Just In Time For Christmas

Mama, Claire, and I worked on a couple of dresses for some girls at church, and we gave the dresses to them this morning. I hope we surprised them! Thank you for the picture, Mrs. Stouffer! You look lovely as usual, Camille!








Merry Christmas, Y'all!

Guess What, Kaliste!

I finished them! I'll bring them tomorrow! I didn't think I'd get them done before New Year's Day!

"I Can't Believe It's Christmas..."

Busy! That is the only word that can possibly describe the time we are going through! The amazing thing is that not very much of it is at all related to Christmas as it would have been in years past! This Christmas is so different that it hardly even feels like Christmas! However, that may have something to do with the 60 and 70 degree weather we have been having lately. Never thought I'd miss the 40 degree, drippy weather, but there's nothing like that to get you in the mood! We've done the traditional things such as: watching every Christmas movie in the house, listening to all our Christmas CDs (Mama has finally proclaimed our holiday music selection lousy; maybe now we'll get some good Christmas music.), and decorating the Christmas tree with a finger food dinner that night. Still, it is like we're in "A Charlie Brown Christmas"! Isn't it still October? Guess I'll have to get used to this hectic, non-stop feeling, but now at least we don't have the Pick'n Parlor this week end and Mr. Brantley has let us off for a couple of weeks for Christmas break. He gave me quite a bit to work on between now and the next lesson though.

Funny... mostly

Much of this website is funny, but some of it is too real.

Don't you hate it when...

You didn't get to bed until 1:30 am, and you have to get up in the morning.

Siblings loose your things.

You can't remember what you were about to say.

You get the brunt of a parent's anger even when you did nothing wrong.

It's bathroom cleaning day.

It's your week to fix breakfast/lunch/dinner and you can't come up with any ideas.

You've just sewn up three out of the four seams wrong.

It's portrait time.

You don't get anything done although it seems like you've been busy all day.

You have to dance with another girl even though there are perfectly capable boys standing around.

Your music teacher forces a smile and says "Well, that was... nice." or "Good try."

Your father automatically asks if we're having spaghetti because he knows it's your week to fix dinner.

Your room is an absolute wreck.

You have great aspirations for the coming year but rather low expectations as to how those aspirations will turn out.

Good friends pass up your road.

People don't blog for months on end.

Someone makes a list like this.

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I could go on, but I don't think I will right now.

Blogger Beta?

Yeah. I changed to it when it asked me to, but why? I had just over 50 posts when it asked me if I wanted to change. Is Blogger Beta able to handle larger blogs better? What really is a large blog? What am I doing here!?! I've got way too many things to do!

The Pick'n Parlor

Last night was opening night for this new enterprise we're working on. We had a packed house too! The Pick'n Parlor is an experiment really. We are leasing the building and things from the previous operators so we didn't really have to start from scratch. Uncle Craig is head manager and chef; Daddy is another head manager chef; Uncle Craig hired four waiters who were absolute lifesavers last night; I mainly did dishes (I've never done so many dishes in my life- okay, maybe my whole life's-worth combined); Mama and Claire helped do the dishes some too. After about an hour of dish washing I started wondering how many times I had washed this fork or that bowl, etc. I am still wondering. The major crisis of the night was that we nearly ran out of utensils (we actually may have I'm not sure). Uncle Craig decided that a meat-n-three place uses more utensils than a soup and sandwich place. I have already learned to appreciate the people in the back more through just last night's work.

I am going to start taking mandolin lessons from Claire's fiddle teacher and the national fiddle champion, Tom Brantley!

Today Claire, Kyle, and I are going to go dancing at this event, in full costume! We are going from there to the Pick'n Parlor for another night of work.

A New Farm Experience

I finally got that farm experience I have wondered about ever since we have had cows. I helped Kyle and Daddy pull a calf this morning! Okay, so that normally is not a good thing, but I think it was very educational. Made all the more so by the 15 degree weather! We should have tagged the little thing when we were able to catch it, but Daddy was afraid that it would not even live. Now the calf is very much alive and sort of even bouncing around a little. Perhaps we will still be able to catch it; I think we will if it turns out to be as friendly as its mother (we are all hoping it will be)! Our 47 is going to be a good mother I think, though perhaps not as protective as our other cows. I have already been able to go up and touch 47 as well as her calf without any opposition! With our others you could not even go near the calf without the cow coming after you.

