October 21, 2012

LOVE my church family......take a listen to Pastor Bob's

message today..... www.h-hcc.org

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Ross had to work at Tri-State today....I did some grocery shopping

after church was over and met him at home....

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Here is my Sweetest Day Gift.....the most wonderful trade

we have ever made......my 7 year old car is more sporty with low profile

street tires and it does not do well

in the snow ....so I rely on Ross quite a bit during the winter

months.....so this is a perfect vehicle to get me around town

and to church ..bring on the SNOW!!!......the dogs APPROVE!!!

 

then a quick trip to the boat...it was mid 60's today...

I did all the piloting....had a blast...

then back home to do some kitchen work.....Bell Peppers...

4 freezer quarts of cut peppers for stir frys and soups...

and then the stuffed pepper meal...recipe on January 14th

this made 8 meals....we will freeze these for later use...

when we defrost them....cook for about 20 minutes...add mozza

cheese on top and some more durkee fried onions and serve!!!

Watching some football......leftovers for dinner

Pleasant Dreams!!!

October 20, 2012

had a great Friday...just ran out of time to post a blog....

the conference was wonderful....one of the speakers was

Russell Davis.....he played for University of Michigan and

then the Pittsburgh Steelers...he had a great testimony and

was a gentle giant type of man...really enjoyed meeting him.

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got my sweetest day present this morning...will post some

pictures of it tomorrow....

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took a look at the vegetables on the front porch and decided

to do some more Green Tomato Sweet Relish...

made 14 quarts and 1 pint



I picked the long red cayenne pepper plants....

the red peppers Ross will string up to dry....

the green peppers will wait until some of the small cherry

peppers are ready to pick and then he will can a pepper medley.

here are the red peppers strung up...hanging from the phone

all that is left in the garden .....Lettuce, Cabbage and the Green Beans

running along the fence....

watched the Michigan vs Michigan State game...

it was a very exciting 2nd half....the game was decided in the last 9 seconds...

and The Paul Bunyon award goes to...

 University of Michigan for first time in 5 years

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we went out tonight with Tim & Cheryl to hear our sons friend

Gary's band play ...we really enjoyed ourselves....

even though the bar scene is not our scene...loved hanging

out with our son and dancing with everyone!!!

Pleasant Dreams!!!

October 18, 2012

had a fly by this morning in the rain....over 1000 birds....the pictures

didn't come out very good because of it being so dark...but

you can get the jist....the noise they make is crazy loud....

tonight was the Pastor Appreciation Dinner at church....

here is the Library all decked out for the party....

Ross did the food....everything was Perfect!!!

here is Pastor Bob & Mary....

One more crazy day tomorrow ...there is a conference at the

church ...with 2 local Pastors speaking...should be a 

wonderful night of testimonies....Pastor and I will be singing 

an Amazing Grace duet.

then....back to Living off the Land!!!

Pleasant Dreams!!!

October 17, 2012

we were awakened last night at 11:44pm by dead silence...

now to any of you who have stayed at the farm....you know how

quiet it is....and some folks love that when they visit because it is so

different to their circumstances.....Ross and I however have 2 fans

running at all times...summer and winter.....just for the noise....

I called Consumers Energy to be told that someone had hit the

utility pole right up the street from us....an hour later we heard the

U of M life flight taking him to the hospital...it was a 52 year old

man from the detroit area that had too much to drink and didn't see

a stop sign...they aren't sure if he will make it.

After cancelling my early morning plans...the power came back

on about 9 am.....both of us are a bit sleep deprived but

we will hit the sheets early tonight!!!

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the wood guy came....we filled the rack by the side

door first (up on the back porch) ......it was great having Ross home.

....normally Ray and I unload it.....

when the power is off...I typically try to keep Ross home....

because of the generator and such....



then we put the rest in the wood shed....Ray will bring another load

next week and get this full before winter.....we will have to get some

more wood delivered in January....but using the wood stoves saves

us a ton on our electric bill.

worked until 5pm at Tri-State...then off to town (30 minutes one way)

to pick up a bunch of stuff for the surprise Pastor Appreciation Dinner

tomorrow night.....got to church about 7:30pm...Tim & Cheryl met us

there to decorate and set the tables.....it looks very nice....will post

pictures of it tomorrow....

back home to a crazy down pour of rain and some lightning

which we haven't seen in a very long time .....then out to the chicken coop

to fix their timer.....when the power goes off....everything gets affected.

