A Beautiful Day

While the other kids were napping the other day, I took Elisabeth outside and we just explored. I had to run up to get my camera. It was just a lovely day.

Elisabeth

Here's one of our Barred Plymouth Rock roosters

It looks like he's posing for the camera here

And again...

And again.

Here's a Silver Laced Wyandotte - Isn't she pretty?

The chicken pen is pretty bare this time of year so we decided to put some of our chickens out in the fields. Here they are next to the strawberry patch.






Here's our Welsummer rooster. The welsummer hens lay really dark eggs... a pretty coffee color brown. I'll have to post a picture sometime.

Here they are foraging along side the fence. You can see them clear into the other field if you look close.

Along side the barn

And look what we have here. Chickens on top of our pile of wood chips! The girls like playing on top of the pile here... well, maybe not for long. ; )


Here's our Chocolate turkey. They are a rare breed. We had to finally do away with our last "big boy" because he is unable to mate with these hens. The broadbreasted turkeys are just too big to mate. But, this chocolate on the other hand should be able to. He usually looks a little shy to me though, so we'll see.... We'd like to incubate some eggs and hatch turkeys.


Here's where Matthew will be planting all of our corn and vegetables this year. I can't wait. Last year was experimental and yielded some good collards, green beans, snow peas and more. This year I think we will do really well.

Just a pretty picture from the barn

Elisabeth having fun on the ladder

And here's Little Bear "Lilla Bjorn" in Swedish as someone shared with me recently. : )

Matthew

Here's a picture of Matthew just yesterday. He's so big for 14 months old.

Homemade Butter

Oh, how I wish we had a dairy cow. But I'd probably spend ALL my time in the kitchen then. As if I don't spend enough time in here already. :) Well, somebody's got to do it!

Start with heavy whipping cream

Beat and beat and beat. You will see it turn into whipping cream, then a frosting like texture as pictured here.

A few minutes more and it's turned into butter

Drain the buttermilk and save for bread, salad dressing or drinking

Fresh Butter

Creamed Grains for Breakfast

I love Cream of Wheat for breakfast. But our budget just doesn't justify me buying it and I prefer homemade things over boxed or canned foods.


This is a combination of wheat, rye, rice, oats and barley that I put through our Grain Mill.



I mixed it with a little water and lots of milk. Cooked on the stove for 10 minutes and it was the best hot cereal I've had in my life.

Leah's Little Outfit

I was eyeing my fleece the other day and thought how comfortable for Leah and convenient for me to make her this little outfit.

I made this as an extra long nightie so I could change her diaper easy.

And fold it up on her as a blanket

Of course I had to take lots of pictures then...

Little Smiles

Bright Eyes

Pretty Little Leah

The Buckeye Pottery Company

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I found this old jug on www.2good2toss.com the other day. She was selling it for only $2.00. I looked up the brand name and history on this little find and this is what I found:


"The Buckeye Pottery Company of Macomb, IL -- The old pottery company was in business from the late 1800s to the 1930s at which time the Buckeye Pottery buildings were purchased by the Haeger Company for the manufacture of floral artware. Joseph Pech, a native of Bohemia born in 1827, emigrated to America in 1852, living first in Wisconsin, then in Ohio, and ultimately in Macomb, IL, where he founded Joseph Pech & Sons in 1882, which later became known as The Buckeye Pottery Company. An old historical record from Macomb (ca. 1885) states: �Among the other industrial institutions of Macomb is the Buckeye, which is located on Carroll street, near the railroad track. This was established by the present proprietors, Joseph Pech & Sons, in 1882, they erecting the necessary buildings at that time. They have a capital of $20,000 invested here, and afford employment to some 20 hands. Most of their ware, which is of a superior quality, is made from clay found within the limits of the county and sent to Nebraska, Iowa, and other western states.� (source: an online collector's site) I found several examples of this pottery's utilitarian items on Worthopedia's database of auction house records."

I just think it looks nice on the dusty bookcase in our living room.

Hannah

Here is our little Hannah. She is getting so very pretty. I made her a denim skirt the other day and found these tunic tops at Penney's for $2.50. I bought two each for the girls, blue and white.

Casserole Bread

Okay, I am having too much fun with different containers to cook my bread in. The other day I tried my ole casserole dish. Here is how it turned out. I have used it since and will probably cook bread in it regularly.

