Waiting to Ring in the New Year

NOT!  Country Boy and I are actually waiting until at least 8:00 before thinking about heading off to bed.  Party animals we certainly are NOT!

We have a tradition on New Year's Eve that we started the first year we were married and that is counting all the change that we have thrown into a glass jug throughout the year.  It's amazing how quickly some spare change adds up!  It's also nice to make a deposit in the savings account the first of the year with all the spare change.  Great way to start the year!

New Years resolutions?  I don't really set resolutions.  I like to set goals.  My biggest goal, and possibly the most challenging, is to declutter my home in 2012 and get some sanity and simplicity back in my life!  I've signed up for the declutter in 2012 calendar and am anxious to get started!  Another goal is to prep for acquiring some dairy goats, i.e., put up fencing, a goat shed, milking station, etc. and hopefully get a few goats this year finances permitting.  I'd also like to put a native flower garden in the front yard (where we get the most sun) in hopes to have honey bees one day.  I may also try my hand at breeding ducks.  In other words, I guess most of my goals are homestead related.  I'm also going to concentrate on creating more items for my Etsy shop.  Whew!  If I wasn't already tired I sure am now!

such a sweetie

What New Year's resolutions or goals are you making for 2012?

I want to wish you and yours a happy and healthy New Year!

Till next time,

Dirt Bath Anyone?

One afternoon when I was hangin' out in the chicken run with my camera I noticed that the girls were enjoying a nice dirt bath!

Dirt flying everywhere!

They would each take turns kicking up the dirt.

Ahhh, enjoying the coolness of the dirt!

These girls were definitely enjoying their dirt bath!

Duck update:  the ducklings are growing like weeds.  They are doubled in size already.  Country Boy buried a clear plastic tote for them to swim in and they're quickly outgrowing it.  I bought a 5' plastic pool for them earlier in the week and it will be here tomorrow.  (It's arriving via some family members' van so that it didn't blow out the back of the truck on the way home!)  Do you know how hard it is to find a plastic pool in December; even in Florida?  You'd think there would be pools year round here!  I will have updated photos soon!

I hope everyone has recovered from Christmas and is ready to ring in the New Year!

Till next time,

And the Winner

of my GoneCountry Photography 2012 calendar is

LYNNIE!

I wish I had a calendar to give each of you that commented.  Your comments were so sweet!

Y'all sure know how to encourage a girl!

Till next time,

Last Minute Giveaway

This year for Christmas I made some calendars to give as gifts to family and friends using some of my favorite photos that I've taken throughout the year.  I have one left and I would like for one of you to have it if you'd like!

Here are a few of the pages...

If you'd like to win my last calendar, it's fairly simple to enter.  Be an existing or new follower (click the Join this Site button on my sidebar) and leave a comment telling me you'd like to win!  Easy peasy!

The drawing will end Thursday night (12/29) at 8:30 p.m. EST so that I can get it in the mail on Friday.  I will try using Random.org to select the winner.  If unsuccessful I will revert to using the 'pull a name from the hat method'!

Till next time,

Getting All My Ducks In a Row

Are those of you who are connected to my Facebook page ready for the surprise that I mentioned last night? You are?  OK!

But first, and yes I'm stalling, I hope that everyone had a nice Christmas, enjoying time with family and friends and celebrating the birth of Christ!  We are celebrating today with family.  In a few minutes, Country Boy and I will head to my Mom's house to make some mashed potatoes and then we'll all head over to my sister's house who lives a few blocks away from Mom to exchange gifts and eat a yummy Christmas dinner.  My nephew and his family are also here from up north and it's going to be great seeing them and spending some time with them!

When one member of the family is a public service worker, the WHOLE family makes the sacrifice at the holidays.  We're thankful that our family is understanding of this and also understands that it's not the day that we're celebrating but the event!  Thank you all... we love you!

And now, without further ado... I will show you my surprise...

They're not exactly lined up but they look like they're at attention!  Aren't they cute?

