Before & After, Birthday, & Give - Away

I promised you updates on the homestead.  Below are two videos, both showing the woods around the driveway which encompass approximately 5 acres of wooded area, broken trees, and tons of underbrush.  Our goal was to clear the old unwanted alive, and dead trees, along with the underbrush.
Bulldog Man and I started the work and realized it would take us a year, or longer, to get all the work done.  So, I hired a company, Bushwackers Land Clearing (from the Oklahoma/Texas areas) to come out with one piece of equipment for 3 days to do the work.  They did an excellent job of shredding the underbrush, dead, and old trees.  It is now so much easier for us to eventually level out the area, and create some garden beds, RV storage, and areas for future building.

BEFORE

AFTER

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We've been busy down in Texas this week as well.  We finally had our probate court hearing for my sister's estate.  It took over 7 months to finally get administrator rights, and heirship.  The delay was mostly due to an election, where the original judge was voted out of office.  We had to wait until a new judge was put in office, and trained.    Having the legal paperwork finally allowed me the opportunity to get the ball moving with bills, banking, my sister's house, and her vehicle.

*****

Catalog picture from Baker Creek (Rareseeds.com)

Did any of you get "The Whole Seed Catalog for 2019" from Baker Creek yet?
I'm already marking pages in the catalog for new seed purchases.  You really need to get this catalog, it's got all kinds of unique seeds, and makes for a great book for your coffee table in the living room.


*****

Today's Tanks birthday, 26 years of age....time sure flies.  Instead of making lunch this afternoon, Tank suggested we go to a Mexican restaurant in the next town.  We honored his wishes, and I'm making a cake right now.  Actually, it's in the oven, as I piddle with the computer to get a post out to y' all.

In the near future, I will be sponsoring another one of my awesome give - away's to show my appreciation to my blogger friends for sticking it out with me while I deal with the loss of my sister.
Keep an eye out for my give-away!!!

Something Good!

You've probably noticed 2 posts, both without the option to comment.  The reason, I'm still in the process of working on the function keys, within my blog, under the new format.

On to the good stuff! I had a quart of over ripe strawberries, and needed to do something with them. I started searching strawberry cake recipes on the internet, and came across a Martha Stewart Recipe, for not a "typical" strawberry cake, and had to try it.  The cake turned out really good.  Bulldog Man gave it 4 paws.....so it had to be pretty good for the rating.  Here's the recipe, thank you Martha Stewart.

Strawberry Cake

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pie plate

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup milk

1 pound strawberries, hulled and halved

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flower

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 10 inch pie plate.  Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together in medium bowl.

Put butter and 1 cup sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, abut 3 minutes.  Reduce speed to medium-low, mix in egg, milk, and vanilla.

Reduce speed to low, gradually mix in flour mixture.  Transfer batter to buttered pie plate.  Arrange strawberries on top of batter, cut sides down and as close together as possible.  Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over berries.

Bake cake 10 minutes.  Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake until cake is golden brown and firm to the touch, about 1 hour.  Let cool in pie plate on wire rack.  Cut into wedges, and serve.

Contact 

Email:  SandyLivesay@gmail.com

Mailing Address: P.O. Box 5701 Norman, OK 73070

About Me

Let me tell you a little about myself.

I'm Sandy Livesay.

I’m a city lady who loves the country and anything to do with nature.

 Striving to eventually have a homestead that one day rests on many

 acres and is totally off the grid. I have this natural love for animals,

 wild or domesticated. One of my pleasures is photography and the ability

 to share my story through the camera lens.

New Addition

A typical morning; up at 4:30AM, brewing coffee for Bulldog Man and myself.  He's preparing to go to work, and me, planning my day on the homestead.   First, I need to prep the venison for crockpot stew.  My little buddy, Beans, is sitting not too far from my feet as I brown the venison meat on the stove.  He's hoping Mom will accidentally drop a piece of meat, while browning it or placing it in the crockpot.  Little does he know, Mom is making sure not to drop any piece of meat, or food, on the floor.  Little Mr. Bean's was put on a prescription dog food diet (an expensive food) for his sensitive digestion system a couple of months ago. There is no way he's getting any venison (it's too rich for him).  I'll let him continue dreaming about something dropping on the floor.  He'll eventually get tired of sitting there waiting and go back to his bed, making sure I hear him leave a voice-stress grunt.

While waiting for the sun to come up, I've started our laundry, making sure to strip down the bedding to wash everything.  Bulldog Man and I have been dealing with allergens relating to tree pollen; floating in the air, from all the wind we've had the last several days.  I also need to vacuum, mop, and change the air filter.

Now that the sun has come up, I need to load our truck with several feed lot panels, fencing wire, and T-posts, and bring it all down our driveway to build a fenced-in enclosure around an old collapsed well from the '20s.  The area looks pretty solid, we've walked around and on it multiple times, but would feel more confident if we just fenced it off and planted flower seeds.

I also have to remember to go down to our gates at the end of the driveway and take down and put away our Christmas wreaths.  Did I say put away the wreaths? I sure did, and you ask where are those wreaths being stored.  Let me show you........

We purchased a new barn for storage, and potentially a work shop for Bulldog Man.
The barn is 10 X 20 with 2 lofts (located on the front and back of the barn), we also had a radiant barrier ceiling put in to help with the heat and cold air.

Final Product

Happy New Year, & Checking on Parents

Hey it's 2019, and I'm slowly updating my blog.  So please, excuse any buttons which may not be functioning nor work properly.  My blog is a work in progress!!!

Happy New Year, Blogger Friends!  My motto: "2019 will be good to all of us!"

I'm sharing  a video created when Bulldog Man and I went out to New Mexico, not too
long ago, to check on his parents.  They're getting up there in age; and we hadn't physically put eyes on them in a while. You know how it is when you talk to your parents on the telephone; "We're fine." We drove down to the southern-most part of New Mexico to surprise them (really to check on them), and to see if there were any chores where they needed help.  Good thing we went; we took down a large Willow Tree, it was dead inside, but still standing.  It was a potential widow maker.
Bulldog Man's parents were so happy to have us visit (aka: check on them).