HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I hope you all have a very blessed and happy Thanksgiving!

I recently added some new items to the website. I hope you can stop by and check them out!

http://www.keeperofthepast.com

I will be posting some pics from Open House soon!

Blessings!

Cyndi

Donkey Update

Look at how our little mini has grown! He is now a month old. I finally decided on a name for him.......we call him Casper (the friendly donkey). And friendly he is! He is a little bundle of fuzzy fur......gotta love those bangs. No, I didn't put a bowl on his head and trim his mane, it's all natural I promise! Mama Gracie is doing great as well, she has a full time job keeping up with the little one.

Anyway, thanks for all the name suggestions. Hopefully, someday we will get a little girl and we can call her Sunday. Hope you like the pics!

Blessing to all!
Cyndi
Keepers of the Past
www.keeperofthepast.com

A SUNDAY SURPRISE

Today has been a very exciting day! We always have lots of Barn Drama around here but todays drama was definitly out of the ordinary! My jennet Amazing Grace aka Gracie gave birth to her first born foal. I suspected she was carring a little one but had no idea the time was so close.

After Church while at my sister's house which overlooks the donkey pasture I peered out the window and to my surprise I seen the little bundle of joy laying in the pasture with Gracie encouraging her to rise and walk. I was ecstacic! I raced down to get a closer look.

The baby finally nursed and seems to be doing well. I am hoping it is a girl so I can name her Sunday.........but we are pretty sure it's a boy. Which is still terrific either way. I just need a good name for this sweetheart. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Just leave a comment!

I will try to post more pics tomorrow!

Blessings!

Cyndi

And the WINNER Is ????

And the WINNER is.....................Wendy from Chateaugay, NY!

Congrats Wendy and thanks to all who participated!

Happy 4th of July!!!

**Wishing you all a safe and happy weekend**

A pic of the shop!

Blessings!

Cyndi

http://www.keeperofthepast.com/

Cookbook Give-Away!!

I just added some great new cookbooks to the shop and website. I am giving away one of the Quick Desserts pictured above. All you need to do to enter is leave a comment with your email addy or simply send me an email with ENTER ME TO WIN in the subject line. My email address is cyndiuh@aol.com

Winner will be drawn on July 1st. Cookbook will be shipped to the winner for free! One entry only please.


Thinking Ahead to Christmas I have stitched up this little Christmas mouse. I had to come up with something for the Oct./Nov. issue of Country Sampler so I choose this little guy.

We have been really....really....busy lately. My neighbor gave me her two sheep.......and to both our surprise two days after I brought the mama sheep home she had twins! They are the cutest things you ever seen. I will post some pics soon.

We have been working in the garden and planting field corn for the critters and filling the barn with hay. We cut and bale our own hay and it's a lot of work! But very rewarding. When the snow is flying the critters will have plenty to eat............and that makes me Happy ( :0)

So send in your entry for the cookbook before it's too late. And if you have time run on over to the website and check out the other great cookbooks just added.

http://www.keeperofthepast.com

Blessings!

Cyndi

SPRING BLESSINGS!

I have been blessed with lots of new little Spring Blessings lately. Saturday to my surprise I discovered that my one and only little hen hatched out eleven little chicks! Now I have a dozen plus one rooster. I love to watch them crowd under the mother hen for protection.

In the photo's below you will see my other new little blessing given to me by critter-lovin neighbor a few weeks ago. He is a baby goose.........I named Dooney. He is such a joy and follows my every step. He has grown like a weed and is beginning to get feathers. I am hoping the ducks will kindly accept him and let him join the flock when he is older.

I hope you all have had a few Spring Blessings of your own.......I'd love to hear about them!

Happy Spring

Cyndi

www.keeperofthepast.com

Dooney at a few days old.

THE INCREDIBLE EGG

Today has been a beautiful sunny day and I took in as much as I could outdoors. Early this morning after feeding the animals I gathered the six white duck eggs shown in pic below.

I thought I would blow them and color them. I had blown brown country hen eggs years ago and still have them displayed in a yelloware bowl in the kitchen.

I started off by washing and drying the eggs and by drilling a small hole in one end of each egg. I then took a small stiff wire and swished it around inside the egg to break the yolk. Then I found a small pipette (disposable oil dropper) and filled it with water and squirted it inside the egg and the inside slowly slipped out. I continued to do this until the egg was completely empty. Once I had done this to all six eggs. I rinsed them inside and out with bleach water and set them upright to drain and dry.

When all that was done......I prepared my dye bath and dipped each egg until I was satisfied with the color. I wanted the blue of a robins egg so I mixed blue and a little green dye in hot (boiled) water and added some vinegar to dye the eggs. Once the eggs again were dry and completely drained........I took them outside and with an old brush and some burnt umber paint I speckled the eggs.

I was very pleased with the outcome! I am so happy my little ducks provided me with such wonderful gifts! This is a great Spring/Easter project that will last for years n years!

Spring Blessings!
Cyndi
http://www.keeperofthepast.com

Spring Sights, Sounds & Tastes!

Happy Spring!

I welcomed Spring this week by taking in all the sights, sounds and tastes it had to offer.

My dad and I tapped a sugar maple for the first time. For those of you who may be wondering what the heck I'm talking about......Tree tapping is the process of extracting sap from a sugar maple to later be processed into Maple Syrup!

You start off by selecting a good size sugar maple tree that you may have in your back yard as we did. You then gently drill a hole into the tree and insert a spile or spout(homemade or commercial) we used a sanitized pvc pipe. Immediately after we drilled the hole.......the sap came dripping out of the tree! A very good sign the time is right for tappin! Next we made a small hole in the top of a sanitized plastic water jug and placed the pipe in the hole and secured the jug to the tree. As you can see in the last photo.....the sap is clear just like water. Well actually.....it is 98% water. The other 2% is sugar.

