We were eating lunch and saw some nine-banded armadillos foraging in the back woods during a cloudy afternoon. These are probably last year’s litter, as they seem to be full grown (the cats are 10 pounds, and they look about the same size).The two cats (Big Orange Tom and Sophie) prowling the area completely left them alone. Nine-banded armadillos are insectivores and these are digging for grubs and worms. I recorded for 5 minutes, within 6 feet at times. I’m not sure they even knew I was there. Sorry for the shaky footage, the mosquitoes were eating me alive. Totally worth it!
My mother-in-law makes wonderful cinnamon rolls, which I haven’t been able to eat for 17 years. We have both tried the recipe with gluten-free flours, and tried gluten-free recipes, but it just isn’t the same. So next on my list of “things I want to bake” with heritage wheat (I am using Sunrise Flour Mill’s Heritage Bread Blend), was her overnight cinnamon rolls.
Cinnamon rolls prepped and ready for the fridge
I did use my dough hook and my stand mixer to prep the recipe, and I only made one pan of rolls instead of two, but otherwise followed the instructions! Rolling out dough with developed gluten takes a little more effort than gluten-free types, but it held well and made such lovely spirals of cinnamon. (Spirals and cinnamon are also two of my favorite things.)
Baked cinnamon rolls, in the process of getting browned butter frosting
The next morning I took off the foil and baked the cinnamon rolls. I even made the browned butter frosting! And they were good. So good that even my youngest ate them! With frosting! My GI tract also has had no complaints with this blend of wheat so far. As much as I love cinnamon rolls, and these were definitely the best I’ve had since going modern wheat free, it is the ability to make family recipes again that is even more meaningful.
I found an egg under the roost with no shell again. It doesn’t happen often, but it has happened multiple times since they started laying. The egg membrane is intact, so it is possible to pick up, but it certainly has an interesting texture, much like an egg that has been soaked in vinegar to remove the shell, but without the bouncing. I recorded a video to show the squishiness, if you are interested. These eggs typically go to the dogs!
I am doing a spinning experiment (the results of which will be posted later, but this was funny, so I thought I would share.) The gist is that I am spinning bits of fluff as I am walking, which gets a bit problematic when there is some wind and a loose tuff of fiber. It must have been quite the scene with my bit of alpaca fleece rolling merrily down the street with me chasing after it.
Alpaca fleece rolling down the road, making a run for it
Underneath the chicken foot bath (a shallow dish of water in the run because my hens like to cool their heels), some night crawlers have been hanging out for a few weeks. I picked up the bath to rinse and refill and found that they have decided to start an earthworm family there. Hm. I had to go look up the earthworm life cycle because I honestly didn’t know how new worms were made. Earthworms are hermaphrodites, but not asexual. Two organisms need to exchange genetic material before they can lay cocoons in which the new generation of worms develop. Here is an interesting article if you are so inclined. Learn something new everyday.
Critters and Craft 