Vintage Camper, My Latest Project

Just picked this up yesterday, it came up for sale just down the road from us. Got it at a "just couldn't turn down" deal. The inside is in very good shape, other than being a little dated of course. It will sleep two adults, and two children. Has a stove, cook top, sink and refrigerator. Small bathroom, toilet only. Table with two seats, that make a smaller bed, and sofa, that turns into the larger bed. Dark paneling and cabinets, that I want to paint in a lighter color to brighten it up. The seat cushion are in perfect shape, with a large flower print on one side and solid green on the other side. Not sure what change I will make to them yet. But for now they will get a good upholster cleaning. The curtains will go and be replaced with something bright and happy, with some matching throw pillows. Lastly, I would like to repaint the outside, it looks like it was two tone color in the past, maybe even trimmed in wood grain.

                      Rock Painting

Has the rock painting, rock hiding and rock hunting craze hit your town yet? Well it has in mine. My family has been painting, hiding and finding rocks for several months now. For us it's about staying busy, getting out moving around more, being creative, and bringing smiles to peoples faces, and that includes children and adult. Here the adults are in to this as much as the children. I just hosted a rock painting for children in our area at the local farmers market. The child got to paint a rock and take it home, everything was provided for them free. I also had a lot of questions form adults that wanted to know more about rock painting, from where do you get the rocks, to the type of paint we use. The whole family can be included in rock painting. This is so much fun! Below are just a few of the many I have painted, I hope you are inspired to give it a try.

This one is made up of five rocks

Pelican

Sponge Bob (made of two rocks)

Country Scene

Country Breakfast

Whopper

Snail

             Field of  "SUNFLOWERS"

Took a ride last weekend, just sightseeing with family. We love Amish country and everything about it. Came across this beautiful field of sunflowers. Had to stop and take some pictures. What a sight to see. I thought I had planted a lot, but nothing like this.

Mine

Field of  sunflowers, as far as the eye could see

                     Pepper Jelly

My peppers are abundent in the garden right now, so it's pepper jelly time. Made one batch a few days ago. I already have enough peppers for another batch. You can find the recipe for this jelly in an older post. The only change I made is that I used four colors of peppers instead of one. This is a super simple recipe that I love. I grow peppers every year just to make this jelly. Best way to eat this jelly is to top a Ritz cracker with cream cheese, then with some pepper jelly. Yum, my family loves it.

So good!!!

                Potatoes Straight From The Garden 
                              To The Frying Pan

Fried theses potatoes as part of dinner the other night. Dug them from my garden, washed, peeled and sliced. Half Yukon Gold potatoes and half Kennebec potatoes. These potatoes where simply seasoned with salt and pepper, halfway through frying time I sliced up a Texas sweet onion, also from the garden, to add in with the potatoes. I can not tell you how good they where. My daughter even ate some, and did not mention the onion in them. That onion was the best. My husband even out some and he is not a big onion fan. This is the first year I grew Texas sweet onions, they are very sweet and did not make me tear up when I cut them.

They finshed at a beautiful golden brown

                         Deer Cam

We keep our deer camera up all year, we only check it every couple of months. We are due to check it now. I love seeing what we got pictures of and when. We have another camera that I hope to get up soon.

Close-Up!!

Raccoon

Turkeys, cool how the one is standing

Dog that I have never seen before

Bobcat, the night pictures are a little creepy

Buck

                Two More Calves

We have bought two more calves for the farm, these girls are Angus/Jersey cross. Nine weeks old and just beautiful. They are both eating grain and hay, seem to be settling in just fine. We have them both in with our goats just to give them a few days of adjustment, before turning them out with our other calf "Betsy". She is doing great, putting on some good weight.
My husband got these girls a few days ago. He was supposed the be going to buy one calf, but showed up here with two, I was really surprised. I love them both. One is more friendly than the other, but that's O.K. we our giving her lots of love, and she seems to be coming around. The friendly one is just a bit larger and lighter than the shy one. We are naming these girls "Mocha" and "Cocoa".

New home

Big bottles for big babies

Dinner

So good!

Can we have more?

"Betsy" sleeping on a pillow of hay

New friends

                   New Baby Chicks

Very busy with a lot going on. With new fencing, gardening, planting flowers and some new baby chicks. This week has been none stop. My sweet silkie chickens are first time parents this week. I have three hens and one rooster. The rooster is just around nine months old. My oldest hen is "Molly" she is a white two year old, and sweet as a kitten. The other two hens are about one year old, "Lucy" and "Ethel". Lucy is black and Ethel is charcoal grey, just as sweet. Even my rooster is a good boy, his name is "Ricky" of course, his color is porcelain. Five chicks so far four black/grey and one that looks like dad, or it may turn out white. 

