Building a Front Walkway!

Building a Front Walkway!

Rylee brings joy and meaning to our life everyday. It is such a blessing to wake up to her smiling face!

She's also growing up WAY too fast! 

Photoshoots are fun (for me)!

Her Pippa bought her an apron. She won't be able to really wear it until she's about two year old, but I tucked and tied everything to make it work. She helped me make dinner a couple nights ago!

Rylee and Nene dancing in the kitchen!

Sleeping with Daddy. 

"Daddy is my best friend!" She finds his hair hilarious and laughs every time he runs his hair over her hands.

Messy yogurt mouth. Yogurt is her favorite, by far!

In the spirit of exposing her to a wide variety of foods we fed her beets. I think she liked them. 

Lookin' all cool (and cute!) with my sunglasses on. 

In other news, we decided to replace the front walkway. I was super thrilled about it because I HATED our previous walkway. It functioned fine, but it was ugly, the landscaping fabric was showing through, the plastic edging was always breaking or missing, and the rocks constantly got stuck in our shoes when we walked on it (meaning we had to be careful to remove the rocks before going inside so we didn't scratch our hardwood floors). Sam started by pulling up the landscaping fabric and getting rid of the pea gravel. 

He then worked very hard for about a week to dig out the entire front walkway.

Then we got a huge rainstorm, and the walkway flooded in about an hour and a half. It was crazy. 

After a few more digging sessions to make sure the walkway was the correct width and depth, we filled it with crusher run. Sam tamped it all down into a smooth surface.

The last layer before the bricks was a layer of sand (m10 if you are curious). It was supposed to be just an inch high. So we laid down 1" pvc and scraped the sand around it to make sure we had a level 1" surface of sand.

Time to lay bricks! First came the edges. 

Next came the middle!

Lastly came the edges of the middle. I forgot to take a picture of Sam's awesome wet tile/brick saw that he bought to cut the bricks. It worked fantastically. After all the bricks were in place, we used a polymeric sand to fill in the gaps. Once you water it, the sand hardens like a mortar. We are in love with our new walkway! 

Whilst doing the walkway, we ran into some local wildlife. This little baby (we think brown snake) slithered up in between the bricks to check us out while we were putting down the polymeric sand.

These two greeted Sam on his way home from work to work on the walkway. 

And this buddy nearly gave Sam a heart attack when he moved a bag of sand and found this large snake inches from his fingers. We scooped this one into a five-gallon bucket (with a lid) using a rake and drove it down the road to release it back into the wild.

Our chickens are getting big, meaning that space in the coop is getting tight. The silver-laced wyandotte sure is pretty!

Production Blue. Given to us by Trulee and Brett Thompson. 

Black Copper Maran.

Ameraucana. 

Also an Ameraucana. We call this one Black Beard (though technically, I'm not allowed to name the chickens).

Splash Blue Ameraucana (and a welsummer head shot). 

Egyptian Fayoumi

Lastly, because I'm tired of having to look up these recipes elsewhere, I am gifting you with the delicious recipes for Browned Butter and Salted Caramel Snicker Doodle Cookies and Flour Tortillas. 

Browned Butter and Salted Caramel Snicker Doodle Cookies

Source: Two peas and their Pod Blog

INGREDIENTS

Cookies

   2.5 cups of flour

   1    tsp of baking soda

   2    tsp of cream of tartar

   1/2 tsp of cinnamon (I always use 1 tsp)

   1/2 tsp salt

   1    cup of butter

   1/2 cup of sugar

   1 egg yolk

   1 egg

   1     tbs vanilla

   1     tbs yogurt (or sour cream if you don't have it)

   6-10 caramel pieces cut into 12 pieces (or caramel chips if you don't have real caramel)

   large granules of sea salt for sprinkling on top

Cinnamon Sugar

   1/4 cup sugar

   2    tsp cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

1. Brown the butter by melting it in a skillet on low-medium heat and whisking until the butter is browned. It should smell nutty. Be careful not to burn it. Allow to cool to room temperature. 

2. Mix together the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, cinnamon, and salt. 

3. Mix the sugar and butter into well blended. Beat in the egg, egg yolk, vanilla and yogurt. Slowly add in dry ingredients. 

4. Form a dough ball, cover with plastic, and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. 

5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Measure 2 tablespoons of dough and form into a ball. Flatten it with your palms and place 3-4 pieces of caramel in the center. Wrap the dough around the caramel so that none is showing. 

6. Roll the dough ball in the cinnamon sugar. 

7. Place 8 cookies on a cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Gently press down the top of the cookie to make a flatter surface. Lightly sprinkle some salt granules on the top of the cookie. 

8. Bake for 8-10 minutes or into the edges of the cookie look dry and are starting to curl up off of the pan. You want the cookies to come out soft rather than crispy. Cool the cookies and immediately store. This will ensure the cookies stay soft. 

Flour Tortillas (makes 5-6; time: ~15 minutes)

INGREDIENTS

    1.5 cups of flour

    1/2 tsp salt

    1/2 tsp of baking powder

    3    tbs of oil

    1/2 cup of water

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Stir everything together with a spoon. 

2. Dump mixture out onto a lightly floured surface and kneed until smooth. 

3. Let dough rest for 10 minutes (I've skipped this step, and they've turned out fine...) 

4. Cut dough into 5-6 pieces. 

5. Roll piece into ball. Flatten with rolling pin and then roll into a circle. You want to dough to be super flat! 

6. Heat a griddle or skillet to 350* (medium heat). DO NOT put oil into the griddle or skillet. Place tortilla on hot surface and cook for 45 seconds. Flip and cook for an addition 15 seconds. Remove from heat. Repeat steps 5-6 with remaining pieces. 

To make Taco Shells: 

- brush tortillas lightly with oil, drape over two rungs in the oven and bake on 350 for ~ 10 minutes or until crispy. 

Pax Domini cum spirito tuo temper sit,

Torey & Sam 

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