Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the North Pole, or so it seems! We’ve even got an aspiring Santa here! Our kids can’t wait till Grampa Tom puts on that suit and bounces his little grandbabies on his knee. His beard is almost all white now and the hair is starting to turn.

Only our youngest will be home this year and no grandchildren, but we have all kinds of babies coming next year!

Spence and Tristina recently had an ultra sound that confirmed a little boy is on the way! He will be named Walter Terry Whitson, Walter - after his Daddy, Grampa Tom, and Great Grampa Whitson, all of whom bear the first name of Walter and Terry - his momma’s family name. He is due the end of May.

We also found out that one of our “adopted” kids is due the first week of June. Our little Katherine will finally be a big sister!
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Then, I’m talking to my daughter a few weeks ago and she starts telling me she’s been offered a job running the nursery at the on base church they attend but she turned it down because she wouldn’t be able to lift soon. “Why won’t you be able to lift?” I asked.

“Well when I get the circlage…” she starts to explain.

“What? Circlage? Are you not telling me something?” replies a suspicious grama.

“Oh shoot! I knew I couldn’t do it! And we had such a creative way to announce it at Christmas!”

The kid never could keep a secret. I swore not to tell anyone but her daddy that she was pregnant, but hopefully most of the family has received presents from “Justin, Mary Jo, Olivia and Jellybean”, so I can announce it to everyone else. She is due the first week in July.

Our chickens are still on strike and we sold some sheep for about a third of what we wanted for them, but Grampa Tom got paid big bucks to dig out his parent’s driveway this week! They were victims of some fraud several years ago and the bank that had allowed it, after they had repeatedly asked them not to honor electronic transfers, refunded much of the money they had lost. They graciously shared some of it with us! Thank you Mom and Dad! Course now Grampa thinks he ought to get paid beau coup bucks every time he plows a driveway ;)

Not much about the business this week, but we’ve got so much to be thankful for!

Thank You LORD for:

New life!

Generous people! Thank you to Mom and Dad and my wonderful sis Sharon!

Our wonderful family!

A warm house!

No broken bones in spite of the ice!

Jesse, the child I got to keep. Well, kind of, he did move out and get married, but at least he’s only 10 miles away. He came to our rescue when the water froze up the other day. Thank you Jess! And thank you Devan for sharing him with us!

Oh and for all the beautiful clothes I got in the last couple of weeks! I hate shopping for clothes. I’ve never been too talented on the fashion front. Shopping is for the most part just an exercise in frustration. Give me some pretty hand-me-downs and I’m tickled pink! This last week I visited with both my Daughters-in-love. They are both so talented in this area and they both gave me some beautiful clothes! Thank you Tristina and Devan!

The fact that my computer is working much better since I took it to see its previous owner in New Jersey. Spence didn’t do anything to it. I think it just wanted to see Daddy.

The tree is still standing. Last night it warmed up and the ice from our roof started crashing to the ground. This huge crash at the north end of the trailer woke me up. I knew Grampa was in the TV room where the crash came from. Scared me silly!

And my last, but most important, expression of gratitude today - the fact that You gave up everything to come to earth and bring light, hope and salvation to our darkness! Thank You LORD JESUS!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND GOD BLESS YOU ALL!

THANKFULNESS

Our egg production is way down. We had been getting 20 – 30 dozen per week, but with this cold weather and snow we were down to 10 dozen this week. Grampa Tom decided he’d better put the water and the feed back inside the hen house. Hopefully that will help.

The lady that was staying at my MIL’s decided to go home so I’ve been spending some much needed time cleaning my house. Our finances are so tight right now, but several years ago I learned a secret that literally opens doors for miracles to occur. When I started doing this, I had done all that I could do and we still didn’t have enough for groceries. People started giving me money. I’d go to church and not be able to get my kids in the car for all the groceries stuffed in it. There were even times when I’d open the cupboards knowing there was nothing in them to feed my family, and I would find food that simply wasn’t there before.

Why was I opening the cupboards? To lay hands on the non-food items in there and thank God for them. That’s the secret! Thanking God for what you have and focusing on that.

With the economy the way it is, I want to challenge you to do what I did then and am doing now. Sit down and make a list of things you are thankful for and every time you are tempted to panic, read it over and add to it. There’s just no better way to calm your nerves and give God a chance to work. Post it here and/or on your blog and challenge others to do the same!

Grama Sue’s Thankful List
(This is so partial!)

Thank You God for:

1. Your great mercy
2. My wonderful husband
3. All the food I have stored in my pantry
4. My comfortable bed
5. My friends who bless and encourage me
6. The wonderful doctor we have in town who made the time to see me when it was time for her to leave
7. My house that is so easy to heat and cool
8. My computer and the internet
9. Warm clothes
10. Crocks and all the varieties of these comfy shoes that are out now!
11. My digital camera
12. My assessing job
13. My sleeping around job
14. My parents who challenged me and held me to high standards
15. The gift of wonderful in-laws who love me
16. Running hot and cold water
17. Cars and roads to drive them on
18. Upholstered furniture … LORD we are so spoiled!
19. My automatic washer and dryer
20. My stove, 4 refrigerators, and my chest freezer
21. My chickens and sheep
22. The chickens and guinea hens that were given to us last week
23. Lighters and matches
24. My huge bathtub
25. My Bible and all the wonderful online tools to help me understand it

OK, I’m going to quit for now. I need to get some lunch and go to town.


God Bless You All!

No More Cock-A-Doodle-Do!

Or at least that’s the plan. We went out at about 10am this morning and rounded up 15 roosters (turned out to be 14 and one hen, but sometimes it is hard to tell). We spent all day processing them. Grampa Tom killed and plucked while I cut and gutted.

Between Grampa and I, it takes us a total of about 20-30 minutes to process a chicken. Not exactly cheap meat, but I’d much rather eat chickens I’ve butchered myself than those processed in a FDA approved packing plant. My kitchen has to be 1000 times cleaner and I’m not known for my housekeeping !

I’ve seen programs about how those places work. In my kitchen, if I accidentally nick the intestines, all the fecal matter is immediately cleaned up, the chicken is doused with bleach and then rinsed with copious amounts of clean water. In one of those big packing plants, all chickens regardless of weather they’ve been contaminated or not are placed in large vats of chlorine and fecal matter laced water to soak up whatever. Yuck! I’m also constantly bleaching and rinsing my sinks and all the equipment throughout the process.

Not to mention the incredible taste difference between slow growing pasture raised chickens and those mutant things that the factory farms grow!

