Morty takes over and fresh Fougasse

Earlier I tried to work on some writing. It was a little difficult trying not to disturb the baby, whom has now been named, Morty. He was busy having a nap. He sleeps best when I am holding him. All these male kids are the same, just like Sammy, wanting to be held, kissing me, laying their heads against my chest, worming their ways deeper and deeper into my heart.

This is why I have a herd of goats that is comprised mostly of male goats. Thankfully I'm not in this for business purposes. Obviously if I was, I'd never make it. 

He is doing well. He's full of energy, he's very happy, and he's as sweet as a slice of blueberry pie on a hot summers day. 

He's also quickly becoming very, very, spoiled. 

Who me? How could you not spoil me, just look at this face... I can hear you just sighing at the overwhelming cuteness right now. It's impossible not to. 

We are not enjoying the load of heavy wet snow we got. It looks pretty but that's about it. Try walking around in it or shoveling it. To think I was planning on cleaning out the red barn in the garden to get ready for my hens... I hope to do it soon but it won't be today that's for sure.

You can't knock how pretty this kind of snow looks though - I'll give it credit for that. And it's also remained warm - so it's not so bad. Since the snow is so wet you are instantly soaking wet when you try to do anything outside, so at least you are not also freezing.

The temperatures are going to drop however so we rushed around trying to get cleaned up before it does. 

Here comes Max, wondering where his snow boots are. 

My three remaining pregnant does are locked up in the pregnancy/psychiatry ward. They are due anytime
 after this weekend. Who knows when anymore. Bucket is usually on time, but I don't believe anything after Brie dropping kids 2 weeks early on me. So everyone is being watched by me like a hawk looking for supper... which is not unusual, but they are getting watched earlier than usual.

I'm sure they think I'm more paranoid than usual... and they are right. 

Beatrice and Bucket (both above) are bred to my Pygmy buck, Barnaby, as Brie was. I'm excited to see what comes out of it. Brie's kids from Barnaby were adorable, the little doeling had Pygmy markings where as Morty looks like a Saanen but smaller. I hope like heck I have smooth sailing with Bucket and Bea. 

Then there is Biscuit, my dairy girl, who has always given me a *knock on wood* healthy kid. She tries to kill it immediately however, so she goes in a special pen the kid can get out of if I'm not there quick enough. So if all goes well I'll be feeding another bottle baby, but I'll also have milk from her. She is the one doe that gives me very little sign before she kids - I've always been with Bucket when she kids and Beatrice gives some sign when she's getting very close but Biscuit never does. She just drops it and then freaks out when she sees it. 

Kevin worked all morning and afternoon plowing the snow around the house and away from my gates... and also plowing our mile long lane. The goats appreciated not having to stand in snow while they ate breakfast.

But for some reason, Flavious plopped himself down right in a snow bank to watch them instead of in the hay right beside him. He looked rather annoyed lying there in his snow bank with a piece of hay on his head. I think he was having one of those days. You know the kind of days I'm talking about. 

Morty loves his dog friends, as have all our bottle babies. But Morty really, really wants to play with them. Rollie and Douglas will play with the goat kids, where Norman just pretends they don't exist and completely ignores them. So Morty spends a lot of time hopping around after Rollie and Douglas. 

Because I knew Kevin would be tired and hungry when he came in, I threw a bunch of stuff in the crock pot early in the morning... a bunch of veggies, seasonings, and stock, and two Cornish game hens. 

Meanwhile Morty tried to use my new step which he thought was just about the perfect size for him to climb on... 

What are we cooking ma? 

Olive and Hector waited impatiently for their afternoon treats.... are these annoyed looks or what?

Earlier in the month when I shared this post about some memories from the farm, one of my lovely blog readers asked for a grown up picture of Banana since I shared his baby picture in that post.

Here he is! All five Kak's are moulting right now so it's a real pleasure picking even more feathers up all over the house, and pulling them off of Chihuahua's noses. Banana is a real talker, he does say words like Kiwi but he's one of our most vocal Kakarikis birds.

Once the Cornish hens were cooked, I shredded the meat and made some dumplings to go with them. I also made some Fougasse, which is the French version of focaccia. I used sea salt, olives, and rosemary in mine. It's such a simple and delicious flat bread.

You need:
4 - 4 1/2 cups bread flour
1 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp dried rosemary
8-10 olives sliced in half
1 1/2 cups warm water
coarse sea salt for sprinkling
olive oil for drizzling
cornmeal for dusting

Mix the bread flour, instant yeast, salt, rosemary, and water together. Bring together into a dough and knead until smooth and elastic. Cover in a bowl drizzled with olive oil and let rise for 1-2 hours.

Divide dough in half and roll each half into an oval shape. Using a pizza cutter make slices to make it look like a leaf shape. Dust with cornmeal and then sprinkle on sea salt. Place your olives at the corners of your slices or wherever you'd like on the bread, feel free to use more olives if you'd like and either green or black.

Place on a greased cookie sheet, drizzle with olive oil and let rise again for 1/2 hour.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Cook for 20 minutes or just until golden.

Tomorrow morning we get up early and hopefully get the rafters on the sugar shack. Maple time is quickly approaching and we still don't have a roof on our sugar shack. We won't get the tin for the roof before maple time, so we'll just get the rafters up and tarp it again, and then after maple time we'll build a cupula for over the chimney and put the tin on the roof, if all goes well. Time is of essence right now. I continue to do sap dances praying for a good run this year.

Now I'm off to bed to try and read at least one sentence of my book before I fall asleep. Morty is finally asleep for the evening and the dogs have already been passed out for at least an hour... they had a busy day chasing me and the goat around.