HAPPY EASTER

                           Happy Easter, Happy Spring, Jesus is Risen, Alleluia

I hope you all have a beautiful day, where ever you are and get to spend quality time with family and friends!  Peace and Love!

A dreaded chore

I will be the first to admit that cleaning is NOT my forte.   I would rather cook, work in the yard, garden or clean a chicken coop, then dust and vacuum, etc.

However, yesterday, I had no choice.  The stove/oven was a hot mess (literally!).

Let me start out by saying, we have had two smoke detectors sitting on the counter for over a month.  They were old and no longer worked.  So with only one smoke detector in the whole house, I had my son go out and buy two brand new ones and my other son installed them.  Then as usual, I cooked.  and the smoke detectors kept going off.  But I wasn't burning anything, but my oven was (as I stated before) a hot mess, so hubby, said to me, "Maria, I think you need to clean the oven"!   That was mortifying.....Yes, obviously, I needed to clean the oven.  I can't remember the last time I did it.

So overnight on Wednesday, the oven cleaned itself (yes, I know I can't even do that!).  We had to take down the smoke detectors (we hid them in the bathroom) and close off the bedrooms and open the windows a little bit - it was that bad!

I woke up really early on Thursday to take care of the new chickens (blog post to come this weekend) and then got to working on the stove/oven.  Knobs came off, the under drawer came out, I took apart the whole thing and scrubbed and cleaned and I think I have to buy stock in S.O.S. pads!

It took well over an hour.  And I felt like I needed a shower after I did it!

So, now my stove is SO clean, I don't want to use it....and guess what?  Easter is coming this weekend and I need to be the cooking and baking fool......so here we go again!

(What is your dreaded chore?)

A homeowner

Congratulations to my son who bought a house yesterday.  He has been saving for years and he and his girlfriend have bought a duplex in our old town - It is a lovely older home and I am so freaking proud of him!  

SO.PROUD.

(I know I never mentioned it before this - but I didn't want to jinx it)

If anyone knows of anyone who needs an apartment, they have the other side of the duplex which is totally remodeled and ready to move in.  Let me/him know.

Holy Week

I wish you all a very beautiful Holy Week.  This is my favorite week.  A culmination of everything I believe and I enjoy all the celebrations and activities and the solemness of the church.

Holy Thursday Procession
Good Friday Faith Walk
Good Friday Veneration
Good Friday Race for Cancer
Living Stations
Holy Saturday Blessing of the Food
Easter Vigil (for my grandparents)
And Sunrise services (if they are held this year!)

Happy Passover to all my Jewish friends.

Go out and enjoy your church's (or temple's, or whatever you believe) activities for this week.  Even if you attend one celebration - you won't be sorry that you did.

Fundraiser/Party

Did you ever say yes to an event just to help sponsor it, not that you really wanted to go?  This past weekend, I attended a fundraiser for Post Prom for our local high school.  I support the Post Prom every year in some capacity, because my kids really enjoyed it when they did it!  (Flocking is post prom and so are all the Casino trips/posts).  I was tired Friday night, I had worked all week and honestly, I just wanted to collapse on the couch.  But I went to the fundraiser!

Anyway, this fundraiser was a band that was from my high school from 30 + years ago.  They had broken up way back when and recently got together.  Well, time did not change much!   They were awesome.  Southern Rock - and I could listen to them for hours (and I did).

It was held in a local banquet hall and the amount of people that showed up to listen was unbelievable.  It was like a class reunion for about 25 different classes!   I saw a lot of old friends and of course, my regular friends were all there also!!  Hundreds of people came to see the band!   What a tribute!  

I am so glad that I attended.  It was a great party and the Post Prom Committee made a lot of money.  There were raffles - my good friend won a Kindle Fire HD, my sister-in-law won the 50/50 raffle and my other sister-in-law won a basket prize!

I will attend this fundraiser if they ever have it again!  

(Ladies - I told you I would be blogging about this party - LOL)

St. Joseph's Day 2013

We did it!  We got all the wine bottled, corked, loaded up and into our cold room.

It took a few hours of time.  But we are happy with the results.

We did the Riesling first.  25 bottles, great color, not as sweet as a riesling usually is, but not dry.   But, you can tell it is homemade.....strong and delicious.  I had two sips and I was feeling it!!

 This is me doing the corking - it is back breaking after a while.  But we have a system now and I just pop a Tylenol PM when I get home - LOL

 Of course, we wore Fedora's.  My brother couldn't help us, he had worked all night getting rid of the snow that I talked about in a previous post (he works for the town) and then worked all day at his regular job, so he slept and we left him presents!

Corking on my knees seemed to help out my back also!

Then we did two demi-johns of Chianti.  This one also came out excellent.  Thomas is very happy with the results.  We got 52 bottles of Chianti and we left my brother a 1/2 gallon of Chianti (for the use of his wine cellar and his pans, etc) and also a 1/2 of a 1/2 gallon Riesling!

 Boxing up the Chianti after it was all corked.

 After everything is done, we taste!  This was the riesling and all you need is a few sips!!!

