Day of Preparation...

It's the Day of Preparation at my house. Yours too?
Helpful tip of the day....
Taste your batter, fillings, and everything.  You never know if you missed an ingredient like sugar.  Yes, sugar!  One year I was making pumpkin pies.  I poured the filling into the shells and slid them into the oven.  While cleaning up the bowls and beaters, I tasted the pumpkin pie filling -- ick!  No sugar!  Thankfully I was able to pull the pies out of the oven poured the filling back into the bowl so I could add sugar.  One little lick of the spoon or beaters just might save the day!


Happy Thanksgiving!

Snow day and eyeing sheep...

 

  

The snow blew in this morning around 6:00 and didn't stop all day long.  I suppose we have 3-4" of snow on the level, but since the ground was warm, there was plenty of melting underneath despite the constant snowfall on the topside.  We are so grateful for the moisture it's providing.  It settles the dust and softens the grass to make it more palatable for the livestock.  The sheep love to eat snow just like children like to eat snow!

Hubby and I went out to feed cows and sheep this morning.  They were glad to see us.  It really wasn't that cold -- maybe 25* -- but they always love to hear our horn honk and see the cake feeder driving up to them.

Yesterday our neighbor sheep shearer came over and we eyed the sheep.  That means he sheared the wool off the sheep's faces so they can see in winter conditions.  Some sheep have lots of wool on their faces despite our efforts to select "open faced" ewes when we choose our replacements.  When they have so much wool on their faces, we call them "wool blind" and it can be a bad thing since sheep flock and follow one another.  You know the phrase:  the blind leading the blind?  That's what can happen when the majority of the sheep are wool blind and get a layer of snow and ice caked over their eyes.  They can drift in with the snow and not know where they are or where they're going.  But as you can see, our sheep are not wool blind but have nicely sheared, open faces -- and in just the nick of time!  The snow came the following day!  I'm happy for the sheep being able to see and to lick snow today.

What is your November weather looking like?  We built a fire in the wood-burning stove today.  Nice 'n' cozy!

Moon shine...

When I look at YOUR heavens

The work of YOUR fingers

The Moon and the Stars

Which YOU have made

What is man

that you are mindful of him?

and the son of man

that you care for him?

~Psalm 8:3

 ...............................

Are you looking up?

At the moon? 

Praise!

Fly-Over Country....

Yesterday was Election Day and I was honored to sit on our local election board serving at my first General Election at the Community Hall with the Outdoor Toilets.  This is how we roll in the Sticks.  The first time I voted in Rural America 35 years ago, we all voted at the Little Missouri Lutheran Church which also has outdoor toilets, but that polling place is no more.  Folks come from approximately a 50 mile radius to exercise their right to vote at the Hall.  And boy, do they turn out!  Although we are a small community of souls, our voter turn out was 96% according to my calculations.  How about that?

There are lots of smiles and handshakes and "How ya doing?" at the Hall on Election Day.  Its as much a celebration for us as it is an exercise of our rights as citizens of the USA.  These fine folks are proud to be Americans and they'll gladly let you know it.  We don't get many politicians coming to our state or our communities to glad-hand for our votes.  We live in Fly-Over Country.  It's big, it's vast, it's rural, and our population is small so we tend not to be heard so much, but we take our right to speak through our votes very seriously.

Today, the day after the election, I was appointed to deliver the counted ballots to the county seat, a 72 mile drive, one way, through Fly-Over Country.  I thought it would be fun to take you along so here's a little photo journal of my trip. (And here's a little road trip music for your listening pleasure -- a song I woke up with in my head yesterday!  Peace of Mind by Boston.)