Wednesday, August 25, 2010

This is my latest recipe for my sourdough blog...Sourdough White Cake / Sourdough Vanilla Cake. It is so moist and delicious! That's it for the cakes. I can't think of one more flavor cake to make with my formula.


Sorry I am still not posting regularly...I found out that I used an enormous amount of bandwidth when I didn't resize my pics the other day. So hubby has saved the day and installed a new resizer. Mike has been working long days lately, so I am extra thankful to be up and running on my new laptop. The only two things left to figure out...my laptop refuses to recognize my scanner/copier, and I can't move pics around when writing my posts.

The good thing is...I found lots of pics that were stored in a miscellaneous folder, so hopefully now I can post everyday. This past week, a friend of ours brought over his honey extractor and extracted the honey from Maggie and Allen's beehives. It was wonderful!
If you ever wonder why honey is so expensive...it's all the long hours! Allen, Maggie and Mike spent 2 hours every week in the scorching sun, doing beehive inspections and remedying all kinds of threats.
Everyone was impressed with the extractor that works by centrifugal force...which doesn't destroy the honeycomb like the old fashion method of compression. Even this took a lot of time...5 hours to do 2 hives...and that didn't include cleanup!
Then comes the fun part...taste testing! Chris said our honey was the most pure grade there is...water white honey. It is delicious! I don't like honey, but I loved this honey! Mike is in his flightsuit because he had spent the day flying at work and didn't have time to change. Most people don't know that the old green flightsuits are now sand colored thanks to the war in Iraq.
Into the strainer. We had hoped to get 2.5 gallons but instead ended up with almost 5 gallons!


The only sad part is that Allen seems to be allergic to his own honey! He noticed immediately that his throat turned sore with the first taste...and got worse with each additional taste. Wow! Most people take honey as a medication to combat pollen. Anna had the same reaction. Both are now pretty congested.

Five years ago, I bought two oak quilt hangers and had hubby hang them above my sofas in the living room. That was right about when my life got really busy with Maggie's dr. appts, so I never got around to making the quilts to hang. So this week, I asked Anna if she could possibly piece together two 48" square quilts to hang. She immediately got to work!
I decided on a log cabin pattern for one quilt, and a rail fence for the other. Anna cut out a bunch of strips and hung them on a drying rack so she could see all the prints at a glance.
I chose the Barn Raising version of the Log Cabin. Anna already has 5 blocks completed. It's so exciting! Thanks so much, Anna.


I started collecting brown fabrics as a new bride 27 years ago. Browns were very hard to find. I needed 20 prints to make a dresden quilt. Most of my browns are from the 80s and 90s. Nowadays there are many browns in the fabric stores. (To my friend Susan in SC ~ remember those two 1/4 yard pieces you sent me years ago?! They are in these blocks! Thanks!)

Anna is also working on a project for my Dad. Here she is on the cold basement floor painting a sign.

It says "Barn + Pasture For Rent" and phone number. She's turning it into a work of art! Anna used to spend a lot of time painting and crafting. Nowadays she mostly quilts.


Vision Forum is having a special that ends Friday Night at midnight. They are selling 15 best selling dvds for $95. We already have many of these dvds, so we won't be buying the bundle. If any of you locals would like to borrow any, just let me know. (On the other hand, if any one has a copy of The Mysterious Islands, we'd like to borrow that.) Go here for a list of the dvds.


The public schools are back in business, the stores are lined with Halloween and Thanksgiving merchandise, and I am trying not to mourn the loss of summer. Be thankful in all things. Yes, I am thankful.


Many blessings ~ Kathie

2 comments:

Deb said...

Kathie ~ we have the Mysterious Islands dvd and would be happy to mail it to you (unless someone locally already has offered). I'm headed to the post office tomorrow morning...just let me know.

Mendi... said...

I'm right there with you in mourning the loss of summer!?! Where we live, Hobby Lobby had Christmas stuff out mid-July!?!

Blessings~
Mendi

P.S.) I certainly wish we lived closer...we would love to hone in on all your quilting expertise! My MaKayla is getting ready to put together a textured baby quilt! We'll see how it goes...