First semester of senior year over and in-between seasons

Oh my....if anyone is still reading this, you're probably wondering if I've fallen off the face of the

earth.  Not to worry....I'm still here and have survived the first semester of my senior year in the Early

Education Program.  Whew....it's been busy this last several months.  I've been in a classroom

placement twice this semester for three weeks at a time.  During those placements, we have several

assignments and projects to keep us busy just in case we thought we were in charge of our lives and

time .....ha!   Then came the final two weeks of the semester....we were back in our classroom with our

instructors and then came the finals!  But you know what I realized after they were all done....those

should be the last finals I ever have to take as this next semester is interning and I don't know how you

could give a final over that...but I'd better not give anyone any ideas either!



Now I'm in-between seasons.  I just got finished washing one of my pumpkins that I had used for a fall

decoration.  Then I chunked up what would fit in the pressure cooker and it's doing it's thing right now.

 I hope y'all haven't wasted a good thing like that.  You can use it anywhere pumkin is called for in a

recipe or stir it into soups, cakes or cookie recipes to fortify them.  Pumpkin is one of the super foods!

See the little bowl off to the side.....be sure and save your seeds to replant for the next season.  Wash

them off and let them dry before storing them til spring.  I save old pill bottles to store seeds in.  You

can write on them with a permanent marker so you'll be sure to know what you have next spring!

After you've pressured the pumpkin about 15 minutes, check to see if it's soft enough to scrape from

the rind or peeling.  Scrape it all out and then store in plastic bags, jars or freezer boxes in the freezer.

Uhm um good!

Now that the Thanksgiving decorations are down.....I can begin the Christmas candy and cookie

productions!   Last night I dipped the bon-bons and have started the chocolate dipped ritz crakers with

peanut butter between them.  Tomorrow it will be the rolled sugar cookies and white chocolate dipped

chocolate sandwich cookies!

Long time, no post!

Sorry for being gone for so long!  School is taking a lot of time so far this semester.  This is week

number two of our first field placement.  I'm in a 3rd grade classroom from 7:45 til 2:30.  Then it's home

 to do a little work on one of 5 lesson plans we have to teach sometime during this placement, and work

on supper, clean a little house, maybe do a little laundry....you get the picture.  There just isn't enough

time in the day to get everything done!

But just keep watching....I'll be back!

Canadian Fishing Vacation

Every so often, after working hard for an extended time, we like to reward ourselves with a vacation.

 We're not beach people, so don't look for us there.  It's been extremely hot for an extended period of

time here where we live and we love to fish, so, where else, but Canada for us!   About 5 years ago, we

found a resort in Sioux Lookout, Ontario that we fell in love with.  We looked and searched around and

couldn't find anything any better again this time, so we made reservations once again at Fireside Lodge. 

Alan and Audrey have such a wonderful place and are such wonderful hosts!  Audrey is a wonderful

cook and we ate way too much good food and  Alan has all the info for the lakes so we caught a lot of

fish.  Another plus was it was cooler than at home.  Now don't think that it was coat weather, but at least

it was a good 25 degrees cooler than at home.  We wouldn't even be able to go out and fish at home, but

were able to stay out all day there on Vermillion lake.   We were hoping to be able to see a moose this

time, but they just didn't show themselves.  We were still though rewarded with the awesome beauty

of that area.  If you ever get the chance, be sure to travel there!

This is a picture of our last evening we got to fish.  We  had fished all day, then gone in for dinner. 

There is enough daylight to get about 3 hours of fishing in before dark, so we like to take advantage of

it.  After all, we did travel quite a ways!

The Story Goes On....Finding the Perfect Farm

Have you read the post   5 Pine Knoll: Continuation of story.  That would be a good place to start so that

today's post will make a little more sense.   Now  I want to tell you how we finally found the

"retirement farm".  After purchasing the 80 acres at Almartha, which is for sale now, we began the

search again for   the retirement farm.  
    
