Market tomorrow~

WHAT a beautiful fall day here in sw michigan! The leaves are just starting to show color and so so pretty!! it was 72 outside and just gorgeous! however it should start cooling down they say and possible frost this weekend!! yuk! so not ready for all that yet!! we havent got any wood put up for winter yet and need to close up the greenhouse and then blow all the leaves around the yard when they fall, and disc up the gardens and .................. well lots to do to get ready for snow!!  Well for some strange reason I am not able to upload pics!???&()*()&(*&(*)* WHY??  URGGGGGGG!!
Ok so I will try again later for pics SORRY!


~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Peach upside down cake, pickles and muffin day

WHEW!! what a busy day~
  I am hoping the weathermen are wrong about tomorrow!!  I baked alot for market and really dont want it to get all soggy and me too!!  They were calling for more storms and windy and rain in am but you just never know here in MI!! fingers crossed!! I can handle some rain but it really chases the customers away and can be quite miserable~!  So heres a peek at my pickles I got done yesterday.  I love the way the polish ones look in the jars with all the dill and red peppers!  

I found this great gingham paper at Hobby Lobby (my favo store) I am there quite regularly and dont know if I mentioned or not but have been in their scrappin magazine a couple of times now!!  gee gotta work on a valentines day project for the 2011first quarter  magazine now!  Anyway I was so excited as they were having their paper sale so I stocked up on all the ginghams I could~!~ it came in red, green, yellow, blue, black, and orange!~! my bins are so full of papers but hey a scrappin gal can NEVER NEVER NEVER have enough papers!! HUH!~! LOL

Ok so here is an awesome new favo of mine "peach upside down cake" with  my own personal changes made to a perfect Martha Stewart cake recipe.

flipped over to reveal the beautiful peach slices along the top of cake!~  I will scale this down to make one cake for yall and post that recipe.Lots of muffins today!! These are my crunchy oat topped banana muffins, with or without nuts. Another favo for sure~ pumpkin cranberry muffins!! I was so wanting to add some of my 'farmgirl bling" to them but resisted temptation!!  gotta have some healthy not calorie filled goodies~~ somewhat healthy anyway!  Ok OK OK just as I packaged the muffins up I added just a bit of my "bling" just a dusting of powderd sugar and that made them POP~~ perfect touch~  So I also got the pumpkin spice bread done, some loaded carrot muffins, some gingersnap cookies, lavander shortbread cookies, some banana bread, my cranberry lemon pecan sandwich cookies and some cardamom crumb cakes.

OH and ps!~!!~ SURVIVOR is on it's new night~!~ I am off to watch my recorded desperate housewives show before hubby gets home!~ HEE HEE i know it is crazy but I am so so addicted to that show and am watching all the reruns to get up to date for when the show premiers for the new season!! LOL

LOVE all those women!! but Susan is my favo!!

Have a blessed evening!!

HUGS

Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Storms and more storms coming!

This is Charlie!! one cool rooster we have, he hangs out by the house with his own harem!  He has 8 or so girls that are always round him. 

Wow last night was really bad outside!!  I usually have to find him and carry him into the coop at night as he is the VERY LAST one to go in, we have a couple other roosters that he doesnt like so he waits til they are all setteled in and dont notice him! LOL

WOW  the thunder and lightning was LOUD!!  poor little Bubba was really upset until we all went to bed together then he settled down.  I am very thankful we didnt loose power as there are several thousand people without it around us.  Hope the kitchen didnt loose it!!  that would be horrible I have lots of things to get down for market tomorrow and they are callin for more possible severe storms in morning!! well wont hurt to get a bit wet!! And in the 80's friday but then dropping into the 50s next week.  HAPPY FIRST DAY OF FALL!!   We are known to have a beautiful fall and when hubby and I got hitched in late october it was 80 degrees that day!! yeah sinceI had to have an outdoor weddin on the farm at my parents house.    So  here are a few pics from tractor show.This is our golden jubilee and below is my hubbys grandparents with the H.  This tractor was bought new in 1951 by hubbys great grandfather and we still have the original sales reciept for her!!  It is just waiting for me to have enough time to scan it and make art with it!! LOL

I am in withdrawl from doin altered items since we have been way busy with the markets this summer!! Cant wait to alter something!!  SOON!! I promise!