Pleasant Dreams!!!

October 16, 2012

the weather was sunny and mid 60's today...so... we both finished work early

and met at the boat at 3:30......it was a bit choppy...but what a wonderful break

from our busy schedule and oh sooooooo relaxing.....

Ross did some fishing....

the fall colors were beautiful....

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had a neighbor stop by this morning to purchase some eggs...

we were talking about how many items we have NOT purchased at the

grocery store so far this year.....she asked if we would continue it on

into next year and I replied that it is part of my normal routine now...

our conversation then turned to the fact that there are 5 ingredients to make

mayonnaise, and yet when you look at a jar in the store there are 12 things

listed....most of which you cannot pronounce...and how by not ingesting

these other items are bodies will be better off....HOWEVER neither of us have lost

any weight doing the Living off the Land thing....just too much good stuff to eat!!  lol

while on the boat we made a list of some of the items we have not

had to purchase because we made them here....

Mayonnaise, Miracle Whip, Sweet Relish, all types of Pickles,

Worcestershire Sauce, A1 Sauce, Ketchup, BBQ Sauce,

Red Hot Sauce, Pizza Sauce, Tomato Paste, Taco Sauce, Spaghetti Sauce, Noodles of

all kinds, Breads of all types...including Hamburg & Hot dog buns, Bagels,

Pretzel Buns, Sandwich bread, greenbeans, corn, applesauce, all jellies and jams,

Sauerkraut, Chili, Crushed Red Peppers  for Pizza, dried beans for soups,  

Italian Dressing, 1000 Island Dressing, Ranch Dressing, French Dressing and

 Blue Cheese Dressing (although I do still have to buy the chunks of  blue cheese

...so maybe that one shouldn't count  :)

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having leftovers and watching the debate....

Pleasant Dreams!!!

October 15, 2012

walked out on the back porch this morning to this.....

so obviously they spent the night....I called the neighbor to come fetch

them and fix her fence....hopefully they won't be there tomorrow morning.

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this is a CRAZY week for us......something going every single night

after working every day......so the blogs might be few and far between...

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the weatherman told me that I didn't have to worry about another

frost night for a week to 10 days.....well I checked the weather when

I got home at 8:30pm to a forecast of 30 degrees tonight....

so at 9pm I am pulling the rest of the bell pepper plants because

 they can't handle another frost... 

collected another 27 lbs...woohoo!!!

we will use these for making stuffed pepper meals that we freeze and cutting

them into strips and freezing for soups, stews and stirfrys.

BELL PEPPER Stats:  planted 48 plants on May 26th...

pulled all the plants today October 15th...yielded 45 lbs...

not bad, almost 1 pound per plant...the average bell pepper

(a medium size) weighs approx 6 oz.

Pleasant Dreams!!!

October 14, 2012

had a great day at church.....Pastor Bob is talking about your

DREAMS....take a listen at www.h-hcc.org

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had our son and some friends over for lunch and football....

Lions WON in Overtime!!!!!

got over an inch of rain yesterday......and today rained off and on....

got a really heavy rain storm tonight with heavy winds....

no damage...Thank God!!!!

during the day....at different times...I found 3 of our 4 dogs

laying on the couch....BAD Dogs!!!!

Jasmine....

Smuckers...

and Journey....



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went to the coop to collect the eggs .... their pen area is just

a muddy mess with all the rain.....24 chicken mama's gave me 24 eggs.....

well done ladies!!!!!

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Love when you can get a picture with a rainbow and the fall

colors.....this is from the Cupola this afternoon....

look close...it was a double rainbow ....

this is the side yard from the cupola....



the neighbor horses came up for a visit...

Leftovers for dinner and more football!!!

Pleasant Dreams!!!