Diaper Cakes and Soybeans

My sister in law sent me a bizarre text message that had only a picture of what I believe to be a diaper cake. She JUST sent it, so I'm still in the process of deciphering what exactly it is. My Reluctant Farmhusband is away, all the chores are *gasp* done, and I can't sleep yet, so I'll talk about Diaper Cakes and Soybeans.









Diaper cakes make GREAT unique babyshower gifts and they are not all that hard to create. Sure you can buy one, but why not make one? It's fun and you don't have to be all that coordinated and/or crafty to make it. If I did it, you can do it. Trust me. The Wannabe Farmwife can be...well...not full of grace when it comes to such things.









My Diaper Cake "Recipe" was a little different than others that I found on the 'net that called for rolled up diapers. A cake made of rolled up diapers would undoubtedly be suitable for someone using cloth, or fewer diapers (unless you wanted to make a really really BIG cake) but I wanted a big impressive cake and to leave a lot of diapers for the new parents (who are my brother and sister-in-law).



So, without futher ado:

One large mirror from Michaels (you can decorate these so the expectant parent can use them in other ways if you'd like)
One package of newborn diapers (for the first two layers)
One package of the next size up diapers (for the bottom layer)
1-1 1/2" ribbon for the "holding together of the diapers"
Tall rose (which is what I used) or really skinny dowel for stability of the "cake"
Small decorative bears, pacifiers and other assorted doodads. I used Rose garland easily accessible at your local superstore. It went with the theme of the shower, which was butterflies and roses.



-Place your mirror or base on a flat surface that you can access from all sides. This is important, trust me.



-Get your ribbon ready by unwinding a large section - don't cut it yet, but have it unwound unless you have a lot of other hands to aid you



-Start by placing the larger size diapers on their sides with the folded end sticking out towards the edge 4 or so to a bunch in a N, E, S, W type of pattern (like a compass)



-Fill in the diapers between the "core set of diapers" as tightly as you can, bending them to one side as you go so they form a continuous loop - try to keep them straight, but they will need to bend a little to all fit



-When they are at the point where you don't feel you can fit any more, wrap the ribbon around the middle (you may have to hug the whole thing as you do it) and do a single knot tightly. The ribbon needs to be quite snug otherwise you'll start losing diapers.



-Rearrange any diapers within the ribbon that have become during the tying process, snip the ends long enough to make a pretty bow and tie :)



-If you're not too frustrated, start the second layer with the smaller diapers right on top of the first, if you are frustrated, breathe deeply, walk away and come back - I swear, if I can do this you can too!



-The process is the same the rest of the way up the cake. When you do the second layer, prior to snugging it up, insert the dowel so that when it is snug the cake pieces are really locked together. This will assist in travel.



-Insert your various doodads around the edges of the cake. They are particularly useful for hiding any "oops" diapers that you just couldn't get arranged correctly.



This was a huge hit at the baby shower, and I'm not a huge fan of baby showers in general but I thought this craft was fun for me too, and immensely practical.

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And because I am feeling so immensely practical this evening, I am going to soak some soybeans in preparation for making some burgers for the boys tomorrow evening.



I grew up vegetarian, so soybeans are not foreign to me, but they are to many people and certainly cooking them dry is an odd thing. They are so easy to store this way though and nice to have on hand. (And cheap, for those of us who are trying to be frugal so that we can buy goats and such).



Simply rinse your beans under running water in a sieve or colander with SMALL holes (soybeans are quite small so you'll be chasing them everywhere if your colander's holes are too big). Then soak them in a pot in your kitchen (covered, unless you want bugs, which do add protein) with water overnight until you're ready to cook them. Then drain the water and add just 1" water to cover and simmer for an hour or so, depending on how firm you want your beans to be.



I'm going to be topping these babies with goat cheese (not the stuff I make (yet) that's waiting until the weekend, but I bought some :) and serving them sans bun on a tomato salad.



Summer Soyburgers


Your favorite frying oil
Goat or Feta Cheese crumbled
2 c. soybeans, cooked
2 sm. onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 c. tomato puree
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. cumin
soy sauce, salt and cayenne pepper to taste
Fresh Parsley
Cornmeal to bind

In large bowl, mash soybeans (once cooked) well. Add all ingredients and enough oats or cornmeal to bind. Make 10 patties. Fry on both sides in oil. Directly after frying lay them on a paper towel and add feta or goat cheese to the tops, then after a minute or two of melting lay them on a bed of sliced tomato or halved cherry tomato. Yum!


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Off to soak my soybeans! Good night all!

Of Goats, Chickens, Junk Mail and Cheese-Making

One of these things is not like the other.
One of these things is not the same.
Dah dah dah dah duh dah dah...oh you get the point.

