Here is another of our two latest cards.
“Standing on the Rock” pictures a tree that has embedded its roots on a rock. The tenacious plant has weathered many a storm up on the North Shore of Lake Superior.
I saw it standing as a sentinel while I vacationed in the north country.
“Standing on the Rock” is for sale at our introductory price of $0.99 for a limited time. This offer expires November 30. The card is available in our store .
I am pleased to introduce to you one of our two latest cards. I hope it pulls on your heart strings as it does mine.
Children are a reward from the Lord. They are endearing and enriching personalities entrusted to us by Him.
In this card, I hope to show the warmth of relationship as this little boy takes the little girl’s hand to protect and guide her.
This card will be a fine greeting card for many occasions.
For those of you who may be looking for a wedding invitation or wedding announcement card or a wedding thank you card, consider “Hand in Hand”. It is available in our store at our introductory price of $0.99 until the end of November 2013.
To arrange to customize the inside, contact us at grabauheritagecards@live.com. Mention the card name and that you would like to inquire about having us customize the inside of the card. Customizing the inside of the cards will add to the cost of the card. For a quote, please contact us at the above email address.
For those of you who prefer to print your own message in the card, just ask us to send it unfolded. It will go through your printer and then you may fold the card when it is finished.
Many young children have roamed this farm yard over the generations. In it, my girls have happened on aggressive animals now and again.
When my youngest daughter was fourteen years old she would walk to the calf shed and be accosted by Terror, the rooster. He was protective of the hens to a fault. He charged after her and her sister many times. Our older daughter had the job of mowing grass back in rooster territory. Terror took that as an insult and flew at the mower and its operator many times, spurs flying. He had a very scary reputation. The girls avoided him as often as possible.
One sunny day we will remember, Terror used his masculine ire effectively and appropriately. My husband related this incident to us with a chuckle. Terror escorted the hens across the calf yard. As they came to the center of the yard, 500-pound calves came running full tilt to the feeding troughs. Terror and the hens were between the running cattle and their food. To allow the hens to scatter to safety, Terror dug in. He stood beak to nose in front of them and ruffed out his neck feathers ready for a fight. This startled the cattle so that they stopped-on-a-dime. The staring contest continued peacefully till Terror strutted off the calf yard and went on his way to the chicken yard. Terror, the five-pound rooster, won the day over 5,000 pounds of beef!
There comes a time in a rooster’s life when life comes to an end. And Terror was no exception. He died and a new rooster was promoted to take care of the new flock of poulets.
The girls feared this rooster too, but to their amazement he had more docile personality. This one we called a Good Old Rooster. But for good or ill, we will always remember Terror.
photo credit: Svadilfari via photopin cc
We cleaned out the garden yesterday. Root crops, squash, herbs and flower bulbs came out of the garden on their ways to the cellar for the winter. The chilling air nipped at our fingers as we dug carrots, beets and flower bulbs.
A Carrot with Personality
Rains, the day before, mixed with the garden soil to make a fine mud that clung to our shoes as we worked. The mud stuck to uprooted plants, vines, and vegetables. We took the greens off of the carrots and beets. We sprayed off the mud with the garden hose.
We put the air-dried beets, carrots and squash into wire baskets and brought them into the cellar for storage. While packing them into the baskets we discovered a rather unusual carrot.
It looked like a little marionette. So to complete its look we spent time this afternoon giving it a personality. I hope this little guy brings you a smile. If it does, our afternoon with the carrot will have been well worth it.
Have a great day.
photo credit: Bretta Grabau
Much work and waiting have gone into the garden again this year. As days shorten and temperatures lower, it is clear that winter is coming, the growing season is past.
Our wood supply is abundant, but it sits in a woodshed beyond the garden. To get it into our wood room, my husband loads the firewood on the tractor loader, drives across the garden to the wood room door. Hence, the garden must be cleaned before it is turned into the tractor path.
We took up the squash and cucumber vines and collected their fruits. We pulled up the herbs. We pulled out the beet crop and the carrot crop. The broccoli plants had to go, too.
My gladiola bulbs have to come out. They would die with the freezing of the earth, so we got them in.