I’ll miss the roosters. Well maybe not at 2 am, but I really enjoy incubating my baby chickens and they are so beautiful! It’s just that with this large of a flock, we can’t afford to feed enough roosters to keep the flock fertile through the winter. We thought about penning up a few roosters and bringing hens to them come spring, but the logistics of it were more than we could handle right now. We can’t even keep the hens where we want them now, much less trying to keep a separate flock! They are always in the garden and all over the place. Maybe next year I can find someone who has fertilized eggs I can incubate.

One thing that amazes me every time I butcher is the difference in lung size between one chicken and another. Here’s a picture of lungs from 4 different chickens.

The other organs of all these chickens were of similar size, yet some of the lungs are huge and I have a hard time finding others! Makes me wonder how some of them breathe! They all appear healthy so why the difference? Maybe one of the youngsters reading this will take up the challenge and find out for me. The smallest lungs on the upper left hand are actually from a bigger chicken than the last ones on the lower left. Interesting.


God Bless You All! ~Grama Sue

Snow!

It’s snowing! November 30th – the old timers say the date number of the first snow will be the # of snows we get through the winter. Grampa Tom says we’ll have 30 snows. I told him we did have some snow a couple of weeks ago. It was just a small flurry, he didn’t even know we had one. I can’t remember what day that was, but I’m hoping that counts!

The last time I wrote, I was sick and unable to do much. It got worse, much worse. I spent about a week fighting a high fever, unable to get out of bed. Finally broke down and went to the doc. She gave me a shot in the butt and some other meds. It helped, but it was days before I had the strength to lift my laptop. For those of you that know me, I went 5 days without tea or CCU. You know I was bad! I’m still not 100% but I think I’ll live now. God is good. There were a couple of times I was very tempted to just say LORD take me home, but I know my job here is not done so I’m still here!

A couple of weeks ago, our dog Blue showed up with a huge gash on his back. Pinky has been missing since then. We thought maybe they had been tangling with farm equipment, but the other morning our cat came in sporting the same huge gash and there were a couple of piles of feathers out in the pasture. Don’t know what we are dealing with, but the chickens are being shut in the hen house every night now. No one has seen Pinky’s body, so I’m not giving up.

I’ve been accused of having “unrealistic hopes”, but isn’t that what faith is? Hope in impossible things? My hope for Pinky is not without basis. We once had a lamb that got lost. The kids and I prayed for it. Months went by. Surely the coyotes got it. Then one day it showed up in the neighbor’s barn! Then there was my daughter’s dog. This ornery little shiatsu ran away while I was babysitting it. After 2 days everyone was sure it was coyote bait, but on the 3rd day it scratched on the door of one of my students about 2 miles away. Then there was the cat that fell in a pan of gasoline. My kids had some friends staying with us. They were just sure the cat would die, but my kids prayed for it and by the next day it was just fine!

There is a place coming up for sale next week that we would love to have. The track is 20 acres with a house and several out buildings. Someday we will have the capital to buy a place like that. We really need more ground. Last week, our neighbor who offered to let us set up at her barn on the highway asked if we’d like to use an old chicken house at her son’s place down the road. I’m so glad she likes us! We’ll get there !

Our chickens have dropped production with the cold weather, but the egg quality is much better so we still have almost as many available to sell. We were getting quite a few cracked and goofy shaped eggs. Some of the older hens have died. They were probably where the goofy eggs were coming from. We also changed from store bought layer feed to a brewer’s mash based feed that my friend Pastor Aaron Ferguson is selling. It seems to have helped quite a bit.

We finished the tax assessing job the first of November and it is time to start again! This week I plan to clean the house. Then as soon as Grampa Tom is out of the fields, we’ll be combing the back roads for new construction. Sure hope we get the books before August this year. Legally, it is supposed to be done by April 15th, but that’s a little hard when you don’t get the stuff you are supposed to work with until August like we have the last 2 years. I ran for the position because I thought it would be a good winter job, but the last 2 years it has gone into November. The county is working on computerizing everything, otherwise I’d quit. Once we have things on computer, hopefully we will be able to complete the job on time.

I still have a bunch of apples to put up. We had to feed the sheep and chickens about 4 bucket’s that we couldn’t get in the big refrigerator we bought for eggs because the temp dropped and I was to sick to do anything with them. That may sound like a bad thing, but the sheep and chickens really like apples and we really consider them to be free feed.

Well, I'll stop rambling now.


God Bless You All! ~Grama Sue's

Chicken Page

Wow! This being sick stuff is great for my writing! The Bible says that God uses all things for our good. I actually got my chicken page up. It is mostly complete I think. I was going to put it on Squiddo, but I couldn't get it all on one page. This doesn't look quite like I want it, but it's close enough. I also put the link on the side bar!

God Bless! ~Grama Sue

Writer's Block

Ugh! I’ve had such a case of writer’s block when it comes to this blog!
Grampa and I are currently exercising our immune systems. Seems we picked up some horrible flu bug. I can’t do much of anything so I thought I’d better at least post!

We’ve been getting some frost here. My parsley really loves this weather and the cilantro is coming back nicely. If we were still going to the farmer’s markets I could sell some of it, but that’s about all we’d have to sell and even with the drop in gas prices it wouldn’t be enough to make it worth it.

My October was spent finishing up my assessing job. Grampa spent it cleaning up around here waiting for it to stop raining so he could get in the fields. Normally, they are done with the harvest around here by now, but it’s been to wet! Oh well, he’s gotten a lot done around here. One thing I really like about him working at home is that our place gets a lot more of his attention!

Then the first week in November we went to the small farm conference in Columbia, MO. We’ve gone down there for a day every year for a while now, but this year we decided to go for the full 3 days. We learned all about marketing, chicken breeds, sheep, honey, etc … as well as getting to meet so many people like ourselves. We may be crazy, but we’re not the only ones!

Since then I’ve been putting up apples. We had a wonderful apple crop this year! A lot of it went to the sheep and chickens because I was to busy with the assessing, but I’ve made about 4 gal. of apple juice and 40 quarts of applesauce. I was planning to put most of it into apple juice but the juicer I snatched out of the garage sale gave up on me. I’ve got 7 more 5 gal. buckets to go. They will all be applesauce. That’s way too much applesauce for us, but my bees will like it.

The standard practice in the honey industry is to harvest all the honey and feed the bees corn syrup over the winter, but we’re not real crazy about that. We decided to leave the honey this year and supplement only if we needed to. Then I was reading that bees liked rotting fruit. Then I saw a bunch of them on some apples on the ground. I decided to see if they’d like apple juice and they loved it. Since my juicer quit, I think I’ll put ½ applesauce and ½ water in the jars. They ought to like that. The chickens will love the treat when the bees get done with it too!



