Oh no! I did it again!

Ok, Mama mixed up some bread dough and I stared the fire. She did all the pats and folds and got the bread up to the bake. I had to bake the bread. I put it in the oven when the oven was way too hot. I had to bake 12 loaves I was able to fit 10 in the oven. Just as I was putting the last one in I smelled a burnt smell. I thought Oh no! Mama said no burnt bottoms! I looked at loaves. They were all white. The ones in the back had a slight bit of brown on the sides and smoke coming from the bottom. I quickly flipped one up and what my eyes saw was black, burnt to a crisp! I tried to take the loaf out. It flipped over on it's back and got smashed on the wall. That happened because the top was still dough like. I left it there. Checked on the other loaves and found them in the same condition as the first. I got those out with not a little difficulty. They were all burnt on the bottom except two plus the two that did not fit in the oven. I put all the partially baked, partially burnt loaves on a table with a rack. I ran inside the house and got a bread knife. The younger brothers were close by. I started cutting off the burnt bottoms. I said to Nathanael. "Nathanael I think I am the most embarrassed as I can get". He says "what happened". I says "I am not going to say". He comes up to see. And then he runs to the back door and calls " Mama Grace burnt the bread!" Mama comes and sees what happened. she says" well there are two that still have to bake so thats good".

I let the oven cool down a bit while I sat on the white swing and did some nalbinding on my sock that I have been working on for the last couple days. When I thought the oven was cooled enough I put the cut-off loaves +the two that did not burn back in the oven. The two that did not fit in the oven at the start were still in the house, waiting. After putting them in, I went in the house and did some more nalbinding on my sock. I was in there for while then went out and checked on the bread. It was fine so I came back in. After a while David comes in starts reading a book. Then He says " Have you checked on the bread?, I smelled a burning smell when was out there". I said "I better go check it out". It my mind I said "He probably smelled the burnt parts that I cut off. (they were right by the oven). But No, When I got out there they were burnt again. I took them out. They were not all burnt just some of them on the bottoms. This is the second time that I have burnt bread by putting it into the oven when it was two hot. This time I did alot better attitude wise. Last time I went up in my room and bawled. Last time I let someone else finnish the loaves. Last time I was terribly tired, Last time none of the loaves turned out. This time I was not tired, I could have baked 12 more loaves if I had them. This time two of the loaves turned out great. This time I laughed about it right away. This time I finished them even though they did not turn out. I wonder what the next burnt episode will be like!

Now here are some pictures that I took yesterday.

The clay oven

My nalbinding

A lamb that was born a few days ago

our buck

These are the lambs that were born. She had two rams

Auddie and her kid. We named all our kids.

Here are the names that we named them

Nymph

Luppy

Hendery

Giddin

Bella

Parmesan

This little brown kid is Nymph, I think Enoch named him.

His mothers name is Autumn. I call her Auddi for short.

Here in MI we pronounce our Ts as Ds so... If you were wondering how I got the name.

We pronounce autumn as auddum

Here are some lambs that were born at 1:00 am yesterday. She had a ram and a ewe.

David making a nalbinding needle.

Here is is when it was done. I think he did great.

A robins nest in the apple tree

seedlings

This is how we have it set up in the barn for the seedlings

These are my marigolds that I started. I grow them to put on salads and sell them at the market. they are miniature marigolds.

These are my flowers that I started about a week ago. There is Calendula, Babie's breath, Dianthus, and woad.

My zinnias

Well thats all. I am glad I was able to do a post! I was not able to do one all week. I think this is what I will be doing from now on. Is a post a week. It works out so much better for me and what goes on here. I woke up pretty early this morning 5:40. So that is why I was able to do such a long post. Plus I had already put the pictures on yesterday. But now I must go for a busy day is ahead of me. At 9:30 my sister is coming to pick up me an Hannah and we are going with her into TC. She has to go to the dentist and me and Hannah are going to take care of the dear little nephews. I am happy and excited today. I am looking forward to what the Lord has to teach me today. He has been teaching me alot lately and I am thankful and full of Joy and Peace. I am Believing in Him and trusting and rejoicing in time to come!

Today's doings/pics

I got up early milked the goats and cow. I mixed up two batches of dough one rye/wheat and one all rye. Then I quickly ate some lentils and a glass of fresh warm milk. I hopped into the waiting truck and me and mama and Rebecca were off to her house. Hannah stayed home to take care of the household duties and do the pats and folds on the bread dough. Daddy got the clay oven going for me. I took care of my nephews while my sister Rebecca went to the dentist.

