Sledding and visiting the Neighbors with Macy

Macy loves going outside with us
and playing . She plays and we work pulling her around. We love it too.

This is where we started.

The "big Hill" all of two foot high. A must when pulling her on the sled.

Making out way to the neighbors house which is set back from the road a few thousand feet. We started paying them visits when we have Macy along so that we get to know each other better.

We made bagels in the morning for Macy and us of course. That seems to be the best thing she likes to eat in the mornings.

After boiling the bagels in water a couple of minutes they are coated with seeds of choice and baked. I like the Cinnamon raisin bagels the best. Macy likes the plain cinnamon.

I was in a bread baking frenzy lately. This is Sweet Corn Raisin bread. I am trying different shapes like these using french baguette pans. A little weird cutting but okay.

I went to a beer and wine supply store this week to buy some malt for the bagels and am intriged with the beer/wine making process. Hey anything with yeast is far game. We will see. I may have to call my Nephew Kevin for some ground work.

Later.

January at our house

Macy and I went out to check out the
food storage and of course we had to
take the four wheeler. Macy loves to
ride and sing and chase rabbits. We saw two and one mouse that ran in a big circle on top of the snow. Macy screamed with delight the whole time.


The can with the turnips and cabbages was well covered but I found them mostly frozen on top anyway. I think that I should have dug deeper. The 3 degree nights didn't help either. I still will use the cabbages . Should make some good meals.

All of this tired out Macy . She fell asleep on the couch early . She is my favorite subject to photograph and I think she is starting to like it.

She fell asleep at a weird angle.

Macy wanted to have breakfast picnic so we set up a table and Gin made it happen. She had her own tea party.

I don't care as long as I get breakfast.

The New Year and Making Bread Again

I am playing catch up with my blog as I seem to be too busy lately to capture the things that are going on in our lives. Christmas was a rush and we finally slowing down again. I purchased a new bread making book and am learning why my baking turns out good sometimes and sometimes not. The book is great ! I never new what temperature the bread should be when done (180-210)and why (the starches burst.....or what resting did while kneading bread. (the gluten relaxes and the dough becomes workable.) I am learning a lot,now if I can just use what I learned to make some good bread.
I made raisin bread. "An enriched" type that is the standard bread that I make every 10 days or so. It is as my grandmother taught me.
The recipe:

5 lbs of Bread Flour
4 cups Milk
1 stick Butter
3/4 cup Honey
2 packages of Sunmaid Baking Raisins..two cups total) I like these because they are moist .
4 large Eggs
2 1/2 tablespoons salt
3 packages of Yeast (3 tablespoons if Dry active kind that I get in 2 pound bulk bags)
3/4 cup of water @ 115 degrees(for proofing the yeast)


In a large measuring bowl, warm the Milk,butter,salt and honey in the microwave until very warm (about 125-135). Add the raisins and set aside.
Place flour in a very large mixing bowl and work a hole in the middle .
Dump the warm milk etc . into the middle of the flour.
Add the yeast to the water and stir. It should start foaming after a short time.
When the milk has cooled down to about 115 but not over 120 degrees add the yeast and start working the flour from around the sides into the middle until it starts to form the dough. It should be wet but not too sticky . Adjust flour and water to reach this goal .
Let rest 10 minutes.
Knead for about 10 minutes until the dough is satiny. From into ball.
Put the ball in the large bowl that has been sprayed with oil and let rise until double .(1 1/2 to 2 hours.)
Deflate the dough and divide into five pieces. This makes it easy to knead each piece. Knead well and form into shape for your pre-greased bread pan. (use Crisco!)
Let rise again until doubled
Bake in pre-heated oven @ 350 for 40 minutes. Check with instant read thermometer to the center of the loaf. Should be about 190-200 degrees.
Remove to racks to cool. Wait at least 20 minutes to cut if you can!




Ginny is busy making purses for her friends. She keeps busy with her sewing and I like to see her doing something she enjoys and is good at.

Late Harvest from the Garden

Hard to believe it but here it is the start of December and we are still getting produce from the garden. I thought that the lettuce was gone but we harvested quite a large container full. This late cold weather crop is the very best too. Sweet and tender. We had one head of cabbage that I left in the garden to see how long it would last ,and it did fine. The turnips will be stored under ground for the winter .

All young and tender lettuce.

Christmas is more fun with children around and Macy had a ball working with Ginny decorating the tree. She had to inspect each bulb .

These are good times that she will remember later and I think that Ginny had as much fun as she did. She found a decoration with two little boys picture on them and was amazed to find out that it was her Papa and uncle Matt.

95 years later.

Ginny's Mom finally got to see the baby this week. The baby is two weeks old and Great Grandma G is almost 95 (5 more weeks or so).
Four generations . We are blessed.

Cutting our Christmas Tree

Hard to believe that it is that time again but we went today to cut our tree. We have a place that is only cut your own . Drive in, pick out your tree and leave $15.00 at the house. Good deal and it was fun taking Macy..everything is fun with Macy along. Here she is posing.

She followed GG around scoping out trees.

We picked out this one,a nice blue spruce. I tried to get Macy to help with the cutting but she" didn't want to get her new coat dirty".

She was a good dragger.

New Member of the Family

We now have a new member of the family...My Grandson Benjamin Hunter. This is his best looking parts . I think that the rest will come along just fine but for now his foot looks good....kinda like a snowshoe shape.

Fall collage of Fun

I just can't blog about everything that I do so here is a small collage of things that have been going on.

Making apple cider,deer hunting ,Macy and Bree spending the night, the cat is growing and becoming part of the mix,Vicky and Steve come on Wednesday nights and the corn harvest across the street. Oh and making bread of course.

Click on photo to enlarge.

Enjoy.

Stocking up the pit storage.

November is half gone and between deer hunting trips I try to keep up with the needs at home. It's been a good month so far. I have one deer in the freezer and Matt has gotten three! I want to go out again before gun season opens on the 15th but Michelle started Labor last night but it is progressing slowly. Can't miss the birth of a grandchild.

We are still slowly digging potatoes as we need them. These are Kenebec

I cut all of the cabbages because I thought that it would stay cold. Here Ginny is taking the wagon full back to the storage pit that Macy and I dug..okay I dug and she played in.

Here is the buried container full of cabbage and not shown is a pile of turnips that a friend gave me.

The trash bin closed up. I did later cover the hole. After this photo I set more bails in front and on top to seal in the bin to keep out the cold and it just looks like a pile of straw. We'll see how this turns out.

Enjoying Life

We so enjoy having our granddaughter over for her overnight visits. We have the time to just sit and contemplate a bug on the window or camping out on the living room floor. I think that it keep us younger when we get to play.

The bug kept her busy for a while and Gin got to have some special time too