In The Kitchen

Ginger Cookies…

Gretchen

These cookies are sort of like the molasses cookies my grandma makes.  They are really good.  I got the recipe out of a Holiday insert in newspaper and tweaked it a little.

Ginger Cookies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose, unbleached flour

2 t ground ginger

1 t baking soda

3/4 t cinnamon

1/2 t cloves, ground

1/4 t salt

3/4 cup coconut oil or plant-based butter

1 cup organic raw sugar (or coconut sugar)

1 egg

1 T water

1/4 cup organic molasses

4 T coconut sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix together flour, ginger, ,baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt.  Set aside.  In a large bowl, cream together coconut oil (or butter) and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in the egg, and then stir in the water and molasses.  Gradually stir the sifted ingredients into the molasses mixture.  Shape dough into walnut-sized balls, and roll them in the remaining 4 tablespoons of sugar.  Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto an ungreases cookie sheet.  Bake 10 minutes in preheated oven.  Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 15 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.  Store in an airtight container.

I noticed when I made these the cookies I baked on my stoneware didn’t rise.  They were my first batch, so maybe the oven wasn’t quite hot enough, or I didn’t cook them quite as long as needed.  However, the ones I did on metal cookie sheets were delicious.

Around the Homestead

Two Weekends of Work…

Gretchen

We had visitors in our pool house last weekend.

To say they destroyed it would be an understatement.  It took Randy and I 4-5 hours and a lot of bleach to get it back up to suitable standards for the cats.

Ruby is still terrified, but slowly coming around day by day.

*That looks like a 6-pack of Sapporo, but is Kombucha bottled in old beer bottles.

Even the other dogs are getting used to having Ruby around.  Thai is a good big brother.

Randy and I saw this awesome barn on our way to a co-workers house hauling him a calf mom and dad sold to him.  It was such an awesome barn, on the way back by I had to stop and snap a couple pictures.

After Randy sheared two llamas and trimmed one of the llamas hooves for some people, we hauled straw out to our lambing pens from a broken round straw bale.  After two pickup loads and a pitch fork we headed up with the tractor the get the third and final load that we will use in some of our smaller lambing pens.

It was so hot in the sheep shed unloading the straw, but we got it done.  Our big sheep shed is all ready for fall lambing.

We also cleaned the chicken coop the day before and got it all stuff with straw for winter.  The chickens were pumped!

 

Around the Homestead, Nutrition

Labor Day Weekend…

Gretchen

I have been planning and scribbling a list of to-dos and purchases to make for Randy and I to get back into some traditional eating (WAP and Nourishing Traditions).  This will include things like:

Dos:

Cod liver oil/butter oil (Green Pastures)

grass-fed raw dairy products

fermented food (homemade sauerkraut)

soaked grains

butter

bone broths

pasture/grass-fed meat (venison, chicken, beef)

local pork (nitrate, nitrite, and msg free)

organic fruits and vegetables whenever available

seafood

organ meats

Don’ts:

coffee (probably the hardest thing on this list to give up, especially going into winter)

alcohol

refined sugars and flours

chemicals and additives

high-fructose corn syrup

soda

hydrogenated oils (use coconut instead)

We’ll see how it goes.  Randy is onboard, but we haven’t started yet.  We hope to add a workout into this plan, P90X, Yoga, stretching, and some treadmill time.  I hope to take my bike to work this week so I have a way to get around other than walking since I am carless due to carpooling.

Today was the last of the heat here (we think).  Our forecast gives us hope fall is on its way and our spirits are reflecting the cooler days predicted ahead.

We did lose a lamb this week to the heat.  We lost a lamb and a ewe earlier this summer due to heat.  We have four lambs struggling and getting doctored right now.  We are in hopes the cooler weather will be the boost they need to get turned around.  It is so hard to see them miserable and struggling in the heat.

We dropped hay yesterday and will continue to feed hay through the winter.  Our pastures are done for the year.  Little rain and blazing hot temperatures were hard on it and left little grass this year and will affect the grass available next year as well.  We need an early spring with sufficient rain to get that grass growing.

I can’t wait to throw open the windows and get some fresh, cool air in our house.  Our cookstove should be here in a few weeks.  We plan to go cut more wood (hedge) Monday.

