Sep. 24, 2009 - A 1st In 40 Years

Getting A Cast

Exactly one month after turning 40, I had a cast put on my foot. This is the first cast I have had in 40 years of life.

Almost 3 weeks ago, I turned my foot over walking up to my parents' house. This is a common occurence for me, so I didn't think anything about it. I turn my feet all the time. 2 days late my foot began to hurt and swell. I stayed off of it most of the weekend and by Monday it felt better. I repeated the same process the next weekend, but this weekend things changed.

I was on my feet more this weekend getting ready for DD's birthday dinner. The pain started getting a little more noticeable. By Sunday morning, it still hurt a great deal. I didn't get much relief from the pain as I slept either. So, DH decided it was time for me to go to the doctor. I agreed because it was starting to get to me.

I went to a foot doctor Monday morning at 11:00. They took x-rays of my foot. They believe I cracked a bone in the arch of my foot. He told me I could go for a MRI to confirm it, but the treatment he would recommend would be the same regardless. Since I dislike being in enclosed spaces and am scared of the MRI machine, I told him to go ahead and treat it. He put me in a soft cast which I have to wear for 2 weeks, which will make bathtime interesting. I also have to wear a soft boot which comes up to my knee when I am up on it, however he told me to stay off of it as much as possible. So needless to say things will be very interesting around here for the next few weeks.

This isn't the first bone I have cracked. I cracked on on my ribs when I had bronchitis real bad. I have never completely broken a bone or required a cast before. Now that I am 40 it happens. LOL!

I hate being immoblie. It isn't going to be fun. I hope I won't be to big or a burden on DH or DD. I hope I don't turn into a shrew. I need your prayers added to mine during this time.

Lord, I pray for patience and courage. I pray that I can face this time of healing with dignity and grace. I pray that I can let the housework go for while I heal. I pray that I heal quickly so I won't have to another cast put on for an additional 2 weeks. I pray that I let my family know how much I appreciate what they are doing for me. I ask these things in Your Son's name. Amen! 

Sep. 17, 2009 - A Birthday Weekend

Taking A Birthday Break

DD's birthday is this coming Tuesday. She will be 20 years old. We are having a family dinner here tomorrow night. So I won't be posting again until Monday. I will be using all of my time doing cooking, baking, and cleaning prep. So until Monday!

Sep. 17, 2009 - Tafy's Recipe Thursday

A Recipe from the Farmhouse Cookbook

This is one of my daddy's favorite desserts. It is another easy, simple recipe that is perfect for a hot summer day. It is just as good any time of the year.

Cherry Yum-Yum

♦The Crust

12 graham crackers, finely ground

6 tsbp. butter, melted

1/4 c. of sugar

1/8 tsp. of salt

Preheat oven to 350°. Combine cracker crumbs, sugar, and salt together. Stir in melted butter. Firmly press mixture into a pie dish or a small shallow casserole dish. Bake in oven for 10 to 15 minutes. Cool completely.

♦The Filling

1 - 8oz. package of cream cheese (softened)

1 - 12oz. container of Cool Whip

1 cup of sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla flavoring

Combine the sugar, the Cool Whip, and the vanilla flavoring in a mixing bowl. Cream them together until it is a stiff mixture. Cut up cream cheese and add it to the bowl. beat until smooth (until there are no lumps of cream cheese to be seen.) Pour into pie dish or casserole dish with the prepared crust in it.

♦The Topping

1 can of cherry pie filling

Pour pie filling on top of the cream cheese mixture.

This recipe can be easily adjusted to anyone's taste. We happened to like cherry. I have tried strawberry pie filling before. It was alright but there is just something about the taste of strawberries coming out of a can...well, they just don't taste right. I am sure peach or blueberry would be good as well as apple. Pumpkin not so sure about, LOL!

Cherry Yum-Yum is also one of those dishes that go over real well at a covered dish dinner. Last time I made it for Chapel it was gone within 15 minutes time.

Try it and enjoy!

Sep. 16, 2009 - A Tour Of Our Home

Part 3: The Living Room

Our living room is a very large open area. Its length goes from the front of our house to the back. We have made 2 different areas in it by using our sofa as a room divider. This is a view of our conversation area from the kitchen. The sofa is on the media side of the room.

DH's preferred spot to sit is on the sofa. He is on his feet all day long at work. He likes to come home and put his feet up. DH works in a furniture factory. He reupholstered the sofa for us on a discontinued frame.The trunk beside the sofa was made by my daddy as another Christmas present. Here is a closer view.

