SECRET SISTER REVEAL

A beautiful Sunday morning with clear blue skies and mid 40's temps as I left for church around 10:30.
We had roast beef, fresh green beans, mashed potatoes, corn and biscuits for lunch with sweet tea to drink.  We had #1 son, #2 son, Aaron, Rebekah and Evy for lunch today as d-in-love and g-son went to the Lego movie and daughter went to her friends house to have lunch with his ailing grandmother.
After lunch the men all tackled the grim grave digging task. Aaron brought a back-hoe over to dig the large hole. Snowball was a big cow and needed to be buried deep to avoid any dogs or wild animals digging into her.

We girls walked up to the barn after the deed was done. Little Evy is a farm girl for sure as she loves her daddy's machines.

Cayenne was looking for some attention from her family.

Evy is also going to be an animal lover.She seems to be thinking "what are you doing daddy?"

Later this afternoon all the ladies at our church had our "secret sister" reveal. There was lots of last gifts and food along with the wonderful fellowship.

The turn out was great today and I am very proud of daughter and d-in-love for starting this ministry in our church.

 That's me in the "sun beam" in the above pic !!!!

I was very surprised at who my "sister" was and have been overly pleased with the "love" offerings she sent my way !!
Hopefully the "sister" I gave offerings to was as pleased.
A good time was had by all .
I came home in time to do the chores and then hubbie and I relaxed for the evening.
Grateful for God's blessings on this wonderful Sunday and looking forward to what He has in store for me this week.
Good Night and God Bless.

COLD HARSH WINTER CLAIMS OLD SNOWBALL

A strange Saturday morning indeed as I did chores in a leisurely mode and had a nice relaxing breakfast instead of the hectic Saturday morning market days.
It was raining lightly last night when I went to bed and there is a dusting of snow on the ground this morning.
As I sat at the computer last night writing my blog I noticed things around me shake for a time and heard a noise that sounded like a very hard gust of wind that hit the house. That's what I thought the shaking was from until I saw the news this morning. Seems a 4.4 magnitude earthquake hit around 10:30 last night in South Carolina, near the Georgia line.

Folks even several miles north of us felt the tremor.
Hubbie went over to daughter's house with her to help clear some snow so she could get her jeep in her garage. I stayed home and had a shredding day!  I shred a years worth of papers and receipts each year before I add last years to the files.  It takes me longer than usual because my shredder continues to overheat and has to be turned off to cool down intermitantly.
Sadly this cold nasty winter claimed one of our farm family today as old Snowball, our 20+ year old retired milk cow / pet died today.
 She has had trouble in the last days with one of her hips, she probably slipped in the snow and ice. We thought about shutting her up in the barn but knew she needed the warm sunshine to help warm her boney body as she didn't have enough fat to keep her warm on these prolonged cold nights and days.  She was down in the barn this morning and we got Aaron to come over and help get her pulled out into the sunshine so maybe if she got her muscles warm they would get strong enough for her to get up but it wasn't to be and by later this afternoon she was dead.  At least she didn't suffer  and seemed to have given up living.  I took this picture back in October and I remember thinking as I took it that it might be the last fall she is alive if we had a bad winter.

We have said for the last two years she probably wouldn't make it through the cold of that winter but both of those years were very mild winters, but not so this year !!!
So goes farm life, when you deal with animals you kind of get immune to death because that is just a part of farm life, it's sad but you move on.
Aaron will get a machine and she will be buried in this pasture she has grazed in for all of her 20+ years with us.

Life goes on.......

I just thought today that it is past mid month and I haven't done any decade post for February. As I searched for the ***4 decades I found more ration coupons in my aunt's old '44-'45 scrap books.
These are my uncle's gas ration stamps.

There was an entire book of these sugar coupons, guess they didn't use much sugar !

Each time I go through these books I can't help but wonder what the world would be like today if we had rationed food and gas ????     Prayerfully we won't have to find out.
Hubbie and I spent the evening watching a Duke/ Maryland basketball game which Duke barely won.
Our team UNC played earlier in the day and defeated Pittsburg while we were into other task and we didn't watch.
All I can do tonight is yawn as I sit here typing and listening to the early news at 10:00. It is 29 degrees and the wind is still blowing some after a very windy 34 degree high for today.
Grateful to God tonight for His love and kindness. As I watched old Snowball this morning I asked that if she wasn't able to get up that she be taken quickly so she wouldn't suffer and He answered that prayer. It was strange how when I saw her this morning I told hubbie that I just felt like this was her day to leave this world.  God blesses me each day with so many undeserved blessings it is hard to understand sometimes, I just strive to please and glorify Him in all that I do.
Good Night and God Bless.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY 2014

G-son was awake before anyone this morning , and if he's up everyone is up !!
The snow is already starting to melt early this morning as the temperatures climb into the mid 50's today with bright sunshine.  I had to be extra careful where I stepped to avoid slipping down this morning.
G-son wanted to get  a last sledding time in so we went outside to watch him.

He rolled snowballs all around the yard with leaf decorations from the quickly melting snow stuck to them.

Cayenne the horse was shimmering in the morning sunlight.

I know she will be surely glad when her pasture is clear of the white stuff !!!

I hate the mud that always comes after a deep snow.  We will have to do some driveway repairs when all the snow melts.

As hubbie walked to the mailbox a man pulled in the drive with a blow out and hubbie had to help him change his tire and inflate his spare tire.  I hope if I ever have a blow out there will be a nice man around like hubbie to help me fix mine !!
Annie kept a watchful eye on the goings on at the end of the driveway.

