I Have Hair!

Remember this?

This was from one of my ole' high school friends....Ei and I share a somewhat....well....shall we say a weird sense of humour?

I LOVE that card she sent me...it still sits close to my computer. It serves as a reminder to me to be...tough. Be tough in the face of cancer.

(This pic was taken about 6 weeks ago, shortly after the head shaving incident.)

Fast forward.....a couple of days before Christmas, the Gman brings me a parcel from the Post Office. It's from Ei....oh what could it be?????

Inside there's a note....it says

I saw the picture of you on your blog in your auburn wig. I thought it looked lovely on you, BUT you'll always be blonde to me....so I made you this:

(Are you sure you want to look?)

(Are you Reallllllly sure?????)

Gman and I were almost on the floor rolling with laughter....yup, that's my friend! Thanks Ei! You even gave me barrettes!!! And...highlights!!! What more could I ask for?

Thanks Ei, you made my day!!!!

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Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Did you all have a Wonderful Christmas? We sure did....went for a walk and took some pics.

Snow on the ridge

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Christmas Baking - Boeterkoek

All done with the Christmas baking!


Wooooohoooooo.....the last thing to make was the Boeterkoek.....




This is a Dutch recipe - and dayummmm.....does it taste good! If you like the flavour of Almonds, you will love this one.




(You know what's really nice about having an early Christmas? Christmas Eve rolls around, and I'm posting instead of ummm...shopping, decorating, all those last minute things!)




Sorry for the digression...back to baking.





The recipe:




Boeterkoek (makes 2 pies)





1 cup butter (NOT Margarine, how dare you!)
1 cup sugar
2 cups white flour
1 beaten egg
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp almond extract




Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the egg....mix well. Add the rest of the ingredients.




Grease your pie pans (I use the foil ones) and divide the mixture into the 2 pans.


Then, using a clean butterknife, or the back of a spoon, start patting down the mixture.




Once you get that done, use the back of the spoon to "smoothen" out the mixture. Make it look nice! Then, take a bit (and I mean Just a Bit) of a beaten egg and brush that (ooooh, so lightly) on the tops of the pies.




Then take a few slivered almonds or almond slices and drop them on the top. Push them in slightly with your finger.




Pop them into a 350 degree oven for 25 - 30 minutes, till they are nice and golden brown on top.




While they are baking, lick the bowl...and the spoon!




This year I made 6 of them. 4 to give away to friends, 2 for us to eat.




Hmmm, looks like I was a little late taking the picture! Sphere: Related Content

Ever Been Over To Blotanical?

I came across a really fantastic site....I was over here, reading Hank's gardening adventures in the Yukon. I can't remember how I found his blog...anway, I noticed this button on his blog...Blotanical.

So, yeah, I clicked on it, and holy moly! Have you been over there to Blotanical? It's a gardening site of course, listing all kinds of gardening blogs from all over....and it is simply Awesome!

I bopped over and looked at Crafty Gardener's site...I can tell already I'll be going back over, this time to check out her Crafty side!

A word of caution....do NOT go over there when you are on a deadline. I swear, you will just spend the whole afternoon looking at the diverse range of blogs they have over there. And you can meet some really nice people there...well, of course! All Gardeners are Nice People, aren't they?

So head over when you have some time.....and don't say I didn't warn ya :) Sphere: Related Content

Getting Ready for Christmas

A few pics of the decorating we've been doing.....a rather skimpy (think Charlie Brown) bough with red bows, tied onto the front porch.

Ha! I think the stucco wire is what Really sets it off, don't you?

Not everyone can be as classy as us :)

Our lanterns all lined up in the windowsill

Christmas Card Tree....we used willow branches from down in our pastures.

I dressed up our Egg Basket a bit!

Our Christmas Trees...the one in the foreground is my Grandma's.

We also managed to get one batch of Saskatoon Wine bottled....very pretty colour and it does taste wonderful! Earlier this year, we picked 70 pounds of wild Saskatoon Berries. It was a fantastic Berry year!

This afternoon, we're off to the Legion to hoist a few with Valley friends. Last night, we had friends over for dinner, so it's been a busy few days.

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Just For Fun - Maxine

I luv me some Maxine....grumpy ol gal!

Enjoy your Day!

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O Christmas Tree....Where the Heck Are You?

Every Christmas, I want a real tree....not one that we lift out of a cardboard box, but a real live tree. This afternoon, we fired up the truck and da Wolf hopped in the back.

Our tree is out there somewhere....

Not quite....looks pretty tho with all that snow sitting on the branches.

This one was a little sparse in places....

Not this one...it's bent at the top

This one was definitely a contender....but then the Gman found that there weren't any branches on the backside.

Nope....

Not baaaaaad.....but not IT.

You'd think with all the trees out here, it would be easy to find one.

(And a sidenote....it sure is nice to see all the little pines coming along. Our area has been hard bit by the pine beetle)

Hmmmmm.......look at this one.

The Gman walked up to it and scoped it out all around....

Yup, that's the one! Out came the chainsaw.

I hope it looks good once it's all dressed up! We brought home a bunch of the boughs that the Gman cut off - I'm hoping to use them for decorating outside.

The tree is now drying off down in the shop. Tomorrow we'll haul it inside and start trimming!

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We Got to Meet One of our Readers

We're home again, back in the 'Boo....we had a great time with the kids. We travelled from Vancouver up to Merritt in a messy snowstorm. Almost whiteout conditions for part of the drive....it got better closer to Merritt.

Finally got to Kelowna and had my appointments. After that we met Julia, one of the folks who reads this blog! That was great....we met for coffee. Yak, yak, yak all about gardening and animals....two hours later we said our goodbyes. Longest coffee meeting I've had in a good while.

