Homemaking on the Homestead

  Life on the homestead has been a little unsettling lately. We have spotted a coyote 3 different times, once it took a chicken. Sadly to say on the third sighting our sweet little Pomeranian Ellie must have challenged him. She would do this to other dogs no matter what their size. She may have been little in size but she had a big dog’s instinct to protect. The coyote killed our little Ellie.   I was just devastated. I don’t think I realized just how much she had worked her way into my heart. It was a very sad day at our house. The days since then are getting better but my how those pets become such a member of the family.    Today is Monday and I have the typical amount of activities going on. The kids are working hard to finish up the school year and I have some writing papers to correct and should get a couple more books printed and bound for the kids. Jacob just finished the Personal Memoirs of ...

  Well yesterday afternoon was another weekly baking day here on my homestead. We were out of bread and all baked goods for that matter.   So yesterday I (with a little help) made 6 loaves whole wheat bread, a pan of garlic cheese dinner rolls to go with our Navy Bean Soup that was for dinner, 2 loaves of cinnamon bread and 1 pan of cinnamon chocolate rolls.    Here is how it went:   I started the morning off by grinding about 20 some cups of wheat: -     Then in the afternoon Leanne started the baking day by making the 6 loaves of bread:       Then I made garlic cheese dinner rolls. I served navy bean soup for dinner. Whenever I have a big baking day I usually try and make dinner something in the crockpot or a pot of something that can be made earlier in the day so dinner preps and bread making don't end up needing to be done at the same time and resulting in a lot of kitchen chaos  . I don’t t...

  Well here it is Monday again.. the weeks just fly by. We were so happy last week to enjoy a few nice warmer days. One day was about 75! It was great, but today we are back to cool and wet..   Such is life.. and to top it off my hubby has to attend a mandatory class at work tonight so his weekend will be cut short.. date night will have to wait. That is ok as I have had plenty to keep me busy today.   Last week we had a little too much excitement on our homestead. Our dog Ellie was outside barking as is typical for her, so no one got terribly excited about it. She tends to stand in the front yard and bark at all the ducks that land in our pond. However this one morning she was doing a lot of barking and then Leanne ran downstairs and said she had just looked out the upstairs window and saw a coyote run past our pond and into the woods with a chicken in its mouth!! Right in broad daylight! They have nev...

Beans are an excellent food source. They are full of vitamins, minerals and fiber and they are inexpensive as well. They are a wonderful food source for your body and your budget. One comment I hear often from ladies is that someone in the family does not like beans. I have come to wonder for the most part if this comes from past bean eating experience. Most bean types, by themselves, are rather plain tasting (intrinsically not really enough there to actually dislike). They are not overly sour, hot, sweet, bitter, tart, etc. So how you cook and how you flavor them will have a lot to do with how they taste and ultimately someone’s overall opinion about them. A lot of bad bean dishes made by well meaning people of your past, equals a lot of bad opinions of beans. But a well cooked bean dish may be able to sway those dislikes to likes. ~smile~ I have been serving beans to my family for years and have learned how to cook some really good bean dishes (at least my family, friends, and l...

Yesterday I spent my afternoon baking. I took pictures along the way to share how I was able to get it all done. I baked 6 loaves of bread, 2 loaves of French bread and a large pan (jelly roll size) of cinnamon rolls. I did this in about 2 ½ to 3 hours (due to the fact that most bread recipes only need one rising time when kneaded with the Bosch). I will share the links to the recipes at the end of the post. Here is how it went: I started earlier in the morning grinding my all my wheat in my Retsel grain mill. I had other things to do in my day so I did not get back to the baking until later in the day (about 2:00). When I started I began with our weekly 6 loaves of bread. I kneaded up the dough and divided it into 6 bread pans. - - While my 6 loaves of bread were rising I wiped out my Bosch bowl and made the French bread. This is one of my favorite recipes. It is actually a pizza crust recipe but I have f...