Miscellaneous Thoughts and a Recipe

Shawn and I were so excited this morning to get up, open the curtains in the living room, and see a group of deer walking across our pasture. They had come out of the woods on one side and crossed to get to a small creek on the other. When we first saw them, Shawn said he saw a total of six deer. As we watched them longer, we noticed another, then another, then another. There were a total of NINE deer drinking from the creek that's 100 yards away from our front door. It was amazing to watch. Needless to say, Shawn's getting rather excited about his first deer season on this property.

Since this is an earth-berm home, the north side of our house is built into the ground, but the south side has a lot of windows. Our living room has two large picture windows. Outside one of the windows is a Bradford Pear tree that we've hung a bird feeder on. We enjoy looking out those windows and watching the birds outside. At one point yesterday I had two turtledoves, a woodpecker, two cardinals, and about five of some unknown cute, little gray bird all eating at the birdfeeder.

On a less happy, but still very interesting note, Shawn also found fresh coyote tracks in a patch of mud that's 40 feet away from our front door.

Since it was such a sunny day yesterday, I spent a little time out in the garden. I was able to tear out the previous owner's old pepper plants. While doing that, I ran across a small carrot that was still in the ground. I pulled it and gave it to the kids. It was only about three inches long, but it was a pretty, bright orange and the kids liked that it came out of our garden. I am really looking forward to working in the garden with the kids.

Oh, how I love it out here!

Finally, I figured that I'd leave you with a recipe that I tried recently for the first time. I discovered it on one of the healthy eating blogs that I visit, then adapted it a bit. I call it "Healthy Fudge" because it has some really good ingredients in it. Shawn and the kids all really liked it too. I hope you enjoy it as well.

Healthy Fudge

1 cup cocoa powder
1 cup unrefined virgin coconut oil
3/4 cup honey
natural peanut butter

Melt halt the coconut oil in a small saucepan. Place remaining 1/2 cup of solid oil in blender with cocoa and honey. Add melted coconut oil and pulse until smooth and blended. Line a bread pan with saran wrap or parchment paper. Pour fudge into pan and place in fridge until solid, about 1 hour. Remove from pan. Spread a layer of natural peanut butter on top and cut into squares. Store in fridge. Yields approximately 15 squares.

I hope everyone has an enjoyable Sunday!