HENRY, my Alaskan Sourdough Starter!

If you've seen the video on YouTube (posted below), here are a few recipes to get you started! Personally I'd like to make recipes that do NOT require commercial yeast, but this is a good start. The pancakes are really good!

SOURDOUGH PANCAKES

Into a separate bowl, the BATTER BOWL, mix the following ingredients:  (you can experiment later)

2 cups Sourdough Starter

2 Tbsp. Sugar (this is to brown the pancakes)

4 Tbsp. Oil

1 egg

½ tsp. salt (optional)

1 tsp. soda (this is to sweeten pancakes)

• In the Batter Bowl, dump Sourdough Starter, sugar, egg and oil (salt optional). Mix well. 
• Add soda when griddle is hot.  True aficionados dilute soda in 1 Tbsp. of warm water and fold gently into batter.  (I sprinkle soda on top of batter and whip quickly for a very brief time).  Batter doubles in size and changes to a lighter color.  NEVER fold or beat mixture a second time.

Spoon onto hot griddle and E N J O Y.

CINNAMON ROLLS

Mix together in a glass or plastic bowl:

1 cup starter

1 cup water (120 degrees or nukes for 45 seconds)

2 cups flour

1 Tbsp. sugar

Mix together and let stand overnight in a warm place (at least 12 hours).  For more sour taste, let stand 24-36 hours.

Add:

1 cup milk (scalded and cooled to 120 degrees or nuked for 45 seconds)

1/3 cup butter, melted

½ tsp. salt (optional)

2 eggs

2 cups flour

to mixing bowl with above sourdough mix.  Then sprinkle

1 Tbsp. Fast acting Yeast

(a pinch of salt is optional)

on top and begin mixing.  Add enough flour to make batter into dough.

• If (when) mixer stalls, turn out dough onto bread board (countertop is okay) and knead in more flour until dough barely sticks to fingers (or more flour if you wish).
• Form dough into ball and place in bowl to rise.  (if you wish, put ¼ cup vegetable oil in bowl and then roll dough to get a thin covering of oil on surface to prevent crusting.)
• Let rise one to four depending on temperature until dough doubles in size.
• Punch dough down.  Divide into two balls and let rest for 15 minutes.  Roll each ball (one at a time) into 12 x 8 rectangle.  Brush on melted butter. Then add (to your taste) a sprinkling of brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon, raisins.  Roll up from one of the long sides.  Seal seams.  Slice dough into 12 pieces.  Place rolls in two greased (or Teflon) pans (round if you wish an oblong (12 rolls fit easily into a 9 x 12 pan).  Cover and let rise until nearly double.  Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes.  Cool, remove from pan (if you wish).  Brush on powdered sugar icing (for a change use almond instead of vanilla.

SOURDOUGH BREAD

Mix together in a glass or plastic bowl:

1 cup starter

1 cup water (120 degrees or nuke for 45 seconds)

2 cup flour

1 Tbsp. sugar

Mix together and let stand overnight in warm place (at least 12 hours).  For more sour taste, let stand 24-36 hours.

Add:

            1 cup milk (scalded and cooled to 120 degrees or nukes for 45 seconds)

            1/3 cup butter, melted

            2 cups flour

to mixing bowl with above sourdough mix.  Then sprinkle

            1 Tbsp. Fast acting Yeast

            (a pinch of salt is optional)

on top and being mixing.  Add

            Enough flour to make batter into dough.

If (when mixer stall, turn out dough onto bread board (countertop is okay) and knead in more flour until dough barley sticks to fingers (or more flour if you wish).

• Form dough into ball and place in bowl to rise.  (If you wish, put ¼ cup vegetable oil in bowl and then roll dough to get a thin covering of oil on surface to prevent cracking.)
• Let rise one to four hours depending on temperature until dough doubles in size.
• Cut ball of dough in half.  Fold each chunk of dough twice to make a rough loaf form and place into greased bread pans (unless you are using Teflon pans). Allow to rise another hour or so (until it doesn’t seem to be rising any more – or until you have to get it in the oven and cooked so you can carry on with your life).
• Bake at 375 degrees for 40-50 minutes.  Tap on tops; when they sound solid they’re done (usually, a golden brown).  Remove from oven, remove from pans onto wire rack and rub the top with margarine or butter.
• Eat hot for good fresh taste, but leave overnight (in plastic bag after cooling) to develop best sourdough taste.

