Wednesday Medley and Bits of Life Wednesday

 Quick glimpse of the front porch on a sunny yesterday.


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1.  The Circleville, Ohio, Pumpkin Festival starts today.  All things pumpkin are everywhere. What is your one very favorite pumpkin flavored food or drink?  Do you wish it was available all year or do you only want it in the Fall?

The gluten-free pumpkin muffins I made last week are incredible! An IGer had mentioned the source of the recipe, (www.blessthismessplease.com) so I thought I'd check it out. 

2 c. rolled oats (gluten free if needed)

1 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)

2 eggs

3/4 c. plain Greek yogurt (not fat-free)

1/3 c. maple syrup

1 1/2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. vanilla extract

1/4 t. sea salt

2 t. pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon

1 c. mini chocolate chips (semi sweet)

1 c. chopt walnuts

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and spray a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray.

In the jar of your blender, add the oats. Cover with lid and process until the oats look like flour (1-3 minutes). Pour oats into your KitchenAid mixer bowl or some other mixing bowl. This is supposed to be a blender-only recipe, but when I made my first batch that way, it set up like concrete in the bottom of the blender. I wasn't about to try that a second time!

Into the mixer bowl add pumpkin puree, eggs, Greek yogurt, maple syrup, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. Mix.

Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.

Spoon batter into muffin tin.

Bake at 400 degrees for 17 minutes or until muffins spring back slightly when touched.

I love this recipe!

 The neighbor's Jerseys.

Thinking about that yogurt

2.  What product would you seriously stockpile if you found out they weren't going to sell it anymore?

Coffee beans. Can you imagine opening the door of our largest guest room and coffee beans come gushing out? Try. Just try.

North of our farm about 2 miles on 17th Street.
Gorgeous color on the 11th of October.

3.  What is the most interesting thing you have seen online this week?

The most interesting thing I saw online this week was a set of Bruynzeel colored pencils, which I purchased. The color feels so nice and smooth as you're working. (playing). The Banksy (graffiti artist) spoof, was the most interesting thing the week before. 

More neighborhood pics

4.  Is it better to be a "big fish in a small pond" or a "small fish in a big pond"?

A big fish in a small pond is more likely to encourage one's ego and give us a false sense of our own importance. A small fish in a big pond is more likely to make us dependent upon God. From this great distance on the timeline of my life, I'd choose the second option. But as my mother-in-law used to say, "Too soon old; too late smart." 

Here's an interesting article, entitled, 'Your Life Does Not Belong to You.'

I wonder if a gangster or a serial killer holes up here

(in our neighborhood)

5.  My Joe has become obsessed with playing chess on the computer.  Do you play chess?  Are you good at it?

I played chess when I was young, but haven't played it for years. I'm  more likely to play a word game. 

(or maybe HERE)

6.  Tell us something random about your week.

 Yes, that's snow you see

Making its autumn appearance on October 14.
(Daughter-in-law and three of the grandkids)

I thought you'd never ask! :-)  We enjoyed a nice gathering of family and friends for our Early Thanksgiving. Not only did we all get an opportunity to tell each other one thing we were thankful for, and not only did my son bake two apple pies to go along with my two pumpkin pies, and not only did my daughter make a killer gluten-free, dairy-free green bean casserole, and not only did we have too much ham and turkey, and not only did the kids have a blast playing out in the sudden snowfall, 

 

and not only was a group around a game table in the library and from the sound of it having a rip roaring time, BUT our son and his wife, who are expecting the birth of their second baby in February shared a 'gender reveal' with us. I'm showing a video for all of you, but especially for those friends in the UK who would probably be arrested and hauled off to gaol for doing such a thing. LOL

And not only do we have 'open carry' in Wisconsin, but we have 'open shooting,' I guess, as long as it's not at any living thing, including a tree. (Okay, the last part was my rule for the BB gun when our kids were young.) I guess this would be considered target practice.

Some of the gang on the hilltop with their pink or blue balloons, their guess of the baby's gender before the big explosive 'reveal.'

Two of the cousins, both 8 years old

One of the lovely granddaughters

Expectant mom and dad and older 4-year old brother


***

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My Grandpa's Barn

Barn Near Colfax, WI
(not my grandpa's barn)

There's just something about barns, especially old red barns, that I love. They remind me of my grandpa's barn when I was a child. I remember that barn was always kept clean and smelled like cows, fresh milk, feed, and lime (not the kind you use in guacamole). There were always cats in the barn, waiting for someone to throw them a strainer pad soaked with milk or give them a fresh spritz right from the cow.

I remember pushing the barn broom around, but I'm not sure that I accomplished much, unless it was to stay out of my grandpa's way while he was trying to work. Since barn walls were thick, the window sills were deep enough for a kid to curl up with a kitten or use as a place to store treasures - twine, old keys, milkweed pods, flowers, etc. My grandma's flower bed full of hollyhocks was on the south side of the milkhouse. I don't know what her trick was, but every summer she had the most beautiful hollyhocks, and many different colors.

 Unsure who to credit with this photo

Not my grandma's flowerbed, but similar

After haying, the hay wagons would be pulled into the barn, and a hay elevator was set up against the hay loft to transfer the bales to the loft. After that was done, my cousins and I would use the old rope that was tied to one of the rafters and swing out over the floor below and drop into the loose hay. There must have always been a pile of loose hay there, for I don't remember getting any broken bones from that adventure.

Holstein Heifers on lunch break

In my mind, although it may have been far from reality, there was a seamless transfer of my grandpa's farm to my uncle, for nothing changed much for me. We still played with cousins in the barn, still rode the toboggan behind the horse on winter afternoons, still enjoyed the sounds, smells, and animals of the tidy dairy barn.

It was a rather magical time, especially in the mind of a child who didn't realize all the hard work that was involved in creating the carefree setting that I enjoyed. And now, whenever I see a pretty blood-red barn, I am reminded of my grandpa's barn and the halcyon days of my childhood (with a few exceptions)..

Maybe that's why I like to take photos of the barns which are rapidly disappearing from the Wisconsin landscape.  I want to have a record to show the generation who may never get to see the real thing. It's too late for me to get a photo of my grandpa's barn, for it's been gone for several years.

And that reminds me - I'm terrible about actually getting my photos printed out. I need to have hard copies, rather than having them only available in cyberspace!

How about you?

***

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