Christmas Day

We had a car full of gifts as we headed north to Bill's sister's on Christmas morning.  We had gotten snow a couple of days before so had a White Christmas here, but it was brown in Blue Earth.  Nice to have good weather to drive in this year.

There is always a spread when we arrive of cookies that Karen and the kids get at their church's cookie walk and shrimp that we snack on until brunch is ready.

Karen likes to make baked caramel French toast and breakfast casseroles that can be made the day before and then baked the day of.  Always good.  She also had ham.

After lunch the kids opened their gifts.  We wrap everything we get them separately and this year made them take turns and open one thing at a time so everyone could see what everybody got.  Made it last longer too.


 

Then we did the adult gift exchange.  We just buy something worth $25 that can be for a man or woman.  We draw cards for the order that we get to pick a gift, then can steal, then open, then can steal again.  I put these elf shorts in with mine. They were a hit.

Here are some more pictures from the fun day and a family picture.

Jim

niece, Ryanne

niece, Taylor in the hat Memaw gave her

Our church service before Christmas and the Christmas Eve service were both especially nice this year.  We hope all of you had a nice Christmas season this year!

Povitica

I was in Costco in Des Moines on Thurs. and there was a table filled with loaf sized boxes covered with pictures of strawberries and lots of people gathered around sampling something.  It turned out to be Povitica which we had just learned about last Thanksgiving when Peggy and Bill were at Bill's brother, Jim's, in Kansas City for Thanksgiving.  This Povitica is made in the Strawberry Hill community in Kansas City.  Costco was only going to have it for a short time at Christmas this year. 

I remembered that Bill and his mom had come home with a brochure showing this really neat looking bread that Bill said was good.  So I sampled the four flavors they had at Costco and bought an apple one.  They make English Walnut, Apple Cinnamon, Poppy Seed, Raisin Walnut, Cream Cheese, Strawberry Cream Cheese, Choc. Chip Cream Cheese, Cranberry Walnut, Blueberry Cream Cheese, Cokolada (Chocolate) and Pumpkin Spice.  We won't buy any more, but it was a fun thing to see, learn about and try.  Here is what the brochure says about it:

Pronounced Po-va-teet-sa, this traditional Eastern European "swirled bread" is handmade using our grandmother's old-world recipe.  We roll sweet dough into a thin "skin", cover it with layers of scrumptious fillings, hand roll into luscious loaves and bake to perfection.  In 1984, our father founded the company in Kansas City's tiny Strawberry Hill community.  He honored our family's traditions and his mother's passion by sharing her beloved Povitica with the world.

They have a web site:  Povitica.com

Brown Christmas??

I guess there is a saying here that if you have a white Thanksgiving you'll have a brown Christmas.  So far we're having a brown December, but I'm still hoping it turns white!  

The Fire Dept. Christmas Party/Dinner is over, the girls and I have been on the sleigh ride, went to the German meal, the cookie walk, Christmas lunch with friends, our overnight trip to Des Moines for Christmas shopping and a Stampin' Up! Catalog Premier Party, Christmas P.E.O. social, to Des Moines again with a friend to her dr. appointment and shopping, made Spritz cookies with the girls and went to see Santa with them, and the wrapping is done.  Kind of winding down now for a few days till the big day!  The only thing I haven't even started and may not do this year is cards.  Since it's almost too late to mail, maybe I should make them this week to be ready for next year!  It would be fun to do them leisurely this week and a good feeling to have them ready for next year.  (and maybe even get to send them out Early!)  

Today I'm going to try a recipe for making chex party mix in the crock pot and a new recipe for some Red Velvet Cookies that will go to church tomorrow for a special party after church for the kids.   I made some toffee and blizzard party mix to give to friends and had a full recipe of caramels flop.    Will be making caramels again this weekend as it's a Kemna favorite.  I think? I may have posted pictures and the recipe another year.  Yesterday I got a recipe of buckeyes dipped in chocolate and mailed to Indiana for Mom, Glenn, Rob, Ross & Reed along with their gifts.  They'll arrive Mon. - perfect.

