Amishway Homesteaders

well seeing I am having to stay home with leg up (getting better) , or on crushes for the past week (see 'Michael is down and out' post) I have read even MORE books this week! And Thanks to the Kindle...........no bed bugs! On average I read 3 - 4 books a week and lori reads even more! Nothing bets going to bed on a cold night, light the lamps, and prop up the pillows and snuggle with a good book and your loved one.

Well it is Saturday and we are going to a 1 hour Postage Stamp Auction - no seats! So we will see how I do? Also the Movie Lincoln is playing in local theater just this weekend and seeing Lori LOVES Lincoln we are going. SO there I can sit for 3 hours. Know the owner so I have an aisle seat waiting and can bring in a foot stool so my leg is up!

Thanks- will try a few of these.........................

Day late..................dollar short!

............ well that stinks! I was thinking she went to the play house. LOL

LOL - well I did think of doing that but Lori has been good and helping out. When out today to do a little shopping at Aldies - but I got tired very quickly so Lori finished with our Amish friend helping out and I went out to the van. Sun is out (very pretty sunrise this am by the way) so I am out in Greenhouse ‘warming up’ watching birds, reading (with leg up) and having a cup of tea. Ya know…………….. I might get used to this yet! LOL

Thanks for alll the well wishes. NOW is the time I am glad for my Kindle because I can lay on the couch (with leg up) and STILL get on the internet! Who Knew................................

Do you know how much you CAN"T do while on crutches? ............and you have to KNOW 10 minutes before potty time! I wanted to make breakfest - 5 steps to frige, take out eggs. Can't hold them AND crutches! hobble along counter until I get eggs to stove. Take out pan and hobble back to frige to get bread and ham slices. hobble along counter until I get to stove, Start cooking. Turn to get coffee going and it is WAY over there on counter! get out coffee pot, hobble over to sink to fill! I forogt coffee so back to get filter and coffe.......... pick up what I spilled! back to sink to get water and 'try' and get coffeepot on stove. Now eggs are done but no dish? hobble along counter until I get to dishrack, get dish head back to stove. Forgot folk and knife........... back to dishrack. coffee is done but mug is STILL in dishrack %^$#$%!!!!!!! All done at last so I pick up coffee mug and dish with ham and eggs on it -forgot to make toast$%#^$#! Turn to get cruches and now I CAN"T pick up food and drink AND crutches and get back to breakfest table! Go and wake up Lori and ask for help.

Michael is down and out! The day started off so nice as Lori and I got to ride on the back of a hay wagon with our legs hanging over the back as Freeman (Amish) drove from his barn through the snow covered field to the side road to get to his son’s home where we were to unload 50 bales of hay. The cows came a running thinking we had feed for them and the horse in the other field stopped to see where we were headed. When that hay was unload into his barn (down on ground level) we headed over to Ben’s (Amish) to unload the other 150 bales into his barn. They had gotten the conveyer ready to load the hay up in the hayloft of the big barn. We all took jobs and mine was to go up and help unload as the bales came off the conveyer and stack them up with 2 other Amish Friends. Well things were going great until I put my foot, leg and kneecap though a space in the flooring and I was STUCK! The flooring was 2x 4’s with a small spacing between each one, I found the one with the spacing just a bit wider as one board had warped a bit making the space wide enough for my foot and leg to go throw BUT not come back out! No matter what I did I could not get it past my kneecap? Meanwhile bales of hay are still coming up as the ones down below have no idea what happened. As one Amish climbed down to stop the motor the other one tried to pick me up so I could turn and see it that helped. As the minutes went by with my leg starting to swell and hay bales coming at me as I sat on the floor in pain – I thought of not being able to ever see you guys ever again……….Not! After we decided there was no way of me getting free one Amish Guy decided we would have to get the chainsaw and cut me out? NO! not my leg! I need my leg! I cried/ laughed, but I knew they meant the 2x4’s holding me; meanwhile the horses down below us are looking up at ‘THAT THING’ hanging down from the ceiling wondering if it is a treat or a bat? To help make it easier to cut me out one helper started to move some of the lose hay away from me and the boards. Hey, there is a bit wider space about a foot ahead of you that may let you get your kneecap back up from the flooring, they said? So they picked me up and moved me inch by inch until we got to the part that I could pull my leg back out, and pulling hard it popped back up. They want to stop but I said no let me just sit here a minute while you finish unloading the wagon. Seeing I was in a lot of pain and a bit dizzy I didn’t help with rest of the load. The only good part, Lori was inside helping the Ladies do things and didn’t see me fall or get stuck. Well that is until she came out looking for me to ask about driving an Amish Family shopping the next day and when she asked where I was one of the girls said ‘up in the hayloft’. Can he come down so I can ask him something? ‘Well no he can’t!’ So we get done and everyone starts climbing down from up above using the sides of the horse stables and the gates until I realize there ain’t no way I am doing THAT. So we had to wait until someone found a ladder and I could go out the hay door ( after they moved the conveyer out of the way) and climb down with EVERYONE watching as I hobbled down one step at a time to the ground. Lori asked how bad it was and I said let’s not do anything here ( I didn’t want all the Amish Ladies looking over me and bandaging me up and I was in PAIN) just get the van and we will go home. At home we found I had scraped my leg up very bad and lost patches of skin as well as a few cuts, my kneecap is very sore and swollen (as well as the leg) and I am on crutches and staying home. So that’s my story………….. How was your day?

