Sharing Our Unplugged Sundays

In the midst of our huge life change of moving from Denver to rural Idaho, we were working on endless projects around the clock and seven days a week.  No one gives you a day off when you work for yourself and are trying to revive a severely neglected homestead.  After a few months, I knew I needed a change.  I began to organize my week to make Sundays easier and more restful.....




Come on over to Unplugged Sunday to read the rest of the post.  This is my new project I am excited about.  I will write more about it soon.

Solo

 

Sweetheart and my Mom left while I was out milking Buttercup to head back to Denver.  That leaves me in charge again of three kids, one cow and 18 chickens.  Hopefully, this trip will be faster for Sweetheart for all our sakes.  We will miss my Mom though.  We have enjoyed this time with her and her help was invaluable when Sweetheart was gone and I had to hand milk.

I am still hand milking, but hope to try the machine out again tomorrow.  Timing the milkings to be done while all the kids are sleeping is fine when it only takes a half hour.  The hour and a half to two hour thing, not so easy.  Essentially, when I add in all the prep work and clean up, Buttercup is a part time job seven days a week.  Plus, there is the added time of simply making all the butter, cheeses, and yogurts.  No wonder I am struggling with my time.

Yesterday I made some more coffee creamer.  I love flavored coffee, but when I actually started reading the labels in the grocery store a few years ago (!) I had to stop buying them.  I really try to eat anything containing ingredients I cannot pronounce.  It is a simply rule really, but makes for a lot more cooking from scratch.
I was inspired by her posts on creamers a few weeks ago and pinned them.  Since I have an unlimited source of fresh milk and creamer I decided to try some.

Now, I have altered the recipes to fit what I have on hand and doubled the recipes (see unlimited source of milk note).  Essentially, I heat up one cup of milk and one cup of cream until they steam.  Then add a variety of ingredients.  The link's recipes call for maple syrup for sweetener and cacao beans.  Not having these on hand, I just used sugar or sucanat and unsweetened cocoa powder.  Not as natural, but I don't get out much and try to use what is on hand.  I did equal amounts of sugar for syrup, but it was pretty sweet the first time.  Now I just use less.

I don't seem to have almond extract on hand, but I have all sorts of other yummy extracts I had bought at my favorite spice store before we moved.  Last night's batch was one cup milk, one cup cream, 4 Tbl cocoa, 3 Tbl sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract, and 1 tsp orange extract.  I have made it with coconut extract and plan to try out my caramel extract next time.  (I just on their website they have a Butterscotch Extract.  Yum!  Maybe I can get Sweetheart to drop in before he comes home!)  I poured it all into a quart-sized milk bottle and chilled it.  Shake well before pouring!  And try not to just drink it out of the bottle.  I have heard that some people do that.  :)

So now after freezing out in the barn this morning, I turned on the coffee percolator as soon as I got back inside.  I let the coffee brew while I skimmed and chilled the milk.  Then I poured my huge mug full of strong coffee and added the creamer.  A little bit of bliss goes a long way!  And there is no weird film left on your tongue.  What is that from?  Sorry.

Ok, so today we are planning on just relaxing and having some fun.  I do need to churn butter and steam juice the elderberries I picked the other day.  There will probably be some cookies or scones made as well.  I will need to check on the apples on the trees and maybe pick some more pears.

Last Sunday, I made cookies after breakfast and surprised the boys with a reading and eating cookie time just all snuggled together.  It was such a nice break after all the turmoil of the week.  And seriously, those cookies are just perfect this time of year and gingery and spicey and soft.  Go make some.  And sub in some coconut oil for the shortening, if you want.  It is an old recipe.  ;)  Also, you don't have to make them in bear shapes.  I just use my mini cookie scoop thing and bake them for 10-12 minutes.

Well, I just heard the boys wake up, so it is time to go.  Have a wonderful weekend!  What kinds of fun do you have planned?

Thanks!

I went with the first picture for my sidebar profile and jAne's picture for the other project I needed a head shot for.  More details on that project next week.  :)  I am excited about it.

These Autumn Days

Our weather has taken a turn this week.  Cold mornings mean more to me than they used to.  In the ancient past, it meant scraping windows to drive across the city to go teach school.  In the not-so-distant-past it meant just staying in with the kids and playing.  Now, it means frozen stock tanks, crazy cold milk-covered hands and hunkering down close to Buttercup to warm up while milking.

Yesterday, I found some insulated coveralls to wear, and got a tank warmer the neighbors offered that they didn't need.  Can't do anything about the hands.  Even fingerless gloves would simply get soaked.  I will look forward to hooking Buttercup back up to the machine once everything heals up.

The trees are all showing their colors and the countryside is lovely.  I leave the barn door open for evening milking time and just enjoy soaking in all the colors.  It is warmer then.  Once the sun sets and I am still milking it cools down again dramatically. 

