A deliberate life…


Thoreau wrote:
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary.

I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience…”

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Lovely Orange Cake

Over the holidays, I made this recipe that I had found on an Australian blog site awhile back. I wish I remembered which, but I know it just sounded good. I love to cut and paste recipes and then give them a try, see if I can make them and if we like them. Sometimes, they need a little tweek, but this one was pretty good to go. It has such a lovely smell when it’s cooking, the fresh oranges just make it devine! I would think that you could do the same with other citrus, perhaps lemon? Lime? I might add a teeny bit more sugar to balance out the pucker in those fruits… still, it was a really good treat and I think I’ll be making this again and again!

Orange Pound Cake

1 orange
3 eggs
3/4 a cup melted butter
1 cup white sugar
1½ cups self raising flour OR 1½ plain  (all purpose) flour with 1½ teaspoons baking powder sifted in

Preheat oven to 350 F…. I used two loaf pans for this one, and gave it a little spray of cooking spray. If you’d rather, you can use all in one pan, it will fit. Or it’s nice in a 8 x 8 pan! Wonderfully adaptable recipe!

Cut up an large orange, and chop up the insides. Cut about a 1/4 of the peel really fine or grate with a zester. (Original recipe you just food processed the whole orange, peel and all, but I’ll admit, that was a little toooo, well zesty for us. Too many peel pieces were too big or odd to the texture. When I cut it back to 1/4 of the peel zested or finely diced, it was PERFECT! )

Add the rest of the ingredients and process again or stir until everything is mixed together, about 30 seconds.

Pour in the pan, and cook for about 40 minutes. (A little less if you use a larger pan and it spreads out… just watch it after 25 minutes or so till you find the perfect match) We found that a thin drizzle frosting was just the perfect touch.

Icing…

1 tablespoon of warm water
1 teaspoon of orange extract (or a squeeze of a fresh orange)
powdered sugar by the spoonful until you get a nice thin drizzle frosting. (about a half a cup?)

If you want, you can pierce the hot top of the cake when it is still warm with a fork, and then drizzle the frosting over. Very good. OR…. you can wait till it cools and then make a pretty pattern over the top and it makes a nice presentation, a wonderful coffee cake. OR you can just drizzle a little over a slice or two on a plate for a pretty display!

Super yummy and easy, nice change from the same old cakes…

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Today was a Good Day…

We went to see our new mortgage officer, his name is Robert. He seems like a very nice, knowledgeable and wise man and we feel very very much more comfortable with him. He works for a mortgage company and he has options and that is great. We’re trying for a USDA Rural Development Loan and we filled out all the paperwork and signed a zillion places and read through the umpteen hundred clauses and protections that are in place for our own good. It felt good.

The one thing he said through the process that delighted me so much, was… “If this one doesn’t work, I know of two others that might be perfect.” Ah, positive thinking, I love that. It might be a tough journey, for sure, but I would much rather have a positive and pleasant companion on the road then a doom and gloomy pal.

I especially liked when he told Jessy about how he bought his first home when he was 20! A kindred spirit! That meant a lot to her. He understands.

So, we’re off again on the waiting game… might be 4 to 6 weeks before it is completed. We are talking about the government here. It’s not uncommon for them to ask to for a wee bit more paperwork and being self employed is a little trickier. But, that’s okay. We’re ready.

Today was the first day in a week that I really felt better, too, so that was a blessing. I’m still a little hoarse sounding, and have a bit of a dreadful sounding cough now and then, but my eyes are bright and my coat, shiny! In fact, I even felt like cleaning and moving a bit of furniture around! I like to say, “Never underestimate the ability of women to move furniture!” Sick, pregnant, tired or just crabby, when we gals want to change a room, WE DO IT… hahaha.

Our large “middle” room of our Moby has had a few incarnations and the last one we did just after Christmas, we loved… for a while. But unfortunately, some of it’s unique character was not suiting our business needs and making it harder to put together kits and order boxes. So, that just had to change. Actually, it was a fun afternoon, moving and cleaning, laughing and taking it easy. I just love hanging with my girls, we just have the best time. Jessy found a sparkly dog wizard cape in the process and put it on Evee. We laughed and laughed as she walked around and added our commentary to “Super Dog sees a kitty” and “Super Dog is puzzled over the furniture change” and “Super Dog suspects someone is hiding cookies”.

Guess you had to be there.

Talked with a friend of mine Scott about two neat things… I’ve doing a website for him, he’s a master furniture maker. Just beautiful things. He also teaches and I’m trading him some lesson time with Maggie. She dearly wants to learn how to do some wood working things, and to build and work with the machines. He’s going to spend an afternoon or two with her, and they will learn about shop safety and all the various machines, and build a couple simple projects, using the machines. She can’t wait. I’m so happy, it’s such a wonderful trade off. He gets a nice website in a time when money is a little tight, and Maggie gets a chance to build and learn and be a young adult student with some pretty powerful and grown up equipment.

I also talked to him about a dream table I want to build in the farm. I’ve always wanted a nice rustic dining table, not fancy, not polished, but hand hewn and simple yet beautiful. I asked him about it and he was right away caught up in exactly what I wanted. A harvest table, simple beautiful oak or walnut boards, big and designed for the space. He said, what would be wonderful would be to fine some heritage boards from the farm itself, in one of the outbuildings somewhere and use it to make the table top! Oh, how wonderful that would be. I can see it now, with a bountiful harvest from our gardens and orchards, to helping with quilts, or craft projects, to maybe even hosting a Thanksgiving family dinner or a big birthday bash with friends and family.

It is good to have friends that don’t think your visions are silly or not realistic. I can’t wait to start scouting about the place in search for our wood for that table of our visions. And around it, will be a wonderful collection of wood chairs from all over. Garage sales, estate sales, heck, even side of the road and repaired. Those eclectic chairs will represent all the various people that make a family.

So in the meanwhile, we wait. But we will not wait idly. We will be working on creating new products, saving money, reaching out to more markets and doing whatever we can to be productive and ready for that beautiful spring day when we’re spreading out that huge dumptruck load of compost on our new kitchen garden! It’s going to happen. One way or another.

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