Holidays!

The Holidays have come and are almost gone now.

I took Friday off work (just in case that end of the world thing happened *grin) and we did a lot of last minute shopping, wrapping, and generally getting ready for Christmas.

Saturday I had planned to finish painting the living room and cleaning the house. The house cleaning got done as well as most of the laundry but I had a lot of other things that kept taking my attention and time so the painting did not get finished.

Sunday we spent with Bill’s son Justin and his wife and kids, Noah and Taylor. Just like all kids this age Noah was so excited and could hardly wait to open his presents.


Noah helping little sister open her present


Taylor with her new pony!


Noah checking out the erector set.




Bill made Noah a box to put his treasures in so little sister can't get to them.

Monday I made four pies – two pumpkin from our porch pumpkins and two chess pies. Again, I had plans that never materialized – I think I just needed to set a spell and recover before the big day!

Tom did get to come home for Christmas this year so I had all my kids home yesterday. Erik opened presents with us and ate breakfast then headed over to his girlfriend Meghan’s house for more presents and feast. Meanwhile back at our ranch – Bill prepared the turkey for frying, I started the sides baking and cooking and the kids watched new videos, played new games and basically sat on the couch all day doing not much of anything.

Erik and Meghan came back over to our house where more presents from and to Meghan were opened. And then everyone seemed to melt back into their own rooms to unwind. Since I had to work today I went to bed at the usual time instead of staying up like I have been for the past 5 evenings.

Tom will be home until January 3rd when he goes back to Texas. We will be having our annual New Year’s Eve party on the 31st. I’m not ready for Tom to leave, but I’m ready to get back to a normal routine. The Holidays are such a busy time of year. Since October we seem to have been going going going all the time.

Painting a Yule Party!

The subject for the weekend was mostly painting. Although Friday night we did attend the Bell Household Family Yule party which was a blast as always. I love that we bring gifts that are either handmade, something that needs a new home or as a last resort something pagany that is purchased. We all bring somthing and return home with something. This year I got a lovely plant - an African Violet. I'm going to have to look up just how to care for it becuase I know they can be particular. My grandmother always had them in her house so it is a lovely memory for me every time I glance over at it.

Saturday the painting began and it didn't finish until late Sunday night. So here's the pics:


These were the two colors I had picked out. I brought home samples to paint on the walls to see which one would look the best. I have to admit in the store I would have picked the one on the left but after putting them on the walls the one on the right won out hands down. I'm so glad I brought home samples!


Covering everything so we could start with the ceiling. The ceiling is a snow white - I have cathedral ceilings and I need for them to reflect the light down - so white it was. Bill was amazed at how many shades of white there are - "Isn't white just white?" Apparently not!


I love that Bill! He painted all of the ceiling! Aubri and I did the cutting in along the walls where we could reach but Bill really did the lions share of the work.


We found out that Aubri is afraid of heights! She never let her hand leave that wall the entire time she was up there. She didn't realize that she was scared either until she got up there. Her brothers squirrel around up there every year to put the mistletoe on the light or to change the batteries in the smoke detector but she had never been up there. But she was a trooper and did her painting while she was there... the getting down was the hard part!



I dont' remember what he was doing but we did manage to get a smile out of him now and then. LOL


So with the living room done, we moved on into the kitchen.



I painted this little wall between the living room and the kitchen with the rest of the sample... the more I saw of it the more I liked it.

Sunday we moved on to the walls. I was busy painting since I could actually reach the walls - so no pics of the progress but here are some of the outcome:




I just love how clean and fresh everything looks now. I still have a couple of walls to finish but they are short ones that I can do without Bill's help. I need for him to take the carpet off the stairs next weekend so I can do the stairway up and down and finish the project before New Years. Since we have a party every year I try to have something finished in the house that is new every year. This year it will be the painting. Hopefully next year we will have new floors in the living and kitchen and new countertop in the kitchen.

Catch-up stain on deep fried turkey

I got sidetracked last week once I realized that most of the pictures I had taken of the weekend didn’t turn out – somehow I forgot to post about anything else! So here’s the catch up from last week as well as this weekend’s activities.

Bill got the floor stained. The stain really brings out the wood grain. I love that it’s not perfect and that there are several species and several lengths of wood used. I think it looks pretty good for an 89 cent per square foot floor!


