Lemon Poppy Seed Bread

Lemon Poppy Seed Bread

1 ¾ c all-purpose flour

1 t baking powder

½ t kosher salt

2 eggs

¾ c granulated sugar

½ c canola oil

1 t vanilla extract

6 oz lemon yogurt

1 T poppy seeds

2 t lemon zest

Heat oven to 350˚ F. Coat an 8 ½ in. by 4 ½ in. loaf pan with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.  In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, yogurt, sugar, oil, and poppy seeds.

Gradually add the flour mixture into the egg mixture, stirring until just mixed.

Transfer the batter into the prepared pan and bake until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (55 – 65 minutes).  Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

While the bread cools, prepare the glaze. Combine ¾ c confectioners sugar and 2 T lemon juice. Spoon the glaze over the top while the bread is still warm on the rack.

Laundromania

With six people in the family, we have a lot of laundry to do! (Especially when one of them is Elliot.)  We found a DIY laundry soap recipe that we like that we would like to share with you from www.diynatural.com

1 bar Fels-Naptha soap
1 c Borax
1 c washing soda


Grate the bar soap with a cheese grater. If you value your knuckles, you can use the food processor! Make sure you chop it a bit first, though. Then add the Borax and washing soda until it is a fine mixture. That was easy!

Birthday Cupcakes

TADA!

December is chalk full of birthdays at the Youngs! On Sunday, we celebrated mine. For my birthday, I made chocolate cupcakes with strawberry buttercream frosting and a chocolate covered strawberry on top. Dad's rating? "Awesome!"

Frosting the cupcakes

While looking for a recipe, I discovered a great cooking blog! The blog has lots of good recipes and ideas, including my cupcake recipe! I recommend you check it out. Click here to see the recipe I used and her other wonderful concoctions.

~Caroline

Rich the Builder can do it all!

A few weeks ago, there wasn't enough water. This week, there was too much!  That's where our handy dandy rental pump comes into play. Dad worked to pump about 75,000 gallons of water out of the pond last weekend! Once the water level was low enough to start the dock, the crew (Dad and two friends) used an auger to drill out the holes for the supports. Today, Dad is working to place the repurposed telephone poles into their holes.  After he cut the engine on the bobcat, he was able to answer a couple interview questions.

The final step!

What was the process to get the poles in the holes?
Well, first I scoop up the post and get it centered on the bucket of the skid loader.
After that, I tip up the bucket, then pull forward until the pole is not dragging on the ground. Once it is about balanced, we chain it down. We lift it up, drive very slowly and slide it very carefully into the hole.

What are the next steps?
We will probably let the poles settle as much as they can, then pack in the holes. Once all of that is done, we can start building the frame!

Thank you David and Robbie for all the help!

I will keep you up to date on the action.
Caroline Young, 2625 News

Carving pumpkins isn't just for humans anymore! The chickens at the Golden Egg have been working away on their post-Halloween special. They have chiseled two eyes and are currently working on carving out the stem. What a group of over-achievers...








Sadly, our sweetest girl, Dolly, was found dead this past weekend.  She had been through a lot in her short life and fought like a trooper.  We worked to correct her crooked toes and to save her after she caught her head in a fence and was nearly decapitated. She was loved dearly and a special chicken. The other chickens made a tribute to her after she died as they laid all of their eggs in her crate.



As you can see, Mother Nature is working to fill up our pond.  Dad is hoping it doesn't fill too fast so he can build the dock without hip waders on!  There is a white pipe with a red cap sticking out in the picture.  This is a dry hydrant. Dry hydrants allow fire fighters to pump water from the pond to fill their truck. That's probably a good idea at this house! See blogpost FIRE!!!!!

Fall on the Farm

The results are in and the winner is... lemongrass! Once our ingredients arrive, we will make a batch of our favorite, Gentlemen Farmer soap.
This past week, our pond friends, Bob, Russ and Keith, worked 12 hour days and finished up our pond! (minus the two million gallons of water and the fishies) As they dug our pond, they found old concrete rubble. They made three piles for the future fish to live in.

The equinox has passed so the chickens laying has slowed to about six eggs a day. To boost them back up to their normal rate, we attached a light onto their timer. Now their day starts around six am sharp. But, Waffles doesn't wear a watch and he starts crowing at four! Another reason we aren't getting as many eggs is because some of the hens are molting. Here you see Junie. She is one of the girls that is losing her feathers. Don't you worry! She does have two legs.





The spinach grow off ended in a tie. We all lost... But that doesn't stop us! We planted more lettuce and  some garlic. To prevent the seeds from washing away and getting frosted overnight, we put a plastic tarp over our lettuce. Hopefully our plants will grow this time, so we can have the yummy salads we dream of.

Soap it up!

Lye is super dangerous;
You need gloves, goggles
and a face mask.

Our finished bars of soap.