The next picture is a view of our front door. You can see part of our hugh picture window. The white chair was once DH's granmother's. The green chair belonged to my great-granddaddy. DH reupholstered both of those as well. The side table was given to us by DH's parents.

The next picture is a view of my desk and our bookshelf. You get another look at the green chair and our picture window, too. I bought the desk from Walmart using the money I got for Christmas from my in-laws. DH is upholstering a desk chair for me. When he gets it finished, I will share a picture of the finished product. The bookshelf was built by daddy for a remodeling job he was doing. The client called him back a few months later to remodel again. He tore all he had built out. He brought all of it home with him. When we moved in he said we could pick out what we wanted.

The next picture is the view from my desk. As you can see, I can still see the tv and I have plenty of room to spread out my scrapbook materials when I scrapbook. The ottoman behind the sofa is one of two DH upholstered. The ottomans are the companies to his and hers chairs DH upholstered as well. I will show those toyou in a minute.

Here are the 2 chairs I was talking about early. They are positioned in front of our bar. I hope eventually to build bookshelves underneath the bar. The chair on the left DH built to fit his body frame. The one on the right he built for me. It has more padding in the back so I sit up more allowing my feet to touch the floor. For you see I am only 5 foot 1 inch tall. My chair is where I put my feet up and rest. The little table in between the chairs was built by, you guessed it, my daddy. You can see the sliding glass doors to the left that lead out on to our deck.

Opposite our chairs is our entertainment system. We have had it for along time. I believe we bought it at Lowes Hardware. It houses all of our tv viewing equipment; tv, vcr, dvr player, converter boxes (we don't have cable or satellite), dvds, etc.  We postioned it here so I could view tv while cooking or baking, if I so desired. To the right is DD's telescope, with all of our pillows in front of it. You can see the second ottoman. Here is this view.

If you look closely, you will see one thing is missing from this room. Any guesses?..... There is nothing on my walls. I don't know what to hang on them. Family pictures, landscapes, mirrors,I just don't know. If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them. We don't want to put any holes in the wall until we decide what we want on them.

So that completes the living room tour. Stay tuned for  Part 4: The Master Bed and Bath.

Sep. 15, 2009 - A Tour Of Our Home

Part Two: The Kitchen

I love my kitchen. In alot of ways it is my dream kitchen, because I was able to decorate it in an apple theme. I love all of my apple decorations. I think the red and green makes it very cheerful. I love the window above my sink with its view of the pasture. I like the openess of it and how I can prepare meals be still invovled with my family while they are in the living room. 

This view is looking through the opening in the laundry room.

As you walk through the opening a refrigerator is on your right, then a small counter, and then the sink with a window above it.  There is counter space then my stove and oven. The counter and cabinets you can see are part of a bar that separates the kitchen from the living room. Our microwave sits in an out of the way area of this counter. We don't use the bar as an eating area. I use it as a table top of a sort. You can see a lamp and knicknacks sitting on it in the corner. On the living room side of the bar are 2 chairs.

This view is taken from the edge of the living room looking back toward the laundry room opening.

You can see the frig. I have a basket sitting on top of it. We put our keys, sunglasses, mail, bills, stamps, etc. in it. I have an apple cookie jar on top of there as well. On the shelf above the frig sits my Johnson coaching scene china I got from my mother. You can see the sink area and my window. That was one of my requirements when we started looking for a new trailer, a window above my sink. I have another apple cookie jar which I keep my cooking untensils in. My dish detergent is in an olive oil bottle. It looks nicer sitting on the sink than a plastic bottle.

Here is a wider view. This view includes the dining area and our china cabinet.

Here is a closer view of the dining area.

We have had this table since we first established a home. (The first few months of our marriage we lived with DH's parents.) The table came with ugly 80s style chairs. When they wore out, I aked my FIL for unfinished chairs. He bought these chairs. DH stained them to match the wood grain in the table. I think they look well together. The apple placemats were an apple table runner that I cut apart into smaller pieces. The napkins and cushions came from Walmart. The peace plant is sitting on a stool that is covered with a red gingham piece of cloth. I needed some height in this corner and that is what I came up with.

Here is our china cabinet.

My daddy made this china cabinet for us one year for Christmas. He used an old pie hutch my great-grandmother had as the pattern. I have all our everyday china as well as our good china stored in it. It is also has plenty of apple decorations in it to spice things up a bit. One of the 2 drawers hold my good silverware and the other holds all of my cookie cutters. Beside the china cabinet is another peace plant in a tin bucket decorated with apples. It is sitting on a little decorative stool.

