His Sheepiness.

Here is Norman in his new coat.  Fascinating stuff, no?  Had to take these with my phone camera, since I managed to leave my precious REAL camera in Melanie's car. 

I thought he looked kind of thin in the first picture, but not so, when viewed from the back(side).  This coat is large enough to last him through most of the winter, I think.  Just in case, I have the next size up.  Don't want him walking around in a girdle.

Don't threaten me with that apple, lady...

Trimming the fence line.

Fruitarama!

This was the weekend of the Fruit.  Friday was planned to be our annual blueberry pickathon, but a steady downpour (all.day.long) bumped it to Saturday morning.  Marianne couldn't join us, so Melanie and I drove off at the crap of dawn on the hour-long drive up to the blueberry farm.  It was a perfect day for blueberry picking - clear skies, gentle breeze, low humidity. 

I managed to break my all-time record in 2011 of 12 lbs of berries.  I picked 15.2# of blueberries off of five bushes!  We then drove down to Marianne's to relieve her poor, over-burdened plum tree of plums - another 8# joined the blues.  Then there were the pears.  Another 8#.  Then there were the three 5-gallon buckets of apple falls from my neighbor, Nancy's tree.

I suppose it's rather obvious what I did all weekend, right?  I managed to freeze all the blueberries and dry a good portion of the plums.  I also discovered zucchini fritters, which had me in the kitchen most of the weekend.  Poor me.  :)

I am in the process of going through the apple falls.  The gnarly ones are going to the sheep, llama, goats and chickens.  Norman is afraid of apples so far.

And speaking of the lad, we (I) had a regular sheep rodeo yesterday.  Normie's coat was chafing - they outgrow them as their fleece grows in volume - so it was time to put him in a larger size.  It wasn't pretty.  I thought that getting the old one off would be more difficult than putting the new one on.  Not so.  It also was very clear that Norman is no Icelandic sheep, those nice, short, 'fluffy' sheep.  No, Norman is all legs and bucking bronco.  Thank god for tree cover so that no one was subjected to the spectacle we created.  I did, however, prevail in both cases and he is sporting a new, clean, sage-green coat with ample growth room.  His previous owner has entered his fleece in the county fair, so I am excited to see how it does.  It looks wonderful!

In the process of cleaning, freezing and packaging all those blueberries, a few broke free of their bonds and ended up on the kitchen floor.  Where I stepped on them and dragged them around.  All over my nice, clean kitchen rug.  Sigh.  BUT WAIT!!!  I had forgotten about UFO #46 -- yes, it's still an UFO, but it's finished state is now within view. 

It works out to 3 squares down, by 5 squares across

Should be colorful! (And easier to hide
smooshed blueberries...)

I had forgotten all about #46 until I stumbled across the squares I had finished.  I decided to finish one a night until I had enough (15) and then Melanie came over on a Sunday night and we worked out the pattern.  Now all I have left to do is to steam each square and lash them together.  Piece of cake.  It should only take me until 2015...

It was like Christmas morning!

A little while ago, I was fortunate enough to win Little Homestead in Boise's giveaway, celebrating a blogging milestone.  I am SURE it had nothing to do with the mind meld that went on in the wee hours between Anya and me....

Yesterday, I came home to a box, dryly wedged between storm door and front door - my mail guy is the only one who is not afraid of my dogs.  I quickly opened it up and GOOD GOLLY!  What a bonanza of goodies!  It really was like Christmas morning:

Excuse the lack of focus - I forgot to charge the
battery in my camera, so this was done by phone.

There are two beautiful French-motif printed tote bags, one of my favorite kinds of tea, ginger crisps, some delicious salty, nutty snacks, journals, notebooks, and a very hand little Post-It note holder that has already made its way into my purse!  Wow!

Thank you SO much, Nancy!

(and Anya....good, good kittty)

I spent the day with Nonagenerians...

and I had a ball!  (Please hold your snorts.)  Yesterday, I drove my parents (the above-mentioned nonagenarians) up to Dorset, VT to see Barefoot in the Park at the Dorset Theatre Festival.  It was fun!!  And I made some pithy observations about spending the day with elderly people:

One.  They may move slowly, but they are endlessly courteous, attentive to those even older than they, and are wonderfully polite.

Two.  They open doors for everyone.  There is no pushing or cutting in line.

Three.  In the ladies room, they even wiped down the sink tops when they finished washing their hands!!!

Four.  They appreciated the humor and talent, laughed out loud, and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Five.  They whistled at the cast (especially the nubile leading lady) and stomped their canes on the floor in pure enthusiastic enjoyment.

Six.  The lady sitting next to my mother helped her on with her jacket and patted her hand in comradeship.

It just made me feel all rosy.

xoxo

Dear Diary,

I bet you can't guess what I had for breakfast this morning.  Go on - try!  Nope, not yogurt and granola.  Not a nice cool smoothie, either.  I had...hot oatmeal and raisins!  Why?  Because it was 46-freakin degrees!

Yes, Dear Diary, we are, apparently, in a state of troughiness, according to the weather gurus.  While it was downright invigorating, I doubt it will do much for my plentiful, green tomatoes.  Bernisima loves this weather.  Does it mean that summer is over?  It was just a fast and furious, hot flash in the pan of the year?

