Terrible week

I haven't been posting due to an all around horrible week.  It was mostly work drama, for those of you who have ever had to work with a group of women you know what I'm talking about.  There is always that one person who has to stir the pot while looking all innocent.  So after literally feeling like my very soul was being crushed and then a husband who couldn't understand how hard it is to work with drama like that and telling me I was overreacting, well, I kind of retreated into a protective little shell for a few days.  I am, however, a firm believer in the silver lining in every cloud, and after venting to some very good friends I not only got the moral boost I needed to continue with my week but my outlook took on a more rosy glow.  I am so very thankful for my friends.  Where would we be without the people who care for us?  

Bailey's Irish Creme Cake

Saturday is St. Patrick's Day.  And since I am part Irish, (my great grandparents came from Ireland) I do love St. Patrick's Day.  Every year I do a family dinner with the whole corned beef and cabbage thing as well as Irish soda bread but the hit of dinner every year is my Bailey's Irish Creme Cake.  So here is the recipe...from my little farm kitchen to yours:

1 yellow cake mix

1 large box instant chocolate pudding

4 eggs

3/4 cup oil

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup Bailey's irish creme

1 cup chocolate chips

Glaze:

1/2 cup Bailey's

1/2 cups sugar

Mix all cake ingredients except choc chips on medium speed for 3 minutes.  Stir in chocolate chips, preheat oven to 350.  Grease and flour bundt pan pour in batter and bake for 1 hour.  Cool and remove from pan.  Pour glaze on top of cake when completely cool.

Have a wonderful St. Patrick's Day!

Ducks!

The ducklings are growing at a rapid rate.  I swear they're a little bigger every morning.  They are happy and lively, and eating like crazy, just like a duckling should be.  Because of our still rather cold weather they have to live indoors and are in a cage so I put them in the tub every day for several hours to play in the water.  They love this and we love watching them.  I mean seriously...what is cuter than a duckling?

Bad day

Yesterday was a terrible day.  I spent the day dealing with an issue at my son's high school which still isn't resolved.  I went to bed feeling disappointed with the teacher in question, upset with the kids at the school, fearful for my son.  I came home from work feeling like the world was weighing me down.  I had even placed a frantic call to a friend saying I thought I was having a damn heart attack.  I never want to have a day like that again.  Coming from work, exhausted and stressed out, I snapped on Hunter's leash and we took our three mile walk through rural country.  We saw cows, horses, ducks in ponds, hardly any people.  I came home and went into the barn.  While I was climbing up to the rafters to get hay I felt two hooves in my back.  I turned to see who it was and there was Brie, my beloved goat.  It made me smile.  I'm counting my blessings that I have my barn and my animal friends to make me feel whole again.

Make way for ducklings!

The ducks out in the barnyard have been quite busy laying eggs and I brought some to a coworker who incubated them for me.  Well, yesterday five little ducklings came home to our farm!  If only they would stay this little.  Their little fluffiness and frantic peeps for food are so endearing.  

Heroes

A woman on my facebook page posted a picture with the caption, "Real heroes don't wear capes, they wear dog tags".  I know she was referring to our fine soldiers and rightfully so but it got me to thinking about one of the little heroes in my life.  My puppy, Hunter.  Hunter is a sweet rather overly energetic chocolate lab and I am so in love with him it's ridiculous.  He arrived here six days after we lost our beloved Missy and he has filled our home with laughter, endless energy and silliness, and above all love.  I finally have a guaranteed walking partner every day although he really needs to work on his gossiping skills.
Every morning he comes to the barn and watches me feed the gang.  This morning our little goat, Bucky, tried to make a run for it, looking for the duck's food that is so bad for him but that he loves to try and steal.  Hunter herded a rather startled Bucky, who is used to getting his way, right back into the barn.  It all happened in under a minute, which was great considering it was 5:15 and pretty damn cold not to mention dark.

So Hunter...you are my hero and my buddy and I thank you for coming into and being such a big part of my life.

Duck eggs

We have three ducks.  Izzy, Dizzy, and Lizzy.  I have no idea who is who.  I can tell which one is the male by the little curl at the end of his tail but other than that I have three identical Peking ducks.  I have always loved ducks. There is something so peaceful about the way they swim across a pond and dive gracefully under the water.  So back in May we acquired these three and imagine my surprise when they started laying eggs in December!  We were delighted.  If you've never had a duck egg you are missing out.  They  are much richer than a chicken egg, higher in protein, lower in cholesterol, and free of those stress hormones you get from the factory chicken egg.

Every morning I go out to the barn and there are two or three eggs waiting for me, like a little duck gift.  This morning however, one of my ducks was proudly sitting on her "nest".  She was carefully tucking the eggs under her and when she saw me she walked sadly away, looking back at me as if to say, "Go ahead, take them."  I reassured her that the eggs were hers.  Seeing her on that nest just made my morning.  It's the little things....

Our "Spirited" Home

http://www.saugertiesx.com/2012/02/23/haunting-west-camp/

Recently our home was featured in the local paper.

Hot Buttered Rum

It's a rainy, messy, drab Saturday in March.  Around here that means a crock pot full of hot buttered rum!  Normally it takes years of knowing me before I hand over my recipe but what the heck...we're all friends here right?  Enjoy!


