Weird happenings...

DH went to work today and after his shift was over (he works at a grocery store) he stopped to talk to one of the girls who bags groceries and gets the carts out front.  They were talking and she said I guess you arent wearing your vest...puzzled DH and he said no I wear an apron.  Then she opened her orange safety vest and there she had on a bullet proof vest.  DH said he had to keep a straight face but cracked up later in the car.  He said she was a little strange anyway.  I guess her brother actually let her wear his vest to work.  Makes you wonder exactly how that conversation started...and she's 18 years old...makes me glad I work from home it really does.

Talk to ya later!

Denise

Nothin better...

Than taking a bath, going to bed with line dried sheets on the bed...aaahhh!

Kefir

I almost forgot to tell you about the kefir I started.  It worked!!! So happy it did.  I strained it yesterday and added some vanilla.  When DH came home from work we both tried a little bit.  It was good!  You have to start with a small amount.  It will clean all the toxins out of your body and you know what that means...lol.  I started another batch but will probably do a second fermentation on it to give us enough time to drink the gallon I just did.  With only two of us here it will take us a while to drink a whole gallon. 

I got my mixer today!  It's lovely.  Cant wait to use it.  DH is going to grind some wheat for me today and we are going to have a pizza with dough made with the mixer.  DH is off today and trying to paint the fence...notice I said trying.  He got a little sprayer and it was supposed to work but it doesnt seem to want to lay down the paint right (DH is not a very patient person and wants it to work right now) so of course he had to go to the store and get some rollers and a paint pan since the sprayer wasnt working for him.  This fence is costing us more and more...

On a more positive note, the weather is beautiful out and starting tomorrow I'm taking off a few days myself.  We are planning on going to the Lincoln County Fair in Tennessee.  Cant wait until tomorrow.  Well I better get back to work so I can get all this typing finished before midnight...just needed a break from it so what do I do but type on my blog...I'm a strange person...bruhahhaha.

Talk to ya later!

Denise

And It's a Home Run for the Sourdough!

The zucchini bread was wonderful!  It rose enough to make two really nice loaves.  DH liked it and so did I.  I modified the recipe.  Here it is:

Zucchini Bread

Preheat oven to 350.

3 eggs     2 cups sugar     2 teaspoons vanilla    2 cups shredded zucchini
2 cups flour        1 cup sourdough      1/2 teaspoon salt      2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice
1 cup chopped nuts     1 cup raisins    8 oz crushed pineapple drained    1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Mix it all together and put into 2 4x8" greased loaf pans.  Bake for one hour.


And here's the lemon blueberry square recipe that I modified:

Lemon Blueberry Squares

Preheat oven to 350.

2 eggs     1 cup sugar     1 teaspoon lemon juice    1 cup sourdough    1 tablespoon lemon zest
3/4 cup blueberries     1/4 teaspoon salt    1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Grease 8x8" pan.  Mix ingredients together.  Pour into pan and bake 25 minutes if using fresh blueberries or 35-40 minutes if using frozen blueberries.  Cool completely and dust with convectioner's sugar or just serve warm with milk on top.

*Tossing blueberries and raisins with a teaspoon of flour will lessen them from sinking to the bottom of the pan.

The crushed pineapple was a weird ingredient and I wasnt sure I would like it.  I'm not too crazy about pineapple but it tasted really good.  The pineapple makes it more moist and if you noticed there is no oil/butter in either recipe.

I won't be experimenting for a couple of days so everyone will have to wait for my next cooking excursion...I know you are sitting on the edge of your seat. lol.

Talk to ya later!

Denise

Sourdough experiments

Well I ordered my kombucha culture a while ago and when it didnt do anything I wrote to the company and told them what I did and how it didnt do anything.  They nicely emailed me back and said that they would be sending out a new kombucha that day and gave me some more suggestions on how to make it work.  When I opened the package not only was there the kombucha culture in there but they had also included a sourdough starter as well.  Score!  Just was looking into starting my own and there it was for FREE!  So I started the kombucha - it's still in my closet the warmest spot in my airconditioned house and still not doing anything but I have hope...  I started the sourdough and it's working!!!!! So cool to not to have to use yeast.  So I made two loaves of sourdough bread.  They rose nicely and looked good but when I opened the oven they were pretty flat.  Kinda disappointing but they tasted really good.  Froze one loaf and kept the other one out for eating with our eggs.  DH only had one complaint though...said it was a little sour...hmmm.  Told him to put some apple butter on it.  Sad face turned into a happy face!  Ohh it tastes good with this on it.  Of course the wife is always right about sweet things... lol.  So I told him if he ground some more wheat for me I would make some more bread and pour off the hooch...strange name for the watery stuff that rises to the top of the starter.

