Baking my Grandmother's Bread

I made bread today.

Whenever I make bread I think of my Grandmother.

Ora May Weddle Hickam.

My Father's mother.

Sometime in my 20's she taught me to bake bread.

My Mother taught me to bake cookies and cakes but not bread.

(Not pies either until the day before I was to get married.)

She was born 21 July 1897 in Vernon County, Missouri.

(She was always quite emphatic about it being Vernon!  

They lived just outside Rich Hill which is in Bates county-barely.)

She was the oldest of NINE children of John William Weddle and Jessie Ivy Welch.

She told me her parents began leaving her to watch her younger siblings 

at a very young age. Like 4.

Once when she was making butter she dropped it in the slop bucket.

She was terrified of her mother, so she fished it out and washed it!

She loved to read

and do jigsaw puzzles.

Taught a girls Sunday School class at First Baptist Church for many years.

She quilted, by hand until her eyes gave out 

and she let a little girl who couldn't thread a needle or knot the thread but stitches in one.

When she sewed she used a Singer treadle machine and allowed the grandchildren to string buttons from the drawers.

1943 (Back row r-l Bill, Letha, Bob.  Front row r-l Ora and Charley

She and her husband Charles Lloyd Hickam were married 

25 May 1924 after he'd asked her and been turned down THREE times!

They had three children: William Hubert (Bill), James Robert (Bob-my dad) and Letha May.

She died 21 Jan 1985, age 88.

I'm sharing her bread recipe with you!

She made 5 loves out of this.

I used to make 4 using 1 1/2 pound pans

Now I make only make half a recipe and use 1 pound pans so 2-3.

The recipe for a half batch is in ( ).

Ora Hickam's Sponge Bread

5 Tablespoons (2 1/2) Sugar

4 cups water (2) no hotter than 115F

4 teaspoons dry yeast (3 )

6 cups flour (3) 

She said use good flour and I use King Arthur Bread flour

3 Tablespoons (1 1/2) salt 

2 cups (1) milk, warmed but not hotter than 115F

3 Tablespoons (1 1/2) butter, melted

Add yeast to water then add sugar-let rise until bubbly.

Add 6 (3) cups flour, beat well, cover and let rise in warm place

 about 1 1/2 hours or until double

Add salt, warm milk and butter, beat well.

Add enough additional flour to stiffen and knead well.

Place in greased bowl cover and let rise until double, 

again about 1 1/2 hours.

Turn out, divide into loaves and put in greased pans.

Again, let rise until double.

Bake at 425F for 15 minutes  then at 375F for 30 minutes.

Brush tops with butter.

Enjoy!

The carpet is in.

At last.

To put carpet in a house you are already living in

means that every piece of furniture

needs to be emptied,

moved

or prepared so that the carpet folks can move it.

Then when they finish,

you have to put it all back.

The emptying out seemed to take forever.

I tried to remove the things I've decided not to keep.

The old couch and chair I had in this room was

too big

and worn out.

It went to the dump.

This couch is the Ikea one I had in the basement.

I had to take it apart to get it upstairs.

I feel like I still have tons to do.

Some furniture didn't and isn't coming back into this room.

Two nearly empty bookcases

made a trip to the studio.

I love the way everything is neat 

and still close at hand.

I haven't been doing much in the studio.

I am quilting-quite slowly- the blue and white thing.

The fact that is was sewn on the diagonal means

 that quilting in the ditch has to be on the diagonal.

On the plus side of that

The rows get shorter!

You might remember these.

I have a growing collection of glass balls.

I absolutely adore them!

But. . .

the rod I was using to hang them on

was starting lot look like it might bend and then break!

Disaster!

The larger balls are quite heavy.

I received another one for Mother's Day 

A Rhombus.

So I began another window with it and the 

Morovian star I bought in Nashville.

These  are in my bedroom.

I won't be finished with the aftermath of carpet for a while yet

BUT. . . 

stitching will happen!

Back, I think

First off,

I finished the bathroom-almost.

The photo above shows it at it began.

The two photos below show it now.

Overall, I'm pleased with it.

I still need to add quarter-round trip to the trim on the floor.

That wants a trip to Lowes

Followed by painting, etc.

I'm having carpet installed on Tuesday,

So a great deal of time has been spent emptying out,  sorting and packing.

Some of it won't come back in 

and some will be in different places.

Still more of that to do.

All a part of the let's sell this place!

The rain has continued to pour down, day after day.

leaving us with 12.81(or maybe more) inches of rain in May.

The wettest May in recorded history.

In the last two big storms we've had tornados-close.

One in the open space by my daughters home, 

fortunately, no damage was done-I think they said it was an EF-0.

I'm not even sure it touched down there.

Then on Tuesday last there was and EF-4 on the ground for an hour and a half.

Heavily damaged the town of Linwood, Kansas.

They estimated a mile wide and 130 mph winds.

Long way from me.

At least in tornado terms.

We've had a couple of clear days now but it's storming again.

So tired of it.

Oh well, even though baling the grass seemed liked a possibility more than once I haven't had to water the plants.