What's everybody doing today?

[Terri9630]

It's been snowing like crazy here - forecasting up to 19 inches. Not sure how deep it is right now, but it looks like at least a foot! Will be spending New Years wrapped up in my quilt in front of the fire either writing or working on my counted cross stitch...a perfect day off!

Hubby had to be at work on the 2nd or we wouldn't have minded getting snowed in for a few extra days. No way was I gonna drive down the mountain in my 2wd truck in all that mess. (Hubby would have probably killed me as I was down to 2 Dr Peppers and I get grumpy when I run out.)

Enjoy your fire and stay warm and comfortable.

 

[Weedygarden]

I've got my black eyed peas cooking in the crock pot and collard greens are on the stove. I didn't get the greens made yesterday. I was tired and went to bed early and then slept through the New Year at midnight and woke up around 4:00 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep. I got up and started cooking. I am glad to have these two dishes cooked so there is more time at my daughter's house to make the corn bread, smothered steak and rice.

It was minus 1 this morning when I watched the news, and has warmed up to 8 degrees. The high today is supposed to be 17, but it is supposed to warm up everyday this week and will be 60 degrees on Friday.

 

[Weedygarden]

Going to a New Year gathering so more cookies today. Buttermilk sugar this time. Have a great evening everyone.
View attachment 9979

I have had cookies from the following recipe. I wonder how similar this recipe is to your? They look like yours when they are done, minus the icing. The grandmother who made these (not my grannie) always made the icing pink, and now everyone in her family does as well, including her grandson.

Pink Icing Cookies
(Grandma's recipe)

1 cup shortening or margarine or butter flavored shortening (butter)
1 ½ cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt (optional)
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 cups flour
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
¼ teaspoon lemon extract
1) Mix buttermilk and baking soda in glass measuring cup (at least 3 cup size as mixture foams and grows)- set aside
2) Cream shortening and sugar, and then add egg, vanilla, lemon, mix until smooth and creamy
3) Sift dry ingredients together (flour, salt, baking powder)
4) Mix dry ingredients into creamed mixture, alternating with milk mixture
5) Chill covered over night
6) Drop by a teaspoon onto a cookie sheet. Gluten free tend to be better if they are a little larger. Bake large sized cookies at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes; grease and flour pan; jelly roll pan or similar thick cookie sheet works best

Icing:

½ cup of margarine or butter softened
3 ounces cream cheese softened (usually needs more so get 6 oz package)
4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Red food coloring

1) Beat all ingredients together until smooth- may need a couple of tablespoons of milk to make right consistency for frosting but wait until after tasting to add;
2) Tasting by local experts to decide if need more cream cheese or vanilla; beat in more cream cheese and/or vanilla until tastes right; add milk if needed
3) Add a few drops of red food coloring and beat- may add more drops until desired color
4) Frost cookies generously

 

[NannyPatty]

@NannyPatty thank you for the information on the rents and you too @MoBookworm1957. That is unusual that rents are pegged to people's income in the States although they do do that with public housing here. The rest of the rental market is a free for all and you get what you get and try to get the lowest price possible before everyone else does.

MoBookworm1957 I can imagine your niece would have been shocked when she first got here about our prices in Australia and high cost of living.

NannyPatty our new home is from what we have measured around 170 square metres in size and we have the main house and a step down about 5 stairs to the back of the home which has a large rumpus room and second bathroom and toilet. I think that converts to around 1829 square feet and that doesn't include the outside undercover patio area outside the back door. It is a really large home which is what we were after and set on 1.21 acres of land and I believe from looking at American stats this home could be a fair amount smaller than the average home in the States ?, but I could be wrong.

SC, not every one can get housing assistance. Our house is about the same size as yours. We added a room on in the 90s and a detached garage. We also have close to 8 acres. It’s a great place, but getting almost too big for us to take care of. Are you going to have chickens now that you have room?

 

[snappy1]

Our house is about 1170 sq. ft. Smaller than our home in FL but plenty big enough for us now. Although, I am feeling cramped with the eBay clothing in 4 different rooms (although it is organized).

Already have the laundry almost finished and getting ready to commence with the New Year dog washing extravaganza! They wish this was the only time it gets done. LOL Making Buffalo cauliflower later to go with leftover grilled chicken.

Happy New Year, ya'll!!!

 

[Meerkat]

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU.

Been busy lately so not on much. I got deep into a study but slowly digging back out.

 

[Swing]

HAPPY 2019 EVERYONE! May you be healthy, have enough funds and a bit, and be happy in your life.

Right now I’m watching Rose Parade. My favorite parade of all. One day I’d love to see in person and smell it.

 

[hiwall]

Happy New Year everyone!
We got 6 or 7 inches of new snow here. We are going no where until some melts (though I'm sure my truck would have no problem).
Nice to hear from you again Grimm!

