Sourdough Week

This week I've been focusing on sourdough courses in my "summer school".  I started the week by making the sponge for bread, but it failed-the sponge that is.  That left me with a lot of starter to be used up so I made crepes Tuesday night.  Had no idea they were so easy to make!  I then made crackers, a new sponge for bread, English muffins and more crackers.  The 2nd sponge still wasn't quite right, but it was bubbly and domed, so I used it.  Made 4 loaves, actually.  20 minutes worth of kneading.  Know what that does to a person not used to using those muscles?  And the crackers-plenty of rolling that dough, have to get it very thin.  So I don't need PE with Goober Gus this week, but will go outside and play with him anyway.

The English muffins were great toasted with homemade apricot jam and strawberry jam.  The crackers are a hit with the boys, that's why I made another batch, and the crepes we good too.  The bread-good flavor, nice texture inside, but they just didn't rise much.  I think that's because the sponge didn't get gloppy, but that's just a guess on my part.

Freshly baked English muffins.

Herbed crackers.

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

Adventures in Sourdough

As I've mentioned already, I'm taking classes at GNOWFGLINS to learn more about traditional food preparation methods.  I've been eager to explore the sourdough courses, as it seems that process is one that breaks down the phytic acid in grains that can be an anti-nutrient.  That is-phytic acid binds with nutrients while in the digestive tract and keeps them from being absorbed.

I thought I'd start with a loaf of whole wheat sourdough bread.  I watched the video, read the print materials and started on my "sponge" this morning.  For whatever reason, one never formed.  I have a thin paste instead of thick gloppy stuff.  Rather than throw it out-well in our case it gets fed to the chickens-I'm going to try the recipe for sourdough crackers.  We like crackers but the store bought are too full of stuff we're not eating.  So, time to go start the dough for crackers.  It sits for 7-24 hours before baking, so I will be making crackers in the morning.

Thinning the Herd

If your family enjoys Veggie Tales as much as mine, the heading should sound familiar.  If not, well it's what we need to do with our dairy goats anyway.  With spring births we are up to a total of 13 goats.  One is our buck and 6 are the new kids born this year.  There are 5 in milk and one "dating" the buck right now.  We hadn't intended to sell any but this year's kids, but with the cost of a bale of hay around $15 we're planning to sell all but 2.  We have Alpines and Nubian/Boer crosses and planned to keep one of each, waiting for freshening to see who was the best producer.  We knew the top of the herd is Annie, our Alpine.  Not only does she consistently produce more, but her teats are actually big enough to handle.  All 4 of the others are tiny and it's a challenge to get them milked. 

After making the decision to sell, I've also come to the conclusion that I don't particularly care for any of the Nubians we have, but enjoy their richer milk, with cream that rises to the top.  I was going to keep the best producer just because, but realized I can sell all but Annie and buy a purebred Nubian and look for teat size FIRST.  I've never done that, just bought thru Craigslist and taken what we get. 

I'm kind of a geek and have counted how many squirts it takes to milk out a goat.  The other day, Annie was roughly 10 squirts to an ounce, whereas the others were about triple that!  Three times the work for the same amount of milk!  So now the task of finding or taking good pictures of each and listing them for sale.  Two are going to be traded for butcher pigs, we just don't know which two yet.  Neighbors have the pigs and want goats, we have the goats and want pigs.  Sounds like a good trade to me!

This week I'm also focusing on courses from GNOWFGLINS.  Goober Gus is at VBS every morning, so I have some uninterrupted time to learn some new kitchen skills.  I'm focusing on sourdough this week and am very intrigued by the notion that the souring process and wild yeasts may actually make the grains used healthier.  Anyone else familiar with this concept?

This blog is part of the Homestead Barn Hop.  Take a look!

Summer School

I was thinking the other day...this would be a good time to get intentional about homeschooling.  "Is summer really a good time to start?" I asked myself.  Immediately I replied, "why not?"  We seem to be on the counter cultural side anyway, so why not start school when hordes of people have just stopped?  I even signed up for classes.

Last week I filled out some lists I'd won from ListPlanIt.  I made goals for what we'd like to accomplish by the end of August.  I took inventory of educational items we already have.  I made a schedule of activities for this week, I just didn't assign times to most of it.  Goober Gus is registered for VBS this week, so that is a set time, then I made a short list of items to discuss during lunch.  The rest I will need to be intentional about, but it doesn't need to happen all at once or at a certain time.  I may even post our goals and plans on his blog, but that might not be a good use of time.  We'll see.

I, on the other hand, will be taking advantage of the time he's at VBS to work through as many classes at GNOWFGLINS as I can.  First on the list is sourdough bread.  I reactivated my starter last week and it's in the fridge waiting.  I'm going to try completing the video portions of all the sourdough classes this week.  I may not get to try all the recipes, but I'm aiming for one per day.  That ought to give me a good foundation for working with sourdough-or at least that's my hope!

About My Floors

For some reason tonight I had a bit of ambition and beyond wanting the kitchen to be clean and ready to start cooking in tomorrow, I also wanted the floors to be clean.  I don't clean my floors very often and while I was sweeping I was having a conversation with myself.  Please tell me you do this too, I need to know I'm not totally bonkers!  Partly is OK, totally is not, haha.

The conversation was about why I've stopped cleaning my floor on a regular basis.  Many excuses entered my mind-but the one that resonated was that it simply wasn't a good investment.  The time it stays clean isn't really worth the time spent cleaning.  Sure, I could clean it tonight and enjoy it for about half an hour, then we'd be off to bed and before noon tomorrow my son would have tracked in enough dirt to make anyone think it hadn't been cleaned for weeks.  If it's going to look as though it hasn't been cleaned for weeks, why should I clean it any more frequently?  I was comfortable with this excuse and proceeded to go ahead and sweep the bathroom floor too.

Not even 5 minutes passed and Tony took our son in to brush his teeth.  I warned them I had just cleaned the floors.  Tony carefully took Goober Gus's boots off and dumped the dirt outside, leaving Gus to take his socks off.  You would not believe the dirt that gets into his socks!  FIVE MINUTES, and I wasn't even in the bathroom to enjoy the clean floor!  Five minutes.  The return on investment just isn't worth it to me, and that was my thought when I had visions of it still being clean in the morning...

