Heritage Hill Homestead

Catching up

Where has this past week gone?  Time flies when you are having fun, right??  Well, I guess I have been having fun then.

The auction I talked about going to on Saturday was very cold!!  We got a truck load of stuff for a total of $12.  A large cooler we can use for Farmers Market, several boxes of canning jars, a table, and the best of all..........an arch way that I have been wanting for a long time.  This one had been used for wedding decorations, it has roses, tulle and lights on it, however those will come off and I will put it over the gate into the poulty yard and I will plant honeysuckle on it!  It cost a dollar!  Since it was so cold things went very cheap.

We stopped and got Kaylan and she came home with us to spend the night.  Then on Sunday there was a surprise party planned for Ryan celebrating him finishing his college class.  He still has some elective classes to finish up hours before he will actually graduate.  But he completed an 18 month business class and a huge paper.....so he deserved a party.  However, he was not particularly happy with the idea at first, I guess he doesn't like surprises, he was happy by the end.  Part of the problem was it was a beautiful day and he had plans to spend it outdoors.  Anyway, happy or not, we are very proud of you Ryan!

While in the area, Mom and I picked up pears.  I had wanted to get some and was afraid they may all be gone by then, but there were a lot of nice ones on the ground.  So, they are waiting on me to make something of them now.  I want to make pear honey for sure, maybe can some, not sure what all.

Monday I took Mom to see a very close friend that had a stroke about 3 months ago.  It was really hard to see her, but at the same time, she looked good and responded to some conversation.  She has come a long way and with therapy, and continued prayer she will improve.

Tuesday evening we attended a meeting in Emporia for local food providers.  I think they called it Growing Local Foods. Anyway, gardeners, livestock producers, etc. came together to talk about marketing ideas in our area.  It was a good meeting and we made a new acquaintance that lives near us and has many similar interests. 

Wednesday was the most perfect fall day, Thursday was winter!  Today not quite as cold.  We made a shopping trip today.  Stocked up on baking supplies mostly.  Sutherlands had their fruit sale today, so I got 15 pounds of Granny Smith apples, they were 69 cents a pound.

Speaking of bargains...........gas today in town was $1.65.......how about that!

Sunday we will celebrate Thanksgiving with a dinner following the service at church.  We are making a big pan of dressing, and I don't know for sure what else yet.  I suppose I should make deviled eggs as we have plenty right now. 

Well that about brings us up to date around the homestead.

Country Blessings,

Marilyn~at Heritage Hill Homestead

Cinnamon Roll Recipe

Finally I am back with the cinnamon roll recipe I mentioned.  I have made it 3 times now and it has turned out well.   They seem to stay soft for several days.  I am making them for the  same resturant that I make the pies for, so I wanted them to be really good!  Apparently they do like them as they have ordered them twice this week.   Thanks to LaJuan in Colorado for sending this to me and allowing me to share it here with you.

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This came from "Favorite Family Recipes - The Martin Family". They are a conservative (horse and buggy) Mennonite family out of Barnett, Missouri.

(Note: I baked them at 375 for 20 minutes)

Marilyn~at Heritage Hill Homestead

Thank you.........

for all of the comments on my cinnamon roll questions!  I also received a really good recipe by email, I will check to see if she minds me sharing it here.  That is the one I used.  I have a recipe that I have made many times, but this one looked so good, I just had to try it.  I ended up cutting them thicker and putting 6 in a 9x13 pan, that made a nice size roll.  Now we will see what the lady I made them for thinks?  I made a cream cheese frosting that was yummy too!

This afternoon I glanced out of my kitchen window and saw the most amazing sight!!  One of the brightest full, double rainbows I have ever seen.  I had just come in from outside and it wasn't even rainy then.  I noticed sprinkles on the window and looked out to see this.  One surprise was it was a north window, I don't ever remember seeing a rainbow in the north sky.  I grabbed the camera, but you would know the batteries were dead.  I hadn't used it for a while, so I had better get them charged up again.

Yesterday I baked 3 pies along with the cinnamon rolls, today 2 pies.  One for the restaurant and 1 a surprise for someone special. 

Our calves have been getting out, but just hanging around not bothering anything,  yesterday morning they had taken a stroll down the road.........so we drove along the fence and found a couple of places they could have easily gotten out.  So I hope we fixed them.  They have 20 acres but the old saying is so true the grass is always greener someplace else!

I need to get to bed, we will be up bright and early tomorrow to go to an auction.  It is in an area where we lived before moving here, so I hope to see some people we have not seen in a while.  It is supposed to be really cold and windy tomorrow, but most of this should be inside, so maybe not too bad.