After lunch I did weekly paperwork and payed bills. Hubbie, g-son and I made a trip into town to run the weekly errands and stop at Ingles to re-stock some of our supplies.
Daughter worked 1/2 day today and had basketball practice this afternoon. Their last regular season game will be played Monday.
The road to her house still hasn't been scraped so she is spending another night here tonight. Hopefully tomorrow afternoon we can get into her place.
Tonight we had supper made from the left-overs we have had and #1 son,d-in-love, Aaron and Rebekah joined us.
#1 son and d-in-love both have to work at least part of the day tomorrow.
#2 son went back to work today at the P.O.
Market is closed tomorrow because of all the snow and ice in the parking lot so it seems strange for me not to be baking today.  Saturday morning without going to market will definitely be strange feeling !!
HAPPY  VALENTINES DAY EVERYONE, MAY GOD GRANT YOU LOVE AND HAPPINESS ON THIS DAY AND EVERY DAY.
Good Night and God Bless.

BEAUTIFUL WHITE WORLD TODAY

A light snow still falling this morning as I got bundled up to head out to do the chores. I think this will be our total snowfall for this storm named Pax.

The prediction was for between 8 and 14 inches and some places around the area got closer to the 14 mark than we did.
It is windy and cold this morning as I just put waterers in the houses with the chickens because they do not like this much snow.

These bigger hens could walk around in the deep snow but a couple Silkies flew out of their house and were buried in the snow so I had to pick them up and put them back in their house.
It is a beautiful world all dressed in white this morning.

The road is probably not a pretty sight to those who are having to get to work this morning.

We all gathered back here for a spaghetti lunch.

Weeellll, most of us had spaghetti , haha !!!!!
Even #2 son who called and took a grocery order after he drove to work at the P.O. and was sent home because the roads were to bad to make the mail deliveries on.

D-in-love took pictures while we cooked and she caught these three Cardinals waiting their turn at the feeders.

It was a nice day to catch up on some reading.

After lunch hubbie scraped our driveway while the temperature warmed up enough to help melt off the deep snow.

When he was finished with ours, #2 son took the tractor up the road to scrape his driveway. He had an easier time of it as his is paved.
Aaron, Rebekah, D-in-love and G-son went to a neighbor's big hill to sled with a group of folks from around the community. Little Evy stayed behind to have her afternoon nap.  Daughter and I did a workout tape she had brought while they were gone, I will have some sore muscle's tomorrow !!
When they all came home we had a sledding party here which both g-son and Evy enjoyed today.

Yea, she is squealing !!!!

Rebekah got a short skiing lesson !!

Snowman building....

Evy was not sure what to think about this big, white guy ???

G-son built his own snowman version.

The clouds broke enough for a splendid sunset this evening.

Everyone made it to supper tonight.  
As I looked around tonight I silently thanked God for the opportunity to happily share in all life's ups and downs with all these wonderful people.  We truly took the "lemons" of a scary snowstorm and made  "some super sweet lemonade".
Thankful for the safety of #1 son who worked clearing the road all day today and will again tomorrow.  Praying for the safety of all the workers who must brave the slick roads in the morning after tonight's 24 degree low temps.
Good Night and God Bless

SNOW, SNOW , SNOW !!!

Snow began falling just after I got up this morning. The chickens didn't make any moves to come out in this weather.
I refilled all the bird feeders so all those little feathered friends can get their bellies full.
This was the back yard after chores this morning.

We spent the morning wondering where the heavy snow was as a fine powdery snow was all we had.
D-in-love made a crock pot full of tortilla soup for lunch. Rebekah and Evy walked over to have lunch with us.
Evy was easy to entertain today as she was hypnotized by the falling snow.

Her dad drove the tractor in for lunch.

I cut up the last apples in this box and put them in the crock pot for applesauce today and g-son comandeered it for a human "jack in the box".

 Aunt T turns the lego fashioned handle as g-son hummed Pop goes the Weasel.

After lunch we got a break in the snow falling and g-son, daughter and hubbie headed outside to get in some sledding. Their was quite a bit more snow now than earlier.

He had fun sledding.

He sure was glad to have his aunt T around this time it snowed !!

Everyone went home and back to work for the afternoon and I did some bird watching. This is just a couple of the many birds that were waiting their turn at the busy feeders today.

As the snow began to fall fast and furiously in the later afternoon and evening it started adding up quickly. When I went out to do the evening chores the barn was a blur through the snowfall.

As I walked around to the front and looked down at the road it was completely whited out by the snow. Even cars passing with head lights on were very hard to see.

Everyone made it home tonight safely thank you Lord !!
Rebekah brought over a pork roast, D-in-love made some special mashed potatoes and I added some green beans and a dessert of delicious snow cream to our supper tonight as we all congregated back here . Talked to #2 son so he could stop by for supper but he had already made it home safely and didn't feel like getting back out tonight.
All the kids talked about going sledding but decided against it because of how much snow was still falling. 
Instead we watched a movie while little Evy slept.  G-son wanted to spend the night but his mom didn't want to be alone when #1 son got up very early to go to work so he went home.
Son is working 12 hour days pushing snow off the roads and will until they get all the roads cleared.
At bedtime tonight we had about 8 inches of snow and it is still falling but only lightly.
Grateful tonight for the safely of everyone who worked today and thanking God for the wonderful family days the snow brings.
Good Night and God Bless.