most part so we've been spending a lot of our days outside playing or working in the yard. I figured that I would catch you up on what's been going on out here on the prairie.

The wildflower season has kicked into gear out in the pastures. Here are some wild sweet peas the hubs brought me on his way home from fencing.

All sorts of birds have been making their way though. This is a Bullock Oriole. My first sighting.

These blue-headed little cuties are Lazuli Buntings. Their one of my favorites!

The strawberries at the store looked so good and were a decent price so I decided to whip up a small batch of jelly. The house smelled so yummy, Frank Sinatra played in the back ground, and Hazel danced around

while I kept an eye on things. Listening to Frank while making this has become sort of a tradition for us.

The jelly is super tasty on some plain vanilla ice cream with some chocolate sauce. Here's a little for you!

Here's the latest happenings from the yard. The bleeding heart bush is full of these colorful blooms. I like to dry/press these and use them on homemade cards.

Columbine

Here are the carrots and onions coming along.

I spy some strawberries making their way!! I can't wait!

Can you see the sunflower plant in the foreground mixed in with the strawberry plants? They pop up everywhere and I just leave them alone.

These are my handy gloves for just about everything. Lately, they're been serving as my weed pulling gloves. I seem to have a lot of seriously prickly thistle popping up around the yard so these have come in handy getting them removed.

Here's the Aspen tree we planted last year. Both of the have come back strong and healthy. I love how the leaves sound like a light rain when their blowing around.

This is one of the first potato plants that are popping up in our six rows of spuds. More are joining them everyday.

The tomatoes are trying to make it. We haven't had any really warm weather yet and these little guys could really use some 80* days soon. I cut the bottoms out of plastic ice cream pails and spray painted them black last year to help the plant stay a little warmer.

Good Morning

2010-05-06T09:28:00.001-06:00

Dear beautiful Spring weather, I miss you. Was it something I said? ~"Skipper" Kim Corbin

This is what we woke up to this morning and the weather man is forcasting more for this afternoon into tonight.

I Want It So!

2010-05-03T16:02:00.001-06:00

It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so! ~Mark Twain

Spring fever is what I have!! I dream of my yard green and nicely trimmed, wildflowers coming up by the handfuls, and a garden full of yummy treats (and magically weed free of course). We're on our way to getting there, but mother nature is pushing the planting season back a little longer for the time being.

The garden is too wet to till and it looks like we have more rain/snow in the forecast for the days to come so I won't be getting too much done there any time soon. I've had to settle with planting who knows how many wildflower seeds to reduce my fever for the time being. I planted them a couple weeks ago and they're already sprouting. At least I'm hoping that its wildflowers sprouting and now a whole bunch of weeds.

Before we moved out here to the ranch, I had never thought about planting wildflowers. Instead, we would go to the nursery and buy petunias, allysum, and whatever else struck my fancy while there. I still buy petunias and a couple other things to put in pots around the house, but one lesson I learned from my MIL was, plant what grows in your area. And on this dry and windy prairie where we live, it has to be one tough cookie to make it. Wildflowers were the answer!

My MIL's large wildflower garden in her backyard is something I look forward to every year. Its like a little oasis all to herself. Its a riot of colors at all times during the summer, because when somethings done for the season, another thing is there to replace it. I planted one for myself this year and hopefully it fills in nicely. Its also an easy filler for my tulip and iris beds after they've done their blooming for the year, and all that is left is their greenery.

Today, I also drew up my plans for the garden so that when it is time to plant, I can just get right out there and get to business. This will be the basics for now, but I might squeeze in some peas and peppers somewhere as well. I can't wait!

Brrrr!

2010-05-01T07:47:00.000-06:00

For some of you spring may mean that the sun is shining and the cold and snow are behind you until winter comes around again. I wish we could same the same for us here in the north. Even though its spring we still have the chance of snow and freezing temperatures until the first or second week of May, and even then, who knows what mother nature can drop on us.

A quick flurry of sleet

A couple nights ago it was cold enough for the rain to turn to snow/sleet and we were blasted with a little bout of it again yesterday morning. These are the kind of days where you just snuggle up, pop in a movie, make some good comfort food and stay inside.

In our house there are no days bad enough in Hazel's opinion to justify us staying inside. From the moment she wakes up its, "shoes", and "outside." We went out when there was a break in the rain, but didn't stay out long because it was so cold and windy that even she willingly walked up to the door and went inside without a fight.

