Missing Willow Farm

It’s FiFi’s turn to shed massive amounts.  How’d you like to have her hanging out on your couch?

I sew… kind of a lot.  When I was accepted as a Bernina Master Craftster, they asked me to submit a photo of myself with the machine I received on loan.  I decided to take it out to the pasture to see if anyone was curious about it.  As it turns out, everyone was.  Here’s the photo I submitted.  They not only accepted it, but it’s the one featured at the top of the page!  Here’s the original.  Too bad Jessica and Hermione were edited out.  🙂  Summer thought it would be impolite not to give it a sniff.   Here’s the link to Bernina’s website: http://weallsew.com/2012/08/13/master-craftsters-meet-bernina/

She looks like she’s in a stockade but it’s just our milking stand.  She loves the milking stand because there’s a bucket of food up there.  I’ve been milking for months now and make chevre every Wednesday. We’ve got boatloads in the freezer and a huge busy weekend coming up so I’m stopping this week  (yay).

This is Jack’s wubba face.  He’s a happy dog.

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We grow lots of different varieties of hot peppers, including ghost peppers.  I pickle some, freeze a few and make hot pepper jelly, but my favorite use for them is homemade pepper flakes.  My Montgomery Ward food dehydrator bit the dust a few months ago (it was a workhorse!) so I ended up with a basic one from WalMart.  They are processed on racks until they are crisp dry.  It takes a day or two.  I’m still picking and drying so will hold off on the last step.  I take my electric mini food chopper outside and give them a whirl.  We like spicy in our house, there’s nothing like some serious heat on pizza, in pasta sauce, tacos, vegetables… you get the idea.

It’s a large Cinderella’s coach looking pumpkin that’s hiding among the vines.  I have high hopes for this one!

Jack enjoys his personal swimming pool out by the barn.  When we turn on the water, he gets a little jacuzzi action.

We lost Nugget.  We moved her from the hen barn to the big barn back in February when our rooster just about pecked her to death.  He is an ex rooster.  We tended her wounds and tried to reintroduce her back to the flock when she had healed but they started pecking her so she’s been a lone chicken for the past 6 months in the company of sheep and goats.  I know Milos and FiFi weren’t responsible because they watched over her on the occasions that she wandered away from the barn.  We always say our cat Bindi and Nugget are the only pets on our farm, everyone else has a job.  She’ll be missed.

We have no apples on our trees but can thankfully grow other fruit.  These melons are sweet and tasty and that’s a key lime from one of the small citrus trees we overwinter in the greenhouse.   It’s destined for a gin and tonic.  🙂

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Jack gets a chance to work our sheep every morning.  When the weather gets a little cooler, he’ll get a chance every evening, too.  He still occasionally goes ‘sheep bowling’ but is getting better about both that and ‘gripping’, which means biting.