More self inflicted pain...

Not only are my thighs and tush hurting from gym yesterday but I came home today to find a few ton of stone to unload. 

Great right? 

No more giant sinkholes and ruts from snow, ice, customers and tractor trailers you say? True but I worked out arms and back today too so now I'm hunched over from gym and stone shoveling. That ll teach me to take 2 weeks off gym to recover from calf muscle I pulled. But look what S made me (actually it's for him, he dislikes walking unless it's high and dry).

The pea gravel, Yellow brick road to the store. It looks so funny to me but he s happy. Seriously if I hadn't seen both our plumbing parts I'd swear I'm the man here.

Aroma ?

I went to the gym this morning. Came back home and showered and fed animals. Yes I'm lazy at 5:30 when I get up so they wait till I get back to eat. Anyhow I took a shower and took off for every 3 wk chiropractor appt. when I came home me and S put a round bale to arena cows. Funny thing I open every gate (there are 4) and slough through all the sucking boot mud and cut and dispose of the million strings on the bale if I can find them. S sits his behind on the tractor , spikes the bale and dumps it, puts away tractor. I reverse all the gates and mud and turn out cows.  I'm not sure the balance of chores is very equal. Next up I have 2 ewes and I thought 2 lambs limping. Again I sloughed through mud, ran everyone inside (after playing ring a round the Rosie a few times) and doctored the 2 ewes feet. The lambs turned out to be 3 that had foot issues and last 2 born needed ear tags and scrapie tags. Got that done, untied steers who are petrified of piglets still and fight me to get loose and let's not discuss task of getting them inside in the 1st place, haltered and tied where they eat (beside the pigs). Came inside , scrubbed hands a few times, stink of foot nastiness  and now want a shower again. All before noon. Wheeeee!!!

Hogs and Hems ...

Cool title but no hems were completed.

LN did start her long coat yesterday and do more hand sewing on her dress

but we are far from hemming either.

She sits so demurely to grade her seams.

This picture is from last weeks session.

She says her back hurts after sewing for hours.

Wonder why ?

Look how far she bends over when cutting or pinning.

Owww...

 

Today we went to pick out and bring home her market hogs.

We lucked out and found 2 from the same lady and were happy with the price as well.

So meet Scrappy and Pablo....

A girl and her pigs, it's a good thing.

 



Tuesday-Snow Day

Well I managed to add the borders and quilt the layers together.

I used a seersucker blue from my stash.

It was just scraps but long enough by 2" to get my length.

Actually the yellow was scraps too.

Long arms, LN held it up for me.

The lighting is bad in my basement room , sorry the colors and patterns are showing wonky.

 

I love the back.

It has all the animals kids find fascinating in fun colors.

Now I need to bind and wash so it can be delivered.

 

With 2 days off for the snow and ice LN amused herself by working on a 4-H assignment.

She had to come up with some science type classes for 9-12 year olds.

She created bubbles but they won't lift off the counter.

She tried to encapsulate this figure but the metal kept popping it.

She successfully encapsulates the button several types. 

She made different types of solutions and one blew giant bubbles but I didn't take my camera outside.

Sorry for the over ripe bananas but definitely time for banana bread don't you think?

After playing around she made time to do some handsewing on her new sewing project for 4-H and Make it with Wool contests.

Spoiler alert!!!!

She was stitching down her lining by the zipper and working on her sleeve seams.

This is an accurate pic of the blue fabric and white shows well also.

She has more handwork to do before Saturday when we go back to her mentors to start her full length overcoat and finish her dress details (length, buttons, etc.).

This picture is bad but gives you some idea.

We were at her mentors and the sun was killing the camera and it was too cold to go outside

for a better shot of a half done dress.

I'll take plenty after it's all done.

It's going to surprise everyone that knows LN's edgy choices.

It's very demure and sweet.

Have to work on shoes to fit dress and coat which is a dark blue with flecks of white and light blue.

 

 

 



Lil Something ...

I'm late with this gift as the little boy is 3 months old.

I doubt he'll mind.

A whole lotta busy but good for babies, right?

Fun way to spend a snowy day .