YIKES! It's Already December?!!

Thanksgiving Festivities

We did puzzles, and games, we ate a ton of food this Thanksgiving. Here is "Pin the Turkey on the Hat", named by Luke.









Abigail, my cousin, playing charades.










Forehead! A game much more down my alley! I'm not too fond of those others, however I contributed to all the puzzles we did.

Several Little Things of No Consequence

The first thing of no consequence will be the cut of meat contest winner announcement.

All who participated lost. Sorry. Cold, hard fact. Thank you for participating anyhow.

The meat goes from this...

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To this!

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The second thing now would be a little poll for my information:

What do you use? Internet Explorer or Firefox?

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The last thing is just a quick note to say that the best part of Thanksgiving has arrived! Turkey pot-pie!

Happy Thanksgivin' Y'all!

Happy---

–adjective, -pi‧er, -pi‧est.

1. delighted, pleased, or glad, as over a particular thing: to be happy to see a person.
2. characterized by or indicative of pleasure, contentment, or joy: a happy mood; a happy frame of mind.
3. apt or felicitous, as actions, utterances, or ideas.

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—Synonyms:
1. joyous, joyful, blithe, cheerful, merry, contented, gay, blissful, satisfied.
2. favorable, propitious; successful, prosperous.
3. appropriate, fitting, opportune, pertinent.
—Antonyms:
1. sad

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Thanksgiving---

–noun
1. the act of giving thanks; grateful acknowledgment of benefits or favors, esp. to God.
2. an expression of thanks, esp. to God.
3. a public celebration in acknowledgment of divine favor or kindness.
4. a day set apart for giving thanks to God.
5. (initial capital letter) Thanksgiving Day.

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Y'all---

Pronounced, YAWL. pron. Chiefly Southern U.S. You. Used in addressing two or more people or referring to two or more people, one of whom is addressed.

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Regional Note:

The single most famous feature of Southern United States dialects is the pronoun y'all, sometimes heard in its variant you-all. You-all functions with perfect grammatical regularity as a second person plural pronoun, taking its own possessive you-all's (or less frequently, your-all's, where both parts of the word are inflected for possession): You-all's voices sound alike. Southerners do not, as is sometimes believed, use you-all or y'all for both singular and plural you. A single person may only be addressed as you-all if the speaker implies in the reference other persons not present: Did you-all [you and others] have dinner yet? You and you-all preserve the singular/plural distinction that English used to have in thou and ye, the subject forms of singular and plural you, respectively (thee and you were the singular and plural object forms). The distinction between singular thou/thee and plural ye/you began to blur as early as the 13th century, when the plural form was often used for the singular in formal contexts or to indicate politeness, much as the French use tu for singular and familiar “you,” and vous for both plural and polite singular “you.” In English, the object form you gradually came to be used in subject position as well, so that the four forms thou, thee, ye, and you collapsed into one form, you. Thou and thee were quite rare in educated speech in the 16th century, and they disappeared completely from standard English in the 18th. However, the distinction between singular and plural you is just as useful as that between other singular and plural pronoun forms, such as I and we. In addition to y'all, other forms for plural you include you-uns, youse, and you guys or youse guys. Youse is common in vernacular varieties in the Northeast, particularly in large cities such as New York and Boston, and is also common in Irish English. You-uns is found in western Pennsylvania and in the Appalachians and probably reflects the Scotch-Irish roots of many European settlers to these regions. You guys and youse guys appear to be newer innovations than the other dialectal forms of plural you. (The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.)

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Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!

Beef Processing and Meat I.D. Contest

Well, here it is. Another post. Here's what we've done lately, Kaliste!

First of all, this is a decidedly agrarian process. As is quite obvious.

Introducing...Ribeye!

Well, a quarter of him.

Looks like he's still putting up a good fight!

He's becoming more manageable.

The meat saw was great.

Hungry anyone?

The tallow, which we saved for some reason other than to spoil in our freezer (though I am still uncertain as to what that reason is).








What would you call this?
















I call this a meat tenderizer.
Grinding beef.












Finished products.
















---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Contest Time!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Sorry. Bradshaws and Wiggins are disqualified for having already done it.
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What is this?













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As for today, 11-20-2006, we had some good flurries! Exciting!

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..."

We WORKED!

See, we actually did get something done today!

