Bread and Butter

After searching for a year or more, we finally subscribed to an Ohio "herd share" in order to be able to have raw milk (thank you, Paula and Kim!).  We now own a small portion of the cows on Log Cabin Farm run by the Yoders in Apple Creek from whom we get milk, cream, and yogourt.

We mainly wanted the milk so that we could make cultured butter after reading about it in a NY Times article.  We left our first gallon of milk out on the counter overnight to let the cream rise to the top, then realized that the cream had already been skimmed off.  Oops.  Milk turned a little sour,  not so good for drinking but just fine for making bread, and it led us to discover a fantastic and ridiculously fast and easy soda bread recipe in our "Forgotten Skills" cookbook.

The following week we ordered a pint of cream.  It was unbelievably thick and luscious, so much so that when we made butter, there was absolutely no buttermilk and no kneading required.  It was delicious.

We ordered another pint this week but this cream was a little more liquidy (is that a word?).  We put it in the food processor and "churned" it for maybe 3 minutes.  Voila! a big lump of butter in a puddle of buttermilk.  We kneaded the butter to get all the milk out, which took about 10 minutes.

It was fun to do by hand but it's easy to see why butter paddles might be useful.  Unfortunately, we forgot to add salt so we had to knead it a second time.

In the end, we had a crusty but light-crumbed soda bread, about a pound of the best-tasting butter ever, and a small glass of buttermilk.  What a breakfast!

Next stop:  an antique store to find butter molds!  But note the pretty butter dish that we recently inherited from Dominique's mother.

Improvements:  a tad less salt.

The Big Freeze

Yesterday Cleveland experienced its coldest Jan. 7 since 1884 - minus 11 degrees.  Frozen water everywhere:

frozen reservoir

azalea icicles

Sunny at the reservoir

At least someone likes the cold.










Here at the Buckeye and the Frog it's been 30 hours and counting with no running water.  We had a small trickle when we got up yesterday morning and, had we any sense at all, we would have kept the faucets open.  Unfortunately, we didn't, and soon after the water stopped.  We are literally melting snow to be able to flush the toilets and give water to the chickens and Sunny. 

We almost fought over a cup of water slowly being formed in our Brita from ice cubes.  This morning I felt like a homeless person, plotting my route downtown to include the library in order to wash my hands!  Maybe the worst problem is the pile of dishes mounting in the sink.


Of course, it could have been worse:  it could have happened last week when our kids were still here; we could be having guests; and my mom could live somewhere other than around the corner where we will be heading later for showers and probably some buckets of water.  Still, this is no fun at all.

The plumber has been called - twice - and with luck will make his way to us today.

New egg!

Two batches of homemade eggnog this holiday season plus the homecoming of our 5 children really depleted our egg reserves!  Fortunately, one of our newest chicks - we believe it's the lavender orpington - surprised us with her first egg this morning.  What a cute little egg it is, so small compared to the brown one from Bucky and the blue one from Goose, and pink!

We were surprised to have an egg from one of them now because we didn't expect them to start laying until at least January and possibly not until February.  It seems that orpingtons are a relatively fast-maturing breed (good to know).

We've learned that 3 laying hens is about right to keep us in eggs for ourselves and our guests with a nice reserve for cakes and other goodies.  When the other 2 start laying - and I guess they will soon enough - we'll be overflowing, but that's a good problem to have.  Sadly, chicken attrition can happen without warning.

First snow winter 2013-14

Oh yes, now I remember why we love Oberlin in the winter!  All it takes is one good deep snowfall - the transformation from dreary drab to frosty playground is instantaneous and invigorating.

I should have been painting our 3rd floor rooms but, under the pretext of getting Sunny out for a walk, I put on my skis and headed for the golf course.  Some of the skiing was great, but for the most part, the snow was a bit too sticky, it was more like snowshoeing than skiing.

Hmm, sticky snow?  Time to make a snowman, obviously! Lots of people had the same idea; snowmen were popping up all over Oberlin!  Not to mention snow forts and miscellaneous other structures.

We love our "bonhomme de neige."  Hope he doesn't melt for a long time.  I still want to get in some good skiing!