Busy Week

Last week started off with more than usual going on for a Monday.  First, I needed to attend a meeting that started at 8AM.  For some of you that may not seem like such a big deal, but around here, my son isn't even usually out of bed until about 8 or 830.  I don't usually make plans to leave the house before 10.  Knowing it was coming I didn't separate the twins from Cream, so I wouldn't have to milk that morning, that helped!

Next, it was my first day as a drop coordinator for the monthly Azure Standard order.  There's no set time for delivery, just whenever the truck driver calls to say he's almost here.

Did I mention I was watching 3 goats for signs of labor?  Yes, one that I thought would be about 10 days later filled her udder Sunday night.  No other signs though, so thought there might still be another day or two.  Nope.  Got home from picking up co-op order and Goober Gus went out to see animals and informed me we had a new baby goat.  I stopped what I was doing in the kitchen to go check and this one was still wet and being cleaned. 

Azure boxes opened and waiting to be put away.  Dishwasher needing to be emptied.  Counter tops to clear.

We stayed out to see if she'd have more and she did.  Two boys.

Once the after birth was delivered we moved on to a few other tasks, but then Baby Boy 1 started crying and couldn't get up.  Turns out he was having convulsions and died the next day.  Baby Boy 2 was originally named Blackjack, but we changed that a couple of days later.

The night that the buckling died, Gus and I were enjoying pizza and a movie.  Did I mention Tony was on a business trip during this time?  Leave it to the goats!  We heard a squealing sound and turned to see that one of the cats had brought in its recent catch, still alive and struggling to get away.  It was a baby wild rabbit and we thought it hadn't been mortally wounded, so tried to keep it.  Turns out there was a puncture wound near the heart and he died in my hand.  Two deaths in one day was almost too much for me!

Wednesday, I felt like I had sufficiently recovered from the events of the week so far to tackle the kitchen.  Of course I made it into a bigger task, simply because to do it right, I needed to change some things.  Like the shelf that hangs on the wall, collecting odds and ends.  I've been wanting to change it into something visually appealing and functional, so I took everything off, asked Tony to reinforce the hangers, and put labeled quart jars of bulk herbs on the shelves.  The small shelves on the sides need attention-perhaps a pretty wooden box to hold recipe cards and small flower arrangement?

By the time I had accomplished this, it was mid afternoon (I did get the counters cleared and dishes done too) and I was ready for a treat.  I was planning to take Gus to get an ice cream sandwich (organic of course) and something to drink.  Before we could leave I heard a goat moaning.  Again?  Already?  The next one wasn't due until the 23rd and it was just the 18th.  Sure enough, Annie, who is so huge we thought she was having triplets at least, if not quadruplets, was pushing out her first kid.  We grabbed the camera and sat down to watch.  I couldn't get close enough to tell if it was a girl or boy, but within 30 minutes another one was born.  Guess what happened then?  It started drizzling on us!  This is the desert, we don't usually get spring rains.  It was even cool enough that we went in to put long pants and jackets on!  Back out we went, waiting for #3.  Waiting and waiting.  For the afterbirth.  Yep, she only had 2, but they were big kids.  Turns out we had a boy and girl, so we decided to name them Jack and Jill (and that's why Blackjack needed a new name).  They are so closely marked that until the next day, I couldn't tell them apart!  Jack has longer white spots on his hindquarters, and Jill just has a little white dot.  Now she has a collar on so we can tell more easily.

The picture doesn't adequately show how huge she was.  She looked like a barrel on twigs.  The morning she gave birth it took all she had to get up on the milk stand.  No, I wasn't milking, but giving her treats and checking for signs of labor.

Do you see how similarly they are marked?  They were both still damp with birth fluid and in the excitement I didn't see the longer white stripe on Jack.

We need to take more pictures of them-ideally be out when they are playing and get video.  Tony missed the Wednesday births too because he's got a nightly music job 90 minutes away.

We've been working in the yard, garden and searching for duck eggs.  They're hiding them from us.  Did I ever mention a friend gave us her 3 Indian Runner ducks and 7 hens?

I've been working on this post for a few days now.  It's Thursday and these events all took place last week.  Something kept me busy Thursday & Friday, but I can't remember.  Oh yes.  I finished working on house cleaning and then my step daughters came for a visit on Friday.  Saturday morning we hit up the yard sales and continued looking for property to buy.  Saturday night we had tickets to a Styx concert and finally got to relax a bit.  I think I needed it!

Twin Boys!

I sat down to start this post and upload photos about 3PM yesterday.  The bucklings were born about 1215 and 1245, and we had spent a couple of hours watching them.  A mom I know from the park was coming by to bring her kids to see the babies and she pulled up right after I typed the title of this post.  The boys were more interested in running around playing than looking at the goats, so they were off having fun while she and I talked.  Then I noticed that Baby Boy 1 was making a strange cry and laying on the ground.  I went into the pen to help him stand up, but he couldn't.  I felt around for injuries, but nothing specific seemed to be wrong.  She left so I could tend to the baby and I warmed some milk and tried feeding him.  He couldn't suckle, though I had watched him do so earlier, knowing he was getting milk because Peaches' udder was noticably smaller on the side he was drinking from.  Called the vet, just to see if I was overlooking something obvious.  He suggested Karo syrup and maybe a B complex injection.  I have honey and kombucha.  Tony said the kombucha would have a high rate of B vitamins.  I had to use a straw like a dropper to even get liquid into him, and them smeared a bit of honey on the roof of his mouth.  He would complain with a cry, and try to roll over, but couldn't get up.

We had small group last night and I really didn't expect him to be alive when we got home.  He was.  I gave him more milk, kombucha and honey and prayed again.  Goober Gus and I went to bed after that (Tony is out of town).  I told God that if the goat's survival was dependant on me getting up to feed him thru the night, He'd need to wake me with enough energy to do it.  I didn't wake up until 4AM and went to check, he was still alive.  Peaches had moved him to a warmer part of the shelter and surrounded him with straw.  I didn't give any more milk until I got up at 7 though.  He was losing muscle tone, I could tell that.

