Lots of pictures!

I went a little crazy and took a bunch of pictures of our farm.  The weather was beautiful - how could I not??

Here are the ducks - I just can't help but sing that song from Sesame Street, "One of these things is not like the other..."  It's really too bad that their time on our farm is up, at least for 9 of the 10.  I kinda liked seeing all that white in the tall grass...

Homemade bread, butter, and creamer

In an effort to reduce (and one day erase) our consumption of soy and other ingredients that are not real food (not to mention not good for our bodies), I tried a couple of new things today that I thought I would share.

**Warning - this is a long post**

Normally, I'm not one to stray very far from a recipe - I might add or remove various spices, but I don't venture out too far.  But today I was making bread and thought I would try using butter instead of vegetable oil.  I happened to look on the back of the oil bottle the last time I was at the store and was disgusted to find out it was made from solely soy beans.  UGH!!

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, do some research on soy beans grown in "good ol' USA".  They are genetically engineered to withstand the weed-killing product known as Round-Up.  So the farmers plant these soy beans, then they can spray Round-Up and not kill their crop.  Makes sense but the soy plant is still absorbing those harmful chemicals, which goes to the bean, which is mass produced and processed into just about everything we eat.  The company that makes Round-Up is the one that genetically engineered the soy bean and their primary board members are also the heads of USDA, FDA, and the like.  They have also just come out with an alfalfa that is resistant to Round-Up.  Alfalfa is fed to animals, which then become or produce our food (milk, meat, eggs, etc).  Sorry, I have a tendency to get off topic.   

Anyhow, the bread recipe (found here) I have been using for a few years now is fairly simple. But today I tried using 1/4 cup of melted butter instead of 1/4 cup of oil.  The result - EXCELLENT!!!  Yea!!  Now, when I get my cow, I have another reason to make butter (like I really need another reason....YUMMY).  Especially since I make bread just about every other day!

* 6/11/2011 - I have recently been substituting 1 TBSP bread (or all -purpose) flour with 1 TBSP of potato flour and the results are a softer bread.  This makes an excellent sandwich bread but needs to be toasted a little longer to hold up to firm butter or refrigerated peanut butter.

Spring has Sprung!!

Well, it's definitely Spring 'round here!!  Seems as though we're up to our knees in babies....

Besides the ducks we got at the end of March -

and the cornish cross chicks we got at the beginning of April -

My children amaze me everyday.  It seems like I learn more from them than they do from me - sometimes.

Tyler, my oldest, has been ....we'll say "focused" ... on different things over the years.  This is common in children with autism.  They find an object or a "thing" and they talk about it, recreate it, draw it, etc, etc, etc.  Sometimes it can be irritating (like when he's in the car talking non-stop about his....whatever).  But for the most part, we just go with it.  We  think that it's a natural learning experience for him because he learns everything he can from the "thing".