Spring Has Sprung (A Leak!)

Yes, it's raining on the 'wet coast' . +7 celcius. This morning was so gloriously sunny though that I have no complaints. I got my visiting teaching done in record time, found out there was a lien on Steve's van from somebody several years ago and about 4 owners previously (advice to everyone...do a lien search before buying any car!!) Fortunately the people in question are in good standing with their bank and so the lien can be removed with nothing more than some paperwork being faxed back and forth. Phew! That's a relief, I had visions of the bank coming and just taking the van which of course they could do legally. Spent all afternoon on the phone getting it all worked out. Glad that's nearly over though.

My sister Alex is expecting her baby 'Emily Moira Jessie Roberts' any time now, well in the next couple of weeks anyway. She's going to be a big one by the looks of it. My sister and I spoke about cloth diapers. I'm a big fan and she's going to try them out. It'll save her lots of money even if she uses them part time and uses disposables when they are going out. You can see more information in an article I wrote several years ago at www.gabbys.net/zencart/clothdiapers_disposable.php Let me know what you think. I've got lots of experience with cloth diapers of all sorts and am always interested to know others thoughts and advice. Personally I love motherease diapers and found them to be practical and durable. I like Gabby's too. Both are Canadian companies but sell worldwide.

In The Garden

Life at the ol' homestead rolls on as usual. I'm critically eyeing the weather and deciding if it's too early to start seedlings indoors yet. My bare root apple trees are here and will be planted in their boxes in the next week. They are all looking good and many thanks to Harry Burton of Applelucious Orchards. Also in the plans now are soft fruit bushes. Berries. We're going to get blueberries, gooseberries, thornless blackberry (yes we have 3 types of wild ones here but I want to see what a difference cultivated berries make) raspberries and some strawberries. All of these will grace the beds and planters on the deck due to predation from our free ranging chickens. I'm going to try for 2-3 varieties of each plant to see what really works for me. Ones I love can always be duplicated by taking cuttings and since I know I have to move in a year or so, that's more practical. Oh, I also ordered a male kiwi vine to compliment our 2 girls. I still have a lot of trimming to do but I'm going to wait for a cold day so that the sap will drip less. If you cut a kiwi vine in spring or summer it can bleed ie. drip sap for quite a while. It won't hurt the plant and it can usually heal itself in a few minutes but I have had mine go for hours in the spring before. Don't panic. You can use a styptic or wait for nature to heal it. My roses and other perennial bushes are trimmed and I'm just waiting for a chance to get out and trim my grape vines. I'll try to root some of the cuttings again to add to last year's compliment. If I end up with too many I guess I could always sell them.

Chicks.

We had 3 healthy chicks hatch 10 days ago and one who wasn't healthy so she was put to sleep. I think some of the other eggs we put in may have been frozen or over chilled so I was much more vigilant about collecting eggs right away this time. There are eggs in the incubator again and we'll hopefully get more chicks to keep their friends company. The current batch is in a shaving lined box with a waterer, feeder, and heat lamp. They're starting to get out now and explore the bathroom floor so I have to watch out for little mini-poops. Ick! Thank goodness it's tile and easy to clean!

Our Wheat Mill Arrives

I got my Family Grain Mill this past weekend and tried it out as soon as I got home. It is a hand mill that clamps on to the counter top and it makes lovely flour the first time so you don't have to run it through twice like with some other hand mills. And the bread tastes wonderful. To top it all of I'm getting my flabby arms in shape by turning the handle everyday to grind fresh wheat. Yum! For anyone interested, here's my recipe for

60% whole wheat honey bread.

Ingredients

• 2 envelopes yeast
• 4 cups water
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 6 cups whole wheat flour
• 4 cups white flour

Directions

1. Dissolve yeast in water.
2. In a large bowl, combine butter, molasses, honey and salt and mix well.
3. Add yeast mixture and then gradually add flours.
4. Turn onto floured surface and knead until smooth. Or alternately place in your bread maker and run it through the first kneading cycle twice.
5. Place in buttered bowl and let rise until double.
6. Punch down and let rest for a few minutes.
7. Divide dough into 4 parts and shape into loaves.
8. Place in greased pans and let rise for about an hour.
9. Bake at 375* for 35 to 40 minutes.
   
10. My oven cooks hot so I do the following: Place loaf pans on the lowest rack for 30 minutes at 325* Your best bet it to experiment with your oven. A loaf is done when you tap it on the bottom and it sounds hollow. If you can control your oven to have just bottom heat it will prevent the top crust from over browning.
    

There you have it! It makes 4 loaves by the way so enough for most people for a week. Enough for our family for 2 days at most. This is a good easy recipe to make and for getting your family used to whole wheat. Tomorrow I'll post my 100% Whole wheat bread. Guaranteed to keep you regular so start out slowly eating this if you're not used to it. Oh, thanks to recipezaar for this recipe. :) Oh, one thing I get asked is about consistency of dough, too wet, too dry etc. Lots of things affect that like the season, moisture in the air gets picked up by your flour and if it's a dry winter flour loses moisture. Start out with the freshest flour you can, use good fresh or dried active yeast at room temperature, and judge the dough by feel. It should feel smooth and silky once kneaded. In a bread maker it should feel a little softer than you'd have if you were kneading it by hand. I'll confess that I only use my bread maker for kneading the dough if I'm busy. I'm not sure I've ever used it for baking as I don't like the results I've eaten before. Maybe it's just me though.

All this talk of bread is making me hungry so I'm off to start a new batch. Bye!

5 hours later.....

Well, didn't get bread made yet due to other pressing family matters but did enjoy a nice evening out with my hubby as we had to move date night this week due to our grand-daughters birthday dinner being on Friday which is our traditional date night. We went to the Rod N' Gun Cafe again for dinner. A favourite haunt of ours. Their 4 course meals are $18 per person during the week and the food is scrumptious. Had Antipasto, Tuscan Caesar salad, grilled lamb shops in a fig and balsamic reduction with yellow beets, yellow and orange carrots, red peppers and cheddar chipotle mashed potatoes, with chocolate souffle for dessert. Yum! The kids ate at home (obviously) and had baked burritos (the bean and cheese frozen kind) topped with cheese and salsa plus onion rings. They said it was delicious. It's a good cheap meal if you can buy a large packet of burritos or make some and then just put them in a pan and cover with toppings and bake. We can usually make this meal for $8. Today the cost was $5 and we used up some cheese that was getting a little dry around the edges. Sometimes we top with peppers and onions or crumbled bacon..anything that'll work that's leftover in the fridge. I'm thinking of writing a book including recipes to make on a budget. What do you think? Well, now I've blown my dating budget for the month, I'm off to bed. Got up WAY TOO EARLY this morning so an early night is in order. Just got to turn he eggs in the incubator and check the temperature. Goodnight!