My 100th Post, What Better Than One Of My Favorite Things To Make, BREAD! Let's Get Baking!

First of all I would like to tell you that I took first place in the special Red Star Yeast Contest at the local fair again this year, for me that is a prize of a years worth of yeast. If you like making bread and rolls this indeed is a great prize. I took first place last year and won lots of yeast, I still have some left, the date is good until July 2017. I love this yeast, it is the best, the dough rises beautifully ever time. The bread pans that I used. I won last year from the special King Arthur Flour contest at the local fair. They are the best. Nothing ever sticks to these pans, and when using them to bake bread, the bread comes out with nice lines from the pans. The only thing I do is lightly spray with cooking spray, that is it. Beautiful bread ever time.

My favorite yeast (Red Star)

My favorite bread pan (King Arthur)

For this bread, Rosebud's Butter-Topped Bread. I used a recipe that you can find all over the internet, a basic white bread recipe. It turned out beautiful and delicious. The recipe is slightly adapted from the original. Hope you give it a try. I did not roll out my dough after first rise, and my second rise period was about half the time, as the original recipe called for.
For the complete recipe please visit http://www.thecurvycarrot.com

             Farmhouse Breakfast

Made a delicious breakfast this morning with homemade sausage gravy and biscuits, home grown fried potatoes, fluffy farm fresh scrambled eggs with sliced homegrown tomatoes. I did use canned biscuits, for me these are what I grew up on. I can not ever remember my mom making homemade biscuits. But I do make the same sausage gravy that my mom made. My new flock of hens are just starting to lay fresh eggs, nothing better.

                     SUNFLOWERS

These sunflowers where suppose to be a fair entry this year, but they didn't quite make it in time for the entry deadline. That's O.K. because I still get to enjoy them. The bees are enjoying them as well. Good for me and good for my garden. These sunflowers are about nine feet tall. Next year I plan to plant one garden with nothing but sunflowers, of different varieties. I am already looking for the best varieties to plant. Would love some pink sunflowers.

                  Dinner Is Ready !!!!

Made a delicious dinner tonight. Shared with my mother in law, brother in law, my son and his wife, my mom and a good friend.
The meat of choice was lightly seasoned pork chops, with a German Potato Bake and corn. For dessert I made a German Chocolate Pie. 

For complete recipe for German Chocolate Pie please visit

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/german-chocolate-pie

My recipe was slightly adapted from this recipe, it was given to me by my sister and I made mine with the changes that she had made.

         Girls - Chickens Getting Big !!

All of my baby chickens are really big now. The Buff Orpingtons, Golden Wyandotte, Silver Lace Wyandotte and the Amber Link, they are all beautiful birds. We are starting to get beautiful brown eggs as well. The eggs are a little on the small side, but in a few weeks they should start getting normal size eggs. My brown leghorns are not laying yet, their eggs will be white.

Buff Orpington

Amber Link

Golden Wyandotte

Buff Orpington

Silver Laced Wyandotte

  New Baby Deer On The Farm, Twins

My husband took these picture at around 7:00 A.M. Monday morning. He said he saw the "Mom" first , down in the hay field, and then she called for her babies and they both came running from the spring. The pictures are not the best, they were taking from a long distance. We have had twin babies born on the farm many times and always enjoy seeing them.

So Sweet!!!

Time to go, someone is watching us

      Update On Barn Swallow Babies

Checked in on the baby barn swallows today and was delighted to find three of the babies out of their nest, perched on a beam in the barn. One of the babies was still in the nest, so a total of four. They were learning to fly, flying from beam to beam and sometimes back to their nest, which was about ten feet away. Mom and Dad still coming in to feed them and make sure they were safe. I have learned something new today, if you get to close to the babies and they feel you are a threat, they will come after you, they will circle around your head and make clicking sounds and loud chirps, all the while, coming closer and closer. They do not in any way seem intimidated by the size differences, in fact they even call for back up, help. Before I knew it there where three of them. Was the third one grandpa? I don't know and I didn't hang around to ask. I have a new appreciation for barn swallows. This has happened to me twice. Yes, I have learned my lesson. Maybe! I still love them.
                                 

Growing up

                                 

Looking down at my miniature horse

Mom and Dad feeding

Lots Of Baby Birds Around The Farm!

Around here we feed the birds year round, for me that means lots of babies, lots of bug eaters and hopefully less bugs in my garden. We love watching them at the feeders. We have babies in bushes near my front porch, babies in two bird houses and babies in both barns. One bird house has blue birds, the other has barn swallows. Both barns have barn swallows.

Is that you mommy?

Barn swallow "Dad" checking in

Mom and Dad busy feeding babies

One of  the barn swallow nest in the barn