Beef Jerky Gun

Yay! I just got a beef jerky gun, like this one:

That'll be the next thing I make home made. I made fruit leather in the food dehydrator, which turned out rather nice. I've also made strawberry and apple crisps, but they weren't as tasty... They were good but not AS good. Now I'm going to try my own jerky. I also got more stuff to try making cheese again, and some homemade ice cream mixes.

This weekend is Mayfest. If Tricity is good, she will get to go (so we tell her. lol She'll go either way.) She's been a brat all day today, though, yelling back at us and running off in the store. Usually she's a good girl when we go out in public. She's going to be four going on fourteen.

Anyway, it's a short message. I just wanted to share that we'll be making jerky soon. (Or I'll be the one making it, rather... lol) If this turns out good, just think of all the different flavor combos we could make! Taco jerky, pizza jerky, turkey jerky,,, Wish me luck! :-)

Cows Eat Grass, Duh

Adam and I had waffles this morning for breakfast when we got home. I, myself, used my homemade butter, and he decided to use the stick butter from the fridge. I said "What, my butter's not good enough for you?" He said "It's good..." and I said "But what?" He said "It's just when it melts, it looks like milky water." I scoffed. "Well that's because it's REAL butter!" I told him. "It's made from cream. You know what yours is made with? Vegetable oil, and a crap load of other stuff!"

I ate my waffle and when I was done, I stated "You know, if we ever get a home of our own and we get a milking cow, you're either going to have to eat my butter or do without, because not only is it better for you, but it's free." And of course he had to argue like always, and he said "It's not free! You have to pay to feed the cow." I said "Cows can eat grass! What do you think they call organic farming? They eat grass, and then they eat hay in the winter." At least I hope what I said was right. It won the argument for now, anyway. lol Tell me if I'm right or wrong, please. He seemed to think that you have to feed them cracked corn, and some kind of mixture of stuff made with molasses. Can't they just eat grass and hay?

Anyway, Mayfest is this weekend. We actually have money to buy Tricity a bracelet to ride all the rides this year so we don't spend a fortune on them individually. Now it's only a question of if she'll get to go with her cousins or not. For now, I'm falling asleep on the laptop and need to go to bed, now. Sweet Dreams everyone :-)

Scooby-Doo Birthday Party With a Friend

Tricity went to a birthday party for my friend Amber's daughter, Aydiah. She turned 6, and it was a Scooby-Doo theme! It was a pretty cute party, but Tricity was the youngest, and with the monster, the mean yelling actors, and the screaming kids and them popping tons of balloons, it scared her... It was all just a little too much. I enjoyed it, but I felt bad for Tric...

What they did was scout around for Scooby Snacks, and then ended up at the ice cream parlor. They met the ice cream shoppe guy who made yucky ice cream combinations (played by Amber's youngest brother Scott), and then there was the mechanic who wanted to buy out the ice cream shoppe and expand his garage (played by her other brother Jeremy), and the last one was the cranky librarian who didn't like loud noises of the rowdy kids at the ice cream shoppe, or the loud sounds of the garage. The monster showed up, and they had to search for clues. They popped balloons to find pages from books about being a monster and scaring people, that were found underneath the librarian's desk. The monster showed up again, and the kids captured him, revealing that it was the mechanic who planted the clues and chased away the people so the ice cream shoppe would run out of customers and have to sell to him.

After the whole skit and games were over, the kids were given 'yucky ice cream' to make with toppings such as mud (chocolate syrup), mouse brains (cherries), worms (gummy worms), and all kinds of other toppings. We had to convince Tricity that the ice cream really wasn't yucky, and she got in a better mood after that. She had ice cream with strawberry syrup, a cherry, and gummy worms. I had mine with chocolate syrup, cherries, and bananas! :-D Then we all had cake, Aydiah opened her presents, and the kids played. Tricity really started to enjoy the party, but then it was time to go...

We got Aydiah a Littlest Pet Shop set, because that's what she likes, and she was excited when she got it (which made me so happy), and some silly string that she really liked. We also got her some play dough, which she wanted to play with, a disc shooter that her brothers liked, and some 'noise putty' that sounded like farts when you squished it into the tube, and the other kids really liked that one. lol I'm glad I picked out some gifts that were well received!

I still can't find my camera, so I didn't get much pictures. I had a good one of her smiling in the 'mystery machine', but it turned out blurry, and the one that wasn't so blurry didn't have her looking at me. It's tricky to get any good pics on a phone camera, you know? Anyway, I think the party turned out to be a success, and here are the pictures:

"Best Time of the Year"?