What will be the kitchen


closeup



We went over to our friend Cheri’s house to help with the garden and putting up a chicken house. Our friends Amanda and Rick were there as well. Rick and Bill did the chicken house and Amanda and I covered the raised beds with plastic. Then Amanda and I supervised from the kitchen window before taking her girls back into town for a birthday party. I felt a bit guilty that I didn’t do much more but Cheri said there really wasn’t much else to do – the guys needed to work on the chicken house and our ‘help’ probably would not have been appreciated! LOL

Sunday Bill and I went over the Cape Girardeau to do some Christmas shopping. They have a HUGE Menards over there and we must have walked around in there for hours with our mouths open in awe. I can’t wait for one of those to go in at Farmington – although I doubt it will be as big as the one in Cape! We priced plumbing that will be needed in the future as well as just walking around drooling at all the wonderful stuff that if we had we the money we would get.

I did manage to get a little present for me – some new black knee high boots! I haven’t had a pair of tall boots since I was a kid. I have fat calves and usually I can’t get them to fit. Between losing the weight and the boots having a little wider calf – they fit perfect! So now I have to get the Yule skirt made that I plan to wear to parties this year. I’ll wear it with the sequined top I bought last year and my new boots!

Last weekend was Thanksgiving. Tom was not home of course but all the rest of my kids were. Bill deep fried a turkey (probably the best one he’s done) and we had all the trimmings. Fortunately when I weighed in this week I had stayed the same and not gained! It’s a wonder! The homemade pies (from scratch – I even used a real pumpkin) were a hit with Bill. My pumpkin boy will be home for Christmas so I’ll definitely be making two then.

Speaking of Tom – I got the good news this past week that he will be home for Christmas after all! Woo HOO! Seems that one of the guys that were going to take leave decided not to so Tom got to take his place. I think he has learned a lesson – not that he procrastinated but as soon as possible – get that paperwork in for leave!

Tom and his buddies went boar hunting last weekend too. They speared a good sized boar so he will be bringing home pork with him on the 14th. He wasn’t’ sure what he would be getting so I won’t be able to plan for it till it gets here but I’m hoping for a nice roast or bacon would be great!


Tom is in the shade on the left

Other than we are having unseasonably warm weather – its 75 degrees today (December 2), we are having a pretty uneventful holiday season. Bill is collecting clue cards for the Jingle Bell Rock hunt on December 15th. I went by the jewelry store on Friday and saw what they are giving away this year – $10,000 worth of diamond jewelry! He’s going to try to get me clue cards this year as well so that I can hunt with him. Maybe between the two of us we will find the rock this year and win the prize!
Seems like there was more going on last week but I can’t think of what it was now. Sorry if this seems to ramble – I’m trying to put all the things that I wanted to write about last week and didn’t’ in.

All Good Things....

No, I'm not leaving Blogger but I am changing my email address.  Of course you won't see any differences here but if you want to contact me - my old Earthlink addy will be turned off next week.  So, if you want my new one - comment below and I'll send it to you in a message.  :)

Long awaited post about the pies

I took cbpotts suggestion and strained the puree before I tried cooking with it this time.



These were our pies for Thanksgiving dinner… seems Bill didn’t wait for dinner!



I cut up the other pumpkin that was on the porch on Friday and this time I steamed the meat and cut it up for freezing. I got 5 quarts in the freezer now! Woo Hoo! I will make some of it up for Yule and will have some left for various pumpkin recipes throughout the coming year.

I'm back....I hope

Well my primary email account is back online (its the one that this blog will update to) so hopefully I'm good to go.  They are still working on my secondary acount and the kids email accounts.  I have to get Bill's laptop to download pictures from the weekend as that is where they live right now.  So as soon as I get them downloaded - probably tonight or tomorrw - I will get my post(s) up with pics.

Troubles

Well, I had this wonderful post all mapped out in my head but my email provider (and internet provider) has dropped some trouble in my lap.  My account has been compromised according to them and they shut down all my emails!  I called support this moring and they are having some issues as well and are not able to 'fix' my account at this time.  I have to call back in after lunch (I'm sure that is going to take FOREVER!) so until I get that fixed I can't download any of the pics I took this week.