We mulched around the house, the shrubs near the basement, in the asparagus, and around the shrubs near the tool shed.

We also, umm... fenced. No, really, we did! We got three whole strands of barbed wire up and all the rest of the t-posts in the pasture farthest from the house.

This Just In

An albino deer has been seen near hear! I repeat: an albino deer has been seen near here.

A rare occurence; besides, it was something to blog about.

<>EDIT<>
It was a piebald deer, not albino. Don't know if they're any more common or not.

Nothin' much goin' on

I don't have to much to blog about right now. It drives me crazy when there are long pauses between posts, and I try not to do it, but what do you do when you don't have anything to post about?!!

Let's see. It's been raining a lot lately, and it is kinda hard to remember to be thankful for it. I have to think back to this summer when rain was scarce and desparately needed.

The leaves are falling. It is just about past the real pretty time with all the colors. It's hard to realize that it is near the end of the year already! The year has gone by so fast! Getting to know new friends better; doing practically everything under the sun, and changing our world view almost completely from what it was four years ago! Those four years have been whirlwinds!

Okay, I posted. It's no good, but it's there.

Early Autumn in the "Suburbs of Viola"

Early fall is probably my favorite time of year. I just love to run up the mountain and watch the leaves falling all around me. The only thing I am not particularly fond of is the endless raking. Last year we raked nearly every day, but by the next you couldn't tell we had done a thing!

I guess I am just going to have to get over that though, and do my best to enjoy raking the leaves day after day after day.



Good news! Kyle could have been heard playing his banjo this morning! The very fact that he thought his thumb was up to the task is a good sign, I think. I just hope he doesn't over do it.

Update on Kyle

Good thing! He only sprained his thumb; it's not broken. It took nearly a whole day in town to figure that out though. We are all very thankful, but, at the same time, rather disappointed that he won't be able to play his banjo for a while.

The Making of Christmas Jam

This stuff is good! We NEVER have enough to last the year, but then again, we've never made this much either. Yesterday we made four batches, and did that again this morning. I think that's all we're planning to do this year. Last year we only made four batches.

The berries and sugar, all combined, starting to cook down.








Claire was our dipper person. I love the sweet smell of this jam.

All finished........ with one batch!

Pretty and delicious! Great gifts or (my personal favorite) just to be selfish and eat all yourself!

Pictures of the Past Week

We got into a little fight. The boys had made themselves swords, shields, and axes, and Catherine and I ganged up on them with bean poles and foam noodles (a little one-sided you'd think). We even got Elizabeth to join in after a while; we're going to have to get another foam noodle for Claire, though.

Full armor.
















I think he's got a problem with the camera.
Great. Catherine! They're charging!











Well! He almost looks scared!
















Oooh, that's why.
















A vicious attacker.
The fight ended with both sides declaring victory, and we were about to eat a delicious dinner!

Great picture, Kyle.
One night we built a fire and ate ruebens while enjoying conversation.
We got the berry patch in order on day.
Trying to get more kinks worked out in another jam session.

Claire, Kyle, and I (and probably the chruch) are so thankful that y'all helped us last Monday night! We just couldn't have done it near so well without y'all.
Yesterday I got placed on the Poop Squad. Yep. The men went around with pitch forks picking up cow patties. I got the good job (thank you, Mr. Brothers!): I drove the Mule behind them. Once we got a good load we went back to the compost pile and they spread it on.
After doing this for a while they became real manure connoisseurs.
"I personally think the dried ones are best for this time of year."
"No!?! I believe you're saying that just because you don't want to pick up the heavy, wet ones."
"......Not at all *grunt* see?!"
"Whatever!" *all laugh*
Next we tackled the garden. We took down the tomato cages, t-posts, and stakes.
Mr. Brothers tilled our beds, and they look just superb! THANK YOU!!!










At lunch.
















After lunch, the boys went out to do more trench digging.















Benjamin helped too!
After dinner something very purple and smelly came out. A hand waxer thingy! Most everyone tried it out. The babies didn't; the heads-of-household didn't; Kyle didn't, and I didn't. Everyone else did.
I just couldn't do that to my hands. Besides, they're not dry!
Even Elijah joined in "Just to see how it felt."
Sorry, Elijah. I just had to do it.

Don't let it keep y'all from coming back as soon as possible! We got so much done, and we had great fun! You know, we need to practice on those songs too! Your pose here looks like you could reach the higher notes.