Great guesses!

I loved reading your guesses, friends! :) Some of you were very, very close and even right on....

The first picture was of the apple butter, when I took it out of the oven. It had been boiling and made all those cute mounds.

The second was of the batch of vanilla I'm making---the pods being Madagascar vanilla beans. I've had a request for the info. on making vanilla, so will point those of you who wish to know more in THIS direction. It's basically like making a tincture, and will keep indefinitely... I ordered my beans from Penzey's Spices on the recommendation of a friend.

My morning was spent in the corn field with brother Andrew, pounding in more posts and then unrolling electric fence wire. It was cold and wet work, but it felt good to be outside. I spent the rest of the day indoors, at the nursing home. One of the ladies at the assisted living there (which is connected to the nursing home) asked me to come over to her apartment so she could give me a couple skirts, so I did that before work today and had a nice little visit with her. I found out that their former farm is only a few miles from ours. She was very nice and appreciated the pint jar of apple butter I gave her. :)

Dad cleaned grain today. Andrew worked for Stan (the farmer he's been working for recently). Mom and Jacob went to Bismarck for the day. Life is never dull!

A mystery picture!

It's been a LONG time since I've done a mystery picture, so here is one for you now that I took today. It just looked too funny to not take a picture of "It". :)

Please leave any guesses as a comment and I will wait until tomorrow night to publish them so you may all guess without seeing other peoples' answers.

Also, if you'd like, you can guess what I'm making in the jar below:

Happy guessing!

Oh yes, guess what came out of the sky today? Yes, that 4-lettered word: S*N*O*W! Thankfully, it was only a few flurries and they quickly melted in the sprinkles that followed.

Between the flurries and sprinkles, the boys and I started putting posts up around the big corn field so we can put up an electric fence and have the cows eat the remaining corn stalks/husks/cobs that are there. We ran out of small posts, so the boys went up to the pasture and pulled some out of a place that the cows are done feeding in for the year. Dad bought some more electric wire in town today, so I imagine some of us will work on the fence tomorrow....

It seemed like it was a good day for doing things we've been procrastinating, and we really got a lot of things accomplished. The boys got down the Winter clothes from the attic and I got most of mine changed around already. Mom and I made some tomato sauce. She got some cards written out that she's wanted to send for a while. Oh yes, Mom also called a guy to see if he could come pump our septic system before the cold weather sets in, as we haven't had that done since we've been here! It "Just so happened" that he was in the area, so he came and did that job. The boys also fixed Dad's 4-wheeler--the problem being caused by a mouses' nest! I started what's in the jar in the picture above.... Andrew got our R.O. water system set up in the kitchen.......... Dad was hauling grain most of the day.

It was a good day. We even had time at the end of it for playing a game of Rage and the boys played a game of chess too.

"Thank you, Lord, for all that got accomplished in the last 14+ hours.....and that the snow melted right away!" :)

Goose weather...

It rained and poured yesterday, amounting to nearly 2 1/2 inches! Our geese loved it and were out splashing (they're pictured below in the driveway) the whole afternoon:


This morning I picked some of my Indian corn. It's so amazing to see the many different shades of reds, yellows, creams and so on--all in the same cob sometimes!
Now to do some decorating.....

This is by far the queerest cob I picked--starting as one cob on the bottom and then splitting into two cobs toward the top!

Oh yes, and I have a mystery picture for you!!! This might be really easy, I'm not sure...

Can you guess what the following picture is of (or, more specifically, what the black things are and what they're for?)
Happy guessing~

Let's try this again...

Are you ready for the answer to the mystery picture???

"It" is edible black gel-dye to be used in cake decorating!

The nurse who gave it to me is also a cake decorator and while sharing ideas and experiences, she told me of this black dye that she'd found that truly makes your icing black instead of a sickly grey color, as most black dyes do (or you can get it a black color, but by that time, the icing has so much coloring in it that it tastes awful, I've heard.) As I'd shared some rhubarb and recipes with her earlier this year, she said she'd just give me some dye to try. I was pleased with her generosity and was glad to have a cake to try it out on right away!

The following picture is of the baby-shower cake I made last October. I used the same recipe for fondant as I did in my last cake, but to get the dark polka-dots, I had to mix in lots of black dye, plus some blue, red, purple, brown........ to try to get it a nice dark color.

The result:

...Now, this is the cake I made the other day, using a small amount of the new black dye:

The polka dots still are not a black black, but are a lot closer.

Well, it's a new day and a new week. There are chokecherries to be picked and cucumbers to be pickled... I'd best be going.

Sincerely,

~An ever-learning-and-experimenting-cake-deCORAtor

It's been a loooong time....