Hopefully later today or tomorrow I can post my update for the weekend.  And in case you got some weird email from me over the weekend - it wasn't me.  The last think I sent out was on Thanksgiving morning and all it said was 'Happy Thanksgiving'.  So don't open anything from me until you hear that I have it all fixed.  Sorry if my email has been naughty without me.  :(

Pumpkin Pie

Since I had such good luck a few weeks ago with the pumpkin pie from scratch (I didn’t make the crust but I did cut up a real pie pumpkin to use) I decided to make pies for Thanksgiving with our leftover Halloween pumpkins. Now we didn’t carve our pumpkins this year – I’m not sure why my daughter insisted on them if she wasn’t intending to carve them so they were just sitting outside on the porch whole. The cool weather we have been having helped keep them from going bad so they were ripe and ready to go this afternoon.
First I washed the outside. Next I cut open the pumpkin and cleaned out the seeds and stringy stuff (put it in the compost pile – maybe we will get pumpkins next year!) Then I cut it up into smaller pieces that will fit in a pan to steam.






I steamed it for about 20 minutes. Once the meat of the pumpkin is tender and the outside shell pulls off easily it’s ready. (I did notice that with pie pumpkins the shell either pulls right off or is very easy to scrape the meat out of - jack-o-lantern pumpkins - not so much.) I placed everything in a colander to drain the excess steam out. Pull the outside shell off (or dig the tender meat out – which ever works best. It depends on the type of pumpkin you use.)





Place the meat into a blender or food processer to get to a consistency of pie filling.



You are now ready to use this pumpkin in any pie recipe you like.



The National Center for Home Food Preservation does not recommend you can pumpkin pie filling. You CAN freeze cubed pumpkin which is what I will be doing with it soon. For now I just put the chunks in a freezer bag and froze it. You really need to steam it and cut it into chunks to freeze it properly.



For more information about preserving your pumpkin see the website: http://nchfp.uga.edu/tips/fall/pumpkins.html

American Heroes

PFC Thomas Baird Hodge - My son, currently stationed at Ft. Hood TX. Scheduled to be deployed August 2013


Sgt Justin Britton - Army National Guard (Bill's son) Served in Iraq 2005 - 2006


Staff Sgt Justin Tyler Voorhees - My nephew. Currently stationed at Ft. Benning Georga scheduled to be deployed in December (for his 3rd tour)

Good Bill Hunting

Ok, maybe this one was a stretch but I think you’ll see where I’m going with it… hopefully.

Last week I fired my housekeeper. Yeah, after 5 years of service he had gotten slack and I just couldn’t put up with it any longer. If I pay good money to have someone clean my house then I expect it to be clean. I don’t think he had dusted my bedroom for ages and the shelves in the living room had cobwebs on the cobwebs! So, I fired him and Bill came last Thursday to clean the house. I actually haven’t looked that closely yet (We left for the weekend when I got home from work on Thursday) so I will see how he did when I get home. Just what I could see when I walked in the door looked good though.

Erik and Miss Meghan came down this weekend for the first weekend of hunting. Last year Miss Meghan sat in the tree stand with Erik for a total of 15 minutes before he got his deer. This year – well, it’s Monday morning and they are sitting out in the woods one more day. Yesterday they sat out until it started to rain. They both came walking up from the tree stand to the shop in the rain. I didn’t’ think to get pictures of them in full camo but I did take some pics of them cleaning the rifle and Erik showing Miss Meghan a few pointers on gun etiquette.






It was such a beautiful day on Saturday I was disappointed that I couldn’t go out in my woods for a walk but with all the hunters in the area and Erik out there trying to get a deer – well, I settled for sitting out on the porch with a book. But the weather has turned cold today – it was 29 degrees this morning when I went out to the truck to come to work. Brrrrrr!

Maybe Bill will be able to get out in the woods this week and get a deer to replenish the venison in our freezer (we hunt for the meat not for a trophy). I know last year he passed up a big buck looking for a more tender younger animal but this year he said if it has a white tail – he’s gonna shoot it! LOL

Maverick's sanded trip to Caladonia

Well, Ok this title isn’t nearly as cute as last weeks but hey – this is what I had to work with. LOL

I got pictures of the floor now that Bill has the second floor sanded. Next step is staining and sealing then walls! We also got the heat tape on the water lines under the shop so that they won’t freeze this winter. He is hoping to get the toilet in sometime soon but I’m not sure that is going to happen this week. Too bad because next weekend is hunting season and Erik and Miss Meghan will be coming down so Erik can hunt – we were hoping to stay in the upstairs but not without a toilet – it’s one thing to go outside in the middle of the night to pee in the summer time but I don’t think I want to now that night time temps are in the 30s!