I called the woman that cares for our animals when we go away and she came over to see him.  While waiting for her arrival I continued to hold the little guy (his mouth and ears were cool, knew that wasn't good) and squeeze a few drops of milk in his mouth on a regular basis.  Don't think I've ever been happier to have an animal pee on me!  I had already realized earlier that the whole time we were in the pen after birth I never saw either do their "dooty".  My friend arrived shorty after and I showed her the video I took of his attempts to get up and she recognized it as convulsions.  Suddenly it made more sense.  I kept wracking my brain to figure out what happened to cause this first born, healthy, suckling goat that had been walking around, trying to run just moments before to not even be able to stand.  Now I knew.  Then I cried.  One baby goat, not even 24 hours old.  Not much monetary value in the world, but still a marvelous creation of God with life that always has value beyond any dollar measure.

Tuesday mornings are our park date, so we went ahead to play.  Goober Gus needed to know that he was more important to me than the goat, and that I'd make the time to take him to play even with the sadness at home.  We got home shortly after noon and Baby Boy 1 had passed.  We wrapped him in an old pecan bag and took him out of the pen.  Gus wanted to say goodbye and give him flowers.  He decided the marigold he had picked out on Mother's Day (that he's very attached to and has been watering on his own) should be part of the goodbye process.  Sweet boy.  I did manage to get some good pictures during the couple of hours he was healthy.

Mama Peaches with Baby Boy 1 looking for a teat while Baby Boy 2 is waiting to be licked some more.

Baby Boy 2.  No matter where I put clean straw for birthing, they choose another spot.

Baby Boy 1

Aw ma, don't do that here!

Baby Boy 2 finding a teat.

Mama and the twins.

Baby Boy 2.  We think he'll be called Blackjack.

Babies!

For the first time in our short stint as chicken farmers we have 2 baby chicks, hatched today!  They are tiny but already doing everything they see mom doing.  She scratches, they peck.  Sometimes she scratches and they get caught up in the debris she's scratching in.  We discovered them about an hour and a half ago, and they can't be more than about 3 hours old at that time.  The broody hen is a golden laced wyandotte and the rooster is a white banty (I really ought to verify his breed-he's small and has feathers on his legs) and the two babies are both black with a little white on their bellies.  There are still eggs in the nest, will any of those hatch in the next 24 hours?

This is a neat idea!

I just read this-from a link in another blog I follow.  Sounds interesting so I thought I'd share.

Bartering Bloggers

Ah, Fresh, Raw, Homemade Yogurt!

We sure missed this dietary staple the last month or so!  One of my pregnant and milking does was ready for her dry time before I could get the new mama into good production, so we've had an extended period of no milk.  Last summer I froze about 3 quarts in a gallon jar and we used that when we entered the "dry" period, but it only last a week.

Finally, the doeling of another goat was big enough to go to the buck, thus giving us the milk she refused to give up.  It's only been a week, and only about a pint at a time, but that finally went up to 24-26 ounces and I was able to accumulate enough to have 2 quarts for yogurt making.  mmmmmmmmmmmm

I used about 6 ounces of store-bought yogurt with active live cultures and this is one of the thickest batches we've ever had.  It's all Nubian/Boer cross milk which has a higher fat content than our Alpine milk.  We're back on probiotics!!  Thank you, Belle!

This is from last June, shortly after Yodelady was born.  She should have been weaned by October, but neither was willing to give it up and separating them didn't work, they always found a way to get back together.  She finally gained enough weight to go hang out with Boots the Buck, so we have raw milk again!

So Tired

That's how I always feel.  Even two years after discovering the reason behind it-adrenal fatigue.  Recently I sent saliva samples in for testing.  My chiropractor ordered the tests and I spoke with him this morning.  My progesterone levels are low and DHEA is high.  Now it's being suggested that I have a serum Vitamin D test, fasting glucose and insulin levels checked. 

I've been doing a little reading about low progesterone and one site had this to say,

"progesterone is an essential raw material from which your body makes many of the other hormones vital for good health"  Its this simple fact that helps anyone appreciate just how wide ranging the effects of a progesterone deficiency can be.

I've not come to any conclusions yet, but it's helpful to learn there are other things I can do to get over this.  I took the questionnaire and scored 63.  It says if your score is over 10 you're likely to need progesterone support!  However, this is the first site I've read and I'm not inclined to blindly follow the first thing I read.  If I find corroborating evidence, then I'll consider it.

Now about those high levels of DHEA.  It's confusing me.  From what I'm reading, high DHEA levels don't seem to coincide with low levels of progesterone.  I have more symptoms that go with not enough than I do with too much.  One statement made a bit of sense though,

Because having too much DHEA, or converting DHEA into too much of one hormone and not enough of another, can be as upsetting to your body as not having enough.

So maybe the extra DHEA is being converted to estrogen instead of progesterone and causing an imbalance?  I don't know.  What I do know is I need a referral to a good homeopathic, naturopathic doctor in my area.  I need answers and viable solutions.  I need to overcome the funk that has become my life these last few years.  I'm ready to return to a life of joy and peace, not distress and upset.  With that, I think I'll go take a nap!

Making Meatballs

We just put about 110 meatballs in the oven. I wish I could say that we cranked 'em out, but it didn't go that fast. We had a glitch with the grinder (aka not following directions for proper assembly) but once that got fixed the grinding went quickly. I then mixed in the seasonings and eggs and had already decided to leave out the breadcrumbs based on past experience with meatballs that tasted too little like meat. Well guess what? No breadcrumbs means gooey wet mixture, so I stopped in the middle to go buy breadcrumbs.

This is where the rabbit trail starts. I don't recall ever buying breadcrumbs, so had no idea where to find them. My first hope was with the natural foods, so they'd be short on ingredients. Nope, none there. Baking aisle? Nope, not there either. Maybe with beans and rice? Unh-uh. Stuffing mix? Wrong again. I finally found them with the instant mashed potatoes. Have you ever read the ingredient list on breadcrumbs?? It was 4 inches long! I didn't even need to read each item to know that if it's that long there's surely at least 1 item in there that I don't want to put in my HOMEMADE MEATBALLS that I'm making to AVOID those ingredients.
Plan B. Wait, I don't have a Plan B. Crackers? Could I smash up crackers and end up with something like breadcrumbs? It'd be worth a try. Even in the natural foods section it was a challenge to find crackers without soy lecithin or corn starch. I did finally though, so I headed home and engaged my cracker smasher (5 yo son). One more round of running my hands thru all the gooey mess and then on to production!

