Monthly Archives: January 2012
Hunting For Golf Balls
Living on a farm is not all chores and chasing animals. On nice afternoons my son and I often find time to play baseball, fish in the pond, climb trees, or go hunting for golf balls.
Golf balls?
Yes, golf balls.
What does this have to do with living on a farm?
Well, on some farms perhaps nothing. On our farm, however, hunting for golf balls has become a regular past-time. Continue reading
Foodie Friday- Homemade Organic Eggnog
I love eggnog and yet it’s one of those foods that is so strongly associated with a specific time of year that I rarely drink it unless it’s Christmas. I’ve decided to change this trend. I have decided that I will drink eggnog all year long, or at least whenever there’s a surplus of milk and eggs. So, here’s my recipe. It’s an adaptation of the eggnog recipe in the Joy of Cooking cookbook; a liberal adaptation. I will include a few of the tips from that recipe as well so you can try both and find what you like best. Continue reading
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
I know, I know, I just read it, but at least I finished the book before the movie came out! If you’re one of the few who has not yet read The Hunger Games I highly recommend this science-fiction novel. … Continue reading
Your Artistic Outlet- Playing the Guitar
I have been playing the guitar on an off for the last seven years. It’s something I had always wanted to learn and finally decided to go for it. When my husband and I were living in Derby, Kansas about seven years ago, there was a small music store about a block from our house. One day I noticed that they were advertising guitar lessons, and so the journey began. Continue reading
What Do You Do With The Milk?
This is one of the questions that we are asked most frequently by our friends and by those interested in getting started. The obvious answer is, we drink it. This, of course, is not what they mean. Typically people want to know if we drink the milk straight from the cow, or what do we do with all that milk?
In response to the first of these sub-questions, no, we don’t drink the milk straight from the cow. Some people do, but I guess we maintain enough of a conventional mindset that we are very careful about filtering and chilling our milk. Continue reading
Remembering Anne McCaffrey
For those of you who haven’t already heard the news, I am sad to tell you that Anne McCaffrey, amazing author and member of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, passed away on November 21, 2011. I was heartbroken by this news; not because I knew her, but because, like so many others, Anne McCaffrey’s books were my first introduction to the world of Science Fiction and Fantasy. The January 2012 edition of Locus, The Magazine of the Science Fiction and Fantasy field, wrote a long and lovely tribute to this heroine of the genre, including several heart-felt letters from people whose lives she has touched. I learned from this article many fascinating and previously unknown facts about her career. I discovered that Anne McCaffrey was the first woman to win both the Hugo and Nebula awards, her novel The White Dragon was the first hardcover science fiction novel to make it onto the New York Times bestseller list, and she wrote or co-wrote over 100 titles in her lifetime. Continue reading
Foodie Friday- Recipe for Homemade Rosemary Walnuts
This two-part recipe is taken directly from the Nourishing Traditions cookbook by Sally Fallon with Mary G. Enig, Ph.D. This is one of my absolute favorite snacks. I don’t actually make them that often, but when I do I literally cannot stop eating them.
A Few Books That I’m Adding to My Reading List
I’m looking forward to reading 1)The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson. For those of you who have read the Mistborn Trilogy, this is the fourth installment in the Mistborn series. The first three books are phenomenal and I’m certain this will be as well. For those of you who have not read the series, The Alloy of Law is set three hundred years after the events in the Mistborn Trilogy, so I’m guessing you don’t have to read the first three in order to completely follow the story. You can read more about it and find links to buy the book at http://www.brandonsanderson.com/book/The-Alloy-of-Law and 2) A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge as well as it’s new direct sequel 3) The Children of the Sky. A Fire Upon the Deep was the 1993 Hugo Award Winner for Best Novel. Both can be found on amazon and the descriptions sound very cool. It looks like Vernor Vinge recently started a facebook page as well at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vernor-Vinge/43557996047
Has anybody read them? Hopefully I will be able to add them to my book review list soon! Continue reading
“If you listen to your fears you will die never knowing how great you might have been.” ~Robert Schuller “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” ~Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy
Facebook Link
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nicole-L-Bates/220792754675090
It’s an official page! You can click the link to like this page to receive automatic updates and links to my posts. Continue reading