First Snow!!

Our first good snow of the year!  Makes it look like Christmas!  It started last night as rain, then ice, and finally snow.  Right now we have a good 6 inches on the ground.  I missed the farm market today, and I really didn't want to miss, but roads were not the best, and didn't want to take a chance.  Good day to cozy up in the house, except, Miss Emily is excited to be outside!  We went out for a bit earlier, and will be getting the sled out in a few minutes.  Hoping to make some cookies after that. 

Snow this morning on our pines.

The view of our neighbors hill from our place.

What our road looked like about 2 inches of snow ago.

Only 4x4 pick ups have been through, and they did

their fair share of sliding.

Emily all set to go play!

Making some snow angels.  I really don't

think I could do this anymore!!

Emily found some icicles and

brought them in the milk house to show us.

Helped hay and bed the cows. 

They are so happy they don't have to slop around

in the snow.  Barn is about 60-65 degrees.  Feels

cozy!!! Also, turned on some Christmas tunes for

the girls! 

Emily loving on her barn cats, Lola and Gomer.

We did a little bit more decorating.  Found some old ornaments that belonged to my Grandma, I don't hang them on the tree for their own safety! So, I tucked them in a nice pie plate and tucked an old snowman in the middle.  It sits on my island in the kitchen.  Looks cheerful!

Also have been doing some cookie and candy making.  Found a good recipes for Cherry Crisps and Peppermint Bark.  I will post recipes tomorrow for these. I want to make some Peanut Butter Blossoms today, before the Hershey Kisses are all gone, and need to get those peppermint chip cookies made.  Will be leaving some goodies this coming week for our mail carrier, milk hauler and his wife, and our feed guy, and anyone else who pops in!  This is the fun part!

I snapped this picture of Emily, right after the tree was decorated.  She is really having fun! Loving every minute of the Christmas season.  I'm so glad!  Making sure that we do something fun each day, bake cookies, decorate, read a Christmas book or watch a Christmas video.  So far her favorite movie is A Charlie Brown Christmas, it's mine too.  She loves it when I keep the holiday songs playing in the kitchen, non-stop, except for when the radio station plays the hockey game, then we stick our CD's in. 

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas season!  Be safe when out and about with the snow and ice.

"It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air." W.T. Ellis

Enjoying the Day

After a busy weekend, I'm taking some time today to just enjoy playing catch up around the house. 
The event "Good for You, Good For Barnesville" went very well!  I made up about 7 gift baskets, and sold all but one, plus almost all of the cheese that I packed in individual packs.  Very good feedback from the customers! Yesterday we braved the crowds at St. Clairsville.  It was crazy busy, and we didn't even go into the actual mall, just stopped at a few places and had to pick up our other computer from Staples. 

So, after all the running this weekend, today I decided to focus on getting the house in order, including some laundry, dishes, organizing in my spare room and few other odd and end stuff.  It actually feels good to have that day that I don't have to hurry, hurry.  I will have to go to the cheese house this afternoon and gather my gift basket stuff up so that it's not all over the front room.  I also have about 40 lbs. of cheese to cut up for the week, and for the 6 orders that will be shipped out tomorrow.  We've had a few calls from folks wanting to stop in this week and visit and buy some cheese.  I did promise Miss Emily that we would make some cookies too.  She gets the job of rolling the cookie balls in colored sugars.  She should have fun with that! 

I just popped lunch/dinner in the oven, and it looks like it will be a yummy one!  I finally got around to picking some apple cider up on Saturday from Rockwell Orchards, so I wanted to get this made before we used all the cider up. 

Cider Pork Chops

1/2 cup flour

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

4 (1 inch thick) bone-in pork chops

3 Tbsp. butter, divided (I actually use cooking spray instead)

4 Granny Smith apples, sliced (I had Golden Delicious on hand)

1 cup raisins (optional)

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 cup apple cider

Combine first 3 ingredients in zip loc bag; add chops.

Seal and shake to coat.

Remove chops and set aside.

Melt 2 Tbsp. butter in large skillet.

Add chops, cook 5 minutes each side, or until browned.

Grease a 13x9 inch baking dish with remaining butter.

Place apples in bottom of dish; top with raisins, if desired.

Sprinkle with brown sugar.

Arrange pork chops over brown sugar and drizzle with apple cider.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour, or until pork chops are done.

I'm taking a small break while I wait for the pork chops to bake.  I poured myself a cup of coffee, a large cup, and have some Christmas tunes playing from our local radio station that plays all Christmas until New Year's.  Also have my potpourri burner going with Sparkling Vanilla tart from Yankee Candle. Mmm....the house smells so nice and cozy! 

Our Tree Is UP!

Our tree is UP!

Now, with 2 cats, a dog and a 4 year old little girl,

we hope it stays up until Christmas!

Of course, the ornaments are put on the tree,

but, Emily feels the need to move them around,

she likes to find the "perfect" spot everyday

until Christmas.

Our family picture! We actually have one this year

with all three of us.  It's amazing what you can

do when the camera has a delay for the flash!

