Rural Revolution: The push to be self-sufficient

This is another great peice by Patrice over at Rural Revolution.

Rural Revolution: The push to be self-sufficient: "Now that summer has, we hoped, arrived (one never knows in north Idaho), I'm rushing to get the garden in. I've finished our strawberry bed..."

A Fancy Tea Time Cake

Today I felt the urge to get into the kitchen and make something pretty.  This doesn't happen very often.  I'm more into the less attractive but eminently more satisfying home country cooking than the fussy perfect looking cooking.

But today something was in the air and I gave in to the fiddly cooking urge.  It all started with the buttermilk I had left over from making butter this morning from our jersey milk cow Buttercup's cream. This isn't like the buttermilk you get in the store at all.  This is more like a very thin milk that is the liquid leftovers after the fat solids have been removed (IE butter).  I just hate to throw good food out so I decided to make a lovely cake I got off the net here http://localfoods.about.com/od/cakes/r/buttermilkcake.htm called Buttermilk Cake.

It's very simple, makes one layer cake so is perfect for a busy weekday treat.  You can frost it, leave it plain, or top with fruit and have a slice with coffee or tea.  It turns out light with a moist crumb and looks just like in the picture on the recipe page.   I made a double batch so I could layer it this time.

I iced it with a simple vanilla butter frosting and then topped it with sweet berries.  This turned out so pretty and the kids are all impressed.  I had some blackberries and strawberries that looked  yummy in the store, and then picked some mint from the garden for a garnish.

Sometimes you just need to produce something that is special!

Biggest Protest In Athens Under Way As Tens Of Thousands Ask "Where Did Our Money Go", Demand No More Austerity (Now With WiFi Access)

Biggest Protest In Athens Under Way As Tens Of Thousands Ask "Where Did Our Money Go", Demand No More Austerity (Now With WiFi Access)

Good Book : The Hobbit

I know almost everyone in America has read or watched The Lord of The Rings, but the predecessor book to that trilogy (The Hobbit) is a great read for young kids.  Either reading it themselves or you reading it to them this book is much more lighthearted and adventure filled than the Rings books.

It also is much funnier and more appropriate to young readers.  I am reading it again (we have gone through three copies now) and am going to read it to the kids this summer.  A great book for boys or girls.

Saving a Baby

The day of my birthday Eldest Daughter brought home a little quail chick she found on the pavement.  A family of about 10 other day old babies and the momma and daddy scattered but this little one laid on the pavement struggling to move.  It couldn't walk properly and could only sort of roll and scuttle.  Quail babies are born running even though they are so very small.  Both Husband and I thought the little ones chances of living were slim.  Most times if something like this is wrong then the chick has no chance.  But sometimes a chick will not walk right because the egg was too small the its little legs were very cramped.  It just needs time to gain strength and then it will be able to walk like normal. Nature, however, is a cruel mother.  A chick that cannot keep up will be left behind as the quail family forages for food.  That chick probably wouldn't have lasted a night.

We put the little mite under a chick brooder lamp and gave it a chick waterer filled with pebbles because quail chicks are so small that they can easily drown in a normal chick waterer.  We put some fine cornmeal in the box too just in case.  The next morning I checked on our little adoptee and surprise! He was still alive!  He now is walking and hopping just fine and eating and drinking.  But we wont be able to put him back with his family, they are long gone by now.  So for the present we have a chick to raise.  We went and bought a bag of chick starter which comes in 50 lb sacks.  So now we have more food than a dozen little quail can eat.  Is this perhaps an excuse for mommy to order the chicks she wants?  I think it is!

We have still not decided on a name so any suggestions would be gratefully received.  Hubby wants to name this little  girl/boy after me since it arrived on my birthday and my name can be used for a girl or a boy.  Now the chick even sits in our hands and enjoys being petted.

The powder is chick feed

Awww!

Look how tiny he/she is!  No bigger than a quarter!

Garden Pics and a funny one of the cat

It is still cold and rainy, not even broken into the 70's yet!  So the garden is kind of hibernating on the warmer weather plants.  But my cool weather plants are loving it!

I'm not sure how our cat got into the tree like this, but he was stuck when I took this pic.

When good rhubarb goes bad

bed with lettuce and spinach

The new strawberry bed

the first two rows from left are potatoes already coming up and the third is beets, carrots, radishes, and turnips

peas and tomatoes

garlic rashes and salad mix

things that haven't come up yet

The apple trees

my lilac bush, sadly almost done

the herb garden

mints

horseradish

Visiting The Art Show- or what we did this weekend with pics

This last weekend was filled with a local Western Arts Show and Old Car show.  We went to both, because they were free!  It was allot of fun, but I noticed there weren't as many booths as last year.  Not even close.  We looked at all the art from various artists and the kids insisted on dressing in their "western" wear.  Much of it was very beautiful, I'm not much of a "Western" art lover, but I do love landscapes of which there were plenty.  There were several activities to participate in while we were there.  There was this roping area for kids with a real Chuck wagon the kids could play in.  This is brought every year by members of our church who are very much into western stuff.

Then there was a children's art area where the kids could make bead jewelry, paint different types of pictures or get their faces painted.  All for free I might add!

We visited the history filled train station that has gads of memorabilia from the founding of the town and train line history.  It still has one of the few remaining working telegraph lines.  It also has a antique train caboose that you can explore which was very neat.