     We were always checking the internet, picking up the local real estate papers and reading the 

newspaper, looking for that perfect piece of property.  We found one that fit our requirements in the

size as it was 160 acres.  It was listed with a realty company and we made an appointment to go look

at it.  The real estate agent took us to the property and gave us the tour.  It was totally fenced and was

mostly pasture, which was good.  The bad was that it was on a highway, so you get the noise from the

traffic....not something we wanted to listen to the rest of our lives.  So the hunt was on again.  We

went down the highway to another real estate office and told the agent that greeted us what we were

looking for.  Low and behold, in his hand he had an refused offer on a piece he thought would be just

what we were looking for.  When we originally began the hunt again, and we had realized how far

away from the lake the other piece is, we added that as one of our necessities.  This time, I didn't even

ask how close this piece was to the lake, as it was getting pretty hard to find what we were looking

for.  As we drove up to the place, we could already see that it was pretty overgrown, but we can see   

past that....that's a problem that can be fixed.  The agent walked some of the property with us and tried

to point out the corners.   We were already pretty impressed....it was large enough...it was gently

rolling.....it was a mixture of woods and pasture, although very overgrown....it bordered the lake......it's

lookin' pretty good.  We thanked him and told him we'd be in touch.  We planned to come back the

next day and hike the property so we could get an up close and personal look at it.   We came back the

next day, hiked it and  found most of the corners.  It's not a straight edged piece of property as it

borders Bull Shoals Lake and the government take like or Corp property follows an elevation mark so

we have several zig zags and   lots of corners.  We made an offer and it was accepted....yeah!   Closing

happened about a month later and we were then the proud owners of 180 acres!  Now the work could

begin!

Homemade Yogurt

I'm making yogurt again this morning.  I've been making my own off and on for the last couple of months and it is so easy....I don't know why you wouldn't make your own.  You can control what is in it rather than eat  something that you wouldn't ordinairly put in your body!  A lot of purchased yogurts have extra ingredients that I just don't want to eat, so....

You will need a 2 quart saucepan, 2 quart jars and some way to keep your yogurt warm for about 4 - 6 hours and 2 tbsp. of live culture yogurt...check on the container....it will say live culture yogure..  After you make your own, you'll not have to purchase it again....you'll have your own live culture.

Warm 2 quarts of milk (I use 2%) to 180 degrees.

Then set if off the burner and allow to cool to 115 degrees.     At this point, stir in 2 tbsp. of  live culture yogurt.  Maintain your yogurt now at 110 degrees for the next 4 - 6 hours. 


This can be done several ways: in your oven, on the very lowest setting, in a bath of warm water (to help the heat from varying too much)-and some people report being able to achieve 110°F with just the warm bath and the oven light on-or in a very well-insulated cooler.

Another method I tried this time was to use my slow cooker.  I put the jars in, added warm water to about half way up on the jars, and chose the “Keep Warm” setting.  After I had stirred in the starter yogurt, I poured the mixture in to two quart jars.  I monitored the temp for the next 4 hours and would sometimes have to turn the cooker off so as not to get too hot.

Pour hot water (115°F) into a cooler, put your jars of almost-yogurt in there, and shut the lid, checking every now and then that the internal temperature is still 110°F or so, and replace the warm water as necessary. No matter which method you choose, take care to keep the temperature as close to 110°F as possible.

Your yogurt is done when it's firmed up (though it'll come together a bit more as it cools). Once done, refrigerate your new yogurt and enjoy, ad nauseum. Stir in granola or oats and allow to sit a spell.   Add fresh fruit just before you eat it or, for maximum freshness, and rejoice that you'll never have to buy yogurt at the store again.

Coffee Give away!

You need to go visit dtr-in-love's blog at http://www.mrs-adventure.com/2011/05/me-coffee-love-giveaway-awesome.html

She's giving away some fabulous fair trade coffee...good for you, good for them.....good  for the world!

This has been a terrible week for bad weather.  We have seen so much destruction in such a short amount of

time.  Your whole world can be blown away in seconds!  With all of these tornados happening, please take

the time to think about where you would find shelter if the need arose!  When the tornado siren is going off is

not the time to be deciding where to take shelter, you should evaluate your dwelling when you have time to

rationally think about where the safest area of your dwelling or work place would be. 

Ozark 80 Acre Farm for sale

As I was looking through old posts, I found this one.  It definitely needs to be brought up to date as THE FARM FINALLY SOLD!!

This farm took 5 years to sell, but we and the real estate company finally did it!!

