Hen23's Journal~Goodbye

[lorihadams]

I know how you feel, my great grandmother's house and all the barns and outbuildings from the whole farm.....gone. They are putting in a road. Such a shame, I can't talk about it much cause I'll start boo hooing.

 

[Henrietta23]

I know how you feel, my great grandmother's house and all the barns and outbuildings from the whole farm.....gone. They are putting in a road. Such a shame, I can't talk about it much cause I'll start boo hooing.

Uh huh! Amazing how connected we get to places. I cried last night over the willow tree that was in the yard of the house I grew up in. I spent half my waking hours in that tree when I was a kid. It's been gone for decades now. It came down in a storm. But the thought of the house coming down is connected to that memory, making it raw all over.

 

[Henrietta23]

I've got whole wheat bread dough rising as well as ww bagel dough. No white flour at all. I'm hoping it will work. The book the recipes came from says it will!
It's just hit me I only have a week of summer left. I knew that but it just hit me. SO much to do! I have to sort through all my school materials since I'm working with different age groups this year. Elementary and high school vs. middle school. I have lunches to plan, school clothes to sort, backpacks to clean/or replace (I think we'll get at least another year out of DS's). I want to clean and organize my computer room space.
We are pet sitting this weekend for two sets of friends. This morning we let out a friend's sheep and fed them. She is at a knitting retreat and her DH is building cabinets for their kitchen. She asked if we'd help out so he doesn't get overwhelmed. DS is happy to; he loves those sheep. We'll lock them up tonight and let them out tomorrow. We are also feeding cats for another set of friends who are at a wedding in Maine. They live within miles of each other so it's no big deal. Got us up and out of bed this morning! I got three times as much done between 7 and 9 am than I did all day yesterday!

 

[Beekissed]

A knitting retreat??? Do tell! What in the world does that consist of?

 

[Henrietta23]

A knitting retreat??? Do tell! What in the world does that consist of?

Hmmm, don't have a whole lot of details. I know that she is knitting mittens. Very complicated mittens. She does knitting and spinning retreats fairly often. She lives for wool! Belongs to a spinning guild.

Here is some googled info on the particular mittens she is working on this weekend. YOu have to scroll to the Fox and Geese pattern to see.
http://books.google.com/books?id=hj...lt&resnum=5#v=onepage&q=maine mittens&f=false

 

[Henrietta23]

Bread and bagels are both done baking. House didn't get too ridiculously hot. Eating half a bagel now. Outside a little crunchier than I like but they're not dense and tough like you might think a bagel with no white flour at all might be. Since they are made by a method the author calls delayed fermentation they have a slightly sour dough taste. Next time I will not bake them as long to see if they don't get that crunchy. Very tasty anyway.

 

[keljonma]

Do you boil and bake them? Or just bake? I like using potato water to make bagel dough.

 

[Henrietta23]

Boil then bake. I timed them 30 seconds per side as directed in the recipe. I'll have to remember to save the water next time I boil potatoes. Does it make them nice and chewy?

 

[Dace]

Henrietta...my kids love bagels, would you mind sharing your recipe? I would love to make my own!

 

[Henrietta23]

Henrietta...my kids love bagels, would you mind sharing your recipe? I would love to make my own!

I will. It comes from the book "Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor".
We had some of the bread with dinner. Oh my! Very good, nice crust. I'm glad I made the effort despite the weather. Went well with our local kielbasa, corn and tomato salad (in other words there were no salad greens to be had....)
Off to take care of others' pets for the night. Cross your fingers that Adam the Shetland Sheep will cooperate about going to bed. I'll try to get the recipe for the bagels posted before I go to bed myself. It's been a long but productive day.
Oh, my mother did some research about our former house and neighborhood. From what she can tell by the names of people interviewed in the newspaper last year, it is probably the other end of the street that will be affected most. Our house was right by the brook though and did have some issues with water in the basement at times. Hard to tell.