Time saving

I have been trying to diet by eating less carbs and I found that if I eat a beef patty in the morning I am not starving for hours! It really helps me cut out any snacking and I am slowly losing weight. My whole problem with pan frying the patty was the mess afterward and then I realized that I can cook it in my toaster oven on a piece of foil with the sided crumpled up to make a little "pan" of it's own and then when it is done all I have to do is throw the foil in the trash and everything is clean! I love it!!

Etsy shop

I have finally gotten around to opening an Etsy shop. I do have a problem though. I don't have a beautiful banner to use.
Well, come on over and take a look at it when you have time.

www.enchantedhills.etsy.com

I've been busy

I have been very busy making soap lately for a large order I received from a gift shop. I think I have enough made with a large enough selection that people will be inclined to buy more than one. The bars are small and so the price is low enough that people are able to many fragrances without killing their wallet.

Here are the pictures:

Apple

Black Raspberry

Island Delight

Lavender

Oatmeal, Goat's Milk and Honey

Patchouli/ Lemongrass

Plumeria

Sandalwood Rose
Spearmint Eucalyptus Salt Bar

Sunday Dinner (Pioneer Style)

I was just reading Robynn's Ravings where she was telling about how easy it was for her mom to kill farm animals. It made me think of a story my Mom told me about when she was a young or pre-teen living in rural South Dakota.

She told me that every Sunday her Mom would kill a couple chickens and fix a big Sunday dinner after Church. She said that there was a space in the back porch steps that her Mom would slip the head of the chicken in and then hold onto the legs so that the chicken was upside down. She would then give a good yank on it and that would kill the chicken. Easy peasy.

One Sunday my Mom decided that she didn’t want to go to Church and Grandma tried to make her go but she refused. When Grandma decided she couldn’t force her to come without dragging her she told Mom “Ok, you can stay home but you will have to kill the chickens and fix the dinner. Have it fixed by the time we get home” and then the rest of the family left for Church. I am sure that Grandma and Grandpa got quite a chuckle thinking about what was going on at home.

Mom said that she chased and chased the first darn chicken all over the yard. She slipped and fell and was all skinned up but she wouldn’t give up. She got it in a corner and thought she had it but it let out a squawk and flew out over her head and the chase was on again. She was running bent over at the waist with her arms spread out trying to catch the darn thing and she ran head first into the wooden fence of the cow pen and fell backwards onto her rear. The cows were watching her with what looked like to her…with amusement. Her dog was following her and barking and adding to the chaos and not being much of a help. She got herself up and dusted off, rubbed her forehead, wiped her tears and got more determined. Finally the dog scared the chicken and it flew into the air and Mom was able to catch it by a leg as it flew past.

She then had to fight with the chicken to keep it from pecking her as she put the head in the space in the porch steps and yanked. Nothing happened. The chicken lived. She kept trying and it just wouldn’t die. She really wasn’t someone that could just kill an animal and this was very hard on her to keep trying to kill this poor chicken. After several attempts Mom gave up and put the chicken in a cage for Grandma to deal with and went inside. There was no thought of going after a second chicken.

She cleaned herself up and fixed the big dinner minus the chicken.

She was the first one out the door to go to Church the next Sunday.

Jail Break!

This morning I got a knock on the door and since I am expecting a package I thought it was the mail lady. Instead it was a man that lives a couple miles from me telling me that there are three horses loose on the highway, and did I know who they belonged to. I told him that the horses that live at the next corner always get out. He didn't seem to think these were the same ones but he left. Another neighbor has horses across and over from me so I called her and told her that two sorrels and a bay were out, were they hers? She said she didn't think so but she would come up and take a look. I met her out there and she said they weren't hers and the horses that always get out were still in so we decided to move them to the corral across the road from me. This is right on the highway and this way when the owner drives by they will see them.
The plan was for me to walk behind them and heard them into the lot. They were so tame that me walking behind, yelling (not really yelling but talking out loud) and waving my arms didn't move them at all. Then I tried walking ahead of them gently talking to them and making clicking noises. One of them started following me and that got the others to follow. Then they stopped so I went to the side of the road and pulled some dry grass and held it out to them. They looked at it and went over to where I pulled it and started grazing. Hum. Not what I was trying for. Then the mail lady came driving up and they still didn't move. I thought that she might be able to heard them to the gate but they made her stop. She told us what road they had come from which was an entirely different place I thought they would have come from.
The girl that was helping me drove up to me and I got an empty feed bag out of the back of her 4 wheeler and shook it. That got their attention and they followed me right on in and she shut the gate behind us.
We then went driving around to see if we could decide who's horses they were. We decided they belong to some friends of mine that have moved to another state and have someone else watching them.
Now phone calls are being made to the guy that is taking care of them and to the man who's corral we put them into but they are safe and no one will hit them on the road. They are in very good shape and I am loving watching them run and play across the road.

