Books I Love
Three Generations
7:45 PM | 
Posted by
Jen Pietsch |
Grandma Trina- She pretty much rules the herd.
Carmen- a beauty in her own right- always hungry and not shy about letting you know!
Autumn Diva- a.k.a. Munchkin Martian- she is ready for a great show season!
Back and Better Than Ever
Okay so stop with the nagging emails I am back on the blogging wagon. I am back. To give you more background on my life. I also have a great half time teaching job aon another island even smaller than Orcas. It has been a busy couple of months there so I have been not keeping up with you. Your loss because it has been just crazy interesting and fun here. I have so much to share about the farm. You should see how the babies have grown.
All of the alpaca on our farm have registered names and then we also usually create their farm name. You know, what we call them because of their true personalities and idiosyncratic behaviors. The babies are showing their true colors and earning their farm names.
Orcas Moon’s Summer Thyme: Ahhh Summer. She has been dubbed Angelina Ballerina. As I mentioned I teach-prekindergarten. Angelina is a character from a book that we often read. Summer is a dainty little ballerina.
Orcas Moon’s Sage Prince: Oh Please! Way too much name for him. We call this guy Buddy. He is an all around nice guy, my eight year olds favorite, and HUGE! Interestingly enough he is proving to be the slowest learner. He is a ‘dropper’ I ask him to walk and he drops to the ground like he is headed for shots. Which don't even hurt that much. I know this because last time I was giving shots I missed and hit my thigh. I sleep better at night knowing that I am vaccinated against clostridium perfringens type C, D, and C tetani.
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Orcas Moon’s Sargent Pepper- a.k.a. The Red Devil- If there is trouble in the cria field I know who is at the root of it. Itsy bitsy Red Devil. We have had a little trouble getting the Devil to walk on the lead. Luke was head butted by the Devil. Both looked stunned when they got up. Now he is getting the picture- he doesn’t go exactly where I want him to but we WILL get there.
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Orcas Moon’s Rocky Cilantro- This is the only animal that I picked the name for. He is a Rocky. Although we do often call him Tinker’s boy and dreamer. Rocky is a character. Hay is his thing. He doesn’t eat grain…at all (except once when my mother was here just to prove me wrong in front of an audience). His training is going better…not good but he has stopped leaping up in the air and throwing himself on the ground and acting dead. This was kinda scary the first few times but once Kahana and I realized that he wasn’t injured or dead it was funny.
That is the brief update. More tomorrow…yes tomorrow…I promise. It might only be a picture or something but something will get up here.
New Chicks!
They immediately pointed out, and were frankly kinda mad, that I had neglected to post another chicken update introducing our three newest hens. The three were adopted in September from some friends on Shaw island.
Scrawny Greta is a Lakenvelder. She is all you could want in a hen. She has spurs and a comb like a rooster but lays great eggs! She loves to spend most of her time hunting for bugs and foraging around the yard. Brave Heart and Pearl are both Black Australorps and lay the beautiful brown eggs.
So without further delay here are the three hens that round out our dozen chickens.
Scrawny Greta (foreground) and Pearl (background)
Scrawny Greta strutting her stuff!
Shy Pearl hiding behind the bushes.
Ever broody Brave Heart (and Henrietta's bottom.)Here are a couple of links to find out more about Lakenvelders and Black Australorps they are both wonderful breeds.
Pineapple-Upside-Down-Cake
Pineapple Topping
1 medium fresh pineapple
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cake
1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), softened but still cool
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs at room temperature
1 egg white at room temperature
1/3 cup whole milk at room temperature
Instructions
1. I use a 10-inch cast-iron pan but if you don't have one...lightly spray 9-inch round, 2-inch deep cake pan with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.
2. For the pineapple topping: Combine pineapple and brown sugar in 10-inch skillet; cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally during first 5 minutes, until pineapple is translucent and is light brown, 15 to 18 minutes. Empty fruit and juices into a colander set over medium bowl. Return juices to skillet, leaving pineapple in strainer (you should have about 2 cups cooked fruit).
Simmer juices over medium heat until thickened, beginning to darken, and mixture forms large bubbles, 6 to 8 minutes, adding any more juices released by fruit to skillet after about 4 minutes.
Off heat, whisk in butter and vanilla; pour caramel mixture into prepared cake pan. Set aside while preparing cake. (Pineapple will continue to release liquid as it sits; do not add this liquid to already-reduced juice mixture.)
3. For the cake: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl; set aside.
4. In bowl of standing mixer fitted with flat beater, cream butter and sugar at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Reduce speed to medium, add vanilla, and beat to combine; one at a time, add whole eggs then egg white, beating well and scraping down bowl after each addition.
Reduce speed to low; add about one-third of flour mixture and beat until incorporated. Add half of milk and beat until incorporated; repeat, adding half of remaining flour mixture and remaining milk, and finish with remaining flour. Give final stir with rubber spatula, scraping bottom and sides of bowl to ensure that batter is combined. Batter will be thick.
5. To bake: Work fast to put cooked pineapple in cake pan in even layer, gently pressing fruit into caramel. Using rubber spatula, drop mounds of batter over fruit, then spread batter over fruit and to sides of pan. Tap pan lightly against work surface to release any air bubbles.
Bake until cake is golden brown and toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool 10 minutes on wire rack, then place inverted serving platter over cake pan. Invert cake pan and platter together; lift off cake pan. Cool to room temperature, about 2 hours; then cut into pieces and serve.
Easy Peasy Chop, Chop, Chop
Cutting the Pineapple:
1. Cut off the top and bottom of the pineapple. Cut skin off from top to bottom.
2. Quarter the pineapple lengthwise. Put each quarter on it's side and cut out the core.
3. Cut each quarter in half lengthwise and then cut cross-wise into 1/2 inch chunks.
Dream Birthday!
Blimey It's Limey
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!
Autum Diva- a.k.a. Munchkin Martian
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?
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