Let it Snow

The backyard and fields covered in snow

Isn't it comical or perhaps a bit celestial that the year we move to South Carolina they break their 20 year no snow streak? It would seem we are responsible for about 6 inches of snow that hit last week. Yes of course i took pictures. I figured it was probably the first pictures of the farm with snow. It was pretty and white for all of one day. Half way through the roads were clear. I can tell you that doesn't happen in Colorado.

I bet it will never look the same

We got some inches

Austin and Colin went with the youth group on a skiing trip. Neither have ever gone skiing, although Austin has snowboarded. They left on Friday and by the time they finally arrived, 11:45 pm mind you, we had snow well on the scene. Conner was so excited since we really missed our snow season this year. Christmas was not the same. He also was unable to go because of his age. We bundled up and went outside. Chris pumped up a snow tube we had and roped it to the 4 wheeler. WE invited Marsha and her son and his wife. Conner got to go around a couple of times but of course my camera was dead. It was funny to see locals reaction to the snow. They were simply dumbfounded and awed. Snow Angels were made. Tracks in the snow for fun and of course what winter day would be complete without a snow man? Again I am sad to say by this time my camera was 6 ft under.

The boys came back on Sunday and Colin even bought me a magnet. What a thoughtful little kid. I love collecting magnets with pictures of the places we have been. I let him designate where on the fridge it would go. Now he has a reminder all the time. After getting some rest the boys talked non stop about this slope and that slope and what they ate and who they hung out with. It was good to see them so hyped up. They had great fellowship. I must say I am really pleased with the youth director at the church we have been attending. She is so easy going and relates to all ages so well. I still miss our church in the springs, but this church will do nicely.

I got a great deal on a Cricut recently but it really does take some playing with it to get the feeling of how it all works. I am still working out the kinks but I definitely have a much better understanding of that machine thanks to my niece. She sent me this cute little bookmark and so I thought I would return the favor and made one for her and one for her sister. I think they turned out rather cute and I can't wait to know whether the girls like them. It was really nice to be able to use some of my more feminine scrapbook stuff. I had such a fun time playing with the machine and figuring out what it can do and all that. I came up with so many extras that I sent to the girls figuring they would have fun gluing them all around.

I just adore this textured paper. It has such a wonderful dimension. I played with some puff paint and it didn't turn out so well. I love the odd heart as opposed to a perfect one.

this is where I love the cricut I could never have cut those hearts so thin and perfect. I also had some fun odds and ends around that I managed to implement. I hope she likes it.

This is the bookmark and I am sorry you can't tell very well that is still textured paper. The flowers came out so wonderful.

I've had this paper for a long time but because I have all boys I have not had a need for it. this was perfect way to utilize it and I am amazed at how perfectly the cutout flowers from the cricut match the dimensional flowers on the paper.

What projects are you all working on?

20 Year old bulbs?

I love flowers, but not in the typical buy me a dozen roses fashion; yet rather in the rose bush. I mean, don't get me wrong I do love getting flowers from my hubs but really it is the fact he thought of me. Flowers last about a week, two tops, if you know how to take care of them. A rose bush will last year in and out, as you watch it grow. Gardening is definitely something I like doing and I do know a bit about (just more then average). I moved from zone 5 to zone 8b. That means I get much more selection in the type of plants I want to grow. There are some plants that would not do well with in Colorado that will do very nicely here. We worked on getting a walkway of sorts out in front and have been noticing plants around the yard for some time. I thought they were wild as they seemed to appear everywhere with no rime or reason. We took out the old brick walkway that led up to the old house since now it didn't lead to the front door. Much to my surprise ,we saw more flowers start to appear in what seemed to flank the old walkway. This couldn't be, could it? No one has lived here for 20 years. Yes, some hunters came here but I am sure they did no gardening. So could this really be Chris's Grandmothers flowers? That would mean those bulbs replanted themselves for 20 years. Chris does say that there were many more flowers when his Grandmother lived here. With this in mind I find it really neat that they have survived and now I get to dig them out and transplant them in areas that make sense. I kind of like the idea of heirloom plants even if they aren't by definitions heirloom plants. I think it's a small tribute to her, to reuse these flowers. Here are some pics around the place

This poor tree has been pretty much eaten up by termites, it will need to come down. But it looks really cool.

These flowers came out in back. Apparently there used to be an outhouse that had a path to it with flowers all around. I can't wait to see actual flowers on them so I can identify them.