What is the name of this song???

When I was in high school in Lynchburg, VA, I worked at the well-known haunted house called Scaremare every year. We don't even celebrate Halloween, but I have some very fond memories from those 4 years (1987-1990)!

With Halloween just passing this year, Scaremare has been on my mind again lately. I've been sharing some of my memories with my children, like when I was spit on in the "Glow-in-the-dark room". We got the bright idea of putting the make up on our faces in addition to our hands, and though it looked really cool, it gave people a perfect target. *sigh* The guy in charge of the room, Karl something, told me later that he almost laughed when the lights came on because I was still glowing! Haha! I felt pretty dumb, but it was funny (later on). 

One of the rooms I worked in was the Dining room, where everyone sat, frozen in time. I loved that room. There were even little white mice (pets) running freely all over the table, and they would climb on us while a group was going through, and we couldn't move! There was a couple frozen while dancing while the music played on, and one night, the girl passed out. I never did find out why, but she was okay. What was impressive though was that the guy just held her in position the entire time until the group passed through! No one knew she had fainted! It didn't take long for everyone to get through the room, and I'm sure he knew she'd be okay for a few more seconds.

Other rooms I worked in were:

The Wedding room, where I had the hiccups one night, and Wells Cornelius scared them out of me in between groups. He had little finger puppets that were making me laugh, and he just sprung them out in front of me without warning! It didn't really startle me, but the hiccups went away. :) He was the groom in the room. I was sitting on the bench in the back as a mourner (it was supposed to be scary or something). What's really funny is, once I moved back to Oklahoma and met my husband a few years later, my husband's doctor was Dr. Cornelius, Wells' dad!!! Small world! I haven't seen Wells since though, but I know he's in at least one movie....under a different name. :)

The motorcycle wreck room. I lost my voice in this room, but it was SO worth it! I believe there were only 4 of us in there, maybe 5. As the group began to walk through, I was coming back into consciousness. My character had obviously been in a motorcycle accident with her boyfriend, "Bobby". As I realized what had happened, I looked over at Bobby and started to call for him, which quickly became panicky, then into screaming and sobbing as they covered him with a cloth. Yep, he died (many times, HA!). That was probably some of the best acting I've done, but I think it only lasted a couple of nights since I lost my voice. Fun times!

The Funeral Home room: I got to lay in a coffin and pretend to be dead, then as the group walked past me, I slowly sat up and looked at them. It was awesome!

It seems like I was in the Checkerboard Room one night too, though I don't have any specific memories that stand out from that. It was a really cool room, too. Everything was black and white checkerboard, including the costumes, makeup and hairspray we wore, then we'd stand against the wall to blend in while a strobe light would make it extremely difficult to visually separate the people from the walls. It was pretty spooky going through it, but having worked there, I knew they weren't allowed to touch anyone!

Other memorable rooms/displays that come to mind are the mounted heads as you go up the stairs. My college friend Kerry Malinosky (sp?) was one of them, and I could NOT make her smile! She did great! She told me later that she was biting the insides of her cheeks to keep from laughing. lol A friend of mine from school was in the graveyard. He would jump out of an open grave as people walked by. I'm pretty sure he loved that. :) And the car wreck room, always at the end. It was there every year, and probably still is. It was a very solemn moment, walking around the car with a "dead" person laying through the windshield. :( It always made a huge impression.

The whole idea is to get the person touring the haunted house to thinking about death, then at the end they present a 3-minutes "Do you know where you'll go when you die?" message. I don't think it's the best approach to winning *genuine* converts, but I do think it's a great ministry. Even just for the workers, I met some awesome people there. It was mostly college students, too, so I'm sure they'd have even more memories as many of them were working with people they already knew.

At the end of every night, the workers all met in the make-up room and sang LOUDLY together, the same song every night. I should remember what it was, but I *think* it was "It is well". Awesome song. Dave Adams always did a great job leading that song and heading up Scaremare. His son, Jeremy Adams, was in my class, and though we weren't good friends, I always liked him. He was the class clown and just a really nice guy. 

