On bread

I absolutely adore making homemade bread. No, I'm not a disciple of the truly authentic, labor-intense methods - although I have immense respect (and envy) for those who are. I'm more a bread machine, set-it-and-forget-it type of baker.

Ever since my cherished bread machine landed here about a year ago (via a $10 bill at a garage sale), I haven't bought a single loaf of store-bought bread. Now that I can make a custom loaf of any size and ingredients for roughly 25 cents a loaf, paying $3.00 for the premium loaves at Trader Joe's just seems like a waste of, well, dough. (OK, everybody laugh.)

Using my trusty old Breadman machine, I've made everything from spicy herbal breads, cheese breads, hearty rye, Amish sweet loaves, and cinnamon raisin. The best thing is that I only have to fill that little machine up with ingredients in the morning, and while I'm out doing my chores, the bread machine fills up with dough and the house fills up with the wonderful aroma of a bakery. It adds about 10 minutes to my morning, and since we don't eat a ton of bread here, I can get by with making a loaf every 3 days or so.

But, there are some jobs that the ol' Breadman just can't handle - namely, artisan loaves, with their distinctive cracked, bubbly, golden crusts and dense, chewy centers. I long thought that these breads were out of my league, until I picked up a copy of the book "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day". The title honestly reminds me of watching late-night infomercials, so at first I was very skeptical. But, after a couple of loaves, I am hooked. With a big tupperware, a baking stone, and a shallow pan of water - plus the required five minutes - I'm shocked at the quality of loaves that can be produced. Plus, it's fun to experiment with the free-form dough and various criss-cross patterns cut into the crust.

Since I couldn't possibly eat a whole, freshly-baked loaf at once (although I've definitely been tempted), one of the big hurdles I had to navigate was how to store my homemade bread. Unlike most storebought "breads" (Wonder Bread and equivalents), homemade bread doesn't have all the preservatives that keep those infamous, floppy thin slices from molding up or going stale quickly. At first, this was really hard to get used to - and I lost many good loaves to improper storage.

I wanted a bread box, but really couldn't justify the cost for a well-built wooden one, large enough to hold the quantity of bread I bake in a week. So, I had to explore alternative methods.

At first, I was advised to store the bread in my fridge. Sounds great in theory, but in practice, who really wants to eat their bread cold? The space required for a loaf of bread in the fridge is also a problem for those who have very little storage, or a lot of other bulky items already that must stay cold (bagged greens, fresh fruit, big tubs of yogurt and juice). I also found that despite experimenting, the bread always dried out on top and in the middle, with a soggy bottom crust. Not appetizing at all.

Next I tried storing the bread just out at room temperature, hidden inside a cabinet where the bugs (hopefully) wouldn't get to it. Of course, depending on how persistent (and numerous) the bugs are in the household, they could still get to the bread, which wasn't a problem for us, but could be a problem for other homes. Still, the bread dried out within a day, and became stale in less than a week. Once sliced it was, obviously, even worse.

So, I tried the exact opposite - a plastic Ziplock bag. This was a rapid disaster - within 24 hours the bag had condensation on the inside, and within 2 - 3 days mold was starting to appear. Bad, bad idea. Never again. Yuck.

Finally, I stumbled onto the best method for bread storage I've seen - it's one of those "so simple I should have known this already" things - the homely brown paper bag. Not only is it environmentally-friendly, but it also allows just the right amount of air to circulate and give the bread room to "breathe". It also absorbs excess oils from the bread, keeping it moist but not soggy. Choose a bag that's just a little big larger than the loaf itself, shake the loaf down completely into the bag, and roll the end closed. Store flat in a cool, dry place. If you notice some oil on the bag, just replace the bag to keep the bread fresh. As it gets eaten up, you can just roll the bag back tighter to continually keep storage space to a minimum.

Whew! It's a long post but I've been meaning to discuss bread-baking for awhile now. The most important thing is just to experiment - homemade bread is unbelievably cheap, so don't be afraid to try new recipes, baking times and storage methods. Before you know it, it might be one less thing you are shelling out for at the supermarket.

