Well, it's fall here on the farm. The leaves are falling from the oak, things are getting a little greener, the mornings are frequently cold and afternoons hot, but mostly around here fall means babies. You might not think about it but here in on the farm fall means batches of chicks to be raised, winter gardens bountiful and lazy must be planted, and it's breeding season. This is our first year breeding our does since I bought them in milk this spring. Rosey, Posey, and the adorable Taffy will all be bred to Tahoe.

I bought Tahoe this spring when he was only 8 weeks old. He came as an unexpected addition to a Nigerian Dwarf milk doe I bought. I seriously considered wethering him and taking him to the auction but he was so cute and sweet. He frequently escaped and he was so friendly I would pick him up like a baby and carry him all over the farm. After we realized that a Nigerian Dwarf doe wouldn't give enough milk to sustain a family of four we traded his mom for a young La Mancha doe named Taffy. I chose to keep Tahoe for breeding because of his smaller size and friendly personality. I didn't realize that Nigerian Dwarf goats could become fertile as young as 8 weeks old, and this lack of oversight means that Posey may be giving us fall kids instead of spring kids, whoops! This will be Taffy's first freshening and I'm excited to see how she milks, he mother and sister are 2 gallon a day milkers! Rosey also seems to have gone into heat so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that in five months we'll have a bunch of sweet kids playing king of the mountain in our pasture.

Fall also brings rain and mud. The pond is back and the stream is half full. The stream bed is going to have to be dug out, it's running slowly. It's been raining for a couple days and the mud at the pasture gate is two inches deep already. Of course I was busy playing this summer and still need to gravel the pens, thank Grilled Cheesus for 4WD. I've also been thinking a lot about kidding season and am looking forward to the cooler weather allowing us to build some new pens. The ground's much easier to work now that it's soft too.

One of my favorite things about fall is not having to water the as garden often. I've started putting in the fall and winter crops. Lots of root vegetables, chard, and some herbs. I let the lettuce reseed itself and our soybeans are starting to produce. The pineapple sage I've been cooking with all summer has beautiful delicate scarlet flowers. Tiny radish and carrot seedlings were brutally thinned by the chickens a few days ago so I'm going to have to reinforce the garden fence. Chickens are devious about sneaking in and snacking on the sprouting seedlings. Stay tuned for pictures of the newest residents of the farm...Snowflake is the proud nanny of a new batch of chicks and the babies Mama hen has been raising in the garden have fancy feathered feet.

Buckshot Gets Bored

Recently my escape artist horse has had a much harder time getting out. Since he can't leave he's found some new ways to amuse himself around the farm. He's gotten into the chicken coop and I mean all the way in! He's so big the roof was resting on his butt and he got a couple scratches for his effort. I worked quite a while cleaning paddocks today getting them ready to put gravel in to help with drainage. My nosy horse came to "help" by knocking over the muck buckets after I filled them up. He also "helped" Mango finish her food even though she didn't offer. Buckshot has always been very nosy and will come snoop on the house and look in our windows. Two mornings ago I heard weird thumping on the porch but the dogs and cats were all in. When I went to let the dogs out a large section of our screened in porch was missing the screen. I am not positive that he did it, but my dear husband is convinced that the noise I heard was Buckshot rubbing his booty on the porch to scratch it and tearing down the screen. I thought it sounded like something was in the porch maybe a raccoon or possum. Whatever it was I still have to mend the porch.

