Who is that froggie in the window?

Found this on our breakfast room window...

To a kitty cat, it's a toy...

Peek-a-boo!

Samuel's learned how to get himself under the bed to play.

Absolutely Perfect Homemade Iced Coffee

Before you get started

•          This recipe makes a huge batch – nearly 2 gallons – of coffee concentrate.  The idea is to make it, keep it in the fridge for super-quick iced coffee.  Simply halve or quarter for smaller batches.
•          To make the amount shown below, you will need two 10-quart containers.  I use food-grade storage containers from a restaurant supply store – square work best so you have a corner for pouring.  You’ll also need a mesh strainer and cheesecloth, muslin or paper towels if that’s all you have.
•          To make small batches, a French press will make the whole process much easier, quicker and you won’t need any of the equipment listed above.  But you’ll have to make it much more often!

Ingredients

•          1 pound Ground Coffee (a good quality, Rich Roast)
•          8 quarts (that’s 2 gallons) Cold Water
•          Any of the following to make your drink:  Skim Milk, 2% Milk, Whole Milk, Half & Half, Sweetened Condensed Milk, Sugar, Artificial Sweeteners, Flavored Syrups, etc... adapt to your liking!

Instructions

1.       In a large container (or French press), dump in ground coffee with add the water. Give a little stir to ensure all the coffee grounds are wet.  Cover and allow to sit at room temperature eight hours or overnight.
2.       Line a fine mesh strainer with cheesecloth and set over your other large container. Pour coffee/water mixture through the strainer, allowing all liquid to run through. Discard grounds. (If using a French press, simply plunge.)
3.       Transfer coffee concentrate to a pourable container (or an iced tea jar w/ spigot), place in the fridge and allow to chill.
4.       To make iced coffee, fill a glass about 1/2 full with coffee concentrate. Add your milk/dairy choice – about a 1/4 of the glass. Add 1-3 teaspoons of your sweetener of choice and stir vigorously to combine. Top off with lots of ice.  Taste and adjust milk and sweetener as needed.

·         Hint: if you drink slowly and don’t like ice cubes melting and watering down your drink… in step 3 above fill ice cube trays with your coffee concentrate and freeze.  Then in step 4, use your coffee cubes to make your drink!

·         Variations:

o   To make even more special, top with whipped cream and drizzle with chocolate syrup or caramel. 

o   To flavor an entire batch, use flavored coffee such as French Vanilla, Cinnamon, etc.

Baby hatched

Since we added roosters to the farm, we recently had our first baby hatch.  One of our hens, Blackie, often goes broody.  So when it started warming up and she went broody again, we decided to leave her alone and see what happened.  After several weeks, Dan heard a faint chirp, checked under her and sure enough, a little baby chick hatched. 

We weren't sure what to do.  Would mama know how to take care of her?  Would the other hens peck at the little chick?  We decided to just wait it out and see what happened.  The little chick followed mama everywhere and seemed to be doing just fine.  I finally got out there when the baby was about a week old. 

Here is a day in the life of a baby chick.

Baby likes to stay under mama for safety...




 When mama jumps off the roost, so does baby...

But they have to pause so Rodan, our rooster, can mount mama to make more babies...

After their minor delay, they proceed outside...

And here they roam around as long as they like...

Snuggle bear

Samuel doesn't seem to understand the concept of snuggling.  But one evening, I was really tired and had a bad headache and he seemed content to just lay with me.  It was a nice to just lay quietly together.

Summer project: Swimming pool (part 1)

One day a few weeks ago it was hot.  So hot that I decided we needed a swimming pool.  I did some super-fast internet research and decided on an above-ground 18' x 54" pool with a salt-water filtration system.  It's not huge and we certainly won't be swimming laps in it.  But on hot, muggy Midwest summer days, it will be wet and cool.

The pool itself only takes about a day to setup and fill, but the instructions say the ground has to be perfectly level.  I'm not much of a preparation person.  I would have just set it up and hoped for the best.  Dan, however, is a "if you're going to do something, take the time to do it right" kind of person.  Needless to say, we butt heads sometimes.  It should also be obvious that since he is the one that is actually setting up the pool, that the ground is being leveled. I know this is the right thing to do, but I'm impatient and just want to swim.

Here he is beginning to excavate to get the ground somewhat level...

The first round of excavating is done.  The next step is to continue leveling with standard yard tools.  I'm not sure how many steps there are to leveling ground, but I'll keep you posted of the project.

Expensive day

Scenario 1: After a couple of years dealing with 50 year old tractors, Dan decided he was done with them. Not starting, dead batteries, clutches going out, gas disappearing to God knows where, etc. He was just plain done.

