Unruly

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch:XXI

2012-02-10T08:53:00.000-08:00

YAY! It's Baby Goat Season again! The first arrival is Lola's baby boy... ounces of adorableness!

His name is BadaBing...I was a total Sopranos dilettant about the Sopranos and only watched the last few seasons, so Giant has started me over at the beginning...we've been watching it a lot, which explains the name!

We went down to do chores on Tuesday, and there he was, all dry and fat and happy and precious! Good job Lola! I was a little worried that she'd have trouble because she's so tiny, but she did perfect!

Baby goats are very precocious, and it doesn't take them long to start trying to be big goats...

He goes over to see what all the fuss is about...

hmmm, looks like they're eating...

guess I'll give it a try...

milk is waaaay better...but this thing is fun to play in!

We've had 2 more baby goats since, stay tuned for pix of their adorableness! I LOVE Baby Goat Season!!!

In other news, Giant had to go to Iowa on business, so I tagged along-Other than going to the bars or out to eat, this was pretty much my view-there was great shopping right by our hotel, and other than that, I just slept in and read and DIDN'T do chores, it was awesome!

On the way home, we stopped in Nebraska

and visited Giant's relatives.

His great-grandparents and grandparents along with sundry other relatives are all buried there.

I love country cemetaries, they are so peaceful and the graves are always so well cared for.

It was raining all during our drive through Nebraska...and of course when we got close to Colorado, it started snowing...by the time we got within a few hours of our house the snow was coming down really hard...long story short, it took us about 5 hours to get to our hood in what should've taken us less than 2 hours...we ended up getting stuck about a mile and half from our house-it took us an hour to walk the mile and half back to our house in the dark...

some of the drifts were up to my hips...baby it was cold outside!!!

You can see how high the drifts were-they were almost up to Giants hips!

Daisy got stuck right at the house and couldn't go any further...aww, how cute is that?

Even Giant's 4WD was snowed in!

Our roads didn't get plowed until Sunday, so the car with all of our stuff (ie-my pajamas, clothes, makeup, etc) stayed stuck Friday night and all day Saturday...But Giant pulled my car out, we finally got all our stuff home and stayed by the fire the rest of the weekend!

Stay warm, and happytrails!

WordlessWednesday-stuck

2012-02-08T06:00:00.000-08:00

Sausage, Saurkraut and Potato Casserole

2012-02-07T06:19:00.000-08:00

This is a recipe I learned from Giant-it's hearty, homey, easy to put together and delish!

Boil 5 or 6 medium-ish potatoes-I like to peel a couple of cloves of garlic and throw them in with the potatoes, and mash the garlic right in with the potatoes...YUM!

While the potatoes are cooking, dice 1 onion, 3 or 4 cloves of garlic and fry with enough EVOO to cover the bottom of the pan. Season with salt, pepper, celery salt, basil and some Italian seasoning.

When the onion and garlic have cooked down a little, add a pound of sausage-Kielbasa works really well with this-and let it simmer with the onions and the spices until lightly browned...

then add 1 pound of prepared sauerkraut; stir everything together and let sit at low heat.

While the sausage mixture is hanging out, mash the potatoes-I like skins on, but peel 'em if you like 'em peeled-with butter, milk, sour cream, salt, pepper and garlic salt.

Place sausage mixture in a buttered 1 1/2 quart casserole dish and top with mashed potatoes. Season potatoes with salt and pepper garnish with fresh chives.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for one hour and enjoy! This is a delicious fall/winter casserole that you can make ahead and put in the oven after a hectic day and have a hot supper in an hour!

Hint-It's really yummy with some yellow mustard; you could use a fancy brown mustard and that would be good too, but a plain old yellow mustard works just fine!

Bon Appetit and happytrails!

Quote of the Week

2012-02-06T09:24:00.000-08:00

"A kiss makes the heart young again,
and wipes out the years."
Rupert Brooke

WordlessWednesday-I spy with my little Yorkie eye...

2012-02-02T06:34:00.000-08:00

Quote of the Week

2012-01-30T14:48:00.000-08:00

"Only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself."

Ruth Stout

WordlessWednesday-chickens egg blue

2012-01-25T06:31:00.000-08:00

12 of 12

2012-01-24T07:36:00.000-08:00

I joined a Facebook group with some of my friends called 12 of 12. The premise is that you take 12 pictures of your day on the 12th of the month, including a self-portrait, then make a scrapbook page and share with the group, and on your blog or wherever you like. I love this concept, it helps remind us take pictures of things we might take for granted or think of as too ordinary to be photo-worthy.
For the first 12, I chose to do 'a day in the (farm) life' with explanatory journaling for each photo. I'm already scrapbooking in a vintage album that's roughly 12x16. Love the vintage scrapbook, but it's hard to get a good pic of the pages, so I'll write out my journaling here.
1. Alarm goes off at 6:30-hit 'snooze' a few times.
2. Giants builds a fire while I make his coffe/lunch
3. Giant leaves for work-I feed the broody hens in the mud-room
4. I feed North 40 fowl-peacock, pheasants, turkeys, chickens
5.Get more firewood, check on hawk
6. Fix supper-often involves the crock pot
7. It's Thursday, so I clean & carton eggs for Friday delivery
8. Giant comes home-we do chores-I feel barn chickens
9. Giant throws hay to horses and goats
10. We get hawk out, feed & excercise her
11. Eat, watch TV before bed-lots of Food Network
12. Sick me with a rash on my face-ugh!
I already have ideas for the 'ordinary life' photos I want to take on the 12th of February...it's those 'ordinary' things that make up the vast majority of our lives, we should enjoy and celebrate them! So even if you don't join a group, try this 12 of 12 concept, it's a great way to notice and appreciate all the little events in our lives!
happytrails!

Quote of the Week

2012-01-23T09:43:00.001-08:00

"I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape-the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show."

Andrew Wyeth

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch: Part XX

2012-01-20T07:06:00.000-08:00

We spent a quiet New Years Eve at home this year, played games, watched Dick Clarks New Years Rockin' Eve, and feasted on desserts, it was so nice and relaxing...I hope that's the way the rest of 2012 goes as well!

Now that the very shortest days of the year are over, I'm getting excited to have a little more daylight every day...looking forward to a couple of months from now when evening chores won't have to be done by flashlight!

FarmGiantDaughter started playing basketball, her jersey # is 42, her Dad's old college number, how cool is that?

We've really been enjoying going to her games, she's a natural as is only...well, natural lol!

Nice tip off...

and then she scores, nice!

In goat news, Fawn (or Fondue, as Giant calls her lol!) has taken over the title of Naughtiest Goat from Lola...

Not only does she feel free to let herself out of the goat area and eat hay right off the bale...

she goes and eats the horses hay too, lol!

But we've fixed Fawns little wagon...

We spent Sunday morning re-arranging and cleaning out the stalls to make a maternity ward for the Dwarf Nigerians, I even got to drive the Bobcat, so fun!

I always have the hardest time telling when goats are ready to kid; ones I think are gonna have babies any day go for weeks, and ones I think have weeks to go when I check them one day have kids the next!
Poor Flower miscarried a few days ago, just like she did last year and it looked like she probably should have carried another month or so, and they should all be pretty close to one another in gestation...

so we may be a little early, but all my pregnant goats are all together and out of Gen Pop, where they can get a little extra grain and I can keep a closer eye on them.

We still need to build them a little weathering yard, hopefully we'll have time to get to that this weekend, so everything will be ready to go when they all decided to kid out at once, on the coldest night of the year like everyone but Fern did last year!

Anyway, I'm excited to have baby goats again because as I've said before-there's nothing cuter than a baby goat!

happytrails!

WordlessWednesday-hawkeye

2012-01-18T06:54:00.000-08:00

Taco Bake

2012-01-17T06:43:00.000-08:00

This recipe almost sounds to simple to be good, but it's delicious!

Begin with the usual suspects-a few cloves of garlic chopped in a little olive oil seasoned with salt, pepper, chili powder, mexican seasoning, ground cumin, ground coriander, let the onions soften a little, then add 2 lbs burger...

While the meat is cooking, spray a 11x14 baking dish with Pam and unroll 2 packages of butter flavored crescent rolls in the bottom of the pan...

add the cooked meat mixture...

and cover with shredded Mexican cheese...

bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes until the rolls are brown and the cheese is melted...

Serve with shredded lettuce, sour cream, salsa and anything else your little heart desires!

This dish is definitely greater than the sum of its parts, the crescent rolls add a little sweetness to the spicy meat and salsa...

mmm! try it, you'll like it!

Quote of the Week

2012-01-16T10:11:00.000-08:00

"The reason birds can fly and we can't is simply that they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings."

J.M.Barrie

Alibi Saturday

2012-01-14T14:14:00.000-08:00

Since Alibi isn't really working for her supper like she used to, we have to do what we can to keep her muscles toned and keep her in condition so she's ready when go out hunting.

One of the ways we do this is to have her jump from the floor or her low perch to the glove...

which is pretty good excercise when jumping to a Giants glove!

