Apple Time!

Oh Mylanta!!! I am so glad we didn't wait till this weekend to go apple picking.  Rain, rain, rain!!! We went last Sunday and in between the rain storms we went.

We picked 6 bags of MacIntosh and Cortlands. This place is so inexpensive.  He charges $5 a bag for a 10 pound bag.  But it's really a 15 lb bag since you eat as you pick and you don't have to be able to close the bag!

So far I've used two bags for apple sauce.  I intend to use a few more bags for apple sauce.

I use alot of apple sauce because we make lots of fruit leather and you need the pectin in the apple sauce to congeal, for lack of a better word, the leather.  Or leatherize it.  That's my new word...leatherize.

J. and I trying to carry one of the bags.

We also want to make dried apples. But we don't know any recipes.  Do any of you know any good recipes for apple slices in the dehydrator.

Apple face!

Trunk full of apples!

I might also attempt to make apple butter. This I've never done, but I've found a good recipe in the chickens in the road blog.  So if they can last long enough I might just try it.

But things are hectic here with Dave running for municipal councillor.  There just isn't enough time in the day.

This years family photo with our student Antonio.

Have a Blessed Day!
Lisa

Azelle

Azelle as a baby

Last year (2011 kidding) Febe had a boy and a girl.  We sold both to loving, forever homes.  But after we sold Azelle the doeling I had a bad feeling.  Not that where she was going was a bad place.  Just that I should have kept her.  She was the only female Febe had that looked like her.  

Fast forward to this year's kidding.  I knew it was Febe's last and I was hoping for an identical girl like her mom.  No such luck.  The doeling she had was cute but looked like her dad.  We love her to bits but I still had a feeling that I should never have sold Azelle.

When we had to put Febe down this summer the feeling got worse.  I miss my goat Febe.  I wanted back her spitting image.

So the search began a few weeks ago.  I posted ads on Facebook and Kijiji to try and find Azelle.  I didn't have high hopes since some people said that they thought the guy had sold all his goats and moved to Alberta like most people seem to be doing now.

But yesterday he called!!! He still had her, but he was too attached to her and didn't want to sell her.  He said he'd already had one person ask to buy her and had declined her.  So I made him promise that if he ever wanted to sell her I'd have first pick.

I also asked if I could go visit her today.  He said sure.

I don't think he realized how determined I was.

The minute I saw her I thought I was going to cry.  She was just like her mom, a big goat with attitude....just like I love 'em.

He said she had been a handful because she was always bullying the others.  Yup...just like her mom.

We made him an offer and he almost caved. Then we chit chatted a while longer and we upped the ante. He caved.  I was almost crying because I was so happy.  He was almost crying because he was going to miss her.  It almost broke my heart, I almost said never mind....almost.

But now my girl is back!  Now I have Febe's two daughters.  Now the farm has come full circle. It's complete.

Azelle all grown up.  Her colouring changed a bit and it was dark when  J. took the photo.

Have a Blessed Day

Lisa

Frenchy Finds!!

I'm not sure how many out there in blogger land have ever heard of Frenchy's.

Let me enlighten you all.

In the early 70's a man named Edwin Theriault decided to open a quality used clothing store with clothes from the US.  The idea was an instant success. It still is.  But now not only do they have used clothing, they have toys, shoes, household goods etc...

There is also Guy's Frenchy's which is someone else that started a same kind of store.

Both of these stores around here are just called Frenchy's.  It's become an institution around here.  Even spawning a new verb.."Hey! Let's go Frenchying!"

I love going to Frenchy's. Most women around here do.  How often can you get a designer dress for under $10! You also see your friends. Some people come from miles around and make a day trip out of it and hit all the Frenchy's.  In the Clare area there's 3.  So ladies will come spend time at each place then go for a lunch at the local restaurants oouing and ahhing over there precious finds.

Throughout the years I've found that you need to search more to get  good clothes at Frenchy's.  I figure it's because of the bad economy in the US (where the clothes still come from). People are keeping their clothes longer.