Big soap order!

Ok, the order isn't for "BIG" soap but for a large number of small soaps and I am so excited. I have been in a slump. Not really feeling like making soap. Now I have to make lots of soap. I need to make ten batches but since I only have one mold it is all coming along slowly. I now have five batches done but one of them is giving me trouble. When I first made it there was a problem with separation so I poured it into the stainless steel bowl and cooked it double boiler method. It looked good so I put it in the mold. The next day it separated again. Just a little bit but I wasn't comfortable with it so it is now in the double boiler again. The good thing about cooking soap is that when it is used it gives awesome bubbles!

Gotta get back to stirring.

Meet and greet tour

We have a small town nearby and they have a new police officer that has come up with a great way to meet as many of the folks as possible. He has 3 places in town that everyone knows about (now that he's been doing it for a few days) where he sits with his radar and pulls people over for speeding. What a fantastic way to get to know the towns people! I was warned about him so I haven't met him yet but my best friend received a warning for going 5 miles over the speed limit. We can now rest assured that the streets will be safe with this officer on duty!

Blog Award!

I was tagged by Teresa of Elegance by Mode so I'm spreading the love!!!
Honorees please follow these instructions and share the LUV!
1. Put the logo on your blog or post. (You can highlight the photo and text of this post and copy/paste wherever you need to...start your highlight from the bottom up to get the photo).
2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show GREAT ATTITUDE and/or GRATITUDE
3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received the award.

These are some of the blogs I try to keep up with. Check them out when you have the time. I'm sure you will enjoy them too.

Lomond Soap

My Adventure With Soap

Free Printable Fun for Everyone

One Bubble at a Time

Robynn's Ravings

My Foil Hat

Moonstruckmagic

Fresholi Bites

Crazy Town, USA

The Copper Cauldron

My Doggie Family

I talk about my doggies now and then and I thought I should show you a picture of them. The chair they are on is a love seat sized recliner so they aren't as tiny as they would seem if that was a regular sized chair. They weigh between 6 and 9 pounds. Oso is the "Poppa" and he is the only long hair. I was hoping to get a mixture of long and short hair pups but it didn't happen. Suki is the "Momma" and she was my first. She doesn't like anyone but me. Or at least that is how it was in the beginning. Then we learned that if you feed her cheese she will fall in love with you. Forever. The trick is to hold it and make her eat it from your fingers. If you just drop it on the floor she will love the cheese and not you. My family feels it is well worth the effort to have Suki love you. Oprah was the first puppy. I gave her to my youngest son and his wife but after awhile they brought her back. Then came ChaChee and Cisco. Cisco went to my other son and his girlfriend but they brought him back too. ChaChee was always mine. Now, when I wasn't looking ChaChee and Cisco bred their sister, Oprah and I was so upset. There were three puppies but only one survived. I didn't expect the pup to live so I didn't give her a name for a long time. Then when it looked like she was normal and just might live to a ripe old age I tried to come up with a name for her. She didn't seem to like any of them. And then one of the older dogs started messing with her and I said, "Leave the baby alone" and she turned and came running to me. It was then that I realized that whenever I spoke about her to the other dogs I called her "The baby" and so now she answered only to "Baby". That was when I really understood just how smart she really was. I didn't even have to try to get her to learn her name. I am so glad I wasn't calling her "The little shit head"!!