Julia gave us 2 jars of Apricot preserves she had done up this year....I'm not sure if you can see the fruit floating, but it sure looks good....

This was the first time we met anyone who reads our blog....at one point, I wondered aloud whether I had mulched the garlic bed this fall, and Julia quickly assured me that I had!

We all had a good laugh about that!

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Here Comes da Fudge - Recipe

I made Fantasy Fudge today - gonna see my boys this weekend, so gotta bring the Eman some Fudge!

Here's the recipe - it is Really Really Really Good!

Fantasy Fudge

3 cups sugar

3/4 cup margarine

2/3 cup evaporated milk

One 12 oz (350g) bag of chocolate chips

One 7 oz (798g) jar Marshmallow creme

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 tsp vanilla

Oh Man, look at this....these kinds of ingredients really only come out at Christmas.

Uh oh - hmmmm, that bag of coloured mini marshmallows shouldn't be in there. Those were supposed to be used to make Rocky Roads, but darn, I forgot to buy the Graham Wafers I needed. OK....so disregard the mini mallows!

Here we go:

Combine the sugar, margarine ( I used butter) and evaporated milk in a large saucepan. (don't worry, it looks better once these all melt together)

On medium heat, bring it to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly.

Continue boiling for 5 minutes, keep stirring all the time so the bottom doesn't burn!

Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate chips.....

Once they are melted, add the jar of marshmallow creme....looking much better now!

Add the nuts and vanilla and stir well.

Pour into a greased 13 x 9 inch pan. Cool at room temperature, then cut into squares. ) Looks good now, doesn't it?

(Makes 3 lbs. - every single one of them guaranteed to land on your hips!)

And now, excuse me....I have a pan to lick out!!!

Tomorrow, we are heading out to the Nman's for the weekend. We'll all be together and have a Special dinner on Saturday night. Then the Gman and I are off to Kelowna for my appointments on Monday....home again on Tuesday.

Let's hope the roads are OK this weekend.....they are calling for cold temperatures and snow to fall.

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Best Blog Award

Thanks to Robin over at Seasons Eatings Farm for giving me a Best Blog Award! Cool! Robin's got a great blog - living in Maine, she does a lot of growing of veggies in greenhouses and hoophouses. Head on over if you haven't checked out her blog yet.

Here's what I am now supposed to do - Choose 15 blogs to give a Best Blog Award to. This will be hard.....if I'm handing over an award to someone who's already won, well, that just shows there's more than me who thinks your blog is a great one!

The rules:

1. Anyone awarded with this must pass this Best Blog Award on to 15 bloggers who he/she thinks have the best and greatest blogs.

2. For the new awardee, to receive and accept this award, copy and save the award picture, then....

3, Make a post in your blog about the award.

4. In your post, mention the name of the blogger who awarded you, and include a link to their blog.

OK, here goes: (and they are in no particular order!)

1. Linda over at Lindercroft - true tales of raising goats and veggies in Northern California

2. Krissy over at Transplanted Alaskan - soap maker, goat keeper, and librarian

3. Ree (of course) over at Pioneer Woman - she's won so many awards by now, I just hope she'll include this one from me.

4. Melissa over at Country Family - Melissa is one of the moderators at Homesteading Today - in her blog, she writes about raising a family on a farm in Ohio.

5. Nita over at Throwback at Trapper Creek - always interesting posts about farming, veggie and animal raising.

6, Mike over at Tiny Farm Blog - Mike grows for a market garden, CSA and roadside in Ontario.

7. The Deliberate Agrarian - even tho this blog hasn't had new posts for awhile, what a wealth of info to be found here.

8. Canning Jars, etc. - yummy recipes and all the info you need about safe canning procedures.

9. Kathryn's You Are Here - I just wish she was able to write more often, she has a great writing style! I am looking forward to the day when Kathryn moves to the Island!

10. Frustrated Farmer Rick - I think Rick's one of my first followers - I really enjoy reading about his gardening/cooking adventures in Minnesota.

11. Joanne over at Wise Acres - they are located fairly close to us up here in the 'Boo.....everytime I check in at their blog, I find myself humming the Green Acres tune! One day we will meet, hopefully.

12. Musings of a Stonehead - not only do I like his style of writing, but I just love the name of his blog, lol.....tales of farming in Insch in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

13. Farm Blogs Around the World - a fantastic list of farm blogs from...well....around the World!

14. Holly - Easy Living the Hard Way - for writing about things like what to do with empty toilet paper rolls...Yes, Really!

15. Stone Bridge Farms - writing about Self Sufficent Living in Ohio. She also has a Debt Free blog, which you can find when you click on her profile.

There are more great blogs to be read of course, it is pretty hard to pare down to 15! If you're looking for more homesteading blogs to read, just click on our list of Followers....there are some really good ones in there! Sphere: Related Content

Mo' Trees - Round 2

He's at it again.....

(he took the fencing down, that was a good thing)

two more trees down!

Gman has no idea I'm taking pics of him working....I like watching him work.

Watching work fascinates me!

Oooops.....he sees me. I think he wants me to come out and help....maybe there'll be a fire later on!!

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Stellar Jay and Woodpecker

We were visited by these two today. A young woodpecker....

and a Stellar Jay....beautiful shades of blue. Wonder how long it takes to work up that hairdo?

Gman was able to put up a few lights on the front and back porches. Soon, we'll be bringing up the rest of the Christmas decorations....are you getting in the holiday spirit yet??

And he made his fantastic shortbread cookies today! Dang, they melt in your mouth!! It'll be my turn in the kitchen for baking soon! Fantasy Fudge, Rocky Roads coming up!

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