Olives

My fabulous friend Heike came and picked olives with me ~ which in itself is awesome because I was just about to just let them sit on the tree. Funny, now I am wishing for more....
So we picked what we could reach, then Heike climbed on the tree and picked some more (brave woman that she is), we got about a bucket full.
Immediately after picking you have to wash the olives and start the curing process. In our case, we decided not to use lye, we are going with a more user friendly option: water ~ after you slit every single olive, you submerge them in water and rinse and change the water every day until most of the bitter compund is literally washed off. After about 20 days, you put them in the brine and wait a month for the flavor to develop.

I'll keep you posted....

Ice Skaters

Entomology Museum

Polar Express on Ice

Take two medium size children....
...add sugar, spice & ice skates....
...and the toy soldier and emerald ballerina come to life!

Vibram shoes!

ELF INVASION!

Fluffball, Robin, Cassie & Lucy Goosie

Just a short post, to introduce our latest....Fluffball is Remy's Show Rabbit for the County Fair. He gets to bring it to our meeting tomorrow for the first time...He is a Jersey Wooly that was given to him by a very nice lady at a local rabbit Show. A little high maintenance, he has to be 'blown' then brushed daily...very soft fur, comparable to an angora but a third the size : )

These are Robin & Cassie, siblings born to Mamma V, who previously had Jean Valjean (remember?) Cassie was 'rawther' sickly right after birth but we nursed her back to health ~ which earned me the title of "Everybody's Mom" ; )

...and last but not least, there is our lovely goose, Lucy, who just showed up one day in our neighbors' pasture, with her feet tangled in some wire...she started hanging out with our sheep, and slowly but surely has become a part of our family ~ she comes and goes with the sheep and grooms them. A couple of times she has taken flight, only to circle back into our pasture, she sleeps in the barn and is just a lovey.... won't be surprised if she grows wool!

Zoe Keating Plays"Escape Artist"

Chickens, Guineas & Geese, Oh My...!

So one of our guineas finally got broody and sat on her eggs long enough for them to hatch...well...for most of them to hatch...after tiny keet number 16 came out...she decided that she had had enough and left the rest of her eggs to fend for themselves....well, not around here! The kids promptly came to the rescue, fetched all 13 abandoned eggs, and brought them in the house. Sure enough, a short while later, you could hear little pecks coming out of one of the eggs, some crackling and chirping later CheepCheep was hatched!

A few of the eggs, were not 'hatchable', and we lost a few of the chicks... another one hatched late last night, and another one this morning....

On a separate note, a wild goose has adopted us! It started hanging out in the pasture, and now she flies over at feeding time and likes to hang out with the turkeys!

And on a separate, separate note...Maura has started her own blog, check it out! Look under Farm Fresh in my profile.

OK, We are REALLY back, now....

I have got to say, the Summer of 2010 was exceptionally good for us. We made wonderful new friends, we discovered we LOVE camping, we discovered we LOVE kayaking, we went on our annual trip to sunny San Diego and spent time with family... it was a fabulous Summer and we really can't wait to do it all again....!

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.....

We're Baaaaack.....!

Mostly Martha...

We have been living at the Ranch for a year now. It was only a matter of time. My name is Sassafras...and I live with a sheep.... Hey, it's only temporary...! and I MUST say...I am enjoying every minute of it!  It turns out that Maura's ewe, Rachel,surprisingly, had triplets...and it was a surprise...Wednesday night, she had twins: Cora & Alton. And the next morning, there was one more...! Momma Rachel didn't (still doesn't) seem to be producing enough milk, so a decision had to be made, and quickly... especially, since I was already taking on Honna, another lamb from a different ewe, who accidentally got stepped on by it's mother...poor Honna couldn't even hold up her head....she was pretty much a goner : (  ~ but she had a miraculous and speedy recovery and I am pleased to say, we were able to reintroduce her into the herd on Thursday night. Martha is a different story. Since she is the runt, her siblings push her out of the way every time she tries to nurse... we have tried to leave her with her family on several occasions, but every time we go back to check on her...she is by  herself, skinny and cold, and so happy to see us...so we bring her back in, and bottle feed her. The first day and night she slept in a box in the bathtub...with a chicken heating lamp above her... last night, she just kept jumping out of the box and we were afraid she would hurt herself, plus, she was miserable, she only calmed down when we held her close.... My solution...diapers! Maura had some tiny disposable diapers that she uses with her dolls, so she dug them up and voilá, instant solution...we were able to go to sleep, with Martha, and only had two feedings in the middle of the night....! 

