There's still time to shop

Just in case you didn't find everything you needed on

Black Friday

or

Cyber Monday

Osage Bluff Blacksmith Shop is still open.

Here's the newest thing the Blacksmith is working on.

Mason jar candle holders.

With a little more tweaking it should be ready for sale.

$15 each (without the jar).

So go and visit

Osage Bluff Blacksmith Shop

for some of those last minute gifts.

Wanna go shopping?

The biggest shopping day of the year is almost here!

But wait! You can get a jump start.

How you ask?

By visiting the Osage Bluff Blacksmith shop. It's open 24 hours a day.

And it's just a click away. CLICK HERE!

HAPPY SHOPPING!!!

And don't forget to become a follower while you are visiting.

A little sewing

Remember this fabric? Well this past weekend, despite having three grand kids in the house, I did get some sewing done.



I did some tweaking of the pattern and made it look like our little Casita and my red jeep cherokee.

Now if I can only find some time to make it into a quilt for our little camper!





On a completely different subject, look what my sister bought for me today! Don't they just scream my name? Not. Anyway, they fit just fine and now I have a whole year to work on an outfit for them for the 2nd annual Osage Bend Halloween party. Thanks Lona.


How's your weather where you live? Here in Mid-Missouri it was 76 degrees at noon, at 10 PM it's now 45 degrees and by morning it's suppose to be 31 degrees. Now you know where the statement "If you don't like the weather just stick around" came from.
.

I love, love, love this WINE

My little sister told me about this wine she had. It comes in both chocolate and raspberry flavor. I found the chocolate at Schnuck's and Wally's world, but I was holding out for the raspberry.

I found it at this store! Now will I return to this store for future purchases? You can bet your bottom dollar I will.

Why????

Because apparently the very young check out girl thought I was one of these!!!

Excuse me little girl, I am approaching my 6th decade on this wonderful earth. I am pretty sure I am old enough to be your Grandmother! When I asked her really, you need to see my driver's license, she not only said yes, but she MADAMED me!!!

I must confess, I floated out of there without touching the ground!

Now I'm off to see if I really like this wine.

The day is done

For the past 41 years I have driven by this house weekly. Several times a week and some times several times a day.

When I first started going by, the husband and wife that occupied it would be outside. I remember him on the tractor baling hay, feed cattle, and even tilling in the garden. The wife might be found hanging clothes on the line or tending the rock planters on the front porch where she always grew red geraniums.

A few years later, I would be working with this couple's son-in-law at Farm Bureau Insurance Company.

Years passed and the couple somehow became elderly. He died, she was moved to town.

And then the house sat empty for years.

A few weeks ago, the siding started disappearing, then the windows, now the roof.

I see logs on the inside. I am guessing someone is harvesting the logs. My hope is it will be resurrected again!

Back view

Side view

The front

Fading light dims the sight
And a star gems the sky, gleaming bright
From afar drawing nigh,
Falls the night.

Day is done, gone the sun
From the lakes, from the hills, from the skies
All is well, safely rest;
God is nigh.

Then goodnight, peaceful night;
Till the light of the dawn shineth bright.
God is near, do not fear,
Friend, goodnight.

Deer Camp Pie

One of the most important things in deer camp is the "food". At least that is what us women think!

So the menus so far have been something like this:

Friday night - Fried fish, fried potatoes, hush puppies and Ramen cole slaw and homemade fruit slaw (Your recipe Delphine*).

Saturday night - Dan, the connoisseur BBQ man, made dry rubbed smoked ribs. Larraine brought Lutz's homemade potato chips in 3 flavors. I brought Romaine lettuce salad with dried cherries, sun flowers seeds, provolone cheese and raspberry/red wine vinegar dressing. Lori added sugar cookies and chocolate chips cookies for dessert.

Tonight - It was fried wild turkey, french fries, 7 layer salad, broccoli rice casserole and Larraine's PEAR pie! She also made two cream puff pies.

(This picture is for you Delphine*, just to see your DIL with her pie!)

Here the blacksmith hands out pie to the grand kids.

Ya gotta love deer camp food!

* Delphine is my MIL who resides in Texas and reads my blog every night!

Young success!

Brady did it again!

He shot a 6 point buck.

He beat the other 6 hunters in camp, who came home empty handed!

Congratulations Brady!!

It's here again

Deer season that is.


The cabin has been cleaned and well stocked.

The grandson is keeping his fingers crossed for another big one. Like this one from last year.

I on the other hand am off Saturday morning for all the holiday open houses in town. Like this one from last week when I was a face book winner!!!

PS Dinner tonight at the cabin was fried fish, fried potatoes and fried hush puppies. Now to find my Rolaids!!

Grandkids

Here's a few things from this past weekend. Here in Mid-Missouri we are experiencing above normal temperatures. Today it was 76 degrees. That's about 20 above normal.

Here the blacksmith is cleaning up some fish and little Ms E is deep into conversation with him. As for the dog, he's just enjoying his inside time.




You know the boys are growing up when they are learning to drive the 4 wheeler.

It seems like only yesterday they were pushing their tricycles around.

Basket making class

I love it when I can keep a blog theme. QUILTS.

This barn quilt was at Loose Creek, Missouri on my way to basket making class. So for right now, forget the quilt theme. We are moving on to baskets now.

