Snow, Snow and More Snow!

Snow just keeps on coming. This view is of the driveway, after Ken plowed it for hours! We've got a good 2 feet or more on the flats, a lot more in drifts and even the main hay barn has snow underneath from where the wind has blown it in. It's been cold so the sheep are eating more but otherwise are doing just fine.
However they are bored. Bored sheep try to turn everything into a toy. One ewe has figured out how to open the gates. The latches have to be lifted up, and the the bar slid to get them open so it's a pretty impressive feat. We now have to make sure they are tied with chains or baling twine just in case. She's started playing with the chains but I don't think she can open them.

The rams have figured out how to either untie or destroy baling twine gate ties. All the gates have to be double tied and we have to replace the ties often as they bash their horns against the gates and rub the twine until it breaks.

And one ewe lamb has learned how to jump up on top of the other sheep at the feeder and walk across their backs to get to a better position. I wish I could get a picture of that but by the time I dig out my camera she's jumped off.

From here it sure looks like at least 6 more weeks of winter. I just hope it doesn't all melt at once or we'll have floods this spring.

More Bread Recipes

The bread experiments continue.

Our latest recipe has been modified a bit:

15 ounces of flour (weighed) or 3 cups
1/4 teaspoon quick acting yeast
1 teaspoon table salt
1 bottle or can lager or pilsner beer
1 tablespoon white vinegar
Additional water as needed to get all the flour incorporated. Usually takes at most 1 extra tablespoon.

Mix the dry ingredients. Then stir in the wet ones and cover with plastic wrap and let it rest for at least 8 hours or longer. Kneed briefly and place dough on a parchment paper to let it rise for 2 hours. Slash the top before baking. Preheat a covered dutch oven and bake bread covered for 30 minutes then uncovered for 20-30 minutes more. We are using a 425 degree preheat and a 375 degree bake.

The pictures at the left show the mixing of the dough initially. What it looks like when it starts the long overnight rise. What it looks like as a sponge before kneading and just before I start kneading it.

Variations have been good:

Whole wheat using 5-10 oz whole wheat flour and the rest regular flour.

Rye using 7 oz rye flour and the rest regular flour plus 2 TBSP caraway seeds.

Herb add 1 TBSP dried parsley, 1 TBSP ground up dried garlic slices or dried minced garlic, needs to be chunky not powder, 1 teaspoon each of oregano, thyme, marjoram, white pepper, 1/8 tsp sage. My recipe also says add 1/8 tsp celery seed but I didn't have any and it was still great.

Beer variations tried
Corona - Best so far
Budweiser - Good
5 barrel ale ok but more like regular bread
double pilsner - good
Pacifico - good but not as good as others

The experiments continue!

Roof started

Roof got started this past week. It started to snow again and got slippery so thy had to quit but we did get the north side upper sections done. All we need is 2 good days and it will be finished.