May Birthday Celebration

My middle daughter turned 7 this past week and we had a very lovely birthday celebration with Meme and Papa. Here are some photos of the party:

MM with her presents:



MM gets a pretty glass lady bug from her youngest sister, RM:



MM gets a 4-disc animal adventure set from her oldest sister, KM:



MM gets her very own sewing box and lots of goodies to put in it from mom and dad:



Meme and Papa got her 2 seasons of The Waltons, which made her very happy as well!

Here's the birthday girl blowing out her candles - hard to believe there are 7 already!

Wilbur and Wilma

Say hello to the latest additions to our barnyard: Wilbur and Wilma - little 6 week old pot bellied piglets that hubby came home with on Thursday morning - surprise, surprise!



Wilbur has been claimed by my middle daughter and Wilma has been claimed by my youngest. They are both thrilled and it is super cute to watch these little guys root around and grunt. Wilbur has a very small white spot on his nose; Wilma has a pretty large white spot on hers. We'll see if they can fit in with our busy girls - if not hubby was told that he could bring them back. I'll keep you posted!

The duo - Wilbur and Wilma:


MM and Wilbur:


RM and Wilma:

Fishing Firsts!

Yes, it's been awhile since I have had a few spare moments to get on and blog about our goings on - I've missed it!

Things are busy for us this time of year - winding down some of our homeschool, doing our April and June beef processings and deliveries, May pork processings and deliveries and making plans for summer activities.

Over the Memorial Day weekend, we took the girls fishing for the first time. We started out early on Friday morning at Herb Parson's Lake, about 30 minutes or so from us. We made our required stop by the "bait shop" to check in, get our fishing licenses and learn the regulations for what we could keep and what had to be released back into the lake.

We'd scoped out this lake a bit just a couple of weekends before when my oldest daughter had a 3-D archery shoot there (which was a BLAST and a topic for another post). So we had high hopes of getting enough fish for a tidy little fish fry. The lake is 177 acres with lots of little nooks - mostly through wooded areas.

Well, as luck would have it, all the boaters in the area must have thought it was a great day for boating, because we couldn't seem to find a location where a boat wasn't trolling by every 3-5 minutes or so. Finally, after a couple of hours, we decided to call it a day at this lake.

We headed out to check on our cows and bees and while we were there had a flash of brilliance by remembering that our dear family friend and midwife has a huge lake on her property, which was only about 15 minutes from our pasture. So we gave her a quick ring and she was more than happy to let us come by to fish in her lake.

After tending cows, we headed off for a quick bit of lunch and arrived at her lake around 2:30ish that afternoon.

Even though the fish weren't really biting that time of day - the girls had a great time learning the ins and outs of casting - this time without having to worry about trees all around them, as our midwife's lake is out in a huge pasture. They did have to learn how to keep from getting tangled in the shoreline grasses and limbs. Seems that hubby spent the entire day replacing snapped lines and lost fishhooks during this learning process!

We finished off the day around 5 and headed home empty-handed, but with an invitation to go back on Saturday for another round. We went out on Saturday morning and got there about 8:30 that morning. Hubby had prepped all the fishing equipment and we were ready to go the minute we arrived.

My middle daughter, who turned 7 on Monday, was the first to catch a fish on Saturday. It was a big one and for several moments I wasn't sure if it was going to pull her into the lake or if she was going to get it to shore! She landed a 17" catfish and was beaming with joy.



I was helping my youngest, age 3, and we almost immediately caught another catfish using her little fishing pole, which I thought was going to break before we could get the fish reeled in. Just as hubby was reaching down to pull it out of the water, it managed to break off the hook and get away. Disappointment for all.

Not to be outdone, my oldest daughter is now very determined to catch something. But I had the next round of luck, catching a 16" large mouth bass. Hubby finally got a chance to try for a bite - he'd just finished resetting my oldest daughter's line - threw it in to show her how to cast farther, and darn if he didn't get a bite on the first throw! He pulled in a 17" large mouth bass.



