Author Archives: Ellen

Signs and Fences…

We took a day off from the ordinary and hit the roads east from our home to Duvall and Carnation. This is the drive into Remlinger Farms in Carnation. I’ll show you all the fun signs and fence decorations we saw.  Click here if you want to see their webpage. Here’s a little blurb about the farm; We started as a small family run farm and fruit stand and have slowly grown over the years into the Family Fun Park, Market, Restaurant and Company Picnic site we are today. Check out all we have to offer.

What are those things in the field? Here are some close-ups!

Makes me thing about being “over a barrel” but these scarecrows seem happy to be over these wheels!

We enjoyed shopping in the farm market while we were here and brought home a Remlinger Bumbleberry Pie and some Sweet Baby Corn. The bunch of carrots are from another farm we stopped at.

This was before I baked the pie. It was delicious!

This farm holds some fun family memories from the early 90’s when my husband’s employer hosted annual company picnics here. Food, drinks, and entertainment for the whole family. These were our all-time favorite company events.

I’m linking up to signs, signs with Lesley and Good Fences with TexWisGirl at Run*A*Round Ranch Report later today and tomorrow.

Hope you all have time to get out and enjoy some fall whimsy!

A New Season

Last Thursday Dear and I took a little drive not far from home to see if we could catch any new views of Autumn.

It looks promising as we hit the road east to Duvall and Carnation.

Along the Snoqualmie Valley Trail in Duvall.

 

There were still some nice flower patches filled with Dahlias.

This day started out with low misty clouds drifting in the sky.

It was a very nice day for an Autumn drive. We walked a little, shopped a little, ate a little, too. We came home with a pie from Remlinger farms and a nice bunch of carrots from Oxbow farm in Carnation. Both of these farms had pumpkin patches but I’ll wait for the letter P for those photos. We are enjoying this new season. Do you enjoy Autumn?

I’m linking up with ABC Wednesday that was started by Mrs. Nesbitt and is now administered by Roger and the ABC team!

The Barn Collective

On the road (highway 203) between the cities of Duvall and Carnation in Washington State last Thursday we saw a few barns. I found some history about this farm from 1996.

“The small tragedies that littered East King County were most evident on farms like the one owned by Jake Groeneweg.

Groeneweg yesterday tried to salvage whatever he could of a barn that collapsed, killing at least a dozen of his cows and calves.

This was the first time in the 30 years he’s been farming that he’s lost livestock because of the weather, he said.

“It’s kind of devastating,” Groeneweg said.

Despite the troubles, he’s thankful for his neighbors, and some strangers, who stopped at his farm along state Highway 203 Sunday to help him pull about 50 cows still trapped under debris.

Groeneweg said he easily lost $200,000 in storm damage. He plans to head to the bank later this week to take out a loan to help him through the winter.”

You can read more about it here.

1996 was a devastating year for our family in Washington State, too. Because of a series of unrelenting storms we ultimately walked away from our dream home. The excess of water caused landslides on the back slope. The astronomical repair costs to shore up the land that dropped ten feet at our foundation caused us to ultimately walk away and give our house back to the bank. Our county got a disaster declaration and the money we got from FEMA was a little drop in a big bucket! After living in a couple rental properties we were able to buy a home again and have been happily toiling at this old house. God has been good to us.

Linking up with Tom the Backroads Traveler for the Barn Collective.

Sunday Hymn & Spires

May the Mind of Christ, My Savior

May the mind of Christ, my Savior,
Live in me from day to day,
By His love and power controlling
All I do and say.

May the Word of God dwell richly
In my heart from hour to hour,
So that all may see I triumph
Only through His power.

May the peace of God my Father
Rule my life in everything,
That I may be calm to comfort
Sick and sorrowing.

May the love of Jesus fill me
As the waters fill the sea;
Him exalting, self abasing,
This is victory.

May I run the race before me,
Strong and brave to face the foe,
Looking only unto Jesus
As I onward go.

May His beauty rest upon me,
As I seek the lost to win,
And may they forget the channel,
Seeing only Him.

