Monthly Archives: April 2017

2017
04/19

Category:
Life

COMMENTS:
1 Comment »

Time saving Fast food

We rarely eat out, but we frequently have time saving “fast food”.   I can or freeze a variety of foods.   Yesterday, we wanted soup.   How long does it take to open a jar of potatoes, one of carrots, one of green beans, two of salsa, and one of red beans.  (I could have added frozen corn or peas)   I opened the jars, added seasonings, and heated.   I added a salad and we had a meal. Now, that’s fast food that’s even faster because we didn’t go out.  It’s even less expensive because we didn’t move the car.

Today’s fast food included some soup left from yesterday, potato salad from potatoes cooked 4 days ago that I made up this morning, and by noon was cooled.   We added a spinach salad and there was another fast meal.   I took some strawberries out of the freezer and added cashew crème for dessert.

I cooked a large pan of potatoes and we had them fresh cooked that day, “fried” with tofu another day and potato salad today.  I rarely cook a meal that is just for one time.

I sometimes blend most of a jar of potatoes and add some corn and seasonings for a fast potato soup or corn chowder.  I usually can beans, carrots, and potatoes, out of season when it’s cooler, so that also warms the house for that day.  When I made patties or casseroles, I make enough for 2 or 3 meals.

I am a firm believer in fast home cooked food as it is more nutritious and less expensive than going out.  It also saves time and is another way to get more time into your day for fun things like watching sheep babies or sewing/quilting,—-or as we had to do today – visit a neighbor in the hospital.

Be aware though, if trying a new recipe that may not turn out how you think it will, one meal will be enough.   I only do the above on meals I am confident in.

2017
04/18

Category:
farming
Garden
Life

COMMENTS:
1 Comment »

Today came/went

I sat down to write this post and realized that it is dark and I have not put the sheep in for the night.

Sheep are in – I don’t know what happened to today’s hours, but they are gone – they came and went FAST.  The sheep are such fun when I let them out in the morning.   The babies leap and run and leap again for the joy of life.   Tonight when I got up there to put them in, the babies and moms were in the barn.   But in the dark, it’s hard to tell who belongs to who, so I ended up leaving the stall doors open and let the mothers sort out their offspring.   The sheep who were not bred this year, were put in a different area.  I am so thankful for having indoor facilities for them.

I am so thankful for help!    The strawberries are weeded and hoop house is cleaned out and new seeds are started.   This young lady can only help me 2 days a week, but she gets so much done, it is enough.   In fact, it is wonderful!  Next week, we will work in the barn.

2017
04/17

Category:
Garden
Life

COMMENTS:
2 Comments »

Coordinating and baby 8

Hiring and supervising are not my favorite things to do.   But today, we had the plumber out to do some repairs on the barn water system and tell us what we need in terms of money and supplies to get done what we need.

Then there are the repairs needed to the barn  doors which, the last person saw fit to remove and put on backwards, plus remove all the hardware.   So that also meant a trip to the hardware store to purchase the right hardware.

I hired part time help in the garden to finish planting potatoes and help with weed control in the hoop house.  She worked so hard today, she finished the potatoes – which was about 160′ of them, before the rains hit.   Then she went into the hoop house and worked the rest of the day, staying until she finished weeding all the aisles, picked parsley, and watered.

I need someone else to help with some of the old fence posts that are coming down.   I guess 20 years is a bit much to expect from some of these posts.   So an interview was in order.  My first impression of the fellow that applied was good, but he needs a full time job, so will call me when he has achieved that.

Plus, I have someone doing some drywall work on the little studio apartment to get it ready to rent. So I dealt with the repair work on that

Oh, and did I mention baby #8 was up and nursing when I went to the barn this morning.   The air is breeze and a bit crisp, but definitely springtime (this morning).   I don’t have a photo of baby 8, but here Friday’s babies are out romping in the sun.  Mom is a Ouissant – a rare breed.  Babies are half Shetland.

