Sledding on Christmas Eve

A cold, but quite fun, way to work up an appetite!

 

Sledding

 

Throwing snowballs!

 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winter Solstice is here!

Dark. Darkness. Darkest day of the year.

Sunset at 4:24 pm today. 

The winter solstice.

Short days, long nights. 

But summer will eventually be here, and along with it will come the busy growing season, with hours and hours of sunlight.

I know this, because it's right around now that the seed magazines arrive in our mailbox, covered in snow and ice.  This garden guide came this week. 

 

 

Until the spring arrives, we continue with our hibernation.  And pick out seeds for our dream garden.

Pickle finds comfort doing art by the warm heat vent, drawing up his plans for the treehouse he wants the farmer (and his Papa) to build this summer.  Guess even the little ones dream of warmth and light...

 

Guess who is behind the chair?

 

 

I hope this time of solitude and darkness gives you time to dream of lovely and exciting things to come in 2017!

Snow day

Lots of snow, and cold, and more snow.  The boys were
outside for many, many hours, which helps battle
cabin fever.  They stayed out until dark, which
isn't difficult when the sun set today at 4:22 pm. Pickle
told me that "Dada" (aka, the farmer) told them
a story, as they all laid on the snow, under the glow of
the nearby tree wrapped with colorful Christmas lights,
shielding their exposed faces from the whipping wind,
with snow falling gently down.  
 

Earlier this week, our cat Finn jumped up on our counter
top and got a little to close to this candle decoration-
and his fur started on fire! Luckily, his quick jump to
the floor put out the fire- but he smelled of burnt fur for
a few days. 
 

 

Farmer J made cheese and chocolate fondue for our
dinner this evening- to warm us up on this cold day-
and help remind the boys of their Swiss heritage!
 

 

 

We made more cut out cookies today.  J is working
on making another vanilla saffron tincture for when we
get around to making more artificial free dye food
coloring.  He is also working on a fresh mint (green)
and raspberry (pink/red) flavor/color.
 

My farmer has been busy butchering kitchens. 5 done
today, even in this artic weather.  J and the boys will be
eating lots of chicken this winter.  They had more
homemade chicken noodle soup for lunch today.
The chickens need to "cure" for a bit
in the fridge before they go into the deep freezer.
 

Our advent calendar windows are slowly opening up--

not sure how the 22nd is already open though. Just
one week until Christmas Eve. 

 

Hot and homemade

 

Farmer J made homemade chicken noodle soup, after he butchered 5 roosters this weekend. Busy farmer.

 

Homemade hot cocoa for the boys afternoon walk in the woods and sledding trip.

 

I kept the kitchen warm by making my first ever loaf of homemade bread.  See the steps below.

 

Recipe out of Mother Earth News

 

 

My "sponge"

 

The dough ready for the first proof

 

Proof number one

 

Second proof in the pan- ready to be baked!

 

Not bad for my first bread bake-- the smell of bread rising and baking, and an edible loaf, well worth the time invested. 

According to this article, homemade bread costs only 70 cents (compared to the $3 I pay for store bought bread) in ingredients. And I can name all the ingredients: flour, yeast, salt, eggs, butter, milk, and a tiny bit of sugar! 7 ingredients and no perservatives. 

I'm going to try a different recipe this weekend... stay tuned!

The scene of the crime

Notice the broken ornament and that the bottom 1/3 of the treee has no ornaments hung from the boughs. Our kittens think Christmas came early with all the fun and excitement the big, new tree in the home brings!

 

 

 

 

First week of December

 

 

Cat- aka- animal willing to lay on anything, even something pokey and uncomfortable 

 

 

 

Don't let her cute appearance fool you, she's tired after knocking off the low lying ornaments!

 

 

Raspberry thumb print & chocolate bon bon cookies

 

Homemade fudge

 

 

Homemade pomegranate frosting 

 

Homemade blueberry frosting 

Homemade basil frosting 

 

Homemade saffron frosting 

 

 Artificial dye free frosting on, my grandma's recipe, almond sugar cookies.  Yum. We liked all the frosting, except for the pomegranate. Surprisingly, we all loved the basil and saffron! For Easter, we'll try to get a pink (raspberry) color and flavor.