First Ever Iron Chef Night!

Hello Friends and Chefs!

Now that the busy summer is starting to pass us by, it’s time to cook up some fun of our own! Iron Chef Nights are going to be starting up, and you are invited to join in the fun! Iron Chef nights are a mutation of the old “Tuesay Nigh Dinners” with a bit of a competive and fun twist.

The first Iron Chef Night is going to be next Friday, September 19^th starting at 6:00 pm. We are going to hold it at our house (Jared and Chris’) in Carlton.

Here are some guidelines and tidbits:

· This first night is going to be a pilot night and everyone that attends can join in and have their say about how to hold future events. We hope to do them either every fortnight or every month depending on how people that attend feel.

· The theme for the first night is going to be “Summer Eats” bring anything you think that reminds you of summer. I’m going to make leg of lamb, lemon potatoes and angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream (that’s a lot of food, you only need to bring one dish).

Here is some information about the Iron Chef Night idea:

· Anyone and everyone is invited to attend and join in the fun. I have personally intived people that were a part of Tuesday Night Dinners as well as some additional friends. If you think of someone that I may have missed, feel free to send an invitation on. This is meant to be a fun gathering of friends. Please do email me if you plan to attend the first night.

· Every week will have a “secret ingredient” that will either be selected by the “chairman” (a position not yet appointed) or by the group by vote.

· This is being done potluck style. When you cook, bring enough for yourself to eat (two or more people can cook together, as long as they bring enough for themselves to eat). That way, if everyone brings enough to eat themselves, everyone will get enough to eat.

· A silent vote will be collected after the meal to determine the “winner” of the week’s cooking maybe we could do a prize or let that person select the next secret ingredient (see, it’s still all in flux).

· It is very likely that this gathering could get bigger than being able to sit an eat around a table, so plan to eat on couches or maybe even sitting on the floor, this isn’t a formal thing after all. This first week, we have a deck we can put sitting devices on and eat out there (before it gets cold).

· If someone wants to bring wine or juice or something to make italian sodas, I don’t think anyone would object J

· It is possible that we could get in on playing games like Mafia afterwards.

· In the future, it could be possible to assign deserts, main meals, side dishes and beverages to people who plan to attend to ensure that the meal ends up balanced.

· Bring a copy of the recipe you used for the dish you made so that anyone can copy it if they want to. We can all expand our cooking knowledge this way!

· If anyone is interested in being the chairman, let me know. I will hold the role for now, but the idea would be to make a video or something with the secret ingredient and maybe organize or assign what dishes will be made by whom. They would be able to come without making anything or maybe bring the drinks.

Children are welcome just make sure you bring enough food to feed anyone that comes along.

Please do come! We are going to have a lot of fun, and we want to get together and become better cooks!

Blood Donation

Back in February, I planned to replace the blood that was given to Jared by ten times.

I did my first donation in May and I did my second donation this week! The needles that they use are so big, but I truly was glad to get a chance to do it again. I only have 8 more donations to go to meet my goal. I have O- blood, which is the blood that can be donated to anyone, but happens to be in rare supply, so double bonus for the fact that my blood is super useful!

Why The World Needs Grandpas

This is an exchange between Daphne and her grandpa (Papa Bob).

How cute is that?

From: "Christine Anderson"
Subject: Letter from Daphne

Hi Grandpa,

I am starting this letter because Daphne wants to type. From here on, Daphne is typing to you.

hg 7 jbghd 7jh jjujk m o9vtrv55555555g

Hope you are having a good day!

Love,

Chris and Daphne

(Jared is out camping and rafting)

The reply:

THANKS FOR YOUR LETTER. I AM GLAD ALL IS WELL WITH YOU. THANKS FOR LETTING ME KNOW THAT YOU ARE HAVING FUN WITH YOUR MON WHEN YOUR DAD IS AWAY. I HOPE YOU GET SOME ICE CREAM AND BERRIES IF IT IS HOT. THATS WHAT I EAT WHEN I AM HOT. IF YOUR FOLKS GET TOUGH WITH YOU JUST GIVE ME A CALL AND I WILL STRAIGHTEN THEM OUT. TOGETHER WE CAN REALLY GIVE THEM FITS. THANKS AGAIN FOR THE EMAIL. I LOVE YOU VERY MUCH, YOUR GRANDPA

Staying Home

A friend of mine recently posted about the kind of fun that she gets to have when she stays home with her baby.

I was thinking about this this morning as I went about my routine.

While we were waiting for the oatmeal to cook for breakfast, Daphne and I sat in bed and pulled the covers over our heads. We call it our tent, and she likes to jump out from under the covers and scare anyone that walks by. We sat under the tent for about 20 minutes waiting for daddy to walk by so that we could scare him. She held on to a jar of grapes the whole time popping grapes every minute or so.

After breakfast, the garbage man came. Daphne is fascinated by the garbage man, and when he comes, we run outside to see him pick up the garbage cans with the big claw. She sits on the porch and waves to him and then claps when he is done. It amuses her that she has something to watch, and she makes the garbage man smile every time. Today, he stopped and said that he thought she was darling and that it is fun to see her every other week (ok, it's really the recycling man).

Those two moments aren't worth giving up for any amount of money. Thanks, Jared for letting us stay home together!

Patty's Car Seat

Daphne is really starting to want to be a little mommy, and she does a really good job of being Patty's mom.

I was doing some computer work today, and when I turned around, she had Patty in the infant car seat and she was strapping her in.

Where did my little baby that didn't know how to roll over go?

Flaff Food

Daddy was making a list to me of things we need:

"Mommy food"
"Daddy food"
"Baby food"

Daphne chimes in:

"Flaff food"

That was real smart of her. Those are the first two works she has put together on her own.

Aw... My baby is growing up.

Buckles

Daphne is obsessed with buckles recently.

Any buckle that she sees that is undone needs to be done immediately. She has made it a mission in her life.

I kept her occupied at the zoo for at least an hour with the buckles in the stroller!

Maybe she is restoring some sort of cosmic order in the universe by doing this. I just like having something to occupy her.

Potty Training Works!!

Today, Daphne was running around the house naked, and she started to look like she was going to poop.

She walked over and picked up the potty chair and was trying to situate herself when she pooped on the floor on accident. As I was sorting that out, she just walked over to the potty and sat down and made a pee int he potty!

She has been skirting around telling us when she had to pee and then not actually peeing.

She got a nice long applause, and I was so happy that she didn't pee on my floor.

Perhaps this is the beginning of no more diapers.

When the World Was More Simple

When Bill Clinton was running for President, I was still a school kid, and on the radio, as they talked about the "Presidential Race" I thought they were talking literally.

The only thing I could make out from what was being said was that the President wanna-bes had to run across the country and the one that got to the other side first became the President.

That is, after all kind of how it is right?

Garbage Man

Daphne thinks the Garbage man is the coolest person around.

Every Tuesday when she hears the garbage truck, she runs outside so that she can watch him lift up the cans with the truck. She thinks it is so cool.

Today, we sat as he took the recycling, and we clapped when he completed the task.

He got a big kick out of it, and Daphne is more educated in the ways of the world.

Win-win.

The Zoo

Yesterday we headed off to the zoo with Julie.

We had a total blast. Daphne loves all kinds of animals, and despite the fact that she loved to run around and do pretty much whatever she wanted, she would stop whenever she saw an animal and watching it for a LOOOOONNNNNGGGGG time!

Her favorite was the elephants. She watched and watched and watched them completely enthralled with what they were doing!

It was a great day to go to the zoo and we had a lot of fun.

Hyper Speed Baby

I was trying to get Daphne's diaper on this morning. Because she still has a rash, she has been running around with no diaper on, and when I suggest a new diaper, she runs around saying, "Ow, Ow."

This morning, I laid out a diaper and went to get her, but she saw what I was doing, and she ran off at hyper speed. She ran away faster than I have ever seen a baby run. It was hilarious.

