Then I Thought of Home

Some of you requested the Raisin Pie recipe so here it is. I had never had a raisin pie until I married into the Gray family. Mark loved them and when I was given a bridal shower before we married, everyone was asked to bring a recipe. Marilyn Losson brought this one. I have to admit as a young wife I let it sit in the recipe box for a little while but once I took it out, it just kept coming back out. Mark's grandpa Gray loved a raisin pie and so we took this over to his house often and of course we took a half gallon vanilla ice cream along with us. When Lucas came in the other day and saw this on the counter he said the first thing he thought of was Grandpa Herman. The girls aren't crazy about this pie but Lucas likes it and he likes it with ice cream too, so I'm thinking it's a Gray man thing. Okay, so here we go, the recipe is..... 2 cups seedless raisins 2 cups water 1/2 cup brown sugar 2 Tbsp cornstarch 1 tsp. cinnamon 1/8 tsp. salt 1 Tbs...

Sometimes you look back on the things your parents said and realize how right they were. Dad always said a man needed a piece of land. He said if he has land he can take care of his family and provide for himself. He also said a man needed a flue and a good woodstove. When I was a girl we had a tornado and we were without electric for over a week. It was early April and still a little cool but we were warm because we had a woodstove. Mom cooked all our meals and made coffee on that stove. We never went without and we didn't have to call on anyone to help. When the big blizzard came and we were without power for a long time our pipes didn't freeze, we didn't freeze and we had plenty to eat thanks to the woodstove. The same is true of a good well. If you have a stove you can cook and stay warm and if you have a good well you can get water, now it might not be easy since everything is hooked up to the electric pump but still, push come to shove, you can get...

I've had cause everyday this week to be  outside at Lost River between three and four in the morning. It's a beautiful time to be out. It helps a person get perspective on things, some thing about stillness and a dark sky filled with stars sorta puts you in your place. I think a lot of stuff when I'm out there. I think about my family, I think about you all, I think about food, I pray for people who pop into my mind. This morning I thought..."I'm cold." So I got back in the truck. You thought I was going to say something good didn't you? Anyway, that is what I thought, so I did get in the truck and I turned the radio on. There was a man talking and I don't know who he was but he was talking about worry. He mentioned the verse in the Bible that says, "Birds of the air do not sow or reap." That's in the book of Matthew and of course we know one of the things that passage teaches is that its of no use to worry. The ma...