Yogurt, Pickles and Goat Cheese

No, I am not pregnant again!

I was just feeling a bit ambitious in the kitchen today. After chores, as I was straining the goat's milk I realized it had piled up again so decided I would get another batch of Cherve cheese cultured. And as I was heating up the goat's milk to pasteurize it, it occurred to me that I hadn't made any yogurt in almost two weeks. So, into another pot went the cow's milk for the yogurt.

While the milk's were heating I was straightening up the kitchen and was trying to figure out what to do with all the cucumbers, summer squash and zucchini I had about.... pickles! I pull out a recipe for Bread and Butter Pickles and checked to make sure I had everything I needed. I got the canning jars out and into the dishwasher to sterilize.

By now the milk's were hot and needed to be cooled down in an ice water bath in the sink. As the milk cooled I started cutting the veggies which also included onions and the sweet banana peppers from the garden. I salted the veggies heavily and set them in colanders to drain for a few hours.

To the goat's milk I added the culture and rennet and set it toward the back of the stove... done for 10-12 hours. To the cow's milk I added, powdered milk, some sugar, vanilla and half a jar of yogurt from my last batch I had been hiding in the fridge from the kids. I pour the concoction into the jars and set in the yogurt maker to culture for 8 hours (we like a thick yogurt here).

Time to clean up a bit, feed the kids lunch and nurse the baby.

After the salted veggies sat for 3 hours I rinsed them off, made the vinegar brine, cooked the veggies for a minute or two, packed the jars and canned them in a water bath for ten minutes. I ended up with three and half quarts of cucumber BnB pickles and one and half quarts squash BnB pickles.

One final clean up of the kitchen and it was time to rest for a while. After dinner I will refrigerate the yogurt and then just before bed I will strain the cheese and hang it over night.

Independence Day Challenge

Planted - Nothing

Harvested - Summer Squash, Zucchini, Sweet Banana Peppers, Green Tomatoes (fell off the vines), Cherry Tomatoes, Radishes, Lettuces, Eggs and Goat Milk.

This and That Today

Nothing major to report today just a few little things going on.

The fence on our goat buck pen has been needing some work for a while now as our buck had no qualms going through the five wire electric fence that made up one side of the square pen to get to the does. Somehow the fix for this problem kept getting moved down the list of priorities around the farm. Well, yesterday morning, Neil finally got a line of woven wire strung up about a foot inside the electric fence. I didn't have time to catch the buck yesterday but this morning I snapped a lead on him while he was munching on his breakfast. After a bit of a tug of war to get him away from the sweet feed/grain and the does he found himself back in the buck pen again. He went went right out to the pen and started nibbling on the tall grasses and weeds there. By 7pm tonight he was still in the pen... I wonder if he will still be there in the morning?

Our Nigerian Dwarf Goat buck, Enchanted Hill Gottaway

My pickling cucumbers finally peeked their heads out of the soil after a warm and rainy day here today. Still no sign of the carrots, lettuce and radishes I planted at the same time. Elsewhere in the garden the tomatoes are doing great! I love the smell of tomato plants as I brush against them while weeding... an old factory trigger for what is to come! The summer squashes, watermelon and peppers are looking good too.

Another duckling hatched out overnight. I had a flurry of them at the end of last week but hadn't had anymore hatch for a few days so I was a bit surprised to see it this morning. Ducklings, like puppies, are something I never want to grow up. They are so perfectly cute at this age.

Independence Day Update #4

Happy Memorial Day!

A couple from Danville, VA came and bought some ducks today. They were here in December and purchased three of our Muscovy ducks and an Embden goose. They recently lost their drake and came back to get another. They also ended up getting another mature duck and a month old duckling. They will all have a wonderful new home with this couple as pets on their pond.

Here is my weekly IDC update:

Plant something - Russet potatos, Glaskins Perpetual Rhubarb, Drunken Woman Lettuce, Iceburg Lettuce, Kuroda Long Carrots, Radishes, Bush Pickle Cucumber and Straight 8 Cucumber.

Harvest something - Fresh free range eggs from our chickens. Plantain (the herb/weed) from our yard, wild mint.

Preserve something - Froze fresh mint leaves, dried plantain leaves.

Reduce Waste - Did our usual recycling efforts. Took our once a week trip to town to save on gas. The kitchen scraps went to the chickens and/or the compost bin. Got a Little Tike basketball hoop off of Freecycle for the kids.

