Making Hunza

I have been lucky enough to live next door to a talented neighbor. She has taken the time to show me how to grind my own wheat and make my own flour for breads and baking. This time she gave me a recipe for Hunza bread. We ground the hard red spring wheat in her electric grinder, since I do not have my own yet. I am working on getting one. Next, I mixed in the eggs, walnuts, oil and dates. The result was a chewy nutty tasty bread. A great snack bread for those cold days when you need an energy boost.

Ozark New Year's Eve

On Thursday night A. and I drove to our towns Community Center in S'ville, MO to celebrate the New Year. Our center is also a skating rink, deli and stage. There was a live bluegrass band playing for us as we ate hamburgers and desserts. While there were only 16 or so people the band played on. They played "Keep on the Sunny Side", "Danny Boy" and more. There was mandolin, flute, voice and guitar. Our town is blessed with so many multi talented people. It was so relaxing to just sit, eat, visit, chat and listen to good music. That is what bringing in the New Year is all about.

Silk Shatters

I collect antique quilts and restore them. But some quilts are beyond hope. I have 2 silk quilts from the 1940's. They have been used and abused to the fullest extended life I gave them. Now they are shattering. The dyes in the silk are breaking down and the fibers are dissolving. It is the natural order of some silk quilts. Silks need to be treated with care and kept out of the sun. While I love their jewel colors they have half the life of cotton and wool quilts. I have had very good luck with most silk quilt restoration. But some silk quilts such as these two are just doomed. So I enjoy them as color for my deck.

New Heights

We have and indoor/outdoor male kitten in training to become a barn cat. Poppy was Wal Mart parking lot find under our car the first week of moving to the Ozarks. He is almost 6 months old now and feeling bold and brave. His newest adventure is tree climbing when I walk to the mailbox. He follows me and the dogs and climbs all trees on the way to the mailbox. After he returns to terra firma he runs through the fields full speed.

Third Snowfall of December

Here in the Ozarks we woke up to another snow filled morning. I hurriedly swept the snow off the deck and stairs to the car. The car had a snow cover shield so we did not have to scrape the windows this morning. Had to get the husband off to work. Then I walked the dogs uphill to get the mail. Got to enjoy the snow fall and silence of the woods. And there were animal tracks in the snow. Mostly birds looking for suet.

Country Trash

I have moved around a lot and have always had trash picked up from the curb or some trash service. Here in the Ozarks where I live; they do not have a trash service provided by the city. If you have trash you can burn it in your own burn barrel, drop it off at a collection site near town, hire a private service or take it to the dump yourself. So this is a big deal for a city girl turned country. It takes a lot of time to organize the recyclables, separate the plastics and bag the true trash if you have never done that before in your life.

The plus side is that my compost has never been so rich. I have put all my greens and organics back into the earth. And this spring I will have great soil for my gardens.

With this do it yourself trash, I have to think about what I have, what I am bringing and what I need to dispose of. We load up our trailer and drive down to the trash recycling center 30 minutes from town. Our trash center tells us what goes where and how much it cost for them to dump it.

The biggest waste I have is food packaging. So much plastic!

Fun with frozen dog water

Here in the Ozarks it has been a bitterly cold December. Our pond has frozen over many times.

In the pictures below you can see the new fallen snow over the frozen pond. In this cold our dog water bowls have frozen over in a matter of hours. A fun time is had by all when we dump the bowls and walk the ice to the pond for ice sliding. These spheres of ice hurled over the pond making for the neatest sounds. Like water music over glass. And the sound echoes down the valley. Some of the pond ice is thin and the frozen dog water just cracks through. But other times the ice skids fast across the pond creating a rare and unique sound. We threw several and some ended on the other side of the pond where it was thawed. The sunken dog water ice chunks created several bubbles under the pond ice creating even more textures to the pond.

We did run out of frozen dog water. We then hacked out some of the ice from the pond itself. The sheets of ice were flat and sharp. We then used the pond ice as Frisbees. These ice sheets also made great music. It was then too cold and our gloves were soaked. Time to call it a day. Until tomorrow when we have more frozen dog water bowls.

Good Brews

My husband brought me Turkish coffee purchased in Baton Rouge. I had never had this kind of coffee before. Wow, it is wonderful! I found directions on how to brew on-line. There are several vendors on-line and on Ebay. I had to get the pot and the tiny cups for the whole experience for this kind of coffee. If you like coffee give Turkish a try.

Yes, Daisy there is a Christmas pighead.

Sometimes those who love us give us strange gifts. This year I was given a pig head night light. I do have country decor and some pigs have been used in my kitchen. But this plastic pig is quite creepy. And its head can be turned, too. I might have to save it until Halloween next year. Just too realistic a pig head.