Day full of snowy rain

Every morning Dude heads out to milk the goats.  In about a half hour I hear , " milkman!" and he leaves a big ole bucket of milk for me to strain and bottle up to make cheese, butter, or something luscious later on.  We get about a gallon a day. We have two milk goats but one continues to nurse her kid off and on.

I went back to work last week. Boy was that an interesting balance. You do what you gotta do especially when you want a new tractor. Along with saving part of my paycheck I  like to stash egg money, pay with cash, use coupons, barter (even in stores! - I got $137 knocked off my glasses at the Target optical !!) and stashing any change and dollar bills -I don't spend them.

This is the cool part about homestead and a feeling of  "we did it".  Breakfast today I made breakfast burritos.

Eggs from our hens.
Chilies we canned.
Colorado potatoes.
Pork from our neighbors and a fellow Yaya sister, Allie.
And our jalapeño cheese I made.
Perfect. Dude ate three of them!

Today was to be stitch it up Saturday and I may still go and sew. But with the rain and snow decided to go for a ride in the country instead. Dude loves this weather and loves to get out in it! We did have a pelican fly right in front of us with a fish in it's mouth!

So instead of sewing I will bring you up to date on a couple of crocheting project.

Here is where I left off with the scrap afghan for the car. Since I am using only leftover yarn, I don't think it is turning out half bad.  (Dog approved)

Plus, I began to make prayer shawls.  This one is for my sister-in-law who began chemo on Friday.

Faith: Having fun with my prayer journal.  I love these. Does anyone else do this? I use paints, stamps, glitter, anything really during my prayer and daily reading time.

Reading: I am so lucky! My sister, The Major (yes, she is really a retired major from the Air Force) aka Pat sent me this gem and I can't put it down. I brought it with me on the ride today and love it.

I am determined to finish this one so I can start another book I have been dying to read!

Not much else new here today. Dude is napping so I think I will start a fire and read.  I love it when the house is so extremely quiet.

Peace, health, and happiness.

More snow due this weekend

Forecast has been rain for all week with snow in Friday's forecast.  I started back to work this week so balancing homestead with being on the road has been a challenge. This morning I got going with laundry and made some queso jalapeño cheese. Then head out to the greenhouse for more transplanting. The sun shining outside was deceiving. I went out in a t-shirt and capris. The whole way to the greenhouse I was saying, "brrr, brrr, brrr!"  And ahhhhhhh in the warm greenhouse.

My one little bird friend has turned into a party of birds. These guys hang out all day in the front yard. Later, I saw the chickens chasing them out of the hen yard.

Not a whole lot new since the focus has been to return to work. I need make more cheese today and Dude was looking at tractors today.

Hope everyone has a great night.

Peace, health and happiness.

Granola Recipe, Farmgirls, and Trains

I returned to work today with a modified schedule.  I did not want to get out of the car. I missed the homestead and thought of it all day.  Before hitting the highway I stopped to see the YaYa Farmgirls. It was great to see their smiling faces. Sunny surprised us with garden markers. I can't wait to use them. Thank you, sister.  I waved to them as they ran off into the field to catch a wayward peacock. I would have rather been in the field with them or riding shotgun in the guide car than heading to work.

Trains
We live in a town that the train goes through all day and night.  Luckily we live far enough that it doesn't bother us but if you are playing bingo on a Saturday night at the American Legion hold on to your card.  The train hauls coal most of the time but there have been a lot of new vehicles being hauled, things we probably don't want to know is going through our town and these...  windmill blades. The last time I saw blades going through a town was on a truck in the town near us.  They got stuck going on the on-ramp causing a major backup.  This is more efficient.

I got a couple of requests for the granola recipe. Here you go:

Granola

2 cups raw almonds
2 cups raw pecans
2 Tablespoons chia
1 cup rolled oats
1/4 honey
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. cinnamon
good pinch of salt (I use Himalaya)
dash of nutmeg

Soak the almonds and pecans.  Soak chia in a cup of water.  Now go shopping or work in the garden for an hour or two.

