2012 July 10 — Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

New Website Host

July 10, 2012 · by JudyL

Thank you all for sticking with me the past few months. Are you noticing that the blog is loading faster and hopefully you’ve encountered no database error messages. Sara is still working on the new blog design.

Sara suggested some changes such as hosting photos separately, using something called CloudFlare but in her talks with my former host, she felt that I needed to go from shared hosting to VPS hosting. I’m not sure how it all works but with all the content on the blog and all the visitors (which I really do appreciate), I was overloading the shared servers and sometimes when I was taking up too much space, the host just booted my rear end so others would have their fair share of space. Sara recommended RFE Hosting and over the weekend, the blog was switched to RFE.

I know absolutely nothing about switching web hosts, DNS, etc. but when I had switched once before (I’ve been blogging since 2004), I remember it being a lot of trouble . . scary trouble, and I was seriously concerned about moving the blog. The folks at RFE were absolutely wonderful! They did everything. Over the weekend, Friday night, all day Saturday and into Sunday, whether it was the middle of the night or the middle of the day, if I sent an email to them, I got an almost immediate response. They made me feel confident, even when the DNS transfer was taking longer than I had hoped and the blog was down for over 12 hours.

Their website says “Top Notch NEVER Outsourced Customer Service”. I definitely agree with the top notch service! At first I was a bit worried that they were some new, just started company, and only had one customer . . me! But, they’re a big company with lots of customers and I’m not their only customer! But what a great feeling to think you are the only customer and they really care about you and your little blog!

If you need web hosting, whether it’s shared, VPS or a dedicated server, I’m singing RFE Hosting’s praises! There’s a little blurb at the bottom of the blog that says “Web Hosting by RFE Hosting” so you don’t even have to remember their name when you do need a new host . . just go to the bottom of the blog and there it is.

Thank you so much RFE folks for making this switch so easy for someone like me who doesn’t have a clue how to do it all!

· Filed Under: Worthless Chatter · 16 Comments

Playing in the Rain

July 10, 2012 · by JudyL

Sunday afternoon we got a wonderful and much needed rain storm. I’ve never lived where so often it will look like it is going to rain any minute and then the brilliant sunshine chases away the clouds and we don’t get a drop of rain. Sunday afternoon I could hear thunder, and the skies got dark and I was so hoping we’d really get some rain. Vince said he’s never seen such huge cracks in the ground, though I’m sure these aren’t the biggest cracks in the world. We’ve lived through some dry times in the past but we’ve never lived in the midst of a drought. I’m so thankful that our livelihood isn’t dependent on having sufficient rain and I pray for the farmers and ranchers who are suffering so badly . . not just in Texas but in lots of places.

But, on Sunday afternoon, we did get rain. At first we had just a little sprinkle and it stopped. Vince was standing at the back window and said “I think that’s all we’re going to get.” I said . . look out the front window. It was pouring and just hadn’t quite made its way to the back yet.

We got a real good rain, a bit over an inch according to my rain gauge. We probably got a bit more than the rain gauge indicated because for a while, the rain was blowing completely sideways and I’m not sure if much of that got into the gauge.

That’s another thing . . I must be getting old. Do all old folks have a rain gauge? I as so happy to get mine.

All of our chickens don’t like to get wet . . except the bantams.

You can see how hard it’s raining and there they all are . . running around and playing . . not one bit concerned about the rain. Maybe they just get so hot with all those fluffy feathers that the rain feels good.

Maybe I should look for little hooded rain coats for them! They never once even acted like they were going to go inside the coop. They loved playing in the rain.

· Filed Under: Home & Garden · 10 Comments

Nicole’s Sofa Quilt – Hours #12 & 13

July 10, 2012 · by JudyL

Finish off those Flying Geese.

A total of 68 are needed and once these are done, there are no more flying geese for this quilt.

· Filed Under: Quilting · Leave a Comment

Sourdough Heaven

July 10, 2012 · by JudyL

I’m feeling more confident with my sourdough efforts and we’re so enjoying the bread. Classic Sourdough Revised has become quite worn in just a few weeks. Real books are my preference for cookbooks but I’m tempted to get the Kindle edition also because I spend so much time with this book. The starter I’m using is the one from Sourdo . . the Italian starter. This is the starter that I found to be so tedious to get started but now that it’s going, I love it. In this picture: Pizza dough, loaf of bread for slicing, and loaf of crusty Italian bread.

All the Dough

Vince loves crusty bread. Only problem is that he likes to eat stinky cheese with his crusty bread. The stinkier the better . . how does one eat that stuff? I think he likes it just because there are so few things I will not eat and I definitely will not eat most of the cheese he loves.

Here’s the crusty loaf (I forgot to slash the top before baking).

Crusty Loaf

The loaf of slicing bread . . is that not a gorgeous loaf of bread?

Slicing Loaf of Sourdough Bread

And pizza dough! This is where I hit it out of the park!

6 Balls for Pizza Dough

One batch makes six balls of pizza dough. The instructions say that the balls can be frozen after the second rise so I wrapped 5 of them in oiled plastic wrap, stuck them in a freezer bag and we’ll see what happens. I haven’t had good luck with freezing dough and I’m so hoping this works. Making a pizza will be a piece of cake if I can just grab a frozen ball of dough out of the freezer. I will post after I use these frozen dough balls and let you know how if the results are satisfactory.

All the Dough

Growing up in southwest Louisiana, there was a little pizza place on a busy corner that was run by authentic Italians. DiCarlo’s Pizza. The elderly lady (she seemed elderly when I was a kid and she seemed really elderly when I was in college). DiCarlo’s Pizza was like no other pizza I’d ever had and I loved it. My parents aren’t big pizza lovers so we rarely got pizza but even as an adult, it was a treat to get pizza from DiCarlo’s.

Pizza

Hopefully I’m not insulting DiCarlo’s Pizza but my first taste of this brought back memories of DiCarlo’s Pizza. Don’t you love it when you’re not expecting a good memory and it just pops up? The sourdough crust was extra crunchy on the bottom, a bit chewy on top. Toppings include turkey pepperoni, Canadian bacon, black and green olives.

And, though this bread is all so good . .

Button

Sometimes messages are subtle. Sometimes messages are clear. As I was kneading the bread, the button popped off my shorts. Think it could be time to lay off the bread? (Don’t even mention Weight Watchers!)