Our tree, I need to work on the lighting a bit

with the camera, but this is as good as I could get.

Little Miss Emily, wrapped up in the "garlic".

Um...that's what she called garland. ;-)

It's feeling like Christmas here!

We had the Christmas tunes playing last night,

turned the lights off, except for the tree,

and the evening was beautiful!

I went crazy with the lights on the tree this year,

I used both multi-colored lights and white.

I'll remember that for next year.

I'm slowly decorating our house for Christmas.  Seems like I can't get into the mood to do it. I have done our kitchen and our window sills.  Still need to venture outside, after I find the outdoor decorations in the garage.  Going out there is like the Bermuda Triangle!

I stopped at the Goodwill in Marietta, which is my favorite store! Thankfully, I found a couple of things for Emily for Christmas.  The hard part, she was with me.  So.....she is now convinced that the toy vanity is for someone else.  But, it was such a good deal, 99cents and it's in great shape.  Also found the Cat In The Hat game.  Money is scarce for Christmas this year, but I feel that is going to be a blessing!  We're going to focus on the simple things, and not over do the gift part.  It's easy to get caught up in the "greed" of the holiday.  I noticed that Emily was starting to want everything she saw on tv and in the stores.  This Christmas will be a bit of a lesson for us all.  Getting back to the real reason our family celebrates Christmas. 

I found myself worrying the other day as I was driving.  I felt terrible thinking that we would be able to do very little this year, but I realized the worrying was not going to make it any better, or easier.  I've quit worrying now about it (at least not as much) and am putting it into God's hands.  There are a lot worse things going on in this world than lack of toys!  And by the looks of our house right now, my daughter has never lacked! :-) So, now I'm thankful for finding gently used toys that is within our means to buy.  

I'm just about finished with the Christmas shopping, just need to wrap it all up.  Again, I'm keeping it simple this year.  I found some cute soup mugs, and thought that putting them with some soup mixes would be a nice gift idea. 

We had snow yesterday!  As Emily and I were driving to the farm market, we drove in some really heavy snow!! It was so pretty, and really made it seem like Christmas time.  Loved it!  And it was enough to put a skiff on the ground.  It's been very cold here in the Ohio Valley, we had 15 this morning.  Our cows are still staying outside, but with plenty of good hay and shelter.  Our problem, we are milking 60 cows, and our barn holds 50.  We can easily double some of the younger heifers up in the stalls during milking time, but can't do that during the winter.  So, we dried 5 cows off yesterday, and need to figure out which 5 should be dried off tomorrow.  We have one cow due in January, she'll be the first of the calving season.  February- April we'll be busy with babies!  So, as soon as we dry the cows off, and separate them from the milk herd, we'll be keeping the girls in the nice, cozy barn.  We have a lot of sawdust stored for bedding and the hay has been brought in from the fields.  So, we're ready to tuck in for the winter. 

Now, I need to go and get our tree set up, so that when milking is done for the evening, we can put on some Christmas music and decorate! 

Hope everyone is having fun during this Holiday Season!!! 

We Have A Winner!

December 1st, and we have a winner for our Gift Basket Giveaway! 
We gathered all the goodies together for the basket, and had Emily stand next to it all and draw out a name.
And the winner is.......

Jenny Matlock of Arizona!!!!!!

Congratulations! 

We'll be shipping her goodies out to her on Monday, December 7.  What a fabulous Christmas gift!! 

You can follow Jenny's blog by the link on my blog! It's a great blog to visit!
And I do believe that she had the most chances in this drawing, she ordered 8 lbs. of cheese total!
We hope that you enjoyed your cheese order, and this basket! 

Thanksgiving

It was such a quiet Thanksgiving.  We stayed home again this year, it was just the three of us.  Family is far, and gas prices are up.  I started cooking yesterday, and was up around 5 a.m. today.  We ate A LOT!!!  I made my usual cornbread casserole, green bean casserole (since we can't have onions here at our house, I shredded up some of our Dixie Swiss cheese and sprinkled it on top), sweet potato casserole (just like my grandma used to make!), turkey, mashed potatoes, noodles, rolls, made up a cheese and veggie tray, and lots of other goodies! Oh, and of course, pumpkin pie! YUM!!! 
Milking was started and finished earlier than usual.  I had the turkey in the oven by 7:30 a.m. Emily watched a marathon of Tom & Jerry, wow, that takes me back a few years! ha!  After eating, Emily fell asleep for a nap on the couch, so we had control of the tv.  Well, Al had control of the tv, so that meant watching Detroit  Lions play the Green Bay Packers.  It was a good game, at least what we saw of it.  Emily woke up during the 3rd quarter, and we took the easy road, and turned Tom & Jerry back on.  Had our phone calls to family to wish them Happy Thanksgiving.  Rested a lot, and nibbled on leftovers.  That is what I LOVE about Thanksgiving....leftovers!! My fridge is full. 
As we slowed our pace down today, I felt really content. 
And was thinking, that even though we are really pinched financially right now, things are good.  So, here is what I am thankful for today, considering that this is a day to reflect on these things, not just about turkey.  (Although, that part is good too!)