They are Khaki Campbell ducklings.  I am still researching them as I've never had ducks before but this breed is a hardy breed, easy to raise and are good egg layers.  (They're also just too cute!)

On the eve of Christmas Eve, I went to the feed store to get some more chicken feed.  These cuties were in a clear tote on the counter.  I couldn't resist.  I called Country Boy and said I'm bringing home some ducks!  "What are we going to do with ducks?"  "They lay eggs!"  "Oh boy!"

I am so thankful that my hubby is so understanding and hasn't banned me from the feed store... yet!

They have been easy to care for and stay right by each other which makes it easy to herd them to where you want them.

They are in the chicken coop with the chicks who were actually terrified of these little ones at first!  The ducks?  They could've cared less about the chicks!

Here are the chickens hovering in the corner... afraid for their lives!

I have to run now but I have a video for you...

This morning they were swimming like crazy, heads underwater and everything.  Country Boy got a good chuckle over them!  When they get a little bigger we're going to get a cheap, plastic pool for them to splish splash around in!

I am also going to be announcing a giveaway either tonight or tomorrow morning (I have to wait until we have our Christmas) and you will have only a few days to enter as I will announce the winner before the new year.

So, when you read my title did you think that I was going to talk about getting organized or something like that?  Well, that is a goal for the coming year but that will be a later post!

I hope you have a great day!  I know I will!

Till next time,

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:

and the government shall be upon his shoulder:

and his name shall be called Wonderful,

Counsellor, The mighty God,

The everlasting Father,

The Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6 KJV

Wishing you & yours a very Merry Christmas!

For without the birth of the Christ Child there would be no CHRISTmas!

Still Around!

I just wanted to write a quick post to let y'all know I'm still around!

Our internet connection has been wacky these last couple of days but should be fixed by the weekend with some new equipment, yay!  Since I wasn't able to catch up on my favorite blogs, I've managed to get a few more dishcloths crocheted and made some more progress on a cross-stitch piece I'm working on !

Two more days!  Are you ready?  What are your plans for Christmas?

Till next time,

Oldie But Goodie

Country Boy is the proud owner of his Dad's old freezer from the early 1950's.

It's the one thing that he really wanted that was his Dad's.

Isn't she a beauty?

When Country Boy got her, she was sporting a horribly painted, hideous color;

even the chrome had been painted *sigh*.

I think it was bright green or maybe a lime green.

Whatever the color was, it was definitely not a color for such an awesome freezer.

She definitely needed a new look!

We stripped her down and painted her with a hammered green spray paint

and left the chrome as it should be.

We love how she turned out and she goes beautifully in our kitchen.

Food Freezer!  Isn't that great?!  A reminder, perhaps, that this freezer is for food!

His Dad loved to fish and this freezer was FULL of milk jugs with fish in them when we got it!

His Dad would cut the top of a gallon jug off, put the fish in it and

then cover them with water and set the jugs in the freezer.

There's no tellin' how long those jugs had been in there but they were

just as fresh as could be when we cooked them up!

We love her curvy lines!

And how 'bout that lock?

Unfortunately, the piece behind the handle had been damaged at one time.

I'd love to be able to find another piece to replace that one!

She's not perfect in looks but she runs like a champ!

They just don't make them like this anymore.

About once a year, she needs defrosting.

Yep, the old fashioned way!

Actually, this is not the worst that I've seen in this freezer.

It was so bad when we got it, that the frost deformed the plastic molding around the top.

She works so well that we keep the temperature really low.

It's set at 2 out of 9!

The coils are underneath the middle shelves.

This is probably the only frost I'll see this year!

I thought the condensation on the knob was cool!

defrosted coils

After less than an hour, she's defrosted and ready for food!

We get a lot of compliments on the freezer although most people

think it's a refrigerator when they first see it!

I hope you enjoyed a look-see at our oldie but goodie freezer!

Till next time,

2 Hours...

... more like two DAYS!

