A Christmas Surprise

After brunch Christmas day the kids, my niece, and I headed up country to surprise my Dad.  We rented a cabin just a few miles away from his house. The picture above was our front yard.

We stayed at Beaver Cove Camps.  The log cabin we stayed in was built in the early 1900′s, it was rustic, clean, and comfy.  It was PERFECT!  A place we will definitely return to.  The owners also accommodated us despite my last minute call for reservations.  That I am VERY thankful for!

The kids with their sweet cousin M.  We had a blast reminiscing and we laughed until tears. A trip we will forever remember!

After we unpacked our goods we headed towards my Dad’s house.  We parked on the camp road so they did not see or hear us coming.

We all snuck around the house……

…..and the kids peeped into their front window.  SURPRISE!!!  Our plan worked out perfectly as my dad and step-mom were sitting not far from the window.  We hung out for a few then we headed back to our cabin to eat dinner.

I cooked up a lobster feast, meanwhile my dad kicked butt at cards.  First he won candy from the kids and the next morning he won all our dollar bills.  He always creams us at cards yet we always return for more.

It was so much fun to surprise my parents with a visit.

It made for a very special Christmas for ALL!

Food for Thought…

Last night as I laid in bed I browsed through a copy of Organic Gardening & Farming magazine from back in February 1973. (60 cents a copy)   I have enjoyed reading it and below is a tid bit I’d like to share….

“The genuine horticulturist is not merely an organic gardener or farmer, he lives whole life in the organic manner.  The organic principles must be felt deep in one’s heart, and in everything he does.  It is not organic to grow a carrot organically, and to always eat it in the cooked form, or cooked with the addition of white sugar…..What would it be if a man eats dinner grown completely by organic method, and then he arises from the table to do an unkindness to a neighbor?”

“The organic way is the golden rule way.  It means that we must be kind to the soil, to ourselves and to our fellowman.  Organic means goodness.  A heart that is full of benevolence will create in the body a spirit of physical and mental well-being that will enable it to better absorb all the nutritional elements from organically-grown food.”

~J.L. Rodale

From Our Family to Yours!

Toggenburgs

I apologize for my absence here but I just haven’t been feeling it.  I have lots to share both pictures and adventures but I’m so easily distracted and honestly have not cared to write as of lately….so I’ll keep it short and sweet.

I’m not sure that I’ve posted much about these gals but they were given to me last Spring….  4 does

They are Toggenburgs, a dairy goat.  All 4 does have been breed in addition to my Alpine goat “Dolly” in hopes for Spring-time babies.

I’m thinking come next summer I’ll be rich in goat milk and I’ll be struggling to be keep lots of naughty baby goats inside of the fencing….lol

This Moment

I am sitting in a new area which I set up today.  A perfect spot for reading, surfing, or writing.  Nothing special just a quiet warm area, close to a window, a lamp, lap blanket, pillow and an apple crate covered with a lambskin as a foot rest.

I am looking at the barn cat that has not been in the house for a year until lately.  Suddenly  she’s decided to move back in.  She only allows the kids to get close.  We’ve renamed her  ”Pretty Eagle” based on a book we read recently.

I am thinking about my bees which thrive from neglect.  I have not written much about them this year. At the beginning of the year I found the queen for the very first time.  I was ECSTATIC!   Shortly after I found the queen they swarmed and I was unable to capture them.  No honey again this year from my bees.  However, I did barter for some.  Tomorrow I will winterize their hive as the cold days are upon us.  Flower Girl made honey throat lozenges this morning for a first.  We sucked on it like candy until they were all gone… LOL

I am listening to Mac Gyver playing on the TV from a distance.  (Actually now that I proofread my house is quiet = priceless!)

I am sipping water that I have by my side 24/7 but earlier tonight I had a glass of apple cider and vodka….it was delicious.  I will definitely have again!

I am regretting not taking pictures on Thanksgiving, whatever was I thinking?  We had a great day filled with some of my family in the morning and Maine Man’s family in the afternoon.

I am planning on making homemade gifts for Christmas.  I am good at peeping on Pinterest for ideas.  Now I just need to lock myself in my sewing room for a while.  First on the list is cotton bread bags.  I’ve never made them before.  It shouldn’t be too hard with the help of You Tube.  Then I’d like to make the kids each a blanket and maybe we will make Christmas ornaments too.  I hope to capture pictures of the gifts we give so I can share here.  Each year I try to make changes in effort to cut back on the expenses, create less stress, and  to SIMPLIFY and ENJOY the season.  A couple of years ago I told a few people lets stop swapping unless it is homemade.  Last year I stopped sending out picture Christmas cards, and this year I am going to distribute my gifts throughout the month of December instead of all in one weekend.  What are you doing differently to make this season less stressful?

A day in the life….

As I spent the day cooking, cleaning, organizing, and minimizing the kids spent the day setting up the cabin.  Well the boys did, the girls just hung out in there intermittently throughout the day.

I was impressed by the progress that they made.  Country Boy spent the last few months accumulating goods to fill his “cabin” with.  Today he did just that.

Since firing up the wood cook-stove for the first time this afternoon they already cooked up some hot cocoa, mac & cheese, and deer steak.  Yeah… no dishes or clean-up for me!

Maine Man has spent endless hours helping CB get this together before Winter.  They still have a few more things to do before moving it to the final destination.

Squirrel hide…

They even decorated the loft with Christmas lights.

A game of war….

It is still a work in progress.  But it was great to see the kids take such pride and work together to make it a usable space today.  I have no doubt that they will have many good times in the cabin.  Some of my fondest childhood memories were in cabins we built, lake-side lean-to’s and moss houses we constructed.

:~day 24

Two pigs went to be processed at the end of last week  There were no problems loading our pigs but our friends pigs were a completely different scenario…..there is an interesting story behind it.  All I will say today is that Country Boy said if I had been there with a video camera we could have won $100,00 on home funniest videos.

We have lots to do in order to finish getting buttoned up for winter.  We have seven bushels of apples in the walk-in cooler waiting to be made of.  We also have 20+ meat birds ready for processing.  With that said I am feeling the need to step away from the blog for a bit…. it may be a few days, it may be a week.

30 post in a row is more work then I thought.  With that said, the next 5 posts (day 25-30) will come over time, not on a daily basis.  It has been fun to see the numbers of visitors on my blog go up.  On Bangor Daily News I observed my daily visitor count go up as high as 419 and on Blogspot it went up as high as 398 visitors in a day.  I appreciate all the feedback I get…. random comments, private messages on Facebook, and sweet words of encouragement when I run into friends and family in the community   That is why I’ve carried on since 2008 sharing tid bits of our life.  There are times that have been challenging that I have seriously considered throwing the towel in but for all those reasons above I continue this journey.