A Bread Experiment Gone Bad, Gone Good!

While making the usual Saturday sourdough for the store, I decided to try doing some whole wheat for us. I have made it before using 1/2 wheat flour and 1/2 white flour and it was ok. This time I used all wheat and instead of sugar used honey. Well.... after hours of rising or I should say not rising and baking, I had a loaf of bread that resembled a brick and was just about as heavy. Though edible it was very sweet and not what I had in mind. Sigh. I set it aside to feed to the chickens. As the day wore on, I couldn't help but think it could be used for SOMETHING. Then it hit me... bread pudding! I cubed it up and sprinkled with raisins. I mixed milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla & almond extract poured it over the bread. Let it sit for a while to soak up the liquid. Lastly I sprinkled slivered almonds on top and baked. Wow! They chickens loss was our gain. Looks like the boo boo bread may be repeated and end up on a holiday table.

Going Nuts

The pecan trees are hanging full. Well, mine aren't due to a squirrel invasion, but the neighbors are and were are blessed to be able to help ourselves. My mom has made it a afternoon ritual to pick up a nuts each day. Thus far she has picked up close to 10 gallons. Now they are sitting in my garage patiently waiting to be cracked, bagged and frozen. Each evening I crack a few. It has taken a while to get a noticeable stash since I ate so many in the beginning!

Oh Deer, DEER!

Another weekend hunt and two more deer were brought home. This morning was once again spent processing meat. A lot of this will be shared with parents and kids. These deer were huge and it took quite a bit longer but we have managed to get a little system going so it is not so bad. I actually figured out how to cut some steaks today and so dinner tonight will be steaks with brown gravy (made from last week's stock) and rice.

Lots of stock has been made with the crock pot going almost non stop for the last week. I might have more to freeze if I would quit drinking it. Yum!

Oh, Deer!

My brother in law hunted our Virginia property Saturday  and came home with a very large doe. This morning's chore was to help my sister cut it up. There are some local places that would do it but they are charging 100.00.  Last year we decided that money could be put to better use and started doing our own. Gary quarters it for us and puts it in a cooler full of ice for us to work up. Today we were done in short order with lots of bags of ground, stew beef, tenderloin and roasts. The leg bones with all the tough tendons were saved for stock. A plus is that once cooked for all those hours there is a lot of meat that falls away and that can be saved for BBQ sandwiches or soup.

Adjusting To the Time Change

I got an extra hour this morning to figure out if I could crawl out of bed from yesterday's leaf raking chores. Much to my surprise I was only slightly sore and had done no great harm to any large muscle groups!
I hate the time changes.... Doug was up at his normal 5 'ish, which by my clock was 4 'ish. Sometimes I really don't care for happy morning people. Because of the farm, I am of the morning people sect. That doesn't mean I  have to be happy. Are you ready for breakfast? No. Want some coffee? No. Go away.
Finally we are beginning to harvest some fall goodies from the garden. Today I picked an armload of kale. More turnips and lettuce were added to the basket as well as some broccoli. The garden has been slow to recover but being that we have had no rain since early September, we'll take what we get!
One great accomplishment today was finally getting the garlic in. I was a good girl this year and only ordered 4 lbs....However, I forgot to order elephant garlic so I will have to plant some of my winter stash if I want some next spring.

Leaf Duty

I swore I would not get behind in cleaning up leaves this year. Unfortunately, Sandy roared in and I was behind within hours. Today hubby and I spent the day raking, blowing and munching leaves with the mower. Some areas were just too thick to vacuum so they were raked on a tarp and drug to a nearby ditch at the treeline. These leaves made me fear tomorrow... would I even be able to CRAWL out of bed in the morning? Others were blown into natural areas. The large areas of the yard were sucked up, munched up and dumped in the garden. Later I will rake them out in unplanted areas of the garden and use some for mulch between the rows of greens.
A good day, a long day, but one that leaves certainly leaves a sense of accomplishment at the end. And also promises a good nights sleep! 

Fall Shearing

Today I brought up the sheep for shearing. Our shearers were to arrive between 5 and 6 this evening. I plan to shear most of the small lambs myself so it was just the bigger, older sheep coming in. As it was, the shearers didn't arrive until 7. I told them we are old people and this may cut into our bedtime. Even my chickens were in bed!
Shearing went smoothly and since there were no rowdy youngins' to shear, we finished in about 2 hours, which was still 18 sheep. I left the now naked sheep in the barn for the night. I have several lovely fleeces to work with and plan to send some off to have "Lopi" yarn spun up. In the next few days I will make decisions on breeding groups and get everyone divided up and sent to separate pastures.
Thanks Austin and Jess!