Swap for all seasons... from Linda

http://aswapforallseasons.blogspot.com/

Swap for all seasons.!!! Wow I got the cutest items from Linda... http://www.wiredlinda.com/I can not believe it..I came home from vacation to this thoughtful, creative swap gift. This lovely little dress which is tea stained and has patch on it that says 'live, love, laugh'. It matches every thing in my house. The hand made wooden hanger is fun too. A cross to hang on my wall. A bag of Easter Candie. Wow .. I feel bad that I was not as creative as my swap partner. My mom has been sick in the hospital and we left on vacation the day the swap was to be mailed.. It was hard to shop for someone without knowing them. I mailed her a cute doll Patten and a home made flower. I haven't heard from her.. I hope she got it.. The idea of a swap is fun..The rules were simple... Not sure I will do one again because it was HARD to pick something out with out know the partner. . I am so picky about gifts that I give.. I usually shop and shop until the right thing hits me in the face. Thank you Linda!!!!! I love it all..

The Little Pigs are here... Pig Parade

Our farm has been working on a new adventure.... BIG time hog operation. It has been about 5 months in the working. We have helped our son and his wife start a new business.. HOG HEAVEN... I will post pictures of the building process later. The hill where all our kids rode there horse and us girls had our horse camping is now a 81 x 413 building.. It will hold 4,400 pigs. They will come in just after they are weaned until they are ready to go to market, about 5 months old. The first picture is of them coming off the truck and making there way down the shoot then into the nursery rooms. For now I just want to post a few pictures of the cute little pigs.. Our first bunch was 700 little baby's.. They are so cute and very pink. I took this last picture through the nursery window. They soon settle down into their nursery. It is very clean and warm. We have to follow strict sanitary rules to keep them healthy and free of diseases and germs just like any other babies.

Winter Drive to Town...

Here are some pictures I took when I went to town on a cold winter drive. The frost was sticking to every thing. It was beautiful.. The picture just can not capture how enchanting it was..

We finally replaced Kenny's old chair. The snow came before we got it disposed of. Funny thing it matches our blue house.. hehe.. i love the way my camera caught the snow falling.

I think its cool to see the color in this picture. The Amish don't believe in wearing colorful cloths. I think it is ironic that they put bright blankets on there horses. This is the buggy parking lot behind the hardware store. With all the white snow and black buggies the pink and blue horse blankets brighten up the view.

This is of our drive way with the yellow school bus. The frosty snow almost looks like fur.

Day off of school because of the cold doesn't go waisted. The Amish kids found a great place to ice skate.

Fry Pies, Corn Chip Salad and Family Games

My family and our neighbors had our annual evening of fun. Loreen has been my friend since she use to baby set for my daughter who is 20 now. Loreen and her husband have 4 growing boys. They are a hard working Amish family.

Us girls go down to her house in the afternoon and cook something new together. Then the guys come for supper. Last year she taught us how to make home made pretzels. This year we made 'FRY PIES'. At first we were very intimidated by the pies. Loreen had made them but not with out her mom or sisters.. I think she was nervous about being unsure of the method. We soon got a system going. It was easy. She had made raspberry filling ahead of time from raspberries the boys had picked last season. Brittney had a hard time not eating it by the spoons full. It was sooo tasty. We set up 3 stations. Loreen mixed the dough. I rolled and shaped it. Brittney filled and pressed them shut. Then Loreen fried them in the deep fryer. They had to hook up the generator to the deep fryer because Amish do not have electricity. The cord is plugged into an extension cord that goes out side to the generator setting on the porch. We could tell when the deep fryer oil was at the right temperature because the generator would shut down.. Then we took turns glazing them. Loreen had the boys turn the stove down because it got hot as us busy bees were working away. We made 35 pies. They were beautiful!!! and Delicious. We divided the left over between us to freeze. They freeze very well.


I got a lot of flour on my clothes and the broken one is the one I dropped.. (5 second rule... I ate that one right after I put a lot of glaze on it.. )

Fry Pies

yield 25 pies approximately

Dough
9 cups cake flour (velvet)
1 Tbls. . salt
1 pt. cold water
3 cups pre-creamed shortening

2 quarts pie filling ( I think that sound like a lot.. ?##!?)