So, I have decided that the family needs to be more self-sufficient, not in a hippy "get off the grid, man" kind of way, but in a "hey, what I really believe is that our lifestyles when we were living rurally, growing our food largely and buying locally was healthier for everyone involved, including the ecology" kind of way. Not that there's anything wrong with getting off the grid, and I certainly commend anyone with the resources to do it. I'm looking for baby steps right now, and baby steps involve things I know.

I know chickens. I know goats. Both of these animals will be great animals for this particular homestead as we do have 3 boys, one of whom is just entering teenagerhood (with the accompanying stomach) and two others that follow closely on his heels. We live in the woods, but there are 12 acres available to us, and though I'll have to build a super-heavy-duty henhouse and goat shed...the thought of having fresh eggs, of waking up to the sweet sounds and smells (not bad smells - if any of these animals smell bad then they aren't being taken care of properly) of the animals as they await their morning rations. It's work, yes, but it's GOOD work. It's the kind of work that you lay down at night and think - wow, I was productive and I was needed.

Which is not the feeling I get when I come home every day from my day job (although I have just elected to work in academia so I may no longer feel that way very soon). Regardless, there are so many benefits here, the downsides are:
a. convincing the Reluctant Farmhusband that we do, in fact, NEED chickens and goats
b. convincing the elder ex-Farmfolks that on their land it would be an improvement and would benefit the family
c. obviously the getting tied down etc., which I already am due to the other animals so we might as well just add to the list.

So, the first order of business for this Farmwife (Wannabe, I know) is to research and read. Which is how I deal with everything (am I suited for academia or what). By now I have researched every breed of dairy and meat goat that exist on this continent and every use and season and...I still come up with wanting Nubians. I grew up with Nubian goats and for anyone who hasn't seen one, prepare to fall in love. They are the CUTEST things ever if you love floppy ears and personality galore.


Picture courtesy of wikimedia.org

Nubians also have a really high milkfat percentage in their milk which makes them great for cheesemaking. So, this weekend, I'm going to venture into my first experimental cheeses with goats milk that I can buy, so that I can get all the botches out of the way in preparation for winning over the Reluctant Farmhusband. If I can make some decent cheese, baby, I'm in like flynn.

Chickens are another matter. We had Rhode Island Reds and Banties when I was a kid. The Banties were fun little birds but the Reds were...better layers? I guess? I don't really remember so I need to do some research on that. I'm studying plans to build a hawk/bear/raccoon/weasel/local cat and dog/anything else that wants to eat my chickens coop that still allows them to free range during the day. I'm thinking I'm going to have to use electric netting, but I'm still concerned about the red tail that I see right outside my back porch in the mornings. He could swoop off with a chicken a day, easily. He's a biggun.

So what about junk mail, well, today, I pick up a mailing from Redwings horse sanctuary (www.redwings.org) from my mailbox. Perhaps it's a bit ironic because they are not a place I have donated to in the past (though I have donated to other rescues) nor do I know anything about them, nor could they POSSIBLY know that I just bought an auction horse. I'm not sure how I feel about the mailing yet, they invoke the same thing in me that the Humane Society group mailings always did. It's sad - the situations are sad. But somehow I feel like rescuing Iggy from a bad situation and ensuring that his situation stays safe...is part of my part. There IS a glut of unwanted horses in the market - the auction prices told me that. Iggy has years potentially left in him, yes, even years left as a pleasant trail riding horse (well, on trails that are trimmed back high!). He would have been shipped from auction to auction until finally ending up up North somewhere.

But at the same time, I'm not anti-slaughter. I'm anti-inhumane slaughter. I'm bummed that in most areas of the US I can't take my old horse and return them to the hounds as they do in VA. I don't have enough land to bury him, and I don't even know if there are renderers that will take them in this part of the country (post-mortem, obviously).

To me, death with dignity doesn't mean necessarily being propped up on many medications just to stay alive. It means having a peaceful death and having my death MEAN something. Perhaps that's why I'm so attracted to having a small farm, a small farm is in balance. The manure fertilizes the crops that feed the people and the animals that make the manure to feed the crops to... (yes, it's more complex involving bugs and organisms and chickens are great for all of that but you get my point). To be fodder for some other critter after death would be a great honor for ME, and that option isn't available to me as a human. Culling herds of chickens, goats and other animals is hard - and to apply it to horses seems unthinkable - but we do the same with dogs and cats. I have an asthmatic cat, who, as long as I can keep him relatively comfortable on the medicine that he's on (which isn't expensive) has a safe refuge here. But when he becomes uncomfortable, he deserves to pass on with dignity.

I don't know, I'm rambling, but it made me think. And thinking...well, it makes me type.