A New Year

It has been almost a year since I posted last.  I'm ashamed.  But last year was interesting.  We had, probably, our last annual lamb roast.  We continue to downgrade our sheep population as we are getting old and with Pat working full time plus extra,  making hay is difficult to find time for.  Plus we have had little snow pack on the Grand Mesa the last couple of years, so the irrigation water supply was greatly decreased.  Which means no water to grow hay.
     This fall, I decided to quit several of my part time jobs so I could concentrate on growing more of our own food and canning much more.  Last summer I canned spaghetti sauce and it is so great to be able to open a quart of homemade sauce and it saves on the budget.  So this coming summer, I am also going to make pizza sauce as I have a great dough recipe now and I adore pizza.  I found a good site for ordering cheap books,  Alibris!  I ordered, Food For 50 , which will probably be an adequate size recipe for me to can new things.  Plus I ordered, What Can I Bring Cookbook by Ann Bryn and Vegetable Love by Barbara Kafka.  I love Kafka's cookbooks, they are fun to read as well as good recipes.  And the cookbook by Ann Bryn is really good.  I have tried 3 of the recipes so far and they are keepers.  The savory cheesecake was good and impressive.  The spinach balls are a great appetizer which you can freeze and cook in 12 min when you get to where you are going.  The lemon cheesecake with gingersnap crust was good.  She also tells you the best way to transport your finished dish to the potluck or party to keep it beautiful and safe to eat.  I am doing a church vegetarian cookbook and it has really forced me to find good food recipes to fill in the gaps.  It has also gotten me excited about cooking again.  I had gotten bad about convenience food and thought it saved time but actually if you have a good recipe and the food is in your pantry you can make it from scratch just as fast and the taste is far better.  So, it proves you CAN teach an old dog new tricks. 
       Apparently, our removal of the rams from the ewes was not soon enough and now we are going to have lambs in winter!  We only have 5 ewes and 2 of them will be having their last lambs due to age.  It is so sad to grow so close to them and then have to get rid of them.  We've had them since 2004!  Now I just hope the babies live and their mothers love them all.  I really don't want a lamb to raise by bottle this year!  I've found that the lambs don't survive well unless I throw them in bed with me and diaper them and truly become their mother.  The lambs however think that they are supposed to eat paper if they hang out with me and poo-poo (or vitamin S, as Pat calls it) if they hang out with the dog.  So I have learned to let them go to live with the other sheep much sooner than they are ready to go just so they will learn to eat grass.  Then I have to run out with supplemental bottles several times a day.  Boy, those little lambs come running when they see me coming with a bottle, baaing all the way!  Does a mother's heart good! 
     So, I will try to keep you informed of this year better than I did last year!  Love, me

Groan, so many things to keep up with

I just wrote about Kindle and Pixel of Ink on facebook and that about does it for me but I do have a couple of things to blog about so I will try to get it together tomorrow to post a new blog.

Black Walnuts

The other day I was at a friends house and they got a call, the husband says to the wife ( he answered the call), "Do we want any black walnuts?  She said, "no."  I immediately said I wanted some.  So I ended up at an elderly lady's house where whoever mowed the lawn had saved out one bucket but the rest were in the trash can which I got to muck out and pick the nuts out of the wet leaves, twigs and doggie doo.  But hey, they were still in their green husks.  So I brought them home and threw them in the driveway so I could drive over them a few times to start the husk break down.  Today, I sat out there in the driveway and peeled semi-dried husks off the nuts and put the nuts in a plastic crate with holes so they could finish drying.  A few were smished so I got a couple of big kernels to taste.  The first couple were good, but it wasn't ringing the nostalgia bell.  Later I found one and with the taste of gooey husk juice mixed with the nut itself, it finally tasted of childhood memories.  Crazy how the brain works, isn't it!  But I did make a step in the right direction.  I told the lady I would rake up the nuts for her next time she was going to have the lawn mowed.  Hopefully that will eliminate some of the doggie doo. 

October 5th, 2011

I look out my bedroom window and see the afternoon light hitting the Grand Mesa just right and the distant aspen's autumn gold shines through the gathering rain clouds. 

