Chirp!

 Eight new little ones have joined us.  We got a little mix match of chickie to add to the flock.  Three Ameraucanas (blue egg layers), one barred rock, two buffed orpingtons, and two hall cross.  I've never heard of the hall cross before, but it's supposed to be a cross between a Rhode Island Red and a white chicken producing a RIR with high lights.  I so enjoy looking out into the yard and seeing all different colored chickens running around, so I wanted a good mix.

 And of course my Isaac was ready to play with them.  He has always been so gentle with the baby chicks, even as a very young toddler, he could hold them with out much supervision.  Jacoby, on the other hand, has to be highly supervised as he just doesn't understand how very fragile they are.

 Isaac holding them and "examining" them (pretending to be a vet).  These little ladies will get plenty of handling, which helps them be more friendly as they age.  And Isaac will get one of the best lessons in life, one of care and gentleness and an understanding of where food comes from (in this case eggs, these aren't meat birds.  Though I would like to do broilers soon...).  And a whole lot of fun playing with them while they are little and he can pretend they are "jumping over the moon" as he gently jumps them over their heat lamp. 

And, of course, there is one other member of the house quite interested in our new addition.  And a mama who is a little nervous the door to the storage room where they are housed, will get left open during one of the kids visits.

The Bread of Life

I've tried several times over the past few years to make a sourdough bread, but I've never made it past the starter. Starters are pretty easy to make, you mix equal parts flour and water and let it sit to catch the natural yeast and bacteria in the air. Everyday you mix in a little more flour and water, and after about a week you have a good fermenty mixture. But, in the past, this was where I ended it. Probably because the simple idea of this invisible thing making my bread rise seemed impossible, and maybe I was afraid it just wouldn't work, and I'd feel like a failure. I have been making breads for a long time, and adding the exact measurement of active dry yeast seemed pretty easy to understand. But, being an appreciator of all things traditional, I had to figure this out. Plus, the act of fermentation produces vitamins and makes the bread easier for your body to digest. So after I saw a friend post some pictures of a beautiful sourdough she has been making for her family, I asked for the recipe. She sent me this link , and I got my starter going.

Fermentation is very interesting to me, I'm getting more and more familiar with it too.  Over the past few years I've made kimchi, sauerkraut, kombucha, milk and water kiefer, and now my starter. All these little helpful bacteria floating around, that when added to food, grow more and more and make your food more nutritious.

This is my sponge, the night before.  This is a percentage of the dough and all the milk for the recipe.

After letting it sit for the night, the yeasts are active and making the dough rise.

I prefer to get everything going in my stand mixer, and then take it out and add more flour to get it to the consistency I like.  I found for me, this recipe was a little too wet, but I've been working on how much flour gets the dough to my liking.  I've been adding about an extra half a cup of flour or so. I don't measure it, just keep adding some and working it in till the dough isn't completely sticking to the surface.  Then I leave it in warm place to rise.  We have an over the stove microwave, and when the light is left on (the one that shines on the stove) it stays about 80* in there.  Perfect!

Punched down, and fitted into the bread pan.

After a couple of hours or so, ready to be baked.  I'm still not sure about this whole slashing the loaf thing though, it hasn't produced that stretched out top like I see other peoples breads do.

A beautiful loaf of sandwich bread.  This was actually my best loaf yet.  I replaced two of the cups of flour with white, and it was truly almost like store bought sandwich bread, nice and soft and elastic-y.  I could even fold it in half for the kids peanut butter and jelly "tacos".

And since this is a double recipe and I only have one loaf pan at the moment, I've been freezing the second loaf till I'm ready to make it.  These are my little frozen dough balls, bigger than suggested in the link, but I'm far too lazy to roll out golf balls sized ones, and don't mind the wait for them to defrost. 

Finally, I am a sourdough bread maker!

This moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

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New Life

  New life indeed.  I've been really feeling a need to return to my blog (after a rather long hiatus), I've been looking through it and making some changes, like my profile and personal information.  Perhaps with spring here, and the kids discovering new things around, everything feels new and fresh, what better time for a fresh start with this blog.

Spring is here, life is coming out all around us.  And indeed the best kind of new life.

Ananda Julia, born February 10, joined our family.  Hooray for new life!

Isaac's trip to the dentist

Went GREAT! I whole heartedly recommend the practice we went to. It's Groton Wellness. They are an holistic dentist and do not push or even recommend flouride. They believe in treating the whole patient and not just drilling and filling. They are also a spa...:~)

Isaac does have cavities, but since we've been incorporating some of the WAP philosphies there has not been any progresion in the decay. So we will go back in 6 months and see how things look.

Everyone there was so friendly and helpful. They NEVER made us feel like bad parents because our child has cavities. The hygeintist cleaned Isaac's teeth while Isaac was sitting in Sam's lap. She had tried to put the chair back, but when he got up set she put the chair up right and did all the work like that. They talked *to* Isaac the whole time, not at him or just to us. Isaac was laughing by the end of the cleaning. They even gave him cool spiderman sunglasses to wear for the cleaning so the light didn't bother him.

After the cleaning we went to their bistro, and got fruit smoothies and sprouted grain cookies. Yeah, they actually had sprouted grain cookies, oh and gluten free brownies. Then we went to find a pair of spiderman sunglasses for Isaac. :~) Who ever thought a day at the dentist would be so much fun!!!

Blog slacker

So Facebook and Blogs seem to be in direct competition, lol. Everyone I know that was blogging about their kids and life seems to have stopped once they got on Facebook.

So why was/am I keeping a blog? Well to keep friends and family or anyone who might care up to date on our doings. Also, because we are going to be homeschooling I was planning to keep up with our documenting our activities in preparation for end of the year evaluations. That way when we really have to do it, it will already be part of my life.

However, with two young kids, a house, whole foods to cook/prep, and a mini farm there just doesn't seem to be enough time. Plus, my personal need to add pictures, but my complete laziness about uploading them from my camera to my PC, doesn't help.

So for now I'm a blog slacker. I really do want to keep up with it, keep it current with what's happening. Hoping to get my act together and keep up with this more. :~) My other issue as I'm realizing right now: I really can't get to writing until my little guys are in bed, but by then I'm pooped and am no longer capable of producing coherent sentences. ;~)

Alright, off to bed. Isaac;s first dentist appointment is tomorrow, and we have to drive all the way to Groton Mass. Must.get.to.bed.

Brothers

Isaac and Jacoby playing together. I can see how interested in Isaac, Jacoby is. He loves to watch his big brother running around and playing. I remember Isaac being like that when we'd go to LLL meetings and the older boys would be running by, Isaac would just get so excited and you could just see he wanted to run. Coby is just the same, he can't wait to RUN!

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