Last post of 2008!!

Well, Christmas came and went. Crazy, wild and exciting. It was awesome. The boys had a blast. They loved everything. I am glad to be moving on from all the hustle and bustle though. Tonight is New Years Eve, and we don't have anything planned. That is par for the course of being a farm family. Philip still has to get up at 4:30 am and milk. The girls could care less what day or year it is, or what is going on... These are the times I seem to feel it the most. I won't lie. It does bother me. Oh well. The boys had their first overnight with my mom since Sawyer was a tiny baby. It was nice to have the break. I still had to get up and do chores in the morning which sucked but atleast I didn't need to cart the boys down to the barn. They are going to stay again on Friday night and I won't have to do chores so that will be nice. Philip and I will be able to go and get breakfast and pick them up together. Philip's great aunt Caroline Ranney turned 100 yesterday. She is doing well. We went to see her and Donald and June and some others and had Cake and Ice cream. It was really nice. Caroline isn't talking too much, but she listens. She has in home care round the clock now, which is good. She has for only about the last 2 years or so. She is such a remarkable woman. Well I guess that is all for now. I got to get our pizza ordered. Wishing you all a happy, healthy and safe 2009!

Fudge, Fudge and MORE Fudge!!!

I have been making FUDGE all morning! Mmmmmmmm!!!!! I have made chocolate walnut fudge, plain chocolate fudge, chocolate coconut fudge, chocolate peppermint fudge!! I still need to make the Peanut Butter Fudge, which is our personal favorite!

I used the recipe on the back of the Nestles chocolate chip bag for Nestles Famous Fudge!

The recipe is...
1 1/2 Cups granulated sugar
2/3 Cups evaporated milk
2 tbsp butter or margerine
1/4 tsp salt
2 Cups mini marshmallows
1 1/2 Cups Semi Sweet chocolate chips (9oz)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Line 8 inch pan with foil or wax waper
Combine Sugar, evap milk, butter and salt into medium saucepan. Bring to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Do this about 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat.
Stir in chocolate and marshmallows at the same time, along with vanilla. Stir vigorously until melted. Pour into prepared pan, cool 2 hours until firm. Lift from pan and cut into peices.

This makes a great base fudge. Add in options-
crushed peppermint candy (on top)
walnuts
coconut

I will let you know how the peanut butter fudge comes out and post the recipe as well!! :)

Poking Hay...

I hate it. WHY do I hate it so much? Because the mother in me can't stand when each cow doesn't have the "same". LOL. Yes. It's true. It drives me crazy!! Most of the cows could care less, but every now and then I get one girl that looks at me as if she were saying..."They got MORE!" Silly I know. :)

Christmas is coming!

The goose is getting FAT!! lol. Just kidding. (About the goose anyway!) Life sure has been hectic around here preparing for the big day! We had Sawyers "Wemo Paaarty" (Nemo Party in sawyer-ese). It was great. We had pizza and wings and it was a pretty mellow gathering for the most part.

My christmas shopping is almost done. The boys pretty much are. Now if only I could stop seeing things I think they MUST have! I have a few extended family left to get for, and alot of baking to do next week :)

We got hit pretty hard Thursday night/early friday morning with rain/sleet/ice. We lost power for a short time here. About 2:30 am until about 4:15 am. I had been up with a sick Sawyer when it went out. and was up with a disgruntled farmer when it came back on... lucky me :) In all seriousness though, we were concerned about the barn, milking with the generator and Philip not getting oatmeal for breakfast!

Sure enough though, the barn was flooded. Big time. Poor Willie was standing in about 2 inches of water, and the girls in the last section near the end of the barn were totally flooded as well. Wet udders and all. Our little sump pump was NOT going to work. Philip milked, wading through rough waters, and after he was done, called around to find a pump that was bigger. We did, and it worked. Thank Goodness! We were able to get all the water out of the barn before the temperature dropped below freezing. We would of had a skating rink!

Every calf that could get loose that morning did, although it was quite cute, and their spunky little attitudes and total cuteness, entertained Philip and I, and kept us from losing our minds with all that had gone wrong.

There are still quite a few without power, and it really makes me think about how lucky we were this time around. And how blessed we are in general to have the things, luxeries really, that we have, and just how much we take them for granted. Farming is alot of hard work for sure, but it was alot harder back in the days when they did everything by hand or horse. Sometimes when everything seems to go wrong, it's easy to forget that things really could be worse. Alot worse.

So that is about all for now. I most likely won't get a chance to get back to update again before the holidays.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!! (and to all a GOOD NIGHT!)

My baby is turning 3!!!

I can't believe it. Sawyer will be 3 on Friday. (December 5th) It seems like just yesterday we were bringing him home all bundled up in a snowstorm. Now he's a walking, talking maniac! He is such a fun little boy. He has a sweet, care free personality. He wants to go to school so bad. Earlier today, he walked up to me and says "I Wuh you mom." and as he walks away he says "I wuh you so much!" awwwww. I melted. I just can't get over how big he is.

Crazy Curious Babies!

