Short & Sweet!

I don't have time for a post today because I need to get the floors done before the neighbor gets here, so I thought I would just share a few of my favorite recipes instead.

Be sure to click on the recipe tittles for the recipe links.

As everyone knows, I love, love, love lemon bars, and here's my favorite recipe.

Betty Crocker Lemon Bars

How about Pioneer Womans Pan Fried Pork Chops...
I. Love. Them

PW's Pork Chops

Hmmmm... Notice I put dessert first?

And the last recipe is one of my favorites for sure, but it's for your favorite four legged friend.

You can find a ton of recipes for these, but this one's my favorite and sometimes I even add a little molasses.

Peanut Butter Pooch Treats

That's all I have time for today!

Peas

Pig In A Haystack

Seems like it was a really long weekend and I didn't even really do anything...
Well, I guess I did A LOT but it really doesn't amount to anything.
I made chocolate chip cookies and loaded tacos on Friday night
AND
the Neighbor slept over.
He decided not to have tacos and instead went with pickles, bananas, pineapple, yogurt and hot dogs.
I guess that's what a super hero eats.

Notice Rockets water bottle thawing in the background

I don't remember what I did Saturday so that must mean that I did laundry, ate Fridays cookies and watched Lifetime.

I'm not 100% sure.

Sunday I cleaned out the chicken coop and pen and put new straw in the pig house that Pearl moved out of. 

I think she got tired of all the goose racket so she moved up to the barn and turned into a loose hay hoarder.

Seriously, she has hay piled a mile high and still goes in search of more.

She also has stashed apples, rotten eggs and any other delicacy she can get her little pig feet on.

Hoarder Hog

So Pearls old pig house is now Dingles new lamb house. 

She doesn't sleep outside yet because of the coyotes, but she is getting used to being in the barnyard during the day.

She's gone from thinking she's a dog to thinking she's a chicken.

If she was an Indian like Kevin Costner her name would be Dances with Chickens.

Oh well, whatever gets her out of the house and off the deck.

Speaking of chickens, I'm getting eggs again.

I'm not sure if it's a nature thing or what, but even with a light on a timer we haven't been getting eggs. 

I changed their feed to wild game bird crumbles because I read somewhere that will kick start egg production and guess what... 

It did!

Maybe.

I'm not sure if it was the new feed or Mother Nature because I know other people (Margie Aaron Patrick) who also started getting eggs almost the same DAY as we did.

Oh well, I'm going back to layer feed when the game bird is gone.

I also mix in some scratch for heat during the cold months.

I need to keep my girls warm.

I don't always keep them wrapped in blankets...

So that's about it.

I need to go vacuum before the neighbor gets here, and I have a BUNCH of hooking to do today on some dishcloths I promised Karen last week :)

Peas

Rings & Things

I think I've turned the corner out of Sicktown.
This has been such a drag, horrible chest pain, headache, earache, so congested it feels like my teeth are out of alignment and a cough that will. Not. Quit.
But enough about that.

During the last four days I've become obsessed with the Monarchy.
It started with The Other Boleyn Sister and took off from there, and stupid Netflix has done nothing but feed the craziness and now I'm going to have to go "paid" to see Elizabeth and all the other good stuff that they hold out on you.
Maybe it's because I haven't been able to watch season Two of Downton Abbey so of course I can't watch season three and I'm feeling a bit deprived and left behind.
I don't know.
My biggest fear is that I'm going to start speaking like I'm part of the Royal family and wheel into the devils playground Winco for some groceries and then wait around for a footman to help me out to the parking lot with my "buggy".

It's time to wean Dingle.
She's outside all day now but all she does is cry wanting in.

Excuse the dirty window and Wendy's "butt" bucket.

It's been a week.
Shouldn't she be over it by now?
I guess the fact that she still sleeps on a blanket in front of the dryer at night doesn't help matters, but it's just to cold to leave her out at night.
This same thing happened with her mother, Belle.
Belle thought she was a house sheep until she was about six months old and given the opportunity would still come in the house and take a nap.

Belle and boots

Every time you would open the door she would muscle by you trying to get in the kitchen for a snack and finally she got so big it took two of us to wrangle her out.
The day we put her in the pasture for good was so sad because the rest of the sheep thought she was a weirdo and and wouldn't have anything to do with her. To this day she prefers the company of lamas over sheep because she thinks she's better than them and just looks down her nose as she passes by.