A Beautiful Sight

Here is a beautiful sight from our kitchen window the other day. If you look there are two rainbows. It makes me think of the Lords' promise to us.

Blessings in Tea

I have a friend who lives in Maine that sent me some samples of her teas she sells. They are not only fragrant and delicious, they are beautiful to the eyes as well. Here is her Mama's Milk Tea.

Is that some hearty looking tea or what?

She also sent me some Blessed Thistle and Mama's Pregnancy Tea (I liked your little "just in case" there Neysha). : )

If you would like to order some of this wonderful tea, please visit her blog here: http://mylittleblessingsfarm.blogspot.com/
She is a wonderful lady. Thank you again my friend!

Officially Starting Homeschool - A little here, a little there.

We are officially starting home school today. Wow, I'm excited! What a journey we have before us. We've actually started long before today with writing letters on the Magnadoodle and Elisabeth identifying them. She can identify all the letters, uppercase and lowercase. She recognizes numbers up to 100 (yes, she can tell us what page we are on in a book - like 47). Matthew worked with her on these large numbers. She also can identify 1000. So, she's off to a great start. We haven't worked with her everyday and have just done it "a little here, a little there". I believe that's how it's going to go with all of them until they are 15 or so and ready to take the GED test. Here is a couple of pictures that I scanned in from some free homeschooling material I received last year off of Freecycle (and I received a LOT). I scan it in and print it out and show Elisabeth how to draw from the arrow to the object on the other side. She's done a few pages and is having a blast! A little here, a little there.

Homemade Lasagna Noodles

We made some lasagna last week. I decided to try and make homemade lasagna noodles (I don't know if they call it noodles) to see if they would hold up. They held up beautifully! I followed my standard recipe: 1 egg to 2/3 cup of flour. I made 6 times this amount. We have a few extra meals left in our freezer.


Rolling it out

Cutting into rectangles

Nice sized cuts of pasta

The noodles are cooking

Here I mixed in some spinach in with the ricotta cheese.


Layering the lasagna

Ready for the oven. Sorry, our picture of the finished product did not turn out well at all!

Leah 2 1/2 Months Old

Here's our pretty little Leah at 2 1/2 months old. She is such a softie and so warm to hold.

Here's my little luv bug!

You are such a pretty little thing Leah. I can't believe in just a few weeks she'll be grabbing for things. It goes by so quick! Another month, rolling over and another month sitting up. She's almost to my favorite baby stage - 4 months to 10 months. They respond so well, you start to see their personality and they don't make a fuss like they start doing at 10 months. : )

This Daddy Does Hair

My husband loves to do our daughters hair once in a while. Here he is doing Elisabeths' hair this morning. What a sweetie!

Dark Rye Caraway Bread

I had a silly dream about buying some rye flour. So, the next day while in the health food store I purchased some dark, rye flour for only .99/lb. I made up the dough yesterday and let it rise and build flavor overnight. It was delicious. My husband described it as "stout" and shared that it reminded him of bread he at in Germany while stationed there in the service.



To add to the fun, I made it in the pot that is in my small crock pot. It was a very sticky dough and I didn't want to chance it going flat.


Here is the dark, rye flour. Not really dark looking. I added white bread flour, course black pepper, lots and lots of caraway seeds, dill and kosher salt. It was delicious! We had roast beef and horseradish - oh, I have to mention the red onion on it too.

What is Cuter than Cute?

Don't let the pink bib fool you. This is not Hannah or Leah but little Matthew. He fell asleep during lunch the other day. I got a picture of his pretty eye lashes.


Here's today. I forfeited his 10:30 short nap to see if he will sleep longer at his 1:00 nap. Well, today it didn't work either. He only slept about 25 minutes and he's hanging on me a bit cranky at the moment. Little stinker!

Sleepy head!

Oil Instead of Mayonnaise

I was out of mayonnaise one day and didn't want to take the time to try homemade. So, I made a delicious dressing for our sandwiches. You can also use it as an Italian salad dressing. Here's the ingredients:

A good, fruity olive oil - this is key. If the oil isn't delicious on it's own, it's not going to be worth it.
Red wine vinegar
1-2 cloves of crushed garlic
Kosher salt
Coarse black pepper
2 good pinches of Italian herbs

Drizzle heavily on your sandwiches. Enjoy!

Buttermilk bread

Here's a loaf of buttermilk bread I made the other day. It was so tasty and made wonderful toast the next day to put my eggs upon.