Making Butter and Lemonade

Hello friends how was your week and weekend? Last week I went with my sister to Knoxville and we picked up little Sadie’s ashes. It was a very small box. She had lost so much weight. A sad time for sure. It makes me so paranoid about all the other fur babies.

The weekend was good. My sister, nephew and I went to the Mennonite farm market for the first time this season. They have just opened and they still haven’t got a lot of veggies in yet. They did have some beautiful strawberries. I have never been a big strawberry fan so I didn’t buy any. I started to get some for freezer jam but I knew I probably wouldn’t get around to it before the strawberries went bad.

We also visited a couple of local antique stores while we were in the town of Tellico Plains. Whew!! a little too rich for my budget in several of the shops. We did stop in at a little shop where the owner also does interior decorating. It was just a lovely shop. I bought these little butterflies to hang. I started to put them on a curtain but hung them on this sign instead.

Sunday was a bit of a lazy day for me. Weekends are really hard for me because they were always so special to me and my husband. Last week was my birthday and our 36th wedding anniversary. I got through it but it was pretty hard.

I have been crocheting a cardigan. I am making the panels and will put them all together. Hopefully soon. I spent most of the morning yesterday working on that while I listened to an audio book. The babies sleep all day. It is their favorite sleeping time. They occasionally look up at me with sleepy eyes and go right back to their napping.

***I love these colors. I can’t wait to put all of them together for the cardigan***

Along with cheating on my knitting with crochet I have also been watching a lot of needle point videos. Needle point is really hot right now. I still prefer cross stitch and embroidery. I ordered these stamped embroidery kits from Amazon and was really pleased with them. I got all four stamped patterns and thread and a hoop for $20.00.

***I can’t wait to work on these but I’m trying to finish my sweater first.***

***The kit comes with everything you need. It would be easy to put this in a bag and take it with me to work on while I am out.***

***I may even learn a few stitches I am not familiar with.***

Of course Kitty Kitty is enjoying the box from Amazon.

Have you seen the videos of people making butter from heavy whipping cream? I decided yesterday to give it a try. This is the brand I used from Walmart but any heavy whipping cream will do.

Put the cream in a stand mixer with the whisk attachment. Start the mixer on medium speed. This entire process will take about 15 minutes. You can also use a hand mixer if you don’t mind holding the mixer the entire time. I think it’s interesting that this is the way people churned butter many years ago. They would collect the heavy cream from the milk from their cows and put it in a butter churn. It took much longer than 15 minutes.

This is the stage where you could stop and add powdered sugar and have some yummy whipped cream.

Soon liquid will appear, this is buttermilk and you need to drain it off. You then scoop the butter and put it in a bowl of ice water. This will rinse the butter of any remaining cream that could cause the butter to become rancid.

You can use this buttermilk for making biscuits or pancakes.

I patted the butter out and added some sea salt. You can add any herbs or flavoring you like. It fit perfectly in my butter bell. I was very happy with it. It is so creamy and delicious. But I will say it it a bit of a messy process.

I also made some lemonade on Sunday. I had a bag of lemons that needed to be used. It was great with some toast and fresh butter.

I leave you with a picture of Millie my porch goose sporting her Easter outfit that I crocheted for her a couple of weeks ago.

Have a great week and always remember:

Love your day your way!!!!!

Goodbye Shady Sadie

Hello friends,

Last week was a very sad week. I had to say goodbye to one of my sweet kitties, Sadie. We always called her Shady Sadie because she was so elusive. She would stay out all night and wander in at all hours. We would stay up half the night trying to get her to come into the garage and out of the path of coyotes.

Little Sadie was close to four years old. Back in 2022 her mom, Allie cat, came to us and within a week had brought back her four kittens. Milo and Buster, the two males lived with us for about nine months before Milo was taken by a coyote and then Buster disappeared. We fear that a coyote also got Buster. That left Allie cat and her two girl babies, Sadie and Izzy. We started corralling them and putting them in the garage every night where they would be safe. Sadie always gave us a rough time. Some nights she would come in easily and others we would be up half the night trying to get her in.

A strange thing is that all of these kitties have remained fairly feral. They would never let us pet and love on them. When it came time to taking them to the vet it was a Herculean effort. They are so different than our inside babies, Gus and Kitty Kitty.

The weekend before last I noticed that Sadie was very lethargic. This was so unlike her. She would lay on the driveway for hours. When it got hot she would move to the shade and finally into the garage. I also noticed she would not sleep next to her mom and sister. Also unlike her. On Sunday afternoon I walked up to her and actually picked her up and she didn’t try to claw me. I knew something was up. I noticed then how thin she had become.

