Put Your Big Girl Boots On and Deal With It!

Put Your Big Girl Boots On and Deal With It!

Or in this case, your big brother's boots. ;) Am I the only girl out there that likes to wear my older brother's boots? Good. I knew I wasn't the only one!! 

When I do the evening chores out at the barn all the cows are waiting on me, 'cause they know they're fixing to get fed.

Blizzard and Barley (the two milk calves..and don't ask me which one is which, because I don't know...) get separated from their mommas for the night so I can be sure to have some milk in the morning.

Rusty accompanies me for the evening chores. He gets jealous because all the cows get all the attention, and not him. 

Yep I'll admit it, our milk cows have to be one of my favorite animals on the farm. Because here's the thing, who can't love a big 'ole soft-eyed cow, with beautiful eye-lashes, with a temperament to match? Not to mention the fact that she gives you a creamy gallon of fresh milk every morning.

Oh, did I forget to mention that they think they're dogs? They have an annoying habit of...

..yep..that.

Further more, did you know cows are camera hogs? 

'Tis true, and Bessie is the worst. She just hasn't figured out that the camera isn't food yet. Poor girl, perhaps someday she'll learn the truth, that and the fact that she isn't a dog, and does NOT need to come inside for snacks. 

Someday..but not today.

Blessing - 

~ Aspen

Enabling

Enabling

I could write to you about something useful, but instead I'm going to be an enabler.

You'd probably be better of not researching Babydoll Sheep. You might just fall in-love with them *ahem* hence the name "Babydoll" sheep. Anyway, if you are too lazy to look them up, I'll continue my Enabling Services...

 

Just look at those furry critters. Do you want some yet?

Need I even say I wouldn't mind having a couple bottle lambs scampering around the farm? Be honest, who wouldn't want to wake up every morning to see this adorable little critter?

Besides all the cuteness, they are very useful. No really. They mow your lawn for you, provide an unlimited supply of fertilizer, not to mention all the wool you could harvest from them. Plus they are a smaller breed of sheep, extremely docile and great around kids, and on top of all that they make adorable lawn decorations. ;)

They come in an assortment of colors, not just white. 

If I had some, they would all be trained to walk on a leash. Because seriously, who in their right mind wouldn't want to take a sheep for a walk??

I think I need some walking carpets. You?

Quite recently I've become very interested in spinning my own wool and making all sorts of things out of it. There are only two things holding me back. #1. I don't know the first thing about spinning wool, and secondly I'd want to harvest it from my own animals..but I don't have any animals who produce wool.

Maybe I should start out with Angora rabbits, and learn to harvest their wool, before taking the plunge into raising sheep. WHAT? You've never heard of Angora rabbits? You need to get out more. (I feel another enabling post coming on...).

  

Are you in-love with these little sheep yet? I sure am.

What about you, have you ever wanted to raise your own sheep to harvest their wool? 

Blessings - 

~ Aspen

Photo credit to Google Images...none of the above pictures are mine.

New Laptop & Pumpkin Ribbon Bread

New Laptop & Pumpkin Ribbon Bread

I hope this post finds you well and completely over your sugar rush, from eating so much Christmas candy. *ahem* Nothing of which I'd know anything about....*coughs*

Can you believe Christmas was here and gone!! Crazy! Guess what I got for Christmas? *drum roll please.....* A Laptop!!!  v v v v v v

This is my first post using my new gadget..I'm having a blast learning how to operate this new contraption.

Now, on to the deliciously scrumptious pumpkin bread!

Now, be honest. Do you or do you not want a warm piece of Pumpkin Bread? Any person in their right mind would say YES! And since all the readers that read my blog are in their right mind, here is the recipe:

Now, if you didn't have pumpkin puree on hand like some people *no names will be mentioned* you can bake a few Sweet Meat Squashes and squash (pun intended) them up to use for the puree.

All Squashed Up ;)

All my dry ingredients whisked up.

The wet ingredients.

The Cream Cheese filling.

Wet and dry ingredients mixed together.

Floured loaf pans ready and awaiting further orders.

Now, for the "ribbon" part of this bread, lay half of your batter into the pan, then put a layer of the cream cheese filling, and then put another layer of the batter atop.

Voila...ready for the oven!

Fresh loaf right out of the oven! Yum the house sure smells good! Let's dig in, shall we? Of course we shall! What kind of question is that?!

If your mouth isn't watering yet..you have serious issues and I would suggest seeing a physician. 

Now, for those of us that didn't have to make any unexpected trip to the Physician's...let's eat!

How was your Christmas? 

 

 

Blessings - 

 

~ Aspen

Iceland

The day before yesterday, we got some rain, then that night it froze...we woke up to an Iceland. It was just beautiful!  Everything was encrusted with ice. Once the sun came up, all of the trees were glistening and sparkling, it was quite the sight. Then it all started to melt and we had ice avalanches.

How has your weather been?

Learning to blog from my phone...

While visiting with my sister Atlanta, who is visting from Tennessee with her husband,  I was telling her how awesome it would be if I could blog from my phone while I sat by the woodstove, sipping tea...she informed me that you can. Want to guess what I'm doing right now?

You guessed it!

Turkey, Dressing, and Pies! Oh My!

Turkey, Dressing, and Pies! Oh My!

Yes, um...well I never got around to posting about Thanksgiving, did I. No, I sure didn't. Shame on me.

Let me start out by saying I love tea. Especially Chai tea. Like I'm crazy over it. Now that that's out of the way, we can all get on with our lives.

I started out TG day making a big batch of pie dough and sipping on some delicious(you guessed it)Chai tea. Mmm..what better way to start out your day?

And of course I had my cute & fuzzy foot warmer laying on my feet to keep them warm. Doesn't everybody have a foot warmer when they make pie dough? No? Well they should. 

Now, where was I..ahh yes, pie making!

 Carolina and I got very creative with the pie crusts, as you can clearly see. 

Fingerprint and butterfly crust.

Bird track crust.

As for this one, I have no clue what kind of pattern you'd call it. Suggestions?

 Next on the list I made the dressing. And cried. Didn't you know I'm very emotional in the kitchen? OK, well maybe you didn't know. But now you do. 

(I'm blaming it on the onions though, it's all their fault).

Momma set the table. It looked mighty fine. 

Dad carved up the turkey.

Then we laid out all the yummy dishes, which included:

Dressing.

Cheesy Broccoli & and Rice Casserole (which, just between me and you was absolutely, ridiculously, delicious...say that three times fast).

Then of course we had some scrumptious mashed sweet potatoes and some cranberry sauce, and a few pickled beets thrown in for good measure.

Now on to the part you've all been waiting for...*drum roll please* Pie!

We had Chocolate Alabama Pie. 

A big 'ole Apple Pie.

And of course several good old fashioned Pumpkin Pies..okay actually they were Sweet Meat Squash Pies, but who cares about minor details?

 Momma made some meringue.

Doesn't that look lovely? Of course it does!

Here are the pie monsters..they devoured all of the pie. I kid you not.

The Bunbuns had a feast of leftover apple peelings.

Alan: "These apple bits are all fine and dandy, but where's my pie?"

Alan: " Surely you didn't forget to make me my own pie!!"

Alan: "Ah, how could you do this to me!!??!!??"

Alan: "Although, I would settle for a Carrot Cake if you had one handy."

Alan: "You don't have one of those either? Fine, just for that, I'll eat the camera."

Blessings - 

~ Aspen