Bread of Life

Growing up Catholic I was surrounded by many metaphors about bread.  I would hear sayings such as, "bread of life," "breaking bread," and "bread from heaven".  That's the tip of the iceberg.  Do an online search for bread in the Bible and you will get hundreds of results.  And it is not just Judeo-Christian faiths that make reference to bread, but Islamic religions as well.  And it makes sense.  Bread has been eaten by humans for thousands of years.  

All you need for unleavened bread is really just water and wheat.  It probably wasn't long for ancient civilizations to figure out that if you leave flour and water by the window, it gets airy and bubbly, and now your bread is rising.  The art of baking bread as been passed from generation to generation for thousands of years to this very day.

I probably love home-baked bread because of my Mother.  She always told me she enjoyed baking.  It was something special that she shared with her mother.  And to this day, my Mom still uses the same vintage yellow Kitchen-Aid blender my Grandmother bought in the 1960's.  As a child, I used to turn up my nose at the color of that Kitchen-Aid.  Now about 50 years later it is back in style!  One of my best memories from my childhood is my mother baking a cinnamon-braid twist.  Oh, it was so delicious, I could barely wait for it to cool so I could start eating it!  

Now as an adult, I want to continue baking my own bread. There is nothing better than that sweet yeasty smell wafting through my house.  Not to mention, the smile on my husband's face when he realizes I am baking some bread.  Also, there is something about doing the exact same motions that my grandmother did that makes me feel a spiritual connection to the earth.

I usually bake Oatmeal-Molasses Bread from William Sonoma's The Essentials of Baking.  I use this recipe because it is sweet, light, and fool-proof.  I have never failed to make it rise and I am sure you all will have a lot of success with it.  It even worked when a goat walked into my kitchen, which can be highly distracting!

Oreo, what are you doing in my kitchen??

Is that fresh bread I smell?

Goats in the kitchen... that would never happen to Martha Stewart!

This post is dedicated to my Mom.  I love you!

Here we go!

Many of you may recall my New Years Resolutions' about a month ago.  If not, you can catch up on it here.  

To get a kick start on some of these items, I used my sweet persuasion skills to convince my best friends that what I wanted most in the whole world is a window framing lesson.  So when my Birthday came around last Monday, they came by with a 6-pack of hard apple cider (Did I mention they are my best friends?).

Off to our favorite Ace Hardware store to pick out some trim and buy supplies.  About a $100 later and a cart full of goodies we were ready to get started!

First, a "Before" pic:

And now an "In Progress":

And TA DA!

.....

Just kidding! We didn't finish that night.  Hey, I never said we were perfect!  

This was our learning curve window and some of the trim was cut too short and Ace had already closed for the evening.  Don't worry, I promise I will post a picture of it once we have it all completed.

Not to be discouraged, we decided to start Item # 8 on my list: remove the wood paneling from the wall in the living room.   The tricky part about this item is that I wanted to preserve the wood mantle in front of the fireplace.  

This is where I got a little scared.  Out comes the circular saw!  The plan was to cut just around the mantle and remove it carefully.  Then, we could pop the wood paneling pieces carefully from the mantle.  

It was loud!  And it made the room smell like burning wood.  Not to mention that sawdust went flying every where! 

"SW SW SW SW SW SW SW SW!!"

Look at how thick that paneling is!  Nice stuff, eh?  Hopefully it doesn't come back in style in about 10 years.

And now!

So where do we go from here?  We will continue removing the panels, baseboard, and molding.  Set some structural bracing for a TV over the fireplace.  Then run some electrical and low-voltage wires for the TV while the walls are open.  Last, we will sheetrock, tape, paint, and add some moulding.  We may or may not add some granite tiles over the brick.  We'll see how our pocketbooks feel when we get there. 

But the best part came at the end, when we found the treasures behind the mantle.  These are the little bonuses you get when you buy an old home.

A nail file, a button back, a fishing hook, and a business card

But the best treasure was this one.

This picture is dated 1954 a few years after our house was built.

Now, how cool is that?

Birthday Present

WOW!  What a wonderful holiday weekend!  Not only did we get a day off, but it also happened to land on my B-day.  Happy 29th Birthday to me!  And what did I get for my B-day?  The best thing ever, a new camera!
Now I can pretend I am photographer and take pics like these of our property:

Our Red Barn

I just happen to find this little hidden gem the other day

Miss Butters

Missing her Goat Momma... aka Kevin

Hope you enjoyed these as much as I enjoyed taking them.  I think I will do one more post by the end of the week.  I am on a roll!

Love is in the Air

This is the time of year when every one takes a moment to tell that special person how they feel.  It doesn't matter if you've been together a week, 5 years, or 75 years that buzz of romance can be felt pulsing through air.  This weekend we had the honor of being invited to our good friends, David and Nancy's wedding in Mendocino, CA. There was something about the beautiful setting of the Mendocino coast that made you feel love like an electric current.  And for some reason, that Tom Jones song was playing on repeat in my head throughout the weekend: 

"Love is in the air everywhere I look around, 

Love is in the air every sight and every sound .... 

Love is in the air, in the whisper of the trees, 

Love is in the air in the thunder of the sea... 

And I don't know if I'm being foolish 

I don't know if I'm being wise  

But it's something that I must believe in 

And it's there when I look in your eyes." 