After I finally retrieved her, I set her down and said, "Daphne, mommies always win!"

Her response: "Ow."

New Bike

Jared mentioned that Daphne needed a tricycle because every time they go for a walk, she admires the bike of a girl that lives down the road.

Daphne recently started to recognize when she saw a bike, and she even learned how to say a bike. It was when she started to see bikes on TV or in pictures that I realized how smart the little cookie is.

I got on Freecycle and found a trike just down the road. As a bonus, I got a three wheeled push toy. The push toy is just her size, and it is so nice that she has a bike of her own!

1, 2,3

Ever since Daphne was a tiny baby, I always have counted things down with a hearty one, two, three. She has learned to expect anything that is going to happen to take place on the three.

A few months ago, when she started to talk a little bit, she started to pick up on mimicking numbers, and she would say five, eight and two.

Today, we were watching the Olympics, and I was inspired to flip her around in a front filp. I kept counting it off, and she eventually caught on.

Any time she wanted to do a flip, she would come up to me and say, "One, two..." and wait for me to give the Three while I flipped her.

As I was attempting to put her to bed, she was laying on top of me saying, "One, two three." Over and over again.

I think we've got the counting going!

Dean's List

I got a letter yesterday from PSU.

I made the Dean's list last term! Go me!

Crafty One

Daphne is becoming very crafty very quickly, and we are having to scramble.

On Sunday, we were trying to watch the finale of a show we like to watch, and it was not meant to be. Daphne was running around causing all kind of havoc. She was pulling things of shelves, putting objects in the VCR, peeing on my sewing patterns and just generally demanding the attention that was not forthcoming!

When papa Bob came up a few weeks ago, one of the things that he brought up was a small chair that used to be Jared's. Daphne likes to sit in small chairs, and she was amused for weeks about being able to sit in the chair like everyone else.

Recently, however, another idea has occurred to her. She realized that the chair is light enough for her to carry and that she has the ability to stand on it to get up to something high.

I now look behind me often, and she is walking off with her chair and 2 minutes later, she is standing on it trying to food of the kitchen counter or the pin cushion off my sewing table.

She is becoming ever more crafty.

Last night as was wrapping things up to put her to bed, I looked in the kitchen, and she was standing on a cooler in there that she had drug in there so that she could get an apple.

We are scrambling to baby proof from Hurricane Daphne, and we are now closing ALL doors for ALL rooms that we are not currently in (including the bathroom because apparently the toilet makes a really good water toy!)

Sock

Daphne is learning a new word now, "sock." Any time it is time to put on a shoe, she reminds us that perhaps a sock is necessary as well.

We also say the word, "food" when hungry (or even thirsty).

She is coming along on her talking.

Dancing

Somewhere along the line, Daphne became incredibly aware of music.

Within the last week, she has started dancing to music anytime she hears it. She sways back and forth and lifts her feet up off the ground really high and smiles. It is an awful lot of fun.

She also nods her head, and sometimes, we wont even notice that we have music going on in the background until I look over and see her rocking out to it and dancing.

I'm going to have to post video because it is really cute.

Graveyard of Lost Things

I swear that one day I am going to find a graveyard of lost things. I have been missing a few things lately, but the list is quickly growing longer.

For one, my cell phone has been missing since the day that I got my new cell phone. I am convinced it is in my house, but in a search from top to bottom, it still has not appeared.

I have also been missing my flash diffuser. This is important and about 10 minutes before every wedding I go to, I search the house looking for it until I get up in sadness that I might have to spend another chunk of change to replace it.

Oh.. and there is always the snap press die that I had to reorder and am waiting anxiously for.

Daphne is also missing one pink shoe with a flower on it. I think she left it at my sister's house, but it is nowhere to be found there.

And so, I go through life anxiously awaiting when these things will show up. I imagine when we are packing up her room for college that I will find all these long lost things and we will have a good laugh.

Belly Button

Daphne now knows the word "belly button." She can show you hers any time you ask.

She also knows where her mom's belly button is, but rather than just point it out, she tries to blow bubbles on my belly every time I ask her where it is. It is really, really cute because she is just remembering what I used to do to her!

Clapping

Yesterday was a very hectic day. We grabbed some pizza and decided to eat it in bed while watching TV (it was rather late and we were trying to get the baby to bed).

While watching "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader" there was a lot of clapping. Every time, there was a clapping moment, Daphne would throw the pizza down and start clapping and then pick it back up again. It was so cute to see her realizing that there was clapping going on and that she needed to participate.

She was careful to put the pizza in the pizza box every time she was clapping, but toward the end, that consisted of actually flinging the pizza so she could get her clapping done.

Egg Cracker

A few weeks ago, Jared said that Daphne could help me start cracking eggs when she got older.

One morning, things were chaotic, and Jared needed to work, so I took Daphne while I cooked. I decided it was time to help her learn to crack eggs. She took the eggs one by one and mashed them into the pan until the broke and then she pulled them apart. I was actually quite impressed with how good she was at it.

What a fun little project to do. It brought tears to my eyes that she was actually learning how to do things to help. I'm looking forward to cooking with her in the future.

Snap Die

Dear Daphne,

You lost the die to my snap press. The replacement has come out of your allowance.

You little rat.

Love,

Mom

Teething Trouble

Daphne is getting her first set of molars in. Rather than be nice and get them one at a time, she has been getting all four of them at the same time. Teething is traumatic enough for a baby, but this was over the top. She often had to be held, and she would just sit and cry and cry with nothing that would console her.

A few things really did work. A lot of the time, we could just give her a nice high dose of homeopathic chamomile. That stuff worked well. One time, at the height of her screaming, I gave her a dose of chamomile, and she just fell over and was sleeping in no time. Chamomile has been really nice to use, and I recommend it highly to any parent. However, it just didn’t seem to stay the dragons during this round of teeth.

After wining to my mom’s group online about my very sad baby, the owner of Pumpkin Butt emailed me and told me that there was something I had to try. In her store, she sells something called teething oil. It is a blend of a bunch of different oils that have proven to be therapeutic. A lot of moms just put clove oil on their baby’s gums. Though it does work, experimentation on an adult shows that clove oil hurts until it numbs all feeling for at least 24 hours. Not a good numb, more like a chemical burn numb. Not something I recommend.

I got some teething oil from Pumpkin Butt. It is the best $5 investment I could have made. Daphne likes the taste, and she likes the bottle, and when I rub it on her gums, that seems to calm things down incredibly.

A while ago, my friend sent me a link for some Amber Teething Necklaces. I looked at them at the time, thought they were cool and then closed the link. I started to think about it more, recently, and I decided to give it a try.

I bought two Amber Teething Necklaces and 1 bracelet. The total was about $20 including shipping. I got 2 so that I knew that if it worked and one got lost that I would not feel without while I waited for a new one to be shipped to me.

The SECOND I put the necklace on Daphne, we truly had a miracle on our hands. She calmed right down, and her temperament seemed to improve. She liked the necklace, though she was prone to chewing on it because it was a little long.

I SWEAR that I don’t believe in voodoo much, but this is one case where it really works.

You see, the child is not supposed to chew on the beads. The mere act of wearing them will do the trick. See, I told you it was a little voodoo.

Of course, the Europeans have been doing this for years, and it’s popular over there. Americans tend to be a little more stubborn about all things voodoo.

Here is some truth behind the voodoo. Apparently Baltic Amber has a high level of succinic acid in it. When the baby wears the necklace against his skin, the amber warms up, and the succinic acid can then absorb into the skin and be soaked up by the blood stream. Apparently, research has shown that it can calm a person down, stop them from drooling (always a benefit) and soothe the soreness that comes with teething.

That sounds logical. Daphne lent one of her necklaces to a friend to try out, and we found out very quickly just how much it does work. She had an awful time without her necklace while the baby she was lending it to had some relief from the teething. I have since been encouraging a bunch of mamas to try the teething necklaces for the teething pain.

