Fixing fence is the one of the hardest jobs on a ranch. I no longer live on a ranch, but I do know what hard work is. Fences are everyone's concern, but nowadays,the "hole" is always your neighbor's side not your own. It used to be that you would respect your neighbor and mend the fence together. If their cows got in your field, a simple phone call resolved the problem. You might even saddle up your own horse and help them gather them up. We need more people who are willing to roll their sleeves up and fix the fence regardless of who your neighbor is. There are people in this country who need to be reminded that a fence is like the way you should conduct your life. Your posts should be straight and neat. The wire needs to be stretched tight and your gate might be closed, but can still be easily opened. And most of all, we can all saddle up together and ride the range, it won't matter if you have an Appaloosa, Quarter Horse or Thoroughbred. The cows still have to be gathered, fences have to be fixed, and the range is a wide open space of opportunity for us all.

Give Them Your Friendliest Smile

Posted Sunday, January 22, 2012, at 9:53 PM

KaeLynn and my Great-Niece Allie. Being silly for the camera.

When you are feeling down and out, Lift up your voice and shout--It's going to be a great day!

If someone is dogging your every footstep & challenging your sense of peace. Stop walking; Look them straight in the eye And Give Them Your Friendliest Smile!

I may never agree on politics or personal issues with many of you, but I will always respect that you have a different point of view.

Our Dad used to say that some people were full of beans. So are you a Mexican Jumping Bean? Or a Green Bean?

Are you needful or just a gassy irritant to someone's stomach?

Do we have to sort out the dirt and rocks from the bean sack before we can put the pot on to boil?

Bill Cosby used to ask kids if they wanted to be on The Green Bean Team. We all know that green beans are full of useful vitamins. They make our skin healthy and our hair shiny. They provide fiber to aid our digestion. They are useful, wonderful to look at and best of all they taste good.

A Mexican Jumping Bean is not really a bean, but a moth larva that has taken over the home of a type of bean pod. They are more a source of amusement and wonder instead of nutritious.

Pinto Beans and other hard beans have to be cleaned and sorted before they are packaged and put on the shelves in the grocery store. If you ever worked in a field, you know that they don't come out of the field all clean and rock free.

Hard beans take a while to cook. They can soak all day and be ready in two hours or you can put them in a crock pot with seasonings and a ham hock. Most cooks take the precaution to add a teaspoon of vinegar to prevent intestinal discomfort after consumption.

There are Butter Beans, Lima Beans, Soy Beans, Navy Beans and Red Beans. You can buy a whole package in the store with 16 different varieties to make a savory soup.

I used to work with a lady named Virginia and her comment about some customers was that "They didn't know beans from apple butter."

The greatest thing about beans is that most of them are nutritious if they are cooked right. You can add other ingredients to increase the flavor.

These are just random thoughts about people and beans. You might recognize yourself or a favorite dish in my comments. Or you might not.

It doesn't matter to me at all. I just wanted to remind myself that we can all make soup together and the ingredients don't have to be exactly the same.

I invite you to chime in with your comments if you have a favorite bean recipe to share. Personally, I don't believe that anything can surpass Green Beans and New Potatoes with some bacon.

Sometimes I think we just need to be silly and get our sense of humor back. Life and Death situations will always be just outside our door. What won't always be there--is the opportunity to Give Someone Our Friendliest Smile.

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The butter beans and ham hocks Mom made for me two or three times a year were THE BEST...

Nobody else in the family liked them so she and I could share even a 30 minute lunch break. Her recipes were pinches or dashes of this and that. She passed in 1990.

-- Posted by wh67 on Sun, Jan 22, 2012, at 10:07 PM
Some 40+ years ago when I got married the 1st time, my then wife and her family were from Ok. Dried beans of all kinds, sometimes a ham hock or a beef shank if there was enough $$. Homemade cornbread and fried taters. I survived and learned the even more about cooking.

There are many kinds of beans in this world, some more enjoyable than others, but all of them are useful.

Recipe? I don't need no stinkin recipe, I got taste buds!

We still eat butter beans and ham several times a year, and there is always a couple of quarts of them in the freezer.

-- Posted by royincaldwell on Mon, Jan 23, 2012, at 7:05 AM
we lived on beans when I was married to my first husband. When I got divorced, I didn't eat them for nearly two years.