God Bless You All!

September

HA! I bet some of you thought I was never going to post again! September was one booger of a month. We were busy enough with the garden, chicken’s and farmer’s markets. Then in August, we finally got the stuff we needed to finish up the assessing job for this year so I was trying to find some time to stuff that in my schedule. Just as I was about to ask to be cut down to 1 day a week with my sleeping around job so I could get the assessing finished, one of the other girls announced she would be gone for most of the month. So, instead of only one day a week at Maxine’s, I wound up working 3. Around the middle of the month, we found out that an old friend, who had come out to my MIL’s when she was sick before, was wanting to come out again but was afraid to ask. So, I offered to stay with her while Mom was at Maxine’s. I really thought she would wait till the first of the month when Kathy was back. Instead, she came out right away. So, it’s been 3 days at Maxine’s and 4 days at Mom’s. Whew! My life has been a little bit crazy! Kathy is back now and I’ve been on the premises for almost a week now (for those of you who don’t know, Tom’s parents live on the same property as us). Things ought to be slowing down a bit – I hope!

Grampa Tom says he’s done with farmer’s markets for the year. He’ll soon be in the fields helping Lane get the crop out. He’s trying to get things cleaned up a little. We have a huge bon fire going tonight. I’m so thankful that we have markets for our eggs for the winter!

I’m working on a chicken page for our egg business. I’ll be using a mini-blog service called Squiddo. Will give the link when I’ve got it somewhat completed.

RECIPIE

Did another experiment the other day that worked. I browned strips of chicken breasts along with onions, garlic and mushrooms in olive oil. Then I added ranch dressing and broccoli and simmered for about 30 minutes. Mmmmm …. Good!

God Bless You All!

History According to Grama Sue

Lately my experiences have led me to what I believe are some interesting historical revelations.

The first has to do with golf. Most sports have some basis in skills needed for hunting and/or farming. I had no problem seeing where the long drives came from in golf. Being able to hit or throw a rock long distances is a basic hunting skill – but what about putting? Today it suddenly occurred to me that I was becoming quite a good putter. I’ve been practicing nearly every day! There’s this one really dumb chicken who insists on laying her eggs under the roosts. In order to avoid crawling behind it, I get a stick and gently move the egg forward with a putting stroke. Who knew???

The other two have to do with green beans.

The other day I was sitting at Maxine’s working up some buggy beans. These are beans that have a lot of good in them but have brown spots that need to be taken out. One of Maxine’s friends walked in and asked if I was frenching them. I wasn’t too concerned about how they looked, but honestly it would have only taken a few more strokes of the knife to make them into French style beans. I’ll bet some woman had a bunch of buggy beans that she wanted to serve at some social event. To disguise the fact that they were buggy, she sliced them up and told everyone they were the latest rage in France. Of course all the women at the affair knew the truth since their beans were all buggy too, but instead of giving her a hard time, they thought, “Oh what a great idea!” and proceeded to do the same.

My other “bean” revelation came tonight as I was snapping beans while sitting in a straight chair. Just for a change in position, I sat up straight for awhile without the support of the back. It wasn’t long before my back began to ache. I remember reading in more than one book that 18th and 19th century “ladies” were expected to sit straight without using the chair back for support for hours at a time as they did needle work. The pain in my back caused me to wonder how in the world they did it - something I’ve wondered about before. Then it hit me! Duh! They all wore corsets! They wore their own chair back all the time.

Yes, I think about weird things. Nothing new – Ask my kids. You think my waking thoughts are strange – You should hear some of my night time dreams!

God Bless You All!

The New Chicken House

THE NEW CHICKEN HOUSE

This is the 8 x 14 chicken house we bought a couple of weeks ago. It came with roosts, a glass window, nests and several feeders. It is even wired for electricity!

We think it is quite a buy for $150! ‘Course, we had to spend another $150 for chicks to put in it but we really need them too. Not only do we have a huge market at Hy Vee in Macomb, the other day we picked up a market at a large office building in Burlington. The new chicks will bring us up to about 250 hens when they start producing next spring. We figure we need about 400 to meet the market we have right now and that will surely grow.

Spent last Saturday up at the highway. Did double the amount of business I would have done here at home, but it still wasn’t enough to warrant all the work it will take to get stuff up there and back every time. Sure would like to have that camper I saw advertised in the Gate City ... but the chickens are priority right now. We do see potential in it though. It will just take a while for people to realize we are there and by the time that happens this season will be over. We are planning to give it a try again next spring when we have more time to promote it.

Oh! Did I tell you all? A couple of weeks ago I drummed up every ounce of courage I have and worked the bees! I didn’t even get stung. Should’ve had Grampa Tom take some pictures. We’ll have to do that next time.

God Bless You All!

More Changes

More Changes

Happy Labor Day everyone! And boy oh boy, that’s what we’ve been doing! Sorry I missed posting last week! We are still in the midst of big changes so this will be short.

I’m planning to set up at the highway about ½ mi. straight west of my house this week on Saturday. I’ll have a blue pop up tent and some make shift sawhorse tables. Hope to be up there by 9 am. I’ll have some produce, eggs, and crafts as well as a smattering of stuff out of my garage sale. Repainted some of my garage sale signs – they are the same green and white with sparkly fringe you are familiar with so please come see me if you can!

Whooo Hoooo! We got word yesterday that Hy-Vee in Macomb wants to carry our eggs! I spent the morning reworking our label to fit their needs. Gotta order more chickens and some date stamps this afternoon. Slowly but surely, we’re getting there!


God Bless You All!

CHANGES

:) Good news! Sack sale this weekend, Friday and Saturday Aug. 15 and 16! Bring any size bag and fill for $1. Almost all the garage sale type stuff will be included in this.

Bad news :( We had decided the garage sale was just not getting enough business to warrant the time and the space it was taking (Thus the sack sale). This weekend was to be the last of it. However …

:) Good news! As I was working out there last weekend, I was telling God how much I enjoyed it and that if He wanted me to continue with it, I needed a sign. Our location seems to be a problem this year so I had given up until we could get a better location.

Saturday, I shut down and went to the women’s conference in Keokuk that I go to every year. At the end, the minister invited people to come up for prayer. This prophetess told me I had my eye on a piece of property, but I had been afraid to ask for it. She told me to go ask and they would give it to me.