Saturday was a tough day, Dear Diary.  It was Kay's Memorial Service and, although it was meant to bring closure through the celebration of her life (and what a life!), it didn't close things for me.  I know that these sharp, raw memories will soften with age, but Holy Crap (as Kay would say), it hurts like hell.  And it hurts LOTS of people like hell.  The celebration was perfect - a capella songs sung by her daughter and *daughters* - such beautiful voices in a beautiful, vaulted church.  Her son sang her a song, and her granddaughter played guitar and sang in an equally beautiful voice.  Kay's life was much about song and music, so it was perfect.  Her husband had written a poem to her that was so crammed full of pain and passion that it completely pushed me over the edge and did me in.  I missed the bonfire that night, as I fell into a deep, silent sleep that kept the phone from waking me.  Just as well.

And, Dear Diary, I am reading a book entitled:  The Seasons on Henry's Farm: a Year of Food and Life on a Sustainable Farm (how's that for a title?)  It is a wonderful book.  One of those books you never want to end.  I think I would have preferred "5 Years of Food and Life..."  Terra Brockman is an amazing writer.  (And a BIG thank you to Jenyfer for introducing this book into my life.)  It charged me right up and yesterday I decided to tackle the growing mound of Ronde Nice squash that was growing in my fridge and garden.  When I'm not quite sure what to do with some food item, I wander over to my Italian neighbor, Linda's and drop innocent hints.  Such as...."I've got these lovely round zucchinis and I am going to stuff them.  Hmmm.  With what, I wonder?"  My luck held, as her sister and mother are visiting - so the ensuing conversation went something like this:

L:  "Ricotta, spinach and onions"
AM:  "Nutmeg would be nice"
L:  "Garlic - don't forget the garlic"
Moma:  "Some nice breadcrumbs and a little Romano, too, sweetie."
L:  "A little EVO and tomato on top, I think."

By the time I left, I had a recipe zipping about in my noggin and I proceeded to adapt it (since I almost never have all the ingredients suggested.) and came up with this:

Into a food processor, put 3 large garlic cloves and a bunch of young, tender Swiss Chard (spinach would be wonderful, too.)  Process it quickly, dump in a bowl and mix a container of ricotta, one whole egg, lots of nutmeg, some Parmesan (didn't have Romano) cheese and blend well.  Cut four Ronde Nice squash in half and scoop out seeds and some of the flesh to make a bowl.  Spoon filling in squash bowls.  Combine bread crumbs (I use GF Panko crumbs) and more cheese (Parm) and sprinkle liberally on top.  Whiz together a large chopped tomato, a few sprigs of fresh basil and about 2T of EVO in the processor and drizzle across the top of the bowls. 

Bake in a 375 degree oven until crumbs are golden and squash is tender.  I baked mine about 30-35 mins.

And maybe you would know this, Dear Diary - are chocolate covered gummie bears considered part of your 5-a-day fruit requirement?  Would you get back to me on this?

Love,
Sweezie

A labor of love? Meh.

You know how you see some recipe in a magazine and you just HAVE to make it?  Even though the directions seem too easy to be true?  And you just ignore that niggling little voice in your mind because your eyes are glued to the glossy food photo?

Welcome to my world.  Someone at work gave me their copy of Woman's Day Magazine and there - glowing up at me - was the Frozen Yogurt Banana Split.  Did I say that it was on one of those 98+ degree days that I first set eyes on it?  No?  Well, maybe I can blame it all on the weather ...

Top to bottom:  Pineapple yogurt/strawberry yogurt/
banana/chocolate yogurt

I was dazzled by the "40 minutes Active" "40 minutes Total".  I completely disregarded the (plus freezing) line that was not in bold print.  I have very little time to cook during the week.  If it wasn't for the fact that I get up every morning around 4:30A, I wouldn't get much done other than the homesteady stuff I have to do.  When I finally buckled down last night to tackle this delectable morsel, I knew I was in trouble within 10 minutes.  So I broke it into parts.  I made the first two layers and put them in the fridge.  I lined my pan with parchment paper.  I double-checked all my ingredients.  I washed countless appliance parts and bowls.  I fell into bed at 10:30P.

The shine was fading off the Frozen Yogurt Banana Split.

Last night, interspersed with two glasses of wine, I finally finished putting it together - once again at 10:30P.  Into the freezer it went (me saying, "good riddance" - not a good sign).  This morning, I haul it out and, although it did, indeed, look like the photograph (mine is a lot less sexy), it took 20 minutes to 'gently lift' it out of the pan.  There was nothing gentle about its removal, let me tell you.  However, I did control my urge to hack it out of the pan with tools, and I did manage to get it mostly out in one piece.

The taste?  Meh.

This reminds me, in hindsight, painfully (Isn't that redundant?  Pain/hindsight?), of my venture into fine French cooking in my mid-20s.  I had labored mightily (with expensive ingredients) over "Roasted Duck Potage" for three days, only to have my then (and now ex) husband say, "Gee, this is pretty good.  What is it?  Duck soup?"  Sacrebleu!

Norman update - and a baby goat.

Norman has found his BFF and it ain't Juno.  Or Linden.  He is just smitten with aPria.  They eat together.  They take naps in the run-in shed together.  They are frequently found lying in the shade of the same tree.  As long as Norman doesn't get all galloping on her, aPria is just fine with him.  But he is the racehorse of the LFF sheepies and that boy can move!  He can out-run and out-maneuver the fluffy diva, Juno, and manages to dodge Linden at food time.  He doesn't walk, he trots.  It's like having a pony.

And just because I can't say it enough ...  OMG, do I LOVE this little goat.  I would like to carry her around in a sling and call her baby.  (Please see previous post - Nut reference.)

My Apple.