I bought my necklaces from Inspired by Finn. They are made specifically for babies, so care has been taken to knot between each bead. If the strand were to break, the beads would not scatter everywhere for a curious toddler to eat! They are also made in smaller sizes. I got Daphne a 14” strand, and it worked very well for her.

She likes to look pretty, so the next time you see her, admire her pretty necklace.

Snap Press Help

Apparently, Daphne got a hold of my die for my snap press that allows me to put snaps on the diapers. It has disappeared. After searching the house, which included turning the couch on end and looking in the VCR player, we decided it was gone for good. Not only do I have to shell out another $12 for it, I also have to put my house back in order as well.

Retiring Outfits

Throughout her life, Daphne has had outfits that I have loved to put on her. They are the cute ones that I reach for first when it is time to dress her. They are also the outfits that get worn at 12 months despite the fact that they are 3-6 month outfits. They get a little more use and fit tighter.

As I was doing laundry today, I realized that one of my favorite outfits has to go. :( I'm shedding a tear now. I must find a new favorite outfit!

Doggie Sharing

Daphne had a cracker that she was eating, and then she decided she did not want it, and she threw it on the floor.

The dog came in with it in his mouth while I was folding laundry. He did not want to eat it, rather, he just wanted to hold it between his teeth and look happy.

When Daphne got wind of this, she quickly ran over and grabbed it from him and decided that she wanted to eat it again.

Boy, that's more sharing than I would like to see.

So, who got the cracker in the end? The chickens. Lucky them!

A Daddy Daughter Conversation

Daddy: "What planet are you from?"

Daphne: "Shoe!"

Daddy: "Welcome to Earth"

Shoe

Can you say SHOE?

Daphne can!

Shoe

Daphne and her daddy have been working on the word, "shoe". She finally got it about a week ago, and now she has an incredible respect for shoes because she can communicate about them.

Every time she sees a shoe, she points to it and says, "shoe." This included when we were in a store that had shoes, and often it is necessary for her to pull the shoes off the shelf and try to put them on herself.

I have a confession to make. I take her shoes off and leave them on the floor so I can hear her say the word, "shoe" when she sees them. I love being a mommy!

The Pool

We have been going to the Carlton pool almost every day.

The water is cool enough to cool you off but not so cold that it is unbearable. It has been so much fun to get to go and hang out whenever I want.

My friend Julie gave me a floatie for Daphne, so she has been sitting in it and enjoying herself. She likes to ride the water like she is sitting on a horse. It keeps her from getting too wet, but helps her have a good time at the same time. What fun!

Go to the pool and enjoy the summer (at least cool off).

Carlton Pool Schedule

A lot of people have been making their way to this blog looking for hours of the Carlton Pool.

The pool is open June 11th to August 29th

Public Swim
Monday - Friday 12 pm to 3pm and 5pm to 8pm
Saturday 12pm to 7pm
Sunday 12pm to 4pm

Family Swim
Sunday 4pm to 6pm

Fitness Swim
Tues and Thurs 8pm to 9pm

Mommy & Toddler Time
Tues/Weds/Thurs 11:30am to noon

Night Swim (Themed)
Fridays 8pm to 10pm

There are pool passes available

Family: In district: $77 Out of District: $97
Individual: In district: $65 Out of District: $81
Child/Student: In district: $49 Out of District: $61
Senior: In district: $49 Out of District: $61

General Admission is $3
My understanding is that children under age 3 are free, but I can't find that written anywhere.

The source for this is the Yamhill-Carlton Newspaper.

Hope that helps. See you at Mommy Toddler Swim!

The Chair

Papa Bob was up to visit this weekend, and Daphne got a new chair as part of the deal. The chair actually came from Jared's room when he was a little kid, and it is now being handed down in the family.

Daphne loves to sit in the chair and just eat or talk or even just sit there. It is pretty cute to see.

Oh, and she is not willing to share her chair with anyone, so don't even ask.

Oregon Natural Foods Takes Off

This is my last announcment about my new blog.

I have decided it is time to split the two blogs apart, so if you want in on all of the good fun we are having here on the 1/10 of an acre farm, you'd better get on over to the Oregon Natural Foods blog site and sign up. I am working hard to post every day about the adventures here on the farm since something is always going on.

Check out our latest freezer adventures here.

The blogs are splitting, so no more double posts!

Pleasant Valley Sunday

My friend Scott and I were talking the other day about how in todays world you live under the spyglass of everyone else. You are expected to be the same as everyone in your neighborhood. My recent post about the lawn sparked conversations about how our lawn is inadequate, and how we need to fix that.

For fun, he sent me these lyrics for Pleasant Valley Sunday.

They made me smile.

The local rock group down the street
Is trying hard to learn their song
serenade the weekend squire, who just came out to mow his lawn

Another pleasant valley Sunday
Charcoal burning everywhere
Rows of houses that are all the same
And no one seems to care

See Mrs. gray she's proud today because her roses are in bloom
Mr. green he's so serene, he's got a TV in every room

Another pleasant valley Sunday
Here in status symbol land
Mothers complain about how hard life is
And the kids just don't understand

Creature comfort goals
They only numb my soul and make it hard for me to see
My thoughts all seem to stray, to places far away
I need a change of scenery

Ta ta ta...

Another pleasant valley Sunday
Charcoal burning everywhere
another pleasant valley Sunday
Here in status symbol land

another pleasant valley Sunday...

Shell Necklace

Daphne just walked up and pulled a shell necklace out of my unused printer. I guess she was storing it there for safe keeping.

Lay Eggs

I was hanging out the widow looking at the chickens today.

I told them that they had better start laying because I know the name of a good butcher if they don't.

I started to chant, "Lay eggs, lay eggs."

Daphne decided she wanted in on the action, and one of new things to say is, "lay eggs."

Did You Go Poop?

We are trying to potty train Daphne, so I am trying to be attentive to her potty signs.

Today at the Italian Resturant Daphne was showing some definite pooping signs. I walked over to her and whispered in her ear, "Did you make a poop?" She looked down at the floor and lifted her dress. Seeing no poop, she said, "No!"

We are still working on the potty training thing. She had in fact pooped!

Drawing Time

We are starting to do crafts and things here and there with Daphne, and she really likes to draw.

For father's day, we gave Daphne a pen and a Fathers Day card, and we let her draw her own card for Papa Bob. It was really cute.

We all headed in to see the local festival, Turkey Rama, today. Daphne was not thrilled with having to stay close with all those cool things going on, and it was a big relief when we saw a tent from Delphi there. Satori's Tia Elva was there, and she took some time to draw with Daphne, which totally made her day. Thanks Elva.

Kitten Hugging.. and sitting?

A while back, I introduced Daphne to the dog. They became fast friends, and Daphne learned quickly that he was a good candidate for riding.

When she is feeling in a really good mood, she heads over to the dog and sits on him and gives him a hug. He doesn't mind. In fact, I think that he really likes the attention.

We now have a cat in the house, and Daphne is determined to treat her the same way. She tries to sit and lay on the cat, and it is just funny to see the reaction she gets. The cat does NOT like the idea of being sat on AT ALL, so she hisses and growls at Daphne. Luckily, we have a very understanding cat, and no injuries to the baby have occurred, but I think it is pretty funny that she feels compelled to ride the cat.

As an additional note, Jared found Daphne in bed with the cat last night. She was just laying there hugging it. Despite the fact that the cat hated it, Daphne was the happiest baby in the whole world.

Papa!

Daphne added another word to her vocabulary today--Papa!

Of course, Papa Bob is here to visit for the weekend, so we thought a good present would be to teach her how to say Papa. He was sure that she was not going to want to try, but after a bit, she really learned how to say it. She spent the entirety of a car ride repeating, "Papa, Papa, Papa!"

I Love My Daughter

What a joy it is to have a baby to watch grow up. I am the luckiest mama alive!

A-E-I-O-U

Daphne is learning her vowels.

Back when she was learning to talk, I got the idea somehwere to teach her the vowels. She was already saying some of them.