Glaze (This will make enough for 2 batches..)
4 lbs. powdered sugar
1/3 cup corn starch
1/4 cup milk
1 t. vanilla
1 1/3 cups water or as needed for consistency

mix dough then roll out dough in circles... put filling in the center ... fold over and seal edges...OR use a pie or tart press... (that is what we used)
we found they fry better if we refrigerate them while waiting to put them in the fryer. Oil should be 375 degrees. We cooked them at 400 degrees. You will have to experiment because deep fryers can run different. Put them on a cooling rack to cool. Drizzle them with the glaze on both sides. more glaze the better I say..

I made lasagna and garlic bread. Loreen made a corn chip salad. We had ice cream and fry pies for desert. As it got dark they lit the lanterns. It's funny but they seem just like regular lights. After dinner we played a card game.

CORN CHIP SALAD

1 of lettuce

1 bag of corn chips (or to taste)

3 - 5 boiled and diced eggs

1 cut shredded yellow cheese

optional chopped or cubed ham, and or bacon

Dressing

1 cup salad dressing (miracle whip)

little bit of vinegar

1 Tbls. mustard

1/3 cup sugar

mix dressing ingredients together

layer in a bowl... lettuce... eggs .... cheese... (optional ham and or bacon) ..then crumbled chips.... cover with dressing. Just before serving toss..

You might have to tweak this recipe.. It is all done in guesstimates.. Let me know if you change it up..

I love Jesus but i drink a little bit....

What a hoot.. Check out the video on Sue's Blog. I can not wait until I get to the age that I can say any thing I want to. How old do you think that would be??

http://oodlekadoodleprimitives.blogspot.com/2009/02/i-love-jesus-but-i-drink-little.html

Grandparents

Big News... We are going to Grandparents.. Tanner and Catrina... Due in April!!! Our first.

IT'S A GIRL...

We finally got to tell Phil. I have waited to post this until Tanner told Phil that he is going to be a dad. Phil lives in Germany. It has been hard to coordinate the call to him.. Now he knows. I didn't want him to find out from my blog.

This is a picture of my Grandparents.. The Gumms.. To all my family that reads this I can e-mail the picture if you want it...

5 Little Funerals and one 3% Chance at Life

I have been stumped on what to post lately. I could tell you what a wonderful Christmas I had even though I had a really bad cold and Christmas. Plans got switched at the last minuet from my house to my moms. It was great to go to moms house again with my brother and his family. The delicious food with our horse riding friends at Kathy and Jed's bed and breakfast .http://www.mirrorlakebb.blogspot.com/ .New years eve was a hoot at our friends eating fresh fish cooked out in the implement building. All the great carried in foods and playing games.

I think this will be the best year of my life. 2009 I have a lot to look forward to..buttttt

I have never in MY life, known so many young lives tragic endings. Living in a small community where we all know each other or know of each other, good or bad, we are connected in big or small ways.

Thanksgiving day Danni lost her fight to brain cancer. She was 19 years old. I remember cutting her hair. She had a beautiful thick head of hair. Danni had just started spreading her wings. Off to college. Living on her own when she was diagnosed with a brain tumour. God taking her to heaven on Thanksgiving Day was auspicious.