Okay, so my question, the entire reason for posting this is......in the Dining room, the music they played was like oldies swing/big band music. One of the songs has stuck in my brain all these years, but I cannot find it anywhere! The only lyrics I remember is ".....true love, tell me it's true love, so you'll be mine and you won't disappear. Da da da da da da" Something like that. I remember the tune, too, but I can't really write that on a blog. DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT THIS SONG IS?! It's been bugging me for years that I can't find it, and I just want to listen to the whole song again! Silly, I know, but it's just part of my fond memories of that scary haunted house in Lynchburg, VA called Scaremare. :)

My friend Amber has a need right now, so I'm trying to help in any way I can. Please just click on this link and read about her and her high-risk pregnancy, give what you can and SHARE so that others can help too. Thanks so much!

Amber's GoFundMe page


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Name That Farm!

A friend of mine asked me to help her come up with a name for their small farm, and she is thinking she wants it to sound "Oklahoma-ish". Well, naming things is something I take very seriously, so I got right to work searching the internet, and here's what I've come up with so far.

The first part of the name could be:

• Okie (self-explanatory)
• Cow Chip (there are contests!!!)
• Scissor Tail (state bird)
• Tornado Valley (self-explanatory)
• Sooner (state nickname)
• Honey Bee (state insect)
• Rolling Hills (it's really not flat here!)
• Earthquake (almost daily now!)
• Thunder (basketball)
• Redbud (state tree)
• Twister (self-explanatory?)
• Mistletoe (state floral emblem)
• Rose Rock (state rock)
• Red Man
• Red Dirt
• Red Clay
• Red Rock

The last part would then be something like:

• Farm(s)
• Acres
• Homestead
• Range
• Gardens
• Farmstead

I think my favorite so far is Honey Bee Gardens, or maybe Rolling Hills Homestead. Oh, I don't know, there are so many possibilities! What combinations do you like? Do you have a favorite? Do you have any more ideas to add?

Natural Mosquito Repellent

I just wanted to save this for later, so I can research each plant a little more. I will need to decide which plants will work better where we live (once we are off-grid, but maybe even here), but I want to use some of these around the perimeter of our yard to repel mosquitoes. I am sooooooo sick of them this year after all the rain we had in the Spring!

The ones I'm listing here are all perennials. I may decide to plant some annuals as well, but I like the idea of not having to regrow plants every year. If I do get some annuals, they will probably be things we will eat or use for remedies or something.

Does anyone have experience using these just for mosquito repellent? I'd love to hear how well they work (or not)!

• Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)
• Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) 
• Citronella Grass (Cymbopogon nardus) 
• Catmint (Nepeta faassenii) 
• Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium)
• Catnip (Nepeta cataria)
• Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia -- This one attracts and EATS mosquitoes, it's carnivorous! So maybe I'd put these in the middle of the yard in case some mosquitoes occasionally breech the barrier, or outside the fence.)

Off-grid and self-sufficiency: Preparing for the Change

I may do a series about moving off-grid and compile them once I am done.....which will be a while since we aren't quite ready for the move yet, but we're getting there! So, just a few thoughts and a question for anyone reading. :) Here are some short term goals, things we are working on now that will get us closer to moving:

1. Get rid of ALL debt BEFORE buying land or anything else necessary for living. There may be a few exceptions, such as our water catchment system and our chickens, and we may purchase items here and there that we will need, but only when we need them here. For example, a wood stove. We don't NEED one just yet, and we do have a fireplace, but it makes me nervous, so we may go ahead and use a wood stove this winter. But for the most part, we're trying very hard to get our debt paid off by the end of the year. We also plan to pay cash for our land and everything else, so NO MORE DEBT!!!!! I'm tired of being a slave!!!
2. Purge, purge, PURGE!!!!!! I've already been working on this for a while, but we still have so much junk.....and we really are not very materialistic, there are just a lot of us!!!! I am paring down our clothing to just a few outfits each. That's it. We're going to be washing laundry by hand, so the less clothes the better! (We've already been line drying for a while, and when our washer dies, if not before, we're not planning to replace it!)
3. Learn how to do things without electricity. Laundry, cooking, lighting rooms, figure out how to charge and use electronics or go without! These are the main things that affect us, but there are so many things we use that require electricity, especially the fridge! I don't think we're going to use propane for anything (just not interested), so we'll either have to make some kind of cold storage area, get solar power for the fridge or learn to live without. Honestly, it's ICE that I will miss, at least during the summer!

