1st Egg

The first one's are small, but I'm told that this particular breed will lay eggs too big for our cartons!

Later that day:
I went out in the evening to feed the chickens and found a second egg!!! First AND second eggs in the same day - the first day of school!

Caprese Salad

So easy and yummy!

1 Tomato (Diced)

1 String Cheese (Diced)

Dash of Salt

Fresh Basil (Chopped)

Balsamic Vinegar (to taste)

Mix it up and eat for lunch!

Soap Tip

My kids go through hand soap in the bathroom like it's sugar!

It's NOT that they use a lot of soap to wash with, it's that they think they have to push it the pump as far down as it will go. THEN, in so doing, there is so much soap that it just runs off their tiny hands into the sink, instead of washing the germs!

SO, I put a rubber band around the base of the pump so that they can't push it all of the way down to waste soap!

Roosters!

Here's the Orpingtons and the Rhode Island Reds.

We are pretty sure by now that there are ALL hens! Our first batch of Sex-linked, on the other hand, are NOT all hens!

4 of the 6 were Roosters!

I loved hearing them every morning...and every afternoon...and most places in between!

But we aren't zoned for Roosters

and after advertising to GIVE them away

No one claimed them!

D had to have Tim come over and show him how to "process" them.

Thank you, Tim.

It was an experience that brought D a bit closer to his maker!

With the bees and chickens, we have certainly been brought closer to God. It's truly amazing, His works. We are so blessed.

First Honey

The kids (Mostly just me) had a honey Sale today!

We sold 11 containers of fresh, Raw Honey!

Last Week D extracted the honey with a rented extractor.

He got about 10 gallons of honey (120 lbs) out of his 2 hives.

He will harvest again in the fall.

4th of July Wardrobe

Chocolate Derby

After the "Big Wedding" we were all a bit jealous. People in the UK get to wear hats. In the US, if we wear hats . . . .well, we don't. The last time hats were in style is when Tiffany and Debbie Gibson were in the Top 10!

So, we decided to do something about it! For a friends birthday we celebrated with a
"Chocolate Derby."
Hats were required, and they could participate in the Chocolate derby by bringing 8 small portions of their favorite chocolate thing.

Not everyone wore a hat, but these were the few that did!

The Table Setting

Adorable Centerpiece!
The Menu:
Chicken and Steak Kabobs
Fruit Kabobs, Green salad and watermelon
We migrated into the house and gave presents and voted on our favorite hat:

Corrine!

Nothin says a good hat like,

"Feed the birds . . .Tuppence, Tuppence . . ."

We each had a plate and a lime wedge.

We started with the first dessert, she explained why she chose this item and then we tasted as much or little as we wanted.

Then we cleansed our pallet by licking the lime and moved on to the next person.
Once we had partaken of everyones sample, we ate what we wanted to and chatted till all hours of the night!
Good Fun!



Good Friends!

Todays Adventure of The Stay At Home Mom

I'm Pretty Sure That's Poop.

I Don't Want to Know How It Got There.

My children seem to find it more worth their energy spending to do everything in their powers to NOT do what mom tells them to do!
Flushing the toilet, and washing your hands would save you SOOO much more time. I'm not sure how long it takes you to do what ever you do to avoid it but really, trust me. I DO know best sometimes.

How Is It May 20

And The Coat Closet Is Still FULL

of COATS, Hats, Gloves, and Snow Pants?

I have really enjoyed the rain this year!
For me, it can not rain enough. I should live in Washington or Oregon.
Don't think we don't look often!
Our drawers are overflowing at this time. Between the few pairs of shorts I had to get out for the handful of warm days, and the Long Sleeve shirts, and the Short Sleeve shirts, and the Pants we are STILL wearing (although, by the looks of all of those pants, we seem to be a family of capri believers); I have NO more room in the kids drawers and laundry is completely out of control!

I hate packing away the seasons and sizes not in use.
BUT I am so grateful to have boxes of hand-me-downs to go through when needed.

"Use It Up"

Our swing set was on it's last leg.
The poles were rusted, weak, and compromised.
We put off many expenditures in hopes of saving for a new swing set.

D looked into buying fence posts to replace the old posts but they cost $20 each, so after buying 6 we would be better off just buying a new set. Until last week!

We found this bigger stronger frame. . .practically in the dumpster and added our old components to it!

One more summer of outside fun!

Chicken Update

Remember how little they were?

They are getting so big now -

but still not quite laying.

Oh, and to ad to the original 6
(Jump, Jackson, Dallas, Denver, Justy, and Mac)... We got 5 more!
Scarlet, Ruby,
Buffy, Toppy, and
Mrs Dorothy.

Inspirational Food Storage

I DO have a hobby or two, although I seem to forget it at times!

I am a food storage junkie, as you may well come to know.

Tonight we had a Relief Society activity with a guest speaker on Food Storage.

She talked about how she started her food storage and the method she was inspired to take.

I sat through the entire meeting nodding my head in 100% agreement.

If I were to write my experiences with food storage and the method I use it would be her EXACT SAME method.

I didn't get my method from a book. I got it from the Lord.
She didn't get hers from a book, she got it from the Lord.

I'm not saying it's the only way, but I am saying it's a good way, and a truly inspirational approach to it.

Out of the mouth of 2 or 3 witnesses...

Teacher Appreciation (part 2)

Remember THIS?

Well, this is what became of it for my Teacher Appreciation Gift.
I was going to use the clips on the frame for notes HOWEVER, my amazing husband made the frame so well, out of such a sturdy strong wood, that the tacks I was using wouldn't penetrate to hold the clips in place!!!!

