The one and only

Yes, that little chick with Mrs. Dandy is the one and only. She started out with three healthy chicks and now we are down to one. I'm doing my best to keep them safe. I have had them in the dog kennel and somehow the chick gets out every day. So then, of course, Mrs. Dandy gets frantic and flies over the top of the kennel. Every night I put them back in and every day they get out again. Mrs. Dandy is ferocious about keeping the other animals away from the chick, but let's face it, we are dealing with a pea(fowl) sized brain here, so we'll just have to hope for the best.

(And, yes, I am embarrassed to admit that these two peafowl sized brains are figuring out how to outsmart me by escaping from the pen every day!)

Nap time

We've had such gorgeous weather this week. Bright, sunshiny days and cool nights. The grass in the pastures has grown at least a foot. All the creatures around here have been up and out early for grazing, but when mid-day comes, everyone looks for a shady spot and settles in for a little rest-period. Come late afternoon, everyone is up eating grass as fast as they can cram it in! This is the best part of summer, I think. Everything is green and growing and the temperature is just about right. Once the heat and humidity sets in (and Kentucky does a bang-up job with that), we'll all want to stay in the shade all day.You might have noticed in that first picture, poor, sad Pippi is not taking a nap. She's heartbroken to be separated from her mother, Strawberry (who is seen cooling her heels with the alpaca boys). It's been a tough week for Pippi. I don't think the Farmer's Almanac knew what they were talking about this time because she doesn't seem any less upset than she did on the first day of separation. I know eventually she will stop stressing, but it sure is hard to watch.

Bee Happy

Sorry, couldn't resist saying something so corny. It's all about the bees around here right now. The girls are guzzling down the sugar water and working, working, working all the time. If you look closely at the picture, you can see the orange-ish looking pollen on their back legs when they come in from foraging(click to biggify). It looks as though they will need some expansion room and will be ready for the second hive box to go on in just a day or two. I have spent time just sitting and watching them fly in and out every morning. They have been too busy to pay much attention to me, though I did get buzzed a bit yesterday. I actually got a bigger reaction from the lambs when they saw me walk into the field in my bee outfit! (The jumpsuit is gigantic and makes me feel as though I am moving under water, but everyone said to buy it extra big because it shrinks a lot when you wash it.Add the helmet and the veil and it's a pretty scary look.) The lambs took one look at me and ran for their lives!

Last week I made the trip to Frankfort to one of my favorite places at this time of year. Wilson Nurseries (sadly, no website) is brimming over with beautiful plants and I wanted to bring home a load of them. I restrained myself and only got vegetable plants, geraniums and assorted annuals for the pots that go on the terrace. I have tried to become more realistic about the number of pots and plantings I will do a good job of caring for once the weather gets really hot and that has caused me to scale back considerably. I'm willing to admit that when it gets really hot, I'd much rather be sitting inside knitting---of which there has been very little of lately.

I am working on the "Kate Cardigan" designed by Elizabeth Morrison. It was in issue #5 of Knitcircus, the wonderful little knitting magazine that Susan Anderson mentioned on her blog a few months back. I'm sure I wasn't the only one to subscribe to it immediately. Several of us from the Wednesday Knitting group did and we all love the size and format of it. I ordered the back issues also and have found several patterns in each issue that I would like to knit. Anyway, I'm slowly making progress on the "Kate". I have finished the back, which was boring stockinette, but made for great mindless knitting and am now working on the fronts. I am knitting both fronts at the same time because then I don't have to remember the shaping (lazy, I guess). I'm anxious to get to the sleeves because they are picked up from the armhole edge and knit down, using short rows to shape the sleeve cap. I don't believe I have ever knit sleeves that way and it seems to me, if it works well, it will make fitting sleeves into the armhole opening much easier. (The yarn is Queensland Kathmandu DK in color #434)

Time to get outside and work, work, work (you know, making hay while the sun shines and all that.....).

New workers

Yes, that's right......we have some new workers here on the farm. About 20 thousand of them! They won't be doing any barn chores, but they will be working away filling their hive with honey. First, to feed themselves through next winter and then, if we are extremely lucky this year, there might be some honey for us. That's the "removal of the duct tape" moment happening above. The bees rode out to the farm in the back of our friend's SUV and the duct tape was necessary to keep the bees in the hive and not loose in the car. Our friends, Mary and Tommy, who came to dinner on Wednesday evening delivered our brand new hive with our bees already hard at work. (He is our "bee mentor" and the source of our bees.) The weather did not cooperate with our plans, so we didn't get to be the ones transferring the bees from their nucleus hive into our own hive box, but they are here on the farm now and busy as, well, bees. This morning I stood close by and watched while they flew in laden with pollen and out again to gather more. The more I learn about them, the more fascinating they become. You're probably going to hear more about these bees than you ever wanted to know!

I can hardly claim to have prepared dinner for our friends. I'd say it was more in the simple summer supper category. We had turkey burgers prepared on the grill, Hudson's 7-day slaw, dressed eggs and chips. Then for dessert we had Lemon Yogurt Cake.

This little cake has become my go-to dessert this spring. It's delicious and light and can be prepared quickly. It's another Ina Garten recipe (I do use other cookbooks....honest, I do).It's from The Barefoot Contessa at Home cookbook and is the Lemon Yogurt Cake. I also combined a jar of red current jelly (melted)and some fresh (or frozen)raspberries for a not-too-sweet topping.

We have had a couple of other new arrivals here at Tanglewood, but I'll save that for another post. Have a good weekend.