A New Direction

Sunset at Wild Horse Ranch

I have been a bit slower to post this past month, as we have been working hard on the new direction our life is taking. Preparing for full-time living in an RV and travel trailer has meant major renovation to the travel trailer, which I will post about in the weeks to come, and getting animals to the vet, to update shots and such.

The horses are now safely ensconced in their new home in Northern Colorado, under the watchful care of my daughter, the horse lover. We are taking a little break, to enjoy a late Thanksgiving and early Christmas together, and then will head back to the homestead to put the finishing touches on the travel trailer before heading up to the grandparents' in Southern Colorado, where we will spend the holidays. Both of these towns are wonderful, and I am excited to explore them and write about them in the coming year. There are lots of farms and dairies, local beekeepers and other homesteaders. As well as all kinds of activities and points of interest for travelers.

Moonrise over Wild Horse Ranch

For now, here are a couple of pictures of the horses enjoying Wild Horse Ranch. I hope to post a couple more times in the coming weeks, and then more often again after New Year's. Looking forward to sharing about our Homestead on the road.

If you liked this post, you might enjoy:

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Simplifying the Homestead

Homesteading on the Road

End of the Garden

Our bountiful harvest

We didn't have much of a garden this year, but what we did have did pretty good once it started raining.Those pumpkins were enormous! I think one was somewhere around 70 pounds! The other 3 about 20-40 pounds. We got about a dozen watermelons, about the same on cantaloupes. There was only one row of beets and one of onions, but that was enough to keep us well fed for a couple months, as well as several cans of beets for the pantry. A neighbor supplied us with zucchini and chard, another with cucumbers, so in addition to eating fresh and fried squash and greens, I was able to put up a couple dozen quarts of pickles. I am not really a pickle person as far as store-bought goes, but I love my homemade pickles. I love to open a jar of pickled cucumbers or other veggies midwinter, to add some variety to our staples of rice, potatoes, carrots, onions and beans. 

Zucchini, cucumbers and onions ready for the pickling brine

As for the pumpkin, well, the largest went to our local library so they could use it for a fund raiser. If you're near Ash Fork, stop in and guess the weight for 25 cents a guess - the winner gets to keep the pumpkin and the library gets a boost to its budget. This little fellow grew right into the fence. We had to pick him before he got any more attached, but he seems to have ripened just fine.

A creepy halloween mutant

After giving away several more pumpkins, the last few will be eaten for the next few weeks and canned for later pies, breads and cookies. Sadly, we didn't plant any tomatoes. I can always use lots of jars of tomato sauce. Maybe next year...speaking of which, we will be on the road next year, looking for fresh, local produce and experimenting with our homesteading practices in a 28 foot RV and a 14 foot trailer. Should be very interesting. 

Thanks for stopping by.

If you enjoyed this post, you might enjoy these:

Farmer's Market

Rose Petal Jam

Tomato Tales

Worms!

http://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2013/10/homestead-barn-hop-132.html

Cookie Therapy

One of the drawbacks of living out in the boonies - our internet service has been pretty spotty since before Thanksgiving.  I'm pretty tolerant.  It's taken me this long to finally get fed up.  After yelling at my computer screen, then hanging up on the computerized "tech support" several times, I finally turned to cookie therapy.  Creating always helps me to refocus on something positive rather than the problem I can do nothing about at the moment.  It also lowers my blood pressure (pretty scary, because my BP is normally low). 

So what level of Cookie Therapy is called for after over two months of lousy internet service?  Hmmm, first, a batch of Lemon Bars.  One of my faves, because I always have plenty of organic California lemons, thanks to Dad's tree.  And the crust is flour, butter and sugar.  How can you go wrong with that?  Of course, I use whole wheat flour.  Next came six plus dozen Snickerdoodles.  Those got baked right after the lemon bars.  They're cheap and easy comfort cookies.  Then I mixed up two more varieties for the coming days when I knew I would need more Cookie Therapy.  These needed to be refrigerated before baking anyway.  Sure enough, the morning after the snickerdoodles and lemon bars, no internet.  So I baked eight dozen Chocolate Crinkles.  I love this recipe, because it uses less expensive cocoa, which I always have on hand for hot chocolate and brownies, instead of more expensive chocolate chips (which I tend to sneak into and eat).  They are also a perfect fix for a chocolate craving.  Still in the fridge, awaiting the next outage, is a batch of Lemon Cheese Spritz.  I mixed these up because I happened to have the cream cheese, and I have been wanting to use my cookie press.  So sometime in the next few days I will be baking the Spritz. 

There are several side perks to Cookie Therapy.  Baking helps warm the house.  I know we're eating healthier snacks, with organic whole wheat flour and real butter, without hydrogenates and unpronounceable additives.  And my freezer is stocked for the next couple months with said snacks.  Well, I think they'll last a couple months...

So which recipe should I share?  Oh, the dilemma!  I guess it has to be the Chocolate Crinkles, because of Valentine's Day coming up, and Mrs. D's chocoholism.  Here it is:

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
(adapted from original in Betty Crocker's Cooky Book (c)1963)

1/2 c. olive oil
12 T cocoa plus 4 T olive oil
2 cups sugar
1 T molasses
4 eggs
2 t. vanilla
2 c. whole wheat flour
2 t. non-aluminum baking powder
1/2 t. sea salt
1 c. sugar processed in blender for 1 min.  (substitute for confectioner's sugar)

Mix oil, cocoa and oil, sugar and molasses.  Stir in 1 egg at a time until well mixed.  Stir in vanilla.  Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl, then add to wet ingredients.  Mix well.  Chill overnight. 

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Drop small spoonfuls of dough into remaining sugar (processed in blender or confectioner's).  Roll in sugar, shape into balls.  Place about 2" apart on greased baking sheet.  Bake 10-12 minutes.  Do not overbake!  Makes about 6 dozen cookies.

Anyway, if anyone out there has a recommendation for rural internet service, such as Hughesnet, Mifi, aircard, please let me know.  Or go to Mrs. D's Homestead on Facebook and join in the discussion there.