When I turned on my phone, there was a message from a neighbor of mine asking me to call. She has a lot with a barn and a grain bin on the highway that she thought would be a good place for me to set up a tent! It’s about ½ mile straight west of here as the crow flies. I’ve been thinking this property would be wonderful for a store all year!

Maybe someday we’ll buy it, but for now we’ll be setting up a tent up there on Saturdays. I’ll try to get up there by 10 am and run till 2 or 3. Later, when the farmer’s markets shut down we may add a day or two.


THE FARMER’S MARKET

We bought 75 more chickens. They are a bit stressed right now from the move, but hopefully they’ll get up to full production soon. Grampa Tom is back to doing 4 farmer’s markets a week.


ON THE CRAFT TABLE

Seems I’m getting nothing done craft wise. To busy with the garden and taking care of old people. Oh well! Winter is coming.

THE GARDEN

The beans and tomatoes are really coming on strong right now. We also have cucumbers, oregano, basil, lemon balm, and onions.


God Bless You All!

Western Illinois Old Threshers

WESTERN ILLINOIS OLD THRESHERS

The garage sale will be closed this weekend. We’ll be packing it up and hauling it down there for the flea market. Hopefully we’ll be able to get the goodies in the garage down to a manageable amount. For the time being, I’ve quit taking donations. We’ve decided to limit things to what we can fit in ½ the garage.

So if you want to look me up, you can find me at:

http://www.westernillinoisthreshers.org/schedule.htm

Grampa Tom is still planning to hit the farmer’s markets this weekend.


THE FARMER’S MARKET

We started selling our eggs in at Ducks and now we really can’t keep up with demand! Grampa has skipped the Carthage farmer’s market for the last 2 weeks because he hasn’t had enough to sell there. Marvelous problem!


ON THE CRAFT TABLE

Seems I’m getting nothing done craft wise. To busy with the garden and taking care of old people. Oh well! Winter is coming.

THE GARDEN

We’ve finally got sweet corn, green beans, tomatoes and cucumbers. They are going as soon as we can pick them! I didn’t go to the Nauvoo Farmer’s Market last week because I needed to make noodles. Grampa told everyone the reason I didn’t come was because he had to beat me off of the tomatoes and not to go out to our place because they’d have to put him in jail if they saw me.

The herbs are finally coming on well too. Next year I need to devote more space to them, green house some and stagger the plantings.

We’ve decided to grow more sweet corn next year too.


GRAMA’S DELIGHTS

Saturday was so much fun! I didn’t make a whole lot of money with the garage sale, but a couple of people came in that made it all worthwhile.

First, a lady came in who was in a quandary about what to do with her son. He hadn’t been doing well in school and she wanted to home school him but didn’t know how. By the time she left, she was very relieved to know that home schooling isn’t as hard as it sounds.

The other lady ... well I have to back up to Friday night. Our church has a Praise and Worship service on Fridays and during the service I closed my eyes. Suddenly, I saw a picture of a little old lady with deep wrinkles, hair sticking out all over the place and a big toothless grin. I asked God what this picture was about and I felt Him say, “Isn’t she beautiful?” When He said that, I could see how beautiful she really was.

Just before we closed on Saturday, Martha walked in.

Isn't she Beautiful????

I was astounded, this was the woman I had seen the night before! I told her that I had seen her and that God loved her very much and that He thought she was so beautiful. It brought tears to her eyes and I was so blessed!

Some people say Christians can’t have fun, but there really isn’t anything more fun than seeing others be blessed.

God Bless You All!

My Favorite Husband

This is only about the business in a round about way, but I figured I really needed to brag about the great man I’m married to.

Grampa Tom always has the status of “my favorite husband” simply due to the fact that he is my only husband, but this weekend, he really earned the title.

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I’d like to have a party for my 50th birthday, but I just didn’t have enough time to get my house clean enough for a big shindig, much less plan a party. I was whining about how I’d missed my 40th, because I was to busy taking care of my grampa, and now the business was taking to much time for me to do anything this year. At this rate, I lamented, I may never get over the hill! So, he talked to a friend of mine and arranged to use her house. Then he invited a bunch of people, and bought a cake and a bunch of munchies, but he didn’t tell me!

Saturday, he told me we were going to get dressed up and go out to eat to celebrate my birthday. Then we were going to drop some eggs by Becky’s house. I was so impressed! He’s put on a suit 3 times since I’ve known him: Once for our wedding, the other 2 times for our boys’ weddings. Here he was putting on his suit for my birthday! WOW!

We went out to eat at the Warsaw Brewery. We hadn’t been there before. Not a very romantic atmosphere, but the food is fantastic! On our way out of the restaurant we ran into an old friend so we sat and talked with him for a while, then we were off to Becky’s.

Thinking back on it, there were probably a couple of clues, but I was oblivious to the fact that the house was full of people. I walked through the door and couldn’t figure out why my FIL was there, then I noticed my MIL, my son, my grandkids and several of my good friends. They yelled “Surprise!” and Becky blew her shofar. I was flabbergasted!

He really pulled it off! The thing I totally don’t understand was thatthe granddaughter who had been staying with us knew about it and she didn’t tell me. How did that happen? She can’t keep a secret at all!

State of the Projects

Our granddaughter went out to the big garden the other day and yelled, “Grampa, where are you?” He said, “I’m over here hoeing the corn.” She said, “Oh, I thought you were a scarecrow!”


Grampa is really enjoying this summer. He says it is going very fast. He told me he even enjoys all the hoeing he’s been doing. He says he may not be making as much money as he used to, but at least it’s his money and he’s not working to make someone else rich anymore.



One objective of this blog is to let people know what is working for us and what isn’t. So here’s a “State of the Projects Report”

1.The garage sale

So far this year this has been a big disappointment. Between the wet, cold spring, the flooding and the gas prices we’ve not had near the business we’ve had in the past. I’m going to have to turn down donations for a while.


I met a lady the other night who runs a similar business up near Burlington. Guess what it is called? Aunt Sue’s! She says her business has been way down this year too.

2.Pastured raised eggs

We aren’t getting as much per dozen as we would like yet, but we have been able to move all the eggs we produce. We need to increase our production and are discussing ways to do that next year. We are also planning to get into breeding Welsummers next year. They are a rare breed of chicken that lays a very dark brown egg. They bring a pretty penny. We’ve seen hatching eggs go for $20 or more a dozen.

3.Sheep

The sheep are doing great. We’ve got to many for the amount of pasture we have, but Grampa wants to lamb them one more time before he downsizes. These sheep live up to all the things we’ve heard about them as far as heartiness and prolificness.