Country Blessings,

Marilyn~at Heritage Hill Homestead

Cinnamon Roll questions??

A question for the expert bakers on HSB......

Does anyone make very large cinnamon rolls like some restaraunts sell?  I need to make some and am wondering how they do it?  I usually put 12 in a 9x13 pan, if I only put 6 in the same size pan will that do it?   Should I not roll them as tight?  Or just cut them bigger?

Next question:  Does anyone have a tip for making them stay fresh longer?  Mine seem pretty dry the second day.  It would seem like I might add too much flour, but I only add until the dough is not sticky and is workable.

Any other good cinnamon roll tips would be apprecitated..........

Thanks!  And Country Blessings, 

Marilyn~at Heritage Hill Homestead

Thank you Veterans!

Thank you to all that have served and are currently serving our country!  My Uncle, Daddy's brother, gave his life in WW2.  Since I never knew him it doesn't seem very real to me, but I know it was very real to his family at the time. 

On Monday evening, Golden Corral will provide a free meal to all veterans.  We have gone the past 3-4 years, but didn't know about it before that.  So if you have a Veteran in your family you might take note.  I have to pay for my meal, but hubby's is free.  It is a very nice gesture that they do each year!

Saturday we went to the auction I mentioned.  I got a few canning jars and a nice little table to go beside the bed.  Things went cheap, and I passed up a few things I would have like to have, but still even cheap isn't good if you don't really need it.

Sunday we missed church.  We met our daughter and family for breakfast.  They were only in the area for a short time.  We had a nice visit with them, probably won't see them over the holidays, so this was a nice surprise visit.  Some exciting news, or at least a possibility,  our granddaughter that will graduate this spring is thinking of going to college in our area!  That would be wonderful!  She is getting the paper work going now, so we will see.

Yesterday and today have been sooooooooo  gloomy and dreary outside.  They said the sun may come out tomorrow afternoon, I sure am ready.  I know I have said this before, but I have a hard time getting anything done without sunshine!!!

I did finish up the apples yesterday by making Caramel Apple Butter.  I intend to try homemade vinegar with the peelings, hope that happens tomorrow.  Today I made pies all morning, not much this afternoon sad to say.

That is about it for tonight..........

Country Blessings,

Marilyn~at Heritage Hill Homestead

Grandkids having fun

I just got these pictures tonight and had to share them with my friends here.

Three of our kids and their families went on a sand dunes trip last weekend.  This is one of Maddy's first 4-wheeler rides.

It looks like she worked up quite an appetite!

And here is our Nick, what more fun could a 9 year old boy be having!

Country Blessings,

Marilyn~at Heritage Hill Homestead

Friday

Nothing exciting around the homestead today.  Mostly just the usual stuff...........a little laundry, some dish washing, vacuuming, chores..........

Hubby and I did make it into Mom's late this afternoon and got her living room carpet cleaned for her.  We put all of the furniture back in place and hung things on the walls and it sure looks nice.

There was a special program at the school this afternoon for Veterans.  I thought we would try to go, but hubby didn't feel the greatest after lunch so he rested for a couple of hours instead.

Tomorrow I am taking my Aunt and Mom may go along too, to an auction.  I love auctions, so it will be fun.  The seller is a good friend of my Aunts who has just moved quite a ways away to be near her daughter.  I hope her friend will be there, not sure if it would be too much for her health wise to attend or not. 

Got an email from our daughter saying they are coming up for the weekend from Springfield.  They want to meet us for either breakfast or lunch on Sunday.  It will be nice to see them.

Rlyn and Kaylan are coming down tomorrow too, but I don't know if I will get to see them or not since I am going to the auction.  One nice thing about this time of the year........deer hunting season.......Rlyn makes it down to our area most every weekend as he has a feeder set up and sometimes a camera to get ready for hunting.  Last year they spent most of a week with us while he was hunting, it was a lot of fun.  But he doesn't have much time to take off of work this year.

Hubby is going to cook breakfast at the restaurant in town in the morning, so he has the alarm set for 4:15 and is in bed already.  I don't think I will stay up that early, but sure hope I don't go back to sleep for long as I will need to get morning chores done before heading off for the day.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Country Blessings,

Marilyn~at Heritage Hill Homestead

The kids went to bed tonight

all by themselves.............the little chicken kids that is!  I spent a good amount of time 3 evenings this week at dark picking up each little pullet and placing her on the roost.  Well, tonight they just marched right in and found their spot and went to bed!  There was still an awful lot of chattering going on, but they have finally got it.  Sad note though, I somehow did not fasten the gate to their pen this morning, and when hubby came home several of the young pullets were out.  They can't go far, so not a real problem, however later I found "a dog" chewing on something and you know it was a pullet!  BAD DOG!  I know they have not been loose before, but this dog has not bothered the older hens for months, so I would have hoped that he would leave the young ones alone too..............but he didn't.  I sure hope the scolding he got will discourage that behavior again!