After weeks and weeks of work, Daphne says A-E-I-O-U now. She is good at saying it, and she is so proud when she can say it. She claps and smiles and laughs. How beautiful.

Run Away Dog

Jared put Flaff in his spot outside and then went out to Delphi. An hour or so later, I heard the clinking of his collar. He was clearly out. Apparently, the decided that since no one was going to let him out that he was going to let himself out, and he went to explore the neighborhood. I got angry about it, but it was still funny that he went out on a morning jaunt on his own.

Standing on my Desk

Daphne can get up on my desk by furniture hopping.

Today, I spent a lot of extra time on my computer, so she was around the desk a lot. She kept climbing up and sitting on it.

It was so hard to keep her off. My desk is not entirely clean and free from important things, and it was hard to not get mad at her, especially when she grabbed onto one of my monitors and would not let go.

Goat Harvest

When I bought my milk goat, her kids were only a week old. She had three kids her first time--two boys and a girl. The lady I bought her from kept the girl, and I got the two boys.

At first, my intention in keeping the goats was so that I could raise them and sell them to a 4-H kid or a farmer that needed a brush goat. When the time to de-horn them came and went, I realized that I was not going to get a worthwhile price for them alive. I resolved to raise them as meat goats and butcher them for our family.

I was going to follow the French tradition of raising them for 10 months to 1 year and then butchering them when they were full-sized but still tender. That would have yielded a lot of meat.

As time went on, it was becoming clear that they did not fit on the farm. There was no real place to separate them from their mother at weaning time, and when I managed to do it, they were figuring out how to sneak milk. It was a lot of stress.

On top of it all, the owners of the farm are going to have a baby in a week or two, so they wanted the cores to be reduced. They have been downsizing a bit. I figured I would chip in since the goats were getting a little out of control.

I took the goats out to the butcher on Monday. Rather than be full Chevron, they are capretto sized. Perfect for roasting whole or piecing into roasts.

I was a little sad to see them go, and it is a little lonely when I go up to milk the goat, but I got 3/4 of a gallon of milk from her yesterday, and Jared brought me home a freezer full of meat today from the butcher.

Because I am butchering them so young, I have asked for all he pieces of the goat back so that I can use them. We will eat the liver. I will tan the hides with the brains and I will piece other scraps out to use as dog or cat food, or stew bones or something. I have plans, you will hear from them all.

the meat had not quite frozen up yet by the time I got it, and the bag with the skins and liver and other things in it needed to be handled by Jared. I just need to get a little more perspective on it before I go tanning the hides and eating goat for dinner.

Making Bread

My story about learning to bake bread is a LONG and sad one. When Jared was sick he was not allowed to eat any foods with gluten in them. That made it very difficult to bake bread. He really liked on type of bread that you could buy at the health food store, but it was almost $6 per loaf, and it tasted terrible (in my opinion).

My mission was to learn to bake my own bread so that I could not have to spend money on it, and I could make something edible for both of us.

Apparently, learning to make something complicated to begin with without the most vital ingredient turns out not to be such an easy task. I had bad loaf after bad loaf, and I was sure that I was never going to make it work.

Now that he is feeling much better, he can eat anything he wants. That means that gluten is back on the table, and I could start making bread the traditional way. Let me tell you, that sure made it easier! I went on making a loaf or two of bread for a few months.

However, I decided to grind my own grain, which meant that I was going to have to be making whole wheat bread. That is another thing that makes it complicated and more difficult.

I must say, that I have succeeded this time. The key was actually getting vital wheat gluten and putting it in with the flour. It has helped the gluten develop in the bread so that it could rise and get nice and fluffy.

Today, I looked up a recipe for sandwich bread because I was getting tired of making French loaves. The bread got really big and fluffy. When I cut the bread in half, it looked exactly like a loaf from the store. I was proud of myself.

I ate a nice big slice of it for dinner with jam on it. I was the happiest girl around.

The Long Ride

Jared had to head out to Delphi today, so we agreed that I was going to ride my new Ecobike up to milk the goat. It is about 20 miles round trip if you really get down and count it out. The problem is that the goat lives on the top of a mountain (Mount Richmond), and not only is it a very steep mountain, the road is a dirt road. That is not a good situation.

The bike, before I got on it, weighed 80 pounds. The bike weighs about 50 pounds, the baby 22 pounds and the milk was 8 pounds.

Because the bike is brand new, I am working on a new routine to get the batteries all charged up. I had to ride up to the top of the mountain on about half of a charge. As I was climbing the last big mountain, the bike died on me completely.

I thought I was going to die, that I would never get home and that I was doomed. It was 95 degrees outside, and I was in the heat of it, with no water.

Dumb, I know, I just didn't think it would actually happen. And so, I spent an hour and a half of the afternoon riding home up hills and mountains to get home. I made it home safe and sound, and you can bet that I was taking a cold shower within the minute.

It's Provolone not Mozzarella

I have been stocking up on milk so that I could make some fresh Mozzarella. I have an entire meal plan surrounding the idea of having some fresh Mozzarella around. I was going to make Capri Salad and I was going to make fresh from-scratch pizza.

The recipe that I have calls for 4 gallons of milk, so I have been stocking up on milk to be able to make it. The recipe also is the same recipe for Provolone, only you are supposed to omit a step or two.

I was going along making my cheese while doing 100 other things as usual. I got to the step where you stretch the curds, and it turns out that I did not omit the step I needed to. I have Provolone, not Mozzarella.

Oh well, I can age Provolone over a long period of time and make it really last. Guess I need to stock up on some more milk over the next couple of days and try it again.

Floor Scrubbing

We have linoleum in one bathroom. the laundry room, the kitchen and the dining room. In total, it is probably about 500 sq feet of hard floor. I have a difficult time getting around to cleaning it because it takes some time. By the time I get it all swept up, someone has dropped carrot pieces on it or crunched Cheerios into the floor. If I get around to mopping it, it takes forever to dry, and it almost always ends up more dirty than I started with.

To say that it gets swept once a month would be a serious exaggeration, as terrible as that may sound.

Yesterday after having the baby pee on the floor and poop on the floor along with dog throw up and a cat that missed the litter box, I decided I had had enough. I got down on my hands and knees and scrubbed the entire 500 sq feet of it.

Today, I swept and mopped it while the baby was asleep. I just hope that it dries quickly because the kitten has been running back and forth on it. I have done the best I can do, that is for sure.

It has a good half-hour to dry before Jared heads out demanding I give him food. :)

It feels good to have it clean, and I may just keep it that way because I like to have a house that looks half decent!

Shoes

Daphne is learning lots of new words. Every morning, when both her daddy and her have woken up, they go out and take the dog for the walk.

To go for a walk, she needs to put her shoes on, so her dad asks her where her shoes are. She walks around saying, "Shoes, shoes, shoes" until she finds her shoes.

Additionally, at any other time of the day when she sees a shoe, she points to it and says, "shoe."

I guess this makes "shoe" a new vocabulary word!

Pedal Across America

After my recent bike decimation, I was distraught. After searching for what to do, it became abundantly clear that it was going to cost more to fix the bike than it would to just replace it. Distraught, I got an email that turned things around for me.

The email notified me that I am the sole recipient of the Pedal Across America Bike Award. I am being rewarded for me serious dedication to decreasing my carbon footprint by using my bicycle to get around.

I was awarded with a new bike. This is not just any bike, it is an Ecobike Elegence. What is so eco friendly about the bike? Well, it has an electric motor on it for one thing! Living in this hilly country makes it awful hard to ride a bike a long distance when you are hauling a kiddo with you. If only I could have the extra umph that would help me get up the hills, I could pedal happily for hours!

I went up to the bike store on Thursday to pick up the bike, and it was definitely love at first sight. The bike is beautiful and has everything I ever could have asked for in a bike.

