Gifts.

Sunday evening sunset.
A gift from our loving Heavenly Father.

As another week and month finish, and a new week and month begin, I felt comforted and at peace.
Time sure seems to be flying by, and we've got a million things on our  " should do" list,  just like everyone else. 

It's pretty important to me to take time out of my hurry, busy schedule, and just enjoy this wonderful life that our Father in Heaven has blessed us with.
I haven't always taken a step back to see the big picture.
Sometimes I've been too focused on one or two things, to get the right perspective.

Stepping back and getting a better perspective on the big picture; it's become really important to me.

Remembering what matters most.

Attitude of gratitude:
~I'm grateful for a peaceful heart.  This year, I'm feeling peaceful, and content. Knowing that our Heavenly Father is in charge of this world.  I will do my best, and He will make up the rest.

A fine day

A very fine day.
Woke up to clouds yesterday.
Praying for rain.
I've heard reports that it has been more than 38 days since we last received any measurable moisture.
Finally, around 9:00 am ... it started raining softly.

 I lit a few candles.
Took the dog out on the front porch with me.
The two of us sat on the porch glider and watched it rain.
Mostly I watched the rain, and Rowdy snoozed.

 The old homestead across the street from our homestead.
No one lives there.
They just use the property in the Spring during lambing season.
How many times I've looked at that homestead and imagined it repaired and the cottage lived in.
It's been told to me, that the owners wanted to tear down the house and barns and build a new house to live in throughout their retirement.
The historical society told them 'no', and so their response was to 'let the house rot'.
The siding is starting to fall off.
I think it's cut stone underneath.
I'm pretty certain it would be a spectacular house if it were to be restored.

 One of our local artists has painted the house during lambing season.
"Sheep house"... by Joan Durfey.
Guess that's all it will ever be.... a sheep house.

 We needed some comfort food on our rainy day.
Browned off some boneless pork chops.

 Sauteed up some mushrooms.
How I love to cook and bake on our old Wedgewood stove.
Put everything in the slow cooker and added a can of cream of mushroom soup.
Mushroom smothered pork chops, served with buttered noodles.
Warm and savory.
Perfect comfort food on a rainy day.

 And, warm chocolate chip cookies.
I keep all the paper sacks from the grocery store and when we make a batch of cookies, those paper sacks come in handy.

Just sat on the front porch... watched the storm clouds roll across the mountains.

Watched it rain.
It was a fine day.
A very fine day.

Attitude of gratitude:
~I'm grateful for the power of prayer.
I've been praying for rain. The Lord blessed us with rain. Not only hours of soft rain, but last night at 9:00 pm, or so, we had a gully washer. The rain came down in buckets.
Answered prayers.
~I'm grateful that my sweet hubby is now on vacation.
We will be able to get so many projects done around the homestead, and we will be certain to have a few days away to relax and laugh together.

Blessings....Counting my many blessings.

As the sun set on a tense day ... I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude for my many blessing.
We were able to safely travel about 200 miles round trip to pick Spencer up at the evacuation site.
He was safe and sound, as were all the kids, staff, and bus drivers.
Everyone had to leave their stuff at camp, and district sent up a team to pick up everyones belongings; but as of now, they are not being allowed to go back into the area.
Spencer locked up the 'Tin Can Cottage', packed up most of his clothes and left everything else.

I recieved a phone call from one of our dear family friends, and she let me know that Spencer was with her husband.
 Her husband is a principle in the district and was up to Clear Creek for the week.
What a blessing!!
Spencer used Carl's phone the minute that they could get reception, and he let me know where they were being evacuated to.
I called Jenny back and let her know that they were safely out of the canyon, and where they would be going.
Then, I took off.
Brooke and I hit the freeway to go pick Spencer up.
When we got back home, we saw that the "Seely" fire was burning further and faster towards his camp, and towards town.
In the top right picture above, you can see the smoke plume rising on the mountain ridge just above town.

My heart felt thanks goes out to everyone that has offered prayers on our behalf.
No words could adequately describe the level of gratitude I feel for each and every one of you.
Thanks for your prayers, your emails, your comments, your phone calls.
I have felt the comfort of those prayers, and have felt bolstered up by your concern and compassion.
Thank you ....... thank you a million times over.

We are continuing our prayers and concern for everyone that is dealing with these devistating wildfires.
States across the West are suffering tradgedy from wildfires.
We are praying for the firefighters, and for their families in light of the sacrifices they have made, and continue to make to help the victims of wildfires.
Our hearts go out to the citizens in Colorado . Those folks are dealing with incredible loss and tragedy.


