Cleaning up

The weather was warm and pleasant yet with a touch of early fall in the air for a couple of weeks.  Dry, dry, dry though. There was sufficient rain earlier in the summer but very dry for most of the later summer and now.  We have been taking advantage of this weather to work around the property trying to clean up the over grown areas.  It's a lot of work but satisfying because there is such of huge and obvious improvement as each job is done.  Right now it's cool, blustery and rainy.  The rain is so important and needed for planting the soft winter wheat crop soon.

before

before

after

As is so often the case, the landscape shrubs in front of the house were planted way to close to the foundation.  All will have to be removed and relocated or replaced.  I'm thinking azaleas along the front of the house?

before

after

 This area was not cut by my neighbor Joe because of the trash and bits remaining on the ground from the small barn/shed that used to stand on this spot when he generously mowed almost the entire property.   The old propane tank belongs to a company that I am not doing business with and will be removed by them eventually after much prodding, I am told.  The compost piles will be in this shady area.  You can see some of the tin roofing from the shed in the background as well as  the beginnings of the first compost pile.

controlling the ivy invasion

We removed a jungle of ivy in this corner to find the heat pump for the 2nd floor, an old unused fuel oil tank, and the propane fueled 'gas-pak' furnace/AC unit for the first floor.  It was like an archeology expedition finding a lost city in the jungle.  The old fuel tank will be removed and scraped and the area,  including the new propane tank just off screen right, will be fenced off from the dogs, chickens, and other critters and eventually include a large water tank for rain water collection from the roof for watering the garden and orchard gently down slope from this spot.

Tools, tools, tools!

At the far end of the screen porch on the west side of the house there is a storage room that had an interesting collection of junk in it.  One of the items was a hose and nozzle from a gas pump.

I wondered if at one time there had been a tank somewhere to fuel the tractors and other powered equipment when this house and surrounding outbuildings had been the center of a working farm.  Once again my neighbor Allen Green had the answer.

country store cabin

This old cabin on the property down at the road was a little country store in the 1920's - 1940's.  There is an underground fuel tank and concrete base where a gas pump once stood at the left front corner of the building.  The hose is from that gas pump.  According to Allen the cabin was kept up by previous owners and in good repair until about 2002 when no one lived on the property full time any longer.  Once the roof started to leak and not repaired, the water rotted the logs in the back corner.  The building collapsed just a couple of years ago.  Too bad.

Anyway - back to the storage room.  There was a rusty two man saw in the room, lots of mice droppings, glazed tiles for the kitchen back splash, red tiles from the kitchen cook stove hearth and cut nails (like the kind used for flooring) and some hand wrought iron nails in the walls for hangings tools.
We swept out the room, removed all the nails in the walls (saving them, of course), patched a couple of small holes in the floor, and loaded all the camping equipment and some of my inventory of rough rock into the room

all cleaned out

camping equipment and cabochon rocks in crates

On one wall be put nails back in the wall to hang all of our garden tools.  One day all the tools will go into a garage/barn/workshop we will built out back by the garden area.

Tools, tools, tools

Recipe: Basic soft white bread

This recipe is my personal adaptation of many subtly different recipes I have come across for basic soft white sandwich bread.  It makes one excellent large easy to make 1.5 pound loaf.  Measuring the flour by weight is key, I think, in all baking.  If you don't own a kitchen scale - buy one.  They are not that expensive and will improve all your baking significantly.

Ingredients:
20 oz. unbleached white bread flour
1 Tbs. active dry yeast
1 Tbs. honey
2 Tbs. oil or  2 Tbs. butter, vegetable shortening or lard - melted and cooled a little
1 tsp. salt
1.5 cups milk, scalded and cooled to about 100oF or 1.5 cups warm water and 1/2 cup dry milk.


Tools:
4 quart bowl
2 quart bowl
four sifter
wooden spoon
glass measuring cup for liquids
1 Tbs. measuring spoon
1 tsp. measuring spoon
9x5 bread loaf pan


Method:
Set a large bowl on the kitchen scale and zero the scale.
Add flour to a sifter and sift the four into the bowl until you have 10 oz.
Remove the large bowl and set a smaller bowl on the scale and zero the scale.
Sift 10 oz. of flour into this bowl.

Add all the remaining ingredients except the salt to the larger bowl of flour.
Vigorously beat with a wooden spoon to make a smooth batter (called a "poolish")
Set the bowl aside for 15-30 minutes until the yeast becomes active and starts to expand the batter.
If you get involved in something else - no problem, you can let the poolish ferment for up to 4 hours on the countertop or  24 hours in the refrigerator.