Dakota, a cute, busy 9 year old died in a tragic sledding accident. He was sledding down a hill in town. Lots of grown ups remember sledding on that very same hill when they were kids. It was icier then usual on that day and he slid too far into the road. He was hit by a car. The lady driving the car lives just down the road and has kids that go to the same school. It is the perfect example of a tragic accident we all wish we could have prevented. Two Amish boys that live just down the road died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Two brothers, 12 and 14, were found in the pump house of their home, where a gasoline-powered pump to fill a water tank for their horses was at. The two died when carbon monoxide fumes overcame them. We believe one of the boys might have been overcome by the fumes and we believe the twelve year old went down stairs and attempted to rescue the 14 year old brother and at that point he was overcome also.”Police believe a faulty exhaust vent allowed carbon monoxide fumes to leak into the basement. http://www.indianasnewscenter.com/news/37494269.html
It was the first Amish viewing I have attended. The picture is of their house. The tent on the left is were we first entered. This is where the attendees could leave there hats and coats and gather before entering the building where the boys bodies and family were setting. As we entered the building there was a guest register. Then to the right were the coffins. Plain wooden boxes. With a beautiful finished stain that sat on simple wheeled carts that coffins are transported around on. No lining in the coffins. I don't remember that there was a pillow either. The boys were in their Sunday best with fresh Amish hair cuts. Black coats and pants with crisp white shirts. They looked like they were peaceful. As I walked by and looked back I could see their little feet with just dark socks on. It was very cold that day..A tarp was hanging from the ceiling separating them from the rest of the large open building. As we walked between the tarp and the coffins it seemed surreal. As we walked the length of the tarp to the opening at the end of the building we were immediately looking at the boys father and mother setting on a bench along the wall flanked by family beside them and on benches setting in front of them. The line weaved between all the family on both sides all setting in a maze like. My friend is a sister in law to the little boys. It was hard to see them all hurting so.
The basement door to the house was where the food was served for the family and friends. The neighbor families cooked all their meals for them the whole week. Breakfast, lunch and supper. At tables all set and ready for them to set down and be served.
The day of the burial it was the coldest day!! My Amish friend ask if Kenny could get school buses for them to be driven from the house to the cemetery and back again to the house..It was just too cold to even have the horses out in that cold. It took 3 school buses. The buses followed the horse drawn buggies caring the caskets to the Amish cemetery. . Each boy had 6 young people close to their ages to shovel their graves and cover them back up.

A friends granddaughter died. She was just 10 months old. She had heart problems when she was born but seemed to be doing well.
Baby's are so precious...
Then there is Garrett..!!!! What a baby he is.. Garrett is my son and daughter-in-laws nephew. He is 14 months old and just a peach.. Last year at this time he was a very sick little boy. He had heart surgery, kidney surgery, was on a respirator, a feeding tube and one thing lead him to another. We did not know what else could go wrong with him. He had a blood clot in his leg that caused the doctors to have to amputate his foot. All this when he was just months old. He is a miracle baby. Garrett is the happiest baby. He smiles with his whole mouth open and has the most expressive eyes. This baby was given only a 3% chance of living..!!! and he gets healthier by the day...
I pray that you hug your children. You just never know. I hope this will be the last sad post I do. I am praying that I will get more good life stories like Garrett's.. So check back to hear my 2009 good life stories.

Photo Tag...wave rave petunias

Photo Tag
I've been tagged by http://growingupwithkaylee.blogspot.com/ in a post called "Photo Tag".Here are the rules:Go to the 4th folder in your computer where you store your pictures.Pick the 4th picture in that folder.Explain the picture.Tag 4 people to do the same.
Will isn't this funny that this is the picture. It is freezing out side and my 4th picture of my 4th file is of a flower from last summer.. ( I am not a great photographer. I should take a class.) This planter is actually a large whiskey barrel with a buggy wheel rim setting in front of it. It is loaded and over flowing with wave petunias. http://www.wave-rave.com/ I have been getting seed catalogs in the mail lately. Time to order seeds. I wish I could be a better gardener. I can not tell the weeds from the flowers. I think as long as its growing I should leave it grow. But, if it is in a planter I do great. I do appreciate those who are!!! I get the catalogs because my mother in law who is the master gardener goes to Florida for the winter and we get her mail. I buy flowers from my Amish neighbor's green house or go to the auction. http://debbiedohair.blogspot.com/2008/10/clear-springs-auction.html#comments

My tags are going to:http://lonadawn.blogspot.com/ http://mirrorlakebb.blogspot.com/ http://rusticgoods.blogspot.com/ http://kellismommy.blogspot.com/

Stand by me Sing Along

THIS IS A BEAUTIFUL SONG.. IF YOU LIKE IT LET ME KNOW.. IF YOU SANG ALONG TELL ME SO. MY INKEN BABY FROM GERMANY WILL LOVE THIS.. SHE LOVES TO SING.. YOU NEVER KNOW WHERE OR WHO IN THE WORLD HAS THE TALENT..

