A SNOWY AFTERNOON AND COMFORT FOOD

We had a green Christmas this year and I won't complain. I felt sure-footed as I walked outside but today, it's been snowing and it's warming up after a few really cold days. It's supposed to turn to rain again and someplace, freezing rain.

Yesterday I felt like making Curry Squash soup from a recipe I received from my daughter Christine a few years ago. I used some frozen squash puree I made from our own squash. It was so good and comforting on a cold day.
I like to use my soup tureen often in the winter for soups and chowders. It's made of glazed stoneware so it keeps the content nice and hot for a long time. After it cools, I store the tureen in the fridge.

Sorry about the blurred photo. After I took the photo, I noticed that I had forgotten to change the close-up setting on my camera.

Today I baked some Drop Cheese Biscuits. They were so good with the soup. I had a hard time to stop eating them.

This afternoon, I worked on a challenging puzzle. It's been a Christmas tradition at our house to wind down after the busy Christmas celebrations. I knew it would be a challenge but it turned out to be more challenging than I expected. I started it on Christmas Eves and I worked at it every chance I got and that's all I've got done so far. I picked that one because I love owls. We'll see how long it will take me to complete it.

I must say that Cobble Hill makes quality puzzles and the pieces stay into place otherwise it would be very frustrating. They are made in Victoria BC in Canada... The pieces are random shapes which makes it interesting... The reason I find this one so challenging is that it's from a painting and not from a photograph so the details are not crisp and also the colors all seem to blend in but it's beautiful

This is how much I have managed to put together since Christmas Eve... I sort the pieces by color in plates to facilitate finding the right piece and I stack them to save space.

Today, the waxwings returned to my crabapple tree like they did last year but my window was too dirty with spider webs and grime to take a good picture through it and I didn't want to scare them by opening the door.
I hope that you all had a great day. Thanks for your comments.
Hugs, Julia

MERRY CHRISTMAS WHEREVER YOU ARE

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and take this opportunity to thank my special blogging friends who care enough to leave comments on my poor neglected blog. I hope that you are all in good health and good spirit and that you have someone to share Jesus' birthday with tomorrow.

I'm looking forward to spending Christmas Day with family, stuffing my face and making merriment.
Have a Joyous and Peaceful Christmas.
Hugs, Julia

MY INTERESTING RETURN TRIP BACK HOME

When I go home I usually drive since it's only three and a half hour car drive but because of bad weather in the forecast, I went with my brother and decided to come back home on the bus 4 days later. I had a good time at the family Christmas party. Usually, I can never attend the Christmas party because of work and we connect on the phone or facetime.

Not a very good picture of me and my sister Therese. I still had a wee bit of yellow tones from the bruising but's it's all gone now.

After a 4 day relaxing visit with my gracious sister in love, Theresa and my brother Gerard, I  boarded a small bus and I thought that I would die of heat... By chance, we were all senior women and one lady declared that we were all running away and everyone burst out laughing.

When we got to the next bus stop, some people got off and others got on. This beautiful petite Romanian woman was trying to contact her family in Toronto but her iPhone was dead and she didn't have a cord to charge it. She was asking everyone if they had a "plug it" for her iPhone. Nobody could help her... As she approached the front I told her that I had a cord that she could use. She came and sat beside me in the front but the plugs didn't work. She tried several plugs on the bus but none worked. I told her to wait till we get to the next city and she could charge her phone at the bus station.

In the meantime, she is not giving up trying the plug outlets, but of course, they didn't work. She asks if I would let her use my cell phone, I said sure, as long as it was not a long conversation. She was so grateful. She had two short calls to make, one to her parent and one to her friend in Montreal.

She explained that she hadn't seen her kids for a month and she was just getting out of jail because of immigration difficulties. She had lost a lot of weight while in prison as she couldn't eat. She cried a lot... She said that she prayed to Jesus for help, that she believed that He would help her and that she told me that she was Catholic.

We talked and she was very pleasant. She told me that she is 20 and lives in Toronto with her parents and she has 4 kids and her youngest was only 2... She got her first one at 14 and they were allc-sections. I asked her why was she going to Montreal since she lives in Toronto.

She showed me the court documents that said that her friend in Montreal had signed and paid her $1000. bail and the judge wanted her to go stay with her friend in Montreal. She had no money so I slipped her a $20 that I could spare and she said that she would buy a cord to charge her phone... She was so grateful that she wanted to give me her sandwiches, her bottle of water and an orange. I said that she would need it but she wanted me to have them. She was very insisting so I took the orange. She had a cheap ring on her finger, and she also wanted to give it to me. She said, You like? I want you to have it. I told her it was nice but I didn't want to take her jewelry. My daughter Nicole left me some of her jewelry and I had enough.

Her jailer had given her two paper lunch bags that contained bologna sandwiches, some fruits and one bottle of water.  On her bus ticket, it said that she would arrive in Montreal at 6:30 am the next morning. She had a 5-hour wait at the bus station before boarding her bus to Montreal. I had a short wait for my bus to get home and would arrive at 1:40pm. My heart just melted when I realized that she has 5 hours stop over before continuing her trip. I gave her my iPhone cord since I could pick one up once home.  You would have thought that I gave her the moon. Her smile was from ear to ear as she talked to her mom and her kids. It made my day and we hugged and said goodbye.   It was just meant to be. I didn't understand a single word she said but she was very happy. All in all, it was a most pleasant bus trip.

My son Vaughan picked me up at the station and when I told him my story, he said, "Mom, I would have done exactly the same.