This is hubbo and Grandpa Bill!  Proud of ya Gramps!! He had a new knee done a few weeks ago and is at home doin great!!  And I am super proud of hubby for all he does!! Everyday he surprises me with something! 

Little Bubba sittin in the truck!~ He sits on the seat so good!! Barney is layin under a blankie on the couch here sorry it is so blurry!  He on the other hand beebopps around the truck jumpin from the front to back and back to front the whole time we are gone!!  Buster just sprawls out on the back seat and "chills"  they all love goin bye bye!~!

LOL this was our golfcart comin home as it rained all day sat and we went mudrunnin at the campground!!  It was fun but dang we had mud everywhere as you can see!  even on the seat and hubby's back had been splattered up with it too!    Well I hope yall have a beautiful wed I am gonna get ready to do chores then head over to the kitchen.  My grandma Rose's pumpkin pie spice bread, banana bread, cheese bread, upside down peach cake, apple crisp muffins, pumpkin cranberry muffins and some apple cake are on the agenda for todays baking!! so I got my work cut out today!! 

Oh and I did get an ok yesterday from Wolverine hardware in South Haven to do our winter market csa drop in their parkin lot this winter!!!  YIPPEE!~! Dave and I will be settin up a schedule of when we are gonna do this in ALLEGAN again and now in South Haven~  you can order something or just buy from what I make that week.  It will be from november thur april!  We did it last year in the Allegan parkin lot and had lots of customers come out and actually we only had 1 yepper 1 day of really cold and windy weather!!  So will give yall the details soon!!

HUGS

Talk soon!!

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

WERE BACK HOME~~

YIPPEE HOME~~
There is just no place like home!~ It was a great vacation and we had lots of fun but I am so so so very happy to be back home!! We loaded up 4 of our tractors and the "boys" our 5th wheel and went to a big tractor show for vacation. My inlaws camp in their 5th wheel behind us and lots of friends around us. The weather was gorgeous, only one day of rain and we actually had the furnace kicked on to chase that morning chill out but still it was fun!! and alot of work, work before leaving, while there, and then now that we are back home everything needs unloading!! oh well my boys sure love it!! they were little angels!!

Here's one now~ My Buster Brown chillin on his new bed I bought for him. 

There is just sooooooooooo much to do there that we usually spend the day running around the flea market, or riding around on one of the tractors or watchin the demos goin on. We are members of this club the flywheelers and also volunteer throughout the week on various tasks, my hubby and father in law worked a morning inside a heated farm history museum, on the day it rained (at least it was warm for them) they had fun and learned new things there, while my mother in law and I sat under a canopy selling raffle tickets, *(WHICH WAS FUN) thanks mom!! Had a ball and we sold out of tickets in an hour!! And I like to work on the peoplemover, which is a big trailer that folks sit on while a tractor pulls it all around the grounds. That was fun!!

And I am so so excited!! I found an old 1930s maybe 40's typewriter all there!! and the exciting part you might ask is????????? NOT only one but I bought 2 of them!!! Gee what is an altered country chick to do??? get all those letters cut off and make some altered jewelry with them!! LOL  These things weigh a ton too!~ WOW

This is a sulkey my hubby made last summer, I painted the back of it for the farm.  We got lots of comments about it while riding around on it.

Here is the pretty little case tractor that the club raffled off.  Isnt she a cutie, and she would sure would have looked nice in our lineup of tractors!~LOL oh well next years giveaway is a John Deere!!  hubby would love that one! Our H by our campsite.

My mother inlaw patiently waiting for us to get goin on the tractor cruise to town.  There were around 155 tractors this year, we had all 8 seats full on our trailer. This was on the way to town.  I am standing on the back of the H while hubby drives.  Our flags even stayed on the whole way there and back, It was so windy I thought one would break off.

Our gang arriving in town, the pavillion you see in the backround is where the market is each sat.  We have an awesome market spot! Just a couple of the tractors in the parkin lot in town.