 Cristina (my niece) is our yearly photographer.  She likes to snap as many pictures as possible.  (She was also one of the Punxsutawney photographers)

 The third box of chianti.  

(This is the almost empty demi-john; we try to get as much out of the bottom as possible.  Sometimes there is a "mother" in there, or just bottom of the barrels stuff.....We strain it out and use it all.)

We have already handed out Riesling and Chianti to friends/neighbors/family who want to try it.

As an aside - Yesterday, hubby had to go get corks.  You can only get them in specialty stores.  While he was there, he decided to ask if there were any "leftovers".  These are the containers that are already pressed but just have to be put into the barrels or demi-johns and "worked on" for a couple of months.  They had Barbera (which is his favorite!), so he got another container of Barbara!  We will be bottling again in a few months!!!!

Happy Spring!

The weathermen were right.

We have received about 3-4 inches with ice on top.  The temperatures are cold.  Two hour delay for schools, probably due to the fact that they need to put some sand on the roads.   

Happy St. Joseph's Day!!!!!!!!

So..............Here is what i am thinking....

My friend, Punxsutawney Phil was .....WRONG!  Spring is not here!

We are getting more snow tonight and it has been C.O.L.D.

The weathermen (who are usually wrong, anyway), said we are getting up to five inches of new white stuff, and then some sleet on top of that!  I'll let you know how their forecast was tomorrow.

The extended forecast for the coming week, calls for cold weather.  I am supposed to run a race next week and I really hate running in the cold.

Spring is supposed to start Wednesday this week.......

(God is laughing hysterically!!) :)

(And Punxsutawney Phil should go into hiding!!)

March, the month of the Saints

Yes, we all know that St. Patrick's Day is right around the corner.  I don't celebrate it though.  Not even a touch of Irish in me.....My kids just happen to have the last name of Bailey though, so I hang a shamrock flag outside the house and I will wear green on that day (for them)!

But the 19th of March is St. Joseph's Day......Wine Day (See this post and this post).  The wearin' of the red; Zeppole and Fava!

The wine is almost ready!   Reisling and Chianti!

There will be pictures and fedora's!  We are getting excited!!!

See you in 8 weeks again.

As many of you know, this is my daughter's first year of college.  It has worked out this year, that we get to see her every eight weeks.  She was home for her spring break this past week (she got to see Storm Saturn) and now she is on her way back to the airport.  (I didn't post much this week as I was spending time with her).  We will see her again, when she finishes her freshman year in 8 more weeks.   We went out for lunch before her departure..........

May cannot come fast enough for me (and for her, she cannot wait to get back down south to warm temperatures!).

In the pit, but it was good!!

This weekend, we went up to visit my girlfriend, Eva and her family.  About 5 month ago, she called me and said she had tickets for the Lee Brice, Dierks Bentley and Miranda Lambert concert and asked if we could go.  We went up on Saturday morning: she lives outside of Saratoga, so about 3 hours away.  it was great to see her and her family.

We went out for dinner to Carrabba's.  It was my first time there and it was really, really good...surprisingly!  We will go again!

Then we headed to Albany for the concert.  She said she thought we had good seats on the floor.  When we got there, we headed for Floor Access and after the security people checked our tickets, they kept telling us which way to go.  We kept going forward and forward and forward.  Then we were in front of the stage and getting special wristbands put on.....REALLY???  We were in front of the stage!  No seats.....it's called the pit and it was OMG close.

The first artist was Lee Brice (I drive your truck, Love like crazy):

This is how close I was....no zoom, rip in the shirt, sweat on the shirt, sweat on the fans close!!!!

Dierks Bentley up next......no zoom.......

Miranda Lambert - no introduction necessary, I don't think - She was great and the headliner!

Two of her band members...

Hubby and I  (standing for over three hours - it was tough, but worth it!!!)

The Locked & Reloaded banner before she came out!  

It was the best concert I have ever been to....I don't think I will ever get that good of seats again (and they weren't even seats!)

After the concert, we headed to the Racino!  A Casino at the Racetrack at Saratoga!  There are no tables, just slots, but we had some fun and we actually won a few a dollars!    I went to bed at 1:45 am, the latest I have been to bed in months and months (and months)......And the best part of the weekend, is when I got home, my daughter was home from college!!  For  a whole week!!!

Pig Share

I know I have talked about getting my 6th of beef - I have gotten three or four now.  And I absolutely love it.  As a matter of fact, I have another 6th of beef on order and it should be here next month.

But today, I picked up my first 1/2 of a pig.  The whole share is 105 lbs. and today I got pork chops - seven huge packages, sausage, pork butt roasts, shoulder roasts, ham hocks, pigs feet (no clue what to do with those!), salt pork and two extra packages of backfat, (with which I'm going to render lard), and also spare ribs and neck bones.  The bacon and the ham is curing and won't be ready for at least another week!   So, I don't have the full share yet!  But as you can see, the freezer is starting to fill up again.  

Pork chops and applesauce for dinner on Sunday night!!!!  I'll let you know how they turn out!