Turn back time

Up at the Lava Beds National Monument, in Northern California today was a reenactment of fur traders, homesteaders and Army soldiers in the Modoc War. I love living history stuff. Everyone dresses in period clothing and cooks and lives the way of that time.

Our first stop was at the fur traders camp where they had their morning coffee brewing over an open fire pit. 
Laurie was busy spinning wool and showed me some of her hand made pine baskets that she had been working on. She also said she would give me lessons so I did get her number.

Here is her hubby showing off his rifle and coyote coat and bonnet.

Some of his tools of the trade.

After a nice visit with these folks we drove on down the road and came upon this homesteading pioneer family.

All their belongings fitting into a covered wagon. This belongs to my friend, Margie (blue apron). She is quite proud of her wagon, as she should be. She did an awesome job with the details.

Margie showed us her dinner she had cooking on the fire. She made this pie and in the other covered pot was a lovely veggie fritta. I was told from the fur trader that she makes the best apple pies around. I plan on doing some camping with Margie this summer. She will teach me a lot of ways to cook outside.

Here another woman was spinning wool. Something I tried but never could get the hang of it.

From here we went over to the Army fort where the medic was talking about the kinds of medicines that were available at the time.

The types of terrain that the Modoc War was fought over.

We hiked around some of the lava beds where they had once fought this war. Not an easy place for walking, let alone having to fight there.

From here we went up to the visitors center and picked up a few souveniers then headed back home. It was a lovely day to get out and about. We even had to put on the air conditioner. It was up to 80 degrees!

Tomorrow it's back to yard work.

Lots and lots of mulch

We are having such nice warm weather that I am spending most of my time in the garden. There are so many weeds to pull.

My hubby has been making me some raised beds which will help define my garden space much better.

I decided to lay down a weed cover and lots of mulch in hopes to keep out as many weeds as possible. Besides the fact it will look so much nicer.

I have planted some lettuce and pole beans which are beginning to appear.

I'm not sure what all I will be planting in my beds yet, but one thing for sure I want a lot more herbs.

I will be removing the gray brick and putting in the red cedar boards in its place. Everyone must have the same idea about mulching right now as they have run out of this particular mulch. Hope what hubby brings home will be at least close to this same color. Sure do want to get it down before all the grass and weeds decide to pop up again.

Very time consuming work but I gotta admit, I love digging in the dirt.

I think I am going to put in a lot of annuals this year too, just so I can fill in my garden with lots of color.

I just hope we continue to have Spring weather for awhile and not jump right into Summer like it has the past two years. It would be so much easier on the plants and me, of course.

Hope your day is as bright, sunny and warm as mine. Enjoy!

Thrift store finds

While shopping at our local thrift store yesterday, I found these cool items. The vintage water cooler is in mint condition so I will be using it to carry our well water in for making tea while camping in my vintage trailer. The little suitcase has three drawers inside and it looks like it held those square projector films so I thought I would use it for makeup and stuff for the trailer.
The coffee grinder has no markings anywhere on it. The color reminds me of something either Dutch or Swedish. Here's a better pic of the color.

I just love this blue don't you? So cool.

The colander is in pretty good condition to be able to use in my kitchen. It's been hard to find one in this good of shape around here. They are usually all rusted out and chipped.

The tablecloth I purchased on Etsy last week. Is'nt it pretty? I hope to use it on my small round table that I take when I go glamping. A gals gotta have just the right touch for an all girl camp nite, right? What's wrong with a little lace and frills?

I'm still in the process of making my kitchen curtains for the vintage. Had to put that on hold as I am busy making baked goods for our Relay For Life bake sale we will be holding tomorrow in town. If you would like to donate, click on the button on the right. But if you want cookies, you'll have come over.

With today's weather, snow in the forecast, I hope to warm the house with the oven on and the smells of good home baked cookies. If you're in the neighborhood, stop on in and I'll put on some tea and we'll have some cookies while we chat.