On a less tragic note... we are going to continue to work on the barn.
As you can see in the far left picture above.. we have made great progress on the roof.
The roof is about 90% finished.
We still need to repair some of the wood siding , that long ago was neglected and that someone once upon a time let their horses snack on.
Then, we will paint it, get the chicken wire back in the windows... etc.. etc..
Also, quite a few of my little seeds have germinated and are ready to be transplanted into the garden.
I also bought a huge lavender plant.
 I'm looking forward to getting it planted and established in the courtyard.


Attitude of gratitude:
~ On this day,I am most grateful for the blessings of safety.
~I am grateful for the prayers of safety and comfort that have been offered on our behalf.
~I'm grateful for the phone calls from friends, and emails, and offers of help.
~I'm so grateful to know that when everything gets down to the basics.. we really are all just sisters and brothers of a loving Heavenly Father.
Compassionate, and charitable... willing and able to help one another.

Weekend at The Cottage

I started my weekend on Friday, in the kitchen.
Many weekends here at The Cottage begin and end in the kitchen.
The heart of our home.

I made a batch of granola.
The same recipe that I've been using for more than 20 years.
I added dried cherries, raisins, pumpkin seeds, almonds, and sunflower seeds.

For dinner on Friday night, we made kabobs.
Brown sugar and pineapple, chicken kabobs.
We make a lot of kabobs and hobo dinners in the summer.

Saturday began with Bountiful Baskets.
If you have BB in your area and you haven't checked it out yet, I encourage you to do so.
For the cost, and the freshness of fruits and veggies, BB can't be beat.

I have a couple of bowls of fresh plums and apricots that I'm going to put in the food dehydrator today.

Our box gardens were doing fantastic.
We even got our first little pepper.

Sunday morning, we woke to this.
Frozen plants.

Saturday, our squash plants looked like this.

Sunday morning they looked like this.

All because of this: freezing temperatures.
The last time we checked the forecast, at 9:00 pm Sat. night, the temperatures were only supposed to get down in the low 40's.
Wrong.
Sunday morning the thermometer read 29 degrees fahrenheit.
Today, after I pinch back the damage on the plants, I'm going to see what plants can be saved, if any.
We have had the craziest weather this year.
If we have to re-plant the garden again, it will be for the fourth time.
We have started a lot of seeds, but who knows if our growing season is going to be long enough for the seeds to germinate and grow enough to get any harvest off of them?

Also, this past weekend, we picked up the metal roofing for the little barn and the garage.
We have had to re-build the North wall of the little barn, and add four support beams that the previous owners had cut out of the barn.
Now, we need to get it roofed, rebuild the south wall, and get it painted.
We are also going to level out the floor and add pea gravel.
The little barn will become half chicken coop, and half gardening shed.
Work, work, work.

Attitude of gratitude :
~I'm grateful for homemade maple syrup. Nothing like the smell of fresh maple syrup early in the morning. I'm off to make pancakes for Spencer before he has to go back up on the mountain for work this week.
~I'm so grateful that Craig gave us such a great deal on the metal for the roofs.
It's nice to have family that owns a metal building and roofing company.
Thanks Craig!
Also, a super big thanks for getting us the galvanized.
 It will be the perfect look for our homestead.
~I'm grateful for that old dehydrator that is still humming along after all these years.
Fired right up, after being in storage for almost 2 years, and for practically being an antique, it works like a charm.

Today...

 Today starts the new week for me.
I woke up a lot later than I would have liked to; 7:00 am.
I really wanted to be up and moving at 4:00 am.
I have so many things to catch up on.
The Memorial weekend started on Thursday for us, and went through until Tuesday.

Thursday afternoon, we hauled the 'Tin Can" up the mountain for Spencer.
He stays in it all summer for his job.

 He has the use of a full kitchen, bathroom, and laundry when he's there.. so this is just a place to rest his head and have some space of his own.

 Beats having a wagon to live in all summer.
Above is one of the neighboring farms. They had it all decked out for the Historic Home Show during Heritage Days.

The whole town was ready.
Everything looked terrific.
The weather did not co-operate.
It was so cold, and windy and rainy.

Sure put a damper on everything.

We decided not to go to the Historic Home Show.

Because of the cold and rain. 

 We drove down to the post office to get the mail, and snapped a few pictures.  I could tell that the rain kept folks inside.

In past years, the streets were shoulder to shoulder people.  This year, a few brave souls faced the cold temperatures, wind and rain to go see some of the historic homes.

I'm hoping for better weather next year.

You win some, you lose some.

Then, yesterday.. the state road crews re-paved one of the roads by our house.

