Working in the Yard

Here's a little spot on our driveway up to the house that we thought would look pretty with a little clearing of the branches and brush.

Daddy was clearing the branches around this fallen plum tree and the girls are loading up the wheel barrel.

See how pretty it's looking? A nice place to sit. Hannah's busy working.

Working his way up the driveway

Little Matthew taking a rest - on his back on the ground. Silly boy!

A nest we discovered in clearing the branches out

Pretty! It sits in our barn now.

A neighbor's field and cows down below our home.
Our weather has been gorgeous like this for 2 months now.

Looking at the cows. I think every child should be able to watch animals on a farm or in a field.

Little Leah all bundled up

Baby Leah - 4 Months

Oh, little Leah. This might be our wall hanger picture of you! I love you so much sweetie.

I love my babies at 4 months. It is my favorite time of being a mother to a baby. You can't be loved or needed any more and they are so sweet and responsive for the next several months.
She gets all excited when I walk in the room or talk to her during dinner. She's a little sweetie.

Rosebuds

The girls picked some rosebuds from our yard the other day. They had so much fun bringing me the rose buds. They are drying above our fireplace right now in some cheese cloth. I hope they turn out.

Hannah with a single rosebud

See Elisabeth in the background picking rosebuds too?

Pretty Rosebuds

Sourdough Pancakes - Yum!!!

Sourdough Starter

Whipped Egg Whites

Pancake Batter with Sourdough Starter

Fold egg whites gently into batter

Ready to go. Yes, my pan is this dark. I've had it for a good 10 years now and love the dark color that has developed.

Flipped over a tad too early but still looking good, huh?

And here you have one, delicious sourdough pancake. We made lots more on our skillet. : )



I made some REAL sourdough starter from "The Baker's Companion" King Arthur Cookbook. I made it with rye flour. After time it gets replaced with regular, unbleached flour and the rye taste gets replaced. After a week of getting the starter just right and making a big, fat loaf of sourdough bread that we already devoured, I had to make some sourdough pancakes. I added a cup of starter to this recipe from Mr. Breakfast: Homemade Pancakes. They were simply divine.

Bye Bye Couch : (

I LOVE the looks of the couch. When we got married and moved into this house we didn't have a couch. I found this little treasure at the Goodwill for $40. I have slept on it many a times while pregnant during the day. I have laid on it with my babies, played with my children on it, this was the couch they could rough house on, this is where I put my laundry to fold. Anyways, recently I was playing with the kids on the couch and it endured it first tear. I knew then that it was only a matter of time and it would end up at the dump for $60+ or we would have to give it away for free. Believe me, it's become the most uncomfortable couch to sit on now too. I love the material on it and the memories so I had to take a picture before some takers were happy to take it for free. I miss my couch. : (

Good Trade - Duck for Fish

We had a customer come by who works in the fishing industry. He asked my husband if he would trade one of our ducks for some fish. My husband was happy about this offer. One evening during dinner our customer came by with about 20 lbs of fish. I don't know what kind of fish this is but it's much bigger than a flounder. There were several in the box that my husband filleted that evening. We have had fish 3 times already and have a lot left in our freezer. He would like to trade crab, halibut and more. He also makes vodka and sells it for $10 a gallon. I am going to purchase some and make vanilla extract with it (soak cut vanilla beans in it for several weeks) and use it for some pasta recipes with tomato sauce, cream and vodka. Yum!

One of the fish

Dinner cooking - It was delicious

The Time is Short

I will be 40 next month. I still look and feel so young. However, there are changes going on in my body that each month are indicating that the time is short for bearing children. We saw five children from the Lord before I even had Elisabeth... though we want more as tired as we are sometimes. As hard as it is at times. But, you can't beat God and you can't keep your body young forever. I pray that I can be thankful to carry one more child in my womb. Another boy. This time of childbearing, whenever it ends will be too short. I love my children and love my babies. How I will miss holding a baby one day.

Where's Doggie?