-Songwriters: PENNINGTON/LEMAIRE

Here are some pictures of the some happy couples feeling the love!

And now the Groom!

And the Bride walking in with her Father!

Everyone here at Blue Antler Farm is feeling the love and wants every one to have a wonderful Valentines' Day.  Reach out and tell someone you love them!

New Years' Resolutions

Hi All!

Sorry I have been gone for so long, sometimes life gets ahead of you and it takes some time to catch up.  Due to some financial restrictions there hasn't been too much DIY at the house.  But that doesn't mean we haven't been busy! Since I last wrote to you all both Harley and Ellie have had surgery to remove some unwanted items, the goats have both had their copper bolus, the tree house has fallen down, and Harley has gotten skunked.  Our first Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years has come and gone.  And we continue to plan crazy new ideas for 2013.

So here is my list of New Year's Resolutions... Don't laugh at me because it is February, like I said we have been busy!

1. I want to put up a blog post every week.  Even if it is just to say hi, I want to connect with you guys and let you know what we are planning.
2. I will finally get those hyper links to work at the top of the blog.  Someone please send over an IT genius because I really have no idea how to do it.
3. I am hoping we have the land on our property clear of all brush, debris, and fallen tree houses by Spring.
4. Chicken coop and at least 6 chickens.
5. I hope to of at least have found a stud for one of the goats and to have our First Freshener by early 2014.
6. Finally finish painting the interior of the house (includes removing chicken wallpaper from the kitchen).
7. I plan to put new trim around all the windows and doors, new baseboards, and crown molding in the house.
8. I would also like the wood paneling in the living room removed.
9. Some new living room furniture would be nice!
10. Last but certainly not least, I hope to have a summer vegetable garden and actually eat from it!

I know this is a pretty ambitious list, but let's see where we are at next January (February) 2014!

Wishing everyone a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

~Blue Antler Farm

Dirty Water

Disaster has struck AGAIN!  Thank goodness we still have our home warranty, because problems keep creeping up.

Both times it has had to do with our plumbing.  About a month ago, any time water went down a drain, such as the laundry washer, kitchen sink, toilet, bathroom sink, etc, it would flow right through and out the overflow and into our bathtub!  Brown stinky water!  So we couldn't go to the bathroom, wash our dishes, take a shower, or do the laundry for about a week in fear that the water would flood the bathtub and end up on our floor.  Turns out that roots have taken over our plumbing.  And of coarse, because we take a picture of everything, here is a picture of the dirty roots and the mess the plumber made of my laundry room floor.

Believe it or not, the plumber created a bigger mess.  He was a little aggressive with the roto-rooter and cracked our pipe in the garage.  So this time, instead of water flowing into our bathtub, it poured right onto the garage floor.  Nasty, smelly, brown, and greasy water.  The water has since dried, but there is an oily film all over the garage floor.  I have no idea how to clean that up.  Suggestions?

Look at what the Plumber did!

I was fairly certain that I was in the clear with these plumbing problems, but oh no!  Here comes another one!

This last weekend we walk into our bathroom and the floor is completely wet and flooded.  Where was the water coming from this time?  The toilet.

So I did the only thing I could do, called the warranty people and had a glass of wine.

Botched Batches

So last January, I made a batch of soap and it came out so silky smooth!  The Hubby and I have been loving using it in our showers and smelling so sweet.  The ingredients I used are coconut oil, palm oil, soybean oil, olive oil, and beeswax.  Doesn't that sound amazing?  And it smelled lovely, like oatmeal and honey.

Did you know that Glycerin (made naturally during the soap-making process) is worth more than a bar of soap?  So the large soap makers take the natural glycerin out of their soap, sell it, and then sell you a bar of soap without it! They make out like bandits, selling two products from one process.  When you make your own home-made soap you keep all that glycerin to help smooth and moisturize your skin.

If you take the 20-30 minutes to make your own soap, you will have enough for about 6 months, you will smell great, and your skin will feel SO soft.  This generally costs us somewhere around 3 dollars a bar of soap. Which seems like a lot if you are comparing it to something you buy at Target, but the quality is closer to a luxurious bar from France which would run you anywhere around 6-12 dollars a bar.

A picture from my last successful batch

But unfortunately, this post is not about what a wonderful soap-maker I am.  It is about the virtue of patience and how I don't have it.

We were down to the last few bars of soap so I bought all the ingredients I needed, suited-up and started my cold-process soap. I began by carefully measuring my oils and heating them up.  While they were getting to temperature I started to prepare my lye.  Lye makes me nervous.  It is one of the most caustic materials on the planet and you need to treat it carefully.  Unfortunately, when I get nervous, I get stupid.

For example, I know that the oils has to be around 120-140 degrees when you add the lye.  And even though I have a thermometer clearly telling me it is 180 degrees,  I still added the lye so I could be done with it.  It immediately started to get stiff, almost seizing, so I poured it into my molds.

I pulled out my vinegar to clean my work site and when I returned to my soap it looked like a throbbing volcano.  It was growing and bursting in the middle.  I was actually worried that it was going to grow and expand right out of the molds and onto my table, which would not of been good because it takes a few hours for all the lye to be converted to soap.  At least it didn't look like this.  What a mess!

This is after it had cooled down and my little volcano collapsed

So I tossed my whole batch and will try again next weekend.