Your Daily Bread

It seems as though I have reached a plateau on my weight loss.
I have been pretty successful up until now with getting through my other flat spots but this is a hard one.
At almost forty pounds I am stuck.
I have added in longer walks and the Wii fit, which I might add I am a hullahoop cham. p. on
So in searching for better ways to be a bigger loser I came across lots and lots and lots and lots of carb free testimonials and even though I have always been an avid anti anti carber I decided I would give it a go.
I ordered the book from Amazon because I don't want to free style my carb depletion in fear of gaining every ounce back the second I look at a potato chip.
From what I understand if you do it all "by the book" and slowly add in carbs after you drop your desired forty eleventeen pounds you have a better chance of maintaining your new physique.
What I really wish is that I had more money.
Like join a gym and get a trainer money.
With my rotten back and stupid shoulder I'm kind of limited to what I can do but I think with a super smart buff handsome trainer I would be able to do more.
You see, the reason for my sudden interest in weight loss and core strength is because my back doctor wants to do a fusion and I am totally not ok with that.
I really believe that with a sh!t ton of weight loss and strengthening I can beat this.
Or at least put it off a few years, and trust me, at almost forty down I can already feel a big difference, my top butt is gone and most of my favorite pants fall down.
Six says I look like Ma Kettle because I refuse to part with my favorite ragged ill-fitting attire which I prefer to refer to as practical house clothes.
I guess maybe I just need to remember the house part of the house clothes and be sure my elastic's tight when I leave the house.
Believe it or not what all this is leading up to is the worlds easiest best bread recipe ever!
I came across it on Allrecipes and it's by Marilyn VanDoren.
Knowing that I will be carb free for the next what could possibly be the rest of mynatural life I decided to go out with a bang and what bigger bang could there possibly be than three loaves of of fresh bread.

I really think that even if you've never made bread this is a great first time recipe.
Just make sure that your yeast is fresh (I keep mine in the freezer) and remember that if you use a jar of yeast like I do the conversion to a pack is 2 1/4 teaspoons but his recipe calls for measured yeast but I just thought I would tell you that and actually here's a link to Red Star that has all the answers you will ever "knead"

Best Bread Ever

3 cups warm water
3 tablespoons yeast
3 teaspoons salt
4 tablespoons oil
1 1/2 cups sugar
8 cups flour

In a big bowl combine water, yeast, salt, oil, sugar and 4 cups of flour. Mix well, cover with a light towel and let it rise until it's doubled. About an hour.

Gradually add in the remaining 4 cups of flour, kneading until smooth and turn into a well greased large bowl turning the dough a few times to make sure the dough itself is well coated. Cover and let it rise until doubled. About an hour.

Punch the dough down and turn on to a floured surface and divide into three equal loaves and place into well greased loaf pans. Cover and rise until doubled. About an hour.

Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for between 35-45 minutes.

Turn loaves on to wire racks to cool

See how easy that is!
The recipe calls for bread flour but I always use regular flour because I don't think they had bread flour on the prairie where all the bread making was actually going on and I use active yeast and not quick yeast but I think that only makes a difference in a bread machine and I'm not even entirely sure about that.
I do know though that in this recipe or most other recipes quick and active are usually interchangeable.
At least the way I cook.

I have to go unload the dishwasher and feed the fish and have some bread now.

Happy bread making!

Peas.

Septic Tanked

Last week the neighbors came to us with a concern about the septic.
The ground was a little squishy they said.
Don't worry I said.
I'll pick up some Rid-X in town tomorrow and it will be fine.
Then Six went out to take a look.
It's pretty squishy he said, it needs to be pumped.
Don't be such a nancy I said, they just need some Rid-X  and quit flushing the toilet and showering so much.
Then I went to have a look...
Six was right, it needed to be pumped.
The next morning I called my brother in law who is wise in the ways of such things as septics and other big holes in the ground and he gave me some price ideas to go by and just enough information to be dangerous to a predatory pumper.
I called around and ended up going with Kyle and Clark who seriously seemed to appear straight out of a Saturday Night Live sketch.
Kyle asked how long it had been since the last clean out.
I didn't know.
Clark asked how old the system was.
I didn't know.
Kyle asked how big the tank was.
I didn't know.
Kyle said that this one time a long time ago at this really old house they saw a tank that was so old it was made out of wood.
I gasped and said "NO WAY!"
Kyle put his hand to God and said "I SWEAR!"
We all laughed and I went inside and it wasn't long before Kyle came to the door and said, "guess what..."
I could feel the color falling out of my face and the dollars draining out of the bank as he said, "Now I've seen two."
The neighbor house has a five hundred gallon wooden septic tank.
And it was full.
We decided just to pump it instead of replacing the entire system because the house is so old, you know the expression lipstick on a pig and all, and now we know we need to have it pumped every two to three years.
We have a tank at our house too, so next up in the already long list of things needed to be done is pumping ours and then locating the ones in the trailer park and installing risers so that future clean outs are easy and timely.