Buckshot the Bad Alarm Clock

Oh man, where do I even begin this time. Buckshot, my very nosy horse, has been up to no good lately. It all started with him learning that if he leaned on the gate it would eventually open (since remedied) and he could leave. His first trip got me an early phone call from Animal Control. This time I was woken up at 5:50 am by someone laying on their horn in my driveway. "Hey do you have a horse?" someone's yelling. I fly out of bed and grab the nearest article of clothing, running for my boots and the back door. About the time I'm headed out the wide open back gate I realize that the "clothes" I pulled on is a skanky sundress I wear before bed, I keep heading down the driveway towards a large delivery van and a huge 300 pound guy with super long dreads down his back. He's yelling about a horse and pointing towards direct buy around the corner. I turn and there is Buckshot walking as fast as he can down the side walk heading towards the freeway exit ramp and morning commuters on the 680. The giant guy offers me a ride and I am thinking "oh hell no" and my kids are asleep in the house, but I have no chance of catching Buck before he gets to the freeway so I hop in anyways. So we go tearing out of the driveway and hauling tail around the corner Buckshot spots us and spooks. Buckshots answer to every thing scary is "speed" so of course he starts trotting up the 680 ramp heading straight for 70 mph traffic. I jump out of the van and run catching him about 30 ft up the ramp. In my panic I hadn't grabbed a rope so I start home holding him by his halter, not very safe but I have no choice. Buckshot decides he's scared of the squishy direct buy grass so I switch him sides. When we come to the end of the sidewalk there is a teeny bit of water in the gutter, maybe 1/4 inch, Buckshot is petrified and refuses to walk over the water and leaps over the gutter instead, somehow I hang on and don't get my arm pulled out of the socket. When I get him back home he's "scared" of the gate and doesn't want to go in. After a quick reminder that I am in no mood to tolerate any funny business he walks through with no problem. Now that we know he can open the gate for we've added an extra lock you need thumbs to use. I give it a month!

Buckshot's Latest Adventure

My horse Buckshot is a pretty funny fellow. He likes to go for walks and will test the gates to see if they're locked. Evidently he found an open gate this morning because at 7:55 AM I received a phone call. "Hi this is Solano County Animal Control, do you own a white horse with brown spots?" I immediately started running for the door "Yes, I do. Where is he?", they tell me "In front of the fire station". I am hauling ass out the back door headed across the pasture when I see Buckshot and two escorts standing at the pasture gate. Some nice men (they must be my neighbors down the street) saw him walking down the sidewalk headed towards the underpass (and the freeway) and walked him home, the guys called the police when they realized that the pasture gate was locked and couldn't figure out how to get him back in. I guess he didn't bother to mention that he had come out the backyard gate and down the driveway. We've found him in the driveway a couple of times and I am starting to wonder if he can open the backyard gate. At least he wasn't at the bar again this time! After all this when I was walking him back in he kept giving me this look like "What Mom? I stayed on the sidewalk." He was being so calm and sweet that I hopped on for a quick ride around the yard and cuddle before giving him his breakfast. That was probably his plan all along. I can see him out in the pasture plotting "If I open the gate and leave someone will call Mom to pick me up. Then I'll make cute faces until she gives me food."

Watermelon Pickles

I have been wanting to try canning but have been nervous about screwing it up and wasting food or worse making us all sick. So I decided to try making watermelon pickles. You make the pickles with the watermelon rind, I figured at least if I totally screw up it's something I would have thrown to the chickens anyways. I did end up screwing up but it wasn't a big deal (I overcooked them but they still taste okay) better safe than sorry right? I didn't buy any special equipment other than jars. I used my big camping kettle with a veggie steamer rack in the bottom and some tongs to fish out the super hot jars. This worked fine for doing just a few pints, but I don't think the steamer rack would hold up to pint jars or that my pot will be big enough for that matter. I used the rind from one watermelon it yielded 3 pints of finished product and we sampled the last few pieces that didn't fit in the jar, mmm. Watermelon pickles it turns out are sweet and have a hint of clove. I don't usually care for sweet cucumber pickles but these actually taste pretty good! They look pretty in the jar so I think a jar or two will go towards what I want to give away for the holidays. Here's a pic of the finished product and the recipe as found in the Third Edition of Putting Food By by Hertzberg, Vaughn, and Greene.



Recipe: Watermelon Pickles

8 cups prepared watermelon rind
1/2 cup pickling salt
4 cups cold water
4 teaspoons whole cloves
4 cups sugar
2 cups white vinegar
2 cups water

Step 1) Prep the rind: Trim all green and pick off rind and cut into 1 inch cubes, thick rind is best.

