Thank you to all the new folks who have choosen to follow my blog! I love comments and will try and reply back to you in the comment section! For those who asked for a link to the grain mill we got: http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/KoMo_grain_mill_wolfgang_flour_mill_grinder_mills.aspx It's the PK1 110v model. Pricey, but oh so worth it! I'm not in "get back to baking bread" mode. I tried the first few loaves with my Kitchen Aid mixer, but wasn't happy with the results. Yesterday, I made my oatmeal bread by hand and was much happier...I thought I was loosing my touch! I'll be trying various recipes over the next couple months, incorporating more and more fresh ground grain into them as I go. I'm waiting until after the holiday to get into my garden seed starting going, so stay tuned! This year, we hope to get a greenhouse up and going. We want to go with glass, since the wind here has a tendancy to rip most other materials to shreds. We'll see how that goes. I've got hoops up over a couple of my beds for the purpose of putting plastic over them and getting an early start. However, as mentioned, the wind ripped my previous attemp to shreds....maybe a different plastic this time. I found a nifty little thing this week when researching my radio show. I try to incorporate a "recipe" or "prep" of the week each show. Lately, the recipes have been for homemade cleaning products. I''m trying to find dual uses for things I store and reduce the extra stuff like the cleaning supplies from the store. Here is what I wrote on this item: Cream of Tartar – this is an ingredient often used in baking. It comes in a little jar in the grocery and it usually sits on the shelf happily, at the back of the cupboard for years. I think the bottle I got cost about $3 for a couple of ounces. When I was stocking up on bulk supplies, I accidentally got sent a pound of cream of tartar and it cost $6 for a pound. Of course, remembering the small jar that has sat in the cupboard for years I wondered how many life times it would take to use that pound up! So, I researched what it was and how it could be used. I found that there are several household cleaning recipes that use cream of tartar! PLUS, if you have kids or grandkids, you can use it to make home made play dough! Cream of tartar has acidic and mild abrasive properties. Most of the uses I saw were for cleaning metals. you can make a paste of cream of tartar and vinegar (or another acid, such as lemon juice) which is great for buffing and cleaning many metals. In addition, you can boil a solution of 2 tablespoons cream of tartar, 1/2 cup vinegar or lemon juice, and 1 quart of water in a metal pot for ten minutes to help clean it. Another way to use cream of tartar for cleaning pots and pans is as part of a homemade scrub powder to remove grease and grime. Here are the ingredients: • 2 1/2 cups baking soda • 1 1/2 cups salt • 2 tablespoons cream of tartar Combine these ingredients together and place in a large container, with a cover. When you are ready to use it pour a couple of tablespoons of the powder onto the cookware and scrub with a nylon scrubber which has been slighly moistened with water. You can also use this on most sinks and other fixtures as well. Very cheap and useful item when bought in bulk. This will replace an item like Comet or Ajax. Have a very Happy New Year folks! Make your goal list a good one!