Cissy’s Kids are Born

Posted by on November 5, 2011 Leave a Comment

On May 26, 2011 we had our first goat kids born here. My Nigerian Dwarf Cissy gave birth to twins. We were expecting a single, but we got twin girls!

Although I was pretty sure she was going to give birth that night, she went into labor so quickly and gave birth to the first kid, Grace, so fast, that she was out before I could even run to the goat house. All of my plans for good photos and video with great lighting were all ended by a fast and easy birth.

While fascinating to watch the birth of baby goats, the video quality isn’t great. The most entertaining part to me is listening to the things my kids say and the questions they ask.


Tragically, as Cissy’s night progressed she was clearly becoming more ill, and by the next evening I had to rush her off to the vets where they valiantly tried to save her for the next two days. Cissy died from toxemia less than 3 days after giving birth to the babies, and had only spent a few hours with her beautiful babies. She was a great mother and we were all heartbroken by her loss. I raised Grace and Kiki on bottles from the time they were 12 hours old. They probably don’t remember Cissy, and think of me as their mother.

Filed Under: Video | Tagged:

Kid Antics

Posted by on November 5, 2011 Leave a Comment

Another video of Kiki and Grace taken when they were just a few days old. Our goat house is under construction at the time, so they’re slipping on the plywood floors a lot. There is nothing much cuter than bouncing baby goats. Towards the end of the video you’ll see each of them drinking their bottles. I had to bottle raise them as their other died from toxemia shortly after birth.



Filed Under: Video | Tagged:

Bouncin’ Babies

Posted by on November 5, 2011 1 Comment

This is a video I made when Kiki and Grace, my newborn Nigerian Dwarf goats, were just 4 days old. Their mother died from toxemia shortly after their birth, and I raised them on bottles since they were 12 hours old.


Baby goats are bouncy and full of energy.

Filed Under: Uncategorized, Video | Tagged:

Enjoying Fall

Posted by on November 4, 2011 Leave a Comment

The animals are thrilled that all of the snow is all melted from our freak October snowstorm. I was disappointed though because I was scheduled to go farm hunting up in Litchfield County today with the kids but it got postponed because most of those poor people still do not have power from last Saturday’s storm. The power companies have promised to have most people restored by Sunday! We will reschedule and do it next Saturday or Sunday.

The collection of eggs for today. I got a few more stragglers later.


Kiki & Grace on the porch of the Old Coop.


Fallen leaves are a favorite goat snack, so this is a joyful time for all of them.


The adolescents gather on the porch for a meeting. They're probably going to hit me up for more vegetables.


How does Snow White keep her bum so clean?


Grace appears to be smiling here. Probably because she's snagged the favorite spot on the farm to hang out; an elevated hammock-type dog bed I got from my aunt's estate. They all love it, although Melina's weight pushes it almost to the breaking point.


This chicken is looking more and more every day like it's a rooster and not a hen. Those blue/green long tail feathers are a dead giveaway. No crowing yet though.


This adolescent Barred Rock is looking more like a grown up chicken every day.


The crowds gather impatiently as dinnertime nears.

Filed Under: Farm | Tagged:

A Crested Crane, a Truck and a Bunny

Posted by on November 4, 2011 1 Comment

I wanted to try and do some more linoleum prints working off of some of my photos. I usually work from drawings, but wanted to see what I could do with a photo. In printing these three cards, for the first time I used an oil-based printing ink, which certainly made clean up of my materials more difficult, but I really thought it printed much cleaner. it’s also permanent, so when I go in to hand-color the cards I don’t have running black ink to worry about. I thought it was well worth the extra effort in the printing process.

I started with one of my favorites of this crested crane that I took at the San Antonio Zoo last March.



Finished printed and hand-colored card of the Crested Crane.


I like this card, but it’s not as dramatic as the real photo with his piercing eyes.

Then I tried a photo of mine of an old pickup truck.



Finished printed card of Truck.


And lastly I did a bunny. Not from a photo, just because I liked him. He’ll probably be added to the “farm” series of cards I’m working on.