......since I've done a mystery picture, so I thought I'd do one tonight. I hope you all still remember how to play! :)

This:

...was given to me by the evening nurse at the nursing home last night. It (the contents of the container) was something I was very happy to receive, and I used a little of "It" today. What do you think "It" is? Please leave me a comment with your guess(es)!

*Note* It's a clear container.


This next picture is of the bread dough I was mixing up a couple days ago. It was a good bread day, to be sure!

Today I baked and decorated a baby-shower cake for a Napoleon customer/friend. After frosting the cake with real-buttercream icing (meaning it contains real butter), I mixed up and rolled out a batch of Marshmallow Fondant and, Waa Laa (however you spell that):
It seems like it's been forever since I've done a cake, so it was fun to get back to it. Next weekend, I have another baby-shower cake to do--for certain friends of ours--so be looking for another cake picture in the not-so-distant future... :)

And now,

I'll leave you with a quote to ponder:

"The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things."

~Henry Ward Beecher

God--our comforter.

I was sad today--to have to miss out on going to a friends' high school graduation party with my family, due to being scheduled to work at the nursing home this afternoon and evening....

However, God sent me a bit of sunshine to brighten my day! One of my favorite little girls that I babysit for (when I help at the Daycare) came into the nursing home this afternoon with an older girl--to see her mommy who works there. When she saw me, I got a great big smile and, as soon as I sat the tray down that I'd been carrying, we shared a big hug too. :) The Lord always provides, doesn't He?

My family had fun at the graduation and my mom got a lot of great pictures, but I'll leave it up to her to post them.

And now, for the answer to my mystery picture: Kimberly guessed right, in saying they were toothpicks, but what I don't think she did know is that these are "Special" toothpicks... They're reusable ones! :) Hmmmm. We'd never seen anything like them before, so I thought it might make a good mystery picture for you all to guess on.

I was happy to see that Andrew got my parents' computer set up so we can import the pictures that have been piling up on Mom's camera card... There are many there I'd like to share sometime, but I'm too tired now and so will bid you good night and leave that all for another time.

Blessings~
Cora

A restful day at last...

Do you know what we did today? -----Not much, and it sure felt good to do it too. :)

We did shake up (literally--in a jar) a couple batches of pudding that we got from Grandpas' place when we cleaned out the cupboards. We had pistachio, cheesecake, chocolate-chip-topped dessert:

Then, this evening after chores, I had fun trying out a fancy hairstyle on Mother. I tried doing this on myself, but was having troubles with making the rolls, so my mom said I could practice on her. :) It'll take some practice to get all of the bobby pins hidden, I discovered, but it was fun and helpful to do it on someone else...
And now, for the mystery picture I took yesterday:

What are these?

I'll give you a day to think about it, and won't post any comments containing guesses until tomorrow night.

Happy guessing...!

We were all gone--at one time or another!

Today was one of those run around type of days for our family...

Papa went to get hay this morning, and later went down to Titan to see if they had a bearing he needed, which they didn't. Later still, some friends came to pick up some grain dad had brought back for them from another farmer who he'd cleaned for... In between all that, he did some welding on things for Andrew's cleaner and checked the cows. (Three new calves today.)

Mother and Jacob went to Eureka to pick up the rest of the things that had our names on it, mostly big things like a table; some chairs; large garbage cans; and a flower pot... I was surprised to hear that Jacob drove about half the time! Good job, brother. :)

The main reason they went South though was to snip off the small branches (new growth last year) from two of Grandpa D's apple trees, as we want to graft them onto our crabapple trees. This has to be done this year, as next year, the trees may belong to someone else if Grandpa decides to sell his place, or worse still, they may be cut down... :( The apples from those trees are absolutely delicious (some of our neighbors have even bought apples from us, as they liked them so much.) We really don't want to loose our good apple supply, so hopefully a lot of the grafts we will make will take. We've never done this before, so if any of you have suggestions before tomorrow afternoon when we'll be doing it, help would be appreciated. I did find a good article on-line that looked helpful, and Mom talked to an apple man about how to do it several years ago, but it's still nice to hear tips and tricks that others have learned through experience!

Andrew spent his whole day cleaning grain for a farmer by Strasburg. He got home around 10:00PM and still has more to do for that farmer tomorrow.

