It’s night night time on the farm. Everyone’s fed and tucked in for the night… The hens are roosting in the Chick Inn. The baby pullets have their night time ration of food, their heat lamp is plugged in, and their apple bin is covered up snugly against the cold wind. I even fed Ooffy,…
“Food prepared with a light heart and in a happy frame of mind is often the best food. Preparing the special foods that are favorites of those you love…making just a little effort to garnish the salad with a sprig of parsley, a bit of grated cheese, or a wild strawberry from the nearby meadow….
Flipping through a new cookbook, just glancing at the pictures can make your mouth start to water. But before you pay for the cookbook based on salivary appeal alone, take a second look, and see if you can actually make the recipes included. Is it so gourmet that it calls for ingredients that aren’t in…
Mondays are usually laundry day here on our corner of the farm. Unless we’ve used our day off from tending the store to go to town, I usually tackle sorting the loads of laundry as soon as Merritt’s off to do his day’s projects. It’s the kind of thing one wants first-of-the-week energy for. Especially…
Becoming a parent turns the topics of burps and messy diapers into everyday conversation. It also makes you a connoisseur of baby products. Don’t get Merritt and me started on collapsible baby gyms, one-piece potty chairs, or folding baby swings. Things have changed a lot since our youngest siblings were born 10 and 16 years…
I guess I’m a real farm girl now. I have baby chicks in my kitchen. Their adorable little peeps fill up our house. Ruthie loves to watch them. (Just wait until next year…!) But they get a little worried when she cries. We went to the feed store yesterday morning to see about ordering the…
“I need say nothing of household economy, in which the mothers of our country are generally skilled, and generally careful to instruct their daughters. We all know its value, and that diligence and dexterity in all its processes are inestimable treasures. The order and economy of a house are as honorable to the mistress as…
One of the wonderful things about owning an antique store is it gives you an excuse to go book shopping–and an outlet to sell books to make more room on your bookshelves. Often I’ll pick up a book at a sale because it looks interesting, but after reading it decide it’s not one I want…
We have something I wish more young married couples had–a fast internet connection. And by “fast” I don’t mean the lightning speed of satellite, DSL, or cable. I mean, fast on, fast off. Pull into the empty library parking lot after church, click “Send and Receive”, and check our list of websites for the week…
When Merritt brought home a flier about our library’s summer reading program, neither he nor I thought I would have any problem reading five books over the summer. I had been a veritable bookworm during the slow spring days at the store. But then summer came–and there was never a spare moment for reading at…
My state and rain. The two are synonymous. I was born and raised here so I love it, though I’m accused of having webbed feet. But there’s nothing like the first rain of fall to remind me anew why I love the rain. It is so cleansing, so refreshing. The rain makes me think of…
Goodbye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton This is one of the few stories for which I am glad I saw the movie first. For then, as I read this short little book, I could picture the grey-whiskered little man of the 1939 movie. And the scenes that had touched me so in the movie, gripped…
The End.
The End.