So, if you are trying to sell a piece of property don't be disheartened...it can happen!


Update!!   The farm is still for sale.....but the price has been lowered to $110,000.00!!




In the previous post, I told you I would be giving you more information about  being able to acquire

your own little piece of heaven here in the Ozarks.  Now don't think that this is the retirement farm

that we're talking about selling, because that farm is definitly not for sale!  This is the 80 acres that we

bought before we found THE FARM!

 We had begun the search for THE FARM and ran across this 80 acres.  It had everything that we

wanted.  It had a nice mixture of grass and woods, 2 ponds, fenced and several beautiful views.  There

are deer signs and is peaceful and quiet.  And there are some beautiful views!

The only thing it was missing is a close access to the lake.  We love to fish, so off we went in search

of a farm closer to the lake.  We found it....it's the one where we spend all of our spare time working! 

So now, we really need to sell this other farm.  It really needs someone to take care of it and appreciate

it!  There is lots of good grass on it and is currently leased to the neighbors so they can graze it.  The

taxes are low....$23.  That's right, you read it right.....$23....you can't get much better than that!!

All this can be yours for the low price of $120,000! 

Contact me if you'd be interested :))

New Tires

Yesterday, I got to go to town.  The ton truck needed 2 new tires.  It's a great truck that we found back

at the first of the year.  We had been looking for a flat bed truck with a dump bed on it for the farm. 

We knew we would need to be hauling gravel and other things for the farm, so we began the hunt. 

Hubby searched high and low, far and near and we finally found this in Springfield.

It is just what we were looking for!  We knew we didn't want a

new truck....they only get scratched and dinged!   So we found this used one :)

When you purchase from this business, they go through the

vehicle and fix what needs fixing and then give it all a new coat of paint!  

  So we found this used one :)  They only problem

was that

a couple of the rear tires were slick and one had developed a flat....so off to town and $300 dollars

later we have a new pair!

So far it's been useful.  As we construct the water lines for the cattle waterers, we had to purchase 10'

long pipes which we hauled with the truck.  Then when we purchased the waterers themselves, wwe

hauled them also with the truck.  It's been great!  Another great feature of this truck is that both of the

side panels drop down for easy access to what ever you're hauling!  A girl's gotta love it!

As we put this farm together and purchase the needed equipment, we're always trying to be as

economical as possible.  We still don't have a house yet and still will need to build that, so all money

that we can save in other places will be used for that!  And we can't get started soon enough!  One

thing that could get that process started sooner though is for us to sell another piece of property.  It is

an 80 acre piece of property that we bought before we found this farm.  It is a beautiful piece with a

beautiful view.  On the next post, I'll give you the information.  It may be just the place you're looking

for!  You too could have your own little piece of the beautiful, peaceful Ozarks!!

Rain....rain.....rain......

We are up to our eyes in water....not literally of course.  But, it seems as if it has been raining every day!  In the last 24 hours, at our house, I've measured 2.25 inches.  But for the area a little south of here, on the weather map today, it was reporting 6 ".  I'd like to send a little of this down to Texas which is burning up and on fire!  Our lake (Bull Shoals) is so full, they are talking about opening the gates again. 

It happened in '08

And the sound was deafening....it roared!  It was pretty awesome to witness such power!

And it's cool too....much cooler than what is normal for this time of year, so the garden is waining.  Just two days ago I planted squash and cucumbers.....now I'm wondering if they'll get the warmth they need to sprout!  The potatoes are sticking their little heads through the soil...hopefully they'll not rot!

I should have planted the cool weather things sooner, but school kept getting in the way...all those projects!  But the lettuce and radishes have sprouted and the sugar peas are about 6" tall now.  The tomato plants that were friended to me will have to wait to go in the ground.  The weather man is predicting upper 30's tonight and I don't want them chilled. 
Where's the sunshine and warm weather?  Come on....I'm ready!

We've done it again!

Well....it happened again.   We just can't help ourselves.  This time though, it's a little boy and his name is Tug.

