World's easiest grape juice recipe...

I have made this grape juice for the past 30 something years. It is so easy and delicious! Start with 1 cup of grapes, seedless or not, washed and placed in a quart jar whole.
Sweeten to taste. I have always used 1 cup of sugar. I have also learned over the years that this is too sweet. I now use 2/3 cup of sugar per quart.

Fill jars with boiling water and seal.

Place in a boiling water bath for 30 minutes.

Store in a cool dry place for at least 30 days before using. Drain grapes and enjoy a wonderful juice. I have used all sorts of grapes over the years but this year we have our first crop of Seedless Concord grapes. I think this will be yummy.....move over Welches!! Danny drinks grape juice every day for the antioxidant properties of grapes. This will definately save us some money. I just made 9 quarts from vine til sealed in jars in less than an hour!!!

Don't come visit me!!

If you know what's good for you you will stay away from here. I just told you about the spiders, snakes and bear. That's enough to keep most of you away anyhow, right?

Well what about bees??? Ever heard of that movie about the killer bees??? Maybe not that bad yet but more than one is way too many!!

I got up at 5am with Danny and of course plopped down on the sofa with my laptop to check in on all you guys out there. My sofa is in front of my window. While I sat here I kept hearing a ticking noise in the window. I just brushed it off as a really big moth trying to get in to the light. I kept blogging and blogging and it kept ticking and ticking and ticking and TICKING AND BANGING AND KNOCKING AND GETTING MUCH LOUDER AND FASTER!!! Well I finally decided to look up at the window. You know some of you guys are so interesting that it takes a lot of disturbance to distract me from reading your blog!

When I looked up at the window it was covered with some sort of bee...a bee is a bee to me! I think it may bee some sort of hornet type bee....but a bee is a bee to me! I threw the light on them and it was sooooo creepy. I turned off all the front room lights so maybe they would leave, walked into the kitchen and one was in there and flew toward my head. I started doing the fight-like-a-girl-with-a-bee-getting-in-her-hair dance and it didn't get in my hair. I got the fly swatter or should I say flybat and killed it.

My guineas have a lot of work to do around here. I have heard that they are supposed to eat spiders, bees and snakes......what about bear??? Of course I have always heard that goats keep away snakes too.......I have 8 goats. How many goats does it take? I also have 8 guineas maybe they can join forces and the 16 of them and my 3 cats and 1 big bad miniature daschund should be able to handle the creepy crawly's. Meanwhile I think I will just stay in the house today!

You can come and join me in my sewing room today! I'll go check it out for ....?????.....maybe mice?? I do know my outside cats do their job because they leave their bounty on my porch by my door each morning! A dead mouse is OK by me!

I promise NO MORE CREEPY POSTS!!! Unless..........................

I don't like spiders and snakes.....

OR BLACK BEARS!!

(Mom running up hill, cub on ground and up the side of tree)
ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY COME IN THREES

Yep that's right. 3 of them! I just posted Saturday about all the nasty creepy spiders around my house that morning. Then today I saw, and tried to run over an absolutely huge black snake. Just as I thought it wouldn't get any creepier or scaryier what have ya......I was inocently meandering down the hill toward the chicken coop and just glanced toward the fishpond and OMG!!!!!!!!!
there was the cutest little black cubs playing on the ground under that big tree. OMG I did a 180 back to the house yelling for Danny to get off the sofa and come look. I grabbed my camera that was hanging by the door for this Kodak moment but as you can see it didn't turn out too good. My house was so darned cold that when I took the camera outside where it was about 90 degrees the lens instantly fogged up beyond hope for a decent picture.

We were watching the babies playing around and I was trying to capture it on film and in the corner of my foggy lens I saw the great big mama bear lopping up the hill from the dock of the pond to the babies.
OMG!!!!!!
We have been, or just me all by myself, have been down each night about this time feeding our 200 catfish in the pond.

OMG!!!!!!!!! I would have a heart attack if they ventured out to where I could see them!!!!

Quick guinea update...

This morning I woke up to one guinea on top of my detached garage, one on the ground behind the garage and one in the garden. I had 5 but now 3. In a few minutes I had 2 of those on top of my house then they joined the other in the garden. A few minutes later I started hearing a terrible freaked out guinea shrill and chatter from toward our fishpond. I rode our ATV down there and found my white hen running up and down the hill in a severe panic. Apparently she lost her mate because another one didn't return with her. So the count is 4 now.