Recently we made our second batch of homemade soap. We learned how to make soap from our friend, Rhonda. Her soap is much prettier than ours, but we will improve. Using  lye (extremely dangerous) from Stringtown grocery, distilled (or rain) water, lard, coconut oil and olive oil, you can create a a basic soap recipe. We have made oatmeal soap and tea tree soap, but need to decide on our next scent! If you would like to vote, see the poll to the right. Whichever kind has the most votes by October first, we will make next.

WOW

BREAKING NEWS

As we were walking in from the garden, mom looked over at the "pond" and on one of our numerous dirt piles was.........

A BALD EAGLE!

I got a couple pictures before it flew away. We think it was eating something, but when we walked up the hill we couldn't find any remains.

Caroline Young 

Head photographer and reporter

Channel 2625 news- We've got you covered!

The first annual Spinach Grow-Off

Today we planted a fall crop of spinach, and, 
since we always have to be competitive, 
we came up with the Great Spinach Grow-Off. 
The idea is to see who can grow the best spinach.

 We also recently got a rain barrel, which we have been wanting. It was full within 24 hours!

Zelda supervising the action.

Rainy Day

It has been nice to get some rain lately! The rain is good for the earth and also good for photos.
Check it out!

Henny Penny's Day at the Spa

Chicken spa is now taking customers! The day had come to take our pullets to the fair, but they were so DIRTY! But, we came to the rescue and they were nice and purdy in time for their big debut. Wanna learn how to bathe a chicken? Then let's get started!

You are coming with me!

How to Bathe a Chicken

1. Prepare your three water buckets (wash, rinse, shine)

In the first bucket, put a squirt of dish soap. In the second bucket, leave it plain and in the last bucket put in a dash of vinegar.

Plunge, plunge :)

2. Catch your customer/victim 

3. Place your chicken in the first bucket and do a gentle plunging motion until it is completely soapy and wet. Don't forget to scrub your chickens dirty feathers.

Scrubbin'  her comb...

4. Let your chicken drip a little and
place her in the next bucket. Plunge her again and make sure   all of the soap has been washed off. 
Squeeze out a bit of the water
 then she is ready to be shined.

Getting a manicure...

5. After she is coated in the vinegar water, put her in a towel and pat dry.While she is drying,

All done! 

have your assistant scrub her toes and comb with a  toothbrush and soapy water.                                                                                                                

  TADA! Your chicken is ready!

July News

Hoo-wee! July sure has been hot and dry... Nothing is happening with the "pond', but it has been happenin' in the chicken world!
We got our first white egg from one of the pullets! One of the California Whites has been earnin' its feed... :) Her first egg was about an inch and a half tall and an inch wide. Here it is!




But that's not all! We have been working the days away on our shade garden. We had lots of hostas scattered around the farm so we transplanted them into the garden. We figured we could make it look a little nicer by adding some mulch, stepping stones and river rock (about 500, all hand-picked!). It is truly a masterpiece!

Last but not least, we got a new hammock chair from South America! Our friend, Gay, gave us a hammock that her daughter had brought home from a trip. She had it hanging in her stairwell for years, since she didn't have a place for it.  Thanks, Gay!

Dig this!

Clearing away the brush...

Lots of excavators, tilers and other big machines have been rumbling in and out of our driveway lately...
OUR POND IS UNDERWAY!
It's not exactly a pond yet though. Right now it's more like a big muddy hole. It has been too dry to dig lately, but with last night's storms, we should have the green light!
Once it's done, grab your floaties and come over for a dip! (maybe in a year or so...)

It makes you want to jump right in! :)

Garden Goodies

This summer we have been harvesting like madwomen!

We get large bowls full of snap peas every day! Little baby jalapeños for salsa every week! Onions are poppin' up like weeds!  We have an entire basil forest! Our garden is doing super well. But what are we doing with all of our goodies? Check out some of our favorite yummy recipes below:

SALSA

One 28-ounce can whole tomatoes with juice

One 14-ounce can diced tomatoes with green chilies

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 jalapeño  

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon lime juice

1/2 cup cilantro

Directions: 

1. Into a food processor or blender, add the ingredients in the order above.

2. Pulse until it is the chunkiness that you like then refrigerate and ENJOY! 

This is a variation of a recipe we got from the Pioneer Woman. She has a great blog that you can check out by clicking this link: http://thepioneerwoman.com/

PESTO

2 cups fresh basil, packed

1/3 cup olive oil, more if needed

3-4 cloves of garlic

1/2 cup pine nuts (optional)

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Using a food processor or blender, mix basil, oil, and garlic until finely ground.

2. Add pine nuts (optional) and parmesan until it is a consistency you like. Add a few shakes of salt and pepper to taste.

Squirmy Wormies

Earthworms might be slimy and gross, but they are handy dandy helpers!