4.Cows

Unless we get more pasture, this is one project that’s not going to grow. The cow and the two bottle calves we currently have are doing fine though.

5.Egg noodles

It’s amazing, but people are really buying my noodles. Given the right equipment I could probably add to the value of every egg we produce by 500% or better. However, that would require me to spend all day every day rolling out noodles. I enjoy it, but not that much! Still, it’s a good use for the “B” grade eggs we get.

6.Natural and recycled crafts and craft supplies

So many ideas, so little time! My decorated eggs are selling well. I really want to work more on my recycled rugs and a few other ideas I have for old fabric, but I just can’t seem to find the time right now. Maybe this winter ...

7.Great Pyrenees dogs

Pinky is growing beautifully. She’s also become quite the guard dog. She’s busy all night patrolling. I absolutely love this breed! They are so gentle and easy to train.

8.Honey bees

We started out with 2 hives and now have 4, two of which now have honey supers on them. It’s not terribly common to get much honey in the first year, but I think we’ll have enough for us anyhow.

9.Avon

This is another “if I only had the time” project. I currently have 4 customers. It’s enough to keep me going with it.

10.Farm crops from the 10 acres we own with our son

Had a horrible time getting CPS to come spray the beans this year. We’ll make money on them but not like we should. Next year we are going to plant a large portion of it in sweet corn.

11.Garden produce

We NEED more garden space! Herbs are an especially hot item. We'll have corn, tomatoes and cucumbers next week. Everyone has been asking for these for weeks.

12. Affiliate marketing

No luck with this so far, but again, it’s not something I’ve worked at a whole lot either. If we make some money, fine, if not ... Hey, it can’t hurt can it?

13. Building low maintenance gardens

Absolutely no time for this project this year! Maybe next year.

Garage Sale

It’s official! I’ve lost 20 pounds since Grampa Tom started seeing the good doctors at the Rexroth Clinic. People ask me what diet I’m on. I tell them I’m on the “Keeping Up With Tom” diet. For the past several years he’s slept so much. Now he gets up at 5 or 6 and goes all day. He’s down 50 pounds. Neither of us are trying, it’s just all the activity!




GRAMA’S TREASURES!

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve had a several donations. The garage is overflowing. If you come early tomorrow, expect a mess! I’m trying to get it all organized, but everything won’t fit. Gonna have to put some of it outside. Among the treasures: homeschool books, a complete set of 1949 encyclopedias, a large Child Craft collection, lots of Magic School Bus books, flash cards, games, girl’s and women’s clothing, some very pretty formals, a coffee peculator, an ab exerciser, tons of new toys, a cute little rocking chair, I could go on and on! Come check them out!

THE FARMER’S MARKET

Farmer’s markets have been picking up a little. Nauvoo is the one that is going the best for us right now. I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to sell my noodles for the price I needed, but I can’t keep up. I need more food dryers! If you want to catch us we’ll be at:
Carthage Mondays 2:30-5:30, on the Square
Burlington Thursdays normally 5-8pm at Crapo Park
Nauvoo Fridays 3:30-5:30 at the Winery
Keokuk Saturdays 6:30 am - 11am at the mall (if we have anything left)


THE GARDEN

We are currently harvesting onions, green beans, carrots, basil, oregano, chives, sage, cilantro, lemon balm and lettus. Is there anyone out there who knows a lot about the different types of basil? I planted a variety that I think is either Thai or Holy Basil, but I lost the package and I’m not sure what it was. It's got a reddish stem with red flowers.




We’ll have tomatoes, zucchini, potatoes and cucumbers soon. We got a ripe tomato off a plant in our new beds the other day. I honestly have never tasted a tomato with so much flavor! Can’t wait for more.


ON THE CRAFT TABLE

Getting close to done on the rug. I’ve learned so much!
1. Braid and sew as you go. I cut the strips and sewed them into big fabric balls and then made one long braid which I made into a ball. It was very unruly. Now I’m just adding strips and braiding as I go. It works better.
2. Fold the edges in as you braid. I’ve got a lot of rough edges that will probably fray because I didn’t think of this.
3. Strips look better if you cut the fabric diagonally and sew the diagonal edges together.
4. You can actually lace a rug together instead of sewing. I tried it, but I had already been sewing so I decided to wait until the next rug before I start this.

A couple of weeks ago I was given a bunch of old goose eggs. I plan to demonstrate how to blow them out this weekend if anyone is interested.



GRAMA’S WISDOM
(tips, recipes and ideas for saving money)

Put egg noodles in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before rolling them out. It makes them less sticky and they roll out much easier.

God Bless You All! ~Grama Sue

Sleeping Around

Well folks, I’m late with this again! This time I have a really good excuse. You know the sleeping around job I have? (Clean up your mind! I do elder care.) Well, usually I stay with Maxine for one or two 24 hour shifts a week. This week, the other two ladies who help her were unavailable and I wound up staying for 5 days! Finally got home last night. I was so tired! Last night I got 6 hours of sleep in a row!After getting up with an old lady 3 or 4 times a night for so long it feels wonderful, but my house looks like my husband and an 8 y/o have been living here. HELP!!!!

At least the gardens look good. Here’s a few pictures.






I'm not gonna show you the house.

Our granddaughter has been a really big help. She has been taking good care of the baby chicks. She feeds and waters them every day in addition to giving them a ride in the wagon! How cute! She’s already bored and wants to go home though. Somehow, I knew her determination to stay the whole summer wouldn’t last long ;(

Gotta get the kid up and try to get things back into shape. Will try to give a “state of the projects” next week or at least get back to the regular format!

God Bless You All!

Allis Chalmer WD Tractor - Help and Bees Swarms Again

Well folks, I am not keeping up well at all! Things have been so crazy for me lately! Luckily, my 8 y/o granddaughter has come for an extended visit. She got here a couple of days ago and has been a great help. Maybe, just maybe I'll get caught up!

Our bees swarmed today so tomorrow we need to go get another hive. That will make 4. Hopefully, we'll get some honey this year. We do need to learn how to prevent swarming though. From what I understand they produce a lot more honey if you can keep them from swarming - but I suppose multiplying the hives this way is a good thing in the beginning!



It's late and I need to get to bed so I'm making this post short, but I wanted to show you the tractor I currently have on E-Bay. Grampa Tom bought himself a brand new John Deere tractor this spring so we are selling the old family Allis Chalmers. If you know anyone who collects antique tractors, please send them to my E-Bay site!

God Bless You All!

