Thursday, October 31, 2013

Another Week on the Farm

Fall has arrived here.

After the hard freeze and the following 2 inch rain, the leaves are coming down.........we  love looking out the window at  the 'raining' leaves....they will remain on the ground.............unless I get a chance to mow.  I do not rake leaves!!!!



The top of the white oak is just beginning; that is the rejuvenated Pin Oak behind it.  It has the best color I can remember.



This is the Pin Oak, west yard.



I was just coming from the Milk Parlor and loved the changing colors, the shrub to the right  is spirea prunifolia; you can see the top of the Pin Oak in the west yard.  This view is looking southwest.


Back to the front yard.  This is the Limelight hydrangea,

and the Oakleaf hydrangea,



I think this may be millet dropped  from the bird feeder.  I don't know why I am not seeing birds feeding on it....maybe they will come later,
From fall 2013


We had weekend company again.  Very enjoyable and easy to have.  I just did my standard crock-pot roast with mashed potatoes and gravy.  I had a very late picking of haricort vert (which I will discuss later).  Dessert was chocolate cake which turned out nicely.  Bread was the French bread I had made earlier in the week.  I also made our son's favorite Scotch Shortbread Cookies.....and sent them home  with him (also all the left over cake).

Speaking of bread; I am getting more adventurous with bread making.  I am not following recipes closely some days.  This time made Oatmeal bread but substituted some white whole wheat flour for regular, no bread flour (I was out), potato water (left from Sunday dinner's mashed potato cooking) instead of milk....results were great.  DH loved it.  I want to broaden his tastes a little from plain white bread.  He just said this morning that it toasted really well.

I made rustic loaves just for fun,



I also made us a pineapple upside down cake.  I hadn't made one in years.  I like the size for the two of us.
I need to try some variations.

I didn't like the texture of the cake...sort of grainy.  Next time I will use another cake recipe.

FARM

I finally found a recent picture of my Jersey heifer, Jewel who I hope will be calving soon.







7 comments:

  1. Glenda,

    It's always so pretty at your place. All the tree's changing colors, and the delicious foods you make. Your Jersey......Jewel, beautiful coloring. I hope he little one is just a pretty.

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  2. I just made this pineapple upside down cake this morning. Be sure and use a 12 inch skillet. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/pineapple-upside-down-cake-recipe/index.html

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  3. We used to have a Jersey Cow when growing up.. Boy the cream that rose to the top after this milk sat was extremly thick.. My mom was a baker and she used that cream in a lot of things she made.. Lovely farm and lovely pictures of the trees..
    Have a Tiggeriffic Day~! ta ta for now from Iowa:)

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  4. Your views sure are awesome, Glenda...almost as pretty as your breads!!!!...:)JP

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  5. I've been very lax with following recipes lately....sometimes great results....sometimes not so great. Oh, how I wish we had room for a Jersey! Maybe one day. Are you going to be keeping Jewel's offspring for more milk (or beef?) or selling him/her?

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  6. Jewel is just beautiful.

    We have not started seeing the colors we sometimes see. There are two red maples at the ophthalmology clinic where I used to work that are just magnificent some years. We drove by there early this week and they were looking only so-so. But we have had such an unusual fall. It's been too warm. We've had a couple of frosts but not enough to kill things, leaves have not started falling yet. Nope, I would not rake leaves either. My parents never did. They just mowed over them the next time the grass got tall enough to need cutting. It was so funny, they had a little travel trailer that they hauled around, out to Roaring River about once a year and it sat out there at the corner of their yard in the same place for most of the time. Whenever they'd pull it off to go somewhere we could see how much years of leaves had added to the ground around it.

    I find it hard to follow a recipe exactly, as you know. I like to use what I have on hand. I have to throw something out every now and then, but it isn't often, as I usually can find a recipe that will allow me to use up things like potato water, extra egg yolks or whites, different kinds of grains and bits and tads of fruit.

    Glad to hear about your weekend company. Hugs XOXOXO

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  7. Those rustic loaves look great and I'm sure your 'maverick' baking is much closer to Grandma's day when you used what you had. Glad the DH is liking the results. Jewel looks like a fine cow. When is she due? Not much of udder on her now so I assume it some ways off yet. I, too, have millet popping up around here this year. Isn't that something. Never had it before now we both do.

    Last night's gale stripped all the sassafras and hickory leaves in one go. Because the winds were from the south now my northern nabes have all my leaf harvest. LOL

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