Update from the Almosta Ranch Homestead

Hi Kids,

It's a lovely morning here in the Red River Valley and the weather has been so gorgeous this week. Actually I think it is one of the nicest summers and falls we have had weather-wise in my memory. Seems the kids have been playing outside more than inside, which is always good.

We have extra kids right now. Some friends of ours went on a vacation so we have two of their boys for a week, and we are also having a little boy who is PeeWee's age join us full-time while his mom works. It's been a very busy household and I am constantly amazed how much food that children can consume. We had a tea party yesterday, with real tea, grapes, and cookies. You'd have thought I'd thrown a deer carcass to starving lions when I brought out the Nilla Wafers. And the grapes went down so fast I was certain I'd be performing the Heimlich on someone. I don't think they even chewed!

School has been going well. We are reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Farmer Boy" about Almanzo Wilder's childhood in NY state on a huge farm. That book makes me so hungry. You need to have a snack on hand if you are going to read it, otherwise you'll drool on the pages. I thought it would be a good book to read with extra boys in the house. Yesterday we read about Almanzo's favorite food, which is "Apples n' Onions" and so I googled it and found a recipe. Our neighbor had given us a big bucket of apples (which were almost gone!) so I fried up onions and apples in butter, threw in some brown sugar, and we all tried some. I thought it was pretty good, very different, but good. The younger kids didn't like it and the older kids were rather neutral. I probably won't make it again but it was fun to try something new. Next I plan to try "Bird's Nest Pudding" - another recipe from the book. It's baked apples in a merengue crust drizzled with real cream - google it and drool.

Well, I reckon I should get some tasks done, considering they are screaming at me from every room of the house. The tasks are screaming, not the children. I've yet to find a way to silence screaming tasks. Except to get on the computer. ;)

Have a dandy day!!