While Zac was digging new beds in the garden this morning I wandered out to take some pictures.
ME: HOLY COW! We have tomatoes already!!!
ZAC [from the other side of the garden]: No, those are just flowers. No tomatoes yet.
ME: No seriously. There are tomatoes.
ZAC: See, first they flower and then the tomatoes come after.
ME: ZAC! I know the difference between a flower and a tomato!
ZAC [walking over]: HOLY COW! WE HAVE TOMATOES.
This is a tomato, y’all. It’s been verified.
Just wanted to clarify that the voting in our Mighty Big Giveaway continues through tomorrow night (Saturday) at 11:59 p.m.. Afterwards, I will announce the winner fairly quickly, I promise. I can imagine that the suspense is driving these lovely would-be shepherds to distraction. No more than a days, I promise.
As we get down to the wire, please remember that I have already determined that all four of these entrants are qualified to give a home to a flock of sheep. There’s nothing wrong with cheerleading for your candidate but doing it at the expense of others will not be tolerated.
One of the reasons I do this giveaway every year is to pass along the kindness hundreds of people showed me when I was learning to be a shepherd. Please don’t ruin that by being unkind to our entrants. In addition to making me sad, it’s completely unnecessary.
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Tagged Flock giveaway, Giveaway
Today is baking day here at Stoneview because I’m off for a weekend in Vermont with friends and I want some goodies to bring along. I’m trying out this cinnamon bread recipe. Later I would like to try and convert it to sourdough but at the moment I’m going to stick with it as written.
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Tagged cinnamon bread, Cooking
I have to tell you, this lambing season kicked my backside. For the last month I’ve been just completely exhausted, absolutely bone tired, and no amount of “catch up” sleep seemed to help, this time.
And it wasn’t just exhaustion. I was having a terrible time focusing on all the work I needed to get done. Emails were piling up. My to do list was getting longer and longer and longer.
I assumed that I either has some terrible disease (which is always my go-to) or that lambing was just going to keep getting harder and harder every year. Then I overheard Amy telling someone that someone that she had been suffering from much the same symptoms and it turned out to be allergies. I was intrigued, because I have never been an allergy sufferer. (I know, don’t hate me.)
I did a little research and it turns out that allergies can manifest themselves in fatigue and inability to focus without the runny nose and stuffy head that everyone else gets. Three days of Zyrtec changed EVERYTHING. I feel like my old self again. I’m just bummed that I didn’t figure this out before I spent a month being miserable.
Now I can catch you up on the things that would have taken too much effort to write about a few weeks ago!
Two weeks ago, I made the drive up to my friend Phylleri’s farm to pick up a few new additions to the colored flock. This is Leo, a chocolate Angora goat kid. Isn’t she gorgeous.
Bootes is one of three colored lambs we acquired at the same time. She has a sister named Sagitta and an unrelated ram friend named Draco. (We stuck with the constellations for the colored flock this year.)
It appears that our lambing season is at a close, earlier than we expected. Four of the yearlings we bred this year did not conceive, which is disappointing but not terribly so. We have a lovely crop of healthy lambs this year and they are doing well.
We did lose two little ones, tiny Earhart and Armstrong. Earhart’s mama rolled over on her and Armstrong was just failed to thrive. I felt guilty about not writing about them at the time, but I was so sad and so tired, and the words just would’t come. I know many of you were sending prayers and wishes for Earhart, and I wish I had better news to share.
I am trying to take the advice of Dr. Seuss who said, “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” They were lovely little lambs, and it is so precious to me that I got to spend some time with them, however brief.
Losing a lamb always makes me so grateful for the ones who we get to watch grow up.
They are amazing little wonders, so full of life and personality! There are untold adventures awaiting them.
Today I received my very first shipment of the Gnomespun Yarn and Fiber Arts Mythic Fiber Club. It is a *gorgeous* green-with-browns, on Manx Loaghtan. Various sources say it has a staple length of 3 inches and a micron count of 28, and is classified as a “primitive breed”.
The colorway was inspired by the Egyptian goddess Heqet, and comes with an information sheet about the mythology of Heqet and a bit about the Manx Loaghtan breed. The information says it’s “lofty” and I’m not sure if that means it’s a “down” fiber, though it does feel “downy”.
The Gnomespun etsy shop has very little in it now, because he’s gearing up for all the festivals this month. But I highly recommend his fiber…I cannot wait to spin this!