It was really quite chilly here today, I do not like it!  Enough said.

I had a pie order late yesterday afternoon.  I was in the process of making a batch of applesauce out of the last of the apples, but I got 3 fruit pies done and evening chores finished before going to Bible Study.  When I got home I made 3 single crusts and put in the fridge.  Then this morning I intended to get up really early and finish them......well, it was a little after 7 when I woke up, so not so early.  But, still got them made and chores done in time to get them to town before lunch time.

Hubby had gone in to Mom's while I was baking and started painting her living room.  He did the trim work, which I just hate.......so then when I got to town, I was able to do the rolling.  Got 2 walls done and then had a lunch break and finished afterwards.  I was really surprised how quickly it went.  Glad it is done, I was not looking forward to the job.  She is just "tickled to death" so that makes it more fun.  We are going to try to get the carpet cleaned tomorrow while the furniture is moved and then the room will be finished.

I am ready to call it an evening, so

Country Blessings,

Marilyn~at Heritage Hill Homestead

German Chocolate Cake Bars

I saw Paula Deen making this on Good Morning America today and just looked up the recipe, it looks like it would be worth trying, so I thought I would share it with you.

Marilyn~at Heritage Hill Homestead

Happenings of the past week

We have had several really beautiful fall days here!  I am so thankful for each one as we never know when it will be the last??  Pretty breezy today and the leaves really went sailing off of the trees.  The crunch of them under foot as I walk across the yard........fall indeed.

My cousin farms the farmground here and he harvested the beans last week.  So, that means new adventures for the goat girls (and 1 boy), I turn them out to eat grass, weeds, leaves and what ever tastes good to them along the edge of the field.  They have so much fun running from one thing to another thinking the next spot will be much better!  They can go under the barb wire fence and get to the road, so I pretty much stay out with them.  This afternoon I was walking along the fence row thinking (dreaming) about someday having it fenced for goats..........when I saw honey bees on a tree.  I quickly moved away, but one stung my cheek, ouch!  It really didn't hurt that bad and I can't even tell where it was now.

I moved 50 of the young pullets into another part of the chicken house last night as they were outgrowing the area they were in.  There are roosts in the new place and so last night at dark I was out there placing each one on the roost.   Tonight of course the same thing, I wonder how many nights it will take for them to remember where to sleep???  The noise those little girls make when they are in a new place and it is getting dark..........anyway, it reminded me of having 50 little kids to try to get to go to bed and be quiet!  Once they were all settled, they quieted right down.  Very cute really.

Hubby is working on the new chicken house for them, so we will have to move all of them soon.  It is supposed to turn cooler again and rain the end of the week, so hope to get it enclosed at least enough to use by then.  The outside pen will not be done. 

Speaking of hubby, we have never heard anything of the test he had over a week ago, so I think that no news is good news.  Thanks to those of you who left comments concerning his heart troubles.

Not so many pies being baked recently.  I only made 5 last week and have 2 to make tomorrow.  BUT, the cook didn't show up on Friday evening, Saturday evening or Sunday noon.......so the owner called hubby to see if he could possibly come in and help out.  He has much experience cooking in restuarants and used to really enjoy it.  But with health issues has not done it in quite a few years.  He was glad to help her out in a bind, but was really tired.  He laid down Sunday afternoon at 3:30 and got up at 7 this morning! 

Friday we had been in Topeka most of the day, Mom went along and we took her Goodwill shopping.  She didn't think she needed much, but she got in the spirit right away and ended up with a cart full!

We got 3 more rabbits today, a friend wanted to get rid of them so she gave them to us.  Two of ours should have babies this week, so I got their nest boxes in place today and got the new ones settled in this afternoon.  We had just enough cages for everyone. 

Mom has paint for her living room, so that is in the plans for one day this week.

I finally made the Caramel Apple Butter that I got the recipe for a while back on here from someone....I am bad about writing down recipes and then not adding who's blog I got them from......anyway it was good!  I will probably make another batch of that this week.

Supper tonight was fried chicken breasts and mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans.........tasted pretty good.

Tomorrow is the election day!  Finally it has arrived after so many months of hearing them fuss at each other back and forth.  We voted by mail so it is done.  We have to drive to another town to vote, which isn't a huge thing, but just in case something came up and we might not make it I decided to go ahead and use the mail.  

 Please, please be in prayer before you go into that booth and do vote!

Country Blessings, and I pray for special Blessings for our Country at this crossroad in history.

