The Big White Farmhouse | intentional living, little by little

July 29, 2021

No.548: What I Read in July 2021

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#56. ASHES OF FIERY WEATHER by Kathleen Donohoe
★★★☆☆
This book is a multi-generational story from the point-of-view of the matriarchs of an Irish-American family. Firefighting is a common link through the generations and the family suffers through heartache, betrayal and family drama. I found this one well-written, but the flow of narrators and timelines was hard to follow. Thank goodness for the family tree in the front! Solid three stars, although I wish Catholicism had been portrayed in a more positive light.

#57. PROMISE by Minrose Gwin
★★★☆☆
From the author’s note: “A few minutes after 9 P.M. on Palm Sunday, April 5, 1936, a massive funnel cloud flashing a giant fireball and roaring like a runaway train careened into the thriving cotton-mill town of Tupelo, in northeastern Mississippi. The tornado was measured as an F5, the highest level on the Fujita scale. Winds were estimated at 261 to 318 miles per hour, leveling 48 city blocks, about half the town.” This novel is the fictional account of what happens after this devastating event. I liked this story, but didn’t love it.

#58. FAIR AND TENDER LADIES by Lee Smith
★★★☆☆

For all of a sudden…I said to myself, Ivy, this is your life, this is your real life, and you are living it. Your life is not going to start later. This is it, this is now. It’s funny how a person can be so busy living that they forget this is it. This is my life. (p.195)

Fair and Tender Ladies is an epistolary novel, told through letters from Ivy Rowe to her family and friends and spanning her lifetime. I’d describe this one as melancholy in tone. I felt for Ivy, but also could not understand some of her decisions or her justification of them. Thought provoking, for sure. 3.5 stars.

#59. THE CATHOLIC GUIDE TO MIRACLES: SEPARATING THE AUTHENTIC FROM THE COUNTERFEIT by Adam Blai
★★★★★
This book was so good. A quick, interesting read about everything from the stigmata and incorruptibility, to miraculous healings and Marian apparitions. This is the perfect overview book that can provoke interest in deeper investigation. I really enjoyed it. (P.S. How beautiful is the artwork on the cover? It’s called “Jesus Walking on Water” by Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky and I found a print of it here.)

#60. THE TIMEPIECE AND THE GIRL WHO WENT ASTRAY by O.R. Simmonds
★★☆☆☆
The Timepiece is a mix of history and time travel – a type of genre I don’t think I’ve ever read before! The story is about an American man who is staying in London with his girlfriend. She recommends that he find a unique thrift shop that specializes in various watches of all shapes and sizes. When the shop owner convinces him to buy one particular piece, the adventure and craziness begins. I think this book had a lot of potential, but got bogged down in the particulars. The complex time travel system required a lot of explanation, which slowed the pacing of the storyline. I did appreciate the cliff hanger at the end, which definitely opens this up to becoming a series. All in all, just an okay read for me. (Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. The Timepiece and the Girl Who Went Astray will be published on July 30, 2021!)

July 27, 2021

No.547: TBR Tuesday // Nine Natural History Books I Can’t Wait to Read

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I’ve recently become really interested in books that deal with nature and natural history. Here are nine that I can’t wait to get my hands on:

Mrs. Moreau’s Warbler: How Birds Got Their Names by Stephen Moss
We use names so often that few of us ever pause to wonder about their origins. What do they mean? And where did they come from? This book explores the bird kingdom and the stories behind their names. Sounds really interesting!

Old Herbaceous: A Novel of the Garden by Reginald Arkell
This classic British novel is “a witty comic portrait of the most archetypal–and crotchety–head gardener ever to plant a row of bulbs at a British country house.” There are supposed to be little bits of gardening wisdom sprinkled throughout too.

Four Wings and a Prayer: Caught in the Mystery of the Monarch Butterfly by Sue Halpern
“Every autumn, the monarch butterflies east of the Rockies migrate from as far north as Canada to Mexico. Memory is not their guide — no one butterfly makes the round trip — but each year somehow find their way to the same fifty acres of forest on the high slopes of Mexico’s Neovolcanic Mountains, and then make the return trip in the spring.” This book explores this phenomenon and is a blend of memoir, science and travel writing.

The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace Johnson
How about a true crime adventure? In 2009, a bizarre crime occurred at the British Museum of Natural History, where many rare bird specimens were displayed. These specimens had gorgeous feathers worth a lot of money, especially to men who enjoyed salmon fly-tying. The thief grabbed hundreds of bird skins and escaped into the night. This book explores another man’s investigation into the case. Intriguing!

The Dun Cow Rib: A Very Natural Childhood by John Lister-Kaye
This book is a memoir “of a boy’s awakening to the wonders of the natural world.” Sounds like another British gem.

The Trees by Conrad Richter
From the description: “The Trees is the story of an American family in the wilderness–a family that “followed the woods as some families follow the sea.” The time is the end of the 18th century, the wilderness is the land west of the Alleghenies and north of the Ohio River. But principally, The Trees is the story of a girl named Sayward, eldest daughter of Worth and Jary Luckett, raised in the forest far from the rest of humankind, yet growing to realize that the way of the hunter must cede to the way of the tiller of soil.”

