I DID IT! well with a LOT of help

Thanks everyone for your help and comments as to how to make a button for our blog. Ummm Hummm, if you'll look to the right you'll see the button and the code posted below it. Please feel free to copy that code and post it on your blog or share it with friends :o)  Who says you can't teach an ole homesteader new tricks, LOL!!! Thanks again Mrs. G for sharing the tutorial and if you are interested she commented and left the link for the tutorial on my last blog.

A bit off our irregular posts..... I have a question for you blogger whizzes?

My question is this how do you make those cute multi -facet pictures and use it as a HTML button to advertise/ invite people to your blog?  I spent two hours online last night trying to figure it out and still don't know. I am a self taught computer person, so my technical language is slim.  Thanks for any and all help, I'd just like a cute button/ picture to send to people who ask for the link to our blog.  Isn't it wonderful that I can say I'm still learning*wink* and not be ashamed to admit it, LOL!!!!

Emailing: Consequences

Okay, before I get flamed, I'm NOT saying voting Republican is any better, but rather what goes around, comes around, I just thought this would make people think, especially with elections so close at hand.

Old Lightning: Open Season

Everyone who enjoys hunting and owning a gun; well the powers( government, environmentalists, animal rights activists, etc....) that be, just aren't going to give up without a fight. They're going to attack this issue from as many angles as needed to take this right away. Please go over to YeOldFurt's blog; Old Lightning: Open Season and read for yourself.

Fun photos from the mid 1930's to early 1940's

Please take the time to view these old homestead photos, from the mid 1930's to the early 1940's  I love the ones showing the kitchens, tables and the pantrys all stocked with canned goods, veggies and smoked meats.  I thought many of you would enjoy these and this was shared on a forum I frequent, so wanted to pass it on for you to enjoy. :o)

Watch OUT!

1% tax proposed, so much for anyone earning $250K or less, not paying more taxes. Remember that if it is called a license, fee, surcharge,etc.... that they are just fancy, glorifed names for TAX!  I hope you'll all search into H.R. 4646, incorrectly named "Debt Free America Act"

Yesterday's harvest! It's hard to decide which to eat first *wink* You can see the "Pink Egg" tomatoes and the yellow roma is called "Golden Torch" The others are small Brandwine tomatoes from a potted plant. I have noticed even in the largest pots I have them planted in the fruit just doesn't get as large as when planted in a bed, but they taste just as good :o)

Dehydrating veggies and fruit is an amazing way to store foods! This was 1/2" thick when first cut.

If my memory recalls correctly, this is a total of 6 medium sized zucchini dehydrated down and now fit into, two yogurt containers.

We've had a cold front move in for the past couple days, so.... we took full advantage and baked some goodies to eat and for the freezer. Cortney made peanut butter cookies, I made two batches of zucchini bread, a  with walnuts added and another with dried cranberries and walnuts added. Then I also made a large ( lasagna sized pan) of blueberry coffee cake for breakfast for the next several mornings.  Now our temps. are forecasted to go back up into the high 90's and we may even break 100F! I'm pretty sure there has only been one day this whole summer(thus far) that we broke the 100F mark. A normal summer would have afforded us almost the whole month of Aug. temps. being in the 100'sF. This summer, as well as last, we simply haven't had more than a handful of days in the 100's, not that I'm complaining mind you.  Personally I like the mid to upper 80'sF myself.*wink*

Just about time to mix together and put into well greased pans. The recipe above, you simply mix in the order given and bake at 325F for an hour and 15 minutes, if using reg. sized bread pans( it makes two large loaves); an hour for smaller bread pans( makes 4 loaves), but I check at about 45 minutes and sometimes they are done.

Ready to go into the oven

As you see, there is already one missing*giggle* Who could turn down warm zucchini bread, especially at lunchtime?

Blessings for you day, may it be a productive one.

Krista Branch's new release

She's going to be at Glenn Becks 8-28 gathering and has yet another release pending, possibly by months end. It will be a tribute to our military personnel.  I like her songs and what the messages are, how about you?

