Morning Musings

Yesterday morning as I fed the dogs, and sat sipping a cup of coffee while monitoring them to make sure Mac didn’t get pushed off of his meal by the others, I found myself musing about why I do what I do, and why do I write about it. 

A discussion with my eldest daughter, now a college student, about her ethics class brought some of it into focus.  It’s something I’ve known, but hadn’t put into words before that moment.  We were driving home from campus one day and found ourselves behind a vehicle that sported a bumper sticker stating that happiness is a journey.  I quietly snickered to myself, because I find that happiness isn’t really the journey but the place where I feel most content and joyful in life.  My daughter however was quite more vocal about her opinion.  After a good 3-5 minute rant, she summed it up that the journey isn’t happiness, it’s the end result and culminates in a place.

I had a mental flash of sitting in the barn milking a goat, and breathing the sweet scent of hay and animals; another of carrying buckets of warm honeyed water out to the animals, during a rare deep freeze in the winter; another of sitting on the deck in the sunshine watching the dogs play, and feeling the breeze dry the sweat on my back, a big glass of iced tea in my hand; another of cooking dinner and laughing with my family while fun music played loudly and we danced around while preparing a meal.  My farm is my place of happiness, because there I’m surrounded by family and animals and good honest work without office politics where there is a measurable definition of success: the health and growth of my loved ones, food, production of soap, the mowing of the lawn and the construction of useful items. 

My writing is certainly not anything special, but I find myself compelled to record the daily events that are the development of our little farm.  More than that, happiness is contagious and don’t we all have a little compulsion to share our joy with others?  Sometimes the news isn’t joyful in itself, but it is part of the bigger picture that is our farm.  It is real life in a more honest and basic brilliance. Living life closer to home doesn’t mean giving up pleasures – it means having more pleasure in your life where it counts most.  

A New Soap Scent

So of course we are now playing with all sorts of stuff with the soap, and we have a new scent.  It's "Gone Campin'" and is redolent with the aroma of campfire and leather. 

Hmm...  Maybe we should just call it "Real Men"?

It Has Arrived!

Autumn has arrived with a vengeance! 

Yes, it really was that chilly this morning requiring the heavy coat! 

And this is Texas in October, for goodness sake!

 

 32 Degrees!  I object! We shouldn't be seeing this for another few weeks at least!!!

Tuck in, ladies! You need that extra fuel to stay warm on nights like that.  (I think the donkeys hair grew in extra thick overnight!)

And despite the chill, I saw these lovely little flowers on the way back from the barn.  That added a nice little sunshine to my morning!

 

 

Recovering Ramblings

Fall has arrived with a vengence and the vacation I had so longed for, which launched with my birthday, was absorpbed with my having strep-throat.  The last thing you want to do when you feel that bad is ... well... anything.  Poor hubby took on the lions share of everything for the last several days, and I didn't want to breathe it hurt so much.   

We had a few adventures during the week, despite the challenge of illness.  Penelope, the now year and a half old donkey, broke down part of the fence between the pasture and the back yard and let herself and Chester in for back yard grazings.  We ran them out and patched up the fence, and are more than ever looking forward to putting in a gate over there. 

One day, while still terribly sick, Jackson (my oldest daughters little dog) managed to find a chicken waterer and get his entire head stuck in it, and hid under the deck.  I have no idea how long he was trapped, but upon discovering this I donned pants, boots, long sleeves and a leash and crawled under the deck to retrieve him.   He had been trapped long enough that he was saturated with slobber, and the waterer had to be essentially unscrewed from his head.  Poor Jackson panted for what seemed like a very long time after his release, and drank a little water before collapsing with Abby and his sister Cami for a two hour nap.  (Fine by me - I curled up in the recliner and slept too.)  He seems ok now, though he does want to stay inside a bit more than before. 

Now, autumn has hit quite fast and that means the weather has been perfect for all sorts of out door projects - which we need to accomplish before winter truly arrives.  Now that I'm on the road to recovery, though not fully back to myself, I'm already trying to figure out how to fit in all the things I didn't get done over the "vacation."