Preparation and Storage - Not much on this front this week.

Eat the Food -

Plantain - Weed or Herb?

Plantain (Plantago major) is considered a common weed by some and a miracle plant by others. You can find it all over our farm along with another Plantain, Pantago lanceolata, which has long narrow leaves. Plantago major is edible. The young, tender leaves can be harvested for use in a salad, or steamed and used as a spinach substitute. Plantain is very high in beta carotene (A) and calcium. It also provides ascorbic acid (C), and vitamin K.

One of plantain's most common medicinal uses is as a poultice for stings, bites, scrapes and rashes. The simplest way to harness plantain's healing powers is to crush a few fresh leaves, and apply directly to the affected area. Replace fresh leaves as necessary. The fresh plantain "juice" takes the pain away and seems to work wonders at staunching blood flow and closing wound edges. It's also wonderfully refreshing and soothing to sunburns.

Since I have so much of this growing around the farm I thought I would harvest some today and dry it to use for infusions when needed. I have also read that it makes a great diaper rash cream so I think I will do a bit more research on that and make up a batch soon for Taylor.

Other happenings on the farm include two more ducklings that hatched out overnight. They are now in the brooder. Chamomile, one of our Am Chin rabbit does, had a date with the buck, Sarsaparilla, for the day. She is still with her 9 kits born April 9th but I wanted to rebreed her for a late June kindling. The date seemed to go well. I finally got the 4x8 raised bed planted that I cleaned out last week. Into it went Iceberg Lettuce, Drunken Woman Lettuce, Straight 8 and Bush Pickling Cucumbers, and Carrots. I also moved more of the tires that, in past years, I have been growing my potatoes in to a new place in the garden. I filled four tire beds (each stacked two high) with aged bedding from the barn. Into one tire I planted Rhubarb the other three will be getting Russet Potatoes... hopefully tomorrow.

Evan and McKayla are thoroughly enjoying the pool. They have been in it at least once a day since Friday. McKayla especially loves to swim and is constantly asking if she can go swimming. Which I still find amazing as it is ice cold and they come out blue with their teeth chattering... but they love it! Tonight is was a mere 60F outside and the two of them swam until I had dinner ready. Crazy!

Independence Day Update #3

Between yesterday and today there are three new ducklings and two more turkey poults in the brooder. I expect a flush of ducklings in the new few days. Also, yesterday one of the oldest turkey poults that I had left with its mother found its way into the pasture and became a dog toy for our LGDs. When I found it in the barn I wasn't sure if it was still alive or not. It was missing feathers and wet from dog mouth. After I determined it was still breathing I put it with the young birds under the heat lamp in the brooder. In the afternoon it was dry and sitting up a bit. By this morning it was eating, drinking and looking BAR (bright, alert and responsive). It did not want to get up on its feet though... I wonder if it has a broken leg? They are not floppy at all so I have hope it will fully recover with a bit more rest but its days of free ranging with mom are over.

I spent some time in the garden this afternoon. Took the weed whacker around the outside of the raised beds. It looks so much tidier now. I haven't been able to plant in the 4x8 box that I cleaned out earlier this week as I hadn't figured out how to chicken proof it until today. I cut a 16 foot cattle panel in half to give me a 4x8 metal grid to lay on top of the box. Over the grid I will place a bird net for fruit trees. This should keep the birds from scratching up the bed and eating the seeds and disrupting any tender starts. I hope to get some lettuce, radishes, carrots and cukes planted in that box in the next few days.

Here is my update for the IDC this week.

Plant something - Mr. Stripy tomato, sweet yellow pepper, sweet orange pepper, sweet banana pepper, sweet potato.

Harvest something - Fresh free range eggs from our chickens.

Preserve something - Does feeding my sourdough count as something I am preserving? If so, it is something I do at least every other day to keep it alive.

Reduce Waste - Took our once a week trip to town to save on gas. Knitted up a reusable produce bag. No more plastic produce bags for me... YEAH! You can read about it here. Kitchen scraps went to the chickens and/or the compost bin.

Preparation and Storage - I scored a few more great items on the discount table at the local grocery store to have in the pantry. I am continuing to clean out garden beds when I have time and still keep up with the weeds in the boxes I already have planted. I am using newspaper with aged barn floor straw over it as mulch to keep the weeds at bay and the soil moist.