LOVED getting to do this!!  Hope Santa brings Camry her "locker book" (diary)!

the yummy Black Forest Cake at the German meal in Humboldt

the Blizzard Party Mix pkgd. for friends

hand stamped tag, of course!

the girls at the light display in Dakota City after the sleigh ride

thanks to Uncle Tim's suggestion, we put lights on Rob's tree this year - love it!  We moved this tree here that Rob planted at their house several years ago.

 

Making Christmas Memories

Long time, no blog posts.  Keeping busy!  This weekend we had our great nieces for a Fri. overnight and Sat. while their mom worked.  I tried to cram in lots of Christmas memory making while they were here.  Probably won't have them again before Christmas

First on the agenda was the traditional sleigh ride in Dakota City to see Christmas lights.  Lacey and I have gone 2 or 3 times and decided that this year Camry was old enough to go too.  Merlin, the guy that does the BIG light display, is 85 this year, so glad we got to do this again.  Never know when it will be his last year.  He says it took 58 days to get all the lights and things out.  We had a MUCH warmer ride this year!  Camry liked the clop, clop of the horses and their jingle bells. 

bundled up ready to go!

view from the sleigh ride on the trail below the hill on the back of the house

what a view from the top deck of Merlin's house!

gift card holders

Lacey and I made some gift card holders for her mom to use and I needed a few.  Camry was working on a birthday card.  She had a birthday party to go to.

making gift card holders

                             making spritz cookies - tried all the shapes 

We ended the day with a tea party - actually with hot chocolate and our cookies.

We're having foggy, misty weather this month instead of our usual sun, cold and snow.  Today it's in the mid 50's so I'm going to walk outside with a friend this afternoon.

Pheasant Hunting

We have a long time friend and his son here hunting this past few days.  Glenn met Dave when he was probably about 18 when he was working on an oil rig after he went to diesel school in Wyoming.  Then Glenn & family lived in Dave's hometown of Kimball, Nebraska for a while.  Eventually, Glenn talked Dave into moving to Indiana.  Dave became a fireman and met his wife and says he's now lived in Indiana longer than Nebraska.  So it's been fun catching up with him and meeting his son.  

They've had gloomy days since they've been here which is unusual for here.  Today is their last day here and hunting and it's a bright, sunny, no clouds in the sky day like Iowa usually is.  They've had pretty good luck getting pheasants.  We've had a couple of years without many birds due to the drought and some of their nesting areas were drowned out this spring, but there have been more birds this year.  

They got to hunt with Diane's husband and his friend a couple days which was good.  Those guys are avid hunters and hunt or fish almost every weekend all year so they are good - and very organized about where they go.  Bill's dog is deaf and old, but he's been doing good.

If you don't like to see pictures of *ead birds, only look at the first two pictures!

ready to head out this morning

hunters plus Bill's hunting dog, Sam

Dave and his son.  His son LOVES to hunt pheasant, and he's good!

 

Stampin' Up Online Extravaganza Starts Mon.

Stampin' Up! just announced a really big sale, Online Extravaganza, which starts Mon. and only runs until Dec. 2nd.  Lots of 50% off items!  Plus, there will be limited-time door busters on November 24 and December 1 on special products-some that have never before been paired together-that are only available for 24 hours and while supplies last! These specific deals are extremely limited, so act fast!  Click on the link to my Store in the top right corner here.  You'll be able to see the sale items Mon. or contact me and I can send you the list now. 

We have a gloomy day in NW Iowa today.  We have an Indiana friend and his son here for a few days hunting pheasant with Bill and Diane's husband.  Hope they have good luck.    ​

 

P.E.O. Meeting

I had a P.E.O. meeting last night while we were having snow flurries.  We got to the house and Sandy had her yard light decorated so pretty.   She served three kinds of pie with or without ice cream:  peach, apple or pecan and hot apple cider and coffee.  She had made some turkey favors for each of us.  

