Beloved Heinrich

It's the end of the Chicken Era at Shady Grove. Our dear Heinrich got her neck chomped by roosting too closely to the edge of the enclosure a few weeks ago. We had her for just over eight years. Having chickens was the best! 

We will miss her companionable chirps while tending the garden. She laid giant eggs very regularly. She followed The Farmer around the yard on occasion, and always greedily out-pecked her sister Athena when veggie goodies were thrown into the henhouse. She was beloved by so many children (and adults) who got to hold her in their arms and pet her soft feathers. Heinrich was pretty smart and returned to the henhouse... usually. Ah, the empty coop will harbor her spirit for a while. I mistakenly called out to her a few days ago. Miss you, Chicky-Doodle. Rest over easy. 

Shady Grove Chickens: November 2012 - December 2020. 

I *tink* I Made an Error

I didn't just make one error. I made two. In the same row! So that was a fun way to start my Sunday... Oh well! That will teach me to keep reading the pattern. Always the same mistake! This is the beginning of my Slipstravaganza shawl, the 2020 Stephen West MKAL pattern. It looks like so many people have already finished, and I'm still working on section 1, released one month ago... I'm just busy tinking back, haha! 

Anyway, I thought this knit would be a fun knit to celebrate 10 years of alpaca farming. I'm using farm yarns and a special guest yarn made of yak (gray color) that I procured from a local yarn shop. We've had alpacas here since November 3, 2010. I'll be posting more about the anniversary this week. 

Last month I read Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance. It had come up on several teacher pages that I follow, and so it piqued my curiosity. It provided a lot of insight into growing up in rural Appalachian America. Lots of food for thought. Check out the other knitting and reading projects at Ginny's yarn-along page. 

Ramble On Rose

Back in early August, The Farmer decided to add one more alpaca to the herd. We really needed a friend for Dark Star, and it would be nice to possibly have another option for breeding. We headed to a farm about an hour from us, where the owners had several boys for sale. 

Introducing: Ramble On Rose! He was the most handsome alpaca, and his name was already Ramble On. Adding a "Rose" sealed the deal to keep the farm names aligned with Grateful Dead song titles.

In true Shady Grove Alpaca fashion, the ride home in the rental cargo van was hilarious. This alpaca was all about the selfies and humming non-stop. Downtime from photography sessions was spent peeing a half dozen times in the back of the van. Nothing a quick hosing down couldn't fix upon arrival.

Ramble is very well-tempered, leash trained, and easy to work with. He is also super friendly when he gets a visitor in the barn.

At home with the new siblings! The boys immediately started a vigorous neck wrestling contest. The life in the barn has completely changed. Ramble is very vocal and loves to hum and announce whatever is going on. So cute! 

 Personally, I can't wait for the spring shearing and adding another color to the Shady Grove color palette. Happy knitting!

Yarn Along - Slouch Potato

It's been a while. Turns out teaching school is hard this year, and it takes considerably more time than in the past. But teaching is going well, in spite of being at a new school and dealing with all the pandemic restrictions and accommodations. And I did take some time away to knit a hat recently!

I adore the knitting patterns of Anne Hanson. She has a weekly weekend pattern deal, and two weeks ago her Slouch Potato hat really spoke to me. It calls for DK yarn, which I have a lot of in our Shady Grove Alpaca farm stash.

My size 3 needle is made of brass. The oils on my hands must interact with the brass, because the patterned part on bottom turned light blue. It's only slightly visible in the photo above. Fortunately, most of it washed out.

Pattern: Slouch Potato by Anne Hanson

Yarn: Shady Grove Alpacas Suri DK in Moonstar, Size 3 & 6 needles

Started: September 27, 2020

Finished: October 3, 2020

Of course I needed to pose with the lovely lady who supplied the fiber. Moonstar is pretty skittish, so there was a long haul of walking around the pen making ineffective noises to get her attention! 

In this final picture, you will notice a new alpaca in the background. I hope to finally blog about him tomorrow.

As for books, I managed to read two books by Fredrik Backman: My Grandmother Asked me to Tell You Sorry and A Man Named Ove. Both feature very quirky main characters, possibly on the autism spectrum, who have hearts of gold. They were lovely to relax to. 

Check out the other Yarn Along projects and reading lists on Ginny's page. Till soon!

Baking and Food Updates

Hang on, friends, it's going to be a long post! I have so many windows open on my phone and computer, "saving" all the recipes that I have used to make our life delicious at home for the last few months. It's time to close all the browsers and save the info someplace more useful. It's still the pandemic and there is still a baking trend that I am a part of!

I found a new recipe for the Sachertorte. I really like how easy the chocolate shell was to apply and smooth. My comment for improvement would be to add additional apricot jam between the layers of the cake, or split the layers into more layers for more jam to sink in. This cake was moist and delicious and lasted most of a week at room temperature.

The popularity of regular challah bread at our house was lapped by even greater excitement about rye challah! I used Molly Yeh's recipe and promptly needed to purchase more caraway seeds. The nutty texture of the bread is delightful. The only downside of the recipe is that it only makes one loaf. I was smart and froze half immediately before it disappeared.

Some people want me to believe that cream cheese and olives is the best way to enjoy this bread.

The next cake we had to make and eat was pistachio cake with cream cheese frosting. Check the sweetness after adding each cup of sugar in the frosting. I used a lot less than recommended and still thought it was well-sweetened. The cake was outstanding!

Around this same time, we started harvesting our first arugula greens from the garden. 

