This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
Joining in with SouleMama

this moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
Joining in with SouleMama

New additions

Well we ended up getting the goats I mentioned in the last post. Three Does, one Buck and one Kid ( which is also a boy). So far they are settling in great they are very calm and quiet. They are all Anglo Nubians, which is a milking breed. So including Ninny I will have four does I can milk next year.

..

This year is rushing by but in a good way I feel like every time I got to town I buy more fencing supplies but we are yet to actual start fencing.

fencing the to be veggie garden

fencing the to be orchard

fencing a goat yard, which if all goes to plan will be holding 6 goats not 1 .

 Since we moved the children have turned into free range children.
They are all about exploring,  the dogs go with them every where and they spend lots of time looking for hidden treasures in the long grass and getting up to mischief.

A little farm to call home

Its been so long since I have been on here.. lots of good stuff has been happening.
We have a new family member Henry the english pointer, he is still a puppy and his favourite past time is to chew on things. 
Me an the kids have been busy moving out west more in to the upper hunter valley. Its all been very exciting and stressfull at the same time.
 So far we have been
Exploring 
Planting out garlic that my dad started for me (thanks Dad)
Watching the local wedge tail eagle
Puting up our rustic home made mail box

So much to do and so little time

Really sums up how this month has felt. More then once I would of loved to have had a pause button.
The last 9 days in particular went way to fast. Rob and I left the kids with family and headed to Qld for Emma and Clayten's Wedding which both me and rob were apart of so I don't have any photos of the wedding. We spent two nights on the way up near Bundarra fishing and chilling  and on the way home we spent two nights at Coffs Harbour with the kids and family.

Starting

Starter. I have had attempted this a couple of times in the past, the best I achieved was a funky smelling goop that did not result in anything. This time around I borrowed The River Cottage Handbook No 3 - Bread from my local library. The only thing I have did different this time around to in the past was I used my Kenwood mixer to mix the batter for 10 min as was suggested in the book. The results while the weren't instant, they were obvious over the first week. I started by mixing 1 cup spelt flour with 1 cup of water and mixing with food mixer for 10 Min's then this step was repeated every day for the next 7 days and each time I would take half the starter out ( its great to add when making piklets, you don't need to waste it). I didn't always add 1 cup some days was half a cup, from what I have read it doesn't matter as long as it is equal volumes of water to flour.

After a couple of hours the first bubbles started to form, this is a good thing. It means the starter is fermenting.

First feed, the starter grew quickly the first photo is after 2 hrs and the 2 nd photo is after 6 hrs.  After 7 days I  used the starter to make my first ever sourdough bread. The process is slightly different to making bread with yeast but in no way more complicated.

Two loaves I made a day apart the loaf which is rectangle was risen an cooked in a bread tin, while the other was risen and baked an a standard baking tray.