~ A Great Valentine's Day ~

We had a great Valentine's Day , I invited the kids over for brunch. I cooked a good ole country breakfast of local made sausage , our fresh eggs , homemade biscuits , milky gravy and grits. We also had my homemade blackberry jelly and pear preserves , yum. I gave all the kids , grands and Dh homemade Valentine's cards I made using the pop-up card instructions on Flassie's blog and made snow cream as a Valentine's Day treat. The snow melted fast Saturday , but I filled a bowl and put it in the freezer , so I would have it for Sunday. It was a real treat , it's been 10 years since I eat snow cream.

I received earrings , ring and a new purse from my youngest daughter & the boys and a box of candy from Dh.

And the day ended with this view ............................................................

~ Many Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

* Happy Valentine's Day *

My Valentine's Wish for You ............................................................



May You be Surrounded by the Ones you Love and True Happiness !!

~ Heart Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

Watching the Sunrise After the Snowfall

~ Natural Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

More Snow and Getting ready for a Valentine's Party

Curious J came over yesterday evening while his Mom went to a meeting , he brought his Valentine cards and we got them ready to give out today at his school party. It was so much fun helping him get ready for his Valentine's Party , I remember how exciting it was , giving and receiving those little cards. Today I plan to make pop-up cards for the Grands and my family. Flassie over at Flassie's Fil 'a has a link to a cute pop-up heart card , you can check it out here ~ http://wwwflassiesfila.blogspot.com/2010/02/v-card.html ~.

The weatherman is forecasting snow tonight , we may get 3 or 4 inches again. Hopefully it will not be a major storm , just a nice beautiful snowfall. Have a great weekend everyone !!

~ Heart Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

~ Power Outage and a Pendant ~

We had a very raw day yesterday , the wind was horrid , 51 mph wind gust. Yesterday afternoon around 4:30 pm we lost power , the power company gave a restoration time of 6:15 pm when I called in the power outage , but at 7:30 pm we got a call back and they said it would be 11:45 pm , so we lit the kerosene heater and closed off all the rooms except two. It was a nice quiet evening , hubby took a nap since there was no t.v. , I read the newspaper by the light of the oil lamp and decided to draw. We ate sandwiches and discussed goats , we may be getting a couple of female pygmy goats soon. I went to bed around midnight and Dh said he came to bed around 1:30am and the power was still off. But thankfully the power was on this morning when we awoke , so the house was nice and warm.

I won a pendant necklace over at Kristine's Herbal Roots blog (http://www.lunaherbco.com/herbal_roots//?p=500 )., she's having giveaways this month to celebrate her Herbal Roots Zine being 1 year old , you can leave a comment today for a chance to win the 2009 archive of the Herbal Roots Zine. I love this pendant , can't wait to wear it. You can see more of this artist's work here ( http://www.etsy.com/shop/mulberrymudd ).

Hope everyone is having a good day !

~ Be Blessed ~

JoyceAnn

~~ Upcycling A Treasure ~~

Many moons ago my sister-in-law bought a night gown , it was gray and had small flower prints in shades of pink , crimson red and lavender with small green leaves. She wore it for a year or so , grew tired of it and passed the gown on to my daughter. My youngest daughter wore it until it had a small hole , I think my oldest daughter wore it a few times as well. Well , I didn't mind the small hole , so I started wearing it . It was the most comfy gown and became my favorite quickly. I've worn it several years and just wasn't willing to part with it , although the small hole had grown to a large hole and several more had appeared. Well , the time came that it was destine for the trash , but I just couldn't part with it. I decided to make sachets with it , so I cut out squares from the gown material. I stripped my lavender buds from the lavender I gathered at that lavender farm back in the Spring , it smelled sooo good. I had some small drawstring bags on hand from my oldest daughter's wedding , we had used them to make birdseed bags , I put the lavender buds inside the drawstring bag , drew the string and tied tightly. Since I don't sew , I just gathered the material and tied with a yarn bow. I gave the girls and my sister-in-law their sachets for Christmas , they loved them. I put mine in my drawer with my sleepwear , so I still have a little part of that gown. I plan to use the other part as cleaning rags or maybe another upcycled treasure.

So have you ever upcycled a " Treasure " ?

~ Green Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

~ Winter Cleaning Today ~

I'll be cleaning today , so while I'm cleaning ........ head over to my " Herbal Spirits " blog and check-out the " Crane-Fly Orchid ".

