Month: June 2010

Had a nice time outside tonight… fed the horses, weeded in the garden for awhile, went out and did chores.  I gathered the eggs and put them in the front pockets of my scrub top.  I was just finishing up and grabbed for the chain to close the gate.  Little did I realize that when I had unhooked the chain I carelessly let it flop over the electric fence wire…so when I grabbed it I got a big jolt.  The funny part was that one of the dogs, forever at my heels, was sniffing my leg and got the shock too.  So I yell and jump back and the dog yelps and runs off. Can’t wait to tell Brian the fence sure does work good now!  We were having some trouble with it so I weed whacked all around it last week.  Too bad I didn’t touch the fence before the weeds were gone.  So what do you think, do those eggs in my pockets qualify as fried now!?  ;D

Brian called from the barn to say that if I wanted a good Sunday Stroll picture I should go out on the porch… stunning. Too see who else is strolling today visit Quiet Country House.

In my quest to become the perfect wife (*cough*) I have baked perfect loaves of bread, concocted fruit pies, and whipped real cream in to our favorite desserts.  I must admit, though, that the simple chocolate chip cookie has alluded me.  My cookies were always hard and crispy and, often, too thin.  They were hardly the savory, chewy pieces of heaven that they were supposed to be.  Until now… Somewhere over the last few months I’ve mastering the art of baking these little guys.  I made a full batch tonight and they turned out great.  I follow a basic recipe from the back of my Spartan brand chips titled “Real Chocolate Chip Cookies”: 2 1/4 cups flour 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1 cup butter 1/2 cup sugar 3/4 cup brown sugar 2 tsp vanilla extract 2 eggs 1 12 oz. package semi-sweet chocolate chips Perfect cookies start out with butter at the right temperature.  It really needs to sit out in a warm room beforehand.  Microwaving will leave you with some melted and some still cold.  Whipping up cold butter will not give you the right texture. I mix the cookies in one bowl by first beating

This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesdays over at We Are That Family. As a part of my cleaning routine I like to tackle two rooms each morning.  Doing two rooms each day six days a week means no room has to go for more than a few days without a thorough cleaning.  Here’s the rotation that works for our house: Monday – Bedroom and Bathroom Tuesday – Kitchen and Entryway Wednesday – Living Room and Office Thursday – Bedroom and Bathroom Friday – Kitchen and Entryway Saturday – Living Room and Office (or switch Office for Spare Bedroom) Sunday – Day of rest! With this rotation the main living areas are tidied for the weekend when we are most likely to get visitors.  My only downfall is that Wednesday is my early day at work and I never seem to build up the gusto after work to clean like I would in the morning.  This is bad because Wednesday is the day I tackle the kitchen which is by far the toughest to maintain.  It still works out pretty well though. I love having a schedule like this.  It keeps me focused and helps me to avoid

Remember last year?  My Mom and sister and I teamed up to make our jam for the whole year.  This year I took the idea to our church instead.  Our church is always looking for new fellowship ideas and  I was hoping the event would draw people in.  The thought was that I would bring my berries and supply the sugar and know how to anyone who wanted to can some of their own.  Here are a few notes on how things went: Attendance – myself and 4 others Strawberries used – approximately 20# whole, uncleaned Pints produced – 23 Time from start to finish – about 4 hours The cleaning went very fast – maybe a half hour to an hour.  There was a bit of a downtime after that until we had several batches going back to back.  Next time it might be better to start a few batches right away before the cleaning is done. You can never have enough tubs for everyone to put their scraps in. On the stove we had a canner, and small saucepan with lids, and two pots of jam going at once.  We started with only one pot of jam so

The dog beds are all in the laundry…. … so the dog is in the laundry too!  This is what I found when I woke up. And this, from the other day… I was putting away laundry and the cat thought he would climb in the drawer, to help, I’m sure… How have your pets been amusing you lately?

Pretty generic title, I know.  Not feeling creative I guess! 🙂  Just figured I should post something until I get around to putting up something better.  Here’s a few of the latest: Our Buckeye rooster died, and no we didn’t do it on purpose.  He lost his voice which was sadly quite amusing until it progressed to a respiratory problem that took him pretty fast.  Luckily, we had him separated with our 2 Buckeye hens and had been saving their eggs for a couple weeks.  The eggs started hatching yesterday.  So far we have 9 chicks with at least one more trying to hatch.  I did put a few Buff Chanteclers in there too but not that many.  Hopefully we’ll get at least one Buckeye Roo.  The one that passed was so mean to the hens that we were planning to butcher him anyway.  I’ve seen some really nice ones so hopefully that was a fluke. Look for a garden update in one of my next posts.  On one hand I’m being a slacker because I still haven’t planted any corn, beans, or carrots.  If I don’t do it soon it will be too late for corn.  On the other