I'm taking Wyatt to the rock store today to restock.
Sounds funny... Restock the rocks.
He's doing really well with his new jewelry business and can't even keep his coolest rings in supply, which of course is very good news.
I think I told you that a local school asked if he would donate a ring (he sent them three) for an auction and did a feature on him as a young local artist.
Pretty exciting stuff.
Mike's log truck bosses wife Coco is a jeweler. She asked to see some of Wyatt's work and really liked it and has offered to teach him how to solder and a few other tricks of the trade.
I know I show you his stuff all the time, but what can I say, I'm partial to his work :)

Peas.

Quarantine

Well I think it's safe to say cold and flu season has made it to our house.
Mike got it first and I have to confess I am the MOST unsympathetic wife when it comes to sick husbands.
Seriously. Ask any of them.
So while he was sick I convinced myself he was really just faking and wanting to sleep in.
I was wrong, really wrong. He. Was. Sick
How do I know this you may ask?
Because now I'm sick.
I've been fighting it for the last two days, but I give up, sick wins, I'll take my place on the couch with my box of kleenex and with my sickest scratchiest voice I will apologize to my husband for not acknowledging his sick and ask him for a cup of tea not to hot and not to sweet in my special cup.
Then I'll ask him if he could please feed the ewes and lambs in the maternity ward, check the chickens, collect the eggs, make sure the herd (geese, llamas, sheep and donkeys) have water and don't forget to feed them this afternoon, check the dogs and cat food and don't forget the fish, OH and don't forget the little birds inside, they need their water bottle checked, food cup filled and the bottom feeders quail need to have their food checked too.
I think that's all.
I think I'll do it myself and just stick with asking for the tea.
I wonder when he'll be home.... I guess I'll get my own tea.

Yesterday Today I was going to show you the bib I made for the neighbor, but he wore it home and threw up on it because he's sick too.
We'll talk about bibs on Monday

Peas

Caramel Corn Recipe

Not much time this morning so here's the recipe for our all time favorite any occasion snack!
Caramel Popcorn

INGREDIENTS 

Cooking spray

4 quarts popped popcorn(2 scoops if you use an air popper. I use about 1 1/2 though)

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1/2 cup butter

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS

Spray a large roasting pan with the cooking spray and place the popped corn in the oven at 250 to stay warm until the caramel is ready.

Combine the butter, brown sugar, corn syrup and salt and bring to a slow boil on medium heat.

Boil unstirred for 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in the baking soda and vanilla and stir until completely combined.

Pour the caramel over the popcorn, stirring as you go to make sure the popcorn is evenly coated.

Bake for 45 minutes stirring well every 15 minutes
.
When it's done, dump it out on some tin foil, let it cool and enjoy!



I have to get going, The Neighbor is coming this morning so I have to get the dishwasher unloaded and the laundry folded so we can make some bibs today.
I'm seriously thinking I need to find some new assistants.
The sheep and the neighbor baby cause more chaos than completion.

Peas.

Kitchen Crayons

The other day I asked if I had told you about the crayons I made for the neighbor, and looking back I don't think that I did.

Today I'll give a little tutorial about how I made them and by little I mean short and sweet because there isn't much to it!

I could probably look up something on Google and get the exact how to's but I usually just wing stuff like this.

First and most importantly make sure you have a good assistant.

If you can't find a good assistant a sheep will do.

Heat up the oven to 200.

Don't you wish that self cleaning really meant self cleaning and that every time you opened your oven it was clean because it had just self cleaned itself?

Me too.

Then decide on a mold. 

I have quite a few silicone molds that I use for soap and smellies, but I think I'm gong to go with the bumpy one that's fun for little fingers to hold.

I get my crayons at the Dollar Store or Walmart, but if you have kids you already have a gamillion broken crayons around the house so just use them.

Remove the paper from the crayons while wishing your assistant had opposable thumbs so she could actually be of some help.

Like this....

Now break them all up. 

I like to leave them in medium size pieces so you get more color bang for your buck.

Ok so now you have this

Now load up your cups.

 And put the mold on a baking sheet.

And place the baking sheet in the oven and make yourself a cup of tea while you wait for the magic to happen.

In about 20 minutes they will have melted and look like this...

Now turn the oven off, crack the door and let them sit until they cool.

I know, I know, they're already "cool" but let them sit until they're set.

And that's it!

You're done, now all you have to do is find a nice white wall some paper and start coloring!

Have fun :D

Peas.

The Kitchen Sink

A little boy that stinks and smells
Put him in the sink and he laughs and yells

Bubbles on the counter
Water on the floor

Splishing and splashing and squeeling for more

Soaking wet we laugh and play
It's amazing how love
Grows
Bigger
Each
Day

Peas.