I used the medium scooper from PC to size them and Tony rolled them into better balls. Ours were a bit bigger than the recipe called for, so we cooked them for 20 minutes, then switched to broil for a few minutes to really brown them up. Here's how they look:

They taste pretty good too!  We'll eat a few today, some Monday night for a spaghetti pot luck and freeze the rest for quick lunches, and maybe those nights when I just don't feel like cooking.

Spinach Salad with Wasabi Dressing

I made this for dinner last night, with a couple of tweaks.  I found it thru a list from TipNut.com with ideas for 20 different spinach salads.  I bookmarked a number of them to try out this spring.

I added a variety of greens, plus tomatoes, but left off the sesame seeds.  We don't use them in other recipes and I didn't want to buy some just for this.  It made a good dinner.

Parmesan Squash Cakes

I don't recall where I found this recipe.  Given that it's typed out on half a sheet of paper, my guess is I picked it up at the Farmer's market last summer.  I wouldn't bother cutting the paper, so it's not something I found online and printed.  I'll copy it here, with my additions/suggestions in purple.

1 large egg (I used 2)
2/3 cup finely chopped sweet onion (I didn't have that much, but it was plenty-maybe 1/3 cup)
1 T finely chopped flat leaf parsley (I used dried)
1/4 t salt (I didn't measure, just added)
1/4 t pepper (same here)
2 cups shredded summer squash, 2-3 medium (I used 3 that I considered small and ended up with way more than 4 cakes, as the recipe indicates)
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (once again, I didn't measure, I had a small chunk and used it all)
1 T extra virgin olive oil (I needed more)

1. Preheat oven to 400°F
2. Beat egg in large bowl-I started with one, it wasn't enough for the amount of squash I had.  Stir in onion, parsley, salt and pepper.
3. Place shredded squash in clean kitchen towel and gather up ends and twist to squeeze out as much water as possible.  I let my son do this part, only I told him to simply press on the towel to get the water out.  I didn't explain that the goal was to squeeze out water, so he felt the job was done when he had flattened out the mound.  I should have checked.
4. Add the squash and cheese to the bowl, stir to combine.  This is where I realized I needed another egg, so beat one and added.
5. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat.  Pack a 1/3 cup measuring cup with the mixture and unmold into the pan.  Gently pat it down to form a 3 inch cake.  Repeat, making 4 cakes.  I now see the flaw in the recipe.  If you start with 2 cups of squash, and just use 1/3 cup scoops, you will get 6, not 4.  I got 9, so I guess I had more than 2 cups of squash!
6. Cook until brown and crispy on the bottom, 3-4 minutes, then gently turn over and transfer pan to oven.  Bake for 10 minutes and serve immediately.  I don't have a skillet that can go into the oven, so I oiled a cookie sheet and transferred them to that.  As the water didn't all get squeezed out, they kinda fell apart, but they tasted good!

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop's Blog.

Tuna Quesadillas

The other day I wrote about making a Mexican spiced version of tuna salad.  Tonight we're having it on quesadillas.  Here's how I made them:

To a dollop of mayo I added 1/4 tsp each of cumin, onion powder and dried cilantro leaves, stirring to combine.  I then added 2 5oz cans of drained tuna and mixed well.  I made it less moist than if I were making tuna salad-just enough mayo to hold it together.

I then assembled the quesadallas with a layer of tuna, freshly chopped green onion and shredded colby jack cheese and toasted in the toaster oven until the cheese was melted.  That'd be dark toast on mine.  We ate them with salsa, but sour cream, guacamole or sliced avocado would be wonderful too.  They're kind of like tuna melts with a twist!

Mexican Tuna Salad and Then Some

Anyone ever had it?  I was making tuna salad for lunch and saw the can of diced green chiles and thought they might be good in it, so along with them I added onion powder and cumin.  It was quite tasty.  We all agreed though, that it'd be even better in a quesadilla with green onions!

I made deodorant this morning.  I used the recipe from Passionate Homemaking.  I won't need to try it until tomorrow morning, and then it'll take a day of activity to see how it works.  Oh, I added lemon and lavender essential oils, just to give it a nice fragrance.

Spring is here, but not the frost free time yet.  Farmer's Almanac online shows my area frost free after the 21st of this month, so we'll wait until next weekend to plant our seedlings.  A friend has also given us several sunflowers to plant and another thing I think he said was a red hyacinth, but I don't recall.  This friend is an older gentleman from church that is always working on the grounds there.  One day I felt the urge to offer him a dozen eggs each week, so I asked him.  He was grateful and I could sense that he longed for more interaction, so I mentioned it to Tony, who had been interested in helping maintain the grounds too.  They spent a couple of hours that afternoon hoeing weeds.  Tony could tell he was glad to have some help and some company.  A day or two later Don shows up with a truckload of tree saplings and trimmings for the goats, and a bag of grapefruit for us.  Two days after that he came by asking for goat manure.  Obviously we have plenty and shared with him, and I was intrigued once again by God's economy.  We simply gave a dozen eggs from our excess, and got a new friend that brings treats for the goats (he even saved a bag of watermelon rinds for them) and plants for us!  Don is 82ish and works part time at the hardware store and is always at church doing some kind of physical labor.  His motivation is that if people think the outside looks nice, they'll be more likely to try coming inside.  Can't argue that.  Now we want to pick a night to invite him to dinner to find out more about him and learn from his life experiences.  What a treasure we've been given, and all because we're overly blessed with eggs too!

The Next Phase

Of our house hunt, that is.  I'll get to that soon enough.  It's been weeks since I've posted an update about anything, or read my favorite blogs!  I've been trying to limit my screen time, no computer after 8 and since we don't have TV and that's son's get-ready-for-bedtime, no movies after that either.  I think it's helping me fall asleep a little better, but I'm not really sure.

This has to be at least the 3rd post I've made about our house hunting adventures, maybe even the 4th or 5th.  I wish I could say it was a done deal, but not yet.  We did, however, make an offer on 8 acres of irrigated land, near the river, in town.  We have a verbal counter offer that we've agreed to, but the property is owned by a family trust that's managed by a management company and the decision has to be approved by the board.  The board meets every Thursday, so tomorrow they should be making their decision.  The rep is recommending it be approved, so hopefully that's all it takes.  Our offer is 40% less than asking price, but it's what listing agent recommended, so we're praying this is a blessing from God.

