It's Spring!

My neighbor's pasture has once again become my favorite place, because of the baby lambs that are currently being born. And now that I have refilled my allergy medicine, I can once again run (or walk!) past them every day. There are still turkeys and deer wandering around the fields, but the sheep are by far my favorites. The babies are SO cute. They actually frolic - there aren't many creatures that do. Sometimes they butt heads for fun, and sometimes they run amok. I am easily entertained.

One of the reasons I love the lambs is because of a book I read, Phillip Keller's A Shepherd Looks At Psalm 23. Keller really was a shepherd, and describes the incredible difficulties of keeping sheep. What a pain! Sheep apparently are scared of just about everything, and can't eat or drink well unless they are calm and relaxed (thus the need for green pastures and still waters). They will, though, eat stuff that kills them, and will run off of cliffs if so led. Yep, sounds like us. No wonder God has to be a Good Shepherd - and what an unending job! So as I hang out in my own green pastures (our yard, a baseball field, the rolling hills that are that crazy green color), I find myself being extra grateful for my Shepherd and His amazing and patient care of us all.

More Farmgirl Adventures

We had our 'farmgirl' meeting yesterday, at farmgirl Sally's house, which is out among the oaks, and beautiful. The winter rains have made everything that crazy bright green color that I try to capture every year on film, to no avail. And Sally has a front porch swing that looks out over the landscape, which made me want to just bring a book and park there for a while. But we had to head inside, because we learned to make ricotta cheese yesterday. I thought it would be complex and stinky, but discovered that it is extremely easy, much to my joy. And it doesn't smell at all, because the cheese doesn't sit around. The whole process took about 20 minutes - I am not kidding! And it involved only milk (or half and half, or cream), lemon juice or vinegar, and salt. In fact, it was so easy that I made up another batch when I got home and we ate it for dinner with some pasta (I put the 'recipe' below). It is always exciting for me and my self-esteem to find out that I can indeed do something that previously seemed scary or intimidating. And if a dairy product is involved, well, then, all the better!

However, that was not even the most exciting part of the meeting - we got news that one of our farmgirls could not attend because she (this is so awesome....) got run down by a bull and actually tumbled down a hill and cracked a rib. This is possibly the 'farmiest' thing that's ever happened to someone in our group. And it wasn't even her bull...there is a rancher named Chet (how's that for a cowboy name?) who owns 700 acres that back up to everyone's property, and a few of his cattle broke through the fence and entered her yard, and she was simply trying to shoo them out. All I could say was, "Wow!"

Well - here's the pasta recipe that we happily ate last night for dinner:

3/4 lb whole wheat penne, cooked

2 cups grilled chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces and warmed through

1 1/2 cups chopped fresh spinach

1/4 cup torn fresh basil

1/4 cup chopped green onions

1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese

Toss all of the ingredients together in a large bowl and let sit in a warm oven until warmed through

To make homemade ricotta cheese:

We used 'recipes' and directions that we got online at allrecipes.com and epicurious.com

Ricotta cheese is also referred to sometimes as 'Farmers Cheese'

Some Women Buy Shoes....

I had a book on the waiting list at the local library and got a call that it had come in. The book is I Am Hutterite, by Mary-Ann Kirkby. A friend recommended it to me because I enjoy reading memoirs, particularly of people who have had interesting spiritual experiences. Besides, the cover says that it is both 'riveting' and 'fascinating'. Those words, to me, especially coming with the recommendation of a friend I trust, are like the words '75% off sale!' in a shoe store for some other women. I cannot resist, even if I don't need another book to read.

When I went inside to get the book, I was compelled to walk down a couple of aisles just to browse. And the photo above is what happened after that - 3 mysteries, the hilarious sequel to A Girl Named Zippy, a memoir about a couple who bought a farmhouse in France, a book about a girl in China....

Clearly I have a problem.

Simplicity

One of the things that Jamey likes to do with our staff and interns is a weekly 'development' time, where we can discuss a skill or concept in-depth, and perhaps do some reading and / or thinking together. It is my turn to lead the discussion this time, and the topic is 'simplicity'. Basically, the goal is that, when you can view your things as gifts and blessings, you can be more content with what you have, and don't need to strive for more 'stuff'. The old, "do you own your possessions, or do they possess you?" question. The discipline of simplicity can be applied to not only material things, but also time and tasks. I think that my being in charge of this topic is, in literary terms, what I would call "ironic". I have posted a photo of our attic as proof, and to 1) keep me humble, and 2) illustrate my lack of expertise in the area of keeping things simple. Ahem.

I have taken the opportunity to re-read a couple of my favorite books: Richard Foster's Freedom Of Simplicity and Margin by Richard Swenson. Swenson's book is really good, but also ironic because, at the end of the final chapter, it contains a list of at least 50 things that you can do to simplify your life. Am I the only person who snickers about that?