We cut the tops from the carrots and beets. Carrots must have bit of the orange cut off with the greens, otherwise, in storage they tend to grow new leaves. The beets are trimmed with about 1 inch of the stems still on the beet. If beets were cut more closely they would lose some of their deep redness during cooking.
The cut-off tops went to the chickens.
We washed the vegetables, air-dried them and packed them into wire baskets before storing them. Carrots are stored in plastic bags and kept in the cool cellar. Beets are stored in a crock as are the squash.
The garden is clean enough to let the tractor do its job tomorrow when piling wood will be on the docket. When the hard freeze comes there will be time to finish.
photo credit: Bretta Grabau
photo credit: Bretta Grabau
The Fruit Beginnings
In botany, I learned that fruits differ. Apples and pears are pommes. Pommes reproduce themselves by blossoms. The ovary of the blossom houses the true fruit of the plant...its seed.
We tend to think that the flesh of the apple is the fruit. That is not so. The developing ovary of the blossom gets fleshy and sweet. As stated above, the true fruit of the plant is its seed. The seed will reproduce itself.
With that little science lesson behind us, let me tell you of my current project. Our apple trees continue to bear. I have one wire basket and 1/2 of a bushel basket full of apples to process. They have enough food value for us that I will save as much as possible. Yesterday I made a nice batch of applesauce in my crock pot. It takes 5 hours to cook enough to make a nice chunky sauce and the crock pot has not scorched the finished product. I like that. I will finish working with the apples as soon as I can. Working with apple after apple I make some observations of how they parallel with truth.
Outsides differ with cores and seeds within.
While I sat at the table busily peeling the apples, I noted that every apple is not the same. Some are bruised, while others are firm. Some are large and others are small. Some are pretty and inviting, while others look tough and unappealing. Yet, regardless of their outward appearance, the apples all have seeds. You will recall that the seed is the real fruit.
That truth brought me around to thinking about how people are like these apples. We all look different. Some of us are not as attractive as others. Some of us are not as young and thriving as others. Yet there is still an inner part of us that remains in each of us forever. We each have an eternal soul that will live on forever. It has such value that the eternal God sent his Son, Jesus, to earth to make provision for our souls to live eternally with Him. By his death on the cross for our sins, if we believe in Jesus, He gives us the right to become his children. (John 1:12)
I am so glad that outward appearance does not determine our value. It is the condition of our hearts and soul in relation to Jesus that matters. Put your trust in Him. Believe in Him. Your heart and soul matter. God wants to have you for His child.
photo credit: Wenda Grabau
photo credit: Bretta Grabau
A cake for a princess.
My daughter-in-law has a heart like mine when it comes to celebrating her children’s birthdays. I used to make birthday cakes a bit out of the ordinary. She has demonstrated that same tendency.
We had the pleasure of celebrating our granddaughter’s birthday. We had a fine meal and enjoyed opening presents for our little princess. Our eyes, as well as our tastebuds, got to enjoy the special birthday cake.
I thought you might be stimulated to try this masterpiece, too.
photo credit: Wenda Grabau
Remember the little children’s song, “Obey your mommy and daddy?” We sung it when my kids were quite small. It has a great message that is good for oldsters as well as the youngsters.
Obedience, a key to a happy life, gets a bad rap from those who lean towards the, “Do your own thing” or ” I did it my way” mindset.
I have a true story to relate to you. In it you will see that obedience is a life-saver.
The warm weather lured me and my husband and our young son outdoors. For a fun part of our afternoon time, we pulled out the bikes and decided to all go bike riding. Our littlest member of the family was small enough to ride in a little bike trailer. My husband pulled her along with him. Our young son and I had our own bikes.
The farm is located on country roads. In those days traffic was not heavy as it gets these days in the summer. So we decided to ride to a nearby paved road for a smooth excursion. We went along nicely.
On the way back home we approached a stop sign. Our son’s youthful mind did not comprehend the meaning of the sign. As he came closer to it I yelled, “Stop!” He kept on rolling along. Again, with alarm in my voice, I shouted,”Stop!!” Just then a car came darting over the hill in front of us and whizzed right by.
My son’s obedience saved his life. He could have been hit by that car.
