Oh Where, Oh Where..

Oh where, Oh where has my little boy gone?


Seems like only yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital.. now he's learning to drive!

We'll have a hard time keeping up with him now.

Bread and Roll Recipe

I enjoy trying recipes that other bloggers post, so thought I would share a recipe that I've been enjoying.


This is a recipe for bread that I started making this winter. It is labeled "sourdough", however it doesn't taste like traditional sourdough to me.

I think it's much easier than the standard bread recipe, because you don't have to heat the yeast. Just dump the ingredients in a bowl, stir and let it rise overnight - then knead it the next morning and let it rise again a few hours and it's ready for the oven. It will take several days to get the starter going, but once it's established, you just need to feed it every 5 days. When you feed the starter, you remove enough starter for 2 loaves.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Sourdough-Starter-I/Detail.aspxail.aspx

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Sourdough-Bread-I/Detail.aspx

I have been using Gold brand "better for bread" flour and have had good results. Occasionally, I have substituted a bit of wheat flour for the white flour.

The recipe works well for cinnamon rolls too.


But my favorite is the regular rolls and loaf bread.

This is 1/2 the recipe (1/2 cup starter, 3 cups flour, etc.) After the dough has been left to double overnight, divide into 16 equal parts, roll and place in greased pan and let rise until doubled. Bake at 350 for around 25 minutes.. just til the top begins to brown and when tapped, they sound hollow.

Two things that I will note, it does take quite a bit of flour to knead the dough, and the longer i let it rise, the better. The last loaf i made rose overnight initially, then after kneading it and shaping into a loaf, I let it rise for about 8 hours and it was the best loaf yet! (i know it sounds like a lot of time to make a loaf of bread, but i really had only about 10 minutes or so invested.. the rest of the time it was working and doing it's thing without me.)
I had to sample a few rolls as they came out of the oven... I'd hate to serve them to anyone if I weren't absolutely sure they were ok. (it's hard to tell by just trying one.. or two.. or...goodness, how many did i eat?)

Coming Soon... more snow!

Looks like they're calling for more snow here in a few days.

This picture was taken before the last 9 inches came this week. (taken a few miles from our place)

The next picture here was the road after the snow... It was a level 2 snow emergency, which means you can be on it only if you need to feed sheep and the hay is up the road.

So, after the sheep were fed, we stayed in!

Wyatt has started to laugh more in the past week. The first few times we heard him laugh, he was sleeping and apparantly dreaming about something funny :)

He thinks we're funny now.

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I had read a lot of good things about slings and the benefits. Found a great website with a pattern, and once it was made, after a few days of being puzzled over it,,, I finally figured out how to use it. There's apparantly 4 or 5 different ways that you can carry the baby in these, but i had trouble figuring out a single way! ( i know, it looks so simple)

I'm starting to enjoy the sling now...

and I think he is too!

More of winter...

Well, another week, a little more snow. We can't complain though.. you might have had 3 feet of snow!
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This picture made me think of a bear.. but it's just harmless Andy.

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Cody

Now this picture of Rosco might sum it all up. He almost always smiles for his pictures. I think he's starting to get a little tired of the snow.

Shades Of Grey, Blue and Sepia of course..

Shades of a winter day.

We had a little snow overnight, not a lot compared to what the storm is capable of, but it was enough to cover the ground here.

The little rams (and Myrtle) are in the same pen with the ewes now, but they choose to stay in the little sheep shed instead of the barn. (They tend to get a little more attention and feed away from the big girls)

Roscoe was out romping in the snow.. of course.

Took this next picture on the way to the mailbox.. our fence is brown, but it had a makeover last night.
I finally made it to the mailbox - doesn't look like the mail has ran yet, but it was a nice walk to the mailbox anyways!

Color photos...

I love sepia photos, but if we're talking about dyeing wool, they might as well be in color.

I experimented a little this week with dyeing wool for the first time. I love the natural colors of wool, and had not planned on getting into "colors" ---but my hats need flowers....or something! I had heard a little about dyeing with kool-aid, so I wanted to give it a try. I was pleased with the results of the dyeing, and it was as simple as could be.

This is the 'flavor' orange. I love the varigated color here, but of course, when i carded the wool i lost that varigation. I'm guessing that if i want to keep the look of different colors, I should card the wool first, then dye it? I'm wondering too how it would work to make the felt first, then dye it?