Ruby is adjusting…everyday she makes progress.  Medically she seems fine.  Socially she has quite a ways to go.  She rode with Randy and I when we hauled lambs to the sale today.  Her head was up and she watched out the windows and walked comfortably across the seat back and forth to each of us.  A big improvement from the cowering little dog plastered to the floorboard like she has been everyday until today.  She still finds the closest corner of the house to hunker down in, but she will get there.  We try to take her with us as much as possible.  She’s going to be devasted when we leave and go back to work.  Thank goodness we had this week off to snuggle with her or her progress would have been even slower.  The other dogs don’t LOVE her, but they tolerate her pretty well considering she is 5 to 8 times smaller than her.  She goes back to the vet Friday to have her staples and stitches removed which means no more cone on her head at night.  She will be pumped about that…Ruby hates her cone!

Take care and have a safe and happy labor day weekend!

 

 

 

 

 

Animals, Around the Homestead

Ruby at Home…

Gretchen

We finally have Ruby home and settling in.  She is still pretty timid, but slowly coming around.

Here is Ruby and Randy at the Bentonville Farmer’s Market in front of Walton’s 5 & Dime before leaving Arkansas.  We had just picked Ruby up from the vet and wanted to see if we could find some fruit, pecans, or something fun as a thank you to mom, dad, and Craig for watching our farm while we were away.  We didn’t find any food, but did meet some really nice people.  One young couple we met asked if Ruby was a Brussels Griffon?  Randy said, “she’s a…we found her along the side of the road on our way from Kansas.”  We looked up Brussels Griffon when we got home and sure enough.  She fits that breed description exactly.

She seemed to feel more at ease inside the kennel than out.  Our three other dogs barking didn’t even phase her.  Did she come from a puppy mill?  Large breeder?  I guess we will probably never know.

We haven’t gotten her to eat solid food yet so I have been feeding her lamb milk replacer through a syringe.  She LOVES it.  This was the only way our got our cat, Max, back on solid food after his bout with pancreatitis, so I thought I would try it.

Not sure she has ever been on a leash.  She hates it, so that may take some training to get her to walk on a lead.

Here is the tongue she uses to lap up the milk out of the end of the syringe.  Everyday we are making a bit more progress.  Hope she continues to improve and warm up to us.

We took her up to see Grandma this morning.  She loves little dogs and loved Ruby.  Once she is a little more active and friendly it will be fun for Grandma.  This visit she was rolled up in the towel like a burrito because of all of her incisions and stitches.

I hope to continue to post on her progress here…and hope there is progress to post!

Books, Video, & Music

Good shopping and reading…

Gretchen

While we were in Arkansas we found a really neat little store called Christian Book Outlet.  They had all sorts of stuff to look at from home decor and t-shirts to bibles, books, and greeting cards.  Randy and I stopped in the Conway, Arkansas store before heading to Pet Smart to look for a collar, leash, and tote for Ruby Thursday night.

I also finished up A Love That Multiplies by Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar.  It was an incredible book about a couple who believe in God and live each day according to His word.  This book takes an even closer look than their first book, The Duggars:  20 and Counting, at how they live their lives according to the bible.

We still have the movie Soul Surfer to watch and hope to watch it this week while we are home on vacation.

As I am typing this I am surrounded by four dogs and my husband who are all taking an afternoon nap.  The only sound besides the whirl of the ceiling fan is our chubby little blue heeler, Ash, trying to catch her breath.  They were outside for a few hours before coming in out of the afternoon heat, and she hasn’t quite recovered from the heat yet.

Happy Monday!

Animals, Around the Homestead

One Hot Summer…

Gretchen

I have said it before and I’ll say it again.  We have had a hot, dry summer and everyone has felt it around our farm.

We have left the dogs inside for days on end because of triple digit weather and even they are getting tired of lounging inside in the a/c.

Ash

Koal

Thai

Even the llamas are feeling the stress of the heat.

Here Lexus is trying to tell us her pool is dry.  It is dry because she has nearly destroyed it laying it, but all she knows is it needs water…now.

Please!!

We have lost a few chickens due to the heat as well.  They are free range, but for some reason don’t always leave the coop which gets really hot in the afternoon and evening.  Hopefully we have seen the last of this 2011 Summer for everyone’s sake.

Have a wonderful day!

Animals, Around the Homestead

Souvenirs…

Gretchen

Everyone buys souvenirs on vacations and trips, right?  Everyone has different tastes, things they like, things they collect, and things that pull on their heartstrings.