I love taking pictures of the kids when they don't know I'm there. Here they are looking at their doggie through the door in our kitchen.

Homemade Salsa

My husband made this salsa the other night. It is the best batch he has made. I am a salsa lover so it won't last long around here! Here are the ingredients he used for canning them:

10 lbs of roma tomatoes
3 jalapenos (with seeds left in). We recommend 4-5 after tasting it.
2 onions chopped
Bunch of cilantro
Mexican oregano
Tablespoon of cumin
5 California chili's

I boiled the California chili's on the stove, then pureed them and added to the roma tomatoes. It really enhances the color and flavor without adding heat. I think they use these to make enchilada sauce... if not, I will try them the next time I make enchiladas.

Plain Jayne Soap - Update

Update: If you would like to try Ashley's soap, here are the prices on her blog:

Plain Jayne Soap

I bought some soap from a friend in Kansas. She sent me SEVERAL extra bars. It lathers beautifully and lasts just fine. I never thought I would enjoy unscented soap so much. It is coconut oil based and feels so nice and cleans beautifully. I can't wait to start making soap ourselves. Now I have a standard to compare it to. Thank you again, I love your soap!

If she's still taking orders for her soap, I will see if I can post more information here. : )

Watching a Slideshow of Our Pictures

I played a slide show of our pictures for the kids the other day. They looked so intrigued. We don't have a television or watch movies so this was really something to them!

Just Being a Boy

I watched our son playing with his little, wooden toy set in his long johns. He looked so cute, I just had to get some pictures of him.

Rye, Barley & Wheat

I measured out some rye (top layer), barley (middle layer) and red wheat to put through the grinder for breakfasts as my alternative to Cream of Wheat which gets polished off too quickly in 2 breakfasts. I thought the layers looked pretty and took a picture.

Finnish Oven Porridge

I am really enjoying experimenting with different whole grains. They are so healthy and satisfying. I tried a recipe this morning from this wonderful instructive cookbook: "A Cook's Guide to Grains."

Finnish Oven Porridge

1/2 cup semi-pearled or pot barley (I used hulled barley, it is the healthiest)
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup water
1/4 tsp salt
a little butter and sugar, to serve
serves 2-3

Combine ingredients and cook in oven for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

I put a little vanilla sugar on my porridge this morning. It was wonderful!

Where are you going little boy?

We all went outside the other day while the sun was out. Matthew just started walking and I followed him. I thought, "Where are you going little boy?" He spied a bird and wanted to take a better look.

Looking at the little bird

Oh, there it is!

Multicolored Popcorn

This is Organic, Multicolored Popcorn. I think it looks pretty in my canning jar and the kids love it. I remember when I was a child that popcorn was made on the stove. Since microwaves have come out I haven't had good old fashioned popcorn in years. Now I can't go back to the stuff in the bag and my children won't know any different. They love listening and watching it pop, pop, pop. A little butter and salt and we're set for our 10:30 snack!




This popcorn produces both white and yellow popcorn. See the dark fibrous part in the kernel. It looks burnt but it is just black kernel.

Hannah enjoying her popcorn

Elisabeth

Matthew - our little chomps!

Baby Ducks

This year we will be hatching and selling baby ducks from our White Pekin ducks. We found many months ago that we had a drake and two girls so here are some of the baby ducks we've been hatching.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

These muffins turned out so flavorful and delicious! I went to heat up a cup of coffee later and found that my butter that I was supposed to put in these muffins was still in the microwave. They were superb for being nearly fat free. We ate them all up by evening.


Ingredients

For the Muffins
2/3 C sugar
Grated zest of 1 lemon
2 Cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sour cream (I used homemade yogurt because I was out of sour cream)
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 stick of melted butter
2 Tbs poppy seeds


Icing
1 cup of confectioners sugar
2-3 Tbs fresh lemon


Mix ingredients together
Bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes
Cool and drizzle icing


Recipe and one of my favorite cookbooks from: http://www.amazon.com/Baking-Home-Yours-Dorie-Greenspan/dp/0618443363

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. : )