2010 A Year In Review

2010

It was a good year with lots of changes around the farm.

 

January

Saw lots of snow...at least for us here in Kansas and a visit from a big fat racoon that took up residence in our barn.

February

We discovered live bees in the walls of our corncrib.

Olly and Lizzy came to live with us.

More snow and ice and trips to Amish country.

I replaced the doors under the kitchen sink with curtains.

We had a trip to Kansas City.

March

Put power out to the chicken coop and garden shed

The neighbors put cows in the fields around us.

Things were starting to grow.

We brought Spring the chick home with us.

It snowed the first day of spring.

The chicks arrived in the mail.

The friut trees were starting to bud.

April

We brought home Priscilla and Percy our little African goslings.

Breaking ground for the new vegetable garden.

The fruit trees were in full blossom.

We were in Lilac heaven...the scent was all around us!

We discover writing from 1934 in our old grain bin from a fellow who signed his name and mentioned that it was 108 in the shade that day.

New strawberry plants (75) are in the garden in planted.

Chicks move into their new home.

May

I put in the new rock boarder.

Lots of rain and storms.

Goslings are loving the 'pond'.

Planted the flower pots.

Fruit is looking good on the trees.

Find 3 puppies left on the side of the road.

Roses in full bloom.

Young chickens finally move to the 'big house'.

June

We sell the boat.

Road trip to the Gypsum Hills and Greensburg Kansas where a tornado destroyed over 90% of the town in 2009.

Got our first egg from young hen.

Flooding and a trip to Buhler.

We get our new Dixie Chopper.

July

Rains and flooding 4th of July weekend.

Discover fields of sunflowers near Hesston.

First of the garden produce.

I go on a photo shoot ...barns and Victorian house in town.

Barn catches fire but is saved.

Barn burns to ground 2 days later.

August

Our trip to Canada to see my kids and grandkids!

Yoder Heritage Days...Amish country.

September

Dig trenches for water line.

Kansas State Fair.

Flea Market find; Oak Dresser!

Shep finds possum in yard in the night.

Dust storm.

Another trip to Kansas City and pictures of old school house.

October

Pumpkins ready in the garden.

Blog about my office/craft room.

Enjoying fall.

New wood stove.

I win a give-away from my friend Susan at

City Gal Moves To Oz Land

Fall decorating inside and out.

Picket fence starts going up.

November

Flea Market finds me a bike!

Still picking beautiful tomatoes and drying herbs.

Canned some tomatoes.

I get photo's of Donna's garden.

Bee's and honey in corn crib.

Big building starts coming down.

New Lopi wood stove goes in.

Photo shoot of The Old Hardware Store

Trip to Amish country...spot a bald eagle.

Christmas Tree goes up.

Thanksgiving!

December

Christmas decorating.

Cookie baking.

More decorating!

Trip to the Antique Mall

Christmas.

Saying GOOD BYE to 2010

I hope 2010 has been a good year for you.

What were the highlights of your year?

Maura :)

Pasta Primavera With Italian Turkey Sausage

This is a recipe that I took with me up to British Columbia this summer when we visited my family.

We had had a wonderful day of tubing down the river and swimming and sitting on the beach.

When we got home we got busy and made this recipe for the gang. Everyone loved it. So I thought I'd share it with you.

Pasta Primavera With Italian Turkey Sausage

2 cups uncooked pasta

1 LB Italian Turkey Sausage

4 cloves garlic

1/2 onion chopped

2 small zucchini chopped

2 small yellow squash chopped

6 Roma tomatoes chopped

20 fresh basil leaves

2 tsp chicken boullion or 2 chicken broth cubes

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 Cup grated parmesan cheese

1) Bring lg pot of water to boil. Cook pasta El Dente. Drain.

2) Cook onions and galic in small amount of olive oil. Add sausage and cook till done. Drain (I just start cooking the meat and then throw the onions and garlic in)

3) Add squash, tomatoes, basil, pepper, boullion or cubes. Stir well 

Cook covered for about 15 minutes then remove lid. Cook uncovered until squash is tender but not over-cooked. (about 15 min. more)

Remove from heat and add parmesan cheese.

Stir.

Enjoy!

Use your own judgment on when your squash is done as it may take more or less time. We added more squash to this recipe and we doubled it for our crowd. It's an easy one to play with and add things to and it's really good warmed up the next day. If there's any leftovers that is!

It's a great way to use up your squash and tomatoes and basil if you have a garden!

Me steaming up my daughters kitchen

Beach hair day...don't look too close as we just got back from the beach!

Youngest daughter Caity helping.

Lots of laughs

Nearly ready for the cheese

Caity's adding the cheese

Smells SO good

CHEERS!

This is Growers Apple Cider and I can only get it when we go up to BC.

It's SO GOOD!

I hope you enjoy this recipe. It's SO easy and fast and certainly helps you keep up with your garden veggies.

Have a wonderful day!

Maura :)

Sights Of Beautiful British Columbia

I thought I'd share a few more photo's with you from our trip to the Province of British Columbia in Canada.

This was my home for over 30 years.

Most of my children still live there and this is where we go for our summer vacation.

I hope one day you'll get the chance to visit this beautiful Province. It has many faces but these are just a few of the areas these pictures are taken from... Okanagan Valley and the Rogers Pass , Eagle Valley and the Spallumcheen Valley.

I'm linking up with Mary from Little Red House for Mosaic Monday I hope you will pop over and visit Mary and see all the other beautiful mosaics from fellow Bloggers. I know you'll have a wonderful time and you may even make some new friends.

Have a wonderful week!

Maura :)

Goats Flowers and Being A Tourist

While we were up in British Columbia visiting my family we did a lot of fun things. On this day we decided to visit a tourist attraction that wasn't there when my kids were little. Good thing or we would have been begged to stop there every trip to the city!

It looks as though the owners moved in an antique barn and then just built onto it as the business grew. This is in a beautiful open valley between the mountains and right along side of the highway that runs through the Okanagan Valley. The place is filled with beautiful flowers and antique wagons and the smell of homemade goodies.

Years ago it started out as just a tiny fruit stand. Now they have a nice goat petting area (very clean and neat) with places to wash up after visiting the critters and a tall bridge that the goats can climb up. The older and wiser ones know that if they wait up there eventually someone will pay for some tastey morsels...put them in the cup and then crank them up to where they are waiting. I don't know why but I never did get a picture of that!

There are 3 buildings that you can wander around in that are filled with neat things...a bit touristy but quite different too.

The best part is the food area...oh my!

There was homemade pies and sausage and cheese and baked goods that you can take out and eat in the shade. Homemade apple cider and icecream was very tempting too.

I wish I had gotten pictures of the food but there were way too many people to get a good shot not to mention the fact that my hands were full of food and other goodies as I stood in line....forever!

We ate our fresh made sausage rolls outside and enjoyed the beautiful day. There were over 300 forest fires in BC at the time but this was the first day we had seen any smoke. It got so bad that you couldn't see the mountains at all but after a couple of hours of rain it cleared up and stayed that way for the rest of our vacation.

The flowers were beautiful and HUGE.

I guess it was all that goat manure!

They had some wonderful displays of antiques. You know...I just realized now that I never did check to see if some of those items were for sale.

I guess I figured since we flew up that there wasn't any use in checking anyway.

If you look closely at these last pictures you'll see it was a little smokey this day.

Tractors and nummy sausage rolls was all it took to keep our little Kash happy.

A good time was had by all.

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Maura :)