August 12, 2010

Meet Winston!

Say "Hello" to our newest member of the farm. His name is Winston, and he is a Wensleydale wether. We purchased him from a friend who raises this breed, and my, does he have lovely fleece! He was just sheared (yes, she twisted my arm and I bought his lamb fleece, too!) and he is curly already:

We are very excited to have him come live with us. He has quickly become great friends with Smokey and the Bandit. Speaking of Smokey, he did a "no-no" and got into the chicken coop and ate all the chicken feed the other day. He ended up with quite the tummy ache and gave us a real scare. He is fine now, expecting his kisses as always.

Yeah, I know, you aren't supposed to be so friendly with rams, but how can I resist when he is soooo sweet? I can't wait until he and Naomi have little lambs this spring. She would come live in the house with me if Stan would let her! I will probably have to keep them if they are half as precious as their mom and dad!

Well, the kids are gearing up for school which starts next week. Permit me to gloat a little: Singing "I don't have to go-o!" I am so excited I can hardly stand it! God has blessed us so much by providing for me to stay home again. I have been busy already re-stocking the etsy shop since Fiber Christmas. I have been washing, combing and carding fleece, making rovings and batts, and running the kids to all the practices that are starting. It is nice to be able to do all those things that I used to do when I stayed home before. One of them is baking bread. In my opinion, nothing makes a house smell like home like fresh baked bread. (Except maybe chex mix at Christmas time!)

I love this recipe - it is from The Amish Cookbook by Elizabeth Colbentz.

1 1/4 cup warm water

1tblsp shortening

3 3/4 cup flour - more or less (white, or white and wheat mixed)

1 tsp salt

1 tblsp sugar

1 package yeast

Dissolve the yeast in 1/2 cup of the water. Mix the shortening, sugar salt and the rest of the water. Start adding flour. Knead the dough until smooth. Cover and leave in a draft free location until it doubles in size. Punch it down and form it into a loaf and put it in your loaf pan, cover and let it rise until double. Bake at 325 for about 45 minutes until it sounds hollow when it is tapped. Brush the top with butter to make a softer crust.

That's it! It costs about 27 cents a loaf in ingredients to make (I buy yeast in bulk). And it has WONDERFUL texture! I make it in the bread machine. I put the water and shortening in the bottom, then flour, sugar, salt and yeast and turn it on. I have added cinnamon, used half wheat flour, added garlic and Italian seasoning - it is such a versitile basic recipe!

Shop News

Be watching for the big sweepstakes in the shop starting next week! I have been thinking hard on this one and am really excited about it! There are lots of new things in the shop, and mom has been working hard on the beaded plying thread.

It is used when you ply your yarn after spinning to make beaded yarn.

She is working on lots of colors and it will come in 100 yard lengths! Come see us!