HI everyone, a rainy cool day here in SE Ohio,supposd to get close to 60 degrees, but it doens't feel like it!

We have been pretty busy here. Monday our 4-H club worked at the library all day. The kids managed to put cards in, and shelve over 1200 books. I couldn't believe how fast it went, and how hard they all worked. It was a great day and very productive.

The kids were off school Monday, so Tuesday I spent cleaning, catching up on laundry and answering the phone! Seemed like it rang all day. Tax season is upon us, so that will be the norm for the next few months. I have 4 sets I should be doing right now, but this is more fun!

I usually try to buy a few things I want, when I do taxes, so this year I have a small list, like a sweeper, one of those food dryers, and a jerky press like the one Cale borrowed from his cousin, and possibly a new refrigerator.

Business continues to increase each year so I think that is good???!!!! I think people like to come to me, because I really take the time to make sure they completely understand the laws and I work hard to make sure they pay the least amount possible, and to make sure everything is accurate. So I will be pretty busy the next few months, hopefully I can still post some interesting things here though.

Today was preschool. Before it started the school called, Brady had a headache and I had to go pick him up. I think he is just getting a cold. He and I are going to experiment with some fruit roll ups in the food dryer. We are going to mix home-made applesauce and strawberries. I hopr they turn out OK. Cale has requested that we try some dried oranges also. I am having fun with this gadget and my blender!

My neighbor called me and had a few bags of nice fabric and some Agatha Christie books for me yesterday.I kept what I wanted and took the rest to the Senior Center for crafts and quilts.

Cale has been working extra each day, so he doesn't have to work Friday's. He likes to have 3 days off, actually he would like to have 4 off, but hasn't convinced them yet!! He probably will though before it is all over with.

Girls have piano tonight. I gave Lindsey a calendar to mark off days she has practiced which has helped a lot. Kadia and Megan are excellent players and very dutiful about practicing. Lindsay is becoming better!

In the mornings if we feed the animals quickly enough we have been playing basketball. Which is fun. We used to always pass the football, but since Cale moved the hoop down front, we have switched to basketball.

This weekend we are going to try to play around with our solar panel. I hope we can get it hooked up and start using it some. There is always a lot to do!

Everyone have a good day!

-- Melissa in Se Ohio (me@home.net), January 23, 2002

Answers

Have you made jerky yet? I'll be interested in hearing about your solar panel.

Calendars are big things for my kids. I like to get some with alot of information on them and large enough that they can put their own things on them. I save them each year because what they wrote is so cute. Kind of like a diary (which they only write in if they are mad at me--I sometimes wonder what they think life was like as a kid if they read these twenty years later? After they are unhappy about a decision I see them angrily scribbling in their diaries, ha,ha). Guess it's good release.

I want to plant a few plants I have rooted today. Anything to make spring seem closer. In the summer I was so overworked outside that now it seems wrong to be fidgetting to get outside and work.

I did manage to do some time consuming things that i'd been avoiding. I've been saving the paper towels and knapkins and dryer lint in an old coffee can and wanted to put them in the compost without them blowing all over. So yesterday I finally turned the compost over (on top of the paper). and put some compost in the garden with some eggshells I'd been saving and drying (these are remarkable for killing slugs (my enemies). Slowly mucking out old, old horse manure from a stall in the barn and putting in the compost (hard a rocks!!). Considered putting in the chicken coop--heard they like finding seed in the horse manure, and thought it might break down faster..... Fed the chickens and goat some turnips--still have LOTS in the garden!!! Picked some weeds for the chickens--makes the eggs tasty and they just love some greens in the winter!!!

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), January 23, 2002.

Hi:

this is like the old CS thread "Across the Fence," right? If so:

A good tax person is worth every penny, for those of us who can't deal with taxes themselves...(i.e.me...they drive me nuts)

Our hens are great. We have three easter eggers among seven hens so every day we get green or blue/green eggs among the brown. And one of the roosters is an easter egger rooster, so if we hatch chicksm there may be even more green eggs! They are so funny...somewhere I read to hang a cabbage from the ceiling to give them something to do when they are all penned up..I tried this and they had it demolished in a day.

have fun, everyone.

-- Cat (catcrazy@somewhere.com), January 23, 2002.

Ann I made the jerky, it was great. I used my own mix of spices, and it was very spicy and tasty. There were some spice packs included with it, but they had MSG and loads of slat, so I by-passed them.

This afternoon, I blended frozen strawberries, and some canned applesauce in my blender, then poured it on the solid screens in the food dryer to make fruit leather. I also sliced a bunch of oranges to dry, the house smells very good with them drying. Then since I was in the kitchen I made some granola cereal for breakfast, some apple cinnamon muffins, a banana cream pie, and some spaghetti for supper. I had a lot of dishes to do! I am a somewhat messy cook.

Cat, yes this thread is just to let people know what's up, anyone is free to add what's going on in their neck of the woods.

-- Melissa in SE Ohio (me@home.net), January 23, 2002.

OK if you you read other forums, you"ll know my answer to prayer. They raise our insurance on our houses. It was a lot. So I was able to get a lower rate amd more coverage through another company. It's with the Farm Bureau, so they send lobbist to fight for farm rights. So I felt like we accomplished two things.

-- Jo in Central Wa. (countryjo16@hotmail.com), January 24, 2002.