Wild Hops

Last fall I discovered a patch of wild hops back in the woods.  I didn't get them picked in time, but this year I plan to harvest them and make a tea with them.

Here's a close up-

I think that they are almost ready to harvest.  The cones should feel papery and light and a bit dry.  If they have an odor and are slightly sticky they are ready.  Once I harvest them and dry them in my dehydrator, I'm going to use them for tea.

Hops aid insomnia, promotes appetite, (like I need that?), can relieve arthritis pain, relieves gas, and helps women produce more milk while breastfeeding. 

One more thing to add to my medicine cabinet.  Oh, hoppy day!

We're Getting There

Five years ago we started some major renovations on our  home.  We tore some down, put some up and gutted the rest.  We're still working on it.  Slow but sure.  My honey got the siding up on a couple of sides of the house.  Just thought I'd share.

This is the east side of the house four and a half years ago.
Here it is now-

We'll definitely be warmer this winter.  :))

Whitewater Rafting

It may not be the Colorado River, but it is plenty of adventure for us.  We took a ride down the St. Louis River and hit six rapids.  It was great. I never knew that I'd enjoy whitewater so much.

It's hard to see, but in this raft are two of our girls.  The one steering in back is our Elizabeth.  She looks a little stressed.  :)

And coming down next are my son and I.  We're both in yellow.  (I'm the one with the hat.  lol)

This trip was rather bittersweet as it was the last meeting of our 4-H club.  We're disbanding for lack of a leader.  We sure had a good time.

Let's Go To the Threshing Show

Every year, to celebrate our anniversary, we go to the local threshing show.  It's antique tractors, horse drawn implements, old houses, good food, a flea market and threshing machines.  I took a mess of pictures this year and so sit back and enjoy the show.

There were more vendors at the flea market this year than in years past.  We really didn't find anything that we needed, a coule of antique wrenches and a couple of books.

This is the row of antique John Deeres-the green row.

The red row.

I dream about owning this tractor.  Isn't it beautiful?

A nicely restored Silver King.

A Waterloo Boy kerosene tractor.

My honey took this one.  He is fond  of draglines.

This is hard to see, but it's a steam tractor driving a wood planer.

A view of the fields and some horses.

Can you guess what this is??

A 1917 Dane Baler.  This is a stationary baler with hand tie wires.

A beautiful set of horses.

This guy was my favorite, a dappled gray.

This is an old steam powered generator from an electric plant.  This thing shook the ground when it ran.

Horses pulling a one bottom plow.  These guys can really move.

Do you know what this steam tractor is being used for? (Check out the boxes by the garbage can.)

Yep, that's corn in that garbage can and this is the finished product.  It was delicious.
So there's my day at the show.  I went a bit crazy with the camera, but I hope you enjoyed the trip. I forgot to get a picture of a threshing machine....

Balsam Camo

What d'ya think?

They'll never see us coming.

Pain au Chocolat (Chocolate Bread)

Our daughter is back from Europe where she's been for 2 1/2 months.  She happened to mention that her favorite breakfast over there was pain au chocolat and so I found a recipe to make to surprise her.
Pain au Chocolat

Ingredients:

• 4 teaspoons instant dried yeast
• 1/2 cup lukewarm water
• 3 1/2 cups bread flour
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 9 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons milk

Preparation:

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water for 5 minutes. Add the bread flour, milk, sugar, melted butter, and salt to the dissolved yeast and water and mix the dough on medium speed for about 2 minutes. If the dough is too sticky, add 1 tablespoon of extra flour at a time, until the dough is just firm enough to fold a shape.
Shape dough into a ball and loosely cover it with plastic wrap. Allow it to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. Roll the dough into a 10-inch by 15-inch rectangle, and then cover it loosely and allow it to rise for 40 minutes.
Brush the rectangle with the softened butter and then fold the dough into thirds, like a letter. Roll the long, thin rectangle back into the original 10-inch by 15 shape. Fold the dough into thirds, again, and then cover the dough with plastic wrap and allow it to rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour. Repeat this process one more time.
Using a sharp knife, cut the dough crosswise into 12 rectangles. Arrange 2 teaspoons of chopped chocolate across one of the short ends of the rectangle and fold that third of the dough over the chocolate, toward the center. Repeat the process on the opposite side of the dough, folding it over and tucking the end under to create a cylindrical shape.
Arrange each finished pain au chocolate on a lightly greased baking sheet with at least 1 1/2 inches between each pastry. Cover them loosely with plastic wrap and allow them to rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until they are nearly doubled in size.
Preheat the oven to 400F. Whisk the egg and 2 tablespoons milk together to make an egg wash. Brush the egg wash across the surface of each pastry. Bake the pan au chocolate for 12 to 14 minutes, until they are puffed and golden brown.
This pain au chocolate recipe makes 12 servings.

This recipe is from http://frenchfood.about.com/od/breadandpastry/r/painauchoc.htm

They do taste good.

Now if Beth would just get here before I eat them all.  :)

Jewel Weed

This stuff grows all along the edge of my yard.  They say that where jewel weed grows, poison ivy is somewhere close by.  Haven't seen the poison ivy. 
Jewel weed helps with the irritation caused by poison ivy. It helps with other skin irritations as well, such as ezema and rashes.  We break the stem and use the juice in the plant to put on the skin.
When I was young, my mom called this the touch me not plant.  When you touch the seed pods of the jewel weed it bursts open.  We had a lot of fun doing this when we were growing up.  (We weren't allowed to watch TV, what can I say?)

Here's a seed pod.

Here's the seed pod after I touched it.
Go find some jewel weed and have some fun.

Effie

So, today was the day that I picked up the new addition to our farm. This little girl lived 90 miles from here in a place called Effie and the drive was a long one. Effie is very remote and is at the end of the "Edge of the Wilderness Highway".
A very pretty drive-

This old barn sits off the road.

The welcome sign.  Notice how big the mosquitoes are here!

This sculpture stands near the welcome sign.  Effie is best known for their rodeo.  It's a big deal up  here.

So here is a picture of the little girl I picked up.

She's an Angora and I hope to breed her with our Angora buck.  She's only two months old right now.  I named her Toofer because my honey said "That's just too fer to go for a rabbit".
Oh, and last night I harvested my garlic.  It's done a bit early this year and the bulbs aren't as large as they were last year.  Still, it wasn't a bad harvest.

I save about half for next year's seed and make garlic powder out of the smaller bulbs.

I hope you enjoyed the trip to Effie.  I may have to go back because Toofer's previous owner has some wonderful Shetland sheep.  ;o)