New hairstyles on the farm

What is that?? It looks like the remainder of some animal that the dogs have drug up on the porch.

It was haircut day! 

If my grass wasn't so long,(conserving gas ya know, trying to save the planet one unmowed lawn at a time), you could Jessie's new do. ;-)

 She still smells terrible, but looks a whole lot better! 

 Momma cat was not amused! She does just fine, until one of her little boobies gets caught in the clippers. Did you know they have like a gazillion boobies under all that fur?? So sorry Momma.. :-o

 Miffy was just so excited to be shown attention. She would sit through anything!

I think she was coming back for more in this picture. :-)

Here's to hoping there will be less hair on my couch, and fewer hair balls strategically ralphed up through the house. I don't know why, but they always choose right outside my bedroom door. Nothing like groggily stepping out into the hallway in the wee hours of the morning, on a hair ball. :-o

Strawberry Syrup

One thing you can just about always count on around here, is a Saturday morning breakfast of homemade pancakes. I have so many fond memories surrounded by pancakes.  You pretty much knew on the first day of school Mom would make you a character shaped pancake to celebrate the morning. Teddy bears were her specialty! Dad loved pancakes, so we had them EVERY Saturday, and later on as we got older he decided he would take this time honored tradition on for himself. He discovered the blender and how it made the most wonderful pancake batter, all smooth and just the right consistency. Sweet Man and I, along with Princess #1, resided in their basement for awhile, while we were building our house. Every Saturday we would wake up to a spread of pancakes and sausage, before we all left (including my Dad and brother) for the "construction site." Mom was always left with the mess to deal with, but never complained. I wonder if she ever started to resent pancakes? No, I don't think she did. She saw it as a way to serve us all.  Sadly with Dad's congestive heart failure he doesn't get to eat pancakes as often, so I figure my parents are working on finding a new menu for their Saturday mornings.

One of the fun things about pancakes is that you can dress them all up with yummy stuff. I came across a strawberry syrup recipe in my canning book, and just had to try it. Thankfully the one chicken who refuses to stay in the fence, saved me enough strawberries to make this syrup adventure possible. The recipe calls for straining out the strawberry pulp. Why on earth would you want to do that?? Little chunks of strawberries spread all over a hot steamy pancake sound just divine to me, so I skipped that part. Made it easier too! ;-)

Today's recipe is adapted from Ball complete book of home preserving. Yield is about 4 half-pint jars.

5 cups crushed strawberries3  cups water (divided)
1 strip of lemon peel
2  1/2cups sugar
3  1/2 cups corn syrup
2 tbsp lemon juice

Combine strawberries, half of the water and lemon peel. Heat to boiling and boil for 5 minutes.

Pour into a jelly strainer and let drip for 2 hours. (totally skipped this step)

Combine the sugar and the remaining water and cook to 230°F.  Add the strawberry juice and the corn syrup. Bring to boiling and boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice. Fill hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Add lids and process in a water bath for 10 minutes.

Can't you just taste it? I picture a chilly fall morning with a stack of streaming hot pancakes all slathered with organic butter and strawberry syrup! I wonder if this will make one of the fond memories that my girls will remember when they are grown up and have a family of their own?

Princesses in flight!

How do you top or even match the most awesome camp experience ever? Well, I don't really know or even think you have to, but it sure is fun trying! :-) I remember coming home from my summer camps and almost being kind of let down. You have a week chock full of friends and exciting adventures, and then you come home to chores. So when we were invited by one of our friends to a free Young Eagles flight class, we jumped on it!

After we picked our little princess up from camp, we came home to celebrate with pizza and ice cream. Everything is more fun when you add ice cream! :-) Then we watched a movie on the Wright brothers to prepare us for our morning adventure. FLYING!

 Checking out how a plane is built.

Health Net copters will always have a special place in my heart! 

 One flew my Dad to Cleveland Clinic last year.

"Boarding their flight"

So proud of these little Princesses!

 Princess #1 was able to operate the radio and even tried her hand at steering, which she said "I don't think I am a very good at that!"

If that pile of dirt wasn't in the way, you would be able to see their plane lift off. ;-)

Safe and sound back on the ground posing with their pilot.