 

[MoBookworm1957]

Sewing Creation 15,
My apartment is 725 square feet.
2 bedrooms,1 bath
kitchen,living room
front patio
That's it.
Rent 238
electric about 50 all year,has been 35 sometimes.
About half in the complex that get Government assistance.
But I'm not one of them,guess I could try to get assistance and move to brand spanking new apartment.
But would have to give up a lot:
Strawberry
BBQ
Gardening
What I would gain is my own garage,my own laundry area,700 square feet inside and out.
And the government in my business.
Not worth it to me.

 

[Grimm]

I spent yesterday getting the girls' bathroom decluttered and cleaned. We ran to Target to get a few small things to help with the organizing. Today we tried to got see a movie with the girls and once we were in the theater with our popcorn they announced the sound system was down. We got re-admin tickets for a later date and headed home.

Nothing really going on today or the rest of the week. I'll go grocery shopping tomorrow or Thursday but nothing like our monthly Costco trip which is planned for the weekend.

 

[Hooch]

tromped up to my neighbors ranch to check on their kitties.
Snow drift was kinda deep in a few spots, got a good workout and realized I should find some good snowshoes.
Then I refilled my firewood stack on the porch,
shoveled snow drift on my drive to my shop so I can park inside if the weather turns.
feed n water everyone
took a hike around my acerage and was having fun tromping around with the dog. He had to jump through it behind me in my footsteps because in a few spots it was about 3 feet or so. He overshot and jumped into my back legs and we both crash down in snow..
goofy dog...
Ive a toasty fire going now and trying to decide what to do. I gotta stay up late since I'm still on nights...
beautiful day here today

 

[viking]

Hope everyone is safe, sound and in good health, we stayed home except to visit the neighbor on our east side, they invited us over for snacks and a shot of rum from a distiller out on our coast. My wife woke me up around 9:00 AM to show me a heard of elk and I took a bunch of pics and even as I type this message I am watching those same elk out of the window behind the computer. Later on I went down to throw out scratch for our chickens and I rough counted 46 wild turkeys just above the chicken coop, what a heck of a first day of 2019, where we live is truly paradise. These are Roosevelt elk.

 

[Weedygarden]

Happy New Year to everyone!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU.

Been busy lately so not on much. I got deep into a study but slowly digging back out.

Happy New Year, Meerkat!

 

[Sparky_D]

A local firearms forum I belong to puts together a New Years Shoot at a local range. Spent the whole day shootin' paper and steel. Well over 100 people showed up.
Had a huge barbeque around noon, then shot for another couple hours.


I'm bushed now. Glad I took tomorrow off from work too...


HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

 

[viking]

View attachment 9988 View attachment 9987 The elk have really stayed around today, these pics are from around 5:00 PM, truly an amazing day.View attachment 9987 View attachment 9988 View attachment 9989

 

[viking]

Sorry if the pics didn't come through, hope this helps.

 

[Bacpacker]

That is so cool Viking. We go over into North Carolina near Cherrokee from time to time to watch the elk. There is a good size herd there.

I have done little of nothing today. Been raining a lot so just nasty out. Ended up watching parts of some football games. back to work tomorrow.

 

[timmie]

We have just been informed by the very large extended family that we are hosting the Thanksgiving and Christmas 2019 at our home. We are talking upwards of 250 people. I think I'm going to kidnap my sisters and get them to help with the decorating. I know for a fact they are going to help with food. Believe it or not I am looking forward to it . This will be the first time we have had this big of a get togather here at the farm.:swingstocking:

 

[Amish Heart]

It was 9 degrees this morning, so we worked on some projects indoors at the farmhouse. Got some curtains hung upstairs, chairs recovered, cleaned out the shelves in the wash room. Visited our next door neighbors and invited them to supper tomorrow. They are a young couple with a cute new baby girl. Will be picking up mom and Uncle Melvin at the manor to join us. They'll be eating with OP (old people..us) and VOP (very old people..mom and uncle Mel). Tonight it was our turn for supper, but too cold for buggies, so we made Mexican taco and burrito bar and brought it to my cousins. Had a great time visiting and eating. Their 14 year old took a fall from the second story in their neighbors barn last night...right through the hay hole. It was an old barn with the hole in the middle top floor, used when the hay was loose. You don't see those much around here very often. Most hay holes are on a side of the wall. The boys had a bb gun and a flashlight and were shooting sparrows in the pitch dark, and dropped straight down. Amazingly he was just a little sore. That was at least a 30 ft drop. Tomorrow morning is breakfast at my cousins. I need to diet when I get home.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Happy New Year everyone and hope you all had a good one .

Great photos @viking the nearest we get to a herd here is a herd of kangaroos.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Today we started off the morning with myself clearing out some more of the sewing room and bringing the boxes of books out into the lounge room, putting sewing patterns and books away, craft books away in the bookshelf, recipe books away in the kitchen, coat hangers put in a box, iron and ironing board set up and sweeping the room and only have a little bit left to do tomorrow. DH and I then moved one bookshelf from the sewing room to the lounge room and DH put most of the books in there the rest he will do tomorrow. He also rearranged the whole lounge room so we now have more room and have the TV up one end of the room and unpacked the CD collection and brought up his DJ stereo system with two speakers from the shed and set it up in the lounge room too along with a CD player.