We were headed home from the farm and a lady who was riding the ferry with us told the husband that she had some blue heeler pups to give away.  When we adopted Petie, we were looking for a heeler pup, but the one promised to us never materialized.  So when this opportunity presented itself.....what else could we do?  Besides, we felt that we were rescuing this little guy.  When he was brought to us, he was with two of his remaining brothers.  Each of the dogs was absolutly covered in ticks.  They had so many ticks between their little toes that they were all splayed out.  They were all in their ears and under their arms.  We probably spent 2 hours picking off about 300 ticks.....it was AWFUL! 

We decided on the name of Tug, since his possibility of adoption came about on the ferry which is

powered by a .....tug! 

He went to the vet today.....got his first puppy shots, worming and weighed in at a healthy 10 lbs.

So now, has anybody got any good tips on training a heeler? 

Spring has sprung!

It's spring in the Ozarks and it is beautiful!

We have waited through the cold and gray and the anticipation for warm and green and lots of other colors. 

As I drive around, all of the beautiful trees are bursting with colors such as white pinks and mauve!  And if you can find a redbud next to a cedar...oh my what a sight!

 The dogwoods have opened their blossoms over night and what a sight they are.  So the absolute best is if you can find a cedar a redbud and a dogwood all together....it just don't get no better than that!

While I was out walking this morning, I was still looking for the elusive morel mushroom.  I have a special spot that I check each spring, but nothing yet.  I'm wondering if anyone else has found any yet?

Go out and take a walk and see what beauty you can find!

I've been outed!

Dear readers,

I have been writing this blog for a while now.  I didn't tell any of the family or friends.  I just wanted to test drive for a while and see if anyone was interested.  Well......I got found out!  I'm officially out of the closet!   And it's a funny story if you read my daughter-in-law's blog http://www.mrs-adventure.com/2011/04/i-found-her-and-shes-coming-out-of.html#comments.  She's so funny and such a good writer...maybe I was a little intimidated.   Even my husband didn't know, so I had to confess to him too.  Ironically though, he had made off handed  comments over the last couple of months, that I write a blog.  Little did he know!  And it wasn't that I was trying to be secretive about  the whole thing.  Haven't you ever tried something and not told anyone....maybe started a diet or started exercising with out telling anyone?  Maybe we don't do that so we won't be held accountable.  Maybe we think that if no one knows and we fail, then it's only us that knows about it?   Anyway, I'm out and here I am!  Thanks Rachael and Aaron, you've helped me with my little secret and it couldn't have turned out better!

One Kings Lane

Have you visited One Kings Lane yet?  I've signed up and get emails from them.  They have sales from many different vendors.  Some may interest you and some may not.  I've ordered a couple of times from them and have been very pleased.  I needed a new scale for the kitchen and ended up with a nice digital one for about $12.  Check it out!

https://www.onekingslane.com/invite/ChristiWest

What am I doing?

As I sit here tonight, I am wondering what in the world am I doing?  We just finished spring break and

 started back to class today.  We had a boat load of stuff due....projects and they weren't little ones either.  I

 mean one of the projects took about 25 hours worth of work to complete.  And then to top it off, we had a

 bugger of a test in our last class of the day.  Whew........and now time's a tickin....and the end of the

semester will be here soon.  That's a good thing and a bad thing....that means finals and then.....summer

 classes start June 1st til July 1st....yuck!  But, looking on the bright side....next fall....I'll be a senior!! 

Wahoo!  And in the spring semester.....we're interns   or   student teachers!!    I will have to say though, the

program I am in does seem to prepare you very well for the classroom.  I'm anxious to put all of this

knowledge into practice in my own classroom.

Building Fence

Well.....it's been a while since I posted, but I've been out and about!  I and three other students were chosen to go to Atlanta this last weekend and present to the FEA conference!  What a treat to go south for a visit.  I've been to Atlanta before and enjoyed the visit.  The other friends I was with hadn't been there before, so it was fun showing them the little bit that I knew about it.  I wish though that we had more time...there are so many things I would like to see and do and we just didn't have the time. 

But now with that aside...I want to tell you all about building the fence at the farm.  When we purchased it, there were just some scraggly remains of an old fence.  So, we knew we needed to get it done...you can't keep your cows in if you don't!  After measuring the perimeter, we figured it was roughly about 2 miles of fence.  We started purchasing posts and barbed along until we felt that we had enough.  If you purchase a pallet of posts you'll sometimes get a little discount.  We purchased about 1000 posts which gave a little leverage when it came to pricing.  If you will call around for prices, sometimes stores will match prices.  You've got to do what you can to save money in these times.  We watched for specials and did a lot of price checking. 

