Happy Birthday Julia Child!

If you don't know what's for dinner tonight, my suggestion is to pull out a Julia Child recipe and start there.

Julia would be 100 today.

I learned a lot of my bread and soup skills from the VCR tapes that my old and current library have. She was so fun to watch. And there was the one spot where the editor missed her wrap skirt exposing her thigh! Woo!

Last year a book club friend died in a car accident and her books were donated to the library.  Unfortunately, many of them had been temporarily stored in a musty garage, and so the library could not take them. I was left with a musty car and stacks of books. 

Not being able to just throw them out, I went through them and found one lovely copy of Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home.  I also adore Jacques Pepin. My Kristin and I would watch the cooking show on PBS where he shared recipes with his daughter. We would giggle at her slow, unpracticed skills that made her dad squirm. But it made us more comfortable in our own kitchen experiments. From him we learned how to use "real" garlic.

I decided to wrap Julia and Jacques for Kristin as a Christmas gift.  As I leafed through, I came back to the title page. There I found autographs of both the authors. What a thrill! 

I miss my friend who loved all these cook books, and I hope she is with Julia watching us share their love of cooking today.

Bon Appetit.

On the Pond

Growing up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, I used to fish for "sunnies" on the Conestoga Creek.  Sometimes we would travel to the Susquehanna River in Columbia to fish, and there we caught flathead catfish. I think that put an end to my fishing interests! Ugh!

Here are some shots from the pond this week-end.

A young neighbor brought his grandfather to share some quality time before school starts.

Twenty Three Eggs

For days I've been wondering if the hens read the post where I bragged about their production. 

Since that day, their production declined to the point where today there were NO eggs in the nests. Tonight, Julia and I searched all the usual hiding places and found nothing. 

We got to work putting down bedding and getting the stalls ready for the goats tonight, when I turned around and LOUDLY exclaimed, "OMG!". I scared the heck out of poor Julia!

To the right is a stall door that is propped open with a cinder block, and to the left is a side wall.
In between the two were...

TWENTY THREE EGGS!

And you know what is going to happen to those eggs?

They all have to be thrown out!

Actually, I likely will toss them in the compost pile a couple at a time and let the hens eat them. But no human consumption of these eggs.

So now we have to look back here for eggs while I try to make the hens move back to their nests.  I'll have to stuff something in here to make their lives uncomfortable! Suggestions my chicken experts?

Feeling Grateful

Its not the land that's important,

Its the lessons learned from the land.

Hen Productivity

We have had hens since the first Fall we were here in 2003. We started with four.

They roost every night in this side of the barn, and this is where they lay their eggs - most of the time. They do have a very nicely decorated home don't they?



For all I know, one of our current eight hens is still from the original four, but we have lost one hen here and there to heat, cold, and a hawk strike one January. 

Every couple of Septembers, we made the trip to Myersdale to get a few more hens to replace and expand the flock.

Carlene and Truffles at two days old in 2005

We also raised a couple day old chicks, and we still have Truffles who must be seven years old now. Pullets start laying at 20 weeks old. Hens best production is during their first two years and then they taper off. Hence the reason to replace them as they age.

What is impressive is that just a few days ago, during all this awful heat, all eight hens gave us an egg. And they are huge.

Not large.

Not Jumbo.

HUGE!

I'm betting it has a lot to do with being free range, pastured hens with about the best life ever.

Derry Fair 2012 - 4-H Goats

 Recognize these two buff boys?

How about now?

 And here at days old with their triplet sister on the left.

Yes! Its the former Bingo and Boris, now winners Geo and Cash, at the Derry Ag Fair with their 4-H owners Elizabeth and John Clark.

Congratulations!

I am so impressed with how these goats look!

 Elizabeth and "Cash" won first in showmanship.

No wonder why. 

Enthusiasm alone!

 We still can't agree who looks better in the hat.

 Tough call.

And why are small dogs in the goat pens?

I had to wonder.

Then I moved to take another photo and realized that these are 4 month old Angora goats. 

I think I have a new love!

Mt. Washington Hotel, Bretton Woods, NH

I hope these pictures say "elegance", "relaxed", "beautiful" to you, because that is what this place said to me.

Enjoy!