Playing in the snow and seed orders

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Guess who was at the woodpecker feeder today? Yep, the black squirrel who lives just outside our bedroom and climbs across the house every morning at 7 AM. It's like he's taken it upon himself to become our own personal alarm clock. And here he is eating a big chunk of food he just took out of the feeder, quite enjoying himself. The Prairie dogs kept looking out kind of puzzled. They are not afraid of the birds at the feeders, or the squirrels, it's more like entertainment for them. The only thing that ever bothered them was the owl that banged into the window last year, but he was after our Kakarikis not the Prairie dogs. He did it twice too - and then sat on the railing of the deck trying to figure out why he couldn't get them.

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Did you see that?

I opened the door to walk up to the barn and Torn Ear was standing at my goat yard gate, he saw me and bolted down the road but stopped when he felt comfortable enough.

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While I was up at the barn this morning, I heard something a little strange. I was pretty sure what I heard but not sure why I heard it. So outside I went, I couldn't find Snick, the turkey, just Maggie. So I petted the goats and then a couple minutes later, Snick appeared. I looked at him and said in a normal voice "gobble, gobble, gobble." And while I'd like to say I do great turkey impressions, I do not sound like a turkey, but our old tom, Gobbles, always answered me. Anyway, Snick replied with a mad rambling of gobbles.

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Why is this is odd you ask? Snick has never gobbled before. Snick has been here for months and no gobbles, ever. We knew he was immature but it was getting so strange. But today all he is doing is gobbling, it's like he's suddenly found his voice and realized he can indeed, gobble like a real turkey. It's a big day on the farm, our turkey has finally learned to gobble folks!

It's fairly warm today and it's been snowing, big fluffy flakes. It's quite nice weather for working outside or walking. Everyone wanted cuddles today, even some of the critters that usually don't care! Except for Izzie, she just wanted to go back inside, period.

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Izzie, Bea, Bean

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Cute little Beatrice

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Flavious behind a hill, looks like he's disappearing in the snow!

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Bucket giving Flav a kiss, and Basswood blocking the scene

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Bea and Bean

Sammy was in a super playful mood, it was so cute, how can you not laugh with goats around? He was jumping, and, running, just being a baby. I cannot believe he is almost a year old, the 1st of Feb he came home and he was about 24 hours old then. He just makes me smile knowing he's made it and after all we went through and how sick he was.

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Bea says "can we go inside now?

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Sammy kissing Bean!

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Come on Bean, lets play!

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Yes I'm having fun!

When it was time for me to head home, everyone followed...

Where are you going?

This year we'll be gardening in our raised beds, our pots on our deck, and also the main ground garden patch for some things like corn, potatoes, etc. I've been working on our orders, because some will be started from seed, some we'll buy as plants, some we buy locally, and some we order from catalogues.

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I have an ever growing list for our garden this year, which I'm still working on, so far this is what we've got:
  • Yellow bush beans
  • Green bush beans
  • Beets
  • Green cabbage (early variety)
  • Carrots (for us but mostly for the animals)
  • Celery
  • Corn
  • Pickling cucumbers
  • Slicing cucumbers
  • Dark purple eggplant
  • For lettuce, we'll grow a leaf lettuce or two, romaine, and, a greens mix
  • Leeks
  • Onions (Spanish, and scallions)
  • Parsnips
  • Peas
  • Watermelon (I have successfully grown these once before, they don't get huge, but they have been tasty)
  • Pumpkins (we'll grow a small pie type and I'm going to splurge on a packet of Atlantic giants for fun)
  • Red bell peppers
  • Cayenne Chili peppers
  • Serrano peppers
  • Yukon gold potatoes
  • Radishes
  • Spinach
  • Zucchini
  • Summer squash (yellow)
  • Butternut squash
  • Cherry tomatoes
  • Big tomatoes for slicing, like beef eaters
  • Tomatillos (one of my favorite things to grow and they = salsa!)
And then we have my herbs I always have, Lavender, Parsley, Chamomile, Thyme, Basil, Dill, Mint, Lemon Balm, Rosemary... I may try something new this year too, I'm considering a few.

We have ordered Grapes and Blueberry plants as well from our local feed store, we tried last year but they couldn't get any, so hopefully, with any luck, we'll get them this year to test out.