Marilyn~at Heritage Hill Homestead

Brrrrrrr...............its cold!

When I got up this morning it was 26 degrees, it is supposed to be colder tonight!  I was trying to prepare myself last evening for "the freeze" however today the flowers didn't look like they had much damage.  I am sure after tonight they will be gone.  This is such a sad time for me every year, I so enjoy flowers and green things around me.  We have already torn up the garden, so that is not an issue.  Another thing is getting in the mode of not letting the water pans for the animals freeze and break, so changing those out or later on I will just dump each one in the evening so as not to have to deal with a solid block of ice in the mornings.

That thought brings me to a question for those of you who raise rabbits.  What do you water your rabbits with in the winter?  This will be the first year we have had bunnies over the winter other than one for a pet. I am trying to figure out something that won't break and also they won't chew up??  Help please, and thank you.

Well, last week I made 15 pies.  I will not have to make any tomorrow anyway, we will see when the next order comes in.  I tried some different kinds and they went over well.  I knew people like sour cream raisin, so I made one of those.  I had not made that before, but it was easy, so that is good.  I was asked to make a chocolate-peanut butter.  I looked up some recipes and made that also.  It went well as I had to make another one the next day!  I am feeling more comfortable with the cream pies now.  I had not made many and was pretty nervous about that at first.  The Lord, as it turns out is a pretty good cream pie baker............

I am very thankful for this opportunity to provide for our family in this way.  It just came out of the blue at just the right time!  Since we are bartering out food at the restaurant for some of the pies, I took Mom out for dinner after church yesterday. 

Speaking of church, there were 2 people baptized and it was such a nice service.  I had invited a couple to come and visit our church and they were able to come yesterday, I pray they felt a blessing to be there.

Saturday morning hubby will be cooking for the first Men's Saturday morning breakfast at church.  There seems to be a lot of interest, so we hope there is a good turn out. 

Hubby had a stress test on his heart on Thursday last week.  He had gone through the same test several times before, and while he was uncomfortable, they had been nothing like this one.  He was in a lot of pain this time.  So, I am praying that doesn't mean there is more blockage or some reason like that for the difference.  He is not able to take the stress test on the treadmill, so they do it by using medicine to simulate a heart attack.  Pretty scary to me!

Since we were in Topeka for this test, it worked out in the afternoon to go to one of Lexi's volleyball tournament games.  We had not seen her play this year.  They won one and lost one while we were there, but I just found out that they took second overall in the tourney, so Congrats Lex! 

Friday was pie baking day, I made 8 that day.  We went in to the church late afternoon to set up for another funeral dinner.  We served that on Saturday at noon.  It was for a brother of some friends.  Then came home and found out I had to make 4 more pies that evening.

Today has been kind of relaxed for me.  Hubby had to go to Emporia this morning to make some deliveries and pick up some meat at the locker plant.  So while there, he did my grocery shopping for pie baking supplies.  We lit the pilot light in our heating stove this afternoon, so I guess that means we are ready for winter???  Supper tonight was browned chicken breast strips and fried taters ( hubby's most favorite kind of potato) and cornbread muffins.

We are very thankful that gasoline in our little town has dropped to $2.18, I did not think that would happen, sure hope it lasts!

That about brings us up to date of the events of the last week on our homestead.

Country Blessings,

Marilyn~at Heritage Hill Homestead

Special Birthdays

This was an unusual Monday, but a very enjoyable one.  Today is my Aunt Ernie's 90th Birthday, and my Aunt Erma's 92nd Birthday will be on Friday.  So my sweet cousin invited us to her new home for lunch today to celebrate!  We had a lovely lunch, just us girls!  Funny, yesterday afternoon hubby says..........I am not looking forward to tomorrow.  Well, I informed him he wasn't even invited, it was girls day, he was very relieved as he was not looking forward to spending the day outnumbered.  Anyway, I picked up Mom in town and then we stopped to pick up Aunt Ernie and headed to Topeka.  Joining us there was my other cousin, Aunt Erma and my DIL and our little Maddy!  We had a nice time visiting and eating of course.  I forgot to take my camera..........sure wish I had.  These are the only 2 Aunts I have left and at their age you never know how many more times like these there will be.  

My Mom is the youngster in the family at only 82!

Country Blessings,

Marilyn~at Heritage Hill Homestead

Busy week

not a very original title.........but true.  The week has flown by, but then most of them seem to.

Wednesday hubby had a shot in his back for the pain in his lower back and legs and feet.  He was only in the office a little over 30 minutes and as we walked out to the parking lot he said he could tell a difference already.  I could tell by the way he walked it was better.  He mentioned today that his back doesn't hurt at all, but his legs do still some.  At least some relief is great!