My sweet "Molly"

Little "Lucy"

Miss "Ethel"

"Ricky" the dad

One of the new babies

Baby that looks like dad

                  New Farm Fencing

Just getting started

We have been very busy the last two week, working on some new fencing for our cow and mini horse. We have the wood post in and starting to work on the t-post and barbed wire. We have everything we need to finish, the measuring and marking of post is all done, it's just a matter of running the wire. Looking so forward to having this done, a big investment, and job well done, that we can enjoy for many years to come. I know Betsy and Icy will enjoy having more space to run around. All total we put in 24 wood post and 59 t-post, 4 new gates, 5 rows of barbed wire. Both "Betsy" and "Icy" gave their approval. 

One of the new gates

"Betsy" enjoying her new found freedom

"Icy" enjoying his open space

Go "Icy"

My other horses checking out the new neighbors

Catch me if you can!

        Had A Real Scare Yesterday!!!

Yesterday was not a good day. We had been here all morning working on getting fence post in for some new fencing. We had also been talking about how cool it was to hear are rooster some what competing with our newer, younger rooster. He is just learning to "crow". Sounds like he has the croup, but he is trying.

We all decided to call it quits for the day and go get some lunch before it was time to pick up the kids from school. We left here about one or so. Upon our return, my husband went out to feed the calf and to collect the eggs, this is the last chore of the day. In just a few minutes he came back to the house asking me "when was the last time you saw Cluck?", our farm rooster. I told him it was right before we had left to get something to eat. He said "He's gone and I found some feathers". My heart dropped and I ask him to keep looking and that I would look some when he was finished. When my husband came back to the house, he told me he had found a few more feathers. I took our ATV and searched the whole property, I found more feathers. It was hard for me to go into the barn, where my husband said he had found the most feathers, but I was really hoping to find Cluck hiding somewhere. I picked a very large pile of feathers, most of them Clucks beautiful tail feathers. I did not find any blood and no sign of Cluck, I even called out for him. He is so friendly and will follow you around the farm. Still nothing. I came back to the house and we went on with the evening. All I knew was that the best rooster we have ever had was gone.

My husband went back outside to finish up some fence work. He had not be outside long when I heard "Cluck is back"!! call David, "I need some help". David is my brother in-law, he lives behind us.

I ran outside expecting to find a very naked, injured bird. I even said to myself, if he's O.K. he's staying inside tonight. When I first caught sight of him he looked perfect, except for obviously missing all but one of his tail feathers. Poor guy, if only he could tell us what happened. He had came from the road area of the property leading me to believe this was a dog and not a wild animal, which would have more than likely taken Cluck into the wooded area of our property. But right now all I cared about was seeing to Cluck. If not for the missing tail feathers and I'm sure a good deal of his pride, he seemed to be in good spirits, in spite of his ordeal. He was taking it way better than me. I spent the rest of the evening setting on the ground next to the chicken run watching Cluck fluff his feathers and crow. This told me that he would be O.K. I can not wait to finish the fencing, this will make much safer for my chickens. When I told my sister about what had happened with Cluck, and his one tail feather, she said maybe we could change his name to "One Feather", laughing as she spoke. She obviously has not had a rooster that she bonded with, maybe I'll get her one for Christmas. Shh it's a surprise.

Cluck king of the roost, with all of his beautiful tail feathers

Cluck stripped of his title, now "One Feather"
Poor guy!

                            Babka

Made this sweet bread for the first time ever. I had heard of it, but never made it. The dough was fun to work with and turned out beautiful. My family really enjoyed this bread. The dough for me was a lot like that of sweet rolls. lightly sweet with a perfect chewiness. The chocolate swirl was the best combination for this delicious bread. I would make this bread again and again. This is a recipe from King Arthur Flour April Bakealong challenge. For the recipe and all the details visit link below.

                       www.kingarthurflour.com

                 Best Rib Eye Ever

A friend shared with us his secret to a delicious steak every time. It is a store bought merinade, that for me has been the only steak merinade I use. I've been using this marinade for about twenty years, and it has brought happiness into my life. I have not used any other merinade since trying this one, nor do I have any desire to try any other. For me the magic happens when you merinade your steaks over night. Place your rib eyes or steak of  your choice into a large zip lock bag, add half a bottle of the merinade. Let merinade over night or at less 2 hours turning bag whenever you go into your refrigerator. We prefer our steaks grilled, but cook to your liking. Perfect every time. Most grocery chains carry this marinade, it comes in "Original" and "Hickory Smoke" "Teriyaki" and "Hot and Spicy". We always use the original. I buy two bottles at a time, so that I always have it on hand.

Grilled to perfection

This steak was part of my Anniversary dinner, yum!

That included  a salad and homemade rolls

The merinade is "ALLEGRO"

                Check it out at www.allegromarinade.com