Life got busy....................

June 11, 2013

Wow, it's been too long, i didn't realize how long it's been.  I will try to fill in on a few things going on around here.

Well, we got the garden planted after planting some things twice.  Crazy weather we had this spring, cooler than normal temps kept seeds from germinating.  But we were blessed with an abundant of rain to get things growing when they finally popped up.

Radishes

Squash

We also had 7 lambs born during the Easter week.  Three twin births and one single.

Check out our facebook page for some video of the lambs. 

Last weekend we hosted the Sicard's Family Reunion on my husbands side the family.  It was an awesome time, everyone enjoyed coming out to the farm and having a day of fun and fellowship.

Life gets busy sometimes, but sometimes it feels so good to pause..............and reflect and be Thankful for the blessings in our life.

    Live Simple....................Sheryl

Missing blogland

November 5, 2012

Wow!!!! it has been awhile since i had time to do any posting or catch up on all my fellow bloggers.   Now that daylight savings time is here, we will be indoors earlier, i may be able to catch up with all of you.

October has been a busy month.  We sold the small herd of cows we had here to make room for a few better quality cattle.  I guess you can say we started with what we can afford at the time, to be able to purchase better and grow from there.  We purchased three Brangus cows already bred, they expected to calve starting sometime in December.  Sorry no pictures at this time.

It was also time for our male lamb to serve his purpose for our family.  He was a cross breed so his purpose for us was to put meat in the freezer.  We did this process ourselves.  Sorry i didn't think you would want pics of this event.  But that's what homesteading and farming is all about.  For those of you that think raising and butchering our own animals is inhumane,  raising our own food is our goal.

We had the opportunity to entertain my baby sister and her family in the month of October as well.  Here in our community we have a week long fair with animals, crafts, music, exhibits, and a midway.  We all got to spend a few days at the fair and the kids had a ball......

Bailey was a sport and rode the coaster with her little cousin Trey....He was looking brave on this ride.........Hands in the air.......

Not sure about this one.......... he insisted he had rode the ferriswheel before, i don't think he did by the look on his face.

They got to help Bailey with chores. 

 

"LADY" loved all the attention

Enjoyed this visit with my sister ......

 

I also lost my dear Grandmother in the month of October.  She was 91 yrs old, and was loved by many.

 She wasn't ill long, she had a very good long life.  I'm blessed to have had her in my life.  She has taught us all the love of cooking, which she took great pride in.  This snapshot is taken of her signing her cook books, she had published late in life.  She also loved to sew and make her own clothes.  She was a wonderful homemaker.  She was an inspiration to us all.  We will miss you Maw Maw.


We finished the bathroom remodeling, got all that wallpaper off, got it painted and new flooring.  To save some money i tryed revamping the old light fixtures by spray painting them with that textured paint. 

It turned out pretty nice....plus a $avings......gotta love that....

This is a before pic after wallpaper was removed, mirror was taken down, and those ugly brown cabinets.......

This is a after shot, all we have left is to change out the faucets on the sink.

It was hard to get some good shots of this bathroom, but you get the idea.....It was long overdue for a face lift.

Now we have started on the stairway railing and spindles.  This has always bugged me from the day i bought this house....This staircase was not safe for little ones, I taught every child that came to my house to walk up them stairs holding the wall all the way up and around.  Now that my grandbaby is getting around and climbing, we decided that this cannot be put off any longer.

Before pics...

 

Work in progress:

Notice the difference in the height of the railing, and the width of the spindles.....Makes a grandmother feel a little more at ease.......

I hope November doesn't go by so fast....Trying to get these projects done before the holidays........
Promise to not stay away so long.....I can't wait to read your stories......


Live Simple.......................Sheryl

Good-bye summer, Hello september!!!!!

September 5, 2012

WOW!!!! where did time go.........The last i was here was in July.....gosh!! i didn't think i got that busy.  Well let's see........The end of July was getting ready for school to start and get supplies and uniforms ready. The first of August we took a trip to Oklahoma with my youngest daughter, where she competed in an AQHYA world horse show for her FFA judging team.  Our trip there was nice but while there Oklahoma experienced record heat of 112 degrees, and fires broke out everywhere.  Got back and the school year started, and then a hurricane came knocking on our door. 

 

Jessie 17 mos. & Bishop

 

 

We all hunkered down here on the farm to weather out the sporadic, unpredictable track of hurricane Isaac.  The winds were not that bad here on the farm, but we did get lots and lots of rain. 14 + inches.

 

 

We Lost power for four days.......Hot and humid, everything sticky......

 

 

Lot's of cleaning up to do afterwards......

 

 

But.........everything checked out fine.......the family was safe....the animals were safe....the farm was spared.........We thank the good Lord!!!!!!!!!

 

Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those who lost homes to flooding and to all who still are without power. 

 

Gonna get busy with a fall garden soon......just wanted to let you all know we are still here.  More later...........

 

 

 

        Live Simple.....................................................Sheryl

mason jar cakes

April 18,2012

My baby turned 15 years old last month........She's my only one still in the nest, and I'm blessed, she's such a sweetheart.

She had a few friends come over and spend the night and we prepared hot wings and loaded potato salad for them.  After getting a full stomach, i took them to do what teenage girls love to do most...............SHOPPING.  They had a good time and found a few good bargains.

I wanted to share with you her birthday cakes............Yes......you read it correctly.......Cakes......more than one.  Mini cakes in a mason jar.  I have seen these all over the internet and have wanted to try it for some time.

We chose German Chocolate ......you know.....a girls favorite flavor.....

One box should fill 10-12 half pint jars.  I only had 7 clean and available so i poured the rest of the batter in muffin tins to finish up the batch.

