Missing H-O-M-E

I am feeling Home sick, in the most literal sense. The thought came to me to share why I love my home so much :) Hope you enjoy the photos!!

All but three of our cats,

and last years' kittens.

"Neigh"boring horses :)

Cat-in-action: preparing to pounce,

and therefore trample,

mom's flower bed.

A sibling with her kittens - cuties

Hey, guess what this is!

HEAT for the WINTER! :)

And dad chopped it!

And the entire family hauled it!

And it was awesome!!!

The ancient, antique and vintage barn :) Isn't it purty!!

The flower garden, or at least some of it

Hay-bails - my favorite still-life

victim... I mean subject,

for photography

Some calves that live down the road :)

Aren't they SOOO cute!!

September's Sun-Set

Our garden

My dog, the yard, all loveliness, and the sunshine :)

Baby potatoes

:) SPRING!!! :)

The view of our "back yard" from an up-stairs room

Some "weeds" growing next to the river

The drive on the way home

Summertime

A picture of a moth, during one of my

late-afternoon walks

There is something so picturesque -

so beautiful -

even captivating,

about a field full of hay bails drying out underneath

a late-Summer sun

Our "neighbors" :)

Angus cows

We have had a horrible number of

grasshoppers

all over the place! In the garden,

sun-bathing on the house,

on the cement... It's disgusting!

Some of our Bountiful Harvest.

We'll be canning these beautiful clusters of spheres

very soon.

Home made grape juice is very much enjoyed,

especially on Christmas and Thanksgiving

This is not a view of our house, but from our property of

another "neighbor," who lives

about a mile and a half, maybe two miles, away.

I enhanced the coloring on this picture...

Looking out our dining room window.

Overall "dining room window" shot

Need more be said?

Wild flowers speckle the sides of the roads.

This Spring wild roses were rampant.

This Summer, wild daisies, black-eyed Susann's,

sunflowers... and these enchanting little

yellow buds

decorate the fields, road-sides

and just about anywhere they can take root.

Butterfly and bird pictures are probably my favorite,

although frogs are fun to capture

on the camera as well.

Here is a monarch atop our blooming onions.

And our roosters. 4:30 Am they begin their

"every half hour" crowing sessions.

We named them Lafayette and Napoleon

(which we took from The Aristocats,

the Walt Disney movie)

And all of us kiddos during our family vacation at the beginning of August.

Enjoy the rest of your Summer,

and God richly bless :)

Miss Elizabeth

Gardening on Saturday

Gardened ALL DAY on Saturday. The weather was incredible! Sun shining bright, intoxicating aroma wafting on the Summer breaze and clouds only before dusk. Truly incredible!

A visitor, a painted turtle,

in our three acre front "yard."

Oh my goodness! Mulberries and strawberries!

They are SO delicious!

Right before we went into the house,

after a long and hot day of outdoor work

we had the opportunity to witness

the beautiful promise of God's love and patience of human kind -

a rainbow

You can't see the rainbow nearly as well

in this picture,

but it's in the upper right hand corner of the picture

coming "out of" the trees.

Dusk on the Paririe.

That little speck, on the left edge of the photo

is actually the moon:)

The moon and the stars,

in all their wonderous glory.

As Laura Ingells wrote

"they were singing!"

The colorful specks are witness that God is an artist.

Looking at this picture, it appears

that the Author of Creation

took a toothbrush and flicked a bunch of shimmering

multi-colored speckles onto

a deep blue canvas,

does it not?

