My Garden this past season

My first square foot garden we built last year. This one has sage, onions, strawberries, and "what was I thinking mint".

My garden this year! Green beans, tomatoes, onions, herbs, squash, and 1 praying mantis!

A close up after the onions were pulled and the herbs trimmed back. I dry the herbs and prep them to use in the kitchen. Another post for that though.


A small bit of my first harvest. Patty Pan squash, green beans, and yummy carrots!

This is how I water my garden. Yep! Rain water. Water here is so expensive AND so polluted due to the fact we get our water from the Ohio River (joy! huh!?) I refused to shower, drink or use the tap water (since the state has issued a failed EPA test for the watere here for the past 7 years!) So we bought these from the County Ag office, cheap. C used his talents and built a stand for one so the pressure pushes the water out quicker, and excess runs from a small hose on the side down to the barrel below.

See? You would think I water with Miracle Gro when I use rain water. You should try it! Even if you catch it in 5 gal buckets, try watering your houseplants and see what happens. (PS Don't drink rain water unless you purify it first. Just my tip for the day)

My compost bin, brand new and just started to compost when the weather turned. I've stopped for now, I don't know about throwing scraps in the compost with 2 inches of snow on it.

So there's some of joy from this summer and fall. I never knew how much I LOVE to garden. I'm always out there. And if I'm stressed, anytime of the day or night...I'm in my garden piddlin' around. There is something soothing to the soul with mixing dirt and tending to the creation that God is growing. I'm just the gardener, He is the Creator. When I pull in the crop that is ready or just water and tend to it lovingly, it brings me so much joy.

Here's a funny image. Snow all over the garden and ground and I'm standing at our glass door in the kitchen looking out at the garden saying "come back...come back!" LOL. I know, soon enough. I actually need this resting time through the winter to learn more about composting and gardening. This is the time to pull in, rest and restore.

So, would making paper rings up to the first planting be wrong! :-)

Reviewing the past two seasons

I have been out of the blogging world for sometime. Circumstances have been such that my mind and heart have not been in it. But as I regain ground and I look to myself and the things that bring me joy or things in the past that have brought me joy...blogging is one of them. I have just a few blogs I enjoy and read often, it's funny how I consider them friends even though we've never met.



In light of looking back through some of my pictures I have a handful of events over the past few months that I really would like to share. I hope you enjoy them and I will try to keep it brief (Me? brief? my husband would fall over laughing. But shhh, don't tell him I said I can be brief.)

Enjoy~

C's birthday! We had BBQ Beef ribs, and he was one happy camper!

Our windows before the replacements were put in. Wood frames, counter weights in the side soiled with soot from a past coal heating system (before we owned the house). They were beautiful, built in 1927, but leaked air like crazy. Last winter I watched my blinds move on the INSIDE of my house when the wind blew outside. Praise God for the money to buy new windows! My house is warm this winter thanks to Him and C's hard work.

Out with the old leaded glass windows.


C holding a counterweight before it was taken out.

There's the new. Oh I could just hug them!!!

Have you ever seen a house with NO windows?

Tad-da! Brand spankin' new, no leaking, warm, lovely windows! Can you tell I like them. I thank God a lot for them.

Me and my lap buddy (or so he thinks) during morning prayer time.

Fall colors on my drive to Amish country to get some meat.

This was cool. Exact replicas of the Nina and Pinta, the two of the 3 ships Columbus sailed on, docked in Steubenville. They sail around the country so people and kids can see what it was really like to be on the boat he came over on. There is a man and his family in Africa I think, that still knew the trade for how the ships were built. So these were done the exact way, pine tar to make them float and all. It was really neat to be on, but I could never sail on one. Sea sickness is not my cup of tea. You can search for their web site, they take volunteers to sail with them. Each ship has a captain to guide the volunteers (no experience required).

I hope you enjoyed the journey over the past few months.

Peace,

Dee

For Unto Us a Child Is Born...

Merry Christmas to you!

We have had a great day. We each have been blessed with gifts from family. Danielle's bo' must have been really good this year, he got 2 stockings!! (She helped Santa out with one of them). Christmas was really nice and dinner was way cool as my sister would say. We chose to have steaks for Christmas dinner. Something different yet something C and I really enjoy. Especially a good grass fed, slow cooked or seared steak. I was online looking up the right way to cook grass fed beef. I've learned DON'T cook it fast. You will end up with some of the toughest meat that would fatigue anyone's jaw muscles, trust me on this and don't ask why!