Quick trick for dirty dogs

When I brought Bandit inside for the night after roughhousing with his buddies in the kennel for a good part of the day, let's just say he was smelling less-than-zestfully-clean. I don't know what it is about dogs, but if there is a way for them to get dirty, muddy, smelly, or all of the above, you can be darned sure they are going to find it.

Of course, the best solution would have been to give Bandit a bath. He had just been bathed two days ago, though, and frankly the idea of going through all that again so soon was a little daunting. Plus, even though I use a very gentle natural shampoo, I don't like to overdo the bathing frequency and dry out his skin.

So, I hopped over to the kitchen and whipped up a fresh batch of my favorite stinky-dog remedy. If I was trying to market this stuff, I suppose I'd call it something like, "Hoof and Howl Farm's Funky Dog Cleansing Spray". I love it, because it's super easy to make, gets the bad odors completely out of the coat in less than five minutes, doesn't have to be rinsed out, and cuts out the hours of post-bath drying time that my thick-coated pooches have to endure.

So how exactly do you go about making this miracle spritz? It's very simple - here's my current recipe, that uses common herbs and ingredients you likely already have in your kitchen:

1 spray bottle
4 1/4 cups water (roughly equal to one bottle of spring/bottled water, if you prefer)
1 tsp dried rosemary leaves
2 tsp dried mint leaves
1 tsp vinegar

In a small saucepan, pour roughly 2 cups of the water. Add 1/2 tsp vinegar, 1 tsp dried rosemary leaves, and 2 tsp dried mint leaves to the water, then bring to a rolling boil. Boil for 2 - 3 minutes, then remove from heat. Allow to steep for another 2 - 3 minutes.

Pour the liquid into a bowl - through a strainer to catch all the rosemary and mint leaves - then add the remaining water. Once it has cooled to a reasonable temperature, pour into the spray bottle. Add remaining 1/2 tsp of white vinegar, and shake vigorously.

It's ready to use right away - always shake before using. Just spritz it all over your dog and rub dry with a towel. It doesn't smell vinegar-y at all, and has a very mild herbal scent that doesn't "perfume" your dog (it smells stronger in the bottle than on the pooch). It's just the trick for getting out mild bad odors. Oh, and rosemary is supposed to have some anti-flea and anti-insect properties as well.

Oh, and not only does it leave them odor-free, but it also leaves their coat shiny, and feeling very soft. I just spritz them all over and rub them with a towel, out in the garage before they come back into the house. It takes less than 5 minutes per dog, and believe me when I say it is time well-spent.

Gardener's pink lemonade

OK, so it's actually limeade, but in my mind that makes this even much more of a feat!

I was hoping to use up the purple basil I harvested to make pesto, but it turns out that a medium-sized handful just isn't enough to make a worthwhile amount (oops). So, I decided to crush the basil leaves and make basil lemonade, a popular herbal drink.

Off I went to the store, to get my lemonade. Amazingly, they were fresh out - so I picked up a jug of limeade instead - not much different from lemonade except for a little extra sweetness, and a tart, slightly bitter "bite" to it. I added my entire handful of crushed basil to the jug, and let it steep for the next 24 hours.

To my complete surprise, the once-green limeade had changed to a beautiful rose pink color! After straining out the leftover basil leaves, it was ready to serve. The taste is terrific - very refreshing, and the basil really mellowed out the sharpness of the limeade... this would be a great drink to serve at a summer party, in a big punch bowl with little sprigs of basil as a garnish.

As if I have the time to plan fancy summer parties... :)

No-impact agriculture

First wild mint, now wild blackberries! I found several blackberry bushes scattered throughout the front woods when I went exploring yesterday afternoon.

I harvested what was ready to come off the bush, but I think there will be days and days of picking yet before the harvest is exhausted. Gotta love that no-impact agriculture...

