House Work

  Hey y'all here is the promised post of what we've been up to with the house.  Right now we are working on stripping the kitchen and as you can see in the second photo when I say we are stripping it I mean everything right down to the studs and floor joists.

One really cool thing we have discovered is that all of the original walls and ceilings in the house are finished with six inch tongue and groove pine paneling.  We have to take all of it down so we can properly insulate the walls, but we are hoping to be able to put a lot of it back up because we just love the way it looks and plus it will preserve some of the historical aspects of the house.

The last two pictures are some of our "finds" in the house.  I just love the old glass door knobs though we were a little sad it was the only old knob left in the house.  The last picture is of some of the old wall paper they found in the dining room.  I really love the print and color of the paper.  If it hadn't been so disintegrated  I would have saved it for raping paper or some other project.

I will try to keep you all more updated with what is going on around here.

 Blessings~ Nancy

Fall

So I thought I would just share some pics that my amazing sister took this weekend of the fall beauty at the new home. Sorry I haven't been blogging as of late, I will hopefully have some more posts coming soon about all the projects going on in the new/old house.  Hope you all enjoy!

Blessings~ Nancy

New Babies

Hi all sorry it has been so long since I posted.  I just wanted to share some pictures of our new baby goats Robbin Hood and Lady Marian as well as our three baby ducks.  I am really excited about the ducks as they are supposed to eat fire ants!  If you all have never had fire ants count yourself very blessed, they really do sting like fire when they bite you.

Hope you all are doing well.  Here is a verse that really encouraged me this morning.

Psalm 9:9 The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you

Blessings~ Nancy

Surprise

Yesterday some of the girls from my church along with my sister and I threw a surprise party for my dear friend Sarah who is moving to Germany this month.  It turned out really well and we all had such a wonderful time with Sarah.  I think the best part of the party was the water balloon fight we had!  It was so much fun to be crazy and child like having a water balloon fight not to mention it felt really nice in our 100+ degree weather!

We love you so much Sarah!  You have been a huge blessing and encouragement in all our lives!  We will all miss you tremendously dearest friend!

Blessings~ Nancy 

French Chevre

Hi all!  I thought I would share some pictures from cheese making this week.

 The first cheese I seasoned with Herbs De Provence.The last one is our old time favorite seasoning for cheese and contains a mixture of garlic, onion, paprika, worcestershire sauce, and seasoned salt.

Hope y'all are having a fantastic summer!

Blessings~ Nancy

Douhnuts

I don't know about the rest of y'all but I love doughnuts especially homemade one's!  So I thought I would share my favorite plain doughnut recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons softened butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 4 egg yolks
• 3 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup milk

Preparation:

Mix together the butter, sugar, and egg yolks. Into another bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and spices. Stir into the first mixture alternately with 1 cup milk. Stir until dry ingredients are moistened, handling dough as little as possible. Roll dough to about 3/8-inch thickness on a floured cloth covered surface. Let rolled out dough stand for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, heat deep fat to 370°. Fat should be at least 1 1/2 inches deep. Fat is ready when a doughnut center browns in about 1 minute. Keep temperature as steady as possible. Cut doughnuts out with floured 2 1/2 or 3-inch doughnut cutter. Fry doughnuts in the hot fat, turning carefully with a wooden spoon handle when the first crack appears. Continue cooking and turning until browned nicely. This will take about 1 1/2 minute total frying time. Drain doughnuts on brown paper or paper towels. Makes about 2 dozen doughnuts.

 I made a maple coffee icing for them but you can use just about anything, or just eat them plain which is personally my favorite way to go about it. :)
Hope you all enjoy!

Blessings~ Nancy

Kitty

The latest member of the farm...

Blessings~ Nancy

Just a few shots from my week...

 Thanks Christina for these amazing pictures!

Blessings~ Nancy

Baby Goats

Hey all!  Sorry it has been a while since I last posted.  Last night one of our goats finally had her kids!  She had two beautiful little babys one girl and a boy.  I am so thankful for a safe birth and that the kids are strong and healthy.  I am still thinking on names for them so if any of y'all have suggestions feel free to share!
 

Sorry about the quality of the pics.  I will hopefully have some better ones later.

Blessings~ Nancy

Just wanted to share a few pictures from the other day.  I was blessed to be able to spend the afternoon at my dear friend Sarah's house.  It was a beautiful day and we were able to go boating out on the lake for part of the afternoon.  After being out on the lake we both worked on sewing projects.  I set to work on altering a pattern to make a tunic while Sarah sewed on her blue jean skirt that she is making from an old pair of jeans. 

Thanks Sarah for a wonderful day.  You are such an amazing encouragement to me!

Blessings~ Nancy

Bread

This is my favorite bread recipe, that is besides sourdough bread!  I did a little playing around with it this time and was really pleased with the way it came out.  Here is the changed recipe.  Enjoy!


4 cups hot water
1/8 cup oil
1 cup applesauce
1 cup honey
2 Tbs. salt
3Tbs. instant dry yeast
2 eggs
15-16 cups freshly ground flour

Whisk together all the ingredients except the flour in a large mixing bowl.  Add ten cups of flour and mix for 4 minutes in a mixer or if you are doing this the old-fashioned way you had better grab that trusty wooden spoon. :)  Next add a cup of flour at a time until you have formed a soft dough and kneed it until you have a soft smooth elastic dough (mine took about 12- 14 minutes in a mixer).  Now you get to divide the dough into six sections and shape them into loaves.  I like to dust my bread with a little extra flour so it looks prettier when you slit the tops, but that's just me. ;)  Did I mention you needed bread pans?  They are really quiet helpful especially when greased.  Anyways just plop your loves in those helpful pans slit the tops and cover and let rise until the bread is as tall as you want (about 30- 40 minutes is great).  When your bread has risen put it in an oven that has been preheated to 375 F and bake it for 25 minutes or until golden brown.  When you pull those beautiful loaves out of the oven let them sit a minute or two before taking them out of the pans to finish cooling on a wire cooling rack.  And now comes the best part of all,getting to eat a slice of that warm bread with lots and lots of butter!

 

 

Blessings~ Nancy