PERCY'S FACE MIGHT EXPLODE

So the other day, i noticed that Percy had a wound on her face.  This is common around here will all the animals we have, occasionally there is a fight amongst them, especially when food is involved.  So i thought nothing of it as it looked like a slight scratch on the side of her snout just below the eye.  So i left it be.  And there was my mistake.  The next day we found Percy lying on the couch (that part is not unusual), with her face incredibly swollen! (that part is unusual).  

Now after all these years, one must learn much about animal husbandry when one has 60+ animals to care for, so we shall blame my failure to acknowledge the first notice of the wound and not treating it to the swelling of her face. Bad Grandma!  So i quickly went to work:  i cleaned the wound with fresh water, applied iodine (a must have with animals!), and thought about giving her a shot of penicillin.  I shied away from the penicillin though, just thought that it would be better to see if just cleaning it would help first before antibiotics were needed.

Sure enough, in a few days she was back to her old beautiful face, and lounging on the couch - all fat and sassy!

THE GARDEN IS COMING, THE GARDEN IS COMING!

Well, at least the seed catalogs are here.  They've been coming since the end of November, which i find humorous because that's about the time you're really putting the garden to bed (haha, get it? bed?) for the winter and then they have to start tempting you with next year! I am a firm believer in that you have to be gone to be missed, and that's why i need down time from things.  This is why i will always need a change of seasons and could never really live in a totally warm climate.  Warmer would be nice, though......

So i have had the down time now from the garden and took out the pile of seed catalogs i had been collecting for the last couple of months.

This is the pergola Bob built for me because
 I had this brilliant idea that i was gonna hang my
tomato plants upside down to
 save some room in the beds.
Lesson learned: tomatoes don't grow upside down!

 And oh boy!  It was getting me all excited about this year's garden!  Last year we put 8 new raised beds out there because my thought process was to plant enough to have some for farmer's market and enough for us too.

,

The front 10 beds were the ones we put in a couple years ago, the other  8,
including the ones on stilts, we put in this last spring. 

The garden in full bloom in late May. See the tomato plants hangin' upside down?

 I had never tried to sell produce at the market because everyone had it, and when you have just a little bit on your table, no one looks at it.  I did alright selling some produce this year but have decided that this summer the garden will be just for our consumption.  I want to really plant enough to freeze a bunch, now that we finally got the chest freezer, thanks to our friend Justin. He's always finding us free stuff! And i really want to focus more on our sustainability, to live off this land as much as possible. More then we have anyway.

The garden at the end of the season, warn and weathered.

and one lonely squash.

Now i must go through all the seed i had left from last year, plan a garden, make a plan for rotation of the crops, plan for a three sister's garden again the right way (not plant bush beans like i did last year, silly - they are supposed to climb up the corn stalks!), and figure out the best way to get the most out of our limited space. Well, i guess its not really limited, it is pretty big.  But this is all pretty much new to me, Everett did all the planting in the first years here, i just did the harvesting. Last year was the first time i totally took over, knowing very little, but learning a lot! And now that Everett has passed, i really have no one to ask advice from on how to do it all.  I will miss that.

I FORGOT TO COLLECT THE EGG YESTERDAY

Yes, that's right the egg.  Not the eggS, just one egg.  It's winter and my little hens, all 25 of them refuse to lay except for one hen.  I don't know who she is but she lays every day.  The others say - "that's too bad, it's cold out here!"  And i don't blame them! You can 'force' hens to lay by lighting their coop, because its the daylight hours that tell them to be laying, not the temperature outside.  But it takes energy to lay eggs, energy they need to keep warm, so i never forced my hens to lay in the winter.  One, because its not natural and two, because if they did, what the heck would i do with all the eggs?  Plus i would have to be out there to collect all the eggs about 3 times a day, otherwise they freeze, which gets kinda ugly, and not fun for me to get bundled up like an eskimo three times a day, twice is enough.

So i had a frozen egg this morning.  I also forgot about the eggs i had out in the fridge in the barn.  You see refrigerators are meant to cool, not keep a set temperature so when the outside of the fridge is colder then the inside, it stops working.  Then the inside freezes, (it took a while for those here to figure that out), and thus: my eggs froze.

THE HIGH FASHION PHOTO SHOOT IS TODAY!

Well, not really high fashion, more like hick fashioned: a photographer from the Rochester Magazine will be out today to take images of Bob and me in the Barn Bar.  They have asked to write an article about Bob's big adventure in webby-land  with the Barn Bar YouTube series and decided that today would be a good day to take some images of our barn. Of course, its colder then hell out there and we have less then 3 hours left to warm it up to be able to stand out there for pictures!  Well, should be fun.  I wonder if the editor will remember me from a few years back when he interviewed me for the article he did entitled, "10 (or so) Questions With...".  Madison even got photo credits for that one.  Media whore's? Nah, just really lucky and blessed.
Read the article here.  Remember - its supposed to be satire. I really wonder if he was hoping to find this granola eating, back pack-y, hippy type person because - he sure seemed a little surprised when he saw me.

