Moving some plants to new home

It's May 2009, we are transplanting some plants on this visit to the new house, we don't actually move in until August 13, 2009, so we have a few months of transplanting and interior painting to get done before we move in, so much nicer to do these things BEFORE you are living in the house right?

How about a few snapshots of the basement dungeon?

oh yes, it certainly needs a makeover, when we live here it will be USED as the laundry room will be moved from the kitchen upstairs to down here . . .

Yup, that's our beast of a tiller, brought it down to create new planting beds to transplant some of my flowers from the old house down here

did a strip bed up the front walkway and moved some plants, looks better already LOL

amazing what a little yardwork can do for a place eh?

and our view from the big front window, ahhh nice

and do you see that scraggley looking shrub, I am told it's a orange or yellow azalea transplanted here in the 70's from West Virginia by the then owners son, who just happened to breed and raise horses in the little red barn in the photo down below

and even better still, a view we will have  looking out the dining room window reveals an awesome heirloom Yellow Transparent apple tree, oh my gosh, can you say excited?!

I am already imagining the applesauce I can make from this gorgeous old tree, in our area, folks would pay an arm n leg for some of these apples!! They go fast at the fruit stands if you can even find them.

and  we put up some new birdhouses today, trying to entice them here before we actually move in :0)

the kids being ornery, waiting on us old farts to finish the yard cleanup we are working on

so they get bored easily, well I knew I didn't like that hand railing to begin with, but now I can see that kids certainly love it for entertaining purposes, spent gosh knows how long sliding down that thing!

that's all for today's visit, we will be back to do more work before we get moved in, see ya then!

Buttered Rosemary Rolls + Recipe

Let's talk rolls, yes, buttery-scrumptious-rosemary-sea salt DINNER ROLLS!

I love these rolls, they are super awesome whether you make them in your oven at home or out over a fire in a dutch oven, but we like cast iron either way you look at it, CI heats better and just makes everything taste better, I use some of my great grandmother's CI, have picked up a few pieces over the years of the vintage stuff (found 2 pieces in the house we moved into all rusted and crusted in the basement) and we have also purchased back in the 90's some Lodge CI, however, I am spoiled, and the old stuff is the best, it's lighter and is much better made, but that's another story, today we are talking rolls!!

These delicious rolls never last long in my house EVER! Between the kids and the guests, they will be gone within hours, but I usually steal the middle one, you know . . . my tester taste, gotta make sure they are really done before I sit them out for everyone to eat right?

To start out this is the simple part about these rolls, you just use frozen dinner rolls, yes any brand will do, the cheapest bag of frozen dinner rolls you can find OR make your own, I always keep a supply of the frozen bags in my freezer "just in case". In the frozen section you will find them, they are about golf ball sized frozen little balls.

What you need: bag of frozen dinner rolls

1 stick butter or margarine - melted

sea salt

rosemary

smidgen of olive oil (or vegetable oil) or cooking spray

Get our your big CI skillet, drizzle bottom with oil.

Place frozen dinner rolls in skillet leaving a little space between them.

Cover with clear wrap to help rise faster . . .

Let rise to just top lip of skillet.

Drizzle with melted butter (save some for little later drizzling too)

sprinkle rosemary and sea salt on

Put in preheated oven at 400* for 15-20 minutes

Here is a recipe card you can save, try them, they are really REALLY good!

A friend from CA turned me onto this recipe :)

If cooking outside in the dutch oven, here is a nice temp chart showing amounts of coals for top and bottom of your DO, found on web to share with you :)

Handy little thing to have!

Enjoy!

The New Homestead 2009

Viewing the new homestead for the first time February 2009

It's bigger than the current home we lived in, 4 bedroom/2 bath, with an acre where the home is, another 3 acres where the barn is :) The kids say they like it already just by looking at it in the middle of winter LOL

I like that it is just a mile from town (shops, grocery stores, mall, gas station, etc) yet it's so country from this spot you wouldn't know you lived that close to town.

The cattle even gave us a nice welcome LOL

A lovely gal who was 91 in 2009, built this home in 1965, so we are the second owners, she went into assisted living, and well let's just say when you stepped into the back kitchen door, I knew right away there were going to be some changes made right away . . .

for starters, maybe having the washer and dryer in the kitchen worked out perfect for her, but with 2 kids and lots of laundry, I could already see guests tripping over laundry when they tried to come in the back door, yup, first thing that will be changed is that washer and dryer will be in the basement!!

and the second thing is that cabinet above the stovetop will be getting gone, it blocks off conversation into the dining room, and linoleum duct taped at the seams, yes, another of those little things that MUST be addressed right away ;)

yea, uh......... NO, carpet will be leaving right away too, I mean like REALLY FAST!

and hmmm well there is so much potential here, you need to overlook the "things" in the rooms, ok got it, look past the "stuff"!!!

ok, so yeah, looking past some of this stuff is really hard :)

hmmm, wonder what has their attention?

ahhhh yes, it's a piano, uh, no, it won't be staying!

but MOM.....................

NO!

some decent sized bedrooms on the main level, and would you just look at some of the light fixtures LOL the dining room one is really cool, you can pull it down or leave it up higher so you don't hit your head on it!

SEE ~ told ya!!

When we remodel and paint I will update as we go along the journey

Welcome to our Redneck Homestead

Welcome to the Redneck Homestead :)

Here you will find all kinds of crazies!!

Including the hubby :)