I took her on a Maiden Voyage on Saturday. It was a 20 mile ride. We went over all terrain, gravel, dirt and pavement. We also went through the rain. My conclusion, the bike is fantastic, it has a lot of power when you need it, and it really seems to work wonderfully. I have a crazy new love of bikes, which I find to be fantastic.

Thanks George, for sponsoring the Pedal Across America Award!

Happy Independence Day!

I hope you had a good 4th of July. We went out to Delphi as a family, and we got to take part in the fun and games.

Jared played softball for the first time in almost 10 years. He had a lot of fun, and he got to use the glove he bought at Toys-R-Us when he was just a wee boy.

Daphne got to hang out with grandma, and she got to see lots of our friends. She even spent some time with her godfather, which was wonderful.

I got to chat about sustainability and how I think the world should work, I had a lot of fun.

Most importantly, we got to eat lots of good food, and have a good time.

Go Green-Get Rid of Your Lawn

Compliments of Oregon Natural Foods

I think that lawns are incredibly wasteful. If you drive down our block, you can tell for sure that our neighbors are definitely interested in having beautiful green lawns. You can also tell that we don’t believe in a manicured lawn. We are a part of a homeowners’ association that requires that we have a lawn, so we can’t get rid of it, but that doesn’t mean that we have to take care of it. First of all, our front lawn in a joke. It isn’t even 5 feet wide, and it only takes 2 swipes with the mower. I’d rather turn it into am herb garden, but again, we aren’t allowed to do anything but leave it as a lawn. What am I to do?

Well, nothing, yet. I haven’t come up with a solution. As it is, the grass has not been watered since nature did the job a few weeks ago. Slowly, it is turning brown, and it has a bunch of bald spots showing up just to make sure we know that we are neglecting it. I am not about to run out there with the hose and give it life either.

I think that it is wasteful to invest all of that clean water on a lawn. Sure, it is nice to have greenery around the house, and it is very nice to have something to play in, but the lawn doesn’t serve a purpose. I would rather invest the water into watering the vegetable garden, which is actually going to produce a viable product for me. I even will go so far as to take care of part of the lawn in the back because my rabbits graze on it, and I find that to be useful. I guess what I am saying is that it doesn’t get taken care of around here unless it can feed me or support me.

Besides, haven’t you heard the commercials that encourage us to limit our watering of our lawn because of all the resources we use? When we took care of the lawn, I was watching how much water we were wasting every second day as the automatic sprinklers came on, and I decided that I was going to stop watering my lawn, that was last August, and I haven’t regretted it one bit.

Besides, we have only been paying a water bill for a year. Before that, someone else was always picking up the tab on the water. That means that we are much more aware about what we are using, and we are more likely to conserve our resources. It makes sense to use that we don’t just waste a bunch of clean water It isn’t all about the bills though. I am interested in conserving the resources that we have as a community living on this one and only Earth that we get to be a part of.

Are there options, yes. I found a great option. There are companies that are developing eco-friendly lawns, and I am very interested in them. I am told that this is not for the faint at heart, nor is it for the neighbor who heads out with Round-up every time they see a dandelion. The premise is that there is a mix of seeds of plants that grow natively in the area you live in. That means that they can tolerate the weather of the region and they require little to no watering. Additionally, they are made of plants that don’t usually grow up to be very tall, so watering isn’t always necessary either. I love the concept, and I found one local company that I like that has developed some lovely lawns.

The Company is called Pro Time Lawn Seed. http://www.protimelawnseed.com/ For a mere $25, I could reseed all of the greenery on my property into an eco friendly alternative that I wouldn’t have to mow or water. Sign me up! As soon as I budget the money (probably at the end of the summer), this is the product I will be buying. http://www.protimelawnseed.com/products-page/?product_id=21

Mean Green

This post is compliments of Oregon Natural Foods.

I am a big fan of Good Eats. Watching the show has definitely gotten me to think outside of my normal range on food. I have even been willing to try foods that I would never have considered a few years ago.

Greens are one of those foods. I have a market share at the farmers market, which means that I have a certain amount of money available each week that I get to use. I will make another post about this at a future time, but the point is that I have lately been “forced” to get produce that I may not have otherwise gotten. Last week, I ended up with two bunches of chard and a bunch of kale. My plan was to cook the greens over very high heat until they wilted. I wanted to add some flavors that might stave off the reminder that I was eating greens. I was never a big fan of greens, even when I saw them sitting there looking edible every time I walked into a restaurant when I lived in Greece.

I cut out the center rib of all of the greens and then used my kitchen scissors to cut the leaves up into edible chunks. While I did that, I got my enamel Dutch oven out and put about a half cup of olive oil. I let it sit and heat while I cut the greens because you want the pan to be smoking hot.

As soon as I got the greens cut up, I shoved them all into the pot and put the lid on. It was a very tight fit, but greens cook down a LOT when you cook them over high heat, so I was determined that stuffing them in the pot would work. After a minute or so, I added some salt and some rice-wine vinegar. As they cooked down even more, I added even more salt and then what little bit of teriyaki sauce I had in my fridge (if I didn’t have that, I would have just put some brown sugar and some soy sauce in). For some protein, I put in the last bits of some corned beef that I had in the fridge.

After the greens totally wilted, I pulled them out and put them in a bowl. I was expecting to be chewing them and hating them all the way, but both Jared and I were surprised that they actually tasted quite fantastic. We cleaned our bowls without a problem.

I’ve even go some left over that I am going to cook some orzo into and then sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Operation Mean Green was a success. We can eat greens in this house now! It does help that Alton Brown did a show on it to get me to be brave!

The Circus

The circus came to town this past week, and Jared and I had been intending to go for some time.

Each day, we said we were going to go and then something got into the way. Last night, at 8, I decided to pack the whole family up and get out there. Of course it was past Daphne's bed time, but I thought that she might enjoy it.

We we did have a genuinely good time. There was a lot of acrobatics and other cool things rather than elephants and tigers, which was OK with me. They did have a miniature horse going over jumps, and Daphne was enamored by her.

I am glad we went. We had a lot of fun, and we even got to eat a little cotton candy!

Water Birth

I was listening to Dr. Laura Slessinger yesterday on the radio. She advised a pregnant woman to not give birth at a water birth center for fear that something terrible would happen. I felt that her response was clouded by her own traumatic birth, and that she lacked the facts.

The activist in me would not calm down until I wrote a letter and sent it off. I thought I would share it with you since God knows that it will not make it onto her program.

Hello Dr. Laura,

I listen to your show often, and I respect and appreciate your opinion. I feel that the work you do strengthens families everywhere, and I know for a fact that it has strengthened my own.

Yesterday, you were talking to a caller who said that she wanted to have a water birth at her local water birth center. Her insurance wouldn’t cover it, and she was unsure if she could afford it. Your advice to her was that she should just birth in the hospital for fear that something would go wrong and that she should not desire to buy things that she cannot afford.

I must say, that I differ in opinion with you on this. The staff at a water birth center are well trained in the business of pregnancy and birth. Under many state laws (and common sense), they are only able to accept low-risk pregnancies, and if at any time something comes up that puts that client in the high risk category, their care is transferred. That includes while the mama is in labor. If there are signs that show that something is trending in a bad direction, a transport happens before anything negative can occur. It is actually statistically safer to give birth at a birth center than at a hospital.

I did all of my prenatal care at a water birth center with midwives. I went there when I was in labor, and after many hours of hard labor, I was transported to the hospital where I eventually had an emergency c-section. The midwives I worked with were competent enough that I never felt unsafe, and no negative result occurred.

Even though it was necessary for me to transport, I will have my next child at a water birth center. Did you know that Jimmy Carter was the first president to be born in a hospital? Yes, it was that recently that we gave up having our children at home in favor of a hospital. I am not saying that a hospital does not have its place, I am very glad it is there for the true emergencies, but the method of birthing in American hospitals is less than ideal.

