Missing Willow Farm

Thanks so much for the good wishes for Jenna’s recovery.  She stares longingly in the direction of the pasture when we take her outside but it’s going to be a while before we let her go.  At least not until her stitches come out.  I’ve been giving her lots of dog treats and cooked eggs.  Brian fussed at me for spoiling her so I started adding dog food to her omelets.  🙂

Since it’s close to Christmas, I thought I’d share something you could whip up for last minute gifts or just for snacking.  Peppermint bark is the holiday staple of Williams-Sonoma.  They sell it for $27 and are currently out of stock.  For about $4 you can make your own.  It takes just four ingredients: a bag of white chocolate chips, a bag of dark or milk chocolate chips, 1/2 teaspoon of peppermint extract and 4 broken candy canes (smack them with a rolling pin).   I line a 10 inch pie pan with plastic wrap (makes it really easy to remove) and start with my dark chocolate chips.  They go into a bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time, stirring after every ‘zap’ until completely melted.  The melted chocolate gets spread on top of the plastic wrap.  Go find something to do for about 45 minutes while the chocolate hardens.  Once it’s set, move on to the white chocolate chips.  Zap them in the microwave the same way you did the dark chocolate.  Once melted, stir in 1/2 teaspoon of peppermint extract.  Spread on top of the dark chocolate and sprinkle on the broken candy canes.  Allow it to harden then cut into chunks.   You know you want some.

Jenna started limping a few days after Thanksgiving, she refused to put any weight on one of her hind legs.  Her vet took x-rays and found a tumor on her knee.  He set us up with a canine oncologist in NC, here she is waiting for the doctor to arrive to check her out.  Her biopsy came back as a rare and slow spreading form of bone cancer.   She said there was no evidence it had spread and that she would be much more comfortable without the leg and has a good prognosis.  Her surgery was yesterday and she’s home this morning.  I think she’s taking it much better than I am.  I made her scrambled eggs for breakfast, those chickens better keep cranking them out because I am so very going to spoil her during her recovery.

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One of our guardian dogs sits very nicely and is laser focused when there is a dog biscuit (or 2) to be dolled out.  One not so much.

Helen’s one of our original herd, a nubian dairy goat.  A few years ago she had a lovely little doe (my best milker Hermione) then nothing since.  We considered getting rid of her but she sure looks pregnant now.  Finally!  So do Mina, Bella and Hermione.  We’ll be swimming in milk next Summer.  🙂

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This is just one family of deer who reside on our property, they sleep in our front yard.  Several of our neighbors (with acres of their own) have asked for permission to hunt on our property, despite the fact we’ve got livestock and guardian dogs here.  The answer is hell no.  Spread the word.

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Jenna’s food and water bowls are on the back deck.  She didn’t feel well yesterday so didn’t finish her dinner.  We forgot to bring her bowl inside, so, when our cat Bindi started freaking out about something outside the first thing I thought of was there’s something in Jenna’s food and there was!  It ran off as soon as it saw the flash. Kinda cute, eh?

  Temperatures are dropping both outside and inside, so Bindi is spending more and more time with Jenna.  She’d rather be snuggling with Brian on the couch under his sweatshirt but he kind of has things to do.  Jenna, bless her, doesn’t mind the intrusion.  Bindi totally dominates her but I think she enjoys the company and is gracious about having guests in her kennel.

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My friend Lora made gingerbread cookies for today’s mistletoe market which runs right before our small town’s Christmas parade.  She told me she enjoys the decorating but finds it tedious so I went over to keep her company.  It was amazing watching a master decorator at work.  It was so sad (not) when one broke… they’re as delicious as they are beautiful!

December is here, and so are blazing hot peppers!  Since we moved out pepper plants to the greenhouse a few months ago, they have been going gangbusters!  These are Habanero, Carribean Red Habanero, Joe’s Long, Joe’s Round, Thai Hot and Ghost.  I’ve got these in the dehydrator for hot pepper flakes.  Ghost peppers sell locally for $5 apiece, and seeds (for propagation) sell for $1 each online.  We eat ours!

Friday after Thanksgiving is the day we always cut our tree.  Luckily, Claire was home for Thanksgiving weekend so we got it decorated with her help.  The tree farm is about 20 miles from here, up the mountain.  It’s massive, but since I’m still using a cane, we pretty much parked and said hey, that one looks pretty good and were done with it.  Normally we walk all over the place.  Not bad for $28 (sorry too all of our relatives in FL who pay that for a Charlie Brown tree!)