NEW INVENTORY!

The best place for the most origional cool hats for the season!



We have tons of new spice mixes. This chili is awesome just for the fun story on the packaging! Award winning Caldwell County Chili can keep you warm this winter!

I LOVE these spices packaged in the shape of a carrot! Lots of flavors to add to our mix! Marc's Salsa, Boursen cheese blend, Onion Dill dip, Dill & friends, Herb Garden, Mulling spice and also a sweet pumpkin dip!

Quick and easy dinners in handsome packaging :) Beans and rice how nice!

These spice packs are shaped as Christmas tree ornaments! Mulling spices and a variety of dips and salsas! YUM!

The Hungry Yankee Moose mixes are back! Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix, Double Chocolate Brownie mix, Chocolate Chip Pancake mix, Chocolate Crinkle Cookie mix, Wheat Beer Bread mix, and Blond Brownie mix!

Lots of new hot sauces and jams and chutneys! Howlin' Hollar Hot Sauce with Pumpkin, Papa Jack's Buffalo Hot Sauce, Hot Sauce Creepin' Quag, Spittin Fire Hot Sause regular and XXX! Jams include Jalepano Raspberry (my favorite to make at home) and Blueberry Rhubarb! We also have all the regulars including Sweet Pepper Relish, Triple Berry, Strawberry Rhubarb, and Apple Cider Jam!

New soaps for your dog including Repellant, Moisturizing, and Deodorizing! New Soaps for your kids made of organic honey, natural yellow clay, and baby powder!

New fun earings!

Great baskets for the dog lover!

Individually wrapped dog treats in Peanut Butter and Parmeson!  YUM!

We have restocked on the Peppermint Bark from Peppermint Bark Company of Bolton, CT - Delicious!

We've restocked on our alpaca survival socks from Valpaca!  These are THE BEST and I wear mine all winter!

Holiday scented goat soaps and candles including tea lights!  We've restocked on felted soaps in holiday scents!  These make great stocking stuffers or additions to gift baskets!

We have tons of origional, affordable, fun, perfect stocking stuffers for everyone in the family!

Lovely Mondays!

Mondays used to be hard to take, but now it is our day 'off' and its wonderful.  We get all the cleaning, errands, shopping, catchingup stuff done on Mondays.  Tonight I went to a cookie exchange which is the greatest idea!  How else can you get a variety of cookies for your parties without cooking a variety?  You save time and money and you get the greatest new treats and recipes!

Also, in the happy new category - My niece Kaylah brought a flashlight over so we could 'candle' the incubated eggs and we have LIFE!  Our first chick is due on the 23rd and I'm sure much will go wrong, but we are getting very excited!  Of course, people don't usually hatch chicks in winter in New England so we will have to keep them indoors and under heat lamps, but it will be an exciting project to have fun with while we have time to deal with new chicks and we have a super set up in the basement.

My sister came over yesterday and helped me make more lotion bars - we made Lavender X which is a stronger lavender for women and natural honey with no scent for men.  I LOVE these bars.  I have the type of skin that suffers in the dry winter and I use the bars regularly all day.  I keep one large bar in my purse and I have a backup tin at work.  And I love the smell of lavender, so soothing.

John has fallen asleep with a book in front of the fire and I should put this crochet project away for the night and get some sleep myself.  Be well!

PS - Gift of the day is Lunastix.  Get the kids off the video games and into life!

Cookstove!

This is my first bread with the cookstove and it is perfect! I made the white bread recipe (you can see it on my channel on youtube - look up 'Connecticut Country Store' or goto our website http://www.connecticutcountrystore.com/ or goto the bottom of this blog) using King Arthur flour with about 4 tbsp of dried rosemary. So far we've made fried eggs, chicken, corn muffins, pancakes, pasta, and now bread on the cookstove AND the house is around 70 degrees all the time! I love this thing!

