G'day everyone, Dutch here! Welcome to my little place in the Universe! Had lunch and letting it settle so thought I would do a short blog here... gonna let the Statler Bros. furnish the music, they're my favorites, couldn't decide to start with one, put one in the middle and have them and Johnny Cash finish....

Soooooooooooooooo, put your trouble aside, pull up a chair and visit a spell......

Well, as you know we got another shot of winter yesterday, mainly sleet/ice crystals..

and at times the sleet and ice crystals were coming down pretty hard aided by 30 mph winds.

If you look at the above picture, in the background between the building and the tree you see a shaded area at the end of the field... that's a hedgerow (trees for those not in the know) about 1/4 mile (400 yards) away... visibility was less than that at times... in the overnight we got about a 1/2" of snow to go on top of the ice and this morning looked like this..

Verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry slick!!!... maybe some flurries tonight and Fri. night but next week they're talking of a warm up..maybe spring will get here... Ok, Statler Bros. #2....

Well, got the kitchen floor sweept and mopped... what, gentlemen, you ask that I do this... Yepper, sure do... I lived a 1/3 of my life on the farm and 4 years in the Corps and you learn to help yourself... until I was old enough to do bigger chores and handle the equipment, my job as the oldest was to help mom when she needed... one of my specialties was making homemade butter... we had a cream seperator in the basement... looked a lot like this one only it was newer , circa 1939, and had a small electric motor on it..

Dad would go out and milk the cows and bring in enough mile to make butter with, he would pour it in the top, it would go thru some stainless steel fins and the skim milk (to be feed to the hogs) would go in one container and the cream in the other.... I would then take the cream to the kitchen, mom would get the mixture ready, put it in a hand crank butter churn and guess what IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII got to do...... that was just one of many chores I had to do....

Check out the tomato seeds and they're starting to come up...

The red arrows are pointed at some sprouts... then I got the bird house I'm working on ready for somemore painting later, worked on it a little yesterday.....

it's a pirate ship..... Chicken salad sandwich spread sounded good so I made some of that... here is my recipe if anyone is intereseted.....

you shred the chunk chicken breast with a fork before mixing... staying on food, going to have BBQ pork steak, homemade macaroni and cheese and creamed cauliflower for supper... I'll put the steaks in the crock pot, pour my BBQ sauce over them and then cook them on Low for about 5-6 hours... I would leave a 1/2 cup of sauce out and warm up and cover the steaks just before eating... in the summer I would take the steaks out of the pot and put them on the grille for a short period of time... Here's my recipe for the sauce if anyone is interested...

I don't simmer if I put it in the pot, just if I'm going to use it as a sauce on the grille... also here is my recipe for Creamed Cauliflower... the condensed milk is the same as evaporated milk...

Well, I hate to leave good company but need to get a few things done to finish the day.... soooooooooooooooooooooo everyone have a smilin' goooooooooooooooood day with Peace Love and Happiness and I'll see you next time if the good Lord's willin' and the creeks don't rise...

Ok, Johnny and the Statler Bros... the floor is all yours......

G’Day everyone, Dutch here! Welcome to my little place in the Universe! Going to do a short blog here and going to try to think spring….

Soooooooooooo put your troubles aside, pull up a chair and visit a spell…..

Got a lot accomplished this weekend, outdoors…. going to have to start carrying my camera… saw two big flights of Canadian geese heading north Saturday, they were up high where United flies… yesterday saw a group of 20 Blue Herons going north and yesterday afternoon saw two robins...spring is definitely on the way...unfortunately so is a winter storm… so will be a little busy tonight and tomorrow if the forecast is right… Ice later and then maybe 4-8 inches of snow..

The temperature was in the upper 60’s yesterday which meant the ground was thawing some… all the birds were out singing and my little place in the universe was starting to come to life...it also meant the animals were out and Bree was in "Hog Heaven"… the chase was on and she looked liked she rolled in the mud… well, we had to get a bath and banned from the back yard for a little while… she just ran through the house from window to window instead.. a hint as to what’s to come with the warmer temps..

Made some potato soup for tomorrow, let it simmer all day..

Save the peelings as I do all veggis from now on to put in my compost bin for the worms..

This aids the worms in composting the leaves and then I have compost and I don’t have to burn leaves… also making meatloaf, potatoes and carrots for supper tonight… I half or quarter the potatoes (depending on the size), prick them with a fork, add just a pinch of butter and wrap them in foil to keep them from turning black

I make the meatloaf, clean a couple of carrots and put it all in a crock pot…

And then cook it on low around 5-6 hours or until the meatloaf is done…

Well, I had better scoot, I’ve been typing this in Publisher by bits and pieces while doing other things and need to get ready for weather reports… Soooooooooooo, everyone have a smilin’ gooooooooooood day of Peace Love and Happiness and I’ll see you if the creeks don’t rise…

And here’s another thing about spring….