Blog gone? No Way!

What a scare I got when I logged on and found my blog had some how said it had been removed. So first thing, after a bit of panic, I log onto blogger and ask what happened. Come to find out all I had to do was give them my cell number for them to send me a verification number, type that in and my blog was back. Thank goodness.
There were some things to look for that may have caused the problem, but of course I could'nt figure out how to get where they wanted me to look. Can't say that I like this new blog look. Heck, I just was figuring out the old one. Although, I am grateful to have learned from another blog a couple weeks back, on how to back up my blog. Something we all should learn to do.
Open your dashboard in blogger and click on Settings, then click Other, click Export blog,and click to download blog. Once downloaded you can click Open Containing Folder and view your downloaded file. It's that easy.
I guess if I have any more problems, I can at least find my blog in my documents file. It is just a scary thought to think of losing everything I have written.
Anyway, hope this might help you if you get in the same situation as I just had.

Have a great day everyone.

Hugs,
Gail

Glamping fever

After pulling my vintage trailer out from under cover, I started with a much needed cleaning. Unbelievable how much dust can accumulate inside with all the windows closed and a tarp covering it all Winter. But I'll get her all cleaned up and ready soon for a mini vacation getaway. I decided to make new curtains for the bed area which I made from an old chenille bed cover, and I will be making new kitchen ones from a vintage tablecloth. The old ones have faded quite a bit already. Besides I'm going for a bit of a new look.

before

Here's the first set of curtains I made.
And here are the new (recycled) curtains.

after

 What do you think? I think it softened it up so much nicer. I'm making new covers for a couple of throw pillows also. 

Just playing around and as an idea strikes me I am going for it. I have in my head a plan of how I would like it to look, will just have to see if I can get it there. Trying to use up some vintage pieces I have laying around.

I am so looking forward to taking her out. Not sure where I'll go first, but fishing has to be nearby.

One of these days I gotta hook up with the Sisters on the Fly. They seem to have so much fun when they all get together. I could learn alot from those women. They have been doing glamping for quite some time now.  I figure I got some practice runs to do first. Don't want to miss out on Glamping weekend June 2 and 3rd.

After a full day of cleaning and working around here, I took one look at my hammock and figured it was as good a place as any to take a break and enjoy some warm, breezy Spring weather. Would'nt you like to join me?

Out of Hibernation

Finally, a day of warm high 70's, no wind and beautiful skies. I feel like I've come out of hibernation from 6 months of Winter.
Today I planted a new apple tree, got my hands dirty in the garden, pulling weeds and planting Seeds of Change seeds of Fordhook chard, Tyee F1 spinach, collard, arugula, sugar pod 2 snow pea, redina lettuce and simpson lettuce. With all the yummy worms I've found I hope to have a nice plentiful crop of greens to start out my Spring veggie garden. Have you begun yours yet?
I have so many weeds to pull and beds to get ready, but believe me when I say I am one fat lady out of shape. I get so winded just doing 20 minutes of labor.
I started out this morning puttin up fencing to keep my dogs in their own space. I have too much invested in my yard for them to continue to dig holes and make the landscape that much harder to walk over. I have found blooms on my fruit trees just starting to come about. The smell of Spring is in the air with the different wild flowers and sage brush I can get wiffs of. I even brought out Ol' Henry my tractor and did some ground dragging of old dead brush on the property. Boy is there a ton of work there.
Oh, and I discovered today that so far I have two new baby banties that have been hatched. One is gray and the other white. Thank goodness that the weather has warmed up like it is. I feel I should'nt lose any to cold. There are two momma's that have been sitting on them this time. Taking turns to make sure they stay safe and warm. The one momma was just not a good momma the first time and we lost two of the three babies. Sure hope they are hens this time. Roosters have to go bye bye.
Well enough chatter for now, daylight is burning and I want to enjoy as much sunshine I can. Thanks for stopping by. Let's get outside and get our hands dirty!

