Waiting for the Warmth

We planted red potatoes, garden peas and spinach over the holiday weekend. The rugrats were anxious to play in the dirt after it was tilled.

And maybe even taste some. I guess it must have tasted pretty good judging from that face.

It was in the 70's for a couple of days but today it is struggling to get past 37 degrees.

A rollercoaster ride of temps. I have waited on putting away the heavy winter stuff because you never know. For the last 2 years we have had snow in March, so we won't put away the Carhart's just yet!

I'm toiling over getting a new camera. I want a SLR and am trying to decide between a Canon Rebel or a Nikon. Decisions, decisions, decisions, so many to choose from and don't even get me started on the lenses. Whichever one I choose I look forward to adding more memories in print!

What a Ham!

Valentine's Day was a hit around here. Plenty of chocolate eaten and plenty to still eat. George cooked a wonderful dinner for the family and got me 2 new charms for my Bauble LuLu bracelet.
Pssst...wanna know a secret? This here is lighter wood and it's found in the forest. It's used to start fires like the one that is inside the smoking barrel. Nathan's Daddy showed him where to find it in the woods, and he can find it quickly now.

It's ham smoking time! We used to do it from stage one, buying the meat from NC, taking it home and laying it out, then dumping numerous bags of salt over the top of them. Coating them like it was syrup on a dry pancake. Now we buy them already salted so all we have to do is hang and smoke them with hickory and occasionally apple wood.

We put up 14 hams last week. They are already in the bag when we get them from the local ham company. Southeastern Virginia and the Smithfield area are known for their hams. We are too. We eat them at family gatherings, give them to friends,raffle them off at charities and put them in silent auctions at our reunions in WV. After a couple of days of smoking last week we'll smoke them once a week until mid-March. Then "leave 'em be," as the old folks say. We'll probably take one down and cook it in July.

" We've been blessed with some warm weather lately. It has been such a cold winter and anything above 40 degrees feels like a heat wave to me. We're still getting rid of chest colds and stomach viruses that have plagued the farm and practically the whole Commonwealth. I kept Nathan home yesterday because of a night of coughing. He was feeling better today so I sent him off to school.

Little Miss Priss found an old Sony Walkman in a drawer so I put some headphones on her and she walked around the house stopping to dance every few minutes when she heard a beat she liked. Remember when these were the rage? Or trying to jog with one? This one has a cd player so I put a Shrek II music cd in it and it was a hoot watching her face when she recognized a song.

OK Bring On The March Madness!

We had a slight warm up yesterday so we headed outside. The basketball court was too wet to play on...

He's looking forward to playing baseball this spring. Sign-ups are near the end of the month. Yesterday he dressed up as a football player, Optimus Prime and Batman. The football player was to prep for watching the super bowl and when they showed the trailer for the new Transformers 3 movie, Optimus made his presence known throughout the house, tumbling, running and quickly changing from truck to autobot.

Little Miss Priss wanted to ride Nathan's bike yesterday. I put her on a smaller one and pushed her down the driveway a couple of times until she spotted her 4-wheeler and quickly abandoned ship on me.

We ate at Kyoto's in Chesapeake Friday night with my sis and bro in law. Nathan enjoyed the teppanyaki-style steakhouse show as you can see!

Today report cards come home. I'm sure he's progressing right along but may need to follow directions a little better and maybe try to sit still a little longer. Things little 6 year old boys find so hard to do.

We're getting hams and side meat for the smokehouse tomorrow!

Baking up Sweetness and Memories Early in February

Today we made a few batches of homemade cinnamon rolls. The recipe is from http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/. Ree Drummond makes some of the most delicious food on this planet and her recipes are quickly becoming the stuff of legends!

This was my first attempt at using dry active yeast and though I was a bit hesitant, with the kids helping me I got caught up in their excitement to participate and it was a memorable afternoon.


AnnaBelle jumped right in and couldn't wait to use the rolling pin. I used a quarter of the recipe and put the rest in the refrigerator for later. Nathan wanted to ride his motorcycle so it was just the girls for the first go-around.

While she went down for a nap it was Nathan's turn. Doesn't he look excited? Seriously he did enjoy himself, he's just upset that he couldn't beat the dough with the rolling pin, or flip it up in the air like a pizza. Another time, son.

After rolling up the butter, cinnamon and sugar we sliced the roll, put them in the pans and into the oven.

I coated them with a homemade cream cheese frosting after I took them out of the oven. The kids and I almost finished a whole pan. We made 5 batches and I left dough in the refrigerator for 2 more batches. A few people are going to enjoy these delicious surprises tomorrow!