Hi Rozannadanna, I love your name - both for the roses and Gilda! I'm sure I'll be learning lots from you about roses. Good luck to you on your nursery! I too am new posting here (tho a longtime lurker) and thought maybe I should introduce myself. Haven't updated "my page" in years... We bought an old (150+ years) 115 acre farm that previous owners had tried to develop but couldn't get zoning changed... They'd bought it from widow who'd farmed with her family here forever. Sadly, by the time we arrived roofs had rotted on most buildings, tho brick house was still standing and is an ongoing project where we live w/4 yo DD and nearly 2 yo DS, 2 dogs, 1 cat, and 2 large fish meant for eventual pond. The place looked ready for bulldozers (as they'd intended)! Only plant life here was wild; locusts, black walnuts, multiflora rose and silver maple... But at least there were also wild turkeys, deer, bald eagles, herons, ducks geese, bunnies, bats etc! We are slowly getting the place fixed up and trying to learn to grow our own food. Have small orchard and veggie garden but don't really know how to can/preserve(this years goal). Have a few meat rabbits (long story how we accidentally fell into that, but you can probably guess). Just got 12 pullets for eggs and 12 cornish/X for the freezer. Have guineas due next month too. I'm much more experienced in landscaping/perennials and horses (in my past life as breeder/trainer) than any of this real farming - LOTS to learn here! Soon I hope to get a few dairy goats and DH wants to look into bees... He's become enthralled with farming and makes hay for a "hobby." Thank God he's able to fix up our used equipment or we'd be bankrupt! We feel sooo blessed to live here in Maryland's farm country after growing up "inside the beltway" near DC. Now we're poor but happy wannabe farmers not too far from PA... Will enjoy reading here even more as I learn where folks are from. Thanks to all for making this such a welcoming forum (especially Velvet whose site I refer to often)!

Oh, great thread, Lindac! I love reading everyone's memories. I grew up in my grandma's kitchen. (My mother was and is an abysmal cook and never wanted us in the way when she had to cook). Grandma's kitchen was always full of music--or Paul Harvey. She kept a radio on the window sill between the kitchen and the back porch, and it was always on when she cooked. The kitchen had a black and white tile floor, and when Grandma waxed it, we kids always wanted to sit in a chair and watch it dry. I have no idea why we loved that so much, but I suspect Grandma encouraged it because it gave her a much-needed break from us. The stove wall had ivy wall paper, and there was a curtain over the cabinet below the sink. The first thing we saw as we walked in from the dining room was a narrow wooden work table with a pull out drawer; it always had a big glass canister full of Planter's peanuts. The icebox and, later, the refrigerator was next and the back door to the porch right behind that. The kitchen table where we ate most of our meals was on the back wall. We only used the dining room on holidays and when we had company. On Sunday nights, we got to eat in the living room while watching Lassie. If Sunday dinner had been a beef roast, we ate roast beef sandwiches. Otherwise, we had BLTs and we ALWAYS had Campbell's vegetable beef soup with it. To the left of the kitchen table was the sink wall. There was a big window full of African violets over the sink, and a huge porcelain drainboard attached to the sink. My sister and I both had long, thick hair, and Mama or Grandma would have us lie on the drainboard to get our hair washed. I know there were curtains on the window, but I don't remember what they looked like--maybe they had strawberries on them? The gas stove was on the last wall. There was a black metal match box on the wall and a metal grease pan on the back of the stove. The coffee pot was always there, too. On especially cold days, Grandma would open the oven door and let my sister and me use it as a table, sitting on pillows on the floor and eating in the warmth from the stove. I remember sitting there in the fall, too, waiting for the parched pecans (from our trees and picked out by my grandpa on the front porch) to cool enough to eat. Beside the stove was the flour crock--a huge thing with a dough bowl covered by a hand-carved lid in the top. I think Grandma made biscuits in that bowl every day of her adult life. They were our staff of life. We'd eat them with bacon, ham, or sausage and eggs for breakfast, Grandma and Grandpa crumbled the leftovers into buttermilk for lunch, and we'd have a fresh batch for supper. Often we had them with tomato gravy. At those rare meals when she didn't make biscuits, Grandma always told us we'd have to make do with light bread :) Fruit and vegetables were almost exclusively from the garden, canned in the big old pressure cooker. Any time it came out, we kids got shooed out of the kitchen amid tales of a great aunt who'd been killed when a pressure cooker exploded. It took years before I could try canning food, and then I had to buy a new canner even though Grandma's is sitting in my pantry. All the canned food was stored in an old cabinet on the back porch. Strange--I don't remember ever eating outside except when we had watermelon. Meals were always inside.

