Santa Claus and Ho Ho Ho and Mistletoe and Presents...

Oh my goodness has our Christmas break become busy! 

J came home the weekend before Christmas.  L had to continue school, and I had to work through Wednesday.  The following day, we began baking our Christmas cookies.  We also spent several hours hauling and stacking wood in the lean-to by the woodburner.

We finished our cookies and finished watching our annual Christmas movies on Christmas eve.  J decided to bake Christmas feet and fish, while L made some Amish conjoined twins.

Christmas morning brought fresh cinnamon rolls baked by JP.  We all enjoyed opening our presents.  J was especially happy with the cape that I made her.  We had a delicious Christmas dinner with my parents.

L's 16th birthday was on the Monday after Christmas.  We will try to celebrate tomorrow, since JP is working again today.  I made her crepes for breakfast for her birthday.  A few of them actually turned out ok!

Monday evening, both of my brothers, and 2 of my nephews arrived from out of town.  They stayed overnight, and then we all left bright and early Tuesday morning in a caravan for OH and the funeral for my grandma.  My youngest brother and his boys stayed for the next day, but my brother from TX had to return home immediately after the funeral.

We watched some movies, and put together a puzzle.  It was a nice visit.

Today L is working on homework.  J is cleaning out her fishbowl, and I am washing and putting away bedding from our many visitors. 

Tomorrow is New Year's eve, and then we start a brand new year!

Tiny Grandmom

My last living grandparent passed away this morning.  My grandma was 106 years old. She lived through 21 presidents and 2 pandemics.  She outlived 2 husbands and beat COVID last year.

When J was just a little tyke, she was trying to figure out how her great grandmother fit into the scheme of things.  She decided that her grandmother was "Grandmom," and her great grandmother was "Tiny Grandmom."  We have called her that for the past 16 years or more.

This is J with me, grandma and great grandma - a 
year or two before she dubbed her "Tiny
Grandmom."

In 2008 L and her cousin joined Grandmom and
Tiny Grandmom for photos.

The girls invited Grandmom and Tiny Grandmom
to a tea party in 2011

Grandma was the first person that I ever saw putting on make up.  I remember watching her when she and grandpa came to visit us in Idaho, when I was about 6 or 7 years old.  During the same visit, I was also pretty impressed that her teeth could come out!

Back in the 80's, after my grandpa passed away, grandma decided to go into Mennonite VS (Voluntary Service), teaching arts and crafts in a Nursing Home.  During that time, she learned how to do ceramics.  For many years, she made ceramic dolls, complete with beautiful outfits.  Most of her granddaughters were gifted one of her "babies."

JP was my "plus one" to my grandma's 2nd wedding.  It was one of our early dates, and we spent the car ride from Virginia to Ohio and back talking for hours and learning to know each other better.

She has been such an institution in my life, it's hard to believe that Tiny Grandmom is gone.  She lived an amazing life, and I feel so lucky to have been a part of it!

Embrace

Once again, time got away from me!  We have all been going at 90 MPH for a few weeks.  We are just days away from Thanksgiving Break, so I'm hoping we'll have some down time for a change!

JP and I have been working hard to winterize the garden.  I dug all the carrots a couple of weeks ago, which was the last harvest to do.

Two of the carrots were locked in an embrace.

We have put many, MANY loads of leaves and grass clippings in there, hoping for better yields and easier soil to work next year.  We keep hoping...

L's theater production, "The Elves and the Shoemaker" went well, with 3 shows. 

The following weekend was the Cinderella Ball (CB.)  L went with a group of friends, and even got to ride in a limo!

Last weekend was the annual Turkey Trot fundraiser for the Library.  J came home for the weekend specifically for her birthday (can I possibly have a 19 year old daughter?)...

...and to volunteer at the fundraiser.  She sang the National Anthem before the race, and helped out in general where needed.

She is working from home today and tomorrow until her Thanksgiving Break officially begins on Wednesday.  L has a half day of school on Wednesday, and then she is off for several days as well.

My Grandma, affectionately known as "Tiny Grandmom" by my kids, turned 106 yesterday.  Hospice called all her children 2 weeks ago to say that they didn't think that she had long.  She rallied (again) and is still hanging in there!