~ Greenest Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

Thankful for a Beautiful Day & Blogging Friends

The snow has finally melted with all the rain we had Friday , Saturday was breezy , so things dried out a tad. Yesterday we had a beautiful day and I just had to get outside for awhile. Geronimo and Chief Little Roo are starting to venture out with the hens now , the guinea fowl were enjoying the sun too. As I was walking around I saw some chickweed that had survived the snow and bitter cold , I decided to gather some , so I headed back to the house for gathering baskets. Unfortunately the hens had found most of the chickweed and cleaned it out , so I headed to the north side of the garden and found a patch they hadn't found. I gathered the chickweed in my basket , then I gathered some pine needles for tea and 3 eggs from the hen house. When I came back in the house I did a google search for chickweed recipes , a recipe came up that was on Herbmentor.com and it caught my eye because Leslie over at Comfrey Cottages (http://comfreycottages.blogspot.com/) had mentioned that website to me on her blog. The recipe was simple enough , so I made it for lunch and it was yummo! I've posted the recipe on my " Herbal Spirits " blog , if you're interested , you can find the link on the sidebar.

I was reading some other blogs yesterday and found 2 other recipes I had to try. Jeanne over at ( http://wildwoodsartstudio.blogspot.com/2010/02/cornbread-one-mans-trash.html ) had a cornbread recipe posted that I made to go with my pinto bean soup last night , it was very tasty. We also had fried apple pies for dessert , thanks to Patrice who had a link on her blog for " Fried Peach Pies " click here to check-out the link ....................................................( http://frugalgravy.wordpress.com/2010/02/05/found-a-website-that-will-make-your-mouth-water/ ) , I didn't have any peaches , so I used my homemade apple cinnamon applesauce to make some fried pies and they were delish. They didn't look as pretty as the ones pictured on that website , but it's the taste that counts and hubby gave them a thumbs up , so that's good enough for me. I very seldom fry foods , so they were a real treat. Thank-you Jeanne , Leslie and Patrice for the links and recipes you shared. That's why I love blogging , every one's so giving , always sharing and there's so much to learn from each other.

So , What's cooking in your kitchen ?

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend !

~ Be Blessed ~

JoyceAnn

~ Today's Blessing ~

May You Be Blessed with Sunshine in Your Heart !!

JoyceAnn

~ Mother Earth News ~

If you would like a chance to win a 1 year subscription to this wonderful magazine , click here ........ http://goatsinthegarden.blogspot.com/2010/02/200-posts-and-giveaway.html and leave a comment. Jennifer is having a giveaway to celebrate her 200th post , so she's giving away a 1 year subscription to Mother Earth News.

~ Many Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

Another Snow Pic ............

Yea , I know I said no more snow pics for awhile but I just had to share this one. The guinea fowl stayed atop the fence at the coop on the first day of the snow , but the second day they ventured out in the snow and I captured this wonderful photo. I love the contrast of the black and white colors , with just a little color from the broom straw.Click on image to enlarge and see a better view.

Thanks for all the comments on the " Bear Tracks " post , they made me feel better about the situation. Knowing some of you grew up or live in bear country and have never had encounters or had harmless sightings helps relieve my nervousness , but we will try to be prepared if we do happen upon one. Judie suggested pepper spray and they do make a bear pepper spray , but I'm not sure I want a bear to get close enough for me to spray him. Although I might consider getting some , it would be safer to have on me when the Grands are here. I'll probably take hubby's pistol when I go hiking alone , although I would never shoot a bear unless I was attacked , but shooting past it or up in the air would probably send it running . I'll also take Shadow with me , I know he'll warn me of any danger ahead, that's why I took him with me Sunday. So , Thanks again and I hope everyone has a great weekend.

~ Many Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

~ Bear Tracks ~

Saturday evening just before dark , my oldest daughter walked through the woods to our house , as she got near the branch/stream that runs through our property she saw animal tracks that looked like a small child's footprint. I went down to the branch/stream to take a look and sure enough the tracks looked like small footprints of a child. I came back to the house and decided to google the tracks , to see what would leave tracks like that. What I found , kind of shocked me , it said bear tracks look like a human footprint in the snow , because their claws don't show in deeper snow. We haven't had bears in our area for many decades , although I have heard about a few sightings over the last few years and they were in a 5 mile radius. But as I reading the info , I remembered finding some hair last Spring as I was hiking , I picked it up and looked at it and was planning to bring it home with me. I sat down on a log and I remember looking at the hair , it was black and course , but for some reason I thought it might be horse hair that some wild animal had brought up. I laid it down next to the log , Shadow grabbed it but I got it back from him , I laid it back down next to the log , but then I forgot to pick it up when I started back home. I also remember seeing several trees that were stripped of their bark ( actually brought some of the stripped bark home with me ), but I didn't think much about it , just thought the birds or other animals were using it for nesting , but these are signs of bear being in the area too , although I didn't realize that at the time.

So early Sunday morning , Shadow and I went bear tracking , actually I wasn't tracking the bear , I went to measure the tracks and stride , to compare them to the tracks I found on the computer. The info said a black bear paw print is about 3 1/2 inches wide and 7 inches long , the measurements I took of the prints matched those. I thought the stride was the distance between the footprints , that measured about 15 inches , but the info from the computer said their stride is between 36 and 42 inches , after more searching I found information about measuring the stride , you measure from front toe to front toe of the second print , bear land on their toes first as they walk.