Next chop the nuts . I did this by hand or you can use a food processor. I like big chunks.
Mix everything together.

Put in dehydrator trays for 2 hrs at 145*, then lower to 115* for 12hr or until it is done. I started at 4pm and let it go until morning 630-7am.  Perfect.  It will store for 1-3 months in a glass jar.

When I make cheese I give the animals the whey.  They love it so much they won't share.

Time to call it a night.

peace, health, and happiness.

Fences, granola, and faith

It was a day full of spirit, love and a bit of labor.  I ran over to wish my daughter-in-law a very happy birthday and deliver a belated gift to my other daughter-in-law before heading to mass. Now this is no small feat as I live an hour away but did it, I did.

More cheese was made today.  I was also glad to hear my son would like more but with jalapeños in it. I will make his tomorrow morning before heading back to work. I am very grateful for having a job but also grateful my doctor said to ease back into work with half days.

Dude worked on the fence.  He put in a gate big enough for a tractor.  He was also sweet enough to surprise me with a walking gate at the other end so I can continue my prayer walks. In the end the goats complained as goats do, crying and carrying on.  Skippy tried ramming another fence just because. Running Water cried and walked off , all confused.  They will soon come to know it all for the best.

  My prayer walk gate.

Their gates are open but they are staying in their pens.

Confusion and sadness with the separation of family.

Drama queen Running Water heading back in the pen with a "woe is me" attitude.

I did get granola going. It takes 24hrs in the dehydrator. This one is cinnamon and the house smells wonderful.

Garden/recycle tip - Do you ever get packages with those annoying Styrofoam peanuts in it?  You can recycle them , sort of. Any plant that requires well drain soil just add these to the dirt . You can layer it or work them in.

Animal water trough tip - These barley bags in the water really do clear them up!

Faith - The scripture today was short and sweet but a good one to meditate on throughout the week.  Jesus asks us to love one another. We know this is not always easy.  We have grudges, judgements of each other, our own humiliations and sufferings.  We undergo many hardships and often wonder why is this happening to us. But Jesus gives us faith and if we see life with faith, we will see that the Kingdom of God will be one without suffering. Look at Jesus; he tells us to love one another all the while he has friends that betray him, deny him, a life full of injustices and suffers all for love and the full Glory of God.  If we give up ourselves completely to God how can we go wrong if God is love?  The Lord may be asking us to go through things we may not want or understand but if it is God's will and not ours then there is a reason larger than ourselves that may ripple out to so many others. Let's be there for each other.


Be careful what you wish for... I planted trees to attract birds to our property.  Well , they came.

peace, health and happiness

Goat fence, a bit of recycling, and a very windy day.

I worked on getting the house in order before going back to work on Monday.  Recycled a couple of old barstools to the chicken year.  Looks like the turkeys are more interested instead of the chickens.

And the goat but not hens!

Yay, new barstools.

Windy day... the hens just stayed huddled together.

 I found a bunch of faux sea glass in a box in the house while cleaning (no doubt for some craft project) and thought it might look nice in the garden. I kind of like it.  Then the big monkey head one of my boys made in art class one year was put with the herbs... once the garden gets growing it will be cool see him peaking out of the greenery.

 The wind was brutal today. It howl like an angry Banshee.  I went out to check on Dude who had been working on a fence to separate the goats.  We need to separate the buck from the does.  Right now we put the girls out in the morning , bring them back in and then let Skippy out after them. I feel guilty because Skippy cries until he gets his turn in the field.

Dude got pretty far on the fence when Skippy came to help.

Dude felt guilty when he yelled at Skip to get lost. They made up but we had to laugh. While Dude was hugging him and giving him a good scratch Skippy sneezed and farted at the same time, three times.  I guess with four stomachs it's all got to process out somehow.

That is one happy goat!

Dude did quite a bit done today- 100 feet. The rest will need to wait until tomorrow.

It is beginning to drizzle and the animals are all coming in and calming down for the night.

Time to call it a night.

peace, health and happiness