Our two oldest children have life insurance policies through Modern Woodmen of America. One of the many benefits that MWA offers to their policy holders is a free tree every year. This week I remembered to log onto their website and order our two free trees for this year. I don't expect them to come until the Fall for planting but it is something I got done this week! Oh, I ordered a Sugar Maple and a Redbud. The maple for Fall color and the redbud for Spring color!

Eat the Food - Made a Shrimp Scampi from shrimp from the freezer, pasta out of the pantry and served it with a loaf of sourdough bread, also out of the freezer. Brought a pan of Chicken Enchiladas, made with home grown chicken out of the freezer, over to the In-Laws for dinner Saturday night. Made more homemade granola and bagels this weekend for breakfasts.

Farm Photos

Six month old Murdoc... who we discovered was a Rose Grey only after shearing.

Last nights rain clings in the flower garden.

One of last year's hatch of Chocolate Muscovy Ducks.

One of Nigerian Dwarf goat doelings, Elizabeth, from this spring... she is for sale!

The Embden geese with their seven goslings.

The rose bush in front of the house is in full bloom.

Our Entlebucher Mountain Dog, Tate, taking a short break in the shade.

Finally, Daddy and 4 1/2 month old Taylor taking a stroll around the farm together.

Time to weed the garden!

This is what my 4x8 raised garden beds look like after being neglected last year (Yes there is a garden box under all that!):


And here is what this one looks like now:



Weeded of its Crab Grass and top dressed with newspapers and two tractor bucket fulls of aged straw/manure from the alpaca barn floor. Three beds down and two to go!

Independence Day Update #2

Here is my update for the IDC this week. Not much going on yet...

Plant something - German oregano, sage, thyme, curly parsley and four cherry tomatoes in the boxes on the deck.

Two of the four cherry tomatos in the deck boxes.

Harvest something - Fresh free range eggs from our chickens.

Preserve something - Froze rhubarb for later use.

Reduce Waste - Took our weekly trip to town and stopped at the recycling center. Kitchen scraps went to the chickens.

Preparation and Storage - I cleaned the crab grass out of one of my 4x8 raised beds that went unused last year hope to get it planted next week.

Eat the Food - I don't cook using a meal plan because my family (especially Neil) often decides what they are in the "mood" to eat the day of or, at most, the day before it is to be eaten. What I do instead is to keep a well stocked pantry that allows me to cook pretty much any of our family favorite meals from what we have in stock. This means when I am shopping I am usually replacing or adding to our pantry stores instead of buying for ingredients for that weeks meals (except fresh fruits and veggies but again just replacing what we normally keep in the house). This week for example there was baked chicken with mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and green beans; steak, hand cut french fries and salad; ham, mac & cheese and broccoli; sweet & sour meatballs with rice; and stuffed pizza rolls (made from scratch). All of the things were decided on the afternoon of the same meal and all the ingredients pulled from our pantry shelves or freezer.

Quick update...

Two more ducklings hatched out in the barn today... a smokey grey one and one marked like a mallard duckling (those markings don't stay when the adult feathers come in). They have joined the turkeys and yesterday's duckling in the brooder. I will have to set up the third brooder soon as with the onslaught of ducklings to come the second brooder is going to get crowded soon.

I have looked around the farm, unsuccessfully, the past two days to see if I could locate the turkey hen that I left the 2-3 biddies with. I don't know where she is hiding... I guess she didn't like that I took her babies away from her. But, what I did discover was my fourth turkey hen is setting on a nest of about 20 eggs down in the woods inside one of the old corrugated steel pig shelters from the previous owners. It seems like a nice dry safe nest so I let her be. I will keep checking on her every few days though.

I got my Homestead tomatoes planted in the garden today. Which means that the kids and I had to first remove all the crab grass from that raised bed, fluff up the soil, give it a good heavy drink of water and then plant the tomato starts, install the supports, cover the rest of the bed with wet newspapers and top it all off with old straw/chicken manure raked up from the barn floor. It wouldn't have been that bad of a task, as it was a comfortable 83F outside today, but little 4 month old Taylor, who was sitting in the stroller the whole time ran out patience after I only planting the 3rd tomato plant. Still she was happy watching all the action up to that point so I really can't complain. The kids pushed her around the garden in the stroller while I finished up as quick as I could.

Taylor's debut photo on the blog.