This is a flower that was made from the carded wool. I made a piece of thin felt and cut it into strips and shaped into petals while the felt was still wet. Not sure if this will be used on a hat, but thinking of crocheting a green "vine" to wrap around the hat and see what happens.

I tried making another wool cap to replace the one Wyatt has outgrown... this one isn't quite what i was going for, but he seemed to be "smitten" with it. :)

He had his 2 month check up this week and he is doing just great. I sometimes look at him and wonder where our baby went? Like in the picture here - he was sitting up so big in the recliner .. taken quite captive by the television. Then he put his arm up on the armrest and i had to get the camera.

"My favorite show is on.. could someone please bring me a glass of milk?"

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And back to sepia pictures... here's our little guy in his sheep shearing outfit. Which, by the way, it won't be long before that time rolls around! They may be calling for snow today, but spring is on it's way.

More Wet Felting..

I've started a few more hats... they're all just wet felted. I have patterns that I would like to try that are knitted then felted, but these hats are just made from layering the roving over a simple pattern (hood style). The roving is hand felted with soap and water, then shaped over a mixing bowl. These hats still need to be adorned with... ? something. Ribbon, felted flowers... that's the next step.



The little "cat" hat I made for Wyatt back before the holidays. (to match his Daddy's favorite hat). He's already outgrown it. The felted hats have a little give to them, but not enough to keep up with a growing boy :)



Speaking of hats ... I have a link to share of an etsy shop that has the most adorable hats ever. The artisan behind these hats designed them using a pattern that she came up with - (i've been everywhere looking for the pattern - then found that it was her own design) they are crocheted and then felted - a must see! http://www.etsy.com/shop/THELittleBlackHat

A lot of catching up to do..

I haven't posted in a week, so here's a quick update of the week. The above picture is how the week ended. Weather has been very mild the last few days.

But that is after what seems like 2 weeks of freezing temperatures! I'm not sure if it got above freezing the first 2 weeks of January.

Mid week the snow was beginning to melt.

The sheep have been getting out this past week into the new pasture (the pasture with burrs.. ) This pic was just taken while looking for them. hm, no, they're not here.

He's doesn't know where they're at. He's actually sleeping. I don't know how long he was sleeping like this, but i had time to go and get my camera before he woke up.

"I wasn't sleeping! Sheep?? What do you mean they're missing?"

(little disclaimer for him, he's here to protect them when they're in the field with him, he's not going after them!) And, in his defense, these pics were taken a few days after the sheep first got out, yet they were out again. I'm sure he was more concerned the first day it happened. :)

All is well with the sheep.. they are not staying in their pen, but so far, no one has got into the burrs. I'll update on that here soon i'm sure. But meanwhile, I can't keep them from walking through their temporary fencing. It's not all of them yet, just 4 rogues in the group. (But you know what that means.. the others just haven't caught on yet)

Temperatures got up in the 40's mid week and I took Wyatt for a walk outside. Wyatt hasn't been out much other than to the doctor or grocery store, so it was nice to get him out for just a little bit.

Hope everyone had a great week!

Still Snowing..

This guy sort of looks like he was meant for the snow.

And this one does too! (Sweet Ziggy.)

A look back in time..

when 'work' had a entirely different meaning,

and 'going to town' was an event.

Snowed In

With all the snow, the girls just stuck their head out the door to see what I had for them, they chose to stay in today.

The little rams on the other hand were out in the snow quite a bit.

Myrtle didn't seem to mind the snow either (she's in the pen with the little boys and pretty much is just where they are)

And what time i wasn't out tromping in the snow, I was all cozy and warm in the house with little Wyatt. He had his one month check-up yesterday with his doctor. He is a solid 13 pounds now and 24-1/2".. just like they say "growing like a weed!"

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It was a great Christmas..

Hope everyone out there had a great Christmas as well!


If you ask Wyatt, he would have to agree that it was great. Coincidentally he started smiling right about the time that Christmas was here, so it was perfect timing for him to tell you that he liked his gifts! (pictured in his new 'my little lamb swing' - yes, the lambs might have helped the sale...lol)


And the bonus for mom and dad:

you can only count those`sheep (or little lambs) spinning above your head so many times before you drift off to dream. (so it's more like a gift for us! especially at 3 in the morning and nothing else is working)

"Thanks Dad"