The Rosy Day After The First Freeze
Tag: Lifestyle
Farmer Self-Esteem
Farm Dog Smiling
Life ain’t so bad after all,” says Nala.
A Few Too Many Beautiful Animals
There were a few days this summer when we should have been paying more attention. If you check your chicks on the first day they’re hatched you can sex them. I refuse to kill animals on the first day of life. I just can’t do it. I won’t do it, but having nine roosters with only sixteen or so hens is a recipe for disaster, too. We should have sexed the chicks and separated them.
During the summer it’s easy to find homes for roosters, but now in winter not so easy. They gang up on the girls and Tommy our head rooster is fed up with the others.
Right now we’re paying for a lot of pets. Winter will keep the boys from being too sex-crazed (I hope since the young ones are very rough partners). I’ll keep looking for homes and kicking myself for letting things get out of hand.
I’ll never be a real farmer because I think chickens are too cute.
farm kid and hen
Jack Frost Makes Life Sweeter
If you haven’t tried Brussels Sprouts after they’ve been nipped by a few frosty days then you’ve missed one of the sweetest delights of late autumn. Just toss them in olive oil and garlic and roast until browned around the edges. Sprinkle with kosher salt and that’s it. I like potato chips but I can honestly say I’d rather these little gems as an afternoon snack.
Thanksgiving Stuffed
Stuff we made with maple:
Maple Pecan Pie
Indian Pudding http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/11/13/244983031/its-national-indian-pudding-day-heres-why-you-should-celebrate
If that wasn’t enough, we decided to try out our newly motorized Wonder Junior Grain Mill. (A Bodine Gear Motor– from Chicago–my husband’s very proud of his Illinois roots). There’s one hundred inch pounds of torque delivered by a 2:1 gear ratio that turns the mill (I have no idea what this means but it spins at 17 RPM). My husband plans on tinkering with it to make it work faster since it takes about an hour to mill 4 cups of flour but at least you don’t have to get any exercise hand-grinding if you’re not in the mood.
My husband made the bread while my daughter and I went out to work (play) in the woods with the goats.
We walked the goats, but then got distracted by sticks and decided to begin a fort for no apparent reason. We’re about halfway done (it will have three sides). When you’re building forts (you may remember from childhood) you no longer remember the cold or the time of day.
“Snow Provokes Responses That Reach Right Back To Childhood” Andy Goldsworthy
“We build statues out of snow, and weep to see them melt.” Walter Scott
“Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather only different kinds of good weather.” John Ruskin
Advice is like snow; the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind.” Samuel Taylor Coleridge
