A December Day on the Farm

Moving right along

Well, I completed 3 more credits yesterday. That's 7 now! Yippee!! Granted, I know my progress will slow down a bit once I'm not doing review type classes, but still. It's good for the ol' self esteem.

Life is crazy (when is it not?). We are working our little tails off to get our other house cleaned up and fixed so we can get it on the market by the beginning of November. We are having a house party this weekend....AKA: my husband has some awesome friends who are giving up their free time to help us so we can get this listed ASAP. Gotta love friends.

No pictures for you this post. I haven't had much time for baking or cooking other than the normal dinner cooking. I am proud of myself for sticking to my meal plan the past few weeks. I started a new concept this week where I have a "theme" for each weekday. Monday is chicken, Tuesday is Mexican, Wednesday is Burger Night (experimental burgers as well), Thursday is New Recipe night and Friday is Theme Night (where I can really have some fun - think Mexican Fiesta, Indoor Picnic, Cowboy, Asian Cuisine, etc). Tonight is New Recipe so I made stuffed (with mozzerella) meatballs and stuck them in the crockpot to simmer in marinara sauce all day. Tonight I'll probably cook up a little pasta for the sauce and garlic bread for dipping - though my gut tells me the boys are going to make meatball sandwiches (because that's what Joey likes on Friends). They smelled great already and they haven't even cooked yet! We shall see how slow cooking them works out.

Peace Out :)

Phew!

Man, I swear I JUST wrote a post...then I looked and it was October 3rd. Holy moly! Well, yesterday I finished my first assessment for college. Passed! Yay! 4 credits down, one million and a half to go. I'm feeling highly motivated lately. However, I'm also feeling guilty about the chaotic state in which my home finds itself. I knew this would happen. I knew life would take somewhat of a back seat to college but I still feel bad.

I haven't really gotten to do any fun baking/cooking lately. More of the same, but no time to blog about it! Our weekends are spent working on cleaning and fixing our GV house to get it on the market. I can't wait to have that time back. Especially as the weather is changing. It's definitely baking time. As I type, there are flurries of leaves swirling with grayish skies above. LOVE IT. Thinking of whipping up some pumpkin bread tonight. I made a batch of banana bread the other night and it was wonderful. Plus, the hubs and boys really like having it for breakfast (I don't mind either).

Temporary vacation is finished. Back to Educational Psychology and US History.!!

Peace Out :)

Calm before the storm

I have taken to writing my blog entries in the morning before work. I have found it just doesn't get done if I try and complete them at home; seems there are always about a million other things I should be doing. I greatly enjoy my few minutes before my co-workers get here where I can quietly catch up on emails and take a few minutes to reflect. This week is especially difficult for me because we are unveiling a brand new student information system to the school sites and I am responsible for training and implementing it. The first day of school was this past Monday and things seemed to roll out well. However, the real challenges are still ahead of me. Once I get everyone to at least grasp the whole concept, I should be in a better place. Until then, I feel like I'm being pulled in 37 different directions with expectations from everyone; no one wants to believe there could be another site that is as important as theirs. Lucky for them, they only have to worry about their one site. Me? I have 18 to be concerned about.

I'm going to allow myself to wander for a few minutes. Call it an escape if you will. Or, an update to how my weekend went and what happened around here!

First, we got some renters for our pasture. YAY! Finally we're not the weirdos down the road with 14+ empty acres. Our neighbor across the street has two mules and a horse that needed some new terrain and guess who just happened to have availability? The other exciting thing is that in September when he picks up his cows, he's dropping about a dozen or so onto our property. DOUBLE YAY! We will look like we belong out in the country!

Walking our new guests to their abode

Barry, who is a little intimidated by his size, feeding ER an apple

Our horse buddy, Dandy 

Right at home doing his job...Eat down the grass!

