Spring overload is over!

We are doers!  That's that & there is nothing we can do to change it!  We struggle knowing that we would benefit from taking time off from our projects.  However, we're terrible at allowing ourselves downtime away from our projects & if we're being truthful with ourselves we really don't want to take time off.  Accomplishing & crossing a project off our to-do list it so fulfilling for us!  We have to-do lists  for EVERYTHING including our house, property, business, & personal projects.  It's got to  a point now that we have started using Trello to help us organize & prioritize all of our  projects on our to-do lists!

My oh my we're crazies, but we wouldn't have it any other way!  In turn, this will no doubt be our longest blog post to date as we set ourselves a goal at the end of our last blog post to write about our seeding starting process,  a sourdough recipe, & the kitty hut project.

Our seed starting process is pretty basic in the realm of seed starting.  This year we used three different soils/seed starting materials.  We used Ferry Morse Organic Seed Starter Mix, Burpee Organic Seed Starting Mix , &  Burpee Eco-Friendly Organic Concentrated Seed Starting Mix.  Truly it wasn't intentional picking out & using the different soils but we're glad it happened.  I, Armonda, now know which I prefer & will be using for future seed starting projects.  I prefer the Burpee Eco-Friendly Organic Concentrated Seed Starting Mix.  It was the most cost friendly of the three products per amount of product.  It was the best at retaining water & soaking in the water.  The first product we used, Ferry Morse, didn't allow the water to sink in very well.  When we watered the plants the water would sit on top of the soil for a minute or would erode  a portion of the soil where the water would finally go into the soil.  After a quick google of "water not soaking into seed starting soil"  the first link that showed up listed the Ferry Morse product that we used.  Apparently the peat moss in that product causes this issue to occur.  The Burpee Organic Seed Starting Mix was a good product & according to the ingredients list I could find on them both of the Burpee products have the same ingredients.  However, the Burpee Organic Seed Starting Mix is premixed with water & is $1.00 more expensive.  I spent maybe 2 minutes moistening the Burpee Eco-Friendly Organic Concentrated Seed Starting Mix & saved myself $1.00.  So, if you want to buy something pre-made ready to put in a pot for seed starting I would suggest Burpee Organic Seed Starting Mix .  Again though, I prefer the Burpee Eco-Friendly Organic Concentrated Seed Starting Mix.

Moving on to our next topic.... sourdough recipe & background on sourdough in general.  I, Armonda, have been maintaining a sourdough starter, a levain, for the last 15 months.  I use my levain to make everything I can.  I have not purchased a loaf of bread form a store since I started my levain.  I  used this how-to to start my levain.  If you want to try making your own bread I would highly suggest using a levain.  Otherwise, you'll have to keep purchasing yeast as a leavening ingredient.  I take great pride in knowing that I have control over & have created this integral ingredient.  I'm not going to go into any potential health benefits of making & consuming your own levain leavened bread but google it if you want to as there are a great number of articles on this topic.  I did find this article a good read on the history & some potential health benefits of slow, long fermented bread.

Okay, now on to the recipe... The recipe I picked to share with you is a two-for-one recipe!  I use this sourdough cinnamon roll recipe as the base of my two-for-one dinner & dessert recipe.  I made ham & cheese pinwheels for dinner & cinnamon rolls for dessert.  Now I admit that I have a real problem with following the recipe directions.  I feel the need to make any recipe my own & thus change something about the recipe every time I try & use a new recipe.  In turn, the picture gallery below will guide you through my recipes for the two-for-one ham & cheese pinwheels dinner & sourdough cinnamon rolls dessert!  Also, I envision these as great menu items for brunch!  Yeah buddy!

Last topic for this post is the kitty hut that we built for our cats. It took the most work but will have the least amount of details presented of any of the topics we have discussed in this post. In turn, if you want a parts list to build your own kitty hut just email us. Otherwise, the overview on the kitty is that it's made of a PVC frame with poultry fencing surrounding it everywhere but on the bottom where it rests on the grass. We also constructed & installed removable cloth shelves, so they can be laundered, for the cats lounging pleasure! As you can see from the photos our feline kids are enjoying their kitty hut!