BABY ANIMALS!

Good morning, readers! Spring has come to the farm and I have woefully neglected to tell you about some very important happenings. First and foremost has been the presence of baby animals galore. Mainly, we've had 39 goat kids and 22 lambs! We also have an incubator and have hatched baby chicks and baby ducklings. There were plans/hopes for piglets and rabbit kits, but so far we've seen nothing. I know way back when I promised baby animals all over this blog, and now you can finally have some!

Baby goats! (For those who know her, these are Artemis's babies, one boy and one girl.)

These are Ruth's floppy eared darlings.

And here's Beena's mama and new sister.

Dwarf goats! They're already little when they're full grown, so their babies are tiny!

Allow Liz to demonstrate their cuddliness.

Here are Vanilla's babies right after they were born. She had them the morning after the Superbowl (I know; I'm incredibly behind) so their names are Drew and Peyton. Peyton's still a little goopy; sorry if you're squeamish.

And Ruby, a Boer goat, JUST finally had her triplets the other day. We'd been waiting on her for ages.

We also have some adorable lambs! These three are about half an hour old in this picture.

The Jacobs sheep have babies that look like miniature cows.

One of them, however, wasn't too interested in her daughter so this totally lovable little bundle of wool is our one and only bottle baby. Her name is Dexter and she's just as sweet as can be. We fight over who gets to feed her. Sam won this round.

My mama was here and got to hang out with the babies.

Kate and Sophie, the girls I used to take care of, came to visit, too! Kate liked the sheep.

And Sophie was more partial to the goats.

And, finally, ducklings!

Stand by for possible piglets.

A Bouquet of Flours

Hello again dear blog readers. My greatest apologies for my quite prolonged absence. I don't really have an excuse, except for the slight increase in my paper journaling. Blogging fell by the wayside and I am sorry for not updating you on my life in so long. Instead of trying to get you caught up (which I will), how about telling you what I did yesterday? It was super fun.

Two other farm girls and I drove to Vermont to visit the King Arthur Flour company factory/store/place! It was way cool. We all bake and just about lost ourselves in the flour possibilities. The weather has just gotten gorgeous, too, which made it an even better day. Here is part of the very pretty drive.

And the outside of flour heaven!

Outside the store they have a throne! (It is King Arthur, after all.) So Sarah became royalty.

This is the inside of the store.

They had a whole wall of flours, most of which is not even in this picture. I just wanted to show you the giant rolling pin.

These are the most hilarious flours of all. Queen Guinevere--Good for cakes. Sir Lancelot--Apparently makes a rocking bagel or other dense thing. They also have a Sir Galahad All Purpose flour, but we couldn't find any.

Scone mix anyone?

They also have all sorts of other things you need to bake, including a wall full of various extracts. Here is a sample. My favorite is between peach and pecan.

In the middle of the store there is a giant wheat-thing decoration that I thought was quite pretty.

Sarah dressed up and grabbed a rolling pin. (She was trying to look like she worked there so she could stay forever.)

They also have a little bakery. (Where Sarah will work when she manages to trick them into thinking she's one of them.) So, of course, we had to eat. Laura got the espresso tart on the top left, Sarah got the Eastery sticky bun thing on the bottom, and I got the chocolate filled croissant on the right. It was all delicious!

And look at the flakiness, holeyness, light amazingness of the inside of my croissant! Now I want to try to make them. (Laura is behind it laughing at me for taking a picture of the inside of my croissant.)

We bought a lot of flour.

Scratch that. I bought a lot of flour. Laura and Sarah bought reasonable amounts of flour. But they had less to pose with on the throne.

And then, on the way home, we stopped by a food co-op that was pretty great (I bought a pansy) and they had a Peace Pole! Like at the farm! We were quite excited.

And now, to sort of catch you up and prove the legitimateness of my absurd flour purchases, here are some things I've baked lately. Specifically, brioche, apple/oatmeal/honey scones, and pitas! That pocketed in the oven! It was crazy.

That's all for now. Thanks for visiting, readers! Happy Baking!

Happy Winter Friends!

We woke up on Wednesday to a winter wonderland. For real. Look, this was the view out of the kitchen window.

I got up sort of early-ish to make cinnamon rolls. Here they are ready to go into the oven.

And all baked and packed up, ready to go to the morning meeting.

While they were baking, though, I took these pictures behind our resource center. Here is the overlook.

Isn't it beautiful?

And here is the last picture of snow, I promise. This tree belongs in the courtyard of a snow queen, I decided.

Meanwhile, our new group of volunteers has been in orientation all week. They've been learning all sorts of useful things; everything from where the grocery store is to the mission and purpose of Heifer International. They've also gotten to do a lot of the activities that we do with groups. Liz Jo played our World Map activity with them.

They've been helping with chores, too, and getting to know the animals, such as Ruth and Jessie, the Nubian goats who are BFFs. If you'll recall, they shared a pen behind our Guatemala house in the fall, but are back with the herd for the winter. It's good to know, though, that they still like each other best of all.

And speaking of goats, our farm family has gotten a little bit bigger. We bought a couple of Boer goats from a farm in the next town over, knowing one was pregnant. Well, as it turned out, Holly kidded the night before we got them, and yesterday I got to go with the livestock gals to pick up mama and baby, plus the baby's grandmother, Clara. Check out this precious, adorable goat baby!

I think he looks like a cross between a puppy and a baby clydesdale. I've decided to call him Tiny Dave.

Look! He's nursing!

Here is the proud papa, Big Dave. (Hence, Tiny Dave.)

He was passing out cigars and bragging to all the other dudes that live in their little man cave away from the ladies. And yes, Quentin enjoys standing in his feed trough.

And, okay, I know I promised no more pictures of snow, but look how this water/ice has run down off the roof and frozen in this curve shape. With tons of icicles to go with it! It looks like we've booby trapped the back of this barn!

That is all for now, except these two interesting facts I learned today. While helping the livestock team develop a game about the kinds of animals Heifer works with around the world, I learned a lot about some of the more unusual animals they give; animals I don't usually think of as "livestock."

1.) Did you know that ostriches take turns sitting on their nest of eggs? Female ostriches do it during the day and males do it at night. This is because ostriches look like this:

The brown coloring lets the females blend into the grass and stuff during the day so predators can't see them or their eggs. And then the male's black body is almost invisible at night, thus still protecting the eggs from being seen. Isn't that amazing?

2.) Silkworms. Silkworms. Silkworms. Are incredible. Well, I guess I didn't learn so much about them as what is done with them. Did you know that they have been domesticated in China for over 5,000 years? And, in fact, there are none still left naturally in the wild. The little silkworm larvae has a happy early life spent primarily eating the twigs of the mulberry plant, which it evidently enjoys a LOT, then eventually spins a cocoon made of silk. The fully matured moth is not allowed to emerge, however. If they broke out of the cocoon, it would damage the silk. So, instead, they are boiled, which kills the larvae (and which is then eaten) and loosens the silk so it can be spun and made into something. And, actually, even if the moth did emerge, they've been bred so long to not become moths that they wouldn't even be able to fly. They've also been bred to make big cocoons. I think I may never look at something made of silk the same way again.

Cheerio, then! It's dinner time, so good evening to you all!