Friday I was in the mood to experiment a little bit more with my sourdough so I made lemon blueberry squares.   Kinda flat again but tasted really good like a blueberry buckle sorta.  DH liked those.  And yes I poured off the hooch before making them.

Today I decided to try to make zucchini bread with the sourdough.  It's in the oven right now.  Smells really good.  Afraid to look though....it's probably flat.  Anyone know how to get it to raise more?  My sourdough has lots and lots of bubbles...Any help would be appreciated!

Talk to ya later!

Denise

Weirdness

Yep got some Chinese food tonight and opened my fortune cookie...one side was in English and the other...was in SPANISH!  Please explain this to me.  You would have thought it would have been in Chinese.  Your local Chinese restaurant is now politically correct...I guess.

Update on Speghetti sauce

Well I put water on the stain immediately and it all washed out except for one little pencil eraser sized spot right in front.  Think I'll sew a button on it...lol.

Pretty proud about my chicks laying over 200 eggs last month.  We average about 7 eggs a day.  Dont know whether that means someone is not holding up their end of the bargain or not.  It doesnt matter though cause we are going to keep them until they die of old age anyway. 

It warmed up yesterday and hit 90 again and it is shaping up to be even warmer today.  Wash is hanging on the line and the dishwasher is running.  Clean sheets are on the bed.  Good day today!  Going to make a chicken casserole tonight for supper.  I took some pics today of the things I have finished knitting and will be posting them later. 

Hope everyone has a very nice day today!

I hepped up on vitamin D from being out in the sun and all the fresh air, can you tell?

Talk to ya later!

Denise

I hate speghetti sauce...

well not really but maybe I shouldnt have been making sauce today cause the blender started to leak at the bottom.  I grabbed the blender container, saw that the bottom was leaking, ran to a bowl I had sitting on the counter and yes stupidly very stupidly unscrewed the bottom of it....sauce exploded into the bowl but didnt miss me.  It came to visit a while on the popover I was wearing...lovely just fantastic.  I threw it into the washer and am keeping my fingers crossed that the stains will not be there.  Hadnt worn that popover since the spring too.

But the sauce tastes good

Talk to ya later!

Denise

Rained again today!

Another couple of storms went through again today.  Yesterday we had a total of 4 inches.  There was flooding in the northeastern part of the state so bad the state police blocked off roads and several families were evacuated from their homes.  We did some adjusting to the chicken coop yesterday between the raindrops.  DH cleaned the coop while I was making supper and I helped him (ran and got tools for him as he was in the coop).  We moved the fan from in front of the door to back by the window and moved the feeder from there to in front of the door.  It seems to be working pretty good so far.  This way when it rains and we close the door the food wont get wet.

For supper we had klushki (sorry not sure how to spell that).  I changed it up a bit.  Usually you just cook wide egg noodles, cook up some sausages or hotdogs, slice them up and then cook down some shredded cabbage in butter.  I cooked the cabbage in some bacon grease and added some frozen peas that I had leftover from the night before.  Threw it in the oven in my cast iron enameled pot with the lid on at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.  I really liked it with the peas in it.  They added some color.  Cant have enough green stuff you know. 

I have been trying to cook down my quartered pie pumpkins.  Who knew that it would take so long...but it smells good in the kitchen lol.

Talk to ya later!

Denise

We have rain...

Yesterday DH decided to wash some of his work clothes and hang them out on the line.  Then it started to rain and then we lost our electricity for about an hour and a half.  He was going to run out and get them but I said no just let them out there they are soaked and they might dry before dark.  Hmmm. Guess what?  They did dry a little cause they werent dripping when I brought some of them in so he had something to wear to work today but they took a full 45 minutes in the dryer.  So much for saving money.  Anyway we left the rest of the clothes out on the line overnight thinking that they would be dry by about noon and you guessed it...it's now pouring out.  Rain water softens everything right?  These clothes are going to be the softest ever!  Looks like I'll be bringing them in this evening and putting them in the dryer.  Cant complain to much about the rain though and it has definitely cooled down.  The chicks are very happy. 

Cant understand why DH was grumpy yesterday.  Kept mumbling something about grass cutting...

Canning

I canned a lot over the weekend.   I canned some peach preserves, peach pie filling, and some apple butter.  I still have some peaches which I plan on turning into spiced peach jam and some more apples left as well which I plan on making applesauce out of. 

