Seasons of change

I like winter well enough, it's just that some years it seems to drag on. This was one of those years. Our youngest seems to have spent a fair bit of it sick. Between colds, the fifth desease and finally a bout of strep throat, requiring for the first time in his 11 years antibiotics.  Thanksfully the temperature is rising and the sun is shining! Time to think Spring.

Heading to cut some firewood for next year.

When you live on a Farmstead as much as you enjoy one Season you're always thinking about and preparing for the next. Spring maybe on its way that means time to head back to the bush to find dead or fallen trees to cut and split so they'll be seasoned for next years firewood, Late winter is the time most gardeners look to their gardens, yes they maybe covered under snow but it doesn't stop us from thinking ahead. Time to buy seeds and start plants. I have to remind myself not to be too eager and start too many seeds too soon, like eveything else I learned this the hard way.

Cool season crops

Apple pie from storage

This is the first year we've had keeping any sort of luck keeping apples over the winter. We have yet to build a proper root celler. Living in an 100 yr + farm house we do have a celler that we keep the jars of food we preserve as well as potatoes but it's too moist or too dry for most other vegetables. I've been keeping a bushel of apples in the coldest room in our house, which could be any number of room depending on the wind and it's paid off, local apples in February!

These apples look great after months in storage.

Hopefully by next fall we'll have a proper root cellar full of pumpkins, squash, apples, onions, carrots, beets and potatoes. We'll just add building one to the never ending to do list, maybe if we remember how good homemade apple pie tastes in February we'll move it higher on the list.

Here's to hoping for a root celler.

And another winter begins.

The view from the back porch yesterday afternoon.

The Hens are still laying well, I love the speckled ones.

The wood cookstove is going all the time it's great for getting the bread baked. This focaccia will be great with the pasta I'm making for dinner tonight.

Spring is finally here.

                      What driving home from town looked like far too many times this winter.



What a winter we had, I'd like to say lots of ups and downs but it was down and stayed down, down to the -30c's for days at a time. If the temperatures weren't enough it was the snow and than of course came the winds. So we had lots of snow days and movie days cuddling in the house, but it left us desperately low on fire wood and the list of jobs we were going to do this winter is still pretty full. I'm sure we went the only ones those it was a brutal winter in a lot of places and thanks to wood heat and canning and stocking up we were able to stay comfy and warm at home most of the time. The last week or so there has finally been a change in the weather. We're seeing the sun again and warmer temperatures and the snow is finally receding, slowly but it is going. We have the Maple trees tapped and once again the sap is flowing, OK well slowly dripping but hey we'll take it.

We're back.

Wow it's been 7 months since my last post. I started out with the best of intentions and than we had some unexpected family issues come up (don't we all), and it just seem to take the life out of us. It took awhile to bounce back, but we're here now and feeling great and ready to take on a New Year! Soon we'll be tapping trees for maple syrup as well as starting seeds and cutting next years firewood. On to bigger and better things.

Old Equipment

We are blessed to have lots of old horse drawn equpiment. We've purchased some and we inherited from Hubbys Grandfather, which I think is pretty cool. Hubby being a baby who was born to parents in their 40's has the privilege of having a father who remembers farming with horses as well as a Grandfather who had farmed with horses. A few weeks ago the tongue broke on the hay mower which we had been using for cutting green feed for the animals. So it was time to make a new one. We could have gone to the Mennonite sawmill up the road and had one made, but with money being what it is these days we needed to get creative. So we had some barn beams that had been taken out of an old barn. We took one of those and got started. First was cut to the right width.

                     Cut the right size now "shaving" it down so there are no rough edges

                                      Working the end so the neck yoke will fit on

       This was Hubbys Grandfathers neck yolk and I know it gives him great pride to use it.

                                                      Put back together

                                                    Back to work.

Good White Bread (for my Brother)

I've been making my own bread for years, my brother just recently started. I use to use a bread machine but found the bread was too dense for our liking and after a day or two was stale. So about a year ago I ditched the bread machine and started making all of our bread products by hand. My brother is now finding himself in the same situation and asked for my white bread recipe. He tried it out and had less than great results so I thought I'd put a post together for him and for anyone else interested.

                                             When the yeast mixture is ready for the flour

                                                After adding the flour and kneading

                                                 

                                                          placed in oiled bowl

                                                                 Doubled

                                                   Shaped in to a loaf and buns

                                                    Ready to pop into the oven!

                                                      Out and ready to enjoy.

*White Bread.

2 Cups Warm Water

2/3 Cups Sugar or Honey

1 1/2 TBSP Yeast

1 1/2 TBSP Salt

1/4 cup Oil

Approx six cups White Flour.

Mix Water,Honey,Salt, Oil and yeast in bowl wait 2-3 minutes until
yeast is foamy. Add Flour in about one cup at a time (might not need
all six I usually use about Five) Knead until elestic about 5-10
minutes (when you lightly poke it the imprint should bounce back) Let
rise in oiled bowl until doubled (25-35 minutes) Punch down shape and
put into greased bread pans let raise again about 30 minutes bake at
350*f For approx 30-40 minutes until nice brown colour, but watch it
can burn easily..