Finished printed card of Bunny.


I really like him.

I’m working on a new one for the “farmhouse” series, and the final one for the “farm” series will (hopefully) be from a photo of Kiki.

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Jack

Posted by on November 4, 2011 Leave a Comment

An abandoned farmhouse outside of Amana, Iowa. I love the faded graffiti between the doors.

Filed Under: Photos, Uncategorized | Tagged:

Waterfall at Hearst Tower

Posted by on November 3, 2011 Leave a Comment

The lobby in the Hearst Tower in Manhattan is very cool. It reminded me a little of the lobby of the Westin Peachtree in Atlanta. One of the main features is this glass stair waterfall.

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I Won (another) Blue Ribbon Blogger Award!

Posted by on November 3, 2011 6 Comments

Today I had the honor of going to New York for a luncheon at Country Living‘s headquarters as A WINNER in the 1st Annual Country Living Blue Ribbon Blogger Awards in the ‘Lifestyle’ category. This is in addition to winning their Reader’s Choice Award in the ‘Lifestyle’ category; only Crepes of Wrath and Crafty Farm Girl won both the Reader’s Choice and Judge’s Choice Awards. Wow.

The luncheon was for the winners of the Judges Choice Award, which was not officially announced until today after the luncheon. We were actually told some time ago of our wins, but were sworn to secrecy until the official announcement by Country Living, so it’s so exciting to finallybe able to share with everyone. My congratulations to all the other 23 finalists and to the winners.Mingling during the Meet & Greet before lunch.

The Winners! Left to right are Rachel Garza or Always a Project, Wendy Hyde of The Shabby Nest, Sydney Kramer of Crepes of Wrath, Linda Ly of Garden Betty, Beth Styles of Secondhand with Style, me, and Melissa Caughey of Tilly's Nest

Now there’s a reason I’m a blogger. If I liked being in the public spotlight or being photographed I suppose I’d be teaching classes to a real audience somewhere. I’m not. I have such a fear of public speaking that even a Dale Carnegie Effective Speaking course years ago did not help. Thankfully we were informed that we would not be required to say anything.

I also didn’t have time to work myself up into a state because most of my afternoon yesterday was consumed with this:

My daughter India getting a cast on her arm Wednesday afternoon.

India not only broke a bone at the joint of her thumb and hand and has to be in a cast for 6 weeks, but she also got diagnosed with a concussion. The ripple effect from those consumed my time and thoughts for the rest of the night.

Although parts of Connecticut are still struggling without power from our freak October snowstorm, today was a beautiful day here and, after farming the kids out to various friends because they were off for parent-teacher conferences, Country Living sent a driver to pick Jim and me up for the drive into Manhattan.

When we arrived at the beautiful Hearst Tower we were whisked up to the 44th floor and into the room where the luncheon was to be held. The views of the Manhattan skyline and Central Park were a breathtaking backdrop.

The View of Manhattan and Central Park.

How'd you like to live in that apartment?

The view across to the East Side.

There was a meet-and-greet as people arrived. Lots of the Country Living staff was there, three of the 4 judges, all of the winners in each of the seven categories, and lots of press as well. By the time they were ready to take pictures of all of the winners my mouth was so dry from nerves I couldn’t even talk!

Mingling during the Meet & Greet before lunch.

Another wonderful shot of my photogenic-self to put in the trash.

The Winners and the Judges.

It would have been nice if Jim had moved a little more to the center so we had a better view of everyone.

The judges in attendance were Sarah McColl of Pink of Perfection, Jodi Kahn, author of 3 books and blogger of Simply Sublime, and Cooper Boone, Country Singer, TV personality and author of the blog Cooper’s Kitchen. Cooper was the very funny and animated Judge in charge of handing out the awards to each of us. Of course I was up first. Thankfully I didn’t trip, drool, or throw up.

I got a hug from Cooper Boone! I get the feeling he's a big hugger.