In fact, the C-section rate in America hovers around 30%, which is 1 in 3 moms. The World Health Organization standard for c-sections is 15% and some countries have gotten it down below 8%. This has been done, in Holland for example, by taking birth out of the hospitals and having it managed at home or at birth centers by trained midwives. As the c-section rate climbs in America, so does the maternal death rate, which makes it increasingly more dangerous to birth in a hospital.

It sounds like you had a traumatic birth where medical intervention was necessary. I am sorry that it turned out that way for you, and I assure you that all births are different. I know many, many women who have had safe births outside of the hospital without complication.

It does matter the method of birthing. If a mom ends up having to have a c-section, as I did, she has to undergo a recovery from a major surgery in addition to dealing with all the hormones and the stress of a newborn baby. It did not facilitate bonding with my baby, and I had to overcome some incredible obstacles. I feel sad for America that 1 in 3 new moms have the same outcome. I think that you would be pleasantly surprised if you were to go to a water birth and watch the immediate bonding that is able to take place, I think it does matter that a mom is in a quiet and supportive environment that allows her to get her bearings after such hard work.

The cost of birthing at a water birth center can be equivalent to what the out of pocket at a hospital would cost. They are very reasonable to work with people on payment because they are passionate about what they do, and they understand that the process of care in birthing is an important factor in the mother-baby relationship. This point can easily be solved by the persistent and determined.

I hope that in the future that you can encourage other callers to seek to have a sane birth wherever they feel safe and comfortable.

Warmly,

Christine Anderson

The Potty

I finally gave in recently, and borrowed a potty chair from a friend so that I can potty train Daphne.

She has been wearing diapers on a very limited basis since I found out she is allergic to strawberries. She still has a blister that will not go away, so until everything is healed up, no diapers for her. This sometimes results in her peeing on my floor. Respectfully, she almost never pees on the carpet, she pees on the hard floor, where it is easy to clean up, but it is still peeing on the floor.

I saw Daphne trying to sit on the potty chair, and I was sure that she had to go pee. She was trying so hard. I finally deduced that she had just gone pee not 4 feet from the potty chair, and she was trying to make it work.

A few hours later, she had to go pee again, and she tried to get into the potty chair, but she just missed, and she ended up peeing on the floor right next to it. I think we are getting very, very close.

The Disappearing Cat

Julie has gone on a trip to LA for 2 weeks, and she asked me to watch her animals. Her kitten, Moses has come to stay with us. She is a very young kitten, so she is full of energy, and mischief.

As we were getting all the animals settled, she was following us around, but when Julie was about to leave, we couldn't find the cat. We thought that we heard meowing under the house, but every time I went under to find her, we could not find her.

We gave up, and I came back several hours later.

It turned out that she was under the house. She had crawled up by the laundry vent and was sitting between where the metal rests on the cinder blocks for the foundation of the house. It was awful hard to get her out, but she was happy that we did rescue

The Cat or the Kid?

Jared lost his phone, and after looking high and low for it, we found it.

It has been pushed of the window sill where he had set it, and it had fallen down between the couch and the wall.

When he found it, he asked me to come take a look so that we might find evidence to discover if it was the cat or the kid that was the culprit.

Laundry

I do laundry in spurts around here, so when it is time to do laundry, there is a lot of laundry to do.

Yesterday, I had all of the laundry splayed out on the bed, and the baby was sitting there among the laundry trying to help me fold it (but mostly being really grumpy).

I am house sitting a kitten for a friend while she is out of town, so she runs around the house causing all kinds of trouble. The kitten (Moses) decided that she needed to play with all the laundry as I folded it up.

Between the two of them, it was hard to get anything done, but it sure was a comedy.

Whey For Sale!

I have been cheesemaking up a storm. I made a 2 pound block of smoked cheddar followed by a 2 pound block of traditional goat cheddar. Both have been waxed, and now reside in the fridge until I figure out a better place to age them.

In the press now is a nice Parmesan. I am a little worried about it because I followed the directions, but the curds did not look like rice like the instructions said they would. It is my first batch, and the first batch is always an experiment. I also have four more gallons of milk in the fridge that are ready for a nice batch of cheddar tomorrow (and a batch of feta as well). I digress though. More on cheese later.

With all of this cheesemaking, I have whey coming out my ears. I feel like it is a crime to throw it all out, but I cannot find enough things to do with it. I have been giving it to the chickens because they need the extra protein, and it is not bad for them to get the good minerals in the whey as well. I’m not up to drinking it myself yet, though I may get to trying it sometime soon.

I am also giving some of the whey to the dog. The cat I am currently cat-sitting is also getting whey to drink.

It is good for making ricotta, but I find that after a full day of cheesemaking for a hard cheese that I just can’t get to using the whey to make another cheese. Besides, the yield on the whey ricotta is just not as high as I would like to see (I have only been getting a couple of tablespoons of cheese per gallon of whey).

One excellent use for it is to put it in bread. Substitute it for water. It helps the dough take on a tangy flavor, which is desirable for the kinds of bread that I make. It just seems to make it more flavorful on a lot of fronts.

I use whey anywhere in the kitchen where water could be used. I use it to steam veggies, I use it as the base of a chicken stock, literally, anywhere water can be used.

It is also useful for fermenting when making sourkraut or pickles.

I have almost 8 gallons of the stuff sitting around, and I am only using a gallon or so a day, but with the cheesemaking, I am adding at least two gallons per day to my stash. A girl can only make so much bread and chicken stock.

Come and get it. The whey is for sale for $1 per quart.

Bike Woes

When we went to the swimming pool yesterday, I discovered that I had left my swim suit at home. I turned back home to get it, and when I got home, my bike fell over.

I didn't think anything of it as I hopped on the bike back to the pool. I had a very difficult time getting there, and I almost fainted. I had no idea that it was taking me 10 times more effort to ride the bike than normal because I attributed it to the heat.

I had Jared ride the bike home, and he confirmed that something was wrong.

I hopped back on the bike on the way to the pool today, and it turns out that the wheel was totally bent up.

After riding the bike to the pool, I discovered it was closed, and I hopped on to go home.

It had been a hot day, and I was determined to swim, but it was not in the cards. The problem was that my bike really was not doing well, and the back tire was off by at least 6 inches. It almost killed me!

I am so sad my bike is broken. It is going to cost a good penny or two to fix it, and it is possible that I will need to buy a new bike altogether. This makes me very sad, because God knows how long I will be without a bike. I LOVE my bike.

I'll keep you updated.

Chicken Coop Clean-Up

This is an Oregon Natural Foods blog cross-post. See the fun you would be missing out on if you didn't get over there and sign up?

When we were still in the raining season, I would open the window (yes the window) to where the chickens are, and it definitely smelled like a chicken coop. Because we don’t exactly have acreage here, it has been necessary to try to keep the neighbors happy. To keep our neighborly air, I decided it was time to get out and clean the coop and the run that the laying hens hang out in.

This is a bigger project than it sounds like. Not only am I dealing with massive amounts of chicken poop from several batches of chickens, but there is no way to get a wheel barrow into the run to clean it out. I actually had to deconstruct the back side of the chicken coop to get a wheel barrow out far enough to get the soiled shavings out.

After I pulled out three wheelbarrows full of shavings, I spread the rest of the shavings out. I have decided to deep litter the run, so I will just throw a new bale of shavings out into the run every month or so. It is fairly inexpensive, and it keeps the really dirty stuff down deep so that it can decompose. It also has the nice side effect of not upsetting the neighbors because of the smell. As an additional bonus, I threw down a bunch of baking soda in the run so that it could work to neutralize any smell I may have dug up.

I then moved to the inside of the chicken coop and I was pulling up 2 inch thick dried chunks of chicken poop. I think it will work well to up the nitrogen content in my compost pile, that is for sure. Jared thinks I should find a burlap bag supplier and bag it up as compost. I could sell a 50 pound bag of it for $10. The truth is that I have WAY too much chicken compost now, and I sure hope that I have an easy time breaking it all down into garden material because that is what I need now, not chicken poop.