Here is some of the yummy food that I made the other night. The sesame chicken is a combination of two recipes mixed. The sauce is from Tyler Florence and the chicken breading is from a copy-cat recipe from Panda Express Orange chicken. We don't make this often but its a good treat when we do.

Sesame Chicken

2lbs, chicken cubed
1 egg
1 ½ tsp. salt
pepper
oil (frying)
½ c. cornstarch
1/4 c. flour

Sauce

3 Tbsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. ginger
1 clove garlic
2 c. chicken broth
¼ cornstarch
2 Tbsp. rice vinegar
½ c. sugar
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
Sesame seeds for garnish

Place chicken pieces in a large bowl. Stir in egg, salt, pepper and 1 Tbsp. oil and mix well. Stir cornstarch and flour together, Add to chicken pieces stirring to coat.

Add the sesame oil to pan and set over low heat, Add the ginger and garlic and fry gently for about 2-3 minutes. Meanwhile, combine the remaining sauce ingredients in a bowl and stir well to dissolve the cornstarch. Gently pull onto the saucepan with the ginger and garlic. Stir as you pour because the cornstarch will thicken up quickly. Keep warm over low heat.

Next, the hubs requested that I make my Cream Cake. Its his new favorite! I found it in an issue of Taste of Home Magazine last summer and have made it a couple times since then. Once again, its not of of those dishes that you make all the time. I call it a Twinkie cake because that's what it looks like and tastes like, but better!

Photo from Taste of Home

Cream Cake Dessert

1 package (18-1/4 ounces) yellow cake mix
1 package (3.4 ounces) instant vanilla pudding mix
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup water
4 eggs
* You need to use the pudding in the mix. I tried it once without it and the cake just fell apart. It makes it a little firmer.

FILLING:
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
Fresh raspberries, optional

In a large bowl, beat the cake mix, pudding mix and shortening on low speed until crumbly. Add the water and eggs; beat on medium for 2 minutes. Pour into a greased and floured 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan.
Bake at 350° for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes; invert onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine flour and milk until smooth. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Cool completely. In a large bowl, cream the butter, shortening, sugar, until light and fluffy. Beat in the milk mixture, vanilla and salt until smooth.

Split cake into two horizontal layers. Spread filling over the bottom layer; replace top layer. Garnish with raspberries if desired.

I couldn't resist sharing this last photo with all of you. Isn't this just an odd bunch hanging out. The hubs is taking a break while we wait for my brother-in-law to come over and help feed bums. Hazel loves to throw rocks, so she's in heaven at the moment. The lamb snuck out of the fence and decided to come over and visit everyone until feeding time. Poor Penny doesn't know she's not supposed to be friends with a lamb. Its kind of like the fox and the hound. They don't know that they're not supposed to be together. I've even caught Penny licking one of their faces. Silly dog! Hopefully she'll learn that she's supposed to be herding them not hanging out with them : )

Recipe For Love

2010-04-28T11:33:00.003-06:00

Aren't these adorable? My cousin is getting married next month and as part of her wedding gift I decided to write down some of our family recipes and some of my tried and true recipes. Since I couldn't find any recipe cards at the local Wal-Mart, I decided to head to the world wide web and see what I could come up with for printable recipe cards.

I was amazed that there was actually quite a few of them floating around out there to print off. I found these cards here and just printed them off on some 8x11 card stock paper. It puts two cards per page and you can just print off whichever color you want or all of them to mix it up! Have fun with them!

Here and There

2010-04-26T10:28:00.008-06:00

Hazel likes to go into Grammy's back yard and pick her "flys" (flowers). She's been over there every other day it seems to pick more so we've had a beautiful supply of daffodils for about a week now.

A miracle plant! Penny dug up my bleeding heart plant at the end of the season last year and I really didn't expect to see anything there this year. SUPRISE! They popped up and as I was coming in the house a couple days ago, I spotted a little flash of red and this is what I found.

The first tulip is peeking out!

This is what our back yard looked like as the hubs was pulling things out to put in the new patio made out of pavers. EEEKK! Not a pretty sight for sure!

Here is the patio built-up, but it still needed a little something around the edges.

Here is the finished patio! YAY! It doesn't take flowers, jewelry or sweet words to woo this lady. Just a house project crossed of the To-Do list will work for me! Now we have a place to put our muddy boots, the grill, suntan on, and chairs to sit out and enjoy the quiet country nights.

Here are some pictures that I took while we were out doctoring a calf.
(Meadowlark)

Yellow-Breasted Blackbird

I've been keeping an eye on this nest at least once a week to see if there are any pretty Robin's eggs in here. Nothing so far, I'll show you a picture if I find something.