I enjoy having this group in our home once a year and decorating and making special foods for them.  The next meeting I have is in March.

Today the wind chill was -1 when we got up, and we've had snow flurries off and on. 

Boys Cleaning Their Toys

While we've been having cold, sunny days, Bill and Uncle Tim have been working on cleaning equipment to get it done and put away before snow - which is in the forecast for Mon. as I listen to the news tonight.  We are all done, but there are farmers still getting their field work done.  

Tomorrow and Sat. I'll be working in the kitchen at church.  We're having an all day Women's Conference on Sat. with 530 women coming!   I don't know what the menu is yet, but there is always a nicely decorated table of mini cinnamon rolls and muffins with coffee when everyone arrives, a very nice lunch and then snacks done creatively in the afternoon. On Fri., we chop veggies and cut up fruit, etc. The decorating team was getting started tonight.  Lots of work to be done!

Happy Halloween!!!

Where did October go???

We got completely done with harvest yesterday.  Just in time before the weather turned colder.  We had 50's yesterday and today it's sunny but with a high of only about 38. 

Tim has been traveling back and forth to West Bend to get tanks of anhydrous this week.  He brought them to the fields for Bill to apply them.  That took about three days.  I thought I was done ripping the corn fields and the bean field end rows Wed. night, but Bill called yesterday morning and needed me to do some more here at our house which didn't take long.  The only thing left now is getting the equipment power washed and put away before the snow flies.  The guys hate that job and always hope for a non-windy, slightly warmer day to get that done.

anhydrous rig

We're tired and getting caught up on sleep, laundry, mail, bill paying, etc.    

Harvest Time Activities

Friday was a busy day around here.  A water pump belt broke on my tractor so I ran to West Bend for a new belt and Bill put that on, and I got that 75 acre field done that night.  One of the semis had a problem that they were able to take care of too.  We have about a week of combining left Bill says and the weather looks good.

As I was ripping the field, I got to see this pretty little tree at the farm house there.  The leaves here have probably been at their peak this past week.  Many have lost their leaves already.

 


Peggy had picked up the twins (our niece & nephew) Thurs. so Matthew was riding with everybody and had lunch with us.   Bill's sister and niece, Ryanne, came Fri. night.  We were finally able to give birthday gifts to all 3 kids.

We had guys here at our machine shed putting new doors up.  I did a blog post last winter about the doors on our new shed having a delamination problem right away.  We've been on the list to get new ones for a long time since they had installed many doors with this problem.  They replaced one on Fri. and will do the other one tomorrow.  It'll be good to get this done.

Bill's brother arrived Fri. night so he has been doing my job since yesterday so yesterday I got to babysit our great nieces and took them to Community Orchard in Ft. Dodge - great fun!  I'll have several more pictures of our day in my next post.  

 www.CindyKCreations.com
 

Freezer Full of Fresh Chickens

It was chicken butchering time at Diane's house again.  Her husband's dad likes to raise chickens as a hobby.  They have a flock for laying eggs and every fall they raise some for butchering.  Back in Oct. 2012 I went over and took some pictures for a blog post that you can see HERE.  It was the same setup basically so I didn't take the same pictures again.  We did have the feather plucking table and packaging sink and table inside their shed since it was really windy and a little chilly plus chance of rain.

Diane's husband gutting and trimming

It took about 4 hours or so to do 32 chickens.   With several helping and having done it a few times before, it wasn't bad at all.

 



This time they used a Foodsaver to package them rather than the huge Ziploc bags.  This should work better with getting all the air out.





The kids helped some, mostly plucking the few feathers that were left and played on the trampoline.

This picture was taken last night.  Bill and Tim were out combining beans until about 8:30 or so.  Some of the beans in a field will be ready but not all of them so it's a frustrating Fall to not be able to get complete fields done.   

