The bread in 5 minuets a day has revolutionized my life.  I know, technically speaking, sour dough is more sustainable and healthier, but sometimes I need something that is easy... there will be a season that I will have the time to make sourdough, and with the super hydrated dough stored the way it is in this method.. it does ferment a bit.  I love getting up in the morning and getting a few loaves going.  By the time I am up from chores, I can toss it in the oven.... who wouldn't like to wake up to the smell of their mother baking bread?!

Artificial Insemination is NOT for the weak.....

I know this because today, I started a three day seminar at U.C.Davis on just this.  I borrowed my husbands car to make the daily drive... I rarely get time alone in the car and since his little car feels like a RACE car, I turned the radio up really LOUD.  The first song when I hit the freeway was "Ride into the Danger Zone" the theme song from Top Gun.. I laughed out loud and deemed it my "theme song of the day"!!

I was so encouraged when I arrived at the facilities to see that there were several women, and most of them had less livestock experience than I did.

After a quite lengthy lecture and discussion regarding the reproductive organs of the bovine we were allowed to handle, dissect and try to insert an insemination gun into cadaver bovines.  Although this seemed horrid.. it was really reassuring that it could be done!!

Oddly, after handling all that "meat" we then had lunch.  I was already exhausted from all the new information swirling in my head.. and the lunch was yummy... but after handling all that.. and anticipation of the next thing... I could not eat much.

That is when we got to "The Danger Zone"  a WHOLE line of Holstein cows just waiting for a bunch of students to palpate.  What I found interesting was (besides how BIG these cows are compared to mine) is how quickly fatigued the  muscles in my arm became.

Poor girls.... but I am projecting myself on them...they all munched on hay while we were feeling their reproductive organs.  Since most of them were coming into heat, they did not mind.

I am looking forward to a long good sleep and more class tomorrow.

Fodder Beets

We are trying to grow most of our own food and that of our livestock.. and although I am the happy breeder of Irish Dexter Cattle. I do own a Jersey.  Belle is pictured here eating beets that we grew to lower our feed costs.  This year I am going to try planting more.  My Aunt suggested Mangels... so I am going to till up an extra spot on the property for just that.  Who needs shredded beet pulp...besides that is a GMO.

Signs Of Life

Other than struggling through the time change, I LOVE this time of the year.  When I change my laundry I can see a peek of my Magnolia tree.. that was thoughtfully planted where it is to give me just this joy.

My summer garden is showing signs of life too.. it is always so hard for me to believe how fast it all grows.

Seasons are wonderful.  I am so thankful for them.

The signs of life help me to believe that there is hope for the future, even when things seem grim.... even when every one is saying that every thing is bad... the seasons come and go.. and come back again... I love that.

HomeSchool Co-Op Day

I belong to a co-op.  Not one of those "meet in town with a whole bunch of women" co-op (shudder).  My co-op is with two other beautiful women, and we help each other out.  One does history, I do Science, another does writing and music.  We add other things in from time to time.. but we keep it simple.

These women are wonderful friends, and I have been blessed to have them in my life for quite a while now.  It all came about when I was loosing my mind from working at the ranch with all of the animals, home schooling all the kids, and then working all weekend in our entertainment business.  My kids were falling behind.  They, instead of condemning me, came along side and saved me.  They mean so much to me.

We just started some new things:  Earth Science, where we will be exploring some of the local caves, rocks, fossils, fossil fuels and other such earthly delights.

Ancient History is in the works, this will include food, facts and FUN!

       

We typically end the day with singing, where we are thoughtfully learning hymns in harmony.  We worked on "How Sweet and Awesome" today.  The words to that hymn always bring a lump in my throat:

  How sweet and awesome is the place

With Christ within the doors,
While everlasting love displays
The choicest of her stores.

2 While all our hearts and all our songs
Join to admire the feast,
Each of us cry, with thankful tongue,
"Lord, why was I a guest?

3 "Why was I made to hear your voice,
And enter while there's room,
When thousands make a wretched choice,
And rather starve than come?"

4 'Twas the same love that spread the feast
That sweetly drew us in;
Else we had still refused to taste,
And perished in our sin.

5 Pity the nations, O our God,
Constrain the earth to come;
Send thy victorious Word abroad,
And bring the strangers home.

6 We long to see your churches full,
That all the chosen race
May, with one voice and heart and soul,

Sing your redeeming grace.

I mean, why was I made to hear?  Why was I a guest?  Why do others make a wretched choice?  

I am thankful that I am saved and my greatest prayer is that would be true for my children as well.... 

Tail End of the Winter Garden

So the tail end of my winter garden must be dealt with... we really got a bumper crop of cabbage (of all things right?!)  they were lovely little heads but enough is too much... unless... it becomes sauerkraut!!  Chopped up and into the pot it goes.

I love my little fermentation pot.  I have never even used any weights as the water ring (kept full of course) takes care of the necessary aerobic environment needed for fermentation.

I LOVE fermented food, and I love the way my kids love it too...

Head Start on the Summer Garden

I have always loved being quietly at home....when the recession hit our area, I had to go back to work.  I am a home schooler....how do you work AND home school.  My life was already considered impossible by most standards, then I added WORK. THAT story is for another day.... but, now that it is over, it is amazing to me how much happiness can be derived from starting my garden from seeds.  Seeds are awesome....

My Sprouting System

Seem every one has a sprouting system now a days and we are no different.  I love the simplicity of our system and it does save us some money.  I think most folks that are sprouting are over stating how much it saves.  To me, I am not as interested in saving money as I am feeding my stock the best I can.

Not to mention the fact that ALL the animals LOVE them...

We raise Guinea Hogs.  I LOVE this breed and my little sow Olivia is an exceptional girl.

This last litter she gave us 13 piglets.  Several more than she can care for. So we take the runts inside and my children are more than happy to take care of them.

Little piglets are fragile, they need to be fed OFTEN and they need gentle heat all the time.  These little cuties are laying on a "hot sock".  They have bellies full of Belle's fresh milk and are starting to doze off.. so cute.... I have to bind my heart strings and think of them as bacon seed.... bacon seed.....