February trip first days

Each winter we take a trip to visit our daughter's family in Texas.  It is a 2 day drive from our home in North Dakota.

We had a prior appointment for Feb 8th, so didn't get started until after 2 in the afternoon.  We like to take a highway that is not in interstate, you see so much more scenery and US HWY 81 is the original route from Canada to Texas from before the interstate system was put in.  Parts of it are 2 lane and a good share of it is 4 lane.

The first day we made it into Kansas before stopping for the night. The next day we got on the road early and I took the first picture of this years trip in Oklahoma. To me the color of the dirt is just weird.

Another feature of Oklahome that we enjoy traveling through are the Arbuckle mountains.

Every time I see the name on the map or a sign, it gives me a bit of a tickle.  I read a lot of westerns, and one of the brand names for coffee back in the very old days was Arbuckle.  And another interesting thing about this area is Arbuckle Mountain Fried Pies.  They are very good.


This year, the weather was really good, no fog, no rain, and the farmguy was willing to take the time to do some sight seeing. We stopped at one of the overlook pullouts and I took a few pictures, here is one.

As we got closer to our daughter's house, we have to go through Fort Worth.  The road systems truely look like piles of spaghetti

there were some very interesting striated clouds

This year we took a fun present for our grandchildren, snow. 
I put our Yeti cooler out in the garage for several days to be sure it is chilled, then on the morning of the trip, I fill it with snow. close and latch the lid and it does pretty well for the 2 days og the trip. The kids had a great time with the snow and then they kept part of it for the next day for our granddaughter's 4th birthday party.

grampa throwing snowballs 

Along with the snowball fight, we enjoyed the fire pot.

Well, this is long enough for tonight.

There is more to come, because farmguy decided we were not going to go straight back home after our visit, we are going to do more sightseeing.
So stay tuned for some more interesting pictures.

catching up and ending 2019

Well, I still am not posting on a regular basis, so once again this is a catch up post.

I have some photos to share

I was out checking the chickens one of the last days of November and I managed to catch this sunset.

and then a few days after that, this is what we ended up with,

Above is the aftermath of the snow storm, belowis what was going on during it.  most of our windows were coated with the snow

We have had several more storms since, but I haven't taken pictures in all of them. 

Last October before the first hard frost, I was invited to pick apples from one of Farmguy's cousins.  They are yummy apples, and I canned several varieties of apple butter, and made apple sauce, and made some fried apples, and baked several types of desserts.  One of the ones we really like is Apkple Bread Pudding

it is an old recipe from my grandmother and like many recipes from nearly 100 yrs ago, it is not exact, 

3-4 slices of bread                                    - I used 8 cups of dried bread cubes

moisten with about 1 cup milk                 - I used about 3 C milk

1 - 2 C cut up apples                                 - I used a good 6 C of cut up apples

1/2 - 3/4 C sugar depending on tartness    - I used about 1 1/2C sugar & some cinnamon & nutmeg

Dot top with butter                                    - I used about 8 tbls of butter

Bake at 350 till apples are done.  Serve warm with heavy cream (G & G milked cows) or ice cream

I did some bread baking before Christmas, both Sourdough and Julekage. 

This is about half of what i made. Some for us, some for neighbors, some for friends

 I did do some Tatting before Christmas, it is about 2" tall

This post is getting long enough and late enough in the evening.  I will end 2019 here and try to get the rest caught up in the next day or so. 

Have a really great 2020