Running some numbers

We're not quite at the end of the year yet but I couldn't help looking at our customer database from May 2012 until now.  I was surprised and impressed to see that we have had guests from 32 different states, plus the District of Columbia, and from 11 different countries!  The largest number of guests came from New York, followed by California.

Our occupancy rate went from 27% in 2012 to 32% in 2013.  This even though we implemented our 2-night stay policy and closed the B&B on several occasions due to vacations and other reasons.  As we prepare to lift our 2-night policy pending the hire of a housekeeper, the occupancy rate should be even higher in 2014.

Beyond and more important than the numbers, of course, is the fact that we feel good about where we are with the B&B.  We've come a long way since May 4, 2012.  We subscribe to the principle of continuous improvement, but we're not doing too badly, I think.

Rebuilding the flock

Following the demise of Mimique and the tragic deaths of 2 of our buckeyes, we have added a new chicken and started raising 3 new chicks.

We have our chicken from Wild Goose Garden, in Oberlin, courtesy of Kim Annable.  She is an Americauna and lays blue/green eggs, just like Chipmunk.  We named her Goose - partly in honor of her provenance, partly because she's gray, and partly because we think it's a funny name for a chicken.

Goose - but the picture doesn't do her justice

Crazy story about Goose:  Within 15 minutes of having her at home, she escaped into the woods behind our house.  Dominique and I beat the bushes for a long time but didn't find her and eventually had some place we needed to be.  When we returned home later that night, we went out with flashlights to see if she had roosted in the tree branches.  No sign of her.  The next morning, I put out "Missing Chicken" signs and once again combed the woods.  Nothing.

Later that morning, as I stood in the kitchen talking to my daughter, Jessie, she happened to look out the door.  A strange look came over her face as she said, "Well, look who's here."  And who should it be but our crazy Goose, scratching and pecking as if nothing were amiss at all.  Needless to say we hustled her into the pen and slammed the door!

Maybe an hour or so later I noticed that I had a voice message on my phone.  Someone had actually spotted Goose in the neighbor's yard across the street from us and called to tell us!  Of course it was after the fact by then, but how great that someone would take the time!

Goose is having a hard time adjusting to life at the Buckeye and the Frog thanks to our remaining buckeye, Bucky (clever name, eh?).  That pecking order stuff is real and a bit vicious.  She hasn't been hurt but she sure gets chased a lot.  Detente is coming slowly but surely, however; they all roost together now and Bucky's chasing has diminished.  Hopefully Goose will relax enough to start laying some eggs soon!

Cagney, Purpur, and Angela

Angela, Cagney, and Purpur

As for the babies, we picked them up from Meyer Hatchery on August 20 when they were 2 days old.  Although I asked for another dominique and a Jersey giant, my email was never linked to my order so what we have is a silver-laced wyandott, a German spitzhauben, and a blue or lavendar orpington.  They are named Cagney, Angela, and Purpur.  All seem healthy and are very happy to spend the day outside.  It will be several weeks yet before we introduce them to the older chickens - the pecking order business is especially hard on little chicks but soon they'll easily be able to outrun their elders!

R.I.P., Mimique

Mimique 8-9-2010

9-14-2010

Sadly, when we returned to the B&F after our amazing vacation in Africa, we learned that Mimique had a paralyzed leg and was basically unable to move.  Three days later, she was dead.  We don't know what caused her death although she was found on the ground under the roost, next to a broken egg.  Going on 3 years old, Mimique was laying larger and larger eggs and a google search revealed that sometimes a very large egg can cause paralysis.  Maybe that was it.

We are very sad for our little amputee dominique.  She was a pretty, gentle hen and the head chicken of the flock.  We planted a memorial "Rosy Glow" barberry bush in our backyard and held a small burial ceremony for her.  RIP

There are two silver linings to this otherwise unhappy story.  First, Mimique was the first of our chickens to die of natural causes.  Yay for us.  Second, I now feel justified in buying some new chicks.  Chipmunk is the same age as Mimique and although she could live for another year or two (or more), we will want to make sure that we have enough laying hens to keep us in eggs for our guests.  So we have three day-old chicks arriving on Aug. 19 -  rare breeds, and hopefully including a Jersey giant and another dominique.

Head of the flock

Laying an egg