Hugs,
Gail

I'm spending most days inside either sewing or catching up on some of my books I so enjoy reading. Our weather has yet to make up its mind if it wants to be Spring or Winter. Lately it has been snowing and raining. I had one day last week where I was able to get out in my garden and remove all the old strawberry plants. I had so many worms that I could'nt stop smiling. It has taken me several years to finally get the kind of soil one loves to touch with bare hands, smell it and most of all watch something grow in it. Now if the weather would cooperate, I could get my peas and onions in the ground this next week. Suppose to get up in the 60's for a few days anyway.

Here is how it's been looking of late. Too cold for what I want to do outside.  For the past 3 days it has rained. Can't complain much on that even if I still can't get out in the garden, everything needs the water.
It's also burn season around here, so many of the neighbors have started burning their brush. I tried to capture the smoke from one of the neighbors burns early when the sun was coming up. Thought it looked pretty cool.

After snapping this picture, I went and let out the chickens and saw all of these deer in the front corner of the property. They were not quite sure where they wanted to go with so much smoke in the air.

They are looking pretty skinny this time of year. All we mostly see around here are doe, occassionally we'll see buck but not very often.

Well, keepin' my fingers crossed I see the warmer weather for the next few days. I'm tired of being a bear and hybernating inside. It's time to start gardening!

A Safe Reminder

I've for years now said my memory is as long as my blink. Well I've blinked, Spring is here and I forgot to change the batteries in our smoke alarms. This I usually do every time we Spring forward on the clock and Fall backwards.

I was just telling my hubby the other day I had forgotton to change them, and still did'nt at that time either (blink, forgotton). So of course, at 5 am this morning we were pleasantly woken from a deep sleep of chirps going off. Sure enough it was the alarm in the living room reminding me of what I had forgot to do a second time.

Once up I begin looking for the needed batteries only to find some for the carbon monoxide alarm. The fire alarms will need 9 volt batteries which I will have to pick up in town tomorrow.
Tonight we'll sleep without beeping and pray there are no fires in the forecast. I'm just glad I had the gentle reminder to do what needs to get done.

           Have you changed your batteries lately?

It's A Must Have

           Yeah, I know, I can't help myself. The ground is still too soft to be out trying to plant anything with all the rain we've had lately.
                             So what's a gal to do? Bake more cookies.

             You can't have an empty cookie jar, right?

            Especially if you're a Gramma. My granddaughter has always said "everytime I go to Gramma's house, she always has cookies in her cookie jar".

        I think I've been doing this since my granddaughter was born.
            Keeping the cookie jar full.

       She doesn't come over much since she lives hours away now, but I try to keep the jar full just in case. 

    With mine and hubby's sweet tooths (his more than mine), I'm always having to refill it on a weekly basis.

      With that being said, I have another new recipe I tried. This one I got off the Food network channel.

                            Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

                                       3 very ripe bananas, mashed
                                       3/4 cup shortening
                                       1 cup sugar
                                       1 tsp. vanilla
                                       1 egg

Mix the shortening and sugar together in a bowl. Add the bananas and mix, then add in the vanilla and egg and mix thouroughly. In a separate bowl add these dry ingredients.

                                       1- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
                                       1/2 tsp salt
                                       1/4 tsp nutmeg
                                       1/2 tsp baking soda
                                       1 -3/4 cup oatmeal
                                       1 cup chocolate chips

Mix all the dry ingredients together then slowly add a little at a time into the moist ingredients stirring after each addition. 

Using a cookie scoop (my first time using one) place onto an ungreased or parchment lined cookie sheet approximately  1-1/2 inches apart.

 Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.

  Remove from oven and let cool on cookie rack before placing them into your jar. Don't forget to at least try one.

     I think I'll put together a care package for my Granddaughter so she won't forget what Gramma's cookies taste like.

                        Hugs and cookies. They're a must have.

