Fried Apples and Fried Bread

I have more apples from my mom.  She said that she really liked fried apples, so I decided to try and make some.  I sliced the apples, put them with some butter, sugar and cinnamon in a frying pan and fried them.  I don't know what they're supposed to taste like.  Soft or crisp?  My turned out soft and caramely.  Does anyone have a recipe that might be better?  I'd like to try again.

I made more bread today, this time with gluten, and I hope it turns out softer.  It's still rising.  On days when I make bread, we get fry bread for a treat.  Everyone likes that.  I guess it's been fried food kind of a day.

I've got to get outside and get the fenceline done.  I don't think that I'll finish today, but it would be nice to get close.  Our animals are getting pretty hungry, we're feeding hay already. 

Oh, btw, it's a gorgeous day out today.  70 and windy.  I love it.

From Glory Farm

Apple Butter and stuff

Mom brought over a couple of bags of apples yesterday.  My youngest two peeled them and we threw them in the crockpot with some honey and cinnamon.  We're cooking them down to make apple butter.  My grandma made apple butter, the best.  Mine never turns out as well, but I'm fond of it.  When I cook them overnight in the crockpot they make the whole house smell so good.

My dh has tomorrow off and we've been looking forward to going to the threshing show.  I've come to love these shows.  Lots of old tractors, steam engines, horse drawn equipment.  Old fashioned ways of threshing grain, making lumber, even things like dyeing fibers, making furniture.  It's great.

Labor Day week end, we're finally going camping.  We try to go at least once a summer.  We're going to Canada and hiking the trails on the bluffs and up to the water falls.  It should be great.

Hope you all have a great weekend with your loved ones.

Take God with you.

From Glory Farm

What a Mess

It's overcast today.  It's seldom been that way this summer.  You can tell fall is almost here.  The daytime temps reach the 80s but the nighttime temps are down in the 40s and 50s.  The house cools off nicely.

Yesterday was a trying day.  I had unpleasant things to attend to, and they went just as poorly as I thought they would, if not worse.  Shows me one thing for sure-God's way is always the best way.  Both my dh and I have been married before, so we deal with visitation conflicts and such.  Our former spouses are very worldly and have a hard time understanding our lifestyle.  And, I guess, I have a hard time understanding theirs'.  Yesterday was an eye-opener for me.  I've been told that I'm a bit naive.  Well, it's time to deal with that.  Not everyone has the best interest of our children in mind.  They have ulterior motives, which I wouldn't have believed until yesterday.  Even lawyers are human.  Not always professional.  I now know that I can love someone and still be unwavering and unapologetic for standing up for what I know to be right.  I don't have to be confrontational, but the welfare of our little ones is more important than worrying about offending someone who isn't concerned about their welfare.  Lots of prayer for wisdom and discernment.  It's time to stop being afraid of what people can do and realize that the battle isn't ours, but the Lord's.

I'm not sure if you followed all of that.  I just don't want our children around drinking, drugs and immorality.  The court says that we have to allow it because nothing bad has happened yet and we can't judge others or mention their lifestyles.  Court ordered. 

One husband, one wife, no divorce, this is God's way and it is definitely the best way.

Enough rambling.

God bless,

From Glory Farm

Wednesday's Question

What's one thing that you learned from your mom, it can be good, bad or otherwise.

I learned to never swallow my gum.  Did you know that it stays in your stomach for seven years and if you swallow enough of it, you'll have to have it surgically removed?  She also taught me generosity.  She gives and gives and has shown me what joy the giver recieves in giving. 

At home in our new home

Woke up to thunder rumblings this morning.  I love that.

We worked on the new fence line yesterday.  We are over half done with it.  I opted to just put up electric, seems to work better for the horses and cows.  The woven wire doesn't hold as well.  (Electric is easier to put up too.)

The horseradish sauce recipe I tried, turned out good.  I think.  It's so hot yet, who can tell?

We've been cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, here at our new house.  The yard is getting better.  The house is on hold while we try to get things done outside.  I'm going to try to finish painting the kitchen walls today.  I'll do some before and after pics soon.  I haven't done the ceiling yet, not really looking forward to that.

We need to do a school shopping trip soon.  Also, I haven't ordered much for homeschool yet.  We have enough to start, but I'm really missing a good reading program.  We get alot of our materials free off of the internet.