GREEN GRASS???? AT THIS TIME OF YEAR?

dYes, i saw it!  Green grass!  it was in a photo i took of my office this fall, but i saw the green grass and it got me excited!  So i thought i would post the images here so you could see them and get excited too. Plus i am tired of the snow, and cold (5 below this morning), so i didn't want to put up another picture of snow. Because although it did snow yesterday we didn't get much accumulation.

I have been terrible about taking before and after pictures in these past years but i finally did it for this phase of the granary: my office.  The previous phases in this portion of the granary were: the bunny breeding room, ferret storage, and then just storage.  But last spring, I decided that as a life coach, i should have an office in which to meet with my clients for their personal sessions because not all sessions are with the horses. So what better place to create an office, outside of the house - but in the granary! So I decided instead of the old, crappy looking paneling that is used throughout the rest of the buildings, i was gonna try my hand at drywall!  Plus it was a lot less expensive.  So i asked a friend of ours to come out and help who has done drywall for a living.  So there i was, putting up heavy drywall, taping it, puttying, scraping, sanding and painting - drywall!  It was great!  VERY messy, but i learned a lot and it looks really good, much better then paneling. Inside pics will be later, when i can find them.

see? green grass!  this is the outside before

inside before

outside after

Inside after

BLEU CHEESE REQUIRES ELF BREATH

Since we were gone for a few days, milk had piled up in the fridge again, so it was time to make cheese.  A couple years ago when i first started making cheese, i never did make bleu cheese and i wondered why, i mean the boys liked bleu, even if i think bleu cheese smells and tastes like toe jam, i could've made it for them, but i didn't.  So now that i have a whole new outlook on bleu cheese, because of being able to taste REAL bleu cheese, not the cheap stuff they sell in stores, but REAL BLEU, like Star Thrower Three Sheep's to the Wind Bleu cheese made at Star Thrower Farm in Glencoe, MN, I have a whole new appreciation for the stinky stuff. Now after having tasted such incredible Bleu cheese, i reminded myself that i could make my own!  How great would that be?  I mean my own Bleu had to taste better then anyone else's. This was a splendid idea until I asked Louie to look up the recipe in my book, Home Cheese Making, which has many curled edges from use, and it became evident why I hadn't made bleu cheese before.  Kudos to Star Thrower and all those other farms that do this. Tell me what you think. I have highlighted the most interesting parts.

Here is the VERY shortened version of the recipe:

1. Heat milk to 90 degrees (if using goat's milk make it 86 degrees)
2. add the mold, then starter, mix well
3. cover and let ripen for 60 minutes at 90 degrees (if using goat's milk make it 86 degrees)
4. add diluted rennet, stir gently with an up and down motion for 1 minute
5. cover, let set for 45 minutes at 90 degrees (if using goat's milk make it 86 degrees)
6. cut curds into 1/2 inch cubes. Let set for 5 minutes (if using goat milk - let set for 10)
7. gently stir the curds every 5 minutes for 60 minutes
8. let the curds set, undisturbed for 5 minutes
9. pour off whey
10. put the curds in a colander and drain for 5 minutes
11. out the curds back in the pot and gently mix them by hand
12. add salt and mix well
13. let set for 5 minutes
14. meanwhile, sterilize cheese mold, mats and cheese boards
15. place a mat on a cheese board and the mold on the mat
16. fill the mold with curds
17. cover with a mat and cheese board
18. turn over the mold every 15 minutes for the first 2 hours, then once an hour for the next two hours
19. let drain overnight
20. Meanwhile, find an elf
21. Let him breath on the cheese
22. return him to his home
23. remove the cheese from the mold sprinkle with more salt
24. shake off excess salt
25. let set at 60 degrees and 85% humidity
26. set the cheese on a board
27. turn it over each day for 3 days, salting it and shaking off the excess each time
28. using an ice pick, poke 40 holes from top to bottom
29. then age at 50 degrees and 95% humidity
30. store the cheese in a cradle
31. every 4 days give it a 1/4 turn
32. after 30 days, the cheese will be covered with bleu mold and reddish-brown smear, remove with a long-bladed knife
33. scrape off the mold and smear every 20 - 30 days 
34. OH NO! WE ARE NOT DONE YET!
35. after 90 days, scrape the cheese and wrap in foil
36. lower temp to between 34 - 38 degrees and age 60 days longer
37. Ideally, its ready to eat after only 6 months.