Step 2) Dissolve salt in cold water pour over rind cubes (add more water to cover if needed). Let stand 5-6 hours

Step 3) Drain and rinse well. Cover with fresh water and cook until barely tender no more than 10 minutes (err on the side of crispness), drain

Step 4) Combine sugar, vinegar, and water, add cloves tied into a small cloth bag (I used cheese cloth), and bring to boiling, simmer for 5 minutes, pour over rind cubes and let stand overnight.

Step 5) Bring all to boiling and cook until rind is translucent but not at all mushy, about 10 minutes.

Step 6) Remove spice bag and pack rind cubes in hot sterilized pint jars, add boiling syrup leaving 1/2 inch of head room (tip- divide the syrup evenly among the jars then top pff with water if needed).

Step 7) Process in a Boiling Water Bath for 10 minutes Remember to Adjust for Altitude!! Remove jars and complete seals if necessary. Makes about 4 pints (mine only came out 3)

Pass the Cheese Please Part Douche

I recieved some feed back on my cheese I sold...it wasn't very good. Evidently my cheese wasn't how the customer had imagined it would be and "didn't taste like his grandma had made it when he was a child". I made him two 1 pound batches, one pound of garlic farmers cheese (tasty but plain) and a pound of (complete pain in the booty to make) creamy goat cheese with fresh herbs from my garden. At first I was a little disappointed when I heard my new customer hadn't liked my cheese, I had worked very hard on it. Then I realized what the crap!! He didn't like my cheese because it didn't live up to a childhood memory that he had never mentioned?!?! Ain't that some shit! Now if he had told me that his grandma made some special cheese when he was a kid back in the stone age, I would have done my very best to replicate it (Pterodactyl turds and all). But given that I had no prior knowledge that my cheese would be judged against the taste of a sweet memory and he didn't specify what kind of cheese he wanted: you get what you get, now shut it! Since I sold myself short and spent hours making cheese then sold it for less than the cost of the milk to make it I won't be doing this again anytime soon and won't be selling to that guy again period! He didn't even bother to return the brand new container I sent the creamy goat cheese home in. I do plan to continue making cheese and selling it but this first experience has soured me for the moment. The icing on the cake was when my sweet hubby suggested that I ask the 20 year old turd working the cheese department at Nugget for advice "because he had been to a cheese factory probably". I know he's just trying to help but when my ego is bruised he should be saying "pass the cheese please" and "this is great babe, that guy wouldn't know good cheese if we hit him with it" which I would then suggest is an excellent idea! The next cheese I make should be eaten with my girlfriends and washed down with wine, they I'm sure will appreciate all my hard work!

Quick No Mess Mexican Pizza

One of my favorite fast and easy lunches! It only takes a couple minutes to prep and is done in the oven in about 10 minutes.

Ingredients:
Cooking spray
Tortillas
Pesto
1 can refried beans
Veggie toppings
Shredded Cheese

Directions: Cover a cookie sheet in foil. Line tortillas up on the foil and spray with cooking spray (I like to use the olive oil only kind), flip the tortillas.

Spread pesto and beans evenly on the tortillas



Top with veggies. Red onions and tomatoes are my favorite for this.



And LOTS of cheese!



Put "lids" on the quesadillas and spray with cooking spray again.



Bake in a 400 degree oven about 10 minutes until tortillas are crispy and cheese is melty. Enjoy!

Crazed over Cake

I love to make birthday cakes! I only get to make them for my kids birthdays or parties we have because they can get pretty complicated and time consuming. My daughter has her second birthday coming up soon and I am trying to decide what kind of cake to make her. I have a new butterfly cake pan and I might even be able to do a standing butterfly! I love making stand up cakes like this sunflower I made for her birthday last year, but you have to use pound cake and they are very difficult to frost. Thankfully my bff was on hand to help me with this one!





Here's a Dinosaur pull apart cake that I made for Ashers birthday last year, fun and easy since we had just moved.



This is my favorite part! It doesn't get any better than when the are covered in frosting and giggling like crazy!



A skull cake I made for last years Halloween BBQ. This one was surprisingly hard to frost considering it's such a simple design.



