Nativity Outside Our Window

I was standing at the wood stove looking out our living room window this evening around 5pm when I saw it…….a Nativity Scene, right outside our window amongst the trees.  I called my husband over and told him to look at our Nativity.  He stated that he couldn’t see a thing and he didn’t have an imagination like mine.  Ok, I thought, I will just take a picture of it and show him that it’s for real……we have our own Nativity.  It’s right there, in plain sight……..can you see it?

I took this picture shooting out the window and through our mini blinds.  I decided to go outside and get a better photo without shooting through the window and blinds but when I went outside, I couldn’t see the Nativity, at all.
I came back in the house, looked out the window again, and there it was.  I loaded my picture and decided to draw on the photo, the shape of the stable and the persons inside so in case you didn’t see it in the first picture, you could vision it with my outlines.

It’s a pretty rough outline, having to use my computer mouse to draw the lines, but I hope it’s good enough for you to see our personal Nativity………..…

Thanksgiving Utensil Holder and........................................ A Magpie Thanksgiving

I came across the cutest Thanksgiving utensil holders at Craftaholics Anonymous.  She has a free download for her utensil holders but I couldn't get it to print clearly so I set off to making my own.  I ended up using four different graphics, layered together, to get a final holder that I liked.  It took me forever to find just the right graphics that weren't copyrighted.  I do enjoy creating, using Microsoft Office Word, and I love making all the graphic layers come together.  When I had the holders all made and printed out, I just folded up the graphic side and used mini glue dots to seal the seams and voilà.....I had Thanksgiving utensil holders.

 

 

We had our Thanksgiving meal around 6pm last evening, eating by candlelight.  After finishing our meal, we continued to sit around the table by the glow of candles and talked for an hour.  So Nice!

This morning, we took out the turkey scraps, put it just across the fence, and enjoyed watching the magpie's feast on their Thanksgiving turkey.

Major Water Problems

14 days of water problems………..It all started with our water pump (our home gets water from a well) continually kicking on and off.  My husband searched every possible solution to find out where there might be a leak that would cause the pump to continually run.  One-by-one, each area searched was checked off….NO LEAK.  In the meantime, I had a 30 to 40 minute window of time each morning to use water in the house.   While the cows were being watered out by the corrals each morning around 8am, that gave me those precious minutes where I could fill all my jugs, take a shower, fill the tub with water, etc.  I planned my time carefully and quickly to get as much accomplished in that time as possible.  During this time, as mentioned above, I needed to fill the tub so we could dip water out to flush the toilet during the day and night.  To take a bath, I let most of the tub water out, then filled it back up using hot water to get it warm enough to take a bath.  It finally came down to digging up the yard to see if we had a water line somewhere that was leaking.

This is the inside of our well house:

The replacement water pipe needed to be kept it in the house to keep it warm enough so when the time came to place it in the ground, it would unroll easily.

Digging up the yard………………a lot of yard!

When it rains, it pours.  In the process of digging up the yard, a water line was broke which put a lot of dirt in the lines which resulted in clogging up the cold water line going into the house.  Every time we turned the water on, dirt would come out and for a few days, we didn’t have any cold water except for a little that would come out of the kitchen sink.  It took quite a bit of water running and blowing out the lines to get all the pipes flushed out.  We also had the tub trap break under the house, which was so old we couldn’t find parts for, so we didn’t have the tub for a few days, either.  It’s really been a fun process.  Where we were unable to get the correct tub parts to get it fixed, my husband  by-passed getting parts and fixed it using other parts…..how, what, where, why, or when, I can’t answer but as long as I can once again have running water in my home and be able to take my showers, flush a toilet, wash the dishes, wash clothes, etc…..I’m happy.  We still don’t have a working bathroom sink, but that is easily remedied and all is well!

Oh, and did I mention that after all the digging, we did find a leak…..it was approximately 15 feet away from the last hydrant we were digging towards.  Go figure.  I guess, though, in the long run it turned out for the best because while we were at it, we just replaced all the corroded water pipes and found the problem with the tub and saved gallons of water from being empties out underneath our home.

We can always find something to be thankful for, we just need to look a bit harder at times. 

Carrot Puzzle

When my husband finished harvesting our garden for the year, to his surprise, he pulled out a carrot puzzle.  There were quite a few carrots that had grown and twisted all together in a clump. 
The sister missionaries came to our home last evening for a visit and we sent them home with some potatoes, onions, cabbages, and yes, the carrot puzzle.  The deal with the carrots was that they had to see if they could get the carrots untangled without breaking any of them.  Oh, sometimes my husband thinks he is so funny.  Actually, it was pretty funny! 
At the point of this picture, the carrots had not been washed but I wanted to show you the carrot puzzle so you’ll have to deal with a little dirt and wilted carrot tops.