We made some stops while in Topeka since he was feeling ok.  Of course Good will was the first place to check out, a few little great finds, but nothing too exciting this time.  Then we got one of those oil filled radiator heaters for the living room for winter.  We had a very old one that we used in the greenhouse.  I am thinking that a newer one will be more efficient and maybe pull less electricity.  The old one would blow fuses quite often. 

We are in charge of the funeral dinners at church.  Found out almost by accident that there would be a service on Thursday and the family would like a dinner.  Ok, fine, but we could not get in contact with anyone for details of how many until Wednesday evening when we got home from Topeka..........not much notice.  I made a few calls, and then at business meeting at church that evening everyone came through with flying colors!  We had food and workers for Thursday noon just like that!  I knew the Lord would work it out and he of course did right on schedule as always. 

So, most of the day Thursday was spent in the church kitchen. 

Back to Wednesday..........amongst the dinner plans.  I need to make a couple more pies, so I did that between 10 pm and midnight.

Friday is going to be work at home day, which is the way everyday should be as far as I am concerned!  Well, I did get that fence moved that I had planned for the week before.  But..........when I came in the get something for supper.........you guessed it, an order for more pies!   So,I baked 6 pies last night between 7 pm and midnight. 

Hubby went to Farmers Market this morning, I stayed home to get morning chores done.  When he got home, we delivered the pies and ate breakfast at the cafe where they are going.  She said she thinks she should rename the place the Pie Palace!    Went on to tell us that the previous owners had not served pie apparently, and folks seem to be craving it! She told of several that have been in twice a day for pie, which I thought was cute.  Anyway, I am sure the new will wear off, but in the past week I have made 17 pies for her!  Now, I am really in hopes that as things settle down there might be some sort of schedule set so I will have some idea when and about how many pies I will need to make.  As of this first week, the arrangement was to barter out pie for free food.  Sounds great, but we both came to see that the two of us cannot possibly eat that much food.  So we will have to regroup.  Bartering is a wonderful thing for everyone involved, and we thought this would help her out in getting started up and we could go to town to eat once in a while.

After our "free" breakfast, we went to a goat auction.  We were able to purchase 4 nice Boer does that are supposed to be bred to some really nice bucks.  We had sold 3 does a while back thinking that we would replace them at this auction if possible.  Our does are just now being bred and so they will not kid in time for Nick to choose his 4-H projects from.  These new ones should kid at about the right time.  These were reasonably priced and all 3 year olds, so they should each have twins, making them a better deal yet! 

Country Blessings,

Marilyn~at Heritage Hill Homestead

Rainy Monday

It has been gloomy and dreary all day long.........and tomorrow is supposed to be the same or worse.  Yuck!  I really need sunshine to have any ambition at all, so as you can imagine, I haven't gotten much done today.  I have a "few" indoor projects I could be doing, maybe tomorrow some of them will inspire me, I sure hope so.

We actually didn't buy anything at the auction Saturday except 4 roller pigeons.  There was lots of critters there for sale, but nothing that really interested us, so we left about 1/2 way through the sale. 

Got home that evening and found out a lady wanted pies made for Sunday........so I spent Saturday night baking.  Remember I just said I was glad the pressure of baking every Friday was over for the summer??  Well, I had an order for 3 pies on Friday afternoon, and then made 6 more on Saturday night.

We had a pot-luck dinner at church yesterday.  A friend and neighbor gave me some eggplant and a recipe last week, so I tried it out.  It turned out good.  As always there was lots of good food there.

We have an interim pastor right now, he has been there about 6 weeks.  I can see the Lord working through him and it is exciting!  He is such a caring man and really stresses prayer.  Almost every Sunday there have been people going forward for baptism ( our church is Baptist) and to join the church.  You would not think people would make those kinds of decisions without a full time pastor.  There is just a different attitude, very exciting indeed!

Hubby has been working, until the rain, on getting the garden worked up.  It will be quite a bit bigger next year.  We also need to have a spot ready for some blackberry plants.  Some friends asked if we wanted some starts next spring.....of course I said yes!  They will have to be someplace safe from goat escapes.  Not sure there is any such place???

I know there are mixed feelings about Oprah, but I saw advertised today that her show tomorrow, Tuesday, might be interesting.  It is Where does our food come from, or something close to that.   They showed some free range chickens.  Don't know what it will include, but I thought it might be of interest to watch and see how they present the topic.  It may make us small producers look bad or it may bring us some great advertisement............

The weather man said there are frost warnings for the north-west part of Kansas tonight.........yikes, I know it is coming soon enough but I am not ready! 

