Blackberry Lemonade

We are still getting some blackberries off our vines.

Along with freezing them, I have made two pans of blackberry pie bars.  With today’s haul, I decided to make some more blackberry lemonade.

It starts with a couple of cups of blackberries

puréed. 

Then the tedious part, straining out the seeds.

Done with that part, just seeds to toss over the fence.

Add some sugar, water and lemon juice, and there it is, a refreshing summer drink.  

Sheep and Goat Club Farm Tour

Today we went on the sheep and goat club farm tour.  We only went to one sheep farm, no goats this year.

This is a farm that has been in the same family for over 200 years. 

Virginia and Mike were on their own Young Farmers farm tour so we had Sadie.   She loved the sheep and became an expert at making sheep noises. 

The family recently bought an adjoining farm that had a 80x120 foot (my estimate) barn with a poured concrete floor.  The previous owner lost too much money trying to raise sheep, so this family stepped in and bought the land, sheep and all the equipment.  They currently have about 200 dorper ewes, 100 clun forest ewes and 3 hog island sheep.  I was unfamiliar with the last two which are heritage breeds.

At the original family farm site, they had torn down a barn and built it back better with timber from the farm. 

Oh, and there was a tennis court.

Lambing jugs. 

A nice chute system, plus another one at the new farm.  A big upgrade from our system of crowding and catching. 

Everyone was impressed by Sadie’s happy attitude and outgoing personality.

A good time was had by all.

Party Time

We had a very unique patient today.   I have never seen one quite like it.  I believe she was dressed to party.

Remember the wiggies? If not, you can check it out HERE.  Well, I am sure you will not be surprised to find out it is the same owner.

She is a local award winning groomer.

I think you can see why.

 It is a very unexpected and fun look for our rural area.  And if that doesn’t make you smile, I don’t know what will.

First Tomatoes

We have been getting some tommy toes and a couple of small tomatoes, but today we finally got a few big ones.

And what better to have for supper to celebrate this harvest than a bacon and tomato sandwich!

Something else enjoyed a bite out of this one before I got to it.  But with a little trimming it still made a great sandwich.

 

House Plant Tour Continues

Next up on the tour is a jade plant front sister C. 

It has really taken off since it got it last fall and transplanted it to a larger pot. 
 

Two new branches immediately sprouted out.  I am hoping it will get really big and be a “statement” piece. 

New Recipe

Emily made some delicious blackberry pie bars for our trip to the beach.  With all my blackberries getting ripe now, I thought I would give it a try. 

It called for 4 cups of blackberries.

Then a crumbled dough crust.

 It is in the oven now.  Hope it turns out as good as Emily’s.

Here is the link to the recipe if anyone else wants to give it a try. blackberry-pie-bars Emily suggested no lemon and 1/2 cup less flour, so that is what I did too.

            

Update, out of the oven, looks and smells great.  

Fun Day At GiGi’s

Daycare is closed for the week so I volunteered to keep Sadie and Allie for a couple of days.  Today we went for a visit to GiGi’s (great grandma) house.  Linda was there too for a very nice visit.  And Terry popped in to say hi.  

Who doesn’t like pizza and ice cream for lunch.

 GiGi is a master at getting little ones to sleep.

Linda on the other hand, is very skilled at stirring them up.  They were perfect angels all day and slept all the way there and back.   Now what to do tomorrow? 
 

One More

We had one more kid born yesterday.

It was a very large billy.

He is three months behind everyone else. 

He will have a lot of catching up to do.
 

Very Busy Day

It started with an early trip to town to pick up Walker.  He has been wanting to come over and help with the animals.  We ended up having him help work the 60 head of fall calves that we had recently weaned.  He was very good help but I forgot to bring my phone to the barn to take pictures.  Despite the heat, he still wanted to go riding afterwards. 

Joe brought Sadie to the barn and helped Walker get Hank saddled up.  Walker said he has grown 8 inches in the last year so he used Joe’s saddle and we didn’t even have to adjust the stirrups.

Joe thought Sadie might want to take a little spin on Hank. 

But he was wrong.  

She is not ready to go solo yet.  She much preferred riding Otoelene with me.

Walker on the other hand, was in heaven riding Hank.

We ended up taking an hour long walk through the woods, up on top of the hill then around the backside of the hill and on to the red barn and back. 

Hank had not been ridden since the last time Walker was here sometime last year.  But he went along like he has been ridden every day.  He is a very special horse. 
 Walker left at 12:30 and I then spent the rest of the day getting to visit with Virginia, hold Allie and play with Sadie while Mike helped Joe with some farm chores.  A very nice day.

Couponing #76

I little bit of a couponing fail.

The $2 snuggle paper coupon that had been attaching to the $2.35 drier sheets didn’t this time but the $1.50 on did. There was also a $3/$15 back to school stacking with a regular $3/$15 and $3 in instant savings on snuggle and all products.  But for some reason only $7.50 came off instead of $9.

So it was a bit of a disappointment to have to pay $3 instead of the 5 cents I was expecting.

Hair Elastics and Cats Don’t Mix

I had a young cat come in today that had been vomiting for a couple of days.  When I palpated her abdomen, the stomach didn’t feel right.  It felt thickened and gritty.  Radiographs revealed a twisted mass foreign body in the stomach.

 The owner OK’ed an exploratory surgery. 

I didn’t count how many but it was a bunch.

Accidental Host

A client brought in a litter of stray kittens.  Two were in good shape but one was half the size of the others, had an upper respiratory infection and the client said it had several puncture wounds.  When I looked at the wounds, I knew right away that they were not punctures.  If you are a little squeamish you may not want to hit the play button.  Otherwise, you are in a treat and get to see the ultimate Dr. Pimple Popper.

 The poor little thing had three warbles, or Cuterebra. Rodents and rabbits are the normal hosts, but sometimes cats become infected.  The larva makes a breathing hole that is perfectly round.  If you look carefully, you can see the larva moving and taking a breath.  Then it’s just a matter of grabbing it and gently pulling it out.  The cat can have an anaphylactic reaction if the larva ruptures or dies.  After removal, I flushed the wounds and started the kitten on an antibiotic.  I expect it to make a full recovery.

Different Methods

The beach trip is over (insert frowny face).  But I returned home to a bumper crop of blackberries.  We ate a bunch.  Then picked about 3 quarts which was all I wanted to deal with tonight. 

I am trying 3 different freezing methods.  The small jar is just packed with prefrozen berries.  (rinsed, dried, placed on cookie sheet and put in freezer for about 45 minutes.). The bag is the same, just in a bag instead of jar.  Then the last two are prefrozen berries, packed into jars then a sugar syrup poured over top.  I really like this method for making blackberry lemon aid.  It is quite the treat. 

Alone

The beach has been wonderful, but we have to go home tomorrow.  Today was windy and raining on and off so no swimming for me.  Keiran did try some more surfing with the paddle board.

We watched an entire season of Alone (not all in one day).  It made me think about the seaweed that has washed ashore. 

There are lots of different kinds. 

If I were on Alone, I would have to find out which kinds were edible.

Ok, not going on Alone, but still hoping for Survivor. 

Thankfully, this is about the only foraging we have to do on our beach.