2.5 hours

That's how long Jessie spent washing her steer.

Let's just say that the winter has been hard on him. And hard on his pen. So while Todd used the skidloader to clean out the steer pen, Jessie spent some time washing/scrubbing/picking at Oreo.

He's still not perfectly clean but.....he's better. And with her first steer show only 6 weeks away, we figured a 70 degree day was a good day to start. Plus, Oreo was shown as a calf last year, and is very tame. So he is a good one for her to gain some confidence on.

Of course, when Todd was done cleaning out and bedding up the steer pen, we had to walk both of her steers back to the barn.

This was Jessie's first time leading Oreo this spring - you can just see her legs and arms.

Next up for a good scrubbing - "Red Man," which if the weather holds, both him and Oreo will get baths tomorrow...

Have a great evening!
Kris

Mindless Fridays

I am so glad the week is over!!!

With weather in the high 50's yesterday, the chickens were in rare form. And we are down to just 3 roos now:( Both of our Rhode Island Reds passed on - which in a way is a relief, as they both were the more aggressive roos. But stilll.

Our Barred Rock Roo looks pretty funny since he lost the top of his comb to frostbite. Those single digit days did his comb in. And Angie, I was NOT up to putting vaseline on his comb and wattles to keep them from freezing (I did mention it to Todd that perhaps we should do that, and all I got was rolling on the floor laughing cause this roo is HUGE and does not like to be held).

I'm working away on my Bears in the Farmhouse and another baby quilt:

Slow goings due to the nice weather but......I'll get them done here shortly. Well, I HAVE to get the Bears in the Farmhouse done by Monday and the other one.....I think the baby is due the 13th of March.

Jessie's 4-H calves are growing - but slowly. We are planning on separating them this weekend so that the one who needs to gain a lot of weight (the red one - aka psycho calf - but we've been working him and he is doing much, much better) can eat to his heart's content, and the one who needs to watch his weight doesn't pig out. Yes, their pen is a mess. We have to get new tires on the skidder before we can even think of getting in there to clean it out (hopefully this weekend new tires will be brought and put on it). And as I told Todd in the case of the steer pen, the pitchfork DOES NOT fit my hand.

Thank you so much for all the wonderful comments and visits! I've enjoyed reading every one and trying new menus and planning all the wonderful foods we have been eating. I do have a bunch of awards that I have received recently - I haven't forgotten but I'm trying to figure out who to pass them on to - decisions, decisions. So I'm hoping to get that done here in the next couple of days.

And for those of you who have asked, here's some recipes:

Cheesy Broccolli and Rice Casserole:

6 cups rice, cooked according to package directions (I used 1/2 white and 1/2 brown)

2 cans cream of mushroom soup (I made my own, recipe to follow)

2 packages broccolli florets, steamed and thawed

3 cups cheddar cheese

1/2 tsp. salt and pepper

Mix rice, broccolli and 1 cup cheese, pour soup over top. Top with remaining cheese. Cover and bake 30 min. at 350. Uncover and bake an additional 15-20 min. until top is brown and crunchy.

Cream of mushroom soup:

1 lb. mushrooms, chopped, diced or sliced

2 Tbsp. butter

1 Tbsp chopped fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 bay leaf
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 1 Tbsp water

Melt butter in saucepan, cook mushrooms until all liquid is absorbed. Add salt, pepper, thyme and bay leave. Add chicken stock and heavy cream. Simmer 20 min. Add cornstarch and simmer until reaches desired thickeness.

I didn't have any thyme, so I omitted it and it tasted just fine. And I didn't cook mine until really thick - I wanted it a little runny since it was going in the rice. And I don't think I used exactly the same amounts of salt and pepper......

Enjoy the nice weather if you're having it, and if you're not - I'll try and send some your way shortly!

Kris

Cutting it close

On Tuesday I was able to use some comp time - but I stayed at work thinking I could pin baste some quilts.



Talk about cutting it close with this one - it is this close on both of the long edges of this quilt:


But the back is all one piece. I think it will work.



And then I brought this one, which has been in top done only stage since last August or so. This one is going to my Mom:


The only problem is I never pieced the back. I washed it, dried it and ironed it, but never pieced it (what you are seeing is 2 layers of backing and the quilt top folded in half). So I wasn't able to get as much done as I thought I was going to. Oh well.....there is always another day! Guess that will teach me to check before loading everything up to bring down here.

Speaking of basting - does anyone use the sprays to baste with rather than pins? How do they hold up? Does the quilt shift? Does it gunk up your needles. I have a rather annoying problem with running over safety pins, but hate to mess up my machine......