This picture didn't come out great so I drew on it to show you where the walkway was and where all the bulbs are showing up. That says walkway in the middle and the circles are the bulbs. Don't you think they look like they flank the walkway. Wouldn't it be neat if they were Chris's Grandmother's flowers. What a neat way to pay

All the rain we have been having showed me that I didn't get all the bricks from the old walkway.

Superbowl or really sports in general are not a huge thing in my house. We did love doing it with my Grandparents but really we just loved hanging with them. In the spirit, Chris and I cooked food and had the game on. Colin made a copy cat KFC coleslaw recipe. He was so cute dicing all that cabbage. I ended up helping since he had to do a whole head of cabbage. Chris made chili and hot wings. I made stuffed jalapenos, football shaped peanut butter chocolate rice krispies and Liquid center chocolate torte. I had always seen them and thought "no, that looks too hard". Then my boys stumbled upon "The worst cooks in America" on Food Network. Oh my goodness, we were hooked. Anyway these cooks made the chocolate torte so I thought it can't be that hard then. You know what it really wasn't, if you have wanted to try this go for it. I used the recipe that they used on the show. It was a chocolate heaven. I am definitely making them again.

Colin dicing up some cabbage. He pays alot of attention to the food network. Notice he has his palm on the knife to hold it in place. He got pretty good after a while. It was fun. Oh and the recipe did taste just like the KFC original. Yummmm

Liquid Center Chocolate torte. OOoey gooey chocolatey center with a light fluffy yet very rich chocolate outside. Simply a chocolate lovers delight.

Stuffed Jalapeno peppers turned out very good. It was a bit of work and taking that into consideration I am not sure we will make them again. If a recipe is alot of work it better be worth it, you know what I mean.

Chocolate peanut butter football shaped rice krispie treats. I forgot to get the icing and barely managed a picture before little fingers were grabbing them up not caring about the icing. At least they liked them

The copy cat coleslaw tasted just like the real thing, definitely a keeper recipe.

I am so ready for spring . I really am looking forward to finding out what all these bulbs are around here. We are in the yard all the time and people will be planting soon. I hope to have a vege garden and continue to get the yard in shape. Are you guy's ready for spring?

Neglect

It seems as if my blog has taken a huge hit the past year. I have not really neglected keeping it updated. I apologize. I almost was tempted to ditch the whole thing but I really do like it plus it can let my family back home know what we are up to. So I am going to be making sure to post at least weekly(cross your fingers).

Christmas came and went as did the new year. Do you call it twenty-ten or two thousand and ten? Dh's Uncle passed away in January. He had cancer of the esophagus. We all knew it was coming but it was still hard. Then to top it off his dad went into ICU a week ago. It seems we are not off to a good start for the year.We seem to have found a church home but haven't made it official with the church. It is definitely not what we are used to but it is a good little church with many wonderful hearts and great christian role models. The boys have enjoyed ice skating with them and a "lock down" on New Years Eve. Austin and Colin just signed up to go skiing in February at Seven Devils in North Carolina. I hope they cooperate when I ask for a couple of nice pic's together.

I am unsure if I have mentioned this but I am originally from Germany. Thus why my blog name is in German. Anyway I am still a permanent resident and I have come to the decision before my green card expires (every ten years)I am going to take the citizenship test. I have lived in this country much longer and really don't anticipate me moving to Germany. I hope you will enjoy the posts that will involve this as I am involving our hs of course. It should prove to be quite entertaining. I have also been doing a bit of cleaning and painting. We got an old wardrobe that was dirty and stinky. A good cleaning and a shiny new coat of paint and I can't wait to show you all the pic's. We are continuing to clean up in the yard and reclaiming it. The boys have been cutting down alot of undergrowth and trees. I love trees but really we had way too many. We also seem to continue to have drainage issues. It has been raining almost non stop. It doesn't even seem to stop long enough for the water to absorb into the ground. We get anywhere from 4-8 inches. I have a rain gage outside. After it rains we cannot use either the sliding door from the living room or the back door from the laundry room. Unless of course we want to hit the "pond" as we have "lovingly" termed the pool of water that insists on collecting in our backyard. Check out these.

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This is at the bottom of the living room stairs. This pot just floated from somewhere and the wheelbarrow the boys used to haul wood to this door for the fireplace.

This is sort of a weird angle from the living room door looking towards the laundry room door. I don't know why the litterbox was there as I had it moved to the barn.