We're supposed to have her jumping to the glove many times every session, and we can't give her a tid-bit every time she jumps up, soon she would have eaten several days worth of food in one excercise...

so we practice what is called intermittent condtioning, which is she gets treats often enough that she will jump every time just on the hope of getting a tid-bit. This is very basic, as it's what happens in the wild, they absolutely don't catch even close to everything they chase.

We can't wait to get her out hunting again, hopefully she'll be successful next time!

Think Giant likes the hawk much? lol! Actually he's holding her like this so she can be banded...

Whenever a falconcer traps or buys a bird, it must be reported to the Division of Wildlife with 5 days...

then an officer comes out and puts a band on the birds leg. The DOW monitors falconry very closely; the band is basically like a license plate that identifies this bird as our falconry bird. Also, if the bird is ever lost, it can be returned to the falconer.

When we release Alibi, we have to notify the DOW in advance, then we'll simply cut the tag off, and she's good as new!

and on an ironic note...

see the rabbit tracks in the snow?

several sets of them lead directly underneath Alibi's mews lol! Hawks have a really good sense of smell; I'm not sure it's good enough to smell a rabbit under the mews-for Alibi's sake, I really hope not lol!

happy hawking and happytrails!

All Present And Accounted For Fowl Doings

2012-01-12T07:16:00.000-08:00

Well, I am happy to report there have been no more fowl tragedies since the last installment of Fowl Doings!
Leonard the Magnificent has been re-growing his beautiful tail feathers since his late summer moult, and they are starting to look spectacular!
However...

now his crown feathers are all straggly looking! Since he's my first peacock, I don't know if they usually moult their crown feathers or not...he does have a little scab on the side of his head too, so don't know if he caught his head in something and tore them off, or if they're just moulting...

awww, don't be sad about your crown Leonard!

We'll all just look at your beautiful tail!

Leonard has gotten much calmer and friendlier...due largely to a daily treat of yummy meal worms, I am sure! And even the mentally unstable pheasants aren't quite so hysterical any more and don't immediately start flinging themselves at the fence the minute they see me...due largely to a daily treat of yummy cracked corn, I'm sure!

Remember waaay back in the day when I had my Americauna pullets in my bathtub and I thought I spied a rooster in the group when they were just tiny chicks?

Well, I was right, and I am kind of impressed with myself lol! The little yellow rooster has turned more of a white color, but here's how we know he's a rooster...see how the feathers around the main tail feathers are getting long?

And in this pic you can just see a little iridescent glow to his actual tail feathers? Definitely a rooster, the hens don't get that iridescence in their feathers. At the time I was bummed to have another rooster, but since poor Sam B got poached by predators, I'm really glad to have a rooster so I can get more Americauna chickens...that is assuming they EVER lay an egg!

The New Hampshire Reds have finally just started laying, hooray! Once they get going, I should be able to make up for the egg money I lost when the owl and coyotes got 7 of my layers last month.

Selling the hens eggs pays for all their feed, as well as the feed for the turkeys, pheasants and peacock, so in addition to being sad about my poor chickens getting killed, I lose money too, which is always a bummer lol!

I'm down to 5 turkeys now; all my Bourbon Reds were either killed by predators or died of natural causes; the remaining Red hen I had finally died a few weeks ago which came as no surprise, she had been sickly and had a cough since the day we got her.

Notice in these pix how 4 of these turkeys have their tails up, wings down and puffed out chests? Yep, that's right, I've got 4 toms and 1 hen...so at least 2 toms have got to go...guess I better find some more turkey recipes!

In broody hen news, Freida the Frizzle is starting to get feathers again-I don't think I remembered to take a picture of her when I first brought her in the mud room, but she looked awful! The other hens were picking at her and she was pretty much naked and I was afraid they'd pick her to death, so hopefully she'll brood and not have to go back to Gen Pop!

I had my broody hens all set up in the mud room; each with her own kennel and run, food, water and eggs; however, there was a lot of visiting back and forth and no brooding, so I had to put them all in solitary lol!

Munster and Broody have successfully brooded in the past, but from what I've ready, they kind of need to be reminded that they are broody hens if they haven't brooded in a while, so you lock them in for a week or so to get them in the right frame of mind. I let one of them at a time out for a few hours every day to go to the bathroom and scratch around in their runs, then back in the kennel she goes. I'm really hoping this works; it's really difficult to find info on getting hens to brood, the instinct has mostly been bred out of them, and the few people who do get hens that want to brood usually don't want them to, so of the scant info out there, most of it is about how to get your hens to stop brooding!

So they're all locked in their kennels with fresh straw, food, water, and eggs to sit on. It's only been a few days, but so far Freida seems to be settling in to brood the best-maybe she knows how much better off she is brooding than in Gen Pop with all the other chickens picking on her lol!
happytrails!

WordlessWednesday-a bird in the hand...

2012-01-11T06:59:00.000-08:00

Makin' Bacon!

2012-01-10T20:52:00.000-08:00

mmmm, bacon! who doesn't love bacon? Recently, Giant and I made some-it's really easy, and the bacon is soooo much better than the stuff you buy at the store-it's not even like the same pork product!
So here's how you do it...we started with a 4lb Boston butt roast (he-heh she said butt he-he-heh) or a pork shoulder roast...

remove the bone; save it to make pork and beans, green chile, pork stock, etc...(recipes coming soon!)

also remove the excess skin...

and save it to make pork rinds, yum!

rinse the pork (there are 2 roasts pictured here)
and add the rub mix-

Giant recommends High Mountain Western Legends Buckboard Bacon Cure-Wyoming made of course! You can order it here!

Rub all sides of the pork thoroughly with the mix; put the pork in an airtight container, and refrigerate for 10 days, turning after the 5 day...this is on the 5th day-see how much moisture has been wicked out of the meat already? this is a good thing!

on the 10th day, remove the pork and drain the excess moisture-

after the excess moisture is drained, rub the pork with honey, making sure the honey gets all into the crevices...

then tie the roast up with kitchen string or twine-start at one end and just wrap the string around, then make a knot and cut off the excess string...

then it's time to smoke all that rub and honey goodness into your bacon!

Smoke at low heat for 2-3 hours...

use your favorite wood chips for extra flavor!
Once the internal temp reaches 140 degrees, you've got bacon!

Just slice off what you need, cover and refrigerate the rest-it will keep forever; but it won't last forever lol!

Seriously this is so easy, and the bacon is like nothing you've ever eaten before! Not to mention that it's pennies on the dollar at what you would pay at the store, and that's always a good thing!

Stay tuned for lots of recipes featuring yummy bacon-but one caution before we go...

"Always remember, don't fry bacon naked"
Giant

happytrails!

Quote of the Week

2012-01-09T07:19:00.000-08:00

"I caught this morning morning's minion,
kingdom of Daylight's dauphin,
dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon."
Gerard Manly Hopkins

Alibi Saturday

2012-01-07T07:19:00.000-08:00

After our adventure with the telephone pole last week, we kept doing outside practices using the creance...

We wanted to make certain that she was solid on the glove...

here birdy, birdy!

and she was!

So we took her out hunting for the first time! Of course you can't use a creance while hunting, all she wears are her hunting jesses. I have to tell you, the thought of letting your bird fly free for the first time is a little nerve wracking! Would our hours of training pay off, or would she fly away the first chance she got?

We do have one piece of insurance; the telemetry. See the wire hanging down under her wings? That's the telemetry antenna; if she flies off or gets caught in a wind and gets blown away, we can track her with the telemetry, at least in theory. We've heard over and over how telemetry works every time-except when you need it lol!

So once she was unhooded, had her antenna and her hunting jesses on, it was time to go. We were with our sponsor Deanna and her husband Alan, so we spread out and started walking through the field to see if we could kick up a rabbit for her to chase. She was alert but calm the entire time, just looking around for something to chase. After about a half an hour I kicked up and rabbit and she went after it without hesitation! Unfortunately there was a prairie dog hole nearby and the rabbit ducked down it before Alibi had a chance to get to her-if she'd had just a few seconds more she would have had the rabbit. After she pulled up from the chase, she landed on a nearby cactus; a great sign that she didn't fly off, but would she come back to the glove?

Yep! She came back immediately, on the very first whistle, good girl! We then had a repeat-finally kicked up a rabbit, a chase, a prairie dog hole-no luck! But that's why they call it hunting and not catching!

We went to another field, but no rabbits there, just jack rabbits, which she had NO interest in chasing at all! She's a young bird and new at hunting, so hopefully she'll give jack rabbits a try as she gains more confidence as a hunter. Even though the rabbits got away, she did perfectly, she was quick to the chase and came back to the glove at the first whistle! So we all had to have a little toast to a great try! Hopefully we can get her out next weekend, I really want her to have a successful hunt!

So until next time, happy hunting and happytrails!

Chicken or Turkey Pot Pie

2012-01-05T10:47:00.000-08:00

Mmm, I love pot pies! They are so homey and comforting and yummy! I think I've finally perfected my poultry pot pies and figured out a way to keep them moist, as they often have a tendency to be dry...so here we go!

Season the pan with salt, pepper, celery salt, thyme and poultry seasoning, then dice up an onion and a few cloves of garlic and cook in olive oil and butter until the onions start to get soft...

while the onions are cooking, dice up 4 small potatoes and 3 carrots and celery stalks...

then add them to the pan with the onions and let them cook just a little bit until they just start to get soft.

