Yesterday was a slow day. I didn’t have to go anywhere. I milked Beulah Petunia. A man came by on the road on a four-wheeler and yelled at me while I was milking her–“Have you seen four cows come by here?” I told him the only cow I’d seen was my cow. When I left with my full bucket, I told Beulah Petunia to keep an eye out for ’em.
My refrigerator is always full of fresh milk, cream, butter, buttermilk, and cheese now, thanks to the BP station.
(I’m planning to order those milk bottle caps!)
There’s always a big bowl of the day’s milk haul.
It sits overnight, waiting for the lovely, rich cream to rise.
The cheese in the two containers stacked to the right of the big bowl is homemade Velveeta. (More on that soon! It’s awesome!!!) And what is that peeking out from behind the bowl of fresh milk and the homemade Velveeta?
Yes, seriously, with all the farm-fresh dairy products in the world here, I buy soy milk for Weston’s vegan girlfriend. I don’t mind. I like her.
I also made her a vegan chocolate cake in the crock pot. (See that post here!)
She brought me swiss chard, beets, cucumbers, and tomatoes from the hothouse at her farm.
Weston brought me petunias for Mother’s Day!
And Morgan cleaned the house for me and brought me this homemade card.
(I’ll have to work with her on how to spell apron.)
I showed her the homemade Velveeta and told her homemade Hershey’s syrup was next. Then I’d be moving on to shampoo and soon we wouldn’t be buying anything from the store! I just say that because she loves her shampoo and it makes her go all huffy like this when I say I’m going to make it.
She’d be a pretty girl if it weren’t that she only has the one eye.
I puttered in the kitchen with homemade cake and cheese and tortillas (the thick and chewy version made with soy milk instead of milk). And no, I didn’t get my fantasy Mother’s Day menu–mostly because my oven is still broken. Plus my kids couldn’t cook all that.
I got everybody else to do most of my animal chores and all I had to do was take cute pictures of the growing ducklings–
–and the growing chicks.
As soon as the chicks, guineas, and ducklings get feathers, they can move to the chicken house. They chirp a lot and Weston complains that they wake him up!
Nutmeg played hard-to-get with Eclipse, so I guess she wanted a slow day, too.
Egg production is down as a number of the chickens have gone broody. The Easter-eggers seem to be doing most of the laying lately. The others are sitting on nests in various locations, sometimes two to a nest as they compete over who gets to be a mama.
Dogs hung out on the porch.
Oh, wait, that one is a rooster, isn’t it? Hard to tell the difference around here.
I like slow days. They don’t happen very often, and maybe they shouldn’t or I’d get bored or lazy from sitting on the porch.
(Not that I could ever get tired of this view.)
I like to putter in the kitchen–to me, a “day off” means lots of time to cook! And yesterday, I got to spend a lot of time in the kitchen cooking aka playing with food.
And cuddling that fat little puppy.
But now it’s Monday. Back to work!
Well.
I’m taking time out for that puppy, I don’t care what you say!!!
Julie says:
Looks like a wonderful day. You gotta love a girl who’d bring you veggies like that!
On May 10, 2010 at 1:09 am
Nancy in Iowa says:
Doesn’t look slow at all to me! But it does look like a beautiful, wonderful day. :cowsleep: :chicken: :sheep: :snoopy:
On May 10, 2010 at 1:17 am
Lynda Otvos says:
Sniff the best puppy smell of all, the breath!! Your photos are wonderful, thank you for sharing your bucolic life with me. I live in the suburbs of San Francisco, not too far from the farms of Marin County and your operation is similar to the organic farms there.
On May 10, 2010 at 3:37 am
CindyP says:
What a wonderful way to spend Mother’s Day! That’s better than anything they could have given you…..almost a full day off!
And yes, I’d buy Soy milk for Weston’s gf, too, look at all the goodies she brought!
On May 10, 2010 at 6:01 am
Sheila Z says:
When my nephew was on an elimination diet and couldn’t have milk, my sister was making soymilk. She said it is really easy to do. Just in case you needed something else to do, here’s a website that tells you how, https://www.soya.be/how-to-make-soy-milk.php
On May 10, 2010 at 6:15 am
blueberrylu says:
very lovely :happyflower:
On May 10, 2010 at 6:52 am
Diane says:
Sounds like a lovely day. I will have to check out your Vegan recipies. My dd has a friend or two who is Vegan and I would like to have them down and also be able to feed them something good. Not to mention to sneek in a few good for you stuff into our diet from time to time. lol.
That pink toung on the puppy is just so sweet. Enjoy him.They grow up fast.
On May 10, 2010 at 7:05 am
Barbee' says:
Oh, yes! cuddle that puppy. It’s so therapeutic, and they get big so fast. Those little guineas are so ugly they are cute! Where are all these babies that they can wake Weston – in the bathroom? You really have a LOT of babies around there right now. I would love it! :hug: What a beautiful world. :sun:
On May 10, 2010 at 7:18 am
Lori Skoog says:
That puppy shot really grabs me….
On May 10, 2010 at 7:19 am
NorthCountryGirl says:
Sounds like a wonderful day. The slow ones are nice. “Sausage” puppy is so cute. I’m glad you had a nice Mother’s Day. Have a great Monday, too!
On May 10, 2010 at 7:22 am
Carmen C. says:
What an adorable puppy, sounds like you had a wonderful day!!!!
On May 10, 2010 at 7:31 am
Prairie Mother says:
Wow! I don’t know how you get it all done! Congrats on a slow day!