But sometimes you can find nice things at Frenchy's. Or as my english friend calls it "Chez Francois!"

So every once in a while I'm going to post a Frenchy find. Please comment if you find it nice, nasty etc...

I'm 45 years old and I still don't know what my personal style is.  I'm still experimenting.  Anyone of you know what your style is?

I have no clue.  When you're a teen anything looks good. So it really doesn't matter what your style is.  Even in your 20's your youthful blush will carry you a ways.

Then well...your 30's you know by then what your personal style is.

Guess what...I'm 45 and I still have no clue what my style is. 

So it's time to find out!

My first Frenchy Find is this gorgeous pair of shoes.  I paid around $3.00 for them.  They were new!  I couldn't believe they were still there!

I wore them to church this morning and got a few compliments.  I'm liking these.  I think they can stay in my personal style. What do you think?

Ignore the bad pedicure!

Have a blessed evening
Lisa

Meet your Farmer!

Can you say, "Busy?!"   Well this last weekend was so busy.  Saturday was the Little Brook Fire Dept.'s 60th anniversary.  They had cake, hot dogs, a bouncy house for the kids, a magician, the radio station etc...It was a nice day.  Dave was on the anniversary committee.  So we really needed to be there.  But we needed to be doing the final touches at home since the next day was 

Meet Your Farmer...Open Farm Day.

So in between running to the fire hall and trying to tidy up the property I was baking cookies for the next day.  I ended up burning more than baking them.  Oh well.  

Me and a few gals in the bouncy house! It's not just for kids.

The next day we were all excited for Meet Your Farmer day.  It's the first year we participate in it.  We had absolutely no idea how many people would show up.

It started a cold, but clear day.  I was going to put the guest book outside on a nice table, along with cookies and juice but we had to put it inside.

I gave a soap making demo, cheese making demo and milking demo.

Everyone got into milking.

I would have taken pics of the soap and cheese demo but it's hard when you're in the pictures.  Dave was outside with more people.

We actually had about 40 people show up.  I was impressed and everyone seemed to love the animals and demos.

One of our visitors feeding the donkeys

We will be doing it again next year.

The Spring Peeper Farmers on my PINK milking stand

Have a Blessed Day!

Lisa

It's that time of the year again!

Wharf Rat Rally!!!!

Usually I stay far, far, away from Digby Nova Scotia Labour Day weekend.

But I guess if you can't beat'em...join 'em!

So we went to the Wharf Rat Rally. 

It's gotten so big it's actually rivaling Laconia bike week in New Hampshire.  Only cleaner. Or so I've been told. I've never been to Laconia. But I guess it gets raunchy there.

They try and keep Wharf Rat family friendly and I have to admit that they do a good job.  I have no issues bringing J. there.

Digby is a sleepy little town with a population of 2152. Then it explodes to upwards of 30,000 to 40,000 people! Yikes!  But it brings around 6 million dollars in revenue in that weekend alone.  It's a boost that the local economy needs drastically.

So without further ado....here's Wharf Rat in pictures

Bikes, bikes, bikes...as far as the eye can see!

People, people, people...as far as the eye can see!!!

No, this isn't one of ours. But my goodness it was cute!

I loved this vest

This wharf rat was guarding his bike!

This bike was for sale and I wanted it!

Dave wanted me to take this for a test drive.  Problem is I can't drive a motorcycle.

This bike was beautiful. I think it was a serviceman's  bike.

Same bike, but the gas tank part.

Have a Blessed Day

Lisa

All you gotta do is dream....

People go throughout life with dreams. Some are big dreams, some are small dreams. Sometimes we have dreams that come true and we didn't even know we had these dreams.  Kinda like I never wanted kids. It was never a dream of mine when I was growing up. But after I got married to the man of my dreams, I realized to have a child with this guy would be a dream. Hence...J.