While thats cooking dice up about 3 cups of chicken or turkey and add to a large bowl. I really don't like peas very well, but you just gotta have 'em in pot pies, so I just throw in a handful of frozen ones lol!

Then add half of the slightly cooked veggies, then the secret ingredients which are 2 cans of chicken or turkey gravy and one can of broccoli cheese soup...

I freeze the other half of the veggies, and when I have a day that I don't feel like cooking or don't have time, I just thaw it out and pop it in the
oven and viola a hot delicious supper!

Line the bottom of a pie pan with a pre-made pie crust, add the veggie mix, and another pie crust on top. I like to add salt, pepper, paprika and some chives to the top crust...

Bake at 375 for about 45 minutes til crust is browned and the veggie mix is hot and bubbly...

Yum! So good and thanx to the gravy and the soup, not dry! The cheese soup adds a nice flavor too!

enjoy and happytrails!

WordlessWednesday-to the glove

2012-01-04T07:06:00.000-08:00

Quote of the Week

2012-01-02T07:09:00.000-08:00

The new year begins in a snow-storm of white vows.
George William Curtis

Alibi Saturday

2011-12-31T07:04:00.000-08:00

So our Alibi is making excellent progress and is flying to the fist without hesitation...

Even though she's a little leery of the hawk, FarmGiantDaughter took a turn!

We had her flying to the fist from about as far away as we could safely do so in the house...

so then we started training her to the lure, which she got immediately, so the next step in her training was...

going outside and flying on the creance. The creance is a long, long leash that tangles on everything-tiny bits of dead weeds, rocks, even snow and is a misery to re-roll...anyway, even though she's used to being trained in the house...

she flew to the fist immediately...

every time! She's such an awesome bird and has trained so easily...so far anyway, hope it stays that way!

here's Giant trying to untangle the creance...for the 243rd time!

The other day we took Alibi in for her first "Well-Raptor" visit, which she passed with flying colors lol!

But we did think it was pretty mean that they had a chart of exotic bunnies behind her, so we kept her hooded lol!

After the well-raptor appointment, we met Deanna and went hawking with her and Karma...

It was a pretty snowy and the bunnies were hunkered down pretty good and we never even saw one...

So we took the opportunity to fly her on the creance on a dirt road...

she did great as usual, and flew about 200 yards to the glove several times, but on her next-to-last flight

she flew to the top of this telephone pole, and of course her creance was a little tangled around the line and we were worried she either wouldn't come down, or would get the creance tangled when she did...she wasn't interested in coming to the fist right away, and we didn't want to risk her flying down when a car was coming, so...

we got out the lure with a big piece of bunny on it and she came right down, tangle-free! Which is why lure training is so important!

So our next step is letting her off the creance and letting her hunt! I'm so nervous and excited at the same time, hopefully we'll get her out within the next few days...wish us luck and

happytrails!

Christmas at the Brown Palace

2011-12-29T10:59:00.000-08:00

Giant and I decided to get off the farm for a little while and go see the bright lights and big city of downtown Denver for a little Christmas spirit, so we headed to the beautiful and historic Brown Palace...

The hotel was built in 1892, and has been open continually, without even shutting down for a single hour, ever since.

From the minute we checked in, we were surrounded by beauty and luxury, it was lovely! Due to the unique way the hotel is designed, all the rooms are outside facing rooms; now the views of the mountains are somewhat blocked by skyscrapers but I can just imagine how breathtaking it must have been to look out the windows and see nothing but the gorgeous Rocky Mountains...

Our room was very charming with all sorts of architectural details that you just don't find in modern buildings. We had a cute little bay window alcove...

and beautiful crown molding, rounded door frames and beveled mirrors ...

Even the bathroom was gorgeous with beautiful marble everywhere...

and Giant was very excited about the shower...it's a very rare occasion that Giant doesn't have to duck down in the shower to get wet, and this shower even had a ceiling mount shower head, he was ecstatic lol!

and I loved this light fixture in the hallway of our room...

We took advantage of a tour the hotel offered and got to take a closer look at the hotel...

The ownerof the hotel was quite a collector and many of the items on display are museum quality, like these dueling pistols that were owned by Napoleon himself!

and this is the actual gold plated standard that his troops carried into battle...

We got to see the Teddy Roosevelt suite, which was decorated in a Western/hunting theme and was very gorgeous...it was also very dark, so the only good pic I got in there was of this Big Horn sheep horn sconce, which I totally want!

The tour guide also told us some of the history of downtown Denver; this building across the street used to be a house of ill-repute, there is a rumor that a tunnel was built underneath the street between the house and the Brown...

The hotel was decorated beutifully for the holidays...

but touches like the interior of the arches make the hotel gorgeous every day!

The Christmas tree in the atrium was well over 12 feet tall, but still looked dwarfed in the atrium...

and everything looked dwarfed compared to this giant sconce fixture that they bring in for every holiday season...

the fixture is so enormous that they have to put it together in several pieces, then hoist it up with a crane...

and it's loaded down with over 600 pounds of glitter!

After the tour we went and saw a Christmas Carol; it was a great production and was so much fun to see on Christmas Eve!

After the play we stopped and had sushi and wine at Elways, then enjoyed the Christmas lights as we walked back to the Brown...

and we even saw Santa!

We had such a wonderful time, it was an awesome Christmas Eve, and we can't wait to go back to the Brown!

Hope everyone had an amazing Christmas and
happytrails!

WordlessWednesday-After the Storm

2011-12-28T06:53:00.000-08:00

Vintage Paper New Year Wreath

2011-12-27T11:28:00.000-08:00

Wow, the holidays are a whirlwind! Christmas is barely over, and now it's time to think about New Years Eve celebrations!My New Years Eve dessert buffet table is going to feature vintage paper decorations, and all my desserts are going to be in the same color scheme as vintage paper- browns, blacks, sepias and antique whites. I made this wreath to hang over the buffet table, it ties my theme together and is also very cute and easy to make!

You can buy old books at antique stores, flea markets, garage sales etc, often for only a dollar or two a book. If you plan on manipulating the paper in the old books, check to make sure the pages aren't too brittle or fragile to work with; one of my books was pretty brittle which made it a little harder to roll the paper without tearing, although I do like the look of torn edges! The only other thing you need is an inexpensive styrofoam wreath, a glue stick and a glue gun!

The first thing I do is cover the base of the wreath-you'll be adding a lot of paper over the top, but we don't want any ugly pieces of styrofoam showing through. Just wrap pages around the wreath and hot glue them down...don't worry about being too neat, once the wreath is done, no-one will ever know if the pages were wrinkled!

Next, simply roll the pages into a cylinder and glue with a glue stick-I like to use a variety of different book pages; the different fonts add interest to the wreath. I used about 75 cylinders on a 6 inch wreath form-don't worry, it goes really fast and is great to do while you're watching t.v.

Hot glue the finished cylinders onto the wreath with the small points just over-lapping the inside of the wreath.

Go all the way around the wreath once...

Then add a cylinder on top and in between to cylinders so it looks nice and full.

I randomly added a few vintage buttons on the top cylinders for texture.
sorry about the underlining, I don't know why that happens sometimes!

For the center of the wreath, take 4 pages and accordion fold them, then glue the edges of all 4 accordion pieces together...

to make the center rosette.

Then I took my circle cutter and cut a piece of paper slightly smaller than the diameter of the rosette. I fringed the edges by cutting into the paper and inch or so to add interest, then glued it onto the rosette.

Before I put it all together, I antiqued the pieces with a little glimmer spray and sprayed adhesive and added glitter for shimmer.

I found this adorable Victorian clip art of a girl dressed in winter white and added her to the center of the rosette to finish the wreath. I think she's very apropos all dressed in white and furs for New Years Eve and the wreath will look very cute hanging over the dessert buffet!
Hope everyone has fun New Years Eve plans, I can't wait for our celebration!
happy crafting and happytrails!

Quote of the Week

2011-12-26T11:21:00.001-08:00

Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth,
for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire:
it is the time for home.

Edith Sitwell

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T07:23:00.000-08:00

"I will honor Christmas in my heart,
and try to keep it all the year."
Charles Dickens

Alibi Saturday

2011-12-24T06:21:00.000-08:00

The next step we take in training our bird is called 'manning'; which simply means acclimating her to us and getting her to take food from our gloved hand.

She is extremely interested in Giant and regards him in a totally different way than she does me-I'm not sure if she's more wary of him because he's male and large, or if she just thinks what a great high perch he would make!

Acclimating her is fairly simple, we simply bring her and her perch in the house, let her just hang out with us, walk her around on our fist, practice getting on and off the perch and glove,etc.

She is a very fast learner, and very relaxed. Within the first 2 days she had almost completely stopped baiting and her feathers are settled and not ruffled up in alarm, and she just looks around and calmly takes in her surroundings.

The most important step in manning is teaching her to eat from the glove. To achieve this, the first time we feed her, we put her on the glove and feed her tid-bits from a tweezer...

She's really not sure about all this, but after a little coaxing and a lot of patience, she figures out that it's ok to take the food...