BRITTNEY SAYS MUSIC SUCH AS THIS COULD BRING THE WORLD TOGETHER.. ENJOY.. WISH I COULD SING.. MY TALENT IS NOT SINGING .. BUT I CAN DANCE....

Playing For Change: Song Around the World Stand By Me from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

2009 the year to be Fine and Kind !! Just call me Nosey

Just being 'NOSEY' what you doing in 2009!!? The year of being Fine and Kind 2009!! orrrr what are you really glad or sad to kiss good by to about 2008?

Trip on Train to Chicago with Kyoung Ji from South Korea

Kyoung Ji is here for the school year to attend school and learn about American life. She is a very pretty young lady. We were very excited to take her on a day trip. She spent the whole week end with us. It is so interesting to hear her tell about her home in South Korea. In South Korea she lives in an apartment on the 5 th floor. I don't think any of our buildings here go as high as 5 floors. Her city has a large population. The boys and girls are in separate class in South Korea. They stay in there classes at the same desk all day. The Teachers are the ones that move from room to room. Her school days last from 7:40 a.m. in the morning to 10 p.m. in the evening (9 period)(except Sunday!

Kyoung Ji, Brittney and Klint and I took the train to Chicago for the day.... We picked a very cold. snowy, windy day. We love to ride the train. Its always interesting to people watch. We are really out of our box though. From our neck of the woods where our roads are 2 lanes or sometimes dirt and our neighbor live 1/2 mile or drive horse and buggies its fun to go to the big city.. We had never went to Chicago to see the Christmas decorations. They were beautiful. It was also Klint's first time on the train. It is only $9.00 (each way). With the weather the way it was I am glad I did not drive. It was worth the price. We visited Sears Tower to see an over view of the city. Then took a taxi to The Cheese Cake Factory. I love the unusual decor. It reminds me of a mushroom. I think it is suppose to look like the inside of cheese. We went shopping in the shops. Our favorite store is the huge book store. The only thing we bought was a pair of new gloves for Brittney and a few souvenirs. Brittney treated us to a carriage ride that took us on a scenic view of the lake. Then back on the train. All in one day..

The GOOD news of the day!1981 Murder of Son of America's Most Wanted Anchor John Walsh Is Solved

This head line has made me very happy for the Walsh family.. He is a hero in my eyes. He took a terrible tragedy and made it a mission of his life to save others and send criminals to jail. He wrote a book about his life before and after his son Adam life was taken from them. He is inspiring. With all the bad news lately it was refreshing to hear the case is closed.
Tears of Rage - From Grieving Father to Crusader for Justice: The Untold Story of the Adam Walsh Case A story about how a tragedy turn a man into a hero for others.

This is taken from a news today.. I cried with him when he said. Not knowing was torture!!

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — The investigation into the 1981 murder of Adam Walsh, the 6-year-old son of "America's Most Wanted" anchor John Walsh, is finally closed.
Hollywood, Fla., Police Chief Chad Wagner announced Tuesday that the department had concluded that Ottis Toole, a serial killer who died in jail in 1996, was the man who kidnapped The announcement brought to a close a case that had angered the Walsh family for more than two decades, inspired the television show about the nation's most notorious criminals and triggered changes in how authorities search for missing children.
"Who could take a 6-year-old and murder and decapitate him? Who?" an emotional John Walsh said at Tuesday's news conference. "We needed to know. We needed to know. And today we know."