Yesterday we all managed to get away to the city to our South to watch "Dune."  It's the first time we've been to a theater in 2 years!  It was a nice get away!

In between all of these beautiful things, have been some really hard and scary things happening too.  I'm not ready to share those on this platform, but let me just say this - hug your kids.  Let them know that you love them without bounds.  Be thankful that your family can gather together this Thanksgiving!

Finally Fall

After weeks and weeks of warm weather, it seems that Fall has finally come.  This week we have had cool nights and days, and even some frost in the valley one morning.

Yesterday was misty all day, but I decided to get some things finished in the garden anyway.  I came in damp and muddy, but I got my squashes and flint (Indian) corn harvested.  I spread leaves that my dad swept up and grass that I swept up.  We need to put a LOT more leaves and compostables on the garden yet this fall, but all in good time!  There are still some carrots out there and basil to harvest.

I had 2 butternut squash plants, which went crazy.  Here is my harvest - I will be sharing for sure!  The flint corn came from a cob of corn that I had been using for years to decorate with, but it got dropped several times, and all of the kernels were loose.  I decided to plant some of it, and this is the result (keep in mind that we only got a half dozen ears of sweet corn from the garden this year - apparently not a good corn year in general):

There were a couple of squashes that needed to be used right away, so I started some Curried Butternut Squash soup in the crock pot (this still needs to be blended with a can of coconut milk):

I picked up an eggplant when grocery shopping last week, so I stuck it in the oven to roast with a few cloves of garlic so that I could make one of our favorite dips, Melanzzano.  JP and I first tried this in a restaurant in Alaska that we visited in 2000.  I have googled this recipe many times, and merely find that "melanzano" means eggplant in Italian.  I guess it's a bit similar to Baba Ganoush.  I roast an eggplant cut in half and drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt, along with 4 large garlic cloves, likewise drizzled at 350* for about 40 min.  When cooled, I scoop the flesh out of the eggplant peels and whirl it in the food processor with 1 cup grated parmesan, 8 oz cream cheese, and 1/2 cup olive oil until smooth.  Season with salt and pepper and enjoy!

While on the vegetable kick, I grated up the last zucchini from the garden (which has been lying on the kitchen counter for several weeks) and made Zucchini Brownies with Chocolate Peanut Butter frosting.  Although it's a tried and true recipe, L and I plan to "taste test" them this evening, before sharing them with my parents at dinner tomorrow!

With the oven and the crock pot on for several hours, the house has stayed nice and warm on this dreary and chilly day.  You can smell roasted garlic, curry and chocolate, depending on where you stand.  Just don't hang out in the breezeway - it smells like something died out there!  I spent a couple of hours yesterday clearing the entire thing out, shaking out all of the coats and shoes, wiping down doors, baseboards and shelves, and mopping (twice.)  Thankfully the only dead things that I found were spiders and stink bugs.  In any case, it is super clean now, and I feel like I've had a couple of very productive days!

What's cooking in your kitchen?

Boost

I got my Pfizer booster shot last week.  I didn't quite have the strong reaction that I got last time - no fever this time, and bad headache and joint pain weren't as severe as I remember from January.  I was down and out for the whole next day, but am feeling fine now!

We have done some other things to boost our spirits up here on the hill this Fall.

We were gifted a rooster.  He is not the brightest of all birds - it took 3 days of me stuffing him through the door of the chicken house twice a day for him to figure out how to do it on his own - but he is quite gentle and has a lot to say.

The black walnut tree in the chicken yard was well endowed this year.  I have picked up half  a trailer load one time and half a tractor bucket full another.  It needs to be done again.

The hens are laying quite well.  I found this enormous egg last week:

When I cracked it open, it had 2 yolks!

Besides being great layers (we get almost 3 dozen eggs weekly from our 5 hens), the hens also seem to be good excavators.  They scratched such deep holes in the dirt near their door, that it took 4 layers of stones to get them closer to the opening so it wasn't so hard to go in and out.  Luckily we have no lack of big rocks to use.

L volunteered to help out the band in a couple of competition parades last week.  She has also been really busy with the Fall theater production, AND spent the night at the hospital last week for a sleep study (the sleep apnea has been corrected - hallelujah!)

