Sandwich Bread, Perfected!

I finally did it! My girlfriend gave me a wonderful recipe for whole wheat sandwich bread and my family loved it enough that they said I could stop buying store-bought bread. For now, I'm using King Arthur's Whole Wheat flour for half of the flour and will gradually increase the whole wheat until it's 100%. This loaf comes out light, soft and with a wonderful flavor.

Michelle’s Sandwich Loaf

¼ c milk                                      2 T honey

2 T. butter                                   3+c flour (I used hard red winter wheat)

2 T. oil                                        1 ½ t. lecithin

¾ c water                                    ¾ t. salt

1 ½ t. yeast    

1. Microwave first four ingredients 30 seconds. Pour into mixing bowl, add yeast and honey. Add lecithin and half of flour and mix with beater attachment 5 minutes, cleaning the sides of the bowl as needed, followed by a 5 minute rest period.

2. Add remaining flour and salt and knead with dough hook 5 minutes, adding more flour as needed, until dough is shiny and cleans the bowl.

3. Allow to rise 1 hour until double. Preheat oven to 400˚. Punch dough down, pat into a rectangle and shape into a loaf, turning edges under. Allow to rise in greased pan 20 minutes.

4. Transfer pan to oven, turn down to 360˚, and spritz with water every 3 minutes for first 10 minutes. Check internal temperature after 20 minutes. It should read 185˚-190˚. Allow to cool completely before slicing. *Mine took about 25-30 minutes.

Chicken Coop Plans

One of the first orders of business for our new house is to get baby chicks. I'm probably going to purchase them from a local feed and seed and keep them in a brooder for several weeks until they're old enough to go into their big girl coop. My plan is to get an even dozen as a few may die in the early days. Originally I was going to order from Murray McMurray Hatchery, but they require you to order no less than 25 chicks. Unless my MIL wants to start butchering this year, we don't need that many. I'd like to get Rhode Island Reds, Black Stars and one Orpington rooster, but am not sure if I can be that specific with local stores. The RIR and Black Stars are supposed to be really good layers and the Orpington roosters are supposed to be super friendly. I'm also thinking of getting some Guineas, too, but will have to do some more research on them. They are great at pest control (including snakes) and are good alarms systems.

Rhode Island Red

Black Star

Guinea

I did quite a bit of research online and in library books to figure out how to design our coop. I waffled back and forth over whether to go with a movable chicken tractor or a larger stationary coop. The benefits of the stationary coop are 1)we can make it as large as we want it, 2)I can include an attached storage area with shelving and feed storage, and 3)we can eventually hook up electricity and plumbing. The downside is that 1)we have to be more certain about their pasture sizes so they don't overgraze, and 2)once it's built, it's not going anywhere. The benefits of the chicken tractor are that they're portable so we can easily move them to fresh pasture as needed, including to unused garden beds that need tilling and they can follow the cows and horses to break up manure. The downside is that we can't hook up plumbing and would have to use extension cords if we want electricity.

I think the portability of the chicken tractor won out in the end, though. I've gone back and redesigned the coop (it was originally 10'x16' including a 10'x6' storage area), making it an 8'x6' so it will fit through our pasture gates. One of the shorter walls will have a 5' wide by 1' tall clean-out hatch at floor level. The roosting bars will be in a ladder formation over that area with poultry mesh stapled to the underside so the girls can't get into their droppings. The roost will have a hinge on it so it can be raised for whole-coop cleaning. The opposite wall will have the people door and possibly a window. One of the long sides will have a homemade feeder that will hold 30-70 pounds of feed, with smaller feeders on either side to hold their supplements. The other wall will have their pop-up door, nesting boxes, and the waterer. I'd like to have windows on each of the long walls for ventilation during the warmer months. The flooring will be solid linoleum to aid in cleanup.

This is similar to what our coop will look like, but bigger.

I'd like to have a hinged awning on one of the long sides so the girls have shade. It would be nice to be able to put a smaller roost and their waterer under there during the day. I'd also like to put a loft area in the roof for small storage. The coop would have wheels on all four corners and we would either move it by hand or hook it up to the tractor. I'm also planning to build an 8'x8' fenced run. This would be attached to the coop once it's in position each day and the whole thing would be moved as needed.

