March

Happy 11th Birthday Ethan!

Anton has had issues with sensitive skin and up swelled up a couple times when around farm dust. So we thought it would be best to see what was causing his reactions. Apparently, everything. He had a reaction to everything they tested for, the only place that didn't swell or turn red was the neutral spot. His worst allergies are dust mites and cats. 

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We put new flooring in the kitchen. I hope to paint and do a couple other small changes. I will post the "after "picture when we get that far. :)

Ethan participated in the Cadet-O-Rama last weekend. He enjoys Cadets and seeing his friends projects and cars.

This was one of the projects Ethan did for badge this year. 

"I shoot mommy butt" :) We ended up with several Nerf guns this Christmas and enjoy having "war" with the kids. I guess Allison thought I was an easy target. :)

Ethan showing his brothers how his catapult works. Then next day I found Elijah attempting to launch marbles in the house while Ethan was at school. The catapult will be in hiding for awhile. :)  

Ethan showing his cadet car for this year. He took 2nd place in the turtle race at church. That means he had the second slowest car of the group. Pinewood Derby cars aren't really our thing. :)

I needed a little taste of spring so I picked up a couple packs of strawberries and the kids helped me pot them up. Hopefully we can do a better job of keeping the alive than Wal-Mart. :) 

Homemade Yogurt

March was Ethan's month to do a presentation for 4-H. He decided that presenting how to make homemade yogurt would be fun and he even brought samples to pass out. We followed the instructions from here.

 Ethan during his presentation. 

Heat  one gallon of whole milk to 185-190 degrees in a heavy bottomed stock pot.

Keep stirring so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.

We used a candy thermometer and checked the temperature often.  It took while to heat up, be patient. :)

Put cold water in the sink to quickly cool the milk to 120 degrees.

This part doesn't take long.

Next add your yogurt starter to the cooled milk.  This is just 1 cup of plain store bought yogurt. You can also save some from a previous homemade batch to use. Be sure to whisk it well so that the starter is thoroughly incorporated into the milk.

If you want to make a vanilla version add 1/2 to 1 cup of sugar and 1-2 tablespoons of vanilla to the mixture. We added 1 cup of sugar and 2 tablespoons of vanilla. We don't like the plain yogurt, tastes like sour cream to us. :)

Carefully pour the mixture into sterilized jars and put on lids. Our favorites are the plastic screw on kind, but we also use lids and rings.

Place the jars in a cooler and add water that is heated to 120 degrees 3/4ths of the way up the jar.

Place in the warm place and let sit for 3 hours. We found 4 1/2 hours was better. The yogurt was nice and firm at 3 hours it was still a little runny. Don't wiggle the yogurt during this process it can cause the yogurt not to set up.

After it's firm, place it the refrigerator. It lasts one week after being opened and one month if sealed.

Leupold Scope Commercial

This fall we got a call from a group of guys headed to our area to film a commercial for Leupold Scopes. At that time the government was shut down and so were the state parks, including the park they were going to film at. They found Bluff Creek, a local ATV riding area, near us and planned to film there next day. They where looking for a Ranger and driver. They found us through a friend at the Chamber of Commerce.  The problem was it was the first week in October, one of the busiest weeks of the year for us, and we didn't have anyone to help them. Mark offered our place and Ranger to them and said they could drive our Ranger themselfs. They checked it out and came back bright and early the next morning to film.

The kids and I had to check out how filming a commercial worked. So we watched for a little while. 

This is just a picture of the "model" riding around the coalmine.

The guys in the back of our Ranger are filming  the 4-wheeler.

This is the scope mounted to the 4-wheeler after 6+ hours of riding around the coalmine. They were testing to see how tough it was. and how accurate it would shoot after testing. I told them if they really wanted to see how tough the scope was, to let Anton play with it for a little while. They didn't take me up on it. :) We enjoyed seeing them film, it's not everyday a commercial gets filmed at your place. :)

You can see the video here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g7e2BTPogQ