Wild West Wheat Co.

As the Farmer's Market is on my doorstep, I am getting a little bit nervous. I've never had the knack of making my baked goods look good . And it's especially difficult now because I use 100% whole wheat. (The only exception is the sandwich bread for my family I always make it completely whole wheat, but for market day I'm trying half all-purpose and whole wheat). Whole Wheat = Ugly Bake My plan is to utilize baskets and twine and whatever I can find to compensate for the BLAH looking baked goods. They really are tasty though! My sister helped me find a great recipe for whole wheat chocolate chip cookies. This recipe is seriously very good. I needed to play around with the texture though because I halved it and used all whole wheat. The first time I used possibly one too many eggs and not enough flour and this is what it looked like.  I wasn't too disappointed but I didn't have enough ingredients to really mess around so I remade the recipe k

Since it has been incredibly hot and dry, I was dying to get in the water. The closest body of water is the river. TJ's parents live on it, so we often float in inner-tubes from one side of their property to the other. It's usually a short distance. Any way, I asked around to find people to float with me. The group consisted of my friend Sarah, sister-in-law Robyn and myself. At the last minute, Robyn couldn't get a babysitter, but told us to go ahead and use her parents canoe or inner-tubes. Somewhere along the text feed she said that it should take us about three hours to go from her parents to the park. Great! Not too long and not too short, get some good sun and just talk with Sarah. We set off at 3 p.m. hoping to be done at 6, and I told TJ I would be home at 7. We picked the worst day. Of all the burning 95 degree days we've been having, we picked the one 75, windy, and cloudy. We got in the water with our inner-tubes and realized quickly tha

Well my little lamb wants in on the action now. Before she would sniff me and walk away. Yet now, as the calf drinks rapidly from the bottle, the lamb nibbles me! Feeling left out, she'll come up to me along with the calf, sniff around and start chomping on some part of me. First it was my Waldis, then the tops of my boots and now she yanks on my shorts! The calf has been going through the 50 lbs of calf milk formula, I'm already more than half way through it and I only purchased ittwo weeks ago. Then again, I'm the one feeding him! I think I will start weaning him when he's about half way through the next bag. I asked TJ's Dad and three months is old enough to wean them. I can't wait!! Because in September I will be going back to Michigan for two weeks! Then I won't have to sell him or the lamb, that is if I can get him weaned in time. The cat is a staple. An oldie but a goodie. He follows me around when I'm outside and likes to talk to me. He tel

This is a perspective change from last post.  When I wrote that, I was frustrated but later on in the day I was humbled. I had forgotten the "little things." And had focused more on big dreams or ideas. But I saw yesterday how important the little things are. It's crazy how just not wiping the counter down  turns into a messy kitchen and food going bad and dinner not ready. Or leaving a load in the dryer for a few days because I don't feel like getting to it in that moment, turns into a mildew pile of rags that hadn't been dried completely. And not watering the pine trees can kill them, and put our house in more danger of a fire.  It seems a little far-fetched sometimes that letting little things go turns into big problems,  but they do. It just shows me how much I have to learn. How far I still need to go. 

It seems that I am often getting frustrated with myself because of the goals I set. Both TJ and I are dreamers, but I like to say that we're realistic dreamers. We love to talk about the big ideas we have, but we don't usually start and stop things. We try to take it easy and jumping on a dream when it fits. We are also big time prayerers (feel like I can't say prayer warrior, because that's reserved for people who really are prayer warriors! We just pray often and are learning to trust in God. So yes I made up "prayerers.") When something doesn't sit well with our spirits or our interest fizzles out, we make no big deal about a dream that didn't work.  But living on a farm, having a home, being a wife - man there are so many goals and ideas and dreams! It's so exciting! Yet I'm finding that I spread my interests wide and thin, and am now reaping a harvest of work. Yes I'm mostly referring to the outdoors. Here's my frustration: when

While TJ does the real farming, I'm having fun hobby farming. The more I get into it though, the more I wonder if I'll ever really have a self-sufficient farm. We've only been married about five months, but we are both big dreamers. I dream of running a farm and seldom running to the store. But I'm not sure how realistic that really is, especially for me. That's why I'm starting small and seeing where it goes. I've already written about my garden, but I have two animals now. A baby calf called "Baby" and a female lamb called "Girlie." Moving to a farm took all the creative names out of me. It's hard to name something that doesn't show much affection and that you will most likely consume in less than a year. The little calf is quite shy still, unless he is very hungry. He will suck down the two bottles of milk that I bring him, then run away when he's full as though he saw me for the first time. The little lamb is independe

This is my first real year gardening. Last year I was too distracted by my handsome boyfriend (now husband), work and regular summer fun to put a lot of work into my little raised garden bed. I'm pretty sure I did everything wrong too, and sure enough it was a dirt bath. The resemblance to a garden was so terrible that my friend's kids thought it was a sandbox and were jumping and digging in it.  But this year... I have a weed garden! It actually is better than a weed garden, but the weeds have just absolutely taken over that I find myself calling it "organic farming," I don't want to disturb the soil too much. Anyway, it has been a learning experience and a good project. I have grown radishes pretty well, my peas are growing and my potatoes have taken off. That was my first batch. My second batch of seeds planted are now coming up and growing rapidly, though not as plentiful as my first group. I have a few carrots, three lettuce heads (I planted these two time