A few minutes later my mom and dad pulled up with his 4 in a cage for me. He gave them back because they s*** on everything, like he didn't know that they s***!!!! Oh well!! His loss. I found out right quick that they did their business on my front porch prior to flying up on my house!! Anywho I now have 8 guineas down there trying to get caught up on the gossip since they were seperated at 3 days old!!! They all seem really happy together so we will just have to wait til night fall agian!!

I am married to the smartest man in the world...

My guineas have had their door to their pen open for several days and would not venture out until today. I was loving watching them just putter around the barn talking to themselves and running back and forth.

Well we were wondering if they would infact go back in their pen at night fall to roost. No of course not. They all went to the top of the barn/coop to roost there. Then my dh being the smartest man in the world, decides to go and get a ladder and get up on top of the barn and run them off. Run them off he did too. Out thru the yard and into the woods as fast as they could fly. I will probably never see them again. I think he should have to sleep in a tree tonight too!!

This is what I woke up to today......

ooouuuhhhh!! I hate spiders and spider webs! Doesn't it look as if my clothesline has been totally neglected? Well it hasn't been wearing itself out I tell ya. Not this bad though. All of this work was done overnight last night....ooouuuhhh!!!!
While I slept in the middle of all this caos..... (by the way she isn't as skinny as she looks in this picture, that would be real neglect)

Those creatures were outside making art.....

ooouuuhhh.......

Poor little Goldie doesn't like them any better than I do. She looks so scared. Afraid of being sucked up by one of these monsterous webs.

and now for the icing on the cake.......

look what they did to my blueberries!!! OOOUUUHHH!!!!!!!!

Actually they have been working on this one for a couple days now. I should have took a broom to this one and maybe they wouldn't have had a party down on the farm last night and invited all their friends!!! I have a lot of after party cleanup to do today... darned spiders. I have never seen so many spiderwebs in one place since that episode of Andy Griffith and the haunted house!!! LOL!!!!! Webs everywhere....hanging down from the side of my house, across all my little paths that I trek everyday doing my outside chores and anywhere in between!!!

Look what's in Leslie's apron....

She robbed my garden and my henhouse!
Get my gun!! She is not going to make if far with my booty from my garden especially a German Pink Tomato!! Actually she was here yesterday helping me make peach preserves and frozen peach pie filling and chicken-n-dumplings and...... so I guess she can raid my booty if she wants to. This headless apron wearing hunter is Leslie from http://www.ce.mommy.blogspot.com/.

OK Now folks today is the day. It is finally time for me to turn my 5 guineas out to allow them to free range. You know these were my little peeps out of my very first clutch that I ever set on, I mean incubated. I am very very over protective of them!! I don't want to get my feathers ruffled today either. Leslie had way to many ruffled feathers and bit nails when she turned her's out at first. She lost 2 of hers before they learned about how to go out and do their job of finding bugs and making their way back home to the right bed at night!!!! See why I am stressing over turning mine out!!!! Wish me luck!!!

"Do the green pepper crawl"

Have you ever seen so many peppers? Not me! At least not in my garden!
They are sooooooo big. Let me tell ya I have big hands and they are as big!!!!!

I have never had this many (I have already frooze several and used many for cooking) and it has been years since I have even had a few. Last year the ones I planted didn't even have a bloom on them. The year before there were no plants around anywhere. So I decided to make up for it this year!! Good plan huh? Most of these are actually red or yellow ones but they couldn't hang any longer to turn colors. I will chop these and freeze them with my foodsaver and have them ready for chili and many other dishes!!! Hey already chopped too!!!

I just frooze 32 ears of corn and my Mom is going to bring me a bushel of peaches tomorrow. I also have 1/2 bushel of cucumbers to put up and a mess of beans to break and cook. And to think people ask me what I do with myself now that I am in retirement!!!!!!! They just need to come hang out with me one day ;-)

She lost her battle...

My dear friend Laura Leigh Burton, that I had mentioned only a few short months ago that needed prayers, lost her short battle with cancer on Friday.

