Ponderings by Plowgirl

Well, Plowbaby got a pretty good haul for Christmas. In fact, I think there are more toys and games in my livingroom than at ToysRUs and Wal-Mart! It was a great day. I wish I could keep her 3 forever. This was such a fun year to watch her, she really "got it" this year. Not only did she "get" the presents/Santa part, she really got the Christmas story of Baby Jesus and His birth. It was soooo cool to hear her re-tell the story in her own 3 year old version. Let's see, we'll do a check list of her list: Hungry, Hungry Hippos game...... CHECK Color Wonder Magic Brush........ CHECK (Santa) EleFun Game....... CHECK (Santa) TinkerBell Movie....... CHECK been watching that one every nite before bed Barbie Holiday Movie with the Diamond Castle Movie My Little Pony Ferris Wheel Scooby Doo House Game Barbie Peek-a-Boo Candy Land....... CHECK Lucky Ducks....... CHECK a digital camera........ CHECK you'll see a blog about this one coming soon! :) But t...

With today being Christmas, you should not be surprised that the major celebrities have taken the day off. Yep, you're stuck with a guest blogger! This is plowboy, and I've been assigned the task of getting some pictures up, so here you go!

a pink Christmas????? Yes, we have a pink tree this year. You can guess whose room it is in! This will probably be the only tree I put up this year.....and that's just fine with me. Since the contents of the basement went into storage for the duration of "the project", this included the Christmas stuff and the tree. I spent some time in the storage unit today digging out a few essentials. Plowbaby was estatic when I returned home with her Fisher-Price Little People Nativity set. and a quick basement update................today was the carpenter's last day here. The new west wall, and the stair wall are now drywalled and taped. Now I need to get busy and start hauling out the construction remnants and cleaning. Next up: paint. Anyone want to volunteer to help paint??? happy trails, and stay warm! plowgirl

Last night was our annual Young Farmers Christmas party. Santa arrived after we were finished eating. The kiddos were so excited! All of them lined up to tell Santa of the newest, greatest, most hip, fab toy out there on their list. (Not to mention the most expensive!) There were losts of Wii's and X-Boxes, and PlayStations mentioned. I'm glad we're not at the stage yet, and Plowbaby will be happy with a $12 Hungry Hungry Hippos Game! The evening was a success, and we had a fun time eating and conversing with friends.

I'm sure those of you who have kiddos have seen their Wish Lists. Plowbaby has been working on hers for several weeks now. Every commercial that is on TV gets the response "Add that to my list too!" She is told that she can add to the List, but that doesn't mean that she gets everything on the List. So far the List looks like this: Hungry, Hungry Hippos game Color Wonder Magic Brush EleFun Game TinkerBell Movie Barbie Holiday Movie with the Diamond Castle Movie My Little Pony Ferris Wheel Scooby Doo House Game Barbie Peek-a-Boo Candy Land Lucky Ducks a digital camera She is getting a few of the things on the list, but NOT ALL!!!! My list is much smaller: more Fiestaware and a new pair of cowboy boots. Of course, I'd settle for : the kitchen sink faucet to be replaced, the bathtub spout to quit dripping, someone to texture and paint the "new" walls in the basement, ahhhh, this list could go on for miles! What do you want Santa to bring you this year? H...

(title sung to the tune of "Breakin' up is hard to do" by Neil Sedaka! My cold wasn't nearly as gone as I thought it was in the last post. The morning after we returned home, Plowboy took Plowbaby and I to Urgent Care. A couple hundred dollars and many drugs later, we are finally on the mend. The "vacation" that Plowbaby and I took was for a week back "home" to my Dad's. My brother lives in Portland, Ore and only gets "home" once a year.....and it revolves around chasing birds! He brought his girls along on the trip. They are 9 and 6, and are the best little travelers. My sister also visited and left her daughter for the weekend. So we had 4 girls, ages 9,8,6 and 3 all together under the same roof! It was a blast for the cousins to get to know each other. They had so much fun playing dress up, rock concert, doing craft projects, playing tea party, and just generally being wild! On Sunday, the 4 of them sang a special song in ...