We recently got two large containers of red wigglers from our friend, Rhonda.  We set them up in our worm composter and they are at work right now breaking down banana peels, egg shells and coffee grounds and turning them into wonderful compost!

When we planted peas and potatoes last week, we saw lots of squirmy wormies at work in the garden too!

Did you know that worms have no gender?!  They also lack legs, eyes, ears and teeth.  They do have lips if you can figure out which end they are on!  The head end is usually darker and pointier. 

Red wigglers and earthworms are segmented worms.  Their body looks like it is made of rings. Each segment has four grippy bristles on the underside to help them move.

Since they have no eyes or ears, they have cells in their skin that are sensitive to light, vibration and touch.  When a bird or mole tries to eat them, they insert their bristles into the ground to try to win the tug of war.

Sometimes in the battle they get torn in two, but never fear! The mighty earthworm is able to grow a new tail!

Thanks to worms, our soil is rich, aerated and healthy – perfect for little seedlings!

Let Us Eat Lettuce!!

In the last week of March, we planted Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce, and today we HARVESTED!  We have had lots of frosts but our lettuce has survived them all. Tonight we are going to have some delicious salads with our wonderful greens. 


Also, when we took off Dolly's brace earlier this week, all her toes were straight!
We got ourselves a show chicken! 
We are up to $45 dollars in sales and donations for Miraclefeet! WOO-HOO!  With $50, Miraclefeet can cover the cost of two braces. Hopefully we can reach that by the end of the month.

VROOM VROOM!!!

It is fun zooming to the top of the hill!
And no, the two of us are
not aloud to go joyriding alone.

Yesterday we received the gift of the year, A FOUR-WHEELER! Our Grandma and Grandpa Kasal knew we had been desperately wanting one for the farm. They weren't using it anymore, so they gave it to us! We promise to keep all four wheels on the ground. Thank You, Grandma and Grandpa!

Elliot the "super hero" on the sweet ride!

Miraclefeet

We have gotten lots of comments about correcting our chick’s crooked toes. The casting method we used is a lot like the Ponseti Method used to treat clubfoot in children. Our friend, Chesca, is the Executive Director of Miraclefeet. Miraclefeet is a non-profit organization created to deliver simple, affordable and effective treatment to children born with clubfoot in developing countries.

We have decided that for every dollar we earn selling eggs this month, we will donate the same amount to Miraclefeet. So far we have earned $17. With only $25 Miraclefeet can provide casts for up to 10 children! Want to learn more? Go to: http://www.miraclefeet.org/index.php

FYI, we just took off Dolly’s brace and all of her toes except for one are straight! The only one that is not fixed is MUCH better! We are going to put two of her toes back in the brace for one more week.

Local Harvest

We were informed about this website where you can post a listing for your local farm or business. We made a page for the Golden Egg. Check it out!
Here is the link:  http://www.localharvest.org/the-golden-egg-M51839

Wonky Toes

Dolly with her SUPER stylish brace

We noticed that Dolly had crooked toes. They weren't bothering her but you can't take a chicken with crooked toes to the fair. After some research, we learned how to make her little "chicken shoes" to fix them. We formed a pipe cleaner to fit her feet then wrapped her toes with medical tape into the correct position. We choose a yellow pipe cleaner because the other chicks would peck at them if they stood out. We will probably keep them on for about a week before we check her toes again. Check back next week for Dolly's update!

Chicks!

Mambo

Bonnie

Sunny

Yesterday we went to Orscheln and got some new chicks! We got three Black Australorps and three California Whites. 

We are hoping we will be able to show them in the Johnson County  4-H fair as pens of three.

Pip

California Whites are white egg layers and is also the breed that Poppy was.  They will grow to have black flecks.  

We chose Black Australorps because they are excellent layers and we don't have any yet.  When they are mature, they are black with a greenish sheen. Very stylish! Both breeds are cold-hardy,  very good egg producers and great additions to our flock.

Come over and meet them sometime. They are peepin' up a storm!

Frannie

Dolly

FIRE!!!!!!!!

While we were getting our haircut Thursday morning we got a phone call from dad; he said there was a problem with the fire at home. Dad had been burning some trees when the wind blew the flames. We raced home to see that there were about five fire trucks.  Luckily it was just the prairie burning, not the barn! Everyone was fine just a little tired, except dad, who was just a little scorched. Luckily, it only burned about half an acre. Thanks Tiffin and Oxford fire departments!

Fire trucks tend to fire

We're famous!

Check out who was on the front page yesterday! 

Here is the link:

 http://www.dailyiowan.com/2012/03/07/Metro/27369.html

A Natalie Original!

Our Mom bought this fabric at the Dreaming Bear in Marion last fall. She cut out the fabric to make a skirt. It laid there for months until Natalie got her hands on it...
TA DA!!! An apron! Johnson county fair- here she comes!