once a month cooking / recipe

My New Favorite Cookbook

I borrowed a lot of cookbooks from the library a few weeks back. One of the best ones I tried and ended up buying is Make A Mix. I had never heard of it and stumbled upon it while browsing the freezer cooking manuals. Basically the first half contains recipes for mixes. The section includes dry baking mixes and other mixes that need to be frozen or used right away. Then you turn to the back half and find recipes for all the different meals you can make with each mix. My favorite so far is the Hot Roll Mix. I mix a large batch of the dry mix and then use it make some delicious things like Big Soft Pretzels, dinner rolls, and even Pizza Crust! I did find some good freezer cooking recipes in other books (more about that later) but Make A Mix is a great way to supplement those meals. Like I said, I found it through my library first. I liked it so much that I bought a used copy through Amazon.com pretty inexpensively. By the way, those soft pretzels were a life saver when we decided to go to the church pot luck at

Continue reading
Git 'Er Done 2009

Git ‘Er Done Update

I’ve been busy again…if you’d like more details on any of these projects just let me know! Hopefully this will inspire you somehow. 🙂 Time to update the master list. Red = done last year. Black = to be done. Blue = done in 2009. Bedroom:New bedding (received as wedding gift)Paint walls & ceilingMove closet (tear it out and rebuild in a different spot)New TV (flatscreen – eliminated stand and gave us more floor space)Mount lamp on wallNew trimNew curtainsAdd 2nd clothes rod in closetCover hole for access to pipes (we cut this when changing plumbing in bathroom)Rewire (and new switches/covers)Decorate!Curtain on closetNew light fixtureHeadboardPaint window frames Bathroom sink beforeBathroom:Paint walls & ceilingEliminate old rust stainsNew faucets/hardwareNew shower curtain & rodNew curtain over window (in shower)Curtain around base of sinkRefinish cabinetGet a quote for recoating the tubNew trimNew lightingReplace mirror (or make it look better)Decorate!Rewire (and new switches/covers) Bathroom sink afterOfficeFind Brian a deskGet a deal on a desk chairOrganize/rearrangePaint walls & ceilingDecorate!New lightingNew curtainsRewire KitchenRemoved wallpaper/patched/painted (Thanks Mom!!)Refinished cabinets/rearranged themNew countertopsNew trim (started)New stoveNew (used) dishwasherNew faucetPaint window framesCurtains in front of sink/trashFinish trimBaseboard for long cabinetEnd caps on countertopsPaint baseboard on sinkPaint fridgeHook up range hoodRewireNew lighting Brian

Continue reading
money

Wantin’ & Havin’ It All

So here’s what’s on my mind, or I guess let’s start with why it is there. Today I had a local electrician come out and give us a quote on completely rewiring our house. Remember my post about poor service? Well it is a good thing I had already written about that or I would have yesterday. I have been in touch with 5 electricians and the guy who came out is the only one who even returned my calls!! I have such a hard time believing “there are no jobs” when no one wants to work. Anyway, this electrician is GREAT! It was Dave from Affordable Electric for readers in my area. I spoke with him yesterday and he came right out this morning, showed up early, offered us a reasonable price, and was super friendly. I had no idea what to expect and was guessing it would cost around $3-4 K to rewire our whole house. I was way off – turns out it will cost more like $7,000, and I think that is a pretty competitive rate. I would really like this done because A)I am paranoid about fires now for obvious reasons and B)we would like

Continue reading
heirloom seeds / starting seeds

C’mon Seedlings!

They can make it… I hope. See what happened is I bought a shoplight and 2 plant bulbs way back before I planted my first seeds. I wanted to be prepared. Then I waited until the plants were sprouting and hooked up the light. Of course it didn’t work! Why would it? So plan B involved me going to the hardware store (not where I bought the first light) and finding another light that was supposed to be compatible with my plant bulbs. Luckily this one works. Now I know that my next batch of seedlings will have a good light, I’m just not sure how this first batch will do. As you can see they are awfully spindly and crooked right now from seeking out natural light. I rigged up the light in my closet and plan to plug it in with my Christmas light timer set for 14 hours of light per day. How are your seedlings doing? Anyone care to place bets on whether or not these seedlings will be worth a darn?

