Sam Potter

Iv found that most professional repair folks are just about as good at doing it as I am. They have more experience and can do it better then me. But have no real stakes in getting the job done to the best of there ability as its the 10th plumbing repair they have done today alone.
In the mean time I have very little experience, But Id hate to go to all the work of getting it done just to have it fail because I skipped a few steps. It about evens out to we do the same quality job. My repair will take longer, but I get a education on how to do something new!

Our friends reminded me of a new one we do, Potlucks! Communal cooking and eating is a wonderful reminder that we are all in this together. Thru the easy times and the hard times.

Your ratio seems good between the rye flour and the other gluten friendly flours so that should be good.
I want to say its your yeast but if its working well with other flours I doubt it.
I think you might be right. I'm not familiar with bread machines, Is there a way you could stop the machine after the first knead to see if it just needs more time to rise due to the older flour? Maybe double the yeast and see if that helps?

My family and I joke that the news is just a dramatic soap opera that doesn't effect us.  Normally that's true and life goes on as normal, we are not to stressed about what the big wigs and millionaires are doing. Being mad at the bad guys of course is not really good for adults or children. But with the growing number of news stuff from all over starting to threaten our daily lives its hard not to worry. To a point that it is unhealthy and unhelpful.  I know that we can and have weathered worse! I know my family can be fed, clothed and sheltered come hell or high water. But that growing gnawing feeling of worry seems to grow.

Until I grab a shovel and dig a hole.

It doesn't even have to be a helpful hole. There's just something that helps my brain about physically moving the earth. The smell of dirt and the consistent strain on my body that helps me breath a bit better and keep a moving forward mindset. I cant worry if Im to tired to care about the things I can do nothing about! Swales and gardening was what brought me to permies originally while dealing with financial stress. I wanted a excuse to just dig and still be helpful to my family.

My husband digs into a new niche subject to learn. Right now he is training to get his pilots license and reading the FFA handbook cover to cover before his first lesson this spring.  Hes still worried. But hes more worried about falling out of the sky to be upset about the news.

I bring this up because when Im out of the house that it feels like there is more road rage and people seem less friendly and more angry. Alot of that seems to be from the stress of stuff thats happening in the world with no way to effect it. There's alot of talk about the stuff causing the stress. But there seems to very little talk about how that stress is effecting our mental health and how to work thru it in a healthy way.  Plus winter is coming up and I have discovered shoveling snow dose not have the same stress relief as digging dirt.  I need a new outlet ASAP!

So what ways do you and your people relive stress so we can keep doing our thing instead of being mad at the bad guys?

The summer came and went with no issues to the wood. There was no increase in flies and no bad odor whether using fresh veggi oil or used fry oil.  Whenever I treat the ladies for mites now I paint the roost and then the outer walls with whatever oil is left. No mites and the coop looks nicer. Im pleased I was overly worried for nothing.

I kind of red necked my set up, all of my drains are plumbed directly outside. We have 2 sinks and 1 tub so I just drilled a hole thru the wall and set the pipes out for each one as I got the time. Then there's a adapter for a garden hose and I send it out to where it is needed. My plans are to set up reed beds that drain into a pond next year for any excess water to store it in a way it wont go gross. But this way it broke the project down into chunks that where easy to learn and get done when I had the time.
And yes this seems to work for my winters. Our normal temps in the winter like to get down and stay down in the negatives. I just shorten the hoses and make sure there's never any standing water.

We go out a couple times a week for a dedicated walk for a change of pace. But the dogs are always with me going thru the pasture to do pigs or move the chickens. They love following me on the bike to where ever I'm going. I think they get more exercise then most due to our routines and lifestyle. It took a lot of training to trust them off leash. 100% worth the time and frustration to do so in the end.

I make a small profit from my hens selling hatching eggs. I'm getting 15$ a dozen right now. Its not always consistent but I keep track of my sales. Roughly I get on average 3-4 orders a week and ship them out to whomever orders them. Customer pays for shipping or they can pick them up locally. I got into it during the chick shortage here a couple years back and people were ordering 12 dozen eggs for hatching out from me at that time. Next year we are adding duck eggs and Breed specific eggs. Also thinking of selling baby chicks locally.
I'm not sure I had ever made a monetary profit the 8 years before this just selling table eggs. But if you are selling other products like pasture pork or produce its a great weekly marketing tool to reach out to folks interested in good food and like minded community.

Motorcycles for the win. I'm currently fixing up a Honda Passport Scooter for a friend to get back and forth to her new job. With rising gas prices Motorcycles, Scooters E-Bikes and regular old pedal pusher bikes are all coming back into style at our place. Add a trailer and they can be good for pretty much anything.
My husband rides his E-Bike to work all year around Even thru the 3 foot of snow negative 20 blizzard last winter. He was the only one to get there on time that day! My dad used to do the same with his Motorcycle back in the 2008 housing crisis up in northern Minnesota, Rain, Snow or tornados he got there dressed to the 9s in his Carhart suite and riding gloves.  

I had no idea Cockatoos messed with garlic. Unless you count nematodes nothing messes with garlic in Iowa. The differences climate can make for a plant I thought I knew a lot about how to grow is just crazy. But the bulbs starting to sprout might have caused the bitterness?