Safe From the Flood

Well, as safe as is possible in the middle of a major disaster. People have been asking about us since our address is Niota. Niota has been evacuated, but we are actually out in the country on the plains about 3 miles from any flooding. Thanks to all of you who have been praying! The picture is one my friend Becky took near the Keokuk bridge.

While we are high and dry, that doesn't mean we haven't been affected. It is difficult to get to Iowa right now. Grampa Tom did go to the Burlington Farmer's Market today, but we're wondering if there will be a bridge open to get him home on tonight. Fortunately, we have friends in Iowa who would be happy to put him up for awhile. I did have the sense to do some turbo shopping last Saturday! In '93 there were about 3 weeks when shopping in Iowa was nearly impossible and there's not much on this side of the river. I wanted to be prepared.

Business for us has really dropped off. Garage sales and farmer's markets are pretty much leisure time activities around here and most people are just too busy and worried to have fun right now. We did have some folks from Carmen stop by today. They were on a scouting mission to find a way to the father's workplace in Iowa. They said their house was being protected by a levy that seemed to be holding. LORD, please be a wall around them!

Fortunately, we found some money we didn't know we had! Last January, Grampa Tom lost his checkbook. He was really messed up so he decided to use my check book for a couple of months. At one point, we thought we had accidentally deposited some money in his checkbook that belonged in mine and that I would be overdrawn, so we transfered it. It's been there for quite awhile so we decided it is safe to use it now! See how God works! He even uses our mess to bless!

My son Jess has been busy sandbagging. Grampa Tom and I are too old and decrepit to be much help so we've stayed out of the way. I'd love to do some of the behind the scenes organizational and fund raising work, but I just don't have any time to give right now. My life was already a blur, and then 2 weeks ago, the little old lady my MIL and I take care of came home from the nursing home. We had been just staying nights with her, but now she needs someone with her all the time, so we've recruited another person and are doing 24 hour shifts. I'm only doing one or two shifts a week and I'm very grateful for the work, but I'm so incapable of giving any more of my time! Ahhh! Mommy-God syndrome. I have such a tendency to want to be all things to all people! I have to keep reminding myself that God is there for those people even if I can't be.

Remember, God promises that He will use all things for good! So, be blessed in the mess!

Valentine Find!

GRAMA’S TREASURES!

A neighbor brought me a whole bunch of unused children’s Valentine cards! Stock up for next year! You can’t beat the price! 5 cents for a box!



THE FARMER’S MARKET

We’ve been having so much fun!
We are now selling at:
Carthage Mondays 2:30-5:30, on the Square
Burlington Thursdays normally 5-8pm on the river, but this week 11-2 on Jefferson street
Nauvoo Fridays 3:30-5:30 at the Winery
Keokuk Saturdays 6:30 am - 11am at the mall (if we have anything left)
We are also considering going to Hamilton on Wednesdays, but right now we are selling out. What a wonderful problem to have! How to produce more :)

E-BAY

Well, I managed to sell my black ink cartridge. Right now I’ve got a yellow cartridge for my old Epson printer. I have been doing some crafts so one of these days I think I’m gonna try to get my Etsy site up and running. Time, time, time!

ON THE CRAFT TABLE

My rug is really looking good! It’s not anywhere near perfect, but I have to start somewhere! I’m really enjoying doing this. At one time my hands were so crippled that I couldn’t hold a needle! I was wearing splints on both hands and was seriously considering carpal tunnel surgery when I found this web site

http://www.doctoryourself.com/handson.html

It describes a little exercise that has almost totally reversed the problem!




THE GARDEN

We are currently harvesting onions and lettus. The radishes and spinach are about done, but we have new potatoes coming on. We should have a few in the next week or so. All the beds are planted. We put in a bed of ever bearing strawberries in the hopes that we will have strawberries in the late summer/early fall. We were also given a few thornless blackberry plants so we should have some of those next year!

We’ve got some of the supports up on our raised beds. I’m anxious to see how they’ll work. If you come, be sure to ask to see our raised bed gardens. Everyone who‘s seen them so far has been impressed!





GRAMA’S WISDOM
(tips, recipes and ideas for saving money)

The other day, I served a “creation”. These are always a gamble since Grampa Tom is such a picky eater, but he really loved it! I cut some pork loin into strips and stir-fried it along with some green onions, broccoli and mushrooms. Then I added a little Woshestershire sauce, garlic, salt and pepper. I thickened it with some cream of celery soup and then boiled up some of my egg noodles to add to the sauce. Yummy!

God Bless You All! ~Grama Sue

Bees and Swarms

Whoo! Hoo! I got my internet working again ... at least for awhile. Grampa hit the satellite dish a while back and last week it slowed down so much that I couldn’t post. Today I went and hit it with a hammer and it is working better. I have to get a part replaced, but at least I don't have to wait until next week to get on line anymore. Praise God!

Anyway, we had an exciting thing happen last week! I was standing at the kitchen window when I heard a loud buzzzzzzz! I looked out and saw a swarm of bees settling in the tree behind the house. We have 2 beehives so I thought one of ours had swarmed (not a good thing), so I called Grampa Tom and told him I thought we were losing our bees.

He came right home and checked out our hives.They were full of bees, so we proceeded to catch this new bunch of bees.


Here’s Grampa using a power saw to saw the branch the bees had settled on out of the tree. He said they started gathering on his arm as he was doing this. He thought he might just be able to carry them all down to the box we had for them.


We put the branch in a cardboard box and waited a few minutes to let them settle down. Then we put a sheet over the box and raced down to Daydants to buy a new hive for them to live in.




At dusk Grampa swept them into the new hive stocked with sugar water to help them feel at home. They seem to like their new home so now we have 3 hives instead of 2! We feel so blessed to have these bees choose us!

Here's a picture of the inside of a bee hive I had taken a few days earlier to show you.



God bless you all!

Buy Local

INTERESTING STAT

From: Animal, Vegetable, and Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. Shereports "If every US citizen would eat just 1 meal a week (any meal) composed of only locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country's oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil per week. Becoming a less energy-dependent nation may just need to start with a good breakfast."

GRAMA’S TREASURES!

Wow! We had a great hatch! Hatching 50% of the eggs you put in an incubator is considered good. We have 33 out of 48. That’s almost 70%! I’m happy! Most of the eggs I put in the incubator were blue and green in hopes that I will get more hens that lay blue and green eggs. I plan to do this at least 2 or 3 more times this summer. If you’d like to help me fill the incubator again, I plan to have an official fill the incubator day once a month. The first one will be this Saturday at 10:30 am. If you need chicks, I am willing to sell a few at $2.35 each.