Harvest Has Slowly Begun

Crops around here are just barely getting ready and some fields are still a little squishy from recent rain even though we're having nice days now.  We were able to get started yesterday around 4:00 and combined only about 40 acres of beans.  We got a loaded semi stuck in the field at elevator closing time, but it was able to be pulled out by a tractor and made it to town just at 6:00.

In the mornings, the ground is usually wet so today we had to wait for the sun and breeze to dry things off enough to get started after lunch.  The quad trac's air conditioning went out on an 80+ degree day.  Waiting for parts for that.  At about 5:00 I was riding in the combine with Bill waiting for him to get the cart full and something started making a bad noise.  A big part had broken.  So I headed to West Bend for the part.  Luckily they had the part and we were able to get it before they closed.

Bill and Tim are out finishing up the field - behind our house.

Tomorrow they hope to combine a field of seed beans.  They require special handling and go into a grain bin.  I won't be needed - probably - since they hope to dump from the combine directly into the semis.    

I've been making some things for quick meals that I can freeze like spaghetti sauce and this morning I made chocolate chip cookies.  Next will be a batch of ham balls - they freeze well.   This afternoon I was able to get some things in our landscaping cleaned up for winter.

Beaver Dams Can Be a Problem

Our crops are not quite ready so this is what Bill and Tim were doing this morning.  There was a small and a large beaver dam blocking a drainage ditch to two of our farms.   This first video shows blasting the smaller "practice" dam.
 
Then they mixed a larger amount for the big dam and waterproofed the container which was originally a cheese puffs plastic container that we had saved.  

This the big dam.

SUCCESS!!  The water is flowing through now!  This will help drain the fields when we have rain.  The County is supposed to come out and clear these out the rest of the way - whenever they get to it.

 

Pretty Southern Indiana

I've been back to visit in Indiana the past few days.  We've been able to visit some relatives we haven't seen for a while.  Glenn, Rob, Ross, Reed, Mom and I met Uncle Neal & Aunt Jan for supper one night.  We met Uncle Dale & Aunt Dana and two of my cousins for lunch another day. 

We had not seen most of my dad's relatives since he died seven years ago so we went down to southern Indiana and had lunch with several of them and got to visit  two of my cousins and five of my aunts and uncles.  Unfortunately, I didn't take the picture before Uncle Wayne and my cousin Paul had left.  Uncle Rich and Aunt Lois are the ones I've talked about here who used to grow melons and tomatoes to sell in the Knox County area which is well known for having great cantaloups.

cousin Cheryl, Aunt Vera, Aunt Sharon, Mom, Aunt Lois, Uncle Rich

It was a perfect Fall day to travel south from Carmel to the Freelandville and Vincennes area.   We stopped at an Amish store which is always fun.  The further south we went, we started seeing lots of combines working in the fields - working in both corn and beans.  

I think these farmers (above) are the family that now live where my grandparents did.  They farm lots of acres.  The house and buildings sure look different.  A new machine shed is in the place of two of the old barns.

We were able to visit at Uncle Wayne & Aunt Vera's house.  I love their old brick house that's back off the road down a long lane.  Uncle Wayne and Aunt Vera farmed together all of their lives until just a few years ago.  They're very happy that I'm doing the same with Bill in Iowa.  It's fun to talk farming with Uncle Wayne.  Wish he could come to Iowa.

We also visited long time friends, the Walters (they read my blog - hi!) and Dad's cousin, Liz in Freelandville where dad was from.  The Walters have a nice house with big yard and an amazing view.  Liz is busy right now feeding the crew that is harvesting her ground.  She takes them hot sandwiches for tailgate lunches and goes back out with cookies for them at 2:00.

Mom and I even got to stop at Gray Brothers Cafeteria on the way home.  It's a favorite restaurant of people all over.  We used to make a special trip there a couple of times a year.  Grandma & Grandpa Randall really liked it too.

It was a really nice day and I was teary a lot of the time.  Lots of memories of times there and knowing that I won't be back much with living so far away now.