This is from the top of the hill at Joe and Alice's log cabin. It was here that I met up with my cousin, Donna. She had invited me to take a basket class with her.

Here instructor Joe shows us the next step. All the wood was felled by Joe. He makes all the strips. He and his wife Alice teach the course.

Here I am keeping toasty warm in front of the wood stove. We would later use this stove to dry our baskets before adding the handle and top rims.

It was inside this log cabin that the class was held.

We take a break while our baskets dry and Alice takes us to the basement. There she shows us how to throw a pot.

We then go upstairs to see Joe's beautiful wood carvings.

He loves to make his signature hunting dogs.

He carves the most beautiful animals, all from Missouri wood he has harvested. It might be ash, cedar, hackberry, hickory, walnut, or white oak.

Just beautiful! Such talent these two people have.

Here is the blacksmith's door knocker. You see Joe and I worked together for almost 20 years. At our Christmas auctions Joe would bring baskets and I would bring items the Blacksmith had made. It seems almost every year we bought each other's wares.

Here is our entire class today with our finished grape baskets. As you can see some of us wove color into them. The red, greens, and blues are not natural colors. I used yellow strips which was wood from an osage orange tree. Some of the dark strips were made with walnut hulls and a piece of iron. We had the option of putting walnut legs on the baskets.

The afternoon spent in Osage county with the ladies, and Joe and Alice was wonderful. Alice's cookies, cheeseball, ice tea, and hazelnut coffee were excellent. I'm so glad Donna asked me to go.

Casita Trip day 4 Friday October 29 2019

Friday morning was the coldest morning yet. The neighbor next door said the gallon jug of water that he had weighted his satellite dish with was frozen.

Once again, it was toasty warm in our little abode. I made sausage, scrambled eggs, skillet toast, and cheesy grits for breakfast. After we washed the dishes, we took one last walk around the camp grounds. The fishing whistle had blown several hours earlier. Apparently everyone was fished out because we saw no one near the water.

We were slow in packing up. We were savoring the time! While doing our packing, a camper pulled up next to the space beside us. He gets out his gas powered leaf blower and blows the paved lot off. As if that wasn't enough, he blew off the yard adjoining it. I really wanted to stay a couple more hours just to see how far this guy's OCD went!!

We pulled out of space 312 at 12:30.

Along Hwy 119, we had seen a log church on our way in and marked it on our bucket list.

It is St Jude's Chapel. The log cabin church was built in 1968 by Walter Weber. It is said, the owner promised God if his business did well, he would build a little chapel. Weber’s St. Louis-based pump manufacturing business prospered, so he honored his word.




The morning glories on the arbor had already been killed by frost. I could only imagine what they must have looked liked.

Walking towards the church you find this cross.

The iron work on the door shows some of the hand work that went into the making of this log church.

St Jude watches over those going by.

A peaceful repose could be experienced on the bench facing a lovely tiled meditation wall located to the left of the chapel.

The log church was locked, but we did as many have done, pressed our noses to the windows. The floor looked like hand made bricks upon which were hand hewn log benches.

Masses are held every Saturday at 3:30. I was willing to camp in their parking lot until then. However, home also sounded good too.

After walking the grounds it was time to hit the road. In less than two hours we were back to reality, I mean home.

We really enjoyed our maiden voyage! We hope to have many more trips in the future. They may just have to wait until spring, the snow will be flying soon.

Gracia Casita!

Casita Trip day 3 - Thursday October 28, 2010

We woke up toasty warm. Leaving the heater on all night did the trick. Yes, it has an automatic thermostat.

I made breakfast burritos with bacon, eggs, and onions. Wish I would have had some green peppers, but they still tasted great. It made us think about Bob and Rita. (RVer cousins) They frequently have breakfast tacos, about which the blacksmith always tells her, he doesn't get the whole taco thing.

We pulled out of camp in Eminence at 10:45. Fifty five miles later we arrived at Montauk State Park. For $21 we were spending the night.

The grounds were beautiful. It has about 150 camp sites mingled through the big oak and maple trees.

The historic mill, which is more than 100 years old stands at the entrance to the park. This historic site was a vital part of the Montauk Community into the 1920s. Built in 1896, the “Old Mill” had elaborate milling machinery. Much of it is still located there.

Below the mill were the trout pools. As we walked by I told the blacksmith the fish were all swimming in one direction. That's when he explained to me they were following him. The fish know they are fed by someone walking by. They just didn't recognized that he wasn't the feeder!

After parking the RV we took a tour of the area. Here is Montauk Spring.

I wish I could have measured the depth. It seemed you could see 20 feet deep, fish, grass, rocks and all. It was crystal clear!!

The area is known for trout fishing. Everywhere we stopped someone was fly fishing. Live bait is not allowed.

WOW, another Casita is in the park.

Remember the song from the Jefferson's? "Moving on up". Maybe this is where we could go? This RV was built by Freightliner! As in Freightliner semi trucks! It had 5 crank outs. Of course I'm sure they were motorized not crank outs.

As darkness set in, we retreated to the camper. We enjoyed our bottle of Missouri Norton wine from Grey Bear Winery. After that, the blacksmith grilled pork chops outside, as I made buttered noodles and collard greens inside.

We had no DVD's for the evening. We enjoyed watching the coming and going of RV's in the park. Bedtime came before 9 with the radio softly playing.

Sadly tomorrow is our last day to play.