I only have a few weeks left before I get to make another cake and the choices are endless! Butterflies, flowers, a fish bowl, a teddy bear island?? Just wait and see!!

Pass the Cheese Please!

I am the kind of person that hates to say "No" so last week when someone asked if I would sell them some of my homemade cheese I agreed. Now in the process of agreeing to this I made three mistakes: 1) I said yes 2) I agreed to have it ready too soon, and 3) I agreed to not nearly enough money (at my own suggestion) for way to much work! So now I had to make two pounds of cheese in two days plus six big cassaroles for my freezer club meeting, uh oh! I busted my cassaroles out and comenced making the cheese. The first batch I tried using a different method that said to heat the milk to a lower temperature than usual which was a disaster! The curds were so small that they went through the cheese cloth. Finally after about 2 hours of me trying to save the cheese and making a HUGE mess, I strained it through a tightly woven hand kerchief and managed to get it into a very soft consistency perfect for goat cheese. After adding some fresh herbs the cheese was so tasty that the thought of selling it nearly brought tears to my eyes! Since a fair amount of cheese was lost down the drain I needed more to complete the order. For the second batch I stuck to a better recipe. I wanted a simple cheese that anyone would like so went with a more solid form and just a little garlic for flavor. It was tasty but I was still obsessing over the creamy herb one and trying not to freak out about having to share. The second batch filled the order but only left me with less than 8 oz of cheese for our family, not nearly enough! The only way I was going to be able to hand over all my hard work was if I made some that I could keep so I put another pot of milk on. This batch was the hardest to decide how to flavor. There was a lone jalapeno on the stove that kept mocking me "you're too scared to make me into cheese" it taunted, so I diced it up and added it to the milk! I put it in th pot to steep in the milk hoping that it would temper the spiciness. I was a little worried that it would be spicy hot and bitter from the jalapeno so I added a touch of smoke chili powder just before straining the cheese to give it a smokey hot flavor. With my fingers crossed I tasted a few of the piping hot curds, spicy but delicious! My first order went out and I kept the whole third batch for myself, though I did share with friends that came over for a play date. I learned that making cheese is hard work and I am going to have to charge more to make it worth my time, I felt like I was giving away something precious.

My Sweet Mango

Yesterday was worming day for the horses. Mango, our rescue horse, has been steadily gaining weight after being nearly starved to death when we got her. To worm her I needed to know how much she weighs, so I grabbed a weight tape and measured her. The initial reading said that she still weighed 807 pounds, this was what she weighed when I brought her home but I knew she had gained, I can see the difference! I then realized that even though she's gained weight the height of her withers and depth of her barrel would still be the same so I moved the tape down her barrel and averaged what I found: a little over 1000 pounds! Whoo hoo, my girl's not starving any more! Here are some before and after pictures, she still has a ways to go but 200 pounds isn't a bad start!

FREE Starbucks Via Sample

Another great free sample from Walmart.com! I try my best not to shop there but I won't say no to free!

http://instoresnow.walmart.com/enhancedrendercontent_ektid88056.aspx

FREE Photo Collage From Walgreens

I just had to share this deal I snagged! Walgreens is offering a free Fathers Day Photo Collage + when I signed up for a new Walgreens Photo account I got 25 FREE prints, and if you pick it up in the store for FREE! Act fast here's a link: http://photo2.walgreens.com/walgreens/storepage/storePageId=SpecialOffer

The best part? This cute picture of my hubby and daughter!

I ♥ Tupperware

Well Ladies (and Gents), two things I discovered recently: 1) Gain (the laundry detergent) is more addictive that crack; and 2) I LOVE Tupperware!! My friend recently started selling the stuff and I went to her first ever party a couple weeks ago. It was fun and I saw a few things I wanted so decided to host my own party to save a few bucks. Today was my big day and we had a blast! Some of my mommy friends couldn't make it but my awesome MIL drove almost 200 hundred miles just to come to my lil party, so sweet of her. I found even more stuff that I'm sure I need (despite that my kitchen is already vomitting kitchen gadgets from nearly every cupboard). I tried to stick to only the things I am sure I will use for my order (food savers that keep produce fresh) but had to get this awesome food chopper thingy for my kitchen and camping. Now I can't wait for it to get here and will be calling my friend every other day until it's in my Tupperware obsessed little hands. Hey no one ever said I was patient (as far as I'm concerned babies should only take 9 weeks, just long enough to shop!) If anyone needs some Tupperware or wants to host a party please let me know, soon you might be as obsessed as I am!

