Homesteading's "Winter Dormancy"

Wintertime is really difficult for me this year,  with the strong possibility of a huge move to Alberta early in the new year,  I find it difficult to think about doing any gardening.  And a lot of my seeds are now going on 2 years old,  I really feel the need to start growing some vegetables, herbs and medicines.  I've got a compost pile,  but I'm thinking in terms of moving things,  can I grow things that will be ready in the possible late spring?  So maybe I should go ahead and read this little book Winter Seed Starting by Sara Chodl and start what I can in the mini milk jug greenhouse system she uses.  

If I do grow anything it should be in grow bags so I can move them for sure.  And,  I don't know if I can take a compost pile with me anywhere,  but maybe I could start a worm farm,  I could do that and take the worm farm with us.  I guess it's just a matter of now looking into which things will be ready in the mid to late spring.

Since getting started is the hardest part of anything it seems,  perhaps what I should also do is determine which plants I've got seeds for,  are to be direct seeded,  seed started and which months each can be started so which ever month we actually move,  if we actually move...I'll know exactly which ones I can work with.  And I should probably figure this out for both Calgary and Langley,  just in case we don't actually go anywhere.

I pulled out my grain mill this week and cleaned out the mold that had been growing in it since before we moved into this new place we're in.  And I just got finished doing a couple of cups of brown rice flour and oatmeal flour this afternoon.

Yeah,  this is our Wondermill Junior Deluxe.  Love this little piece of homesteading practicality.  The thing to know about using it to make "Bobs Red Mill fine" flour  straight from whole grains though is that depending on the size and hardness of the grains,  you'll have to run those grains through anywhere from 2 to 6 times before getting that level of fine-ness.  The brown rice for example had to go through 3 times, when I make corn flour,  I've got to put the kernels through 6 times, the rolled oats however,  which are already semi processed and soft anyway, had to go through only once,  .   

My kids hate brown rice,  but if I grind the stuff up to make gluten free brownies they'll eat it,  that's my only tried and true recipe using brown rice anything right now when it comes to something they'll actually enjoy or even just tolerate eating.   There's got to be something else out there too though,  I'll just have to keep looking.

My kids are really picky about food however,  they don't even like sourdough bread unless it's mostly made out of white flour.  Now the way I've been keeping my starter in the fridge and just taking it out to pull out half the starter I need (and putting an equal combined amount of flour and water back into the starter) and just proofing that just out of the fridge starter for my new batch of bread,  has resulted in my sourdough not being so sour.  

I think I better take it out a day ahead from now on, see if that doesn't bring that nice 'sour' taste back into the bread.  One thing about the white flour in the sourdough however, is that it does seem to get puffier than the all whole wheat sourdough. I don't really like the taste as much because it no longer reminds me of the old fashioned rye bread I grew up with. 

I try to get my little Ezra involved when I have to make bread or cook stuff in the kitchen because it makes for some great cognitive therapy and developmental exercises for him,  it isn't always easy though,  like when he doesn't want to let me finish the pretty good job he's done...

I've tried to make some Asian style dishes the past little while too, using some new and some not so well liked ingredients (to make use of some sushi ingredient left overs).  Tried oyster mushrooms for the first time in my life,  the kids loved it and the ingredients looked so pretty I had to take a shot...

And it was fairly simple seasonings I used too,  didn't look half so pretty when I was done cooking it,  but it was delicious all my kids enjoyed it.  Praise God,  that was a win!

Then I tried a new technique of preparing ramen because I wanted to use up a pretty red pepper and leftover package of imitation crab sticks and along with some other typical stir fry ingredients,  cooked the ramen separately then put the seasoned stir fried veggies and crabsticks on top of the noodles in everybody's bowl,  so beautiful.  Alas though,  most of my picky bunch didn't care for it at all.  I loved it,  I'll try again without the crab sticks next time,  maybe they'll like it then.  Some kids don't tolerate crab sticks except in sushi.

A homesteading tip I'd like to share with you guys is bulk pie crust preparation.  There's nothing like saving time by making 8 or more pie crusts at a time,  rolling them out on parchment paper separately,  then stacking them on a pizza tray and putting them in the freezer.  When it's pie making time,  I'll just take 1 or 2 out,  or if I'm making two top crust pies,  I'll take 4 of these sheets out and get my pies done in record time.  (The kids are super surprised when they wake up to fresh apple pie in the morning!)

Now as some of you may know,  my little Ezra is autistic and I'm always trying to find something to gently and safely aid / improve his brain function so the teaching and therapy activities will have as much impact as possible to help him.  And I have started to give him several things that seem to actually be helping.  So he's got a lot of frustration,  anxiety and even depression issues going on,  so I realized one day he could probably use a few adaptogens.  

I had to stop giving him the Plexus whey shake I'd had him on for about a year because the recipe changed and his lactose intolerance could no longer tolerate the product,  it had his poor tummy bound up and aching till I got him off of it.  Problem is he'd wouldn't be getting the protein in his morning oat cocoa,  solved that by putting in a raw egg instead.  So added to this I give him Plexus X-Factor plus,  a very effective multivitamin designed to get your body to absorb the nutrients their already very bio-available vitamins and minerals.  I give him half a capsule of this in the morning and another in the afternoon.  I also put in half a capsule of ashwagandha,  an amazing adaptogen to help my little guy deal with his feelings of stress, it's a bit of a sedative,  I found out about this from one of my best friends. 