So, once these things are all accomplished, we can begin to make the transition!!!!!

1. Quit work and move! Once our debt is all gone, we will sell this house, hubby will quit his job and away we go! Now, we have several children, some of whom can take care of themselves now, but we are trying to figure out the best way to transition. What I mean is, should we rent an apartment in the area we're planning to move, or should we just try to buy some land around the time we sell this house and then "camp" while we build? 
2. Build a tall, sturdy fence!
   
   This will be our first priority for safety reasons, so maybe even before we officially move onto the land, we will determine how big of an area will be fenced in and get it up. There are some potentially dangerous animals for hundreds of thousands of acres in the area we're looking (including Bigfoot! Ha!), so safety must be top priority!
3. Find a water source! Duh, right?! Gotta have water to live! We'd LOVE to have a river or lake on or next to our property, but even a smaller creek or pond would be fine. However, being in the mountains, it shouldn't be difficult to locate a spring or seep. There are a lot of little tributaries off of the big river, so I don't think we'll have trouble locating a source. Worse case scenario, we can dig a well, but hopefully we won't have to go through the expense. We'll also catch rain water, and we know how to filter it and boil, if needed, and we will have it tested as well.
4. Build shelter! Either temporary or permanent, depending on circumstances and the time of year. Obviously some of these things are going to be done simultaneously, but there is still that possibility we may have to stay somewhere else for a bit while we get some things going.
5. Plant a garden. We'd love to have a green house as well, but depending on the time of year we move, a regular ol' (Back to Eden style) garden should give us most of our food. We will plant some fruit trees as well.
   
6. Chop wood!!!! We've already decided we've got to move before the end of September at the latest so we'll have time get enough wood chopped for the winter. Gotta stay warm!!!

One thing we've been learning through the years, thankfully while we have room for errors (still being on-grid), is that we need to always look ahead to the next season to prepare. During the summer and fall, we need to prepare buildings, animals, chop wood, etc. for the winter. If we don't, we may not be warm! During winter and spring, we need to work hard on our garden or we may not have enough to eat! It will definitely be hard work, but we're looking forward to it!

There are many more things we'll need to do when you get into the fine details, but these are things we're working on now. What is the one thing you feel is a MUST for going off-grid and being self-sufficient that I did not mention?

More storms

More storms last night, probably worse over all than our last big storms with tornadic activity. We didn't get any pictures this time, but several areas did have some damage, and the flooding in the south OKC metro was BAD. Google pics for Blanchard and Norman damage, and OKC flooding. Here's a few:

I think everyone around here got anywhere from 5 to 8 inches of rain just yesterday alone. Thankfully, we live near the top of a hill (or an incline, not sure how much of a hill it is), so while we did have small rushing rivers across our yard, not much of it stayed. There was nowhere for it to soak in or stand, and it rained so hard, so it all just rushed down to the road. The neighbors on the other side of the road may have had some flooding, but most of that would be toward the backs of their properties, at the lowest point. They may all have ponds now!

I haven't heard any reports of deaths, but I don't really keep up with the news. Hopefully everyone stayed safe! They had to shut down I-35 through Norman because of tornado damage. So many people got stuck in their cars when it flooded, and the waters were getting pretty high. Moore and south OKC looked like a lake! So, hopefully at least a few people learned not to drive in that kind of weather, but there's no doubt someone else will be in the same situation next time.

I think there is another chance of similar storms again tomorrow night. Ya'll stay safe out there!

Friends

Since leaving Facebook, I feel like we really don't have any friends to speak of. Sure, there are a few random texts from people I haven't heard from in a while, and it's always great to hear from them, but aside from my husband, my mom and one friend who I've known since before FB, I don't hear from people very often.