Words: Kate B. Wilkinson

Ht: Cyberhymnal 1996

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Philippians 2:5-8 (ESV)

This is Timberlake Church on Main Street in Duvall, Washington.

I’m linking up to InSPIREd Sunday with Beth and Sally.

Rebecca Writes has been posting links to Sunday Hymns for years and she graciously adds my Hymn each Sunday.

A Little Diversion…

Yesterday Dear and I decided to take a short road trip to the cities of Duvall and Carnation. We enjoyed beautiful fall colors in the mist, a few fun shops and some good eats. I’ll show more of what we saw soon and I’m happy to say I finally have some more barns to share along with fences and signs.

Here’s Dear, outstanding in his field. Sorry couldn’t resist that one! We had a full day yesterday and I hope to be able to visit more of you today.

Have you been to a pumpkin patch yet?

Promises Kept…

This recipe has been around the block a few times and I finally tried it and served my extended family this for dessert last Friday. I’m not saying who but one of my guests went back for a second serving. This recipe is enough for probably 16 and would be a nice alternative for Pumpkin Pie at Thanksgiving…

The recipe is on the Mennonite Girls Can Cook Blog today. Click over and enjoy. I’d like to wish our Canadian friends a very Happy Thanksgiving weekend coming up!

The card in the background is of a still life Dear’s Aunt put together for this photo card. She’s an artist and usually paints but enjoyed this still life photo shoot. The recipe for the Pumpkin Surprise was on the back of the card and I tweaked the recipe just a bit.

We are a bit foggy and gloomy today. I’m hoping to get out for a wee drive somewhere with Dear since there is no construction going on again today. He did just construct me a breakfast burrito. He’s a keeper for lots of reasons…

Have a wonderful October day!

 

Signs, signs…

This was a sign I spotted in the Homegoods store that made me take my little camera out of my bag and click. I would have purchased it for the fun of it but I absolutely have no wall space at this old house for this kind of whimsy!

What I did purchase at Homegoods was a table runner for Thanksgiving and something for a Christmas stocking. Speaking of stockings, I’m on a quest to buy 8 new ones this year. Four and four, guys and gals. Found out that the beginning of October is a little too early to find stockings. On my way to Babies R Us (the scariest store on the planet!) I walked into Nordstrom Rack and bought 2 great signs that I’ll put out at Christmas time. After all the whimsical shopping it took some very serious navigating to get around the baby store!

The hardwood floor guys are coming to J & L’s today to sand the floors so Dear has a few days off while the floors get sanded and then refinished. Wonder what adventures we can have with all this free time Dear has? What adventures are happening in your neck of the woods?

I’ll be linking up to signs, signs with Lesley later on today.

 

All In A Days Work…

…the first stage of the kitchen cabinet installation was completed! We had a weekend filled with hard work and lots of fun. My brother Tim (on the right) arrived with his dear wife Letty late on Thursday night for the weekend. On Friday, because of Tim’s expertise in cabinetry and installation, Dear, Josh and Tim had all the cabinets installed in Josh and Laura’s kitchen. Our son in law Andrew has also been working alongside Dear on the complete renovation of the kitchen/eating area of J & L’s home but he has classes on Friday and had to wait for Saturday to join in the fun.

While the guys worked on Friday Letty and I shopped at a couple Goodwill stores and had lunch at Ariana (an Afghan restaurant). We bonded with the hostess/owner who spoke Russian to us and offered us the most delicious roasted pumpkin appetizer (pictured in the center) which was her mother’s recipe. I will be on a quest to try to duplicate it. When I asked her about the spices in the dish she was close-lipped, guarding the family recipe! We enjoyed Lamb Shashlik for our main dish and each had a cup of the restaurants special steeped tea.

On Friday night we had a full house for dinner and dessert. Letty and I made chicken fajitas and Letty made her signature Mexican rice and beans. I was photo challenged and only got one shot of the fajitas in process not the nice finished product with tri colored peppers and onions mixed in. Oye! We had a pumpkin dessert that I will be posting on the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog on Thursday.