I did lots of little things that needed doing around the house, such as: doing a water change in my aquarium again; washing off and disinfecting our little Styrofoam incubator we plan to fill up with chicken eggs tomorrow; putting weather stripping up around the entryway door and on the patio door to help keep the majority of the farm flies outside this year; making spicy walnuts; doing laundry; skimming off cream from the top of the milk pails I'd saved a few days ago for that purpose; getting a roast boiling for making into BBQs for supper; and then I went and babysat for a couple hours. The tastiest part of the day was when my family and I all split the piece of cheesecake our neighbor had given me to try. It was SOOO good! I'm going to try to get her recipe the next time I'm over there!

After all that busyness, we all ended up in the same living room for family prayer time this evening. How nice it is to be a part of a family!

Oh, how could I forget? Somewhere in all that, I took a mystery picture to share with you all! I'm undecided if this is a hard picture or not, but as it's of an unusual form of a common thing, it may be difficult?

Please leave your guess in a comment and I'll wait to post those comments until tomorrow night. Happy guessing~

I thought it was spring???

This morning, we woke up to a light dusting of snow over everything, and more falling through the air. However, when Andrew called the farmer he's cleaning for now, he said it wasn't snowing there, so Andrew headed south. He finished the one farmer and then moved to the farmer's father's farm and started cleaning there. Now he's heard that a couple neighbors want him to clean for them too while he's in the area, so I'm not sure if he'll get done tomorrow or not? It's always nice to have new customers, especially now that the guys will have 2 units to keep busy!

At home, life went on as it usually does. My dad went to get a load of hay home again and to do some business in town, but then he worked on Andrew's cleaner some more.

I finished up with the sewing project I've been working on for almost forever it seems (sewing the Velcro around the fabric that's going around the gravity table...). On average, my thread broke every other minute, (no matter what I did!) so it's nice to have that job done with!

I also went through the seeds we saved last year from our garden and made a list of them and then went through our favorite seed catalog (Bountiful Gardens) and marked down some suggestions for when Mother goes through it. It's amazing how fast our gardening season is approaching! Pretty soon we'll be able to dig in the dirt again. :)

Jacob spent some time thinking up a good name today for his entry in the "Name that buffalo" contest that I read about recently on-line. If you wish to give your name suggestion for the biggest buffalo in the world (the statue of one in Jamestown), you can go HERE. I didn't see any age restrictions or anyplace that said you have to live in ND to enter, so I think it's open to everyone...?

Also, if you like mystery pictures, two of Grace and Hannah's brothers have posted mystery pictures and you can guess what they are HERE and HERE. :)

Well, there's more I could say about our day, but I need to get some rest for our busy day tomorrow, so will post this and then hop into bed and listen to the wind howling and the wild geese calling.......................................

Mystery picture...

There's a really fun mystery picture to guess on over at Hannah's blog today!

If you enjoy mysterious pictures, then she has a good one for you... :)

"It" is....

...a large chunk of petrified wood! Here's another picture of it that shows the grain of the wood better:

Nathanael guessed it correctly and many of you were very close, and, in a way, correct when guessing a rock of some sort... Thanks once again for all the guesses!!! I very much enjoy hearing from you all and then looking at the same mystery picture and trying to see what you were seeing in it!

I looked up petrified wood on-line just now and saw that pieces this large are selling for between $200 and $500! I didn't realize that our new lawn ornament was that valuable. :)

It was a very productive day once again on the farm...

I made bread; ice cream; baked a couple cakes; made pizza; and tidied up the kitchen, again...

Mother was gone all day at class, but this was the last day, so it will be nice to have her back home again!

Dad and the boys worked on the grain-cleaner once again for most of the day... I thought I'd vaguely explain what our guys' grain-cleaners do, as I know some of you don't live on a farm and may not know what it's purpose is...

My dad (and now Andrew) will pull the trailer that has the grain-cleaner on it to a farmer's yard and will set it up by the farmer's grain-bins. Then, one auger takes the grain from the bin and delivers it into the cleaner. The cleaner then separates the large kernels of grain from the smaller ones and all the weed seeds--dumping the small kernels and weed seeds (called screenings) into another auger that takes them to the farmer's truck. The large, clean kernels go out another way--onto another of the farmers' trucks. It's a really neat process to watch, but it gets very dusty working with the grain all day and Dad and Andrew's voices usually end up being gravelly for about a month until they're done with the cleaning season.

Why does the farmer pay for their grain to be cleaned, you may ask? Well, they don't want to plant the small kernels (which may not grow) or the weed seeds (which will certainly grow into undesirable weeds)! My dad just had another call this afternoon from a farmer who has a 2-3 day long cleaning job, so the guys are really hoping to get going very soon!!!

There, now didn't you just want to know all that? :)

Everyone is enjoying spring!!!

Yes, everyone enjoyed the sunshine...