I have three alpacas that I am expecting crias from anytime between May 1st and June 1st: GeeGee, Celtie and Joy. They were all living with our stud Novio out in the second pasture last spring/summer so I am not exactly sure of the breed dates. Celtie and Joy both have noticeably swollen bellies and I can see the cria moving in Celtie's abdomen quite often now. It will be the first crias for both of these females so I am a bit nervous about it... and Celtie happens to be my favorite as well. I will report in when the time comes!

Asparagus... yummm

The kids and I cut the first asparagus crop of the season from the garden this afternoon. Not a huge haul but enough for dinner. We like our asparagus cooked simply. A little olive oil, salt and pepper and oven roasted for 10-15 minutes. It was so sweet and tender crisp... it was hard to share with Neil.

Earlier today the couple that purchased our Nigerian Dwarf goat, Mary Jane, twin bucklings in January came to pick them up. They were staying here until they were old enough not stop nursing as the new owner's didn't want to bottle feed them and so I could wether them at three months old for them. Also, the new owner's needed to build a suitable goat enclosure before bringing them home.

I had kept them penned up from their breakfast this morning so we didn't have to go chasing them all over the pastures when it came time for them to go. I always get a little sad when we sell an animal that we have raised. I know that we can't keep them all so I just try to find the best homes I can for them.

Soon after the goats left we had more visitors arrive. I had listed some of the kid's books and puzzles that we never used on our local Freecycle site. A nice family came and got them and will put them to good use and will keep the items out of a landfill somewhere. If you don't know about Freecycle I encourage you to sign up with your local chapter and start finding new homes for your unused items around the house.

What a beautiful day we had today. Temps in the low 80's, sunny skies with big puffy clouds floating overhead while we worked outside.

I finished mowing the lawn, planted my seed potatoes, mulched the asparagus beds, mucked out the alpaca barn, put weed block down around more of the raised garden beds and just enjoyed being outside.

Just a few updates

Well, just an update on a few things around the farm.

Purslane's (one of our American Chinchilla rabbits) litter of ten kits has been doing great so far! Today they are 10 days old. They are so big now, eyes open and looking like little miniature rabbits. They are starting to act like popcorn kernels and vaulting straight up into the air. As warm as it has been I am still nervous that they will vault out of the nest box overnight and get chilled and die (that happened to Purslane's first litter at 9 days old). Hopefully I will have some rabbits for sale in a month or so.

The remaining 13 chicks that hatched out in the incubator are still doing well. Yesterday I took them out of the brooder box and put them in with the chicks in the brooder pen that were hatched out under my Orpington hen over a week ago. I wasn't sure if the older chicks would pick on the little ones but so far everyone seems happy. One of the older chicks has a wry beak where the top and bottom beak do not align properly. It will need to be culled but for now it is growing well. If it continues to keep up with the others I will cull it at 10-16 weeks old.

The ducklings are growing quickly. I love the little ducks... they are so cute. Sadly, there are two ducklings that will also have to be culled. One has a malformed neck. The neck comes out of the body at about a 90 degree angle from front so it looks like there is an "S" curve in his neck. Otherwise it seems fine. The other duckling to be culled also has a wry beak. If they do well growing out they will be culled about 16 weeks old. The Pekin duckling we got at Southern States is twice the size of our Muscovy duckings. I don't know his age so it may be that it is just a week or so older. But it sticks out like a soar thumb being so big and yellow. McKayla loves it though and holds it whenever she can.

I am now pretty sure that both my Nigerian Dwarf does are pregnant from our new buck Gottaway. If so we will have kids sometime in July.

My tomato and pepper seedlings are growing strong. I may have to re-pot some of the tomatoes into larger pots before transplanting them into the garden. The garden... sigh... I don't know what to do about that. I need to figure out an attractive way to keep the poultry out of my raised boxes. Last year they were too young to come out to the garden but this year it has become a favorite place to scratch and dust bath. I can't plant anything in them until I get this figured out.

Finally, another one of the turkey hens is MIA today. I sure hope that they are setting on nests because if something is eating them at this rate I wouldn't have any turkeys by the end of the week.

Seedlings started.

I must admit I have been dragging my feet about the garden this spring. You see the chickens have invaded the raised garden beds and are in them daily scratching about. This is actually great for the soil but unless I come up with a way to keep them out I won't be able to grow anything in them!

