Shots fired (My sneaky little trick)

Hey there, darlings. What is up? Welcome back to Roots and Refuge. I was about to grab these out of the freezer. Well, I was grabbing these out of the freezer and I wanted to share this little life hack with you. So I've got my pan of rolls here. These are really big rolls. They're probably not quite big enough to use as buns, but they're definitely like Good size for like even making a sandwich with. Anyway, I put these in the freezer the other day. One of the things that I have taken to doing because I make a lot of bread is when I've got my mixer out and I'm going ahead and prepping a batch of bread to bake, I get my batch in a bowl to rise. Mixer's dirty. All the stuff is out. So I just go ahead and prep another batch of dough. Put it in another bowl to rise and when I go to prep my loaves or my rolls or whatever it is that I'm making, I take that second batch, shape it, and stick it in the freezer. At this point these are frozen solid. This is just some fresh milled. rolls and I'm going to leave them on the counter uncovered like this. I do cover them. If I'm trying to freeze them long term, I will try to make sure the cover is like right up against them so they're not going to get freezer burnt so they don't develop ice on them. But I knew that I would use these within the next couple weeks. So I just put a layer of aluminum foil on them and I put them in one of my baking dishes. If I was going to put them in there long term, I would put them Put them in like a throwaway pan or something. Or if I was going to give them to somebody, but it has definitely been a nice thing to have bread that is like almost ready to bake or I can at least get it to the point of baking without making a mess. on hand and I've just been consistently doing that every time I make bread. You need to let them sit on the counter. They don't have to like fully thaw and rise but I usually let them sit on the counter for like 45 minutes to an hour so they're good and thawed. The biggest thing is obviously I don't want to preheat and then put my pan in a hot oven straight out of the freezer because it would break. But let it sit on the counter. They'll come to temp. They don't have to rise again. They will rise in the end. in the oven and these bake up really nicely just it might take just a few more minutes from your normal baking time if you're baking them from fresh. I every year throw a Pampered Chef party. I'm here with my friend Samantha. She is one of the moderators of my Facebook group. If you're not in Friends of Ruth and Refuge, it has been a great place over the several years I've been doing YouTube. I started that Facebook group because I couldn't possibly answer all the questions I was getting. And I thought, what can I do? I can foster a community where people can get their questions answered. It's been beautiful. Samantha has been a huge part of that being the space that it is. And so as a thank you to her, I host a Pampered Chef party every year. I rave about stoneware. I won't give you the whole spiel on it. I did an extensive video. I didn't actually do a party last year, but the year before I did an extensive video telling you all about stoneware, if you're like a reviews person and you like to know. But you can see here, like this is, these are my tried and true, the baking sheets. This is my piece of stoneware right here. This came with Jeremiah when I married him he owned this. This was my introduction to stoneware. So this pan is, I don't know, at least 20 years old. Obviously very well loved and at this point I have a pretty extensive collection. I've been baking and cooking with stoneware for You know since I married Jeremiah is when that collection started and it's non-toxic. It is made in the U.S. I have a really good warranty on it. So it's something that I feel good about sharing. It also is forgiving. This is the CliffsNotes. People are like, oh I noticed your baking sheet. You know, do you like that? They are heavy. You know, they're an investment. However, if you are forgetful. Stuff kind of dries out on stoneware before it burns. And so like, if you forgot the cookies in the oven for a few minutes, they're just gonna be crispy cookies instead of black bottom cookies. So that . I need that. I just, I'm just gonna tell you right now, I need that in my life. All right, so I'm gonna leave this on the counter. I'll be back in in about 45 minutes. I'm gonna bake those. That's going with dinner. And I will also put a link down below to the Pampered Chef Party. It's going to be going for the next handful of weeks. I've done them every year, like in November, but then it always occurs to me, and I have just my first year to actually nail this, but it always occurs to me, I'm hosting these where people are going to get that get them after their Thanksgiving cooking a lot of times. So I wanted to do it early enough this year that if people needed a little new cookware in their kitchen they could get it and have it in time for your holiday cooking activities. Alright, I saw something earlier. I got my evening cup of coffee which is decaf. Can't do that anymore. I used to drink coffee. Didn't matter. Didn't matter. I could drink coffee all day but now my body's like no girl you're 40. You can't do that. Y'all bear gets so excited when he sees me pick