Okra Patties

This is a recipe that my aunt makes. If you have a lot of okra in your garden and are looking for another way to use it, this little patties are so good!

1 c. sliced okra
1/2 c. onion, chopped
1/2 c. tomatoes, chopped
1 egg
1/4 c. cornmeal
1/4 c. flour
Salt
Pepper

Mix ingredients, shape into patties, fry in hot oil until browned.

My Visitor

Just stopping in for a little snack.

Our Home - The Inside

Here it is, as promised! We'll start with the front door. When you walk in, the living room and dining area are open. The ceiling in this area is very high.

Hey look, 2 little boys playing video games. It was raining like crazy outside or they would have been in the backyard playing!

Straight in front of the door are the stairs that lead to the loft. There's a gift in that bag on the stairs that I bought for my SIL months ago and still haven't given her!

Oops, looks like I need to dust up here. I haven't done much in the loft. I used to have my desk and computer up here but moved it downstairs. I think I'm leaving the loft until my kids are grown up and college is paid for so I can afford to fill it with antiques. That's the way I envision it anyway.

It overlooks the living room and dining area. There is also a bedroom and bathroom with a jacuzzi up here. My husband has all his workout equipment in there now. I decided not to post pics until it's a little more "homey".

Downstairs again, we go from the dining area into the den. Look to your left you see this...

Look to your right you see this....

There's my desk! That's where I am right now and L is napping in his "Under Construction" room. No it's not under construction, that's the name of his bedding set.

We had to take L's headboard off his bed for awhile. He kept bumping his noggin'! See that big ole window? I'm glad we have an ADT system....not to keep people out, but to keep him in when he's a teenager!

Then there's J's room. It's in John Deere of course!

Back through the den and towards the back through the kitchen towards the back door,

you have my canning shelves...

and the laundry room. I think we'll leave that one off limits so you won't see my pile of clothes in the floor!

Our bedroom still needs work (curtains, getting rid of the white piece that came from our other house, etc) but we're working on it!

and there's the bathroom through there.

That's my tour! Thanks for taggin' along!

HenPals Nest Box Give Away

The very generous couple over at Life On a Southern Farm are giving away 2 of their awesome nest boxes! You can find their giveaway here.

I need this box for my new chicken coop and I can earn 3 more entries by telling you all about it! Ok, that's not the only reason...I would love for you to have a chance to win it also but forgive me for being selfish and secretly hoping I win! There's 2, I'll be hoping that you win the other one, how's that??

So go on over and enter!

Our Home - The Outside

Want to take a tour of our home? I have a little get together planned for the 6th-10th of August and I will be sharing my home with some of my best friends, friends that I have met through the internet. This will be the 5th Annual TSMG GetAway and it is at my house this year! I am so excited. Since I am sharing my home with these gals, I decided to share it here on my blog also.

I grew up about 2 miles down the road from here so this is my old stomping ground and I love that my kids are being raised so close to their grandparents and the place where I grew up.

We lived in a small town nearby until March of 2007 when we moved in here. We fell in love with the house the minute we walked in the door and told the realtors that night that we wanted it and the 20 acres that it sits on. The log structure of the house was in great shape but there were so many things we wanted to add to make it "ours" so we started a list. We are slowly working our way through that list.

Today I will share the outside with you.
This is the front...



When we moved here there was a raised porch on the end of the house that was made for a hot tub. I hated the way it looked and it came down pretty quickly. We also trimmed the tops off the spindles on the porch to make them level with the top railing. I hated trying to sit up taller in my rocking chair to see over them!

Around this corner towards the barn.....
This is the end (our bedroom). We had a small porch out these doors until a couple of days ago. The heat and air guys are going to have to install the central unit at the end of the house (it's either there or in my front flower beds so I opted to move the porch. We'll still be able to use the door on the right once the unit is installed.
And around to the back.
The back of the house was black when we bought it. The boards and logs had tree sap and dirt so thick that it took woodcleaner/brightener and lots of powerwashing to get it looking like wood again! There was a small concrete slab just outside the back door on the left. We had the deck added last year and we love it! It's one of my favorite places in the world! There are deer and turkey that come into the backyard each evening and we love to spend time grilling while the kids play on their swings. Just a few more weeks and I can get rid of that ugly window unit upstairs! Central heat/air is a huge one that will soon be marked off our list! I am so excited. They are supposed to get to use within the next month. I also plan to do flower beds around the deck someday!

And then I have this photo and I know I have posted it before but when I see it, it reminds me of how my home makes me feel and how I want it to make others feel....warm, cozy and welcome.
I hope you have enjoyed the outside. I'll share the inside tomorrow!

Another Monday

Where does the weekend go? I had 2 baby showers to attend this weekend. Both were fun and the new moms-to-be got lots of goodies for their little ones.