Apple butter and peach preserves.  I'm using my new labeler to make labels for each jar.  It is great, wish I would have gotten it a long time ago.

Sideways pic of my new pressure canner.  Couldnt figure out how to turn it sorry!

The mess of pickles I made a while ago.

My lavender jelly made with MY lavender, I'm so proud of myself using my lavender and actually making jelly not sauce...Yeah Me!

Salsa - homemade - yum!

Dont know whether you can see him or not but this is a little itty bitty frog that was on our screen door one night.

There he is!

and there he is again!  He was only about an inch long.  Hope he made it through the hot weather cause I havent seen him since these pics.

And I think I'm all caught up now on my pics!  I will have to make some more of the things I have completed knitting.

Talk to ya later!

Denise

Jack Daniels distillery museum

Here we are going into the museum.  On the right is my DH and on the left is his friend Archie.  Archie visited us for a few days.  He is in the Navy and is stationed in Mississippi.

This is part of the display.  The bottles in the middle show different strengths of the whiskey and the big barrel is what they use to age the whiskey. 

Archie and his friend Jack lol...

This is the cave which has a natural spring which is used for the distillation process.  It was almost 100 degrees the day we went to see the museum and when we started up the little walk to the cave you could just feel the cold air coming off of the water.  Jack Daniels actually bought the surrounding acreage around this spring and cave so he could have the best water for his product.  Very smart man - knew even back then about the pollution.

This is the safe that actually killed Jack.  Well sort of, he kicked it and was a diabetic and got gangrene and died.  Kinda sad.  It musta really hurt too.

This is us leaving the museum.  What you cant see is Archie's purchases!  They cant sell the whiskey except in the museum as the county is dry.  There werent a lot of pics I could take as you arent allowed to take pics of the actual whiskey making process.  It was very impressive and interesting.  The tour is free although why people would bring small children to it is beyond me but some did. 

This is on the way to our car.  I was trying to show the planters made out of whiskey barrels.  They were really pretty.  They make all their own barrels.  I really liked the tour and the history was really interesting even though me and my DH do not drink their product.  On our way there we stopped by Falls Mill so Archie could see how that worked.  I think he really enjoyed himself and DH was really happy he came to see us.

See how happy?  I had to spring this pic on them at the last minute before Archie left.  DH doesnt like his picture taken.  While Archie was here DH and he went to see about getting a gun and bought many beers and talked a lot.  Me, well I got to relax and didnt go to see about getting a gun, didnt drink any beer and talked a little lol ;)

It's raining

See me doing a happy dance!!!!!  Hubby might have to actually mow the grass...;)  And it actually only was up to 99 today!

An actual post...

Yeah it's hard to believe but I'm actually posting (typing) a new post.  With help from my DH we canned peach preserves and peach pie filling today.  He mostly just cut up the peaches but it did help believe me!  I still have some more peaches and will be making some spiced peach jam with the rest of them.  We even got some apples so I am planning on making some apple butter or apple sauce.  I think I need a bigger pantry cause it is filling up fast!  I even gave some of the items I canned away to a friend who visited us a couple of weeks ago.  I will be posting pics from his visit and other things that have been going on as well.

The funniest thing happened today.  DH was out changing the chicks water (we are doing this up to three times a day because of the heat) and of course Lucy wanted to be petted so he picked her up (I was watching out the kitchen window while I was stirring the preserves) and all of a sudden there was this gusher that came out of her...I was laughing so hard.  DH put her down in the run and turned around.  He was wet from his waist on the left side all the way down to his shoe!  He was laughing too.  He said that isnt the first time he has been pooped on.  Lucy peed on me a couple of days ago but his was definitely poop.  Too funny.  He said she was laughing when he set her down on the ground...;)

Other than that not much going on around here.

Talk to ya later!

Denise

Melt up video

Story of stuff - kind of long but very good

Story of cosmetics

bottled water video - sooo true

GM plants show up in the wild

http://news.discovery.com/earth/gm-plant-canola-wild.html

Is this scary or what?  It was bound to happen...

Why housewives will save the world

I thought this was really true and although I am not a housewife per se my mom is and this really hit home for me.  Enjoy!

Why housewives will save the world




_____



Once in a while a reader is astonished to learn that I am, quite literally,

nothing more than what I've always claimed to be: an opinionated north Idaho

housewife . I am not a journalist, or a

reporter, or anything loftier than a keeper of the home. I use the

denigrated term "housewife" deliberately because I am proud to be a member

of this elite group.



