hands down, the Big Brother Of The Year Award goes to...

a few weeks ago i was browsing through our local Ben Franklin and came across a pattern to make a horse swing. on impulse, i bought it and brought it home to show Dave and G. my next step was a trip to Lowe's to buy all the lumber and materials necessary to complete the swing.

i then gave the pattern to G, and asked him to make the swing for the girls. along with a 6' piece of treated lumber there was a pile of nuts, bolts and washers, a dowel rod or two and a mop head. G was happy to tackle this project for his little sisters, and with a minimum of instruction and involvement from Dave and i he had soon finished the project.

the girls have already had many happy hours swinging together, and i see lots more swinging in our future for the summer! they both know that G made the swing for them, and they were so sweet in their thankfulness, making sure to give him a hug and a cheerful "thank you, G!" when i put B on the horse, she will pat the mane and say "G!"

I'm proud of G. he built the swing, and he built it well. but more importantly, he loves his sisters and shows them every day how special they are to him.

that is one of the greatest gifts that he can give these two little girls who love and admire their big brother.

and it's a wonderful gift for his mother, too. it warms my heart whenever i see him being tender and thoughtful to his baby sisters. it shows what a kind heart he has. and that makes me even prouder!

remember when i told you that happy pigs make sweet pork?

it seems like yesterday when they were sweet little babies. Pig and Spot were content to just root around, hunting for roots and grubs. they were happy whenever i came to visit, and thrilled with whatever i gave them.

but then as they got bigger, they were more demanding, requiring more and more of my time and attention.

before long, they were all grown up, eating us out of house and home.





so i took care of that, and showed them just who really was the boss around here. i guess i fixed them!




i couldn't decide what to make for dinner, so we had ham steak AND bacon.

home made honey wheat bread and freshly laid eggs. a simple country meal fit for a king. (Spot the pork was delicious!)

Happy Mother's Day!

we had a relaxing day today, and i was glad to spend some time with my family. M is home from college now, and we're sure glad to see her again. G is away in Georgia until tuesday. i will be glad to have the family back together soon.

baby B presented me with a sprig of lilacs. she handed them to me with a smile and said "happy mother's day, mama"

i hope that your day was lovely, surrounded by the poeple you love, doing things that you enjoy!

Mary Poppins would be proud!

right outside our kitchen window we have several bird feeders. we can easily see the them in the morning while we're eating breakfast and drinking our coffee. watching the birds is a nice slow start to the day, which seems to be just what i need as I'm getting older!

some of the feeders are your traditional hanging variety, but we also scatter some of the feed on some of our *abundant* rocks. we even have a rock "bowl" that seems especially attractive to the cardinals and blue jays. mostly we just feed our birds black oil sunflower seeds, as that seems to be what they really like. there is also a little suet hanger, regular bird seed, corn still on the cob, and the high protein turkey feed that we are giving to the meat chickens. (any guesses as to who spread that around out there?)


A and B both enjoy standing at the window and looking at the birds. A can identify a handful of birds, and since she's not yet 3 years old, i think that's pretty impressive!

here is a list of what we've seen so far this spring:

*white breasted nuthatch
*starling
*cardinal
*gold finch
*purple finch
*mourning dove
*cow bird
*tufted titmouse
*blue jay
*squirrel
*chipmunk
*chickadee
*common flicker
*downy (hairy?) woodpecker
*lots of little brown birds that we haven't identified yet

i know that's not a list that would make the heart of an ornithologist go pitter-pat, but it surely is colorful! a few weeks ago, we had flocks of finches eating at the big rock. many times there were more than 40 gold and purple finches gathered to eat. all the birds like the mulberry tree, and will retreat to the safety of its branches whenever they are startled.

i love living here in the country, and i like that i can enjoy something so simple with my family at mealtimes. it seems that the simple things of life are what we enjoy and treasure most.

Simplicity and Joy

~contentment in a little blue bottle

an easy bread recipe for you to try!

our family enjoys home made buns. especially when i serve them with strawberry freezer jam! yummy~ it doesn't get much better than that.

i have a bread recipe given to me by a friend. we call it our "official bread recipe" because it was given to her by her mother-in-law. who just so happens to be Polish. and their Polish last name, when translated into English, means "bread".

so, like i said, it's the "official bread recipe". (you can't really get more official than that, can you?) first, proof your yeast in the milk and sugar.

now, i was just kidding about the mandatory Kitchen Aid Mixer. "my" mixer is really M's (who is away at college) but she is generous in letting me use it while she's gone. it is really super easy to make this bread when you have a nice mixer like this to do it in, though.

then add half of the flour, and mix well with the bread hook.


it will be pretty soupy, but don't worry. we're only half-way done.



then add the melted butter (yes, real butter!) and 2 beaten eggs, along with the rest of the flour.




mix well. you may need to add a tiny bit more flour. the dough ball should not be sticky at all, and will come away from the sides of the bowl. mix for several minutes.




i put my buns to rise on the top of the stove, which I've turned on to 200. cover it with a clean towel, and let rise until doubled.






then put the bowl back on the mixer and mix for several minutes. i always have to add a bit more flour, as it's sticky on the bottom of the bowl.




turn out onto a lightly floured counter.





i cut my dough into eighths, and then each eighth into thirds. this gives me 24 buns. ( you can make regular shaped bread, if you'd like. i just almost always make buns to go with our dinner)





next, i put the three pans into the oven, which is still turned on at 200 degrees. i let the buns rise for 25 minutes...