The telephone guy finally showed up Saturday morning while I was still in my nightgown. It didn't seem to cross his mind that it might be polite to apologized for being 6 days late to install my new work line. Since the line has finally been installed, everything is set up here at home for me to work except (there's always an exception, isn't there?) my computer which Reese, the computer tech has. When he is done installing my programs I'm good to go!

There are cucumbers, squash, tomatoes and green beans all over my kitchen and they need to be picked again. I have frozen and pickled and snapped until I'm ready for winter! Not really!

The gas company showed up to move our propane tank farther from the house. After we added the deck, it was too close to the steps and an eye sore. I gave one of the gas guys 2 bags of cucumbers and squash. Couldn't pawn any off on the 2 young guys with him. They looked more like the burgers and fries type to me.

Two of our guinea hens have been setting on eggs in grass behind the barn. They were about 2 weeks into their 4 week setting and what I can only assume were raccoons (or possibly coyotes) got into their nests a couple of nights ago and got several eggs but didn't get the 2 hens. I put a cage around them and they continued to set but the next night something came back and tried with all it's might to reach them through the cage sides. Both guinea hens lost feathers and had blood on their heads where they had beat against the cage trying to get away from what was outside so I made the decision to try to move them to the barn before all the eggs and the hens were lost. I have never had any luck moving a broody guinea hen and this time was no different. Neither of them would go back on their nests after I moved them so I have 37 guineas eggs in the incubator. I could still see movement in some when I candled them last night so hopefully they didn't get too chilled while the moms were refusing to go back on their nests.

The goats are due their CDT shot. They have 6 weeks to go before the babies are due. Nanny is getting fatter each day and looks like she will probably have twins. Nellie looks fatter and there are times when I am positive I see kicking but then I let myself doubt it. I thought she was pregnant when we got her but realized later that she was just fat extremely healthy.

Guess we'll just have to wait and see if Nellie gets to be a momma this time.

Jimson Weed

Hallucinogenic, poisonous and growing behind our barn! I had no idea what this was even though I have seen it in the fields here during the summer for as long as I can remember. I finally did a little digging on Google and found out that it is Jimson Weed. Now that I have taken pics of it, I think we'll chop it down. I wouldn't want any teenagers sneaking behind our barn to take hits off this "locoweed" or a barn full of delusional hallucinating goats and chickens! The blossom is a beautiful, trumpet-shaped white flower with a purple middle.




After blooming it produces these large green spiky pods. You never know what you'll find growing in your backyard! My husband also found passion fruit vines growing on our fence in two different places. They also have beautiful flowers. They are next on my list of things to take pics of.

Give Aways!

I love blog giveaways and want to mention a couple that are going on right now.


Farm Clothes Pin Bag
Linda over at Prairie Flower Farm is giving away this Farm Clothes Pin Bag! Make sure to go over and enter the drawing for this adorable prize.
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Coveted Yarn/Amazon Gift Card Give Away
Marissa over at Maine Island Knits is giving away a wonderful bunch of yarn or if you're not a knitter, she is also giving away a $100 Amazon gift card! Go on over and leave her a comment to enter her give away!

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How to Make Printable Pages

Blog Tip #2

Jessica over at Country Whispers asked how I do my printable recipes so I'm doing a little blog tip for printable stuff. I am sure there are a dozen other ways this can be done and some of them are probably easier than my way BUT here's what worked for me.

I started a totally different blog and called it mycountryblogofthisandthatprintable. I keep this blog hidden on my blog list under my profile because I only want it used to store my printable recipes. No comments, no followers, etc. To get this blank blog, here is what you need to do:

Create a new blog.

Once the new blog is created, go to customize then choose page elements. Opened the main blog post box by clicking edit and make sure all the boxes are unchecked so there's no time, comment, posted by stuff at the bottom and save.

Click edit on the other elements and if you see a remove box, click it. You should be able to remove all of them except the header box.

Now to get rid of anything else that's left:
Click on edit html and make a back up of your template by clicking download full template (just in case we goof!)

Download the following file and go to edit html in your new blog. Right click and choose select all and then paste the downloaded code into the html box. (this is easier than trying to tell you what to delete and what to leave behind).

Blank Blog Code.txt

It will ask you if you want to permanently delete the header widget, yes you do so hit confirm and save. View your blog and you should have a blank page white page ready for your first blog post. Post your recipe (or whatever you are making printable) just like you normally would on blogger and then go back to your main blog and link to it in your post.

I made the little Printable Recipe graphic to use as my link button. You can also just type Printable Recipe and make it clickable.

Clickable Links in Comments

I have decided to share a few blogger tips that I have learned along the way. I find this one particularly useful when I am entering giveaways/contests/games on other blogs.

