farm sparkles

i couldnt pass up taking my camera with me during morning chores to capture some of the sparkle. it was like being in a big glitter ball. my favorite place was the pasture (of course!) though...the grasses looked like waves in the ocean with white caps on them and the sun shown amber through them.
beautiful.

love the sound of crunching under my boots and seeing my breath in the air. dont love so much the breaking off of an ice layer in the chickens bucket and bringing in the rabbits water bottles to thaw every morning...but I can live with it. especially since i only have morning chores one week out of the month. so nice to have daughters home in the morning and i am loving it. i will have many years ahead of me that i do morning chores every day when the rest of my babies grow up and fly the nest.

hope you are enjoying this Christmas season.

on again ... off again

Phew the weather has been insane this November so far. Sunny days, cold nights, sideways rain...

Kinda hard to plan ahead to do outdoor things around this farm. 

So far I have: 

• harvested, separated and planted garlic
• shoveled yucky, nasty chicken poop
• cleaned nesting boxes and refilled with shavings--fluffed those nests real good!
• harvested Sugar Pumpkins
• harvested what I think are Long Pie Pumpkins
• harvested and saved seed from 2 kinds of Pole Beans, both heirloom varieties
• harvested and saved seed from peas, beautiful purple bloom heirloom variety

there isn't enough time in the day I tell ya!

I bartered a t-shirt quilt for some firewood. It was an interesting process. :) 

I hope the recipient loves it! His mom seems to.

In the near future I need to:
finish apples for sauce and freezing chunks for pies and knobby cakes this winter
make a pattern for an essential oil zip case
get the front hall closet painted! procrastination is horrible or maybe I have too many projects going?

I seem to have this on and off switch that comes and goes with the gray skies. I am hoping that getting my B vitamins going again helps with that. Seems to already. I look forward to getting some of my Pinterest projects going for Christmas presents.

Visiting Home

Recently I traveled back home to SW New York with my oldest daughter Tessa and granddaughter Fiona. The traveling wasn't the greatest in and out of Chicago from turbulence. Over all it was the best visit I have had. I loved time with family that I haven't seen in 8 years. My aunts hugged on me like no other...except my dad. xoxo

Such a special photo above. At this moment Fiona is the youngest from the Mullen's in my bloodline. To see her at my Great Grandma's house warms my heart so much.

 (my grandma's barn) had to capture it xoxo thank you Tessa

Three generations in front of Great Grandma's house. Wish someone else could have been there too so dad didn't have to take the photo and it could have been four generations in the photo. Its crazy how the house looks different in my mind than what it actually looked like. Little girl me remembers it being SUUUPER tall and the driveway being like climbing a mountain. lol! Dad reminded me that I went there at Christmas time. That makes sense....a 9 yr old walking up a driveway in ice and snow.

The above 3 photos were of the Mullen Family Cemetery. Dad took us for a drive one day around beautiful hilltops and valleys. It was a couple miles from Great Grandma's house in the middle of a field. What a memorable day to spend with my dad.

So enjoyed my time with my family. Even spent  a few hours with some family from my mom's side that live in that area. It really was such a rich time filled with family...won't forget it for a very long time.

Hello Monday: HooHoos, Corn and Apples

 

Autumn has been busy here. My busy may not be as busy as yours, but alas it is busy for me. 

*Making HooHoo orders and sending them to their new homes. I love how you can see those big round eyes through the packaging.

*Picking corn before the Coons get them. Recently our YorkiePoo bee-lined for the garden. I followed her to find cornstalks pulled down and shredded corn. Definitely a sign of Coons. So what does a girl do, but rearrange her day to pick it all. Not good at sharing with chicken killers and knee-biters(yes, I was bit...different story). Blanched it, froze it and hung some of the bitten cobs for seed.

*Apples....sigh. The trees were loaded this year. We have 7 trees. We munch from Spring til Fall on fresh apples. I picked a wheel-barrow full of different varieties and then promptly forgot about them while visiting family in NY State for a week. It rained while I was gone. Good thing is my wheel-barrow has a few rusted holes haha! So I am culling about a fourth of the barrow, but freezing the rest.

I look forward to apple sauces for pancake topping, etc this winter and knobby apple cake. yum!