... until they're nice and puffy. then i turn the oven up to 350, and cook them for 23 minutes. ( i have a gas stove, so you may need to adjust the times according to how your oven cooks.)

while they're still warm, rub the tops of all the buns with a stick of butter. (yes, real butter again!) now, these particular buns could have cooked just a tiny bit longer, but we were getting company imminently, and i didn't want them to get burned if i was distracted.

that's it! super easy, and only about 1 ½ hours from start to finish.





The Official Bread Recipe

2 cups warmed milk

2 T yeast

2 T sugar

1 stick melted butter

2 eggs

6 cups flour

that's it! go ahead make some buns or bread for your family- you'll be suprised at how easy it is! i'd love to hear how they turned out for you.

i may not be astute, but i'm eclectic!

I've had these 3 old wooden chairs for over 10 years now, and we've gotten lots of use out of them. they were getting a little tired looking, so i decided to give them some new life, and a new job.

last week i painted all three to match, and put them in my kitchen.

i love how they turned out- matching, but not perfectly. eclectic is definitely the way to go in my opinion!

Thursday's Livestock and Garden Report~ Week 5

i can't believe that it's Thursday again, and time to have my "show and tell" of what we've been doing this week!

Dave disced the whole lower garden for me, and baby B was glad to ride along and help. that girl sure loves the tractor!

then, G tilled the garden, to prepare the soil for planting. we had a slow start due to a broken belt, but we got that fixed in no time, and were able to till and plant potatoes before the rain. (all NINE ROWS of them!)

we also got the onions planted, and A was glad to help. she came walking down the row toward me, and said "do you need any help, mama?" even though she had a hard time telling which way to plant the onions, i was glad for her company.

the beets are planted as well, and will benefit from the rain that we had. we're expecting more rain tonight and tomorrow, and I'm glad for that!

but so far, the only thing that i actually growing in the lower garden is pumpkins. lots of pumpkins. i can see that it was not necessary for me to buy a packet of pumpkin seeds, as the renegades will most likely take over the entire garden!

last week we got our new pigs. I've not really seen them too much, as they spend most of their time skulking hiding in their house. the pink one is a female, and the red one is male. Dave has already said that the red one will be ours, and we plan on butchering him ourselves in the fall.

someone stopped by last week to give me some watercress. it's doing very nicely in the frog puddle, and I'm looking forward to some watercress sandwiches.

one of our hens went broody, and she's been diligently sitting on the eggs for almost 2 weeks. we're excited to be looking forward to having our own chickens. A is not understanding that these peeps will come from the eggs, as all our chickens so far have arrived in the mail.

the johnny-jump-ups are blooming all over my flower garden. their little faces look so happy and cheerful!




so there's another week of hard work and growing things. thanks for stopping by!

i enjoy the simple things of life

last fall i was given a housewarming gift of a box of spring bulbs. on a very cold and windy fall day i planted almost 100 tulip, daffodil and hyacinth bulbs.

today my garden is pleasantly spotted with all the colorful blooms.

and I'm enjoying this simple little bouquet on my kitchen windowsill.

my brain must have burped or something...

even though I've been pretty sparse and sporadic about posting regularly, i have been making an effort to keep my sidebar updated with all our Garden 2009 news and happenings. (and even though it's not Thursday, I'm giving you a little update.)

if you've been following my updates there, you'll have already noticed that i put in a new button- "Give What You Grow". i found out about this ~not so new~ concept in my bloggy wanderings. i can't even remember how i stumbled upon it.

anyway, it's pretty easy. just share whatever you grow in your garden with the local food bank, or others in need. (just click on the picture and you can go see for yourself.)

when i bought my *150 pounds* of seed potatoes, it was March. it was cold. it was windy. this winter was the longest that i can ever remember. spring seemed a long way off. and most importantly, I'm a very optimistic person by nature.

and i thought- heck, how much potatoes that really be, anyway?

and my family really likes potatoes, and in many different ways.

(while I'm optimistic by nature, i could definitely not be described as astute. this is evidenced by the fact that all my farmer friends from church kept asking me incredulously "how many pounds of seed potatoes did you say you bought?" then the farmer would invariably shake his head in amazement and then turn to another farmer and say "did Jennifer tell you how many pounds of seed potatoes she bought?" at which point that farmer would shake his head in amazement. i should have realized what i was in for several weeks ago...)

well, fast forward to today, and a very healthy (and hot) dose of reality.

let me just tell you that *150 pounds* of seed potatoes is alot of potatoes. ALOT.

G and i have been working steadily all afternoon, and we still have 50 pounds of potatoes to cut and plant. we're on our 5th row of potatoes, and the rows keep getting longer and longer...

but here's where my nifty new button comes in. God has abundantly blessed my family though the years, in many miraculous and even amazing ways. and this year, with my garden and the produce that i hope will be produced, i plan on sharing our abundance with others in our community who may not have as much as they need right now.

and i think that maybe I'll start with all my farmer friends; because the Good Lord knows that we can't eat all those potatoes ourselves!