Valentines Love

God is our greatest valentine lover!

Happy Valentines Day

 

Here are His words to us,

 

“I have loved you with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3).

You are loved!!!

 

Good Queen Bess: The Story of Elizabeth I of England - Diane Stanley, Peter Vennema - Google Books

Good Queen Bess: The Story of Elizabeth I of England - Diane Stanley, Peter Vennema - Google Books

Reading today to Paris.........I learn so much from   homeschooling! :o)

Yea right buddy........No chicken dinner for you!

My youngest son Wayne and Paris with the large male coyote that Wayne shot one morning when he came to pick his dad up for work. The coyote was stalking my chicken house. Wayne shot him with one perfect shot right out in my horses pasture. No horses were in the pasture yet, all animals come into the barn at night.

Then just two weeks later.............

    Mountain lions killed after attacking pets in Utah

By Caroline Kingsley

| The Park Record

First Published Jan 30 2013 10:23 am • Last Updated Jan 30 2013 11:37 pm

Two pets were attacked by mountain lions early Tuesday in Summit County.

One pet was found dead and another injured less than a mile away.

Photos

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At a glance

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Cougar safety

Additional information on cougars and safety can be found at wildawareutah.org > http://bit.ly/Wgdffp

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The incidents happened in the 330-person town of Woodland and are still under investigation. Information about what type of pets were attacked was not released Tuesday.

An officer from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources responded to the report and was able to quickly track one of the mountain lions responsible for the animal’s death and euthanize it.

Two more mountain lions were discovered by late morning.

In all, three mountain lions were captured and euthanized: one adult female and two young mountain lions.

Phil Douglass, of DWR, estimates there are about six incidents each year in Northern Utah involving mountain lions, also known as cougars.

"It happens especially near people that live in areas close to the winter range where deer come down. That’s what mountain lions are following," Douglass said.

In the winter, when the snow gets too deep for deer in the high country, they migrate down to where more food is available, such as sagebrush and bitter brush, he added.

"Woodland is an area where deer will come down to spend the winter, so there is a possibility that mountain lions will be in that area, too," he said.

 

 

These mountain lions tore up a dog right next door to us.....she is a border collie and runs loose most of the time.....I have had problems with her coming over and herding my horses out in their own pasture. I think she is ok but her owners have a pretty hefty vet bill from what I understand. I have only seen her once since this incident, they were out walking her one morning and had her on a leash. But soon I'm sure she will be right back to her old tricks.

 

I bought a dog to raise out in the barn to keep the critters out but somehow he ended up here at the house! :o)

 

This year I hope to get a couple of donkeys to put in the pasture. They will run the neighbor dog off and anything else that comes into our pastures.

 

Happy Farming!

 

Remember,  keep your eyes on the Lord, He will keep your foot from stumbling!

The only time I get into trouble is when I get my eyes off the Lord and onto my circumstances.

New Homeschool Cabinet and Deer Jerky

I have to say that I am so thrilled with this project. I love to take old furniture and fix it up and use it for what is was intended to be used for but I really get a kick out of refinishing a piece and re purposing it.

This TV cabinet used to be popular but most people have gone to the big flat screen TVs and they won't fit in these old cabinets. This make them easy to find and fairly cheap. I bought this one for $125.00 and when I was looking on line or in furniture stores for a new cabinet or looking into having one built they were $1,000.00 and up.

All I did was sand it down with my palm sander then paint it black and sand it here and there to distress it. (I like that look) Then I varnished it and let it dry.

My husband removed the inner parts that were for the TV and installed two shelves and a new back. The TV backs have a big hole in them for the old style TVs to stick out. We actually had a big enough piece of Masonite board left over from the cabinet I redone for Portia's closet a couple of years ago. It is just like this one but we installed a clothing bar and painted it a distress yellow/beige. It is very cute and make a really nice piece of furniture for her room.

It's big and black, I have a lot of black furniture in my house and I love it.

 

 It gets a little messy inside but as you can see it gives us three deep shelves and three drawers. The best part is that at the end of the day all the folders and binders go into the cabinet and the doors close and everything is out of sight............For us this is really nice because we don't have a class room.  We do school at the table in the dinning room or at the table in the family room which is really one big room along with the kitchen.

I feel so clever!

 

 

We also made Deer Jerky

 

My husband has made deer jerky for as long as I can remember something like 25 years. I have never really liked it much. (strong for me) This time I asked if we could do some experimenting with the brine recipe.