 We have greatly enjoyed having the animals on the property. Each night we go out and feed them the apples that have fallen from the trees. They were especially thrilled when we decided to give them a few carrots from the fridge. Such silly creatures. Their first day, they started galloping all around the perimeter of the pasture; just crazy circles! They are like big dogs. I'm told by hubs and boys that when they go out to work on irrigation, they are followed closely. I guess Chad had quite a parade going when he was on the tractor; turns out the three big guys wanted to be where ever he was. Silly.

View out my kitchen window

 I just love my blue glass. Wanted to share it with you. That's all.

Homemade Chicken Stock

 Sunday morning I made my first batch of homemade chicken stock. YUM! Smelled amazing. Just like fall (which is my ultimate goal ALWAYS). After simmering for several hours, I strained the stock and cooled and put in gallon freezer bags. And now I have three gallons of homemade stock. On top of that, I went through and pulled off all the meat and shredded it (I used bone in chicken breasts). Who has 5 quart bags in the freezer full of yummy shredded chicken? This girl!

PW Chicken Tacos. A mountain of them

 My family has become accustomed to PW (Pioneer Woman) tacos. They are amazing. Not low fat. But so good. This is a shot of them getting ready to be dressed at the table with our garnishes (I would have killed for some fresh avocado). You can find her recipe here.

Gingerbread topped with lightly sweetened cinnamon whipped cream

Last, but certainly not least, I decided I was going to FORCE Fall to make an entrance at my house. While the chicken stock was simmering, I got inspired to find a yummy spice recipe. I settled on Williams Sonoma Gingerbread (see recipe here...this isn't the exact recipe, but I couldn't find the one from my cookbook at home. Close enough). Oh-Em-Gee. I'm a huge lover of spice and molasses so this was right up my ally. Throw in that whipped cream and it was simply divine. Definitely a keeper.

So I suppose the time is up for my little detour from the real world. Back into student information systems. This weekend I'm hoping to attack freezer cooking, but we'll see. Need time to come up with what exactly I want to plan for.

Peace Out :)

...Oh, and the barn.......

Holy time flying, Batman!

As with anyone else out there in blog world, life has a tendency to get out of control and keep you from updating the ever present blog. I will try to stay in better contact...really I will.

Chad and I are in the (scary) process of purchasing our first home. I know, I know...confusing. Yes, we pay for the house we currently live in, but no, we were not able to buy it on our own 3 years ago...Hence his parents stepping in and helping us achieve our dream. But now, after years of hard work, we are able to stand on our own two feet and reach this goal together. What an amazing feeling, right? I couldn't be more proud of us.

Ok, enough of the background...back on to the house. We really wanted to find more acreage, as we are relying on the ability to have some cows (and possibly other livestock), and as any foothills resident will attest, large quantities of (usable) acreage in the Grass Valley area is few and far between. So we journeyed down the road a little to a small community in the lower foothills. And I do mean small. As in, a "grocery/hardware/post office" combo and church and school. Oh, and on the way out of town there is a pizza place that seems to be somewhat of the gathering place for the community. It's very quaint and cute, yet within 15 minutes of a much more substantial town complete with Raleys and Sam's Club.

I will soon be posting pictures of the property, but until then, allow me to elaborate. We have stumbled upon 24 acres completely fenced. Not only does it have the pasture acres desired for livestock, it also includes about 8 acres of heavily forested, raw land for the boys to explore in and camp...That and an endless firewood supply for the house :). The house is cozy and quirky and far from "cookie-cutter". There are many things to do to make it ours, and I am so excited to start that. Again, will include pictures of some of my favorite features (like the built in book shelves and the shutters).

Ok, my favorite part of the house....the 3000+ square foot rustic and beautiful barn. Oh, it is everything I have always pictured. And even better? There is a fenced off portion that butts up to the side of the barn that will serve as my garden down the road. How picturesque will that be? I'm working on convincing hubby that he WANTS to let me have some nasturtiums or other climbing flower on the side of the barn...we'll see how that goes.

Now that I have fully exposed the house, I sure hope that doesn't come and bite me in the rear...as in jinxing us. But we are halfway through escrow. It will work out how it's supposed to. Many changes on the horizon for us. I'm excited about our life as it unfolds.

Peace out.