So I ran across a website that sells grass fed beef and they are gracious enough to have a chef on staff that posts articles and recipes for cooking grass fed beef. I found an article about cooking them in cast irons the way the pioneers used to. They didn't have refrigerators (?) to keep their beef cold, or lovely ovens to cook in or fancy grills. It was hot coals and a good iron! So this guy walks you through step by step and here's how it goes (trust me when I say keep a fire extinguisher near by, but trust in the technique. You won't be disappointed):

* Heat your oven and your cast iron (from here on out called "iron") on Hi broil for 15-20 min. Now I didn't do a typo and I haven't lost my mind. Oh wait, I'll hold that until the end.

* Now with welder's gloves pull your iron out and put it on the burner, that is already on high, for 3 minutes. Right before you put on the steaks put some oil in it that is NOT flameable, like coconut oil or we used bacon grease. Warning: do not use olive oil per chef.

*Now put on your steaks for 30 seconds each side. TIME IT!

*Take the whole iron & steak and put it back in the oven and broil for 3 min, each side. Believe me, it is worth the work.

*Pull it out and put it on the plate. The most important part that people don't do: DON'T cut it for 3-5 minutes. Let it rest so the juice stays in it.

I have never had a tastier, juicier, fantastic steak ever! Even all my years in Okinawa, and some of the best steakhouses. Never! Now I will say, my oven is a mess and the kitchen was smokey so we had to open up the windows, but will I do it again? You bet! Soon? No way!

We even made Danielle's bo' nervous, Ha! I'd say we did a good job. I think God was patient while C and I experimented. :-)

We have much to celebrate on this Christmas day! Things like a good steak that God gave us, family arrived safely, good health, a roof over our head and shoes on our feet. And windows (see post above).

I wish you a Merry Christmas and God's peace, mercy and loving forgiveness to be with you.

~ Dee

Howdy! Today is a nice day here. The sun is out and the snow is bright. It's only 28 degrees outside, but Koda and I went for a walk anyways. I believe it's good to get out in the fresh air. It does something for the mind and heart.

I've had time today to mess with my blog and get it updated. I'm going to try to go back in all my posts and get labels on them. Can't promise anything, but it's something I've always wanted to do. So it's under a bit of construction. Most of the changes are done. I hope you like them.

Danielle and her bo, Justin, drove in this morning from North Carolina. They drove all night...and now are sleeping. That makes me tired just thinking of it. Deliriously tired. Though I remember when C and I used to do that from 29 Palms to NM just for a 4 day weekend. Going home was that important, especially when you are active duty. All went well, they did see 1 drunk driver. The guy was driving down the middle of the highway and took out the left rear hub cap of a FED Ex truck! Thank God they drove really fast past him before he could swerve over to there lane.

Today I am focusing on, um, well..today. :-) Today is Wednesday and all my chores are done. The pie is baked, the cookies are done, the house is clean, the family is here (though sleeping) and I have nothing to do...scary! Feels kind of neet!

I do hope to hem the curtains in my dining room and living room that I bought some time ago and just haven't taken the time to shorten them. Maybe after lunch. I like days that I can meander through the day, with no rushing and no real agenda. It's peaceful, albeit difficult to just sit still, but still peaceful. Maybe I need this. It's Christmas, a great reason to sit back, relax and "take some tea".

Peace,

Dee

We had a great time in Iowa! Hubby and I drove to Independance and Muscatine last week. I got to see my dad's grave. It was very humbling. I can't begin to describe the feeling of actually seeing your dad's name on a head stone. Later that day we drove to see where my grandmother's farm was (notice I said was) and my great-grandmother's house. You will see a picture of the original water well that I remember grandma used to send me out to get water when I wanted a bath. Ha! try filling up a claw foot tub with water you pump from a well and heat on the stove! I remember doing that once, only once!

We went to the courthouse and did some family research trying to find some info on my dad's biological dad. It is an incredible feeling seeing the actual marriage certificate of your great-grandparents and fascinating to learn what family has died of over the years. I learned my dad's dad was a blacksmith, fancy that! But he died of lung cancer. Hubby says it's part of the trade.

We spent Thanksgiving in Muscatine. That was great! I got to have my first Thanksgiving in YEARS with family. All our years in the military we weren't able to spend Holidays with family, so this was nice.

And you know, I prayed all the way there...14 hours worth, and while we were there for good weather. Wednesday it was drizzling and really cold - the day I was at the cemetary, then Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were sunny and great! I was praising God each day. Friday and Saturday I didn't even need a jacket!