THE FARMER’S MARKET

Grampa Tom went to both the Keokuk and the Carthage Farmers’ Market by himself this week. I went to the Hamilton Farmers’ Market this afternoon. That was a bust. Nobody there but me. I’d like to go to all of the markets, but I’m really not needed most days and there’s plenty to do here. So far, we’re not making oodles of money, but we come home with more than we spent to go. It’s a start!

One of the things we’ve been selling is egg noodles. I got a noodle maker thinking it would speed up my egg noodle production time. It doesn’t take anywhere near as much strength, but I’m not seeing the time savings I was hoping for. I was hoping to be able to sell my noodles at farmers’ markets for $1.25/bag but it just isn’t going to happen for less than $2 and even then I’m not making minimum wage – it is just something to do with unused eggs. I told Grampa if we can’t sell them, we’ll just have to give them to charity.

E-BAY

Neither of my items on E-Bay sold L! But I got lots of lookers for the bag. Decided not to re-list it because Grampa Tom hasn’t managed to get another one done and he wants to take it to the farmers’ markets. I did re-list the Epson T060120 black ink. It didn’t sell, but it might have helped if I hadn’t made a typo in the id#! So far this week I have 3 watchers on it. If you’d like to bid, you can find my stuff at
http://myworld.ebay.com/gramasues


ON THE CRAFT TABLE

The rug is coming along. I’ve got several feet braided, but I’ve got no idea how big this thing will be! It’s an adventure.

Grampa Tom suggested that I do a golden egg with IOWA painted in black. I think I can do that. Then I thought I could probably even do a Deere egg in green and yellow. Grampa isn’t an Iowa fan, but we sure do like John Deere.

THE GARDEN

We are still finishing the construction and planting like mad. This week we planted musk melon, garlic, basil, winter onions and more yellow onions, cilantro, marjoram, cucumbers and dill. We also transplanted quite a few petunias and marigolds.

We took the first harvest from our spinach and green onions this week. I also harvested and sold some fresh oregano. The broccoli plants that we put in last week is already putting on a head. I can’t wait! We love broccoli!

The potatoes look wonderful, but the poor beans! They’ve suffered from chickens scratching in them and my “other dog/lawn mower” (pet lamb) eating all the leaves off them! Here’s a picture.

If you come, be sure to ask to see our new raised bed gardens. We are following Len Pense’s plans:

http://www.gardeningrevolution.com/index.html

They take a lot of work to build, but once they are done, they are a breeze to care for. We’d love to build one for you or teach you how to do it yourself!

GRAMA’S WISDOM
(tips, recipes and ideas for saving money)

How to Clean a Microwave

This is one I learned from my daughter when I was over 40. Some of you young pups may think that’s disgusting, but bear in mind the fact that there were no such things when I was young. OK, OK, so I used a microwave for 20 years before I learned how to clean one! I’m not the only one! Almost everyone I share this secret with has never heard of it.

Put a bowl of soapy water in microwave and run for 5 minutes. Even the most stuck on stuff will come off! It is amazing.


GRAMA RECOMENDS

Great Chiropractors!

It is so awesome to sleep next to my husband again! For years, Grampa Tom has been severely overweight. This obstructed his breathing so much that he had to sleep sitting up so he slept in his big chair on the other end of the house. He also fell asleep quite often during the day and snored loudly all the time. He finally went to the Rexroth Clinic in West Burlington. They gave him some adjustments and some supplements to help kick start his metabolism again. He’s lost several inches off his tummy, sleeps in our bed and stays awake all day! The only problem now is that I can’t keep up with the guy!

Check them out! http://rexrothchiropractic.com/index.php


God Bless You All!

Correction

The river is rising again so the Burlington farmer's market will be at the train depot again this week!

Chicks, Avon & E-Bay

WE’VE GOT CHICKS HATCHING!

So far, there’s 7 little babies and quite a few eggs that are chirping through little holes! I’ve got them in the house with the incubator. I’ll keep them in here for a few days just to make sure they stay nice and warm, but if you or your kids would like to see them, I’ll be happy to invite you in! If you'd like to buy a few, they are $2.35 each.

200 AVON BOOKS

Really, I mean really, it was my intention to just have a few Avon books and a lotion or two available for my customers in the garage! Somehow, I managed to order 200 books by mistake. I’m taking it as a sign from God. The same day I realized what I had done and that I couldn’t fix it, my “sleeping around job” ended. I know how to sell Avon. I used to support my family on it. Maybe God wants Avon to be a major source of income again. Needless to say, I’m spending a lot of time this week passing out Avon books!

THE FARMER’S MARKET

The Farmer’s Market in Burlington went very well this week. We sold out of egg noodles and I managed to sell quite a few of my golden eggs. This week it will be on the river just south of the bridge where it is supposed to be. If you want to come, it is held from 5-8 pm every Thursday. We should also be going to Keokuk on Saturday morning (at the Keokuk Mall) and to Carthage Monday afternoon (at the courthouse).

E-BAY

Back in the fall of 2006, I was selling quite a bit of stuff on E-Bay, but that project got put on hold due to my assessing job. This week I resumed it. I’ll try to put a couple of things on it a week. This week, I put Grampa Tom’s first shopping bag on E-Bay with a starting bid of $4.99 and some black printer ink for an Epson printer with a starting bid of $9.99. If you’d like to bid, you can find my stuff at
http://myworld.ebay.com/gramasues


ON THE CRAFT TABLE

I was amazed at how far I got my gazebo top to rug project last weekend. I actually got all the strips rolled into balls and have begun to braid the strands!

We bought some more paint to paint eggs with - even some red, white and blue for the 4th of July. I’ll probably experiment with that a little this weekend along with my rug.

THE GARDEN

The biggest project we’ve had going on this week has been the gardens. We’re finishing the construction and planting like mad.

We have planted tomatoes, potatoes, cucumber, radishes, onions, peppers, turnips, corn, green beans, lima beans, broccoli, lettuce, spinach, carrots, garlic, squash and pumpkin. We already have some herbs. The oregano and lemon balm are coming on strong and the sage is starting to leaf out. I also bought some seeds for dill, basil and marjoram. I’ll be drying most things, but if you’d like some really fresh herbs, I’d be happy to go cut some for you!

Be sure to ask to see our new raised bed gardens. We are following Len Pense’s plans:

http://www.gardeningrevolution.com/index.html

They take a lot of work to build, but once they are done, they are a breeze to care for. We’d love to build one for you or teach you how to do it yourself!