Hooding her is becoming easier too-I'm a little more proficient at hooding than Giant is; I tell him that's because of all my years of dressing/feeding toddlers who don't want to be dressed or fed-it gives you infinite patience and lightning quick reflexes lol!

The next step in the process is getting her to eat off the glove; at first we just hold the glove a few inches from her face and let her take the meat...

then we hold the glove a little further from her so she has to reach out for the meat.

Each time, we hold the glove a little further away...

making her reach a little further each time...

She has mastered all of these steps very quickly, smart bird! The next step is to get her to hop to the fist, then fly to the fist. Since she is a late trapped bird, she has hunted on her own for several months and feels more confident in her ability to feed herself than a bird trapped in September, so the hopping to the fist step is taking a little longer than it would with a young bird who was literally starving when it was trapped and would eat under almost any circumstances.
So we are just taking our time and working with her every day, which is an amazing experience, we feel so thrilled to be able to work with such a gorgeous creature!

Now that I'm looking at these pix, I think I know why Alibi stares at Giant so much-I definitely see a resemblance between them...

don't you? LOL!

Until the next installment, happy hawking and

happytrails!

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch: Christmas Edition

2011-12-23T07:08:00.000-08:00

Its Christmas Time and we've been having a lot of fun at Kindred Spirits Farm! Among other things, we've been watching Christmas movies, and baking and dressing up
some of the critters in Santa hats lol!

We also made snow-globes...wait for this one Giant fans, you're gonna love it, lol!

FarmGiantDaughter and I made some traditional snow globe scenes with pine trees and reindeer and rabbits and penguins, you know, traditional snow globe scenes...

and I made a non-traditional, but funny chicken feeding snow globe since I spend a lot of time taking care of fowl...but Giants snow globe was much more non-traditional than mine, Giant made a...

Snow Globe of Death, lol! If you look closely, there are two Indian hunters standing over a dead buffalo-all done with red glitter to represent blood, of course lol! He wanted to do an elk hunting scene, but the elk was too big for the jar; then he wanted to do a hawk with a rabbit, but the hawk was also too large, so he had to settle for the buffalo hunt scene. When we gave him a hard time about his Snow Globe of Death he said "It's actually a snow globe of life for the Indians, and that buffalo gave those Indians a very Merry Christmas!" True, and also funny! Giant definitely has his own perspective, but he always also has it very logically thought out-plus he's really funny!

So we all had a lot of fun making our snow globes and everyone is happy...except for maybe the buffalo, lol!

Since we're doing our family celebration after Christmas this year, I had decided that I didn't want to put up a big tree and go to all the hassle for just a few days-I'm the girl that starts getting itchy to get the tree down on Christmas Day evening-so we didn't go dig out all our decorations, I just put a few things out...

but Giant knew that I'd end up being sad if I had no tree at all, so he bought me this cute little living tree that we can plant at the farm after the holidays-so cute!

I thought it wouldn't be fair to the poor little tree to be undecorated when all the other indoor pine trees are, so I made a few decorations for it...I made a paper chain out of vintage book and sheet music paper and glittered it, and strung some cranberries...

I cut out some Victorian clip art and glittered it for decorations...

and the angel tree-topper...

I usually use a crocheted tablecloth for a tree skirt, but I didn't want to ruin a tablecloth trying to water a live tree...so I wrapped the container in a chicken feed bag and tied it with twine, I actually think it turned out very cute!

and to fill in, I bought a bouquet of baby's breath and stuck little clusters of it in the tree, I think it turned out very sweet and homey, and I get the best of both worlds-a Christmas tree now, a tree in the yard later, and I got to make some cute crafts!

Now this is Giants kind sleigh lol!

All of us at Kindred Spirits Farm wish all of you a very Merry Christmas, hope your days are merry and bright, and your Christmas is white...ours will be!

happytrails!

Honey Cheesecake

2011-12-22T07:38:00.000-08:00

Shut the front door! This cheesecake is so rich, creamy and delicious...it's perfect for the holidays. I made it for Thanksgiving and it was so good that I think I might make it again for Christmas-it's definitely Christmas worthy!
Here's how to make this yummy goodness!

Crush up enough ginger snaps to get 1 1/2 cups...you can use graham crackers instead, but the spices in the gingersnaps really complement the flavors of the cheesecake...

Add 1/4 almond slivers and 1/2 tsp each ginger and cinnamon. Mix with 1/3 C melted butter and press into the bottom of a buttered 9" springform pan.
Bake in a pre-heated 350 oven for 10 minutes...

until beautifully golden brown.

For the cheesecake, mix 2 lbs of cream cheese until light and smooth...

then add 1 1/4 C sugar and mix again...

then add 3 Tbsps each honey

and brandy...

and mix until blended...

then add 4 large (farmfresh) eggs, one at a time...

mixing until well incorporated.

Add 1 tsp each ginger and cinnamon, and 1/2 tsp nutmeg and mix, then add 1/4 C heavy cream and mix...

finally, add 1 C pumpkin puree and mix...

Pour into your very well buttered 9" springform pan...

and bake for exactly 45 minutes. After the 45 minutes, turn off the oven but DO NOT open the oven door for one hour. After an hour, crack the oven door and let the cheesecake sit for another hour before removing from oven; this will help keep your cheesecake from cracking...

Beautiful! You can certainly serve this delicious cheesecake just as is...

or if you feel there aren't quite enough calories in the cheesecake already, you can make a honey caramel sauce to serve with the cheesecake!
Just take 1 C honey, 1 C evaporated skim milk and 1/2 C butter and melt it together over medium heat until it comes to a boil, then stir constantly for 10 minutes, until it becomes heavenly.

To serve, top with home made whipped cream, drizzle honey caramel sauce over the top, and finally, sprinkle crushed ginger snaps over the top...and try not to go into a sugar coma lol!

happy desserting and
happytrails!

WordlessWednesday-Bronc Bustin' Santa

2011-12-21T06:20:00.000-08:00

Murder Most Foul Fowl Doings

2011-12-20T06:54:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, Giant had me come look out the window and see 'whooo' was sitting on our deck-see him in the left corner of the frame? I was taking pictures of him through the window in spite of the frost still on the window because I thought it would be the last time we would see it since the sun was coming up, and it did disappear soon after I took this pic...

But then I saw it sitting on these garden edgers...it didn't even move when Daisy walked right by it...

It even let me get this close to take a picture of it...

A little while later it flew to this tree in our yard and a few hours later it was gone and I thought we'd seen the last of it, but alas, we would see it again, the very next morning...

in the chicken coop! See it against the wall kind of behind the layer boxes on the left hand side of the frame? Giant had been down haying the goats, so he had seen what was going on-when he came to get me he said "That owl that was here yesterday is in the chicken coop. I'll take care of it, you don't have to come down if you don't want to, but if you do, be prepared, it's bad."

Of course I had to go see for myself, so I threw on some sweats...and for some reason I grabbed the broom on the way down, I guess I was thinking I'd sweep it away or something...ok, I panicked lol!

Giant was right, it was bad...there was a dead chicken in the outside run, and my poor sweet Polish hen, Martha, was laying inside...beheaded. It was bad enough that the owl was killing them, but it was only eating their heads.

Martha and Archimedes were good friends, and poor Archimedes stayed right by poor Martha's body and was squwaking and squwaking, totally terrified and upset, it was SO sad!

The rest of the chickens were out in their run, pressed right up against the edge of their fence and there were feathers everywhere and several of the girls had missing and broken feathers...

Like this Silver-Laced Wyandotte.

Outside the chicken run there were several more piles of feathers that used to be chickens, but no feet, beaks, bones or anything...clearly something carried the chickens off to eat them. We knew there was no way one little owl could have carried five chickens outside and eaten them whole, so what on earth had gone on?

The only thing we could figure out is that the owl got into the coop, and the chickens went out into the corner of the run where they were huddled, and something else, like coyotes most likely, were reaching through the pen and dragging the chickens off and carrying them off to eat them. Everything in the world wants to kill and eat my poor fowl!

Giant got rid of the owl, and eventually the chickens calmed down enough to come back inside their coop, several of them were really beat up and I was afraid they would die later, but everyone healed up and are ok. All told I lost 7 chickens, including two of my favorites, Martha and Edna. I thought I'd lost Broody too, but she had flown off and hidden somewhere in the barn-when I came down to check on the chickens

later that morning, she came running up behind me, clucking to be let into the coop. I was really relived that she made it but still very bummed about all the other girls.
But on the bright side, I brought my 3 Bantam brooders into the mud room for the winter to see if I can get them to hatch me some chix, since I'll have a dozen or so less eggs a week now that some of my best layers are gone...

I never believed it before, but now I totally agree with the superstition that owls are bad luck lol!

Here's hoping everything will stop eating my poor poultry, and
happytrails!

Quote of the Week

2011-12-19T07:08:00.000-08:00

"Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, love divine;
Love was born at Christmas;
Star and angels gave the sign."
Christina Rossetti

Alibi Saturday

2011-12-17T06:28:00.000-08:00

We are spending a lot of time with our hawk, so I thought that I would post updates here on Saturdays...also, it's always good to have an alibi for Saturday, right? lol!