Continue reading
sheep

Sheep Update

Lambing season is over on this farm! Our last lamb was born Saturday afternoon. I had to help the mama with this one. I came home from knitting class to find her walking around with 1 foot and a nose showing. I tried to be patient and watched her push quite hard, off and on, for over 30 minutes. Then I decided it was time to step in. First, I felt for the other foot and found it just inside. I was relieved that both front feet were present but knew she still needed help so I consulted Managing Your Ewe. The book helped me figure out that the lamb’s elbows were probably bent and locked. Picture yourself with your hands up by your face impersonating a rabbit. That is basically how the lamb was positioned. What we want is more like a person with there hands up above their head ready to dive into a pool. Make sense? So I sloshed my hands in some disinfectant and felt around for those feet again. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I had to pull really hard on each leg, both of which were very slippery,

Continue reading
fruit trees / garden / garlic / mulch / spring / strawberries

Spring has sprung – here!!!

I’ve been watching jealously as one by one my fellow bloggers have posted pictures of their first spring shoots. Now I can finally join in the fun!! Farm mom inspired me to plant garlic for the first time last fall. I have not yet removed the thick layer of straw that covered the planted cloves all winter. Today I went out to inspect the patch and guess what – the garlic is already growing even through all that mulch! I still didn’t remove it but I pulled back a good section and found several sturdy looking sprouts. How exciting! Then I wandered over to my strawberries. I planted them last spring in a big metal pot that we found when we tore out the bushes around our house. I neglectfully forgot to mulch them over the winter so was prepared to find them dead this spring. They are more durable than I expected. I found several fresh green plants making their start already. Mmmm, I can’t wait for that first batch of jam. I planted two pear trees last spring as well. One tree didn’t even live through the summer but the other is doing well. Check out the little

Continue reading
cleaning

NO BOOTS!

Things are getting rough: in order to keep my sanity, it has come time to enforce two new rules that I’ve been putting off for awhile. Here’s the first one: I made this nifty little sign and taped it up on the door between our entryway and kitchen. I couldn’t think of a better way to get the point across! The second rule is no dogs on the couches. We never let them on our bed but love to cuddle with them on the couch. However, I want this to be a nice house and it isn’t very nice when the couches smell and shed like dogs. I’d love to show you a picture of our two new (used), dog-free couches but they won’t fit in our door so right now they sit in the shop. I’m thinking we may try to bring them in through our big bay window. Oh the joys of farmhouses with narrow doorways! I am looking forward to not having dirty floors (or at least not as dirty). I have tried for a long time to keep shoes off of our nice wood floors but we didn’t care about the linoleum until now. I just

Continue reading
thankful

Wide Awake!

Isn’t it funny how I hit snooze 5 times on workdays and can still barely get up when I have to – and then this weekend I bounded out of bed by 7:30 AM all on my own, with no alarm at all!? My husband likes to say that he can work 14 hours on the farm and not feel as tired as after 8 hours on the clock. This promises to be a productive day and I’ll be back later on to post about it. Just thought I’d stop in and wish every one a good morning! Enjoy your day! 🙂

Continue reading
farming / forward contracting / harvest / planting / spring

My Take On Forward Contracting

This is a little more technical than most of my posts and refers to grain farming. Not sure how many readers raise grain but this is something I learned about that I’d like to share. So basically, we grow the corn, we take it to the elevator, and then we either sell it right away (if prices are good) or we start to incur storage costs on it and don’t sell it until prices come back up. Supposedly, this is the first year in the last 10 where a farmer didn’t make money by storing grain until after the 1st of the year. Of course that would happen during our first harvest year, why not!? So since we are beginning field work and need $$$ to buy fertilizer and seed, we really need the money from last year’s corn. Plus, we don’t want to pay to store it much longer. However, prices are still low enough that I’m not convinced they will even cover the cost of growing that corn. So, there is another option available: forward contracting. Basically, we sell the corn today and a check is mailed to us. The check is for the current price ($3.42/bushel) times

Continue reading
books / pigs

Pigs?

Okay Abbie – this post is your fault! So my interest in pigs has been sparked due to some strong recommendations in the comments section. Plus, to be honest, if I pick up one more book about lambing problems or starting seeds I just might go crazy. This lifestyle is enjoyable but even fun things can get monotonous. Since I can’t bring myself to bring home any animal without reading at least one book about it I’ve purchased a great one about pigs titled Dirt Hog. You can read all about it over at The Beginning Farmer‘s blog because he just got done reading it. Basically it is the only real book I could find that focuses on raising pigs in a more natural setting. I’m not sure that our first pigs will be raised that way but I need to know how pigs might fit in to our farm since we’re in the process of rebuilding our facilities. I am so excited to read this book. Like I said, I just need a change of pace. In other pig-related news, I did call around to see what is available for heritage pigs in Michigan. I found some great folks

Continue reading