You'll need: 4 cups water
                   4 cups cranberry juice
                   4 cups pineapple juice
                   1 cup packed brown sugar
                   1 bottle of light rum
                   1 tsp cinnamon
                   1/2 tsp nutmeg
                   1/4 tsp ground cloves
                   1 tsp vanilla
                   1/2 stick butter

Put all ingredients in the crock pot and stir well...cook on low for about 4-6 hours...you'll be hooked!

Ode to Missy

Missy was what I think of as a once in a lifetime dog.  I didn't want a puppy.  I had two young kids at home and my hands were full.  But my neighbor, who owns a dog kennel and does animal rescue, asked me one day if I was interested in a puppy.  She had a fascinating story.  Her mother had shown up at the door of her owners holding Missy in her mouth.  The owners hadn't known their dog was pregnant and it never occurred to them to look for more puppies outside.  Being that it was early April in upstate NY, two puppies froze to death outside that night.  The mother developed an infection when she couldn't birth the whole litter and passed away two days later, leaving Missy and orphan and the only survivor out of the entire litter.  The owners brought her to my friend who bottle fed Missy goat's milk round the clock.  Missy thrived under her care and when she turned five weeks old she became part of our family.  She grew up with my boys.  She went sleigh riding with them on our hill, took long walks with us, hung out in our back field when we played baseball.  We discovered she had a talent...she could "sing" Happy Birthday.  All you had to do was get out the cake and light the candles and she was the happiest dog on earth.  She would howl and sing right along with us.  Of course, she always got a piece of cake.
Missy mothered everything that came into this house.  From kittens, who could often be found curled up next to her, to a baby goat that needed the warmth and love she could provide while I was at work.  My son had a pet rat that we used to let swim in our pool.  After one such swim the rat was placed on a poolside chair.  The rat, being a rat, tried to get down to explore.  Missy kept gently nudging him back onto the chair with her nose.  After repeatedly doing this she got so frustrated she put her entire head on top of the rat so he couldn't move.  My mother in law said she never would've believed it if she didn't see it.  The rat wasn't the only creature she looked after.  We had a cat who used to love to hunt and torture baby bunnies.  One day I saw Missy intervening and saving a baby bunny.  She was truly a very unique dog.  I used to say she didn't know she was a dog.  She never grew up around other dogs and so I really think she thought she was human.
When my husband would wrestle with our boys, Missy would assume he was hurting them and so would bring a toy of hers to try and distract him.  She was a true peacemaker.
In August of 2010, Missy was diagnosed with cancer and given a week to two weeks to live.  Devastated, I brought her home, thinking that we had a big decision to make.  But she wasn't suffering, she still ate, still got excited over a car ride, so we let her enjoy the life she had left.  She lived until November 2011 when she finally succumbed to the cancer and one day could no longer stand.  It was the week of my son's birthday and she still "sang" to him even though she did it from her bed.  On the day that we were going to end her pain, I came home from work and found her gone.  That was her final gift to us...sparing us from having to make that decision.

I miss her dearly, it took me months to be able to go to her grave.  Birthdays will never be the same without her.  But I am so lucky to have had a friend like her for 9 1/2 years.

Meet the goats of our happy little farm

Brie and Bucky are probably the quirkiest characters out in the barnyard.  Brie, am alpine/boer mix came to us at two weeks of age and was my first bottle baby.  I enjoyed her babyhood immensely.  She would come to bed with me every night and tuck her wee head into my neck until my husband would remove her and put her in her crate when he came to bed.  Poor Brie would cry out when he took her out of our bed.
Considering she was a goat she wasn't all that destructive and I missed her when she was old enough to move out into the barnyard with the sheep.  We have a bond, Brie and I.  We understand each other.  I realized that the sheep weren't enough company for her.  She needed a goat friend.  So I called the farm where we got her and was told that they had a one week old buck, Brie's nephew, and he was slated for slaughter because most people will not buy a plain white goat.  The next day Bucky came home.  Where Brie was an easy baby Bucky presented a multitude of challenges.  He ate every plant in the house.  He couldn't tolerate the milk replacer and almost died twice.  Finally I called a woman who has a goat farm and over 160 goats, if she didn't know what to do who would I thought.  She told me to stop the milk replacer and put little Bucky on plain old cow's milk that you get from the store.  She went on to say that she has lost many a kid from milk replacer but never from cow's milk.  Well, Bucky's health turned around after that.  He began to thrive and had a special bond with our dog, now deceased, and would sleep on the couch with her all night.  I'd come home from work and Bucky, hearing me come in, would jump off the couch and say "Maaa?"  If we had a visitor, both Bucky and Missy (the dog) would go and greet them together.  It certainly wasn't something you see every day.
We almost lost Bucky again this past Summer when we realized he couldn't urinate.  After an emergency trip to the vet's at 1:30AM on a Sunday he had surgery which saved his life.  I'm starting to think he has nine lives like a cat.

Brie and Bucky are definitely the rulers of the barnyard, anyone who has goats will tell you that is just the way of things.  I do love them...