Bob's Red Mill Store and New Grain Mill

We took another trip into town to get supplies.  This time we got wheat berries and oat groats.  Both of which we can grind in our new grain mill.  We decided to buy the Family Grain Mill from Pleasant Hill Grain Co. We ordered the combo which includes a base motor and a hand crank.  The motor is on back order so we have been trying out the hand crank and it works great.

This is the grain mill.

We decided to also purchase the flaker attachment.  We have oatmeal almost everyday and with the flaker we can flake or roll our own oats.  They taste so much better when they are freshly rolled.

I had an empty instant oatmeal carton so I filled it with oat groats and used a rubber band to attach the label.

Whole Oat groats

First flakes.

I was quite impressed with the ease of use.  I was able to flake this bowl of oats with no problem and I'm kind of a wimp :)  I'm looking forward to trying the wheat berries next!

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Sour Dough Surprise

After my last try at making "hard rolls" that ended up soft and sweet, I found another recipe on the internet.  This one took three days to make and it wasn't until the rolls came out of the oven that I realized they were sourdough!  I'm not kidding.  But, being a sourdough lover, I thought they were fabulous.  Tim and I practically fought over them :)

Aren't they gorgeous?  I was so proud :)

However, this is not what I was trying to make.  Evidently, the rolls I am wanting to make are called Crusty Rolls.  So, I found another recipe and plan on trying again on Sunday :)  It's a good thing we love all kinds of bread!  (My bathroom scales do not agree though).  I'll keep you posted on my progress.

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Seeds, Soup, and Hot Rolls

We ordered from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds this year. I want to try to grow everything from seed.  I may have bitten off more than I can chew because my thumb isn't very green. However, Tim's is! He is confidant that he can get it all done in time.  (Notice I said HE can get it done. Ha!)  Our last frost is around the end of March to mid April so I guess we still have a bit of time.  I am very excited to see and taste some of these unusual varieties.  I want to have enough surplus this year to can and dehydrate as much as possible.

I'm not much of a football fan, but Tim wanted to watch the Super Bowl so I decided to make Beef & Vegetable Soup, and some homemade rolls.  The recipe for the rolls was not very specific and I kind of bluffed my way through it.  Now, mind you, I have very little knowledge of what to do in a kitchen so this was a big step for me.  I had planned to make hard rolls, but they turned out soft and sweet.  They were good, just not what I was trying to accomplish.   I found another recipe on the web and will try that tomorrow.






Here is the simmering soup and the dough getting started.





Look at that dough rise!

Yum, yum!  Just what I needed for a cold day of Super Bowl commercials :)

And last, but not least, the first ever rolls from "scratch" to come out of my kitchen.

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Free Is A Very Good Price

Our neighbor has some property down the road that he keeps as a rental. It's an old farm on about 80 acres.  He had recently been doing some clean up and ended up with a pretty good sized pile of boards that he intended to burn.  He told us that we were welcome to take any or all of the wood if we could use it.

So off we went to the property to see what we could find.  There was a cool old barn that I just had to have a picture of. 

 What we found was a nice sized pile.  Some of it was rotten from laying on the ground, but some of it was just wet and dirty.

We were able to find enough good wood for several projects.  First on the list are raised beds for the vegetable garden.

Next up will be a new pump house. Ours is completely rotten and falling apart.

And last, but not least is the planned greenhouse we want to build.  Now we have the wood, all we need is a bunch of old windows!  We found some on Craig's List but got there too late.  Someone else is going to get their greenhouse built before we do :)  That's OK, we will eventually get it done.

I don't know what we would do without a trailer. Seriously. A truck and some kind of trailer are really important when you live in the country.  We have two different kinds and we use them all the time.

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