GRAMA’S WISDOM
(tips, recipes and ideas for saving money)

Hurting People Hurt Other People

Some old people are real sweethearts, but there are other’s who are just plain mean and if you are going to take care of them, you can’t take it personally. Most of the time, these are people who’s brains aren’t working right and/or they are in a lot of physical pain. They lash out at you because they are in pain, not because you did anything wrong. They still need to be cared for and loved, so you have to learn to look past their bad behavior and do what’s best for them in spite of themselves – kind of like putting a crabby kid down for a nap.

Actually that’s pretty much the way it is with all people. 90% of the time, people who are growly or mean aren’t actually responding to what you did. They are responding to situations in their pasts where they were humiliated, scared or devastated. Or maybe they are just tired, stressed out or hungry. Don’t take it personally! Forgive them and move on. You’ll be a happier person.

God Bless You All!

Farmer's Markets, Golden Eggs and Low Maintenance Gardens

THINGS ARE POPPING UP ALL OVER!

Things are really growing around here! We’ve got onions, potatoes, spinach, green beans, lima beans and radishes up. Today we finally got some corn and lettuce planted along with more green beans and onions. Hopefully, I’ll have baby chicks next week. Oh! And you’ve just got to see this little cutie!

THE FARMER'S MARKET

Our first farmer’s market went ok. We had about 30 dozen eggs and ended up selling quite a few of them for $1.25 a dozen. That doesn’t come anywhere near covering our production costs, but we didn’t want to take them home. Because of the flooding, the market is being held at the train depot in Burlington. I thought there were a lot of people there, but the veteran vendor’s said it was really slow so we expect things to get much better. BTW, if you want to come, it is held from 5-8 pm every Thursday. We’ll be going to Keokuk in a couple of weeks and probably to Carthage too.

ON THE CRAFT TABLE

Take a look! Grampa Tom had a fantastic idea for reusable shopping bags!

Cool huh? And to think we’ve been burning our feed bags for years! He’s asking $10 a piece. If you’d like to buy one, stop by or e-mail me. mailto:gramasues@hughes.net/

We’ve also got “golden goose eggs” and smaller “golden nest eggs”

We’re asking $2.50 for the goose eggs and $1.50 for the nest eggs. Pretty cheap way to make someone a little richer! I also pray over each one that God would enrich the lives of those who receive them.

Our gazebo blew down in a wind storm last week. Not a bad thing – we were planning to take it down and use the metal for tomato plant supports anyway. Last year, I wove a top for it out of pink and yellow material. I took the top off and plan to try braiding a rug out of it. That’s what I’ll be working on this weekend.

NEW PROJECTS

We’ve got 2 new projects we are adding to my 30/$30 list.

1. We’ve decided we will offer to build the low maintenance gardens for other people. These gardens take a lot to build, but once they are up, they are a breeze to take care of and they produce a ton of food. A 4 x16 foot garden can produce enough vegetables to feed 2 people for a year. We went to a seminar back in January to learn about them and are very excited. If you’d like to read more about these gardens, go to:

http://www.gardeningrevolution.com/index.html

We are also talking about offering classes for those who want to do it themselves.

2. The other is affiliate marketing. If you click on the ads on my blog, I’ll get a commission on anything you buy!


GRAMA'S WISDOM

(tips, recipes and ideas for saving money)

How to Boil a Fresh Egg

This secret actually comes from one of the greatest sources of wisdom around … my CCU yahoo group … specifically from one of the group “moms” Deanna. Thanks Deanna!

Set eggs out for a couple of hours to bring to room temperature. Bring water to a boil before adding eggs. Slip eggs into boiling water with a slotted spoon and bring back to a boil. Then turn to simmer for 20 minutes. Chill eggs quickly in ice water.

One of the biggest problems with fresh eggs is that they don’t peel well. This method makes them easy to peel and they don’t get that yucky green around the yolk thing either.

Want more of Deanna’s wisdom? Check out her newsletter, Tea With Dee :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/teawithdee/


GOD BLESS YOU ALL!

We have lambs! Lots and lots of lambs! They are so cute! If you can, you just have to come by to watch them jump and run. It’s so much fun! New little sheep are wonderful.

New Adventure
Tomorrow we will be attending our first farmer’s market. Not quite sure what to expect. The river front in Burlington is flooded so it is being held at the train depot. Yesterday it looked like the weather would be awful on Thursday, but tonight it looks like we’ll have decent weather tomorrow afternoon. We had decided we were going no matter what this year. The Burlington farmer’s market is one of the biggest in the area. We figure even if we don’t make much, the networking we do will be invaluable. BTW, if you want to come, it is held from 5-8pm every Thursday.

On the Craft Table
I’m still working on signs, but if I can get the little Houdini to stay there, I’ll have a little lamb that I am bottle feeding under the craft table. Petting will be encouraged! Don’t worry! I’ll have baby wipes and Avon hand sanitizer available to wash little hands!

Grama’s Wisdom
(tips, recipes and ideas for saving money)

Grama Sue’s Spicy Egg Noodles

My dear mother-in-love taught me how to make egg noodles before my youngest was born. Her recipe was the standard egg, flour and salt mixture rolled as thin as possible. Being the creative person that I am, I have a hard time following a recipe. Sometimes this actually results in something good J These are unique noodles that people rave over. I was in a hurry one day and didn’t roll them out to well, but my kids liked them so much that I usually cook them up thick without drying. My family prefers these noodles that way, but they don’t dry well unless they are fairly thin.

4 eggs
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. black pepper
¼ tsp. chili powder
Flour to make a soft dough

Mix eggs, salt, pepper and chili power. Add about ½ cup of flour at a time until you have a soft dough. Roll to desired thickness. Cut into strips with a pizza cutter. Boil or dry. Serves 4.

God Bless You All!

Here’s the new signs! Look for them on Hwy 96 at the Nauvoo-Colusa School and at the radio tower a couple of miles north of the school. They will get you there. We’ve changed our hours so we can go to some farmer’s markets and I’ve got time to clean my house for church on Sunday! We’ll be open rain or shine! If the big door isn’t open, there’s a regular door on the south side, just come on around and come in!

The whole garage has been rearranged from last year. Grampa Tom is very excited about his new tool section and I have a craft table set up so I can putter while I’m out there. I still have some more signs to make, so that’s what I’ll be working on this weekend. I’ll try to let you know what I’m planning to work on each weekend so you can come see what I’m doing if you want. I’ll try to post some pictures too.