up my camera. Oh my neighbors are shooting guns. When I first started YouTube Obviously, I've lived rurally here in the southern United States the whole time I've been on YouTube. First in Arkansas, now in South Carolina. And if you are outside on a weekend in this area, if you are rural, you're going to hear gunfire. It's not a cause for concern. I would say the majority, I mean, there are definitely idiots everywhere, but the majority of people who are out firing guns on a Sunday afternoon in, you know, rural South Carolina are doing so safely. You know, they've got a shooting range set up where it's safe. Not like shooting in my house or anything. I mean honestly we have we have shooting range here at our house. Jeremiah is a marine, once a marine always marine. I mean I always say YouTube really like broadened my world because I just the things that are normal to you like gunfire on a Sunday afternoon and okra and you know the things I say that because I'm looking at okra plants right now but um There's normal to you, and if you don't ever... go outside of what's normal to you, you might never realize that it's not normal to other people. And I remember like my first summer doing YouTube regularly, being out doing some garden work on a weekend afternoon and there were gunshots in the background. And I had made some comment about it like, oh somebody's shooting guns. Like just in passing. Wasn't a big deal. I was used to it. Just like I'm used to okra. I've been eating it my whole life. And I got some comments that were intensely accusatory towards me and I was so like bewildered by it actually made me feel really scared because I just I was just so taken aback because I wasn't making a political statement I wasn't I literally was just saying someone is shooting guns which is very normal where I live and I spent probably two years avoiding shooting videos during certain times of day of in the week when people would likely to be shooting. I would arrange you know get my kids settled in or I make sure Maya was watching them get all ready go down to my garden get ready to shoot something and somebody would start shooting guns nearby because of multiple neighbors and I would get so upset. I mean there were times that I would get so frustrated I would like start crying because in my mind I was like oh I can't I can't shoot this video while this is happening. Yeah, it's so wild to look back on, like, my younger self in those situations. And it's also wild to think, because this is how I view it now. Interestingly, even though we do have... We go a little shooting range here on our property and are very responsible gun owners. I'm not a gun person at all. Not my thing at all. But I respect the fact that it's my husband's thing. And as long as it's being handled responsibly, it's fine that it's his thing. Here's my mom. We're getting ready to head back to Arkansas tomorrow, and she was picking herself a basket of peppers, but then she wanted to take the chicken, some of the stuff that she found that was rotten, so she's got to go take treats. Jeremiah calls her Snow White. Yeah, it's a good thing. I love the animals, but then I found more really good bell peppers, so oh, and look. Oh nice, green tomatoes. Yeah, fry those up. So the couple on top is what I found that's going in, the rest of it is the chickens. They'll love you for it. They'll probably sing you a song. It's a great song. Aww. Aww. Now what? Anyway, here's what I've come to appreciate. It is so cool that we get to turn the screen on and experience the world from someone else's perspective. Oh my gosh, this is such a mess. A wild mess. There's a lot of food. Mom just found a big old bag she's going to take home. I've just preserved so much at this point. You know, I always let it go towards the end. Well, I let it go and I let people come glean from it. We're really fortunate. That we have the technology like YouTube to be able to have a window into somebody's world. To be able to see how they live and what they think. And even hear what they believe, even if it is vastly different from what we believe. And if we were willing to actually approach that with some sense of curiosity. What, the only thing that could come from that is benefit, just having some curiosity, just seeing the humanity in other people instead of being very quickly reactive, where we draw conclusions, where we make everything me versus you. I think that that reactive thinking and that state of being where we, you know, put our Put our fists up and spill our decaf. Where we put our fists up and we're like ready to argue before we've even considered what the other person may be saying. That is, in my opinion, um... By design, because media being in that state is the best for media, because a captive audience can't look away. When your nervous system is hijacked, you are going to be more engaged with what it is that you're reading or consuming, because we are, by nature, designed to be able And if we perceive a threat, it is... 10 times more likely to get a response out of us rather than it's peaceful. Like I do experiments sometimes. If you'll look back over my last several titles on my videos, I have done, we have an option on YouTube to do what's called A/B testing where I can actually run, release the video and there'll be like different titles and