Well, here is our souvenir from our trip to Arkansas:

Her name is Ruby and she weighs 9 lbs.  She was running along a busy highway in Kansas on our way to Arkansas.  We got turned around and called her over to us.  Surprisingly, she came running to us as fast as her little legs would carry her.  I grabbed her and ran to the edge of the highway, and Randy noticed as we were coming toward him that she was prolapsing.  We tied a bandana around her like a diaper, called mom to start searching for a vet, and called a nearby friend for a vet recommendation

We found a wonderful large animal vet in a little town in southeastern Kansas who stitched her up to temporarily keep her together until we could get her to a vet who could further diagnose her and kennel her for the duration of our trip.  It was getting late in the afternoon and our hotel would not accept pets, so we stopped at the first vet we found who was open.  The vet and her assistant were so nice and willing to help us out.

We knew she was prolapsing, had an ear infection, and was going to have to be vaccinated just by looking at her.  As the tests progressed so did her list of problems.  They are estimating she is 7-10 years old, but did say it is really hard to tell once a dog is passed the age of two.  She needed 3 surgical procedures to correct a hernia, spay her, and correct the problem causing her to prolapse, part of which was the spaying.  She has a bucket of meds to take care of the incredible infection she had growing inside of her.

It was concluded this little girl only had a day or two left before she would have died.  We dropped her off on Thursday and went back to visit her Friday afternoon after her surgeries.  She was already sort of drugged in the picture above from being temporarily stitched up.  When we saw her after her surgeries she was groggy and scared, but still as cute as she can be.

 We absolutely did not need another dog and everytime we find a dog in need we say, “at some point we are going to have to look the other way.”  However, we just can’t keep driving.  We just can’t look the other way and go on about our lives as if we never saw it.  It is just not the way we are built for better or worse.

Tomorrow morning we will pick up our little gremlin-looking dog with a cone on her head and head to Eureka Springs to do some outdoor sight-seeing.  In the meantime we have a shopping trip planned for a little pink collar, a little pink leash, and possibly a little tote to carry her around in so she doesn’t have to walk after everything she has been through.

Some people have shot glasses, refrigerator magnets, or t-shirts…..we have dogs someone decided they didn’t need anymore or were too much trouble.  We love each one we find as much as the last!

Animals, Around the Homestead

Finally Some Cooler Weather…

Gretchen

 We had a few days of cooler weather and used our new grill to cook and spend some time out back with our dogs…and our llamas.

Due to the drought our grass is really short and since Lexus and Celia are pregnant and Sylvia is still growing we decided to let them on the backyard where the bermuda has gone crazy.  They loved it and spent most of the weekend out grazing on it.

The new grill has a temperature setting which allows me to bake on it…which I did.  I baked a couple loaves of banana bread on it this afternoon.

Randy put a homegrown chicken I had marinated in a lime marinade and baked beans on the smoker.  They were awesome.  We couldn’t believe how good everything tasted.  We had cut some mulberry wood that morning to use in the smoker and hopefully this winter in the wood cookstove we have on order.

I think Hank felt a little left out with all the girls on the backyard, so we let him out the gate so he could eat leaves off the elm trees and graze all the grass just outside the lots.  He was pumped.

The break from the heat was nice, but we are gearing up again for another hot streak.  Hope everyone stays cool.

Uncategorized

Lemonade and Marinade…

Gretchen

Okay, not sure why this didn’t post last time (thank you Tannis), but here we go again….

I was in the kitchen this morning for a little bit and thought I would share the recipes with you.

Lemonade-Fresh Squeezed:

1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

1/2 cup raw sugar, preferably organic

Combine sugar and lemon juice in 2 quart pitcher and fill to 2 quart mark.  This isn’t really sweet and can sweeten to your liking.  We are trying to cut back on the sugar in our diet.  Next I’m going to try a honey-sweetened recipe I found.

Next I marinated some shrimp.

Lime Marinade:

1/2 cup fresh squeezed lime juice

1/2 cup coconut aminos (soy sauce if you prefer)

1/2 t dry mustard

3-4 garlic cloves

Combine and pour over chicken, shrimp, or fish in gallon storage bag.

We grilled the shrimp and it was delicious.  We purched a new grill/smoker and so far LOVE it.  We had hoped to brick in an outdoor kitchen, but it was just going to cost too much.  The grill works perfectly, and we hope to have a sink and food prep area added to the backyard soon also.

Happy Saturday!