The sun is coming out.  Time to get a move on.

Have a blessed day.

From Glory Farm

Store Bought Bread

I enjoy mking bread.  I try all kinds of bread, white, wheat, oat, potato, egg.  My children eat the bread.  Some turn out better than others.  They let me know what kinds they like the best.  It's healthier for us.  I can grind the flour myself.  The problem I'm looking to solve is how to make homemade bread that doesn't overwhelm the sandwich.  My husband won't eat homemade bread.  He won't eat store bought whole wheat bread either.  I don't like to feed him store bought white bread.  And if he eats it, it's handy and the children eat it.  I'm looking for a recipe that is very soft, doesn't crumble or dry out, can be sliced very thin.  It doesn't have to be whole wheat.  I can use unbleached organic white flour.  Maybe a bread machine would make softer bread.  I'm going to look at rummage sales and see what I can find.  Any recipes would be appreciated.  (I love trying new recipes.)  Thanks for any advice.

From Glory Farm

Horseradish Abundance

With moving in the middle of the summer, we didn't end up with a garden this year.  Our new neighbors have brought over zucchini, cabbage and my mom has given us fresh cukes and beans.  God is good.

Yesterday, I decided to use the old chimney bricks to make an outdoor area for our grill and a few chairs.  I choose a spot where we had some horseradish.. I dug it up and ended up with enough roots to make horseradish sauce for the neighborhood.  I guess everyone will be getting a quart or so.  Country Side Magazine had a good recipe for some sauce. (of course)  I'll try to get it done tonight and let you know how it turns out.  I'm thinking it's going to be pretty potent.  These are the biggest roots I've ever dug.

It's also go to town day.  I've been reading on some blogs where they only do grocery shopping every two weeks instead of every week.  We/re going to give it a try and see if we save money or not.

Well,  off we go.

From Glory Farm

Good Bread

The last issue of Country Side Magazine had some good recipes in it.  (It always does.)  I love this magazine and devour it when it gets here.  The butter pie crust recipe on page 48 turns out delicious.  I had promised my husband a pie and I was out of coconut oil, so I had to use butter.  This was the best butter crust recipe that I've tried.

Also, I tried the Oatmeal Bread recipe on the same page.  My kids said"This is like store-bought.."  Now I know that's not what I strive for in  homemade bread, but it gets them to eat it-hey?  I tweeked the recipe a bit.  I've used it twice already and made caramel rolls out of it yesterday.

Tweeked recipe:

1 c boiling water

1 c oats, ground fine in blender or mill

1 pack yeast

1/3 c warm water

1/2 c warm water

1/4 c raw honey-I like sweet bread

1 T coconut oil

1 t sea salt

1 1/2 c whole wheat flour

2 c unbleached flour

Combine oatmeal and boiling water.  Let stand until lukewarm.  Dissolve yeast in 1/3 c warm water.  Add to oatmeal and add honey, coconut oil, salt and 1/2 c warm water.  Mix in 2 c whole wheat flour.  Add unbleached flour.  Knead for 10 minutes.  Let rise  covered for 1 hour.  Place in greased bread pan.  Let rise covered for 45 minutes.  Bake at 350 for 50-55 minutes.  (I add the extra 1/2 cup warm water because I found the dough to be too dry otherwise. You might not need to do this.)

This is great for sandwiches.  Even with the whole wheat flour in it.  And my children loved the caramel rolls.

From Glory Farm

Rhonda

What's Happening at Glory Farm

Just an update on things. 

My modem died and so I had to switch to my dh's computer.  I discovered that he DOES have two USB ports on here, so I can upload pics from my camera.  Look out!

Work on our house is slow.  I still haven't done the livingroom floor.  But I have plans...

My dd3 was promised a kitten when we moved in here.  We were going to wait until we were more settled in, but God gave her a kitten three days ago.  We found it in our barn and it's a cute little calico kitten.  Works out perfectly.  We can't have a cat in the house because of my husband's allergies.

I put two flower beds in front of the house.  More pics to follow.  I got some of the lawn weed wacked.  I love my weed wacker.  It can make a jungle into a golf course in no time.

