Bread Making Tips

I have been making my own bread for several years now. I started with a bread machine and simply didn't like it. I didn't like the recipes and I didn't like the shape of the loaf. So, I started doing it the traditional way. Most of the time my bread turns out good, some of the time my bread turns out.....not so good. My bread tastes wonderful, but I sure would like to have some pretty loaves of bread to sit out for supper. Mine are not so pretty all of the time. I simply cannot get my bread to be consistant. So, Farmgirl Fare has gorgeous artisan breadbaking skills. She has been kind enough to post her very best tips to baking beautiful breads on her blog...Farmgirl Fare. She also has many many recipes on there and so this year, I think I will work really hard to follow her advice and have a better bread baking year. Maybe I can get it right this time, although the chickens certainly don't mind the failures. God bless.

Supporting Our Military

As the wife of a former Airborne scout, it is important to me and my husband that we do what we can to support our military. It doesn't matter whether you agree with the war or not. It doesn't matter if you agree with what the government decides or not. What matters is that there are men and women sent to do a job that even they might not agree with, but it is a job that none of us want to do. They are far away from home and many of them receive no contact from home. They feel alone and forgotten. Several years ago, my daughter and I started sending letters. Now, we send letters and care packages. These little things mean a lot. Our military men and women take an oath to the Constitution. They do their job to protect us, the people. I know many people are seeing the increasing tyranny and corruption in our government. One day our military men and women might be called to protect us from our own government. If we don't support them, why would they do that. If people don't care about them, why would they care about us. It is a lot to ask of someone to lay their life on the line so that we don't have to. So, we do a few small things to let them know that we care. If anyone is interested in doing something similar then here are a couple places to help get mail or packages to soldiers who simply don't get anything from back here at home. Many of these folks are kids. My husband was just a young whippersnapper when he was sitting in the desert. He said that the care packages from his mom were looked forward to by everybody and there were those that didn't get any. He said his mom sent a large package every week so that all the guys could get something. Even a letter means more than we will ever know. So if you are so inclined check out
Adopt a Platoon
or
Any Soldier

God bless

Downsizing the Refrigerator

Many of you know of our journey to reduce out energy needs. We are constantly looking at things and re-evaluating. One thing that I wrote a series of blog posts about was living life without refrigeration. Refrigeration is a huge part of a home's energy consumption. Freezers are cheaper to run than refrigerators. So, I thought I would update on what we have done, what we did and how everything has worked out. We did try going without the refrigerator for many months to get a good feel for it throughout the different seasons. During the late winter and early spring it actually wasn't too bad. We never had food spoil and we learned to cook just what we needed for the meal with very little to no leftovers. So that was a good thing because in the long run it saves us money. Milk during that time could be kept cool by leaving it in glass jars on the screened in porch and using it pretty quickly. It stayed cold out there. Veggies kept just fine and were used pretty quickly. There was no longer any of the buy the cabbage and use it two weeks later. We used frozen or canned veggies in between market trips or garden harvest. The problem comes with the heat and humidity of our hot deep south summers. I simply cannot drink warm milk. I like my water ice cold when the temps outside are pushing 100. Unless, I bought a bag of ice every couple of days to keep in a cooler then there was simply no way to chill anything. Greens go limp within hours of being picked in that heat. The bugs are bad. It simply was not a pleasant experience once summer set in. So, what did we do? Go back to our monster energy consuming refrigerator? Nope, we downsized. I had a large dorm sized refrigerator in my studio that I had used at my art gallery. It had been sitting there waiting for some special moment when it would be needed again. It is just the right size (so far). We can keep a few ice cube trays in the "freezer" portion and it has enough room for our milk and dairy products. The challenge will be when we butcher the goat this weekend and need to let the meat age. I think we can get it in there. At least, what will be ground can go straight into the big freezer. So basically we have combined both living without refrigeration for most things, but we have the little refrigerator for those things that simply are better being cold. We also, feel much safer this way in the summer. We have seen a good bit of reduction with the little refrigerator as it doesn't have as much space to keep cool and uses less energy. I think this is definitely the way to go for at least right now. At least, I know that if I ever had to live without refrigeration that I could even though some things wouldn't be pleasant some of the time.

Potty Training and What's in that Grease!?

I know that title really has you wondering! Yesterday, the girls and I were in town early when all of a sudden my little one yells from the back seat...."Mommy, I have to go poopoo!" Oh no! When a recently potty trained toddler says they need a bathroom you had better find one fast! The situation is urgent! I am really funny about using public restrooms. When I am in town if the girls have to go potty we go to a friend or relatives house or my friend owns a boutique and we will go there. However, it was too early for her shop to be open and my friends and relatives were all at work. As the plees for relief got more and more demanding from the backseat I swung into a McDonald's and we dashed inside. Now, I have never been one to use a business's restroom and not purchase something. Their restrooms are for their customers and not for every joe blo to walk in off the street and use. So, once the emergency was averted, I ordered 3 hashbrowns and a small coke. We got back in the car and I bit into my hasbrown....and received an awful aftertaste. Something like a chemical taste. I at first thought it was just me. Then both of the girls said something. The toddler in the backseat pronounced it yucky, while the oldest in the front seat said it tasted really funny. I don't know what kind of oil they used but I would imagine old motor oil couldn't have tasted worse(and no I have not actually tasted old motor oil). Maybe it is just that we don't eat fast food much...I don't know, but I don't think I will be returning to McDonald's anytime soon. What is in that grease?!