All I did was coordinate, freeze (it is cold out there in the wind and even in the barn), go for parts.  Why should I feel this tired?

2017
04/16

Category:
farming
Garden
Life

COMMENTS:
1 Comment »

Spinning, planting, shearing

A bit of spinning,

50 potatoes planted which is about 1/4 of them,

and 5 sheep are sheared.  The lambs are getting reacquainted with their mothers and the rams are in a big fight.  With their coats removed, they don’t know each other.  It got to late to finish the shearing, so the others will be sheared in a week or so.

 

2017
04/14

Category:
farming
Life
quilts

COMMENTS:
3 Comments »

More Monster trucks and miracle of birth

Here are more trucks – that’s as many Monster trucks as this quilt will have.   Mary came over and we were digitizing – or rather, she was teaching me, when I felt restless and decided we should go check on the sheep at the barn.

  I knew tomorrow was due date, but that doesn’t always mean anything, Surprise!  The bag had broken and before we got her in a stall, she was in this stage.

We talked her the 4 feet into the stall where she lay down. She was showing little feet.

This little fellow rushed out and

before she finished cleaning his head, he had a brother.

They are still wet, but all are tired and taking a bit of a nap.

Then it was time to try to stand.

Time to figure out how dinner is served.  Both were born and trying to find dinner within 20 minutes.   I will never tired of the miracle of birth.

 

2017
04/13

Category:
farming
Life
quilts

COMMENTS:
4 Comments »

More big trucks and sheep

Here are a few more big trucks.   It’s going slowly because I have to keep an eye on the sheep.   3 more to lamb.  One is technically due today, one mid May and one anywhere in between.  Of course then there are the other things like meals and visiting people in the hospital.   All of you know what I mean.

Evil eye from mom because she doesn’t want to let me near this baby.

Getting a peak at the baby

Finally — the baby!

If someone will explain to me how to download a video here, I’ll take some photos of the little ones playing and show them.

2017
04/12

Category:
farming
quilts

COMMENTS:
1 Comment »

Spidron finished, barn work

Here you see the front and back of the Spidron Mini Table Topper.   It took 4 fat quarters and 1/2 yard for the back and measures 18″ across from point to point.  The pattern is available from CD Designs.  It was only 9 years in the making.

And here is the definition of a spidron: “In geometry, a spidron is a continuous flat geometric figure composed entirely of triangles, where, for every pair of joining triangles, each has a leg of the other as one of its legs, and neither has any point inside the interior of the other.”

We also spent some time in the barn today.   The plan was to plant potatoes until the neighbor called and said we had a sheep stuck in the rose bush.   I had to cut branches off to get her loose.  So we decided as long as we were there to clean water troughs and give them clean water, and move several bales of hay.   Just before we got there, another of our ewes gave birth and has one healthy baby and one that apparently didn’t get out of the sac in time.   I’ll try to remember to get a photo of the little one tomorrow.

2017
04/11

Category:
Garden
quilts
Shopping

COMMENTS:
2 Comments »

Monster truck blocks

These Monster truck blocks are applique designs from Hatched in Africa.   They have marvelous designs that stitch out so very good.   It takes me a little over an hour a block if I count the stopping to trim between stitchings.    I marked the fabric so they will stitch far enough apart to get 8.5″ blocks for a great boy quilt.  There are 13 different trucks, so I may make 2 or 3 of them twice.

Of course this was done after returning some of the pants to Costco and getting the short size instead of regular.  Why should I bother to hem pants, when I could just buy the right size to begin with.   Interestingly enough, the lighter colored pants were very few yesterday as the table was covered with the dark blue pants.   Today, there wasn’t a dark blue in sight.   But the light blue was abundant and had sizes there that were not there yesterday.   Do they have little fairies that come in the night time and change everything?

On our outing, I was able to get 12 tomato plants, which are now in the ground.

