The stories they could tell

Are you like me? and wonder about the people who used to live in these old empty homes, and imagine what stories the old house and barn could tell if they could talk.

Even though the old house is run down and neglected, I still find it to be rather charming and interesting.

I see this old building a few times a week as I drive to work, and noticed after the last big wind storm we had, that the already falling in roof had fallen further. Another good storm and the building may be just a pile of old wood, lying in a heap on the ground.

Nothin' cuter than

This morning as I was driving to work, I noticed a mother sheep with two lambs close to the fence near the road. I always take my camera and have been wanting to photograph these cuties, for the last couple of weeks, but they have been way off in the distance. When I noticed them today, I made a quick U-turn, parked my car and walked across the road to capture the scene.

I am thinking these are twins, even though one is black and the other white, as this mother and her youngsters, were the only ones near the fence. All the other sheep and their lambs were quite a long way of in the distance, and I am sure lambs stick close to Mom.

I wanted to reach out and pet them

They sure are the sweetest little lambs.

It will get done - eventually

This is what our living room looks like right now.

As I was taking all the Christmas decorations off the tree, I decided it was time to re-organize the way I had previously had them stored, and to go downstairs and drag all the other boxes of Christmas "stuff" up to the living room to see what I have.
Oh my! I didn't remember having so much, and there is also Mr C's family Christmas "stuff" from years gone by to go through.
So far, the boxes on the right of the coffee table have been filled, and labeled, and have ' themed' decorations in each box, angels, glass icicles, animals, etc. which will help me locate what I am looking for without any fuss, which had been the case in the past.
I still have to pack more very fragile glass decorations Mr C's mom collected. I found more of these in a box during one of my forays into the storage room downstairs, and even though the decorations are very fragile and beautiful, and I am hesitant about using them, I don't want to toss them away as they hold special memories for Mr C. and who knows, they may be valuable some day.
There are still boxes (on the left) filled with wrapping paper, tissue, table cloths, etc. to be gone through and placed in new clean boxes, labeled and placed back downstairs. Of course, before carting all those boxes downstairs, I have to rearrange the storage room. I am sure you all know about one project leading to another.
All this is taking time, as I still work, so I try to do a little each day in between shifts, or in the evenings, if I am not too tired from working all day.

Nasty, creepy critters

I am talking about rats. We had an infestation of these loathsome creatures take up residence in our attic and they somehow found their way into the house. Yuk!
So far we have trapped FIVE rats, and am happy to say that the traps have been empty for the past two weeks. Perhaps we have caught all of the little varmints,.

Yesterday, I set up this nice bird feeding station Santa brought me, and am now waiting for the first bird to discover it and spread the word.I waited this long in setting out bird food as I did not want to encourage the rats to stick around. I have my fingers crossed that we have trapped all of them, only time will tell.

Red - Eye Chili

On New Years day I wanted to relax and watch TV, so I threw all the ingredients for this chili in the slow cooker and left it until done. The recipe comes from Sandra Lee's semi - homemade slow cooker recipe book. I did have to make a couple of substitutions due to not having everything the recipe calls for.

2 pounds pork shoulder cut into bite-sized pieces. I used pork steaks which worked just as well.
2 cans (15oz each) kidney beans, drained. All I had in the pantry was black beans, so used them and they tasted just fine
2 cans (14oz each) diced tomatoes with green chilies, drained.
1 cup frozen chopped onions, I used fresh.
2 packets (1.25 oz) mild chili seasoning.
2 tablespoons instant coffee granules.
2 tablespoons light brown sugar.
1. season the pork with salt and pepper, and place in 4-quart cooker.
2. Add remaining ingredients and stir thoroughly.
3. Cover and cook on HIGH for 4 to 6 hours.

The coffee gave the chili a rich taste, and I added the dollop of sour cream on top for extra flavor.
A nice big piece of cornbread rounded out the meal.