Delicious With Tea

At about mid-Summer things begin to take on a strange sort of likeness, and the weeks mediocre monotony fog into one blob of life: days are peculiarly undefineable; weeks run along together with no particular mile marker telling you what time of month it is; and the months, from about May until August all seem to be alike - hot, humid and full of garden time. Little else.
Humidity creeps up on its unsuspecting, non-prepared victim: dehydration, sunburns, irritation and fatigue are all common symptoms of the season in a non-centeral-air-conditioned, seventy-five year old farm house in the middle of the prairie.
Two nights ago we ate dinner with the storm windows open and the screen windows "protecting" our home from natures wild elements. However, the screen on the windows, somehow, failed to keep the insects and bugs out of the house. As we ate, the bugs and insects, attracted to the dining room lights, would fall onto our dinner plates in a stupor, amidst the food; smacking our foreheads; buzzing around our ears; colliding with one another...
Last night, after a long day of cleaning the porches, harvesting from the garden and finding things to keep onself occupide in somewhat challenging ways, the weather decided we had not experienced enough adventure, even when the sun had gone to bed. Somewhere around eleven thirty at night, after the two youngest children had gone to bed, mom had cleaned herself up from the garden and dad had eaten, the syrin of our small twon blared in our ears... What could it possible be now? Surely not a tornado! Of course, this was the exact problem. A funnle cloud began building about a ten-fifteen minutes North-West of our, now seemingly insignificant, farm house. Lukely, after forty-five minutes of waiting, the tornado passed.
Because the outdoors are so hot, with added humidity, and bugs rule the great plains, one finds comfort in reading, catching upon studies, and expanding their knowledge and growing in their skills as an artist, within the confinements of their home. This is especialy relaxing when chilled, iced, or blended icey drinks are available!
Creativity blossoms, and physical exersion is kept to a minumum (this is easy for me to say, considering we no longer own any aniumals that require our frequent attetions, such as goats, sheep, horses or cattle. We merely have two dogs we care for and barn cats, who generaly fend for themselves.
However, for a true working farm, a family is constatnly working to sustain the productivity level of their home! Having owned goats, chickens, ducks, geese, sheep and a horse)
Yesterday morning, as the hat rose and the humidity strengthened, I honestly did not want to eat much of anything. However, I am a firm believer in that a person ought not skip a meal, ever, if at all possible, and at the very least eat something light, high in carbohydrates and fiber, or high in fiber and vitamins, or both, but low in protien.
So, with great anticipation I took the journey of finding evough staple foods in our kitchen to bake something. After creating a mental inventory of all taht stocked our shelves (this does not consist of much, so late in the week), the most appealing sounding food that came to mind where muffins! So far, I have only baked muffins from scratch one other time, this year. They are a fun treat, when baked sparingly.
We own a lot of Taste of Home magazines, which is where I get most of my recipes for muffins - yummy! The one I found in Taste of Home's April/May 2008 issue (on page 41) was Lemon Crumb Muffins.. Ohh, ooh!! Hmm... I can smell the delictable aroma of fresh-out-of-the-oven, moist muffins just waiting to be eaten.
They were SO wonderful! Especialy with a cup of hot, or iced tea :)
Lemon Crumb Muffins
Yeild: about, 40 muffins
6 cups all-purpose flour
4 cups sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
8 eggs
2 cups (16 ounces) sour cream
2 cups butter, melted
3 Tablespoons grated lemon peel (I substituted this with one more tablespoon of lemon juice)2 Tablespoons lemon juice
STREUSEL:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar (sucanat, if you wish to avoid white sugar)
1/4 cup cold butter
GLAZE:
1/2 cup sugar (this can be substituted with honey, if you so desire)
1/3 cup lemon juice

In a larg bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda
and salt.

In another bowl, whisk eggs, sour
cream, butter, lemon peel and juice.

Stir into dry
ingredients just until moistened.

Fill greased
or paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full.
In a small bowl, combine flour, and sugar;
cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse
crumbs. Sprinkle over batter.
Bake at 350*F for 20-25 minutes or until
toohtpick comes out clen.

Cool for 5 minutes
before removing from pans to a wire rack.
In a smal bowl, whisk glaze ingredients;
drizzle over warm muffins.

The Garden

Our beautiful potato patch :)
This years lettuce went wild!
Twice a week we give a bag full away, and still
have delectable salads
every evening :)


One of my younger sisters and my favorite places to snack:
Straw berry patch: Three 4x4ft "raised beds"
absolutely FULL of rich red strawberries.
Four years ago we transplanted this Wild Rose from the side of the road
into our front yard flower bed.
It has finally bloomed.
The aroma that wafts from this bush is fantastic!
And, finally, a "full," or partially full at least,
view of our vegetable/ berry garden (this area does not
include our cluster of raspberry bushes, blueberry bush or
three seasoned mulberry trees.
"In the Meadow, in the Garden, where we once tasted all we could eat. There's a meadow, in the garden; I'll dance in the garden, dance in the garden with Eve."

~Cyndi Morgan "Dance in the Garden"

Gardening, "one of life's purest pleasures," takes up the majority of my Summer.

Starting in late winter, with the snow still thick on the ground and freezing temperatures still holding onto the weather, for dear life, we begin planting.

Teenie seeds, sometimes as small as the pin of a pen, are plucked into miniature holes, made by our pinkies, in small pots, which are carefully arranged on the front porch. Daily watering, first beginning as drops of water, fed by straws, onto each small seed, then "graduating" to spoon feeding. After that's it's basic watering, sometimes fertilizing and "Miracle Grow"ing :)

Since our front porch works, more or less, as well as a green house in the winter, we'll start planting as early as February and March. (Feb. being the most snowy month of the year, here bordering the Black Hills.)

This year is our first growing potatoes. We planted three variates. Although I don't know the technical names for each potato I do know that we have "Early" red potatoes, "Mid" and "Late" brown potatoes. So far we have harvested only the red ones, but one brown one did get into our beautiful mix last evening.

Any time of the year, mom makes sure each of her children (all four, and five when my sister is home from college) have their "outdoor" or "Vitamin D therapy." I thoroughly enjoy this time of the day. It's not particular "set" time, but most of the time after three in the afternoon.

There is something very therapeutic about growing and eating one's own vegetables, eating berries and gently searching out potatoes.

My goal is to post on here at least once a week, and if at all possible more. The theme is, obviously, gardening, recipes from the garden and Summer treats (snacks, desserts, beverages, picnic foods etc.), as well as sharing some incredibly awesome homesteading and recipe books!

I hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoy writing!

(And if you have any comments, concerns, questions or advice, please feel free to post a comment on the latest posting:) I'll be happy to and take into consideration what you have to say!)

God bless, keep and grow you and your family,

and bring you a Bountiful Harvest this Fall!

~ Miss Elisabeth