Blogger Tip #1

Do you know how people will ask you to leave a link back in your comment if you blogged or twittered about something but when you copy and paste the link it's never clickable in your comment?
You (or they) always have to go through the hassle of highlighting, copying and pasting into the address bar when it would be much easier to just click the link (and it looks nicer too). Of course, in your main blog posts you have that handy dandy little link symbol that does the work for you but you don't have that in comments so here's how you do it.

Use the following code in your comments.

<a href="HTTP ADDRESS">CLICKABLE WORDING</a>

Put your http address between the quotes. Add your wording where I have CLICKABLE WORDING and you got it!

It looks a little confusing at first but once you learn the code it's simple to do.

Here is an example of how my link to my blog would look...
<a href="http://mycountryblogofthisandthat.blogspot.com/">My Country Blog of This and That</a>

and when I do this in my comments it will look like this...
My Country Blog of This and That

Much nicer than a long unclickable (or is it nonclickable??) http address!

Hope this is helpful to someone!

Use this post to comment and try it out. If it doesn't work the first time....try, try again!!! Plus you can share some links to your blog :)

MckLinky's Blog Hop - Favorite Recipes

I have decided to jump on board with the blog hop this Tuesday! It has to do with food so I'm all in! I love new recipes. I will be submitting a few different ones that are already listed in my blog plus adding this new one for today. Make sure to go on over and join the blog hop. You'll get a lot of advertisement for your blog plus a lot of great recipes! You can click on MckLinky Blog hop at the bottom to get there and add your recipes!

Here's a new one from me. This one is not in my cookbook but will definitely be in the next one.

Zucchini Bread
3 eggs
1 cup canola oil
2 cups sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups zucchini, coarsely shredded
1 (8-oz) can crushed pineapple, well-drained
2 cups flour, unsifted
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 cup nuts, finely chopped (optional)

Beat eggs and add oil, sugar and vanilla. Beat until thick and foamy. Stir the zucchini and pineapple in with a spoon. Combine dry ingredients and stir gently into the other mixture (just to blend). Add nuts. Bake in 2 greased and floured loaf pans at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until done. Cool in pan for 10 minutes and then turn out onto cooling rack.


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New Chicken Haven

Well it took a little longer than I thought it would because I decided to go a little bigger than planned. It ended up being a 16ft. x 8 ft. chicken coop and my chickie youngin's love it. They have been in a small 4 x 4 ft. cage until this and they think they have escaped! They flew and jumped and played like a bunch of kids let out at recess.
And to make things even better...guess who gets to be outside now?
Stud and Bootsie! I have always had to keep them put up in their little "home" because the other chickens are so mean to them. When I first let Bootsie out, the other hens came so close to killing her within the first hour that I vowed never to let them hurt her again! They are both so happy to have a lot more room. Of course she raised all those little guineas so she runs the young chicks out of the feeders so her guinea babies can eat!
And Stud....well, he stands guard to make sure no one enters his new home without getting his okay to pass. He's a good little rooster.
We still have a few things left to do. We added a ladder style roost pole this afternoon and a cover over the top of half of it to keep the chicks dry. We did the wire top and bottom to prevent raccoons and coyotes from getting in. We also added a small doghouse inside in case anyone wanted some privacy or a place to hide out. This little coop will be for all the teenagers until they graduate to the big hen house. So far I think everyone loves their new home!

Finishing My Coffee

and then I am out the door. Today is all about the chickens! I am on my way to pick up the supplies to build an outdoor coop for all my young-ins' (not the boys, the chicks besides the boys already have their own cage!). I have 11 young guineas and 19 young chicks that are about half grown and their little coops are getting way too small. After getting all the corn put up yesterday, I get a chance to play outside today if it doesn't rain! I'll be back with pics this afternoon of my WIP. I might even get it finished if I get up from here and get moving!

While I am here I will leave you with an awesome cucumber salsa recipe that I got from a friend this weekend. If you love fresh cucumbers, you will love this. It can also be made and frozen.

Cucumber Salsa
4 cups cucumbers
1 can Mexicorn
1 can Rotel
1/4 cup white vinegar
Canning salt
Sugar
Onion powder
Garlic powder
Chop cucumber and combine with Mexicorn (mostly drained) and Rotel. Add canning salt, sugar, onion powder and garlic powder all to taste. Don't you hate it when someone says to taste LOL. I just kept sprinkling each of them until it tasted good! You can also add jalapeños if you like a little spiciness. Serve with tortilla chips.


I hope you all have a wonderful Thursday and don't forget to comment on the cookbook giveaway post!

Corn, Corn and A Giveaway!!

THIS CONTEST HAS ENDED AND OUR WINNER IS................
STEPH over at The Life of a Farmer's Wife

CONGRATULATIONS STEPH!!!

You can contact me through the contact link in the sidebar with your address and I will get the cookbook mailed to you. I hope you enjoy it!

