My Barefoot Farm

Personal and Family Information:
Dennis lives with his father and his mother. His father is sometimes employed as a farmer and his mother is sometimes employed as a farmer. Dennis works at home running errands. There are 7 children in the family.

For fun, Dennis enjoys playing ball games and playing group games. He attends church activities regularly and is in kindergarten where his performance is average.

There are some amazing bloggers in Kenya this week. They are there to spread the word about Compassion International, and the pictures and stories are sweet, sad, hopeful, amazing, inspiring. There is one blogger who I follow and his pictures and stories cannot be described, only read first hand. Go visit him HERE.

My girls and I have been reading and thinking and decided we should sponsor a child. My oldest found Dennis. He’s perfect! We cannot wait to send letters, love and prayers his way.

What inspires you?

This is what my corner of Georgia looked like this morning. Hard to believe that this is the South and that in a few months it willbe super hot outside. At least I THINK it will be.

Since today was a day to sit around and do laundry (for me), I found my very new and favorite craft.

Felt food!!! I think I am addicted too.

I have been seeing several blogs with some fabulously talented women crafting felt food that you would think was real! I finally pulled out my felt stash and got busy.

These fried eggs were the quickest and easiest to sew and did not require a pattern.

The bow-tie pasta also did not require a pattern and my 11 year old made these for me. She will make more once I cut them out for her.

These eggs I used a pattern. I plan to make an assortment of colors to represent all the eggs I get from my hens, however I need to buy some more floss to sew them together. I found the pattern HERE and they will inspire you with the Easter Eggs they made.

This food set will make a great birthday gift for a very special niece who will turn 2 in May. We are planning to make several items, and I will also make some food for my little girls here. Who can resist?

There is a piece of land next to ours that is used as a quail farm. This means that a local man raises Bobwhite Quail and will dump them out there so other men can “hunt” them with their dogs. I say “hunt” because to me this is not true hunting, but I suppose it keeps the dogs trained. REAL quail hunting is what my dad does. He will go out West and actually look for the wild quail and hunt them, but I digress.

Saturday my oldest daughter was outside and saw the men right up to our property line fence cussing. Apparently a bird escaped over the fence and into our land.

Later that afternoon, she had been caught by our cat and managed to escape again. We found her in the garage and caught her.

She has been named Penna.

She is in a drop pen outside with hay, food, and water. We will make sure she is recovered (she lost quite a few feathers) and will release her back onto our land. Of course it will be the side far away from the quail hunting side. Hopefully, she will not be caught again:-)

*******UPDATE. As soon as I published this post my oldest told me Penna died lastnight. Poor baby. She might have had some shots in her from the hunters or been damaged by the cat, although she appeared ok from what we could tell. She almost made it and now we will bury her.*******

Here is a picture that was taken on August 6, 2008. It was the day our sweet boy was born. I love these family pictures. They are wonderful. They also bring back wonderful memories of a very special day in my family’s life, the day we met a new member of the family.

Lately this family has been challenged on two fronts, the first being religion and the other being our decision to have so many kids. It stews in my mind. I thought I would address them both here and maybe I will feel better and perhaps the offending parties will learn something valuable.

Where to begin.

I grew up in a church that never thought I was good enough. It didn’t matter how well I behaved, how much money I gave, how much faith I had. It was never enough. Ever. After time, I quit going.

In college I made effort again, real strong effort. Guess what? Not enough. I never lived up, never had enough faith or good works, never could be good enough for Jesus. I gave up and gave out.

Then I met my husband. He grew up in a much different church and actually had more exposure to the bible and other religions than I had. He told me I grew up with a warped sense of who Jesus was, that I actually learned religion and not Jesus.

While a religion might tell you to attend every Sunday and Wednesday and dress up perfect and you will still not have enough faith, Jesus says different. He says that where you go, He will also go and don’t worry about looking perfect. He has seen us at our worst and is rather interested in our hearts. Are we good enough? Yes, we are His sons and daughters.

From a parenting perspective we always love our children and even if my toddler is acting up all day I still take the time to pick him up, embrace him and tell him I love him. Jesus does the same. Always.

It took years to undo my childhood learned perspective, but when I had my first baby and held her in my arms I knew. I felt His embrace. I heard the “I love you.” I knew I was good enough. It took 23 years, but it happened and it gets stronger every year and with every baby.

Why have so many kids? Why do it? Although most of our friends and family are supportive, there are some who think we are crazy. We have even been called irresponsible and asked if we realized how difficult it will be to make big  purchases if we keep having kids.

