Happy Birthday L

Boss returned from her overseas vacation this week, and sent out a call for a surprise party for her husband upon his return following a stop in Vienna.

We had some discussion about cake-their traditional being a pound cake strawberry and whipped cream combo, but some uncertainty whether K was bringing a cake, and my sudden desire to bring one...(I have a penchant for bringing tricky desserts to gatherings)

Suddenly I recalled a recipe out of my collection en route to the store to buy the best bottle of red I could find-what better gift for a 70 year old well educated genius from old money with a taste for wine?

Strawberry orange something, and I gathered the ingredients that I thought might be in it, and arrived home to discover I was missing almonds and cornstarch...

The recipe from was Gourmet magazine 1991, one that I had clipped but never attempted. Swedish Meringue Cake with Orange and Strawberries. Well it was indeed tricky, involving making meringue, obviously, and the orange filling, and grinding and blending almonds into the meringue. I burnt the first batch of filling prepping the strawberry part. More zest, cornstarch, sugar...I'll never get the origanal pan clean, lol.

Fortunately through out this complicated creation , there were updates about arrival times. First set back was to 8:30. I had Willow in the car and the cake hastily assembled when the second delay came...10:30. But, with the offer to arrive early and eat and drink wine. LOL Never leave the farm help unattended with access to wine.

No, we were good. Well, K and I were bad I suppos; she broke the cork on the first bottle. $37..but manage to re-screw it at my urging. She went for a lesser bottle for the second. The troop of us, K's husband and three of her children, all former employees, P, myself, and C and Willow, laying in wait for...well, it was nearly midnight when poor exhausted Mr Boss sat down to remove his shoes and we all jumped out and screamed, "surprise!!!!!"

Then the party began. Good times, glad I am not working in the morning! This ale tastes a bit sour after all that fine wine...hehe

Stocking Alewives

I saw a truck backing into the pond as I arrived home from the farm today. It had something large and square on the back of the trailer, and I thought, "what the heck is that?" and then I saw the Maine Dept of Fisheries and Wildlife logo on the truck, so I rushed right over.

I knew they were stocking something!!

Fully mature Alewives, three trips, a total of 800 fish, caught downstream. The dam stops their migration, so they put them in to spawn so the young can return to the sea and become a very important part of the food chain. Alewives spawn in the fresh water of lakes and ponds and the babies go to the ocean to grown up and don't return until it is time for them to lay eggs.

Poor guys had made two undisturbed trips and then had me quizzing them on the last one. I thought it was cool! LOL. Wish I had that job! :)

Blood Ties

Busy busy busy! Spending a lot of time at the farm and not enough on my own place! Spring is in full swing!

The farm geese hatched out three goslings. They are pilgrim geese, the only color sexed breed of geese. The males are white- sometimes with gray patches, and the females are gray. The male goslings (2) are yellow and the female is dusky.



I finally snuck a pic of Bonnie's twin bucklings out of Zeus. Still, they were hiding.


My oldest, C, has been working the last few stretches at the farm with me. Here he is with the silly filly, Estrella, who walked right up to my camera and slobbered all over it.


Willow came in today, and had a chance to feed the bottle baby, one of Ursula's twin bucklings out of Nibbeola.



And one more doe yet to deliver, doesn't she look comfy? LOL. Uureka.

Happy Mother's Day

Wow my kids just made me breakfast and presented me with gifts, cards and flowers. I am soo lucky!

Happy Mother's Day!!!!

Yesterday

If you don't like the weather in Maine, wait a minute...

Earlier in the week, temps soared and it was time to break out the summer clothes. Then this a.m. I went out to feed my goats in shorts and a t-shirt and it started pouring. I was drenched; changed my shirt and added two more layers and headed to the farm, where it kept raining. I was soaked through and half frozen by the time I came home, so I started a fire and took a nap on the couch.

I woke up an hour later roasting, and changed back into shorts and a t-shirt. Then a cold front came through and I am freezing again.

These pics are from two days ago when a storm system moved through. We didn't get any rain from it. Go figure. :)

Bonnie, the last doe to deliver this year at the farm, fulfilled my prediction and had her first set of twins. She is so protective Boss had to chain her to dip the cords in iodine, and didn't have a chance to check the sex. Yesterday morning I gave Bonnie her grain and very carefully woke up her kids and peered under their tails. Both bucks! Which isn't too bad since they were fathered by Zeus who is now in goat heaven, so maybe one will fill his hooves...

The final total, three does and six bucks for BLF. A buck year, apparently.

A Cute Working Team

The Farm has hired this fellow to harvest some timber, and he's using these adorable steers to drag the trees out.

I had the opportunity to meet them when we went up to gather some brush for the bucks. I asked if I could pet them, and rubbed their big white stars on their foreheads.

"They're SO soft!" I exclaimed. I couldn't believe it.

"Uh, I put some "Skin-so Soft" (Avon product customers claim to ward off insects)on them this morning."

Wow. If that keeps the black flies away I think I'm going to start bathing in it. :D