Country Blessings,

Marilyn~at Heritage Hill Homestead

I shoulda, but I didn't

do anything with the last of the tomatoes today.  We picked them and pulled the vines a few days ago.  Hubby has mowed the garden and is working on the tiller to get it all worked up for the winter.  Anyway, the tomatoes were top on the list for today, but I seemed to find enough other things to do all day.  I really wanted some more canned and now that I have them, I can't seem to make myself get to them. Why is that?  They are not real nice, most very small and some have bad spots, so I think I will make juice out of what I can salvage now.  It will NEED to be done tomorrow as we will be gone all day Saturday.

We will be going to an exotic sale Saturday, it is held near here 3 times a year.  We always enjoy it, you just never know what might be there.  We do not plan to buy much.........famous last words, I know.  The only thing we are really looking for is a couple of doves.  We got a really neat big cage this spring and have not gotten anything to put in it.  Usually things sell really cheap at the fall sale as folks are thinning out before winter, so it is a good time to buy if there is something we need. We don't have anything to take to sell this time either.  We are going to take the last puppy we saved from Sophie's litter and see if we can give her away.  We intended to keep her, but just do not need one more dog to feed.  She would make someone a good farm dog and we want her to go to a good home!

I spent the afternoon redoing the fence in one of the goat pens.  I only started out to take out a gate and replace it with a cattle panel.  Well, all of it was in need of some fixin up, so ended up changing out the walk in gate and redoing all of the T-posts.  I also started to enlarge their pen on the other side, got a couple of panels up, but decided to wait to move the rest of the fence............this old lady was getting tired!

We got the last freezer cleaned out this week.  Well, it wasn't defrosted like it should have been, so I should say straightened out.  It was sad to throw out all that needed thrown out, but it had to be done.  Some things weren't marked or dated and some were just old.  There is a bunch of misc. meat that I will thaw out and give the dogs along. We are doing a much better job now, always marking and dating before putting anything in the freezer.  I am much more aware of the importance of keeping up with that job recently.  One of the freezers is empty for the winter and all cleaned out, so we have it turned off now.  Hubby stocked up on ground beef yesterday before he went to Farmers Market. 

Market was very quiet yesterday, it is winding down for the year.  I am glad the one I have here is over, I enjoy baking, but the pressure every Friday gets tiring. 

Yesterday was  our Grandson's 15th birthday, Happy Birthday Bodhi.

Today was another perfect fall day here, I wish I could order about 2-3 months more of them so I could get everything done outside I want to and need to get done!

I am tired and ready to head to bed.............Good night to all.

Country Blessings,

Marilyn~at Heritage Hill Homestead

We have been blessed

with lots of produce this fall and we are thankful for it! 

Last month we were able to go into town and pick some grapes for free.  I made grape jam out of them and got 18 jelly jars.  I prefer jam to jelly and think it is easier to make anyway.  At the same time a friend called and offered peaches, I intended to go and pick some of them for jam, but about that time it started raining and raining and I didn't make it.   We had purchased 2 bushel of peaches also just a few days before she called and I needed to get them taken care of first.  I mostly made frozen pie fillings out of them, and saved some out to eat fresh, today I made some peach butter out of some of the ones left.  I should say am making peach butter as I type............that takes a long time!   Our neighbor has apple trees that he told us to just pick what we wanted, he wasn't going to use any of them.  We have picked some and I have made apple crisp and some things, but we need to go and see if there are more as I would like to make some applesauce.  Yesterday we went to some friends house that have a CSA to pick green beans.  They sent out an email the evening before stating that their fall beans were going strong and they needed help!   They were guessing there were about 1000 pounds of beans to be picked and they couldn't keep up...........whew, I think he was right.  We picked a little over 50 pounds and didn't make a dent in them.   So, yesterday afternoon and evening we snapped beans!!!  Today we canned enough for us for the winter needs.  We will take some to Farmers Market, give some to Mom, and eat some fresh.  As we do many times, this spring we sold too many from our garden and didn't end up canning enough for us.  We planted a couple of rows this fall thinking we would can more, but the geese ate them.  So, we were thrilled when we were able to get these.  Today we pulled up some of the tomato plants.  I was surprised at how many ripe ones there were or at least starting to turn.  So, I believe that I will be able to do one more batch of salsa yet too.   We dug the sweet potatoes a couple weeks ago and sold most of them, but I kept the small ones for us to eat.  So, with the chickens and other meat we have in the freezer we are pretty well set for winter.  The only thing we will be short on is potatoes............we eat a lot of potatoes!  Some friends plant a ton of them and sold at Farmers Market.  We called them the other day to see if we could buy some to store for the winter and they had sold them all.  We really need to plant more next year.  We are planning to enlarge the garden area so we can.

