Summer lovin'

The calendar seems to be mistaken.  I refuse to think that June is almost over.  That is silly.  June just started last week!

 

Summer does seem to be moving along at a shocking pace.  We are trying to make the most of it.  Our weather here has been unbelievable!  Cool June days are a welcome thing around here.  The coolness, along with some hail damage has stunted the garden but it is a fair trade.

 

Renovations are slow and steady.  Well, mostly slow but at least we are progressing.  Here are our new floors!

 

 

And here is Father's Day.  Matt got a new wheelbarrow and some other tool-type things.  Oh yes, and candy matched with homemade cards.  Dad's get the best stuff!



 

One day last week we decided to venture across the road to the HUGE playa lake.  It really is beautiful to see from our (GREEN!) yard.  We are not used to standing water in these parts.

 

It was beautiful up close too.

 

Sweet Zaddy and Micah 

 

Grumpy Jolie.  :)

 

Pondering Asher

 

The buddies, Levi and Daddy.

 

The boys spent a ton of time collecting these little shells.  Not sure what kind of thing occupied them before but they had a blast!

 

My crew.

 

The Prairie really is beautiful.

 

If you can find joy in the smallness of it...

 

Or the grandness of it,

you will fall in love.

 

We thought we might loose our dog Fuzz to the playa.  He did not want to leave.  He barked and bit at the water.  He ran all around in it and would not come out!

 

I really can't blame him.  It was pretty perfect.

 

This post is part of a Barn Hop over at New life on a Homestead. 

I'm getting tired.

WARNING!!!  I AM ABOUT TO WHINE. 

 

I am really tired of my house being torn up.  I am an order person.  That means living is disorder is causing me great stress.  I was fine with it for a few weeks.  Now I am sliding into an anxious desire to throw away everything I own and move into a (completed) one-room cottage.

 

Ok, now that I am done being a baby I will say, it is exciting to be moving forward with our renovations.  Flooring is going in today!

 

 Everything that should be in the kitchen is now in my living room.  What a mess.  It is only temporary.  I have to put that on repeat in my head.

 



 Gutted.  This is the last you will see of the old floor!  This time tomorrow I will either be eating my dinner directly off of the new floor or manically organizing things back into the kitchen.  We will see on which side of crazy I will land.

 



 We still have no cabinets but that will come soon.  This is where our fridge and shelving will go.

 

This was where we had the fridge but it will be a lovely built-in pantry before long.

 

 

As we work and wait for the house to come together.  The bees are busy with their summer occupation.

 

 

 We are fortunate to have a giant playa lake right across the road from our home.  We have never seen water in it, though we have heard that it has been full enough in the past to float a flat-bottomed boat.

 

 It is a nice change of scenery.  The sound of the frogs at night is amazing.  We feel like we are in the bayou!

 

Have a blessed weekend!  Hopefully we will have house updates soon.





And BASEBALL!

Every spring since I was a girl, my time was spent on metal bleachers.  I would eat seeds and pickles, swat mosquitos and endure the heat, and I would cheer like a crazy person.

 

Not much has changed for me these days.  I am just a bit more crazy since the players I am watching are my son an his teammates.

 

It was another great year for baseball.  Zaddok has defiantly matured some as a player.  He was so fun to watch!  He actually got asked to play on the All-Star team but had to decline because of a conflict.

 

But All-Star team or not, we are so proud of the player and the young man he is becoming.  We love you Zaddie!

 

 

Oh that sweet face!

That a boy!

Deep thoughts or maybe he is trying to decide if he can make it to the bathroom before the next inning.

Hey batter, batter!

The Mets are #1!!!

This team fought so hard to get here.  They were not favored to win but they did!  Each and every boy showed up in a big way.  I was so proud of the heart they put into these last two games.

Big brother was proud too.

See.

Oh you guys are so weird.  I love you so much!!!

#1!!!

Great coaches, great boys and great families!  We had a fun season. 

  

Texas skies.

Rain is a precious thing here on the Prairie.  So when we get it, we celebrate!  I get really upset if it rains at my house when I am not there.  If I don't get to sit on the porch during a shower, I get grumpy.  RAIN!!  

 

Of course in this part of Texas there is always the chance that a rain shower will turn into a thunderstorm or a tornado.  We don't like the damaging winds or the plant-busting hail we might get.  But we will take the chance if it means we get to smell wet dirt or run our fingers through the streams pouring from the roof.

 

Praise be to God who sustains us and who blesses us in our land!  And praise be to a king who creates such beauty. 

 

(If you have never walked outside after a storm to see the sky on fire, you need to come to Texas.) 

 

 



Fermented Daikon

If you read my blog last year, you know how I have fallen in love with fermenting.  My experience thus far has been limited to pickles and yogurt. 

 

A few weeks ago I got 4 daikon radishes (or daikon root) in my
Bountiful Basket contribution. (click the link for info)  I was a little shocked and a lot confused.  I had never even seen a Daikon much less cooked with one. 

 

After searching a bit I found that Daikon make great pickles.  There were tons of recipes for refrigerator pickles.  I finally found a few that suggested fermenting and I was done looking!

 

The week before my sweet mother-in-law gave me an awesome birthday present.  A pickling crock!  I was so excited to use it and this seemed like the perfect chance.  

 

 I began by peeling the root. 

 

 Then I cut them into coins.
 

 Not too thick.
 

 Then I salted them.  It will pull away the little bit of bitterness that is in the root.
 

 After letting them sit for 30 minutes or so, I gave them a really good rinse to remove the salt and liquid that came off of them.

 

 My crock needed a weight to keep the root under the brine solution.  This Pirex lid fit perfectly!

 

 I put the daikon into the crock (I added a few cloves of garlic 'cause that's how I roll) and then covered them with brine.  I used the lid to weight the root down into the brine.  You don't want anything exposed to air.  That is how you get mold and grossness.  You do not want fermented grossness. 

 

 As the fermenting process began, we noticed a smell.  It could only be described as...well...smelling like another natural form of fermentation that occurs in the human body.  Say after a big bowl of beans.  Sorry, I had to go there.  Matt had the wonderful idea to cover it with this pie plate which fit perfectly and kept all of the gassy smells inside.

 

 After several weeks of fermentation, (and leaving them well alone!) it was time to test them.  They still smelled a little stinky but the taste was wonderful!  I think the Daikon just has a funky, radishy aroma.  I packed them into quart jars.

 

 Then I ladled the fermented brine to cover them.  I put the lid on and store them in the fridge where they will keep for a LONG time!  You could can them at this point but the processing would rob you of all the raw, probiotic goodness that you get from fermentation.

 



3 out of the 5 kids loved them.  I loved them.  Matt still hasn't tried them but I think he will.  They have that wonderful tangy flavor that the fermented pickles had last year.  I am so happy with the crock!  It was so much better than using glass jars.  Thank you Grandmolly!!!

 

Here is the brine recipe and the link to the site that I used for instruction.  Now go ferment something!

 

"Stir up a brine solution of 2 Tablespoons sea salt (un-iodized salt) to 1 quart water. Note that you must use salt that has no additives-check the ingredients of your salt to make sure that it contains nothing but salt. Additives in salt can prevent the lacto-fermentation process from occurring."