Tale of the Squash Blossoms

While perusing a small farmers market with a friend I ran across squash blossoms. I have tons of squash blossoms in my garden but what exactly do you do with them? I asked the seller and was told they could be stuffed, used in salad, or battered and fried, hmmm this gave me ideas! First I sliced some up and put them in salad, they were nice not strongly flavored at all. I had my five year old guessing what I put in the salad and the blossoms really stumped him! Then I got creative, stuffing them with some ground beef and my homemade goat cheese. I sauteed some tomatoes, zucchini, red and yellow bell pepper, red onion, and garlic until nearly tender and threw the blossoms on top to steam. They came out fantastic and there was nothing left over, a miracle with my kids.

Chickens are like chips you can't have just one...

After moving in I realized that the spiders and bugs were every where and I needed hep to control them but pesticides are a no go for me. What to do? Chickens!! There was an old beat up chick brooder on the property that I could re-purpose into a coop for the time being. So I check craigslist and head down tho the feed store to find some chicks. Of course you can't find any chicks in October, but we find some half grown chicks, a meat chick, and a mostly grown hen at the feed store. The guy at the feed store tries to sell me a bunch of crap that I don't need, but me being stingy I leave with my chick(en)s, feeders, and a bag of food. I get home, set the new chickens up in there home, and wait. And wait, and wait. Finally in December we get our first egg! Yay!! What do you do with one farm fresh egg? A whole lotta nothin' that's what! With in a few days we had more eggs and our first lemons too. This led to a delicious from scratch Lemon Merengue Pie that I refused to enter in the Christmas Cook Off and ended up losing (again!). Next year will be different and I vow to "bring the heat" to this cook off! And really? I got beat by an apple crisp, what kind of BS is that? Next year I am NOT responding when Eric's boss (one of the judges) asks what I brought, I think I got set up. Anyways, before long the chickens start getting picked off by the hawk (buh bye Monster Jack O' Lantern and Meatbird) so we get some more chicks. Enter Catchatorie, Terriyaki, and Whitey. The neighbors dog promptly comes over and kills Catchatorie and Whitey, leaving us with three chickens again. Finally after weeks of searching I find a FREE flock on CL that I drive very far to pick up, netting (haha) me 7 more hens, some of which are older. Spring rolls around and I start buying chicks like crazy (Orloffs, Austrlorps, Americaunas, Andalusian Blues, whatever I can find that's exciting), figuring that I can always grow and sell them to feed the horses. Then my friend and I decide that we should grow our own Thanks Giving turkeys. After a very wet spring there were ticks everywhere so I grabbed some Guinea Keets to clear those up. The icing on the cake? Last week I purchased a flock of nine laying hens! Anyhow, it's now June and we have 27 chickens, 3 Guinea Fowl, 2 ducks, and 6 Turkeys, and lots of eggs.

in the beginning

In the beginning Eric and I live in a tiny apartment with Asher and Claribel. We are all annoyed and uncomfortable for various reasons, and we can't find anything decent in our price range. Eric sees an ad for a tiny place that says it has some usable land, the pictures show that the fences is terrible and the dogs would get out so I don't even want to look at it. But, it's near his work so we take a look anyways. It's hot, the directions are awful and we get lost, but we eventually find the place. The yard is big and the fence sucks, but it might be ok. The house is ok, but weird on the inside, it has a "galley", only one tiny bathroom, and it has a large pasture that needs some serious work to be usable . It will save us money over the tiny apartment though, and it is oddly appealing so we decide to go for it. We manage to find some friends to take the apartment, so things work themselves out for now.