Chooks on the loose

For the past week or so, I've been letting the girls out every afternoon to free-range around the barn. Things progressed beautifully the first several days - the hens were content to scratch and peck around the barn, compost pile, and nearby bushes, without straying much more than 50 feet from the coop. Between our neighbor's property and ours, there is a winding little windbreak of pine trees, small decidious trees and shrubbery. Although the chickens loved scratching around in the pine needles searching for snacks, they seemed to respect the treeline and didn't try to pass through.

Starting a few days ago, they started getting a little more bold - too bold for my liking, actually. Suddenly, chickens could be spotted convening in the side yard (driving the dogs bonkers), feasting on berry bushes in the back woods, and, with much anxious hand-wringing from me, actually taking long, carefree naps under the pine trees, just laying there and looking delicious for any hungry fox or coyote that happened to stroll by. Today, they committed the ultimate chicken faux pas - holding a party on my neighbor's lawn. They decided that the windbreak wasn't such a big scary passage after all, and scampering through the woods into the big, juicy yard on the other side wasn't such a daunting task. It's not like they wouldn't come home at night (they would), but I didn't want them to bother my neighbor in any way in the meantime.

I caught them while they were still on the very edge of their property and mine, and approached, armed with a canister of chicken feed and cracked corn. With embarrassingly loud and frantic calls of "Here, chick chick chickies", that were likely heard resounding throughout the whole Township, I was able to lure them back onto the property, where I promptly shut them up in their run. Tomorrow I'll be calling my neighbor to apologize, and ask for her feelings on the occasional stray chicken showing up in her yard. They won't be free-ranging again until I have fencing put up (I have a split-rail and hotwire combo ready to be installed soon), but I imagine that there will be the occasional escapee now and then.

Incidentally, this is the same wonderful and lovely neighbor who was kind enough to gift us that huge jar of delicious raw honey a couple months ago. Their friendship is important to me, so I'd hate to see the relationship bruised over a couple of vagabond chooks.

More on mint

Remember that wild mint I mentioned? Well, today I read that propagating mint is as simple as taking a cutting and letting it root in water. Replant in soil, and voila - you have just doubled your mint population.

So, I now have a regular army of mint cuttings marching along my kitchen windowsill. (I knew I bought all those canning jars for a reason...) Time will tell if they take root, but if they do - man, if only all things were this easy.

Yes, snake photos! Story to follow.

One of the things I love the most about living here is the variety of wildlife that I get to see every day. There is nothing to brighten my day more than a chance encounter with a representative of the Great Outdoors.

Usually, these encounters take place in very unexpected ways, precisely when you're not expecting anything out of the ordinary to happen. It was definitely this way when I walked down my staircase last week, and saw one of my cats peering into the sunroom, with an incredibly confused (and maybe, a little freaked out) look on her face. My first thought was that somehow, one of the dogs had finally found a way to break out of the kennel. What else could make my cats look so concerned? To my surprise, though, when I peeked out the sunroom window, I found a hummingbird, rapidly beating her wings against the ceiling and glass doors trying to escape. Somehow, she'd flown in and couldn't figure out how to get back outside.

I sprinted outside and grabbed my good ol' fashioned bug net, and carefully propped myself up on a chair, balancing with the net just underneath the tiny little bird. I could see that it was a female ruby-throated hummingbird, and to be honest I spent a moment marveling at seeing this creature up close before I gently closed the net around her panicked body. She beat her wings against the net in a frenzy until I carried it outside, where she immediately relaxed and perched her tiny feet on the mesh. I reached in slowly, coaxed her to perch on my finger, and as soon as my hand left the mouth of the net, she was gone - buzzed up into the sky like a speeding rocket and soared over the top of the treeline. I don't think I'll ever be so fortunate to see another hummingbird that close. It was awesome.