That's what I've been up to my eyeballs in the last couple of days. Monday night we put up 13 gallon bags of corn on the cob and 11 quart bags of cut off. I have two wash tubs full to shuck, silk, and cut off today for use this winter in homemade vegetable soup, my mom's fried corn (Mmmmm!) and other dishes. It's well worth the effort when you take a bite of soup with hot biscuits while the snow if falling outside.

I haven't had a giveaway in a while, so in honor of my mom's corn dish and my homemade veggie soup (yes, both recipes are in the cookbook), I am having a cookbook giveaway.

All you have to do to enter is tell me what your favorite summer garden vegetable is. I have a difficult time choosing between home grown tomatoes and sweet corn!

For each link back you post on your blog or twitter you get an extra entry. Just leave the link to where you posted it in a comment.

Contest will end 9:00 a.m. Central time, Saturday, July 18 and a winner will be selected then! Have fun and GOOD LUCK!!

Busy Week

Hi my loyal readers! It's been a busy week around here. J had to get PE tubes in his ears on Thursday, the garden is in full swing and I worked Friday. Hopefully this work at home thing will eventually happen! The company called and they have all of my equipment, they just need me to have a private line installed. Now why didn't they have me do that 3 months ago when this thing all started? The phone company can't put it in until the 21st....so I'm waiting, just a tad bit impatiently.

I uploaded the pics from my camera today. I had forgotten about these. We took the boys to see the fireworks display in town for the 4th of July.

We also grilled out at my moms and made homemade ice cream. The boys had a great time.

We have been enjoying this....straight out of the garden. I need to pick several ears for freezing tomorrow.

Oh and Grandma from Nashville sent toys, lots of toys and my house has been invaded by underwear-wearing transformers and short storm troopers in Grave Digger attire! Someone please come and save me!

I promise I put clothes on them each and every morning! They just seem to disappear by about 10:00!

Strawberry Butter

This stuff is awesome with Sister Schubert's Rolls (or any homemade bread).
This takes a while to make but is well worth the effort.

Strawberry Butter
2 sticks butter, room temperature
2 sticks margarine, room temperature
16 oz. strawberries, thawed or fresh
3/4 cup powdered sugar

Whip margarine and butter in a stand mixer until fluffy. Add strawberries. Mix until well-blended. This may take a LONG time (up to an hour) for all the strawberries to blend into a smooth buttery texture so turn it on and let it mix, use a spatula to wipe down the sides from time to time. Once well-blended, add powdered sugar and mix until well-blended again. Cover and store in refrigerator. Use within 2 weeks.

My Sister's Keeper

I have never cried so hard at the movies in my life. Right there in public...a blubbering idiot! But I was not alone. I was with 3 of my friends whose husbands refused to go see it with them and they were all crying just as much as I was. When (and if I can handle) watching this movie again it will be on my couch with an extra large box of tissues, a huge tub of ice cream and a warm and fuzzy blanket where no one can see my face afterwards!

Just the thought that so many adults and children are actually going through what Kate (Sofia Vassilieva) and her family portrayed in this movie brings me to tears again.

If you have seen My Sister's Keeper, leave a comment and tell me what you thought and if it broke your heart and made you run home and hold your children close to you as they fell asleep that night?

Under Construction

Please bear with me if my blog looks a little weird off and on today. I am in the process of adding a 3rd column (if it works, that is) so things may be a little off until I get it all finished.

Thank you!

Meet Rocket!

I wanted to name this little guy Sparky but I got out voted by 3 males in the family and he is now called Bottle Rocket, Rocket for short in honor of Independence Day...the day we found him literally "hanging out" on our barbed-wire fence (pronounced bob-war if you're from KY).

Apparently this little feller was zipping along night before last and hung his coattail on a barb and wrapped himself up all nice and pretty. While I was picking blackberries behind the house my husband was bush-hogging the fence row and yelled for me to come and look. On the fence, hiding his tiny face from the sunlight was Rocket, the little brown bat.

After determining that he had himself all wrapped up and wasn't just taking a nap, I ran to the house for my thick hunting gloves and proceeded to play hero (or heroine in this case). He wasn't happy with me and I am sure I broke a thousand bat laws and restrictions by touching, holding and saving this little guy but I wasn't going to leave him there to die! He was just too darn ugly cute!


Look at those little fangs. He continuously stuck them into my glove. I'm glad I grabbed the thick ones. He had the tiniest little feet.


I see these little guy out zooming around each night catching bugs but this is the first time I have seen one up close.


We checked him over for injuries. He had one tiny little tear in the cape-like skin that stretches between his back legs where the barb went in but other than that he seemed fine. He was more than ready to fly away when I opened my hand.


The boys thought he was wonderful and told everyone at church this morning how they had saved a bat. He was a pretty cool little guy and I'm glad we found him in time to save him. We have decided to put up a bat house now!