HAPPY FALL Y'ALL!

The nights are cooler. The grape vines are shedding their leaves. There's a smidgen of color here in the holler, if you look real close, but you have to go up on the mountain or further north on the Interstate to see much color. It won't be long, though, before the hills will ablaze with fall colors!

Hubby and I took a trip further north on the Interstate this weekend. We had the opportunity to adopt three hackney horses that needed a home. All we had to do is come and get 'em. So we loaded up the truck, the trailer and our buddy Ken and made the 2 hour journey to Lexington to Whistle Stop Farm. Waiting for us there was a mama, her young son and her . . . um . . . husband. They are absolutely beautiful. Daddy (nick-named Houdini until we come up with a name) was evidently stunted in his growth somewhere along the way so his legs aren't long enough to qualify him as a show horse. What he lacks in height, he makes up for in attitude. He has a little of that "Rastafarian" look about him. He evidently has a passion for rolling in the briar patch so he'll need some grooming when he's ready. He's just as loving and sweet as can be . . . UNTIL you try to get him to do something he doesn't want to do. It took us less time to drive to pick them up than it took two grown men (professionals no less) to catch him, put a halter on him and get him ready to load on to the trailer. They all seem to be adjusting to life here on the creek. Houdini managed somehow to slip himself out of his halter during his first night here, but other than that everyone seems to be getting along famously.

Never a dull moment here on the creek!

FarM LIviNg iS tHE LiFe FOr Me!!!!!!

Yesterday I took some much needed time off from my job as a construction worker and played farm wife for a few hours. It was a beautiful fall-like day and I a bunch of zucchini and about a half bushel of tomatoes from our garden that I needed to do something with so I made spaghetti sauce from the tomatoes and, with the addition of a few apples from one of the trees in the front yard, I made some zucchini/apple muffins! The muffins were a huge hit with my hubby! I found out that I can freeze grated zucchini, so I'll be able to have some on hand for fresh muffins, etc. throughout the winter months. Spaghetti and meatballs for dinner tonight! I'm really enjoying being able to walk out the back door and grab some apples, pears, zucchini or tomatoes. Next year, we'll be able to put in a larger garden with a bigger variety of veggies and I'll have a fully functioning kitchen so I'll be able to do some canning! Farm livin'!



Apple Zucchini Bread (Muffins)

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. Gound nutmeg
1/4 tsp. Salt
5 eggs
1 ½ cups vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tbsp Vanilla extract
2 cups shredded, unpeeled zucchini
1 cup peeled, shredded fresh apples
1 ½ cups chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans)

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. In another bowl, beat eggs. Add oil, sugars and vanilla. Pour over dry ingredients. Mix well. Stir in zucchini, apples and nuts (batter will be stiff). Spoon into three greased 8"x4"x3" loaf pans (I made 18 jumbo muffins). Bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes for bread (about 20 minutes for jumbo muffins) or until done. Cool in pans for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Freezes well.

Back to construction work!

Blessings from the creek y'all!

P.S. FYI, the apple shaped snack set that the muffins are sitting on as well as 7 more are going to be listed on E-Bay soon. If any of my blogger friends are interested in them before I list them, I'll make you a special deal. Just e-mail me and we can talk about the price.

Turkey and deer and coyotes . . . OH MY!

My wonderful hubby and I took a walk down one of the many logging/mining roads in our area the other day. It was nice spending some quite time together, away from the painting and priming and sanding and . . . . well you get the picture. I thought I'd share some pictures of things we saw along the way.

I've learned that you never know what you're going to see when you go for a walk around "The Creek".

Blessings from "The Creek" y'all!

GOD BLESS THE USA!!!!!

The Breakfast Club

I was thinking this morning about how much not only my life, but my lifestyle has changed over the past few months. Simple things, but they've had such a huge impact on me.