This week we moved the little pullets into another house that has an outdoor pen.  They had been in the brooder house the first 4 weeks.  They are so cute out running around, they really think they are grown up. We imagined little chickens running everywhere, but it went very smoothly.  We made a little alleyway with boards from one house to the other and just herded them along.

A friend of ours went on a little goat buying trip, so I went over and did chores for her 2 days.  The first day hubby went along and everything went smooth.  The second day he stayed home to snap those beans......and I got there to find that the cattle were out and a goat also.  Luckily the bull was out also, but in a different area and he didn't even see me coaxing the cows back in with range  cubes......  I really don't know what I would have done if he had been with them as I would not have tackled the job of getting him in by myself!  He was away from the road and safe so I just left him alone. 

We have been enjoying the most perfect fall days.........I am truly Thankful for those too.  Today the sky was so blue and the breeze had a little cool feel to it, with the sun shine, just perfect.  Thank you Lord for spoiling us.

The folks with the CSA gave me a couple of tomatoes to try. Nebraska Wedding and Georgia Peach.  They are heirlooms so I am saving the seeds.

I got some extra milk this evening at the local dairy and plan to try to make some cheese.  I have wanted to do this for a long time.  If I don't get to it, I can freeze the milk.  We go through spells of using a lot of milk and then times when we use very little.  We are not milk drinkers, so unles the grandkids are here, it is just what I use in cooking and baking.

There are so many things that need done outdoors these nice days, I sure hope we have some more of them.  Sheds to clean, painting to do, garden to finish up, windows to wash.........I am sure a few more things as well.   I did cut some flowers this week to root and keep over the winter.  I am afraid we will have an early frost and I wanted to be sure and get them in.  I still have some geraniums to bring in, but I can do that when they predict the frost, there are only a few of them.  I also have saved some seeds, I probably have enough Hollyhock seeds for everyone!  Here is a picture of them this summer, I sure enjoyed them.

Tomorrow is son Ryan and Edye's 10th wedding anniversary.  Happy day to you both.  How in the world can 10 years go by so fast?  They are the parents of Alexis, Nicholas and Madelyn that I talk about on here quite often.

Country Blessings,

Marilyn~at Heritage Hill Homestead

This and That and Other Stuff

Well, here I am again, it has been a long time since I blogged and it seems like I don't know where to start.  I have been reading other's blogs to see what they have been up to.

I am very proud of myself if I do say so.  I have a very small herb garden, most of them I started in the greenhouse this spring from seed.  Well...........I actually have dried some herbs this fall.  I enjoy growing them and saying I am growing some herbs, but have never really done much of anything with them up until now.  It remains to be seen how much I use what I have dried, but at least it is a step in the right direction!

Speaking of seeds, we stopped at the Dollar Store yesterday to pick up some Birthday cards and noticed that the garden items were marked way down.  Well, I am telling you that packets of garden seed were 2 cents.  So, if you live near a Dollar Store you might want to check and see what they might have left.  I also got some hanging pots and a couple of long planters for next spring.   Best bargain I have seen in a long time!

Hubby had Dr. appointments in Topeka last week, so of course we went to the Goodwill store.  We got a new keyboard, so you will notice that I am typing K just fine now!   The Dr. talked with him about having a shot to relieve the pain in his back and legs.  He is not too excited about doing this, but needs some relief if possible.

We didn't have Farmers Market yesterday.  It would have been the last one of the year for our little market here.  A life-long friend of our family passed away and his service was Saturday morning.  I feel bad missing another Market day as we have had so many rainy weekends this summer.

Last winter we had 4-5 good customers that we met a couple of times a month for deliveries of eggs and meat.  That worked out so well, so we are taking names of folks interested in the same thing for this winter.  We already have about 15, so we are happy with that. This will pay for our trip to town for groceries or other errands plus a little extra income as well.  Not looking forward to winter coming, many are saying it will be a hard winter.  That is not good for lots of reasons.  Winter is hard for us anyway, without Farmer's Market income, things are really tight.  Hubby just turned 62, so his disability check turns into retirement and drops almost $100 a month??  Nice..........  Along with increases in everything else, it will be interesting.

I did one of those, I wish I had been paying attention and that wouldn't have happened, things last week.  I went out to check on the goats after dark, I even took a flashlight which I don't usually do, and you guessed it.........I fell over a cattle panel laying in the grass.  We had just moved some panels around that day, and that one got left where it shouldn't have!  I could barely hobble to the house and really thought I wouldn't be able to walk at all the next day.  However, God is so Good, although my leg is sore and bruised, it is not nearly as bad as it could have been or as I expected it to be!  He protects us from things everyday big and small, and I am Thankful!

