Which Came First?

Here are a few of our chickens, past and present.  We have an eclectic flock, to say the least.  The fourth down is our beloved Pippa who is no longer with us.  The middle guy is Manny, he thinks he runs the show.  He's from our original flock.  The little white guy at the bottom is Albert, as in Einstein.  Can anyone guess why?  Haha  These are the best pics I have of the birds so far.  They are less than enthusiastic about photo shoots.  Enjoy.

Hope this brightens someone's day.

~Ash

Happy Mother's Day

My Biggest Gifts...

Well, it's been a year since I started my journey of 1000 Gifts.  Last year my mom gifted us with the photography companion to One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp.  I took the challenge and ended up buying the full book.  I was hoping to hit at least one "gift" a day for the year.  I got to #339, not too bad.  I went through those days of listing several and then there were those I didn't list any.  It's not anywhere near as easy as I had thought.  I don't even want to know how many "repeats" there are in there, I'll chalk it up to being especially grateful for those.

I will be reading through these gifts today as a reminder of just how blessed I am.  I have drifted away to a point and I need to recenter and focus on the beauty of the life we have.  Somewhere in all the shuffles of daily life, I have allowed myself to forget the most important part of my days...gratitude.  Gratitude, reflection, recharging...they are all the part of my day I should bring to the forefront.  It's in these moments I can really understand just how happy I truly am.

Here's to another year of Gifts.

~Ash


And here's one more gift, like I could skip him...pssshhhaaaa

My Partner in Crime All Things!

Our "Guest"

It's Finally Friday, can I get a Whoot Whoot???

Today is rainy so I spent time working on Nick's bedroom today.  I'll post pictures once I'm done but for now it's not quite ready.  I did get the rest of his furniture moved upstairs, sweet!  I'm in search of some fabric and paint and ideas.

So, for a little Farm Friday entertainment I've decided to share a few pictures of this week's guest, from yesterday.  Here he is helping himself to the horses' water.  It's been very helpful to have him visiting as he keeps pushing our fencing down.  This is the turkey/duck pen, temporarily including horses. It was a preexisting area and not meant for big animals, obviously. I did get a start on the horse fencing yesterday.  I got the gate installed but hey, it's just me and Kyleigh working on it and that stuff is H-E-A-V-Y!  Fortunately, our friend showed up to visit and volunteered to come back later on and pound some serious posts for me, YaY!, and possibly help stretch the fence. I Love living here!  He was paid in tamales.

Mr. Brown trying to get his attention.

So, later on he came back and was just outside our door.  Mr. Brown was desperately trying to get his point across, to no avail.  He's gotten very comfortable here.  He seems pretty docile but I'm not willing to challenge him to a showdown...

I'm Right HERE!  GOOOOO!!!!  LOL

You'll note Mr. Brown is a little confused and offended to be ignored.  The first few times, the bull listened and sauntered on down the road, not so much now.

Mom, he's not listening...WTHeck?

So, there you have it, a typical WoodsFam day.  The bull was rounded up later yesterday afternoon and was back at it this morning.  Fortunately, I didn't notice until I heard a truck and saw someone trying to wrangle him again.  Too Funny...except the fence part...UGH!  LOL

Have you ever had an uninvited guest who just won't leave?  Share it here!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.  We've got another busy one planned and hope to share pics next week.

~Ash

Fun Friday

Good Evening Everyone and TGIF.

Tonight we had a Lucy original, Lucy Casserole.  She came up with this idea on her own and we've tweaked it a bit.  Tonight's turned out fabulous and we're sharing this recipe below.  Big hit with the fam and her friend who's staying over.  We had ours with spinach, a Lucy favorite.  Obviously any vegetable would be good on the side.  Let me know if any of you try it.

Have a Great Weekend.

~Ash

Lucy Casserole

Ingredients:

1 Box of Penne Pasta
½-3/4 Cup each; Pepperoni, Deli Ham
2 Cups Diced Cheddar Cheese, reserve ⅓ cup
1 Cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese
Butter
Flour
Milk
1/2 Packet Ranch Seasoning (I used the dip version)

Directions:
Preheat Oven to 350*F
Cook pasta according to package directions.  While the pasta cooks, dice/chop pepperoni, ham and cheddar cheese.  Combine these three ingredients in a bowl and set aside.  

After draining the pasta, use butter, flour and milk to make a simple white sauce.  Once the sauce comes together, add the ranch seasoning and about ⅓ cup of diced cheese and cook until cheese melts and sauce is smooth, stirring frequently.  

Combine pasta with meats and cheese and place in a 9X13 casserole dish.  (Sometimes I even remember to spray the dish before I add the goodies...)  Pour the sauce over the pasta mix and then top with shredded cheddar cheese.  I cover mine with foil and bake for. about half an hour.  Remove cover and cook until brown on top, about 15 minutes, and serve.

Tech Tuesday

Helllloooooo Out There...

Today is Tech Tuesday for me.  I've spent the better part of the morning working on this blog business.  I am about cross eyed at this point.  It's a slow progression but if you look closely, you just might see some changes going on.  Then again, maybe not.  Not all changes are on the blog page.  There's quite a bit of admin going on here.  I started out on a whim and I guess it's time to get a little more serious.

I haven't been on here for several days.  I know, boring, but I haven't really had much to share.  We've done more work downstairs but I'm not ready to post any pics yet.  It's just not at the point in which to share.  Laundry and cleaning is only so fun and I'm sure no one cares about mine.  I've made a few things and I'm testing them out to see if any are worth sharing with you all.  I'm hoping to post some new recipes, organizational ideas, renovation progress and maybe even some animal fun.  It's supposed to be a bit on the warmer (above freezing) side of things this week.  Yay!

So here's a a picture describing my life, indefinitely...lol

Have a wonderful week.  I hope to be more entertaining this week.

~Ash

Good Morning Monday

It's Monday, Yay!  I LOVE Mondays!

No sarcasm, I really do have a soft spot for Monday.  It gets a bad wrap.  Too many people look at it as "I have to go back to work" day.  How about we look at it as "I'm thankful for a job" day.  Does that make any sense?  I am grateful for my back to work day.  It gives me a chance to get myself ready for the week and put my house back in order.  Mondays give me a fresh start.  No matter what the previous week held for me, I get to start anew.

In our house, Mondays mean clean sheets on the bed.  It's fresh towels in the bathroom.  It's getting all of the weekend-ness out of the house.  I love weekends.  I just don't always like how things seem to get thrown to the wayside.  I like my home to be dusted, vacuumed...fresh.  Don't get me wrong, it's a household of six right now.  It's most definitely lived in.  I don't have the "magazine ready" house.  I don't really want it.  I have a home where people aren't afraid to come in, sit down, put their feet up and relax.  It makes our weekends so fun.  We enjoy having our friends/family out.

All of that being said, it's time to get off my tookus and get moving.  It doesn't magically happen, contrary to what the children may think.  As a "gift" to you, I am posting a picture in the hopes it brightens your day a bit.  It's one of my favorites.  I sometimes need reminding of why I love it here, esp when it's so darn cold!

A Montana Sunrise

May you have a peaceful Monday.

~Ash