different thumbnails that I upload. And... The audience chooses which one gets to be like the one that sticks by which one gets clicked on the most and which one gets the most watch time and you'll notice there are some they're not clickbait because they are actually there's follow-through it's only clickbait if you don't follow through like if I was like someone's shooting at me. And then you come in and I'm literally, you know, it's just someone shooting nearby and I tried to sell it like it was a threat that it wasn't. That would be clickbait. But if I were to title the video, which I'm not going to because I'll tow a line, but I think I would get demonetized for this. But if I were to be like, I hear gunfire or something like that, that would not be clickbait in this video. I do indeed hear gunfire, so it's not clickbait. But I have been testing where I'll do like a kind of negative sounding thumbnail. And then I'll do one that's like completely positive and usually within two hours of the video being up the negative thumbnail has already been confirmed as the one that stays or the negative title. If it's if it has the word can't or never or any sort of like truly negative word always wins. Like so sad um my friend Morgan and I joke about doing like reverse clickbait where Where you make a video where the title is kind of like... And then it's actually really peaceful. We're like, you know. Sneaking it in, like we're sneaking in the positivity and the peace and calm to people because they can't help themselves, like their nervous systems just can't help but grab hold of the threat that needs to be investigated, but instead you just give them peace because that's really what I want to do. But man, what a blessing to be able to experience a part of the world and a view of the world that you don't have. But YouTube was just a completely eye-opening thing for me because I just got to experience the diversity of people, their thoughts, their views, their different world views. And I approached it with curiosity and it has made my life so much richer. And I have taught a lot of people about okra. So, you know, all around, I think it's a win. All right, we're going to leave the coffee. I almost said remind me to get that but you can't. Normally the rule is that you do not step into tall grass in the sandals but I'm going to keep a close eye and I've got a path here that it's not too tall. Look at this. This is my jujube tree and I've never had much of a harvest for this because the critters always get them but it looks like we have ready fruit. I don't really know how this works. I don't really know what they're supposed to be like. I've only ever had them dried. I gotta get on the googly and figure this out. All right, this says a ripe jujube looks smooth and glossy transitioning from green to mottled yellow green and finally turning a deep mahogany, reddish brown or chocolate colored. They're fully ripe when the skin is entirely dark brown, reddish or mahogany and feels firm yet yields slightly when gently squeezed. All right, well, I'd say we're definitely there on some of these. Some still have like a little bit of green on them, but like that's entirely brownish. They taste, which this is what it said also, so this is right, it says like a cross between a date and an apple, which those things feel like a strange cross to me, but that is what it is. It's like a crispy date flavored little apple. They're quite delicious. I should have brought a basket down. So I bought these dried I was doing like this. I saw it on a reel. It was like a tea and antioxidant tea where you take dried jujubes and goji berries. There was one other thing here. I remember what it was. I guess it was just those two things and you just steep them in warm water and like simmer them for a little while and it makes like this nice sweet antioxidant rich tea. That was really nice but that's the only thing I've ever Use jujubes one. We planted these because Will thought they were cool. And last year I've got this one and I've got that one. That one's got quite a bit of fruit on it too. But last year they said a bunch and um then the squirrels got them or something. A bird. I'm gonna get a lot this year. Hmm this one looks really ripe. Oh no that's not good. That's too ripe. Hmm that's squishy. I guess I could still taste it. No bugs in it so why not right? Oh that's weird. Texture of a very ripe apple. They're definitely better a little firmer than this. I think I'm probably going to need a step ladder to harvest these. I definitely need some boots because I'm not getting all up in that with sandals on. You know, regarding media and division, which I know I'm stepping into a hot topic on this one, but I wonder how dangerous it would be to that whole structure of outrage media Yeah, I am. algorithm driven media that really preys on nervous systems if people were willing to see humanity first and hear people's experiences first and especially value sources where you're hearing from real people and I know it's hard especially as things get harder and harder to discern what's even real. I think of being like this 28 year old girl that was turning a camera I have a camera on a 29 year old girl that just like... Was just naively being like, hey, here's my world, here's my life, and how quickly I learned to try to protect