They were quick! They worked on the road for no more than an hour and it was done.

I saw some of Tennessee's old farm equipment out in front of his house, and had an immediate appreciation for modern technology and conveniences.

What a huge chore it would have been to smooth and fix a road with a wagon and team of horses.

I've got to get busy.. cleaning, and organizing.

~Bedding to wash and hang out.

~Refrigerator to scrub out.

~Vacuuming, and dusting.

~Mopping floors, and menu planning, etc.. etc.. etc..

Busy, busy , today.

Hope that you all had a wonderful weekend and that the week is a good one.

Attitude of gratitude:

~I'm so grateful that Spencer took his bagpipes to the cemeteries and played 'Amazing Grace' at my father's grave and at my father in law's grave.

It was very emotional, and quite beautiful.  His grandpa's would have been so incredibly proud.

Spit shine time.

 It's that wonderful time of year again!
Heritage Days.
Click on the link to see what all the whole town is buzzing about. http://www.historicspringcity.org/events/index.html

 The city is mowing along the roads.

 Flowers are getting planted.
Yards are getting trimmed and windows are getting polished.
We will be busy, busy, busy for the next week or so.

Waking up before the sun.
Working and loving every single minute of it.
Putting the spit shine on our little town.

Attitude of gratitude:
~I'm so grateful to live in such an amazing and beautiful town.
~I'm so grateful for wonderful friends that bring me beautiful plants and delicious treats and visits filled with laughter and "remember when's''.

Country Funeral.....

 D. driving the wagon down to the church.
There's a funeral today.

 The casket will be making the journey to the cemetery in the old buckboard wagon.
The last ride.
I took these pictures through the front window.. the old wavy glass gives the pictures a watery look.
Solemn.

This was D. driving the buckboard and casket , last Fall.

Does any one know what this herb is.
It was given to me by a friend and I was told that it was either Mugwort or Loveage.
I'm hoping it's loveage...as I really do not know what to do with Mugwort.
Thanks for any help.

Attitude of gratitude:
~I'm grateful that D. and Tennessee , and Craig and M'lissa lend their teams and wagons .. free of charge for the use for funerals. I am comforted by the fact..that when it's my time to go, I'll be making that last ride to the cemetery in a buckboard wagon.
~I'm grateful for cold spring water, lemons and ice.

All around The Cottage.

Horses and wagons .
Not an uncommon site where we live.
Sunday, a few of our great neighbors were out for a wagon ride.
Craig and M'lissa took Brig and Julie for a ride in the wagon, and Robert stopped by to say 'hi'.
Every day, there's a horse and wagon, or horse and rider about town.
Love it.

 Sunday evening... we took our own ride.
In the modern wagon.. aka.. the Tahoe.
We rode out to Pigeon Hollow drive .
The fields are beginning to green up, as are the mountains.
Signs of life.

 Had to take a picture of this old homestead that was nestled against the foot of the mountain.
Imagine living on this homestead back in the day.

 I made a batch of rosemary sea salt to put next to the range.
Perfect seasoning.

 Combined a few sprigs of rosemary, some sea salt and black pepper.
I tested it out on a roast for Sunday dinner.  The roast was delicious.

 I put the rosemary sea salt in this cute jar.
I found two of these little jars at the D.I. in St. George on our trip down there a few
weeks ago, and I knew just what I wanted to do with them.
I used one for my rosemary salt, and am going to give the other jar to a friend.

 Cut up lemons and rosemary sprigs.
Simmered on the stove.
Made the entire house smell divine.

 Sprigs of rosemary on the table. Perfect.
For those people that can grow and use rosemary year round, you may be tired of it.
For me, summer time is the only time that rosemary will grow around here, and I cannot get enough of it.

 Three old potato mashers.
 I set them on the shelf, took a good look at them
and decided which one I wanted to make a recipe holder out of.

 The one with the red handle won out; as it had a sort-of flat surface to glue a clothespin to.
Works like a charm.
Held my recipe for 'Rustic Bread' perfectly.

 I made a batch of 'Rustic Bread' for dinner.
 I stirred some fresh rosemary into one of the loaves, and sprinkled just a touch of rosemary sea salt on the top. 
Delicious.

Sun set.
Another week gone by.... and the end of a month too.
Signs of life ..... the crab apple trees are in blossom.
Just another week  all around The Cottage.

Attitude of gratitude:
~I'm so grateful that Spencer and my sweet husband were able to get a huge renovation project done yesterday without incident.
I feel so much better knowing that the floor joist under the huge double book cases is now doubly supported.
~I'm grateful that the pressurized irrigation is now turned on. Means that we can begin planting.