Lauren from Rugs and Pugs must have been very happy for my retirement because she sent me two cards, not just one but two and also a wonderful silver spoon that says Retired Hooker and it has a little sheep pendant at the top and a keychain with the most beautiful ornate spoon handle. I just love these and I'm so lucky to have such a sweet and generous friend.
Thank you so much Lauren. I'm planning on joining a rug hooking guild in the near future and I will wear the necklace proudly.

That is so thoughtful of you Lauren. I'm so happy to be retired too. I never thought it would happen.

Update on my Julia Chicken rug that is long overdue. I finished hooking it last night and today I serged the edge and now I need to bind and whip it. I ran off of the background color and dyed some more that wasn't exactly the same shade but it worked well enough. I think it was one of the reasons that I stalled on finishing it.
Thanks for reading my bus adventure.

Stay warm and safe, Christmas is only a week away so you better be good.
Hugs, Julia

NOVEMBER HAS BEEN UNUSUAL IN MANY WAYS.

November came fast and brought us winter and has been rather eventful...  It snowed a lot and it's been colder than I can remember in years, for November... I got 6 calves born in November so lots of extra work.

On November 5th, we had a huge power outage because of a  heavy wind storm. 40,000 household and businesses lost power. It took days to restore power to everyone. It affected our farm big time.  We had power surges that damaged equipment in the milking parlor and fried the deep well water pump, leaving our cattle without water. We have a large generator that we hook up to a big tractor to generate electricity to milk the cows and run feeders and other equipment.

 We managed to get water by hooking several garden hoses to my sister in law's well pump. It had less pressure and it took longer to fill the many water throughs and water bowls. Washing equipment, etc, etc... It would take too long to describe all the repairs that needed to be done. Industrial electricians, equipment repairmen from another town and an industrial plumber were needed for some of the repairs, etc...

We had a new calf and the mother needed to be milked in the can so her calf could be fed colostrum milk.  I had to bring all my equipment, bottles, etc. home to wash and I took everything back to the farm in the back of my Nissan Rogue. Since there were two vehicles parked in front of me, and I didn't want to run over the water hose in case it would puncture on a rock or something and causing more problems, so I  backed out to return home. It was already late at night and it was dark and for some unknown reason, my backup camera didn't come on as usual and I backed up against the hitch piece of the big 8-foot snow plow that was parked next to the farm driveway, close to where my car was parked... It damages my bumper and reflector. I had it assessed even though it's just cosmetic damage and it would cost me $1200. to have it fixed. It's not going to happen...

Somehow, our big bull hurt his hind leg badly and the vet told us to sell it for beef. He was put in a pen in my section of the barn so he could be picked up in a few days and I took care of him. He's not used to drinking from a single water bowl. He's used to drinking from a cattle water through. He must have gotten irritated to having to push the spout with his nose to get water and he broke the water connection with his powerful head.

When I came in the barn early on Saturday morning, November 10, the area where I keep the feeding hay was being flooded and I wanted to keep the hay from getting contaminated with dirty water from the pens. I tried to move the remnant of the round bale by pushing it to a higher incline in the alleyway. The bale went down but I lost my balance and fell in the water but I saved the hay, hehe. Yes, I got wet. What I wouldn't do for my calves.

Although I fell ever so gently, my body weight fell on my already damaged right shoulder. I could not lift my arm from the pain and had to call my son for help. His phone was in the kitchen so he didn't hear it ring. I called my husband and he came to feed my older calves and heifers and I fed the little ones since I didn't need to lift my arm to feed them.

Then, a week later, on Saturday morning on November 17th, I found a new baby calf with the dry cows. I went to call my son Vaughan for help, my foot got caught in the hose he had put on the floor to thaw the night before. I went flying face down on the cement floor and broke my nose. I bled like a pig. Luckily I keep a big roll of Bounty paper towels in the old fridge. My cap and my glasses flew. I'm lucky that my glasses didn't break or got scratched. They landed opened on the frame.

This is a picture I took with my Canon camera, of my cell phone selfie.  For a technical reason, Google thinks that someone is hacking into my cell phone when I tried to send it to my computer because I won't have my ID for my computer until December 20th. My computer doesn't recognize my cell phone or something like that. The bruises were more purple in the next few days. My nose was swollen.

Then came the yellow. I apologize for the very poor pictures. My nose still very sore and swollen.

The bruising still visible but fading away.

Five days after my broken nose accident, on Thursday, November 22nd, my daughter Christine came for a 5-day visit with Daniel. I picked them up at the airport and she was horrified when she saw me. I didn't tell her about my injuries before because I knew she would have worried a lot. There is one thing about me that I know. I don't care whatever anyone thinks, it won't stop me from going in public. I went grocery shopping, banking and to church looking like someone had taken a baseball bat at my face. The only ones to ask me, "OMG, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU? " were those who really know me well, the rest were too polite to ask so I tried to put them at ease.  After all,  it was what it was, an accident and nothing else. I guess the majority of people with such injuries would choose to stay home and hide. To me, the truth is what it is and I have nothing to be ashamed of. Today, my bruising is all gone but my nose is still very tender.

While my daughter Christine and the rest of the family was here, we celebrated my 72nd birthday, and my granddaughter Jordyn's birthday and also my retirement from working at the barn, all in one celebration... On my first day of retirement, I went on a trip home to the annual family Christmas party for 5 days and had a great time visiting, and came home on the bus, but that's another story for another blog post...

My lovely granddaughter and her 72 years old bruised grandmother.
My face is healing but still yellow from the bruises and my chin still a bit bruised.

Jordyn and I cutting the multi celebration cake. Two birthdays and a retirement.

We played the present game while everyone was here. I think we had 52 presents in all for the game.

I'm sorry for the length of this post but November has 30 days and I left a lot out, believe me...

I hope that December is kinder than November.
Stay warm and safe.
Hugs, Julia