We may end up tearing the run-in shed down and using the lumber for the coop. I'll post pictures as we build it and do a coop tour once it's completed. I'm so excited!

Fair Winds Farm

Oh, my goodness! We bought a farm! Hubby finally got his orders after waiting 5 1/2 months. This left us with only two months to find a house, close on the purchase and move. Whew! Last week we jumped in the car and drove the seven hours up to Virginia to spend two days looking at houses in Virginia and North Carolina. On day one we looked at seven houses and the first six were utter disappointments (a disgusting double-wide, a modular that reeked of dog urine and sat across from a school that looked like it was in a horror film, one that needed to be completely gutted, and one that was next door to a commercial chicken warehouse). We were extremely discouraged driving to the last house. As soon as we drove up, however, we fell in love.

Nothing on day two even came close (one was partially swamp, one had standing water and car parts on the cleared section, another needed to be completely gutted, and one might have been okay, but needed too much land cleared) so we returned once again to this house for more pictures and a better look.

The house sits on a fairly busy two-lane road, but since there are no stoplights or signs nearby, we at least won't have to deal with revving engines. We are completely out in the country and considered agricultural. The previous owners operated a horse boarding business and bred Arabians and Paint horses. What does that mean? It already has a stable, fenced pastures and round pen! Oh, and did I mention that we included the farm equipment in the purchase? Yep! We are the proud owners of a riding mower, real tractor with front loader, bush hog, manure spreader (we renamed it the poo flinger), cultivator and fertilizer spreader. We aren't sure, but the owners may decide to leave various other pieces that hook onto the mower.

This is a side-view of the garage and stable. The garage is currently home to the workshop and is storage for the riding mowers. It also has an office where the window is. We will convert the right side into a man-cave for hubby, leave the office where it's at, and turn the rest into Grandpa's workshop. Towards the back of the stable you can see what's either the bedding storage or manure storage.

This is the round pen that sits towards the front of the property. Various fruit trees line the road and run between the round pen and the house. We will have peach, cherry, Granny Smith apple, plum, and pecan.  We may leave the round pen as it is, or remove it and put in an arena instead.

This is a run-in for the horses, but since that area of the property isn't fenced, we won't use it for the horses. Our garden is going to extend probably from the edge of the garage/stable to the opposite property line. This building, then, will be turned into either a garden shed or a chicken coop. We plan to have at least a dozen chickens and their coop and rotating runs would be perfect in this space.

This is the inside of the stable. It has five stalls on the left side and four on the right. It also includes a utility room with water heater, utility sink and plenty of storage space, a separate tack room, and a wash stall with hot water. Each stall has one corner feeder already installed and we'll add a water bucket.

This is the back view of the stable which is completely fenced. You can see the small gate on this end and there's a large equipment gate on the left side by the stable wall. We may use this as a holding pen, but I'm not sure yet. It's currently home to some farm equipment which would have to find a new home if the horses were in there. I may also eventually knock out the walls on this side and make indoor-outdoor runs for a few stalls.

This is the equipment shed that holds the tractor and attachments. We'll probably store the hay inside as well and we may use a small section as a milking parlor for the cow. I'm thinking the cow might be able to use the left side of that fenced area and some of the adjoining pasture. The woods to the left belong to us and has a creek running through the back section. We'll leave that area alone and just enjoy the beauty of it.

The property behind us and the one to the right side of us are both for sale. I'm going to ask both of them if they would consider selling us a small piece of their land for us to extend our pastures. The one to the right is currently being used as farm land, so that would be ideal. The land behind us is wooded and that would mean lots of clearing and land prep.

Hubby's mom and step-dad are moving in with us and will be building their own small tiny house. She's a Master Gardener and he's handy with pretty much anything. Between the two of them, they already have a wealth of experience and knowledge. They owned almost eight acres in Kansas for several years before selling and spending the last year-and-a-half on the road in a travel trailer. They enjoy being on the road, but are looking forward to sleeping in a real bed and enjoying their hobbies again.