2017
04/10

Category:
farming
Life
quilts

COMMENTS:
1 Comment »

Clothes and barn supplies

Clothes either wear out or just don’t fit well anymore.  So today was the big shopping for clothes, barn supplies, and whatevers.    I like the prices at Costco, so buy whatever I can there.  Yes, I could go to thrift stores, but that takes more time than I have to go through the clothes and try them on.   So I opt for Costco, where jeans cost 14.99 and actually fit me.  So 3 pair of jean, a swim suit, and a summer dress should keep me for the rest of the year as I still have some winter tops.    I will need some summer tops, but didn’t see anything I liked.

Then off to the farm store, where I have to describe what I want, because I never know the real name of the product.    The people who last had the barn did some strange things to it, including taking all the hardware off the doors.   So I brought two kinds of wheels to keep the doors in place.   I will decide which it needs and take the other back and come home with 5 of the right ones.   In addition to that, the hooks are off the doors, so they can’t be kept closed.  The sheep have figured one of the doors out, but the second one is in a track, so they haven’t come all the way out.

A GIFT

My daughter and SIL brought this lovely scarf back from Thailand for me.  They had a marvelous time and highly recommend the trip.

Finally some quilting:

The name of this small table topper is SPIDRON.   It was supposed to be English paper pieced.  The date I started it says 2008.   OK, I cheated.   I had all the pieces ironed around the little cardboard type papers and was supposed to whipstitch them in place.   I tried and it looked awful.   Then I ironed everything out flat, drew around some of the pieces,  and just machine stitched it.    Had I known that was going to be the way to do it, I would have cut the pieces with 1/4″ seams, instead of random seams.   It is now in one piece and needs to be backed and possibly quilted.   I am so glad this is done.    I am not in love with English paper piecing.  That is the way some of my ufos have happened.  Do you have those kind of ufos – where you just don’t want to do it?

2017
04/09

Category:
farming
Life

COMMENTS:
Comments Closed

Shepherding and weeding

 

Not only is shepherding hard work, but is certainly brings a meaning to some of Christ’s teachings.   Sheep are pushing, shoving animals while goats will wait nicely in line.  Sheep are smart, just that they want what they want yesterday and you just might be in the way.   When I let the 12 girls out in the morning, I have to hang onto the doorway as they crowd on both sides, nothing orderly about them – each wants to be first out.  Goats learn their order and will file in the order they have learned.  A sheep will push past all of them to be the first to get the grain.   Sheep also tend to stick together so where the leader goes, they all go, even though it might not be a good place to go.

And, yes, the ram, there is meaning there as well.  He will not tolerate anything getting between him and his family.  They are his and he will not tolerate what he perceives as competition (doesn’t matter whether it actually is or not – it is what he perceives).  He is also there to protect them with all his energy. (If you way 250#, that is a lot of energy)   Ours has knocked the door off the small hay barn, because he wanted in.  Apparently, he thought that he should make sure they had food.

On the good side, the lambs are obedient and stay by mom, generally not getting far enough away to get into trouble.  When mom calls, they are instantly at her side – or if small enough – under her.   And if dad is in the same pen, he also watches over the little lambs.     And that is just the beginning of what one can learn from sheep.

We spent a part of the morning moving sheep into different pastures.   Since we don’t have a herding dog, we have to try to outsmart them, which takes time.   Usually, it just takes some grain, but today, with all the lush grass, grain was not a very good enticement.   By the time we had them all where we wanted them, we were tired and ready for lunch.After lunch, it was time to attack weeds in the hoop house – another example Christ used.   Do you know what this plant is?

Here is a close up of the same plant.   I think I could make a fortune off this plant if it had value, it doesn’t “get it” when I keep pulling it all up.

Since I forgot to take a photo of the aisle before starting, I’ll show you what the middle aisle looks like so you can get an idea of what this aisle looked like.

Of course I have to keep weeding to keep it this way.   I have a lot of plastic feed sacks that I will put down in this aisle and see if that helps.

And when I tired of this, I sat down at my neglected spinning wheel for a bit of spinning.

 

 

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