Yesterday we even paid a deposit on a manufactured home we like, so we could lock in the sales prices.  We have a contingency that the land deal be approved or the offer is void and deposit is refunded.  We can make any kind of change we want prior to finalizing the contract, including a totally different floor plan/model.  Shouldn't a daughter of the King live in a Royal Manor?  Check out the kitchen and bath....floor plan is basically same as the first, slightly larger, but with upgrades.

Tony went over to the property this morning to take pictures.  The upper portion of the 8 acres are quite nice-mesquite trees and grass.  The lower portion is, well, a junk yard.  At first glance it seems overwhelming, but as Tony took a closer look he found lots of usable building material-steel, wood, etc, for barns/sheds and a workshop for his business.  So, here we go-pictures.  Some will have caption/explanation, many don't even need it!

Wide angle view of part of the junk yard.

The mobile homes aren't livable, but a lot of the material is salvageable.

Lots of steel!

This is insulation-he doesn't know if it can be used or not, or if it's even safe to sort through it.  This "building" it's in is 10x30 and he says there are 15 in various states of assembly.

This (above) is the inside of the building (below).  I'm thinking garden shed, hen house, play house, green house (there are foot wide by 9 foot tall windows on the property that could be used along one side)

Largest collection of Chevy Chevettes in the country!  LOL, there are about half a dozen plus a few other cars.  The stuff in the building is ceiling tiles.

If only it had an engine, we'd have our very own dump truck!

Sawed off school bus complete with overhead lighting!

Now for something useful-barbed wire-can you see how many rolls of it there are?  Could come in quite handy!

Small gauge field fencing.

Ah, and this scene makes it all worthwhile!  This is the upper portion and what it could all look like someday.  Even better according to my visionary husband!  Fortunately for us, the trees will hide the junk from our view once we get a home on the property.  It isn't on the river, but we have access.  It's a great price for land around here, but we have to bring in electricity, add a well and a septic tank, and run a ditch from the irrigation canal to the property.  Could be in by mid summer if the offer on land is accepted.

In this video you can see a good portion of the southeastern portion of the property.  I forgot about the old fashioned wagon (flower planter?) and the farm implement.  The trailer at the end could be fixed up and used to haul things away.  The white bus is on the property south of us (owned by a family member of the current owner of parcel we want to buy).

The Dragon and the Turtle Go on Safari

When this arrived by mail my 5 year old son was ecstatic!  He couldn't wait to sit down and look at it, then have me and his dad read it to him.  I appreciated the play on words as the two friends camped at the base of Mount Sillymanborrow.  The publisher's review starts with, "Padraig the dragon and his best friend, Roger the turtle are determined to spend the whole night outside."

They encounter plenty of imagined scary scenarios and manage to tough it out despite their fears.  When their supply of bravery seems exhausted and they've agreed to try again another night they realize that the sun is about to rise and they made it!  They camped outside all night by themselves!

The story presents multiple opportunities for teaching and discussing important character traits with a young child, such as the difference between bravery and courage; and what it takes to be a good friend.  As the friends focus on staying out all night, they encounter all kinds of wild African beasts in their backyard.  They also share a story about wanting to make pancakes and having to borrow all the ingredients.  I'm assuming that's where Mount Sillymanborrow comes into play.

My son loves the book, the pictures are very well done, and there are discussion points and a Bible verse a the end.  We've enjoyed this book-it's good when those required to read it over and over can enjoy it too!

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Think my kid plays hard in the dirt?

This is his laundry basket after the clothes went into the washer:

This is the washer after his clothes have been cleaned:

To his credit, we have very fine, silty, sandy dirt here.  So fine that the dust penetrates my tennis shoes AND socks and gets between my toes-I hate that feeling!  And that's just me walking around doing outside chores.  He sits in it, lays down face first in it, makes dirt angels with it.  Our septic tank will fill with dirt before anything else at this rate!

MIA

Where does the time go?  I haven't blogged or read my favorites for weeks!  We've been searching for a new house and it has seriously eaten into our available time.  We made an offer today, but we aren't the only ones to do so.  Now it's the waiting game and I'm just not good at that.

I've become so focused on it that I can't even "think outside the box" right now and come up with anything exciting to share with you.  Maybe in a couple of days I'll be back with the proclamation that our offer was accepted and we'll be moving soon!

BLOG TOUR: The ME Project by Kathi Lipp

The Me Project - 21 Days to Living the Life You’ve Always Wanted
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers
ISBN-10: 0736929665, ISBN-13: 978-0736929660
Release Date: February 1, 2011
Paperback: 224 pages, Retail: $12.99

Kathi Lipp

Kathi Lipp is a busy conference and retreat speaker, currently speaking each year to thousands of women throughout the United States. She is the author of The Husband Project and The Marriage Project, serves as food writer for Nickelodeon, and has had articles published in several magazines, including Today’s Christian Woman and Discipleship Journal. Kathi and her husband, Roger, live in California and are the parents of four teenagers and young adults. For more information visit her website: http://www.kathilipp.com/

Three Super-Simple Kick Start Living Your Dreams
– in the next 15 minutes

by Kathi Lipp

Is there a dream that God has given you, but you are waiting until the kids are grown and you have money in the bank before you get started?

You may not be able to enroll in a month long pastry making class or take a week off of work to get started on your novel, but today you can take three little baby steps to making your dream a day-to-day reality.

1. Go Public with It

It’s a little scary to tell the world what you want to do when you grow up—but this is one little step could get you closer to living your dream than almost any other. Plus—it takes very little time and you don’t have to raid your kid’s college fund to make it happen.

When you gather up all your courage and tell your best friend, “I want to learn how to paint,” suddenly she remembers an old art book she has laying around she would love to give you, or her friend from church who teaches art classes. The people you know and love want to be a resource. Give them the privilege of being a part of making your dream happen.

2. Join an Online Group

This is one of the simplest—and cheapest—ways to start exploring your passion. Find out who else is talking about restoring antiques and listen to their conversation. Start by Googling your interest along with the term “online groups.” You will be amazed with the number of people who want to talk about the proper way to care for 1950’s lunchboxes as much as you do.