If you associate housewives with dull women too dumb to do anything but wipe

noses and clean toilets, I'm here to tell you otherwise. I will even make

the extraordinary declaration that it is housewives who will save the world.

Or at least, our nation.



The standard assumption about housewives (besides the obligatory doubts

about our intelligence and educational level) is that our husbands make so

much money that we can "afford" to stay home with the kids. This assumption

always sends us into peals of laughter because it is so seldom true. Let's

face it, the term "thrifty housewife" was coined for a reason.



Housewives spend years learning to be thrifty. We shop at Goodwill, not

Nordstrom. We mend holes and patch jeans. We purchase basic food items and

cook from scratch. Most of us don't do this because we are green and

environmentally conscious. We do it because it's cheap and it keeps us home

with the kids.



Many housewives supplement their husband's income with cottage industries. I

do freelance writing. I know a woman who makes brassiere holsters for

handguns (yes really . this is Idaho, remember). Yet another woman makes

reusable feminine hygiene products. Yet

another woman sells items on eBay.



None of us is sitting around watching soap operas and eating bonbons. We're

too busy making our home welcoming, too involved in looking for additional

ways to earn money, too occupied in finding yet more techniques to trim the

household budget so the bacon stretches further.



We praise our husbands for bringing home this bacon, however modest in size

it may be. It's our job to stretch that bacon so it lasts the whole month.



A housewife takes her marital vows seriously and does whatever it takes to

make her husband feel like a man by giving him respect, dedication, love,

faithfulness, a warm home and happy children. Housewives don't (or

shouldn't) speak disparagingly of their husbands. We praise them. Praised

men are happy men.



And that's why I believe the housewives of America will save this nation.



When the chips are down, the housewives rise up. We work harder, stretch the

dollars further and discover creative ways to do even more things from

scratch. We become cleverer and more resourceful at "making do."



These may seem like such small, trivial things. How will baking our own

bread or making our own laundry detergent save the nation? It may not . but

it could save the family. And if a family is saved, then bit by bit, family

by family, the nation is saved. See the logic?



What I mean is this. On a massive scale, our nation's problems are far

beyond our individual ability to do anything about them. Housewives cannot

stop the insane spending spree our government has embarked on during the

last 50 years. We cannot keep the economy from its free fall.



But we can help ourselves. Inch by inch, foot by foot, we can keep our

family afloat. If our husband loses his job, we tell him he's still manly

and sexy. We give him the confidence to look for work. We tighten an already

tight belt even more. We pick up part-time employment. We write more

columns, make more holsters, sew more feminine hygiene products and clinch

another eBay sale. We stroke our husband's fevered brow and whisper that it

will be OK, we'll weather this together, we'll stumble along doing whatever

it takes to keep our family whole. We don't let the cruel winds of financial

hardship rip our family apart. We are the glue that binds it.



You see, the role of a housewife is so much more than wiping noses and

cleaning toilets. Feminists have looked with contempt at housewives for

decades and have tried to convince our daughters that only lofty careers and

hefty paychecks can fulfill a woman. But housewives know better.


Men work hard at jobs they often dislike to provide for their families. For

a man, it is not his job that grants him identity, fulfillment and meaning;

it is his wife's praise and admiration. The wise housewife honors her man

for his dedication and sacrifice. The smart housewife becomes the kind of

woman her man wants to come home to. This is the glue.



A glued-together family stays together no matter where they are. If they are

evicted from their home because they can't afford the mortgage, then they

rent a cheap single-wide. The housewife will then turn it into a beautiful

haven because she knows it is not furnishings but love that makes a home.



When the hurricane roars during an economic storm, it will be the thrifty

housewife who will bear her family aloft through hard times. Her frugality,

common sense and familial glue will keep the boat afloat until it lands on a

more fruitful shore. As the waves settle, she will continue to bind, weave

and mesh her family into a seamless harmonious whole. In return, she is

blessed a thousandfold for her actions.



On the surface, it may not seem like wiping noses and cleaning toilets can

have any significant impact on saving our nation. After all, these acts are

not spectacular achievements like winning a court case, negotiating a

contract or curing someone of cancer. But the foundation of a nation is a

solid family unit. It is the humble, collective efforts of housewives that

build those solid, happy families. Nation upon nation is built on this

foundation. Without housewives, such a foundation would not - could not -

exist.



Don't thank us. We're just doing our job. But please, remember to put the

toilet seat down.



Bill and Tina Kroshl

Talk to ya later!

Denise