I sure hope your guys' new year is turning out to be a good one. I have missed all of you so much so I can't wait to see ya'll back here.

Notes and such

Thanksgiving went better then I expected. The food turned out great and the table looked good. We enjoyed our meal and had a good day. At the end I counted my blessings for the things that went well. I suppose that is all that anyone can really expect. Colin and Conner both helped with various things and of course Colin made at least one dish, green bean casserole. Austin "helped" by asking when the food would be done, lol. Austin is not one for the kitchen. I suppose I need to relax a bit and enjoy things and not worry so much about whether it compares to whomever I am comparing myself to at the moment. I am always looking to improve.

So I took time out to put the new recipe's we tried and liked. I really like the red garlic mashed potatoes and the savory stuffing. The pumpkin cake was so great and is also a wonderful addition. The turkey came out so beautiful, I wish I had gotten a picture when it came out of the oven. Everyone agreed it was too salty but it was gone in no time so it must not have been that bad. The brine recipe that I used called for 1 cup of water to 4 gallons of water. I found some turkey sized roasting bags at the grocery store so we put the turkey in it and added water till it was just about covered but we still had plenty of plastic left to tie off. Then we let it marinate for two days. I am going to change it to one day and 3/4 cup of salt in a roaster bag full of water. I hope this will be the wining recipe for christmas. I typed all this up into my "master chef" software. I love this software. I even got my sister to love it. It keeps all my recipe's. At the time I was thinking back to a time I remember seeing my grammy do this. Of course she did it with paper and pencil. She always put notes in her recipe's to get them just right. You know that little hint to make the recipe taste just so. We even talked about the amount of egg in her rum cake and how she has tried a few different ones to find one that worked. I've never really done this till now and I can see how invaluable this minor thing can be for adjusting my recipes for the better. Of course that doesn't work when you aren't sure where you went wrong. I am not sure where I went wrong with the pecan pie but no one wanted to eat it. The crust was great and the pecans were good we picked them ourselves from all those pecan trees in the yard. The filling was ok but it wasn't right it had this sort of odd taste not like I used bad ingredients but like mabey something got put in there that shouldn't. I have always had problems with this pie and I am on a mission to get the thing right. It's all in the practice right?

On Thanksgiving we went to Marsha's, her mom is my husbands great Aunt Dottie. That would make her....?It was a decent crowd with lot's of family showing up throughout the day. Even though I don't know half of them. There was so much food I felt silly for worrying about what I was bringing-green bean casserole, candied yams and pumpkin cake. The food over there was good too although they sure don't make yams like my grammy. Later the boys along with the teenagers and Marsha's grown boys played football. I got a few good snaps and will try to post them soon. The boys really had a good time and I was sooo glad. Here a few shots of our Thanksgiving.

This is the pumpkin cake. It's a new recipe and it was so delicious. Like pumpkin bread in a cake. nice and moist.

Pumpkin pie. Looks good. I am getting better at the crust aesthetics's

Green bean casserole and garlic red mashed potatoes. The potatoes were the creamiest I have ever had. Yummo. There are some crescents and the stuffing in the back

Grammy's candied yams, and savory stuffing in front. Mac and cheese in back.
Ham and Turkey. It's funny because at first I thought I did get a pic of the turkey. Upon closer inspection though I see that my hubs carved the turkey and placed it so, it looks like the whole thing.

Planning Thanksiving

I took time out Friday to plan our Thanksgiving menu. In a way I like the planning and thought process that goes into doing the whole holiday thing but I sure miss the simplicity of going to my Grammy's. Let me tell you about the holiday's at my Grandparents house. I have been going to my grandparents house since I came to the USA back in 86. We took a three year break when we were stationed in Florida. My Grandparents have perfected the art of the holiday meal. Everything is special and we always know what to expect although we do have alterations and of course the regular surprise thrown in. I cannot fathom the holidays without all of that but I must work with what I got. And so it would seem that I can either sit around pouting(boy I sure have gotten good at that one the past few months) or I can try and make myself busy being productive. I know at the end of the day if I feel I have gotten alot accomplished I can sleep ever so much better. So even if it will be different I will be making familiar dishes. I have also thrown in a few new ones I want to try out. I mean if I am going to start our own family traditions I want to have some recipes of my own. So what am I making? Here is the menu

