Make way for ducklings!

First, I would like to apologize for the last post: it was a glitch, a fluke, an accident. And it was about 3 times longer, with a bunch more pictures and such, but somehow all that disappeared. Basically it was wallpaper, blah, blah, wallpaper. If you want to see any pictures, there are all in the flickr photo-stream on the right.

We just keep getting more creatures! This time in addition to a few more baby chicks, we've gotten ducklings. Chicks are cute, but really, ducklings are so much cuter-and bigger! than baby chicks!
   

When I left Chicks Days at Grain Growers, I thought I had 4 Pekin ducks, 2 Rouens, and 2 I have no ideas. They had ordered a random assortment of ducklings, so even the folks at Grain Growers weren't too sure what they had. After doing a little research I think I actually have 2 Rouens, 2 Pekins, 2 Buffs, a Blue Swedish and either a Welsh Harlequin or a third Buff. So that's not bad right, I'm really only uncertain about one of them... we'll see in time!




So what, you ask, are we going to do with these ducklings. Mostly keep them for eggs. The eggs are larger than chicken eggs and ohh! they make delicious, rich cakes!

We also got a few more chicks. Most of this little ladies are white egg layers (Leghorns) and two more Americanas, who lay green eggs.



We already have 2 Americanas and they have not laid an egg all winter. About a week ago, they started laying again. At that point I realized something unexpected: I had just painted the kitchen Americana egg green, subconsciously? I have no idea!



And just for fun, here is Bear and Fang taking a nap at the side door. Happy Spring!

Winter Projects

Wallpaper can suck it! edition

I keep meaning to post, but we have been a little busy with self inflicted house projects.

Let's start upstairs, in the incredibly ugly bathroom. There are no pictures of how this room originally looked-why document it!? That's how ugly it was. I thought I had some evidence of all of us taking the wallpaper down, but I can't even find those! There was Rich, Beth, Keith, me, and sometimes BJ in the bathroom ripping down paper, an inch at a time. The only room I had any help taking down paper, it was amazing! There was beige and maroon flowered paper, then a layer of paint-EVIL!-then the original layer of rubber duckies in sailboats paper. Why! Children's wallpaper-are your kids going to be 5 forever!?!

The walls were kind of destroyed, but we hired a friend to fix them and fix them he did.


As I was painting this room, I kept thinking the color (pompanion pink), looked like somewhere familiar. Finally I got it, YOU are the caretaker. You've always been the caretaker. The creepy bathroom from Shining (OK, one of the creepy bathrooms from the Shining)! Not to freak out future guests, that is not what it looks like with new mirrors, fixtures, pretty much anything that wasn't nailed down.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays and Merry a couple days after Christmas! We finally have a little bit of snow on the ground here, but not really enough to be excited about. At least it's snowy in the mountains!
For the second year in a row we have had a ridiculously huge Christmas tree. This year we went out to the woods with our friends Michael and Dionne in hopes of finding the perfect tree and we did! Michael and Dionne ended up with a beautiful 12 ft tree and we managed to cut down a 19 feet 8 inch tree-just under the 20 foot limit! We had a bit of pruning to do, so the height of the tree in the house is 15 feet 8 inches-kinda huge! And all it cost was $5 for the permit to cut the tree down and a fun day in the forest!
Keith had to work Christmas morning, but Bear and BJ were ready to open presents as soon as he got home. BJ is experienced at opening presents and took his time, while Bear mauled each present he was give to open, which looked like he was having the most fun ever!


Bear's first Christmas consisted of being inside almost all day, getting tons of presents, stealing all of BJ's presents and generally being the most spoiled outside dog that ever existed and BJ got tired of all this pretty quickly. Now all Bear wants is to come inside all day...maybe letting him in for such a long time was a bad idea!

  
Even with Keith working for part of the day, we had a really nice and relaxing Christmas day. We are so thankful for all the generous gifts and beautiful Christmas cards. We hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!

I'll be posting a Winter Farm update soon! Stay tuned

It's finally happened!

After years and years of talking about, we have goats! On Saturday our friend and goat aficionado Nancy dropped off Cupid and her kid Valentino. So far they have not escaped!
   

This is what I know about them so far. They do NOT like the dogs, especially when they bark. They do like the chickens and seem to prefer being in the chicken pen than by themselves out in the pasture. Valentino is a very large 4 month old kid and is still nursing, which means that I don't have to start milking just yet. Also, Valentino loves to have close ups taken:

 

I haven't quiet won over Cupid yet, but hopefully she'll grow to like me.

 

And are you thinking what I'm thinking: is that snow on the ground? Why yes it is! It started snowing in the mountains on Saturday and it's been snowing down here in the valley all day. Looking at the forecast I'm not sure when it's going to stop, maybe by this weekend or maybe by May, we'll see!

This is both Bear and Fang 3's first snow and they both seem to be enjoying it!

Bear is trying so hard to convince me to let him in. Obviously he's not wet and dirty.

We have some interesting days ahead with learning to milk and all. I'll keep you posted!