Also, I've gotten a lot of questions about falcons, falconry, etc. and though I am by no means an expert, I can answer some of your questions, so let me know if there's anything specific you'd like to know and I'll try to answer it in a Falconry 101 post in the next couple of weeks.

The first thing we did after getting Alibi home (in spite of being pulled over by the cops lol! was put on her mews jesses-the jesses are little bracelets that go around the tarsus, these are what we us to hold her when we are working with her.

Then Deanna attaches the transmitter antenna to the base of her tail feathers; in case she ever gets lost, we can track her and recover her.

Deanna makes sure all her equipment is put on properly...

then it's Giants turn to hold her on the fist for the first time...

the transfer is made...

and Alibi is on the fist!

How cool is that?

But she gets scared, and bates off Giants glove...

when that happens, you simply scoop the bird up on her side and put her back on the glove...

She thinks about bating again...

but decides against it, and settles on the glove. She is remarkably calm, considering!

But she's definitely had enough stimulation for one day, so it's time to hood her and put her in her mews. Falcons are very visual creatures, so seeing new things can be very frightening to them; but on the other hand, if they can't see something, they're not afraid of it; hence, the hood.

Can I just tell you that hooding is NOT easy?

This is Giants first attempt at hooding...

Every time the hood gets close to her face, she ducks and turns her head...

so Giant tries again...

and again...

and once more...

and success! Thankfully Giants are very patient!

The second the hood is on her head, she just pretty much goes limp, lol! So into her mews and on her perch she goes to get a little R and R before her next feeding and training session.

We are so happy that we trapped our hawk, and definitely have "first child syndrome" with her-we are sure that she is the most beautiful, calmest, smartest falcon EVER LOL!

Stay tuned for more about Alibi and

happytrails!

Gourmet Mac & Cheese with Mushrooms and Truffle Oil

2011-12-15T07:04:00.000-08:00

This fancy mac n' cheese is the perfect addition to your holiday buffets; it's homey and comforting, and at the same time, my new favorite ingredient in the world-white truffle oil-makes it a little bit fancy! It's also easy to make, I think the only downside to this dish is that it may just a teensy bit high in calories, lol! But it's worth it, I promise!

Sorry about the underlining here, I can't get it to go away!

So to start, dice 5 or 6 mushrooms-baby bellas or creminis are nice- then melt 1/4 stick of butter in a small saucepan and sautee mushrooms until they are nice and soft, then stir in 1 tsp of white truffle oil and remove mushrooms from heat.

While the mushrooms are cooking, bring a large of pot of water to boil, salt generously, then add 2 boxes of pasta. BTW, this recipe makes a ton and is very rich, so you can easily halve this recipe if you don't have a large amount of hungry mouths to feed!
Cook pasta 5-7 minutes, or until still slightly al dente; you don't want to over cook it and get mushy mac n' cheese!

Now it's time to add the deliciousness...and the calories!

In a large saucepan, melt a stick of salted butter,

then add 7 Tbsp of flour, mix with butter and stir for 2-3 minutes...

until it's nicely browned and bubbly...

then add 2 C of heavy whipping cream, and 2 C of half & half...cook on medium heat and stir until mixture thickens, about 8-10 minutes then add
1 C each grated Jarlsberg and Gruyere cheeses and 1/2 C Parmesan cheese and stir until melted and smooth.

Add 1/2 C white wine and 2 tsp truffle oil and stir together, then

add the reserved mushrooms in their sauce. When everything is stirred together and smooth,

pour the sauce mixture over the warm pasta and gently mix together. Pour the mixture into a well buttered 2 quart casserole dish. You could easily stop here and have a decadently rich meal, or you could...

top the mac n' cheese mixture with torn pieces of croissant!

Either way, bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and the top golden brown...

then enjoy! This is such a delicious recipe and since it is so rich and decadent, it's perfect for the holiday table!

happy eating and
happytrails!

WordlessWednesday-Christmas Goat

2011-12-14T06:21:00.000-08:00

How Our Hawk Got Her Name

2011-12-13T06:38:00.000-08:00

I don't have any pictures of the event that led to us naming our falcon Alibi, but it's kind of a funny story that I thought I'd share, so here's some random pix of Alibi for you to look at, just because she's SO AWESOME!

Before we'd actually trapped our hawk, we'd kicked around several ideas for names, like Dexter for a male because he could be our 'dark passager' -unless you watch the Showtime series, you won't get that joke, lol!

Before we'd actually trapped our hawk, we'd kicked around several ideas for names, like Dexter for a male because he could be our 'dark passager' -unless you watch the Showtime series, you won't get that joke, lol! Or maybe Chipeta, who was Chief Ourays beloved wife for a female...but anyway, we hadn't decided on anything for sure yet.

Our sponsor Deanna had driven the day we trapped Alibi, so after we trapped her, we got in our truck to go home, while Deanna followed us to our house to show us how to hood her, put her jesses on, etc. So Giant is driving and I'm sitting next to him holding the hawk on my lap and we are driving down Parker Road on the way back to the farm, minding our own business when not one, but two police officers pull us over! Seriously? We have a freshly trapped, nervous, wild falcon in the car, and we're getting pulled over? Yep, this is happening!

So the officer comes to Giants window and says he pulled him over because he's got a cracked windshield and he wasn't wearing a seatbelt, and Giant says "Well, we just trapped this hawk, and I guess I just forgot to put my seatbelt on" The cop looks in the truck window and sees me holding the hawk, gets all puffed up and says "Are you allowed to do that?" So I pipe in and say yes, we've got a license and Giant gets out the falconry license and his drivers license and gives it to the cop, who says "So is this like what they do at the Air Force games?" lol!

So we give him a little mini lesson on falconry, and he says he's not even gonna run our insurance, but he's got to run the drivers license, but he'll hurry so we can get going. While he's running the drivers license, the other cop comes up to the window, and Giant says "you just wanted to come over here and see the hawk, didn't you?" and Cop #2 says "yeah, I did!" lol! So we give him a mini falconry lesson, then Cop #1 comes back to the window and says "99% of the time, I'd give you a ticket for not wearing your seatbelt, but I'm gonna let you go this time so you can get that hawk home!"

So we've only had the bird for about 20 minutes, and she's already gotten us out of a ticket, and it turns out she's a great alibi, so Alibi she is!

Stay tuned for lots more posts about our Alibi, and
happytrails!

Quote of the Week

2011-12-12T06:14:00.000-08:00

"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world,
and behold,
everything is softer and more beautiful."
Norman Vincent Peale

Trapping Our Red Tailed Hawk

2011-12-09T21:00:00.000-08:00

When you're out looking to trap a hawk, you see hawks everywhere...but not always the 'right' hawk. As Apprentice Falconers, we are only allowed to have either a kestrel or a passage red tailed hawk. A 'passage' hawk is a hawk who has left the nest and is out hunting on its own, but hasn't gone through its first moult yet, which means the bird is still a juvenile about 8 months old. No Falconer is allowed to trap an adult bird, so as not to interfere with the natural balance. Also, we were hoping to trap a female, as they are larger, and better hunters...

We went trapping last Sunday and saw about 2 dozen adult red tails, about a half a dozen ferruginous hawks, several prairie falcons, 4 or 5 harriers, 3 merlins, 3 juvenile bald eagles, tons of kestrels...and only 3 passage red tails, none of whom were interested in coming to the trap, so we were skunked for the day...

We went back out on Thursday, which started out a lot like Sunday...several adult red tails, but no passagers...

We finally got lucky and spied this passage hawk on the roof of a medical building...we set out the trap, but there were just too many people coming and going out of the building, and the bird wasn't budging...

Then we saw 2 more adults...

then we spied this juvenile on the roof of a house, so we set out the trap...

and boom! Before we could even get the car out of range, she swooped down and was caught almost immediately.

The trap is called a Bal-Chatri trap and it's simply a domed metal trap with monofilament nooses tied all over the outside. Gerbils or mice are placed inside the trap to get the hawks attention, then when she flies down to get the rodents, her foot is trapped in one of the nooses. BTW, the bird can't get to the rodents and they aren't harmed at all...

Our sponsor Deanna and Giant unloose the hawk from the trap, and Deanna shows us what to look for in a good hawk, like feather condition, no signs of bumblefoot, etc...

While this bird was a beautiful, healthy female, we were hoping for a larger bird and decided that she was just a little too small...

so we let her go...

and she flew to the top of a power pole right next to the roof she had been on before she was trapped...

She just stood there and looked at us, like "what was that all about?" lol!

So we drove around a little more, then spied this passager on a light pole in a parking lot...we put out the trap...and waited...finally after about 20 minutes to looking at the gerbils out of the corner of her eye, she decided to fly down to the trap...and that's when everybody in town decided to drive by and take pictures of her sitting on the ground! We were afraid that the hawk would 'bump' or fly away, but she stood her ground, and finally everyone left and she got back on the trap...

It's hard to tell from the car whether the birds foot is actually caught in a noose, or if they are just sitting on the trap thinking about how to get to the gerbils...
The way she has her wings spread over the trap is called 'mantling' which is what the bird does to protect her prey from other predators...