Saving the tadpoles...

I came home from volunteering at the vernal pools, to find that Remy & Maura were rather concerned about the quickly vanishing pools out in our pasture...We had just checked on them about two days before and everything looked fine. However, it has stopped raining and we haven't started irrigating...so this is what the pools looked like....there were hundreds of tadpoles swimming around in circles with nowhere to go....we had just seen the new series "Life", in which the papa frog digs a ditch for the young ones to escape to a bigger pool of water....and that was Maura's initial idea...except that there was no bigger pool. Everything was drying up at the same rate...-desperate times call for desperate measures, the kids got an empty juice jug, and started hand filling it...slowly, carefully....
-they saved as many as they could. The rest we left for nature..perhaps some birds will feed on them...?
The lucky ones were transported to the water trough near the house, where we will be able to keep an eye on them...
-here they are... new home, good luck!
(...today, two days later, Remy reports they have sprouted back legs!)

Night at the Museum

O.K., more like day, but you get the idea.... The museum offered a 'Woman's Day at the Museum', so we left Remy with Mr. Sassafras, tending to the sheep....(and a good thing too, since Garbanzo Bean chose this day to deliver Cocoa and Oreo), and the women folk left for  the City.... I think one of the best parts for Maura was the unexpected Bus Ride to the actual Museum.... Once we got there, it was fabulous!  We toured the museum, we heard many talented women speak: a designer, a photographer/film maker (Thin), a writer (The Bad Mother)... (two of their books are on order at the library).  We also learned a bit of history....Met the fabulous Cat Cora ( and later attended her talk), she is so warm and friendly! She did a cooking demo that I am still hoping Maura will replicate for us soon...

Maura had bouncy curls done.... She loves having her hair done. Not by me mind you....she says I pull her hair...!!!!!
And then got to ride the bus AGAIN!!!!  It was a very nice day, just the two of us. We decided that we are going to have a day like this every month, just the two of us...

The Vernal Pools

We went  to the Vernal Pools yesterday...We met a Paleontologist, and we learned all about the vernal pools - here Maura is sifting through some gravel, we learned about weathering and erosion, sediments and ash....We learned how the vernal pools form, about the hardpan....
...and then it was time to explore!
We found oodles of tadpoles, water fleas, copopods (?)
snails...hmmm, escargot, anyone...?
it was a great experience for all of us, and we can't wait to go again!
Oh,yeah.....remember last post...? Forget it...we are now up to nineteen....Meet Dotty and Domino!

And babies make 17!

We have been holding our breath around here...ever since Remy's marathon b-day last week (more on this later), we have been expecting someone, ANYONE....to give us some baby lambs. well, this morning around 7:30 a.m., Crunchy finally delivered! First there was some drama because, contrary to my wisdom ;), Mr. sassafras hadn't separated Jean Valjean from the rest of the herd. He has been weaned for quite some time now, and should have been put with Thor, our other ram, as per my newly acquired knowledge of ram behavior...aaanyway, he was ramming Crunchy while she was trying to give birth! Needless to say, both Mr. sassafras and I ran out to make the separation happen...NOT Easy...we ended up moving Jooley, penning Crunchy,and then finally putting Jean Valjean into the grassy pen. By the time we were done with this, Pinky Dinky Doo had been born! And about ten minutes later, another bag appeared, popped, and out came Popeye!After a while, we let them out onto the grass, where the sun was shining....
Pinky is quite a bit smaller and skinnier than Popeye, but seems to eat more often
Bobo came over to sniff the newborns...
as well as the rest of the herd...Can you believe that is Curly walking away? They were babies just yesterday...! Popeye has gotten confused a couple of times and starts following Daisy, Cossette's mom for a drink....

the itsy bitsy spider...

Another field trip! There were insects and reptiles and turtles, oh my! Remy got to hold his first tarantula, while Maura watched from afar...(as did I)Then they both got to pet and hold this gigantanormous python.....15 ft. long!!!!
There were lizards that slithered onto the floor....


...and friendly, non-threatening turtles....