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Tagged Spinning
Here’s installment #5 for my 2012 block of the month quilt. These are definitely getting easier.
this past weekend was all about hanging out with our new chickens and working in the garden. we let the girls out of their run to explore the rest of their new home and they seemed to have a great time. they poked their beaks into almost all of the garden areas, but spent most their time around the hydrangea bushes and underneath the bunny hutch. they really loved scratching around the dried leaves under the bushes and in the big pile of hay and compost under the hutch. estelle made herself quite a nest in the hay and when she was tired of that spot, nedra took it over. they’re so silly – estelle mostly buried herself with only her tiny head visible above the nest but nedra sprawled around and squirmed her bottom on the ground to get a good dust bath.
while the girls were out and about, we did some work in and around their coop. we shoveled some of the garden soil around the bottom of the coop to fill in the gaps between the coop bottom and the ground. we cleaned out the run, added more soil to cover the chicken wire at the base of the run and then piled hay back on top of the soil so that chickens have something to scratch around (and poop) in. we set in a few large stones to create a path to the back of the coop and a place to stand and access it for cleaning and egg-gathering. we transplanted some hostas and ferns around the coop and the stones and bought some red cedar mulch to lay down around the plants and stones to pretty up the space. we haven’t laid the mulch down yet but it already looks much better now – more like the beginning of a garden area, rather than a muddy bare spot.
we transplanted in some tomato and pepper seedlings too and gave the garden a good soaking. i mulched in the seedlings with some skirting wool that i picked up during my recent trip to juniper moon farm to keep the moisture in and the weeds out. i also put some chipped christmas tree mulch around the blueberry bushes and strawberry plants, too. there are still things we need to do in the garden (there always are) but yesterday was a good productive day. and the best part was having a beer on the patio and surveying our garden after all our hard work.
getting the ladies back in the coop after their adventure is a bit of a challenge. veronica actually strolled right into the run on her own, as soon as she heard farmer woob say that she was going to try to lure the girls in – she’s clearly the brains of the trio. we tried luring estelle and nedra with cabbage but they’re not that trusting of us yet. and they’re pretty difficult to sneak up on and catch – they escaped easily when we tried to corral them behind the blue hydrangea bush. but in the end, we more or less herded them towards the run entrance and, after one false start when the door wasn’t open enough and they scampered behind the run instead of in it, we managed to convince them that the safest spot to flee was into the run where we wanted them to be.
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Tagged chickens, food, urban chickens, urban farming
A while ago, I interviewed my readers for a change, and my final question was, “What question have I NOT asked at BTT that you’d love me to ask?” I got some great responses and will be picking out some of the questions from time to time to ask the rest of you. Like now.
Heidi asks:
Do you have siblings? Do they like to read?
Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!
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Tagged Wordpress
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| Greta - first yarn off the wheel, turned fashion accessory. |
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| Elizabeth - headed home with a new supply of roving... |
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| Eunice - new inspiration to ponder this week... |
Caroline, Zac and I have caught a terrible case of garden fever. Nearly every conversation we have revolves around how much lettuce we’ll harvest this week, when the radishes will run out and when we can expect the first of those superstars of the kitchen garden, tomatoes.
Of course, we don’t just talk about gardening. That would be absurd. We also spend a fair amount of time talking about how we’re going to preserve all of the bounty we’re expecting. Last year, we canned, pickled and jammed ourselves silly. This year, we’re adding pressure canning to the mix, which is totally new to us. I have a whole shelf of books on canning, but since pressure canning is a different animal, I decided that we probably needed the bible of home canning, the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. The section in the back on pressure canning is small but it’s packed with information.
If you are new to canning, I urge you to start reading Marisa McClellan’s blog, Food in Jars. Marisa is a font of information and her own book is coming soon- I’ve pre-ordered my copy!
Seeing our own milk transformed from a liquid to a delicious solid has only intensified my love of cheese. I know a magazine about cheese sounds a bit precious, but Culture is just gorgeous and packed with information. I learn something new in every issue.
Zac and I have hardly laid eyes on Caroline since this lovely book arrived in the mail. Filled with beautiful illustrations, this book is a complete study of Thomas Jefferson’s gardens. One of Caroline’s favorite anecdotes is that T.J. has his staff plant a thimbleful of lettuce seeds every Monday so that there would always be lettuce for the table. Highly recommended.
I get lots of emails from would-be beekeepers asking which of the dozens of books on offer they should start with. I have nearly all the beekeeping books in print but my favorite by far is The Beekeeper’s Bible. In addition to the how, this book offers the why, along with a history of beekeeping, folklore, and lots of tips. Plus it’s absolutely gorgeous.
I bought this book on a whim and oh! how I love it! Choosing and Keeping Ducks and Geese: A Beginner’s Guide to Identification, Care, and Husbandry of over 35 Species is a comprehensive guide to the care and feeding of these delightful birds. We’ve had our ducks and geese for around 6 months but I still love paging through this books, investigating the personality of Sebastopols and the laying habits of Abacot Rangers.
What are you reading these days?