I am working on just trying to stay in the moment and finding the beauty and joy right now, not trying to think what might go wrong next.  Sometimes, I am really good at this.  Other times, we just won't talk about.  It can get ugly.

There is so much to learn and do and sometimes, it just overwhelms.  I do try to focus on how far we have come and all that I have learned.  Seriously, who would have ever thought I would be doing what I do now? 

This morning, I am taking a much needed break.  My Thursday mornings off, fell by the wayside when Buttercup arrived.  But I am sitting in a cafe in the next town north of us hiding out so I can focus and write a bit without interruption.

It is time to head back, but I have enjoyed each minute.  I collected a big bagful of elderberries on the drive up.  They have probably frozen on the bushes, but I am going to try steam juicing them anyway and see what I come up with. 

We are still waiting for apples to ripen, though with our cold temperatures at night, I am not sure what will happen.  The second pear tree is ripening, though the basketful I picked last week went to the compost pile yesterday.  Alas, there have simply not been enough hours to do everything that is possible.  I was able to pick and preserve a bunch of our free-stone plums which was nice.

The good news is, the trees will still produce produce next year.  And hopefully, by then I will have a better plan to deal with it all.  I have been stuffing as much as I can into the freezer and dehydrator and not relying on canning as much.  I wish I could do all I want to do, but it just isn't possible.

I am hoping to restart schooling soon.  It went to the wayside with all the milking and preserving that is time-sensitive.  We can "do school"  according to our own seasonal schedule.  I just have to keep reminding myself of that.  Being a product of the regular school system and teaching all those years, that schedule is ingrained in me.  But it doesn't have to be that way.  It doesn't have to be that way.  It doesn't have to be that way.  (Reminding me.)

Coolest thing to happen lately:  I was holding Cupcake the other night and clear as a bell she said, "I love you."  Melt this Mama heart.  Most of the time I have no idea what she says, but this was just perfect.  *sigh*

Today was Interesting

The day started at 5:30.  I milked Buttercup and tested her for mastitis.  The test was a positive in one of her quarters.  I called the vet and picked up some medicine for her.  This means I had to stuff a syringe into her teat and infuse the meds into her udder.  Lovely.  It also means that I will be hand milking for the foreseeable future.

The good news is we can still use the other three quarters' milk.  It would stink to have to toss it all.  The up side to hand milking is that it is quiet.  The machine is so noisy.  Though it is nice to be able to hook her up and do the other chores at the same time like feeding the chickens, cleaning, and feeding the neighbor's horses.

I had to call for help last night.  One chicken died yesterday morning, and one the evening before.  Between more chickens looking like they were about to die, and the possible mastitis issue, I really needed someone who knew what they were doing.  My neighbor is wonderful with cow things, but hates chickens and is out of town anyway.

The friends that came over last night were so helpful.  They know chickens and said it was time to butcher them anyway so they would come over today and help.  I had not realized it was time simply because they have been Sweetheart's project.

So, the wife came over today and we processed all the meat birds.  That sounds so tidy, doesn't it?  It wasn't.  At all.

This was the first time I have had to kill anything larger than a bug.  And I killed all of them after the first one.  It is a hard thing to do.  I think my general feeling of being completely overwhelmed may actually be helping as I cannot dwell on much for long.

I had hoped to kill and pluck the chickens and be able to keep them whole for roasting.  I really like chicken roasted and love having all the bones for broth.  And had we been able to plan and prep for the slaughter, I would have been able to process them the way I wanted.  However, just being grateful that I didn't have to do it all alone, I will take whatever I can get.  Which ended up being quite a lot of bags of meat in parts and no feathers to pluck.

After the extensive clean up, I drove the remains up the forest road and dropped them off the side.  There are some happy bears and coyotes and wolves tonight.  We had leftover Beef & Barley Stew, but chicken in on the menu for tomorrow.  I think I may have to fry it, which I love, or do Chicken and Dumplings.  (What do you want for dinner, Mom?)

Then it was time to milk, feed horses and take care of the remaining laying chickens.

I am about ready to drop, but decided to write while waiting for the dishwasher to finish running.  It is a portable one that you have to shut the water off when the wash cycle ends, or the water will just run until you do.  It just ended so I will be signing off in a moment.

Hopefully, Sweetheart will be home in a few days.  His three day trip is on Day 9 and I am not sure when it will end.  Doing all this myself is not fun.

Hello??

Is anyone still out there reading this?
We are fine.  I am back to hand milking due to blistered teats.  Ouch.
My regular computer is reconfiguring itself and wont let me work on it.  The tech guy isn't here, so...
Well, it isn't the best week around the farm.  Hopefully, it will all get back together soon.

A Beautiful Post from A Friend

My sweet friend wrote a lovely post about today, the National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day.  She is wonderful and has blessed my life throughout the twenty years (!) we have known one another.  Love you, E!