She was calmly sitting on the trap for quite a while, and we finally had to take a chance and go see if she was trapped...

and she was! I helped Deanna un-noose her, and we looked her over-she was a very large, healthy looking female red tail, exactly what we wanted!

so we put her in the car and took her home! We did have a slight run-in with the law on the way home however...stay tuned to hear about our little adventure, and how our hawk got her name!

happy hunting and happytrails!

Snowy Fowl Doings

2011-12-08T05:37:00.000-08:00

We've had snow and cold here at Kindred Spirits Farm-this was the first time the Reds and Americauna's had experienced snow...

Even though the fowl don't really feel the cold, (there's a reason your warm winter coats and comforters are stuffed with down!) they're kind of afraid to step out in deep snow, so they all huddled around the doorway and looked at the frightening new phenomenon...

The bigger Reds just leaned over the Americauna's to have a look...

Finally the bottleneck was broken free when someone got shoved out of the coop...

Once they realized the Americauna that was shoved out was none the worse for wear, the rest of them left the coop to explore...they don't like the snow on their feet, but they love to eat it, very funny!

This Red still isn't sure though, and perches on the coop door, just to be safe lol!

The turkeys don't mind the snow on their feet at all...and as a bonus, they are camouflaged, lol!

Leonard the Magnificent was really funny-when I opened the door to his run...

he just kept looking around like "what the HECK???"

finally, he too braved the scary white stuff...

and did not like it on his prissy peacock feet at all! Even though the fowl don't have a problem with cold on its own, they rapidly lose body heat if they get wet, or the wind is really strong, so I close their windows and doors when the weather calls for it. I have to take down Leonard's outside perch when I close his front window, so he was perching on quite a slant to get his precious feet out of the snow...

I fixed his perch for him to save his dignity...but he was still a little pouty, lol!

Wear your down coats, keep your feet dry and

happytrails!

WordlessWednesday-Christmas Yorkie

2011-12-07T05:37:00.000-08:00

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

2011-12-06T06:01:00.000-08:00

This casserole is one of my favorite easy winter recipes. You can make it ahead of time and refrigerate it, then just pop it in the oven an hour before dinner!
Mix together 1 can 'cream of' soup-almost any kind will do, but I like mushroom or celery best. Add 1 small can green chilis, 1 C sour cream and 1/2 C mayonnaise...

Season with salt, pepper, garlic salt, ground cumin, ground coriander, chili powder and basil. Stir in 5-6 cups of cooked shredded chicken.

Spray the bottom of an 81/2 x 11 pan with vegetable oil and line the pan with corn tortillas, overlapping them like this...

then spoon the chicken mixture on top...

and add another layer of the corn tortillas.

Top with shredded Mexican cheese, chives and chili powder...

and bake at 350 for about an hour...

This is a very tasty dish and way easier than rolling individual enchiladas. Sometimes I double the chicken mixture and freeze the other half, that way if I'm in a pinch for supper, I can just thaw out the mixture and some corn tortillas and ta-da! Supper is served!
Enjoy and happytrails!

Quote of the Week

2011-12-05T08:51:00.001-08:00

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives."

anonymous

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch: Part XVIII

2011-12-03T06:51:00.000-08:00

While some of the farm chores slow down a little bit in the winter, at least until the goats start kidding, there is still always some maintenance to be done; in this case it's goat hoof trimming for our Boer herd stud, Storm...

Storm is mellow in the extreme, and just lets Giant trim his feet while he continues eating, lol!

Baby Fawn is all grown up now and is very independent...Silly Fawns ears look more like a dairy goat than a Dwarf Nigerian goat, and I kept hoping that she would grow into her ears...

but nope! LOL!

and speaking of baby goats, from the size of my does, I'm expecting quite a few of them in a few months...these girls are fatties for sure!

Check out Lola, her belly is huge! There better be more than hay and grain in there, lol!

We made a road trip to Laramie to see a Cowboys game...

We're all decked out in our team colors, but it didn't really matter, because...

it was a frigid 26 degrees and we had on layers and layers of clothes! We were more than half frozen before the game was over, but the Mighty Pokes were victorious, so it was worth it!

Our new leisure time activity is target shooting with the pellet gun...

of course Giant is the best shot...

but FarmGiantDaughter and I sneak off and practice whenever we can, hoping someday to out shoot him!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, we the baby of last years turkeys, the 40 pounder this year...

When you see how huge the cooked bird in relation to Giant, it's hard to believe that last years turkey weighed 47 pounds cooked!

Speaking of birds, we had a visit from an owl a few days ago...we thought it was pretty cool that he was hanging out-but he had evil on his mind and tragedy soon ensued...stay tuned for the next installment of fowl doings...

Until then, happytrails!

If You Build It They Will Lay Fowl Doings

2011-12-01T06:21:00.000-08:00

A few days after we put the Reds and the Americaunas in their new coop, we gave them a bale of straw...we put the straw in the coop, cut the baling twine, and left the spreading of the straw to the hens...

Chickens love to scratch, and in only a couple of days had their straw spread out all over the floor of their coop!

I was sure the Reds and the older Americaunas would be laying eggs by now, but I've not had an egg yet!

When I first got Leonard the Magnificent, someone had told me, or I had read somewhere that peacocks have a particular food they love, love, love...

which is meal worms, so I bought some for Leonard the M, and guess what?

He loves, loves, loves them! When I go down to feed the "north 40 fowl" which is what I call the trailer-trash turkeys, the Reds and Americauna chickens, the peasants and the Leonard now, he comes right up to the end of his run to watch me get his worms for him, and if he's inside his coop when I come down, all I have to do is say "Worms, Leonard!" and he jumps down of his indoor perch and comes hurrying out, so cute!

The peasants are almost in their full adult plumage, and are gorgeous, especially the male Lady Swinhoe...

The male is getting a very light barred tail and is getting to be a blue/green on his head and neck, and the females are not as showy, but have beautifully barred feathers...

I've been trying and trying to get a good picture of them, but as you may recall, they are very mentally unstable...

and most of my pheasant photos look like this, lol!

In an effort to get the north 40 hens to start laying, I purchased these buckets last week...can anyone guess what their purpose is?

Giant built a simple frame for the buckets out of scrap lumber he found by the barn...

and this is the finished product...anyone know what they are yet?

nesting boxes! This was Giants idea, aren't they cute? Since the Americaunas lay eggs in shades of pale green, blue and pink, I got them co-ordinating buckets to lay in lol!

Now get in there and lay some eggs girls!!!

Luckily for the new batch of turkeys, we still had the 40 pounder left over from last years turkeys, so they were all spared-for the time being. We have 4 toms and only 2 hens, so at least 2 of the toms are completely superfluous...

,

but they will gobble on command, lol...check out this video...

Until the next installment, gobble gobble and happytrails!

WordlessWednesday-black and white and red all over

2011-11-30T05:52:00.000-08:00

Wine Cork Wreath

2011-11-29T06:34:00.000-08:00

My step-mother recently made a wine cork wreath that was so cute, I just had to copy her! I'd been saving wine corks for a long time so I had enough to make the wreath, but be warned, it takes a LOT of corks! If you don't have enough saved, Google "wine corks for crafting" and many sites will come up, they're easy to find and pretty inexpensive...

You only need a few supplies to get started-a straw wreath form, corks, Spanish moss and a glue gun.

Just plug in your glue gun, grab a cork and get started! Make sure that you're not too neat, the wreath looks better when the corks are glued on in a random fashion like this...

Make your way all the way around the wreath-don't forget the inside and outside, these areas will be visible when you hang your wreath on the wall...

When you've got as many corks on the wreath as you can, cut off small bunches of the moss and hot glue them into any holes or bare spots...

I trimmed my moss down some so it didn't cover up the corks...

Now is the time to add a few more corks to give the wreath more of a 3-D look-you may want to save corks from bottles of wine that have meaning for you, or just have designs you like...

I put this cork on the top layer where it will stand out because of the little inspirational quote...

and this cork is actually from Giants favorite Pendleton whiskey, so it personalizes the wreath even more...

and this cork was from a memorable bottle we shared on one of our adventures...

For a final touch to add a little shimmer and shine, I sprayed the wreath with a little bit of Glimmer Mist...it adds just the right touch of color and shine to a monochromactic project...

For a final finishing touch, I glued on some feathers from my chickens, pheasants and peacock-you could use feathers, dried flowers, etc.etc. Then hot glue a toothed picture hanger to the back of the wreath, hang, and

enjoy! The whole project only took a couple of hours. I think it's a really cute wreath that just says Fall and Winter Holidays to me! You could also lay the wreath flat and use it as a centerpiece with some candles or wine bottles in the middle for a party or special dinner...

Please share pix if you make this wreath, I want to see your creations!
happy crafting and happytrails!

Quote of the Week

2011-11-28T06:21:00.000-08:00

"Do not meddle in the affairs of Giants, for you are tiny and easily squished."
Giant

ThankFull

2011-11-26T06:59:00.000-08:00

The Kindred Spirits Farm annual Thanksgiving feeding frenzy began on Friday night when Giant and FarmGiantDaughter collaborated on home-made pizzas'-Giants world famous crust and FGD's 'Food Science' (aka Home Ec for you fellow oldsters) sauce...so delish!

