Grandpa Webb's barn

I did these drawings of  Great Grandpa Webb's barn when I was 12 or 13. I loved this old barn. It was dim and smelled of hay and manure. Dust motes danced in the sunlight from the open door in the hay mow. Swallows nested high in the eves. The beams were heavy and wide enough to walk along without fear of falling- but only if the grownups weren't watching.

My grandpas, my Dad and my brothers stacked sweet smelling hay in the loft every summer when I was little.Later I drove the tractor while they picked up hay in the fields and I pushed the bales from the wagon onto the hay conveyor. Much later, I stacked hay in this old barn myself and milked my cow in the cool shade of it's lean to.

My drawings don't show the garage that was added on the North side. Just the barn. I never did feel like that after thought of a garage really went with the rest of the building. Not so very long ago, they tore the poor old barn down and put up a big yellow pole building. A combination garage workshop and tacked on the back a milking stall for my mom's cow.

It's just not the same. No swallows. No hay mow. No beams like massive wooden muscles holding everything together. No smell of hay and warm wood.

I miss that old barn. They just don't make them like that any more.

Cookie Sheet Chocolate Fudge Cake

Mixe together: 2 cups sugar, 2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon baking soda

Heat 1 cup water, 3 tablespoons cocoa and 2 sticks margarine.
Pour over sugar-flour mixture while hot. Beat well.
Add 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1/2 cup buttermilk and 2 beaten eggs.
Mix well, batter will be very thin.

Bake at 400 degrees in a cookier sheet/ sheet cake pan for 20 minutes.

Icing:

Boil together 1 stick of margarine, 3 tablespoons cocoa and 6 tablespoons buttermilk about one minute. Add 1 box powdered sugar and 1 cup nuts. Mix and spread on hot cake.

Pecan Pie

This is Brian's mom's recipe.  Brian always says she wasn't much of a cook, but she can make sweets!
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup margarine (melted)
3 eggs lightly beaten
1 1/2 cup pecan halves
9 inch unbaked pie shell

Stir sugar, corn syrup, salt and vanilla into margarine.
Blend in eggs and stire in pecans.
Pour into pie shell
Bake at 350 degrees or until done.

Brian's Mom's Potato Chip Casserole

Brian and his girls love this. I think it's tooooooo salty.

1 can tuna drained
1 can mushroom soup
1 bag potato chips

Mix all together. Preheat oven to  350 degrees. Bake for 30 minutes.

Brian's Mom's relish recipe

So much of our family memories involve food. I thought I should start adding in recipes with the memories.
This is Sandy, Brian's mom's, relish. I haven't tried it yet, but I think I will this summer.

12 large cucumbers
6 green peppers
6 onions

Chop all together. Put handul of salt on mixture and let stand one hour. Drain and put on stove and add 1 1/2 pints vinegar, 4 cups sugar and 1 teaspoon celery seed.
Boil for 20 minutes.
Drain.
Put in jars and seal.

The recipe doesn't say if she water bath cans... hmmmm I better ask.

Grandma Dorothy's retirement letter

One upon a time ...

We had snow... bunches of snow. Snow days, snow icecream, sledding snow, shoveling snow... snowballs and snowmen. We built forts and igloos and played outside until we were wet to the skin. Then we went inside and laid our things out to dry in front of the fireplace and drank homemade hot chocolate made with milk from Bossie our milk cow.
And when our clothes were dry we went out again. I sorta miss snow...

Chris the dog's house at Granpa Dave's 1977

Grandpa's cows

The house in valley snowy day 1977

Pine tree in Grandma and Grandpa's yard 1977