His calls for Worcestershire sauce and I never really like the taste of it. He was nice enough to go along although the whole while he is saying his recipe could not be beat.....:o)

 

The meat is cut into strips and soaked in a brine for 24 hours. Two of the racks we did in one brine and the other two the brine that he has used for so long. I used a mallet and pounded the meat that I was using in my recipe before it went into the brine. Then it is smoked.  All we have is a small Lil Chief smoker but it works pretty well. I was thinking that a nice one might make a great Fathers Day gift......My husband smokes beef briskets at Christmas time and it is absolutely the best thing you could ever want to eat! The whole family RAVES, I'm not kidding. Even the kids love it.

 This is Tia, she is my new dog that I got last year......she is really hoping that she is going to be looked upon with favor and given a little deer meat treat......

 The meat is place in the smoker and the wood chips are heated be the burner on the bottom. He uses three trays of wood chips and then the meat stays in the smoker until it is done.

Tomorrow he is going to smoke a pork roast to make pulled pork for lunches. mmmmm

 

Here are the brine recipes that we used

 

 

This is hubby's secret recipe:

 

4 C. water

                                                             1 1/2 C. Worcestershire sauce  (I had to look on the bottle to spell it)

1 C. soy sauce

1/4 cup Tabasco sauce

1 C. sugar

1/4 C. salt

 

 

Mine:

1/4 C. salt

1 C. brown sugar

1/2 C. molasses

2 C. water

2 TBSP black pepper

 

Of coarse He still thinks his is best but he did say that mine was really good.....Me? Mine was awesome!  So good, I really liked it and I was right, it was the Worcestershire that i was not liking.

Guess he better get another deer this year. :o)

 

Blessings to all and remember, keep your eyes on the Lord, he will keep your feet from stumbling!

 

 

Looking Back - Taking Stock - Looking Forward

Wow, I can't believe it is already February 1st. Today is mine and my husbands 38th wedding anniversary. WOW.........who would have ever thought, I was only 15 1/2 and he was 16. (I think I will try to scan a picture of us then and post it) The Lord has blessed me with such a wonderful man who has worked hard all his life to provide for his family. I pray that I have been just as diligent at being a helpmeet to him.

  I was looking in on my blog that has been so neglected and then over to my picture files and I can't believe I was so slack in taking pictures and posting last year. I hope to do much better this year.

It seems as though I was under a lot of stress last year, so many things going on with so many of my family members. My mother was struggling with some health issues that took some time to resolve and my father is battling bladder cancer and he also slipped on Ice and broke his back. He is doing well now and so is my mother, but my parents are aging and going through all that comes with that. I live an hour away from them and that can be very frustrating at times when I can't be there to help as much as I would like.

Last year we learned that my brother has prostrate cancer that has spread to all his bones. He was responding to the treatment for awhile but now it is advancing. He too lives and hour away and I will be trying to go and see him every other weekend now. (my heart is sick)


On a lighter side, the girls and I are back homeschooling this year and it is going very well. I kinda fell apart and sent them back to public school half the year last year but we started out in September of 2012 homeschooling again and it has been a much better year. I feel like we have found our groove. We are still using Sonlight for our curriculum and we love it.

There was lots going on last year, we had expanded the garden and I canned and froze everything I could get my hands on. Now I'm planning this years garden and looking at seed books. Evaluating what I put up too much of and what I put up that I could have used more of. This is still very much a learning process for me. I try to do a 1 year food storage and am still learning how much of what, what did well that I want to repeat, what was over kill what didn't work so well.

Also looking into all the other stuff I stock up on because my husbands work is seasonal and is usually out of work every winter. I try to stock up and fill the freezers all summer through fall and we pretty much live off that all winter and spring. So far It has been working out ok but we have run out of a few things. This year I will have a better understanding of what we need more of.

Here are a few picture from last year, maybe my picture enthusiasm will be stronger this year.

 At the gun range, my family are hunters and Portia & Jayda took hunters safety last year with my son Wayne and with Papa.

 above, Portia and Papa below is my grandson, Jansen with his fancy green riffle.

 Wayne, Papa and Portia

 My grandson, Jaren with his fancy red riffle.

 The new chicken house, painting it is on my todo list for this year.

 We borrowed a pony last year for Paris to ride on our trail rides. His name is Freckles and he was such a great pony for Paris to have around and ride last year that we are going to get him again this year. Her horse, Honeypie is not quit ready for her yet.

 This is Penny (pretty penny) she is Portia's new mare that was given to us last year. she is so pretty and sweet. I love her and she is so gentle to ride for anyone.

 

I have more to post but for now, blessings to all, stay well!

Keep your eyes on the Lord, He will keep your foot from stumbling!