Turkey

Ham

A somewhat modified version of my Grampy's Giblet Gravy

Grammy's Ham Glaze

Savory stuffing

Garlic Red mashed potatoes

Grammy's Candied Yams

Green Bean Casserole

Black Eyed Peas

Salad

Crescents

Pecan Pie

Cranberry Sauce

Pumpkin Cake

Yuppers it's a dozy but my Grandparents make way more then that and it's all so yummy. Sunday we talked about that at Marsha's (cousin to Chris I think). It was mentioned that my grandparents success at holiday meals comes from years of practice. I know this must be true so I have adjusted my thinking to expect much less so that hopefully I will be pleasantly surprised. I will get another opportunity to practice at Christmas time. Let's not get ahead of ourselves here though so back to thanksgiving. I had the defrosted my turkey this past weekend and then let it marinate in brine for two days. This morning I put it in my oven and should be ready around 3-5 pm tonight. We made the stuffing as we stuffed the bird so it would come out nice and juicy. Colin put together the Candied yams and Conner and I will be making the pecan pie in a bit. I also want to get the Pumpkin Cake done today. The ham I got was an already done type so I will just carve it tomorrow and then heat it up.What does that leave? The mashed potatoes, mac n cheese, green bean casserole, both gravies which I need drippings for before making, the black eyed peas are already done and salad and cranberry sauce is the ready to serve type. Last is the rolls but the will go in 20-30 min. before Dinner time.

I had a great time learning about turkey brining and preparing and roasting yesterday. The Internet is a wonderful tool if you know how to use it. I even watched videos on prepping and carving. I also got the tablescape and I hope it will be wonderful. I will try to take pic's for you guys. Be sure to share your menu, I love trying recipes.

Low Country Tour

I know I have been promising those pic's of where we now live forever. Well here are a few shots around the house. Please remember that no one has live here since 89', which means no one has done anything around here other then nature reclaiming. That is 20 yrs that no one has weeded, raked leaves, mowed the yard, trimmed trees etc.... My FIL came here at least every other year if not every to do maintenance on the buildings. The house burned down several years ago, I will find a picture of it for you guys if you promise not to laugh, I'm all of 17 in those pictures LOL. Watch for it in a future post.

Here is our Barn. As you can see the stairs are gone and there are some temporary steps which we are going to fix sometime. The field on the left of this building is our possible Garden site.

This is where we house wood and all the animal feed. Not sure what the building was used for but it is in the best condition out of all of them.

Our driveway. It needs desprate leveling and some general cleanup. On the very far left is the grapevine growing by the "garage".

The kitchen clean. I had to take a picture so I would remember what that looks like, lol. Kidding. I could put some chairs around the island. I am considering this for more seating.

Here is a a view from an angle at the front of the house. See the bare landscape, not to mention the years of growth we need to clean up.

Here are some bricks I got from the piles in our backyard. These used to make up all three chimney's on the old house

Our fine chickens produced these, aren't they wonderful.

Our pig. We just put fencing around this pen. The pig is having a blast rooting the place out.

This is the backyard coming from the front yard. There are two huge piles where we had them put as much of the wood in one and as much of the brick in the other. All that was left of the old house that burned down several years ago.

This is our "garage", it works even if that was not it's original intent. There is a grapevine next to the building that has been so overgrown I'm afraid of killing it if I try to cut it back.

My wonderful chickens in their pen. This pen needs work but the chickens are safe so it will do. I let the chickens free range as much as possible as this makes for happy birds. They thank me with almost enough eggs for all of us. I have never had a fresher egg.

That is our tour for the day. I am off to do some yard work and to work on my Thanksgiving menu and grocery list. I will try to write later. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

A switch and project

Well things have been a bit stressful around here and hubs is just about fed up. Actually let me take that back, hubs is fed up. He is in process of switching the boys to K-12. Yup you read right we are going back to K-12. We know the system and how it works. The teachers have always been so accomadating. Anyway it will be so much easier for him to work with and I still get my boys in hs. Dh wants to send Austin to ps in the second semester. Austin has been expressive about his dislike of hs the entire time. To be honest he has worn me out but that is no excuse to put him in that enviorment. I think that by giving in and giving him that type of influence that he will just get worse. I will pray, as a matter of fact I need to do that here in a few.

Chris and I came out of the ps system. We came out alright but we sure had that time that the influence of our peers made our pre-teen through teenage years quite rough on our parents not to speak of our values. I also don't like the skewed representation of History and Science due to taking God out of our schools. I do not suggest I want to keep them in a bubble but I want to equip them with the neccesary skills so that when they do come upon a time they should need such skills that they will be there.

I will keep you guys posted