And, I'm so excited about this, we are going to buy a tray of Shiitake mushroom spawn plugs to test out growing mushrooms. There are 600 plugs in one tray and it's suppose to last 4-5 years. So that's plenty!

We have never had luck growing corn in our soil here, the soil is very poor and we've been working on improving it for the past 4 years pretty strongly. This year we are completely overloaded with manure so that's going to help. We currently have 2 large raised beds and by spring we are hoping to have the cedar logs pulled out for 2 more at least. I find raised bed gardening so much more relaxing and enjoyable, and easier on the back. I planted a lot of stuff in pots last year so I really got a good idea of what does well and what does not, which is going to help a lot this year.

The other night we had fresh tortillas along with some pork filling and the all the other fixings. Making tortillas takes a little time - or a lot, depends how many you want to make, I make a lot at once and freeze some, but let me tell you, you will not be sorry, they taste so, so, good. Here is a good site on making homemade tortillas - you can also buy tortilla mixes that just require a little kneading and resting and then you roll em out and lightly fry them.

Because almost all tortillas you buy in the store have preservatives in them, it's hard for us to find tortillas Kevin can eat. We have been buying frozen ones from a company called Solis, from our local health food store for a while but they hardly ever have them in stock, and haven't had them in over 3 months. I made tortillas once, a while ago, and they were good, but it is time consuming. I'd say we eat tortillas about once a week pretty regularly, so taking a few hours to make a bunch of them and freeze them, saves us from trying to find ones he can eat, and also they just taste so much better, so they are worth it.

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Here is an easy dinner recipe for you - I found the idea a while ago while I was looking at recipes online. I  put it to the back of my head but needed a quick, yet tasty dinner the other night, so this came in handy.

Meatballs, Shepherds style

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Start with your favorite meatball recipe.

For mine, I used a pound of ground beef, 1 egg, 1 cup bread crumbs, salt, pepper, minced onion, garlic powder, thyme, oregano, and I use about 1/2 cup of my favorite BBQ sauce. The man I feed does not like biting into pieces of onion no matter how small, so I used minced onion, also because I love the spice. I mixed my meatballs and then put them on a tray in the oven for about 30 minutes, until they were done, at 400 degrees F.

Then you put one jar of tomato sauce in your casserole dish, top with the meatballs, and then top with mashed potatoes and a little shredded cheese. Cook at 400 degrees for about 30 more minutes, until browned.

It's so easy, it's very tasty, and you could do all kinds of things, make a nice veggie tomato sauce, or spice up your mashed potatoes, or even use mashed sweet potato which would be really yummy!

Now I'm back to working on my garden lists, I'd like to get my seed orders sent away this weekend.

Comments

Alla said…
Your goats are so adorable. What kind is Sammy? He looks fuzzy like maybe a fiber goat? My seeds have been ordered and I'm waiting to receive them. There's a couple I need to get started. Hopefully they'll be here soon. Your meatball casserole looks yummy, I'll have to try it.
Sammy looks like he's smiling at the camera, the little goof!
I love the look on your prairie dog's face, too. Where the heck do you get a prairie dog?

Geez, I hope you are healing well...that sounds like a heck of a lot of gardening to be done.
You put me to shame...homemade tortillas....REALLY?
I'm keeping your recipes in mind and one day...one day...I'm gonna figure out what the kitchen is for.
Have a good weekend.
N
luckybunny said…
Thanks ladies! Alla, Sammy is a purebred Saanen, he is way fluffier than any of the others, including my other Saanens. I'm not sure why. But he kind of looks like a cashmere or something doesn't he? I hope your seeds arrive soon and if you try the casserole let me know if you like it!

Norma, Thank you :) I am healing well now, feeling so much better, but still working on it. Actually you can buy a tortilla mix which makes it easier, it's just like when you buy pie crust that you just add water to :) Except it still takes a lot of time, but they do taste good!

The Prairie dogs all come from Toronto! We've had 7, we have 5 right now. Their owners couldn't keep them anymore and they ended up with us by a twist of fate :)
Leigh said…
A real goat smile! Way too cool. They all look like they're having so much fun.

I haven't made a shepherd's pie in years. I really like the idea of using meatballs. I'll have to try it too.

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