The 2nd 10 oz. of flour, salt and the active "poolish"

Add the salt to the poolish and mix in enough of the flour from the small bowl until the dough comes together and pulls away from the side of the bowl.  DO NOT ADD ALL THE FLOUR!
You should have about a 1/3 to 1/2 cup of flour remaining in the small bowl.
Sprinkle your clean counter top or other kneading surface with some of the remaining flour.
Dump the rough dough blob onto the flour, scrap the dough off your wooden spoon and sprinkle the top with some more of the remaining flour.  Let the dough rest for a few minutes while you wash your wooden spoon and large mixing bowl.  Rub some flour on your hands and begin kneading the dough - adding very small amounts of flour to the dough and dusting your hands with flour only as needed to keep the dough from sticking a lot.  If the dough seems just too sticky just let it rest for 10 minutes covered with a tea towel - it won't be so sticky after resting.  Knead the dough for about 10 minutes.

Kneading doesn't have to be one long aggressive marathon.  Take short breaks if you don't have lots of arm strength and stamina yet and let the dough and you rest.  There are three things you are trying to accomplish at this stage:
(1) Try not to add all the flour to the dough.  Try to have a few Tbs. of flour left over at the end, but if you don't - no sweat.
(2) knead the dough well for a total of 10 minutes and if that takes a 1/2 hour with rests - that's fine.
(3) ENJOY - this should not be stressful AT ALL.  If it is - you are going at it too frantically. relax.

Kneaded dough and remaining flour

OK - we have all heard that well kneaded bread dough should be springy, elastic, and smooth as a baby's bottom. Yes - but not a dry powdered baby's bottom.  Dough like that has too much flour in it.  It should be more like a baby's bottom with lotion on it - smooth and slightly moist, not bone dry.  While kneading the dough it should be slightly tacky - like a 'sticky note' but not outright sticky.  If with rapid kneading motion the dough pulls off your hand like a 'sticky note' and leaves no residue - that is about right.

Return any remaining flour to its' container, wipe out the bowl and coat the interior with a small amount of oil (about a 1/4 to 1/2 tsp.).  Plop in the dough, swirl it around in the oil, flip the dough over and swirl around again to coat the entire surface with oil.  Set the bowl aside, cover with a towel and let the dough rise until double in size.

dough after the 1st rise

What's double?  Many new bakers over do this step.  Double means double and no more.  To calculate this, plop the kneaded dough into a large 1 quart measuring cup and see how much dough you have.  It will be about a quart for this recipe.  Remove the dough and measure water into a smallish bowl equal to twice the amount of dough.  Find a bowl that is completely filled with that amount of water or make a mental note of how high the water level is in the bowl you want to use.  That full small bowl or noted mark is your guide for "double".  I'll bet the bowl is smaller or the water mark is lower than you had thought "double" was - isn't it?  Also, the time it takes for the dough to double is so variable it is useless as guide and is totally irrelevant. Ingredient temperature, room temperature, humidity, freshness of the yeast, vigorousness of kneading, amount of salt in the dough, - all effect the time it will take for the dough to double.  When recipes say "..... let the dough rise for about xxxx minutes or about an hour....until double in volume",  ignore the time.  

I use a 4 quart stainless steel restaurant utility bowl to mix the dough in and a 2 quart bowl for the 2nd portion of flour and for the 1st rise of the dough.  When the bowl is full my dough is "doubled".  I have a bunch of these stainless steel bowls in a variety of sizes and use them for all my kitchen work.  They are light weight, sanitary, indestructible, and incredibly cheap at restaurant supply stores.

When the dough has doubled in bulk, grease your loaf pan with butter, vegetable shortening, lard or baking spray.  Turn the dough out onto your clean kneading surface, deflate the dough and shape it into a log as long as your loaf pan.

This is another step that concerns a lot of new bread bakers because many, actually most, recipes say to "gently deflate the dough".  Baloney!  The dough must be thoroughly deflated to ensure you don't get large empty bubbles in the loaf.  Squeeze it, mash it, I actually knead it for a few turns - then shape it into a log that fits the pan and put the dough into the pan.  This is not a soufflé that you need to tip-toe around.  You do not have to treat it gently.

Shaped dough in 9x5 greased loaf pan

Cover the pan with a towel and let the dough rise a second time.  When the dough has just reached the top of the pan - preheat your oven to 350oF with the rack in the middle of the oven.  When the oven is heated and the dough has risen to an inch over the top rim of the loaf pan - Bake for 20 minutes and then tent with a piece of foil to prevent over browning and bake an additional 20 minutes.

after 20 minutes - now tent with foil

Remove form the pan immediately and cool the loaf on a wire rack.  You can brush the loaf with softened butter while it is still very warm to get an extra moist soft crust if you like.  The loaf should cool for one hour before slicing.  Stand guard over your creation and be prepared to beat back the voracious barbarians ready to pounce on the warm bread.  Good luck - this never works.

after 40 minutes baking it's done

mmmmmm...........