I'm a pessimistic kinda gal so I usually don't think my dreams will come true.  But these last few years I find that many of my smaller dreams are coming true.  Like the donkeys, the mini dashunds, my own little company (soap), my own farm.

Well another dream is to have a Ragdoll cat.  Ever since I found out about these cats 20 years ago I wanted one soooo badly.  But they are so expensive.  Around here they easily go for $800!  There is no way Dave would let me spend that on a cat.  And honestly I can't see myself, Mrs. Miser Extraordinaire, spending that kind of money on a cat.

So anyway Dave was scouring the Kijiji (good ole Kijiji) ads. Because that's what Dave likes to do.  He came upon an ad stating that a cattery was retiring a female  Ragdoll cat.  For the price of having her spayed we could get her.  

We couldn't believe it!  So we called the lady.  The only problem was that we could only pick her up on Thursday when we were going to pick up Antonio. That didn't leave enough time to bring her to the vet.  She agreed to let us have her anyway under the condition of having her spayed.  But then...she said she wanted to retire another one. Did we know of anyone that wanted another one?!!

Well....uh.....yea.

Me.!

So I got two Ragdoll cats Free!

I now have to get them spayed which will be done shortly. I don't want kittens! Mind you they aren't going outside anyway.  They're house cats.

So let me introduce to you....

Miss Munch and Lacey

Miss Munch looking not too happy

Lacey. She's a lilac Ragdoll.

So I am now well on my way to becoming the crazy cat lady.

Have a Blessed Day

Lisa 

a.k.a the crazy cat lady

Not year of the chicken....

When is it all going to end!! I guess we were having it too easy the other years. Because we aren't having it good this year.

Some of the fancy hens in their new digs.

First let me say that we had only moved the fancy birds in the new chicken palace. The brown comets were still in the temporary pen in the goat barn. It wasn't very safe for them but we thought they would be fine for awhile.  I guess I was wrong.....

We got home late one day and Dave and I were rushing to make supper.  We sent J. to change the water buckets and feed for the goats. We usually all go and do this together after supper.  But we wanted to go for our evening walk since we're doing good in our Biggest Loser competition.

J. had been gone about 10 minutes when I hear this unearthly scream coming from the barn.  Dave heard it at the same time.  We ran outside and J. is screaming at the top of his lungs..."A MINK! A MINK!!HELP ME!!!!!" 

Dave turns on his heel and goes to get the gun.  I run to the barn and close the door to trap him in.  If he escaped (the mink, not J.) we'd never catch him.  Meantime Dave comes a running with the gun. We shoo J. outside and Dave gets on the milking stand to get a better aim...or so he says. lol.  The mink was under a metal shelving unit.  So here I am with a long stick trying to shoo the mink from under neath.  The thing is screaming at me and they have a creepy scream.  It finally sticks it's head out and it's the last thing he ever does.  But I also go deaf for an hour.  Boy oh boy does a gun blast sound loud in a barn. Jeepers.

In the end we only lost 6 hens. It could have been worse if J. hadn't disturbed the mink.  He said he never heard anything until something ran in front of him. He thought it was a rat at first but then realized that it wasn't, it was a brown mink.  

And people wonder why I hate minks! Of course it just left the carcass there, killing for fun.  One of the hens seemed ready to kick the bucket, she had blood on her head.  But she ended up being fine after a few days.

I'm just so thankful that we sent J. out when we did. If we would have waited they'd all be dead!

I just thought I'd leave you all with photos of my darling husband eating corn.  I have never seen anyone eat corn like this other than in cartoons.  

First we start with a nice piece of corn.

We now have it half gone....one kernel...one row at a time. Not willy nilly like he accuses me of doing.

Gone! Not a kernel to be seen anywhere. How does he do it? Has he been talking to the cartoon characters to get pointers? Who knows! He says just lots of practice.

The goats really hate him when he does this, cause they get the left overs. With me there's lots. With him....notsomuch.

Have a Blessed Evening

Lisa