Then Giant started making a lemon meringue pie...

which turned out picture perfect!!!

Then it was up early the next morning to prep and put this years 40 pound Turkeysaurus Rex in the oven...

3:50 a.m...this beast will be ready about 13 hours from now!

Will it fit in the oven? Just barely! Back to bed for a little cat-nap!

More cooking is in order! Giant and FGD make us a Giant holiday traditional mid-afternoon snack...

Mussels!

or muscles, get it? har!

While Giant continued to torture us with the unbelievably delicious smells coming from the kitchen, I set the table...

I used a little pie pumpkin from our garden for a vase and filled it with a few mums, some eucalyptus and feathers from our chickens and pheasants-I love mixing feathers into flower arrangements! One of my Thanksgiving candles was on the table...

as were Giants heirloom antler carving tools set in tooled sterling silver-these pieces are so beautiful!

The pumpkin-like stems from an arrangement Giant bought me a few weeks earlier (does anyone know what these are?) rested on my hand embroidered elk napkins along with pheasant feathers, the chargers and plates we bought at Rockin' P Ranch with our elk camp tips, and beautiful fall themed dessert plates Giant surprised me with a few weeks ago...he is such a good Giant!

FINALLY the turkey was done! Gorgeous!

This is ONE leg on a regular sized dinner plate!

A lot of guys spend Thanksgiving sitting around watching football and drinking beer...this is what Giant did on Thanksgiving Day...

made oyster stuffing...

blanched asparagus...

mashed potatoes...

giblet gravy...

cranberry apple relish...

and sweet potato casserole, all from scratch! What a guy!

Every bit was delicious beyond belief, and I stuffed myself and loved every perfect bite!

It was another wonderful holiday with fun, laughter, delicious food and great company!
I am so thankful to have such a wonderful life!

"We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures."
Thornton Wilder

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and
happytrails!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T06:31:00.000-08:00

"Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don't unravel."
Anonymous

WordlessWednesday-happiness dwells here

2011-11-23T06:43:00.000-08:00

Honey Pumpkin Cake

2011-11-22T07:04:00.000-08:00

This rich moist spice cake is so delish and would be a perfect cake for your Thanksgiving buffet!

Cream together 3/4 C softened butter and
1 1/2 C honey (from your friendly local bee keeper ;) until smooth...

then add 2 large farmfresh eggs one at a time and beat until fully incorporated, then...

add 1 tsp vanilla and 1/3 C sour cream and set aside...

Sift together 3 C flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp each all spice, nutmeg and ginger and stir into honey mixture...

Then add 1 1/2 C pumpkin puree...

and 1 C each chopped pecans, dried cranberries and white chocolate chips...

bake @ 375 in a well buttered and floured bundt pan for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean...

mmmmm! Smells as good as it tastes! You could simply top this yummy cake with powdered sugar...

or you could top it with this easy Dulce de Leche sauce...

Just make a double boiler out of whatever you have around, and heat the milk over low heat for about an hour and a half until it gets darker and thickens up...

then drizzle the Dulce de Leche over the top...

The honey and sour cream keep this cake moist even at my high altitude...If you're making it at low altitude add 1/2 tsp baking soda and bake @ 350...

This is the perfect fall cake, delish as a dessert or a buffet table...or with a cup of hot tea for breakfast!

happy baking and happytrails!

Quote of the Week

2011-11-21T06:38:00.000-08:00

"Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way."
Native American Saying

Homemade Thanksgiving Candles

2011-11-19T07:53:00.000-08:00

This is a quick, fun and easy craft, I love making these candles! All you need are some decorative papers, stickers, etc., the cheapest candles you can find, white tissue and a heat tool. They will be a cute table centerpiece, and I made extras to give my guests, let's get started!

Pull out your favorite paper art supplies and make fall/Thanksgiving collages...

Measure your collage so that it's the size of your candle, then...

use a craft knife and a straight edge and cut tissue paper into a 8 1/2 x 11 size...

using repositionable glue, adhere your tissue onto a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock-this will get the tissue through the printer-it also helps to push the cardstock/tissue down into the feeder of the printer. Copy your image onto the tissue then...

take the tissue off the cardstock and wrap the tissue around the candle, smoothing out any bumps, and make sure that the top of the candle is a little bit higher than the edge of the tissue...you can use a drop of glue to hold the tissue in place while you melt the candle...

Use your heat tool to melt the tissue into the candle-make sure you move the tool around so you don't get drips from the candle-you can tell when the candle has melted over the tissue by the shiny look...

then you can add the cute 3D touches to your candles, like these brads-I just pushed them into the candle...

I added a tag and some leaves I'd pressed to this one...

a few little crystals for this candle...

and charm and a crystal for this candle...

and sequins for this one...

a few vintage buttons are cute...

These are so fun and addictive to make, and they only take a few minutes per candle...These will look so cute on the table! Next year, I think that I'll personalize them with photos...

Have a bright and beautiful Thanksgiving and
happytrails!

Stuffing Stuffed Pumpkin

2011-11-17T06:44:00.000-08:00

I like a traditional Thanksgiving menu, but I like to add little twists to keep it fresh as well. I always try out a new recipe before Thanksgiving to see if it's Thanksgiving worthy, and this cornbread and bacon stuffed pumpkin is totally worthy!!! I love it and will be making it to go with Thanksgiving dinner as well as other fall and winter meals-it's comforting, homey, delish and easy!

Take about a 3 pound pumpkin-this little cutie came from our garden-hollow it out and season the inside of the pumpkin generously with sea salt, pepper and celery salt-save the seeds for roasting of course!

While you're hollowing out your pumpkin, fry about 6 slices of bacon-I know this pic looks like more than 6, these are cut in half to fit in my pan!

Cube up about 2 Cups of stale cornbread-you could use any stale bread, but the cornbread definitely adds another level to the flavors! I used this cornbread recipe...

Cube 2 Cups of sharp Cheddar cheese...

Dice up 4-5 cloves of garlic...

and 1/4 Cup chives, salt and pepper and a pinch of nutmeg...

Mix together and then add...

2/3 Cup of heavy cream and mix...

and stuff the stuffing into your pumpkin! Put the cap back on the pumpkin and bake at 350 for about an hour and 40 minutes, then take the cap off and cook for another 20 minutes to brown the stuffing...

Cut into wedges and enjoy! This is sooooo good! The sweetness of the pumpkin and honey corn bread marry perfectly with the sharpness of the cheese and the saltiness of the bacon...bacon, mmm...

I served it with my slow cooker apple chicken...recipe coming up!

Try this for your fall dinners...you'll love it!

happy eating and happytrails!

WordlessWednesday-Goshawk

2011-11-16T06:11:00.000-08:00

Elk Camp 2011 Part 3

2011-11-15T06:54:00.000-08:00

After the hunters left and we did our camp closing chores, we headed back to my favorite place in the whole world, gorgeous Ouray CO...

We always stay at the Box Canyon Lodge; we've stayed there so many times in the last couple of years that we've gotten to know the staff...this time the Honeymoon Suite wasn't reserved, so they upgraded us at no charge-Sweet!

Here's the view from our private balcony where we sat and drank our wine in the evening-sweet!

After we got settled in our suite, we went to my favorite bookstore anywhere, Buckskin Booksellers. It's an amazingly comprehensive store, and has an excellent selection of books about the West. The store is inside a beautiful, historic hotel that has just been restored-both are a definite must-see if you're in the area.

Next stop-my favorite store ever, Rockin' P Ranch! This place has it all-clothes and jewelry, artwork, housewares, you name it, they've got it and it's CUTE!

The owners, Oleta and her daughter Patty, are Texas girls, and they are a hoot! They dress me up every time I come in, and they've always got a hilarious story or two to tell. Last time I was in, they were draping me with clothes and jewelry and I said "Yes, this is really cute, but a little gawdy with everything else I have on" and Oleta said "Darlin', you can never be too rich or too gawdy" LOL! Once while we were in there, we were downstairs with Oleta, and Patty yelled down the stairs, "Is there a man down there?" Giant thought it over and yelled back up at Patty "It depends..." LOL!

They always manage to divest me of all my Elk Camp tip money...and most of GreatWhiteHuntingGuides tip money too, lol!

Giant says this is the majority of my, Patty and Oleta's conversation "That's cute!" That's SO cute!" That's SUPER cute!" LOL!
Do not pass this store up if you ever get a chance to go there...they also have a booth at
Cowboy Christmas and Stock Show if you can't make it to the store...tell 'em I sent y'all!

Next stop-vapor caves and massage at the Weisbaden
The natural vapor caves are amazing, and after you get too hot inside the caves, you can take a dip in the hot springs pool...

Here's Giant apres vapor cave and pool, waiting for his massage...

Is there something you want to tell us Giant? lol!

See why I love Ouray so much? There are also some excellent restaurants here that I'll review for you in my next Ouray installment...

One thing we'd never done in Ouray before, and Giant had never done at all was to go see a performance of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which was performed at the historic Ouray Opera House...

Since it was Giants first time at RHPS, he was marked as a Virgin...

Then was publically de-Virginized along with the other Virgins...