The beautiful little puppy in the picture is our Miss Oakley. She is a picture hog. She loves having her picure made and is always around when I get out the camera.

Be sure to check out part one of the tour; the laundry room. Stayed tuned for part three: the living room.

Sep. 14, 2009 - A Tour Of Our Home

Part One: The Laundry Room

Our side door is the door we use to enter our home. The side door opens up into our laundry room. Most everyone enters our home through this door. I try to keep this area as neat as possible. Here is what you would see if you entered our home. 

On the right hand side is a refrigerator behind the door you just opened. Beside of the frig are the drier and then the washer. On the left hand side is a coat rack which you can't see, but you can see part of a red fannel jacket hanging there. We keep our yard shoes in this room on the floor. The 2 plastic containers hold dog food. The top one is Oakley's food (our inside dog). The bottom one is a special dog food for older dogs. Our small outside dog, Cheyenne, is 15 years old now. Beside the containers is our trash can. Through the opening you can see into our kitchen and on into half of our living room.

Here is a view of the laundry room looking  back through the opening in the kitchen towards the side door.

You can see the coat racks better in this picture. We hang our jackets, cardigan sweaters, aporns, and reusable grocery bags here. Our broom fits nicely into the small corner beside the door. You can see the frig on the left hand side.

Here is a view of my working laundry area.

On the shelving above the washer and drier are several crates and tubs. In an old dish dry racking (which you can't see because it is the corner and hidden in this view), I store the laundry detergent, fabric softner bottles, and misc. items. In the closest yellow crate is where all the dirty kitchen and cleaning rags go. In the next yellow crate is where I store clean cleaning rags. The pink crate is where we put the items that need to be ironed. The blue tub holds all of our cleaning supplies. We carry it from room to room. It keeps everything organized and easy to access. Beside the blue tub, we store DH's little work coolers, which you can't see. The shelving on has a bar where I can hang hangers. (You can see the hangers in the first picture.) Anytime we empty a hanger, they go here so when I take out laundry from the drier I can hang up any clothes that need to be hung up right away. On top of the frig is where I store egg cratons and our iron. The 2 baksets on top hold various items. The darker baskets holds misc. tools, the flashlight, and thermos, which we use to carry water to our animals. The lighter one holds a white vinegar bottle (I add white vinegar to the rinse cycles), wash clothes which I use as drier sheets, and the spray bottle full of fabric softner to spray on the wash clothes to make homemade drier sheets. The apple dish towel you see is hanging on an apple towel rack. I use those dish towels to wipe up any spills I may have.

I have tried to make the laundry room feel inviting since this is where people enter our house and because I spend alot of time in there. Stay tuned for Part Two: The Kitchen.

Sep. 12, 2009 - Our Farm Animals

God's Creatures On Our Farm

I love animals. I believe I inheirted this love for animals from my daddy. I would have a farm full of animals if we had the room and money to care for them. DH loves them too and indulges me in this area. Right now, we have 10 chickens and 3 dogs. We have talked about getting a pig to raise for meat but DH is hesitant. He knows I get easily attached. We have also toyed with the idea of goats. Anyway, lets get to the few animals we do.

As I said we have 9 chickens; 1 rooster and 8 hens. Our rooster's name is Cornflake. You will see why we named him that when you see his picture. He used to roam free in our yard with a hen. When the hen was killed, we put him back in the hen house with our other hens.

Cornflake is a dandy. He likes being the center attention. Can you tell? He is a beautiful bird. If I knew more about showing chickens, I believe I could have won with him. We like the looks of the Buff Orpington and hope to raise more in the future.

Our other 8 chickens are Barred Rocks. They are all hens and live in the chicken house. We raised them from peeps. They don't have individual names. We refer to them as the pee-pees. Our chickens provide us with 8 eggs a day . I use as many as I can and sell the rest.

We have  dogs; 1 outside dog and 1 inside dog. Our outside dog is a lab mix. She was set out beside our mailbox on a cold winter day. Her name comes from the fact we found her on a snowy morning. We named her Snowflake. Her name surprises everyone. You will know why when you see her picture. We have to keep her on a runner because she won't stay out of the road. She is our alarm dog. Her runner is near our garden beds. That has kept alot of critters out of our garden beds, including rabbits and groundhogs. She is great to have around. She keeps the opossums and racoons from coming in our yard. She has also kept the coyotes from coming to close.  Her doghouse use to be an old well pump-house.

