Friday, August 26, 2011

Last Week in the Yard

The sunflowers are all seeding.
The bees have been busy
But even on a misty day the sun can finally come through.

The grape vine was (and is again) full. 
So that this pot of grapes
becomes
this awesome juice.

The goat house is getting a roof.
More coming this weekend.
Come back later.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

The Goats

 The girls are still living in the woods.
Daisy


Sweetpea


Tulip


Violet
She is hard to photograph since she is always running toward me looking for snacks.

This is the beginning of their new house.
Sweetpea and Violet are doing some taste testing. 

FabHub made some progress on the goat house this afternoon.
I told him the poplar wood floor was too pretty to use for a goat house floor.
He agreed, but it is free.
So all is good.
It turns out the rest of the floor is still standing in the woods.
Goat house and firewood all in one package.
This is what he managed to have done by the end of the day.
Like I said it has been a very productive summer.

The goats came by to do a Quality inspection. 
I am not sure where they will spend more time.
Inside or underneath.
They just want a house with a roof - and more apples.

Well except for Violet.
She wants more snacks.
Silly goat.

Sunflowers

The difference from last week's photo doesn't show much height change, but...

August 9
they started blooming, which means they will stay looking East.
Since I usually get these pictures in the afternoon all my pictures have been taken from the West side
to make sure the sun didn't interfere.

Like with this one.
I put the sun directly behind the bloom to get a real sunny flower.

So this morning, August 14, I went out and got a nice picture of the blooms.
By the way, that is a tomato frame on the left and it is about 7 1/2 feet tall.

If you look closely you will see there are some busy bees on those flowers. 

Much like this one. Busy, busy, busy. 

Saturday, August 06, 2011

5 o'clock Rolls and Cherry Nut Bars - Cooking from the Antique Book

Uncle Brad asked Mom for Grandma's cinnamon roll recipe that you punch down several times and let rise overnight and then bake in the morning. Mom found the recipe in a cookbook that seems to be an antique from the Northwest Iowa olden days.

It turns out they are called "Overnight Buns" aka "5 o'clock Rolls" as Mom remembers them being called in Grandma's house for many years. The instructions say to mix the dough at 5 pm and then punch it down every hour until 9 or 10 pm. Then make the buns or cinnamon rolls and put them in the pan to rise until morning.

This is my first attempt at that recipe. To be as authentic as possible to the heritage - I bought lard. And used King Arthur's unbleached flour. Because Lard and good flour could only turn out well. I should have put as much thought into the yeast since I didn't get much rise.
It is a big 10 to 12 cup of flour recipe so I cut it in half, which might have caused a problem too.
.
They didn't get very big, but the finished product does have a wonderful airiness about it. 
And they are very tasty.
I used half of the dough to make cinnamon rolls for the first time too.
Though they tasted great, I need more practice. Lots more practice.
Good thing I have people to share with at work.
In an attempt to warm up the kitchen for the rising dough.
I pulled another recipe from that antique cookbook.
Cherry Nut Bars
They might not look as good as Mom's did, 
but they bring back memories of coffee time snacks out on the farm. 
Dad and Kenny coming in from whatever project they were working on for a cup and a snack.
Maraschino Cherries, Coconut, and Pecans.
Butter and sugar.
Smile.

Friday, August 05, 2011

Friday Toaday

Another accomplishment for the summer.
Remember the big pile of firewood?

That needed to end up in the new wood shed?

IT DID!

See the wheel barrow and the 18 or 19 sticks of wood stacked right above it?
I stacked those. 
Well, I did. Not my fault he did most of that when I wasn't even home.
:)
While I was "helping" FabHub stack the newly split firewood
he decided the biggest piece needed some chainsaw work before it got split.

And the chain needed sharpening.
Then someone decided to help him.
Before I got the camera Mr. Toad was sitting on the heel of FabHub's shoe.

He wasn't entirely happy about the whole wood pile moving situation.
It seems there were some good snacks in that pile.
And then he hopped away.
Then my attention was pulled away from the whole Mr. Toad experience. 
Jake came over to assert himself as the most important subject of the day.
I did get something accomplished when I wasn't helping with the wood. 
The lower half of the front flower bed is cleaned out.
And then it got hot out.
The end.

Tuesday, August 02, 2011

Sunflower Aug 2 update

July 23
Aug 1
Water Us Please!
I did by the way.