I know they are busy, but I also know that when you are on Facebook and plan your events, advertise your work and keep in touch with *most* friends through it, then there really isn't life outside of Facebook! Which is one of the main reasons I left. It sucked up my whole life, and I was determined to rebuild my life apart from social media. (There are a few other reasons I left too, though.)

But we long for fellowship with other like-minded believers. No one remembers to invite us to events anymore since we're no longer on FB.

I'm so glad Passover is here (we are observing tomorrow night). We have just been practicing Passover together as a family for the last few years, so it won't be a social event for us, but I LOVE YHWH's feast days! We learn something new every year, and as our children are mostly still young, there is so much to teach them.

We are planning to stay home for Sukkot this year, which I have mixed feelings about, but after last year, I am looking forward to it. Not sure who we'll invite yet, but probably at least one other family, maybe 3 or 4.

We are also looking forward to a short vacation coming up soon where we will get to see a few of our friends and family in Texas! We were without a family vehicle for a year and a half, and we now have an awesome Suburban that we are going to put to good use.....to visit our friends in real life, face to face! We may even be visiting a friend we met through Facebook that we have not yet met in person (been there, done that, and they are the BEST!).

So, I guess what I'm trying to get at is....this is a new phase in life for us. We feel isolated against our will, but I know it's only temporary, and it has been good in some ways. Right now we're trying to figure out how to reach out to others while also making decisions for our future. Big decisions. We live very simple lives, but we do have big dreams! Last year was SUPER HARD for us, but this year has already been better and is looking up! Praise Abba for His many blessings, and that we can still see His hand in the bad times. El Shaddai reigns! \o/

Pet peeve

I hate it when I get a loose hair stuck to my wet fingers and I can't get it off. That is all.

Storms

We had some severe thunderstorms and tornadoes come through our area last night. Nothing really much at our house other than mostly small hail, strong winds and rain, all while we were bunkered down inside our storm shelter. It's amazing how comfortable you can get in such a tight space if it is well planned!

There was one minor injury though. I got bit by something, and it HURT! We think it was a brown recluse spider. (I don't mean to make light of true storm injuries and death.....my heart goes out to those who lost loved ones or were injured from debris or something else storm related.) My hand was on my 2-year-old as I was holding her, so I am so thankful it bit me and not her. It is possible for death to occur from a brown recluse bite, and most of those deaths are in children under age 7.

So far it doesn't really look any different, about 24 hours later, but it is a little sore, and I have been feeling "off" all day, like I'm coming down with something. It may be unrelated, but I have heard and read that it can sometimes take 3 or 4 days before some people notice any changes in the bite area. So I think I'll take pictures just for fun, in case it turns out to be a brown recluse bite.

I did put activated charcoal on it right away, so that probably helped. Here are more great tips for natural care (read the comments as well). We have these things on hand, since we have brown recluse, brown and black widows, hobo spiders and a few venomous snakes as well. Last year our puppy was bitten by a copperhead. I used activated charcoal, coconut oil and essential oils on his wound, and after he mostly slept for 2 days, he was completely back to normal. A rattler is more serious, but since we have them around here too, we know what to do. Everyone needs to know!

Here is the only picture we took of the storm from our back yard, before we rushed into the storm shelter......the wind and rain were picking up fast at this point! My son took this one, and it's hard to get a good pic from our yard because we have so many trees.

Here are a few others I found on the web, and this is definitely what we saw, just not usually the entire mesocyclone at once! These were all taken yesterday of the storm that went directly over us. It had produced tornadoes in Moore, but thankfully they dissipated pretty quickly and were gone well before the storm reached us. There was still quite a bit of rotation though, which is really scary when you're standing right under it!

Random thoughts......my mind never sleeps!

I just wanted to say that I really wish my thoughts would automatically be recorded somewhere electronically, then I could just come here and copy/paste or just hit "publish". That sure would save me time. I am a bit of a perfectionist, and I prefer to have pictures with my entries, so it takes me a while. And our camera is being sent in for repairs, so I only have a few random phone pics that aren't the greatest quality.

