It's That Time of Year!

    Wow, we've been busy, busy around here lately, as I'm sure you all have been! It's the time of year that we all get caught up in the whirlwind and find ourselves with more on our plates than we bargained for! I didn't plan on taking a break from blogging, but I guess I took about a month off. I should have planned to take the time off, so I could enjoy it more instead of constantly thinking, "I need to do a blog post!".
 
   Our internet has been down for almost three weeks which has seemed like months! You don't realize how much you use the internet until you don't have access to it. I find myself going to the computer to find a recipe and then remembering that I can't get online. I've been too busy with other things to spend any leisure time online though. While in the midst of knitting and crocheting Christmas gifts I've been knitting like a crazy woman on a last minute order for 8 hand knit scarves. I just finished the last scarf at 9:30 last night and I was so relieved to have the job completed! They are being picked up by the customer today and I hope she loves ever single one! I imagine they will soon be packed up and sent off as Christmas gifts and it won't be long before they are wrapped close around someone's neck, warding off the chill of Winter.

    I finally decorated the house for Christmas just last Wednesday. I love all of the festive Christmas colors and decorations! The deep reds and greens and crisp, pure white.

    We are certainly behind on our Christmas festivities this year for we still don't have the tree decorated! We cut our own live tree every year and yesterday was the first chance we had to go and get one! We enjoyed picking out the perfect tree and actually decided on one a little smaller this year. The sky was so clear and blue and it was a beautiful day to cut a Christmas tree if you didn't mind the mud. I came prepared with my rubber boots, though.  Trey and I plan to decorate it tomorrow evening and we'll leave it up until after the new year.

     You may not hear a lot from me in the next few weeks, for I'll be enjoying the festivities of the season, but don't worry, I won't be gone forever!

    Well, I better head home because I have some more crocheting to do!

Merry Christmas!

~Clair

The View From My Office Window...

Yes, this is the view from my office window! When my eyes get weary from looking at the computer screen, I can just look up and be totally refreshed. I am so blessed...

~Clair

From the Pages of My Life...

November 4th, 2013                                 Monday 9:30 p.m.

    I am astonished that it is November already! The time has flown by! The Autumn leaves are beautiful right now, but I am sad for I know that they will soon be bare once more. How could such beauty vanish before our very eyes?

    We are in the process of building bookshelves! On Saturday we designed them and bought the supplies and Sunday we began work on them. We got them all cut and partially painted and stained before it was too dark to see, (we are working outside) and so today we picked up where we had left off. They are now completely painted and stained, except for touch ups, and two of the shelves are assembled, all but the front trimmings. We made them to fit the dining room wall; one on each side of the window and one underneath. I painted them light blue using a distressed painting technique. I hope they turn out well! It is always nerve wracking to do something out of the ordinary, because you never know just how it will turn out.

    On Thursday of last week, while Trey was working in the backyard, he destroyed the home of a mouse and her 5 babies. Seeing the mother scurry around in the chilly rain to protect her babies made Trey feel so sorry for them that he brought them inside to me. 

    

    We decided to keep them in a cage for the day, to enjoy observing them and then let them out when better weather came. Less than 36 hours later the mother chewed her way out of the cage, abandoning her babies! She had plenty of food and water and a warm, dry place to sleep, but I guess she wanted to be free so badly that she would leave her helpless babies behind. We were baffled and hoped that she would come back for her babies, but we've not seen her since. Great, now we're stuck with 5 hungry, baby mice that need us desperately! If we don't feed them they will die. After at least 3 attempts at raising abandoned baby mice I wasn't looking forward to the intense care of 5 of them! We could not just let them die so we've been feeding them milk through a dropper with a paintbrush tip attached to the end. It sounds strange, but it works. They are now able to eat little bits of shredded mozzarella. They appear to be about 12 or 13 days old. They all have their eyes open but one and they crawl around like crazy! They are darling, lovable creatures and enjoy curling up in the palm of my hand and napping. Thankfully they are old enough to keep themselves clean and they seem to be doing well considering their circumstances, but you never now. The success rate for mice is only 25%, so they may not make it, but I'm thankful for this amazing opportunity to observe and enjoy God's wonderful creation!

                                                                                       ~Clair

One Fine, October, Sunday Afternoon...

 We've been extremely busy as of late. Trey has been working very long hours, (a lot of 12 hour days), and I've been busy doing my things here at home and more. Last Thursday Trey and the guys put the floor in the 1800's log cabin that we are restoring. On Friday they put the porch floor down (I even got to help hammer in some boards! I know it probably sounds funny, but I LOVE hammering in nails! Thanks Dad, for teaching me how to use a hammer all those wonderful years ago.) Saturday morning the guys set up their homemade compound machine to hoist the square logs up to the top of what has already been built and started the second story of the cabin. It is very hard labor and dangerous, too! While the guys were hard at work on the cabin, we ladies were busy, busy inside! Prairie Fest is this coming weekend and we were doing some last minute preparation on our period costumes. We made wool jackets for the little boys, wool pinafores for the young girls and wool capes for the ladies. I still have to make my own cape, talk about last minute! Also Amanda was there for a visit and she made a dress and pinafore for Moriah and a shirt for Justus. It was like a sweat shop in the McDaniel's kitchen; we had three sewing machines going and really could have used a fourth. There was material everywhere and someone was constantly cutting out fabric for the next piece of clothing. When there are 16 people (most of which are growing like weeds!) to clothe in period costume, it can get a little crazy! We accomplished a lot and had so much fun together, though!