On Monday morning I called the vet and they got us in pretty quick. They did a series of tests and came back with bad news about her blood being very low. They said she needed a blood transfusion before they could really do any other testing. They called University of Tennessee Vet Clinic and they had cat blood, so we took off for Knoxville. It is about an hour from me.

***Always on the prowl and always protecting us.***

We went through the emergency entrance and they took her right in. They needed to do a lot of blood work to find out why her body was not making blood. Of course the word cancer was put out there as a high probability. I had to leave my sweet girl there for the night. I knew how scared she was and it killed me to leave her.

For the next day and a half they ran tests on Sadie. Sometimes the updates were hopeful and sometimes not. Finally late on Tuesday they called and told me they had the oncology results and she had a very rare form of cancer. I had a couple of options. Bring her home and give her meds that “might” keep her alive another two weeks or do nothing and she would live a few days. They also told me I could just let them put her down there while she was at the hospital.

I can’t begin to tell you how hard this has been to go through without Mark. Not having him to share ideas and thoughts and ideas what should we dos. I called my sister and my niece and got their thoughts. I decided to go ahead and let Sadie go. If I had brought her home she would have had to be kept in the bathroom so I could give her meds. She would have hated that. She was truly a free spirit. Fortunately this type of cancer is not hereditary.

My sister and I drove to Knoxville the next morning. We got to see Sadie and pet and love on her. I had never been able to do that. I told her to go and be with dad and Milo and Buster and Scruffy and Molly, and she did. I told her we would all join her soon. It was quick as she crossed the Rainbow Bridge. I can only imagine how happy Mark was to see her.

So I have shed a million tears this past week. I know I had to do what was right for her but it hurt so unbelievably bad.

Sweet Sadie, Fly high sweet wild girl until we see you again.

***This is a pic of Sadie and Allie and Izzy. Since Sadie has been gone Allie and Izzy seem to be looking for her. I tried explaining it to them but I’m not sure they understood.***

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

Hello, It’s Thursday, Let’s Catch Up

I am currently sitting in my living room where I just saw a huuuuuge spider around my fireplace grate. I grabbed bug killer and sprayed but he got away. I am sure he will be back to get me while I sleep. Darn cats and Bunnie I thought they took care of these creatures. That is my current Thursday evening.

Hello friends, you may have been wondering if I would ever return. I have wondered myself. I love my blog and sharing with all of you. I also enjoy reading all of your posts. I am getting caught up. It is just that I haven’t been myself. I guess I never will be that person that I was before my husband passed seven months ago. I actually had to go back and read that sentence again because it is so hard to believe that it has been seven months. Sometimes it seems like only yesterday. The pain feels like it was only yesterday.

I have been trying to keep busy but it doesn’t really matter, the grief is there, always, like a new unwanted friend who has moved in with me. She sits beside me and walks with me every step of every day. She is like a shroud that covers me and keeps me from being myself. That is the only way I can explain it.

I get by day by day and that is all I can do right now. Sometimes only hour by hour and even minute by minute.

I am back to work mostly full time. I usually work four days a week. The babies and I have developed somewhat of a routine. I guess it is that routine that has kept me somewhat sane.

I worked out in the yard for a bit on Saturday and it was great being out in the sunshine. I had to thin my irises. I took out about twenty before the spade I was using broke. I will have to get back to it next weekend. These are Irises I got from my mama’s house many years ago. I share them with all of my family so we will always have them. Bunnie stayed close beside me. Bunnie is my big dog that came to us last year in June. She is still so terrified of people. I am trying to work with her and help her adjust but she does not like me out of her sight. And the poor baby only has one good eye. I know she spends most of her time terrified unless I am right with her. Bunnie is a work in progress.

I bought a porch goose. Lucky for me I found one nearby for only $29.99. You may not be familiar with these cuties but they are very popular right now. I named mine Millie. I think she is a Canadian Goose. We have a lot of those on our lake right now.

***Here she is in her St Patrick’s Day outfit that I crocheted for her. I am currently working on her Easter outfit.***

I am trying to work on another jigsaw puzzle but look who is on top of it. I’m not sure why Gus and Kitty Kitty love lying on the puzzle pieces.

I have been spending some of my Saturdays going to estate sales in our area. I go with my nephew and his wife. We have had the most fun. Look at these two chairs I got for only $25.00 each. They are in great shape and very sturdy. I am going to paint them and put them at the lake. They have a very beautiful flower pattern on the arms.