                                          Gramma

I'm no June Cleaver

           But, oh my, I think I've turned into a Domestic Diva. Ugh.. With all this cooking and baking and cleaning lately. I must have a fever.
           As some of you know, there's always laundry that needs doing and I have it at least every other day.  So as I put in a load of wash I just happened to notice it's time to make a new batch of laundry soap and that I'm out of my liquid fabric softener too. So I pull out my little green book with natural recipes I've collected and always adding new ones to, and proceed to make my fabric softener first.

You will need:

1 cup baking soda

6 cups white vinegar

8 cups distilled water

   10 - 15 drops essential oil (optional)

          I would recommend making this in your kitchen sink, outside or somewhere in case of overspill.
         First  add the baking soda into a very deep pot. Then set aside your 6 cups of white vinegar. Pour 8 cups of distilled water into a pot and warm on the stove. Once warm, slowly pour the water into the baking soda, stirring until dissolved. 

Now very slowly, pour the vinegar into the pot , again stirring slow as this will bubble up pretty fast. Once mixed you can add whatever essential oils at this time. Today I used lavender as it's what I had on hand.

Once this has cooled enough to put into my old glass clorox bottle, I use a measuring cup and pour slowly into the bottle and cap it off.

This usually lasts me a good 6 months to a year.


While the fabric softener water was cooling, I put together my ingredients for my homemade laundry soap.

 This is what I use:   3 bars Zote soap
                               4 lb box Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
                               4 lb box Arm & Hammer Baking Soda
                               4 lb box Borax
                               4 lb box Fabric Softener (for hard water areas)
                               30 drops Essential oil (optional)

I mix this all together in a large pot and stir until well blended. This is a good muscle workout. 

I then pour it all into my laundry container, place my tablespoon inside and I'm stocked for a good year on laundry powder.

I mostly use 1 tablespoon per load, but occassionally on my real dirty jeans, I use two.

      Now I just want the rain to go away so I can get dirty and play in my garden.
          I'm no longer wanting to be the domestic diva and I'm no June Cleaver. I wonder if she made her own laundry soap.

Chicken Pot Pie

Last minute decision as to what to fix for dinner last night, I threw the chicken breasts which I had thawed out, into a pot to boil. I then began cutting up some carrots, zucchini, onion and frozen green beans. I placed these into a pan of hot butter to saute.

Then I put together a homemade pie crust and set that aside. I then added some wine, vegetable broth, spices and cream to my veggies, then tossed in diced chicken, cooked it all down a bit and placed it into my pie shell and added a top crust. Placed this in the oven for half an hour and presto, dinner.

By no means would my pie win a 'pretty looks' contest, but after slicing off a chunk and taking a bite, yum!

Since I did'nt have the exact ingredients from the cookbook, I used what I had on hand. I did use the pastry recipe which makes a very delicious, flaky crust.

So once again, I put out a dinner that was not only fulfilling, but had plenty of  nutritious ingredients all in one dish. Love that.

What's for dinner tonight?

Leftovers.

Thought I'd get a start on some Spring cleaning today. It is raining pretty heavy and steady so no need to be outside. Took off the shower curtains and all the bedding and have been doing laundry all morning. I decided while all that is getting done, I would prepare some Cherry Preserves from  cherries I had picked last year and pulled from the freezer. This is the first time I've used spices of cinnamon and cloves for my jam.
Found the recipe in the new canning book.

They just came off the stove and I've been listening to the nice sound of popping lids. After tasting some of what was left over in the pan, I was pleasantly suprised with the nice flavor of the preserves.

The dryer has finished a load, so its off to put up the shower curtains, maybe pull down the kitchen curtains and wait for the bedding to finish drying.

Hope your day is going well.

I've been at it again

It's snowing outside and a good time to bake. But this time it's for a good cause. 

