Missing Willow Farm

We’re doing the low carb diet thing and it’s going really well.  I’ve started missing dessert a little bit (my kingdom for a cupcake) so decided to try something new for Valentine’s Day.   After searching online for inspiration, I came up with this.

I whipped a cup of heavy cream until it formed soft peaks.  In a separate bowl, I mixed together 8 ounces of cream cheese, 4 tsp. vanilla and 3/4 cup of peanut butter until smooth.  I then mixed the whipped cream a little at a time into the peanut butter mixture and set that aside.

I melted a Tbsp. of butter in the microwave then stirred in about a half cup of almond flour.  To that I added a teaspoon of unsweetened cocoa powder and just a pinch of stevia.  After that was stirred together, I sprinkled it onto a baking dish and put that in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes to dry it out a bit into a chocolate almond ‘dust’.

A spoonful of that went into a parfait dish, then a big dollop of the peanut butter mixture.  I grated dark chocolate and sprinkled that on top.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I took like a ton of photos of our critters this morning.   We have some of the most darling tiny lambs born this week.  I started my photo journey with Lizzie who, as always, was completely thrilled with my visit.  When I sat down to review the shots, I realized every single photo has a smudge on it thanks to her enthusiastic welcome (aka a nose print on my lens).  Lesson learned, visit Lizzie last  the next time I head out with my camera.

Those seeds I planted a week ago have started to sprout.  I’ve since put in two flats of cucumbers and am trying brussel sprouts for the first time.  Between garden starts and microgreens, our available space under grow lights is starting to get cramped.   Next up will be planting cool season crop seeds out in the raised beds and greenhouse.  Gardening with the seasons sure takes planning.  It’s really easy to decide you want to grow something way too late to start it yourself, like when starter plants start showing up in garden centers.   We learned that the hard way.

Our daughters and grandson visited us this past gorgeous weekend.  A super fun time was had by all!  The chickens got lots of extra feed tossed their way and shared a few cracked eggs with our dog Lizzie.  🙂

I planted a flat each of tomatoes and hot peppers today.  They’ll go under our microgreen grow lights and eventually be transferred into the greenhouse when they outgrow their indoor space.   As soon as I locate our peat pots, I’ll plant a ton of pickling cucumbers.  I went through all of our seeds today and have laid out 8 different planting dates from now until early June to get everything in the ground that we want to grow this year.  Zucchini, rutabagas, peas, sunflowers, radishes, lettuce, spinach, soybeans, carrots and many many varieties of pumpkins (a gal can hope) are a few things set aside.  I just can’t bring myself to plant beans again.  The deer ALWAYS break in and eat them.

My friend Jessica asked me today how big Lizzie has gotten.  Here’s a photo of her and Jack.  She’s a massive girl who likes to do a ‘Turner and Hooch’ style head shake when she greets you so her slobber goes everywhere.   Good thing she’s cute.

One of the quadruplets went to a new forever home yesterday as a bottle baby.  He’s the one we almost didn’t notice over in the corner of our barn when we found the babies.  He was struggling to stand up and hadn’t had any milk yet I’m sure.  I brought him a warm bottle of goat formula and he sucked it right down.  His new mama is 15 years old and the most lovely young lady.  I’m pretty sure he’s sleeping in her room in a crate.  We got photos of him today and he looks like he’s settled right in, baby blanket and all.  I think she’s going to spoil him rotten.  Yay!

(!)  There hasn’t been much exciting going on here lately to report on.  That changed this morning.  We found Hermione with triplets when we went to the barn to feed everyone this morning and were totally surprised to find a fourth hiding in the corner.  Wow.  She’s my best milker by far, hopefully she has enough for everyone.  In related news, baby goats are super soft and snuggly.

We’ve had record breaking cold here lately and the pond finally iced over a bit.  There’s proof all over the pond that we still have an otter visiting.  It leaves holes where it pokes it’s head up out of the water through the ice.

An otter has discovered our pond is full of fish.  Grrrr.  He’s kind of a big one, too.  We’ll need to encourage him to relocate, and hope he doesn’t tell his friends about his tasty find.