Farm Life, partly cloudy, humid..70's

What happens when you're a goat and
you want your sisters nap spot?
You use your capricious nature of Course!


Hey Cinnamon, can I have your spot?

Please??

C'mon, I really want to lay right THERE

Brothers!

Sunday Snippets & Snatches...cloudy...70's

Kind of like a weather calendar or farm journal we find that we can browse back through this blog and find that "Blackberry winter" always falls around the same date every year, the baby goat naming contest shows up about the same time every year.....and apparently so does the rain.........after a particularly soggy couple of weeks here, I checked archives and sure enough look what I posted last May about this time:

"When it rains it pours", "A pour man gets his ice in the wintertime", A "dirt poor farmer" is someone who is 'land rich' but money poor, .......and I'm coining a new one
a  "rain poor farmer" gets a half a years worth of rain in two weeks~~ right when they need to be planting the garden, making hay, mowing the (knee high) grass, harvesting the strawberries.............................................

The Rain Poor Farmer So as we deal with the almost constant and 'Quantitive' amounts of rain
and workin'  amidst the rain and showers,
we find every chore takes twice the time--hours and hours!
The strawberries won't ripen,
More and More we find ourselves gripen'
Can't find a dry day
to cut the hay,
Plants need pottin,'
and the half the garden is rottin,'
While we're out in the muck sloggin'~~~
we might just have to take a break from bloggin' !!!!

Fresh Fruit Cake....Cloudy, with showers possible......

Fresh Fruit Cake, not to be mistaken for a ‘fruitcake’,  is quick & easy to make,  Light & healthier than most cakes and tastes great simply topped with whatever fresh fruit is in season.

 We've been eating strawberries for a couple of weeks here now, blueberries and cherries will be ready soon followed shortly after by blackberries and peaches..........use your favorite to top this cake!

 

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. Almond flavoring (you can use different flavoring depending on what fruit you use)

1 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 cup milk

1 Tablespoon butter

 

 

In small sauce pan combine milk and butter, scald (heat till small bubbles appear around edges) while you make the rest of the cake.

In mixing bowl beat eggs well, add sugar and flavoring and continue beating till until very light and thick, 2-3 minutes ,( a large wire whisk works best for this).

Add flour and baking powder all at once and stir together, add hot milk and quickly beat together, pour into greased 8 x 8 inch pan and bake in a pre-heated 350* oven for 24-30 minutes till tests clean when a knife is inserted near center.

Cool on and top with crushed fresh fruit.

Strawberries, Blueberries, Blackberries, Peaches...................................................

 

NEW Babies.... Partly cloudy...warm

It's been a busy week here ~four babies in three days! And I didn't get my daytime wish! I got to bed around 2 A.M. So these pics are at seven hours old! 
Meet the newest additions to the farm A. Wyse Ol' goats' twins~ One boy~ One Girl~ Stop by our FB page and help us NAME them!
www.facebook.com/jonquiljunction

Here they are about seven hours old with mom

After their photo shoot, they wanted a nap.
Being born is exhausting!

Rhapsody & Rhythm ...partly sunny humid

Exercise time TWO days old

Watching mom eat hay

Copying mom, two days old

New babies...Partly cloudy....70's

 Flossie kidded Saturday! Twin does (whoopee) !!!
Born while  I was attending my Granddaughters' piano recital. Meet Rhapsody and Rhythm,  as the Hungarian Rhapsody was one of her pieces that night !

Rhapsody is Smokey grey/chocolate with white tips (and ears!)
while Rhythm is colored just like dad, black with buff markings (no ears!)

They look nothing like their mom Flossie!

Sunday Quotes...Sun!

The Wisteria wanders
It wanders everywhere
Over bush & fence & tree
It wanders without a care..............

Fresh Strawberry Spread...Sun..warmer

This recipe is perfect for those who prefer a softer consistency to commercial jam and like a spread that isn't overly sweet, what you taste is the fresh fruit!

Fresh Strawberry Spread
5 cups strawberries
1 1/2-2 cups sugar
1 T.lemon juice
1/2 package pectin
2 T. strawberry Jello

coarsely crush strawberries with a potato masher
Combine strawberries, sugar, lemon juice and pectin, bring to a boil, boil, stirring constantly for five minutes. Remove from heat add Jello and stir well.
Pour into sterilized jars and cool. store in the fridge. Makes four half pints.
Refrigerate for 24 hours before using.

Adjust sugar to your taste, and the sweetness of the fruit you are using,we like it on the tart side.
I buy pectin in bulk if you do too use a rounded 1/4 cup.

Farm Life...warmer

Any day now these 2 "wideload" ( my husband use to haul freight, ha ha) goats will be delivering.
As I mentioned last year, a daytime event will really be appreciated!!!