myself. And I have had to intentionally try to unlearn that, to just be able to show up authentically. And I just, I wonder how many people give up trying. To me, it's so important to be able to actually be real and honest. And I think it's important for people To be able to... Hear from other people in other parts of the world. That's important. Y'all look at my pond. It's having a duckweed bloom right now. This is the first time that this has happened since we've been here. And it's pretty gnarly looking. This pond is struggling. I think I'm going to have to bring somebody out that knows what to do exactly. Like I've done some research and stuff. I don't know. What do you do? What do you do for this? Anybody? It's actually looking better. It's actually clearing up in parts, and so I'm hoping maybe, you know, as the frost comes, it'll knock it back, and then maybe we can go from there, but I can't get over there in sandals because the grass is up to my knees, but my prickly pears have fruit on them. All over there. Some of these fruit trees I'm going to be replacing. Like this is a little peach variety that did not do well. I've got like a couple apple trees that never did well. I just I didn't get the right varieties. I planted them right after getting here and now that I've talked to more people who have grown here I have some varieties that I would prefer to replace them with. So we're going to be tearing those out and replanting. Hey bear! Four... Not really knowing a lot about orchards, just kind of diving in and planting. I've harvested at this point like many bushels of fruit out of this little orchard space. And after doing a little tweaking and adding some different things in there, I think that it's going to be even more productive. We're also planting more fruit trees down on the end. Got seeds coming up, lots of started plants, a fair bit of weeds. This is all basil for like a late harvest. Then I will happily, it's about ready for me to start using it. I was trying to let it get established first, but late season basil, I'll freeze it all before the frost is coming. Our estimated first frost date is somewhere in the range of like the first week of November. However, since I've lived here, it's been as early as October 16th, I think, and as late as like November 25th. So it's pretty wide range. The worst is whenever we get, like the year it It was October 16th. froze everything killed everything and then didn't freeze again for another month. That was a bummer because I was like oh I could have had the garden this whole time but you know maybe I just need a little more rest that year. There's Asher Miles. You going back to school sir? Yep. All right I love you have a good week. Love you. I'm going to Arkansas this week so I'll see you when I get back. All right have a good week I love you. My baby boy going back to School. I do love that he comes home on the weekends. It's nice. It's been nice to have him. We are headed tomorrow, which I don't know when you guys are going to see this video. It'll be later in the week. I'm just going with my boys. Maya's holding down the fort here, but we're going to go take my mom back home. Oh, I guess he forgot something. And I'm going to take them I am on a little bit of an adventure. Up in North Arkansas because it is the trout spawn and I'm going to take them fly fishing with my brother Drew. Oh, yeah Thanks for going on a walk down the driveway with me I'm curious like who do you like to watch? just as an observer to like see who what their life is like like what content creators are you fascinated by in that regard like I've watched some and I mean to me my life does not feel that fascinating obviously it's my life it's what I wake up to every morning now I love it like I routinely sit on my front porch in the morning drinking my coffee I'm like we live here like this is awesome I love my home I love my My life, but it's also very normal to me and I know a lot of people who live, you know, relatively similar lives, but I know that I've come across content of people who live in like high rises in places like. Russia that are insanely cold or, you know, people who are truly living off grid in places like Alaska, people who live just in cities. Like I'll watch reels of people who show their like after work routine that live in New York City. And it's crazy because I just I can't fathom that. Like it's just it's so not my life. What a gift. We get to engage with people. All over the place in a way that has never happened in history. Never has humanity had the measure of connectivity that we had. And I do think that that's really a double-edged sword. I think that it can be a source of a lot of anxiety and a lot of things. But, like, what a powerful tool that is for those of us who approach it as an asset and see it for what it really is. So, I don't know. I was just thinking about that. I thought about it all because as I was grabbing my camera earlier, I heard those gunshots going off and I was like, I had that instant of like, oh, and then I'm like, oh no, no, no, I'm not doing that anymore. Like I'm not like, this is my actual life. This is my actual, we're just regular people living an actual life on a really cool farm, but the neighbors shoot guns on Sunday. So thank you for hanging out with me today. I bless you until next time.