turtle

I am a turtle freak, I admit it ~ mother brought me this for my fridge

Have a good day everyone!

Friends

Had a little dinner to meet up with some friends today, usually I can't get him to stand still for a photo, but today he did :)

 what a sweet pair

was so good to see them today!

Family Reunion

Family Reunion time yet again!

certainly a fun time was had by all

 let's get a good pic aunt Betty!

 Aunt Betty was the only child of Ben & Ruby Landis Nicewander to attend this year, there are 2 other siblings still with us (Virginia & Jeff)

Spider in the elderberry bucket

Kids! what can I say, I have some goofy kids, we had picked elderberries to make jelly, the kids were supposed to put the buckets on the back porch, well . . .

truly have NO CLUE why she would even want to freeze a spider? I would far rather have seen it smooshed under my shoe!

She really doesn't like spiders, especially when she finds them in her room, here was the one she found before the one in the bucket, this one got mashed!

 she knows I hate spiders, so of course she just felt the need to bring it down to show me

As I get myself more organized I will be posting photos of all the recipes and canned goods we process for the pantry each year, hubby and I have been gardening and canning everything we can get our hands on and teaching the kids how to do home canning and meat processing.

Happy 18th Wedding Anniversary

HAPPY 18TH ANNIVERSARY TO ME N HUBBY

Yes, we got married on Friday the 13th :)

at a justice of the peace in Hillsville, Virginia

with a red headed, red bearded viking hangin on the wall behind the JP, we tried hard, VERY HARD not to crack up during the ceremony!

sorry, polaroid photos never turn out very good, wish I had taken a photo of that viking on the wall!!

my brother always said I would get married in a t-shirt and jeans, he wasn't far off, t-shirt and jean shorts!

It was a very rainy day in Virginia too, we lived in NC, decided to get hitched on the way back to OH to see my nephew who was born the 11th, so happy 18th birthday to my nephew Jordan

Went to see him as soon as we hit Ohio, my very first nephew!!! 

gosh it doesn't seem like he can be 18 already! Where has the time gone?

to celebrate how about a pie instead of cake? we do love some pecan pie

PECAN PIE RECIPE

1 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 400 deg.
2. In a large bowl, beat eggs until foamy, and stir in melted butter. Stir in the brown sugar, white sugar and the flour; mix well. Last add the milk, vanilla & nuts.
3. Pour into unbaked 9-in pie shell. Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees, then reduce temp to 350 & bake for 30 to 40 minutes

Sealing the basement walls before we fill in drainage ditch

The ditch has been dug, the gravel is here to fill in after we get the pipe laid but before we can do that we thought we would take an extra measure of protection on the basement walls, we applied a basement sealer to it

 I have been working on this on my day off while hubby is at work, he can put the second coat on after this is dry HA HA - this left side is where the back porch is and where we are starting the drainage pipe (this is the back side of the house)

 back side of house still

 here you can see the end, the ladder is for me to get in and out, because unlike my daughter, I am NOT running up and down the trench to get in and out

 I have even put this sealer on the footer where the block start, better safe than sorry

 see the water laying in there, oh yes, my shoes were a horrid mess by the time I got out of the trench

that's the first coat, will let it completely dry before we do the second coat, then we will lay the perforated pipe then gravel on top of that and then push the soil back in 

we will be running the gutter drain also into the drainage trench to have it flow out into the roadside ditch

will update later when I have time

continued drainage ditch around house

continued from yesterday, the ditch is dug now all around the end of the house and it winds around to the backside of the house until it hits the back porch

My Cheyenne thought she needed to run through the ditch

goofy kid!

You can see it goes from the road all up the yard and then around the end of the house

I don't know why I didn't get photos of the huge hole on the end of the house, probably because I was working when they dug it and I forgot!