In celebration of the cooler temperatures, I made sausage gravy and biscuits for breakfast. I didn't really need an excuse. We just get hungry for a country breakfast now and then.
Just the biscuits, the gravy just doesn't look nearly as good as it tastes.
I haven't been doing much lately.
Wednesday, 8/24/11:
Helped finish up Willow and the calves so DH could check the cows earlier.
Harvested parsley seeds.
Watered the calves and the Kieffer pear and the two nearby clematis.
I was back inside by 8:10 AM.
I did make a new batch of soap. This time I used Willow's milk and left out oatmeal.
I made a 32 oz.(weight of the oils) batch. Making soap is like making bread; no batch turns out exactly as the batch before!
This is one batch of the same soap. The only difference is the larger, darker bars were poured into my wooden mold lined with an old shirt tail. Mom always did this but she used a cardboard box of some kind. The lighter bars were poured into a quart milk box and lined with plastic wrap. Be interesting to see if when aged, they are the same.
This is the two bars up close and personal,
I only use a mix of lavender and rosemary essential oils and so the whole house smells lovely while the bars are curing.
Gardening
I called the local orchard hoping to find peaches and some apples. I wasn't really surprised when they told me they just had a few apples this year and very few peaches. I won't bother to buy any. It has been a very strange year. My trees didn't bloom much and what did just dropped.
Thursday, 8/25/11
The washing machine was delivered yesterday afternoon. Like all new products, the government has put their busy little hand in.....the lid goes into lock-down when you start the machine. What an annoyance. I lift the lid quite often during the process. I can still do it, but have to push a button and if you hold the button down too long, it cancels the thing and you have to start over! I may just leave the whole thing to my in-house laundry expert and never look at it again.
Farm
The tractor was finally delivered on Wednesday. DH called the hay man and he will be bringing our 100 large round bales on Saturday. We have some carry-over from last year so should be good, especially if our normal fall rains come. Fescue will do regrowth with rain and cooler weather and will grow until mid-December.
The plan for today is to clean out the bottom freezer on the refrigerator....I must do this!
Well, I'm hungry now for biscuits and gravy...thanks a lot! I'll have to wait for the weekend, that's when we indulge! I can just smell that lovely soap. You amaze me! Glenda, have you heard about the new Well Fed Neighbor Market in Springfield. Local products to the Ozarks, Rhuell Chappell from the Ozark Mountain Daredevils idea. I don't live close enough to shop but it sounds like a wonderful place to buy everything from produce to wheat grown at Theodosha. It's down on Booneville...
ReplyDeleteMy 17-year-old Tappan washer locks the top too, but only during a spin cycle. Our 'beloved' government in action.
ReplyDeleteThe soap looks wonderful and the scent sounds lovely. (As, most likely, are the biscuits! YUM)
Your biscuits look great. I can never make gravy that looks good but it always tastes good. We sometimes have biscuits and gravy with hash browns for supper. That's one meal that we like any time of the day.
ReplyDeleteMy first time commenting, but I read you quite often. I have one of the new HE washers and understand that the spin cycle is at a much higher rate than older machines. I'm sure the lock is a good safety feature for homes with small children, but we don't have those anymore and I'm not stupid enough to put my arm in while the danged thing is spinning. It would be nice if we could disable the lock.
ReplyDeleteI did get used to it, but when I want to soak something for a long period (I restore old needlework) I use an old graniteware wash pan.
My 15 yr old and I want to make soap this year. I grew some luffa gourds and she wanted to make soaps to go with them. Any tips for first timers?
Betsy