Once again I turned to Ree Drummond's cookbook "Pioneer Woman Cooks", and baked her Chocolate Sheet Cake (to die for) and made my favorite recipe for Peanut Brittle.  I also baked up Ree's Oatmeal Crispies cookies and her French Breakfast Puffs recipes. (These take me back to my childhood before sugar sweeteners and gluten free or whole wheat.) These are the real deal in ingredients. The kind you don't treat yourself to too often, if you know what I mean.

Now the cause I am speaking of is Relay For Life. I hope to sell these baked goodies tomorrow to help me raise enough money in order to reach my goal. If you would like to help me reach this goal, I've put a link on the right for donations.

I will be walking in this years relay in July. This will be my second time walking for cancer. I have reached $55 towards my goal and hope to be able to get closer to it with the sale of all my homemade goodies.

Besides, what I don't sell, I or my hubby, will end up eating and just looking at this stuff puts five pounds on my already robust figure. So keepin' fingers crossed I sure hope I make my goal. Everything is getting packed up ready to go.

oatmeal crispies

peanut brittle and french breakfast puffs

chocolate sheet cake

 Wish me luck and thanks for stopping by.

What's for dinner?

           Meatloaf!

With my new cookbook in hand I scoured through the pages and decided on this delicious meatloaf recipe.

Just smelling it at this point makes my mouth begin to water.

Once I've covered it with the bacon, I smother it with 1/3 of the sauce recipe.

Bake 45 min. Pour a bit more sauce on top and bake for 15 min. more and wahlah!

You get this wonderful smoky bbq smelling, juicy, fantastic tasting meatloaf. Get the point?

Serve this with some garlic mashed potatoes and a side of carrots and presto!

Mouthwatering and Yummy!!

You can find Ree's recipe here: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/09/my-favorite-meatloaf/

Cock A Doodle Do.......what?

Okay, so my hubby and I are standing out by the corral speaking with our neighbor when I hear this boisterous crowing which is coming from my banty coop area.  So I say, "hubby, hear that? Two Crow has his full voice". I called him Two Crow because he goes "eerrrerrr.........ewww..." like he's run out of breath. So I'm feeling really good that after all this time his 'true' voice has come through.

Two Crow

Just then all of a sudden my hubby says "oh no! how did he get in there?" So I look over thinking 'he' was meaning my other banty rooster (Ol' Henry) which lives with the big girls had somehow gotten into the little coop area.

Ol' Henry

 But oh no that was'nt to be ........ my baby that was hatched a few months back, in which I thought Two Crow was just beginning to enjoy its company, has come out of the closet so to speak. He is up there proud as can be, crowing away like a big peacock, I mean Rooster. And all this time I thought I had another hen.

FogHorn

You should have seen the look on my neighbors face (priceless).  lol

He looked at us like we was plum foolish to not know the difference between a hen and a rooster.

FogHorn

Well, FogHorn (my daughter named him) was not showing any signs of being a rooster until this very moment. Well, he just could be trying to figure out who he is.

Who knows, maybe some day he'll be just like his daddy and find his one true love.

Ol' Henry and his one true love


Moral of story: Don't count your chick-hens until their older.



It's Snowing Again

It's already dropped a couple of inches,

and is expected to continue for the next week and a half. Ugh! Just when I was beginning to say Spring is really here. My bulbs are popping up, the grass is greening up and my trees are getting a few buds. Now I must watch the weather to prevent my plants from too much damage.

Oh well, I guess I will just keep myself busy trying some of these yummy looking recipes I have discovered in the 'Pioneer Women Cooks' cookbook.

This is such a beautifully put together book. I didn't put it down once I started looking through it and reading the stories about how she met her hubby and sharing her family with us, and I really enjoy her sense of humor and am literally drooling over each and every recipe.

I just can't wait to try some.

I love that she shows you each step with pictures as she adds the different ingredients.

Just look at how well she displays this recipe. (forgive my camera glare) I for one, love pictures in a cookbook. Not just to show me what the results should look like after I've made something, but I enjoy seeing them as I'm putting things together. I guess it helps me remember where I am in the recipe if I happen to step away.