Bell... Lucky Bell ... The Pot bellied pig (Vietnamese pot bellied pig)

We live just far enough from town that we get stray animals dropped off. We've had puppies, dogs, cats and even a goat one time. We found homes for all of them or kept them. Some of them look like they have been wondering around for days. Starved and scroungy looking. A white boxer dog that showed up was beautiful. He loved to set on the golf cart. I wish we could have kept him. Jenny, our exchange student from Germany wanted to take it back to Germany with her. He was just to big for us. One dog dropped of was so afraid of people he hid under everything. My friend Lori took him. He never did get over that. I think that little guy was abused. Last dog dropped of was a small pitiful looking short haired CHIHUAHUA. At least when they dropped it off they left a loaf of bread for him to eat. It was too little for us. Besides we do not need another dog and I aint' no Paris. We think dumping is a very cruel way to get rid of an animal.

A couple of years ago.... Bell .. Lucky Bell as I call her appeared at our house. This is the story..

I got up late that morning to start work.. I have a hair salon in my house so I don't have far to go. Well .. I over slept this morning.. wow did i over sleep.. My customers were down stairs waiting on me.. The little boys were down there calling my name... Deb, Deb we are here... They are the cuties little 4 year old twins. I was running through the house.. I really needed to let our dogs out before I started work or they would have left me a mess.. So .. I quickly let them out the back door got dressed, brushed my teeth, put my make up on and grabbed my clogs because I didn't want to take the time to put socks on. I opened the door to let the dogs back in..( mean while the twins were still calling me .." Deb we wready to get our hair cut") Scooter (the smaller but older dog) was under the deck.. I thought what the heck are you doing under there.. His feet were dirty now...huuuuhhh.. Cally was just a puppy then and she followed and copied every thing Scooter did... huhhhh... so they both were under the deck... why this morning.. huuhhh.. I don't remember them ever going under there until this morning ..

I worked for several hours. I had a busy schedule but needed to get to the bank between customers . Quickly I drove to town to make a deposit. You know pay check to pay check.. Any who... When I came back home I let the dogs out again. All the sudden Scooter and Cally were raising cane something terrible. Barking like mad hiennas. I looked out and seen they had something cornered in front of the garage. It looked like a raccoon. I just could not see it well. I just wasn't sure. I know they could have been hurt by the animal or they could hurt it. I went running out side. Running in clogs is not easily.. As i got closer i seen that it was a small baby PIG!!!. Were in the world did this baby pig come from. We haven't raised pigs for years. Our neighbors all live at least 1/2 mile from us. That must have been what the dogs were after under the deck. As I ran out side to the rescue.. Not sure who I should rescue first. My daughters boy friend was driving by. I waved him to come help me.. Him and I tried to stop the dogs.. the more we tried the more they barked and carried on. The pig ran out into the freshly pick corn field of short corn stocks. The dogs were barking, the pig was squealing, Matt and I were laughing our heads off. I was stepping high with my clogs over the corn stocks trying my best to keep them on and run as fast as I can. We were zigg'n and zagging all over the corn field. I am not sure how much of the corn field we covered. Finally Matt caught it. The dogs were jumping up at it. He quickly handing it to me and said "I am late for work". We huffed and puffed back to the house and just kept say its a pig... where in the world did it come from..

Once again I had customers waiting on me. With this pig in my arms running to the house I remembered the pet carrier in the garage. I quickly threw the pig in the cage and went back to work.. Oh i did wash my hands first.. I could hardly cut hair telling my customer of the funny story.

I called my husband to tell him I had a surprise when I got done working . He was at the other farm. I put the pig and the dogs in the car. Scooter was still barking and barking... the pig was still oinking and oinking. Cally being the baby she was just looked at us all like she did not know what to do. When i got over there he and his dad were waiting. I opened the hatch back and said look at this. We all stood there laughing and looking in the cage. Kenny reached into the cage to retrieve the little guy... It charged at him and chomped down on his hand. Good thing he had gloves on because I think it would have cut threw his hand. He tossed it back in the cage.. "that's not a pig" A baby pig would not have attracted like that. We looked at each other ... then at the same time the 3 of us leaned over and looked in the cage into the cage at this seemingly small but mighty little pig. "that is a POT BELLIED PIG... where in the ---- did it come from" oh my word ..!!!!! I still can not believe my day.. I really do not now what to do with this.