What an awesome memory to deposit in their memory banks. As you can tell by the photos, it was a blast. What you can't tell is that it was 92 degrees with no shade. We took refuge under a wing of a waiting plane for a bit, but still are sporting the worst farmers tan we have had in ages. Hopefully people will think we just worked hard around our house all weekend, instead of plopped down in a chair eating hot dogs all day. ;-)

Thanks again to our pilot friend! You made 3 little girls VERY happy, which makes the parents happy too!

Precious cargo has arrived!

SHE'S HOME!!!!

 Walking the mile hike to the pick up spot.

Her first trophy ever!

 Priceless. :-)

Missing my Girl!

Today's the day!! Seems like I have been waiting for this day forever. In actuality though, it has only been three days so far, that I have been longing for this day. What on earth is so special about this day you ask? I get to bring my princess home of course. This past Wednesday she left for "Wilderness Survival Christian Camp", and our home has definitely felt the void of her not being here. I am normally not a fan of sending my kids away without me, but I went to this camp last year with our American Heritage Girls troop, and fell in love with it. They not only teach a love of outdoors, they teach a love for God. After we came back from our group camping trip, I signed her back up to go alone to the junior survival camp. This year will be her third time having gone there. They do rock climbing, hiking, zip lining, campfire cooking, team building exercises, and have a church service every night. Last year she came home on fire for the Lord. She had rededicated her life to Christ, and wanted to "live according to his plan." I could tell it was a couple days well spent, so naturally I agreed for her to go again this year. I can't wait to hear all about her adventures this time, and to see her sweet smiling face.

These experiences are so good for kids. They get to learn to be more responsible and have a chance to make new friends, but the past few days I have been a Momma hen without all of her chicks and I am ready to have them all back under my "wing" again!

Things are going to be heating up around here

I have learned many things on our homestead adventure. Most of them could be summed up "Don't do it this way". Trial and error seems to be the best lesson book for us. One of the main things we have learned...you can never have enough firewood. If you think you have enough, you should probably double it. ;-) We cut firewood this past weekend, in 90+ temperatures, and when we were asked "why we picked the hottest day of the year to do it?" Our answer was "Because we hate being cold". Every year, come March, we run out of firewood. Since we heat our house solely by fire, we end up being cold for at least 2 months out of the year. This year we are hoping we can forgo this uncomfortable side effect from not so great planning.

Sweet Man let me cut up the small stuff for my inside stove. :-) 

He of course took care of the big trees. Would have had an awesome picture of the big stuff, but my camera crapped out on me early in the day. :-(

This has to be one of my favorite chores. I can remember gathering firewood with my Dad when I was a kid. Something so calming and peaceful about it. 

 We chose to cut trees down on the top of the hill, where my parents are building a cabin. The kids enjoyed the day running back and forth between helping us load and stack logs, and helping my Dad mix concrete. 

It was a long, hot, tiring day. 

I can't wait to do it again! :-)

A puppet and fair day.

Our local American Heritage Girl's group had an all day puppetry camp at Sassafras Junction yesterday, which left my good buddy and I a full day without children. Perhaps I was a little too eager to drop them off...we were almost the first ones there. :-0

 This is very rare, and for the life of me I couldn't decide what I was going to do ALL day. I could clean. NOPE, I do that enough and it really isn't that exciting. I could bake. NAW, that doesn't sound good either. Oh, I know...We could go to a fair!! Yes, that sounds wonderful. Don't you just love a fair? All kinds of food that you would probably never eat if it wasn't at a fair and handmade goodies galore. My budget didn't allow me to really shop these goodies, but I stored mental notes of new projects I want to try.

Don't you just love this booth? I need a white shirt. Apparently soap makers wear white shirts. All kidding aside these ladies were super nice and I could have hung out with them all day!

 I came away with the desire to get a book/video on dying yarn, making beads, more soap goodies, photography and of course pottery! Wouldn't you love to be able to sit down and drink a cup of coffee out of a mug you made with your own hands? Me too! Maybe one day I will get to try my hand at that intriguing form of art. My buddy and I enjoyed talking with all the vendors and learning about their crafts. It is so weird going to a fair without kids. We didn't have to visit the face painting booth or the potties numerous times. :-o As much as I love going places with my girls, I really enjoyed the free afternoon.

While I was enjoying the fair, my girls were busy making these.

They had an awesome day and enjoyed telling me every detail. There were of course the puppet making sessions along with a pizza party with ice cream. They even got parts in a show and were able to perform for the audience. My socks are no longer safe though. I have already had one turn into a "friend" for one of their puppets. ;-)