Updates from 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 General Grant and said he liked it and said he would much rather get his history from the source than history text books. My first year with the Robinson Curriculum is just about over and I have been really pleased with it and will continue to use it next year with maybe a few changes.  I have people ask me to give my review on RC and I will do that, but I wanted to use it for a complete year before sharing any more about it.

 

Bread Baking.. I have had a few blog posts about baking lately and with that came questions that I will attempt to answer here..

 

Someone asked me about what the filling was on my cinnamon rolls.. I have the recipe posted on my site that shares that http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/cinnamonrolls.htm  . I usually use Sucanat or cane juice crystals and cinnamon.

 

busybeemama  asked what I cover my bread with when it is rising. I typically put my bread in the oven to rise. I have a “bread proofing” setting on my stove and I don’t cover it with anything. Before I had a stove with this setting I would turn my oven on until it just started to get warm, then turn it OFF and put my bread pans in there and leave them their until they were about 1 inch above the pans. I don’t take them out of the oven, I just turn the oven on and let them start cooking. I start timing the cooking of them when I turn the oven on. If I let something rise on the countertop because my oven is being used I cover it with a towel.

 

Southernbelle asked how to substitute sugar in my regular recipes.. first I always have to say that I have not made my recipes with sugar and don’t know how they would turn out.. but that being said, you can sub sugar 1:1 in the recipes

 

I had two people ask if I could post on how I made the cinnamon bread.. it was very easy.. I made my regular bread recipe and added about 1 tablespoon of cinnamon per loaf of dough (for the 4 loaf recipe I added 4T cinnamon when I added in the flour). 

 

April asked what I was grinding for flour.. I use hard white wheat. I also buy organic wheat from Azure Standard. If your bread is not rising as much as mine is there may be other issues than just the type of wheat used. What recipe are you using? You can email me if you would like and I can try and help troubleshoot your bread baking.

 

And finally to DonnaJoy.. it was so very nice to see here.. I miss you too..  

 

Other updates.. Leanne is still working on fundraising for her missions trip but took a break from that this last weekend to participate in our churches 30 hour famine and went door to door raising donations for that. This is the second 30 hour famine she has participated in this year. I love seeing where her heart is at and her desire to help those in need. 

 

Emily started her first course with her home study college. She is doing interpreting literature and will be ready soon to take her first Clep test.  This is a 6 credit course. She is still working full time as a nanny for the little twins. Emily turns 18 in another few days. The day before her birthday we (Emily, Leanne, Sierra and me) will be having a girls day out… she wants to go to the big mall in the city for the day and then we plan to go and have a nice birthday lunch. Everyone is looking forward to that. 

 

In a few weeks Jacob and Sierra will be going for a visit to see my oldest daughter. They are excited.. it will be longest flight they have ever been on. Jacob can’t wait to play xbox with my son in law.. lol.. and Sierra can’t wait to play with Caden and help Carolyn out. She has been over doing it lately and has had to work harder on taking it easy so she said she would love having Sierra there. 

 

Tobin and I will be leaving on vacation next week  so I have been busy getting ready for that and getting things taken care of in my home to prepare for being gone. 

 

This week I really need to get some soap made.. we will see if I can make that happen with everything else that needs to get done!  But for today.. it is business as usual around our homestead..

 

Hope you all have a great Monday on your homesteads!