I Am Thinking About A New Post

I am known for my dark humor. I have always figured my dark humor developed because of my fairly short but much loved professional time as a veterinary technician. I have know many folks in professions that deal with people, animals and death plus everything in between. I am a firm believer that one needs to place boundaries to survive in those professions. With that said I found considering the situation in Shasta county this summer the signage (especially the top part) amusing. For those older folks with poor eye sight just click to enlarge.

Wowzers! A feed store I frequent has a meet the vendors day and a huge raffle every first full weekend in September. It has evolved over the first few years that in interest of keeping the raffle under two or three days     hours that one is present when the drawing is conducted. Guess who won a goodie bag. It has lots of dog, cat and bling type things. What doesn't get used at the farm will be gifted to someone who needs it. There was also a gift certificate for a large bag of grain free (Taste of The Wild) dog food. That will find a home also. Ok I must confess I had my eye on the 5 bales of shavings and 20 bales of alfalfa but I will be happy to leave with more than I came with . NO WHINING!

Today was a first in awhile for two events. Note the Shingletown Ridge above the tree line where it is foggy smokey. This is the first day in a long while we have had smoke so thick at our place. I have checked multiple times today for Cal Fire updates. None, nada. Well that is a good thing so the wind much have really shifted as when I woke up this morning all I could smell was burning grass and that had me worried.

The second event hadn't occurred in this kitchen since early June.  We have here ladies and gents a rising loaf of sourdough bread. I have missed my bread . Mostly because I love bread baking and secondly because I bake a nice product. I hate to toot my own horn but I will!

It is a 24 hour project in all. Fermentation can't and shouldn't be hurried. I mix the sourdough starter , flour and water to let stand covered for 5 hours. Then I put the whole deal in the fridge to get that sourdough bite everyone loves. So what is that?  Per King Arthur flour it is as follows:
A combination of lactic and acetic acids, created as the dough rises and ferments. Refrigerating the dough encourages the production of more acetic than lactic acid: and acetic acid is much the tangier of the two. Thus, sourdough bread that is refrigerated before baking will have a more assertive sour flavor.

I have used a recipe of King Arthur flour for years. I use my own starter passed down to me from Janet who lived across the way on the cattle ranch. I use my own blend of flour but I like this recipe the best because the comment is "wow this is sourdough!" A nice firm outer crust but a firm soft (yes a bit of both) inner with lots of those air pockets but not holes we are used to seeing in good sourdough loaves.

What may be my last home grown tomato (Shady Lady) of the year. The weather got so wacky with the fires I don't know if I will end up with more than the two that were on the plants when I bought them. But they were worth every penny! 

Don't you agree?

My Celebrity has flowers on it . But now the weather is cooling down and we will see. I may move them into the green house to see if that helps. We are anticipating a 47 degree low  tomorrow night and as much as I am savoring that it may end my BLT season. ;-(

 The lady above is Allison. She is setting up her supplies for a round of bobbin lace making at the 37th Jubilee for the Tehama county historical society. The loom to her left is the same one pictured below. It is the loom the shawl was woven on in our just for fun Sheep to Shawl event. But back to Allison. She hopped in her vehicle and came down from Lakehead to join us. Impressive? Well yeah it is a good 2 hour drive but Allison didn't need to worry about traffic she was the traffic. You see Allison and her hubby live within three miles of the Hirz fire. And after the Delta fire started that has totally cleared north/south traffic for 10 miles it made Allison the only girl at the dance 'er freeway. Since she is below the Delta fire and was going south she had I5 all to herself until she reached the southern blockade. Allison is a British girl here by marriage. She is gutsy , old enough to not care and takes calculated chances. She regaled us in her dry British wit with fire stores and we laughed and she did too. Good hard belly laughs that friends do together when the danger is near but we are strong country women who are old enough to have seen enough to know laughter with friends is stronger the whatever these fires can throw at us. Then later in the afternoon Allison drove home clear sailing. Gods speed.

The beginning of the shawl in plain weave on a 8 dent reed. The plying of the multicolored singles creates the pattern. It is a good representation of what I have talked about before. Letting your yarn do the pattern not the pattern bling the yarn.

This is Colleen the weaver. Marching down the row of spinners. I am far to the left out of sight. The sweet lady last in the line is Patty she was our ply spinner spent her day collecting our singles from our bobbins and plying them two ply (twisting two single strands of yarn together) and putting them on bobbins

for Colleen to work her magic with the shuttle. And yes you can shoot me now but I had to leave before the shawl was cut off the loom. But I will get a photo of it. The shawl was to be donated to the Tehama County Historical Society to raffle off for some needed income to further their cause.

That is it folks for now. The end of the week I will be back if not before with a post about Flame's big day. She is almost a month old and Friday Flame and her Mama Hen get released into the flock. She is much larger than her last photo and wiser. She is roosting and stealing grape snacks from her Mama. So I shall gets photos and post them up for you all to enjoy.