"Spring is here! Spring is here! It's the best time of the year!" (From that cartoon "Little Bill") lol

Ah, yes. The weather has been nice. Rainy and nice. Most people complain about the rain, but as for me, I'm thinking - now maybe my flowers will grow. lol! They weren't really doing too good after I planted them, but now I see them starting to sprout up, and I can't wait to see the final result.

Since it's been raining, we've had to keep ourselves entertained indoors. Tricity especially thought it was funny when I put her barbie clothes on my fingers and acted like it was a person.


For a couple of days, I was even on a kick where I was trying to find us a new place to live, one that we could own, like I've been dreaming about. A place of our own where we could fix it how we wanted, and have a cow and chickens, at least. Well I found a place in a nearby town called Lithium for 40,000 and the monthly payments were actually something we could afford, so I had Adam ask his dad what he thought about it, and he said he had seen that place before, and it wasn't worth it. It DID say that it had a lot of potential and was a handyman's dream, but I guess that was an understatement for just how bad it was... Whatever place we get, we're willing to fix up and make it the way we want it, but we also want to be able to live in it, too. lol So there went that dream...

When there were periods where the rain finally stopped, I took a picture of how beautiful the sky was. It doesn't look nearly as beautiful as it did in person, though, but here's the pic anyway:

Adam and his dad finished the swingset, and of course, Tricity has already had people come over to play. Here is the finished swingset, with my niece Jolie playing:

Eventually they got bored and came inside to play... I thought it was funny and cute, so I had to get a pic of that, too...



She also had her friend Gabriel come over. We had finally dumped out the old, dirty blue sand that was in her sandbox and had JUST bought fresh new sand to put in it, and bought some sand toys, so they had a good time breaking it in.

In really great news, we learned that if Adam starts working again, there's a slight chance that we MIGHT get to buy his grandpa's place from his dad... It needs some pipework done and some faucets replaced, but it would be so awesome if we finally get to have that place. It's such a beautiful, quiet area. Lots of shade trees, all kinds of flowers in the springtime, fruit trees and bushes in the summer, and enough space to have a cow and chickens if we wanted. At this point in my life, it's my biggest dream come true, and I know how much it would mean to Adam to have his grandpa's home, and to keep it in the Craft name. Let's just keep our fingers crossed for now, though. So far, it's still just a dream, until it finally happens :-D

I Tried to Make Butter and Cheese

Well I tried making my own butter and cheese for the first time. TRIED to... The butter turned out quite nice! I was surprised how it worked, as if by magic. I never knew that cream could break into two separate components like that! I had a heck of a time draining the buttermilk out of the butter, though. I didn't mind, but it just surprised me that when I thought I had all of it out, it kept leaking some more. But I got it done, and now I have nice, fresh, homemade butter in my fridge. As it got cold, it got harder than I expected, but I'm sure if I left it out to soften, it would be fabulous to spread on toast and rolls. Last night I had rolls with homemade butter and a little bit of molasses. Yum-yum!

As for the cheese, I tried to make mozzarella. I got curdled cheese, or "farmer's cheese" as some say, but I couldn't get it to melt together into a cheese ball for the mozz... I don't know what went wrong, so I will just have to try it again some time. Maybe it was because I only had 2% milk to use instead of whole milk? Who knows... Something obviously didn't go right. What I ended up with was more like dry cottage cheese... Oh well, it's all trial and error. For my first time, I'm surprised I got as far as I did! lol

Perler Bead Crafts

I've been working on some crafts to try and sell at my mom's yardsale this weekend (and hopefully it won't rain!) so these are a couple of things I've been working on:

Here are some flower magnets made from perler beads: and these are picture frames made from perler beads, made to hold 3.5 x 5 inch pictures (picture not included):

I still need to get used to the technique of these things, but I have SO MANY ideas! I can't wait to try and make more things with these. The only problem I had with the magnets is that I need a stronger magnet to hold the weight of the plastic. The picture frame turned out pretty nice, though :-)

PERFECT Weather for a Day Outside!

I think yesterday was absolutely positively the most perfect day, as far as weather goes. I'd say 65 degrees is my favorite temp. It was sunny, there wasn't a cold breeze, and it was a great day to go outside and play. After Tricity came back from my mom's house, Adam worked on the swingset some more while Tricity played, and I put down a blanket on the grass and took some pics (and to try and find another four leaf clover lol) She looked soooooo cute!

Here is Tricity on the swings

Tricity on her glider

Adam working on the swingset, and Tricity on top

Then she came over to the blanket to lay with me (but soon got bored!)

She picked some dandelions (for each of us, actually) and told us to make wishes and blow

I don't know what was going on with this one, but she looked funny lol

Me and Tric making silly faces together

She picked these little white and purple flowers (wild violets) from the grass and told me to take a picture.