This is hubbys work tractor he fixed up, a Ford 8N with the forklift on it it came in handy to load things on our trailers.  Not that we bought that much!! LOL  We didnt come home with another tractor this year.  He still has to finish our waukeshaw he bought at last years auction.  He did find an old motor for it for parts and also we got a go cart~ yepper a go cart!~ It's in pieces but there is quite a story behind this baby~~ I will share that and pics another day. It is a good story~Here's our gang on the trailer front row is my inlaws, next row is my sister and brother in law and their baby, then my friends daughter and last row my dear friend and her hubby.  Mary and I bake together, everyone had a great time!~! we could have used more seating, as we were loading up a couple came up to hubby and asked if they could ride with us! I felt bad but we didnt have enough room for anymore.  Hopefully they got to bumm a ride with someone else.  It is tradition for us to go to town then go into Dairy Queen for ice cream~  and let me just give yall an fyi!!! their chocolate silk pie blizzard is the BOMB~~ oh my goodness it is rich and chocolatey and so so yummyo~~ gotta get another of those before they close for season~~ it has vanilla ice cream, chocolate fudge, and actual pieces of chocolate whip cream pie in it~~ OH I gotta stop talkin bout it or I will be drivin to dairy queen now!~!LOL

We also bought some great old wood pulleys, I found a couple of old enamelware pans a bit rusty but that is a ok by me!! my hubby got lots of old tools and some new ones and of cource a few gadgets we just HAD to have ya know!! But it sure is great to be home (in case I havent mentioned that yet) the gardens are winding down and all that is left pretty much is squash, some pumpkins and gournds and some indian corn, the dang punkins are already orange!!way too early for them but they will look cool around the farmstand which I need to start decorating for fall soon!! like now!! LOL I am goin to the kitchen to work on a few things, not sure if I will go to market tomorrow as they are calling for heavy rain 90% chance and windy and cool so my products will not stand up to the dampness and I dont care to be out in the cool rain either! If it was warm and rainy that is ok but it is really coolin off here in michigan lately. The leaves are just starting to show their colors!! YEAH YIPPEE fall is my favo time of year!! the smells, the colors, all the fall produce and of cource the cooler sweater days!

Well I better git er done and git off here !! gottta run to our other farm and pick some apples and squash!

And oh my gosh dont forget all you survivor fans TONIGHT TONIGHT TONIGHT is the season premier~!~ YEE HAW!! got the dvr all set just in case!!  Love LOVE LOVE JEFF PROBST!~~

 

Talk to ya soon ! yall have a super day!

HUGS

Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Rainy and windy wed

Well I have to start out saying I am so sorry for not posting regularly right now life has just been crazy!  The markets are busier than ever and I have recieved alot of special orders which is wonderful just limits my time on here more. 
I did make some of my coconut macaroons yesterday but blinged them up a bit by turning them into "almond joy" macaroons and they are super delish!!   Also made some espresso cookies with chocolate drizzle, my flour free loaded oatmeal cookies, lemon glazed lemon tea cakes, peanut butter whoopie pies (these are a weekly itme that people request more of each week!) and I tried a new Paula Deen recipe for a cream cheese filled red velvet cake!! OH MY GOODNESS!! I love makin red velvet cakes anyway but the filling is just gorgeous in it!!  I topped it with just a plain vanilla glaze and baked in a bundt pan.  I will take my cam with today and take pics of them!! one is gonna be sliced and sold by the piece at market tomorrow!  LOVELY!!  My "eggcellent egg" bread braids were beautiful I have to say it was really warm and they rose quick so had to keep a close eye on them so they didnt over proof! 
And I got some cookie dough done for today, snickerdoodles which are gonna be a soft n chewy cookie.  Today is gonna be a new recipe day a bread filled with cheese and sausage n onions just for us at market tomorrow to enjoy!  Also made up my babka dough and brioche dough to bake today also on the lisht it will be a  muffin day!  I do have to make some cheddar pepper bread but that will be first thing this am then I will work on some new muffins and maybe some more cookies.  Labor Day weekend is a big deal in south haven so I want to have a good supply of things for customers so I better close now and get myself ready to head over to the kitchen and play!! 
Enjoy your day it is windy and rainy and a bit warm here you can sure tell we are approaching fall which is just insane to me seems like summer just started yesterday!!  It really has been a weird weather summer though but FALL is my absolute favo time of the year!! I love everything about it including halloween!! decorating will begin in a couple of weeks, scarerows to dress, cornstalks to tie up and put around, even though pumpkins and gourds are about ready now hope they will last for us!!
Ok so have a beautiful wed!!
HUGS
Darlene 

This baby will be goin to tractor show very soon!!  hubby's great grandfathers

Farmall H~~she is a doll!! LOL braided egg bread loaves streusel topped babka loaves

  ~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~