I finally decided I needed to get some of my seeds going if I hoped to grow my own starts this year. So, today I potted up my tomatoes and peppers. 128 seedling pots are now sitting on the kitchen table under their covers waiting for the magic to happen.

In the kitchen I had to admit defeat with my sourdough. I have successfully had my sourdough starter what would have been a year this month. Unfortunately, the past six weeks I have been so busy (note the lack of blogging) that I didn't notice that the starter got left out after I last used it. I discovered it under a pile of papers and toys on the side counter. When I opened the lid I was sad to see that a mold had firmly taken hold. I had no choice but to through it out and start over. After sterilizing my sourdough crock I put in a cup of white flour and a cup of water (run through our Pur water filter) and set it aside to see if it would catch again.

Growing Challenge Update

Wow, its Monday already and time for another Garden Challenge update.

The thing I wanted most to get done this week was to start a vermiculture bin. I was on the ball and ordered my red wiggler worms last Monday and hoped to get them on Thursday or Friday. But here it is the following Monday and still no worms in the mail. I did get the bin made on Friday so everything is all set for their arrival. I guess I will be calling tomorrow to see where my worms are.

I did get a flat of lettuce seeded early in the week as well. I sowed Rocky Top Lettuce from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. These were actually seeds from lettuce I grew last season and saved. They have already sprouted and the tiny leaves are emerging from the soil. I have never grown lettuce inside before. I do hope it does well as I am looking forward to fresh salads again.

I had hoped to get more seedlings going but I didn't manage to find the time this week. I still have plenty of time though. Here in NC it is typical to set out tomatoes on April 15th so I still have 8-10 weeks before that. I shouldn't try jumping the gun too much or I will have leggy plants to deal with.

Outside of the Growing Challenge, the kids and I took our barn cat Sweet Pea to the vet's this afternoon so she could be spayed tomorrow. I missed her when out doing chores tonight as she always follows me around as I am working in the barn. She has even started coming into the chicken coop as I collect eggs so she can rub against my legs. It will be nice having her home again on Wednesday.

The chickens gave 16 eggs today.

Growing Challenge

So, I have been having grand dreams about what I want to do with the gardens this year. My biggest aspiration is to get a greenhouse up so I can get my seedlings started in it in the next months. I have been reading Eliot Coleman's book "Four-Season Harvest" and I hope to follow his basic plan for an inexpensive greenhouse. We will see how that goes.

What I did get done this weekend was to sort through the seeds I have remaining from last year as well as the seeds I managed to save myself (from some lettuces, squashes and carrots). All of these seeds are open pollinated, heirloom and/or organic.

Here is the list of seed I have:

Herbs:
Russian Tarragon
Cumin
Broad Leaf Sage
Lavender
French Summer Thyme
Common Chives
Slo-Bolt Cilantro
Siam Queen Thai Basil
Fine Verde Basil
Peppermint

Vegetables:
Purple Tomatillo
Golden Greek Pepperoncini
Mini Red Bell Sweet Pepper
Charleston Belle Sweet Pepper
Thai Little Red Chili
Homestead Tomato
Amish Paste Red Tomato
Riesentraube Red Tomato
White Currant Tomato (loved these last year!)
Gold Medal Striped Tomato
Yellow Brandywine Tomato
Catskills Brussels Sprouts
Calabrese Green Sprouting Broccoli
Snowball Cauliflower
Brunswick Cabbage
Lettuce Rocky Top Mix
Iceburg Lettuce
Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach
Five Color Silverbeet Swiss Chard
Giant Musselburgh Leek
Texas Early Grano 502 Onion
Red Creole Onion
Connecticut Field Pumpkin
Bush Buttercup
Baby Blue Hubbard
Yellow Scallop Squash
Black Beauty Summer Squash
Early Prolific Straightneck Summer Squash
Bush Sugar Baby Watermelon
Thai Bai Khuen Chai Celery
Kuroda Long 8" Carrot
Green Globe Artichoke
Mayflower Bean
Henderson's Black Valentine Bean
Chinese Green Noodle Long Bean
Lincoln Garden Pea

Flowers:
Mammoth Grey Striped Sunflower
Mexican Sunflower-Torch Sunflower
Clarke's Heavenly Blue Morning Glory
Pink Panther Pansy

Gourds:
Birdhouse Gourd
Small Spoon Gourd

This coming week my goals are to get my tomato and pepper seedlings planted. Start many of the herb seeds in pots. I have been craving fresh garden lettuces for a few months now so I also plan on sowing some lettuces in flats for growing here in the house. Something I should have been doing all winter but just never seemed to get around to it. Part of the problem I have is our home is so small (and it contains a 3yo, a 5yo and a dog) that I have no good place to put seedling flats so they will be safe and still have access to light. This is the main reason I really want a greenhouse (or I should say a hoop house as I don't intend to heat it). We will have to see how adventurous I get with the greenhouse construction in the next month.