...Our chickens;

...Turkeys;

...Lady and some kitties;

...Even Sargent Jacob... :) (He's wearing our grandpa B's army hat.)
While I was out enjoying the fresh air and taking some fruit scraps down to the goats, I decided to pop into the Quonset to see what was all happening there...

Dad was welding something onto an auger while Andrew was working on a cable system to swing the auger out of the "building"...

Jacob meanwhile was drilling holes in Dad's grain-cleaner trailer and bolting down his new generator. Then he put anti-freeze in it and did some other things too, of which I don't remember.

It is so nice to see green grass again!

And now we can swing without getting snow in our shoes. :)

My dad went down to Eureka yesterday as his mom called at noon and asked if he could come down and be with them and his brothers as they all decided what each brother wanted of the things my grandparents needed to get rid of before they move to Mandan. This was one of the things he brought home--and is one of my favorite things. :) Isn't it a cute little wind-mill? It was racing in the wind all day...

Dad also brought home this... Oh, by the way, this is a mystery picture! If you'd like to guess what it is, please leave a comment with your guess. I'll wait to post any comments containing guesses until tomorrow night, when I shall tell you what "It" is. :)

And now, dear friends, I shall bid you farewell, good night, and sweet dreams. Oh yes, happy spring too!

Smörgåsbord!

There's a little of everything in this post, I think! :)

We did a lot of usual things around our farm today, but at noon, all of us (except Dad who was trucking) went down to Titan Machinery in Kintyre to join in the annual "Customer Appreciation" meal and we got to visit with a few of our neighbors and friends. We do a lot of business down at Titan and feel so blessed to only live a mile and a half away from there!

Now, I'll post a mystery picture!

What is this?...
I think you all know how this guessing game's played by now, so I won't go into that. I'll post the answer to this mystery picture tomorrow night...

Next, I'll share the word search that our friend, Ellen shared with me a few days back... I admit, I have not worked on this one much at all, as my days have been very full indeed, so I'll need you to tell me if all those names really are in there. :)

"Find all the books of the Bible below:

The Vikings are found early in our study of history. Their gene, sisal-like–as this durable fiber, continued in their bloodline to this day. To memorize and remember important dates may seem to have made the mind numb erstwhile. At times they are quite a job to recall, and he who prejudges the ability of the mind may think he has chronic lesions–or abnormal mind. Some act ruthlessly like the Romans, yet it becomes there a question if the way of Ezra and Nehemiah was better. John taught the Ephesians and Philippians to be sober. He brews no strong drink, and Timothy drinks no alcoholic wine. What a jam especially for one who is poor already, and a revelation when he becomes sober. Judea also had its problems. Even a pet erelong recognized that something was wrong. For the poor at Jerusalem Paul helps alms to be collected, something Matthew was familiar with. The preacher in Ecclesiastes presenting his sermon is quite pro verbs and song. There was also need for courage. If Niel was the name of the bear David met, remember it was no panda Niel. What do you think, is a mimic ahead or is Jon ahead in the end by what he does? Does the Bible recommend marketing lukewarm water? Some like to give tit for tat. Is tat or tit usually more justified, or what is special about Phi lemon? O bad iah, Joe leveled about hose A, but Malachi finished his testimony. Who was right? Habakkuk and Ezekiel each could say: "I am ostensibly right." So was work of Isaiah and Jeremiah difficult, bringing them a lot of lamentations. Joshua and Moses before him in Deuteronomy reviewed God’s leading with His people in the exodus. Ezekiel in Babylon as Nahum, Zephaniah, Haggai, and Zechariah elsewhere, continued to give the message God gave them, including the instruction given in Leviticus. In the New Testament God’s people were found in many places of the world of the Roman empire. They included the Corinthians, Galatians, Colossians, and Thessalonians. You may ignore the numbers but not the facts about Samuel. 56 names represent all 66 books of the Bible–some are obvious and others you may be able to find. You may also want to share this treasure hunt with your friends. "

And now, I have an unusual prayer request... My dad needs to find a large generator for his grain-cleaning unit as soon as possible. He's in contact with a few different people now (the only ones I remember the names of are Peter and Paul...) but so far he hasn't found quite the right one. Dad and Andrew hope to start up the busy season this coming week, so it's really important that a generator be found now!!! Your prayers would most definitely be appreciated. Oh yes, and if you have a big generator just laying around your garage and want to sell it, please let us know right away! :)

And finally--I am so happy tonight because I'm going with Mom and Jacob to Bismarck tomorrow. Yes, I'm happy to be going to the city this time! A big reason is that we're going to pick up a big, early-birthday-gift from my parents and I can hardly wait to see it and to fill it....... Got any guesses of what "It" is?