Our PTA sends out a "Teachers Wish List" a week or two before Teacher Appreciation. It's a list of things the teacher would like to get, that is why I gave her googly eyes and glue sticks!

Mother's Day

I love a good Table-scape. My husband got me these adorable pictures for center pieces!

I sure love my Family!

Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers I know!

Bread Experiment

White Wheat Bread/Red Wheat Bread

Perhaps I'm clairvoyant.

Perhaps Its just coincidental.

Perhaps I'm just a wee bit insane.

It seems like lately when I do something, within an day or two I find the rest of the blogging world had the same idea.

A few months ago I was on a quest for the perfect chewy choc chip cookie recipe. I spent all day making cookies and altering recipe for perfection and then taking photo after photo to blog about my findings.

Then to my surprise, as I sat down to blog, I found several people had the same idea that week.

Lately I've been making my own bread, have been documenting the different loaves and outcome so that I can blog about the perfect bread. I get online and suddenly everyone is making their own bread now. Even members of my fam are baking bread.

I HAVE noticed that everyone has been adding wheat gluten, and dough enhancers to their recipes. This is the reason their breads have turned out so fabulous. I HAVE NOT BEEN.

The reason I am making my own bread is because I want to know what goes into my food. I am on a quest for the best recipe with clean and pure ingredients.

One of the best breads I have ever tasted has nothing but wheat, water, honey, yeast, salt.

Here is the recipe I have been experimenting with:

Combine and dissolve:

2T water and 1T yeast

Ad to the dissolved yeast:

1 1/3 c Water or Milk

1/3 c Honey

1t Salt

1/4 c Oil

3 3/4 c Freshly ground wheat

(I have used RED or WHITE- they both are fabulous)

Knead for 10-15 minutes

until the dough comes clean from the bowl.

Rise until double.

Squish and knead the ever-living-love out of the dough.

Squash it like you have never squished anything before!

Press it out and roll it up into a log tighter than a mummy bag.

Make it into a very tight loaf size ball of dough.

Place in a greased pan.

Let rise 'til at least double in size

(Once I let it rise in the fridge and got the best texture EVER!)

And I don't know why!

Bake for 35 minutes at 375 deg.

Remove from pan and let cool on a rack.

Other tips:

I originally tried it without oil and the crumb is very big - oil makes a more even texture with a smaller crumb.

I have tried adding an egg - egg makes the crumb moist but it is still big and crumbly.

I substitute 1/4c of the flour with 1/4 rolled grains or cracked grains - yummy, makes it a bit chewier.

I have added raw sunflower seeds. Yummy.

Bee

This was what a frame looked like before we added bees to the box.

BEFORE This is the frame as the bees have built up the wax cells in prep for eggs and honey.

AFTER

The light part is where the honey comb has been added.

Here is the Queen Mother:

Click to enlarge image

And here are disgusting larva that I hate looking at but mean that the hive is progressing.
Click to enlarge image

(Intriguing)Strog'noff!

The ONE thing that takes the longest in this recipe is

WAITING FOR THE NOODLES TO COOK!

Seriously.

Once you finish putting the sauce together,

you stand around and wait and wait for the noodles to be done! Ingredients:

Egg Noodles

1 Jar Canned Ground Beef (or 1 lb Frozen Ground Beef )

8oz Mushrooms

1 Small Onion

1can Cream of Mushroom soup

Salt/Pepper

Sour Cream

1.Start Boiling water for you noodles.

Once you ad the noodles to the water start the sauce as follows:

2.Dump the Canned Beef, Chopped Onion and Mushrooms and heat through.

(Cover with a lid - in THIS recipe, you don't want to loose the broth and juice to evaporation).

If using frozen beef, brown it first with the onions, then ad the mushrooms.

3. Ad Cream of Mushroom Soup to the meat mixture and mix well.

4.Once your noodles are cooked, drain them.

5.Pour the drained noodles into the sauce.

6.Stir it together.

7. Ad about 8oz of sour cream.

8. Stir it up and serve!

Hints: If your canned meat has salt added, you may not have to salt and pepper it much.
Be sure your noodle water has plenty of salt.
Be sure you season your sauce BEFORE adding the noodles and sour cream.
Make sure it has plenty of salt, adding the noodles will wash out some of the flavor.

Bit of a Bee Quandary

Last week D emptied the queens into their hives along with the 2 1/2 lbs of bees they each came with.
As he was putting the 3rd queen in, he realized she wasn't in the queen box. Somehow, she had escaped (because the cork was loose). After 3 days he went back to check the hives and see if the queen had perhaps fallen into the box or if she flew to a safe place.

FRAMES BEFORE

He found that in Hive 1 and 2 the bees were building out the frames and prepping it for egg laying.

In Hive 3, he found - AN EMPTY BOX!

That's right. NO QUeEN and NO 2 1/2lb of bees she came with.

All Gone.

Until he moved the hive and found all of the bees huddled UNDER the hive!

He dumped them back into the hive box again and waited until the next day to see if the queen was in the swarm

She was not. All of her bees have joined the other hives.

:(

It's okay though. It was a waste of money, yes, BUT we can wait a few more days and split hive 1 or 2 and the bees will make a 3rd queen for #3 again.

"When the Bees Come Down!"

No.

It's NOT the Tin Man! To ad to our chickens,

we have also aquired BEEs!
3 QUEENS

3 Hives

Lots of Honey to come.