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.

Same rain -different day!

Yep, it's raining again. Or perhaps I should say still.  

I managed to mow my very tall grass yesterday, 

finishing about 30 minutes before it began raining again.  

I only had to walk in 1/4" water in one spot of my yard.

I think I need to buy a boat!

While no flooding threatens me, that could change 

if this rain does not stop soon.

Here in my office the sound of the rain is quite loud.

I can only imagine what it would be in Ceili.

I've been busy working on the house.

I ordered the carpet.

Bought the necessary stuff to finish the main bathroom.

Only the tile left to do.

When I get that down I'll post a photo.

I was hoping for today BUT. . .

I'm sandwiching the huge blue and white quilt,

at long last.

Guess what?

All the blue threads are showing under the white!

So am now clipping the BACK of the top.

It's a very large quilt, sigh.

I have to finish the sandwich today so I can have the table to eat on!

Photos to follow.

Wish me luck on the quilt,

and continued sanity at being cooped up!

The scratched record that is our weather

Rain.

Rain.

Rain.

Finally, the sun is shining today!

There is no chance for rain today!

Perhaps we shall dry out a bit.

Quinn is getting a bath-whether she likes it or not!

Rain

I think it rained all night last night.

I know it began with thunder and lightening before I went to bed,

Was still at it when I turned off the light.

And was storming again when I woke up.

The puddles are back in the yard.

I squish when I walk through the grass.

The grass grew inches overnight and can't be mowed due to said squishing.

I had to put the Quinn foiling pots out in the hosts garden.

Speaking of Quinn,

She's a muddy mess.

I'd give her a bath but more rain is on the way tonight and tomorrow.

Thankfully,

I am far enough away form rivers and streams to avoid any flooding.

My sump pump keeps the basement dry.

It's a good and in August we will all be wishing for rain.

Oh Boy, I seem to have neglected this blog.

There's an understatement if I ever saw one!

I was away for several days in Nashville.

Helped Tanya choose and plant flowers in her front garden.

Sewed patches on a quilt for them.

Went to President James Polk's home, 

then had 100 layer donuts.

Somewhere between here and there the cover over the truck bed 

(that's UTE to you down under) split apart where it connects to the truck.

It was fine when I loaded up here but was when Rob unloaded there it was broken. 

we could barely get it over the bed and closed.

At the moment it is closed, but will need replacing before I head out for a long trip.

Since I've been home I haven't been making the trek up to the office,

In fact for one entire week I went neither up the stairs to the computer nor down the stairs to sew.

Just didn't want to.

It has rained and rained here.

We had the wettest winter in history and the rain has kept the ground saturated.

Many streams are running bank full and fast.

Interstate 29 north of St Joseph is still closed due to flooding.

Both the Missouri and the Mississippi are out of their channels.

It has dried out a bit now but storms are predicted for tonight and intermittently for the rest of the week.

Back to puddles in the yard!

I finally turned the heat off yesterday, 

 really hope the air conditioning can stay off awhile.

Yesterday, I moved all the plants out of the house.

Repotted some.

All the "Christmas" Cactus here.
Including a new one in Orange.
The other "houseplants" are out as well.

Potted up my container garden.

3 Cherry type tomatos,
2 peppers,
and a bush cucumber here.

Thyme and rosemary (if it survives, love the stuff but can't keep them alive.)
Sage, Basil, Oregano, Bunching onions,
Plus the sago palm from the house.

Still need to purchase some annuals for the front of the house
as well as the hosts garden.
Have to get a small fence for the hosta garden to keep Miss Quinn from laying behind the plants which damages them.

Today, I pulled some weeds and repotted the succulent garden.

As it had outgrown its container.

It is quite heavy, which could be a problem later on.

Then I potted up these Mimicry plants.

They like to be very dry.

Quinn and I have been taking walks again.

Finally found a way to track how far we go-I want to do 3 miles.

Today, we stopped off a small pond for a rest and watched the geese.

There are two pair of Canada geese on the pond and both have 4 goslings!

There are some rather large snapping turtles in the pond which would love to feed on the goslings-oh no!

Today, I saw two robins chase off a squirrel!

I'd never seen anything like robins dive bombing that squirrel.

No sewing to report but that might change after bit.

Tomorrow.

Is another day.

Housework and stuff.