Autumn- Jesus tells us that the time of his coming will be as sure as the season's changing or as the approaching weather. 

We, country people, we know the cooler days and nights mean to gather the last of the crops, to get that 3rd cutting of hay done and baled and in the barn, to bring the houseplants in, to put the winter windows on the chicken coop.  We plan our winter menus in advance according to the food we've canned, pickled, froze and jelled. 

Do we plan for Jesus return and know the signs of his imminent return from our reading the Bible?  I am trying to read more, am I planning enough?  I don't know but I do trust in His love and faithfulness.  I know that He'll encourage me to look out the window and think of Him.  I'll be glad to see He's coming to take me home.  Won't you!

First Zucchini

Finally, our first eatable zucchini!  Not long from now I'll be hauling them off to other people but right now we are so happy to eat fresh from the garden!  Just thought you'd like to know! 

July 3rd

Spurgeon seems to be so perfect both yesterday and today.  Yesterday's was:

So he giveth his beloved sleep.  Psalm 127:2
"Ours is not a life of anxious care, but of happy faith.  Our heavenly Father will supply the wants of his own children, and he knoweth what we have need of before we ask him.  We may therefore go to our beds at the proper hour, and not wear ourselves out by sitting up late to plot, and plan, and contrive.  If we have learned to rely upon our God we shall not lie awake with fear gnawing at our hearts; but we shall leave our care with the Lord, our meditation of him shall be sweet, and he will give us refreshing sleep.
     To be the Lord's beloved is the highest possible honor, and he who has it may feel that ambition itself could desire no more, and therfore every selfish wish may go to sleep.  What more is there even in heaven than the love of God?  Rest then, O soul, for thou hast all things, 
     Yet we toss to and fro unless the Lord himself gives us not only the reasons for rest, but rest itself.  Yea, he doth this.  Jesus himself is our peace, our rest, our all.  On his bosom we sleep in perfect security, both in life and in death."

Today's:
He will be our guide even unto death.  Psalm 48:14 

"We need a guide.  Sometimes we would give all that we have to be told exactly what to do, and where to turn.  We are willing to do right, but we do not know which out of two roads we are to follow.  Oh, for a guide! 
     The Lord our God condescends to serve us a guide.  He knows the way, and will pilot us along it till we reach our journey's end in peace.  Surely we do not desire more infallible direction,  Let us place ourselves absolutely under his guidance, and we shall never miss the right road of life, provided we first learn to lean upon him in every step we take.
     Our comfort is, that as he is our God for ever and ever, he will never cease to be with us as our guide.  'Even unto death' will he lead us, and then we shall dwell with him eternally, and go no more out for ever.  This promise of divine guidance involves life-long security: salvation at once, guidance unto our last hour, and then endless blessedness.  Should not each one seek this in youth, rejoice in it in middle life, and repose in it in old age?  This day let us look up for guidance before we trust ourselves out of doors"

Aren't these just wonderful words of wisdom?  They are to me even though I've used this devotional since 1998.  It is like the Bible continually opening fuller to my mind year after year.  May these words bless you, also. 

July 1st

A new month begins, they go so fast now that we are old.  The devotional reading for today was so good that I wanted to share it with you.  It's Spurgeon, of course. 

God shall be with you Genesis 48: 21

"Good old Jacob could no more be with Joseph, for his hour had come to die; but he left his sons without anxiety, for he said with confidence, 'God shall be with you.'  When our dearest relations, or our most helpful friends, are called home by death, we must console ourselves with the reflection that the Lord is not departed from us, but lives for us, and abides with us forever.
     If God be with us, we are in ennobling company, even though we are poor and despised.  If God be with us, we are always safe, for none can harm those who walk under his shadow.  Oh, what a joy we have here!  Not only is God with us, but he will be with us.  With us as individuals; with us as families; with us as churches.  Is not the very name of Jesus, Immanuel- God with us?  Is not this the best of all, that God is with us?  Let us be bravely diligent, and joyously hopeful.  Our cause must prosper, the truth must win, for the Lord is with those who are with him. 
     All this day may this sweet word be enjoyed be every believer who turns to "Faith's Cheque Book".  No greater happiness is possible. "

Just thought you all would like this, too.