Can we say MORE broken bones

She hasn't broken them yet. But.....this is what I caught them doing yesterday when they were outside:

I know, I should have gotten the video from the other side so you could see the steps they were "sledding" down, but.....I didn't want to encourage them!

I'm going today to buy a gigantic roll of bubble wrap. Jessie will be wrapped in it 24/7 from now until she turns 21. Then her health insurance will be HER concern and not ours!

And Midnight thought he had to go somewhere "safe" to watch them. Although he probably remembers the sled and Tyler trying to take him sledding down the small hill behind our house....

Have a great day! I am SO GLAD they are back in school!!!

9 degrees

Right now, that feels like a heat wave. Yesterday I think it got up into the 20's. High today of 14 degrees.

We had to have a friend come and plow out our driveway yesterday morning. It's about a 1/4 mile long - and had 4 to 5 foot drifts across it yesterday morning. Cold, snow and wind are not good combinations. Wish it had been that way this morning, then I wouldn't have had to drive to work:)

The chickens are wusses and will not go outside in the cold and the snow. The cat is a wus and goes out and turns around and comes right back in.

This is Midnight headed for the open back door of the house. He's turning into a real diva - does not like the snow on his paws or even on his person......Tyler might have had something to do with that trying to take him sledding with him last week......wish I had a video of that one!

I just keep saying spring is coming, spring is coming......and I am so glad I do not live out further west.......because to me, anything below 60 ish is cold!

Weekend Sewing

I've been furiously quilting a quilt that is my Mom's Christmas present. I'm just about done with the quilting - so by tonight I should have the binding on and be ready to hand stitch it down. I think I have 3 or 4 more 10" squares to quilt. I went to JoAnn's yesterday and picked out a bunch of fat quarters for the binding:



And while we were in JoAnn's, Jessie picked out a striped fabric (for $1.50 a yard - they only had 3 yards so we got all 3) and a bunch of fat quarters - she thinks she needs a new quilt already for on her bed. I'm thinking since I only paid $35 for this and 6 yards of a white on white floral print, I'll think about a new quilt for her bed sometime next winter. We'll see.




My parents came down today when they were getting wood (right up the road from our house). And as usual, we (Mom and I) can think up millions of projects. Like the birds, we are making hearts out of felt:



I have an idea for the hearts - I just need to go get some muslin. Maybe this week. I need to sew them together here shortly, and then have Jessie stuff them (she has way littler fingers than I do!!).


And she had these to do. She had brought the kits about 15 years ago at a quilt shop, but we never got around to doing them:


So of course, once she left I had to quit quilting and start in on these. They are so cute and sooooo easy. The red heart I am having trouble getting it to stand up on it's own (I think the bottom is too long for the candlestick). But maybe if I chop it off and glue gun it in it will stay? Or maybe a different candlestick......

yes, there are pins in the sides of these where I need to sew them shut. I was in too much of a hurry to take the pictures to sew them up yet!!

We hit 26 degrees this morning - it felt like a heat wave out there! But the sun is out and things are running a little smoother (water and chore wise) with the warmer temps. Hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday!

Kris

Friday nights

Todd is off fighting a barn fire - they don't know when it will be done and over - they are letting it burn itself out rather than try and save it. It's way too cold at -5 degrees farenheit to be out there, but they are out there hauling water, directing traffic and making sure the farmer's house does not catch with the wind. The kids and I called Todd about an hour ago to check that we could take all the firefighters water to drink, but the road is closed (it iced over with all the water they are hauling back and forth).

So I am finishing this:

It will be my first WISP challenge finish for the month of January. Which was supposed to be a Christmas present. It will only be 28 days late if I get it done this weekend. Which is my goal.

The weigh in was canceled for tomorrow - rescheduled for next weekend. So this week we will have to do another round of vaccinations. But I have a plan. I'm hitting up our beef advisor, who also grooms our calves for us and will be helping Jessie learn to lead and show her calf. He can come over and stand out in the cold to give them vacines. And all I will have to do is cook him dinner. Which will be no big deal as I have to cook for Todd, the kids and I anyways. And I always cook way to much as it is.