I cannot begin to tell you what a wonderful person she was. One of those "who once you are fortunate enough to have stumbled upon for some reason has enriched your life and made you a better person because of it" kind of people. She was truely beautiful on the inside and out. She had a work ethic as a nurse practitioner that was second to none. Her family was her world. She leaves behind a wonderful loving, kind and generous husband who was so in love with her that it was obvious just by the way he looked at her every day. Her oldest daughter, Laura Leigh also her namesake, is an exact replica of her mother. In her name, her beauty, her smile, her acts of kindness and generosity and her passion for her career choice. Her middle child Caitlin is also a truely beautiful young lady. She has all of Laura's wit, compassion, integrity, determination and kindness. Her son Christian, her youngest only a teenager, is also a great young man. Handsome, popular and a great athlete. Laura was so involved in his life making sure that he turned out to be the best man that he could be.

Laura was so proud of her entire family. I can't even begin to imagine the grief that they are experiencing right now. Please pray for them as the next few days will be so hard. Laura's death was so untimely at the age of 49. I will miss her greatly as will an entire community.

Her obituary can be seen here...... http://www.legacy.com/roanoke/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=131107530

Thanks for the prayers!

Amanda, this ones for you....

Now don't ya just love a good yardsale? Ya know the ones who don't know the value nor understand the beauty and versatlity of a vintage Fire King mixing bowl. I thought you would like this one Amanda, .........glad I found it first ;-)
My newest ebay find!


This is what we did yesterday!! Look Mom, no hands!!

Antique treasures...... and then some

I found this great little Costco rolling cart this week in antique store. It is great condition with only a couple little blemishes. I have almost zero counter space and I had purchased this to go in the rental kitchen but once I got it home I found that it was needed in my kitchen worse. It will be a pain to have to roll it away when we need something out of those cabinets but when I need counter space it will be worth it! I think I will be able to use my big mixer for a lot of jobs right where it is without having to put it up on the counter. I use it alot.
These are scalloped eyelet curtain panels from the same shop. They are just beautiful in person. Oh I really wish I had a good camera.

I have the perfect spot for these ;-)

This little guy I picked up a while back and have put off painting it. This is a vintage record cabinet for my collection of lp's.

These are before pics (almost forgot!) I am starting to shabby it up a little and put it at the Fairy's Rest

Incase you couldn't tell by my playlist......I love old country music from the 70's , well actually any music from the 70's. I have about 100 lp's and my dh got me a great little record player for Christmas a couple years ago. I just purchased a lot of 24 this week at my favorite antique store. They were priced at $75 individually and I got the whole lot for $24. I love to put on the records and listen to them while I am doing housework or just relaxing. It has been in my bedroom and when I am ironing I would pick out one from my collection and listen. I think it would get more use at the retreat by me and my guests if they in fact are old enough to know what a record is!!!!!!

I purchased this old feed sack at a quilt show a couple years ago. I have a friend who just purchased her first home and I decided to make her an apron. I was able to get both of us a cute but simple apron out of the whole piece. Not a thread of fabric was left. Good planning huh? I hope she likes it.

This little beauty is my grandaughter Morgan modeling my apron that I couldn't resist from Ross's last week. I plan to use it as a pattern to make some more and put this one in the rental kitchen. Don't make her mad with a rolling pin in hand!!

What a beautiful day!!!!

This image was taken in April 2008 but it has been just as beautiful here today. A tad warmer though. Probably 40 degrees warmer to be exact! I have been puttering around getting all sorts of things accomplished too. A lot of house cleaning. Laundry. Cooking. Go on over to The Fairy's Rest blog to see my vintage pillowcase collection. I laundered and ironed them today. They were just lovely hanging on the line while the sunshine whitened them right up!! Boy do they smell good now!!

We spent Saturday at the land getting started on setting the mobile home and hopefully it will be set this Saturday. I worked inside as much as I could while having no electricity or water or A/C. It had to be 95 degrees out there and the boys were working soooooo hard. Good job boys!!! They looked like praire dogs when we left, red clay soil and sweat, get the picture? Dh is bartering some work. He is going to clear some land for a friend in turn for helping with the set up and the septic tank. REALLY GOOD IDEA HUH????? That makes me soooo happy. I could really get into bartering!!! Maybe I could do some bartering with The Fairy's Rest. Maybe I could find someone in Italy who wants to trade a couple weeks here...............well don't laugh. Didn't you see the movie The Holiday!!!! If you haven't seen it you really should. Then you would know what I was talking about!!

Hope you have had a beautiful day in your little corner of the world!!