Now my oldest is really irritated - she's sure that her Dad has just caught the big fish that's eluded her twice that morning already. But, with some perseverance, she managed to catch a 15" large mouth bass before we took a break for lunch.



We made several more attempts after a quick lunch break and had four that managed to get away from us that afternoon. We headed home around 3 to get our fish prepped and ready for dinner. In all, the girls had a great time and so did we - and we had a tasty little fish dinner as well! Aside from a few allergy issues with my oldest and my hubby from the pasture grasses, they are all definitely up for more fishing this year!



We're hoping to squeeze in a bit more fishing time this weekend after our pork deliveries if the weather cooperates, so stay tuned!

How To Make A Scent Article

Our local home-school group had a field trip a few weeks ago with a local search and rescue team. They taught the group that having a scent article for each member of the family was a prudent thing to have on hand if going hiking, camping, fishing, etc.

When this information was shared with me, I started thinking about what a good idea it might be to always have a scent article for each family member in each of our vehicles, our 72-hour kits and/or other gear/kits as applicable.

Many of us have seen shows on TV where a child comes up missing and mom/dad grab the first article of clothing they can find for the dogs to use to track the child.

This method is not a good way to provide a person's scent however. Whatever article of clothing you have on today also has scents from everyone else you came in contact with, food odors, pollution odors - it is covered up in scents other than yours and would not be the "best" article to use for your scent article.

Here's how the local search and rescue team taught our group to make a scent article:

**If you are assisting someone, such as a child or elderly person, in making a scent article, make sure to use latex gloves when handling the article and the zip bag**

Needed:
~ 1 sealed handkerchief or gauze pad
~ 1 quart-size freezer zip-lock bag
~ 1 sharpie marker
~ 1 pair latex gloves if assisting someone else

Steps for making your scent article:
1. Remove handkerchief or gauze pad from sealed package.
2. Rub the handkerchief or gauze pad all over your body for several minutes.
3. Open zip-lock bag and place handkerchief or gauze pad inside.
4. Seal bag.
5. On the bag, write the person's name, date the article was made and FOR SEARCH AND RESCUE TEAM ONLY.
6. For best results, store in the freezer.

**Scent articles should be updated about every 6 months to ensure freshest scent, although some people have had theirs tested up to a year later and found the scent was viable.

**If you go hiking, camping, fishing, etc., leave the scent article on the front seat of your vehicle so that rescue personnel could easily see it.

Think about what a great item this would be for a family with a loved one who has Alzheimer's Disease that might wander off - the possibilities where something like this could come in handy are numerous, so I thought I'd share it with you all.

Military Spouse Appreciation Day!

Today is Military Spouse Appreciation Day and as a military spouse, I want to share with you a delightful cookbook that I've had the opportunity to review for Sourcebooks.

The Military Wives' Cookbook, by Carol Quick Tillery is a delightful cookbook, with mouth-watering recipes and glorious tidbits of historical information complete with photos that provide insight to the many roles and sacrifices that have been made by military spouses in years past.

To quote Sourcebooks:

The Military Wives' Cookbook is divided into six large sections:

• Teas and Coffees
• Buffets, Brunches, and Lunches
• A Taste of Home: Dinner Family Style
• Alfresco Dining
• Over There: An International Affair
• Home for the Holidays and Other Celebrations.

The women, through whose eyes these stories are told and whose recipes are shared, are truly remarkable. They often balanced the responsibilities of maintaining home and hearth, raising a family, managing a business, and supporting a war effort. In addition, they found time to extend themselves in friendship and hospitality to one another and to women in the places where they were stationed, earning them a well-respected reputation that continues to this day.

My girls have looked through this book with me and we've made a list of some recipes we're sure will become family favorites, such as:

Shortbread Cookies
Savory Salmon Spread
Grandmother's Lemon Pound Cake
Roasted Rosemary Chicken
Crab Puffs
~ and there are so many more!

Take a moment today to thank a military family for their sacrifices for our freedoms; and be sure to go to the Sourcebooks website to get a copy of The Military Wives' Cookbook - you'll enjoy it as much as I did!