Seeing some progress.... :o)

Monday morning while Mike was picking up the metal roofing and other needed lumber I started multi- tasking. Grated up 7 zucchini, mixed up a batch of zucchini bread and got it baking, sliced another batch for the dehydrator( see below)

Got laundry going

took pictures of how hot it was already at 11am. Yes, we're a Farmall family*wink*

Once Mike had the 1"x4" strapping in place, I began hauling sheets of metal roofing and helped, by holding and lining up the edges, while Mike got them screwed into place at the top. Then I helped from the ladder by screwing in the bottom edge.  I forgot to get pictures of the daylight through the inside of the roof. The shingles were so brittle and we knew it needed to be replaced but were hoping it would last until next summer. The hail a month or so back changed that quickly.

I stepped back to get a picture of our progress.... Looking good, don't you think?

Closer view, the grey picks up the lighter grey in our house roofing and matches my parents house too.

All finished, it took us two days, but we got a late start on Monday, waiting for Mike to bring materials home and then on Tues. had to take a break and meet Mike's sister, who was taking Cortney to visit Grandma Nita in ND. Can you see the moon just above the ridge line?

Finished and trimmed. We're even adding soffits! There will be a 3/4" bull nose trim added to soften the edge and give it a finished look. Then we'll prime and paint it green to match the house trim( which we're gradually converting from dark brown to forest green.  Now all that is left is to scrape, sand and pain the remaining trim, on the garage, to match and wait for next year to afford new siding for the whole garage(white to match the house)

I also took some pictures of the parsnip seeds we collected......

                                          and some calendula flowers, mini pumpkin seeds and fenugreek seed.
                    In between all of this I managed to water the garden. Yesterday we got the yard mowed and water put on it, then picked green beans, leaving the two bush beans for Friday's list.  Laundry only took until today(Thurs. ) to complete*wink*  Tomorrows plan is to pick bush beans, raspberries, water in the green house and wash sheets to hang on the line. We're still watering the yard and orchard and when moving water I noticed plums are ripening, so will concentrate on picking the ripe ones. It's a daily occurance that we harvest 6-9 zucchini a day and the cucumbers are approaching warp speed too. It appears that this summer everything will come on at one time! I'm just glad it's producing so well after our slow start and hail damage  :o)

Blessings for your day!
                                      

What's happening in your area of the world? Update on ours.

    Lots of things spinning around in my head now to put them in some sort of order. Let's start here at home; we've been run ragged by our zucchini, harvesting 6-8 a day. The plan is to slice and dehydrate( our freezer space is limited) as many as possible for use in soups and casseroles. I found a few recipes for Zucchini chips, which we of course will try and if everyone likes them we'll make a few batches( not sure how long they'll store) We're going to grate and freeze some for breads and cookies and we're enjoying them fresh in salads and as steamed/ cooked side dishes too. Our peppers are now in full swing, the tomatoes are beginning to ripen slowly and the carrots are tender and oh! so sweet. The only problem is, this always happens, our lettuce mix has bolted due to the heat and it's still to hot to replant more( we've tried and it just doesn't fair well) so our salads consist of chard and spinach and a few beet greens.  The beets are ready to harvest, not sure what we'll do with all of them as we only need a few jars of relish, pickled beets and plain ole canned beets. They really took off in the cooler wet weather and my feeling is if left in the ground until time to dig for storage they'll rot or get so large they'll be woody. Maybe we'll try to dehydrate some, never heard of it being done but it's worth a shot, otherwise the chickens will have enjoyment of the ones we can't use.  The Painted Mountain corn is growing well, ears are large but still have yet to set on their colors. The raspberries, elderberries and chokecherries are all absolutely loaded this year so we're working on taking full advantage of these as well.  We have apple jelly and butter leftover from last season, as well as peach butter and jam and plum jelly so with the added berry jellies, jams, butter and syrups we'll have a very nice selection to choose from and I almost forgot, a dear friend in TX, gifted us some fig jam, Mmmm, Mmmm. Soon we'll be readying beds for our fall greens. When the peppers, in the hoop house have ended their production we'll remove the plants and try our hand at raising some carrots, radishes, onions and lettuce and work to keep it us and producing well into Nov.( with some heat at night). Montana just doesn't have enough daylight in winter to sustain growing longer than this anyway. This is the reason we planted tomatoes, a few pepper plants, okra and eggplant for a later harvest, in hopes of storing them in the refrigerator, to extend our fresh produce season before relying on the root crops, cabbage, potatoes, turnips, squash, pumpkins and carrots stored in the cellar. When you eat seasonally you do have to think a bit outside the box. This was one reason behind our building the hoop house, otherwise we'd be out of fresh produce( tomatoes, salad greens, eggplant, cantaloupe, etc....) by the end of Oct. and that is a long time.