I had a lot of fun with them. Izzy is one year old now and he is trying to do everything that his older brother does. But then it's kinda funny because then Buddy sees the babyish things that Izzy does and tries to imitate them so I then will give attention to him. For example: Izzy tries to push a cushion of the couch (They were trying to make a house) and he does not have quite enough man power to do it, so he whimpers for me to help him, so I help him. Then Buddy does the same thing and imitates all the little baby antics that his younger brother does. So then I help him in the same way. Then he gives me a big smile. It is funny! The younger one trying to be big and the older trying to be little! They are the most adorable little children that I know! I love them so much. I made tortillas with Buddy. He really enjoyed rolling them out. We had them with scrambled eggs for lunch. He calls eggs "eet-eets" that is his name for chickens, you know the sound that chickens make? He does not call animals by their name. He calls them by their sound that they make. It is so cute. Cow is "moo", Pig is a sound that I do not know even how to write, he makes this sound deep in his throat and it sounds just like a pig grunting maybe like this "Roughuufgh". Horse is "eeEEEeee", cat is "Eeeeeeeew!" Dog is "wuhwa! wuhwa!" and the funny thing is the only animal that he will say the name is rabbit he says it like this "ravit". Rebecca brought me and mama home and she stayed for awhile and visited with us all. When we got home Hannah had the bread ready to be shaped and put into the baskets. I did that and looked at the fire in the oven to see when it would be ready. Then I helped the Enoch &Nathanael wash eggs for the market tomorrow we washed 15 dozen. David left early this morning to go to a class in T.C. I am sure he will be posting about that in the near future on his blog. You can get to his blog on my side bar. It was a class about holistic farming. He is going to go tomorrow on a farm tour and a cookout on one of the farms while we all are at the market selling stuff. After we got the eggs washed and my sister left with her family, I baked the bread. Then just as I was getting the bread out of the oven David came home. He had hitched a ride for there and back with one of our friends who works in T.C. so that turned out real well for him. After baking the bread, Oh and one of the reasons why I baked bread today is because last week on saturday someone at the village market asked me to baked them two loaves. And when I bake, I a bake for my family too, so I baked 9 loaves today. Ok, so after baking I heated up some soup that I made the other day and we had that with fresh bread and a salad from the garden. After that I went out and milked the goats. They were in the barn because it was raining today so Hannah brought them in there. Goats don't really like the rain, Sheep don't really mind it. We like to bring our goats into the barn when it is raining a cold and wind driven rain. After milking I strained the milk of course then I put the chevre in a cheese cloth.

I started some chevre last night, I can't have bread with no cheese if there is fresh milk around. Then I clear, rinsed, and stacked the dinner dishes. Came into the living room and read a few chapters in a Mr Tucket book to Nathanael. Loaded some pics onto blogger. Then prayed with my family. And now writing this post. and now publishing it and now Good night!

For tomorrow is another early rising day. I like market day! I look forward to it ever day of the week. I am going to bring the spinning wheel and ply the yarn that I have been working on.

Buddy

Izzy

washing "eet-eets"

rye/wheat

rye

close up of the rye

this one is going to be so yum with cheese!

I had hannah take these bread pics with the chalk board for the background because the numbers on there are my morning figures for the mix of the dough.

Good night Folks!

I hope you enjoyed this post!

killdeer babies and spring days

David holding killdeer chicks

This afternoon David came in from the field and told us to come out and see something that he found. So we all ran out there to see these little fuzzy killdeer chicks. They are so cute. I held one of them. That was the first time I had ever held one of these tiny baby birds. Killdeer chicks are different than other baby birds. Most birds hatch without any fuzz and stay in the nest. Killdeer hatch with fuzz like a baby chicken and are ready to run around right after they hatch. It is so fun to watch them run after their parents. This has been the most wonderfullest of springs! I have been enjoying everyday of it. The past few days are starting to feel like summer.

very warm in the day and thunder storms at night.

On sunday we planted our field of corn.

This whole field is now planted in all corn. It is the corn that we use for baking and cook with. And feed for the chickens and pigs.

It was so much fun to all be out there planting seeds.

David made a place to plant the corn

Then Enoch and Nathanael put four seeds in place.

Daddy, Hannah and I covered them up.

Now there is about one thousand mounds out there that have four corn seeds in them waiting in the ground, getting ready to grow into corn plants. I think seeds are so amazing. Just think of everything that is in one seed. It is just amazing! Our God is amazing! I am so glad He made all these things for us to enjoy.

We worked out there all day. It was a little cloudy in the morning. By afternoon the sun was really shining. Now I have red arms and neck.

The new fencing came, so now the all animals are out on the grass.

Autumn is getting used to getting milked off the stand.

Shwanli and...

Hopli

are used to being milked out in the pasture.

It has been really nice having fresh goat's milk again.

kids and cheese recipes

Here is newest set of arrivals, a doe and a buck. Shwanli had them on sunday. They are so

cute! The other day I went to the barn to check up on them and I could not find the anywhere. I asked hannah if she knew were they were, she did not. We look and looked around all around the barn. Then I saw a little bit of white and this is where they were.