That is all. I REALLY want to blog more! I miss those pre-Facebook days when I blogged regularly, and now those things I blogged about back then are ALL OVER Pinterest, from someone else's blog, of course. Oh, I even saw a craft that was MY idea, and I had written and eHow article on it years ago. I saw a picture of it at Walmart! That was mine! Well, maybe someone else was as smart as me. Smarter, actually, if they made money off of it. Haha! Actually, I wonder if someone stole my idea from eHow? *sigh*

Anyway. Bye. More soon. :)

Businesses on Pinterest!

I have a personal account as well as two business accounts on Pinterest. I'd LOVE it if you would follow me there and repin some things for me! Just click on the links below. THANK YOU!!!!

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Young Living

YEVO

Color blind screening online for free!

 I have suspected that my 4yo is color blind and have been meaning to research it, but of course never think about it at the right time. Last night I was watching a show that mentioned color blindness, so I paused it and looked it up immediately.

I had no idea that 8% of males are color blind. That seems like a lot, 2 out of every 25 males!!! Females, on the other hand, are the ones who carry the gene, but only .4% of the female population is actually color blind, which is about 1 out of 250. Then there are different types and varying degrees of color blindness. Whew! It's been interesting reading up on it and testing all my kids just for fun. :)

Everyone passed with flying colors (pun intended), but I have to say, my 4yo was a challenge. In the end, it was easy to see that he does see colors, but for whatever reason he just cannot seem to remember the names of each color for more than 2 seconds! And come to find out, shapes are the same way. He is a bright child, but he just doesn't seem to be getting these down! It just doesn't interest him right now.

On the other hand though, he immediately and correctly labelled ANIMALS, and is quite knowledgeable of the animal world for a 4yo. In fact, there was one that was a picture of some type of canine....I would have just said "dog", but he said it was a fox.....and it does look kinda like a fox! That little booger can see colors just fine!

I know this is GOOD news! Now I just need to focus more on colors and shapes when playing and reading books. I'm not worried, I know he'll eventually get them (most average or above average intelligence people do, right?), and he's not going to go to school since we homeschool, so whatever. But at least I know a little more about his strengths and weaknesses from these simple pictures.

Maybe we should play just a little more LeapFrog shows and a little less Wild Kratts. Nah. Whatever.  This is a perfect example of how we ALL learn things that we are either interested in or anything that becomes necessary. Colors and shapes have not become necessary to him yet, but he is highly interested in animals and knows a lot about them. He'll pick up colors and shapes (among other things) whether I work extra with him or not. He just prefers books, toys, clothing or ANYTHING with animals on it rather than having a favorite color or shape, and that is totally fine with me! He is such a sweet, happy, bright child, and I love him just the way he is! :)

Taking a time-out from Wild Kratts for a picture!

If you suspect your child may be color blind, there are some free online screening tests that can be done. It is important to note that everyone's monitors could be different, so these would not be accurate enough to diagnose OR rule it out. I'll still be taking my kiddos to the eye doctor soon, and I suggest you do that as well. Here is one very useful web site, especially if your child is familiar with numbers. The Ishihara testing is nearly 100 years old now and is the most widely used. This web site  has a few shapes in the images instead of numbers, including one of a ship. For pictures of animals, I just searched for different things, and most of them came from this web site. Perfect! I love the images that this dad created for his young son!

There are other types of tests as well, I just liked these as they are pretty common and seem to be accurate and an easy way to test. Enjoy your research!

Still here.....

Just a quick update.....I am still looking for a good alternative to this particular host that meets all my requirements. I think I have one. I'm checking it out today. I haven't forgotten to blog, I am actually DYING to get some new content up (even if no one reads it, HA!), but I really want to find a new host first. So keep checking back. I'll hopefully have a new link to share soon! :)

In the meantime, here's a picture of my girls about a week ago. I made this mei tai for a friend. Jessi loves being "worn" like this. The pictures are horrible quality because our really nice camera is having issues, but I'm about to send it in for repairs. Anywho, here they are! Jayla is 12 1/2 and Jessi just turned TWO! She's at such a fun, adorable stage. :) Oh, just thought of another pic I need to share here too, (which includes Joe from the side. lol (His hair is shorter now, too.) This was about a month ago.

The front carry.

The back carry. It's reversible!

SpiderBaby!! Is this not the most adorable little super hero you've ever seen?!?