It’s been a soaking wet week this week. A spattering of intense rain storms has cooled the weather off, making it possible to move fast enough to work in the garden. I think that’s why nothing gets done down here in the South like it does up North. It’s too hot to move most of…
Author: toadstoolsfairyrings
Yarn Along: Another Shalom Cardigan
I have set aside my Scandinavian-style colorwork sweater (yet again) after realizing there are only three (THREE!!) more weeks until we leave for France. I am still drudging away imperceptibly along the bottom edge, the sleeves are invisible, and the tiny yarn was becoming frustrating. I needed a project I could crank out in a…
Not So Many Peaches
The peaches and early rabbit-eye blueberries are coming along – it looks as if it will be a very good year for blueberries, and a very poor year for peaches. The very late, only frost we got was at the worst possible time for them. The Florida King trees have a few, and Snow Queen…
31 – And A Grain-free Non-Chocolate Chocolate Cake Recipe
Saturday made 31 years since I was born. We spent the morning stuffing sausages – three different kinds. They are delicious, and we have 18 lbs of them. It was a good birthday. Later I made a grain-free non-chocolate chocolate cake (if I eat chocolate, I can’t sleep for days). Lately everyone has been…
Minus Two
Exhausted. We harvested two of the big pigs. It really isn’t the best season to harvest pigs, usually the coldest part of the years is best, but we are downsizing everything for when we are in Europe and my mom is taking over for two weeks. I was already tired from chasing stupid Sappho around…
Weaning (again)
At last, a picture of Flora’s new calf! We’ve hardly seen him. He hides until he has to nurse. They are both doing well. It’s hard to tell now that the other calves are so grown up, but he seems like a rather large calf. And speaking of them…. They are being weaned (again). Yesterday…
Crazy Week
Ethan’s Birthday cake from last week – and probably the nicest birthday cake out of my kitchen so far – four layers of grain-free cake, whipped cream with cherries and cherry filling, chocolate ganache icing with toasted almonds…. Wow last week was crazy. There must be something in the stars. Weaning babies. Unweaning babies as…
Meeting
When we first started out at the farm, the whole place was dominated by blackberries, bahia grass, cactus, and weedy laurel oak trees. The bahia isn’t so bad – the cows can eat it, and it isn’t thorny. But it seemed so monotonous. I missed my favorite little herbs and wildflowers. It stayed like this…
Arms Full
I don’t know why anyone worries about Friday the 13th. To date, nothing awful has ever happened to me on Friday the 13th. Monday the 13th, I think, ought to be the worst. With Friday, you at least have the weekend to lick your wounds, but on Monday you have the whole week to suffer…
The Potato Bazooka
For an April Fool’s joke, Ethan told Mirin that he would get him a bazooka if he watched the baby while we did the chores. Mirin hardly ever watches the baby, so this was a big request. There’s a family joke that he needs a t-shirt that says, “Big Brother Ain’t Watching You” with a…
The Art of Mowing
This week began with a major advance in technology for us. As the cactus has been fading from the pastures, wickedly sharp-thorned blackberries have been taking over. While we very much enjoy the berries from these bushes for a short time during the year, they also tear our clothes, scratch us and the animals’ udders,…
In the Garden: Missing tooth, Hay Hut, Summer Garden, and Lepidoptera
The biggest news is that Rose is minus one front tooth now. It had been loose for awhile, and despite lots of wiggling and even dreams that it would come out, it didn’t manage to until Mirin accidentally kneed her in the teeth, and Clothilde bashed her in the mouth with her forehead during…
Toadstools And Fairy Rings 