And also were happy to have some radishes, though they quickly got woody.

I thought I would make a strawberry pie with this sourdough discard pie crust recipe, but it was such an unusual and savory flavor that I made a veggie pot pie instead. I highly recommend warming up the leftovers in the oven to avoid soggy crust syndrome. Super yummy, even if you substitute some veggies for others that you have on hand.

Impulse purchase of plantains? Make some plantain chips with olive oil and salt in the oven for 20 minutes!

Hands down the most delicious food I have ever eaten was this almond torte with strawberry sauce. I skipped the rhubarb because I don't really like it and didn't have any. This will be our birthday cake moving forward. WOW!

I once again had to save the gooseberries before the chipmunks sampled all the unripe ones. Instead of freezing the green berries right away, I stored them in the fridge for a few weeks and they ended up turning red after all!

Instead of making jam, I decided to try a gooseberry chutney instead. It was a nice change to the normal sweet stuff. The type of vinegar you use makes a difference, so I recommend not changing to, for example, apple cider vinegar...

I found the lemon lavender scone recipe my friend won the Indiana State Fair with a few years back. This was to celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary. I used Ponderosa lemon juice and rind from our own lemon tree.

New beets at the farmers market inspired an experiment to duplicate the salt roasted beets at the Purple Pig restaurant in Chicago. 

I cut and roasted the beets for 30-ish minutes with olive oil and salt at 350* in the oven. I mixed them up once or twice during the baking. Then I smeared peanut butter on the bottom of a plate, piled the cooled beets on top, added salt to taste, crumbled chevre and chopped pistachios on top. Oh my YUM!

Not pictured in this culinary wonderland was the peanut butter granola that The Farmer made, the "artisan" sourdough bread that turned out nothing like the video, but tasted amazingly of molasses, and an emergency peach crisp that I had to make when a box of peaches wouldn't ripen but started spoiling. 

Have a delicious day! 

A Week of Raccoons with a Possum Chaser

On Tuesday evening of July 14, our darling chicken Athena was broken out of her coop by a band of raccoons. She had many moments of blog glory, but THIS POST was the one she was famous for. Needless to say, the marshmallows in the trap were no longer grabbing the attention of the bandits, so we switched to eggs. Eggs roll around and cannot be stolen through the bars, so we trapped a few trash pandas as a result. It resulted in some longer road trips, as raccoons need to be taken far away from home so they don't find their way home.

Wednesday night, we caught a little one. I took him to a lake. Hopefully he remains, ever happy to wash his food before eating. You really can't complain about a raccoon's table manners. 

 Thursday night we caught a full-sized animal. This one led to a discovery of a delightful state park I had not visited yet. I would have been happy to live in those woods!

Friday night, we had another smaller, but almost full-sized version. This one got to live in a Nature Preserve, but was reluctant to leave the trap at first. Fortunately it did run after sensing freedom, but I really did not want to worry about being bitten by a rabid one...

 Saturday night, I hadn't set the trap until dark, which meant that I saw (a small??) one scuttling away in the beam of the flashlight. While I was gingerly placing the egg in the trap whilst swatting so many insistent mosquitoes, I heard little scratching sounds behind me near the chicken food container. I finally opened the container to have my gaze met by a set of masked eyes. I hastily shut the container, wondering what I should do next. Before deciding to hold it in the container, I looked again, and TWO small raccoons were enjoying the buffet! I loaded the top of the container with as many bricks as I could find, thinking that I would free them in the morning at the Nature Preserve. Alas, they escaped, but we did get a GIANT one instead. That one was rather hyper and off like a flash.

After Sunday night, there was a small one in the trap. I was driving to Ohio to see family on Monday and dropped him in a woods halfway there. As far as I think, there is at least one small raccoon still on the loose, though signs of him have disappeared.

The trap was set but empty for a few days, before this opossum guy showed up on yesterday morning. It probably has a string of siblings and a mom hiding out in the woods. Apparently they like raw eggs as much as their raccoon friends. So the saga continues. I saw a set of twin fawns come out of the woods in front of the house over the weekend as well. Time to think about strategies to keep my ripening tomatoes from becoming wildlife food.

How are your garden pets, I mean, pests?! At least I don't have a ground hog!

Hard Re-Set - Yarn Along

June had me drifting around a bit, where my only hard and fast goal was to walk 190 miles, which I accomplished. I am so grateful that the Yarn Along is on the 1st this month. (Check out the link!) It really allowed me to reflect on what I wanted and needed to do next. It was an all-day process that encompassed a few other topics besides reading and knitting, but I think this next month will be fun and productive.

So for reading I decided to mix a little pleasure (orchard planning) with a lot of business (teaching orchestra at a new school). We refurbished our outdoor seating earlier this summer, and I just parked those books out there on the coffee table in anticipation of some major porch sitting as it gets too hot to work in the garden the next week.

For knitting, it's time to stop dilly-dallying. I'm picking up my Amiga and my Storytime Scholar sweaters for some finishing this time. They both need those long collar-button band combos where I dread picking up the correct amount of stitches and then knitting for a long time. There are also so many funny sweaters where I placed the buttonholes in the wrong place, so we're looking at some possible re-knits and/or fantastic button placements.

For my own accountability, I will also be setting up some early winter gardening projects, exploring a few local hiking spots that have been on my list, and getting back to practicing viola. I hope my screen time goes down, with the exception of some additional blogging.

Happy Summer!