~I'm thankful to have a wonderful husband and daughter. 

~For our home.

~Our business is doing well, considering the economy has really hit a lot of folks hard.

~The sun came out today, and it was beautiful!

~My dishwasher (Rosie) finished most of our dishes today that we made dirty.

~Cows came in easily this evening, no chasing them all over the county.

~We had a lot of food, even though grocery prices made me a little more careful as to what I bought for our dinner.

~And having time this evening to watch Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

Now that is a life to be thankful for....

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, with a lot of blessings!

Feeling So Much Better!

Well, we have survived whatever kind of flu bug we had for the past week and a half.  I do not want to ever experience that again!  At least not for awhile.  Still coughing, but the fever that my daughter and I both had is long gone! Yay!

So, now that we are all recovered and feeling more like the living, we've been busy!  I guess I could consider my sick time my "break".  Hmm...not enjoyable though.. 

I did start some Christmas baking the other night, ran across a really yummy recipe, and sounded fairly easy too.  The recipe says it should make about 3 dozen or so. Funny, I only have about 1 dozen as of right now.  Now I'm pretty sure I made more than that!!  Keeping husband and daughter out of the refrigerator and freezer this time of year is next to impossible.  My plan is to have several differnt goodies all made up and in the freezer in plenty of time to make sure everyone on our list gets a nice gift basket/cookie tray.  But, if we don't stay out of the goodies, we won't have anything ready for them!

Chocolate Dipped Maple Logs

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. maple flavoring

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup quick cooking oats

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup (6 oz)semisweet chocolate chips

3 Tbsp. milk

3/4 cup ground walnuts

In a large bowl, cream the butter, shortening and confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in vanilla and maple flavoring.  Combine flour, oats and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.

On a lightly floured surface, shape dough into 1/2 inch wide logs.  Cut into 2 inch pieces.  Place 1 inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet.  Bake at 325 degrees for 15-18 minutes or until set and very lightly browned.  Remove to wire racks.

In a microwave, melt chocolate chips and milk; stir until smooth.  Dip one end of each cookie into chocolate; allow excess to drip off.  Roll in walnuts. Place on waxed paper until set.*

*I like to place the cookies in the refrigerator until set.  They set faster and look nice.

This recipe is from Taste Of Home.

The picture for the cookies is not my photo.  That is also from Taste of Home.  Mine didn't turn out quite that pretty! 

Most of the work that I have been doing, now that I feel more like doing something, has been laundry!  It still amazes me how just 3 of us can accumulate so much!  And of course, with milking over 60 cows right now, Al's clothes are really dirty after just one milking.  He sometimes comes in and changes at lunch time.  And if anyone has any good suggestions as to getting cow manure out of clothing, I'm open to try anything! 

I did get some cheese orders shipped out on Monday.  I cut up several pounds of cheese for the farm market this Saturday.  And yes, I will be there.  I don't like missing even one market, especially this time of year, when holiday shopping has already started.  I'm hoping to have a couple of gift baskets already made up so that they can be on the table for customers to look at and get an idea of what they consist of.  I have found a couple more items to add to our gift basket giveaway.  A maple leaf shaped bottle of Pure Maple Syrup, made right here in Ohio.  We have quite a few names added to our giveaway!  Looking forward to announcing a winner! 

We have an order heading out to California this next week.  Can't believe we're getting orders heading to the west coast! 

We've wrapped up cheese making for the winter.  I'm focusing on waxing the last batches of cheese we've made this fall and getting gift basket stuff lined up!  That combined with the usual holiday stuff we do here as a family, will keep me busy! 

Sawdust hauling has begun for the year.  This is something we do each year when November comes along.  Thankfully we don't have to use the dust yet, but some years we do keep the cows in this early.  The warmer than usual weather and grass still good and green has allowed our girls to stay out to pasture longer than usual.  And they are enjoying it.  But, I guarantee, that first snowflake falls, they will not leave the barn!  Winter in our barn is cozy! I love it!  The cows stay in,  nice and dry, we make sure they have plenty of good grass hay, and bed them up nice and warm with sawdust.  Barn stays right around 60 degrees, and Christmas music plays from Thanksgiving until just after New Year.  Decorating the  barn for the girls has crossed my mind! ;)  I'm thankful that the dust we get is free and kept inside where it stays dry.  The past 2 days I've helped Al load the dust.  The guys that work at the shop where we get it has quit early.  But, it doesn't take us long to load up. 

Our local paper came today, and I was so surprised to see an article about me!  Now I have no idea who sent it in, but it's cool!  They wrote about how a recipe of mine was featured in a Gooseberry Patch cookbook and how you can find the book at our local gift shop.  I'll keep that paper, thought it was really something neat! 

Now I am off to cut up some more cheese for Saturday.  I want to start getting things ready before Friday night.  Seems I like to procrastinate, and then I'm feeling rushed at the last minute.  If I actually work on it a little at a time, I may actually be ready without worrying.  I'm sure this is a brand new concept, figured out by me, right?