3. Don’t be Afraid to Pray

I remember the first time I put an offer in on a house—I wanted it more than I had wanted almost anything else in my life. While I knew that I had dozens of other people praying on my behalf, I was too scared to pray.
I didn’t want God to tell me no. I was afraid to pray until my co-worker Kim asked me (in a loving, kind way), why I didn’t believe that God wanted His best for me. Don’t be afraid to pray—as with anything amazing in my life, the path is never what I expected, but it has always been obvious that God’s hand has been on it the whole way.

Grand Prize Giveaway:

Deluxe Starbucks Coffee Gift Basket

• Three 2.5-oz. bags of Starbucks coffee
(Sumatra, House Blend, and French Roast)
• Tazo black tea
• Starbucks marshmallow cocoa
• Almond roca
• Almond roca buttercrunch toffee cookies
• White chocolate and raspberry cookies
• 2 Starbucks mugs
• Keepsake black bamboo basket
$62 value
For a chance to be entered in the drawing, simply comment below.  I'll choose a random name to send to Kathy Carlton Willis Communications on March 4th.  KCWC will draw a random winner on March 7th.

Weekly Wrap Up Feb 19th

I just finished reading a story that has disappointed me.  The Dervaes Family was awarded a trademark for the term Urban Homestead (and others).  Click the link to see more about it.  I'm headed to their site now to cancel my subscription.

Goober Gus caught whatever Tony had last week, but I'm happy to report that he fought it off much better.  He slept most of yesterday (oh wow, was that ever nice!) and is chipper and chatty today.  We started on the elderberry lozenges as soon as Tony started feeling bad, and I think that's what helped Gus to fight it off so quickly.  When we ran out of the lozenges, we made our own syrup from Herbal Nurturing. 

It's raining in AZ!  We've had about an inch of rain fall since the wee hours of the morning, which will hopefully give the grass a head start on growing, which means less money spent on hay!  It's been an indoor day except for the short time it stopped raining and we milked the goats.  Cream is ready to be milked, and she's got a great temperament for a milk goat, but she's holding back her milk.  We brought Spice up to the milkstand with her today but she still didn't let down.  I'll just keep trying!

For dessert tonight we made shakes from:

• 3/4 to 1 cup raw milk
• 6 scoops of Blue Bunny All Natural Vanilla ice cream
• 2 bananas
• 3 eggs
• 2 T raw, organic cacao powder
• 1 T ground maca root

Oh my were they ever good!  That will have to be a weekly treat!

Wednesday evening I was preparing to take hay to Elsie & crew and noticed one of the barred rock hens standing peculiarly.  I watched for a moment and out pops an egg!  It was a softshell-like she laid it 12 hours early or something.  I saved it to show at our homeschool play date on Thursday.  It felt like a water balloon.  I haven't seen any others, and hope it was just a fluke.  We crush and feed their shells back to them, so I'm guessing they get enough calcium.  Oyster shells if I find more?

Melody at Laughing Duck Farm had goat babies born on her farm recently too, if you need another dose of goat baby cuteness!  Ours are almost a month old and I need to take more pictures.

For Valentine's Day we went to a community event/round table discussion about the needs of local farmers and local food venues and how to bring it all together.  I'm glad we went and am eagerly awaiting the arrival of notes from the night via email, so that I can share with you what transpired, without having to type it all out!  Basically we shared (the panel and audience) the problems facing growers and then potential solutions.  The problems were many but came down to two basics:  community education and less government regulation.  The solutions sounded good, but I wonder just how well many can be carried out. 

We booked a trip on the Grand Canyon Railway for March 18th.  We bid on tickets last April at a benefit auction and are now taking the trip (because the tickets expire on the 18th!)  Goober Gus will love it!

For those so inclined, last Sunday's church service is available here.  Facing truth in life.  Good stuff!

Intense Training

Recently, in a forum I enjoy participating in, the question was asked, "What is something you're proud of accomplishing?"  There are many ways to answer this, but the theme of the question dealt with overcoming something physical.  My response, participating in three 60 mile walks; hiking the Grand Canyon from rim to rim in a day, 3 times; and running a half marathon.  Those comments have been lingering in my mind ever since.  Not only did I participate, but I had to train in preparation.  Not just training and participating, but doing it all in a span of 40 months.  The events themselves total roughly 200 miles. 

Training for the 3 Day 60 Mile walks consisted of low mileage, frequent walks at the beginning, slowly building to higher mileage, less frequent walks as time passed.  I didn't keep actual training logs, but based on estimates I would have walked 1260 miles over a 36 week training period.  That's an average of 5 miles a day for 9 months. 

The Grand Canyon hikes took place in Fall of 2003, Spring of 2004 and Spring 2005.  We did  group training hikes that consisted of 15-20 mile hikes multiple times.  Toss in another 200 miles of training (including my own solitude hikes).  Also keep in mind that to hike the Grand Canyon means carrying all of the food and water needed, except for a water refill at Phantom ranch, plus temperature extremes of 60+ degrees from the 40* low at the beginning to the 100*+ at Phantom Ranch. 

Then I ran the PF Chang's Rock N Roll Marathon in January of 2005, 3 months after my 2nd completion of The 3 Day.  Well, I ran the 1/2 marathon, have no interest in the full one!  I'm guessing another 250 miles in the 3 months from one event to the other.

While writing this I recalled yet another distance event-a duathalon in Feb 2004.  I ran a 10K and cycled 20 miles.  In this duathalon, the 10K is split up before and after the cycling.  I didn't train a whole lot for that, just made sure I could ride my bike for that many miles and then get off and run without falling down from rubber legs!  So maybe another 100 miles training for that.

Then there's the gym 3+ times per week, the occasional 5K, and hikes just for fun.

