Show and Tell

How was your Christmas?  I feel so blessed.  Not just because of the wonderful presents that I recieved, but because the gifts I recieved were so thoughtful.  My honey bought a used woodstove with a cooktop.  I need to refinish it, blacken it.  I'll so some before and after shots when I start this one.  My mom did a Lehman's Christmas this year.  Thought I'd show you pics of things I didn't even know existed. 
This is a plastic bag dryer, which is so cool because I do wash out my plastic bags.

This is a do it yourself oil lamp.  Just add olive oil, tallow or lard.

But here is the one that I truly appreciate.  This is something I've been wanting to get for a couple years, but just never had the spare change.  It's just like a Mehu-Liisa Finnish juicer, but not that brand.  It's wonderful.

Looks like a pretty "Back to Basics" Christmas.

Be blessed.

Christmas Eve

It's late here, Christmas Eve.  My youngers are in bed and my honey too.  Our two older girls are on their way back from Grandma and Grandpa's some 70 miles away.  They opted to spend Christmas Eve there because it's something they've done every Christmas Eve of their young lives.  The rest of us are recovery from a virus and decided not to inflict our misery on others, so we stayed home.  We are also used to spending every Christmas Eve with Grandma and Grandpa so this was a strange Christmas.

We're used to lutefisk and ham and rice pudding with one prize winning almond hidden in it. We're used to the torturous time it takes to get the dishes done after dinner before we can open our presents.  Then there's coffee and more eating.  Finally we all pile in the car and head for home, drowsy, stuffed and too tired to think about Santa coming.

You know what?  We had fresh salmon, instead of lutefisk.  Steak fries instead of boiled potatoes.  We read Luke 2 and prayed together.  We still had the torturous time after dinner getting the dishes done before we could open presents.  (Couldn't resist :).
We only had each other and it was still Christmas.  I didn't expect it.  I thought Christmas traditions were so important that without them it would seem like any other night.  But it was CHRISTMAS!  How wonderful the gift of heaven. 

I found out for myself that it truly is Christ that makes it Christmas.  What a wonderful Saviour.

Merry Christmas.

Let's Make a Christmas Wreath

Wreaths are easy, fun and frugal.  At least the kind I make are.  Counting ribbon, wire, and a clothes hanger, I spend about two dollars on each wreath.
So first we head out to the woods to pick a bevy of greenery.

We picked about two garbage bags full and I make three wreaths from this.

Here is the equipment you'll need.  A wire coat hanger, thin gauge wire, and a nipper.

Shape the hanger into a circle.  You could just buy a wreath form, but this is cheaper.  A form will hold more and be more uniform when you're finished.

We gathered mostly balsam boughs, they work the best.  We also collected Scotch pine, white pine, cedar, some cones, red twig (for a little color), and tag alder cones.  This is what's available in our area.  Use whatever you would like to see in your wreath.

Next, I lay the form in my lap, attach the wire and start wrapping the ends of the boughs onto the form with the wire. 

I continue wrapping, layering boughs over each other and work around the form.

I insert various pines and branches between the balsam boughs to make it more interesting.

When the wreath is full, I wire the cones on and put a ribbon at the top.  Very easy. 
So, my first Christmas project of the season is finished.  If you make wreaths, let me know.  I'd like to see what you do.

It's Farmhouse Friday so don't forget to go over to http://www.therenegadefarmer.com/ and check out the farming links there.

Grandma's Bread Bowl

Have I mentioned that I now have an oven?  A gas oven!  Today I finally got around to baking some bread.  It's been almost four months since I've baked bread, I think my flour's gone bad. :) 
So today I took out my grandma's bread bowl.  This is the first time I've used this because my mom just gave it to me a couple of months ago.  I remember my mom making bread in this and she'd knead it right in the bowl.  That bowl would roll and move around the table.  The table would shake.  Now it's my turn.

My whole wheat bread dough ready to rise.  This bowl has a cover with a vent in it.

I'm not cooking it on the stove, just set it there to rise.
The finished product rose nicely and is soft and yummy.  I made rolls for Thursday's dinner, a couple of loaves of bread and way down at the end is a dozen caramel rolls-minus one. :)

My bread products don't always turn out like they should.  After 30 years of baking bread, I'm finally learning a couple of things that help.  One is to add the salt with the flour and not into the warm liquid.  Another is to make sure that the oven is preheated before I put my breads in.  Sifting the flour first has helped a lot too.  And maybe using Grandma's bread bowl will be the thing that finally gives me good bread every time.

A Work of Art

It can be said of many vocations,  to do something well is a work of art. With painters, sketchers, sculptors, everything is a work of art.  The well shot goal at a hockey game can be a work of art.  The perfect burger off of the grill, a work of art. Given that intro, I would now like to show you one of many things that my honey can do well.  Loading trailers, especially with scrap, is one of his specialties.  So I present his latest work of art-

Involved in this masterpiece is an old Blazer, on top is a pick up box loaded with all kinds of treasures, and the piece de resistance is the old grain binder on the end of the trailer which almost decapitated more than a dozen mailboxes on our way home.  It sticks over both sides of the trailer by four feet. 

It's a good day's work.  Lord bless.