On the Edge

2010-04-22T17:00:00.007-06:00

Do you remember the challenge I posted a while back to make a pillowcase and crochet the edge of it? Well, here is the update and I'll warn you now that it doesn't have a happy ending. I made a toddler pillow, made the pillowcase, and then started the crocheting, simple right?? I don't think so!

I tried and tried, but I just couldn't get into it. I could get the single crochet (barely) and that was as far as my mind and patience would get me. I have a huge amount of respect for you ladies out there that can crochet. I've learned that it just isn't for me, and that I'll be sticking to my embroidery.

I started off by making toddler sized pillow out of plain muslin.

Stuff it with some "fluff" as much as you like. I didn't put too much in there since its just a little head laying on it.

I followed the tutorial here on how to make the pillowcase with fabrics matching the quilt I made earlier.

Here is the "finished" product. No, no fancy scalloped edges, but a single crochet looks fine the way it it.

Here's the close up. I probably shouldn't have taken this so close because it shows how bad of a job I did. I have put away the crochet hooks indefinitely : )

Toddler Sun Hat

2010-04-21T20:19:00.004-06:00

It has been a beautiful spring week here on the ranch with warm sunny days. For us it means that its outdoor project and yard work time. We've been putting in a patio made of stone pavers (I'll post pics in a couple of days) at our back door this week, working in the flower beds, putting some fertilizer on the grass, planting wildflower seeds and so on.

With our little one running around with us, we have to be careful she doesn't get too much sun and turn into a little cherry, so I went searching online to find a pattern to make a sun hat for her to shade herself with. I came up with this for a pattern and then made the changes that I wanted to from there. Here's the steps I did:

1.) Instead of the one layer hat with the bias tape to cover the seams, I opted to make two layers since I didn't have bias tape. The inner layer is on the left and the outer layer on the right.

2.) Place the inner layer on top of the outer with the right sides of fabric together. Pin the edges and sew around the rim of the hat leaving one of the sections open so you can flip the hat right side out.

3.) After you flipped it right side out, tuck the inner layer of the hat and press around the edges. I top stitched around the rim to close the section I left open and for decoration.

4.) I sewed on some ribbon about an inch from the outside so that it won't blow away in our strong prairie winds. I also used some interfacing on the outer layer to make it a little stiffer, but you don't have to if you don't want to.

A Day In the Sun

2010-04-11T09:55:00.011-06:00

We got to spend the majority of our day yesterday enjoying some sun and getting projects done around the house.

We moved our 10 bum lambs to the large tree patch in front of our house so that they'll be our natural lawn mowers and keep the grass down for some time. They love the grass!

Adam and Hazel are looking to seal off all the places that the lamb might escape. They're sneaky little things and like to try to find their way out.

This is Hazel's "new" toy. Its a Tonka truck that grandma gave her that had been put away from when my husband was a kid. I'm amazed she saved it this long! After pushing it up the road from grandma's house ( it was a LONG walk home),she decided to sit down and push herself around for a while.

My FIL ordered a huge load of rock to put in all the driveways out here, so now it should be a lot less muddy when it gets wet around here. Here they are leveling out the old gravel/dirt driveway.

And here is the finished driveway. YAY!!! Now my FIL convinced the hubs to build a patio out of pavers and even use larger pavers to widen our walkway! Another loud YAY! I've been trying to convince Adam to do this for a while now and we've just been putting it off. I'll post pictures when we get it done!

Here is the project that I did while the little one was down for her nap. I decided to paint my sewing machine desk since it was old and beaten up. Here is the before.

I used Krylon spray paints because they stick to plastic, wood, metal, and basically anything else you can think of.

I used the entire can of the aqua because it need a couple coats to cover this dark wood.

After letting the aqua color dry, I covered it with a bright cherry red.

I did some distressing or antiquing, whichever you want to call it. Here's the finished product!

I received some strawberry plants I ordered a month earlier than when they should have gotten here so I needed to work fast and get them planted. Its going to take a good green thumb and a cover over them at night so the frost won't get to them to make sure they live. I'm just hoping my thumb is green enough to make it work!

I bought this raspberry plant when we went to the "Big City" Easter weekend. It won't be planted for a couple more weeks so it comes out during the day to sun itself and comes in at night so it doesn't freeze.

Spring Has Sprung

2010-03-23T08:34:00.012-06:00

Thing weather has been warmer, the snow is almost all gone, and plants have started to peek out from their winter hiding places. Spring is finally here!