After narrowly averting what could have been a major disaster I decided I better brush up on all things septic and septic related and now I am going to share the information I have gleaned above and beyond the obvious non flushing of lady business and diapers.

If you live in a rural area where houses are spread to far apart to be on a sewer system you will have a septic system. A septic system acts as your own private sewage treatment plant right there in your yard.

Let's start with a diagram showing how all this works.

All the waste water in your house drains into the septic tank which ranges in size from 500 to 1500 gallons depending on the size of your home. This includes sink water, shower water and washing machine water. All water. Everything in that water is drained into your tank as well, so if you don't want it in the tank, don't put it down the drain.
The waste water drains into your tank and the solids, otherwise know as sludge, stay on the bottom where they are broken down by healthy bacteria. The water in the middle layer is the clear zone and contains some solids but it's not as dense as the sludge. The scum is made from oils and fat that rise and float to the top.
The middle layer is what drains out into the drain field which is comprised of soil and trenches filled with gravel that act as a filter and neutralize the liquid before it's dispersed into the ground.

Sometimes your system will start to emit some rather unsightly odors. If you know it hasn't been that long since your system was last cleaned out, but still the odor lurks there are some simple things to check.

Make sure all of the p-drains are filled with water. You will find the p-drains under sinks and of course the in the toilet. If you have a guest or basement bathroom that isn't used much that's the best place to start. A simple flush or running the tap for a minute could solve your stink.

It could also be caused by a clogged vent stack on your roof. Make sure the vents are always cleared of leaves, bird nests and whathaveyou.

And of course it could also mean that you may be experiencing problems in the drain filed itself or the distribution box.

The distribution box is what routes the water into the drain field from the tank so all the water isn't flowing like a raging river into one spot of the field.

Now that you understand how the system works, lets talk about some do's and dont's.

Don't

• pour grease of any kind down the drain
• use liquid fabric softener
• flush old medications
• dump coffee grounds down the drain
• flush cigerette butts
• overuse anti-bacterial soaps or cleaners

Do

• limit your time in the shower
• use liquid laundry and dishwasher detergent
• install low flow taps in sinks and showers
• spread your laundry out through the week into smaller loads instead of big loads all in one day
• conserve water whenever possible

Some people believe in feeding your system and I found a simple and inexpensive recipe that would replace the need for a brand name product while being gentle on the system.

2 packages of yeast

2 cups of cornmeal

1 bucket of warm water

Pour down your bathtub drain every six months or so to keep good bacteria levels healthy.

Well, that's about all I know and of course this is all just my research and take on things. 

Take some time and learn all you can about your system because trust me, you don't want to end up learning the hard way! 

Just An Average Post

I am such an unreliable blogger...
I'm here today though to tell you that I'm going to have an important post on Monday about the care and workings of the most important part of your rural home....
Big surprise, but you'll have to wait.

In the meantime, I'll share some pictures from the week.

These are two of the eggs I got today.
I wish I would have put something next to them for size comparison, but trust me, the one on the left looks like it was left by a Tyrannosaurus Rex and the one on the right looks like it fell out of a bubble gum machine.
I think my girls are nearing retirement, but I really don't want to do chicks again.
They're cute and all but kind of a pain in the a$$ if you ask me.

This is Astro and Olive.

They love each other.

Seriously love each other.

Astro, the white one bunched up that sheet and Olive came over and laid down on it and then Astro laid down beside her.

You can't tell in this picture, but Astro weighs eighteen pounds and Olive, much like myself, loves a man that makes her look thin ;)

This is my neighbor at the lake last weekend.

I stayed home and let him spend some time with his parents, but they sent me this photo.

It looks to me as though he's saying, 

"I found the perfect spot Grannyma Mrs. Parks, come on down!"

This is Wyatt at the park last week.

He saw this little squirrel run past so he took off after it, 

(a behavior learned from one of the black and white dogs I assume)

caught it, and it stayed and played with him and his friends!

They all took pictures with it and it ran all over them and then it probably tried to nest and nap in Wyatt's moppy hair.

How often does that happen?

And finally, I saw this somewhere on line this week.

If you ever listen to my opinion on anything, it's this...

Being ok is fine.

The world needs more people who are ok.

We don't all need to be the best and have the best house and the best car and the best closet full of Pinterest crafts and the best dressed kids with the best grades eating the best farm to table freshly grown worlds best organic beets.

It's ok to have an ok Christmas wreath that you bought at the dollar store still hanging on your door in May and it's ok to serve frozen broccoli for dinner and it's ok if your dog poops on the floor sometimes.

Do you know why?

Because really, that's all of us.

We are all ok and just doing our best every day.

Just try not to cross that thin line into worst ;)

Happy Mothers Day Everyone

❤

Peas