-- Posted by KH Gal on Mon, Jan 23, 2012, at 7:19 AM
Good one! I make ham & beans all the time. Or beans and this or that...or beans and nothing. After a few days of variations, I use the last of them for refried beans. Yum! Lots of different beans can be made into refried....

Good story!

-- Posted by jessiemiller on Mon, Jan 23, 2012, at 8:18 AM
I love green beans with bacon and butter beans with a ham hock. Yummy

My Uncle used to tell me I was full of beans HA! and a few other things one was vinegar.

Jessie I tried your Breakfast Casserole yesterday morning it was easy to make and tasted good. Thank you for the recipe

-- Posted by MsMarylin on Mon, Jan 23, 2012, at 9:23 AM
Marylin, I'm glad you made it and enjoyed. It's always super easy, and can be as different as you like. It's kind of like a meat loaf, just throw whatever's in the fridge in it, kind of

Jessie

-- Posted by jessiemiller on Mon, Jan 23, 2012, at 9:33 AM
I think every family has a "Whatever is left in the fridge" recipe. I hate throwing away food. Give me a dozen eggs, some potatoes and leftovers and you get dinner. :)

-- Posted by royincaldwell on Mon, Jan 23, 2012, at 10:34 AM
The other night Pat made a chicken pot pie from scratch and we had one slice of it left over. I scooped the filling out of the pie crust added a little more veggies to it and some gravy and a little more chicken and some egg noodles and made chicken soup. We don't like throwing food away either. What we don't eat the dogs or the stray cats get.

-- Posted by MsMarylin on Mon, Jan 23, 2012, at 10:40 AM
Yep, I see the 3 of us, and I"m sure more, use every last scrap. I've learned to make every cut of meat be 2 to 3 meals. HAD to when my kids were little. I've made some pretty thin soups in my years, that's for sure. I wonder how many of the "younger" folks, really even know how to "COOK" .... ya know?

-- Posted by jessiemiller on Mon, Jan 23, 2012, at 10:49 AM
When I had 7 kids living with me, and working double shifts to keep food in their belly's I made a lot of rice dishes. I bought the cereal you buy in bags not the name brand cereals and a lot of popcorn for a snack.

We still eat a lot of rice....... Mexican rice, chicken fried rice and a Guam style rice where you use these red seeds to make the rice red and it gives it a flavor and then I make a hot sauce to pour over it. It is yummy.

-- Posted by MsMarylin on Mon, Jan 23, 2012, at 10:56 AM
Just reading this is making my stomach growl. From growing up in Texas to now, I have always had beans as part of our staples. Some times more than others. Two weekends ago I made a crock pot full of White Bean Chicken Chile and it was awesome. Was something new and I am so glad. There are so many ways to cook beans and they are all great. Thanks for the waking me up!! lol Have a great day everyone. B

-- Posted by Brenda Fincher Publisher MHNews on Mon, Jan 23, 2012, at 11:24 AM
White bean chili is AWESOME!

Glad you're awake Brenda!

-- Posted by jessiemiller on Mon, Jan 23, 2012, at 11:28 AM
I've never tasted white bean chili. What beans?

-- Posted by MsMarylin on Mon, Jan 23, 2012, at 11:40 AM

Brenda Fincher, Bus. Mgr., MHNews
I used Northern. Alot of the recipes called for Cannellini beans and I did not know what that was. I am still reseaching that one. If you use Navy, cook/crock pot shorter time as they cook/get mushy faster.
You gotta love Cash And Carry, Last time I went there, and that was a while ago, I got a 28 lb. hunk of beef for $2.10 a lb. Not sure what it was called, but I cut it up and stashed it in the freezer. Still eating off of it. Not much fat, so not very tender, but hey, that's what slow cookers are for.

Bread, buns etc. Franz day old store. Winco for bulk. I'm so cheap I squeak! :)

-- Posted by royincaldwell on Mon, Jan 23, 2012, at 11:41 AM
Great Northerns MsM.

-- Posted by royincaldwell on Mon, Jan 23, 2012, at 11:42 AM
I know about being squeaky! I don't throw away a container that can be used again... mayo jars, sour cream/butter tubs, Bread bags, I find a use for it.

