I made this wonderful Pound Cake yesterday. It is absolutely to die for.

I adapted this recipe from one I found on (yup, you guessed it!) BackyardChickens.com.

Old Fashioned Pound Cake

Grease/flour 10″ tube or bundt pan.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine together and sift (this creates “Self-Rising” flour): 

4 cups all purpose flour
6 teaspoons baking powder
4 teaspoons salt

OR

4 cups (1#) cake flour, sifted (this is what the original recipe calls for)

OR

4 cups minus 8 Tablespoons All Purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups (1#) butter (salted or unsalted either one, but use real butter)
2 cups (1#) sugar
10 whole eggs (1#)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or any other extract flavor of your choice)

Sift flour(ingredients to make the flour “self rising” as shown above) and salt. Place butter and sugar in LARGE mixing bowl. Cream together until light and fluffy. Add whole eggs, two at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Add half of the sifted flour/salt. Beat about 1 minute. Add remaining flour/salt and the flavorings. Beat about 1 minute. Pour into well greased/floured tube cake pan. Bake for 1 hour & 15 minutes to 1 hour & 30 minutes.  Remove cake IMMEDIATELY from pan after taking from the oven. Cool on a cake plate or cooling rack.

Mike and I have been discussing getting another dog for the family.  We have been strongly leaning toward a Boxer.  But we had decided no new dogs until we make our move with his job later in the fall.

Our poodle, Margo, we got through rescue two years ago.  She apparently had a very bad experience before we got her and she is very skittish with anyone in the family except me. So Margo is “my” dog.  Thus being the reason we want another dog.  One that likes everyone!

Katie (my grown daughter) got this little Maltese mix puppy from someone on FreeCycle about a month ago.  She’s just as cute as she can be, but Katie, as usual, keeps getting dogs when she doesn’t need them. 

Katie called me night before last asking if we wanted to have Bailey (the Maltese mix). I told her no, and just quickly “double checked” with Mike to confirm that no was our answer. (I asked Mike because I knew he kinda liked Bailey). He confirmed no. So we hung up the phone. Done deal, no biggie.

About 10 minutes later Mike started asking me questions about Bailey.  Well, long story short, he decided that we, in fact, would like to have Bailey and add her to our family.  I didn’t really care either way. She’s cute and great with all of us, but as I said, we had been discussing getting a Boxer later down the road.

So, may I introduce the newest addition to our family…

She is +/- 4 months old. Her mother is full blood Maltese, but they had no idea what the father was.  She’s cute as can be, minds really well and loves the kids to death!

Last night was her first night with us. She slept well in her kennel and only cried for a few short minutes when we first put her in there.  Margo is now sleeping in a kennel next to Bailey at night.

For those outside of our family, here’s “big sis”, Margo.

I picked up our Silkie trio this morning!  Felicity wanted to name them. Their names (from top to bottom in this photo) are: Becky, Bonnie and Benny.

I’ve never been around Silkies before, but the make the neatest noises. Becky is the largest and is covered in her new soft feathers, though they are still on the thin side.  Bonnie and Benny have skin showing (yes, their skin is black) but they are feathering in nicely.

As soon as I put them in their coop, they started scratching around. They haven’t even explored their entire coop yet, they have been busy in the back part, which is the coop.  The front 2/3 is the run.  We sill have to put the lattice top on the run.  Can’t leave it open because of hawks.  We will finish that up this weekend.

Here’s the almost finished coop we built. We decided, since bantams are small, to keep it short, and make a combination coop/tractor.  It has all the luxuries of a regular coop, with the ease of movement of a chicken tractor.

We created a track on the front of the coop end, so in winter, we can slide a “wall” with a door cutout over the front, to keep it warmer in the coop.  The roof portion over the back of the coop is on hinges and opens for ease of collecting eggs.  The top lattice will work much the same way over the run.

The windows will be finished with wood around them and will have attached shutters that will open and close, depending on the needs and weather. The nest boxes are along this back wall.

One more shot of the Silkies!

They are quite adorable and sweet!  Bonnie will fall asleep in your lap while she’s being petted!

We have another coop like this to build and then we will be getting our Old English Game Creles from a friend of ours.  This should happen within a week to a week and a half!

Have a great Saturday!

We’re just loving living in the country!

Tomorrow we get our new Silkie chicks.

Be sure to watch tomorrow for photos of the new babies!

Here’s a photo of Mike and Felicity working on the coop yesterday.

We are all so excited!

On what has become my most favorite place to visit on the internet lately, I found a fantastic and EASY PEASY way to make homemade yogurt! No machines required! I love mine with just a drizzle of honey on it. YUM!

Easy Homemade Yogurt Recipe

Also, last night, I made my very own “homemade” recipe.

Lemonade:  1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup lemon juice, 2 quarts water. Mix and enjoy!

Have a great weekend!

Mike is off from work today and tomorrow.  Generally, when he’s off, he and Felicity make breakfast.

Felicity saw my Peppermint extract on the cabinet the other day and decided that we would have Peppermint Pancakes for breakfast this morning.

They used the normal recipe they always do, from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook.  However, instead of the normal vanilla extract, they substituted Peppermint extract.

I have to admit, I was a bit hesitant and really not thinking they would be very good.

I was totally surprised! They were awesome! 

One day, use your favorite pancake recipe and try this. You’ll be pleasantly surprised!

Have a great day!

This was shared by a fellow forum member over at www.homesteadingtoday.com ! 

Household Cyclopedia, published in 1881. The file is LARGE, 15mb.  Over 800 pages with illustrations!