And now, I must stop typing and go clean out my closet....

I Gave Birth to a Cheesehead

The Packers are playing the Steelers tomorrow in the Super Bowl (in case you've been in a cave for the past 2 weeks).

Jason is a huge Packers fan, and I, his mom, am a life-long Steeler fan.

Our house is divided (except that I will be ok no matter what the outcome, because I love Aaron Rodgers).

We will be wearing among us: a Mean Joe Greene jersey, a Greg Jennings jersey, a terrible towel, and an authentic Green Bay Packer cheesehead.

Our Super Bowl Sunday fine dining will include a variety of Utz chips and Tastykakes, sent from Philadelphia by my cousin, who braved a large snowstorm to get to the UPS store.

How much Super Bowl coverage can one family watch? Much to Jamey's chagrin, we are at about 100 hours and counting....I'll let you know on Monday, when I'm watching the recap....or on Tuesday, when I'm watching the parade.

It Happened At Night -

Finally it happened at our house. When I went out to feed Sadie the Cat and Max the Dog at about 5:45 a.m., I saw the toilet paper hanging from our trees (the photo on the right is the view from the porch out towards the front gate. The other photo is what our house normally looks like). It was a beautiful job - in fact, with all of the trees around, I've often thought that our house would be the perfect candidate for an epic teepee. But, of course, Max the Dog lives out there, and would surely alert us of any hanky-panky, since he lives to bark at joggers, UPS men, and all kinds of critters. As I gazed at the strands, which had gotten moist from the night's fog and had then semi-frozen in place, I could imagine the perpetrators' glee as they realized they were in teepee wonderland.

....Have I mentioned that we have a dog? Yep - and a big, black, scary-looking one at that. And, he barks. A lot. But not that night. The dog that knows when someone is driving down the street with a dog in their car, and lets us know about it, chose to stay inside his doghouse, on the front porch, and sleep, instead of letting us know that our house was being strewn with paper (four days later, and after one rainstorm, there are still pieces of it twenty feet up in the tree tops). My first emotion that morning wasn't anger, but was extreme disappointment in my dog. What was he thinking? What was he doing? What had he eaten earlier that night to put him in some kind of apparent food coma? Shame, shame, shame.

We wondered who could have done it, but not for long - at 7a.m. Jason got the news that it was two junior high girls from down the street (why was this not a surprise?). That made me feel just the tiniest bit better - at least Max the Dog hadn't ignored a car or vehicle pulling up in front. Ironically, as I am typing this, that dog is barking at a group of cyclists heading down the road. What a dog!

We've Been Just a Little Bit Busy....

I can't believe it's almost February! We have gone from one event to the next in 2011. Jason finished up his soccer season by playing on the all-star team and being the leading goal-scorer, and has moved on to basketball season. Grace has been cheering at high school basketball games, and over the weekend went to the Winter Formal, which she also helped plan and decorate. Jamey has been keeping cars running, trying to keep the roof from leaking - again, cutting and trimming the yard (we are having spring-like weather and the poor plants are confused), and doing his 'regular job' down at Cal Poly. And as for me, well, I've been doing stuff too. I decided to read a book along with Grace (it's an assignment for her Honors English class) and it took me two weeks to finish. The book is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (over ONE THOUSAND pages!), and while it was very interesting, I'm glad I'm finished, because while I was in the middle of it, my library called to tell me that the book I had placed on hold had come in. That book is Novella Carpenter's Farm City, about her adventures in urban farming - much more up my alley (and a mere 269 pages). She talks about raising chickens and turkeys, recycling, hippies, growing tomatoes.....hmmm, familiar!

Along the same lines, I've been to two 'Wild-At-Heart Farmgirl' meetings this month. I even recruited my sweet friend Heather to join. She is a true farm girl at heart - just look at the amazing cards she made me for Christmas! (top photo) And, last summer, she and her family moved to a new house not-really-but-kind-of-so they could have a place for chickens, and now she has four laying hens. This past Monday, we went to Theresa's house in Grover Beach, walked down the street to the monarch butterfly grove (they winter there, about 20,000 of them, from all over) and then learned to make yo-yo's. Not the Duncan, walk-the-dog yoyo, but the grandma's quilt-type yoyos. It was quite a victory for me, because it required sewing and I don't sew. Fortunately, that is not a required skill to join the farm girls. We made heart-shaped Valentine pins (see above photo), but also got ideas for canning lids, greeting cards, Christmas ornaments, and all kinds of yoyo things. And I have to say, I may not know how to sew, but I did pick out some pretty cool fabric! And now I have something else to do in all of my nonexistent free time!