And the idiots still ask why it's come to this, as they lean on their missiles and polish their pistols. Oh, give me one more goodnight kiss.
--Gregg Brown, One More Goodnight Kiss
On The Farm
It's the little things in life that make it so enjoyable, like getting your mozzarella cheese to spin, spreading the garden with home-grown composted manure and pouring that just-bottled maple syrup on a hot waffle.
Five goat kids came this spring. Sugar had triplets and Peanut delivered twins. That means the milk is pouring in again and we're scrambling to figure out what to do with all the stuff. So far the milk has gone to make copious amounts of mozzarella, French Chevre, yogurt, soap and a very happy bunch of cats. We have sold one female kid with four to go.
All it took was our friend Tim to suggest taking a look at the old manure spreader in the barn to see if we couldn't get that thing working. After filling a flat tire and finding the pull bar to tow it off the back of the tractor we were off and running, and what a beauty it is! Using an ingenious ground-driven conveyor system, it throws manure in an impressive rooster tail pattern resulting in perfectly uniform spreading. Putting compost on a garden gives one a sense of closure, a certain come-full-circle feeling. The vegetables we picked last summer, the shells from the eggs we have enjoyed all winter, the grass now manure thanks to the animals and
anything else organic that we've thrown in, all rotting in a curious heap out back of the barn for those many months now completes its journey right back to the earth for another cycle. There is something intrinsically satisfying about witnessing that process.
While we're on the topic of intrinsic satisfaction, having a bowl of oatmeal or a pancake with syrup that we've so painstakingly collected, boiled, watched over and bottled, really does the trick.
So that's it for this season, we're into summer mode full on, no more grain for the animals; they're grazing in the pastures now. Bushhogging, weedwacking and generally keeping the growth back as well as preparing and tending the garden are the orders of the day as well as the occasional swim and fishing expedition. Hope to see you on the farm!
In the Kitchen
Steel Cut Oats
After eating whole or steel cut oats, it's really hard to go back to grocery store rolled oats, there's just no comparison. If you don't have the time to cook whole oats, steel cut oats make a fine substitution. 4 c water, 1c steel cut oats; Boil water and slowly add oats, keep a slow boil and when oats begin to thicken turn heat to low and watch closely to prevent scalding. Top with brown sugar, syrup, honey or whatever!
Laddy and Max admiring a full bucket of sap.
How sweet it is! Homemade maple syrup.
Potatoes!
Tim filling the New Idea Manure Spreader.
Cornelia doing some pond-side browsing.
Ma and Pa Kettle
Kid Watch
Haley 10 years 9 months
Laddy 9 years 4 months
Max 7 years 2 months
Ruby 2 years 10 months
