Pumpkins for Sale?

Last year our 4-H club had a wonderful idea to grow and sell pumpkins as a fund raiser.  Problem was the deer thought our growing pumpkins was a great idea too, but they used the patch as a buffet.  We are trying this again, but this year moving it to the community garden site.  Hopefully they will find all the other produce tastier and leave our pumpkins alone!

Say What?

We were at a fast food establishment waiting for our food when the guy behind the counter looked at us and said, "Mosquito?"

Thinking I must be going deaf, although I understood everything else he said just fine, I asked in a puzzled voice, "What?"

 He repeats much slower, "For here or to go."

Not able to help myself I said, "I thought you said mosquito."

Spark pipes in, "I thought he said mosquito too."

Oh good, I can hear, but I think the guy was embarrassed because he went in the back for the rest of time we were at the counter.

 

Selfies

Dad and I didn't know this, but you are suppose to practice taking selfies.  I asked some friends if they knew that and they didn't either.  There must be an age cut off for this information, like under 30 you know about such things and over 30 you don't.  

LLama Clinic

We were fortunate that the 4-H state wide llama clinic was not to terribly far from our home.  We loaded up the girls and joined about 60 other llamas for the day.

There were llama relays.  Some llamas cooperated and some not so much.  Marceline, thankfully, was one who would.  Good girl Marceline!!

The kids made these super cute little llamas.  They are out of Popsicle sticks that were done ahead of time so the glue would be dry and they would be nice and sturdy.  The kids colored the legs and added faces.  They wrapped yarn around the neck and barrel of the llama and then used a crochet hook to secure the fiber.  

Add a couple eyes and a little blanket.  I would like to make some of these out of the fiber from our own girls.  A warning though, these need to be kept where the cats can't get at them or they don't look cute like this for long.

The fiber carding station.  I wold love one of these carders but the price is way too much for just a hobbyist. 

After the fiber is run through the carder three times it looks like this.  Made me think of the Duck Dynasty beards.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Dad celebrated his birthday by coming to homeschool co-op for lunch and everyone sand him Happy Birthday.  Then he cooked us diner so that when we got home we could eat fast, enjoy a slice of his Dairy Queen birthday cake and be out the door to our 4-H meeting.  Before the meeting our club picked ditches - in the rain.  Birthdays for parents aren't always very exciting.

Pumpakungen

Honey Bear says, "Something is happening in the barn!"

Lola is proud to announce the arrival of her new baby boy, Pumpakungen (his name means pumpkin king)  

His birth was perfect, he was almost all dry by the time we got out to the barn.  He was standing up within a half and hour and eating unassisted.  

After getting those two important skills down, there is nothing left to do but cuddle.

Wrapping Up the School Year

Dancer is finishing up her first semester of PSEO.  One big project to complete and a final on Friday and she can put these classes behind her.  I think she wrote more papers in the last four months than she ever has in her whole life.

Spark keeps on track when he has his study pup by him.

But when she's not there, things can get a little boring and I find him sound asleep.

Flat Bread for Passover

4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3 T. butter
2 egg yolks
2 T. olive oil
1 cup milk - this was hard to mix and I ended up adding more milk to make the dough workable.

Sift together flour and salt.  Cut the butter into the flour.  In another bowl, beat the egg yolks, adding in the oil slowly and then add milk.  Pour into flour and mix with fork until it forms a ball away from the sides of the bowl.  Knead to shape into a soft ball.

Use about a third of a cup of dough at time.  Roll it as thin as you can without it breaking.  Transfer to an ungreased baking sheet.  Bake at 400 degrees about 8-12 minutes until puffed or very lightly browned.

We had this spread with peanut butter and thought it was really good, but then we rarely have bread so it was quite a treat for us.

Llama Family Feud

The Flaming Llama team, sadly not the winners, but had a good time and learned a lot.

Making loom band bracelets for the fair.

Minecraft Creeper Plushie

 

Spark is an avid Minecraft player and when he saw this creeper at Instructables.com he just had to have one.  We made it pretty much to the instructions except that I sewed it on the sewing machine and Spark made a face out of black fleece instead of embroidering it on.

 

This gives an idea of how big it is.

Campfire Cake In An Orange - Pinterest Buster

Dancer saw this on Pinterest and when we had our fire going for pies we quick made these up to see if they really did work.

 

The thought of this project was that you make a cake mix, put it in a hollowed out orange, throw it in the coals of your campfire and in 20 minutes you have an orange full of cake.

 

We cut the top of the orange and hollowed out the inside.  Sounds simple, except getting the orange cleaned out with only the top cut off was easier said that done.  We did our best but there was still plenty of orange clinging to the sides.  In hind sight I think cutting off the end that has the navel would have given us better results.  Fill the orange about 2/3 full of cake mix, stick the top back on and wrap it in tinfoil, dull side out.  Wrapping it twice might be a good idea.