While I like to leave things like carrots out in the garden so I can go out in the middle of the winter to harvest, I give you this warning. They are out there no growing but still using the soil so I have to watch what I put where and make sure I give the soil a good 'feeding' after I pull what's left come spring. I never plant stuff I plan to leave anywhere I plan to put in new seeds come early spring - like Peas. Also be on the lookout because mice and some bug LOVE to dig tunnels under the snow and run along the ground for 'free' meals all winter long! Another reason we leave some stuff out so they can have 'fresh' greens. LOL Michael (smiles take too long to load)

Good thing I shoveled those paths the other day out to the out buildings! Lori said we were having a fish fry and here we have no Cabbage in the house. But wait! So off I went out to the garden with a snow shovel, take the path that goes past the compost bins to the greenhouse. It was just a short dig to clear a path to the raised bed that we had Cabbage growing last year. Well I had 'tried' to get in a second harvest with the last of the cabbage plants I had started in the summer but they were too small to harvest so I cover them.......... and forgot about them! Well I dug up one (small) but go enough to make cole slaw for Supper! On the way back dug down in another part of the garden and pulled up a carrot to go with it. I Love that I can leave stuff out in the gardens (under cover until it snows) and harvest in the middle of the winter. This will come in handy if (when) the time comes where we can’t get into town for supplies? “It’s a good thing- Martha!”

Here we are at the end of the year and if you have read the book Bytander (and why NOT!) you know what happens on New Year’s Day. Let’s all hope things go a bit better for us as we enter the year 2013 and make a list of things we want to get done so we are more prepared. AND most of all stick to it and get it done this time! LOL

The Hare Dryer Jimmy ran into his house in a panic. "Mom, Rover killed Buttercup and dragged him through the mud!" Jimmy's mom got upset. "I told you not to let your dog pester the neighbor's rabbit," she said as she looked at the dead rabbit in Rover's mouth. "How are we going to explain what happened to the Johnson's?" she said in panic. "Relax," Jimmy's dad said as he entered the room. "The Johnson's are gone for the day, I've got an idea." He took the rabbit over to the bathroom. He took a sponge and shampoo and started washing all the dirt off of the rabbit. After he finished he took a hair dryer and dried it off. He walked with Jimmy over to their neighbor's yard. He opened the cage and placed the rabbit inside. "There he looks nice and clean. It will look like Buttercup died a nice peaceful death. They'll never suspect that Rover chewed him up." The next day Jimmy's dad woke up after hearing a scream from the neighbor's house. He walked out to the fence and leaned over. "Is there something wrong Mrs. Johnson?" "My rabbit!" was all she said. "Well, animals die you know. That's just a fact of life." Mrs. Johnson shook her head. "You don't understand. He was already dead and we buried him!"

this is the time we go shopping for DEALS! Just look at what you can get cheap now and think of ways to use them besides Christmas. Just like you guys are doing - if it don't have 'Christmas' all over the wrapping........... GREAT! now also is the time to find a few gifts on sale for next year.

On my Kindle IJust read 2 books on hiking the ACT trail in the east and the PCT trail out west. very good books and it might come in handy IF we have to hike out when the time comes? I used to do a lot of day hikes (also walked 6-8 miles a day from home to Lori's work place so I could ride home with her) so it was nice to read about the long hikes. Also got a few guide books on hikes from Library -Lori worries I might leave. LOL

I want one in my Stocking! but seeing we have none of those stores around us......................................... never mind.

...... it is so log cabiny and earthy and homestead home type of thing and well......................... I love it!

thank you! it is sooooooooooooooooooooo pretty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YES! ..........YES! ..........................YES! what a great Christmas Gift you just gave me (and others too I hope)

Love the new shout box- Love that we have chat back too. trying to live with the 'elegia' skin- but is not a earthy brown like the LOGO is (think homestead)

OK, I knew that because I always plant eggshells (ground up) with Tomatoes and other things in garden. Now as to 'eating' them- I think I would make sure that I washed then real well just in case any of that bad salmonella was left behind form the eggs? Never had it with the chickens that lay our eggs but you never know?

Thanks for the Linky!

OK just found out John os stopping the listing and today there is a great book even if you don't look everyday at the List. See the 12/18/12 listings for a great FREE book on making one of those small survival tins in the breath mint tin! everything is there for you to make one! well........... except you have to get your own stuff. LOL

Hey John, Thanks for all the posting you did for this and YES I bookmarded it way back when. See the 12/18/12 listings for a great FREE book on making one of those small survival tins in the breath mint tin! Michael

Thanks but it must not be on the Kindle Fire? I did get to see it by going to YouTube and loading it from there onto Kindle. It was our 'date movie' of the week - Lori and I were at Library checking on things so we went to sit in Wi-Fi area and found it, loaded it and listened with our earplug so we could hear the sound. Now what we have is just a 'bud' headset but if we sit together on the couch and each put one side of bud in our ear we can listen to what is being said. People walk by seeing us both huddled together watching the small screen and think it is so romantic - but we have to do that so the cord from the earplug doesn't pull out! LOL Also watched a few of the outdoor Christmas Displays on YouTube while there. Wish we could have turned off the Library Lights but we were not alone.