I got a request for the chevre recipe so here it is:

Things you need:

all words in green are links to where you can purchases the required things if you do not have them.

One gallon of raw milk freshly milked.

1 T. yogurt

1 drop of rennet deluded in a T of water

Very clean stainless steel pot and spoon. Thermometer* , butter muslin** ,and colander

Heat the milk to 100 degrees F.

Stir in the yogurt very well.

Add the rennet deluded in water

Stir with a gentle up and down motion for 1 min.

Let set in the pot for 12 hours

Now the milk is coagulated it should be thick almost like yogurt. If not let set a little longer.

Then take the colander and line it with the butter muslin.

tie up the corners and hang to drip out the whey for 6-7 hours. At room temperture

Remove the cheese from cloth and place in bowl. Weigh cheese then add 1% of the weight in salt. Store in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

*If you do not have a thermometer just warm the milk up to how warm it feels when it comes right out of the animal.

**. you can use a piece of muslin fabric that will fit in the colander and hang over quite a bit.

the sites that I gave the links to are the places that I get these cheese supplies. I would highly recommend getting both Thermometer and butter muslin .

Other things that you can do with milk is. Instead of adding just a drop of rennet add a 1/8 teaspoon of rennet deluded in a 1/4 cup of water.

Do the same as the recipe but it will make something more like a small cottage cheese.

Or another idea is add the same 1/8 teaspoon deluded in a 1/4 cup of water. But instead of putting the cheese into a cloth lined colander. Using a long-bladed knife,cut the coagulated milk in to vertical strips about 3/4 inch wide. Using a skimmer, cut through horizontally until you have cut it all into 3/4 inch cubes. stir gently for 5 minuets. Let stand for 10 minuets.

Ladle curd into a cloth lined colander and let drain in colander for 45 minuets.

Prepare a draining container by placing a rack inside. Then place a cutting board on top, follow by a cheese mat, then the molds. Using skimmer, fill molds with curds. Cover container and let drain for 3 hours at room temperature. Flip cheeses over in the molds and let drain at room temperature for 10 hours. Keep container covered to maintain warmth around the cheeses.

Unmold cheeses onto a clean cheese mat and replace on the rack in the draining container. Sprinkle top of each cheese with 1/4 t. salt. Cover container and let drain at room temperature for 6 hours. Turn cheeses and salt the other side. Cover container and let drain at room temperature for another 6 hours.

Transfer cheese to a clean cheese mat (traditionally a straw mat) in a ripening container. Let dry for 4 or five days at cool room temperature. Remove any collected whey from the container and flip the cheeses daily.

I also age these molded cheese in a ripening container for about 6 weeks and they get very delicious and earthy flavors. Keep flipping them and taking the whey out for 3 to 6 weeks in a 55-60 temperature dark room. After 3 or 6 weeks put the cheeses in the refrigerator. Eat them with bread and olives and that is so yummy!

Place a sprig of fresh savory on the cheese and consume immediately.

If you would like to buy cheese molds this is where I get them: Cheese Molds

For a cheese mat I use these: "Handmade Cheese Mats"

For a ripening container I use those big round cake containers. Here is a picture of the one that I use. "Cake container" it is the seventh picture down from the top.

Cheese making can be either something that you get into and spend a lot of money on supplies, or you can look around you and find things that you can use and make with your hands for cheese making. Try to recycle as much as you can and makeshift alot of your cheese making supplies and then you will save a lot but get the same kind of product.

And if you have milking animals and you are making a lot of cheese but you still can't keep up with the flow of daily milk income. Then get a pig or chickens and turn the milk into pork and eggs or grilled chicken.

I hope these recipes and ideas are helpful to you and that you make wonderful cheeses.

If you have any questions or if something doesn't make sense, just ask in a comment below.

The days doings here in my little corner

A spring lunch with sisters and nephews. Yesterday Rebecca invited me and hannah over for a visit. It was very enjoyable.

Me and three of my siblings and my nephews went to a garage sale. I got these two shirts. They are so pretty!

Making Chevre' The first goat cheese I made this year. The vest thing that I am wearing in the pic is another thing that I got from the sale.

carding wool

Leeks that I picked out in the woods this morning

Pickled Leeks

There was a very nice classical guitar at the garage sale for $150. We went to the sale on tuesday and bought stuff. Yesterday evening I decided that I would go the next day and look at the guitar some more and play it. I went this evening and the guitar was sold. The people said that the lady who has the ducks and goats just before the big hill bought the guitar. I am glad she was able to get it. She likes to sing and play so it will be a nice thing for her to have.

A thing to remember: "When you see something at a sale get it right away if you really want it".