We have fenceline to put up today.  Lots of fenceline.  I hope to at least get started on it.  Don't want to put too much pressure on us.

Well, the day is slipping away. 

God bless yours,

From Glory Farm

Rhonda

Two steps forward and one step back

It's a good thing that we can't see the future.  We go into it with high hopes and expectations and I think that's the way God designed us.  I don't always understand the whys and wherefores of things.  (Always?  How bout hardly ever?)  But I've seen God's hand in things when I've stopped to reflect some time later.  All this to tell you that my much loved and wanted goats left today for a farm unknown.  They would have put Houdini to shame.  They could get out of anything and never leave a trace.  I came home from the dentist today to find both Tootsie and BillyBobJoe out in the yard.  It was the last time.  I can't risk them going back to our neighbor's house and nibbling his thousand dollar yard.  I made a call and they left this evening.  The chickens went with to keep them company.  No more poop in the machine shop.  So just where is the Lord leading?  I so desire to have these creatures.  In time I could build better fences and buildings to keep my animals in.  We still have the cows, horses and donkeys.  I'm going to call tomorrow on some Dexter cattle.  If I can't milk goats, I'll milk cows.  I'm also praying about how God would have us to use all of this land that we've been blessed with.  I'm open to ideas.  We have sandy loam for soil and it's great for growing things.  So please give me ideas to pray on.

God bless your night.

From Glory Farm

Licorice-THE dog

Today didn't go as planned.  Those Grand Champion dogs went and chased a car on the road and only one came back.  Licorice didn't make it.  They shouldn't have been out there, I know, but it doesn't make me any less sad.  The people who hit her never stopped.  Maybe they didn't know it.  It's just as well.  I wouldn't want anyone to have to deal with the guilt of it.  She belonged to dd2.  She had just won five grand champions at the fair on Wednesday.  Dd2 is heartsick.  She's raised this dog and trained her for four years.  That's one third of her life.  Losing a dog is hard.  Losing a dog when you're 12 years old is harder.  She's asking why.  No one but God knows.  Licorice was a kind dog, loyal and a good friend.  I'll miss her very much. 

Well, time to go.  Thanks for reading.

From Glory Farm

About those dogs...

Well, we made it through another year at county fair.  The only 4-H project we did this year was dog.  Both of our older girls have dogs.  They did real well.  Well enough to take Grand in a few categories.  Yes, these are the same dogs that chased the neighbor.  Hard to believe how much this obedience training has paid off.   Both of our daughters will be taking their dogs down to the state meet in September, Lord willing.  If I get pictures, I'll post.  I didn't take any this year as I couldn't find my camera in all the moving.

God bless your day as you bless Him.

From Glory Farm

 

Long post and advice needed! Prayers are good too!

No more trips back and forth to the other house!  My dh had yesterday off (sort of)  and we moved the rest of the stuff over here.  Now our yard is full of stuff, the shop is full of stuff-not all ours- and the house is full of stuff.  How do you organize this mess?  The livingroom floor isn't completely sanded yet and I'd like to keep as much stuff out of it as I can.  Today is a day of unpacking and packing up stuff to sell at a moving sale. 

I need some advice.  At our old house all of our neighbors were at least 1/3 of a mile away.  We had goats, chickens and dogs all "free range".  One of the unforseen problems that we have here is that we're only 300 feet off of the county road.  Our dogs have been chasing cars.  They also went across the road to the neighbor's house and chased him!  (They don't know what a neighbor is.)  Our dogs aren't mean, but they have no business over there.  Didn't start our relationship off on a good note.  Also, my goats went over there Wednesday night and they wouldn't go home.  He just put in about $1.000  worth of new plantings.  I now have them in their pasture, but they keep finding new and innovative ways to get out.  And...as if that wasn't enough, the chickens don't want to stay in the barn and are staying in the shop where dh stores all of his equipment-now equiped with chicken poop.  Our barn is very air-conditioned and would take alot of work and money to reside.  I need to find a way to keep the birds on the other side of the yard where the barn is.  Help!  Our aim was to bring glory to God and we've brought aggravation instead.  My dh says that satan is working overtime on us.  Must be a reason for that.  God has allowed it, so I figure it's a refining time.  Please pray for me because I don't want to be anymore refined right now!

From Glory Farm