I accomplished my mission. The neighbors should be happy and the chickens should be happy. I look forward to the next cleaning in 3 months (please note the sarcasm).

Where Does Poop Come From?

Daphne made a poop on the potty today, and she went in to tell her daddy about it.

When he asked her where the poop when, she looked down and grabbed her crotch.

Yes, she really does know where poop comes from!

The Price of Breakfast

Today being Sunday, I decided to make something special for breakfast. In fact, every Sunday for the past couple of weeks has had me making some new special breakfast meal. Call it past cultural tradition from when my grandma used to make waffles sometimes or just call it me enjoying the weekend. The point is that I made a special breakfast.

We had pancakes and fiesta eggs. I really like pancakes, but I rarely make them, so I broke out the cookbook my sister bought me a year or so ago to try the recipe in there. I was definitely pleasantly surprised.

As we sat there eating, Jared and I were thinking about the cost of the food.

If we had gone out to eat at Denny's, the meal would have cost us about $20. At home, the meal (for all three of us) cost us about $3.

My Master Card jingle for this is:

2 Grand slam breakfast and a kids menu breakfast at Denny's - $20
1 Home made Sunday breakfast - $3
Eating breakfast with the entire family -Priceless
Not having to haul the kiddo around in the car to get to breakfast - also PRICELESS!

Consider making a meal at home for your family. It turns out, knowing how to cook is incredibly economical.

Swimming

Jared, Daphne and I went swimming at the Carlton Public Pool yesterday.

I posted earlier that the pool was not heated, and that turned out to be a blessing yesterday. As the temperature topped 100 degrees, we all rode our bikes over to the pool. Daphne and Jared got to swimming, and I eventually joined them. Daphne loved to jump into the pool and have me swim across the pool with her. She also enjoyed sitting by the side of the pool with her feet hanging in while she watched Mama jump off the diving board. We had a fun day.

So far, we have used $15 worth of our $77 family pass, and I have only had it for a little more than a week. It is going to pay off for sure. Today will be another hot day too!

Goat Show

Scott (the owner of the farm where I keep my goat) and I decided that we were going to take his two bucks to a goat show. Though I have been in the ring with cattle a time or two, I have not really shown goats at all. Scott had no experience himself in the area, so it was quite the adventure.

The good news is that after a little bit of work and some help with showmanship, his bucks ended up as the Champion and Reserve Champion Junior Nubian Bucks. That's not too bad for my first time out eh?

Up next, I am going to take my goat to the county fair next month. Boy, I am excited about that, let me tell you.

One Trip to Town

Recently, driving in to Mcminnville has gotten a little out of control, and I feel like I was driving in every day to do one thing or another.

Last week, I decided that I was going to make good use of my time by trying to pool everything I wanted to do in town together into one big trip. That way, I would save my driving time as well as the gas it takes to go into town. It didn't quite work out the way that I expected it to.

I chose Thursday because that is the day that I go to the market. I think I tried to cram too many things into one trip, and I ended up with a cranky baby and a cranky mama. I am going to have to watch for this. The one thing we did not get done was the food shopping, so we are a little short on ingredients this week, but I am going to try to make it work anyway. Hopefully, next Thursday's trip will be better than the last.

Mama

Now that Daphne is starting to talk, I am discovering that my name is "Mama." Jared usually refers to me as "Mommy", but Daphne has decided that "Mama" is a much better name for me.

Truth be told, kids can call their mothers "Mama" well into their adult years without sounding funny. People do it in the south.

From here on out, I will be referred to as, "Mama."

Blogger Troubles

Blogger is giving me odd trouble right now. Every time I post a blog post, it deletes all of the content from the blog. I am working to get this fixed, so bare with me while I try to figure out what on earth is going on.

Mommy Cuddles

Since we lowered the bed, Daphne has been able to get out of bed on her own. Every morning, I wake up before she does, and I go to my office to check and respond to emails and to post new content to the blog.

When Daphne wakes up, she calmly walks out and asks that I pick her up. As soon as I put her in my lap, she puts her head on my shoulder or on my chest, and she promptly sits there is a half-awake state.

I get to just hold on to her and put my cheek on her, and it is such a wonderful thing. I like being a mommy in the morning when I just get to snuggle with the baby.

"NO"

The "terrible twos" are something that you are told to fear as a parent. Of course, having a naturally wonderful daughter to begin with, I never thought that this would happen to me.

When we were visiting Papa Bob last, I was encouraging her to use more words. One of the words I was trying to teach her was, "No." Papa Bob told me that I was going to regret teaching her that word, and I was sure that he was wrong.

Fast forward a month. Daphne has learned how to say no, and she uses it in the worst of times. Whenever I try to make a peaceful exit from the grocery store, she spots the candy bar impulse buy section and screams, "no, no, no" as I pick her up to get her out of the store. It can be pretty embarrassing.

She has taken to answering, "no" to every question

Order Your Chickens

This is a fitting first post to the Oregon Natural Foods blog. We have spent the majority of the spring getting our Urban Homestead up and running. We butchered one set of chickens already (4 Cornish Cross and 4 Light Brahma). That went well, and we have a nice personal stash of chickens in the freezer. We also have 4 ducks in the freezer that I raised by hand with that batch of chickens.

Currently in the meat pen, there are 8 New Hampshire chickens that is another project. I wanted to make sure that we had raised enough chicken for the family with a little leftover to sell or to pass on as a gift. Those chickens are scheduled to be butchered August 1.

I was planning to be done with that, but an idea came to my head. I want to do an experiment that would involve raising chickens on a no corn, no soy diet. Most chickens raised these days (including the two batches I mentioned above) have been raised on soy. Chickens need at least 20% protein to thrive, and a natural source for them to get it is soy. My goal is to find no corn and no soy feed that I can feed them that will keep them above the 20% protein mark and get them big and fat enough to put on a table.

I know that it is possible because before there was commercial chicken feed, families raised chickens in the backyard with nothing more than table scraps. I believe that it can be done, and it can be done well.

So, at this time, I am taking reservations for my next batch of chickens that will be no corn, no soy fed chickens. I will be taking a $15 per chicken deposit from anyone wanting a chicken. This is a project that takes a lot of thought and a lot of work, so I want to make sure that the chickens are reserved ahead of time. The price for the chickens is $5 per pound.

Another catch to this is that the chickens will not be the standard Cornish Cross breed of chickens. I personally believe that Cornish Cross have been overly bred to such a degree that their purpose is to sit around and eat and be fat. The Cornish Cross that I butchered made me crazy because they seemed to be nothing but mindless meat drones that had no personality and that were freaks of nature in their regard to eat and be fat and serve no other purpose (not even an aesthetic purpose). I have chosen for the health of the chicken species in general to go another route. I am going to order a dual purpose breed of chickens that I can use to butcher so that I do not have to worry about supporting the Cornish Cross freak breed.

The spots are filling up fast, so get your orders in soon.

Cross Posting

I have decided that I will be cross posting for a while between the Oregon Natural Foods blog page and this blog. Eventually, I would like to move all of the Urban Homesteading things over to that blog and keep this blog for family and friends that want to keep up with us as a family. We will see how it goes. I will be cross-posting all blog posts for a while, but eventually, I will be tapering off.

Please, sign up for that blog in the mean time, and it will get interesting as the projects come to fruition this summer.

New Changes to the Blog

As you may have noticed that all of this traveling has thrown off my blog 365 goal. But that is OK. I am still motivated to blog every day for the rest of the year, and I have some exciting things that I am planning for the blog.

1.) Now that the "urban farm" is mostly set up, I will be providing a photographic tour as well as updated posts on the projects that I am working on now.

2.) I have a new blog that I will be cross posting to. Please do sign up for it. It is located at www.oregonnaturalfoods.com Jared and I have set up this site so that we can provide the world with some information about what we are doing. It will have information about what I have for sale as well as how I am doing the things I am doing. I feel like I am recovering a lot of lost arts in the kitchen and on the farm, and I want to share these arts with the world so that they are not lost forever. I am going to double post on both blogs for a while and see how that goes.