Got Milk?

I've been derailed on my diet the last few days because I have this horrible no good very bad HUNGER pain that will never go away so I feel like unless I eat I'll die.
It seems like drinking milk is the only thing that tricks my belly into feeling better and I hate milk and when I even think about milk it makes me gag, but much like one of those toilet paper eating weirdos on t.v, I'm compelled into drinking it.
But it doesn't ever feel better.
Last night Six reminded me of my ulcer and asked if I was still taking my ulcer medicine and I told him,
"No, duh, it quit hurting."
So today I will be calling in a refill on my ulcer medicine.

I just Googled stomach ulcer images, and I highly recommend no one ever doing that.


I tried to make a diaper for Ding last night and it actually turned out pretty good and looked pretty sharp.
Until she peed.
And it didn't work.
At all.
Back to the drawing board.
Why can't Huggies just make disposables for lambs.
They could call them Good Niiiiiiiiiiiiights.
Or Even Tena, they could call them "Just for Sheep".
Maybe I could Pattern my own and call them "Fat Pads for Ewe" and make a line of slim fit for Junior ewes too.
Goats could wear them too I guess, but goats get everything, everybody loves goats, it's the forgotten sheep having to wear a dish towel and saran wrap that I'm worried about.


Everything else is pretty uneventful.

Wendy is loving her job.

The Neighbor is onto and now even off of the one year old charts.
No more acting like a preemie for him, he has begun plotting his take over of the universe one giggle at a time!

At least he'll have his trusty side-kick Dinggle

Wyatt is back to school today.
I'll miss him.

Six is working.
Every day.
As usual.

And all the babies are up in the barn doing what baby sheep do.
We keep checking to see if Danggle's still Dangling and so far he is.
Should be any day now that his boy bits fall and he just becomes the barn wether.
Rex is counting the days until he can be with his best sheep again, but I don't think Belle, misses him to much.
I think she's happy in her bed and breakfast setting with daily catering service.

Peas.

The Presence of Peakes!

This morning I woke up with the presence of Peakes.
Bonnie Peakes that is.
My middle school homec teacher who I about wore slick with unexcused absences and spilled sauce.

I have had a denim sling bag in my brain for more years than I care to admit, and last year Six bought me a sewing machine for my birthday so I could have an outlet for my endless stress to stitch.

I have tried to make a bag. Eh. So so.
I tried to make an apron. Fail

But I come from a long seam of stitchers.

My Grammy was a pattern designer for Jantzen back in the day of designer swimsuits and sweaters.
My mother can nip and tuck an army tent into a prom dress and my sister...
Well lets just say she was blessed with the ability to quilt.

A very very special ability.

And my other sister can mend an ax handle to your bottom seams and turn your britches into snow shoes.
So there you have it.
My dilemma.
I can't sew.
Until I "Peaked".

At 3:00 AM this morning as I was laying in bed listening to the dogs snuffle and my husband snore, I saw Mrs Peakes.
I saw her face just as clear as day with that one eyebrow raised and her voice patient yet a little pissed off.

"Think about it Marilyn, what did we talk about...."
Oh yeah... End to end. Inside out. Sew the corners. Trim the thread.

I did it.
Kind of.
Well, sort of, it's a start.

Ok, so I started out with an old pair of Wyatts jeans, and I saw in my brain that if I left them attached at the crotch, the crotch could be my handle.

So I got out a Sharpie and cut them like this...

Then I found my left over apron fabric and used the jeans as a pattern and cut out a lining...

And cut off and sewed on some pockets.

And WaLa!

There you have it!

Kind of.

I also made a proto bib for the neighbor last night out of an old towel and a broken sheet!

I cut a pattern out of a dog food bag and just started pinning and sewing and it's not perfect, but I at least have an idea how I can improve it!

I think it would be SUPER cute with real baby fabric and soft terry.

Wyatt is home sick again.
The wind is blowing so hard outside today that my fish tanks inside have whitecaps.
Always wear slippers when you're in the kitchen with sheep, hardwood and hooves don't mix.

I've hit a wall on my weight loss so I think I'll just do liquid today. Homemade juice and protein shakes.

Did I tell you about the crayons I made for the neighbor?
I'll check and if I didn't I'll tell you tomorrow.

Peas.

Santa Swims With The Fishes

I think this kind of thing only happens to me.
Remember this...

Well I got that almost all taken care of, so now I have this...

And... 

This.

That's not snow in the fish tank it's food. 