The Belted Galloway Twins, Johnny and June, are getting so big and more and more curious by the day! lol. They are sooo funny. Philip has them, along with Leda (their mother) and Sable (their big sister) down behind the barn now. They keep sneaking under the fence and grazing ou ton the front lawn. It's super cute! So naughty! The tenants in the farmhouse haven't minded yet, aside from trying to shoo them back. (In which Johnny gave her an attitude and headed right back to where he was) The Putney Craft Tour was this weekend and Steven told Philip that more people stopped and go tout and took pictures of the twins being naughty than anything! We should have joined the tour and charged for photos! I will admit, they are VERY cute. And Silly. And naughty.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! While things are tight $$wise for us this year, we have SO much to be thankful for. Our handsome fellas, and just everything about them, our marriage which is wonderful, our cozy home, our furbabies, the cows, our health, and overall happiness, food in our tummies (and GOOD food too!) The list goes on and on. I am So thankful I got 3 extra days with my gram before she died a couple weeks ago, that I DID get to tell her how much I loved her that last time, and hear her tell me the same. Sometimes it is easy to forget these things. It gets hard to take the time to reflect. Worry and stress always seems to find us, yet the beautiful amazing things in our lives, we take for granted. We had a great Thanksgiving.

Getting ready for the Holidays.

The crazy, exciting, season. It's my favorite season. I love Christmas music and the whole feelign of it all. I love the hustle and bustle, good food, friends and family. I love seeing the kids eyes light up as they open their gifts. I love how they fall asleep in random places that night because they just can't stay awake any longer. I love Christmas cookies! This year we will be having our Holidays the night before since Our farm hand, Steven will want to be with his family. Philip will have to work those days. That is ok with us though. The Wednesday Night before Thanksgiving, we are having our friends and a few family over for dinner, Tim and Gelsy and their kids, Jon and Laura and their kids, Cora Skot and Erik, Harold and Joyce, Charles and Elaine (if Elaine is up to it) and Eloise and Larry. We will have a great time and great food. I know this because Tim is an AWESOME cook! (NO that isn't the only reason we invited him! Just a bonus :) Then on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, the boys and I are going to see my family at my Uncle Shawns house. We will come home around 4:30 to hel Daddy feed calves and do evening chores. Our Christmas plan are pretty much the same basic idea, but with less people. We will do our whole tree that evening, since Daddy milks every morning. We can't have him missing out on the gifts and the kids faces. We got our cards done, and I almost have them all ready to go out. I am hoping to hand most of them out as I see people over the next couple weeks to save on postage. We also had a cute one made for the farm to mail to all of our business contacts as well. They came out great. I am slowly getting my holiday shopping done. I have done alot of it on Ebay and Craigslist this year and have gotten some great "package deals". I hope everyone else is having lots of luck getting prepared, and finding those special gifts!

Farming Chatter

Well, things are holding up on the farm. Willie is getting bigger and handsome. His "longhorns" are growing so much! He is so friendly. Philip has been trying to get roundbales home. Last year he didn't beat the snow and it made things MUCH harder than need be. We have pretty mych wrapped up haying (No pun intended :) except for one last field but it doesn't appear that the weather is going to cooperate much there. We would have had it ALL done long before now had the tractor not decided it needed a very expensive break. The cows are now staying in during the night. They still go out during the day so Philip can get the chores done. No one has come down with milk fever lately which is good since we had a couple of older cows recently calve. Other than that there hasn't been too much going on. I have been busy trying get prepared for the Holidays. (Are we ever REALLY prepared though?) Also Sawyer's 3rd birthday is coming right up on December 5th. He is going to have a Finding Nemo Party that evening. I just won a great lot of Take along Thomas trains, tracks and accesories for his "big" birthday Present. He loves Thomas! I can't wait to see him play with them all.

Rest Peacefully Grandma

On Sunday, November 9, my great Grandma, Dorothy Benware, lost the battle of life. She was 90 and in pain. I was blessed to be able to see much of her during her final 3 days. I went over each night after the kids were in bed to help my family members care for her into the night. When she was awake, she was alert and knew who was there and was able to talk a bit as well. I was able to tell her I loved her so much. I was able to hear her say she loved me too. She told Libby, (Her daughter and main caretake-my nana's sister) "Don't cry, I am just moving on"

Knowing this comforts me, but it doesn't ease the pain of the fact that she is really gone. Her duaghter passed away in the 50's at the age of 13 and she had outlived 4 others as well, and Grandpa, so I know she was looking forward to the reunion in Heaven when she got there. She was an amazing woman. I looked up to her so much. I always wanted to be just like her. Her voice was stern yet comforting to me. She always made me laugh or smile. She was the strongest woman I ever knew. She had a hard life, alot of sorrow, yet she NEVER seemed down. As a kid, I just thought she'd be here forever and I still can't grasp the fact that she's gone. We laid her to rest on Wednesday. A beautiful sunny day. Rest peacefully Grammy. Know that I will carry you in my heart and in my memories, until we meet again. I love you so much. Thank you for everything you gave to me and taught me. I hope I have become a woman you are proud of.