Here are some recipes that I like that are either casseroles or could be kept warm in a crock pot. Husband's Delight Submitted by: Cathy Makes 6 servings Prep Time: 20 Minutes Cook Time: 25 Minutes Ready in: 45 Minutes Average Rating: ***** 155 Ratings 103 Reviews " Being a farm wife, I'm always looking for recipes that can go out to the field. I got this one a number of years ago from my friend who is also a farm wife. It's rich, creamy and filling. " Ingredients 10 ounces egg noodles 1 1/2 pounds ground beef 1 (14.5 ounce) can peeled and diced tomatoes with juice 1 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon white sugar 1 1/2 cups sour cream 3 ounces cream cheese 1/2 onion, chopped 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese Directions 1Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). 2Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain. 3In a large skillet over medium heat, brown the ground beef. Add the tomatoes with juice, salt and sugar and simmer for 15 minutes. 4In a separate medium bowl, combine the sour cream, cream cheese and onion and mix well. In a 9x13 inch baking dish, place half of the egg noodles, then all of the meat mixture, then the cream mixture. Top with the remaining noodles and sprinkle with the cheese. 5Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 25 minutes. Makes 6 servings MARILYN'S SAUSAGE NOODLES MARZETTI 5 oz. packaged noodles; cook & drain 1# bulk sausage (I use the kind with sage.) 1 medium onion chopped 2 stalks celery; chopped 1 (15 oz.) can crushed tomatoes (Italian seasoned are good.) ¼ cup dry white wine (optional) ¼ cup water 2 teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce 1 tablespoon brown sugar (dont leave this out!) salt & pepper to taste In a large skillet, combine sausage, onion and celery. Cook until sausage is no longer pink and vegetables are tender. Add tomatoes, wine, water, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, salt and pepper; stir well. Simmer 15 minutes. Add noodles; heat and serve (Keep warm in a crockpot) Chicken Dumpling Casserole (Cindy 5 NY) 1/2 cup onion, chopped 1/2 cup celery, chopped 1/4 cup butter 1/2 cup flour 1 tsp salt pepper to taste 4 cups chicken broth 4 cups cooked chicken, bite size pcs Saute onion and celery in butter until tender. Stir in flour, salt, pepper until smooth. Add broth, bring to a boil, cook and stir one minute. Add chicken, pour into greased 13x9 casserole. Dumplings: 2 cups bisquick 2 tsp parsley 2/3 cup milk Combine all, stir with fork until moistened. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto casserole (12 dumplings) Bake uncovered at 350 fo 30 minutes. Cover and bake 15 minutes more until dumplings are done. 6-8 servings. Debbie 814's Chicken Riggies 1 stick butter, melted 1 onion minced 3 cloves garlic, minced 20 oz. jar of sweet peppers (sliced with seeds removed) 3 sliced hot cherry peppers (packed in jar with oil) Saute above ingredients. Add: 1 cup parmigiano cheese 2 lbs. boneless chicken breast, cubed 1 can chicken broth 1 can tomato sauce (15 oz) Cook for 1 hour. Pour over 1 1/2 boxes of cooked Rigatoni pasta. Serve with fresh Italian bread. Marilyn's Chicken Enchiladas 2 seasoned chicken breast; grill, rest and slice 1/2 jar (15 oz.) green chili salsa 1 Jalapeno pepper; chopped (optional) 1 cup heavy whipping cream 4 flour tortillas (depends on size) 2 cups shredded Pepper Jack cheese Mix chicken with salsa and Jalapeno. Pour whipping cream into a shallow bowl. Dip each tortilla in cream then place each tortilla in a baking dish. Spoon chicken mixture into tortilla and sprinkle with cheese. Roll tortillas and lay seam side down in dish. Pour remaining whipping cream over tortillas and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes

oh yes here around Houston and North Houston they are abundant. They stand on the corners with signs of cardboard with some sad story on them, all a scam they are dropped off from a van and it is their "job" to scam for money. Then they are picked up. Were some news items about it but apparently nothing has been done to stop them.. Just recently some woman in the shortest shorts I have ever seen and a skimpy top had a sign that said I have 5 children to feed anything will help. My question was well where are your 5 children now? I think she may have been after a different kind of donation if you get my drift. LOL And now they have stores that put people out on the edge of the street twirling big signs to bring attention to the stores, but the people jump in and out of the street and throw the signs around like they are in a circus act. Very very distracting and I have seen a few signs go flying into traffic. That should be illegal. I have seen this advice a few times now and think it is a good idea. Get some of these cards and hand them to the beggars. "Some shelters also offer business cards with information on the shelter's location and services, which can be given in lieu of cash."