On May 10, 2010 at 8:01 am
mamawolf says:
Bored and lazy Suzanne? I think not. LOL. You don’t have a lazy bone in your body or a bored gene. How wonderful you had this lovely day. Weston’s girl sounds like a keeper. :clover:
On May 10, 2010 at 9:07 am
Melinda says:
That looks like a blissful and peaceful way to spend Mother’s Day. Glad you had a day to enjoy without having to rush down the Mountain to some activity!
And, Puppy is precious!
On May 10, 2010 at 9:18 am
Nancy says:
Seeing that rooster on your porch brings back memories of ‘Mean Rooster’! You’ve come a LONG way!
On May 10, 2010 at 10:12 am
Nancy says:
Sounds like you had a wonderful day! We spent the morning at the flea market (after my daughter did my barn chores!) puttering around looking for cool, old, rustic garden art! Lots of BLUE canning jars!! I can’t wait for my own chubby puppy….I have a lab coming in mid June…ahhh, puppy breath!
On May 10, 2010 at 10:45 am
sasha says:
puppy?
On May 10, 2010 at 11:01 am
Christina says:
Oh, your new puppy is just SOOOO sweet!!
On May 10, 2010 at 11:20 am
Miss Becky says:
what a beautiful day for you Suzanne :heart:
a few words of unsolicited advice for Morgan ~ pull back your hair and allow the world to see your beautiful face!!! :yes:
On May 10, 2010 at 11:43 am
IowaCowgirl says:
Yes, it’s too bad about Morgan’s missing eye…….
On May 10, 2010 at 11:44 am
auntbear says:
great poochie pic, and those veggies are beauts :happypuppy:
On May 10, 2010 at 1:21 pm
scorwin says:
Sounds like a great day. I spent my Mother’s Day at the barn with my daughter and the horses. We rode her little arab (He’s 30!) but he was really feeling his oats! It was cool and they hadn’t been out for a day! Fun!
On May 10, 2010 at 2:23 pm
Linda says:
Sounds like a perfect day. 🙂
On May 10, 2010 at 2:53 pm
sahmcolorado says:
oooh – I really want to cuddle that puppy! My little girl wants me to put this :snoopy: on my comment. LOL
On May 10, 2010 at 3:50 pm
Floyd Ferret says:
You need to make your own soy milk and tofu. It is so easy to make. You’d probably even convert the girlfriend to the do-it-yourself lifestyle.
On May 10, 2010 at 3:52 pm
twoturkey says:
:snoopy: You keep referring to that cute little puppy as a sausage roll…ha ha love it….”Jimmy Dean” would be a good name!
It’s some chilly here today…39 and cloudy…furnace is running. Send warm weather this way ….PLEASE!
Mrs. Turkey
On May 10, 2010 at 3:58 pm
SuzieQ says:
:snoopy: :snoopy: Love that puppy…Love ALL puppies!! :woof:
On May 10, 2010 at 4:58 pm
Lynn at Razzberry Corner says:
What a GREAT day!!
On May 10, 2010 at 8:38 pm
Eliza says:
These photos were such a treat — I’m so jealous of your home dairy (BP station… haha!) Such a good person to milk a cow and still be accepting enough to buy soy milk and make vegan chocolate cake! Also, I’m not often a sucker for dog photos but your puppy stole my heart!
On May 10, 2010 at 9:00 pm
joycee says:
You are living the life that few ever achieve. The memories that you are giving your kids will last a lifetime…they did for me.
https://grannymountain.blogspot.com/2010/03/grandmas-magic-pie.html
On May 10, 2010 at 9:05 pm
Grandmatotwochicks says:
Just love that PUPPY, I WANT ONE!!! :happypuppy:
On May 11, 2010 at 12:17 am
Carolyn Spillers says:
Glad you had such a relaxing Mother’s Day……..As always your posts take me back to the mid-70’s and 80’s when we were raising our 3 sons in the country with horses, ponies, cats, dogs, chickens, and rabbits, and a big garden. How I wish I had the same energy now. Love your website, recommend it to friends all the time. We now live “in town” with a wooded greenbelt behind our house. However, here is a list of the “critters” we have experienced during the past 6 years here: flying squirrels in the attic, tree squirrels on the deck, birds at the birdfeeder year-round, groundhog mama and 2 babies underneath the storage bldg. under our deck (which is 20 ft or so high), raccoon mama and 2 babies, mama deer and newborn fawn strolling through our “backyard woods”, and most recently a coyote! My “garden” is an oval (8′ x 16′) stone wall enclosed area in the front yard which includes roses, flowers, tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, squash, etc. Pets are down to 2 indoor cats. “You can take the girl out of the country, but…………….” Enjoy these wonderful years- – I am enjoying them vicariously with you!
On May 12, 2010 at 12:26 pm
threadartist says:
Well shoot… I miss a couple days and you show up with a new puppy and I can’t find any other posts on him/her??? What a cutie…
On May 12, 2010 at 12:31 pm
JOJO says:
:woof:
I just want to snuggle with that cute baby–I mean the puppy–how sweet!! —-and that little puppy tongue stickin out!!!!
JOJO
On May 12, 2010 at 3:20 pm
Runningtrails says:
I love days off too and that is the cutest little puppy I have seen in a long time!
On May 15, 2010 at 8:26 am
Cindy says:
We got 5 inches rain last night. YEA!!!!!!Got a automated emergency service phone call at 7ish this morning. It was a
message telling people to stay at home due to city wide flooding and
street closures. This is strange because I don’t live in the city.
On May 15, 2010 at 4:21 pm