My son was out in the barn. I drove out to show and tell him about this mystery creature. My sides hurt from laughing at the events. The first thing he said to my surprise was ' I have always wanted a pot bellied pig. I'd like to see how fat I can get it. " I immediately said ... it's yours... happy birthday ,, Merry Christmas... you can have it.. What a relieve that he wanted it..I could not get the cage out of the car fast enough. We went to the barn and proceeded to fix up a pen for it. He got a chicken cage that had sides about 4 feet high made out of chicken wire with a small edge of chicken wire around the top opening. Afraid it would bite again he dumped the little guy into the cage. It ran so fast and hard that i climbed up the sides of the cage. If not for the small edge on the top I think it would have climbed right out the top. My son (Tanner) was so excited about his new pet. I was so thankful I did not have to find this thing a home. He put bedding in, got it water and food. I said "Tanner what is your wife going to say.." Just then his wife came out to see what was going on. She walked in looked in the cage and immediately said.... to my surprise... "awwww look it's it a pig... how cute... " ..... ya i was thinking cute my ass... it almost tore Kenny's hand off, runs and climbs like a badger.... Behind her came Buddy (black Labrador dog). Calmly he strutted over and stuck his nose in the cage... I swear that pig thought buddy was his daddy... She followed Buddy every were and Buddy didn't mind.. The little pig never acted aggressively again. It had transformed into a little princess. They named her BELL.

Bell now lives the life of a queen.. I call her LUCKY BELL. Because she is very very lucky to have a home there. (and not with me..) Bell is not caged. She has free run of where ever she wants to go.. She really doesn't want to go far or move very fast. Her favorite things are sleeping, heading over to the apple tree to eat apples, laying in the barn under her heat lamp and scratching her back on the trees or her butt on truck tires.. She also like to lay out in the sun with the cats.

So .. Dogs... Cats.... Goats..... Now a POT BELLIED PIG... What next... oh I forgot a Homing pigeon once too. Just another funny story..

Draft Horse Fall Sale Day

I like to go to the Draft horse and tack sale. The draft horses are spectacular. Usually we go to the sale to eat supper and watch for a while. The food is typical sale food hot dogs, sloppy joes and chicken. The line was so long this time I didn't bother. Seeing draft horses in the fields or going down the road as a team is an awesome sight. Standing next to them is another thing. They are massive in size. Before my daughter got us into horses I would have just watched from the side lines at the sale barn. She has taught me so much about horses.The Belgian Draft horses are such gentle souls. I think the know they there size. I now can walk through the barn and right beside them. They have the biggest feet. Some of the horses are groomed with pretty ribbons and harnesses. They bring them to the sale looking like show horses. The teams are exciting to watch. They are brought into the sale ring and marched up and down.

The show ring looks so small when they are run through. Both sides of the show area are filled with people. There is hardly a seat to be found. Stuffed together like sardines. Mostly Amish men. The factories call sale day a holiday. Most of the Amish are going to go to the sale so they just let them off and call it a holiday. The Amish use the draft horse to do there field work. The horses are well trained to work as teams. The other day I seen a team of 6 working in the field. The children learn from a young age to drive teams. A Young Amish boy, looked to be 10 years old was driving a team of 4 pulling a double wagon loaded with large round bales today. He was standing up with the reins and look like a pro. We are told people come from all over the world to this sale. Disney has bought horses here. I over heard someone say they were buying more horses for Disney. Budweiser also has bought here for their team. I didn't get good pictures. I feel bad taking pictures there because I know the Amish do not like their pictures taken. They didn't mind me taking pictures of their horses

I got a lot of draft horse butt pictures. I went on a day when young horses were being sold.
I am not the greatest photographer. I took this as I was driving by the sale barn. I think the picture in the review mirror is nice.
The parking lot. Lines and lines of buggies.

This guy kept flirting with me. He has such a handsome face and his eye was sparkling at me. Will maybe it was the sun light.

A lot of fathers bring there little boys too. This little girl was peeking around the corner at me..

Tack. Just one of the vender's items. It was a beautiful day.