Tuesday's Tails - 02/11/2014

Sunday, we tore down the old pieced together with chicken wire, T-posts, pallets and cattle panels chicken run and put up this new one. When I removed the wire holding the old gate to the T-post, it actually fell over because the termites had eaten the bottom! Jerry likes this MUCH better, the old one was a real eyesore. Here is a picture from 2011, the coop is out of the picture to the left. Quite an improvement I'd say!

The new run is a 10 x 10 x 6-foot chain link dog kennel that we purchased from Tractor Supply. We also purchased two extra 10 x 6-foot chain link panels to make it 10 x 20 x 6-foot and purchased the shade/roof kit. We covered the open top area with 2 x 4-inch wire. The chickens wouldn't come out of their coop when we opened their little door so Jerry went in and chased them out. Once they got out, they seemed to really like it. They have extra room too as the old run was only 8 x 16. What Jerry and I really like though is the 6-foot height, the old height was only 4 1/2 feet. I still catch myself stooping over when I go in to give them feed and water. ;)

By the way, I LOVE Tractor Supply and am really glad they finally made it to Arizona and to our little town!

Quilt Progress

Whew, I have been working diligently on my chicken applique quilt! So far, I have all the blocks and chickens cut out, the chickens fused on and just finished up sewing them all onto the blocks. I used the blanket stitch on my sewing machine for the applique.

Now, I have to cut the strips that will go in between the blocks and rows, cut the border strips and get everything pieced together. That will finish the quilt top and get me caught up with the Quilt-A-Long. :)
Linking up with The Rurality Blog Hop and Farmgirl Friday.

Quilt-A-Long

I'm excited to be joining Melissa at Tilly's Nest in my first ever Quilt-A-Long! Here are the fabrics I picked up today for my quilt top. We are making a chicken applique lap quilt. This is good for me because it won't be so big that I get intimidated about getting it finished. The first five fabrics are for my blocks and chicken appliques, the fabric on the right is for the borders.

I have pieced quilt tops before but have never actually quilted, I have always finished my projects by tying, so this is new for me.

I'm a little late to the party but figure I can catch up easily enough. You can join in too here! My fabrics are in the washing machine and I hope to get everything cut out tomorrow. I hope ya'll don't get too sick of seeing my updates! ;)  

Random 5 Friday - 01/31/2014

1.  YAY!! I did it! I made bagels and they turned out great! :) I used this recipe with the brown sugar option.

2.  The weather has been unseasonably warm here for the past few weeks while most of you have been dealing with Polar Vortexes.

3.  As a result, my fruit trees are trying to bud out. This does not bode well for the fruit harvest this summer.

4.  On the other hand though, my winter garden is doing great! Spinach, radishes, carrots, kale, beets, turnips, rutabagas and snow peas are all coming along nicely.

5.  It's time to get the outdoor cats, Bert and Ernie, "fixed." Somekitty sprayed in Jerry's shop yesterday.

Hmmm...pretty random ramblings today. Linking up with Nancy for Random 5 Friday.

Pretzel Rolls

I was looking at the King Arthur Flour website the other day and came across this recipe. I know pretzel buns and rolls are all the rage right now but I haven't had one. I have looked at different recipes for making them but they all seemed a bit fussy, until I found this one! These babies are fabulous; crusty on the outside and nice and chewy on the inside! Jerry told me that this may be the best bread I have ever made! ;)

Pretzel Rolls               **Click here to print this recipe**

Dough
     1 3/4 cups warm water
     2 tablespoons unsalted butter
     3/4 teaspoon salt
     4 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
     1/4 cut nonfat dry milk
     2 teaspoons instant yeast

Topping
     coarse sea salt or Kosher salt

Water Bath
     2 quarts water
     1 tablespoon salt
     1/4 cup baking soda

Directions
     Mix and knead the dough ingredients - by hand, mixer or bread machine - to make a smooth, slightly sticky dough. Allow the dough to rise in a lightly greased bowl, covered, for about one hour, until doubled. Gently deflate the dough and transfer to a lightly greased work surface. With lightly greased hands, divide the dough into 8 pieces for sandwich rolls or 12 pieces for dinner rolls and shape each piece into a smooth ball. Place the balls on a lightly greased piece of parchment paper placed on a baking sheet, cover and let rest for 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees

Prepare the water bath: Bring the water, salt and baking soda to a boil in a large pot. Drop 3 dough balls at a time into the water bath. (I should have used a deeper pot) Cook for 30 seconds, flip over and cook for 30 seconds longer.

Using a slotted spoon, return the rolls to the baking sheet. Using scissors or a sharp knife, cut 1/2" deep crosses into the center of each roll. Sprinkle with the coarse salt.

Bake for 20 to 24 minutes or until the rolls are a deep, dark brown. Cover loosely with foil after 10 minutes if necessary so they don't get too brown. Cool completely on a wire rack.

The only problem I have is that after being in a bag overnight, the salt on the tops kind of melted away. Jerry dearly loves bagels and now that I have gotten past the whole fear of boiling bread dough thingy, I think I'll have to give them a try! :)

Linking up with the Rurality Blog Hop and Farmgirl Friday.

Pink Sock Monkey

I made a pink sock monkey for granddaughter JayCee yesterday. My plan is to send it to her for Valentine's Day.

Jerry says the monkey is kind of "creepy" looking and he hopes it doesn't scare her! Ya' know, I think he may be right! ;)

New Bathroom Curtains

So, a couple of years ago, I started crocheting this panel to go in our bathroom window. I've never figured out why they would put an eye-level bathroom window in a house without some type of privacy glass and I realize we could just close the blinds but I don't like keeping the blinds down, it makes it too dark.

Anyway, since I'm 'retired' now, I have been finishing up some craft projects. I used cotton crochet thread that I already had on hand and this used up all of it. I knew I wanted a valance for the top but felt that it needed a little something more; especially since my crocheted panel isn't quite wide enough to go all the way across! (blush)

I thought the addition of the side curtains looked rather nice and hid my oops. We both really like the way the curtains have changed the whole feel of the bathroom. :)

Linking up with Farmgirl Friday.