Food that I was feeding them when I realized Santa was still in Tank Town.

Won't the neighbor be surprised to find out that Santa lives in grannies fish tank during the off season,

Oh well, I guess if there's a sheep in the living room what's the big stretch about Santa swimming with the goldfishes during the warmer months.

Wyatt is home sick today with a gross disgusting intestinal disorder.

I wonder if he suffers from some kind of lettered dysfunction.

You know like 

AWCS (Artists Who Can't Study)

Or

IRMJ (I'd Rather Make Jewelery)

Or maybe just this, 

CIPSHIRS (Can't I Pleeeeeease Staaaay Hoooome I'm REALLY Sick).

He does have the stink and fever thing going on today, so things are 

"working out"

 in his favor, but jeeez, that's all I need, is for everyone in the neighborhood to get sick.

You know the most dreaded sentence a girl can hear is 

"Here Grannyma, he's poopy"!

So back to Wyatt.

He has finally decided to sell some of his jewelery, privately and on Etsy.

You need to go to his Etsy store and check this kid out.

Not only does he make the jewelery, but then he photographs it, lists it and then writes the descriptions for it.

Honestly, where did we get this kid!

He's pretty amazing, and keep in mind, he refuses to part with his best pieces.

One of those crazy eccentric types you hear about.

Click here for his store Winded Wire

And here's a ring that LJP from Fat Cat's Corner just bought from him!

Vitamin D3.

Anyone doing it?

I read a TON about it yesterday.

It is being touted as an amazing ostio pain reliever for unspecified joint and bone pain and a real swift kick for people with Fibromyalgia , AND a super duper kicker upper of weight loss. 

This is what I read... If you cut down your average calories by 750 (Not down TO 750) by 750, and take 4000 units of D3 a day it turns into this crazy fat blaster.

I read that we are so deficient in D3 that it can also lead to mood disorders, calcium deficiencies, blah. blah, blah.

So for .07-10 cents a day, count me in, I'm doing it!

It won't help with my rotten no good verry bad broken down back, but it may very well help my rotten hip, sore knees and arthritic feet and hands :)

Oh, and by the way boys tend to suffer from D3 deficiencies more than girls.

Go get some.

Have you ever roasted broccoli in the oven at 400 degrees tossed in olive oil and sprinkled with kosher salt?

Good huh.

Don't ever do it with lemon pepper, my house still stinks this morning.

And I love lemon pepper, just not roasting at 400 degrees on broccoli.

In case you're counting, this is three in a row.

Peas.

Another Post?

I keep going up to the barn to check little Dangles to see if he is still "dangling" and he is. It usually takes about ten days for them to make the big switcheroo from a ram lamb to a wether (castrated lamb).
We have two other rams, Butch and Buck from last year to do the heavy lifting for another season and then it will be time to get the vet out to do a little snip on Butch. He's a big baby that was raised in the house and would still prefer to sleep in front of the fire, hence the hay manger sleeping still today. I would hate for him to leave the farm so I'll just find a vet with some whiskey (for me) and some tools for Butch.
But Buck is a real sheep, a big strong handsome black ram who might bring in a good price on Craigslist this summer.
Judy and Belle are doing so well with their new offspring. Who would have ever thought that Belle could be a nurturing selfless mother. It's just never been in the stars for her, but this year she's really surprising us with her one twin.

Sorry for the crappy picture, but look at that smile!

Judy of course, as always could be giving parenting courses in the back of the barn.
She's just that good.

Now all eyes are on Polly our youngest ewe who we're not quite sure if she took this season or not. If she did it would be an accident on our part because we would have liked to see her a little older before lambing. So, I just keep my eye on her all day so if she does go and needs some help we can be there for her.

Ok, now I'm going to give you my new favorite homemade cleaner recipe.
I found it on Pinterest and it works for EVERYTHING.
Windows, wood floors, regular floors, bathrooms, greasy kitchen messes, neighbor messes and even sheep "accidents"

Ready?

One cup of isoproplyl alcohol

One cup of vinegar

One cup water

Two Tbsp dish soap (I use Melaleuca Green Apple)

Shake it all up in a sprayer
Easily doubles

I love it.








P.s, I came through the holidays with my weight loss still almost in tact. Not as good as I thought, but better than I hoped. Twenty-eight pounds!

No Neighbor today so it looks like all I get to do is put up Christmas and vacuum.

Oh, I'm working on a giant new crochet afghan.
Classic simple stripe with fringe.

Tons more to say, but no time to say it!

Peas.