3.) There will be lot of recipes being posted on both blogs. Just today, I am going to preserve strawberries, cook a duck and make cesear salad dressing. I also have pickles to make my own dill pickles as well. Stay tuned to see how I do, and if I find the recipe to be successful, I will post it along with any other information that was useful to me. We will call these posts "The Food on My Table" series.

4.) After a lot of hard work, I have completed editing the photos that I took while I was in Greece. I have well over 300 photos, so I plan to put one up here and there along with the story of taking the photo or any other relevant information. This will be my way of sharing that beauty with you so that you can understand why I strive so hard to be European at Heart.

5.) Of course there will be updates about Daphne, and I will be taking more photos and posting them more often.

So hold on to your hats and glasses because this here is going to be a wild ride (in the words of Thunder Mountain at Disney Land).

Stay Tuned

Jared Can Milk a Goat, Who Knew!

Before we went to New York, I took Jared up to milk the goat. I was going to go to Eastern Oregon, and I was going to have him milk the goat while I was gone.

Milking a goat is not a skill that you can just do. It takes a little bit of knowledge and a little bit of practice to be able to get it right. After trying a few times to milk my goat, my friend Julie gave up and decided that it was too hard to learn. I was sure that I was going to be laughing at Jared for not being able to do it after his first lesson.

However, he surprised me, a lot! He was actually able to get about a quart out of my first year freshener. She has pretty small teats, so I was providing him with a challenge.

Go Jared, who knew he had this kind of skill!

Sewing Machine Needle

We rearranged our house a month or two ago (again), and we moved my sewing table out into the living room.

Daphne the climber realized that it had a chair in front of it, and she started climbing up there. Any time I wondered where the baby was, I had to look no further than my sewing table.

At the time, I was working on a really big project, and so I was putting in a lot of hours at the sewing machine. She decided that she wanted to mimick that, so she started sitting on my lap while I did some light sewing.

It turns out that was a dangerous proposition. She is somehow attracted only tot he needles of the machine, and it is all she can to to keep her fingers in the path of the needle.

I have started to leave the machines with the needles down, but she seems to have grown out of this sheer fascination (for now).

Beaner Girl

Before we left for New York, I was experimenting, as always with some food. I was having a craving for some baked beans, and I settled down to make a batch of them.

It turns out that the recipe that I had was not the best one, and both Jared and I agreed that the beans were terrible. We were eating them out of duty to not wasting food.

Somewhere along the line, Daphne got a taste of these awful beans, and she decided that she really liked them. For the next week, all she wanted was beans three times a day. She would walk Jared or I to the fridge and point to it indicating that she wanted another plate of those good 'ol beans.

Eventually, the chickens got them, but it was nice to know that the recipe wasn't a total bust!

2 Tiny Goat Babies

This post is long overdue, but it is definitely worth posting.

While we were visiting in California, Scott's last goat kidded. She had two beautiful does, one black one that looked just like her and one brown one that had nice little spots on her.

While we were gone, Scott told me that they were having a hard time nursing, and he had found them nearly dead, so he rescued them and started bottle feeding them. This has turned them into pure pets.

When you leave a goat on its mom, it will be curious about you and let you handle it, but it disregards you for the most part. When you bottle feed a goat, they see you as their mom, and all they want to do is jump all over you and see if you have a bottle. If you do not supply a bottle, they want fingers to suck on.

Daphne was fascinated with these friendly creatures. Before they got bigger, I would set Daphne on a hay bale with them, and they would play with her while I milked the goats.

Now, she just walks up to them, and while they try to suck on her fingers, she wraps her arms around their necks and gives them a big hug and a kiss.

Though it is annoying to me that they jump all over me, she loves to be jumped on and pushed around. She has someone her size to play with, what could be better!

Protective Baby

When I was pregnant, my feet swelled up really big, and sometimes Jared would be really nice and rub my feet. That is when I discovered that I really like to have my toes popped. Every once in a while, Jared will pop my toes when I am sitting down, and we discovered recently that Daphne hates it.

Any time she sees her dad popping my toes she walks over to him and physically pulls him off while saying, "No". I think that she thinks that he is hurting me, and she wants him to stop. We explained to her that that was not the case, but she still insists that I not get my toes popped in front of her!

Hot Potato

Jared was feeding Daphne a potato that had just come out of the pan.

We tell her when something is hot, by saying, "Daphne, it is hot." She understands, and she realizes that if something is hot that it needs to be blown on.

As Jared fed the potato to her, she informed him that it was too hot and she handed it back to him to blow on so that it would cool off. When returned to her, she inspected it and decided that it was still to hot, and she gave it back to Jared with a, "hot." After several back-and-forths, de decided the potato was fit to eat, and she gobbled it up.

The moral of the story, never give a smart baby a hot potato.

Why I Stay Married

Now that my husband is well, I have a lot of benefits that have been missing here and there over the past 6 years.

I got this email from him recently while I was on vacation. Isn't he sweet. (Jared, don't blush too much at me putting your sappy email up here...sorry) :)

Hi love,

If I could gussy this email up a bit, and make it fancier, I would, but this is what I have.

I just wanted you to know that I appreciate you and all that you have done for me. I wanted to thank you for sticking with me through all of the rough times and for giving me a beautiful daughter. And for caring for us both so well.

I used to have the viewpoint that I could make it on my own and that I could get by without anyone else if I had to. And while, I'm sure I wouldn't die, I now realize what a big part of my life you've become. You are one hell of a lady...and mother and wife. You are definitely a major pillar in my life. And I thank you for making my life that much better and more pleasurable (sooo much more).

And I wanted to thank you for continuing to have goals and dreams (no matter how cookie or unrealistic they seemed at the time) through all of the rockiness. No matter what I said, it gave me something to shoot for to give to you. Something to keep going for. Just know that I will continue to try to provide whatever I can for you so that you can be happy and help me raise some wonderful kids.

I guess I'm being a little sappy here, and I'm probably watching too much sappy TV, but I do mean every word here. I love you, I love our daughter, I love being a dad and I love being your husband. Thank you very much.

I'll see you when you get home. I hope you are having a great time and that all are doing well.

Love,
Jared

P.S. All of your animals are doing fine and your garden has been watered.

Carlton Pool

Carlton has a public pool. It is an outdoor pool, and it is not heated, so it is a very summery activity.

The weather around here has not been favorable for swimming in an unheated pool at all. It has been 70 and mild, just how I like it, but it is for sure too cold to swim.

Nonetheless, I got a family pass for the season so that Daphne and I can start going. We will go every day as long as it is not too cold. This is very exiting for me.

The first day of swimming yeasted ended with a shivering baby. We are going to try again tomorrow during the warm hours of the day (we went after dinner the first day).

I'll keep y'all updated on how it goes!

Things I can Learn from 1000 Years Ago

While we were at the Cloisters in New York, there was a garden that was put together with the plants the way they were used 1000 years ago.

I was particularly charmed by the methods that they used for their pear trees. They trained them up against the windows so that they acted as shade as well as decoration. I took a close up photo of the way the low branches were trained before my camera died.

When we move to our dream house, I will do this, I think it is SO cool!

Family Babies

These are the family babies all together. It is a little quirky photo, but it shows the personality of each of the kids!

Baby Noah

This was a fun session for me. I am a proud aunt because my sister made a beautiful baby. He is a happy baby that is wonderful to photograph. Welcome to the world Noah William Ward!

Elijah Michael Ward

He sure is getting big. He is 3 and a half and a big brother. Isn't he darling?

Trained for Photos

Daphne decided to jump in while I was trying to take photos of baby Noah. I have trained her well.

Squishy Face

I like to squish my baby's face. What can I say?

Photo Shoot

This is a photo shoot I did with Daphne to send some photos out for grandparents.

This is also the cyber introduction of Daphne's doll "Patti".