What's the grand total?  Over 1800 miles in 40 months, or 45 miles a month.  Broken down that way doesn't sound that extreme, but there were periods of no training-a whole year at one point, so it's more like 1800 miles in 28 months, or 65 miles a month!  That's still only 2 miles a day on average, but remember that it was more a matter of longer distances fewer times than a low, consistent average.  I think that was the precursor to pushing my body over the edge into extreme adrenal fatigue.  I think, based on symptoms that I've always had some level of it, and each training event made it worse.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Friday Favorites February 18th

One of my favorite things at this moment is seeing my son sleeping on the couch near the humidifier.  He was pretty upset just before falling asleep and knowing that he's sleeping soundly right now is reassuring.  He bonked his head at the park; jumped from a foot or so out of a tree and poked a hole in his knee (Spiderman bandages can do wonders!); the pear he was eating when that happened fell and got dirty (though we washed it and he finished eating it); and I think he's fighting off the cold his dad has.  That's a lot for a small body to deal with in one day.  I told him that sleep was the best thing for pain.  He wouldn't be able to feel what hurt, and his body would be able to repair damaged parts.  We also prayed for God to ease his suffering, and he was asleep in 5 minutes or less!

This was also a favorite:

Sugar had been jumping on and off my lap repeatedly and was panting.  I just happened to catch what looks like a pose, but she was still running all over the place!  Can you believe they'll be 4 weeks old Monday?

Little Leaps of Love has been fun too.

 
Pure, raw, organic cacao powder.

Big Tree Farms Raw Cacao Powder is one of nature’s single best sources of magnesium and contains more antioxidants per gram than red wine, green tea, acai or pomegranates. Our Cacao Powder is formed after expelling the butter from our hand-ground cacao bean paste. The remaining "cake" that is left over once the butter is removed is a precious and concentrated superfood retaining about 25% of its original fat content. The "cake" is cold-milled to a powder and then is either sieved fine for use as a drinking chocolate, or graded and packed as a coarser chocolate powder more suitable for breads, pies, cookies and cakes.

Oh yeah, that's the good stuff!  I put some in my smoothie yesterday and was in a far better mood than I have been for a long time.  Didn't do it today and well...not so joyous as yesterday!

What are some of you favorites from the week?

Wellness Wednesday, February 16th

Or maybe not so well!  I feel great today, but have been emotionally stressed for several days, then last night looked up symptoms for arsenic poisoning and it's possible I've been poisoned!Symptoms of arsenic poisoning begin with headaches, confusion and drowsiness.  We tested our well water about 2.5 years ago having heard the area is known to have high levels of arsenic.  The test verified that info and we began buying all our drinking and cooking water.  I thought at that time I looked up symptoms to know what to look for, but after reading them last night I don't recall any of these.

My next task is to research how well it is absorbed by the skin, to see if bathing/showering in high arsenic water is enough to bring on poisoning.  It doesn't seem likely that washing clothes and dishes in it would leave enough residue to be an issue, but I don't know that for sure.  I'm also going to be tested and see if I really am poisoned.

It never really occurred to me that the water we get from the machine in front of the grocery store could also be contaminated, if the whole area is known to be at risk.  So maybe we've been paying  to be poisoned!  We might test that water too.

I did read that foods with sulphur (eggs, onion, garlic) will help carry the arsenic out of the body, and the symptoms listed started in me within the last 6 weeks.  About 6 weeks before that is when we had to cut back out egg consumption because the hens were only providing about 3-5 per day.  That's gone back up to 9-11 now, so I started putting them into our morning smoothie again.

Anyone got info about arsenic poisoning?

Wellness Wednesday, February 9th

Good day!  Glad you stopped by!  Today I'm going to tell you how kids are good for your health.  Once we discovered that Goober Gus is sensitive to artificial colors, we also decided to remove all chemicals from the food we buy.  It's better for all of us, even if we don't show the symptoms of sensitivity.  That means no store bough mint chocolate chip ice cream for me.  At least when he's home.  Which he isn't tonight.  So guess what I did?  Yep-bought mint chocolate chip ice cream and had it for dinner!  He'll be gone until late Wednesday night too.  I probably won't have it for dinner again, but maybe for lunch?  :-)  I have a jalapeno bacon, smoked Gouda cheese stuffed chicken breast waiting for me.  Can't wait!  Thanks for stopping by~

Love & War; Devotional for Couples

I had a hard time getting through this book, but not because of the content.  It's just hard for Tony and me to do anything consistently for 8 weeks.  I finally realized I needed to just read it so I can review it.  I like the format-a few paragraphs per day with an opening quote and closing Scripture.  Each week (5 days) ends with an exercise.  I'd prefer to have a daily exercise, personally.

The content is unique in presenting marriage from a perspective most of us probably haven't thought about.  While most of us as wives have dreamed of the fairy tale romance, we've only expected the good parts of the fairy tale.  What about the part where it looks like evil is going to win and nothing can go right?  That's how the "war" part of marriage is presented in this book and it's actually refreshing!  It's a good reminder to not expect wonderful times of bliss from the time we awaken until we fall into bed each night.  It's encouraging to know that there's a spiritual battle being waged and the enemy is pulling out all the stops to prevent the ultimate marriage of Christ to His body.  We know Jesus is triumphant, but do we apply that to our daily lives?  Do we look at marriage difficulties as part of the eternal struggle and rejoice that we are partakers in this battle?  I don't.  I should!

A quote from the book that really struck me occurs early in the book, Day 4 of the first week.

The Bible begins with a marriage and ends with a marriage.  From start to finish, the part of this great story we have been given to play begins and ends with a marriage.

That was really profound to me.  The Bible begins and ends with marriage.  No wonder it's so important and no wonder the serpent acted so quickly to try and dissolve it.  That should be my constant reminder as I face difficulties in my marriage.  It's all part of God's plan and ultimately HE has the victory!

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.  The review is my honest opinion.

Reading

I love it.  Almost can't seem to get enough of it.  Catch myself reading piles of paper upside down when I'm at someone else's house (sorry friends).  Read road signs when I'm driving.  I therefore have a long list of blogs I enjoy reading, email newsletters I receive, forum posts to keep up with, and the traditional books and magazines waiting to be read. 

The problem comes when there just isn't enough time to read it all, or a change in daily routine keeps me from handling the daily onslaught that comes electronically and I get behind.  What to do then?  Delete unread email?  Skip the blogs?  Not participate in forums?  I thought I had solved that little dilema by designating certain evenings to catching up.  Tony plays music a couple of times per week at night, so I decided to use that time to read the newsletters and blogs, while my son gets to watch an extra movie.  Even that hasn't been helping-I'm way behind. 