We surprised Cortney with an added late birthday gift. You see she is a HUGE Country music buff and when she heard that Jason Aldean was coming to the city, for the local fair she was so excited. Well, it also gave us good motivation to cleaning up some items to be recycled. The money earned from the recycling paid for the tickets with some to spare for fair time snacks*wink*  Of course Cortney had no idea this was the plan, until we presented her with reserved tickets right down in front of the stage, she was speechless for about an hour, then she never stopped talking about it!  On top of this a friend called and asked if she'd like to go earlier in the afternoon, the day of the concert, and look around and ride some rides. We met up with them after we'd secured our seats. It sounded as if they had a great time, rode lots of rides and walked around looking and window shopping. The concert had to be relocated from it's original location, the Metra, to in front of the grandstands like in days gone by before the Metra was built. If you recall back on Father's day the Metra was hit by a tornado and was severely damaged. Many of the concerts( Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood and a Rock band) scheduled, cancelled, because they didn't want to play in an outdoor venue. The weather was cloudy and cool( 62F for the high), with spotty rain, so we all took/ wore added long sleeve coats or sweaters. Thankfully it didn't rain, but their was a steady breeze making it quite chilly after the sun went down.  The opening act was a group called The McClymont's. Here is a free download of one of their singles. They were good, but their background music drown them out, so it was hard to understand the words to their songs. Jason Aldean soon was on stage singing all of his hit songs, a few singles and even a new song to be released on an album to be released the end of November. I know the words to songs but never realize who sings them, so was surprised to hear many songs and tie  them to his name. Cortney was waiting for his hit single; "Big Green Tractor" and when he left the stage he hadn't sung it. I told her to wait, the crowd would cheer him back for a few more songs. After approximately 5 minutes he came out singing....... you got it! " Big Green Tractor". The crowd was singing along, so loudAldean. Of course he was encouraging this and commented after the song that the crowd was wonderful and crazy!  We slipped out in the middle of the last song, to beat the crow, and do some walking around before heading home. It was fun but I realized that I'm getting old, me and 11pm don't mix well, LOL! Good thing Mike was driving, because it was all I could to to keep my eyes open long enough to make it into the house and into bed, Whew!

So much is going on in our country right now, it's mind boggling. Did anyone see Glenn Becks show on the 12th? Now I'm not a Glenn Beck follower( we can't even get his program unless via Internet) and I don't always agree with everything he says or does but this show was inspiring and heartfelt. My prayer is that it will be a wake up call for many who seem oblivious to what is really happening and light a torch in their hearts and lives. Now onto the announcement of the Mosque on the sight of 9-11 and the support of the President, under the guise of Religious Freedom. Here is another video that states the irrationality in this announcement. Once again we are told to "listen" and obey, for they know what is best for everyone, even though in polls across the media, people have voiced that this is wrong and yet again they refuse to "listen"!  Maybe they'll hear us in November, when I pray, the people make our "Will" known, LOUD AND CLEAR!
How about yet another bail out? I urge you to watch Glenn Beck's show and then investigate and educate yourself, so that you are prepared for lies ahead for our country.

Our weather has been so cool and wet all summer, with only a handful of days into the mid to high 90'sF and now the last few days we've been in a real cool down( high 50'sF and low 60'sF), feeling much like Fall temperatures. Praying this isn't a preview to what is coming! A few years back we had a hard freeze in mid August, killing everything that wasn't covered. Some weather forecasters are saying( for what it's worth) that for those of us in the North, could be in for a Winter Armageddon ! 