And then this is just me...

Basketball

Well today (your yesterday) was pretty nice. When I got off work, we went yard-saleing. I LOVE yard sales. I can find things I've always wanted to have, or never realized I wanted, for cheap prices. I got a Harry Potter board game for a dollar! I got a hanging heart shaped bird cage for a dollar! I got some canisters for the flour and sugar so the ants stay out of them, instead of having to put them in the fridge this year! Living in a trailer, we have a bad problem with ants... Tricity got a few toys. I even found a Catwoman doll that matches the Harley Quinn doll we got her at Six Flags back in 2006. Instead of paying a small fortune for this one, it was only 25 cents! I got one of those hand held vacuum sealers and bags for your food. I got tons of cross-stitch kits for 25 cents each. I made out pretty well :-) lol

After we came home, we were up for a while. I checked on my taffy, and I made a mistake by putting it in the fridge... It got hard and really, really sticky. I think next time, I'll just roll it into balls and wrap it up in wax paper like a candy wrapper... Next, I started one of the little cross stitches, since I had never tried it before, and then we all decided to take a nap. It was a very good three hour nap! When we got up, Adam got online for a while, Tricity played with her new toys, and I decided to try and sort my perler beads by color into little baggies.

A couple of hours after that, Adam's dad called and asked us if we wanted to go to the park with them. Him, his current wife, her granddaughter, and one of Tricity's cousins were there, so we joined them. The girls rode tricycles up and down the sidewalk, picked dandelions and clovers, and me, Adam, his nephew, and his dad decided to shoot hoops. I think I got 10 baskets out of 50. lol Still, we had a good time, and I got some exercise... We tried to teach Tricity how to dribble, and she got the concept. It was funny to watch her try, though. She'll get it soon enough, I think.

Then after that, we took Tricity over to my mom's house to stay the night. I got to hold my baby nephew Devin again. He grew twice the size since I last held him! He's growing up so fast... He's always sleepy and hungry, but that's what babies are like. He's so cute! So is my niece Khloe. Her facial features are starting to change. Jolie has always been beautiful, too, and of course my Tricity is a little petite doll. I think we have such beautiful children in our family.

Later today when I get home, I need to start digging out yardsale items. My mom is planning on having a yardsale this weekend, and I want to help out and sell some of my stuff, too. I have a lot that I want to put out, it's just a question of finding it all! I also need to get on the ball and get my necklaces and magnets ready, too. I like trying to sell some of my handmade items. If I can find my camera, I'd like to take pictures of them and get them online again... I just wish I could find a website to make my online store, because my old webpage is gone since geocities shut down... Know of any other free sites like geocities?

Anyway, here's a few pictures from today...

Here is Tricity and Adam's nephew (her cousin)

Making Pull Taffy (and other things)

I temporarily lost my camera, so I've resorted to taking pictures on my phone... That's why the quality sucks...

Today, Tricity and I finally got around to making old fashioned pull taffy. I never made candy before, so I was worried I would burn it, or it would turn rock hard, or I was sure that SOMETHING would go wrong, but luckily, it was a success!

I used the following recipe. I chose not to add flavors or coloring because for one, I didn't have any, and two, I wanted to make it as old fashioned as I could, seeing as how I'm sure they didn't use that stuff back in the day. I did, however, use some vanilla to flavor it. Here is the recipe:

3/4 cup water
2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups corn syrup
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons of vanilla

Measure 2 cups sugar, l 1/4 cups corn syrup, 3/4 cup water, 1 teaspoon salt into a saucepan and blend well with a wooden spoon. (I didn't have one so I used whatever I had on hand.) Place over low heat until sugar has dissolved, stirring continuously. Increase the heat and keep stirring.

Bring the syrup to a boil and don't stop stirring. Use a candy thermometer, and when the thermometer registers 265 degrees, remove candy from heat. If you don't have a candy thermometer, then there is a simple test you can do to see if it is done. Fill up a cup or coffee mug with ice water. Drop a spoon of syrup into it, and if it hardens, it is ready to remove from the heat.

Once you have removed the taffy mix from the heat, add 2 tablespoons butter and stir very gently. Take a flat pan and butter it. It's best not to use oil or grease, because it won't taste as good. Pour the mixture onto the pan, and let it cool until it's just cool enough to handle. Be careful not to burn yourself.