Just mix the cake mix according to package directions and grease and flour jars.  I just sprayed mine with an oil spray and didn't flour mine and they came out fine. 

 Fill the jars half full with the batter, wipe clean any drippings from the sides of your jars.  Place a pan of hot water on lowest rack of your oven, and put jars on a flat pan and bake them for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Oven temp according to cake mix at 350 degrees.

When you take them out of the oven they may look lop-sided, but don't worry they tend to settle when cooled. But if it doesn't settle even, your frosting will cover it up.

I used a cool whip butter cream frosting recipe that's light and creamy, and to die for, it's one of my favorite frosting.

Here's the frosting recipe i used:

2 sticks of butter
1lb powdered sugar
1tsp vanilla
1 sm tub cool whip

cream butter add sugar & vanilla, fold in cool whip. Refrigerate until ready to spread on cakes.

This recipe makes alot, probably enough to frost a whole cake.  Since you are just topping these you can cut this in half or store the remaining in the fridge and use it in a few days on something else.

The jar lids fit on mine perfect without touching the frosting, so you can make these ahead of time and keep them in fridge until ready to eat.  They were good chilled on a hot day.

My daughter and her friends ejoyed there little personal cakes and i enjoyed adding a lil something special to her birthday dinner.

Give it a try.................


I'm linking up to my simple country living for Heidi's Country Homemaker Hop
Please join me to see what other like minded women are doing across the country.


                                 Live simple..............Sheryl

Growing babies.......

April 17, 2012

Wow!!! how time is just flying by, i can't believe we are in the middle of April already, and it has been over a month since i have been on here to blog and catch up with all the homesteading happenings from my fellow bloggers.  I miss reading of all of your happenings and inspirations, but sometimes LIFE just demands things from us, and I choose to blog when i have the time and to make sure the family needs are taken care of.

The babies are growing fast:

Rosie, Jolie & Pepe

Jessie 13 months old (grandbaby)

Oreo & Maggie

merrybelle & Jezebel

We had another calf born yesterday morning to our black cross bred cow we raised and bottle fed.  We assumed she was pregnant and due to deliver around the same time as Merry Belle, back in February, but for some reason she fell behind.  Her traits are not that desirable, so needless to say, she will be the first to be culled from the heard.  We are pretty sure she gave us yet another heifer to add to our growing heard.  

Peanut & first baby calf

It has been fun watching these babies grow.  We feel blessed to be on this journey of becoming self-sufficient and striving to grow as much of our own food as we can.  It's not something we plan on accomplishing overnight, but we keep striving to make changes to assure our diet is as healthy as possible.

The past few weeks we have been working on getting the garden planted, and things are off to a good start, pictures and more blogging on that later.  I just wanted to give you a quick peek at the growing babies.  Hope you are having a wonderful spring on your homestead.

                                  Live simple...................Sheryl

lil Birthday girl

March 2, 2012

Last Friday my precious grand baby turn 1 year old already,  my.......has she grown.  Friends and family came out on a stormy Saturday afternoon to celebrate with Jessie and her parents.

  
Here mommy baked a personal b-day cake just for her, it was a banana cake with cool whip, cream cheese icing.  This child loves bananas......

She had been practicing blowing out her candle prior to her birthday and was pretty good at it.  When the cake was placed in front of her she was mesmerized by the lit candle.  She would not attempt to blow it out, lil stinker..........

But...She did enjoy her cake.

Maybe daddy would like a taste

She enjoyed her day, and had a blast opening her gifts.

Time goes by so fast, sometimes we have to make a point to slow down and enjoy the everyday moments in our lives.  I'm blessed to be able to live each and everyday making memories with my children and grand daughter. 

You can see pictures of Jessie as she's growing by clicking on the tab at the top of the page.  I have some new pictures to post there.  I've gotten behind on that, been busy taking pictures and not posting them.

                                                                       Live simple................Sheryl 

Couchon De Lait

March 1, 2012

This past Saturday my family surprised me with a 50th birthday party.  It was a wonderful Birthday!!!!!!  Family and friends came to celebrate with me and enjoy a couchon de lait, (roasted pig on a pit fire). 

My daughter crowned me queen of the day..........

The hog was provided by my sister and her husband.  They raise Catahoula dogs and compete in hog bays. The dogs are trained to pen a wild hog.  So this was no domesticated hog...............It was a wild hog that weighed in close to 300lbs.  Thank you Donna and Jim for that.

There was plenty of meat to feed an army. And my husband did an awesome job, it was so tender and juicy.  Not bad for his first pig roast on a pit fire!!!!!  He's the bomb. 

It meant the world to me to have my 90 year old grandmother with me to celebrate my 50th.  She made the two hour trip with my dad and enjoyed the visit with her family.

She stole my crown from me......lol.!!!!! That's ok.......She is our QUEEN

I sure hope i can live a long and happy life like she has...Love you maw maw.

These cute little piggy cupcakes were made by my oldest daughter and the kids.

         My dad, mom, grandmother and my siblings.

My youngest daughter and her boyfriend

My oldest daughter and her husband Brandon

My husband got me a new lap top computer!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now i can blog from anywhere.  I was tied to my desk top in the office for so long.  I'm excited about having this handy devise sitting in the area of my home where i spend most of my time, the KITCHEN.....Thank you Baby!!!!!  I love you so much.........

Another gift i got, was something i have been wishing for......................

Can't wait to try out my new Kitchen Aid mixer, thank you my sweet Lindsey. Thank you to all who came out and celebrated my birthday with me.  We had a blast, the food was excellent, and thank you to all the cooks that prepared all the wonderful dishes

A Special Thanks goes to my loving husband and daughters, who kept this surprise from me and pulled it off with much success.  Thank you all for a wonderful gift, making memories.

                                                                      

                                                          Live Simple......................Sheryl