Our Heavenly Father wants our obedience, too. Just as I gave directions to my son for his safety, He gives us directions for our good, not for our harm. If you want His direction and want to hear His voice, spend time hearing and reading, studying, memorizing and meditating in the Word of God, the Holy Bible.
One of my prayers for my grandchildren is that they would learn the practice of obedience in their homes from their loving parents.
photo credit: Korean Resource Center 민족학교 via photopin cc
Horses await the start of the contest.
Family traditions come wrapped up in many packages. This one has its roots in a sporting event in 1941. It has come down through the years and has touched several lives in our community along the way.
The farm technology of 1941 looked much different from that of today. It included workhorses pulling wagons. The corn wagons came equipped with a bang board mounted on one side. Bang boards served to “catch” corn ears that were tossed by hand into the wagon. Corn ricocheted from the board and fell into the wagon bed below. The person picking corn most often used a hook strapped to his hand. The hook dragged across the husks loosening them up, exposing the ear. With a snap on the stem end of the cob, the ear was free to be tossed into the wagon. Things have certainly changed from the old days.
In 1941, my husband’s dad joined in a county-wide contest…a corn husking contest. The object of the competition was to pick as much weight in corn during a fixed time period as the picker could. Besides that, the corn had to be kept as clean and free of husks as possible. Penalties discouraged the excess weight due to attached corn husks. This fun sport ran deep in the veins of many young men from the farms.
With WWII, advances in technology affected even the farmer. Tractors and other machines were developed to add speed to the planting, harvesting on other jobs on the farm. The one-row corn picker came on the scene. Soon farmers did not need to husk corn by hand. Hand corn husking contests dwindled and disappeared.
Yet in the 1980s, my husband’s dad discovered that a revival in corn husking had emerged. He wanted to be a part of it. He went to observe one contest and joined in the fray. His corn husking days had been resurrected! What fun he had that day. Pleasant memories of the old days resurfaced and refreshed him. He shared his joy with family and friends in his renewed love of hand corn husking.
My father-in-law took time to teach us how to husk corn. With his encouragement we competed, too. My husband and I took our young family to some of the contests. Just last year, my own young grandchildren got a chance to learn and be a part of this family sport. This is one special way we pass on traditions here on Heritage Farm.
The corn husking wagon is featured as a card in our store. Other cards from the old technology, the plow and the spreader are available there for you to enjoy.
Photo Credit: Bretta Grabau
Big Flavor in Soup: Tomatoes and Celery
One staple crop I grow in the garden is tomatoes. We like to raise about a dozen tomato plants each year. I make canned tomatoes, soup, salsa, and sometimes pasta sauce. In winter, tomatoes greatly enhance our diet.
Kettle Easily Holds 8 Quarts.
Recently we had a nice bunch of tomatoes to process. Judging from the count of jars of soup on my shelf, I decided to make a batch of soup. The recipe I like to use requires 12.5 pounds of tomatoes to make about 5 quarts of soup.
I wash my tomatoes and celery before I put them into the pot. I cut out the stem end of the tomatoes and cut the tomatoes in quarters. The celery is cut in half-inch pieces. The pot must be large enough for the bulky vegetables. I prefer a stainless steel one.
The Starting Mixture
1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder, 1-6 chopped onions and/or basil may be added at this time for added flavor.
Stir to Prevent Scorching
Stir the heating mixture often. I like to use medium heat to avoid any burning.
Juice Saved in One Container; Solids Discarded
Once the tomatoes and celery are softened, the next step of the process is straining. I use a Squeezo-Strainer. I use this tool for tomatoes and applesauce especially.
Jars of Soup Stored in the Cellar
I wash up the kettle and pour the strained juice in it. I add 2 sticks of butter, 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of flour, 1/4 cup of salt to the juice mixture, and pepper to taste. I use a whip to mix in the flour and to avoid lumping. I heat the soup to the boiling stage till the mixture is thickened.
It is ready to pour into hot jars. Place on canning lids and screw bands and process in a water bath for 10-15 minutes.
When preparing to serve this soup, milk may be added. To prevent curdling of milk, add a pinch of baking soda.
photo credit: Wenda Grabau
photo credit: Wenda Grabau
photo credit: Wenda Grabau
photo credit: Bretta Grabau
photo credit: Wenda Grabau
photo credit: Bretta Grabau