Shadow has been confined to the dog lot for awhile , he killed one of the guinea a few months ago. So I only let him out when I have time to keep a close eye on him , as soon as I let him out of the lot Sunday he headed down the path to the branch and picked up the scent trail of those tracks , he was running back and forth , sniffing the tracks. He ran further on and I followed just to our property line looking for other signs that we might have bear in the area. I did find a tree that look like it had a bite mark , but I'm not sure if it was made by a bear. I also read that bears might not hibernate in N.C. , due to our warmer climate zone. Monday I went back to the woods to measure the stride again , since I didn't measure it correctly on Sunday. The stride measured right at 36 inches , while I was in the woods I followed several of the tracks I found , they're all over the woods and one trail went to the edge of the woods were my daughter lives. We have 19 acres , about half is wooded , most of the wooded area lies between our home and my daughter's home , with a small branch/stream that runs through it to a nearby creek that's right beyond my daughter's home. That's the major reason I'm concerned that we might have bear in this area , we have a path through the woods that goes to her house , that's the path they took after sledding Sunday. We use that path often , never thought we needed to beware of bears , but I guess we do. Educating myself and family has made me feel a little better about the situation , I found information that told us what we need to do if we encounter the bear. We thought you should play dead as they do in the movies (LOL) , but I found out that you do that if it's a grizzly bear. If you encounter a black bear , never look a bear straight in the eyes or run from it. Clap your hands , yell at it or make as much noise as you can and slowly back away , most of the time they will run away. But if you're attacked by a black bear , you should fight with everything you can , sticks , rocks and your fist. If you hurt the bear , there's a chance it'll run away. This is scary , but I feel better knowing what I need to do just in case. Although I think I'll be a pistol packing Nana when I go hiking from now on (LOL) , just in case. Hopefully we'll never see it and it will stay far away or roam at night , most wild animals keep their distance and don't want human encounters. They're just as frightened of us , as we are of them.

~ Many Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

I Graciously Accept .........

this award that Jeanne over at The Candy Corn Chronicles
@ ( http://wildwoodsartstudio.blogspot.com/ )

has given me. Thank-you Jeanne , I'm truly honored to receive this award.

Here are the seven rules of the award .........


1. Thank the person giving the award.


2. Copy the award to your blog.


3. Place a link to the blog of the person who gave the award to you.


4. Name 7 things people don't know about you.


5. Nominate other bloggers you admire.


6. Place a link to those bloggers.


7. Leave a comment on their blog notifying them of the award.



So here are the seven things you might not know about me ............


1 ~ I was a Girl Scout leader for 6 years and received the Silver Pine Cone award.


2 ~ I don't really like cold weather , but love playing in the snow.


3 ~ I love chocolate , actually I'm a chocoholic.


4 ~ Iron Eyes Cody inspired me as a child , I'll never forget that tear.


5 ~ I was a business owner for 15 years , my husband and I owned a small video store called " Screenplay Video ".


6 ~ I can't type , just hen & peck as they say.


7 ~ My daughter and I spotted some unusual tracks in the woods after the snow , I've been doing some research and I believe they are bear tracks , so I've been bear tracking between sledding on these snowy days.

I nominate this award to all the bloggers I love to visit , there is something I admire about you all. I know some people don't like passing these awards around , so I'm not going to pressure anyone , if you would like to take the award and pass it on , feel free to do so. Let me know if you blog about it , I would love to read the 7 things about you.

~ Greatest Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

More Snow Fun !!

I just had to share a few more pics of us having fun in the snow. All the Grands were here yesterday to enjoy a day of play. We had snowball fights and did some more sledding.

Curious J enjoying himself , look at that face !

Here he comes again !

Ready , Set , ......... Go !!!

Everyone loved the snow except Little Time , he didn't like it at all. He did sled a few times but he wasn't thrilled about sledding either (LOL). It's suppose to rain tomorrow , so all the snow should melt and no more snow photos for awhile (LOL).

~ Many Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

~ Wheeeee ................

The storm wasn't so bad after all , we got a few inches of snow and sleet. We didn't lose power , we ate lots of soup and I filled up the bird feeders and did some bird watching. My oldest daughter , her husband and the kids walked through the woods to our house yesterday after lunch. We spent most of the afternoon playing in the snow , Little Missy and I made a snow kitty and threw a few snowballs. Then we .......

found a small hill behind the pool and a makeshift sled. She loved sledding and I loved watching her , wheeeee ..............................

Before they went home , Little Time got to sled down the hill a couple of times too ...........

After all the fun and smiles , they headed back home through the woods.

It was a blissful afternoon !!

~ Winter Blessings ~

JoyceAnn