Days Go By..
Today there will be no illustrations. You will need to make the pictures in your head.
Things I must tell you:
I have a giant pile of library books. I am happeeee.
The Man and The Boy have been wrestling with my laptop. It was very SLOOOOW, so they took everything off it, and then put it all back on again. With Windows, so now I have to share it with Rosy, whose (very old) laptop died. Next year she will get one at school, but until then I have to SHARE. I am not good at sharing. Especially with school projects on Ancient China. Ho hum.
Four out of five of the other members of my family can now do more complicated maths than me. This does not worry me in any way, and I will not be doing any extra study to catch up. I am happy to be the family maths dunce. I currently am ahead of the eight year old, but not by much.
This weekend The Man and I have pulled everything out of our filing cabinet, and thrown most of it in the recycling. We refiled what little is left into some folders and document boxes, which will be neatly shelved in our new study... when it has shelves. I had to take some drastic action. I felt like I had been doing this job forever, little by little, but I needed it to be done NOW. So I took everything out of the filing cabinet and piled it on the living room floor. We were knee deep in paper. But it worked. I HATE mess in the living room. The Man and I have been nearly bored to tears, but we have recycled nearly our whole lives. Three piles of recycling up to my knees. So that is a pile of paper up my waist, all gone. I feel lighter. We bought that filing cabinet when we moved in here, and ever since we have been shoving bits of paper in, because it's so easy to file it (just in case). Posy and the cats have had fun shredding paper, and chasing it.
The sourdough starter has stalled. My recipe (and Fran, sourdough queen) say to feed twice a day, so I have been, but of course, that means it has to get all bubbly in the space of twelve hours instead of twenty four, and so far it is, well, reluctant. First day of twice daily feeding there was ONE bubble. I thought I had killed it. Next day four bubbles, next day eight. So we are heading in the right direction, yes? But slowly. Today sourdough baby was reasonably bubbly, but the recipe says it has to double in size over twelve hours before it's ready. It's not ready. I have run out of flour. Lucky it's grocery day tomorrow. My sourdough baby is eating me out of house and home..
Tell me, sourdough mavens, do I need to wait until the starter doubles in size? Will it really do that? I'll take photos soon and maybe someone can tell me when I hit that magic 'yes, you can make bread now' moment.
Things I must tell you:
I have a giant pile of library books. I am happeeee.
The Man and The Boy have been wrestling with my laptop. It was very SLOOOOW, so they took everything off it, and then put it all back on again. With Windows, so now I have to share it with Rosy, whose (very old) laptop died. Next year she will get one at school, but until then I have to SHARE. I am not good at sharing. Especially with school projects on Ancient China. Ho hum.
Four out of five of the other members of my family can now do more complicated maths than me. This does not worry me in any way, and I will not be doing any extra study to catch up. I am happy to be the family maths dunce. I currently am ahead of the eight year old, but not by much.
This weekend The Man and I have pulled everything out of our filing cabinet, and thrown most of it in the recycling. We refiled what little is left into some folders and document boxes, which will be neatly shelved in our new study... when it has shelves. I had to take some drastic action. I felt like I had been doing this job forever, little by little, but I needed it to be done NOW. So I took everything out of the filing cabinet and piled it on the living room floor. We were knee deep in paper. But it worked. I HATE mess in the living room. The Man and I have been nearly bored to tears, but we have recycled nearly our whole lives. Three piles of recycling up to my knees. So that is a pile of paper up my waist, all gone. I feel lighter. We bought that filing cabinet when we moved in here, and ever since we have been shoving bits of paper in, because it's so easy to file it (just in case). Posy and the cats have had fun shredding paper, and chasing it.
The sourdough starter has stalled. My recipe (and Fran, sourdough queen) say to feed twice a day, so I have been, but of course, that means it has to get all bubbly in the space of twelve hours instead of twenty four, and so far it is, well, reluctant. First day of twice daily feeding there was ONE bubble. I thought I had killed it. Next day four bubbles, next day eight. So we are heading in the right direction, yes? But slowly. Today sourdough baby was reasonably bubbly, but the recipe says it has to double in size over twelve hours before it's ready. It's not ready. I have run out of flour. Lucky it's grocery day tomorrow. My sourdough baby is eating me out of house and home..
Tell me, sourdough mavens, do I need to wait until the starter doubles in size? Will it really do that? I'll take photos soon and maybe someone can tell me when I hit that magic 'yes, you can make bread now' moment.
Comments
And how brave to pull everything out of the filing cabinet. I WILL tackle mine for an hour tomorrow.
All of my kids were able to do more complicated math than me when they were in grade 3 :(. I had to face my mathematical demons when I did my Diploma in Horticulture and angles suddenly became important again. Math and I are NOT friends...I scraped through by the seat of my protesting/procrastinating pants and some help from my truly wonderful lecturer who may or may not have developed a drinking problem when we started our course.
I think we are living parallel lives! Steve and I have been hurling out old papers, old "stuff" that has been in hibernation since dad died and we had to clear out the house. You wouldn't want some old cut glass things would you? We have a house full and I am not partial to "fussy" things.
One day your sourdough will rise up like a phoenix and will spill out of the top of your jar and you will be wishing for those old days of 8 bubbles ;). Like everything that is worth it, it takes time and a fast sourdough isn't always a good one. It has been pretty cold lately and like just about every other ferment, temperature has a good part in the equation. Mine took 2 weeks to get back to being happy and that was a starter that someone else sent to me from the mainland so with a new starter it will take time. Glad you got your laptop and your papers sorted. Doesn't it feel great? We are going to have a combined paper bonfire supported by some garden debris and foil wrapped baked potatoes and toasting fork marshmallows are de rigueur! Have a great week, you can rest on your laurels now and while Poppy is away at school... ;)
I know nothing about the sourdough, but I wish you luck on your pioneering journey!
Oh sharing sucks! This laptop is MINE (at least in this household, the bf some how survives with a desktop miles out of site from the TV). Wasn't the same in the family home - there was lots of waiting and whinging! Cause really 5 laptops for 5 adults is overkill (but did eventually happen!)
Linda, isn't it a wonderful feeling when it is all done? And how scary is the volume of shredded paper? It's like an explosion!
Right, so Fran, I wait for best results. OK, I can do that, just need more flour!. It's bubbling beautifully now, but not rising much. It's so good to have people who have been there to tell me what to do..
Sarah, I feel bad that I don't want to share..
Rosy and Posy broke our shredder yesterday. They were such enthusiastic shreddies.. so now we are waiting for The Man to work his fix-it magic so we can shred some more.. and more..
Stick with the sour dough it will come good. If I could figure out how to send you one I have a great recipe for a starter that makes a yummy apple cake.
Best wishes
Jen in NSW
Do you have the Herman starter? We had one, but I didn't like the cake! Go figure. I always manage to make any cake with oil in it like a brick. So it may be just me...
While I still have a library card, I haven't had library books for a while. I'm not keen on returning them - and the fines? Well, it was almost cheaper to buy the books myself!
I am Quite Good at maths - currently I would say I am Best in House at the mathematics. However, I suspect the smallest boy will give me a run for my money when he gets a bit bigger!