This is a rare find!  It is LEGALLY downloadable!

Here’s the Table of Contents so you can see how extensive the information is: (download link is below the TOC).

Contents
1 AGRICULTURE 11
11 The Modern Theory Of Agriculture 11
12 Wheat 35
13 Drainage 65
14 Sugar 69
15 Cotton And Tobacco 70
16 Directions For The Rearing Of Silk Worms 71
2 HORTICULTURE 81
21 Budding And Grafting 84
22 Keeping Fruit 117
23 Flower Gardening 120
24 Insects 123
25 Illustrations 124
3 RURAL AND DOMESTIC ECONOMY 131
31 To Manage A Dairy 132
32 Bees And Their Management 141
33 Insects 151
34 Illustrations 155
4 FARRIERY 157
41 Dogs 174
42 Cattle 175
43 Hogs 178
44 Sheep 178
45 Illustrations 184
5 MEDICINE 189
51 Diseases 189
52 Accidents 219
53 Wounds 219
9
10 CONTENTS
54 Fractures 223
55 Dislocations 226
56 Amputation 228
57 Poisons 230
58 Miscellaneous Articles 234
59 Medicines For Indigestion 243
510 Cholera 247
511 Diseases Peculiar To Females 250
512 Management And Diseases Of Children 256
513 Useful Domestic Medicines 262
514 Hygiene - Salutary Cautions 270
515 Preservation From Drowning And Shipwreck 272
516 General Rules For Preserving Life And Health 277
517 The Teeth 282
518 Illustrations 284
6 CULINARY ARTS 311
61 Plain Cookery 311
62 Cookery 334
63 Confectionery 374
64 Pickling 383
65 Carving 387
66 Qualities of Food 398
7 BREWING 403
71 Fermentation 403
72 To Make Cider 420
73 Wines 422
8 DISTILLATION 441
81 Essential Oils 459
82 Waters 463
83 Vinegar And Acid Liquors 469
84 Artificial Waters 473
85 Fixed Oils 476
86 Animal Oils And Fats 477
9 PERFUMERY 481
10 BLEACHING AND SCOURING 491
CONTENTS 11
11 DYING 501
111 Staining 515
12 PAINTS AND COLORS 521
13 VARNISHES 539
14 INKS 567
15 METALLURGY 575
151 Assaying Of Metallic Ores 575
152 Parting 582
153 Alloys, Or Compound Metals 583
154 Foils 590
155 Electro-Metallurgy 592
156 Gilding, Silvering, And Tinning 595
157 Iron And Steel 602
158 Illustrations 606
16 PYROTECHNY 609
161 Matches for Instantaneous Light 612
17 TANNING 615
18 ENAMELLING 621
19 POTTERY 627
20 GLASS 637
21 PHOTOGRAPHY 651
211 Photolithography 664
22 ENGRAVING 667
221 Lithography 673
23 WEIGHTS AND MEASURES 679
231 Specific Gravity 685
232 Gas Meters 686
233 Value Of Coins 689
24 CHEMICAL RECEIPTS 693
241 Preventing And Removing Boiler Incrustations 695
242 Artificial Cold 696
243 Antiseptics And Disinfectants 697
12 CONTENTS
25 WEATHER PROGNOSTICS 705
26 ANGLING 711
261 The Culture Of Fish 714
262 Illustrations 716
27 MISCELLANEOUS 719
271 To Tie Knots 719
272 Knitting 721
273 Management Of Canary Birds 722
274 Dogs 722
275 To Destroy Insects 723
276 Petroleum 725
277 Electro-Magnetic Telegraph 726
278 Book-Keeping 727
279 On Preparing Copy And Marking Proof 727
2710The Art Of Rowing 729
2711Macadamized Roads 730
2712Miscellaneous Medical Receipts 738
2713Dialysis 743
2714Riding 744
2715Decalcomania 745
2716The Cattle Plague, Or Rinderpest 748
2717Miscellaneous Illustrations 753
2718Illustrations of Ellectrical Machines 762
2719Illustrations of Military Weapons 765
28 IMPLEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 769

Household Cyclopedia 1881

 ENJOY!

I used to do several online quilt block swaps a year.  It all ended shortly after Felicity was born.  I so enjoyed those swaps, but the few websites I knew of that had the swaps started fading with the huge growth of the internet. People moved on and found new websites, etc.

Today I joined a new swap! Crocheting!

I’m really looking forward to this! I’ll post pictures once it’s done and I have my swapped Granny Squares.

One of my favorite forums is Backyard Chickens Forum !

 Today I found this FABULOUS and EASY recipe that I want to share with you all!

MissPrissy’s Chicken Parmigiana (or Parmesian)

I’m off to go to the store to get the couple of items I don’t already have on hand to make this tonight! 

Enjoy!!

When we moved to our present location in April, the place didn’t have A/C. Well, last summer wasn’t too bad, so I figured we’d do fine just using the “swamp cooler” aka evaporative cooler.

WRONG-O!!!  We have had excessive heat already this summer.  In our house, on Monday, with 2 fans, and the swamp cooler on full blast, it was 86 in here!

Our landlord had mentioned when we moved in he was considering installing central A/C here eventually.  Well, Mike called him last week and told him that the kids and I were just about dying here during the day and asked if he would do something to cool us down.

Our landlord gave us an option. Window units or central A/C, but central would raise our rent $50/month. NOPE! Not happening.  So, needless to say, we opted for window units.

Two window units were installed this morning and OMG what a difference.  I just may live until we move in a couple of months.

Oh how I love air conditioning!