Our inside dog is our my spoiled child. Her name is Annie Oakley. We call her Oakley. She has bought alot of joy to our lives. (I know alot of people don't understand how people can become so attached to a dog or any other animal for that matter. All I can say is that she fills a void in our life that because of certain circumstances couldn't be filled any other way. I will explain that fully one day.) She is a very intelligent dog and can do several tricks. Here is our Annie Oakley.

I love the first picture. It really looks like she is talking to her toys. She can identify each one of them. We can tell her to go get her puppy and she will return with her puppy. The same with the bunny. The second picture is her begging trick which usually insures that she will get what she wants, especially if she sticks her tongue out too. The third picture she is waiting for her daddy to get home. I don't know how animals do it but they can tell time. She knows what time he will be home and if he is a little late she will stare at the door until he comes home.

Well, that is our very small collection of farm amimals. If we add to our collection any time soon I will let you know.

Sep. 11, 2009 - Blackberry Lane Farm: The Story Behind The Name

How We Named Our Farm

Our farm isn't a working farm. Right now, it is only a hobby farm. One day, with the knowledge I hope to gain and improvements we hope to make, I would like it to become a part of a home-based business of sorts. With that in mind, I thought it was only appropriate that we name our farm.

First, let me give you a little history of our land. Most of our land was once part of the land owned by my great-grandfather. He bought 2 homesteads and  combined them into a working dairy farm, in the 1920s. My grandfather was his youngest child and inheirted the farm.  He took over the dairy operations. My father grew up working on the farm. When he married, he bought some of the land from my grandfather and built a house. My grandfather got out of the dairy farming business and went into the landscaping business. Eventually, my uncle bought some of the land and built a house. Now, several of us grandkids live on some of the land.

The land we own was once part of my father's land and my grandfather's land. My father or daddy (that is what I call him, although I am almost 40 years old) gave us the land our old trailer sit on and we bought the land our new home sits on from my grandmother. The land our new farmhouse and buildings sit on once housed the pig pens and then a mulch pile area for the landscaping business.

I love blackberries and they grew abundantly around this area.  Behind our old trailer we had a bank area that I made into a large flower bed. I kept this area weeded and cleaned out. I kept trying to kill what I thought was wild rose bushes. When I asked my daddy for advice on how to get rid of this pesky plant, he looked at them and said they were blackberry briars. Since then we have left them along and let them take over the bank area.The exsistence of those blackberries is where the Blackberry part of the name comes from.

We live very near the road and part of our land was once part of a state road before they straightened out a sharp curve and changed the road. Our old trailer actually sit on the old road bed so that is where the Lane part of the name comes from.

A working Farm is what I hope our 1.3 acres will eventaully become. I already sale eggs from our few chickens. I hope to expand on that idea some how and start selling produce at a roadside vegetable stand. That is why I am here at Homesteadblogger. I look forward to meeting and making new friends.  I want to learn new ways and  get advice on how we can become more self-sufficent. I want to learn from more experienced farmers and homesteaders. So any help or advice I can get will be greatly appreciated. 

Stayed tuned for an introduction to our farm animals.

Sep. 10, 2009 - Tafy's Recipe Thursday

Strawberry Frozen Delight Cake

I found this recipe in a little book called Simple Mealtime Ideas from KRAFT that I picked up for free at Walmart. I tweaked the recipe to suit my family's taste and gave it a different name. The original name was Strawberry Whipped Sensation with OREO. The recipe called for an oreo bottom and the use of Cool Whip. I changed the bottom to a graham cracker bottom. (I am not a big fan of chocolate and strawberries together. As a matter of fact, I think DD is allergic to the combination of the 2.) I replaced the Cool Whip with real whipped cream.

So here is my tweaked recipe.

Strawberry Frozen Delight Cake

• 2 cups of fresh strawberries (can use frozen, may need to thaw a little)
• 1 - 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk
• 1/4 c. of lemon juice
• 2 cups of whipped cream (I c. of heavy cream, whipped w/ a little sugar & vanilla flavoring added, to taste, or use 2 cups of Cool Whip.)
• 1 c. of graham cracker crumbs
• 2 tbsp. butter, melted

Line a loaf pan with foil. Mash 2 cups of strawberries in large bowl. Stir in condensed milk, lemon juice, and 2 cups off whipped cream. Pour mixture into lined pan. Cover with foil and place in freezer while you prepare graham cracker crust.

Combine graham cracker crumbs and melted butter. Take pan out of freezer and press the crumb mixture on top of the strawberry mixture. Recover with foil and place in the freezer over night. To serve invert pan onto a plate.Remove foil.