 

Now to finish.... {sigh} 

Given a choice....

Given a choice of sleeping inside where it's dry and warmer or

outside in the freezing rain then turned snow,

where do you think the steers chose?

 

That is snow imbedded in an inch of ice that fell before snow began.

 

The major accumulation is to occur today.

 

I think....

I'm going to sew a clothes pin bag (mine disintegrated yesterday) and

 maybe start a small quilt for a new baby (actually born in early Dec).

 

A few nights ago when I tried to go to bed I found this.

LN felt the need to dump 3 loads of laundry needing folded on my bed.

Grrrr.....

It only took a few minutes to fold but I was tired.

LN was asleep, snoring.

 I checked when I found this "present".

She told me the next morning she did it before supper thinking she'd help me fold as we watched TV before bed as me and her do sometimes.

However we didn't go upstairs till bed and so..........

Gotta love my kids sometimes, sometimes not.

Yep, I went there.

 

All...

All the reports are varied with as much as 14" to as low as 1" of snow headed to DE.

All the water troughs are filled up.

All the feed barrels are filled up.

All groceries are taken care of, at least that we needed anyhow. I keep plenty of grub around.

All my books are downloaded onto my Kindle. This is important believe me.

All the laundry we need is done. The rest can wait like rugs, extra sheets for MIL and such.

All my sleep can be caught up on I hope, please, please, please.

All my taxpapers are waiting to be completed if I so choose.

 

Bring on the next storm I'm as ready as I'm going to get.

 

Cold rain has begun, here it comes.

 

See ya on the flip side of whatever we get.

 

LN is going to be in school in July, maybe August.

Last set 2014

Last ewe delivered a set of ewe lambs while no one was home. 

Sorry for the butt shot but I'm excited.

No more up during the night or baby monitor squealing static all night long!

An 11# and 15# set of healthy ewe lambs completes a rocky year. 

They were dried off and bellies feel full so in a dry stall to bond overnight will do it. 

Gym Results

My Butt-Tocks (think Forestt Gump) are too sore to sit down.

My upper ab muscles are too sore to set or get up.

I'll leave it to your imagination what bodily functions and normal activities this presents a problem for!

Gosh, I love working out. 

;-/

Advice welcome ...

LN's trial cakes were baked on Tuesday evening.

We knew the filling was complicated and would take several hours so we wrapped each layer and

was going to fill and glaze yesterday.

That didn't happen because LN had homework and reading due.

Today was a snow day after all so we started on filling this morning.

After making the filling and glaze she cut into her layers to even them out and the middle of 1 was raw even though we baked them and checked with the finger press and spring back it called for.

The other had a small spot as well.

They were baked side by side so seems to me that my oven has an issue.

LN wanted to toothpick them but I said follow recipe.

Should have listened to kid.

We started over and put filling and glaze aside.

The 2nd set came out better but still 1 had small raw spot so oven is issue there as we noted the same side of rack was used for one of the layers that was worse than the other.

 

 

 

1st issue-  It calls for sugar and water to cook over med-high heat then simmer for 20-30 min.

It says 20-30 or till it turns amber colored.

After 35 min no amber coloring.

????

Did she not have it turned up high enough for the simmer?

It didn't seem to affect filling at the end but still...

 

 

2nd issue- The cake is 2- 9 in layers that will be cut horizontally later to form 4 layers.

Her layers crowned high and curved so she had to slice the tops off to try to even them up.

Any way to avoid this?

Could batter be spooned into edges more before baking?

Is it because 1 t. baking powder is used?

Could that be adjusted?

Trimming still left a curvature to the tops which doesn't look good stacked because sides are not iced.

Any thoughts?

On a side note this cake is so tall I can't use the cake lid, the glaze touches it.

Maybe cutting the whole curve off would help this but that'd have narrow layers then???

 

The flavor seems fine.

I know because we made a small sample out of the scraps cut off.

 

Of course this all needs settled quickly.

We waited too late to start trial runs.

The entries are due Friday and no late entries are allowed.

LN says we go with this and modify as needed on contest day.

Anyone with any ideas I'm open to any and all suggestions.