Scenario 2: Each morning he and I both take care of the broiler chickens. This requires hauling feed and water and ourselves. We've been doing this on our 4-wheeler. It usually takes at least 2-3 trips and we look like contortionists trying to fit buckets of water and ourselves on it. It was time to do something about this too.

Thus began researching new tractors and UTV's (Utility Terrain Vehicle-picture a very small Jeep). Dan did the research because he knows what he does and doesn't want. I just want life to be easy. But at the same time, spending large sums of money make me nauseous. This is one of those things that's better for me to stay out of the loop on.

He narrowed it down to a few models and took a day off work to go shopping. He came home with two very shiny pieces of agricultural equipment and a much lighter wallet. But, I must say, they are both very nice and perform light years ahead of the items they replaced.

The tractor he decided on is a Kubota M7040. He ordered it with a canopy, but it that part was back-ordered, so that will be delivered later. The tractor delivery guy was gone for approximately 2.2 seconds before Dan was on the tractor playing with it.

Heading towards a pile of dirt...




Dirt scooped up...

And dumping the dirt back out...





Kid in a candy store...







The UTV we decided on is a John Deere Gator 855D. We got it with a bench seat so when Samuel is bigger, he can ride around with us...

Here's where we store it at night. It's a pretty cool "garage in a box" that Dan and Brian put up in half a day. It stores most of our yard / garden equipment...

Trying to get dressed

After Samuel's bath I set him down to play while I was cleaning up and it turned into a little baby photo shoot.  Here are some of the cutest / silliest ones...

Here, I picture him thinking, "I likes to touch my belly".  You have to say that with a hillbilly accent to get the full effect.

Then he realized he had toys to play with...

And toys make him happy...

I wish I could say something profound about this one like "he's pondering his life's decisions" or "he's looking towards his heavenly father for advice".  But he's really just looking at the ceiling fan go round and round and round...

We finally got dressed and then it's was time to play some more.  Recently he's taken a liking to book chewing...

This is kind of a deer in headlights look...

This one looks like he's trying to imitate how his bear is sitting...

Garden ready

Due to all the rain this year, our garden is months behind.  We finally had a long enough dry spell for Dan to get out there and get the area ready.  Here's the process...

First you plow through the rock hard ground...




Then you hook up the spike-tooth harrow and drag it round and round to break up the large clumps...







And finally, you run a blade over it to level everything out...

Lastly, Dan had to get a bunch of cedar trees and clear the limbs.  Then he dug a million holes and dropped the trees in.  Added some deer fencing and lower level of chicken wire, built a gate and we have ourselves a fully enclosed 50' x 100' garden area.

Now we just have to see if any of the seeds he started are still alive to plant.  Fortunately, our neighbor has too many cucumber plants and needs to thin them out, so Dan is over there as I type to get the extras. 

We may actually have a few veggies this year after all!

Thayer Deviled Eggs

These deviled eggs are a little different from the ordinary and always a hit when we take them somewhere.    The curry and Tabasco give it a little tang.  People that typically don't like these two ingredients still like the eggs because there is just a hint of it.

Here's how to make them:

18 hard boiled eggs, peeled, cut lengthwise; separate yolks from whites. This will yield about 30 halves since some egg whites will rip and makes extra yolk to really fill them up. Save the torn egg whites for tasting later!



Yolk mixture:

All of your egg yolks

1/2 - 3/4 cup miracle whip. I start with 1/2 cup and add more if it’s too thick. (If you use mayo, add about 2 tsp of sugar.)

3 tbs yellow mustard

12 healthy dashes of Tabasco

1/8 tsp curry powder

1-2 tsp dill weed

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Paprika to garnish


Mix everything well with a fork. Let the yolk mixture sit overnight if possible, so the flavors meld.

Taste to see if it needs more salt. Put a dollop of the mixture on your torn egg whites to taste.

I put the mixture into a quart zip top bag, cut the corner and pipe into the eggs. Garnish with paprika.

Enjoy!!

Uncertain expression

I'm not exactly sure what to call this expression.

Upset?


Mad?


Frustrated?


Impatient?


Unhappy?


All of the above?



All I know is that you might get this look if you take too long to get the next bite of food into Samuel's mouth...

...


...

New expression

I'm not exactly sure what to call this expression. 

Upset? 

Mad? 

Frustrated?

Impatient?

Unhappy?

All of the above?

All I know is this is the look you might get if you take too long to get the next bite of food into Samuel's mouth...