I feel sorry for these nay-sayers, truly. As a large-ish family we are blessed beyond words, and we know that there is something far more valuable than all of the cars, houses, tractors, vacations, and “me time” in all the world and it is family. FAMILY.

We also have faith that we are doing what is asked of us, we have felt led each time we have a child. If God wants to gives us a child, why would we even think of refusing? If we had stopped after 3 kids, then I would not have met these last 3 until I reached Heaven, and I am sure I would be sad to have missed my time on Earth with them. We don’t know how many we will have. It’s truly not our decision.

Some family and friends think we are not religious because we do not attend a church like theirs each Sunday. I say we (and especially Devin) have a faith that goes beyond the church pew and fills our quiver. They want to preach to our children about how to know Jesus. No thank you, for Jesus lives in our home and in our hearts and He directs this growing family. Please, remove the plank from your eye before you attempt to remove the speck from our eye.

No I do not feel everyone should have a bunch of kids, but for us it works. It feels right. We feel blessed. We are happy.

So to the supporters, thank you. We love you and appreciate your vision and wisdom.

To the nay-sayers I have 3 words:

Family is everything!

Wow, just wait until the hormones really start to kick in:-)

******UPDATE. I did not mean to sound as if I had a bad childhood or suffered a lack of self esteem in any way. Far from it! I just meant to emphasize that at church I felt less than good enough. The church leaders never saw me as a worthy member, and that is not what I think a church should be about. My parents were wonderful and gave me everything growing up and still do!******

My Barefoot Farm is expecting another sweet baby in September!!!!

This, friends, explains why I have not been here often. Morning sickness hit me early and hit me hard. My house, hobbies, and chores have been neglected and my day consists of trying to feed my children and myself. The End.

Thanks for hanging in there, and hopefully I will start feeling more like my energetic self in a few more days.

It’s cold and rainy outside, BUT for us it is spring!

The post office called in the wee early morning hours to tell me my baby chicks had arrived!

This Aracauna really caught my eye. She is so fluffy!

Welcome Spring!!!

Now, where is the warm weather?

Sorry I have been absent! This family has managed to stay well all winter, until a few days ago. We all have bad colds, and it has been a struggle to cook and clean. I don’t even want to describe the piles in my laundry room and trust me when I say you don’t want to hear about them. With that said, the weather is a fantastic 60 degrees and the honeybees are out, although I did lose another hive to the cold. I want to tell you all about what we did last Wednesday! We drove to the airport because we ordered something that was shipped via cargo on Delta airlines from San Antonio, Texas.

Here Devin is about to open this nice little package at home.

Here he is getting it out. Also notice that the two younger girls had still not brushed their hair and this was at 2:00 pm. It’s not a requirement for living out here.

Meet Cortana. She looks a little like a mouse or a sugar glider, but she is neither.

She is a baby southern flying squirrel. Boy is she a cutie-pie!

She still needs milk for about 2 more weeks along with her diet of fruits and nuts. She loves to be held in a shirt pocket and in fact must be held nearly all of the time so that she will bond with the family.

She is as soft as she looks and her personality has already blossomed.

Devin is once again a “momma.”

Here we go. We are going to make a traditional French style sourdough bread that has a slight sour flavor. You can use this bread in just about anything, a sandwich, french toast, you name it.

Gather your ingredients:

5  2/3  cups all purpose flour

1  3/4 cups warm water

2  1/2 cups starter

2  1/2 tsp salt

First off stir your starter and then measure out 2 1/2 cups into a large bowl.

Add the water and stir it up.

Now add the flour and mix it by hand until the flour is all incorporated but not yet smooth. This will take a couple of minutes.

This is what your dough will look like. Now, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set this to the side to rest for 20 minutes.

While it rests, feed the starter you still have left. Add 1 cup warm water and 1 cup flour. Stir it up well and decide how to maintain the starter. Here are the choices.

1. You can maintain it at room temperature on your counter. Room temperature is a fine atmosphere but you will have to maintain it daily. It is an easy task, but for me it uses too much flour. Each day pour off half the starter and add 1 cup of water and 1 cup of flour.

2. You can maintain the starter in the refrigerator. You will need to feed it only weekly. Again, pour off half and add 1 cup of water and 1 cup of flour. It is recommended that you keep the starter out for 2 hours before returning it to the fridge, but I never do. A day before baking, just set the starter out, feed it, and keep it on the counter overnight.

If you ever find that your starter has been neglected (such as not fed for 2 weeks) fear not! You will find a clear dark liquid on top (alcohol) and you need only stir it up, pour half out, and feed it. Very rarely will a neglected starter show signs of mold (pink or reddish).

