Little behind!

Hey everyone! I am WAY behind in my posts on here. I have been focused on my weightloss blog loosing flab

I will be back to posting every other day starting tomorrow!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!!!

KRAUT!! Part I

Sauerkraut
I decided to do this outside onthe picnic table. It was a wonderful sunny day and I have little counter space inside- plus I figured it would be a little messy....I was right!



Ok So this is my FIRST time making kraut. I have done a LOT of research trying to do it the old fashioned way, antique crock, cabbage cutter and all!


So first I cut several heads out of the garden. A few things I have read said not to wash the heads because it will wash off the natural bacteria on the leaves that helps with the fermintation, I SO would have if I bought the cabbage from the store but these are straight out of my garden, and I used flour to kill the cabbage worms. Plus it rained the night before so I figured what the hey.:)


And then these are some of the heads....


Coring the heads-- Yes I know my hands are puffy! I had a baby like 2 days before the pics were taken and my hands and feet always puff up afterwards!!


And now for a head of cabbage (outer leaves removed) to be shreaded on the cabbage slicer. Yes I know the slider box is missing. When I bought it there were two - one had the box the other did not. Price was $40 more for the one with the box....


And then I start shreadding, and shreadding, and shreadding, .....you get the picture.

Heres what some looks like after its gone thru the shreadder.


Last pic for this post! Heres whats in the crock so far....


Ok, well thats it for the first part of the kraut post. Second post will be done sometime tomorrow. Will have more in depth directions for what comes next. Trying to hold a baby and type with one hand is not easy! :)

Hope everyone is having a great day!!!

Happy Fathers Day!

Well we got a little rain last night!!! Told John I figured the cow would calve out with the front moving thru. Shes been dripping milk for a week.

So when I got up and started making blackberry pancakes (per Johns request) and as I was washing out the batter bowl I looked out the window just as the sun was starting to rise and screamed!

John had just went out and already had the horses in the barn and was putting hay out but hadnt gotten around to checking on everything yet.

This is what I saw......



Hes is the cutest little thing! Of course its a bull calf but thats good! just means a little meat in the freezer later on. I always feel inclined to keep the heifers.

So John got blackberry pancakes, a pair of work jeans, and a bull calf for Fathers Day ;)

Dont know if I am more excited about the fresh milk, butter or cream.....OOOOH Blackberries and cream!!! I cannot wait!!!

Recipe without a picture.....

So in my last post I said I would post the Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread recipe I used for breakfast this morning. And I said I would wait to post it after I took pics because it was still in the oven.....

Here is your picture.



As you can see, well actually you can't, it was amazing and the kids LOVED it.
I will post photos when I make another batch.

Heres the recipe:

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

3 Cups Flour (I use half white & half wheat)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup Chocolate chips
2 cups shreaded zucchini
1/2 cup water
2 tsp vanilla
3 large eggs
1 cup real butter at room temp

Crank the oven to 350
Easy directions:
Mix all dry except the choco chips in large bowl
In another bowl mix all wet

Mix the two together untill well blended
mix in the choco chips 'till just mixed

Divide into 2 loaf pans

Cook for about an hour

*** you could also add in 1 cup of nuts at the same time you add in the choco chips*****

Bright and early

So we usually get up about 4:30 am. The last few weeks its been closer to 6. John has been on vacation for nearly 3 weeks. (2 weeks vacation and this week for the baby) So I havent been starting my day like I need to.

Today however, I jumped up and so far have done 2 loads of laundry and got them out on the line, made 4 loaves of zucchini bread, planted 6 lillys, and watered the garden all before 7:30!

I wish I could keep up the pace but with the kids and John still around this week I dont see that happening.

Recipe for my Chocolate Chip Zucchini bread coming later tonight (that way I can have pictures too!)

Intro and a place to share.

I have been working on and off on blogs for quite some time. Nothing ever really comes of it but I have tried. Cooking ones, crafting ones, soaping ones...... nothing I have been happy with.

However, this time I feel like it will be different. The last 2 years have been a roller coaster. The last year has been trying at times but has also been wonderful.

I just had my 7th baby on Monday (birth story will be another post!) I feel like coming up to her birth or lives were changing. Everything has felt different. I cannot explain it exactly, but things have just been different.

We still live the way we have been, go to the same church, eat the same, dress the same, but things just feel different. I guess you could say I feel like I have let go and have just let things be. I don't get wrapped up into the mess and chaos of the everyday....whatever. I dont get upset and stressed about family drama, or now the lack there of since I choose not to deal with the nighmare that is one side of my "family".

I am a grown woman that has made her own choices. They may not always be the right ones but it is my life and all I ask is that everyone respect the fact that I may not live the way you do, that I have a house full of children that I love dearly, and that I CHOOSE to live off the land and have a hurricane of kids & animals following behind me.

I cook from scratch & yes I use LARD, make our own soap (and clothes when I have time) , butcher our own meat, grow and can everything out of the garden, and support my husband in using draft horses for putting up the hay and plowing.

I love my life- its not always easy, most of the time hard.

One of my favorite quotes:

"Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty... I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led diffcult lives and led them well." -
-- Theodore Roosevelt