Bread making...

So as I really want to get good at baking bread I've found some pointers I'm going to use. I'm going to use King Arthur bread flour and I'm putting the full amount of flour needed, but from what I'm gathering looking at others making it, it's suppose to be a little sticky, but not stick to you. You have flour on your hands, but I think what many of us do is just keep adding flour till it's not sticky, at all. For bread makers out there, is this correct? I believe it's making my bread heavier and not as soft. I mean it's okay for everyday use, but what I want is to make bread like what we buy at the apple orchard. Anyone who bakes wonderful bread, help us out, please. :D

They said this bread is a vanilla french bread and it's so soft, my DH loves it and I want to make him some like it....when I find out how they make it so soft. LOL

Anyway, I found a wonderful site it's http://barnhousenews.blogspot.com/ this is one of the strongest families. It will make you appreciate every second you have with your family. It will show you how as a family you can endure more than you ever imagined and the importance of teaching your children everything in life you can, so they can endure thru the unimaginable and help you through it. I have no doubt the reason they're so strong and just keep going is how their parents raised them and the obvious love they've been brought up in. I'm sure there's times they don't feel strong and just keep going no matter what, but I'm inspired by them and it will make you think, make you appreciate and tell you that you can make it even when you don't think you can.

Snow again...

Snowing in Virginia again while the trees are budding, tulips are coming up and birds are singing more ready for Spring. Oh yes it is, so I've gotten my laundry finished, made some more bread and made a cup of Oolong Tea. It's beautiful, however for the farmers out there, not sure it's such a great thing for early planting already in the ground.

I really wanted a little garden this year, but you know it is what it is and you do what you can do. In the meantime I'll support our local farms and farmers market this year and going to get everything I can grown organic.I'm very concerned what is in our foods we buy in the store, since it's not real food and so filled with chemicals and preservatives.

I need a good project to work on now that winter is pretty much over, I'll look into my patterns for spring or summer patterns. Besides scouring the internet for patterns, freepatterns.com has alot of good ones for crocheting, knitting and sewing. There's some good Barbie patterns there and this year I'm going to work on the dresses, buy a simple Barbie and giving my girls each one as a present.

I remember when I was a kid Mom was always crocheting us Barbie doll clothes and making us clothes. She also worked on "at the time" projects.

Beddolls of all kinds were very popular. Funny how many things you remember from your childhood. All Mom's craftiness gave me my crafty spirit for a lifetime and my daughters have it in different directions, even though they're not crocheters, that's okay.

We also had parakeets and fish, I've always had parakeets. I also remember other fads at that time in our house, crocheted poodle bottle covers, a dunking bird that predicted the weather, an angel candle carousel, the infamous who's in the doghouse plaque.

I loved those things, I need to get my own. We had and I have crocheted covers for toilet paper, tissue boxes and there's a commercial where Nana's crocheting covers for everything...that was our house. LOL I know alot of you remember some of these things and are smiling now. :)

Back to Eden gardening...

Here is one result of the Back to Eden gardening method at work by a farmer in Texas... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROZzs54xLJs It's amazing how simple and natural this concept is, what's taken us so long to get it? :D  This is a very good video for chicken farmers. You can also see what a fire ant hill looks like in this video. I hate those things, saw them in Alabama when we visited one time.

Actually this same farmer has a great video on making a greenhouse... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DKlXs8iov0 This is a portable and inexpensive greenhouse, it's great and good video. It can also be used for a garden shed, storage,etc, instead of plastic you can put a tarp.

Amish White Bread...

I made this Amish bread last night http://allrecipes.com/recipe/amish-white-bread/
I'm on a baking bread kick and going to try different recipes, if anyone has a favorite one, please point me to it. I want to get better at making things like this from scratch. Been a long time since I've baked bread. 
I did change up a couple of things, first I only used one teaspoon of salt, instead of 1 and 1/2 tsp., and mixed it in with the flour so I wouldn't kill any of the yeast. I also only used 1/3 cup of sugar, instead of 2/3, because I didn't want it so sweet. It made two loaves, but I only took a photo of one, couldn't wait, I had to cut into the other one and taste it. Best aroma in a kitchen is baking bread. :)

Have you noticed how long bread lasts in a bag from the store? It wasn't that many years ago after a few days bread would start to mold, now all the preservatives and such in it makes it just get more stale. There's something wrong with that picture and I want to make everything from scratch that I can. We need real food. I'm going to buy everything I can from local farmers in season and start canning and freezing again. Everyone who can, needs to plant a garden. I've been listening to these videos about putting woodchip mulch over the garden in a series of Back to Eden https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM_gtZb8qyk It's organic gardening and awesome.

Driving around this week...

My DH got off a few days this week, and since it's been too cold to do much we decided to drive around, it was alot of fun. Not sure if we'll get anymore snow, Virginia's had it's share of snow and freezing temps this winter. Spring will soon be upon us. We just felt like driving and driving and we did it for a couple of days during the day. :D

We saw eagles and their nest, a possum that didn't want it's photo taken, trains, snowy tracks, the airport, and old bridge in Manassas, horses, old barns, snowy fields, and foothills in Warrenton. We went to Barnes and Nobles in Springfield, thru Alexandria, (don't like the city), Krispy Kreme and Roy Rogers near there, (haven't been to a Roy Rogers in forever), then down towards Mount Vernon to the entrance, past Washington's Gristmill and back out past the old red and white barn at the now Grist Mill Park. How in the world do those people afford those big expensive houses in there? It's crazy, give me a little farm anytime. We spent the most time in the bookstore, hello, it's a bookstore. :))

I can't wait till Spring to go back to Mount Vernon, one of my favorite places to go. Anyway, it was all fun and interesting. Notice I didn't put photos up of Alexandria, we are NOT city folk and  just wanted out of all that traffic mess. ~shaking head~ Those people drive crazy, they need to put the phone texting down. >.<

Why did the chicken cross the road? :)