First round done

After a few cups of coffee, a quick round of chores in the barn, a load of laundry, a quick online search for some recipes, and a trip to the grocery store to get some ingredients, I have finished the first round of cookies. Peanut Butter No Bakes.

4 c. Sugar

1 c. Butter

1 c. Milk

Heat to 234 degrees F.

Add

1 c. Peanut Butter

6 c. Quick Oats

1 Tablespoon Vanilla

For Chocolate peanut butter no bakes add 8 tablespoons cocoa powder to the suger, milk, and butter mixture before heating.

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The trip to the store is what took the longest. As I was parking the truck I noticed my neighbor JB from up the road walking across the parking lot and when she saw me she stopped to wait for me. I figured she was going to tell me that the little dog who came to visit her a couple weeks ago really does belong to the people I told her about, but she had other news. She wanted to let me know that her brother-in-law passed away yesterday... he lives a few miles away (and coincidentally is my brother's neighbor). I ended up spending about 20 minutes talking to her about various things, and she asked if I could make sure to tell my father because she knew that he would want to know. I quickly made my rounds picking up the baking ingredients, avoiding isle #1, you see I work in this store and on my days off I really don't like to be in the store because it never fails if my co-workers know I'm in the store they always have some work related issue they "need" me to solve. As I was picking up the things I needed I saw K who was on the same mission I was... she is also making stuff for the bake sale. While I was in the checkout line I heard someone say "oh I see R is here to help you today!". I looked towards the door to see my mother and 3 year old niece R coming in. So, of course I had to chat with them a few minutes... giving her the update of the neighbor's BIL passing and the other neighbor who is in the hospital and not doing well at all. Of course I always have to chuckle to myself when these things happen... Mom lives right across the road and is here doing barn chores at least twice a day, and JB lives two houses away, yet sometimes it seems the only time we take time to chat is in the store... LOL.

Okay, back to work.... Haystacks are the next on the list.

This is just how I feel this morning

"To Hell With The Worm"I'm not sure if the words in the cartoon will show up, but this is how I feel today!

Do you ever have mornings when you just don't want to get out of bed? Today is mine. I am thanking the Gods that S.O.'s hours have changed and I didn't have to get up until 6:00. He used to have to leave the house at 4:15, that was cruel. Thankfully, I don't have to go to work today. But today is the day we have to have all our bake sale goodies together for our Relay for Life fundraiser. I'm still trying to find some yummy recipes that will work for a bakes ale... any ideas?

I gotta go... the critters are waiting... and not too patiently either!

Now what did I do wrong????

After working with S.O. other all day Saturday, trying to get the water line unplugged, I'm surprised that something similar to this cartoon did not happen at our house. ;-)

April 8th

April 8th, 2007

I just took this picture from my back door, before sitting down to write this post. I can't believe that it is only 24 degrees outside on April 8th!

Sorry that I have not had a chance to post in a while. We have had quite a few projects around the farm we've been working on. If you look closely at this picture you will see that we aren't yet finished with some of them.

A week ago last Friday S.O. was working on the blazer, he had the gas tank out trying to change the wiring going to the fuel pump, and as I was going into the milk house to get some tools for him, the wind caught the door and slammed it shut.... breaking glass everywhere. Of course I was barefoot so I had to call him over from the garage to help me pick up glass. May I remind you that the temp that day was 75 degrees, not 24 as it is today. The next day we replaced the door. LOL... and if you look closely you may be able to see that there is lettering on the door... "Bar Room Open"... no, I did not write that there, I scavenged the door from one of Dad's auction finds, and I will be peeling those letters off or repainting the door when the weather breaks again. The old door is still leaning against the side of the milk house, I have to get that out of there too.

S.O. discovered several reasons why the blazer was not running right.... first of all the old fuel pump filter was inside the gas tank, along with a few other things the last mechanic dropped while replacing the fuel pump.... gggrrrr... Oh, and the vent tube wasn't even connected, along with the fact that the wiring going to the fuel pump has been spliced a few times and twisted back together. You just have to love a used vehicle that has had several "mechanics" working on it over the years. Since S.O. cleaned the gas tank of stuff that shouldn't be there, hooked the vent tube up, and fixed the spliced wires, replaced all the spark plugs and wires, air filter, and the fuel filter, the blazer runs beautiful!

We were doing so well at getting these little projects taken care of that we decided to tackle the expansion tank in the basement... it has been leaking all winter. Thursday after work we bought a new tank ... $121 ... took the old one out, hooked up the new one ... everything is going great until we realize that we only have a little trickle of water coming into the house on the main line... no wonder we don't have very good water pressure in the house. All this time we thought it was because the tank had holes in it and was just losing the pressure. So, the water line coming in from the barn (that is where the well is) must be clogged somewhere. We borrowed a snake from a friend and ran it into the line from the house out to the barn, yesterday afternoon, got a lot of silt and rust out but no more water. Today we are going to try running it from the barn out towards the house, and hope that the clog is on that end and breaks lose. If that doesn't work I guess we are going to have to run a new water line. For now we have the garden hose (seen in picture) running from the barn, which has water, hooking into the house's main line so that we have water in here until we figure out what we have to do to the water line..... This may be the new "You might be a Red Neck" Photo.... but it is working for now. And if you are wondering why that hose on top of the ground isn't freezing in the 24 degree weather, it is because we are letting one of the faucets in the house run.

Oh, the joys of owning your own home!!!!

Monday evenings sky.

See why I don't have a curtain on my kitchen window....

I just love sitting on my back steps in the evenings and watching the sky come to life. I took this picture on Friday evening, the same night the calves were born, but then forgot to add it to the post with the calf's picture. I was sitting on the steps watching the cows with their new babies and then just before dark the sky began to change colors and I had to capture it. I know it is a few days old but if I don't post it now it will just get lost in my computer files with all the other hundreds of photos and you'll never get to see it. Besides this morning it is raining so the sky is all dreary and sad looking :-(