I love having our own beef.... I always have a freezer full, usually just over a buck a pound. But I've never gotten over just wanting hamburger. OHHHHHHHHHHHHH the things I make out of hamburger!

Yep, love Winco for seasonings, day old bread,

I can my own tomatoes, make tomatoe sauce, use zucchini for allllll kinds of things...

-- Posted by jessiemiller on Mon, Jan 23, 2012, at 11:48 AM
Jessie

I used to do a lot of canning and I used to make our pickles. We got our garden spot all ready to go, just have to uncover it and plant when the time comes. This year tomatoes and squash, pumpkin, peppers and a few others

We don't throw away much and what we have to throw away if it can burn we burn it.

When you butcher a cow do you sell any of the meat?

I would like to buy some to stock our freezer.

-- Posted by MsMarylin on Mon, Jan 23, 2012, at 11:57 AM
See, we all some things in common and an opportunity to share.

I just wanted to give us all something else to think about except politics and social issues.

Thank you all for your ideas. I never follow a recipe, I just throw in what I have and keep adding until I get the flavor that I want.

I think that my blogs are like that too.

-- Posted by KH Gal on Mon, Jan 23, 2012, at 12:16 PM
That's how I cook too Bonnie, just a 'bit of this and that'. Bad thing about that is, there have been times something has been soooooooooo good.... but it can't ever be done exactly the same.... cuz I didn't measure....

Marylin, yes, we sell on the hoof. We haul to the butcher, and you can have it cut and wrapped 'your' way. I can let you know when we do some. Total cost depends on the weight of the animal. It won't be for a few months, we just got a freezer full about a month ago or so.

I'll put it on facebook, that's how I sold about 4 last year. Usually, once I post it, they are SOLD! it's a great deal!

-- Posted by jessiemiller on Mon, Jan 23, 2012, at 12:46 PM
Jessie do you divide the whole cow up in sections? I wouldn't have space in my freezer for that much meat. I know its probably a silly question and I am sincere in asking it. Seems on mikes blog I have gone an done it again for asking a couple questions that I asked with no hidden motive and was attacked. lol!

-- Posted by MsMarylin on Mon, Jan 23, 2012, at 3:00 PM
Good entry Bonnie, or should I say the posting of your blog. Don't eat all the beans you guys do, but I do like the Green Beans and Bacon, had my youngest ask once when I was fixing them for supper just what I was doing cause she liked them that way.

Not many around that use Hamburg like Jessie and I do, hamburg to into or along with alot of meals.

Those that do the cooking without a recipe are like me which at times it makes it hard for me to post some of my recipes, I just put in what I think it should have.

There are some younger folks that don't even know how to boil water and would strave to death if it wasn't for fast food.

-- Posted by Eagle_eye on Mon, Jan 23, 2012, at 3:28 PM
We usually sell half and/or quarters. Some people buy a whole beef. So it just depends.

It's not a silly question... Unless you don't ask...that would be silly!

-- Posted by jessiemiller on Mon, Jan 23, 2012, at 10:06 PM
Was talking to Wayne about this. Just so everyone who might be interested knows, we'll be selling some nice 'hamburger' in the fall. Along with other cuts, but couple old girlies are just about all 'wrapped up' for their life. No offence meant.

-- Posted by jessiemiller on Tue, Jan 24, 2012, at 8:26 AM
Thanks Jessie please Remind me in the fall I would like to buy a quarter, I think buying more would take us a long time to eat. Wish I would of done that this past fall.

-- Posted by MsMarylin on Tue, Jan 24, 2012, at 9:21 AM
You betcha!

-- Posted by jessiemiller on Tue, Jan 24, 2012, at 9:29 AM
yeah, if you're not a big beef eater, more than a quarter would last a long time. We eat beef... LOL BEEF COUNTS! Just ask me, I'll tell ya

And in case it matters to you, we raise it as organically as possible, without chemicals or stuff.

We belong to the Idaho Beef Council and the

Idaho Cattle Association trying to raise the best Beef possible!

-- Posted by jessiemiller on Tue, Jan 24, 2012, at 1:03 PM
Uh Jessie, PORK FAT RULES!!!! :)

-- Posted by royincaldwell on Tue, Jan 24, 2012, at 3:09 PM
HEHEHEH

-- Posted by jessiemiller on Tue, Jan 24, 2012, at 9:47 PM

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