The other things get added to his drink is  1g of lion's mane mushroom powder,  this stuff is incredible and seems to be a real aid in assisting him with making those connections between different kinds of logic and things he needs to do to complete a task or understand something.   For example,  since I started giving this to him,  if I ask him to get me something,  he's now understanding me better and many times will actually get the item I ask for,  like his oat milk I need to make his drink earlier.

And I also give him about 150 - 200 mg of ginko biloba 2 - 3 times a day in his juice that I give him as a bit of an anti-depressant and another aid to brain function.  With this,  I also mix  a little Plexus pink drink in to help keep his blood sugar levels down.   this stuff is terribly bitter though so that's why I have to give him just a tiny bit in his juice. 

God is so good in how He provides us with all these blessings and ways to help each other and do things.   I enjoy looking for ways to more perfectly worship Him.  When we pray for example, you don't just want to ask God for the help we may need,  we also need to ask God to forgive us our sins,  thank Him for all the things that He's blessed us with, pray for those we know need help and His guidance and then make our personal requests of Him.   Well,  aside from just listening to my audio bible more and doing my regular prayers,  I had the idea one day to keep a Sabbath prayer diary,  where I just sit down and  write out all of my prayers.  

I did this last Saturday for the first time and it was quite a beautiful experience.  I'm glad He gave me the idea.  It helped me to just settle down and deeply focus on my prayer instead of it just being a "light" gliding over of important things I mention to the Lord.  It also helped me remember to pray more during the week too.  I suggest you give it a try too.  

Make at Home Krispy Kremes, More Sourdough Experiments, Curtain Rod Fixing And the Rest Of Our Week

 This week my kids really wanted some doughnuts.  Tim's isn't in our budget so I decided to try a Krispy Kreme doughnut recipe someone put together and it helped me make the best doughnuts I'd ever made,  they were light and fluffy,  done in the middle for the apple fritters made from the left over dough, they tasted really really nice and they didn't actually darken up my oil.

The only problem with the recipe was that the cooking time was a bit too long (at least for my stove) and I only used half the butter in the glaze then what was asked for because it really didn't need a whole 1/2 cup of butter.  This time around, I also discovered a better way to glaze all the donuts at once rather than a few seconds after each batch was done.  I simply put all the donuts in a large container,  poured all the glaze over them and folded the donuts into the glaze rather than drizzling the glaze over a few and letting the excess drip off.  

They were so good my kids want them again this week.

Getting ready for some fried goodness.

And I've been experimenting with making my sourdough, seeing where I can alter the approaches that I've been reading about to make up for equipment or time I don't have and still come out with the same bread I'm supposed to.  It's scary sometime...but I'm getting more confident about handling this awesome,  healthy food.

Experiment number 2 : Let's see if this refrigerated starter that got "tired" not even 3 hours after feeding will still rise great as a loaf. My last experiment rose 3x higher than it's original size. I've got to do this though my best friend needs 2 loaves by tomorrow...seriously crossing my fingers here.  "Please Lord, cause this starter to see it's being turned into dough,  as a prolific "feed" that will cause it to rise beautifully for my friend, regardless of how it's seemed to get tired so prematurely today, in Yeshua's name, Amen."

The bread did rise very nicely,  praise God.

In sourdough making,  I've got to admit,  handling the discard and trying to find something to do with it,  is a bit of a hassle I don't have the time for but wasting the discard just wouldn't be right.  So I figured out a solution... a very happy solution!  Here it is:

How To Keep Your Sourdough Healthy Without Discarding

1. Take out 1/2 the amount of sourdough starter you need and put it into your bread making bowl. I'm making 2 loaves,  so for me this means 1 cup and 2 tbsp of starter.

2. In the bread making bowl add 3/4 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of water (there's a bit more flour than it may seem to need - but that's to make up for the 'air' between the flour particles so the volume of the ingredients will be roughly the same as the starter you've just used)

3. Put this same addition amount in the starter and mix it up well to feed it it.

4. Cover and place your starter back in the fridge

5. Mix the flour, water and starter you put in your bread making bowl,  cover and let it activate in a warm place for 3 to 4 hours, then start your bread making process. 

Handling your sourdough and starter in this way will allow you to always have the amount you need totally without having to worry about discard.  If you have to make more starter for more loaves or to sell or give away,  just add the necessary amount of flour and water 12 hours before you want to start making the  extra products or starter that you need. 

Because,  you can't let sourdough take over your life,  no matter how good it may be.   

Now our electric bill this month was $548 and that was terrible and that's with me trying to do most of my laundry with cold water.  But a real fortunate thing happened today because I was having some suspicion about the washing machine's use of water temperatures.  I took a chance and tried washing the clothes in straight hot water to see what would happen and guess what?  The laundry was cold, lol.

I took a look behind the washer and seen that both the taps are blue so the fella that installed it didn't realize the mix up.  I look forward to seeing the reduced hydro bill in the month ahead.

I'm the "handyman" around here too,  or rather,  "handywoman" but with everything we've got going on,  somethings can take forever for me to get done,  like my little Ezra tried to go "tarzan" on the curtain in the bedroom.  It didn't hold up,  the bracket thing tore right out the wall.  About 6 weeks ago,  I tried using one of those Command strips to fix it in place only for him to pull it down again 2 weeks later.  

The problem is that the original person who put the curtain up didn't look for the wooden beam behind the dry wall so they could screw the brackets in place more securely instead of the whole thing hanging off of the drywall board. 

That's not too hard to fix though.  So today,  I finally got around to fixing it right,  I pulled out the drill, got a few good screws,  tapped the wall around the window to find the beams (drywall with only insulation  behind it will sound hollow but if there's a beam behind it,  it'll sound solid and that'll be where you put your screws).