A Happy Thrifting Find...

                                     
Good Morning! It's FRIDAY! I hope your Friday is a happy one! This week in my hometown we have an event called Antique Alley. It goes up and down a road in our city for MILES! On Wednesday, I took my nieces to school and there were a few people already set up. It normally doesn't start until Thursday, but these guys had a jump on things!
I found the dinner bell above. It is HEAVY! Cast iron! The bell is amazingly clear and LOUD! The only thing... well someone had painted it and it was ugly.
See?

Yeah, I thought so too.

Well, it was only $5 so I brought it home with me, knowing I could do something about the paint and make it look as it should.

I took some black paint and painted over the rooster. It worked very well and the paint just seeped into the cast iron so it didn't look like I just painted it. It looked old, like it should!

The bell now resides on our back deck.
I look forward to ringing it for supper time. It is so loud that you may hear it from your house. I usually cook a little extra... just in case you are inclined to stop by.

Have a great day friends!

Homemade Convenience Foods: Yum-Yum Sauce

Yum-Yum Sauce or Japanese White Sauce is delicious. I like it when you add a little Sriracha sauce and make it SPICY! It is very expensive to buy, with a bottle being almost $5 each. I just knew there had to be a way to make it, more healthfully and more inexpensively. So playing around in the kitchen, I found that ours tastes just as yummy and I can feel better about us having it on the occasion that we have Chinese!

Homemade Yum-Yum Sauce:
1 1/4 cup mayonnaise (homemade if you can)
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon melted butter
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon paprika
dash of cayenne pepper

Put all ingredients into mixer and mix WELL!
Pour into container and refrigerate overnight or at least SEVERAL hours. The longer it sets up, the better.
This should keep about a week or two.
I made a double batch and it was almost to the top of my quart jar.

We are having a quick and yummy meal of beef tips and lo mein with vegetables. This will be great to have as a dipping sauce. Now, where is my Sriracha?!?!

 
Enjoy!

Flowers, Bees, Itty Bitty...

The Coreopsis are one of my favorite flowers. The gorgeous pops of yellow and there are so many blooms. I have these growing all over our property. They spread, so after a while you can dig up some and transplant! Love that!

This is my Salvia. It has beautiful purple stalks of color. It has grown exceptionally well over the last 2 years! I now have 3 of these around the house, but this one is the oldest and most attractive.

This is a Weigela. This bush has had it's ups and downs over the year. I am trying my best to shape it back up and get it blooming all over again. This is the prettiest it has been in a long time. Still, I'm going to have to really cut her back in the fall to get it uniform and blooming more.

It's important to me to grow plenty of flowers on the homestead because my next adventure is to hopefully get bees for the property. I am SOOO excited thinking about having bees. I really hope to have them this year, if at all possible. But, beekeeping isn't exactly cheap to start. So I'm saving up for that.

Our newest farm member is Itty Bitty. She is a Golden Seabright Bantam hen. She is so small and cute. Bantams are known for being small, but being great setters. She lays a itty bitty white egg. Which is another reason her name is fitting.

I hope you have a great day! The weather is going to be absolutely amazing here... so if I don't respond to any comments or questions, I will try to tonight. Today, I'll be in the garden!

Sights from the homestead

Say hello to my little... er HUGE friend! Rhubarb! Isn't it amazingly beautiful?!?! I had absolutely no idea just how big she would grow! I have two small ones beside her that I am going to have to move, because she is almost taking up one whole side of the bed. My green onions are being shaded as is! I'll know better when I plant again next year. I've got to give this plant some ROOM!

My strawberries are getting ready in the bed closest to me... I just finished getting the bed farthest from me finished. Tomatoes will fill it up today! Yay!

The ladies sure are enjoying their new home. Oh how I love it.

My Eli is conquering a fear of heights... He is conquering... I am realizing *I* may now have that phobia. Of my kids on heights.  He lost his toy helicopter on the roof and was brave enough to retrieve it.
My kids are growing up on me!

I'll say good-bye with a huge sigh of contentment. As long as I focus my view this way, I am a happy, happy, happy lady. Some day I will tell you about the thorn in my side. It's a painful one.
Until then.... SMILE!

The New Chicken Yard

Every year, my bunch says... "Moma! What do you want for Mother's Day?" Usually, I say... Nothing.
This year, it began the same way. But... after being asked MANY times, I changed my answer. I said. I want y'all to help me build a chicken yard. We had a lot of the materials, so cost wasn't a big factor. Thankfully!

I mapped out what I wanted one day and we began driving posts right afterwards.

I think it is absolutely beautiful! I would love to be able to let the girls just run free. That just isn't possible though. Too much danger. This way, they are protected and they can 'free range' as well!

Isn't that a beautiful sight?
Fat, happy hens on green grass!
LOVE!!!!!

The family asked me what I wanted to do yesterday after church and lunch. I said... I want to clip the chickens wings and then open up the new yard.

That is exactly what we did.
Then I sat outside afterwards and watched them scratch and peck for a couple hours. It was so grand. 

It almost looks like she has the whole yard to herself! 

I can't wait to see egg production skyrocket! 

One of the main reasons we needed to open up our yard, is that the guineas are pretty aggressive. They pick on the chickens and pull out their tail feathers when they are confined.

This is Red and Little Red. They are my little pets. When I come outside they are everywhere I am. They are so sweet. You can just reach down and pick them right up. So cute.

 Isn't this one of the sweetest sights you've ever seen? I just love it. They have an entrance into the chicken pen and hen house. SO, it's as close as we can get to free range and I am thrilled with what we have.

I hope your day was wonderful as well!

My Cup Runs Over and Over and Over...