I truly love all the color this book has. I think I will keep it open and on the counter to let it feel like Spring in my kitchen. Just look at some of these lovely pictures it has to offer.

Now does'nt that make you just a little bit warmer looking at all these bright colors? It sure does me.

Love, love, love this cookbook.

Thank you, Ree.

Mmmm Good

At only 12 degrees this morning, I  had an inkling to bake a pie. But I wanted to make it from scratch.

After searching online, I found this recipe from Food.com.  It said it is an 'old Pioneer recipe which stills stands the test of time.'

So of course, I had to give it a try.

Chocolate Pie from Scratch

Begin with 1 cup brown sugar, 3 Tablespoons cocoa

1 Tablespoon cornstarch

3 Tablespoons flour

pinch of salt

Mix all together and then add 2 cups of boiling water.

Cook until thickened over medium heat, stirring constantly.

Next, add 2 egg yolks, beaten (mixing a bit of the hot liquid with the yolks before adding)

Cook this a bit longer.

Remove from heat and add,

1 Tablespoon vanilla

1 Tablespoon butter

Cool, then pour into a baked pie shell.

Set aside.

Meringue

Beat 2 egg whites until fluffy. Add 3 Tablespoons sugar and

1 Tablespoon cornstarch.

Whip it until it peaks.

Pile on top of pie and brown slightly in a 350 degree oven for apprx.  5 - 10 minutes.

This is how it turned out.

Looks yummy, huh?

And this is what I thought about it.

 Mmmmmm good.

Those Pioneer women were right. It's a keeper.

Learning to Prep for an Emergency

Omg, where have I been. Well, I have been reading a lot! Reading many different blogs and websites, trying to learn how to become a little more self sufficient. What I can do to prepare ourselves better in an economic downfall, earthquake, or other unforseen emergency.

Have you watched any of the 'Doomsday Preppers' on TV?  http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/ My fav is 'Food Preservation' with Kellene Bishop. I'm sure many of you have been stockpiling for years, but this is new for me. Although I feel some of the people on the shows have gone crazy overboard, there are some who do have a point in that our Government is not always going to be here to help us out. We all need to prepare for ourselves.

So with all this in mind, we have begun prepping, as they say, by putting together first aid kits, stocking up on food and water supplies, cutting and splitting lots of firewood, and of course ammo and guns to protect what we have.

I pray I never have to use anything but the food for when I can't get the 25 miles into town because the snow has hit us so hard we are unable to get out or, God forbid, a terrible disaster does strike.

With the cost of fuel and food going up at an alarming rate, 30 cents a gallon in the last month, I am feeling better about having a surplus for if and when trucks are unable to deliver to the grocery stores.  As you can see, I hope to stockpile enough for at least a 3 month supply for now, and eventually maybe even a one year supply.

There are many sites out there to help one get started in how to prepare for an emergency. Just browse around until you find one that suits you.

I really enjoy reading these homestead blogs. These people have been doing this stuff  for some time and have some great info to share. http://hardworkhomestead.blogspot.com  and http://oregonnatural.blogspot.com/.

I've also found some interesting sites on how to make some very resourseful things. http://preparednotscared.blogspot.com  Here is a pic of my emergency candle kits that Trish shares how to make.


You glue a plumbers cap to the inside of the lid, place candles and matches in the jar, and reverse the lid to store your candle holder inside. Clever.

I am also making a emergency stovetop from new paint cans using toilet tissue, rubbing alcohol, and a church key. (Trish shows how to make this also.)

It is really quite interesting to discover other ways of surviving when we don't have the means to electricity or fuel.

I am also reading up on how to cook with dehydrated foods. This should be interesting.

I hope I may have inspired some of you to become more prepared for whatever may or may not come our way. Check out some of the sites which, I know, will surely inspire you. What have you got to lose? And if you know of some good ones, please send them my way.

The Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him Forever in the next. Amen. --Reinhold Niebuhr

blessings,
Gail