There are some other fun events on our schedule for the day, but morning's going to come very early I'm afraid, so I'd best get to bed!

I'll leave you with the quote from my calendar today~
"Look for the light behind every shadow."

(How was that for a smörgåsbord post?)

I'm thrilled...

...to have received so many guesses on this picture!!! What great imaginations you all have--in seeing so many things in that one picture--things that all made sense to me once looking at it from another angle. :)

But, alas, nobody guessed what the mystery picture really is of, so I shall tell you now...

"It" is:

A giant, 50 yard roll of the loop-side of Velcro!

Yes, I agree, that one was hard!

Why do we need 50 yards of Velcro, you may be asking? Well, Andrew needed to replace the thick material that went around his gravity cleaner on his grain cleaning rig. This piece of fabric is held on by Velcro, so when he purchased some new, heavy material (it's kind of like cover-all material), he also needed to buy a lot of Velcro to go around the edges.

As he helped me by hauling my calves into town, I've agreed to help him by sewing the 48 or so yards of Velcro onto the fabric. I have the piece in this picture mostly finished now, (I also sewed Velcro onto the opposite side of the fabric) but have another just like it to go yet, plus another smaller piece. My machine was giving me a little trouble until Andrew adjusted the tension way down and now it doesn't break the thread any more. :) It does take an awful lot of bobbin-refills though!

This job also required very heavy thread, which Andrew bought a large spool of...

In order for us to fill the bobbins and a smaller, empty spool that would fit in my machine, Andrew designed some Lego contraptions to aid us. But, it's late once again, so I'll have to talk about that more another time.

For the present, I'd like to thank each of you who guessed on this mystery picture! It was so fun to see your ideas and to share them with my family...

Blessings~
Cora

Guessing time extended!

Dear friends~

Thank you for your guesses! So far though, nobody has guessed correctly what the last mystery picture is, SO, I've decided to give you another day to guess and will post the answer tomorrow night...

I've added a picture here of the same item--taken from further back, to make it, perhaps, a little easier?
I'll give you a hint too:
"This is not something that most people would have on hand in this quantity, but is something that anyone can purchase at their local Mac's store if desired."


Outside of that, would you please pray for us, as certain members of my family are going to bed with upset stomachs tonight... Never fun! Thanks so much~

Once again--a mystery picture!

Warning: This one might be a stumper, so to speak. :)

It has something to do with a project my brother, Andrew and I are working on......

Have any ideas?

I'm planning to post the answer tomorrow night and will post any comments with guesses in them at that time. Have fun!

A gift--and a mystery picture!

I was working on something in my bedroom this afternoon when I heard a knock on the entryway door... It was a neighbor (well, they live about 8 miles from us, but we still call them neighbors!) with a gift for me from his wife: 2 pretty dresses that she'd outgrown; a blue blouse and some books she thought I might enjoy. I was so very pleased--mostly about the dresses!!!

Here's a picture of the embroidery and the soft, velvety collar on the blue dress:

And here's a picture of my favorite of the two--the pretty green dress.

I've read in Fascinating Womanhood that denims and corduroy are not considered very feminine fabrics, (the blue dress happens to be a light denim and the green is corduroy,) but I'm hoping that the embroidered flowers will help to negate the more masculine type of fabric... :) What do you think?

Before I head for bed tonight, I want to share another mystery picture that I took today... It's probably going to be an easy one for most of you, but I thought I'd give it a try.

What is---this?

I'll wait to post your comments until tomorrow evening if they contain guesses. :)

Sweet dreams~ and may God bless you all as you daily seek out His will for your lives!

Mystery pictures~

Dear friends,

I just thought I'd let you know of two mystery pictures that are currently posted on my friends' blogs, in case you'd like to guess with me what they are... Please visit Grace and Hannah to see the mysterious pictures. :)

(My grandma painted the picture above...

Isn't it lovely and so very appropriate for this time of year in North Dakota?)

The mysterious mystery picture was......

Shall I tell you now? :)

Alright, I guess I will.

"It" was:

Butter--melting on our electric griddle! It was all melting in one spot, so I took a knife and swirled it around a little--thus the design. Once I'd done that, I looked at the griddle and thought about what a great mystery picture this would be. :) It worked so nicely that even my parents didn't know what it was! (My brothers might not have known either, except that they saw me taking the picture.)

It was so fun to see all of your guesses and then to look back at the picture and actually see what you saw there!!! Thank you so much for your participation. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did!

(Proverbs 17:22)

The answer is coming soon!

I'm working on it this very minute. :)