Tulips

Iris

Columbine

Since we officially welcomed the spring season this past weekend I figured that it's about time to pull back the shades, open the windows and get some fresh air, and get to cleaning this house of ours. I've brought out the spring/summer curtains, made a new table runner and took down the fall colored garlands that sit on top of my cabinets to lighten things up a bit already.

Here is my list for spring cleaning!

INSIDE

Check the batteries in the smoke detectors
Clean the ceiling fans
Clean out the fridge and freezer and defrost the larger freezer
Clean and put away the humidifiers
Clean the carpets
Put out spring/summer decorations

OUTSIDE

Clean the grill
Get out pots, soil, and gardening tools
Take mulch off of roses and other plants
Fertilize the yard
Till the garden
Plant the garden when the weather warms
Plant wildfower seeds

EACH ROOM

Wash the walls (the one thing I truly hate!)
Move the furniture and vacuum
Wash all the bedding
Flip the mattress
Clean the windows
Clean out closets
Wipe everything down
Get rid of things you don't use

These are some of the basics that I will be doing. Some rooms, like the kitchen, will need some extra cleaning. I plan on taking a couple days for each room so I don't get burnt out so fast.

"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade."

~Charles Dickens

A Little Bit of Everything

2010-03-17T08:21:00.003-06:00

For each petal on the shamrock

This brings a wish your way -Good health, good luck, and happiness

For today and every day.

~Author Unknown

My first robin sighting of the year. It means spring is getting a little closer!

Getting a drink from mom

Hazel has been having a grand old time splashing and and playing in all the mud we've had.

I couldn't resist sharing this picture of her first set of pigtails. I'm new at this so they were a little lopsided, but practice make perfect : )

Just Listen

2010-03-12T15:07:00.008-07:00

When was the last time that you just stopped what you're doing, and listened to all the sounds around you? It's been a warm sunny day today, so while Hazel was down for her nap I decided to just go sit outside on the porch and enjoy some quiet time for myself while catching a few rays of sunshine.

I heard the birds chirping, Penny chewing away on her latest bone, the trickle of water from the melting snow, my neighbors (in-laws) screen door closing as my brother-in-law went out to check heifers, lambs calling to their mothers, and the breeze making its way through the trees. Life.

I haven't just stopped and enjoyed the life around me in quite a while. It felt so relaxing and refreshing.

"Silence is more musical than any song."

-Christina Rossetti -

We're Melting, Melting

2010-03-08T19:56:00.005-07:00

We've been experiencing some heavy "pea soup" fog for over a week now and even a little rain/snow the other day, but today we finally got a break in the weather so Hazel and I decided to go splash around in the mud and show you all what's been happening here on the ranch.

These ladies are the important mama's for the moment. Now that the lambing has finished, the heifers have started calving (I'll get some pics of the new calves up soon!). The guys go out and check on them every hour during the day and every two hours during the night.

The chickens have flown the coop! They're enjoying a nice day outdoors with the cats. They thought we were bringing some scraps for them to snatch up. Sorry girls not today!

We were just talking the other night that I should make Penny an oilcloth apron since she's such a low rider : ) She's been getting so muddy lately that I'm shudder every time I walk into our mud room. What a sight with muddy paw prints everywhere. The broom and mop have become my best friends lately.

This is the stock dam over by my in-laws house. Its been so warm that the snow has been melting away at a pretty quick rate and the water is pouring into all the dams.

Here's a better view to show you just how full it is at the moment. If it gets any higher it would be washing out this side road pretty soon. We open a culvert that goes under the main road so that the dam won't over fill and wash this road out.

Here is the water running out of the culvert and down into the creek that runs only when we've had a lot of snow melting.

The creek is starting to run in the pasture south of our house. Its only running in certain spots since there is so much snow build-up throughout most of it.

My huge pile of snow is finally starting to melt and is causing a lake at the bottom of our driveway(below).

Welcome to my newly named Snow Lake. It only appears in the spring when the snow melts. Hazel loves to get right on the edge and splash around.

Partly Cloudy

2010-03-01T08:00:00.003-07:00

I couldn't resist sharing this! Serena over at the The Farm Chicks posted a link to this cute Pixar short film. Go see it here.

Simple Sunday

2010-02-28T07:21:00.001-07:00

Its the simple things in life that make it better!