Last night, when Byron and I were taking an evening bat-watching tour - which consists of walking to the buggiest part of the park at twilight and staying very quiet - we found more than just bats (which are incredible animals to watch, by the way). Coiled precariously on the path was a tiny Eastern milk snake, bravely poised to strike my husband's approaching shoe. I pretty much get beside myself with glee when I see a snake in the wild. It's just one of those things. So, without further ado, I swept in and scooped up the little guy, and carried him the whole way home with a huge dorky grin on my face. I got tagged three times throughout the journey, which is, of course, just a natural part of the game. It was definitely one of those times when I'm glad that I can positively identify non-venomous snakes. When I got home, I settled him into one of my own, pet snake hatchling cages for the night, with plans to photograph and release him in the morning.

True to my word, I set him free today after a few minutes of photography. He was a fiesty little guy and bit me twice more before scurrying off into the woods at the edge of our property. Not quite as friendly a creature as the hummingbird, but to me (at least), every bit as charming.

Summer herb harvesting

I took the first cuttings of herbs from the little container garden I planted back in June. They had simply exploded since planting - with just a little supplemental watering here and there. I've been checking the soil moisture daily, and to my amazement, it seems that the self-watering planter is actually working as it should! Even in dry periods, the soil has been consistently cool and moist, even the top inch. I've only had to water the planter maybe 3 times since it was planted.

I pinched a small handful of basil and thyme for myself this evening, in the hopes of making an herb bread, and a batch of purple basil pesto. There wasn't much to harvest, but since the herbs will get bushier with every vigorous pruning, I'm hoping to get quite a bit more in a few weeks.

I still have sage and oregano left untouched in the container. I'm a little apprehensive about pruning the sage, since I've read it needs to be harvested sparingly during the first year. And the oregano hasn't really grown large enough yet for me to feel comfortable taking any sprigs for myself.

Meanwhile, in two homemade planters on the kennel, I planted a variety of mints and lemon balm (which were purchased from a friendly group of authentic hippies living about an hour south - definitely an adventure, that). They are growing amazingly well, and have such a nice variety of aromas. Being the mint grower that I now am, I'm now spotting mint everywhere - I found a very healthy patch of wild mint growing along the edge of our gravel driveway near the woods this evening. Of course, I just had to break off a snippet to compare the fragrance. Well, as wild plants often do, it made the cultivated mint pale in comparison. The fragrance was incredibly aromatic and spicy, with a sharpness that the container mint lacked. I imagine the cultivated mint is probably much sweeter and better for cooking, but the wild variety would likely be incredible in candles or steeped for tea. I'm going to snip a few cuttings off tomorrow and get them to root in some water, and replant them in one of my deck containers.

There is much more to talk about other than herbs, but that will have to wait for another day. A girl can only write so much!

Wolfish jam session

Solar powered

Found this little guy adorning my chicken run fence this morning, while I was letting the girls out of the coop. It doesn't take much to get me smiling these days.

Poor Boots.

Boots is my White Sultan hen. Normally, she looks so poofy that she can hardly see out from under her little white crest... I think she is actually a rejected Muppet. But when this photo was taken, she had just come out from the shower, and none too happy about it.

I found a spot of blood in the coop yesterday when I let the girls out in the morning, and being the paranoid chicken mother that I am, I had to check everyone over, toes to comb, for injuries. I didn't find anything definitive, but one of Boots' feet seemed to be a little sore, so I decided to take her inside and give her a bath so I could get a closer look. She has such heavily-feathered feet that it's almost impossible to see clear down to the toes without getting her wet - and I figured if I was going to get her legs soaked anyway, why not do the whole hen?

Turns out that she had an injured feather shaft that was a little bloody. I don't know if one of the other hens picked at her feet, or if she might have injured it some other way - but I got it cleaned up and disinfected, and it seems much better today.

Hopefully I won't be bathing any more chickens anytime soon, but hey, I'll try anything once. I'm not sure that Boots would agree.

The lonesome little garden

Well, here it is at the end of June, and me with only one lonesome little container garden.