Cookstove adventures

John and I kept the house at 60 degrees in the winter to save money on oil for our first few years in the house.  Last year we got a woodstove for the basement which helped us save money and keep it at 62-65 degrees.  This year we put a cookstove in the living room.  The house was 76 degrees last night, we had to open a window to cool it back down!  It was like a summer night!  We definately have to get used to this new heating tool, it is too efficient!  We also have cooked dinner, fried eggs, heated water, and last night John made cornbread muffins in the oven while we watched a redbox movie!  Tomorrow I'm going to attempt a white bread (you can get the recipe on youtube, search "Connecticut Country Store" or you can find links on this blog or the website http://www.connecticutcountrystore.com/!)

Holiday shopping!

We've been posting daily shopping ideas on our facebook account and I've been neglecting our blog! Sorry about that!  Here are a few of the pictures!  We have awesome stocking stuffers, warm alpaca hats and mittens and socks and shoe liners!  We've got pottery and toys and foods and books and jewelry and felted purses and wine lights and soaps and candles - We've got everything you need to shop for even the most unique person!

The new building is here!!!!

Craft night making wreaths :)

We all had a great time making wreaths and we had so many people we had to work in shifts!  We also had Pam's delicious lemon cake and I made one of our new hungry moose double chocolate brownie mixes - it tastes homemade, but is soooo easy!  If you want to join our group, check out our schedule on our websites 'upcoming events' page (http://www.connecticutcountrystore.com/).  It is fun you don't want to miss!  Next week is open craft night and the week after is ornament making night!

A busy day at the store!

We are cleaning up and moving around items to prepare for the new building, John will be preparing the outside tomorrow!  This is really exciting and we've gotten some great new products to share!

We also got an egg incubator today to start attempting to hatch Harriet's eggs :)  I haven't been able to master the temp and humidity yet but I'm hoping to have it down by Friday when she gives me another egg.  Usually at 9:30am on the dot!

The goats were still in a fuss this morning but settled down by this evening.  This is VERY good because they were making all the birds go wild with their yelling and beating the fence!  We are thinking maybe Cricket will wait another year to be a momma, she just isn't interested at all.  We do have a good mate for her if she changes her mind.  We will have to wait and see.

Stay warm and be well!

Babies due April 28th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

These 2 angels were hooting and holloring this morning for some goat love (I guess Lamancha did not get pregnant the first trip!) so we packed them in and headed to the farm.  Lamancha (Buttercup) was bread with a black and white Lamancha and the sannen/alpine (Cupcake) was bread with a colorful alpine buck yearling.  The due date give or take a week is April 28th.  We are very excited for our grand'kids'.  I'm thinking a baby shower around April Fools would be perfect!

Yeah! We have our cookstove set up!

John and I waited a year to save up the money to buy this and change the chimney to accept a woodstove!  We are so thrilled!  Now we just have to wait for it to get cold again.....

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

We are thankful for all of our friends and family, we are truly blessed!  Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!  Be well!

The week before Thanksgiving

We had a very busy day today cleaning up the yard, moving the turkey pen, tucking in the garden for a long winters nap....  Cleaning up the turkey pen and moving the flight cage was the hardest.  I really enjoyed raising those boys, they were a pleasure.  I've had more than a few people comment about what we do here, raising and slaughtering our own meats.  Many people don't understand that we do this to ensure that we are raising the animals kindly, with care and respect.  We slaughter them quickly and as efficiently as we can.  Tad even played soothing classical music during the day.  We care about these animals and we thank them for feeding us, for fertilizing our lawns, for composting our left-overs.  I cried the morning of the slaughter because even though I know we are doing the best thing we can, it is hard and it will always be a sad day.  We make the decision to raise our own meats or buy from small farms to ensure we are supporting what we feel is right.  That was me on a soap box.  Be well.

We have been decorating wreaths for 2 days now!

Here are just a few we decorated tonight while watching Star Wars from Kaylah's collection!