On Saturday the men (Dear, Tim and Andrew) headed back to Josh and Laura’s to work on trimming out the cabinets, electrical, installing the island pendant lights, and taking out a few more walls to add much needed insulation in the home. The girls, Letty, my sister Lana, Katie, Laura and I had a girls day out shopping and eating lunch together.

Our favorite store of the day was Charming Charlies. Do you have this store chain where you live? We all were able to find something we liked and we each left with an item or two or three.

On Saturday the guys took a lunch break, too, and ate at a Mexican restaurant together while we were eating at Coho. We all gathered in the evening at our house when the days activities were done and enjoyed left overs.

On Sunday after church we headed to Josh and Laura’s again and Tim and Dear added some finishing touches to the kitchen. Tim added the knobs and pulls, in less than an hour with the jigs he made. We were all so impressed! Dear tweaked the electrical while Josh added insulation to some walls. The ladies gave their expert opinions and guidance! We went out for one more meal together before Tim and Letty had to fly back to Southern California.

Our kids really appreciated the willingness of their uncle to fly up and add his expert assistance and skill in completing the kitchen cabinets. They would have never been able to complete this project so quickly without his help. Because my brother has the gift of helps and service this was not work for him but a joy! Thank you Tim and Letty!

Happy Monday to all of you. We have a free day today so time will tell what calls to us…

Arise, My Soul, Arise ~ Hymn

“I have a re­cord,” said a Wes­ley­an mis­sion­ary la­bor­ing in the West In­dies, “of two hun­dred per­sons, young and old, who re­ceived the most di­rect ev­i­dence of the for­give­ness of their sins while sing­ing ‘Arise, my soul.’ The con­ver­sion of the great­er num­ber of these per­sons took place while I was a mis­sion­ary abroad.”

ARISE, MY SOUL, ARISE

Arise, my soul, arise; shake off thy guilty fears;
The bleeding sacrifice in my behalf appears:
Before the throne my surety stands,
Before the throne my surety stands,
My name is written on His hands.

He ever lives above, for me to intercede;
His all redeeming love, His precious blood, to plead:
His blood atoned for all our race,
His blood atoned for all our race,
And sprinkles now the throne of grace.

Five bleeding wounds He bears; received on Calvary;
They pour effectual prayers; they strongly plead for me:
“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,
“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,
“Nor let that ransomed sinner die!”

The Father hears Him pray, His dear anointed One;
He cannot turn away, the presence of His Son;
His Spirit answers to the blood,
His Spirit answers to the blood,
And tells me I am born of God.

My God is reconciled; His pardoning voice I hear;
He owns me for His child; I can no longer fear:
With confidence I now draw nigh,
With confidence I now draw nigh,
And “Father, Abba, Father,” cry.

~ Charles Wesley, Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1742

Ht: Cyberhymnal

Hello October!

On this first day of October I was out on the road running errands getting ready for our company and events this weekend. Fall is showing itself nicely here in the Pacific Northwest!

On the road to our big box home improvement store and office supply store this great burst of fall met my eyes.

After I bought my ink cartridges for my printer I headed to Whole Paycheck, that’s what my dear dil Laura calls Whole Foods, to get some organic corn tortillas for my sister in law, Leticia. She’s on a restricted diet. We are making chicken fajitas for the cabinet installers on Friday evening. Letty is our family’s expert on all things in the Mexican culinary world. The least I could do was to buy the right ingredients for her. She will also be making her special Spanish rice and beans.

When I got home I experimented with a new pumpkin recipe for dessert that I’ll share in October on the Mennonite Girls Can Cook Blog. If you click over today you can see my Mocha Toffee Parfait.

Since I’m up late today waiting for our guests to arrive at this old house I had time to complete this post. Our son Josh is picking up his uncle and aunt at the airport and delivering them here late tonight. Tomorrow we hit the ground running. I’ll check in with all of you in the quiet moments…if there are any!