Author: Julia

I am a retired software solutions architect. I have been married to my husband, Bruce, for over forty years. We went full-time RVing for 3.5 years and saw much of the United States. After deciding to stop RVing, we bought a ranch house halfway up a hill on five acres. After Bruce and I talked about names for our five acres, we settled on Blackberry Homestead as a homage to the wild blackberries on the hill. We are working on creating our homestead. I love cooking and enjoy sharing recipes. I am also an artist, and I’ll share my current projects. Gardening and reading are my favorite hobbies.

RV Gadget for Christmas

December 27, 2019 One of the things I kept seeing on the YouTube channels, when they had a videos on safety, was about safely pulling your RV. Many of them mentioned when you stop, walk around the rig and make sure everything still looks okay and check the tires for safe temperatures and pressures. It […]

The Truck Is Home! (Finding the Truck 8)

December 24, 2019 The truck is now in our driveway! We went and picked it up last night, and looked it over. There were blue marks on the truck and my thought was really? The interior had been vacuumed, but there was dust on the dashboard, and the salesman had taken the truck through a […]

Triple Ginger and Cranberry Scones

Modified the Milk Street recipe from Tandem Bakery’’s Briana Holt. Ingredients 455 grams (3½ cups) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting 67 grams (5 tablespoons) white sugar 4 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 2 tablespoons ground ginger 1 1/2 teaspoons grated nutmeg 2 teaspoons kosher salt (1 1/4 teaspoons table salt) 1 1/2 […]

Finding the Truck (7)

December 21, 2019 We did it! We bought the truck yesterday! I am still so excited! We are really doing this! The dealership is adding running boards and the truck won’t be ready until Monday, but it is ours now!

Finding the Truck (6)

December 19, 2019 Bruce made a list of the the options on the truck that we test drove, and then we built a truck on the Dodge site. He then compared the list of things that we wanted to the the things the truck didn’t have.

Finding the Truck (5)

December 18, 2019 Last night, Bruce and I discussed buying the truck over dinner. Bruce had taken the time to go through the truck specs on the truck we test drove, to see what was on it that we didn’t need/want and what was missing.

Where Are We Planning to Go?

December 18, 2019 Updated on January 6, 2020 One of the most common questions I get asked is, where is the first place you are going? There are a few others questions I get asked: Do you have your route all planned out? Do you know where you are going? Where would you like to […]

Christmas Buns

This is a modification of the Hot Cross Buns from “Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book”. Makes 30 large buns or 60 small buns Ingredients Rolls 2 cups raisins (300 g) 1 cup dried apricots (130 g) 1 cup walnuts (120 g) 2 teaspoons active dry yeast (1/4 oz or 7g) 1/2 cup warm water (120 ml) […]