Around the Homestead

New Year’s Eve Fencing (Do you see a pattern here?)

Gretchen

The first section of fencing we tore out and put up new was the west side.  Here we have moved on to the north side.

This was a pretty long section of fence to stretch, but with the pickup in 4-wheel drive we didn’t need the tractor.

Then we clipped it.

It was so beautiful out there.

It was a beautiful day early on, but the wind soon picked up.  We finished up the whole north side in a day and headed inside for an early-to-bed New Year’s Eve.

Happy New Year!

In The Kitchen

Green Smoothies…

Gretchen

I am trying to add more greens to our diet and one way I have started doing that is by adding green smoothies to our daily routine.

Let me say I am neither a raw foodist or a vegan, however, I like to try new things and branch out a bit in life.

Below are some of the recipes I have tried from the book Green for Life by Victoria Boutenko or her website.

My personal favorite:

Valya Boutenko’s Green Smoothie:

Handful of spinach leaves

1 apple with core, no stem

1 banana

½ mango (peeled)

½ pear (cored)

Strawberries with tops

½ cup Water

Blend well.  Add kiwi and strawberry to edge of glass for garnish.

Sergei Boutenko’s Green Smoothie:

½ mango

1 banana

Couple strawberries with tops

5 kale leaves

Water

Blend well.

Kiwi Enjoyment:

Blend well:

4 very ripe kiwis (green or golden)

1 ripe banana

3 stalks of celery

2 cups water

Yields: 1 quart of smoothie

#13:

1 cup frozen blueberries

1/4 lb spinach

1 orange (peeled)

1 cup water

Blend well.

and this smoothie is from the Natural News website and was delicious too:

http://www.naturalnews.com/025752_superfoods_smoothies.html

Be sure to rotate your greens and don’t get stuck in a rut using the same veggie everyday.

There are a few of her “savory” smoothie recipes I would like to try.  I will post them here as I try them.

Give it a try!  They really are pretty good.

Uncategorized

Oreo Cheesecake…

Gretchen

Absolutely unhealthy, but pretty tasty!

Oreo Cheesecake

4 (8oz) packages cream cheese

1 package Cool Whip

1 t vanilla extract

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter (melted)

Finely crush 2 rows of oreos.  Melt butter and mix with oreos to form crust in a rectangle casserole dish or 9×13 cake pan.  Coarsely crush 1 row of oreos.  Mix cream cheese, Cool Whip, vanilla, and sugar.  Fold in oreos.  Spread over crust.  Chill.

In The Kitchen, Preserving the Harvest

Pickled Garlic…

Gretchen

I used the recipe out of Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon to preserve some garlic cloves I bought in bulk.

Pickled Garlic

about 12 heads of garlic

2 t dried oregano (preferably organic)

2 t sea salt

2 T liquid from previous ferment (can use 2 t of additional sea salt if you don’t have a previous ferment)

1)  Place garlic heads in the oven at 300 degrees until heads open and cloves can be easily removed.

2)  Place cloves in a wide-mouthed quart jar.

3)  Add oregano, sea salt, starter liquid or additional salt and cover with filtered water leaving at least 1 inch headspace below the top of the jar.

4)  Cover tightly and keep at room temperature for about 3 days before placing in refrigerator.

Try to find a warm, undisturbed place to set this. 

Now I can grab a couple cloves, crush ’em, and toss ’em into whatever dish I am preparing.

Animals

Oops She Did it Again…

Gretchen

After Crooked Neck had her last batch of babies, triplets, and it nearly ended her little life…Dad decided he wasn’t going to breed her again.  Well, boys are boys and Romanovs are fertile little sheep which leads us up to today.

You can barely see the little guy since it was starting to get dark.  She had a bouncing baby boy…3/4 Romanov.

It was pouring down rain in the night, but when mom and dad found her she have him tucked up underneath her.  She was standing over him trying to keep him as dry as she could.  She is such a good mama!  She is truly amazing!

They are both just as cute as they can be and both mama and baby are doing great!

CN is a miracle…this is her fourth or fifth time laming.  Her stats include two sets of twins, one set of triplets and one or two singles.  Most said she’d never live…”a day”…”a week”…”until next year”…”she’ll certainly never survive lambing.”  We’ve heard it all haven’t we CN.  At yet she has another notch on her belt and beautiful little guy she protects with a mama’s passion.

Here’s to every living creature out there who isn’t quite “perfect” in the eyes of man…remember we are all “perfect” in the eyes of God.

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Around the Homestead

Isabella’s Big Night…

Gretchen

Okay, so I don’t have any pictures of Isabella (our little cousin) but we did live stream her Christmas program in North Carolina and invited Grandma down to watch it.

Our internet wasn’t quite fast enough, but we got the jist of it and Grandma was a trooper to deal with the skips and pauses.  She was just amazed by the fact we could sit in our family room in Kansas and watch Isabella perform live in North Carolina.

Ruby was barking her head off and being a little freak show, so I picked her up and snapped a picture of her to calm her down.

See…

I don’t really think it calmed her down any, but we got a funny picture out of the deal if nothing else.

Have a wonderful Monday!