Well it’s spring time in the Ozarks. Time to start thinking about moving the cows home and off our hay field so the hay can grow.
The cows were real excited about being hauled too…. ha! Really they weren’t to bad. Dad got a little upset at us and said his cows wouldn’t work like we thought they would. sigh. Seems like we can’t work stupid cows without people having fits and everything else. Our friends came over to help both physical bodies as well as bringing the trailer to help haul since our trailer is only a 16′ and holds very few at once.
It’s the time of year when grass really hasn’t started growing yet and we’re still having to feed hay but the hay supply is starting to run low. It tends to be a little stressful, not going to lie. This year we were given some hay. It was a long ways from home and we had to bring our own tractor to haul it home with, but you never complain there! We have hay to feed the cows and that’s what matters.
We spent 2 days hauling hay and one days experience was different than the next days experience. The first day we wound up in the wrong field. Still their field but the hay was older hay. Luckily we were directed to the correct field for the newer hay.
Driving in to the other field though we were beginning to wonder if there was hay in the field or not. It was kind of crazy. Seemed like we drove and drove and drove before we found the hay.
I mentioned once upon a time that I’ve started decorating sugar cookies. It’s been quite the learning curve, but it’s always good to learn something new. I kept getting asked, what do you charge, what do you charge. Sadly, I live in the midwest where you don’t have this type of cookie done at a bakery so I could even decide if I was in the right ballpark. I’m still not sure I am. I think with experience I can get a little more, I’m not really sure. Someone needs to help me here, please!
Anyway a couple weeks ago I was hit up by a girl I went to high school with on Facebook. She asked if I’d be able to do cookies for her daughter’s birthday. She wanted My Little Pony.
Ooooo… I’ve never done My Little Pony. I didn’t have a cookie cutter in that shape. I wasn’t real sure how to answer. I was worried, really worried! I kept asking questions and kind of putting off an answer for as long as I could, then I really had to give her an answer. My friend YouTube came in to play and I found a video telling me how to do it. Later I found an easier one but I already decided I could do the video I found so I shot her a price and said yes. I did a test run and was okay with it. Now it’s missing a leg, details, and I didn’t wait between different icing applications, but I knew I could do it….
Sunday I began the process. Time to make the sugar cookie dough, let it chill in the fridge, cut it out, and place it in the freezer. That’s just my process.
Well… Saturday didn’t go the way we planned…. Here’s the story….
My dad was sent out of town for work and wasn’t sure when he was going to come home. No big deal. Friday morning I woke and went to my Mother-in-Law’s to water cows, what I do most days. When I got there, a few of the cows were at the stock tank, the mosied off and the bull came over. We’ve had this bull now for about a year. He was supposed to be a show bull but they decided not to show him and we bought him instead so he’s not really afraid of anything. I just knew he was up to no good for some reason but I couldn’t place a finger on it.
Later that morning I got a text message from my MIL saying the bull was out. Not a big deal except I was 20 some miles away so I jumped in the truck and headed that direction as fast as I could get there. I got there, we got him in, and I went back to what I was doing.
I would like to start out this post by stating that today is National Banana Bread Day. It is also National Toast Day. So if you Toast your banana bread, does that have you celebrating both holidays? Just a thought… Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.
I was one of the lucky kids who grew up knowing not only my grandparents but also one set of my great grandparents. My great grandpa died in 1998, 10 days shy of his 108th birthday and my great grandma died in 2002. Both in November. Great Grandpa was the 13th and Great Grandma was the 1st. Some people make fun of me because I remember dates really well and I sometimes really wonder how I do it. But I can remember my great grandpas because of a story. In October of that year he asked my great grandma if November had a Friday the 13th. She told him no, she thought it was Saturday the 13th. Then the week before Friday November 13th, he asked her again if next Friday was the 13th. She said, yes I believe it is. His response was, That’s a good day. He passed away on Friday the 13th.
So let’s step back in time to last month when we had our cake decorating day. Why on earth would we go back in time? Well I held off on sharing a recipe with you because I knew we’d be using it again! So my goal was to wait and share it this month.
Here’s the story. So as I mentioned earlier we had a cake decorating day. That day when I showed up I already had my chocolate cake made, Deb chose a Red Velvet Cake, Kristi chose a butter cake, and Tracy went with a chocolate cake as well. Deb and I went to work on her cake when I showed up… and I use me loosely because I more so stood and watched. She had this Red Velvet Cake she absolutely loved so I took a picture of the recipe and sat and watched her make it. I believe it was out of the newspaper from years ago.
Let’s jump back in time a few weeks, back to our cake decorating day. When I got to Deb’s house, I had already made my chocolate cake I used to decorate, but Deb whipped out a Red velvet cake real quick from a newspaper clipping she had. When Kristi got there, we debated what type to make her so we quickly grabbed Deb’s 1970’s version of Betty Crocker’s Cookbook and had her flip through the different cakes.