J has been home from YSU for 2 separate weekends.  Most recently, she came home last weekend to take in the Renaissance Festival.  It was an interesting visit, and she went back to her dorm afterwards with a reproduction sword.  

JP stays busy hauling water and mowing grass (and hoping the grass will soon stop growing!)

I have been pulling plants and weeds from the garden and mulching with grass clippings (so I am hoping for the grass to continue growing!)  I got the pool whipped into shape and then closed down for the winter - it takes all 4 of us to get the cover on every year.  

We have somehow slid into Fall, and my brain is still trying to adjust - I'm working on that.  In the meantime, there seems no end to the other work around this place!

Happy Fall!

Does That Ap-"PEAR" safe?

 JP helped me pick pears from our mutant "ornamental" pear tree by the driveway.  He lifted me up in the bucket of the tractor at least 10 feet.

Even so, some of them were still beyond my reach.

Nevertheless, I was able to pick a 2 gallon bucket full, and there are still many more that are not yet ripe.

Other creatures were enjoying the pears as well.

Some of these I have already dehydrated.

Or canned, or made into Pear Butter.

So THAT Happened...

Well, looking back at my posts, it appears that most of August happened since I last posted!  I feel like I've been running around with my head cut off for almost all of that time.  It happens every year - we come down to the last few weeks of summer vacation and there is a lot that we didn't get done!

J & L only had 1 week off between the end of their jobs and the start of school, which made things even tighter.

One evening, JP wanted to clean the lint out of the dryer vent, so both girls volunteered to go up on the roof to clean it out.  They spent about half an hour up there!

I wanted to give L the opportunity to entertain some friends, so at the last minute she invited a bunch of people out to eat pizza, play in the pool, make s'mores around the fire, and watch a movie outside.  They had a lot of fun!

The garden is growing a lot of weeds.  I found evidence that the rabbits are getting in:

We ordered J a trunk with wheels (recommended by YSU) for locked storage/seating/table at school.  She was not thrilled with the idea, and chose the only one with a wood finish, but didn't like the color.

I stained it a darker color and gave it a couple of coats of clear varnish.  She is MUCH happier with the result!

The first weekend that the girls were finished with their summer jobs, my brother and family came from TX to visit.  They were on their way to Rochester, NY to take my niece to college at the Rochester Institute of Technology.  My parents kindly supplied the girls with a big bag of bugles to play with!

JP smoked about 4 racks of ribs while everyone was here.  He trimmed a bunch of fat off, and being a good Mennonite, I felt bad about throwing it away.  So...I decided to make lard.  First I ground up all the fat,

then I cooked it for a couple of hours in a crock pot to render it,

finally I strained it, fried up the cracklins for JP, and ended up with about 1 1/2 cups of lard.  We use this to make tamales around the holidays.

The week before school, we enjoyed some beautiful (and delicious) summer breakfasts of tomato sandwiches, sliced peaches and coffee.

J had an eye appointment North of here, so we finished up back to school shopping that day.  Another day we drove up to the Strip District in Pittsburgh and did some shopping.

J had to have a negative COVID test in order to move into her dorm room, so we went to MedExpress 48 hours in advance to have it done.  They are so overwhelmed there with COVID patients, that we had a 2 hour wait (in the car) before she could be seen.  We did leave to get drinks at Dunkin, and then played several rounds of tiny Uno.

This Monday was L's first day of 10th grade.  She is not thrilled with her classes.

L skipped her second day of school to take J to YSU and help move her into her dorm.  We spent the first hour of our 2 hour move in window just moving furniture around, so didn't have a huge amount of time to actually put stuff away.

She has a great view of the stadium from her window.

We were able to briefly meet her roommate, Sam, before saying our goodbyes.

She seems to be doing fine, but we miss her a lot!

September is almost here, and I'm hoping it brings some cooler weather.  It's been in the 90's for the past couple of days, which when combined with the typical high humidity of PA summers makes it barely tolerable.

The mower has needed some repairs, so it's been a couple of weeks since the grass has been cut.  JP started on it this evening and was chased in by a rain storm.  

We continue to haul water.

I picked about a dozen pears from our tree this evening, they were delicious. 

I'm hoping things slow down a bit now.

Happy Back to School!