Hen House
My life feels as messy as our deteriorating road from all this rain. It’s smooth for a while, then there are all these ruts you’ve got to get through. Then, all of a sudden, it’s slick and sending you in directions you didn’t plan on going. And if you don’t keep going, you’re, well, more stuck than a goat with its head through the fence. Throwing mud routes in with all the other activities of the past couple weeks has been a little more juggling than I want to do, but we’re slowly sludging through it all.
I’ve definitely been penciling more onto my calendar with a high schooler in the house. Granted, she doesn’t play sports, but that opens her up to being available for volunteering for this and that, and it can be just as busy along with our lifestyle. Even with all the here-and-there of one or two of us, things have still been surviving here.
I decided it was time to part with some of the bucket calves I’ve been raising for months on all the blessed raw milk we get morning and night. Having several fewer mouths to feed makes life a little less scattered, though now I have an abundance of raw milk until we are able to move my Jersey, Pepper, to once-a-day milking. Thankfully, the little Meshian piggies are liking their extra serving of raw milk each day, and they seem to be growing quite nicely on it and grain. When I have extra milk still, I clabber it for the chickens and they peck it right up. I guess this all points to the milk cow being the top animal on the homestead — they can definitely get us all by on their bountiful, nutritious milk.
With the busyness as of late, fresh-milled flour has been another contributor to us getting by. Supper has been more “thrown together” as opposed to our usual well-prepped, sit-down meals. If we have some home-raised meat, a veggie, and something made with fresh-milled flour, we are well fed, even if it is a simple meal. The fresh-milled flour is just so filling and nourishing, the few extra minutes it takes to mill will forever be worth it. To make things even easier, I always make several extra batches, whether it be tortillas, hamburger buns, or sandwich bread, to throw in the freezer for last-minute meal ideas.
As if life wasn’t throwing enough in our direction lately, now I can’t even prevent the milk cows from snapping my eyeball with their coarse-haired tails. I was sitting there prepping to milk this past week and looked at the railing I always clip the tail clip on, it wasn’t there. I looked wide-eyed at my husband and said, “Georgi, I must have left the tail clip on Georgi yesterday,” and, well, Georgi was let into their little pasture and proceeded to, at some point, lose the tail clip. I have yet to send a child to the pasture to go look for it, but as milking has been a tad painful, I’m about to.
Follow us on Facebook: Vintage at Heart Homestead I spent the better part of last week catching my youngest up on homeschooling since I was in the field the week prior. When she wasn’t in the field with me, she was at home with a pretty good understanding that she still needed to do school. Though, when I sat down with her this past week, I questioned what she had truly done, because oddly enough, I didn’t have much to grade, nor was the house sparkling. I would’ve been happy with either option. Of my three children though, she knows how to get distracted the most, even under supervision. I do give her the benefit of the doubt, she is home, where chicks are peeping in the porch, butterflies are at the window, kittens are in the yard, snacks are on the counter, so I do understand, but she is truly my queen of ending up doing something entirely different than told.
After the discovery of a lack of work to grade, I decided it was past time for a new homeschool schedule for this year. We had one last year, plain and functional. I figured if I brought her into the designing of it, it’d be even more fun to check off each day, a ploy to keep her on track. We started by putting Clipart kitties all over the schedule, then cows, a pony, chick, duck, quail, can’t forget those quail, etc. The schedule ended up with way more animals than I imagined, but she was overly pleased with the end result, and that was the goal.
Homeschooling has really been such a beautiful experience. After my son’s one year of homeschooling, he jumped right into junior high at public school and is doing great. I’ll always be glad we made it work. To give my children the flexibility of being able to learn at home and the freedom to take a break or enjoy a beautiful day, is an irreplaceable gift. It’s not always tidy, or on schedule, but it doesn’t have to be, that’s the beauty of it.
Have a wonderful week and follow us on Facebook: Vintage at Heart Homestead I am getting closer to the point where I’ll be pulling our sourdough starter, Oscar, from the fridge and attempting to perfect fresh-milled flour sourdough. Last winter, my youngest started her very own starter as well. We turned it into a whole 4-H/homeschool project. She even kept a journal on it. Then, the two homeschoolers and I did a sourdough experiment, baking loaves using different kinds of flour once Oswald, her starter, was established. One of us used all-purpose flour, one store-bought whole-wheat flour, and one all freshly milled hard red wheat. We were using fresh-milled flour for most things besides sourdough at this point, and this experiment taught me that there was going to be a learning curve with fresh-milled flour sourdough, though, we did make an edible loaf. By the time school was out, life was picking up pace, and we put the sourdough starters aside. I would need more time than I had to delve into the freshly milled flour sourdough.
Sourdough made with store-bought flour may be easier to digest, but it is only a little more nutritious than yeast bread made with store-bought flour, which has very little nutritional value. Now, sourdough made with fresh milled flour, you get maximum nutrition and digestibility. Freshly milled flour is full of vitamins, minerals, and healthy oils because you are using the entire wheat kernel. Store-bought flour has had its nutrients milled away in turn for a longer shelf life.
If you are looking for better health, fresh-milled flour is a great place to start. I get most of my organic grains from Azure Standard. Check their site for a local drop near you. Our countertop grain mill is just as treasured as our family milk cow. Happy baking!
