skip to main |
skip to sidebar
E2 was helping me with chores on Friday. I sent him out to feed the patriarch of our herd, Golly. Golly's first doe born here has been quite the milker this year. Ginger is giving over 8# a day, so we are quite pleased with 'Gollinator the Pollinator.' So back to the story. E2 took Golly's food out to him, but before he could get all the way out to Golly's house, or 'The Love Shack' as we call it sometimes, he came charging back into the barn and said, 'Mom! There are chicks - baby chickens - out under Golly's house!' Sure enough, one of our Silver Spangled Hamburg hens had sneaked off and hatched a brood under Golly's house. With the threats posed by the roosters, the other hens, the one-eyed cat that has been hanging around, the skunk we have been smelling at night, raccoons and other things we are blissfully ignorant of, we adopted them to the mud room. There are a nice dozen chicks, and we are hoping that they are hens. Time will tell . . .
The stormy weather seems to have settled down. The clouds were pretty neat last night, though.
You've heard about the flooding already, I'm sure. And the tornadoes and various other severe weather events that have been in our area. My brother-in-law said it best: This weather in 2008 is like an abusive, drunken husband. It beats the living daylights out of us one day, then the next is all repentant and lovey-dovey. The weather this week has been as near to perfect as it can get; small consolation, I'm sure, to the folks who are having to salvage their lives and homes from the muck and the mire in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, Columbus Junction and on down the Mississippi.
By God's mercy we have escaped harm from the weather so far at Amon Eruanna. The garden is doing great, and the green beans we had to replant, due to a varmint mole, are all up and growing. A blessing in disguise, as it will extend the season and I will have lots to can.
I'm hoping to wander out to the timber to get some black raspberries here in the next few days. There is not much that is better than black raspberry jelly.
I've been working on some beaded blackberry socks the past few weeks, getting a row or two in now and then. I wasn't going to use the beads, but I can't get the pattern to work without them, and now they are really growing on me. Wish I had more time for them, though. They are made with Tofutsies yarn, which is awesome because its made from soft wool, Soysilk, some other fiber, and chitin, which is derived from the shells of lobster and shrimp and such, and is naturally antibacterial! Not that my feet stink, mind you . . .
Little Ginger kidded this afternoon, a little buck. Since its mom and dad-in-laws anniversary today, they got the privilege of naming him, and so here we have "Doc." He looks really similar to Piper, we think.
I've been learning about cheesemaking, and have made some chevre and also some different flavor combinations to add to the chevre. My favorites have been garlic and chive, and pineapple and walnut. The garden, children, kids, grass and weeds have all been growing. Not much else to add at this point . . .
Spring is in full swing at Amon Eruanna. Hubby and I have been busy, he tilling and I planting. We have planted zucchini, tomatoes, peas, radishes, onions, spinach, beets, chinese cabbage, cucumbers, potatoes, green beans, lettuce and carrots. Quite a bit of the cool weather stuff went into earth boxes on the back deck, along with a couple of cherry tomato plants and two jalapeño plants and one habanero plant. Hubby tilled up a patch in the barnyard and put a cattle panel fence around it. E1 planted gourds, watermelon, pumpkins, cantaloupe and let me stick in a few winter squash plants in her patch by Shep's pen.
Also, we removed the landscaping gravel from the little bed south of our front porch and put actual dirt in there, nice barnyard mulch and black dirt . . . the good part being that we were able to preserve and keep that nice climbing rose bush in the process. I want to plant a climbing honeysuckle vine on the opposite side to compliment it, and the children have all picked out a plant from Reha's greenhouse to plant in that bed as well.
Of course, before the past week's flurry of tilling and sowing, there was the call of the timber and the precious morsels to be found there, more valuable than truffles around these here parts. We found some little grays, which we incorporated into a sauce for a tender venison loin that we roasted. The big yellows were dipped in home-cultured buttermilk, flour, and fried in canola oil and butter. Oh, yummy!
All of this pictures in this post are of the wildflowers and choice fungus that can be found in our prairie and woodland here at Amon Eruanna. I took a couple of blissful afternoons to take it all in while 'shrooming.
Our cousins from Des Moines were over this past weekend, and we kept busy in the kitchen, as well as fit in time to fix a water leak at the rental and problems with the well over there as well. We also managed to fit in some time for knitting and Guitar Hero. There is just never enough time in the day . . .
Here is A's secret blend of spices and good things he used to make his tasty smoked venison sausage. Mmmm, it turned out good!
And here are some of the links drying on the rack before being hung in the smoker:
Then, on Monday we awoke to this crazy pheasant in the neighbors' yard; he spent nearly an hour wandering up and down the fenceline before A went out to get a closer shot of him, then he flew up and away.
Then yesterday, E1 was home sick with a fever. We were in the kitchen and saw a commotion in the front yard. I think this is a broad-winged hawk, that's the best guess I have anyway. Felt kind of bad for the dove, but I figured the hawk needs to eat too. The impressive part was that the dove was nearly the size of the hawk, and yet when I got too close for comfort, the hawk was able to pick that dove up and fly away with it!
Those who really know me won't be shocked by this, but I really want to see the Ben Stein movie that just came out: Expelled
Usually around here there is little time for movies, but this one looks really compelling. The only other things I've been watching lately are the Jane Austen movies on Public Television that I've DVR'd.
I'm late for milking, but I wanted to get that in for the day. I just watched the trailers online for Expelled and they are funny and intriguing.
I also wanted to say that the barn swallows and the house wrens are back. It is truly spring now. The barn swallows are favorites of mine. The house wrens are nice, but are aggressive little buggers. Yesterday was the first that I have seen of the swallows, and this morning I hear a wren singing.
Well, I have to give my account of this morning's earthquake. I figure if Bonnie Lucas on 1040 WHO from Des Moines is able to give a creditable account, so can I.
The epicenter was 240 miles south of Chicago, near West Salem IL. So we are closer to this location than Des Moines is. It was in the range of 5.2 - 5.4.
I awoke to hear Eddie, the pet parakeet, flapping frantically around his cage just shortly after 4:40 our time this morning. Then it sounded like something was running across the roof, or rolling across it. I got Eddie settled back down and went back to bed. Then this morning I read of the earthquake, and it all made sense. It was a relief to realize that there weren't huge raccoons or possums or Heaven knows what else chasing each other across our rooftops!
I wonder what the barn dwellers thought. I wonder how my friends farther south fared, or what my brother and his wife in Chicago experienced. Earthquakes in the Midwest are so rare . . .
The stormy weather seems to have settled down. The clouds were pretty neat last night, though.
