Spring Sunset

One night, when I finished mowing, this is what I saw.

As I so often do, I ran to grab the camera, afraid I would miss the color show.

I kept moving myself farther into the yard to be able to capture the whole spectrum of colors that I saw.

One of the results of doing that was the silhouette of our 200 year old silver maple.

I think you can possibly see here how it dwarfs our fairly tall farmhouse.

There have been some spectacular sunsets lately because of all the storms.

The pink and periwinkle are prominent...and breathtaking.

I never tire of beautiful sunsets I see in this wide-open land that we live on.

I hope they never get old to you, my readers!

Thank you, as always, for reading and following this blog, it means a lot to me.

:0)

I am so happy to have you to share my photos and little snapshots of my country life as well.  

By the time this post is published, I will have almost hit  the 200,000 mark on my "hit counter"...that is truly amazing to me!  

xoxo

~Joni, a very

Restless Patriot~

Lip Smackin' GOOD!

Every spring, I say I'm gonna do it.

And then I don't. 

I don't know why?!

Rhubarb is easy to grow:  plant it and pretty much forget it!

But this year, I did it.

I made strawberry-rhubarb jam.

Now, this is something quite different from your average jam.

Rhubarb has a different texture, and as you know, a more tart flavor.

BUT TASTY.

Substantial.

TART.

My son, the picky eater, just LOVES it.

(He will pick up a clean stalk of rhubarb and bite into it!  

That makes me SHIVER!!)

But with this jam on his peanut butter sandwich, 

not one bite is ever left!

SUCCESS!!

Oh.  How did I make it?

Well, I winged it.

I cut up a whole bunch of rhubarb, in small pieces.

I got frozen strawberries out of the freezer.

I added lemon juice.

I added just enough sugar,

and some strawberry jello for color,

and I cooked it to a decent consistency.

Then, I put it into sterilized jars, with hot lids, and processed for twenty minutes.

But if you want a REAL recipe...

this one is for the freezer:  go here.

Mennonite Girls Can COOK! 

You'll see them all in their bright, and shiny new header photo,

all in their aprons, so cute!

One of my favorite cooking blogs, kindly brought to you by some

lovely Mennonites in Canada!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Have a great day, 

and tell me,

DO YOU LIKE RHUBARB?

Reclaimed Barn Wood: First Project--Picture Rail

The first board put through the planer from the old barn has turned out to be quite useful, made into a picture rail/shelf for our family room at the back of the house, which is an addition we put onto our home thirteen years ago.  




This room, by necessity,  has none of the character the older rooms in the farmhouse have...it's quite plain, really, with a tall, peaked ceiling, an oak floor and a view of the back yard and the farm field behind it being the only features that are an asset.  




There are three major doorways and our pets spend most of their time here--it's the room right off our back entry.  I wanted to "make it fit" with the farmhouse theme I have in the rest of the house, but practical uses for the room have prevented that.  




Which is fine with me, my husband is such a hard worker, he needs a room that's "all his"...and I'm only too happy to make it that way.

See all the old knots and worm holes?  Too bad the photo frames cover all that up!  I also like how the weathered edges of the barn wood are left on each of the outer edges, for a "finished" look.

Being that it's a room that I let the men dictate in furnishings:  it's leather couches, with deer mounts on the wall as well as a few fish and up until Mark moved out, there were turkey mounts, too!

Not long ago, I decided it was past time I have some of our photography displayed in our home, the only problem is the old parts of the house have SO LITTLE wall space that is uninterrupted by windows, doors, or woodwork.  The family room was the only space that would work for a large display.

This rail--made fresh on Memorial day!-- holds seven matching frames that each hold three 8 x 10's that I bought using my 30% off coupons at Kohl's, and since they were also on sale, the frames came in at under $10 each.  


The only problem is, they had no hangers and there was no way to add them!  I like this method of display, though because it makes photos easy to change out and move around, I have plenty more of 8 x 10" prints.


Luke is SO PROUD of the photos he took that are displayed here, and the memories we've got of taking those photos together.


I have to say, I just love it.


I wanted to be sure to show you, too, and I can't wait to see what our next project becomes.