Slip slidin' away.

Where does the time go? I suppose, since it has been over a month since my last post, it is about time to let the world know that I am still here.

I know it is only January, but this winter already seems as though it has been eternal. We have had to endure bitter cold, innumerable ice storms and just downright miserable conditions. I know, it's Iowa, get over it. It just really starts to wear on even the heartiest of souls after a while and has put me in a mid-winter funk.

This was our view out the living room window for most of last week.....not that there was anything to see since we have had no visible sun for 10 days!

When our last ice storm hit Wednesday night, it left everything coated with a thick layer of ice,which, at our house translates into a power outage. We normally lose power maybe twice a year for an hour or two....except three years ago when we were without for 9 days...after which we did end up buying a generator, which, I begrudgingly admit, was quite a prudent decision on Gary's part (I am cheap  frugal and didn't want to spend the money), I digress. Wednesday the freezing rain just kept coming, building up on the powerlines until they could take no more and we finally lost our electricity, but because of my husband's forethought with the aforementioned generator, we did have a back-up plan for this situation. The power limped along, flickering overnight Wednesday and went completely out at 4:30 am on Thursday. Gary was going to hook up the generator before he left for work that morning, but I said, "No, it will be back on in two hours...that's what the automated-voice lady at the power company told me, I'll be fine until then".
 By 11 o'clock it was 57 degrees in the house, I called the power company and was told (once again) by the automated voice lady....after going through a litany of, "did you say...? If you would like this call in English..." that the power would be back on in two hours....hmmmm. After watching the thermostat continue it's steady decline it was then that I realized that I would never make it as an Amish person. Everything that I hoped to accomplish that day required electicity. I was cold. I wanted hot chocolate. I wanted a shower. For those of you that don't live with well water- wells need electricity to pump water into the house so you even have to stratigically plan your water usage i.e. toilet flushing, teeth brushing, etc.

Since my hands were frozen, rendering me unable to work on my clay figurines, there was only one thing to do-grab a nice, warm blanket and round up some kitties to cover myself with.

I was ruthless, disregarding the fact that they were already all cozy in their napping places...Mama was cold!

Once we were all settled in, I remembered the stack of catalogs that had been safely tucked away, unread,  in a basket in the livingroom. THAT'S WHAT I NEED- GARDEN PORN!

...and chicken porn! I lusted over the colorful pages of heritage seeds and plants, rare breed and heritage chickens-all just sitting there waiting to be ordered....if only my internet was working! I drooled over the brightly colored vegetables and fancy-feathered chickens. I was looking at pages that I had never even considered peeking at before.......do I need geese??? Luckily, before I succumbed to these temptations, Gary came home on his lunch break and fired up the generator, saving me from my wicked ways.

As nice as it was to have an excuse to do nothing but sit on the couch with some kitties, it was wonderful feel the heat flowing freely from the registers once again and to have circulation return to my fingers. Incidentally, the two hours that it was supposed to take for the power to come back on ended up being 17, whatever.

The animals outside were having their share of problems too, the grass became a sheet of ice and the sheep and horses barely came out of the barn for two days-not because it was cold, it was just too slippery.

The sun is supposed to come out on Tuesday........we'll see. Spring has got to come soon!

I think Ande has been watching too many of those Twilight vampire movies this winter.

Footnote: I was initially going to title this post, "Garden Porn" but last time I posted something about my ewes and titled it, "Good Girls Gone Bad" I received dozens of comments written in Japanese that I couldn't read, so I clicked on the links hoping that it would take me to some new friend's lovely blog on the other side of the world, but instead, it took me to some really disgusting websites.......hence the reason for my changing the comment section so that it is now necessary to do the "word verification" in order to leave me a comment....sigh...the pitfalls of technology.

10 reasons why I need to stay busy

You might wonder, now that my fall craft show season is over and the next show isn't until February, whether or not I am taking some time off and relaxing a bit. In answer to that question-yes, I have taken a bit of time to get many of the projects completed around the house that were put on the back burner while I was running back and forth to craft shows over the past few months. I have painted nearly every room in our house and am now in the process of rehanging pictures, rearranging furniture and generally putting the house back in order. Whether or not that sounds relaxing, I don't know, but it is for me.
Now that my inside projects are nearing completion, I took some time today to give the animals some attention. I thought that it might be nice to take some holiday photos while I was out with my little friends. They were all so happy that I was spending time with them. I was very busy with the animals today...very busy indeed.

First I spent some quality time with the kitties. They were so excited.

Then I went out to give my sheepies some much-needed attention.

Can't you see the happiness on their little faces?

Of course the dogs really wanted to spend some time with me as well. They weren't wagging their tails or anything, but I could tell how thrilled they were that I was with them.

