Leftovers

"You're making too much food." I always hear this while preparing for holidays and gatheringsLeftover flowers from the garden and field.

There is no such thing. It all gets eaten within a couple of lunches and dinners, and before you know it, time to cook again. Plus you get to send goodies home with other busy people, so that they can skip a day over the stove, or at a fast food place.
This was the packed fridge about 7PM on the 4th of July.

I love leftovers, especially on busy week-ends. You know something good will be waiting for you after a long day outside, and there will be little effort in having to prepare it.

Not even a day later, there is space opening up in the fridge, and by dinner, we'll be in great shape. The corn I cut off the cob is going to become corn "chowda" tomorrow. Yumm!

Happy Fourth from the Pond

We took our adult beverages, chairs and blankets to meet the neighbors up on the pond.

Idlewild Park has its annual fireworks...

but the neighborhood fireworks stole the night.

Belated fireworks pictures from Idlewild and the Darlington Fireworks showdown.

Aged Monastic Melissa Spirits

The experiment we started earlier this month has continued.

To the left are the ingredients as we started with them.

We let the lemon balm concoction age a bit more than the required ten days. Its been busy around here, but Mom hadn't been sleeping well, so we decided she would be a perfect guinea pig for the powers of lemon balm.

With a coffee filter, we finally strained and re-bottled the brandy, now full of the medicinal and curative properties of our fresh lemon balm. It actually was very clear already, but we went through the steps properly. You can see - no sediment at all.

I was thinking the liquid would become green, but it only became a bit darker than the original brandy color. A fine dark amber.

So last night Mom had about half a shot glass of "spirits", with a chaser of soda. The taste: strong but mainly of alcohol. The lemon balm is subtle.

Her opinion? It helped her sleep a little.

The Paper Factory

Mom has a new job. Or perhaps an addiction. The paper shredder.

Tuesday we got a heavier duty, recycled, paper shredder from the Loyalhanna Watershed Association, and now my mother is known as the Paper Factory. She is addicted to shredding, and has been folding, tearing, and shredding paper since we plugged it in. She is shredding everything in sight. Magazines, mail, newspaper.

She is going to set the thing on fire - I swear! It has smoked a couple times, but we think (and hope) its just the dust from the white paper. We have to takes its temperature every once in a while to make sure she gives it a rest.

So far she must have produced three or four garbage bags of the stuff. The fun hasn't worn off yet.

What does one do with all this paper you ask? Well, we use it for bedding for the goat's stalls. We get several bags from a couple places, but all of a sudden we need more. Perhaps the doubling in size of the herd?

After making a mess in the kitchen, we moved the operation out to the garage, where she can run the factory as she pleases, whenever she wants, and be outside in the sun or shade, depending on which door is open.
Its a nice sit down job for her as she waits to have hip surgery. We tell her the paper tearing is good for her upper body strength.

Pecking Order

This morning was a nice slow walk out to the pastures. I was literally running everyone out for the past month. I was trying to get the kids to stampede behind the rest to get them out of the barn. Now that its hotter, and I'm usually carrying a couple gallons of water (another future project), walking is fine. Also I am hoping they just start without me, but that hasn't happened yet. I am still Lead Queen. They line up and mill around the door looking around for me. Great! Queen of a goat herd! Along the way, Layla, who seems to be the current alley leader, stopped for a munch, so Uno, who always used to be first at everything, passed her. As we were entering the gate for the field alley, there was a bit of butting, and Layla with her daughter, took the lead positions again. Uno has dropped in rank since she had her twins.
These are Zola's two bucks, and Uno's buck, lagging behind with slow Zola, who always brings up the rear.We are getting across the lower field pretty quickly now as the kids are getting bigger.

Zola is Herd Queen, once she gets here, and if someone is eating "her" food, they get a swipe of her neck.

Cleo is topping the grasses.

Aziza and Grant working together.

It looks like everyone is getting their share of what I think is goldenrod greens. Layla Mei

Everyone was enjoying the new browse today, and the little ones get a bit lost in it sometimes. This stuff is not as thick and high as others, but they are enjoying a good variety. See Cleo back there?I think you can see the line where they finished yesterday. By tonight it will all look the same, and we move fences again.

Evening Walk

We like to give Jock as many walks as possible, and after dinner we try to get one in before the goats come in. This is the turn at the east meadow fence line. I love the canopy of this tree. I wish it were closer to the house for those hot days.

Mia joined us on this walk. They are waiting for me to continue.

We mow paths every summer and this one heads to the pond.

Snickers is sneaking up on another path to join the walk.

Everyone takes this quite seriously. Its really neat!

Happy Father's Day!

I'm not sure if I've been doubly insulted or not.
For Mother's Day the cats gave me a bird foot, piece of gut, and feathers. Here Mom - leftovers.

For Father's Day they brought a sizable headless rabbit. Here Dad - dinner.

Then there's the card.

But I got a nice card that day, so I'll get over this also.