Alone At Last

Hey friends, 

This feels sooooo good!!!  

I've missed "this knowing I'm alone." 

We are alone at last.  

I'm ever so grateful for all the work we've had done on our house as of late. 

But this has been going on since before Thanksgiving.  

What that has meant basically is we never knew if our carpenter guy would be here 

with his helper, or alone or with a grandkid.  

Having someone putting new trusses on the roof, then new boards, and tin,

and soffits, and some siding.. and the porch... well- that meant at any given 

moment someone was outside your window so we kept the curtains closed. 

It was too weird otherwise you know? lol  For all our sakes. lol 

At least weekends were free.

Until one day:  ... I thought I was alone right?

I was ... jammin to my praise and worship music. 

Now I don't know if you're like me but when I'm alone...  Ohhh do I ever sing.  

I was singing my little heart out .. and 

went  walking into the kitchen for something...half dancin like David only dressed...singing my head off..and 

what was that?.... 

????????????

No no nooOOoOoo!

The carpenter was right there workin on the kitchen porch. 

Omg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

 I think I died a thousand deaths of embarrassment right there. 

When we started all this... he didnt' work weekends. 

Surprise.*

Anyways,  yesterday he finished!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I'm back to happy dancing today... singing... 

with abandon once again lol  

Oh sweet JOYYyYYYYY.  

Thought I'd share my embarrassing moment ... 

least if  any of you were embarrassed over anything lately

... know I'm right there with ya.  

So this morning I tried another first. 

Sourdough blueberry pantycakes! 

Made a little stack and have them separated with wax paper 

and in the freezer. 

I followed the recipe from Farmhouse on Boone. 

She's my most favorite homemaking site.

Her recipe  turned out really good.  

I ate one for breakfast without syrup even.  

Only thing I did different was .. added homemade vanilla to the batter and thought of 

my aunt Jude at the ranch.  She put vanilla in her batter and always 

called them Pantycakes too.  :)

Last night I made a regular loaf and 

a whole wheat loaf of sourdough.  

The whole wheat I haven't cut yet......

and it's just real heavy.  Not sure about that.

We will cut into it tonight. 

I did cut the one on the left... it's such a learning curve.  We like ours on the lighter side both 

in weight and outside color.  

The loaf on the left is so  good though.  

Wish they'd turn out like that all the time. 

Found this big bowl on ebay... and she's comin home to live with us.  

Isn't she pretty?  I'm so fond of these old yellow ware bowls. 

You can't buy that at the walmart. 

Hope she makes it to Arkansas all  in one piece.  

A friend recommended this book to me.  

I'm  anxious to start reading it. 

I'm sharing for those of you who are interested in sourdough too. 

This one I'm  reading  cover to cover. 

I hope to learn what I'm doing wrong... my biggest problem with sourdough bread is ..

when I take it out of the bowl first rise ... so I'm holding the dough and it's very soft so you 

try to get it rounded again... the bottom... is somehow wrong.  

What I mean is .. if you've ever made rolls before.. you take the dough in your hands and 

form it... -- My Mama taught me to tuck the bottom up inside... and somehow that all works out..

These big loaves... I'm doing something wrong still. Least I think I am... 

The bottoms are goofy.

Maybe it doesn't really matter that much?  

Funny how we learn the tricks as we go huh? 

I'm hoping one of these books helps me figure it out because I've made

five loaves now and still don't think I have it just right. 

-shared that I've been moving things around in our kitchen.

This old pink breadbox is so special to me because 

our son Tony taped it off and spray painted it for me so many years ago.  

Last night I cleaned it out.  It was storage for packages of things like 

taco seasoning and rice dishes and noodles... 

Now it's a true breadbox again. 

Makes me so happy to see homemade bread in it.  

Since there is just two of us now, I've been cutting everything  and 

freezing smaller bags like the cinnamon raisin there.  After tonight

if the whole wheat is any good, the rest will go in the freezer too. 

If it's not... you'll know who gets it. haha  (cluckcluck)

Haven't got the paint for our kitchen yet but did find some to repaint the inside 

of this old cupboard.  It's kind of like our  pantry...-canned goods go in the bottom.  

It was lookin really bad.  Some of the rubbery shelf liner stuff stuck to it and it was 

a mess.  Feels so good to get a fresh coat inside.  And got some of the coffee stuff moved. 

To the left of this cupboard are two .. plastic totes stacked.  We keep the dog food in one and 

catfood in another.  They're pretty big and I hate the look of them.  They have pea green tops and

anymore I kinda hate anything plastic; Mike thinks they're ugly too. lol  

Also... we need to figure out something for baby gates because our new puppy comes home in two weeks!  It's easier to keep a puppy incarcerated on linoleum don't ya think?! 

Hope we're ready for this. lol  Been a long time since I've had to potty train a puppy.  

So here's a peek at our new kitchen porch ... -  

We're going to stain it all to match the gabled end.  

And our roof is all one now.  

It's a relief to have it finished.  

Mike talked to the carpenter about putting the rest of our new windows in.

He said he'll put us on the list.... 

We're gaining little by little.   

This morning I lost my sweet silkie.  

She was 7 years old.  

It's time to start thinning the herd so I'm going to give quite a few away. 

All our hens are banties but one and the eggs are so tiny. 

Gonna keep the silkies and some of my favorite old granny girls ...

 some  are polka dotted, some frizzles, but the rest we need 

to give away.  

We have a new order coming in March.  

We're going back  to the big girls again!  

Pearl white leghorns, 

Buttercups, 

Americaunas and 

Bielefelders  

Alright yall, 

Time for Paisley and me to go get another walk in before supper. 

Until we meet again,

<*))))><