Sunday, November 14, 2010

Making Bagels...it's a Sunday thing.

I usually bake on the weekend, and if the baking day falls on Sunday, I always feel like making bagels.  It's a rainy day (so what else is new, it is a rain forest, after all), so I might make soup, too.  I have to make some other baked goods, just to make it through the week.  A loaf of bread in $5.00 in Hilo (and that's the cheap stuff or "air bread"), so I make my own.  I usually try to make a treat.  Since it is cool today, I might make Pop Tarts.  The dough does best when it is cool.  I really like this recipe: Home Made Pop Tarts . I have used Nutella and different kinds of jam for the filling.  They don't last long.

I do have a lot of bananas in the freezer that I should use up, because there is a huge stalk out on the tree that is ready to come in.  A stalk of bananas doesn't look that big on the tree, but when you bring it in and lay it on your table - it is unbelievable.  I saw someone on craigslist selling a stalk for $55 - it was ice cream bananas which are kind of hard to find, and it was 50 lbs of bananas, but wow!

After church today, we went to Home Depot to buy some trim for the doorways.  Even though we technically finished the house in 2004, there are all sorts of little projects to finish up.  My husband was working on the mantle piece for the fireplace yesterday, and is now working on pine trim for around the inside doorways.  This is going to make my mom happy when she comes for Thanksgiving!  There are always so many things to do around here, that sometimes just the making things look finished and nice is the last thing you think of.

While we were at Home Depot, I bought some seeds. I usually try to do get non-hybrid seeds, but I just felt like it would be nice to have some peas, spinach, and jalapenos...at our elevation, we are sort of between zone 10 and 11 (I think they made 11 just for Hawaii), so I usually go with the 10 recommendations and it is close to time to plant all of those things.  I thought I would start them in pots since we are supposedly in for a wet winter.  Spinach always does better in pots here - if I direct start it, it never gets much over 4" tall.

I notice I have some volunteers growing where I throw my kitchen scraps.  It started out as a pile of lava rock where we located our pump house and the solar water heaters.  I started throwing out scraps there to build up soil gradually.  We've thought about herbs or lettuces there, but haven't done anything too much with that area.  I have had some interesting volunteers though: several avocado trees, papaya, pineapple, acorn squash, tomatoes, and now what I think may be an apple tree.  Some people a little higher than us can grow apples, not like you folks on the mainland, but a fruit here or there, but I doubt it will make it here. We always have to move the trees that start there - we've moved lots of avocado and the papaya - because it is too close to the house and the solar water heating panels.

On the animal front, I need to ask at the feed store if the trainer has room for my mare.  His sister, who runs the store bit, told me he would have room before Christmas, but he told me August in 2009....not reliable forecast.   For an area with a fair amount of ranching and large animals there is a dearth of horse trainers and large animal vets.  If anyone knows of a large animal vet or horse trainers who are looking for a warmer climate....point them our way.

11 comments:

Chai Chai said...

No vets around here that treat goats or sheep either. One would think with all the livestock in this area that a good vet would be able to make a solid living.

NancyDe said...

Isn't that an odd thing? I don't even know if the vet here treats sheep, since we're so new to them. I know he does horses, but I also know that sometimes when I call him (ie the time the mare had a huge gash that should have had stitches), he sometimes doesn't call back for two weeks.

My neighbor and I once thought about having signs put up at various veterinary schools on the mainland, pleading for one of them to relocate upon graduation!

Faith said...

We didn't have any vets that would treat sheep or goats here, until just a few years ago. They were not very common around here until us outsiders began coming in and creating little homesteads.

Now there are a couple of large animal vets who will at least see them, but for a while, your best best was the internet, and trying to make medicines out of cow remedies.

It still boggles my mind that for some goat wormers, a pour-on cattle wormer is used as a drench for goats. Stuff smells like turpentine.

Gardening in pots - might not be such a bad idea.

Have you been able to look into rebar or PVC pipes yet for a hoop house covering for raised beds? If you drive a 3 foot piece of rebar half way into the ground, and about 12 feet away do another one, then bend a 20 foot length of PVC pipe to slide over the rebar posts sticking out of the ground, there's your first hoop to cover your raised beds.

Ugh, 5 dollars for a cheap loaf of bread!

~Faith

NancyDe said...

Since my vet is unreliable for anything after 5 pm (much his best in the morning), I tend to hit the books and the internet for pretty much any animal issue. I even treated an infected dog with some human antiobiotics, since I looked on line and that particular antiobiotic was fine for dogs....worked out a dose, etc. It worked.

I am going to use pvc to make a chicken tractor, too - I didn't get a chance to look at prices, yet, though. We did use the tractor to dig out under all the grass roots next to the established garden, with the intention of filling it up with good dirt and composted manure. This kind of dug into the hill and we put plastic siding on the low end to make everything level. I was selling my manure, but I think I am just going to use the pile I have for this area.

From Beyond My Kitchen Window said...

What a full interesting life you have. Its so amazing to me to hear about your animals and fruit trees. The price of bread is shocking. I would have to bake my own bread too if I had to pay $5.00 for a loaf of bread.

NancyDe said...

I find everyone's blog so much more interesting than mine :). I read on your blog about your discovery of blogs and blogging - I felt similarly when I read other's blogs.

Lisa Mi said...

Nancy - I love reading your blog! It keeps me in touch with you daily now instead of just when we text, email or FB. And you inspire me - this time I want to try making pop tarts...

NancyDe said...

Thanks, Lisa! I like reading yours, too. I am glad we are back in touch and staying that way.

NancyDe said...

Oh, and be sure to post pics of your pop tarts. I would chill the dough where you are - the humidity is not kind to the dough. Also half butter and half cream cheese is super flaky and good....

frugalmom said...

Thank you for stopping by my blog! And oh my gosh... I need to try this pop tart recipe. My kids would love them! Thanks for sharing it.

I love the idea of being able to make my own snacks and such...with 3 kids here I can guarantee they wont last long.

NancyDe said...

Frugalmom: these lasted exactly 2 hours, and only because I was policing them....I would definitely double the recipe with three kids! I have had to get very inventive with the home made snacks to avoid the temptation of buying expensive store bought versions....