Stay tuned for updates--and baby naming contest!

Farm Adventures...cloudy...chilly

This could have been tragic! I was unloading hay from the truck and
set a few empty bags on the ground.

 Next, move the truck and get more hay.
The bags were not in my way, but out of habit I went to move them over
and one was HEAVY. Lonesome had curled up INSIDE and was taking a nap!
I hurried for the camera and when I knelt down to snap he woke up and
started out.

This reminded me of a sad tale,  Years ago my neighbors had a gander named Homer. A very personable goose that loved his master.

I have a wonderful picture of him following his master when he (and he) came to my house to round up his wayward flock of turkeys and
bring them home to roost where they belonged.

That involved a walk of at least 1/2 mile one way.

I snapped a picture as they were leaving
walking up the driveway. (When I get it converted to digital I will
share it with you.)  Anyway, eventually the young man of the house ran
over Homer while Homer was inside a grain bag. Now I have a gander
that we all love. His name is Appaloosa and he attached himself to my
husband, who has never fed him, hauled gallons of water to him, or
locked him up at night to thwart the raccoons. Go figure!

 

Monday Special...Cloudy...cool

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Sunday Quotes....Sunny...warm

"If no Bee ever made honey again from its essence, if no fence were ever built again from its sturdy trunk, we should still have to be thankful for the
locust perfume" 
by  Wilma Dykeman in her book Look To This Day.

Frozen Strawberry Yogurt...Sunny...70's

1 quart Unsweetened yogurt **see note
1 can evaporated milk,undiluted
2 cups fresh strawberries
3/4--1 cup sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla

Place paper towel or cheesecloth in a colander or sieve dump all of yogurt in place plate on top and return to fridge for 2-3 hours.

when ready to make, crush strawberries coarsely add sugar and vanilla set aside.
Mix yogurt and evaporated milk together with a wire whisk, when well combined add strawberry mixture, pour in to ice cream maker and freeze according to instructions for your machine. ( I processes  mine for 25 minutes--then place in freezer for 3 hours before serving) 

***  You can uses whole milk, low fat or even fat free for this recipe
***adjust sugar to your taste and how sweet your berries are!

After the storm.....

"It's an ILL WIND that blows nobody any good"

 Those gardens that didn't get washed away, got a good watering!

New Handmade Items....Cloudy,,, storms on the way

 


Spring is a busy time of the year here on the farm,, so far we've managed to garden, work on the tractor(s), take care of the animals and still create a few new items for our ETSY store! Have you stopped by lately??
                                    https://www.etsy.com/shop/Jonquiljunction

                                    https://www.etsy.com/shop/Jonquiljunction

 

Sunday Quotes...partly cloudy...60's

“It's easy to take the time to stop and smell the roses but one must be willing to give of themselves enough to also stop to admire and understand life's weeds.
                                                                                                                                       Colleen Dougherty


The Cherokee Roses are blooming again, some consider them weeds, I appreciate that they don't need the care of modern day roses, and yet, come May, they bloom without fail!

Cherokee Rose
A native of southern China and Taiwan, this rose was introduced early to North America(around 1759) and has now become thoroughly established here. Georgia's  official flower. The Cherokee Rose is a mounding bush to about 5 feet, or a thickly foliaged climber to 15 feet with neat, apple-green leaves. In the spring, fragrant, pure white, 5-petaled flowers appear and cleanly drop their petals to disclose star-shaped sepals. It is one of the best for naturalizing in the South,  and offers an outstanding floral display in return for very little care.
5 to 15 feet Z7-9                   
Cherokee roses are ramblers. If you grow one as a freestanding mound, it will reach a height upwards of 5 feet and maybe twice this wide.
If grown up into a tree, it can climb to 30 feet. It does not always need to be trained to climb either. This self sufficient species rose has been known to scramble into the canopy of a tree by means of its sharp thorns.
                                    The Legend of the Cherokee Rose :
In response to the tears the woman cried along the Trail of Tears, the Cherokee roses sprung up.....................

• The white flowers represent the tears of the Cherokee maidens.
• The gold stamens symbolize the gold mined from the hills.
• The 7 leaflets of each leaf stand for the 7 Cherokee clans.
• The sharp thorns are a symbol of the toughness of the Cherokee people.
• Rosa laevigata's habit of rooting where its stems touch the soil represents the tribe's love of and connectedness to the land.

And speaking of old roses and gardening, I'd like to share one of my favorite garden reads with you:
            "People with Dirty Hands" By Robin Chotzinoff
         If you can find it , it's a wonderful read, one I've read over and over again. She covers everything from old rose bushes to (really) hot peppers! All in a very entertaining way!