But, it's finished!  Woot!  Actually, I didn't work on it for two solid days, I do have other chores and blogs to read ya' know!  I am really happy with the way it turned out.  This is not the pattern that I originally started in this POST.  I was having trouble figuring out one of the stitches it called for so I chose a different one.  This pattern went much smoother with only a few times of ripping a huge section out, hahaha!  I figured with all the ripping out I was doing I was getting some good practice in!

I'm going to do another one in this pattern with red, green and white yarn for Christmas!  (I can also use it year round since those are the colors in my kitchen!)  So, are you supposed to actually wash dishes with these? They're too pretty for dishwashing!  I guess they wouldn't be called dishcloths if you weren't supposed to use them.

One of the other projects I did was make a chicken pooper scooper.  Yep, you heard me!  The girls are beginning to roost at night but not on their roosts... sigh.  A few of them have taken to roosting on the edge of their feeding trough.  SOooo, by morning... there is quite a bit of poop in the feed, yuck.  And, guess who has to get it out of there... yep, Chicken Mama!

Rather than using my hands, I decided I would make a chicken pooper scooper!  I went out to the shop and cut some scrap 1x2's in half and then cut them to size.  I wanted it to be exactly as wide as the bottom of the trough.  After screwing them together, I found some scrap hardware cloth and cut two pieces to size.  I stapled the first one down to the backside and then staggered the second piece to make smaller squares and stapled it down.  Next, I found a scrap piece of 1/2" wood dowel.  I drilled a 1/2" hole on one end of the square and glued the dowel in place.

It works pretty good.  

Now, if I could just get the girls to roost on the roosts at night instead of the edge of their trough!

I just realized that two of the projects I worked on yesterday and today were kind of extreme... from crocheting to working in the shop!  Oh well, that's how I roll here at the homestead!

Till next time,

Activities Galore

It's been a flurry of activity here at the homestead since my last post.  Lots of stuff getting done and places to be.

First and foremost, we celebrated my Mom's 81st (I know I can tell you her age because she told the waitress at Cracker Barrel!) birthday yesterday!  Yay!  I am so thankful to the Lord for the health of my parents.  They have never 'acted their age' and they aren't about to start now *laugh*!  They both volunteer at the hospital and Dad plays golf at least once a week (he's 84!) along with puttering around the house.  I hope I'm able to do what all they do when I'm their age!

Red Christmas Cactus

Country Boy and I also picked up our second bathtub for our bathroom yesterday.  The first one was not going to work out so we returned it and had to order another one which came in over the weekend.

I've also been working on the song books for our church's Christmas Cantata this Sunday night.  We're singing Christmas carols while the children are acting out the song being sung.  It's going to be simple yet fantastic and meaningful!

Pink Christmas Cactus

I've addressed most of our Christmas cards.  I'm waiting for my labels to come in from Shutterfly that match the cards that I also ordered from them.  I'm actually waiting on the Postal Service to deliver them.  Today was the last day that they were expected to arrive yet they still didn't show up.  Apparently, they have up to ten business days to deliver them.  What's funny (well, not really) is that the cards were shipped AFTER the labels via UPS and I got them a week ago!  Go figure.  I'm just hoping the labels will get here soon!

Tonight we're heading to our Pastor's Annual Christmas Party at the parsonage.  He loves hosting this party for his congregation!

I only had a few minutes to work on the crochet dishcloth I started working on HERE.  I ended up ripping it out one more time since that post and started over.  It was going better but I think I'm going to rip it out one more time and try a different pattern.  I just can not figure out the bpdc (back post double crochet) stitch.  I mean, I understand the stitch, I just can't figure out exactly where the post is.  I've got the fpdc (front post double crochet) down because I can see the post but when I turn the piece to start another row, I can't tell where the post is to do the bpdc *sigh*.  I have another pattern in mind that utilizes all stitches that I was familiar with so I'm going to give that one a whirl.  I'll let you know how it goes!

My Christmas Cacti are doing great this year.  I re-potted them during the summer months when they were not in bloom so I ended up with some pink ones mixed in with the red ones!

12 more day till Christmas!  I hope you're almost ready!

Till next time,