My apologies for my disappearance for the last 2 weeks. This week I have been on "vacation" with little to no internet access, and last week, I was so sick I just didn't feel up to posting. The cold is now pretty much gone, and I will be returning home to blog more tomorrow. (I have LOTS of great pictures and stories to write about!) I even have a recipe complete with step by step pictures for you. This recipe is a MUST for your Thanksgiving Day dessert table!!!! Stay tuned....hang with me, I will be back! Happy trails, ~plowgirl

well, the update is that there is nothing to update. Nothing has happened with the house since last week. If the weather would cooperate, maybe we'd get something done. I hope this raining every3-4 days isn't a trend for the rest of the winter. However, the boys did get started cutting beans on Saturday. On Saturday, the nieces from Joplin and their kiddos were over to Grandma's for lunch. Plowbaby enjoyed the afternoon playing with her cousins. Happy trails for today plowgirl

It's been awhile since I "foodie" blogged, so I thought I'd give you a recipe to try. I made this one last night to take to Thursday Lunch today. It was one of my old standby Pampered Chef recipes that I'd do at shows. It is a quick and easy recipe to toss together and doesn't require any "special" tools. (Sorry I didn't take step by step pics for you). Hope you enjoy it. Haven't found anyone yet who doesn't! Praline Cheesecake Crust: Melt 1/4 cup of butter in Large Batter bowl add 1 1/4 cup crushed graham crackers and 1/4 cup packed brown sugar. Mix together well and press firmly into the bottom of a springform pan. Place in freezer until ready to use. Filling: (I use a mixer for this step) Soften 16 oz (2 bricks) cream cheese Cream softened cream cheese and 1 cup caramel ice cream topping. (I like Smuckers in the squeeze bottle) To that, add 2/3 carton of a 12 oz carton of cool-whip. (Save remaining cool-whip) Next, add 8 oz of ...

There was a crane at the farm on Monday to erect the grain leg. I created 11 minute video montage, and if I figure out how to post it, I will. There are a few stills also if I can find them. Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com In other news, Steve is here working on the brickwork. He and I cleaned mortar off of the old brick Monday. Yesterday, Mark and I went to Joplin and picked up the new brick. Today Steve "toothed" out the old brick by the windows so the wall can be re-bricked. (We are using the "old" brick as to match with the existing brick). Depending upon the weather tonight, we might have the brickwork completed by the end of the week! This is the window on the south First row of bricks on the new wall (west) This is the window on the north More later, stay tuned! plowgirl

"Mommy I have to mark my 'X' on my calendar, it's Halloween!" was the first thing out of Plowbaby's mouth this morning! This year she decided she wanted to be like "Bootsie" her kitten for Halloween. Pretty easy costume, and I think I spent a grand total of $12, and that was for the black hoodie jacket. Just gotta love homemade costumes. I had the leggings, socks, shoes, mittens and ears (she was a black kitten for her very first Halloween too.......she just doesn't remember it!). I found the black jacket at Target. I dug some white felt out of the stash to fashion the white tummy patch, and also dug some quilt batting out of the quilting stash to "stuff" the tail. (Gotta love the fact the I'm a pack rat.....if ya need it, I probably have it somewhere!!!) Grabbed some eyeliner from the makeup drawer and had the face painted in no time. She did so good at sitting still. We went trick or treating to a few neighbors and of co...

A little Halloween humor for the morning! Basement update to come later. Disclaimer: I'm not that talented. So, nope this isn't my handy-work. I wish I could take credit for it tho!

I hope to have a Tuesday p.m. update for you also!!!! But so far, the carpenters have the "upstairs" wall straightened out (bowed by the caving in old concrete wall), the sill plates are replaced and the house is again bolted back down to the basement walls. They are working on the framing of the west wall for the windows. It won't be a walk out basement, but a view-out one. Framing for the south window A little better pic of how the new wall will look Stay tuned!

Brrrrrrrr............but at least we don't have ice on the puddles like some people I know! :) This morning's progress includes: The carpenter's are here to put up the wall and the windows in. I should not have the huge hole in the side of the house much longer!!!! HORRAY!!!! and Mark is out burning the brush pile (trees cleared from the west yard) and the old furniture from the basement. Sorry, Grandma, but the couch you bought in 1963 had to go. It had served all of us well! And in case any of you were wondering how many days it us until Halloween, Plowbaby has it all down. She is as anxious for Halloween as I am. This is my favorite holiday.......well, maybe,next to Thanksgiving. The first week of October, she was driving me crazy asking about 4 times an hour if it was Halloween yet. So, I printed off a calendar that she could mark the days down until Halloween. The first thing she does each morning is get up and ask if she can mark her "X" on the cal...

..............................and finally we are ready to pour concrete! The first truck (north side of house) The second truck (south side of house) Both trucks (I'm in the south yard, looking north) Pouring the north walls Pouring west stem wall Pouring south walls Action shot! Finishing south wall What is he doing???? Dave is using his hands to "shove" the concrete into the forms, to make a full height wall. Finishing the stem wall The completed concrete job