Foodstuffs

Even though my only 'garden' this year is just three plants in a pot (which have grown noticeably since the last photo I shared!), I've been getting a few cucumbers from the starts I tucked into the neighbor's garden plot, along with abundant extra summer squash from their plants.

Then I got a mess of cucumbers – from the friend who gave me the starts! I stopped by so Poppy could play with her sister, and she asked if I wanted some. She also shared her pickle recipe/technique, so I loaded up four quart jars. A few days later, she sent me home with more – a LOT more. Now there are 16 quarts of dill pickles fermenting on my counter!

The same day I started fermenting the first four quarts of pickles, I baked my second batch of sourdough bread. In between the two batches of bread, I've also made Sourdough Ginger Spice Cookies and Sourdough Lemon Poppyseed Muffins – recipes I'll definitely be repeating.

The seven remaining hens are still providing enough eggs for us and a coworker who buys from me. One day this week I got six – not bad considering that three of my hens are five years old and one is six!

Our hay supply is still holding up, although I'm on my last bale of third cutting. I've been feeding that to Bridget and her young son and also to Spot; after it's gone, they'll have to eat the coarser first cutting like everyone else. The pastures are pretty well spent, so I'm having to feed hay to the horses now, too. I am praying our hay guy calls soon!

Speaking of hay, I decided today would be Boop's turn to get cleaned up and coated to keep as much hay out of her fleece as possible. Even though she has been haltered before, she was a drama queen and a flopper, making my job exponentially harder.

While cleaning her up, I took a look to see if Boop's fleece color is fading like Bling's. Nope; it's still rich, dark brown – and wonderfully crimpy.

Good-looking girl!

I put a coat on Boop, but it looked pretty snug – as did her mother's. So I changed out both their coats for the next size up, and it turns out they wear the same size! Yep, except for her head, five-month-old Boop is about the same size as her dam; amazing.

D coats looking stuffed

E coats looking roomy

That's it for now from . . .

Success and surprise

Both my guys love sourdough bread. I bought a package of Danish Rye Sourdough starter years ago and decided last month to see if I could resurrect it, even though it was past its 'use by' date. It took a few days, but then I started seeing signs of life.

With slightly cooler weather Monday, I decided it was time to brave this new-to-me bread frontier. I wanted to use as much whole wheat flour as possible since white flour has little nutritional value, and found this site that gives percentages and results. I mixed the ingredients and faithfully 'stretched and folded,' but the dough hadn't done much by bedtime. I threw a tea towel over the mixing bowl and left it on the counter overnight. Tuesday morning, I had a BOWLful!

Because I had a Tuesday lunch commitment I ran out of time to finesse the loaves before baking, so the end result isn't picture-perfect. No matter, it is palette-pleasing, and I see regular batches in my future – much to Brian's delight. Mine, too; my new favorite lunch is sourdough with hummus and sliced cucumber.

So that's my success story; now for the surprise.

I've been telling myself that I need to get the ewe lambs' fleeces picked clean(er) and get coats on them, but hadn't gotten around to it yet. This morning after chores, I sat down to check email, etc. and heard Bling. Ooops! I had served her alfalfa pellets in the aisleway outside the Sheep Sheraton and she was still in there quietly eating when I finished chores and walked up to the house, forgetting all about her. Now she was running around hollering for me in the middle pasture, which is full of nasty dried foxtail awns. Welp, cleaning up at least ONE lamb fleece instantly moved to the top of the 'to-do' list, as I couldn't leave those awns to burrow through her fleece and into her skin. And "in for a penny, in for a pound;" I might as well do the job thoroughly enough to warrant putting a coat on her, so I did; trimmed her toes, too.

What's the surprise, you ask? While cleaning up her fleece, I made a startling discovery. Her fleece is coming in a dark steel gray at the skin!

This, my friends, is a genetic conundrum. Gray is a dominant pattern in sheep (and horses); it doesn't 'hide' under other patterns or colors (except in extension-dominant sheep, but that trait isn't in my flock). Bling's sire is JET black, and her dam is a black gulmoget, so where is this graying coming from? Very curious; I intend to ask more experienced Shetland breeders in online forums, but haven't had the chance yet.

Keeping it interesting at . . .

Happy August!

I don't know what the rest of August will bring, but this morning brought cooler temperatures and pretty clouds, most welcome relief from what the meteorologists are saying was our longest heat wave on record. Ugh, good riddance; I think I've been in 'heat hibernation' mode. We endured it, including all the critters; I just haven't had much motivation (this posted was started weeks ago and just couldn't get off the ground). Poppy and Chuckie seemed least affected; do cats ever get too hot? They just sprawl about, seeming to enjoy it. Chuckie discovered some volunteer catnip in a deck pot; can you spot which one?

Speaking of deck pots, my wee garden flourished in the heat.

June 7

August 1

I've harvested some of the basil which really made the plant fill out; the bell pepper is getting bigger and heavier, and there's a nice little tomato coming along. I've also harvested half a dozen tasty cucumbers from the plants I tucked into the neighbors' garden, plus a couple summer squash and some rhubarb they said I could pick. In other harvesting news, Rick and I picked 73# of blueberries last Thursday morning, 70# of which are now in the freezer for our year's supply. No photos; no energy to bother with that after three and a half hours out in the sun. 😳

I also braved the morning sun when I could stand it to ride Stella. She is coming along nicely in her arena work, and is an awesome 'trail' horse.

As I mentioned before, I also 'rode' in the Tour de fleece last month (it extended through the whole month because of the women's race immediately following the Tour de France this year). I exceeded my goals, for which I am very happy (I'm both goal-oriented and process-driven, so these kinds of events are up my alley). Pictured with my yellow "jersey" are  237g of Jacob 3-ply (singles spun years ago), 91g of chain-plied BamHuey, 25g of chain-plied cotton, and 15g of singles spun from a Woodland Pixies batt (fiber and spindle acquired at Black Sheep Gathering):

Now for fiber growers. All the lambs are thriving, from Boop to Boomer. Just for fun, I tried to get similar shots of all of Spot's kids (including yearling Berlin), plus their dad, loving their chin rubs. (Boop's photo isn't great because she's so dark and so is the barn.) I also got some fiber shots, even though dark fleeces are notoriously hard to photograph accurately. Spot has passed on his fabulous fleece as well as his sweet personality!

Spot

Berlin

Boop

Broadway

Bling

Boomer, showing the character that he is!

Boop

Broadway

Bling

Unless he's castrated, Boomer can't stay here as he's related to all my ewes but Blaise. In order to advertise him, I needed some decent photos, so yesterday I jury-rigged my smallest halter and took him out for a photo shoot. Considering this was his first time away from mom and first haltering lesson, he did very well; Poppy helped by giving him something to focus on besides his distress. Yes, there was jumping around, but no throwing himself on the ground or playing dead as often happens when halter-training lambs, so Boomer gets an 'A.'

Poppy would love to play with all the lambs, and horses, and chickens, and, of course, Chuckie. The problem with a terrier's play is that someone is likely to get hurt, so the only live creatures she gets to play with totally unsupervised are prey. Oh, and Spot, because he doesn't play; they are just friends.

It is entertaining to watch 'Poppy the hunter;" I do wish she'd would kill what she catches quickly, though. 😕

When I wouldn't let her play too much with Bling this morning, she grabbed a honkin' big stick. This could actually be quite helpful IF she'd leave it at the firewood pile (she didn't)!

Finally, the orchid buds in my last post have started to open; party on the pie safe!

focused on the African violets

focused on the mini-orchid

focused on the newest bloomer

That's it for now from . . .