Mike is on vacation this coming week and we have a list, approximately a mile long, of things that NEED to be done. Firewood is one of those, not only finishing splitting and stacking the wood we have but to collect more wood that was given to us. This wood is pretty dry already and we'll most likely haul it home and split some and leave the rest stacked in chunks as reserve. Our hopes, every year, are to collect wood in the winter and in early Spring, split and stack it, but it never quite works out this way for one reason or another. We're also replacing our garage roof with a metal one, the hail a few weeks back, damaged it beyond our hopes of holding off for another year. This means that the pump we'd hoped to get up and running this summer/fall for irrigation won't happen. We are going to get electric run out to the site and put in a small pump with pressure tank and build an insulated pump house for winter watering of animals. It will be a blessing not to have to haul water via 5 gallon buckets from the house anymore.

Other items on our agenda are getting our heifer bred or buying our own bull to bred with( which means building a stronger corral), making room in the freezer for the 35+ chickens, 4 turkeys and our cow and by end of January using enough to make room for a pig. What a blessing to have the problem of space in your freezer.

Well..... off to make some raspberry jam and slice zucchini for the dehydrator. :o)

So tell us what's new in your life  and what's on your mind, we love hearing from you :o)
Next week posting will be sparse, to take FULL advantage of Mike's time off *wink*
Blessings for your weekend

Home Depot fires cashier over 'God' button - Careers Articles

Home Depot fires cashier over 'God' button - Careers Articles
Think about this when you support them and all other large industrial box stores. This is one of many reasons we work to support local businesses first before preceding to the city and even then we work to support locally owned small business. Yes, sometimes you have to pay more but if you truly think about it, you'll be paying more if those small local businesses leave and you have no choice. We, personally watched this take place when Walmart moved in the are we used to live, when in the city. They came in with ultra low prices, huge selections of most everything on could think of . K-Mart was already in decline and the new Walmart put them under in a hurry, next were two established grocery stores( both chains themselves), leaving only one other grocery store in the area besides Walmart. Soon people began complaining that the selections were no longer there and then the prices began to creep up as well. Why? because they'd run off all area competition and that was their intent. This was when we made the choice to shop locally small owned businesses. Yes, I admit at first we went to see what Wally World had and even bought some items( never food, only toiletries and pets food) Now I proudly say we've not set foot inside a Wally World in over 7 yrs. We are living proof that if you are frugal, you can survive on one income without submitting yourself to supporting these industrial chain stores. We have also done business, in the past with Home Depot but find our local lumber yard to be more accommodating , personal and better quality products as well. Please support Local Small Businesses first, before throwing your money into box stores, who have blanket policies that disallow the support and show of love for our country as well as our military and yet allow homosexuals to have a free ride.

Is this the beginning of the trend?

Rawsome store raided by poilice, guns drawn, video on You Tube and The LA Times article and surveillance video   It seems that CA tends to be the starting point for many laws/ licenses/ fees.  I just thought some of you might want to be aware of the fact, that this may be, "coming to a place near you", sooner than later.

Some snapshots from our yard and garden....

It all begins here; we don on our hats, bug spray and gloves

Front yard view from the end of our driveway

Choke cherries, ripe and ready to be picked

From the front orchard looking back toward the house

Some photos of the hail damage

Herbs

Parcel and Common Sage

Lemon Basil (background) and sweet peppers

Bee Balm

Seed collection

Remember in previous photos what is missing? We've collected the parsnip seed( approx 5lbs) 

and removed the plants, feed the leftovers to our poultry, they loved it!

Radish going to seed, waiting for pods to dry for collection

Asparagus berries( seed)

The Hoop house crops

The tomatoes have gone wild!

Sweet Peppers

Green Zebra Tomato

Watermelon Beefsteak

Some items harvested today, garlic, dried and ready for storage, zucchini( some damaged from the hail), yellow sweet peppers and a green pepper, plus  some Sour Cherry Jam made from straggler cherries, ready to eat!

This is at the end of our driveway, an eclectic assortment of flowers; hollyhock, iris, day lilies, a yellow daisy and I'm not sure what the pink flower is, our neighbor( across the road, in the picture, shared some roots last Spring),wormwood, mallow and sunflowers.

Hope you enjoyed the tour  :o)

Thankful Thursday..... Photo heavy

Many, O Lord my God are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. Psalm 40:5

This was in my morning study and it really touched my heart. Even though I am well aware of the many blessings from the Lord, do I truly have a thankful spirit?

Here are just a few examples of His wonderful works. 

Remember to click on the pictures for a larger view :o)
Blessings for your day