Now it is time to scrape the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and place the salt on top. You are now going to knead the salt into the dough and get the dough nice and smooth. It will be slightly sticky, but try and avoid adding any flour other than what you sprinkled onto the counter for kneading.

When you are finished your dough should look like this. Isn’t it pretty? Now, spray a bowl (I clean out the one just used) with non-stick spray and place the dough in the bowl. Cover it with plastic wrap.

This dough needs to rise in a warm place for about an hour. I like to place mine in the oven (the oven is OFF) and I just keep the oven light on for some heat. It works perfectly.

After about an hour your dough will be puffy and you will notice it has risen.

Gently turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface.

Gently pat the dough out so as to not deflate all of the bubbles.

Here is mine after I patted it out. Now we are going to fold it.

First fold the top over.

Next fold the bottom over the top.

Now fold one side over.

Now fold the other side over and you have a nice folded piece of dough! Gently pick it up and place it back into a sprayed bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and place it back in the OFF oven with a light on.

Allow this to rise for about an hour.

After this rising, gently turn the dough out again onto a lightly floured surface.

There are 2 ways you can shape your loaves. You can put them in regular bread pans, making 2 loaves, or you can shape it into a boule (French for ball). I will show you both ways. To make 2 regular bread loaves you will need to divide the dough into 2 sections.

Using your hands, gently shape  each section of the dough into the shape of the bread pan and place each into a lightly sprayed loaf pan. Don’t fret too much over the exact shape. Allow it to rise uncovered in the OFF oven with a light on for about 2 hours.

After 2 hours it will have risen just above the rim of the loaf pan. You can now turn the oven on to 400 degrees and bake the bread for about 40 minutes. When it is done it will have a dark golden crust and will sound hollow if you tap on it.

Allow it to cool just a few minutes and then turn the loaves out of the pans to cool completely on a wire rack.

Yummy! Now, if you want to make a more traditional French shaped loaf, turn the dough out onto the lightly floured surface, but do not divide it. You will be making a very large round loaf.

Gather the edges of the dough together. Turn it over and keep pulling the edges in towards you so that you have a tightened ball of dough. This takes practice, so just do your best.

This is a proofing basket and it is what I use to allow this ball of dough to rise in as it makes a beautiful loaf with “rings” imprinted on it. You most likely do not own one and that’s no big deal.

Instead get a bowl and line it with a dish towel. Sprinkle the towel generously with flour and place the ball in this bowl with the seam side up.

Allow this to rise about 2 hours in the OFF oven with a light turned on.

Gently turn the dough out onto a parchment lined baking sheet. I use a round baking stone. You can use a non-stick spray if you do not have parchment paper.

My dough stuck just a tad to my towel, and this will happen to you too if you do not use enough flour on the towel. I am flexible though and view this  as “no biggie!”

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and place this loaf in there to bake it 45-50 minutes.

When it is finished you will have a nice golden crust. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool.

When it is time to eat this bread, keep in mind that the crust is very crunchy. I like to use an electric knife, but a good quality serrated knife will work well.

All you have to decide now is how to eat this beauty! Plain, with butter, with jam, broil it with ham and cheese, make garlic bread, french toast…or

My favorite is egg in a blanket. This is my favorite lunch ever. Yes, lunch.

Now that you have a starter you can practice making more bread. The more you do it, the easier it becomes. I will also post recipes other than bread for the starter such as pancakes and waffles.

Great job! You made a loaf of sourdough bread BY HAND from start to finish! That is an accomplishment!

(pat yourself on the back)

Okay! We have been feeding the starter for over a week now and you have some nice bubbles and it rises and falls nicely.

Now we have to make a larger quantity of it so that there is enough to bake bread.

This afternoon or evening:

1. Pour off all but 1/2 cup of starter

2. Add 1 cup warm water

3. Add 2 cups all purpose flour.

4. Stire well until the mixture is free of lumps and allow to ferment 8 hours.

Tomorrow we will bake a loaf of bread! Any questions?

Technically we could go ahead and increase the starter so that we can bake bread tomorrow. I have learned, however, that it is best to give the starter a couple more days to grow and bubble. I am cautious because it is frustrating to spend all morning working on your bread only to have it not rise as well as you had hoped.

So, only a day or two left then we will increase the quantity and then bake bread!

Today and tomorrow:

1. Discard half the starter

2. Add 1 cup all purpose flour

3. Add 1/2 cup warm water

4. Stir well and place in warm spot.

5. Repeat these steps again in the evening.

Monday we will increase the starter. Tuesday,  we are baking bread!!!!!!