Fat Tuesday - chicks, cookie mix and other stuff

I took today off so I could take my mom to the hospital to have a small cancerous tumor removed.  We got up early (5am), after working late last night and driving mom to our house. This morning we drove her to her appointment an hour away.  All went very well and we were home by noon.  I was so exhausted that I had to come home and take a nap to regenerate.  

I am back up and running and now snowing lightly I went out to check on our new chicks. These are Cornish game hens.  We get about 30 each year to raise for meat.  They get to be 3- 7lbs.  We raise 26 for us and other we donate.  Turkeys will be coming soon. 

Fiona, our broody hen is still doing a great job and not giving up the nesting box...good girl. She has about eight eggs under her for laying hens. She gave me a good growl when I tried to get a picture.

I love when I get "mixes" for Christmas.  I like them because they are so convenient and I don't have to drag out everything to make a batch of bread, cookies or other food.  Today, I decide to make up cookie mixes to make for later.  Here is my batches of Mrs Fields Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies. I used half gallon jars since we aren't milking our goat right now.  The jars are waiting patiently for Peppy to have her kid in the spring and I thought I would put them to use. I put the oatmeal, flour, salt, baking powder and soda in the jar, laying it. Next, in separate baggies I put the sugars (brown and white) and the chocolate chips.  I will copy the recipe and attach to each one.

I managed to get the Easter invitations out today with a wee bit of help. 

Yesterday was Dr Suess's birthday. Today I celebrated by getting my grandson (4 years old) a book. He said he would rather have a Zombie Doll but will take the book if I had no doll.  *grin*  It will take time with this young one but we will convince him of our ways on the homestead.   (we shoot zombies with silver bullets... but all in good time, we will start will books -smile)

Happy Fat Tuesday. We celebrated with jambalaya with Andouille sausage and one of our baked hens. 

Added a bit more richness topped with eggs. 

It has begun to snow again. Time to read and warm by the fire... no zombies here. *wink*

And in just a minute...

peace

Family and gumbo!

We have Lent coming up this and had a little celebration today with some homemade gumbo. My sister, who is a great cook sent me her recipe and I tweaked only slightly.  

It turned out grand and was gone in a wink of an eye. 

Dude has a new lady in his life.  Baron Blaze Summer - his new horse. Like any new member of the family relatives came over to welcome her and bring her gifts of love.

She sure seems tired today. 

Our chickens love hanging out with her. 

We stopped to see Wilbur and do some mutton-busting. 

We inspected the curl in the middle of his forehead. 

And gave a few goat kisses. 

                              Our broody hen is still hanging in there.

We inspected the greenhouse and road in the tractor.  Some day they will be working it all on their own.  We are delighted they wanted to be a part of way today.

I love it when someone is eager to learn. Our granddaughter wanted learned how to work the spinning wheel pedals... rhythm and direction, rhythm and direction she practiced. 

She said she wanted to learn to crochet so she learned the chain today. Never tell anyone something is hard and they will gladly learn. 

...and then her brother wanted to learn! 

It was a great day relaxing and having fun. 

peace

Quilts and Horse Day

Today it was all about quilts and horses.  The morning started out cold but the sun was shining bright.  There were ice crystals on everything.

We got the animals feed and both went separate ways, both to our own passions.  I headed northeast and Dude headed south.
Dude heading to a horse auction and I was going to  Quilt Council.

I had taken a year or so off of the quilt council and today I signed back up and was welcomed with a thank you gift.  WOW... no, thank YOU!

We got started. 

Saw a fellow  threadsister. 

I settled in with some handwork while listening along. 

Show and Tell began after the meeting notes. 

We had a raffle too. 

This is the raffle quilt for this year. A thing of beauty and appraised at $9600 and all you have to do is buy a raffle ticket for a chance to win!

Then our speaker gave her talk.  Our speaker today is Jill Finley of Jillily Studio.  She gave an inspiring talk about her quilts, books, techniques and experiences. I really enjoyed it. All the quilts that follow are hers.

My morning was great and I couldn't wait to get home and sew. 

Next was Dude's morning.  He went to a horse auction.  He had a lot of fun watching all the horses. There were 75 horses for auction. He said the place was packed.  All the seats were taken plus people were standing in the back. 

This little girl is two years old and was riding and shooting... pretend shooting. 

Yep, in the end, Dude got himself a horse. It is a registered quarter horse the granddaughters have named Summer.  The poor little (well, not so little, she was 15) girl selling her was so sad.  It was a 4H project that was finished and now had to sold. Dude met the family and the story of how it was raise. 

I will get a better look at her at the light of day tomorrow. 

She is bunking with Wilbur, our little ram lamb tonight. Dude is out late with her and only goodness knows when he will get to bed. He is as excited as a 10 year old before Christmas. 

peace