Guinnea Pigs

Before work Tuesday morning, I spent some time online looking for recipes (at the UNEARTHLY hour of 5:30 a.m.). I wanted to find a GOOD recipe for ranch salad dressing, cheesy broccolli and rice casserole and cream of mushroom soup. So when I got home from work (after stopping at the bulk food store to buy some of the ingredients to make these items) I got busy in the kitchen:




Todd and the kids are my guinnea pigs. The waffles are all gone, the muffins are all gone, the saucy pork chops were a hit. So I'm guessing that so far, this new way of cooking is becoming a big hit with them. Todd is of course complaining that I am feeding him to well. My response.....give me a chance to get some of the leftovers into the freezer and you won't be tempted.....




It was a little labor intensive (in that I had no cans of cream of mushroom soup and had to make my own from scratch before making the cheesy broccolli and rice casserole - but I'm sure the homemade soup is much better for us. And I froze the leftovers immediately into quantities that I can use again in recipes) but it was oh so worth it:



Yes, it takes a little more time (especially as I am a very slow cook) but.....it's oh so much yummier than buying the stuff ready to eat from the store. And you know it is a good day when Tyler eats broccolli, rice and cheese all together. On the same plate, in the same pile. And says he would be happy with the exact same meal. Every. Single. Day.


I think I need to come up with something new for tonight though. Todd may revolt if I feed him chicken 2 days in a row:)

Kris

Pretty in Pink

The baby quilt is done:

Binding hand sewn down (while we watched "24" on TV last night), label attached, washed and dried and all ready for the new baby. Of course, Todd's asking me every 15 minutes - are you going to have it ready for me to take to fire meeting tomorrow night?

I was up until 12:15 a.m. this morning waiting for it to be done in the washer so I could toss it in the dryer. Wrapped it up in some pretty girly paper at 6:00 this morning so he could take it with him...

...and he just called me - there are 4 more guys on the department whose wives are having babies in the next month that he would like to give them quilts. Guess I know what I will be doing the next few weeks.

This is also counting as my WISP Challenge finish for March. Seeing as how I've had the top done since November, 2007......

Late is better than never, right?

Kris

March

I cannot believe it is March. It sure as heck doesn't feel like March yet.

But we managed to keep fairly busy this weekend past. We spent about 3 hours cleaning out the horse barn - cleaning stalls, moving things around, sweeping up hay. All for the horses to decide they didn't like the change and not want to come in at night. So then we had to spend some time convincing them that they really should go in the barn. Ugh. But the barn is clean now so we can bring in pigs, and start working in earnest with Jessie's steers and heifers.

Saturday night we had the Annual Banquet for the fire department. Which was nice as my parents kept the kids for the afternoon and then brought them back to our house and stayed there until we got home. The kids love going to my parents - Tyler especially likes working with Grandpa outside. And Jessie loves shopping/crafting with Grandma.

Sunday morning we were up and at it at 7:00 in the morning. Todd had a bunch of logs that he had cleared out of a friends' farm fields, and we HAD to get them out of there before they are ready to start planting. And it was finally cold enough that he could get in there with a skidloader to lift these logs up. This is about 1/2 of the logs. Now we just need to split and stack them:

He took the kids with him for most of the trips back and forth - so I had some quality sewing time to make 192 half square triangles and quilt this (which is for a friend on the fire department who had their baby a week ago):

I need to find a fabric for the binding which I will sew on by machine tonight and Todd can take it to fire meeting tomorrow night and it is DONE!

I also made 3 dozen blueberry muffins with the intention of freezing some of them to be eaten on here and there for breakfasts, snacks, what have you. Unfortunately, the little people decided they made the perfect snacks, we had some for dinner, and everyone had some on the way out the door this morning and in lunches, and there are about a dozen left and that is it. I guess it shouldn't surprise me when Jessie and Tyler will sit down and eat a whole gallon bag of blueberries in 1 sitting, if I would let them!

Have a great day!

Kris

Bears in the Farmhouse - Step 2

Whooo Hoooo!

I hopefully (?!?) have the hardest step of this quilt done - all these 2 1/2" half square triangles.

And my OCD kicked in on these - BIG TIME. You all may remember my anal/obsessive tendencies - well, this is a scrappy quilt - and one thing I have trouble with is scrappy. I LOVE scrappy quilts, as long as I don't have to make them. For me, colors, prints, shades, all have to match.

And I picked out of my stash about 10 lights and 10 darks for these half square triangles. I spent 2 DAYS making sure I didn't have any duplicates (the same green with the same beige, etc.). Finally realized I would have to have some duplicates to get enough of these buggers. The sewing was a piece of cake - 2 hours and I was done. It was the pairing up that killed me.

But they are done - I even ended up with a few (ok - about 30) extras. Now I'm ready for Step 3!

I'll be back in the morning with what we did over the weekend. But this step I had to post by the deadline (tomorrow) and I didn't want to forget!

Later,

Kris