There were cowboy poets, storytellers, singers, and actions all day that you could listen too.  But the biggest hit had to be the shoot out reenactment where several "bad" guys took the ladies hostage and got into a shootout with the local law.  They used real guns that shot off blanks and produced lots of noise and smoke.  Viking boy was in heaven.

The car show was mainly for me and Husband and we enjoyed seeing over 40 antique and classic cars.

It was a fun and

The Kids had a blast

Western Gals

Gentlemen Cowboy showing the kids how to rope

Sweet!

This man has worked as a cowboy and camp supervisor for his whole life

The only art I bought was something I really couldn't pass up.  I was walking along and saw an interesting artist who painted landscapes on feathers!  Yes I know that sounds maybe not so nice but these were truly fantastic.  Well I saw one that was of a Gazebo that looked exactly like a Gazebo I played on as a child in Walla Walla.  It's locally famous and has an amazing history.  By sisters and brother and I used to bike to that lovely park all summer to look at the birds in the aviary (also really amazing) and play on and around the gazebo.  In olden days the local bands would play music on summer evening whilst ladies in white strolled with gentlemen.

I exclaimed to husband about the similarity and the artist immediately said "Oh that is that Gazebo, we live in Walla Walla."  This proves it's a small world and we started comparing town notes.  She knew several of my family members as well and it was just funny.  So I bought the print of this place where I have so many cherished childhood memories.  Here's the link to the picture I bought, it's just the print but oh well.

http://www.sherryorchardart.com/painting_exhibition_042.htm

And here is the original.  Now the Walla Walla symphony plays there on magical summer evenings.  Walla Walla is my favorite hometown.

Memorial Day Remembrance

God Bless those who have fallen in defence of our country, and God Bless our troops!

Memorial Day Remembrance

God bless those who have fallen in defence of our country, and God bless our troops!

Belarus devalues currency and Gasp! Massive Inflation follows (or a sneak peek into the future of AmericaD

• 
  A visitor looks at empty shelves in a shop in Minsk, Belarus, Monday, May 23, 2011. Belarus is facing a severe downturn, with hard currency reserves plunging 20 percent in the first five months of the year to less than $4 billion, and staple foodstuffs vanishing from stores. Photo: Sergei Grits / AP
  A visitor looks at empty shelves in a shop in Minsk, Belarus,...
• 
  A young man counts his money outside an exchange booth in Minsk, Belarus, Tuesday, May 24, 2011. The National Bank of Belarus devalued the national currency on Monday by 56 percent against the U.S. dollar. The official Belarusian ruble rate for May 24 has been set at 4,930 to the dollar, RIA Novosti Agency said. Photo: Sergei Grits / AP
  A young man counts his money outside an exchange booth in Minsk,...
• 
  Belarusian drivers wait in a queue to fill their tanks with fuel a petrol station before a price hike in Minsk, Monday, May 23, 2011. Prices of fuel will rise up to 20 percent by Tuesday, according to local media reports.

http://www.newser.com/article/d9nej3j81/belarusian-ruble-devaluation-threatens-to-cause-social-unrest-paralyze-economy.html

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Belarus-devaluation-spreads-panic-1395054.php

my plan on growing a green curtian for high sun windows

We have several windows that face the sun most of the day without any shade, and unfortunately we can't plant any trees there to shade them.  In the summer this side of Washington gets HOT so I want to shade those windows to save energy and keep the rooms cool.

Here's more info on growing a green curtain:

http://lifehacker.com/5635574/grow-a-green-curtain-to-cut-down-on-cooling-costs

I have a nice old window box and I'm going to plant pole beans all through it and place in front of the windows.  They will grow up a wire trellis and cover the window in nice green leaves.  You can use any vine plant but I want something that produces food. 

I will post pics when it actually warms up enough to plant my beans.

Quote of the Day

Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation."

Isaiah 12:2a

Husband Is Injured

Sorry for not many posts, but Husband has been injured.  He got hurt at work and now has a hernia that is dangerous and painful.  Due to that I am taking on most of the heavy work about the place so he wont strain himself.  The hardest thing is keeping him from working.  It is just so hard for him not to work!  Also this brings a new and interesting twist to our finances.  His surgery is in about two weeks so we are praying for no further complications till then.

Crossing the Bar - Music by Donald McCullough

For my father who passed away two years ago

Some Pics of our fishing trip

We decided to take off from life and go up fishing in the Tuccannon Wilderness in the Blue Mountains.  It is a place both Husband and I camped and fished at as a child.  There is the Tuccannon River which is great for trout fishing, and then there are 6 stocked lakes full of rainbows as well.  The lakes are very family friendly with pit toilets and nice accessible shores so that even small children can have a great time.

We caught quite a few trout but didn't keep them because there seems to be some sort of nasty fungal infection on many of them and there were allot of them dead.  It looked like ICK to me (I used to work in a petsmart fish department so I know all sort of fun fish diseases).  But it was fun to catch and release and the kids  had a great time in the woods.

The Wilderness had a horrible fire about 5 years ago and looks much different than it did when I was growing up, or even when we visited there when we first were married.  Husband proposed to me up there after a romantic picnic in a little meadow next to a creek.  Lots of wonderfull memories up there!

A Tom Turkey and his hens.  He gobbled at us and puffed up to show us who was boss.

Viking Boy on his first fishing trip.  He had a blast and loved every part of it.

At Curl Lake

 

A bush in flower

A stream going into Rainbow Lake

The lonely arid lands on our way there.  We drove for an hour and only saw one other car. The Blues are in the distance.

Wildflowers that covered the hills