Later,

Kris

-11 Farenheit

That's how cold it was when I got up this morning. And our electric had been off at some time during the night - it was down to about 60 in our house. So we got a rip roaring fire going in the woodburner and warmed the house back up. But it was hard to walk out the door to go to work. This is the second day the kids haven't had school this week. Which I'm glad really - Jessie doesn't have to stand out long to wait for a bus, but I would feel bad for all those kids who stand out there for 10 or 15 minutes.

Chores were horrible last night. Everything is frozen, everyone needed water, so we spent quite a while unthawing hydrants and water buckets to get everything filled. And of course, they will probably be froze again this afternoon when I get home:(

This is a table runner I've been working on in my spare time. I can honestly say I don't know why I've been working on it - other than I've had it for years and have been in the mood to sit and watch TV in the evenings (especially 24), but if I'm not doing something, I'll fall asleep.

And this is a quilt top I've been working on pin basting. I found it in an antique store last spring for $2.00. It's pieced by hand and I'm planning on machine quilting it and keeping it in the Durango year round for use whenever we need:

Stay warm everyone! This weekend our temps are supposed to get up into the mid 20's - it will feel like a heatwave out there!!!

Kris

Cold.

No fun pictures today. It's too darned cold. Whoo Hooo - we are up to a whopping 6 degrees. This picture is what our road looked like on my drive home last night. Before an Amish buggy sent me into the ditch. Which I was able to drive right out of because it was more of a depression on the side of the road and I do have 4 wheel drive and I'm not afraid to use it (put it in 4 wheel drive and GO is my moto now), but I felt bad for the amish man - that horse was all over the road.

The weigh-in for Jessie's 2 4-H steers is Saturday. They are doing it at the local livestock auction barn. We don't want to take her steers in there and have them get sick. So I go to the vet's office yesterday to pick up a nasalgen (sp???) pneumonia vaccine. We are out in the barn last night at 8:00 catching all 4 steers in the pen (because I certainly wouldn't want Jessie's steers to give it to the other boy's steer or the steer we are going to eat) and spray this vaccine up their noses.

Wake up this morning to -3 degrees farenheit. The kids don't have school, I had to seriously force myself to get into work (we have meetings here all day or I would have stayed home - I could have worked from home easy) and I'm checking the weather frequently.

Then Todd just calls me - better plan on geting more of the nasalgen vaccine. What hte heck for???? We vaccinated the 4 steers - we should be good to go. Well, if they cancel the weigh in due to the weather, we'll have to re-vaccinate them again right before the next weigh in. The vaccine is only good for 5 days......

I haven't done any sewing, the last couple days, between chores, homework and everything freezing outside (frost free hydrants included), there has been no time.....

Hopefully this weekend we will have the weigh in, and then I can hole up in the house and sew. And sew. And sew some more.

Running the oven

Last night, at 8:30, it was 13 degrees out. I think I NEED to move somewhere warmer....

So tonight is a good night to run the oven. Homemade maccaroni and cheese for dinner with venison sausage and then I might as well make some cookies. Or something. It all depended on what ingredients I have on hand.


Don't these look yummy?!?! They don't taste like regular chocolate chip cookies - they aren't very sweet, which is fine by me.





Of course, the batter was the best:




Amish Chocolate Chip Cookies.

2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs (I used 3 chicken eggs - since ours are still on the smaller side)
1 cup Crisco (the recipe said lard....)
6 tsp baking powder (I used 4 - seemed a little wierd to use that much)
2 tsp. baking soda
5 cups flour
2 tbsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt
1 large bag chocolate chips
1 cup milk


Mix all wet ingredients. Add flour, salt, soda and baking powder. Drop on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes (I only had to bake mine for 7 - we like our cookies a little soft).



word to the wise - if you have a dough hook on your mixer, use it. I'm so glad I have a Kitchen Aid with a dough hook - this dough gets very, very stiff.


Makes 66 large cookies that fit comfortably in the palm of my hand:




Sorry for the blurriness - aparently I cannot eat a cookie and take a picture of a cookie at the same time!

And just because he is so cute, here's what Midnight has been up to:

This cat loves to play with rubber bands - of all things. I'll try and get him on video one of these nights. I spend a lot of time hunting him down and taking his rubber bands away because I'm afraid he's going to swallow them. Jessie's hairbands work for him to play with when I get all the rubber bands - from the rubberband guns that someone gave the kids a few years ago:)

Kris