Last spring we hired a man to weld the corners and the entrance gates.  Your fence is only as good as your corners and we want this to last. 

We hired a local man to do the welding and purchased the pipe in bulk from a company that specializes in pipe.  The welder told us what we needed and I ordered it.  The problem we encountered though was that the pipe was longer than anything we had to haul it.  Fortunately, the welder had a long enough trailer and he hauled it to the farm for us. 
After he was finished, we were ready to start pounding posts into the ground. It was July and we were ready to get started.  We knew we could do this! 

We stretched our string from welded post to welded post, laid out our posts at 10 foot intervals and began pounding post in the ground.   After about 50 of these buggers we thought maybe we should hire a local guy who had been bugging us to hire him to put in the fence.  We're no spring chickens any more and thought maybe we ought to give him a call, besides it was HOT and we just don't have a lot of time.  So we called him, he came and he and the Mr. shook hands on a price.  Well after waiting 6 months on this guy to start, we decided he didn't want to work.....imagine that!  So, we put our gloves back on and got to pounding posts again!

866 post later, we  had put in 5 1/2 ft. steel fence posts with 5 strands of barbed wire all around the place. There is great satisfaction in driving down the road that borders our place and seeing all of that fence that WE put in!  If I do say so myself, it looks pretty darned good!

Burden on my heart

Do you just ever wonder....what might be your purpose for being on this earth?  I'd like to think I'm doing

and walking the path that I'm supposed to.  We raised two fine sons to adulthood.  One is happily married

and the other is still searching for his lifemate.  We have plans to move to the farm after I graduate.  We still

need to build a house and are waiting for our other farm to sell, to be able to start that.  But, I have a burden

on my heart that keeps surfacing.  I keep thinking about children who need a home.  Whether they need a

foster home or they need to be adopted doesn't seem to matter.  I keep thinking about them.  I keep thinking

that there are children that don't have parents that love them or a place to call home.  That is so vital to a

child's well being.  Every child deserves that.  I'm curious to see what the future brings to us.  We can't do

anything right now, but what about in the next couple of years.  I wonder what our grown sons would think

about another sibling.  In the meantime...I'll just keep praying that I am walking the path intended for me.

Snow

  Oh my goodness.....we have had the snow and extreme cold.  This isn't unusual for some parts of our

United  States,   but here in our part of the world, we usually don't get this much snow.  We woke up

Wednesday morning to 8 inches of fluffy white snow.




                                              

The dogs certainly enjoyed it!  After it began to warm up a little  ( it was 3 degrees)  it made for a great day

to see all of the beauty!

I don't know if you can see it or not, but the grass was sparkling as the sun shone it!   It looked like the faries

had been out sprinkling their magic dust!  Beauty all around us.....enjoy the day and see if you can see the

beauty!!

Continuation of story

Well....I don't have class today.....yeah!!   Another snow day here in the Ozarks....we'll see how bad this one gets.  The weather men are predicting some really bad icing here and that's just not good at all.  Two years ago we had one of the worst ice storms I've ever seen and don't want to go through one again.  We were without power for about 6 days and that's a lot better than a lot of people had it.  So I figured I could get some computer time in and continue the story of finding our farm.
     After we moved over here in 2004, we began casually looking for land.  We'd look at the listings on the internet. Everytime we were out and they had real estate magazines, I'd pick them up and peruse through them and we'd look at the newspaper listings.  Then after we found something interesting, we'd go look at it and hike if it really interested us.  
    

     We found a beautiful 80 acre piece north of Gainsville, MO.  It is in the Almartha community.  We originally went with the real estate agent and looked at it and went back the next weekend and hiked around it.  It is completely fenced and has two ponds on it.  It is about 60% open and 40% wooded.  There are some beautiful views from the hill top.

    

     Then as we hiked around it, we found some very interesting rock formations in the woods.  I thought it would be a wonderful place to take photos of people!  If you look very closely, you'll be able to see that the rock looks like a bench; it is open underneath it. 