It was a very good performance and we had a lot of fun watching the actors mimic the movie-the audience was really into it and lots of popcorn and cards were thrown lol!

Another amazing few days in Ouray...shhhh don't tell anyone, but Ouray is my favorite part of Elk Camp lol!

happytrails!

Quote of the Week

2011-11-14T06:19:00.000-08:00

"Reflect upon your present blessings,
of which every man has plenty;
Not on your past misfortunes,
Of which all men have some."
Charles Dickens

Meanwhile Back at the Ranch: Part XVII

2011-11-11T07:53:00.000-08:00

It's been cold and snowy here at Kindred Spirits Farm, but the cold weather has made for some really spectacular sunrises...

We've got a big stack of firewood, almost 3 cords worth...hopefully that will last us most of the winter, but since the price of propane is totally scandalous, I refuse to turn on the propane heat if at all possible, so we use a lot of firewood!

As I told you in the last installment, we passed our falconry test, yay! Our mews is finished and awaiting inspection by the Division of Wildlife, then we can go and trap our red-tail hawk, we can't wait!

As Apprentice Falconers, we are required by the D.O.W. to be sponsored by a General or Master Falconer for two years-we were so thrilled that our friend and Master Falconer, Deanna has agreed to be our Sponsor! We went hunting with her last weekend,

And this weekend we went to our first Falconry Meet in Ft. Morgan. There were about 30 people there, this was the group we started out hunting with, all spread out and trying to flush a rabbit.

We had not luck with that field, so we broke off into smaller groups and headed to a new field. We had a hard time flushing rabbits, but we did find...

a rattlesnake, which Giant dispatched...I don't call him "The Reaper" for nothing lol!

And a little while later, we ran across another rattler! It has hard-frozen several times, and the day was not that warm, only in the 40's, so I was surprised to see rattlesnakes out, but out they were! The Reaper took care of this snake as well...

and clearly has no worries about lounging around on the ground! We had a couple of chases, but no luck with hawks getting bunnies...

then Roger and his dog flushed a pheasant...

but the pheasant freezes, and Rogers goshawk doesn't see it yet...

but the pheasant can't hold still enough to escape a falcons eye and the goshawk makes the slip...

and it's a near miss!

The pheasant was fast, but the goshawk was faster-it all happened too far away for my camera to capture, but suffice it to say, I now have some beautiful pheasant feathers to decorate my Thanksgiving table courtesy of the goshawk!
Karma and another red-tail also got pheasants, so it was a good day in the field!
Until next time-happytrails!

WordlessWednesday-yonder

2011-11-09T06:55:00.000-08:00

Cowboy Stew

2011-11-08T07:19:00.000-08:00

This recipe is super easy and kid-friendly, it's been a favorite of Dane's his whole life. I made it up out of desperation one day when I didn't know what to fix for supper and just started throwing things in the crock pot lol!
Brown 1 lb of burger with a diced onion and a couple cloves of garlic...

Season with salt, pepper, celery salt, chili pepper, cilantro flakes, cumin and ground coriander, cook until burger is browned and onions are cooked...

Throw it in the crock pot and add 1 can of regular Rotel, 1 can of Ranch beans with liquid and 2 cans of corn with liquid and let cook for as long as you've got, or until it's hot lol!

About an hour before you're ready to serve, add pasta; a thick hearty pasta works best, along with one can of tomato soup, a scant palm full of brown sugar and a couple dashes of Tabasco. (sorry, I forgot to get a pic!) If the pasta sucks up too much of the liquid, just add water...

When Dane was little, he started calling this "Cowboy Stew"...I never did know why, and now he can't remember, but Cowboy Stew it is!
Enjoy and
happytrails!

Quote of the Week

2011-11-07T07:07:00.000-08:00

"All that we behold is full of blessings."
William Wordsworth

Elk Camp 2011 Part II

2011-11-05T06:22:00.000-07:00

After GreatWhiteHuntingGiant shot his cow, we had time to go tour around the ranch and look at a few places I hadn't gotten to see yet, mainly the area of the ranch known at camp as "Kyle's Office"

He points us in the right direction lol...

then surveys his work space...

Everything is just the way it was when he last left work lol!

This is definitely the face of a guy who loves his job!

Giant spends the next few minutes pointing out places where the big one didn't get away!

I love visiting Giant at his office lol!

Seriously, the pictures do not do this landscaped justice, it's super beautiful, but almost foreign like the face of the moon and the look of it changes entirely depending on the light as well...

After our sight-seeing tour, we headed back to camp and Giant and Jackie Blue started dressing our elk...

The hunters all left camp the next morning...

So it was group photo time-the antlers where photographed first, naturally lol! Everyone was happy with the elk they shot...

and they all went home happy!

and every year during the photo shoot, someone has to put their antlers on Giants head...they actually fit him pretty well!

Now that elk hunting is over for the year, our next adventure is trapping a hawk and hunting with her, stay tuned and

happytrails!

Fowl Doings On The Move

2011-11-03T06:39:00.000-07:00

The chickens are on the move here at Kindred Spirits Farm! Archimedes was acting like she wanted to brood, so we moved her into the hatchery stall in the barn with Little Broody Hen-however it turns out that Archimedes didn't want to brood at all, she just didn't want to be in the fowl Gen Pop...she kept running Broody off of her eggs and generally upsetting Broody, so it was back to Gen Pop for Archimedes...

Some of the the chickens were happy to see her and most of them came over to check her out...

Martha and Edna were over saying hello and catching up on the news with Archimedes when Cogburn noticed her...When Archimedes moved into the hatching stall, Cogburn still wasn't fully in 'rooster-mode' shall we say...

He came over and popped a squint at Archimedes and decided he liked the look of her quite a bit...

so he ran the other hens off...

and started strutting for all he was worth lol!

Look at him, what a ham! He's all puffed up to make himself look bigger and has his tail held up high so Archimedes can admire his long and iridescent tail feathers lol! Maybe it's because I spend too much time out here on the farm, but I find my chickens to be very entertaining lol!

And my secondary coop is finally, finally done, hooray!!! We moved the groups of New Hampshire Reds and the baby group of Americaunas out of the hovels and the bigger Americaunas out of the trailer they were sharing with the turkeys...

and put them all in the coop next door to Leonard the Magnificent-they were all happy to get into their nice room coop and chicken run!

Leonard really likes having them next door and struts around for them all day long-shhh, don't remind him his tail feathers have molted out lol!

Until the next installment of Fowl Doings, listen to what the Little Red Hen says, and

happytrails!

WordlessWednesday-currant

2011-11-02T06:59:00.000-07:00

Queen for a Day

2011-11-01T06:44:00.000-07:00

I love Halloween! Last year we were at Elk Camp over Halloween and didn't get a chance to dress up, bummer! This year we were home for Halloween and I decided I wanted to be a Queen Bee...I wanted to have a co-ordinating outfit for Giant, but couldn't decide what I wanted him to be, since I didn't want him to go as a drone...so this is what he came up with...

Winnie the Pooh! I love it!

To make my Queen Bee outfit, I bought striped tights, a couple of bee kits with stingers and antennae and a tiara-I took antennae off one of the headbands and attached them to the tiara, sewed the stinger on the back of my puffy crinoline style skirt and added a vintage chandelier crystal to the store bought stinger to make it more realistic-and cuter! I put yellow duct tape stripes around a long sleeved black t-shirt, put on my black lacy boots, and viola-Queen Bee!

Giants costume was even easier-all I had to buy for him were Pooh ears! He put a pillow under a UW sweatshirt he already had, put a red t-shirt over it and rolled up the hem, added the ears and he was Pooh! He even had a little honey pot to carry with him...unfortunately, it was empty,
"oh bother!"

For the goodie basket I added duct tape stripes and hot glued wings on the sides and another antenna set on the handle, added another vintage chandelier crystal for a stinger and a stuffed bee went in front-I thought it turned out very cute! But what kind of candy do a Queen Bee and Winnie the Pooh hand out for Halloween?

BitOHoney of course!

Once we were ready, we headed off to Elizabeths Halloween Street Festival...and guess what? The place was swarming with little worker bees!

There were serious bees...

and baby bees

and doggie bees...

and sweet bees...

and fancy bees...

and even a big drone bee!

As is only proper, I was surrounded by attendants all day! But I wasn't the only one who found peeps there...

Pooh found a little Tigger! But he was NOT the only one...

There was also a bigger Tigger...

and we also found a Piglet! While we were talking to Piglet, she informed us that "I'm not weawy Pigwet, I'm just Miwanda" lol!

But the festival wasn't all residents of the 100 Acre Wood...

There were little monsters...

and pirates...

and a very beautiful mermaid...

Red Riding Hood and a Big Bad Wolf....

and a Dark-ish Angel...her shirt says
"Come to the Darkside, We have Cookies" LOL!

We had lots of fun at the Halloween Festival handing out candy to all the cute little beings and then had more grown-up fun with our adult friends at the tapas bar later!

And last but not least, in the spirit of Halloween I thought that I would show you my boo-bees...

Hope you all had a spooktacular Halloween and
happytrails!

Quoth of the Week

2011-10-31T06:18:00.000-07:00

"Nevermore"
The Raven