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/