For instance, having breakfast with "the girls" used to mean taking time to do my hair and makeup, picking out just the right outfit and shoes and driving to the restaurant where we'd have our meal and sit and talk about all the things going on in our lives. Having breakfast with "the girls" now consists of throwing on a pair of jeans and an old tee-shirt, pulling on my wellies, grabbing a pocket full of apples from the tree in the back yard and walking the short distance to the barn and pasture. Parsley and Lullabelle prefer to have their breakfast served inside the barn at their own private table - they don't much like to socialize while they eat. Lilly doesn't much care where she eats as long as she gets to eat, so she usually hangs out with Emma and Jenny. I usually share the apples with Emma and Jenny first while Lilly is munching down on her "cereal.” Jenny prefers whole apples. Emma's mouth just isn't quite big enough to eat a whole apple, so I share mine with her. OK, before you get all grossed out and say "eeeeeew!", we don't actually take bites from the same apple, I do the biting and give her little pieces. After we've finished our apples, Jenny and Emma head off to share the "cereal" with Lilly and I head back up to the house to finish breakfast with my hubby. Do I miss "breakfast with the girls" as it used to be? Sure I do! What I miss most is sitting around the table talking after we've finished eating. Neither the animals or my hubby are very talkative first thing in the morning. Would I give up "breakfast with the girls" as it is now? NOT ON YOUR LIFE!

Having fresh flowers in the house used to be a luxury - saved for special occasions or sometimes when they were on sale at the grocery store. I'd bring them home and carefully arrange them in my favorite vase and be a little sad when they died and I had to throw them away. Fresh flowers now are nearly an everyday occasion! I can walk to the creek or stroll along the fence line in the pasture and pick as many beautiful red, purple, yellow and white wildflowers as I can fit in my hand. When I bring them into the house, I don't place them in a beautiful vase. That would be an insult to the flowers. They would rather take center stage resting in an old Mason jar or a milk bottle I picked up at a flea market a while ago. You know what? I much prefer the hand-picked wildflowers to the florist shop or supermarket bouquets! I'm not sure when God created all of the beautiful varieties of flowers that he meant for them to be used for profit. I believe he created them to be enjoyed by anyone at any time - free of charge. Why else would he place them in out of the way places like along a pasture fence, bordering a creek or scattered among the trees on a mountain path?!



Blessings from The Creek y'all!

FAREWELL, PART II

FAREWELL

I mentioned on my last post that we said goodbye to an old friend yesterday. It wasn't a sad goodbye or a tragic goodbye. It was a fond farewell. A sendoff to a new home, to a better life. OK. So maybe I'm being just a tad melodramatic. The old friend I'm talking about is a bus.

When we purchased our property here on the creek, it came complete with several outbuildings, and The Bus. The Bus evidently started out life as a Whitley County school bus and upon retiring from academia, worked part time as a church bus. Somewhere along the line he was put out to pasture. Literally. Out in the pasture behind the house. Over the years he was stripped of his seats and his engine and his dignity and was evidently used as yet another storage shed. I can't imagine the embarrassment that this once proud servant of the academic world must have felt to be forced to live out his golden years in a cow pasture, filled with junk. The ridicule he must have endured as the shiny, new school buses passed by each day as well as the semi-retired church buses that travel our road on a regular basis. The on bright spot in his life in the pasture was the bush of wild honeysuckle that had grown up through what used to be his engine. It was beautiful to behold and had a beautiful, sweet fragrance. The honeysuckle actually acted as camouflage and after a while it hid the fact that The Bus had no engine.

Hubby and I had discussed on several occasions what we should do with The Bus. We toyed with the idea of turning it into a novel guest suite. Unfortunately, with everything else we have going on around here, The Bus just wasn't one of our top priorities.

Well Tuesday, when Hubby was off picking up our new menagerie and I was up on the ladder painting, a gentleman came to the door and introduced himself as "Centers, Junior Centers, C-e-n-t-e-r-s". He was just wonderin' if we might be interested in selling that old but out there. I thought about it for about a micro-second and said in my calmest voice, "yes sir, I believe we would!". We agreed on a price for the bus as well as an old lawn tractor and some scrap metal we had laying around waiting for a chance to take it to the scrap yard. Centers, Junior Centers told me he'd be back in a few days, after the rain stopped from "that thar hurrycane".

Yesterday, Mr. Centers, Junior Centers, and two friends came by armed with tools and a tow truck that was nearly as old as The Bus. It took help from Hubby and his trusty tractor and about two hours worth of pushing and pulling and banging and turning by the other three men before The Bus finally moved from his spot in the pasture and for the first time in who knows how many years rolled proudly down the road with his head held high (OK, so it was held up by the hook on the tow truck) on his own new adventure. So, farewell old friend. You have left a void in our pasture and your leaving has opened up a wonderful new view of the mountain.

Blessings from the creek y'all!

P.S. Blogger is not allowing me to post any pictures tonight. I'll try again tomorrow and will add pictures of The Bus and his journey if I can.