Lemons into lemonade, so to speak

This morning while doing chores, I waded through a shallow sea of crunchy maple leaves. Then I got to the Ram-ada Inn lot, which is a leaf-free zone. Why? When one falls, it's food! My sheep love maple leaves like people love chips.

Then I had a thought. Why waste time, effort, and petroleum products cleaning all those leaves off the driveway? Why feed hay when there are leaves aplenty? I just had to think up a way to keep the sheep down where the leaves are, so they didn't find their way to my flower beds or rhodie bushes (see scary story here). I had a rare morning at home, so I dragged some panels across the lower driveway and let Browning and Bart out to happily munch.

Then I took Lance out for a short ride. When I got back Browning was yelling because Blake was out. How he got out and why Browning didn't is a mystery; fortunately, my ram is a mellow fellow, easy to catch, halter, and lead. I put the boys back in the Ram-ada Inn lot for the time being; but I will try "leaf turn-out" again.

Speaking of food, this morning for sandwiches I opened one of the jars of half-sour pickles I made using the recipe from Susan's blog. They are bright green and crunchy, with good flavor after one week. I will definitely be making more of these. The only drawback is that they must be kept in a frig, and mine is small and FULL. I might try canning a jar along with my lacto-fermented batch sitting on the counter to see if I get a satisfactory shelf-stable product.

This afternoon I needed to make dishes for two potlucks. I headed for the local farmer's market, better know as my garden, and got cukes and tomatoes for this salad, rhubarb for crisp, and harvested a few ripe peppers while I was at it. With Brian's help at the cutting board, the recipes were quickly prepared. We're eating good in the neighborhood!

That's it for now from . . .