Strawberry Pie...Sunny....70's

Worthy of a  re-post this has been our most popular recipe with our Facebook followers, viewed over 5,000 times and shared almost 80 times! It's certainly one of our spring Favorites which is why it was included in our Everything Season Cookbook! We hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Strawberry Pie

Crust:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

2 T. sugar

5 T. melted butter

 

1  8 oz. package cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

 

 

1 quart sliced strawberries

1/2-1 cup sugar*** See Note

1 cup water

3 T. cornstarch

2 T. strawberry Jell-O

1 tsp. Almond flavoring

 

Mix crumbs and sugar together, add melted butter, stir well then

press firmly into a 10” pie plate.

 

In medium bowl beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with handheld mixer for

2 minutes or till light and fluffy.

Carefully spread into piecrust, place in fridge.

 

In medium saucepan whisk together sugar and cornstarch, add water and cook over medium heat until thick and clear about 2 minutes, add Jello and stir well, remove from heat and add flavoring and gently stir in berries. Spoon into crust and chill at least 4 hours before serving.

Can be served with or without sweetened whipped cream on top!

 

 

**The amount of sugar you need totally depends on how sweet your fruit is!

Taste  your strawberries first and adjust as needed

 

Farm Adventures...Sunny....50's

Mocha and Java were taken out to graze with Mom the other day.

At  least that's what I planned. Tired from planting the garden I made a
cup of Lemon Lift Tea and sat to watch.

One cup and a few pics later I decided they were going to stay and graze right alongside their Mom.
As it turned out, 10 minutes of grass was all they wanted, then
caprine curiosity took over.

After I returned to planting this is what they did.

Left Mom and went about 150 feet away, out of sight, and
started eating the strawberry plants. I got there in time and returned
them  to home base.

I left and they left, this time to jump on the green house door and remove the screening.

Probably because they're bucks and no doubt because they had a traveling companion, Mom's stationery location did not act as a tether.

So as usual I lost and had to return them to the barn.

Then a couple of days later I got smarter.

I tied their mother in tall grass inside a fenced area and put them in there loose.

When I made a check, I found the Doe hollering and out of sight of her kids. They had climbed through this gate and were taking turns having a Tete A Tete with their father.......

This will work, staying right with mom.

Thimby teaching them about rose bushes

 

Contemplating - is this a barrier or an opportunity?
 Oh I remember, Grandmother A. Wyse
says always  "Practice your climbing skills"

Challenging Dad



For some reason we got put back in our pen shortly after this picture!

Blackberry Winter....Partly cloudy,,, 50's

The Blackberries are blooming...yesterday morning was 48*. 

Looking back through the archives here on my blog I find that I wrote about Blackberry winter in 2015 on May 6th and in 2014 on May 1st and the year before that on May 3rd. You might say you could set your watch (or calendar by it!)

Yes, it happens every year, when you least expect it. The days have turned warm, the Jonquil's, the redbuds and the dogwoods have bloomed ,everything is growing, you have planted your early garden items (and maybe even your Tomatoes and Beans if your feeling particularly confident) , the blackberries are blooming, and then it hits. Winter's last  fling, the cold snap that comes just when you think spring is finally here at long last .
Before there were  long-range weather forecasts...the 'old-timer's' had many signs they went by to predict the weather, some make a lot of sense some are a little more far fetched!
I've been told you could tell if it was going to be an early or late spring depending on when Easter fell each year as "the weather  always 'settles' right after Easter".... interesting since it can fall anywhere from late April to Mid May.
That the first time you hear a whippoorwill holler (they start calling about the time the blackberries bloom too) you're to get down on the floor and roll over so as not to have any back ailments all year long. I must admit I haven't tried this one, perhaps I should!
That you must plant your corn when the oak leaves are as big as a squirrels ear for a good crop (I missed that one this year, as I do most years)!
And that the reason we have blackberry winter is because the blackberries won't set fruit unless there is a cold snap!
If you Google "Blackberry Winter"  you find there have been more than one song written about it both instrumental and with lyrics here's a  snippet of one of my favorites....
"Blackberry winter comes without a warning
Just when you think that spring's around to stay
And you wake up on a cold, rainy morning
And wonder what on earth became of May....."
(music: Alec Wilder; lyrics: Loonis McGloughlin
by Ellen Messina Ciompi. )

New items, partly cloudy..cool

NEW Earrings from the workbench!

OOAK earrings!
Hand-hammered , lightweight, eye-catching,

simple yet elegant earrings!
About 1 inch long and 3/4 of an inch wide!
Minimalistic design sure to appeal to many styles!

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Farm Life...Sunny...cooler

Hope you have a great Monday with no precarious predicaments !

Sunday Quotes...cloudy..warmer

May is the most competitive of months
Everything trying to outgrow or outbloom the other
But, for sure, the grass wins
The grass ALWAYS wins!