Riyescott Ranch

I have become very interested in the concept of making bread without store bought yeast. Ever wondered what did they do before supermarkets that sold it in jars? I never even gave it a thought until Mary Janes Farm magazine had this great article about it. Then I looked it up and found all kinds of information. They call it “The Mother”. The reason for this is because you take some of the dish full of yeasty bubble stuff and mix more flour and water and salt and honey and whatever you want the kinda bread to be. So your bowl of “The Mother” gives birth to a new loaf of bread every time you take some. Well with everything you must give back if you take…..so everyday you add to it or feed it. I know it sounds really weird but it is true. Apparently they have Mothers that are passed down through generations…

Anyway my first try was a flop. I fed it all week and took some and added my ingredients and waited for it to rise. It didn’t. So here I am trying again but this time I have 3 going. Surely one will work? Or I could be taken over by alien Mothers…

1st with rye flour
Next is wheat flour

So far got a good bubble on all my “Mothers”

Sun was warm and got some digging done in the garden. I am amazed that I still have tomatoes in the greenhouse. Look:

The elk meat is great. I made this stew even though we had warm weather it was still good!

The temperature in the incubator is staying constant and so I hope the quail eggs will all hatch!

The Quail eggs arrived! Not as gory as the last post…

9 were broken, I cooked three as you can see. Taste just like chicken (eggs)

17 days to incubation! Lets hope I get a good hatch. You can see the little fertile spot if you look close at the broken ones. I have had success with guinea and chicken eggs.

Must go get on will add more later

a couple of posts because Dale did an upgrade of something computery and lost some of the data. I will try to redo in the next few days. So lost but not forgotten.

In the meantime we finally got an Elk. We have two Owner Preference tags and we have been trying to get an elk since November. Today when we were going to get some more wood: there they were. The whole herd.

But nothing is ever easy. She rolled all the way down to the creek. And believe me it is a long way down. Long story short here is it hanging up before we cut it up into bit size pieces! Squeamish please look away!

Nice Job Joe.

Off the shelf cabinets from Home Depot. Not bad. All appliances are Maytag. About a $10,000 kitchen, with appliances, cabinets and installation. Size 11′ by 12′ . Lots of counter space and cupboard space.

Hints: Make sure you order enough trim, Don’t wait till evening to do the plumbing, you invariably will need something and the shop will be closed!

As promised here is the construction that has been keeping me from the farm for the past week. Here is the before of the kitchen we are redoing. It is now almost complete. We would have finished it yesterday but one little copper washer in the water line cracked and so the water had to be left off last night. And I was one piece of molding short. So today I am off to Home Depot again to get a couple more things. Joe has made a nice job of it but is going back to Eugene today. And I will be able to work on the greenhouse this week. By the way the little boy is Titus who lives there

I will take the after photo today.

I guess I should to say it, Happy New Year. I don’t think it will be though, I have a feeling we are in for a rough ride. Not that I am as bad off as many. I am worried for the country. I am worried for my kids and their future. We are in a deep recession. I read about what they are proposing and it makes very little sense. Bail out the car industry? Where is the money to come from? And by March will people be buying cars again? Mend and make do. That is what people are doing for cloths and “stuff” and they will make do with their vehicles. If you don’t have a car payment, do you want to go out and get one? If you have to buy a car will it not be a second hand one?

I don’t think we will ever buy new again.

They put money into the banks but where is that money? And they lowered the prime interest rate, but they didn’t lower the mortgage rates. Why not? We need to see 3% for people to benefit and start buying houses.

And the creation of jobs that are proposed. If you know how to build cars and loose your job how can you suddenly know how to build roads? Well they must know what they are doing…..

So we are putting a new kitchen in at one of the rentals. A nice new stove. It was quite expensive, a Maytag. It did not come with a plug. So I purchased one, and a socket to put the plug in. The old oven, we affectionately called it “sparky” had been “hot wired. I can tell you it was time to do this kitchen. The hot plates of “sparky” were sitting on a plywood counter with charred makings where the rings used to be.

Anyway the thing that I could not believe was the note inside the oven…”If you want a broiler pan it is yours free after the pay the applicable fee…” What? How can this be free? And, if I want the broiler pan…’course I want the broiler pan…who would want to put an old one in a nice sparkling new oven that cost an arm and a leg?

So if I send $15 postage they will send the broiler pan. Why in heavens name did the broiler pan not come with the dam stupid oven in the first place. Must have been a man’s idea. Seriously would a woman have come up with that one?

Kitchen coming on great. Photos tomorrow. We just went out to Whaleshead for dinner and I am tired, it is raining again and I have to go back to Crescent City again to exchange things….

So much rain! This month we have had it all. I think there is more rain coming and then more cold. We hear on the radio there are trees down and the Rivers are on a watch. We are 700 ft elevation but we have standing water everywhere. I got drenched three times today.

I will post photos tomorrow. Joe, my number 5 child is here from Eugene with his girlfriend, Megan. Joe is putting in a new kitchen in one of our rentals. An old kitchen, you would think would come out easy. Wrong, they had nailed it, I mean nailed it as if in those days nails were free! And a lot of it was built in place, what a pain to get it all out. The oven was weird, perhaps I have a photos of it. Anyway tomorrow we will start installing the new cabinets. Exciting, gripping stuff!

I have not even been in the greenhouse today, it is still standing though. And I just got in from a long visit with the sheep. I love my sheep. They all have as different personalities as they do wool type.

Baby, our house lamb still likes to be made a fuss of. And some of the others will take a break from eating and come and visit. They really need shearing but they need to wait about another 6 weeks.

I have an idea that I want to write a book about us women who raise sheep. A story from each person. Funny or sad. Anybody interested in sending me their story?

I am off to bed, more tomorrow.

My mother is 88 and still as sharp as a tack! Dad is 89 and is getting a bit, well, old. They met during the second world war. Dad was in Africa during the war. When I was in England this time we took him to the church for the service for Armistice day. Or Veterans day. He wore his medals for the first time.

Anyway my mother has kept all the letters between them from the war. She said I can have them one day. I want to organize those letters and read every one. I would title the letters “Kiddy”, this was my dads nick name for my mother. They can’t remember why!

I took this photo of her out of a drawer. She was about 18 years old and looked a little mischievous! If only we could step back into that time and be a fly on the wall. If she could remember where that photo was taken I could go back there…but she can’t remember or what the note on the back meant, ” Did you forget Darling?” in her handwriting.

I love you, Mum and Dad.