Fun recipe

This would be fun to try.

DANGEROUS CHOCOLATE CAKE-IN-A-MUG

1 coffee mug

4 Tbsp. cake flour (plain, not self-rising)

4 Tbsp. sugar

2 Tbsp. cocoa

1 egg

3 Tbsp. milk

3 Tbsp. oil

Small splash of vanilla

3 Tbsp. chocolate chips, optional

Add dry ingredients to mug, mix well with a fork.

Add egg, mix thoroughly.

Pour in milk and oil and vanilla, mix well.

Add chips, if using.

Put mug in microwave, and cook for three minutes on 1000 watts.

Cake will rise over top of mug--do not be alarmed!

Allow to cool a little; tip onto a plate if desired.

Eat!

 ***And WHY is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world?

Because now we are all only five minutes away from chocolate cake any time of the day or night!!!***

Marilyn~at Heritage Hill Homestead

A Beautiful Day

Remember that long list I had to start on today?  Well, I didn't actually get many things done, but seemed to stay busy all day!  Just little things that don't seem important but needed doing I guess.

We moved some of the goat girls with Bubba.  We had gotten a breeding harness for him so we would have a due date for the girls, well we put it on him and went to get the girls, when we got them to him, he had already lost the harness.  Guess we aren't very good at dressing a goat?  Anyway, I can't wait for babies, just a little over 5 months to go................

Hubby mowed and boy was it needed after all of the rain.  He also did some mowing around and through the garden, so it is a little neater.   We had a pile of hay along the side that was to be mulch and never used, so I moved that to the compost pile.  It was hungry for some brown stuff,  it has had plenty of green this summer.  I am not very good at getting the correct amount of each, but I hope it will eventually turn into some good soil.

We did a little toward putting up a fence around the poultry area.  We are going to use hog panels and enclose a larger area for all of the birds.  The plan is to not allow them into the garden area or yard close to the house where I have flowers. Some of them can and I suppose will fly over since hog panels are not very tall, but it should discourage the majority anyway.  I will need to do some moving around to finish,  one hog panel is being used in the corral and I will replace it with a cattle panel so it can finish out this project.  I did this in a hap-hazard way earlier, but now we are wanting to do it semi-permanent.  It will be a pain to have to use a gate everytime I want to go in this area, but it will be better in the long run.  Right now I don't let the hens out all day because they get into too much trouble!

It was the most beautiful day today, one of those that you wish would last until next spring!!  And the full moon tonight is awesome.         God is Good!!

Country Blessings,

Marilyn~at Heritage Hill Homestead

Relaxing Sunday with some Sunshine

We ended up with almost 6 inches of rain over the last few days, so needless to say a little soggy around here.  However, I got up at 4 something this morning to go to the bathroom, and saw a full bright moon shining outdoors!  I was so excited to see it meaning NO CLOUDS.   This morning also brought sunshine which is good for the soul!  I can't say that it lasted all day, but off and on we saw the sun and at least no more rain.  The forecast for the next several days is for nice days...............Yipee!  Maybe I will be able to get a few things done outdoors now.  Actually my list includes indoor things as well.  I sat down this afternoon and made a list for the next few days.......and it ended up being an entire page long.  I doubt that I get even most of it done, but I am sure going to give it a try.

Last evening Mom called and thought it was a good night to go to Wendy's to eat, she thought we all needed to get out because of the gloomy day.  This is only 7 miles from us, so it is a nice little outing every once in a while.

This morning right before church time Rlyn brought the little princess down.  She went to church with me and enjoyed the story time and childrens church as well as seeing Great Grandma there.  Came home and Grandpa had dinner ready, as soon as we finished eating Rlyn came to get her.  He fixed a plate and warmed it up and ate before they left.  She wasn't here very long, but we had fun.  She got to see the baby chics, which is one of her favorite things on the farm.  She is in pre-school Mon, Wed, Fri this year now, so her time with us will be limited.

We voted on the search committee at church this morning, so they will get started soon with the large job of finding a new pastor for our little church.  I and I believe most others at least really are enjoying the couple that are filling in for us right now.  They are so interested in us and willing to be a part of our church, a real blessing!

This Sunday afternoon was very relaxing, a nap was the main activity, other than doing dishes and chores.  I have caught up on reading some blogs which I really enjoy doing.

My   eyboard is not wor ing right............as you can tell, the   is not    wor ing!  I have tried to thin   of words that don't use the  .           This is      ind of frustrating!!

Oh well........Country Blessings anyway,

Marilyn~at Heritage Hill Homestead