 

 

After 20 minutes, pull them out of the campfire and open them up to see what you got.  The first batch we did baked really well, but we put more wood on the fire before they started to bake.  The second ones were at the very end of the fire and I don't think the coals were quite hot enough for the whole 20 minutes.

 

When we opened them up we were greeted by fluffy cake!  We used a white cake mix and I have to say that orange that was left in the orange really added to the taste.  We did have a few bites that tasted "smokey," but other than that, these turned out good. 

 

Did we bust the pin?  Nope, I would have to say these were a big enough success that we will make them again.

Bonfire Pies

 

Enough of this winter already!!  We couldn't take it anymore - even though it was below zero with the wind chill - we shoveled out the fire pit, started up a fire ( not an easy task with snowy logs) and baked some pies in the pie makers.  No need for chairs, we just pulled up a snow bank.

 

What do we put in our pies?  Ham, cheeses, sloppy joes, hamburger with tomato sauce, sausage, salsa con queso, tomato sauce, peanut butter, apple butter, apple and pineapple fruit filling and onion. 

Cowboy Beans

Spark was looking through the Better Homes and Gardens Heritage Cook Book, found this recipe and talked Dad into making them for him.

A little back ground from the books said, "No range cook would start out on the trial without a good supply of dried beans.  In fact, mealtime was often referred to as bean time.  Some cooks placed their beans over a slow fire to cook at least five hours - a full day's cooking was even better.  Others buried the bucket of beans in a hold, full of hot ashes, dug near the fire.  If the cook was busy, cowboys who passed by would make sure the ashes were always hot."

Cowboy Beans

1 pound dry pinto beans (2 cups)
7 cups cold water
2 pounds smoked ham hock
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1 4-ounce can green chili peppers.  (or use a can of RO*TEL for both the paste and the peppers)
2 tablespoons sugar (taste it after putting in one tablespoon for desired sweetness)

Rinse pinto beans thoroughly. (Check through for rocks!)  Combine beans and cold water in kettle and bring to a boil.  Simmer two minutes; remove from heat.  Cover and let stand one hour.  Or the beans can be soaked over night.  Do not drain.  Add ham hocks and onions.  Cover and cook over low heat for one hour, stirring occasionally.  Remove ham hock.  Remove meat from the bones and return meat to the beans.  Add tomato paste, chopped chili peppers (or RO*TEL) and sugar.  Cover and cook till beans are tender, about 30 minutes more, stirring occasionally.  Add additional water if needed.  Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Svedsker Grot

 

Prune pudding is what that title says.  If you like prunes this is really good, although it is on the sweet side.  We thought it would be great for a baby food or spread on toast as well as eating a bowl of it.

 

1/2 pound dried prunes

2 cups water

1 cup sugar

2 egg whites

1 1/2 cups boiling water

1/3 cup cornstarch

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/3 teaspoon cinnamon

 

Simmer prunes in 2 cups water until very tender and they can be cut in small pieces.  Add cinnamon, sugar and boiling water to prunes and simmer another 10 minutes.  Add cornstarch mixed with a little water and cook until thick.  Add lemon juice and beaten egg whites.  Good hot or cold served with cream.



4-H Winter Party

 

Ice soccer

 

Snowshoeing

 

There was also a potluck, ice fishing, cross country skiing, sledding and ice skating.  Sadly, only Dad and Dancer were able to go because Spark was sick.

Apple Crescents

This yummy little morsels look like you spent a long time in the kitchen when they really are quite quick to whip together.

 

 

Start with a refrigerated pie dough (premade pie dough is the big reason these are so quick).  Lay it out on wax paper and roll it thin, about half what it was when it came out of the package.  Spread a thin layer of butter on the dough and then sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.  Cut the dough into 12 pieces (so a two pack of dough will make 2 dozen.)

 

Slice an apple into about 1/2 inch wedges.  Starting at the fat end of the dough slices, roll it up into a crescent roll.  Brush a film of butter on the top - we forgot that step with this one - and sprinkle again with the cinnamon and sugar.

 

Bake in a 400 degree oven until they are golden.  Then stand back and wait for the oohs and aahs to begin.

The Opposite Ends of Childhood

 

You know when kids are little and they drop a toy or their pacifier (or papapire as Dancer affectionately called hers) and they cry for you to come and get it for them? 

 

Well, we have flip flopped from toys and papapires and have moved on to pencils.

 

"Will you get my pencil, I can't reach it," she calls from the living room, "I'm all set up studying."

 

 

Hollywood Snow

 

Our latest snow storm drifted down in huge graceful flakes that reminded us of movie snow.  Those big flakes added up to well over 8 inches. 

Slovenia Rompecabeza

Sledding

Sledding in 43 degree heatwave means we only need sweatshirts.  After our cold winter so far it seemed so liberating!