"Please mom, go back to work...pleeease?"
I couldn't tell for sure what the chickens were thinking, but I bet they had a good time as well.

"Somebody, make it stop!"
"Here, Mira, let me get this ridiculous thing off of you.....what is that crazy woman thinking???"

Hmmm, maybe it's a good thing that I don't normally have a lot of free time.

Let the baking begin!

Those of you that know me well are aware that I normally don't do my holiday baking until Christmas eve. I am a freshness freak and like to have everything "out of the oven" fresh for Christmas day.....which also makes me just a plain old freak because that means that I am baking for six or seven hours and never get to really enjoy the day. This year, however, I am changing things up a bit. Our daughter and son-in-law are coming in next week from California and we haven't seen them since their wedding in August, our son will also be here from Iowa City for a couple of days, plus we have the whole family coming here, to our tiny little house, for Christmas dinner, so I have a lot to do and I don't want to spend all of my time chained to the oven. It hurts me to say this, but I am baking some things ahead of time and putting them into the <gasp> freezer! I know, I know, it's hard to believe that word is even in my vocabulary....I must be mellowing with age.

I make a variety of scrumptious desserts for the holidays, some new, some tried and true, but there are a few 'must haves' that we absolutely can not do without. One favorite is a coveted recipe that my mother got from one of my aunts before I was even born. My mother guarded this recipe with her life. Over the years, she would make it for friends and neighbors, but when they would ask for the recipe....well, let's just say things got ugly! After my sisters and I were grown mom passed the recipe on to us...this old family recipe, which I, in turn, guarded with my life and passed on to my daughter. You can only imagine my horror and dismay when, one day as I was flipping through an old Betty Crocker cookbook, I saw a photo and description that bore a striking similarity to our secret family recipe. I studied the page, went down the ingredient list line by line, measure by measure...OMG, it was the exact same freakin recipe! Unless we are somehow related to Miss Betty Crocker we have been living a lie for some 50 years....we stole our family recipe from Betty Crocker.....does it count as stealing if she is a fictional character??

In an attempt to redeem our good name and share the deliciousness, I will pass this recipe on to you.


Nut Cups (or as Betty likes to call them-Pecan Tassies, call them whatever you want Betty, you're not real so who is going to listen to you? Whatever).

Crust:

1 Cup softened butter ( if you use margarine don't tell me about it)

6 oz. softened cream cheese (2 small packages-please don't use fat free...I don't even know what that means)

2 Cups flour

Cream together butter and cream cheese, gradually add flour until well combined. Mold dough into mini muffin tins to form the crust. Bring the dough all the way up the sides of each tin making sure not to get it too thin along the sides or bottom.
Filling:

1 Tablespoon softened butter

1 teaspoon Vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg slightly beaten

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup chopped pecans

Mix all filling ingredients together and fill crusts with mixture to about 3/4 full. I know, this doesn't look very appetizing, but trust me you will like it. Bake at 325 degrees for 25 minutes.

Be careful not to do this when you fill the crusts...

Any little bit of filling that goes over the edge of the crust does this (below) and makes it really hard to get the little buggers out of the pan.......and then they fall apart...
Like this (below). When they fall apart you have to eat them to hide the evidence...it's the law....OK, not really, but it isn't really an old family recipe either now is it?????

Enjoy!

Sheepsicles

You may have heard that it is snowing a little here in the Midwest. We got about 10 inches of snow overnight and today winds are gusting between 30-40 miles an hour which makes it feel like.....well, let's just say it's pretty nasty out!

The animals are not wanting to venture away from the shelter of their barns.
The snow really started piling up in drifts this afternoon with the high winds.

You can see the horses in there somewhere.....

A couple of hours later the inches of snow were still multiplying.....I figure by morning I may have to tunnel through to get to my equine friends!
There really shouldn't be a 'high surf' situation going on in the horses' water tank, but the wind had other ideas and was making waves and ripples below the little icicle ridge.
Although they are appropriately dressed for it, the sheep don't seem overly amused by the frigid weather.

"OK, where'd the grass go? I know it was out here somewhere!"

"Frozen. Sheep."

"Starving. Frozen. Sheep."

But, a few of our fuzzy friends didn't seem to mind the adverse conditions.

Bailie prepares for take-off into the wind.

As does Emma....and of course, Jolly Ball.

and awaaaaay she goes!

"Darling, I simply ADORE this scrumptious weather MWaaaH!"

"Yeah, right, I'm not going out there!"

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing everyone a very happy 'turkey day' from your kooky friends at Crosswinds Farm.

"Turkey day? Why isn't it chicken da......oh, wait a minute....."

"They do WHAT with turkeys??"

"I am glad that I'm a chicken." "I'm not taking any chances, I'm outta here!"Have a wonderful and safe holiday!