Here is the hubs feeding one of our many bum lambs. He says he feels like he lives in a reality show because I'm taking pics all the time : )

Our bum lambs. They come from all different kinds of backgrounds. Mom's who didn't have enough milk, some are from a set of triplets because its hard for a ewe to support that many lambs and some are from mom's who have died. They are all characters and I really enjoy them!

O'Keeffe's Working Hands Skin Care. We actually received this in a gift bag from our church's Valentine's Day banquet. Adam calls it his Man-Lotion. It doesn't have a scent and it isn't slippery or oily afterwards. Doesn't it always seem like you have to open a door right after you put some lotion on and your hand just slips around on the knob? It also keeps your hand really moisturized, which has been very handy with all the extra hand washing we've been doing from taking care of the sheep and bum lambs. I even like it more than my lotions!

We've finally packed away the last of the bottles!!!!! YAY! Hazel has been bottle free for about three weeks now. We went a little longer then recommended with her bottles, but oh well, she's healthy and happy. It wasn't even a hard transition to make. Just a couple more healthy snacks and milk at meal times and she switched pretty easily. Now to get rid of the pacifier.

Its been around 40* the past couple of days so I snuck in a load of sheets just so I could hang them out on the line. You never realize how refreshing it is to have the smell of sunshine on your sheets until its winter and you can't get it anymore. It was fun to crawl into bed that night and and just smell the sheets. Love it!

Quilt Update

2010-02-27T09:45:00.005-07:00

After much hand sewing, ironing, cutting, and pinning Hazel's quilt is done!

This is right after I finished sewing all the rows together.

I trimmed up the sides and bottoms so I had an even edge to work with.

You have no idea how great it felt to use the sewing machine to do these borders rather than hand sew. I really had no clue what I was doing so I just decided to sew the sides on and then do the bottom borders. As I got done sewing on all the pink borders around the hexagons, I realized I should have added on at least three more rows of hexagons so I didn't have such a thick border on the bottom (picture below). Oh well, I've learned my lesson for the next time. Trial by error!

Here is the finished product! I used the butterfly fabric for the backing and I'll be making a pillow and pillowcase from some of these fabrics for the crocheted pillow case tutorial from my last post.

On The Edge Pillowcase

2010-02-25T16:26:00.002-07:00

Cassie at You Go Girl is going to start a tutorial for sewing a pillowcase and directions on how to add a BeAuTiFuL crocheted edge on it. You have to see the pictures! I've seen this same technique used to border baby blankets and they're amazing! I've never crocheted a day in my life so this is a whole new learning experience for me. If you want to join in, just go to her site for the directions.

Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-13T20:54:00.005-07:00

I would like to wish everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day a little early since the 13th is actually a very important day for my husband and I. Five years ago today he got down on his knee in the snow and asked me to marry him. He was so nervous while he read the poem that he wrote for me, and I was so excited I was saying “yes” before he was even done!! Silly girl!

For our first date he took me for a drive in his hot rod through the local canyon and then a short hike near some of the waterfalls. From there we went to the local Dairy Queen and spent three hours talking and getting to know one another better. * Sigh* How the time flies by when you’re having fun. I hope you all have a good day and get to spend it with someone you love, whether its your spouse, your family or friends.

Do You Like the New Look?

2010-02-13T07:59:00.002-07:00

How do you like the new look of my blog? I LOVE it! It was put together by Designer Blogs. They specialize in custom or premade blog designs for your personal or business blog. They can put together a whole new look for your blog like they did for mine, or you can have just a header or a button made for your blog. They even make super cute business cards!

They did great work, it was a speedy process when it came to my turn in line, and they happily changed things around if I wanted it another way. I'll be going back in the near future to have a couple more things added on to my blog. I can't wait!

Visitors

2010-02-10T12:48:00.003-07:00

This is what we saw in our backyard at lunch time today. Sneaky guys!

Baby Lambs!

2010-02-08T09:28:00.004-07:00

We got our first new babies of the season. Twin lambs! MIL found them this morning around 5:00 when she went up to the barn to check. By the time we went back up around 8:15 they were up, and had gotten some milk and were cleaned off pretty good by their mama. That's always a good sign that both mom and baby, babies in this case, are starting off with a good relationship.

When we get new lambs, both baby and mother are placed in a "jug," which is a small pen, so that they can have some bonding time, get used to one another, and to make sure that baby is getting some milk. They will spend a couple days in there and then they are moved into a bigger pen with 3-4 other moms and their babies. Weather permitting, we move them out to a near-by pasture when the lambs are strong enough to be outside all day. At night we place them in a shed to help keep everyone a little warmer.