Buh bye, black sheep

Oh, lambs. Today you take you final walk into the sunset. No more lounging in the shade. No more getting stuck in the chicken coop. No more ramming me in the back of the knees or stomping on my foot so hard I thought you broke my toe.

Let's remember how cute and little you were!

Slowly, you got a little less cute and a lot bigger.
 

And now you, the Ram (aka Testicles), drive me crazy! You're so big and ram me so hard. I wish you would just stop it! And when you stepped on my toe and it was bleeding and swelling, I called for your head on a platter! Well, by this weekend you will be in my freezer. I know it sounds morbid, but I don't care!
 

While I say all of this, we are planning on getting more sheep (ewes not rams!) so we can have our own little flock of sheep.

I will miss them and I do look forward to getting more sheep. I also hope that the lambs are as at peace about becoming kabobs as Robert is!

Brothers

Am I getting close to ending up on one of those animal hoarder shows? Since Keith just informed that we are to get no more puppies or kittens, I can't help but fear that is my fate.

First, we (I) adopted Fang III at the end of June. He was this adorable, cuddly 8 week old kitten that I just couldn't say no to. Besides, Fang II disappeared in late April and we had to face that he was not coming back. He lived a full 17 years, and he only spent one of them with us, but I still miss him! Fang III, or his getting longer everyday full name, King Purry Fangston the Third, is now king of the garage, front porch and garden and getting braver everyday!

 

And I thought I was done collecting animals for the summer. But no! Then I meet a dozen puppies a couple of weeks ago and fell for one of them immediately. Bear stood out as the gentle giant of the gaggle of border collie/mini Australian shepherd mix puppies. I have spent the last two weeks convincing Keith that we desperately need an outside dog and we now have one! We brought Bear home this morning. He from farm dog stock and I hope that we can keep him busy enough to be happy here!

BJ is amazingly being wonderful (so far!) , while Fang is a little trepidatious. As I say that they all are taking naps in various places on the front porch. It's adorable overload here! They are the cutest set of brothers anywhere! There ya go! Just another addition to our little bucolic utopia

Canning with Queen

Holy crap! It has been forever since I've blogged. There are a few reasons for this. One is that so much is in progress but nothing is really completed: the patio is finished but the grass seed isn't even sprouting yet, the fence around the garden is up but not painted....I could go on and on and on. Another reason is that who wants another garden update!?!  I mean I get crazy excited about my baby melons, but don't expect anyone else to be. But to me the main reason I've haven't been writing is that we've seen so many of the people I feel like I'm writing to this spring, summer, fall, that all my stories fell redundant! I mean how many jokes about giant lamb testicles are there really?


I have also been thinking about changing format of this blog a bit. Obviously we aren't really traveling any where anytime soon (expect for Ohio and after 3 visits in the next 3 months, I think I may be done going there forever!), but I do have a ton of fresh food, so why not write about what we're doing with our bountiful harvests? So I'm going to give this a go. It's harder than it sounds, since it is usually after I make something I think 'Oh, I should have taken pictures and blogged this' and I don't do things like make dinner regularly.

 A random aside: Sometimes I feel like I'm running for (and winning!) the Worst Housewife Award (let's be real-I'm pretty much a housewife and most days I am cool with it). To win this award I don't so things like make dinner or put laundry away. I feel my best event is 'Ignoring that the kitchen is a mess, even though I was the one got everything dirty'. Which actually brings me to what I'm doing this morning. Canning jam. The biggest con on making jam is that I'm in the kitchen for hours and I actually clean the kitchen, since I can't really go anywhere else and there is only so much dancing with Queen, Abba and a little Nancy and Lee one can do at 10 am! I'm sure I have points deducted for both the bad dancing and the cleaning.

Yesterday we went blackberry picking and came back with 3 gallons of blackberries! Really there is nothing else to do but make jam today! I also have a ton of rhubarb in the freezer from the garden so that is how 'Blackbarb jam' was born! This is essentially David Lebovitz's Rhubarb Strawberry Jam with blackberries and not really following the directions. PS: Everything I've ever made using a David Lebovitz recipe has been great! And honestly his book 'The Perfect Scoop' is hotter than '50 Shades of Grey'-I mean Date, Rum, Pecan Ice Cream or Raspberry-Champagne Sorbet-yes please!! (maybe I need to get out more!) Blackbarb Jam



8 cups of blackberries
8 cups of rhubarb, trimmed and sliced into 1/2-inch (2cm) pieces
5 1/2 cups sugar
zest and juice of one lemon
pinch of salt
1 package of pectin

1. In a large pot, mix the rhubarb, berries. Cook, covered, stirring frequently over moderate heat, until the rhubarb is cooked through and thoroughly tender. It should take about 15 minutes (mine took longer since my rhubarb was still frozen-ish)

2. Add the sugar, lemon juice, and salt, and cook, uncovered, skimming off and discarding any foam that rises to the surface, until the jam is thick and passes the wrinkle test.

3. Stir in the pectin, get your can on. 

If this doesn't end up being delicious, I still have 2 1/2 gallons of blackberries and 24 cups of rhubarb to work with! Maybe I'll make some popsicles or syrup next!