Gee, well, I think that this may never happen. I do have to actually take care of things like; feed my animals, feed myself, sleep, things like that.

THE END WAS HERE!

The end of the year came and went, as well as Christmas.  It was a quiet Christmas this year, with Sam and her boyfriend Mike, Mike’s sister Bobbie and her son Caiden here.  We had a nice time and really enjoyed the company.  Christmas day was strange, not having Sam at home or Grandpa, but change is inevitable and it is upon us here at the Sanctuary.  We had a few gifts to open; some slippers, a shirt, nothing big. And that’s a good thing. I miss how it used to be, but think less is more now too.  We used to have such fun, opening presents galore!  When I was single with just the girls, I never had money to buy them much, and no one ever took them out to get gifts for me (no grandparents available) so when I finally got money, I went a little overboard! My heart is always in the right place.  Now, its all about being here, family and friends.  

Sam, Mike, Bobbie and Caiden

Maddie showing off some of her stocking gifts; a poncho, some udder cream...ya know - all the things a 16 year old dreams of getting.

Edy enjoyed her first Christmas and first present!

Louie is a little more subtle with her attack.

Percy even more so.

Maddie got a This Is Spinal Tap t-shirt for Christmas

The day after Christmas we went to visit Bob’s family from Indiana. We hadn’t seen them in about 9 years we estimated.  It was a nice reunion and we got to see Riley Ann, our granddaughter.  I also figured out why Bob watches sports: it’s in his blood.  I never expected when I met this man that he was a sports-type of guy so I never really figured out why he watches sports until now.  His family’s entire world revolves around sports, they even where clothes with sports logos on them!  This is fascinating for me, as I have recoiled from sports over the years as my values have evolved.  It saddens me to know that there are starving children, tortured children and animals, and abuse in this world and we don’t spend as much money to solve these pertinent issues as we do on sports teams, paraphernalia, sports figures salaries or stadiums.  Just saying…..

Riley opening her present

Everyone showing her how to react to it!

Creative forces at work.

I don't why - perhaps alcohol can explain?

We visited the Children’s Museum in Indianapolis as our last day with Riley, Kristi and Wes.  It was a fun place and we got to watch Riley have a grand time in the young children’s play area.

Saaaaannnnnd!

Bob and his crocodile

Crocodile Ma-ddie! (get it? like Dundee! haha!)

five of my favorite people

 On our way back to the great white north we stopped in Illinois to visit some old friends and break up the 8 1/2 our drive. We had a great time stopping by and seeing our good friend’s new baby, Andelyn.  She is adorable, and we have been labeled as Grampy and Grammie!  I was quite humbled, and proud that we would be thought of as that for her!

Andie!

This is why i stand behind the lens.

We got home to find all was well  - and our entire shoe collection piled in a heap.  I didn’t ask our friend who took care of the place why they were all in a pile, but we assumed Edy had something to do with it.  She must have taken our shoes and placed them in places around the house and our friend was kind enough to have picked them up and stacked them in a pile for us.

We also came to find that Percy finally figured out that she could walk on snow and could get over the fence.  So Bob made his way along the fence line and shoveled it all out.

That's a 3 foot tall fence under all that snow - that makes it 3 foot of snow!  Yes, i can do math.

  The next day my best-est friend from Illinois; Nancy Merkling arrived with her new beau Rick.  We had a wonderful time, chatting about photography like we always do, making good food and sharing wisdom.  If it wasn’t for Nancy helping me through the hard times in my life, I wouldn’t have made it.  I remember writing a paper about her for speech class once and the ending line read, “When I grow up I want to be just like her.”  Who knew that so much of that would turn true?  I miss having her around all the time, but its always like old times when we get together.  She is the most amazing photographer and so I let her do the images of the weekend.  (You can see some of her incredible work at www.nancymerkling.com)  We planned a day of shooting together but unluckily it turned out to be bitter cold and windy; not ideal conditions for shooting for me, I don’t care how bundled up one gets, 30 below wind chills suck! So next time she promises to come out when it’s warm.

By: Nancy Merkling

By: Nancy Merkling

We have been having these New Year’s get together since we got here 7 years ago.  We used to have a party and all our Illinois buds would come out and stay here.  But with them having babies and other life changes, most haven’t come by on New Year's for awhile.  The last couple of years either Bob or I had an operation of some sort and we weren’t very fun anyway.  But here are some pics from 2004. This was way back when we had our parties in the loft.

The midnight kiss.

I will be working on the New Year’s letter this week.  Last year (and I stole this idea) we decided that instead of a Christmas letter in early December, because I never have time to sit down and write one then, we would do a New Year’s letter. It works out quite well because everything settles down in January and I have the time to sit, think and reflect on the past year. 

Happy New Year!  It officially begins tomorrow for me.