My seedlings met with absolute disaster, and although I have no idea where I went wrong, I ended up with only a few starts of tomatoes, peppers, and melons. All my herbs and several vegetables succumbed right as I was about to begin laying the groundwork for the new gardens.

All is not lost, however. I went out on Wednesday and replaced a portion of my herbs with new transplants from Trader Joe's. OK, so it's not as self-sufficient as starting from seed, but at least I now have a little gardening going on. I'm greatly enjoying the little container, and can't wait to plant its clone next week with the other remaining herbs - dill, parsley, and chamomile.

The other good news is that my dad tilled up a sizable portion in his backyard for me to start my remaining plants in. I can't wait to get over there and get everything put into the soil. There was no way I could have gotten my own gardens built in time, so I'm extremely grateful for the little patch of soil he loaned me.

(By the way, the container pictured is one of the self-watering containers I built back in early May. It's my first time using one, especially a DIY job, so time will tell how it works out.)

They're coming to take me away, hehe...

Just a little something on the lighter side. This photo absolutely cracks me up! As you can probably guess, that's Jasper, during the long car ride home from the shelter.

He's every bit as crazy as he appears in the photo. I mean that in the best possible way.

The show must go on

By 1:00 am on Monday morning, my husband was dialing for an ambulance and I was heading off to the emergency room.

Yep, I told you that things went downhill fast!

Don't worry, it wasn't some crazy farming accident. I didn't impale myself on cattle panel, catch some horrible zoological disease, or get mauled by the dogs.

To be honest, even now, no one is really sure what exactly did happen to me that night - other than the fact that I went from totally normal, to suffering from excruciating abdominal pain in under 2 hours. (It's not the first time that this has happened - the last time, when I lived in Columbus, I was also taken to the ER; but, the hospital never saw me, and I fell asleep in the waiting room after suffering for 10 hours straight. Woke up the next morning, spent a week in recovery at home, and haven't had a single problem since. It's been nearly two years since that incident.)

The staff in the hospital were wonderful, and took excellent care of me. After getting some serious relief from an IV and pain meds, I fell asleep quickly and spent all of Monday in the hospital, going in and out of sleep. I was completely exhausted and wasn't fully comprehending much, thanks to the strong pain medications the night before. By Tuesday morning, though, I was feeling much better and ready to get back home. A lot of soreness still persisted (and still does, 4 days later), but it was clear that the worst was over.

Over the 2 days I spent hospitalized, doctors came in and went over my CAT scans with me, but there wasn't very much to conclude from them, unfortunately. The potential causes mentioned included:

-Scar tissue buildup from surgeries I had as a child
-Dilated appendix
-Paralysis/dysfunction of the ilieum
-Chron's disease

Needless to say, ignoring serious issues like that is not an option. I have followup appointments over the next two weeks to try and obtain a clearer diagnosis.

In the meantime, I'm just trying to get back into my normal routines, and do as much work as I can without overtaxing myself. No matter what, as one of my favorite authors likes to say: life rolls. As unfortunate as it might sound, the dogs, cats, chickens, gardens, and farm are all indifferent to my pain and exhaustion. The show must go on...

Pre-mayhem

Well, I'm sitting here typing away again, after a truly crazy weekend and week.

Although the real mayhem didn't begin until later, I guess the best place to start would be Saturday afternoon. Byron and I headed north to my hometown to attend the annual community garage sales. We really got lucky, and brought home a treasure trove of great finds - among them, $4 fondue set, new in box; a $10 industrial livestock/barn cooling fan; a $10 antique metronome from the early 1900's. I just love garage sales! Many of my most treasured kitchen tools have come to me that way. I wouldn't be baking bread or drying my own vegetables and herbs if it wasn't for garage sales!

On Sunday morning, we undertook another little adventure. My husband and I have been really hoping to get a portion of the yard fenced in for the dogs soon - they really need the space for free-running, especially now that it's warm and all they want to do is lounge around in the kennel all day. They really need that extra motivation to keep them exercising. So, after realizing over the last several months that no pre-made fence was going to suit our needs, we decided to construct our own fence out of 16' x 4' cattle panel and wood post.