One last note before I sign off. I found out my grandfather (my mom's dad) worked in the button factory in Muscatine. Now this is not JUST a button factory, they made 37% of the buttons made at the time. There is a few pictures of what I could get in the museum. The Pearl Button Museum was closed but praise God for glass windows. Then we ate lunch in the factory. It has been converted into a restaurant. How fun is that! I love buttons. Chris boought me a watch while we were stationed in NC, that is made from buttons from a Victorian dress. Each one is listed in the Big Button book. Something fun about me! :-)

Off to cook dinner and get to a meetin'. Enjoy the pictures.

Peace,

Dee

Our "Japanese" style dinner in the hotel. Two pillows and a cooler :-) With Taco salad served!

My great-grandmother's house...very renovated. Did they have vinyl and side porches in the early 1900's?


The original water well pump.


Thanksgiving..cousins, friends, family.

My Uncle and guess who?

My Aunt & Uncle.

The back side of the Pearl Button Factory.

Inside the restaurant, what used to be the factory. Plastic took over from the real pearl buttons, hence the factory closed down.
A glimpse in history of the clams racked in to make buttons.

One of the machines to make the buttons. I was told that each person had their own button cutter.


A bazillion pearl buttons in a glass case.

What you would see in the store.

I love covered bridges. This one is somewhere in Illinois.

To bad the driver of a truck didn't read this as he zipped through, almost hitting me!
An old barn on the drive home. I like old barnes too.

Geese flying over us as we drove.

God's glory in color.

And the rest of the pictures

Here are the rest of our pictures from our off road trip. These one's are of our truck. Drake's daughter took these..isn't she a great photographer.

Both trucks before inching (is that a word? it is today!) down the trail.

Dee walking over to assess the trail with the others.
Oh my...THAT'S THE TRAIL?


Working our way through the hill side.

Howdy!!

Climbing rocks.

The stinky water puddle, um no, lake. It came up the top of the truck hood, and smelled like it had been there for 20 years. YUCK! Was is fun, yep, only because we didn't get stuck and have to get out in it!!

Straddling ruts.

We'll be comin' down the mountain when we come...(insert music jingle here LOL)

We had a good time, but I don't look forward to it again real soon. I'm thinking...ice skating sounds like fun. I hear Pittsburgh has an ice rink and it's an hour from here. Anyone up for ice skating??

Have a great weekend! We are getting ready for a road trip on Tuesday. God willing we will be back on Sunday. Our first "vacation" in years. No dogs, no kids. Kind of scary, kinda of exciting. Going to be paying respects, doing some ancestry research and some adventuring.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing you Peace,

Dee

Off Road Crawling

You will never guess what we did yesterday. Chris has 4 days off, Fall Break, and a friend just got a Land Rover and wanted to go try it off road. He used to go way back when, and we talked to him about when Chris would go with his dad, and I shared when I used to go...way back when. We have gone a few times in our 17 yrs of marriage but not that often. So we packed lunches, first aid kits, sand, wood, shovels and walkie talkies and off we went. I will let you see the pictures to decide if we had fun. I will just say, I WALKED down the first hill. After aquiring wabbly legs, I rode the rest of the time. It was a bit muddy since we had rain a few days before and I didn't want to end up looking like our truck!

Chris drove down first. No, he crawled slooowwlly down.

Our friend Drake and his daughter Madison. Crystal stayed home with their other girls, and she is 5 mths pregnant. Off roading is not condusive to pregnancy, she says "more power to ya!"

Drake working his way down. If you follow the road you will see our truck...wwaaaayy down there. Yep, that's the road I walked. So, Chris walk part way up to "visit" with to forestry guys cutting back some trees. They said "these were pretty nice vehicles to be out here. That they had seen a lot of things...oh look that woman is walking it. Never seen that before!" Ha! Now ya have!

All I can say is no we didn't drive it, but I had to take a picture. Click on it to read the sign.

We went through and then I hoped out to get this of Drake. I am hoping to get a copy of the picture Madison took of us. Let me just say, that water was so STINKY. And now it's all over our truck. YUCK!

Drake got airborne with one tire. He made it over just fine. Thank goodness for 4WD.

The last bits of fall colors here.

Chris and I by our beloved truck. This truck has been all over the states. We bought it 17 yrs ago and it even, by the grace of God and lots of Angels surrounding us, kept us out of a potential nasty accident in NM. We still can hardly believe we didn't hit anyone or anything. Only God can do that! And protects us while we traps around in God's country, how cool is that!

This is our friend Drake and his daughter Madison. She's a nature girl like me so it was neat to see her have a good time. During our lunch break she made a head piece out of various flowers and leaves. So creative!

How cool! With some wracked nerves here and there, and an occasional rock that tried to prevent us from going anywher (notice I said tried) we had a great time.

Peace,
Dee