     It is gently rolling with lots of lush grass and we could just visualize our cows happily munching along. 

     It even has an old homeplace on it!  I can only imagine what it was like living in that house! 

     But alas.....this wasn't to be the retirement farm.  We realized it was too far from the lake.  We really like to fish and wanted to be closer to the lake.  So......the search began again. 

If you are looking for a wonderful place......this one is for sale.  80 beautiful acres...it is quiet and serene with beautiful views of the surrounding farms.  The taxes are low...$28 per year.....can you believe it?  If you might be interested....contact me!

Have a great day and hopefully you'll not have too many problems with the weather!
  

Something Cool!

Do ya wanna hear something cool?  I found a give away this morning.  Go on over to  Hey What's for Dinner Mom?  http://heywhatsfordinnermom.blogspot.com/ 

She's got a Mr. Bento giveaway from those wonderful folks at CSN....so check it out and enter....you can't win if you don't enter!

Who's out there?

I'm wondering.....who is out there and reading this blog?  Any questions or comments?  Do you have any thoughts about your retirement farm?

The first "retirement farm"

We began our search for the "retirement farm" about four years ago after my husband was transferred from Northwest Arkansas to North Central Arkansas.   We already had 160 acres that bordered the Buffalo River corridor.  The only problem with it though was that it was just too darned steep.  We knew that we wanted to raise cattle again and it's difficult getting up and down those hills.  You're either going up or down those steep hills.  Now don't get me wrong, we loved that place.  We originally purchased that place about 1999.  We knew that we liked that beautiful area and needed a place for the guys to hunt and found this place that was 120 acres.  It had an old house and a barn on it.  We purchased it and then were able to add an adjoining 40 acres to it.  We let a neighbor tear down the old house and we put up a log cabin. 

We were involved with the building, but we didn't build the whole thing.  The man we bought the logs from knew how to notch the corners and frame in the windows.  We helped as we could.  We then had another local man build the fireplace for us.   We hired another local family that does metal roofs to put ours on.  It was a fun place to go for the weekends. 

We also had the carpenter bring over his portable sawmill and mill some of the cedar to be used for planks inside the cabin....it always smelled so good when you first opened the door....just like a big cedar chest!  You can see that we used it on the gable ends over the fireplace.

Please excuse the mess, this picture was taken while moving stuff around.  this shows the inside though.  It was all open with the bathroom door to the right.  We hadn't added a kitchen yet and were only using a hot plate and microwave for cooking.  We had a small dorm size fridge and it all worked pretty well.   The loft held an iron bed and we had a ladder to climb up there. 

Our water source was a spring that had originally  been piped up to this house site.  Before we had purchased the property, a mobile home had sat there, so a septic tank was there also. 

This was also already on the place and just need a little repair to stop a leak.   Tank filled from below from a spring and then was piped up the hill to the cabin. 

I do miss our little cabin on the hill.    We put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into the building of that thing!   We also had a lot of good times there, but we realized that we didn't want to spend our years on those hills, although they are beautiful!

I also wanted to tell you about a contest I saw over at Prairie Flower Farm.  She and Gooseberry Patch are having a contest and someone will win a wonderful cookbook, so go on over and enter!

Happy New Year.....2011

Well....we got back home from the farm a short while ago.  We had the opportunity to socialize a little last night, ringing in the new year,  with some of the fine folks of the community up there.  When we purchased the farm a couple of years ago, we thought we were really secluded.  Way out in the middle of no where with lots of quiet.  Not.....    There is something going on almost every weekend!  We love interacting with those folks....lots of good converstation and similar thoughts and hobbies and activities, morals and values.  That is also a consideration when purchasing your farm to live on.  Who will you talk to when you have said everything you have in your head to your spouse and children?  Ya gotta have some adult friends that you like!  And telephone conversations don't count.  You've gotta have access to people for face to face conversations and visits. It just makes life much more enjoyable!
     I guess, since this blog is supposed to be about the farm, I should be talking a little more about it.  In my next post I'll tell you the story of how we found our wonderful farm.  But for now.....Happy New Year!

May your new year be filled with lots of happy exciting times.  May you also find peace and your place in life if you haven't yet!  Go out and be a blessing to someone!