Hello there ladies and gents! We’ve been suspiciously absent for a while we know The night that we were near wireless internet after Departure from Tatros’ was spent sleeping in the Big Sky Lodge.

Here is a quick rundown of our activities after leaving the Tatro home.

We spent two days ( Friday, Saturday, Sunday morning) at Knouse’s house and I got to meet Alexis’s friends and her horse. The horse liked me a little and tried to scratch her face on my shoulder. But I’m a genius and I was wearing a cammi and strappy dress in the 98degree heat and Angel was wearing a fly mask. Screen burn on the shoulder ensued.

Alexis tried to convince me and Beorn to go ‘dam sling’ sliding down an algae covered dam into the water below, which seemed like a fantastic activity. However, upon arrival at the dam Beorn and I looked into the River and couldn’t. The waster was so disgusting that Orion, who was wearing white sneakers with bright orange laces, couldn’t see his feet when they were only a foot into the water. My view on swimming is “if you wouldn’t wash your hair in it…. It’s not good enough for swimming” . We didn’t go dam sliding. It looked super fun however, and  part of me really wished I had just given in. although the smell of the water just wouldn’t let me.

As we were leaving Knouses and Wisconsin we stopped at a lovely park and had a last lunch with them and did some park exploring!







We drove from the Knouse’s company to a campsite in the Palisades just barely inside South Dakota. We spent the next day driving to the Badlands. Where we set up camp and went for a hike.

I fell in love with the Badlands. The landscape was beautiful and awe inspiring, and it made my imagination go 100 miles a minute. We would be walking through a little canyon and I would think “R2D2 and C3P0 must be just around the next corner!” we heard a noise that sounded just like a speeder and I said out loud “Look out! Here comes Anakin!” There were other times where I could just see an outlaw in a little cave, with his horse wandering below in the sparse grass looking for something edible. I even saw Serenity fly by in the sky a few times. Then I looked around and thought, “wow this place is really  beautiful. Look at that big rock! Let’s climb that big rock and see the view from there, I just want to go to the top of that big rock!” 













We left the Badlands the next afternoon and I was sad. Beorn I could have stayed there for a year and still wanted to explore more of the nooks of that beautiful place.

Beornita near the end of the first day

Well we Successfully made it to Wisconsin and are currently being sheltered in the home of the wonderful Tatro family. 

We made it to Indiana in one almost uneventful day and stayed over night at the Wilson family residence on the 2nd of July. 

The little Guy using Beorn's Kindle to keep happy

The best event of the day (for me at least) was the stop at the fantastic little park in Ohio where we found this tree. It just made my day! we've been keeping a traveling "log" where Beorn has me include the basics of what happens on our stops, but I think I even included this tree cause it was so amazing to me. I have a secret admirer in Ohio!








The day after (yesterday) we made our way through the city of Chicago. I have driven through the Chicago Skyline three times now, twice in the day and once at night and I find the city so entrancing. I've seen New York City several times, it was cool, I liked it. But Chicago really does something else for me.
      I was talking to Beorn about it and we discussed how New York is mainly a business city, a white collar/ linen city, and Chicago is a blue collar industrial place, it seems to be about work and life and dirt and history instead of chic fashion, and money, and power. Of course not all of NYC is all about money and power and Chic fashion either, there are parts of the city that are just as grungy and gritty and scary as any other city, even more so in some places. But there is something about Chicago that intrigues me anyway.




 While we were driving through Chicago the outside temp reached about 101 degrees Fahrenheit and we were very grateful for out air conditioned car, and also our camera that was able to take great pictures through the windows of the moving vehicle.







 We saw one little tow truck that just stole my heart away. It's in this picture of the skyline. It had so much character it made me want to write a story about it. I still can't get over how awesome that little truck really was! 






Maxx really enjoyed driving through the City as well and would point out interesting buildings for me to take pictures on since the closest buildings were mostly on his side of the car. He has his own film camera and it took a lot of fast talking to convince him that it wouldn't be a very good idea to use it to try to take pictures of the city when I had the digital one out. He has a really good eye for interesting buildings though. some of theses weren't even the coolest, they were just the ones we talked about the most.


