Happy 279th Birthday General Washington!

"Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence."

"I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man."

"If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter."

"It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible."

"Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience."
~George Washington

To celebrate General George Washington's birthday this year, Faith made a decadent Washington pie, which is really a layered cake with raspberry, or in our case cherry, jam in between. Faith made it particularly beautiful this year with a powder sugar snow flake on top.



Washington Pie
From the Tasha Tudor Cook Book

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs at room temperature
1 2/3 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1-2 cups of raspberry or cherry jam

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour or put wax paper in two 8 inch
cake pans In large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, beat til light. Mix in flour and

baking powder alternating with milk. Beat til light and fluffy. Pour batter into the 2 prepared

cake pans. Bake 25-30 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes, then invert and remove wax paper, let
cool. Slice cakes in half, and place one 1/2 on serving platter. spread with 1/3 of the Jam,
repeat twice more and top with fourth layer. Refrigerate til serving. Top with powder sugar.

Cut cake into generous slices, place on pretty china,

and Enjoy!!

~Chs

Bird Sighting

Another event on this snowy Monday, was the spotting of a group of birds out in the field pecking away trying to find some leftover seeds. At first Josiah thought that these were just some little Juncos but on a closer look we saw they were anything but!

They were Horned Larks and while we had admired them very much in our Audubon bird book we had never seen them in person, and were very much delighted to have this opportunity.


They were the cutest little fellows and there were exactly a dozen of them in all. They really did not seem to mind Faith or I watching them, and we both looked to our hearts delight till the little flock departed for a better part of the field. We are very grateful to be able to add another one of God's unique birds to our "seen" list.

~Chs