This afternoon DH washed the dishes, cleaned the benches and I wiped them and put them away. We then decided to use some of the potatoes from the cottage gardens we brought with us to make potato salad with a tin of corn kernels that needed rotating through and some dried chives. Tonights dinner was BBQ'd hamburger patty, sausages and homemade potato salad with lemon soft drink.

 

[The Lazy L]

New Year's eve.
Help install a chair height stool for the MIL, only took two trips to hardware.
Started learning a new (to me) software for web design. I have to have a particular website redesigned before March.
Pickup pizza.
We invited three couples over for games and see the new year arrive. Midnight everyone started packing up and left by 12:30 AM.

New Year's day
Chicken chores and collect eggs.
Check downspouts for blockages.
Back to learning the new web design software for 5 hours. I think I got it and half of the web site is redesigned.
Threw up my lunch, twice. Feel better, soda crackers and 7up confirm. Second time in three months this has happen. Wife's poisoning me for the life insurance..Ha Ha
I can't get warm. Sitting in recliner covered with a blanket dozing through a college football game.
In bed by 10:30.

 

[snappy1]

Setting up eBay office and personal office files for 2019 and putting away old ones. Paid water/trash bill. Stopped at Dollar General to get appropriate size tote for file storage. Hard boiled some eggs for the next few days. Still have to take some eBay photos. Nice slow day!

 

[MoBookworm1957]

Laptop crashed badly.
Estelle's daddy finally got it up and running again.
Only took 5 hours for everything to run it's cycle.
Bummer side is lost most of Estelle's pictures, receipes, quilt patterns.
Can get those back tomorrow.
Estelle has inner ear infection, sore throat which she promptly shared with me.
Got 2 big fat upper molars coming in at the same time.
Both Estelle and Granny is slightly cranky.
Granny has migraine, third day for that.
Go to doctor Tuesday, will get shot for migraine if hasn't let up by then.
Granny is going off to take nap.

 

[Meerkat]

Took everything off the porch then washed porch screens I've been putting off fro a couple months. Took brush to the 54'L x 8'H and dish soap and scrubbed.
Turning and wetting compost pile.
Hosing down the porch next. Then watch a movie.

Mo hope all is well soon.

 

[Meerkat]

Happy New Year to everyone!


Happy New Year, Meerkat!

You too Weedy,

 

[MoBookworm1957]

Finally got a nap. Slept for about 3 hours, would have slept longer but Strawberry thought she had to pee.
She didn't.
Put Strawberry at foot of bed wrapped up in towel.
Already got my pj's on.
Made up beef broth been drinking it most of the day.
Can't seem to get warm, sitting in recliner covered in blanket.
Realized today made giant mistake on Entreloc Tunisian Simple stitch afghan, had dropped stitch 6 rounds back.
So had to unravel it and start over.
Got to wash up a dab of dishes, clean table and freezer top off.
Been eating popsicles most of the day.
Should have enough beef broth for 1 more day at least.
Lazy L, don't have saltines but do have Ritz crackers, no diet 7 up.
But got hot tea with lemon, honey.
My head is still pounding but we have barometric pressure dropping too, like crazy.
Don't get migraines this bad very much anymore, but when they hit look out kate.
Hopefully tomorrow youngest son and daughter in law will come so I can put Christmas things away.
Have to go to Wal*Mart pick up more dog food for Strawberry.
Think I need light bulbs too.

Took everything off the porch then washed porch screens I've been putting off fro a couple months. Took brush to the 54'L x 8'H and dish soap and scrubbed.
Turning and wetting compost pile.
Hosing down the porch next. Then watch a movie.

Mo hope all is well soon.

Thank you Meerkat.

 

[Peanut]

Laptop crashed badly.

I keep a small clear plastic case under my monitor. It contains 4 thumb drives, a constant visible reminder to back up every thing. I usually manage to about once a month.

Last Friday I ordered a couple of front tires for my old truck, cord was starting to show on one. For years I've bought the same high mileage Michelin tire (70K miles). They've now named it something else, basically the same tire.

This morning I went to town and had them mounted, good thing. We got about 3 inches of rain today. I felt a lot better about hitting large puddles of standing water this afternoon.

I picked up a few groceries while I was in town.

 

[hiwall]

Before noon I watched it snow some more. This afternoon I watched it get cold. Did I say I hated winter? Well, I do.

 

[Patchouli]

Before noon I watched it snow some more. This afternoon I watched it get cold. Did I say I hated winter? Well, I do.

I might be hating it too, hiwall. And we have it mild here. Maybe it is not even that it is winter and it is something else instead, for me anyway.
Rain freezing on the trees is nice to look at but if it gets too cold, no good.
Wintry mix expected tomorrow.