 We liked this building because it appeared to be a factory that had been converted to be living quarters. We guessed from  the curtains in the windows and if you look super close, the various things on window sills and behind curtains. I loved the look of it though and really wanted to go inside. I really love architecture and there's something about the architecture of the city that's really fascinating to me.

As we left the city we all started getting a little antsy. It was time to be out of the Jeep for more than a few hours, and Maxx really wanted to see his cousins.

Last night at 6 something we arrived here at the Tatro family home and were welcomed with open arms a yummy dinner, good showers and comfy beds, how much better does it get? Not much better .

Today the Weather was absolutely disgusting, reaching a semi-humid 107 degrees and sunny. It made me very thankful that my aunt put me in the coolest room in the house, the room I have come to call; "The Ice Box". Then this afternoon-evening we had Fourth of July Dinner celebrationish stuffs with the Tatro and Knouse families. Sadly because of the hot dry spell here there is a fire ban and we had no fireworks this Fourth of July. However we had fantastic food and wonderful company, and some of the neighbors pulled out some sparklers and little bitty fireworks and we cheated a bit so it was okay. (Just don't tell any one ;) And other than the intense heat, So Far So Good.

Beornita

So we've been lazy...

really lazy...

We've kind of totally ignored the Blog for like, MONTHS, but we're working on it....  We're going to be regularly blogging the BIG TRIP this summer.... or at least I will, so you can look forward to that... it's gonna be amazing! 

Signing out for now, don't worry I'll be back

Molly-Bryn

Molly is off at Jazz All County today and had to bring a lunch.  The girl has become a picky eater.  She does not eat breakfast because she claims that it upsets her stomach to eat in the morning.  She does not like sandwiches.  She does not like to eat hummus at school because it is "stinky."  She complains about the school lunches with very good reason.  She gets bored with crackers and fruit and is picky about cheese and doesn't ever seem to want nuts except maybe those cocoa powdered almonds that Blue Diamond sells.  She eats dinner wonderfully and is a healthy weight but is really grouchy by the time she gets home every day.  With Musical rehearsal stretching her school day well past dinnertime, I've been getting worried about her nutrition and have been at a complete loss over what to get her to eat during the day.

She loves the Pesto Knots and Curry Pockets from the Potsdam Food Co-op's Bakery and often wishes that she had one of those to take to school.  Well, I can't get to Potsdam very often so I decided to try to make some curry pockets at home.  I did a lot of research and didn't find anything definitive about how to go about it.  I probably should have just called Chris at the bakery.  

Curry Pockets and Roll

Anyway, I knew I wanted a soft and sweetish dough so I used a recipe for cinnamon rolls and made a lentil curry for filling and crossed my fingers.

They are a hit!  I've never gotten cinnamon roll dough to come out right - it is always too dry and tough but this bread machine recipe was just right.  The dough isn't too sweet and Svenya's homemade milk and butter add a slightly heartier taste to the bread.  Everyone is hoping that I will make another batch tonight for actual cinnamon rolls and now I'm looking forward to trying different fillings - spinach curry, spinach & cheese, some chutneys - anything that would be good wrapped in bread!  If we didn't have Mr. Death-by-Anaphylactic-Shock-when-you-shove-a-Walnut-in-his-Mouth-Maxxwell in the house, I'd be making nut chutneys right now!

The dough (a very large batch!):
From The Bread Machine Cookbook by Donna Rathmell German

1 1/3 cup Milk
2 1/2 Tbs. Butter
2 eggs

2 2/3 Tbs. Sugar
2/3 tsp. Salt
4 cups all purpose Flour
2 1/2 tsp. yeast

Put everything in your bread machine (or Kitchen Aide if you're lucky enough to have one) and set it to the dough cycle.  The dough ends up being pretty darn close to a batter, very wet and gooey but it rises and bakes wonderfully.

About 20 minutes before the end of the dough cycle, get your curry or chutney or cinnamon goo ready.  (I sauteed half of a large, finely chopped onion in Olive oil, stirred in some Garam Masala and mild curry powder and added 1 cup of red lentils & 2 cups of water after the onions were soft and starting to caramelize.  Bring the lentils to a boil and then simmer for about 10-15 minutes.  Make sure the pot doesn't go dry!)