Fireplaces, chimneys, flues and firewood

I had the local Chimney Sweep come out to the house and check out the fireplaces and chimneys in the house to be sure they were safe to use and make any needed repairs if they needed attention.  When looking at the house before buying, it was thought that the two large tall chimneys in the old part of the house were the original rough granite rock chimneys built in 1859 which had been faced with modern brick in the past 20-40 years.  It was also thought that in the 2nd floor bedrooms the original open fireplaces had been blocked off, a thimble (round opening for a stove pipe) install in the flue above the fireplace, and the fireplace wall covered over with a sheetrock wall leaving only the thimble opening.  This all turns out not to be true - a very beneficial not true.  My neighbor Allen Green told me just the day before Rodney the chimney sweep came by that the two brick chimneys were new modern chimneys and fireplaces built about 30 years ago on the original rock bases of the old chimneys and the flues on the 2nd floor were just that - only flues and thimbles for stoves - no old fireplaces behind the walls.  This was all confirmed by Rodney's inspections.  This means that in the old part of the house there are only 2 fireplaces - not 4 as originally thought, but they are new modern brick terra cotta tile lined chimneys and in excellent condition.  The 2 flues in the 2nd floor bedrooms have never been used.  There is not a bit of soot in the liners and are ready for wood stoves to be attached.  Despite not having actual fireplaces in the upstairs bedrooms, having modern fireplaces, chimneys and flues saves the likely expense to repair old mortar in original rock chimneys and the expense of having an old rock chimney lined with clay or steel pipe to make it safe to use.

The fireplace and chimney in the 1905 addition IS the original old rock cooking fireplace of the detached kitchen building and dates back to the original construction of the home in 1859.  The fireplace, which has been blocked off can be re-opened.  This chimney has 2 flues - one for the fireplace on the family room side and one on the kitchen side for a wood burning cook stove.  Both of these flues are stainless steel pipe lined and are ready for use.

Interestingly a previous owner, despite having spent a considerable sum of money to have two chimneys and fireplaces built the job was not complete - there were no screened caps on the tops of the new chimneys so birds and squirrels had nested in the chimneys in the past and water dripped down the flues when it rained.  I had the tops of the chimneys mortared around the tile flue pipes with a slope to shed rain water and had stainless steel screened caps added to keep critters and water from entering the chimneys.

West side chimney with new cap  

The old kitchen chimney had both its flues lined with 6" stainless steel pipe,  but the brick top of the chimney needed to be 'tuck pointed', meaning the old cracked and failing mortar between the bricks had to be ground and chiseled out and new mortar put in.  Additionally the base of the chimney at the tin roof needed to be re-flashed and sealed to prevent water leaking in.

Kitchen chimney repaired and ready to use

Seasoned firewood for sale is not easy to find.  There is plenty of green wood available, which is how most people buy their firewood - well in advance and set aside to season a year or more before burning.  I found a good man with seasoned wood for sale and bought a "load" (a pick-up truck full).  I will likely need another load of seasoned wood for this winter season and plan to buy 2 loads of green wood now for next winter's heating season.  Raymond Jones is his name and he drove 20 miles from his place to bring the wood.  He fell in love with our little homestead here and we walked around a good bit admiring the house and the beautiful oak trees I have on the property.  I showed him the wood floors in the house and we all - Raymond, Kenny, Billy (Raymond's helper) and I - gathered around the bed of the pick-up truck and chatted for a spell.  Men gathered around the bed of a truck, arms folded on the edge of the bed, maybe one foot up in the rim of a wheel like a foot on the railing at a bar - is a scene that you will see every day.  Raymond would not only not take a little extra for the load to cover the extra long drive, he wouldn't even take the full quoted price for the load and told me he'd bring me some extra next time he delivered.  I expect Raymond and Billy will be back time to time for a some talkin' round the bed of his truck and maybe a barbecue or two.  Just love the people here.

a "load" of seasoned oak firewood - about 1/3 of a full cord

So in celebration of the clean bill of health for the fireplaces from Rodney and the good seasoned wood from Raymond we built our first fire in the "parlor" fireplace.

aahhhh - nothing like a good fire......

Tobacco Harvest Time

This rural Virginia County and the others surrounding it are a prime bright golden leaf tobacco growing area and has been for a very very long time.  The past two weeks have been harvest time in this area and as they say around here - the speed limits in the countryside are suspended during the harvest - as pick-up trucks towing over stuffed tobacco wagons from the fields to the flue curing barns and back race down the narrow country roads.  Speaking with the county clerk the other day he said things were pretty laid back in the county and as far as following the few and lax rules "you can generally get away with murder, and during tobacco season you can get away with two murders".

from this

to this

to this

all in a day

Real Tomatoes!

A Southern tradition and one of my favorites! Tomato sandwiches made with REAL, ripe, sweet/tart flavorful, heirloom garden grown tomatoes - white bread and Duke's mayonnaise.  The star of this show is a 'German Pink' purchased at the farmers market.  Life can hardly be better than this.  Next year Kenny and I will be growing our own - lots and lots of our own.