When you get so busy doing important things that need to be done, it is easy to exhaust yourself. Working long hours for a short period of time is okay, but if you continue in that for very long, there will soon be nothing left of you. Trey and I haven't had much time together lately, and I've been missing him like crazy! I get lonely for him when I only see him at meal times and when we drop into bed, exhausted from the long day. I want to be near Trey and do as much together as possible! The years keep passing and the work will always be there, but the people we love may not always be. Relationships, especially between Husband and Wife are more important than any physical achievement you will ever have. It is important to take time to communicate with each other and share common interests and goals. The fewer common interests that you share the further apart you drift. I am so thankful that Trey and I share so many of the same interests! It does take work sometimes, though, to be interested in what your spouse is, but as a result you are both blessed!

Directly after worship on Sunday we left for an afternoon of togetherness! We drove down South to the Shawnee National Forest and Fern Cliff. We spread our blanket upon the grass at the edge of a beautiful lake and had a picnic. There was hardly a person in sight as we enjoyed quietly observing the lake and wildlife around us. We went for a short hike and discovered a field full of clover. I could not resist jumping right in the center of it and lying down! It was so relaxing and peaceful.

I'm so thankful for days like this one that remind me why I fell in love with my Trey McDaniel...

~Clair

Harvesting Sumac

After finding the information about Sumac that I shared in this article, and more, I knew I wanted to gather some that was growing wild. I asked Trey if we could do it together and he thought it sounded like fun. A few days passed before we had the opportunity, but finally the perfect evening presented itself.

The air was crisp and cool but with enough warmth left that we could leave our jackets at home. Of course, Shelby, the cats, and Sadie (my parents dog that we are dog-sitting until they get settled into there new place) had to come along.

We enjoyed a peaceful walk on our path through the woods that led to the open meadow where we found wild sumac growing.

It was lots of fun and oh so relaxing! My mouth waters just writing about it as I recall licking my malic acid covered fingers while harvesting the clusters.

We harvested two cloth sacks full!

Part of the sumac that we gathered is in the process of drying and I plan to grind it into a powder to use as a spice. As I write, I am in the process of making sumac juice. Here is an excellent link that tells how! 

These are a few of the recipes that I would like to try! They sound so yummy!

Sumac Jelly: Take prepared juice and use the Sure-Jell recipe for elderberry jelly. Add 3 cups juice and sweeten. Leave out the lemon juice.

Sumac Jello: Mix the prepared juice with unflavored gelatin per instruction on package and sweeten.

Sumac Rubber Candy: Mix one cup of sweetened juice, with two envelopes of gelatin. Pour into an 8×8 or 8×10 inch baking pan and refrigerate for an hour or more. Cut and serve.

I hope to try these recipes and more! 

Sumac

After enjoying the treat of wild sumac a few days ago my mind began to turn. Since it is edible, surely there is more you can do with it besides lick the outside. I have had sumac lemonade, but other than that I had only ever held the berries in my mouth to savor the sour taste and then spit the berries out. I was interested to find out more about this wild edible. Here are just a few random facts that I've found so far:

1. There are around 250 sumac species in the genus. 
2. The fruit of the sumac tree are pea-sized berries with hairs and are covered with malic acid, which is what makes them so sour! Believe it or not, it is the same thing that causes grapes and apples to be tart.
3. All of the red berries of sumac are edible.
4. I quickly realized that it is a spice known around the world, particularly in Middle Eastern cuisine.
5. Surprisingly, sumac, poison ivy, Brazilian pepper, cashews, mangoes and pistachios are all related!
6. The leaves of many sumacs yield tannin. Leather tanned with sumac is flexible, lightweight, and light in color.
7. Sumac makes a purple-colored spice, which is very handy where there are no lemons
8. The edible variety of sumac has red berries in cone-shaped clusters at the end of main branches. They have skinny leaves and like dry ground. The poisonous sumac is actually very rare. It resembles an alder, has white berries that grow out of leaf axils and prefers to live deep in swamps. 

I'm anxious to find out more about this wild edible! Do you have a favorite use for Sumac?

~Clair

Autumn Evening

Our Sunday morning and early afternoon was spent in praise at Christopher Christian Church. It was their homecoming and we and our family were asked to provide the music. They were a pleasant and attentive crowd to sing to and we were blessed to hear a wonderful message by ---, of which I was used as a sermon illustration. He said the McDaniel family found me through Craig's List by posting a want ad which read:

"Wanted: Talented musician and singer to become wife of son. Love is optional. He will grow on you."

(None of which is true! Except he really has grown on me.)

The food and fellowship was wonderful and we left feeling encouraged.

Upon arriving home we changed our clothes and continued working on our log pumpkins. (I will post pictures soon!) 

After working on our pumpkins enough to satisfy ourselves, we decided to take a walk through ours and Providence Prairie's woods. I quickly whipped up a Pumpkin Spice drink, grabbed an Indian blanket and some mixed nuts and threw them all in a small backpack and we were ready to go.

Sometimes you don't take the time to enjoy what's outside your own backdoor so it was nice to just meander through the woods, enjoying just a small portion of God's wonderful creation! It was the first day, this Autumn, that was chilly enough to require a jacket and it felt so good! The scent of Fall was in the air and a peacefulness surrounded us. Along the way I found some edible Wild Sumac and licked the sour fruit until my tongue was sore! It brought back memories of horseback riding with my family as a child. Wild Sumac was always a treat! 

After hiking for nearly an hour, we found a cozy spot on the side of a hill and spread out our blanket. While I sat watching, Trey built a small fire and within minutes the smell of wood smoke was in the air. If you have never experienced an outdoor fire you can't imagine what you are missing! We leaned back and watched the flickering flames as we enjoyed our snack. It was nearly dark before we made our way out of the woods and I wished we could just spend the whole night out there in the forest, but that will have to wait for another day...

~ Clair