Whipped Butter

At our home, we always take a few sticks of butter out of the fridge and keep them in a container in the cupboard.  Our home is always cool enough in the cupboard that our butter never goes rancid before it is all used.  Recently, I came across an article on the internet that said if you whip your butter with a little water, it will give you a nice, creamy, smooth butter.  It didn’t give the amount of butter per water used, so I set off to experimenting.  My final result was to take 4 sticks of butter out of the fridge, leave it on the counter for a few hours, bringing it to room temperature.  When my butter is at room temperature, I mix in 2-3 tablespoons of hot water and beat it with an electric mixture till it is a nice creamy texture.

After it reaches the creamy texture, I place it in the container I had used previously, before whipping the butter.  Our butter is now nice and creamy at all times.

Before I came across the site on how to whip butter, I’d put three sticks in the container and nuke it in the microwave for approximately 10 to 20 seconds and then I’d squish it down into the container.  Even in the cupboard, using this process, the butter would be too hard to spread so we would nuke it for approximately 7-8 seconds before each use, to get it spreadable.
It’s sure nice not having to nuke the butter each time we want to use it.

Butterfly Snowflakes

Here I was…..being so creative….or so I thought. I walked outside yesterday to get some photos of big, beautiful white snowflakes. I thought to myself……wow, they look like big white butterflies, fluttering their way through the sky. I came in the house to download my pictures and I got on Google images and typed in butterfly snowflakes, just to see if I was thinking original, or not. Turns out………….OR NOT! There are lots of backgrounds with snowflakes mixed in with beautiful white butterflies and snowflakes themselves made into butterflies. So much for having a creative thought.  Oh well, it was however, very beautiful outside.

 

 

The Loveland Living Planet Aquarium

On October 21st, my daughter, grandson, and I traveled to Utah for a week stay to visit family and friends.  We had such a great time.  I’m telling you, with the exception of one day, we were on the go constantly!  It was a good go, though.  I went shopping with my sister, daughters, and grandson…..went to a fish fry at my sisters home in Payson (mmmmmm, so good!)…….visited at the homes of both my brothers……took many walks and car rides and one morning I went to breakfast at Kneaders Bakery & Café with one of my high school friends.  If you’ve never been to Kneaders, GO!  On another day, along with my sister, daughter and grandson, we traveled to Draper, Utah, to go see The Loveland Living Planet Aquarium.  Aaaaamaaaazing!  And the fun thing about it was that it was all decorated using a Halloween theme.  If you ever get down that way, this would be a great thing to do.  Included in the cost of the aquarium are some excellent movies for the kiddos (and kiddos at heart).  The movies are only approximately 15 minutes long but they are packed with rumbling seats, squirting water and 3-D images coming right at you.  Fun!  Go, seriously!

Where Are Those Warm Temperatures?

Where oh where did the warmer temperatures of last week go…..as I’m thinking to myself when I look out my windows this morning.  The mountains are full of snow and our ground is covered.  Taking pictures out of my windows this morning and amongst the views, I see snow and icicles hanging from the roof.

Winter…..So Not Ready For This!

I thought I would read my book for a little while this morning (7:12am) when I heard a clicking sound.  My first thought was….Oh no, do we have a mouse in the house?  Since moving into our home in 1998, we have only seen one mouse and that was because we we’re fixing tile in the bathroom and happened to leave a little space between the tube and the wall and one slipped in.  We did catch him right away and haven’t seen any since.  Anyways, to my relief, it was not a mouse, but it was a mixture of hail/snow.  I am soooooooooooooo not ready for this.  And to top it off, while I was sitting here typing, I heard the snow plow go down the road.  Aghhhhhhhhh!

Late Season Beauty

This blog post is loaded with photos.  On October 15th, I went for a drive from one end of the valley to the other….with a little in-between driving, too.  I really missed the most beautiful parts of Fall/Autumn by taking my drive a little late in the season.  But, the places that I did see between the stretches off missed opportunities, were totally beautiful. 
Since I started taking photos and traveling with my camera at all times, I see a lot more beauty in things that I actually didn’t notice before.  Sure I saw and noticed things before, but it was with a different eye that I see things now.  Since getting my first camera, I look more deeply now, seeing colors and texture in things that I didn’t take the time to notice before.