So, on Sunday morning, my husband, parents, and I rented a 17' Uhaul trailer, headed off to Tractor Supply Company, and picked up 50 4-foot cattle panels and 50 6' posts. It was pretty uneventful for such a big job, which was pretty surprising.

The rest of Father's Day was spent relaxing and visiting with my dad at his house. We had a wonderful visit and I really enjoyed spending time with everyone.

Sunday night was when things really went downhill, and there's enough there for a separate post...

The first step...

Is admitting you have a problem. In our case, a problem with flies.

Our property is in the beginning throes of fly war. I first noticed them showing up about two weeks ago - biting flies, pest flies, horseflies, deerflies, every kind of fly you can imagine, coming in droves. It's getting to the point that a nice lunch outside, or a nap on the hammock, is becoming a major turf battle.

I can understand why this is happening, though. Between the kennel, the chicken coop, the (as-yet-unoccupied) barn, and the woods nearby, flies are bound to appear. Combine that with the not-so-sound property management that I struggled with over the winter and spring (namely, cleaning out wheelbarrows full of once-frozen shavings and straw from the kennel when it thawed), and we have quite the problem on our hands now. At least I've learned from my mistakes and won't be repeating the same methods in the kennel again this coming winter - and I now have a functional compost pile that greatly cuts down on lawn and chicken coop wastes.

Still, something needs to be done - I know that if I let them get established this year, next year they'd be even worse, no matter how I manage the property. So, enter Spalding Lab's Fly Predators. I've heard nothing but good about these guys from the horsewomen I know, not to mention on numerous online review sites and blogs. Basically, they are tiny, parasitic wasps that hatch on the property and attack flies and their larvae. They are almost too small to see, and don't sting - so it's almost like they're not even there. They can't survive the harsh winters here, either, so there is no chance of them becoming established in the environment.

My first shipment of these guys should be arriving by the end of next week. Here's hoping they can help me win the war against the flies before it even really starts...

Resident couch potato

Early summer blooms

The best kind of neighbor

On Sunday, while I was away studying wolves (true story - how do normal people spend their weekends?), Byron headed over to our next-door neighbor to give her some help on her computer. When I got back home from my little adventure, I found this huge, beautiful jar of sweet treasure sitting on my fireplace hearth. A gift given in thanks for some simple neighborly assistance.

It's the biggest jar of real, raw, locally-produced honey I have EVER seen. I don't think there is any way to communicate to my wonderful neighbor how much this gift is appreciated over here... except to blog about it and shout thanks to the Internet heavens. I did call her and thank her profusely but I'm not sure I made it clear what a completely wonderful gift this really is, considering:

-I use honey instead of sugar in almost everything I cook or bake - it's better for maintaining blood sugar levels without a spike, and healthier than refined white sugar
-I am a local food nut
-I am a raw food nut
-I have been wanting to try true local honey for years!

It's gone to sugar so it needs a little reheating to get back to liquid form, but I can't wait to crack this jar open. In fact, I think I might just have to go do that now...

Jasper can fly

...or, "Why Wolfdogs Require a Very Tall Fence".

As some of you know, I have a new foster dog here that was just pulled from a county pound a couple weeks ago. His name is Jasper, and he is a wolfdog (wolf hybrid). I've been helping a wolf rescue organization for the past several months, learning how to evaluate and temperament-test animals, as well as take photographs and help transport the wolfdogs to their destinations. Jasper is the first wolfdog foster I have had here in several months.

I caught Jasper and Willow playing together last night, and was just amazed at the aerial acrobatics this animal could pull off. Willow is capable of feats like this as well, but generally doesn't bother to expend so much energy at once (unless she is directing that energy towards scaling a fence). I wish the lighting could have allowed for better photos, but I'm sure this isn't the last time I'll see Jasper attempting to take flight.