Here is the recipe for the pickled leeks/ramps

20 small wild leeks/ ramps* (10 oz.)

trimmed to one inch of greens and cleaned well,

1 cup cider vinegar

1/4 cup of Honey

1/4 cup of sugar

1 scant teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 teaspoon whole black pepper

1 teaspoon whole fennel seeds

1 teaspoon whole coriander seeds

1 bay leaf

1. Prepare a large bowl of ice water. Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil over high heat, add the ramps, and boil for 2 minutes. Drain immediately and plunge the ramps into the ice water to stop cooking.

2. In the same medium pot (emptied of water), bring the cider vinegar, honey, sugar,red pepper, peppercorns, fennel, coriander, and bay leaf to a simmer, and then remove the pot from the heat.

3. Put the drained ramps into a clean pint jar. Pour the hot pickling liquid into the jar. When the mixture is cool, cover it tightly and refrigerate for at least 12 hours before eating. The pickles can be stored in the refrigerator for about a month.

*If you do not have wild leeks you can substitute 10 medium shallots, peeled, with root end trimmed but left intact

birth announcement, my morning thoughts, and spring pictures...

Three more kids joined the herd. On sunday Hopli had triplets and they are so adorable! Two does, one white and one grayish brown with dark brown markings, and a big white buck. The buck weighed seven lb. and eight oz. The brown doe weighed five lb. and four oz., and the white doe weighed six lb. two oz. All together Shneahopli was carrying nineteen lb. and four oz. I think that would be alot to hold! They are doing very well. They already want to run and play outside. It is a little cool out this morning so I am going to wait till it warms up a little and I will bring them out in the sunshine today. I took Hopli out to get some grass this morning. It was so pretty out there. The morning sun shining on the dewy grass as she ate. I sat on a stump and sang while out there watching her. One of my favorite songs to sing in the morning is Morning Has Broken. When I sing and give thanks and praise to God, everything that seems so big and overwhelming in this life melts away and I know it no more. I think this has been the most pleasant of springs ever. It is so beautiful and nice outside. David has been getting the fields ready for planting. Lambs and kids are running all around the barnyard. Robins hoping about the garden. Busy birds finding nesting materials. Freshly wash wool drying in the sun and wind. Clothes on the line. Wild flowers in the meadow and woods. Leeks and morels sprouting up in the woods and orchard. Geese trying to set on eggs. Ducks trying finding good nesting spots. Daffy-down-dillies a blooming in the ditch along the road. Crisp frost in the morning covering the freshly plowed earth. Beautiful little pink blossoms on the peach tree. Bright green catkins on the birch trees. Golden dandelions popping up there cheery faces everywhere. Barefeet running everywhere. Buds on the lilac bush. Compost piles steaming in the morning sunlight. New leaves on the rose bush. Bright new leaves on the maples. Forsythia bushes in full bloom. Wild cherry trees clothed in white blossoms like star clusters. Bunches of new onion plants to plant in the garden. Chickens scratching everywhere. Wooded hills covered with new growth. Rivers and streams flowing down where they are directed. Lower and lower still,ever singing, giving water and life to every thing they touch. This is my Father's world! A place that He has made for His pleasure. May every thing that we say, do and think be pleasing to Him. He has made us for His good pleasure.

(I wrote the above at 8:24 AM this morning)

Here are some pictures from today:

my nephew's flowers

planting peas

pounding in a stake

smiling sisters

Fun!

Big Smile!

This morning me and Hannah visited with Rebecca. Daddy,David and the boys had to go to a farm and pick up some bees for David. Hannah and I were going to go to the library but it was closed so we had Daddy drop us of at our sister's. We helped her plant peas and onions in her garden. It was very fun. Then Daddy came and picked up some bales of hay that my sister's husband said we could get. We visited for a little longer then we left. Went to the library and checked out some books. Last night I finished the book "The Meeting Place" by Janette Oke ,and I had to get the sequel. If you are a book worm like me then you know just how it is. When you finnish a good book and it says at the end that there is a sequel to it and that sequel is 9 miles away on a library shelf you just have to get it in the fastest possible time that you can. Then when we got there I saw that there are even more sequels to that sequel so I got three more books all in the same series. On the way home we stopped and got more hay from a neighbor. We are still feeding our animals hay as the grass is still growing.

When we came home I got the clay oven started and mixed up a batch of natural leaven dough. I had taken a little brake from baking bread on the clay oven. The reason why? Well go to this link HERE and you will see something that I made. I was so mad I could not even blog about it at the time. At least someone was able to laugh at what happened! The oven was too hot and I was getting tired as it was getting late in the evening. I put the bread in too soon and that is the result, burnt dough!. In that picture you can see Daddy in the kitchen. He is scraping off the burnt part of the other charred lump of dough.

I hope this time it turns out very well.

I am going to do chicken for dinner. So I must go and get stuff ready for that.... enjoy the spring!