For now, one step at a time. The trough is clean, and the storage bench has been painted with primer.  Next - well, whatever small thing we can accomplish.  I'll take that :)

Autumn Musings

The autumn weather is upon us, and the season is a good one so far but it cannot help to bring to mind the cold weather that is so near.  Every season brings its own chores and delights. 

We always have a never ending supply to To-Do items.  The barn always needs something done, even if it’s just cleaning out and getting ready for yet another season or something more intense like rewiring.  The yard always needs something done, even if it’s just mowing or weed eating.  Raised beds need to be built, and compost needs to be layered in.  The animals should start off the cooler weather with a fresh trim of their hooves and a de-worming early on.  This will allow the girls to enter the cold season sure footed and maintain good health through the season.  We have hay for the season, and want to build a two-sided hay manger just inside the fence for ease of chores. 

I think the chore I am most looking forward to in the next couple of weeks is building the breeding pen, which will become the kids pen in the springtime.  Once again the girls will be visited on their home turf by their new beau, a handsome paint spotted buck.  Gerie and Balvenie’s heat cycles are about a week apart, so that works well for spring kidding, and since papa will not be staying with us the pen will be used for the kids to frolic in once they are off their mamas, but still not big enough to run in the pasture with everyone else. 

More than even the mental image of veggies growing or the fresh soft green of spring foliage, it’s thinking of kidding season and babies frolicking in the spring sunshine that make us all look forward through the cold months to what will be. 

It Was Bound to Happen at Some Point...

It's been a Day.  Or a couple of Days.  Too busy for words and kind of rough in several ways. 

Tonight was no exception.  When I got home tonight I saw that the donkeys had broken the H brace on the east fence.  So I came in and changed out of my office clothes into my real work clothes, and my son and I went out to try to rig it up to be more secure until we can fully repair that area. 

All the livestock were in the barnyard, so we shut that gate to make it easier on ourselves.  We went to the damaged fence area, stretched and pulled and rigged it up where it's more stable, and braced one of the posts from the outside for now.  Then, since we seem to be having a really low egg production lately, we walked the pasture looking for any hidden pockets that hens may be laying eggs in. 

That's when we saw her. Or what was left of her.  A couple of nights ago the coyotes were thick and the dogs were going berserk sometime around 1:00 a.m. The donkeys bed down in the barnyard right next to the goats and chicken coop.  There is one breed of hen that we have though, of which we had 4, that are really adventurous chickens.  We found the remains of our only black and white amerecauna hen - just the wings and the breastbone. 

It's inevitable, I know, that no matter how well protected your chickens are there will come a time that a predator will get one.  This adventurous amerecauna proved too adventurous for her own good. And now that I've gotten this far, I'm not quite sure how to wrap this post up. 

At least fall is coming on, and the hens *should* want to stick closer to the coop and each other for warmth. 

Rum Glazed Banana Chocolate Chip Cake/Bread

In a mad rush to make something tasty for an office birthday party, and lacking a solid plan, I started throwing things together in the kitchen and turned out this dense sweet bread-cake-like thing.  All in all, I have to say I’m rather pleased. 

2 bananas, mashed in a large bowl

1 cup chopped walnuts

2 eggs

2/3 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup goat milk

½ cup melted butter, or goat butter, or butter flavored substitute

6 ounces dark chocolate chips

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

In a big bowl, beat together the bananas, walnuts, eggs, sugar, vanilla and milk.  Add flour, ½ cup at a time and baking powder.  Mix gently, then add chocolate chips. 

Spray a 9x11 baking dish with Baker’s Secret (or grease and flour it.)  Pour concoction in, and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Drizzle with rum glaze (see below) and allow to cool completely.  Cut into 2” squares and serve.

Rum Glaze

1 cup sugar

½ cup water
Either 1/2 tsp rum extract or 1 Tblsp dark rum

Boil until sugar is completely dissolved and mixture is slightly reduced.  Remove from heat and add either ½ tsp. rum extract or 1 tablespoon dark rum.  Stir and pour over banana bread mixture.