Well it is that special time of year again. Lime time. Last spring I limed all but two of the fields and this past weekend it was time to finish the job. Here in the Pacific Northwest we have a tendency toward moss growth especially in heavily grazed pastures. In order to keep the moss in check in my pasture I sweeten the soil with lime. This discourages moss growth and allows hopefully grass to grow.

In addition to applying the lime I also did pasture repair in the poop piles and over seeding in all pastures to promote spring growth.

I think if I could only stop the herd from grazing for a week or two all of the pastures would look great. Not likely to happen.

Sorry about the boring picture. You and try to make Lime look fun. Just wait until you see the pasture in the spring!

I thought I would post this just because she was so insistent on getting her photo taken. I went out to get a couple of updated pictures of the crias and Munchkin Martian kept getting her mug in the shot. Every time I turned around there she was.

Don't you just love her?

Here are some of our Halloween pictures!

I used the extra hour of sleep to muster the energy to tackle a couple of my least favorite jobs. Nail trimming and medications. The weather was dry and these chores couldn't be put off any longer.

My boys, Garett, Kahana and Luke were my able assistants. Garett was the holder, Kahana assistant holder, nurse and occasional trimmer, and Luke chief herder. We warmed up with the boys and then moved on to the girls.

All animals had their nails trimmed, bodies scored for weight and winter preparedness and all animals treated for mites. I decided because we had animals traveling here from different farms and because our girls went out for breeding to do a preemptive treatment for mites which can become more active in the winter. The Frontline treatment I am using for mites is fairly new and requires that the herd be treated four times. Each treatment is given three weeks apart. (I will try to get a post up about mites, pretty interesting stuff.)

Three hours later all the animals were happy as clams bathing in the sun. We were happy to have the job finished and it wasn't even lunch time. I love daylight savings time!

Equipmenta pretty big pie pumpkin

Ingredients


Mix up all the ingredients with a hand mixer or blender.



TIP: What do you do if you end up with more filling than will fit in your pie crust(s)? Easy! Of course, you can make another, smaller pie crust and fill a small pie pan... or just grease any baking dish, of a size that the extra filling will fill to a depth of about 2 inches , and pour the extra filling in.. then bake it. It will be a crustless pumpkin pie that kids especially love!

Pumpkin Preparation aka how do I get the pumpkin puree?

Step One:Cut up pumpkin and remove seeds and stringy stuff.

Step Two:Cook the pumpkin,

Cook for 15 minutes on high, check to see if it is soft, then repeat in smaller increments of time until it is soft enough to scoop the innards out. Normally it takes 20 or 30 minutes in total.

Scoop out the cooked pumpkin. Once it is cooked until it is soft, it is easy to scoop out the guts with a broad, smooth spoon, (such as a tablespoon or an ice cream scoop). Use the spoon to gently lift and scoop the cooked pumpkin out of the skin. It should separate easily an in fairly large chucks, if the pumpkin is cooked enough.
The skin or rind will probably simply lift off with your fingers. I'll bet you didn't realize making your own pumpkin glop... err, "puree" was this easy!



Puree

There you go you are on your way to the best pumpkin pie you ever had!