When the taffy has cooled enough to handle, it’s time to start pulling. This is also the time to add your flavoring. Pause briefly between pulling to add a drop or two of vanilla to the mixture, folding the mixture over on the flavor. Keep pulling and folding the taffy until it turns white. Use scissors to cut it however you want to. You can roll it into tubes and cut it like tootsie rolls, flatten it and cut it into squares, or however you want to do it. Wrap it up with wax paper, plastic wrap, or candy wrappers, and it's ready to go.

Here's the pictures from our experience: First of all, I got a drop of the hot syrup on my hand during the mixing process, and got a nasty burn. It's a blister now, but not too bad of one... It's my own fault. I got goofy with stirring...
That was the taffy all cooked, and poured into a pizza pan. Once it cooled, I started to stretch it. It took a lot of butter to coat our hands so it wouldn't keep sticking, and to put on the pan to keep the taffy from sticking to it as well, when we put it down to give our hands a break.
The more I stretched it, the more air bubbles got into it (which is what you're supposed to do) and the more white it became. It still had a little bit of cream color to it, though, from the vanilla I put into it.

This was Tric pulling the taffy. I think it took more time to butter her hands than it did for her to pull it (or in her case, mash it around because it was too hard for her to pull apart). All in all, I think she took under a minute before she said she was done. lolThis was the end result. I flattened the taffy and cut it up into little squares. Then I put some plastic down and layered the squares so they wouldn't touch, because they were still pretty sticky. I put them in the fridge, and hopefully they harden up a little, because I don't have candy wrappers to keep them from sticking together.
After we were done, it was time for me to finish up supper. I put a Boston butt roast in the crock pot earlier in the day and let it cook for hours and hours until the meat was falling apart. Then, because we're still city slickers and don't have access to a fresh garden of veggies, I opened up cans of carrots, corn, green beans, peas, and potatoes, and threw them in with a little more salt and pepper. DEEEE-LICIOUS!Then it was time for me to go to bed... lol (This was just the sleeping mask I bought the other day, but I don't really use it. It was one of those 'gotta have it' things.) But seriously, it was time for me to get some sleep for work.Tricity decided at the last minute that she would try putting a sock on my foot while I was in bed, so I had to take a picture of the lovely job she did. lol That was pretty much the end of my day..

Skills I Have Learned Through the Years

I feel like something in me is coming alive, and because of it, my emotions are being thrown off. I feel sad and happy at the same time. I guess because I want this stuff so much in my life, but I don't know how to get it, or if I will EVER be ABLE to get it... I want it with all my heart, and I am learning so much. I know how to do so many things (though a lot of it I haven't had the chance to try yet) and I just want to put it all to use and live more naturally in a place of my own that I can fix up however I want, and grow whatever I want. I love the idea of making my own things and sharing it with others.

I've learned a lot in my years, and these are some of the special skills I have picked up along the way:

I know how to sew by hand
how to knit using a knifty knitter
I know how to use tools for making wooden furniture, like a table saw, lathe, band saw, etc.
I can use a pottery wheel
silk screening
stone carving (mainly soapstone)
whittling
beading (I make necklaces and bracelets to sell)
I paint, draw, sculpt, sketch, pretty much use any kind of artistic medium
painting as far as housing goes
I can refinish porcelain for bathtubs
simple home things like wall patching, caulking, hanging shelves, laying tiles, carpet, and linoleum
basic home cleaning like dishes, laundry, steam cleaning the carpets, decorating,
making homemade bread, cheese, butter, buttermilk, ice cream, flavored oils
beekeeping (though I never got to actually DO it, but I know how)
how to guide a horse
sugaring (haven't actually got to do this one either yet but I know how)
how to milk a cow (I've done this when I was younger, and I want to do it again)
how to play the flute (the skill has diminished over time since the 5th grade)
how to play a guitar (a few simple songs, and strumming)
I can sing in different styles, like yodeling, throat singing (somewhat), mariachi, opera, etc.
I learned how to whistle with my fingers
how to make sausages and brats
how to skin fish, chickens, and rabbits
how to dehydrate foods and make fruit leather and beef jerky
how to raise a smart child
how to potty train
typing skills, webpage design, digital art, and create an online store
leather stamping
how to make perfume
I make windchimes
candlemaking
wedding planning, baby showers, bachelorette parties, birthday parties, and sleepovers
I can go fishing and camping
I speak a little Spanish and a little Elvish
I've learned different kinds of dances (though I don't actually dance that often) like country line dance, Irish step dancing, ballet, tap, and bellydance

that's a pretty long list as it is, but there's still so much I want to do! Hopefully soon, I can learn more things such as:

canning jams, apple butter, fruits, salsa, and apple pie fillings
pickling
raising chickens, pigs, cows, rabbits, and quails
learning how to use a sewing machine
home-owning
getting my license
speaking more languages
learning how to play more musical instruments