When your dough & curry are ready, grease up your hands with Olive oil or Butter and turn the dough out onto a heavily floured surface.  Pat, stretch and roll it (gently - don't overwork this soft dough because you want it to rise well again!)  into a large square or rectangle.  You'll need a lot of counter space for this.

I cut half of my dough into 5 inch squares, dropped a bit of curry onto the middle of each one and pinched the edges up over the top to seal.  The dough was so gooey that getting it to seal was easy.  Transfer the pockets to a greased cookie sheet with a well floured, metal spatula.  (You could put the pockets on parchment paper if you wanted but I was all out.)  Cover them with a damp towel or plastic wrap and let them rise in a warm place for 30-40 more minutes.  Bake in a 400 F oven for about 18-22 minutes - until they are golden brown on top.  Refrain from biting them until they cool down just a bit.

For the other half of my dough, I stirred some cottage cheese into the remaining lentil curry and mashed the stuff up a bit with a big spoon.  I spread the cheese-curry paste over most of the surface of the dough rectangle and then rolled it up into a large loaf.  Again, I used a well floured metal spatula to ease the dough off my counter top and prevent it from ripping.  I placed the large loaf on another greased baking sheet, let it rise for about 40 minutes and baked it at 400 degrees F for about 20 minutes.

Curry Roll

Other thoughts and tidbits:

I have two of Donna German's Bread Machine cookbooks and LOVE them.  I got mine at a garage sale for 50 cents a piece but I see that they are still available at Amazon, along with some other books of hers that I may have to invest in.  I cook everything from the recipes on my machines regular bread cycle.  Most recipes rise well (as long as my kitchen is above 20 degrees!) and have good texture.  She does use a lot of nuts so I've had to modify some or just not make those breads.

You can see that there is flour coating parts of my pockets and loaf.   If I were into being fancy, I would use cornmeal instead of flour to coat my work surface and then they would have nice, crumbly texture where the flour is.

You want to be careful that your plastic or towel does not stick to the dough while it is rising.  Brushing it with butter would help (and would give a pretty toasted gloss to the finished bread) but I just made sure I lifted the paper towel occasionally and kept it very slightly damp.

This dough recipe does not make the healthiest bread in the universe.  It is NOT low cal, low fat or low carb!  If you want to eat pastry but don't want to look like one, you have to make room for it in your daily calorie & fat allowance.   That's not a problem for Molly - she needs more calories and her brain & endocrine system still like fat - especially the healthy fats that Svenya makes for her in her milk.  However, I will have to either cut back somewhere else or spend more time moving around in order to keep losing weight with these laying around!

When you make yours, you could make sure you  use skim milk (which is great because it has more protein per cup than whole milk and that is what the dough wants) and you could try substituting up to half of the white flour with very finely ground whole wheat pastry flour.  Regular WW flour will be too coarse and result in a heavy loaf that does not rise as well.  Don't try to substitute anything for the butter, margarine or oil simply won't do the trick when it comes to pastry.  If you are concerned about cholesterol in the butter & eggs, see if you can find a local farmer who sells unpasteurized, non-homogenized butter or cream from pasture fed cows and eggs from free range hens.  The nutritional content of these more naturally produced foods are significantly healthier than those of factory-farm produced food.

Happy eating!!

Posting today is not the Lovely Mama of the Beorningstead, but me, Breakable Bryn!


Your guide through our ice storm, ready to battle wind and snow in my face, to bring you the beauty of ICE.

I was standing in the kitchen this morning helping the beautiful Mama and the obnoxious, but helpful Boy fill jugs with water in case of power outages, when the Mama went outside to check on the Brave Beorn himself, who had been doing chores in the barn for a very long time.

Upon her return the Mama announced that the Daddy was about done but that it was beautiful and scary outside and someone should go take some pictures. and so I promptly finished my toaster strudel (courtesy of the Meemo), and bundled up to brave the wind and ice for a nature photo shoot.

If there is one thing I noticed in my adventure today it was this: if you look out your window in the winter and it looks bright, but not blinding, it is probably just the snow playing tricks on your eyes...

this is what it actually looks like.













Winds were high.
Temperatures were low.
And the ice and snow were so think and heavy that every 3 minutes I heard a crack and then the sound of falling branches. But BOY was it BEAUTIFUL.

When everything is covered in a layer if ice and snow THIS thick:



the world turns into Narnia.



