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Bee Sting Remedy

8/29/2015

Bear here... Currently I am not a happy guy!

I was grilling the tomatoes for our salsa that Theresa was going to can this weekend. I was done and decided to take a drink out of my root beer bottle and something was floating in the swig I took. Before I could spit it out, the bee stung my inner lip. When I looked, there were three other bees floating in the bottle, drinking MY root beer! Little turds.

A home remedy for bee stings is a baking soda and water paste on the area stung. Problem one, the paste tastes nasty. Problem two, have you ever tried to keep a thin paste between your lip and teeth? It goes all over the place in the mouth. Time for something different...

Plantain is the plant of choice. Chew a big leaf and keep it in place like you would chewing tobacco.

(Plantain is the weed in the photo to the left with the oval leaves and flower spikes. Theresa suggested I try it for the sting, and followed me to the yard to make sure I picked the right plant. She reminds me that I should suggest you research all plants for yourself before deciding what's good to use for yourself or your family.)

It ain't pretty but it worked. I used it for around twenty minutes and my lip is a little swollen but seems fine.

Remember to look before you drink.

Type at ya later...

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Beer Bread in a Solar Oven

8/21/2015

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Hi, Bear here...

Does this title grab your attention? I hope so. I haven't been blogging much lately (Theresa says "Summer is so busy with other stuff") and I hope people haven't lost interest. Still here, just sayen... Anyway...

We have been learning to use the solar oven we bought at the Mother Earth News Fair a few weeks ago. We were told that it is great for making bread. I wanted to try it out with a simple beer bread idea I got from the book:

Grub!: Cookin' fer mountain men

Here we go...

It is best to warm up your solar oven before you are ready to use it.

I set ours up in our driveway when I got home from work so it would have at least 1/2 hour of warm up time, after which the oven temp read 300 degrees F (in full sun with the door sealed shut).

(If you are using a regular oven the GRUB! book says to bake for about 45 min. at 350 degrees.)

Assemble your tools and ingredients:

The book helps
12 oz. of beer at room temp.
3 cups self rising flour: We don't have self rising flour, so I checked a book by my guru Alton Brown and found you can make your own by combining 1 cup flour, 1 1/2 tsp. of baking powder, and 1/2 tsp of salt. For this bread, I used 2 cups whole wheat flour and 1 cup white flour, plus my favorite smoked salt.

Oops... I also need some butter to lightly grease the bread pans. Then lightly flour them.

(Side note... The book calls for one bread pan. I am thinking the last time I tried this there was enough dough for two pans, so I am ready just in case.)

Whisk or combine the dry ingredients until they are well mixed. (Especially if you are using the baking powder. Clumps of that stuff taste nasty.)

Oh by the way... READ THE FLIPPEN RECIPE! The book calls for 4 tablespoons of sugar (I like brown sugar) which I didn't have in the first photo but I did mix in after checking the book, again.

Next note: 12 oz. of beer is more than a cup. I figured that out when I mixed a cup of beer in and the dough looked a lot dryer than the last time. Silly me, wanting to drink more leftovers.

When you mix it right the dough should look like this (left). Let the dough rest for 10 min. (I am guessing to let the flour absorb more of the liquid.)

Guys, now is the time to earn brownie points. Clean up the mess, chicks dig that. Am I right ladies? I got to clean the dishes and that extra bread pan I didn't use.

Load the oven and let it bake. When time is up check the bread with a toothpick or a fork. Put the fork into the center of the bread. If it comes out clean, the bread is done. If not, continue baking and check every 5 - 10 min. until done in a regular oven, or less often in a solar oven.

For a regular oven: bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees F.

For the solar oven, the bread took 1 hr. 45 min. (I checked it every 1/2 hour and moved the oven so it would keep facing the sun.)

Looks like Theresa is home. Time to get off the computer and eat some dinner.

Type at ya later...

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Mother Earth News Fair Update

8/14/2015

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Bear here...

Sorry, no pictures this time. We made it to the Mother Earth News Fair and had a great time. The weather was perfect on Saturday, it was hotter on Sunday but still bearable. There were lots of gadgets to look at and lots of classes on a wide variety of gardening, farming, homesteading, and cooking topics.

This Fair and our Buy Nothing Challenge did NOT work well together because we didn't resist the urge to spend lots of money. We found too many useful and helpful items to buy, including:

SOLAR OVEN: On sunny days we can cook without electricity. Theresa points out that it also dehydrates, sanitizing jars, and pasteurizes water. I know it's well-built- I used it on a windy day and it fell off our table but didn't break. (Oops... we fixed that problem.) Hoping to have a lot of good stories about sun powered cooking.
WOOD SPLITTER: I call it a drop maul or maul on a stick. Instead of swinging an ax, I lift a seven pound weight and let it drop on the cutter that splits the wood. It has already saved me a lot of time and pain, and I'm much less likely to injure myself.
A HAND CRANK FLOUR MILL: We can buy whole grains, dried corn, chickpeas, etc., and make our own flour from them for better tasting and more nutritious breads. Theresa is hoping to use it to make flour from some of the edible weed seeds we let grow in the yard. (When we got home she let me know we paid more for the mill than we paid for our computer. I asked "Does that make you happy or unhappy ?" She said she would let me know, later... ???)
6 BOOKS: We did well restraining ourselves. (LOTS of interesting books... MANY interesting subjects... MUST RUN AWAY BEFORE WE GO BROKE!)

My favorite class was how to make cheese in less than an hour. I kinda knew the secret of good cheese was good ingredients. What I didn't know was you can make at least 3 different styles of cheese by adjusting temperatures. I bought the presenter's book and am going to experiment as soon as I can:

One-Hour Cheese: Ricotta, Mozzarella, Chèvre, Paneer--Even Burrata. Fresh and Simple Cheeses You Can Make in an Hour or Less!

In another class, I found that I am not cut out to make my own aged sausages. You have to control the temperature and humidity for weeks, months, even years. I don't have enough patience for that hobby. (If we raised our own animals, maybe then? )

We may have failed our Buy Nothing Challenge at the Fair, but what we bought should definitely contribute to our homestead and being more self-sufficient, so we're trying not to feel too guilty about it.

Type at ya later...

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Mother Earth News Fair in WI

8/4/2015

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Bear here...

I am guessing that a lot of you know about the magazine Mother Earth News. They have three large fairs this year, one of them is in Wisconsin. We are heading there this weekend. Lots of workshops, demos, and vendors. Here is the link to their fair info if anyone interested.

http://www.motherearthnewsfair.com/wisconsin/ ... crud, that don't look right.

Hope this works... http://www.motherearthnewsfair.com/wisconsin/

That's better...

type at ya later

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