Let it thaw some before you serve it, around an hour or so. We cut it with a bread knife. Be sure to put any leftovers back in the freezer as soon as possible after serving it.

This cake tastes like strawberry ice cream. It is very delicious. I took this to my in-laws for a cookout the first time I fixed it. It was a big hit. My FIL asked for seconds which is a rare thing for him, because he is very picky.

The original recipe calls for 2 cups Cool Whip to be put on the cake as frosting when you take it out of the pan and remove the foil. I haven't tried that yet, but when I do it will be real whipped cream. It also calls for strawberries to garnish the top. If you want to make the OREO bottom; the recipe calls for 8 oreos, finely chopped combined with 1 tbsp of butter, melted.

So whichever recipe you decided to make, I am sure you will like this dessert. It is a perfect dessert for a hot, humid, summer day. However, it will be a delightful way to bring back summer on a cold winter day.

Sep. 9, 2009 - Welcome To Blackberry Lane Farm

Welcome to Blackberry Lane Farm, where the Sills family live on their 1.3 acres of God's green earth. The 1.3 acres He has given dominion over. The 1.3 acres He has given us to till, plow, tend, and protect. Join me as I give you a photo tour. 

Here is a picture of our farm house, our home.

Our home is a double-wide mobile home the Lord has graciously provided for us. For the first 19 years of our marriage, we lived in a 1968 single-wide trailer. It was strudy and comfy. It provided us with shelter and a place to call home. With a change in DH's job situation and a steady, secure income the job change bought; we were able to afford our new home.

Here is a view of the front of our home and our front porch.

We have plans to build a bigger porch, but that will have to wait until the funds become avaiable. I have 2 window box planters hanging from the rail. A chair is sitting in the corner by the front door. I have a flower pot full flowers and small decorative items sitting in the opposite corner.

We live in a rural county and in a community that is slowly losing its farm land to housing developements.  We are still blessed to be surrounded by farm land and have beautiful views surrounding us. Here is 2 views from our front porch.

DH spent one of his July 4th vacation weeks to build our beautiful back deck. I helped him stain it one weekend. We eat out on the deck in the spring and fall when the weather permits it. We used the deck to hold our DD's homeschool graduation ceremony. Here is our back deck.

Over his Christmas vacation week 2008, DH constructed our firepit area. I gave him a firepit as his Christmas present. He used salvaged paving brick from a walkway at our old trailer to make a brick patio. He used landscape timbers to lay off a flower bed area around the patio. This spring and summer, I have been adding flowers to the area. We have built several fires and enjoyed the evenings and nights around the fire. Here is our firepit area.

Here is a view of the deck and firepit area.

Here are some views from our back deck.

We have several out buildings. We have a chicken house, a camper shed, and a building made out of 2 buildings we put together. DH built our chicken house out of rough cut lumber, again over one of his July 4th vacations. Here it is,(and if you look real close you can see one of our Barred Rock chickens sitting in the window.)

Here is our camper shed which usually holds our pop-up camper. (DH is storing our lawnmowers in it right now, because he is using the lawnmower shed to store engine parts in from a motor he is taking apart.)

Here is the building we made by putting 2 buildings together. The half with the white door used to be a laundry room that was built onto the back of our old trailer. The other half with the bigger door was a storage building. We moved both of the buildings and married them to each other to make one big building. Both halfs are still separate, in other words you can't get from one side to the other. The half with the white door in now my garden shed and hoilday storage area, as well as a tool shed for DH. The other half is our lawnmower shed/project work area. We painted the building to match our home.

Beside this building is my clothes line. I enjoy going out and hanging up the laundry. It makes me smile to see clothes flapping in the wind. It is also a great way to help reduce the power bill. You can see our rain barrel in the picture, too. We use this water to water my flower pots and our flowers and trees in our yard.

I garden in raised garden beds. I have found it is easier for me to manage and I can grow enough for the 3 of us to eat and perserve. I hope to build a few more beds in the future. Here are our current 3 beds. (These pictures were taken in the early summer. The beds don't look as pretty in the late summer.)

We compost as much material as we can. We have to compost bins. Here they are. The bigger, fuller looking one is the one we are letting rot down to put on our garden beds next spring. The smaller, empiter one is the one we will fill this spring, summer, fall, and winter.

Since we have a firepit, we have started a wood pile. Here it is.

Well, that ends my tour of our little farm. I hope you enjoyed it. Stay tuned to learn how we came up with the name for our little farm.