In my adventure I went to great lengths to get some of my pictures, going as far as laying down in the snow just to get a shot of the old hay elevator, and actually walking under a few trees, just to get shots of sow covered branches.


My adventure was truly fruitful, and the ice storm is proving to be a fascinating experience for everyone. Maxx is getting very involved in helping prepare, and he gets all excited about the power going out... You see, the Mama is a worrier and so the last few days have been one big conversation about "When do you think the power will go out?" "We should do this while we still have power." "You're not having school today, come downstairs and help me get ready for the power outage."

Mom knows about Ice Storms. I was 3, almost 4 during the Ice Storm of '98 and we were living in my grandparents' trailer. When the power went out we used a generator that my grandparents had loaned us. But... now I'm not perfectly clear on this point I remember absolutely nothing about this particular event... it seems that the generator did something akin to blowing up...

All I remember about the ice storm is this: we stayed in Gramma + Grampa's house for most of it, and I wore my footie-Pajamas and we used candles for light, and the wood stove to keep warm. And then we didn't get to go back to the trailer for a long time while people cleaned the soot out of all of the walls, and the furniture, and the brown, med.shaggy carpeting, and my stuffed animals.

So far, this time is not half so bad... but it's getting there. There are pictures from the ice storm of '98 of my Uncle (Jonathan, who must have been about 15 during that ice storm) standing on top of rose bushes and briar patches, because they were so frozen solid.

Things aren't quite that frozen, but they're close.


NOW back to the present and my little adventure in the snow today. After rolling around in the snow trying to get that perfect shot of that old elevator, I then stood up and snapped the picture of the grey sky and the tree line
(look back at that second picture of the snow for me, the one where it's all gray, ok?)

And decided to tromp out into the pasture and take a look at everything. I got a couple of panorama shots and a video depicting the absolute intense, beautiful, scary-ness of the world around me.

That venture being successful, I decided to walk about a bit more and take some pictures a little closer to the barn, at which point Svenya and Ruby decided to join me on my expedition, after which I got absolutely no more pictures of anything but cows...


..... Well, we'll keep you posted on how our little ice storm goes, and maybe we'll post the video of me being chased by the girls sometime soon, and hey, if it gets bad enough, maybe we'll start selling "I lived through the Ice Storm Of 2012" Tee-shirts. ;) Happy Ice storm everybody!

We get good sky around here.

Double rainbow around a full moon last night.

Insomnia, too.

How did we get here???

Life has been so busy (and I have been so incompetent) that I haven't posted much here.

Here's a short rundown of events:

Spitfire was adopted by one of Molly's friend's roommates.  I was happy to give him a good home but his mother is still depressed about his absence.  It makes me feel very guilty.  (But not as guilty as I would feel about having him get smucked in the road or freezing to death in the barn or getting an infection in  some cat-fight wound that I can't afford to treat - so it's all good.)

2nd grade is gong as well as can be hoped.  Issues with working memory are making themselves known and ADHD is looking like a potential problem.  Maxx's teachers and special needs coordinators are Awesome, though.  I could not ask for a better team.

 Molly had her pins and plate removed just after Thanksgiving.  Her ankle is doing MUCH better, much less swelling, greater range of motion, no more hobbling, no more sobbing.  Just in time for the musical.  She will be playing Ruth in Pirates of Penzance.  She was hoping for Mabel but her teachers felt that she was the best possible Ruth because she can do comedy and her strong voice has a great range so she can carry Ruth's music off beautifully.  She hopes to be able to sing with the Pirates in the "With Cat-like Tread " number.


Ruby Thursday is HUGE.

Just about as big as her mom - who is ready to be bred again but I keep procrastinating about that.  (Stop reminding me of my failings!)

Ruby is not a dairy cow.  We're not sure what she is.  She's big, red and fuzzy.  She has horns but they are still tiny at 3.5 months and we may have them poled.  She's pretty calm and friendly, loves to have her neck scratched and is almost as greedy as Svenya about grain.  She may end up being the first cow in Jonathan's future beef herd.

Time to run.  Molly has her post-op follow up appointment today to make sure those bones are filling in nicely.

All photos are of Ruby in her first experience with snow.  Taken over Thanksgiving break when we actually had snow for a minute or two.