December 2023 – Living the Country Life My Way

Christmas Decor

Due to things beyond my control, I can only do very minimal Christmas decorating in our home. The biggest problem is wood heat which I will not give up until we are unable to bring the wood in ourselves.

However, my kitchen got some beautiful red this year, one from my husband for my birthday and two of the same from our son!! Thank you Shawn, they’re lovely!!!

**A beautiful poinsettia to brighten my view every morning when I enter the kitchen.**

**A small poinsettia on my kitchen sink windowsill from my son!!**

**The small one from our son wasn’t enough so he bought a huge one which sits in the middle of the kitchen table.**

**This small tree has been with me a very long time and it’s loaded with miniature kitchen utensil ornaments.** **It may adorn the kitchen for quite some time this winter.**

**The only other Christmas decor is in the corner of our living room and is adorned with mini blue, white and silver ball and fairy lights throughout the tree.** **I made the angel tree topper years ago. The Santa’s have also been with me since the children were small and will be given to the kids when I am gone!**

That’s our home of minimal but loving decor for the season!!! Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Kitchen Cleanup

One major task for me before the end of 2023 was doing a thorough cleaning of my kitchen. I did it!!! Almost!!!

The shelving and all that they hold have not been thoroughly cleaned, not just dusted, since 2021. Spring cleaning is NOT done until all of the antique “stuff” and decor are taken down and washed, dried and put back. **The photo is blurry but that’s okay because the dirt doesn’t show up as well!!!!**

**This is the other side of the kitchen shelving! Blurry also!!!**

I picked a day when hubby would be out of the house, and I could climb up and down the step stool all day. The kitchen was painted three years ago and between the cooking fumes, propane heater and old house dirt, it needs it again but not this year and probably not next year. I’m getting too old to paint that much!!! It’s not thoroughly clean yet, I still need to clean the oven and put clean shelving paper under the kitchen sink. I’ve even washed the windows inside and out but that gets done about every two months because I love clean windows since I spend so much time in the kitchen.

**This is the corner of the kitchen that leads to the living room on the right and to the back porch straight ahead.**

This leads to the pantry, through it on the right is my laundry room and left is the powder room. You can tell from this photo that I didn’t exactly put everything back the way it was before the cleaning.

**With a better view of the shelving, it’s still full but I did take out and put away two 27-quart totes of “stuff” to storage.**

The doorway in the center leads to the guest room/office and, yes, I washed all of the food canisters and replaced the labels on every one. I thinned out and kept only my favorite cookbooks. The top of the Hoosier has plenty of room now.

**My canisters are 1/2-gallon canning jars with ball lids under the galvanized tops. The labels are now easier to read and clean.**

One more “half day” will take care of the oven and under the sink and will be done before the end of 2023 and I’ll have a jump on 2024 spring cleaning.

Home Page Versus Posts Page

I’m never sure when I publish my blog posts if anyone clicks the link at the sub-title to read the entire article. Today I want to explain how to get to all of the pages on my blog.

First, when you receive the post all you have to do is click on the photo or link at the bottom of the post. This will take you to the whole story. At the end of each story is a comment box and a “like” box you can click to let me know you read and enjoyed the post. I’ll get an email anytime you comment on the post or have questions.

If you will look at the top of that page, you will see two rows of titles and each title when clicked on will take you to a different page on my blog.

HOME, just as it states, is the beginning of my story filled with photos of the farm. Occasionally, I will add new photos and sometimes replace them with new views.

Next, is the title “About Me”. If you are new to the blog or a new friend of mine, this title tells the story of “why” I blog and what I’m about, mainly I love to write and what better than writing what I live.

The title “POSTS” is the page to all of the posts I have written since I started this particular blog. I had another blog a few years back, but I took a break and started new in November of 2022. I do hope you enjoy my story!

The fourth title “COME COOK WITH ME” is a page full of my family favorite recipes. When I started this new blog the format for WordPress had changed and I’ve not found the time to put in “subpages” for the different categories. To make this simple, there is a “search” box on the right side of the pages. When I figure out how to subtitle, I’ll start a new post with instructions to it. For now, I’m sorry to say, you just scroll through the recipes and find what you’re looking for, you may even find a lot more than you’re looking for!!!

The next title “CONTACT ME” is just what it sounds like, you can contact me personally instead of leaving a comment at the end of the page.

“LET’S PLAY IN THE DIRT” is a page under construction and should probably be included with another title I’ll talk about shortly. Not sure yet!

“CANNING AND PRESERVING” is my own way of canning and preserving many things that helps to make us reach our goal of being self-sufficient. I’ve got a lot to add to this page but time on a farm is limited. Wintertime is usually when I get to update and improve (to my way of thinking) my blog.

Page number eight is full of “HELPFUL HINTS AND SHORTCUTS” that I have learned in my 70 years from family and friends. They won’t be on the page if I have not tried them myself!

And last but probably my most used link is “GARDENING AND GREENHOUSE FUN”. My husband bought me my greenhouse in 2020 as a Christmas present and from March, sometimes April, I am in the greenhouse every day for an hour up to eight hours digging in the dirt and growing whatever, I can get my hands on. Each year I try new vegies, flowers, trees, anything that grows in the dirt. My posts show the trial and error of most everything. This page needs some updating which I hope to do in the next few days.

Now that you know how to travel through my blog, please let me know what you think in a comment or by using the contact page. I love hearing from you!!!

Stay warm! Stay healthy! Happy New Year!!!

First Snow of Winter 2023-24

Perfect, the day before my birthday we got almost an inch. We’re getting rain but so far not much of the white stuff.

**It wasn’t much but our ground needs all it can get.**

**That’s the moon in the background and the photo was taken from our kitchen window.**

I had not put out my birdfeeders at the backyard station because there was still plenty of weed seed for the wild birds. It was fun watching the calves in their first snow. I watched them raising their hooves and shaking of the white stuff and anywhere there were tree leaves their mother’s taught them to nose into the leaves. They love eating maple tree leaves.

That snow fall was still hanging around in the shadows of the trees and on the north facing fields but after the rain we got yesterday and during the night melted most all of it. Today it is quite windy, 30* temps, and cloudy most of the time. Tonight, the wind chills will dip into the single digits and that window I had cracked last night has been closed and locked. We’ll be snuggling under that comforter and sleep good!