Tree tappin can only be done from Janurary until April. You must have freezing nights followed by sunny 40-50 degree days for the sap to come up. If you would like to try this for yourself you might want to read this article from Mother Earth News: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/1981-01-01/Its-Tree-Tappin-Time-Most-Everywhere.aspx

I bet your wondering where's the syrup???? Well, we are still waiting on that. We are trying to collect enough sap to make a good little batch of syrup. It takes 40 gal. of sap to make 1 gal. of maple syrup! Our goal is to get maybe a half a pint....lol. Anyway, I'll be sure to let you know how it turns out! To be continued..........

Ice Storm hits Kentucky!

Well it's been a hard week for all or most of us Kentuckians! We were hit hard here in Ky with a major ice storm. The power outages broke records for our state.



We went without electricity for nearly four days. We were fortunate compared to some, there is still people in our county without power.

How did we survive??? Well, we actually did just fine. One night we ate fried chicken and all the fixins dad prepared on the old wood cook stove. Another night we had chicken and dumplings. We ate gravy and biscuits, you name it! Needless to say....we did not starve. lol.

We had heat and oil lamps for light, water, food and most important of all we had each other. It was amazing to step out on the front porch, everything was so dark and quite. All you could hear were trees cracking and falling to the ground. That was a lit-tle scary! Most nights we ventured over to Mom & Dad's and sat around the buck stove and chat. It was very calming; a slow down to our normal hectic lives.

My prayers go out to everyone affected by this storm. May God see you through.

Many Blessings,
Cyndi

Working the Day Away!

Not much going on here right now.......just trying to get the creative juices flowing again. I designed and finished up a few new things today. These have been added to my website. If you care to stop by the link is http://keeperofthepast.com/

It's really cold here and expected to get colder so there's not much else to do other than work. I hope you all are staying warm! Blessings, Cyndi

An Old Beginning to a New Year!

It's New Years Day and my family and I started off the new year with an Old Fashion home cooked breakfast.

My dad bought an old wood cook stove last year and he had the best idea of preparing breakfast on it New Year's Day!

Dad started off by heating up the stove with split pieces of oak wood while mom prepared the cured ham meat for frying. Once the stove was ready and the ham hot and frying............the aroma was a mixture of burning oak and cured ham. It brought back memories for Dad, he told us about how grandma would cook for them when he was a child. My niece who is 11 was a bit amazed. I tried to explain to her how the stove worked without electric. I think it was very educational for her and I hope she will always remember it and request we do it more often.

Our meal consisted of: Buttermilk biscuits, cured ham, gravy, red eyed sop, eggs, garlic potatoes, fried apples and homemade grape jelly. I felt so blessed to be gathered around the table with good food, the best family anyone could ask for and the love of God in my heart. I end my new Year's Day with a joyful heart. I hope everyone had a blessed New Year's Day. I'd love to hear how you celebrated the day!

Blessings,
Cyndi

Cured Ham frying in a iron skillet.

Buttermilk biscuits ready to bake!

Baked to perfection! Hubby sneaks one out to give em a try!

After one bite...............he's all smiles :)

Two eggs sunny side up frying on an iron griddle.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas & Happy

New Year!!!

Snowy Morning Chores

The cold snowy weather here in Eastern Ky didn't make the morning

chores any easier. I bundled up and headed out with camera in hand for

the barn. As soon as the front door slams shut the animals come alive!

The ducks come up the road to greet me while the sheep, donkeys, hen, rooster, cats, dogs and Chance (the little red bull) give out thier morning cry.

Everyone is hungry and ready to be fed. The ducks, sheep and calf have no patience but the little donkeys quietly wait thier turn.

They are the first faces I see every morning and sometimes the last before bedtime. They are all so precious to me and I love them dearly. They have a way of warming the heart, even on the coldest of days.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Blessings,

Cyndi

http://www.keeperofthepast.com/

Chesapeake Bay

Our last day of excitement ended Saturday. We ventured over to the Chesapeake Bay area. We crossed the Chesapeake bridge/tunnel and ate lunch at the Sea Gull pier which overlooks the ocean. Afterwards we went out on the fishing pier and took these pics. I only wish I had a fishing pole and some live bait!

The view was heavenly! Living so far from the ocean.......it was a treat to see the open waters and being a bird lover I fell in love with the sweet little sea gulls.

We heard of a large Antique show being held at the Virginia Beach Convention Center so we decided to check it out as well. It was really nice but I didn't buy a thing. I think I was so overwhelmed I couldn't decide what to buy. It was fun just seeing some really old and unusual things. After the show we headed back to Williamsburg for a quite dinner and to get some rest for the long trip home on Sunday.

I will be adding some new items to the website later this evening. I hope you can stop by and check them out. Back to work for me. Take care!

http://www.keeperofthepast.com

Cyndi

More Colonial Williamsburg

Here is some pics of more of my favortie shops. Hope you enjoy!

While exploring Colonial Williamsburg we visited many working shops like the blacksmith, cabinet-maker, silversmith, cooper, etc. We also toured many of the historial buildings such as the Courthouse, Printing Office & Bindery, Capitol, the Govenor's Palace and more. Here is a few more pics of some of those places.

We finished off the long day walking in Williamsburg by going over into New Town and watching a movie. We watched Role Models. Very funny movie but the language was a little too harsh. I'd rather seen Appaloosa but unfortunately it wasn't playing. Saturday we head out for the Virginia Beach & Chesapeake Bay. I'll have some pics from there for you tomorrow. Until then, take care!

Cyndi