Cleaning Glass with Cloth

I suffered with a dilemma for quite a few years in trying to clean my glass around the house without using paper towels. So many cloth items left little fuzzies behind on the glass and it just looked....yucky. I finally discovered the answer once my daughter was out of cloth diapers and into big girl pants. I was taking the pre-fold cloth diapers to the laundry room to put in the rag bag when I noticed that there really is very little lint or nap to the diaper. So, I grabbed by spray bottle of vinegar and tested the glass door on the china cabinet. As I wiped the door with the diaper, guess what.....no lint left behind! So, I use my old cloth diapers to clean the windows and all the glass around the house and they look as good as they did when I used paper towels. Just another way to keep the pennies in the bank and use what you have. Have a great day!

Cloth in the Kitchen

I haven't talked about cloth for awhile now, so I thought I would do just that. I made the switch to cloth everywhere in my home a long time ago. My reasoning was to be cheap....uh, frugal. So, the kitchen can be terribly expensive if paper towels are used, then paper coffee filters, etc. So, I made my own coffee filters out of cheese cloth. They work wonderfully and are washable. I simply cut two triangles from cheese cloth that was say 3 layers, then sewed up the sides and sewed along the edge to prevent fraying. Within 30 minutes time I had numerous coffee filters that could be re-used over and over. It is much healthier than running my coffee through paper that has been chemically processed. Next, I bought some muslin and flannel when they were on sale. I am always picking up fabric when it is on sale as I don't like to pay full price for anything. I cut about 15 good sized squares (12"x12") of the muslin and the flannel. I then sewed a zig zag stitch around the edge in a bold color (I chose green). The color tells whoever folds the laundry that those are kitchen towels and not to be used elsewhere. Now I have two types of towels to use in the kitchen for cleaning up spills, cleaning counters, or appliances. They work wonderfully and are so inexpensive to make. They eliminate that expense at the grocery store of buying paper also. Such a cheap cleaning solution, I love it. God bless.

Creative Sewing and Frugality

I accomplished quite a bit of sewing this past week and surprised myself at how cheaply I accomplished this task. Let me explain a little about that. Normally, I would have to use fabric to accomplish my sewing goals that had been purchased at the fabric store or elsewhere. This time I created almost an entire spring and summer wardrobe for my toddler and didn't use my store bought fabric unless you include the scraps that I used out of the scrap bag. As you know I have been going through my oldest childs clothes for the consignment sale next month. She had several really nice shirts that were almost like brand new. One or two had a small stain and so couldn't go through the consignment sale and a few others had some imperfections that would not be accepted. So, I got to thinking how easy it would be to turn those shirts into cute little dresses for a toddler. That is exactly what I did. I will post some photos soon, if I can get my camera to work. I will try to explain some of what I did. On one shirt that had cap sleeves, it made ties for the "dress" out of some scrap material. I then attached the ties to the bottom of the armhole and tied them in the back. This made the armhole smaller to fit a toddler and added a cute element to the "dress". It also had a small stain which I easily covered with rosettes made from the same scrap material and some decorative buttons. Then I did some embroidery around the collar, just a simple blanket stitch and rosebud in the corner. One dress, nothing spent.....totally cool. Another shirt turned dress was a tank top. So, I shortened the straps which made the armhole and neckhole smaller to fit. Where the front and back panels were now joined at the neck I tied a ribbon in a bow that lays across the shoulder on both sides. Since that shirt was multicolored, I chose to leave the adornment simple and just stuck with the ribbons at the shoulder. It is a cute little summer dress and I actually had two of them in different colors that I did that way. I had a polo type shirt that I gathered the sleeves with elastic, which closed up the armhole. The neckhole was just fine since it had buttons. The I looked through my scrap bag and made several ruffles for the bottom of the dress out of scrap fabric in a couple different prints to give it some pizazz and interest. I then lined the joining stitch between the ruffles and shirt with a ribbon trim and a flat buckle type bow. Another dress done and nothing really spent. I also made some more pantaloons out of some linen curtains that had once hung in my art gallery. When I closed the gallery, I simply washed the curtains and put them aside for later use. I have been using them to make pantaloons and bloomers for quite some time. The linen is wonderful and they wear well. I make them a little big so that they last longer and I can simply put in longer elastic to get a little more time out of them. So, I think all in all my toddlers new wardrobe cost a couple dollars in ribbon and notions that I already had on hand. She now has a cute boutique style wardrobe for the upcoming warm seasons and I certainly did not spend 40 to 60 dollars on each dress. With a little creativity and imagination so much money can be saved in clothing your children. Like I said I will try to get pictures of the dresses up this week. My camera is old, worn out and temperamental so we will see if it decides to work. Happy sewing.