How uncomfortable was I standing up there with all eyes on me? And look, they even had me up on the screen on the right with a screen shot of my website's home page!

Another horrible shot of me, but he's pretty cute.

Finally I got to sit down and watch everyone else get their awards.

Melissa Caughey of Tilly's Nest. She got a hug too.

Rachel Garza of Always a Project. I loved this picture.

None of the other winner’s photos came out great, and they’d kill me if I posted them so I won’t. The awards are beautiful. A blue ribbon under a glass dome. I could not get a decent picture of it tonight, but will tomorrow in the natural daylight to show everyone. We also got sent off with a huge goody bag!

The centerpieces at each table.


The lunch was delicious, but I was too busy clapping and taking photos to eat much of it. The centerpieces were beautiful too.

I wish I’d had more time to talk to each of the winners some more, but it was a really fun day. Everyone at Country Living was so gracious and they made each of us feel special, and very honored, for winning.

Even on a special day like this, I was still really happy to get home, pick up my children, and feed the farm. Everyone missed me.

Filed Under: Thoughts | Tagged:

Radishes at the Farmer’s Market

Posted by on November 2, 2011 Leave a Comment

The farmer's market draws to a close for the year soon, but the radishes are still looking pretty good.

Filed Under: Photos | Tagged:

Asparagus Fries with Smoked Paprika Aïoli

Posted by on November 1, 2011 Leave a Comment

My kids are not huge asparagus fans, and I’m actually not crazy about them if they’re not cooked just right. When I saw this recipe a) I thought my kids would like them and b) I thought they’d be a great party appetizer. With the holidays coming up, I thought I’d give them a whirl. I know, I know; breading and frying the asparagus sort of takes away from the whole ‘healthy vegetable’ thing, but whatever. You don’t have to feed my kids.



The kids came about as close to loving asparagus as they’re ever going to come. And Jim, who is so spoiled by all of my good cooking that I usually don’t get more than a “that was good”, raved about these things.

Asparagus Fries with Smoked Paprika Aïoli

I got this recipe from Fine Cooking’s Special Party Issue “Appetizers” issue, fall 2011. Originally From Fine Cooking, Issue #110, pp. 61

Serves 6

For the Aïoli

4 large cloves garlic, unpeeled
2/3 cup mayonnaise
1 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp. smoked paprika
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice, more to taste
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the Asparagus Fries

3 cups vegetable oil
2 large eggs, beaten
1 medium lime, juiced
3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup panko
1 lb. thick asparagus spears, trimmed, peeled, and halved crosswise

Make the Aïoli

Put the garlic in a small saucepan, add cold water to cover by least 1/2 inch, and bring to a boil over high heat. As soon as the water boils, drain and repeat the process once more. Rinse the garlic with cold water to cool and then peel and mince the cloves. In a medium bowl, whisk the poached garlic with the mayonnaise, olive oil, smoked paprika, and lemon juice until smooth. Add more lemon juice, salt, and pepper to taste. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour to meld the flavors.



Make the Asparagus Fries

In a 3-quart saucepan fitted with a candy thermometer, heat the oil over medium-high heat to 375°F.

In a small bowl, whisk the eggs with the lime juice and 2 Tbs. water. Put the flour on a small plate and season generously with salt and pepper. Put the panko on another small plate.


Dredge the asparagus in the flour and shake off any excess. Dip the asparagus in the egg mixture and then the panko to coat.



Working in batches, fry the asparagus until golden-brown, about 3 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels to drain briefly.




Sprinkle with salt and serve with the smoked paprika aïoli.


Nutrition information (per serving):  Calories (kcal): 340; Fat (g): 33; Fat Calories (kcal): 290; Saturated Fat (g): 4.5; Protein (g): 4; Monounsaturated Fat (g): 11; Carbohydrates (g): 10; Polyunsaturated Fat (g): 15; Sodium (mg): 460; Cholesterol (mg): 60; Fiber (g): 1


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Filed Under: Appetizers, Cooking, Main Dishes, Miscellaneous | Tagged:
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