This is looking at what will be the kitchen - the fan on the left is sitting in what will be a HUGE pantry!


This is the view looking toward the stairs coming up from the shop below.


Closeup before the staining and the sealer - I love this!  It's all utility grade
unfinished flooring - several different varieties of wood.


This is standing at the top of the stairs looking back toward what will be the bathroom on the left
(where all the stuff is piled up - this will get tile) and the bedrooms in the back.


We took a trip over to Perryville to the farm store over there so Bill could get stain and look for some of the plumbing supplies and we found these ceramic heaters. Our neighbor has two that he uses to supplement the wood heat in his house. He says they run for pennies a day and cover over 1000 square feet so we bought one. Here is Bill setting it up upstairs. We ended up bringing it downstairs because of the high ceiling upstairs it works better down and let the heat rise.



Tom sent me a picture of his ‘costume’ for another Halloween party he went to this weekend. He is Maverick from Top Gun. I found this hilarious since I always told his dad that I named him Tom for Tom Cruise!



On Sunday we took a trip over to Caledonia to see this little Mercantile Store that our neighbor told us about. It’s like stepping back in time! They even have a Barista! Bill got coffee and I got Chai Tea then we met two women from Woven World (pagans) that just happen to be there at the same time! Small world really.

Hurricane checkin

I have a copule of friends on the East Coast that I would like to make sure are ok.... Laura?  I know you weren't right in the line for the storm but is everything ok there? 

Frosty wedding movers

A friend of mine online (waves at Laura) does this with her headings and it makes for some interesting reading. I smashed the three main subjects of this post into one heading instead of just saying ‘weekend update’ like I usually do – I thought I would try to make it a bit more interesting this way. And working backwards in time…

We woke up to a hard freeze this morning. This may or may not have been the first one this season (I didn’t look out yesterday or Saturday morning so it may have looked just the same.) This morning I’m sitting here at the kitchen table working ;) and looked out to see the sparkly grass.

Yesterday, Bill and I helped our friend Laura (different from above Laura) move to her new apartment in the city. Bill was there all day and will be going back this morning to help finish up the move. I had to take Tom to the airport so I didn’t arrive until they got the truck to the apartment so I helped to unload.

I went with Tom to meet one of his Army buddies Ryan for lunch on our way to the airport. Ryan was with us on the fishing boat in Florida on our trip down there. He’s a nice kid. Sara was Tom’s date for the wedding and she met us for lunch too.

Saturday night was my nieces’ wedding. Everyone looked so fancy! And Bill wore a bow tie (now that was interesting learning how to tie!)










Friday night Bill and I met our friends Amanda, Rick and Laura for a concert in St. Louis. This was a group that Amanda has seen at a festival last year. Big Bad Gina and two cover acts were at the Warehouse in St. Louis. It was a late night but we have fun.

Bill will have to come back up again since he didn’t get the siding put on the garage (which was one of the main reasons he came up for this week.) But he did get the storm door on my kitchen door and several other repairs around the house that needed to be done before winter.

If I'ld known you were coming I'ld have baked a cake.

Instead I made pie...

Tom will be in tonight from Texas for my niece’s wedding and I had two pie pumpkins. I had originally meant to can the pumpkin but then I found out that you aren't supposed to can it unless in chunks or freezing it so I decided to just go ahead and bake the pies instead.

I started out making just a deep dish pumpkin pie but I had more filling that would fit in one pie crust so I put the rest in the second crust and then mixed up a chess pie and put that over the top. We'll see how it tastes later when the pies cool.

This was my first attempt at making pie from pumpkins (instead of out of a can) so I'm anxious to see how good it is. The filling tasted like pumpkin pie before I baked it! LOL.




We also have a freeze warning tonight so Bill went out and picked the last of the tomatoes. These have been on there for a while and they only ripen a few at a time so I've not been able to do much but eat them. Hopefully, they will all ripen now and I can some of them.



So Bill pulled up the garden and put it in the compost pile. The ground is really soft right now because of the rain we had the last few days so this was a good time to do it. I guess we are ready for fall!