I like to keep my Inbox under 100 messages total.  Right now I have 44 undread out of a total of 181.  The 44 unread are just the ones that haven't been clicked on, it's not the actual number I haven't read.  Then there's my specialty folders where I have certain messages directed upon arrival.  Mom Stuff has 59 unread messages!  Homeschool 30. 

The basket that I corral magazines in is stacked to the height of its handle.  My night stand brims with books in various stages of completion, as does the end table.  Oh, and there's the daily snail mail.  Don't even get me started on that!

Why am I taking the time to write about the problem rather than catch up?  I don't know, I suppose I wanted to share my situation with you and see if I'm the only one facing this.

Weekly Wrap Up Feb 5th

It's been a full week!  Today we stopped at two yard sales and spent $10 at each for a number of treasures.  I got a Sunbeam food processor for $4.  I found a drawer to hold VHS movies so I can organize our collection a little better.  I also got a book called The Green Pharmacy Guide to Healing Foods for $1. 

After that we spent time at the pasture fixing a broken water pipe and cleaning the water trough.  Boots is no longer in rut and doesn't stink, and he wanted to constantly be scratched behind his ears.  I'd stop and walk away and he'd follow me and position himself so that I had to scratch him.  Jasper is getting more used to us-he licked my fingers and tried to pull them into his mouth by curling his tongue around them.  I didn't know cow's tongues were so rough!

Last Sunday we disbudded the baby goats.  It was our first time to do it, and while I knew it really needed to be done, I was concerned they'd never come near me again when it was over.  I was the one to hold each one down while Tony applied the hot iron.  They cried a tiny bit and squirmed a little, but it wasn't nearly as awful as I expected.  Both of them hung out on my lap when it was over and both still love to play with me, so my concern was unfounded.  Poor Sugar looks a little strange though.

They sure learn quickly-Tony put a stump in for them to climb on and they couldn't do it that day, but the next day they were hopping all over it like old timers!  She's on it right now if you look closely.

I got a couple of days off last week.  Tony took Goober to work with him.  I needed some uninterrupted time to complete 2 tax amendments.  Happy to report those  are done!

We were spared the precipitation of the storms that hit most of the country this week, but we did have overnight lows of 4* two nights in a row!  That's about 20 * cooler than normal for here.  Our crazy water pipes-the pipe from the water heater to the kitchen runs thru the attic.  It froze the first night we had those lows.  The next two nights we left the sink dripping to keep the pipes open.  Exciting stuff, huh?

Friday night we took our new pastor and his wife out to dinner.  She was interested to hear about our goats and chickens-she wants to get some.  We had a nice night.  I had jalapeno bacon smoked Gouda stuffed chicken breast.  Can I just say WOW!

Tonight we're making homemade pizza, the dough for the crust is almost ready and I can't wait to put all kinds of fun toppings on it.  After dinner we'll watch The Wizard of Oz.  Goober Gus hasn't seen it yet and I found it at the library.

The view out the kitchen window!

Please tell me your week was more exciting!

John 14:6

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Friday Favorites February 4th

I forgot to make this post today!  Earlier this week I had a few ideas of things to mention, but do you think I can remember them now?  Nope, not a single thought.  So rather than try to make something up, I'm going to remind myself to make a draft for this post as those thoughts come to me, and leave it at that.
Have a fabulous weekend!

Wellness Wednesday, February 2nd

I have good news on the no 'poo situation-I found something that seems to be working!  We ran out of the goat's milk soap that I had purchased last fall at a farmer's market, so went in search of at the area health food stores.  When I found it, the goat milk soap had all kinds of difficult to pronounce ingredients, so I started reading labels on the other soaps there.  I found one that had all natural oils and some essential oils for fragrance that I thought smelled good, so I bought it.  I tried it on my hair, followed by an apple cider vinegar rinse.  After the first time, my hair felt softer than it's been feeling with baking soda, but still had the fullness and natural curl that it got with the baking soda.  I was able to run my comb thru it without any difficulty.  I waited 3 days before trying it again and my hair is even softer after the 2nd use!  Success!  The days in between washings, I simply wet it and it still dries with some wavy curls and I doubt anyone could tell that it hadn't been washed that day.

I also think the homemade tooth cleaning recipe works better than just mouthwash, which is what we used to do.  Our dentist agreed that daily toothpaste use is too abrasive for teeth, so toothpaste was an occassional use item.  I realized though that for all my efforts to remove dyes from my son's diet, that we were filling his mouth with green dye everynight, DUH!  No, he doesn't swallow it, but I'm certain that it can be absorbed thru the skin.  He doesn't care for the baking soda in it, and it may be just as abrasive as whatever's in toothpaste, so I'm on the hunt now for a recipe that doesn't use baking soda.  Feel free to share any links if you have them!

The next venture I want to try is the oil cleansing method for my face.  I bought the castor oil, and have olive oil, I just need to try it out.  I think part of the problem is that this method is used at night (at least in the how to's I've read) and I don't usually wash my face at night.  I guess I could try it in the morning, right?

I'm back on bee pollen to strengthen my immune system against seasonal allergies.  We had a lot of wind Tuesday and it made my left eye itch like crazy and I would have sneezing fits of 10-15 sneezes at a time.  It finally subsided, but boy do I wish it wouldn't even happen!  Although, if it's true that your heart skips a beat when sneezing, and we're allotted a certain number of beats over the course of our lifetime, does that mean all my sneezing is prolonging my life?  ;-)

I'm noticing that several of the blogs I follow are posting info about adrenal fatigue.  I think I'm going to create an in depth post of my own on the topic, but it might turn out to just be an historical list of what may have contributed to my situation.  If that's the case, I won't be sharing it, as it would likely be quite boring.  It would be a good record for me to have though, so I think I'm going to work on it a little bit each day and see what I end up with.

My son had quite a bad headache and a bit of fever Friday.  He didn't complain too much, and was actually quite polite in his requests for feel good stuff.  I gave him arnica twice that day and that seemed to work.  I can tell when he has a fever because his cheeks get rosy.  He spent time in bed with me reading to him and later in the day fell asleep while watching a movie.  He had to be sick if he fell asleep during a movie!  He's a little congested still, but is otherwise healthy.

One last note-I made a menu plan for the entire month of February, including breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks!  Just having a healthy month of meals planned ought to be helpful, dontcha think?