What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World by Jon Young
I find bird calls fascinating. This book explores bird vocalization and what the different sounds mean, looking at everything from happy songs to distress calls.

Let Them Eat Dirt: Saving Our Children from an Oversanitized World by B. Brett Finlay
Since moving to the country, my kids have been exposed to a lot of dirt. And praised be to God, we’ve also been incredibly healthy. I was reflecting about that possible connection when I came across this book!

The Secret World of Weather by Tristan Gooley
I’m still slowly working my way through The Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs, another one of Gooley’s books, but this one sounds equally as good! I’m sure it will be full of helpful information and tips.

July 26, 2021

No.546: Last Week at the Farmhouse // July Life in Pictures

Another normal July week at the farmhouse! Lots of good, lots of crazy…

I recently stumbled on the blog, A Working Pantry, and I love the idea of her weekly challenges. Food prices keep increasing around here (is it the same for you too?) so I’m going to designate a little of my grocery money to beef up my pantry and use her challenges for direction. Anyway, the challenge of the week was “black/brown” so I bought two cans of black beans and two cans of refried beans.

The broilers turned 8 weeks on Wednesday and we’re nearing the homestretch! Aiming for processing on the first two weekends in August. Our hens are laying like crazy, which is so cool. We had a few days where we debated whether our feisty and mature-looking Sylvia was actually a rooster, but good news! Turns out her breed is clearly defined by their coloring and she is definitely a lady. In other chicken farming news, when moving broilers, I stepped into a hole (covered over in grass) and did a number to my heel and arch. I’ve been hobbling around for a few days and am hoping to feel some relief soon.

I fell off of the no sugar wagon hard a few weeks ago because it’s just so darn hot! We’ve been eating our weight in Outshine popsicles and I’ll get back on my game in the fall.

The little kids asked me to make “Brick Bread,” which is just white bread completely made in the bread machine. (I much prefer to let the machine do half of the work before transferring to a bread pan for the second rise, but my kids are crazy.) But Mama aims to please, so brick bread it is! My previous links to the recipe seem to have disappeared, so I’m writing down the instructions here:

1 1/3 cups warm water, about 110 degrees
1/3 cup Olive Oil
2 tsp. salt
4 cups flour
2 Tablespoons + 2 tsp. white sugar
3 tsp. yeast

Directions: In a bread machine, place water, oil and salt. Add flour on top of liquids. Pour sugar into one corner of the bread machine basket. Then make a well in the center of the flour and pour in the yeast. Set bread machine to “basic” loaf, and let it do the work for you!
(Alternatively, you can set it on the dough setting, then place in a bread pan for the second rise. Bake at 375° for 40 minutes.)

I listened to a talk about the four temperaments and how they help/hinder your spiritual life. I couldn’t quite pinpoint myself from the talk’s descriptions, so I found an online quiz. Turns out I’m a Melancholic-Phlegmatic! The summary of this personality type was spot on.

Most exciting news of the week: we are moving forward with a property fence! We got some professional estimates months ago and the cost was staggering. SO expensive! Instead, we’ve decided to build it ourselves. So excited to get started.

July 21, 2021

No.545: The Wednesday Five #19

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Happy Wednesday!

A QUOTE

If nothing slows their momentum, Amazon will control nearly 80% of the consumer book market by the end of 2025. Every single book lover should worry. After we’re done worrying, we must change the way we buy books.

Books are a fundamental social good that have an outsized impact on our development, individually and collectively. They move us forward. They have been fundamental to our moral and social evolution, our inner lives, and our understanding of ourselves, others, and the world. What they give us is too precious to trust to a single entity for whom they are ultimately just a product, and whose algorithms value them only by the revenue and customers they bring in. – from a thought-provoking letter from Bookshop’s founder, Andy Hunter

TABS OPEN IN MY BROWSER RIGHT NOW

Well Read Mom // a new friend invited me to her book club and I think I may join!
these organic Vitamin D vitamins // getting ready to stock up for cold weather months ahead (you can use this link for $10 off your purchase!)
this beautiful Gregorian Chant Rosary // I keep this on in the background when I work and it’s so peaceful
Plenty: Eating Locally on the 100-Mile Diet // a new book on my radar
Overnight Breakfast Egg Casserole // we definitely have plenty of eggs!

A BEAUTIFUL PIECE OF ART

“Mother with Children” by Ferdinand Georg Waldmuller (found here)

A RECOMMENDATION

The Heights School has a wonderful reading list for boys on their website. From the intro: “What cannot be found here are the types of books—a product of very recent times—that have been written to promote reading as a form of entertainment, a mere distraction, to compete with video games, the Internet, and television, leaving little to the imagination. Instead, these recommended titles require the cultivation of a certain amount of interior silence and strength to retreat into a world where the written word works with the imagination to give life to an adventure. As such, it will be an effort for some to become immersed in these books. Nonetheless, the ascetical struggle to cultivate the interior silence necessary to enter these imaginative worlds (both fiction and non-fiction) will undoubtedly be richly rewarded.” I have been referring to the list as I make school plans and introduce new works of literature into our home library.