The hens gave 15 eggs today.

More potatos from the garden today.

Dug up some more potatos from the tire beds today. I got "banana fingerlings", "All-Blue" and a few more red skinned ones. The "All-Blue" variety is a blue color all the way through the potato... it was one of the fun things I planted this season. I have never eaten a blue potato before so I am looking forward to eating them!

Homegrown Potatos!

I harvested the first of our potatos out of the garden. These are of the red skinned variety. I boiled them up and lightly smashed them with some cream, butter, parsley and some salt and pepper. They were oh so good!

The rest of my day went like this...

I have been collecting tomatos out of my garden for a few days now. They have done OK for my first year here... they have given us plenty to eat fresh and the romas are coming in strong now but I think next year should be better now that I know more about gardening here.

Anyway, I had collected about ten pounds of tomatoes, mostly Hybrid Romas and Amish Paste Tomatos but also a few Cherokee Purple and a half dozen or so of Homestead Tomatos as well. I needed to do something with them so I cooked up a tasty batch of mushroom spagetti sauce with them this morning. I didn't have any canning jar seals in the house so I put them in frezer bags instead. Wish I had the seals though as I love to stand back and look at homegrown produce put up in freshly canned jars... it warms my heart! Trust me jar seals will be on my next shopping list!

Once the sause was done the kids and I headed outside to see what mischief we could get into. I don't know why but I was inspired to get the barn painted red by this weekend! I big job but I felt up for it. Neil still has one short side of the barn that he hasn't had time to frame in and install the sideing on yet and mentally that has been holding me up from painting the rest of the barn. But, with Alpaca Farm Day looming ever closer (September 29th and 30th) I felt like I needed to get something going on the barn. So, this afternoon I primed the whole back side of the barn and the chicken coop side. There is a 15 foot section over the rabbit hutches that I was unable to reach which really bumbed me out as it looks so good otherwise. Since the project got started late the priming is all I got done today but I would like to get the whole barn (minus what I can't reach) painted red by Friday. Then this weekend I will see if either Neil will paint the rest or if he can figure out some staging for me so I can finish it up as Neil really doesn't like to paint. Since the front of the barn was already primed grey it doesn't look any different to those driving by but to me it looks great!

Tonight I am tuckered out from my day!

The Power of Diesel

So, I decided that the lawn could stand to be mowed today before it got really out of control. I went down to the barn to get the tractor only to discover that the diesel gas tank was hovering just above empty. For a brief moment I contemplated leaving it for another day since I didn't figure I had enough gas to do more then a loop or two around the yard. But, something told me to just do what I could get done today so off I went to mow the lawn anyway. Every time the tractor was farthest from the barn I figured that was the time it would quit on me... but no... not only did it mow the entire front yard it did around all four sides of the house and got it parked back in the barn to boot! I don't think the needle on the tank ever dropped lower then when I started. The power of diesel I guess!

In the garden I got my year old asparagus crowns, 25 of them, planted in their 4x8 box today. Evan and McKayla helped mix up the garden soil components in the box. They do love to play in the dirt but what kid doesn't?!

I promised McKayla that we would have meatballs for dinner tonight. The kids have never helped me make homemade meatballs before and I think they thought it was almost as much fun as playing in the garden dirt! I had to make up a recipe since I didn't have all the standard ingredients in the house yet. To a pound of ground beef we added about 1/2 sleeve crushed saltine crackers, some Italian spices, and a little olive oil. We then made them into 1" balls and baked them in the oven at 400 degrees for about 15-20 minutes. They came out very tasty! Added them to some sauce over pasta and we had spaghetti for dinner.

While the kids watched a movie before bed I pulled out the Knitting Board and alpaca yarn that I won at the Palmetto Alpaca Classic auction this past weekend. It came with a little book of the different "stitches" that can be done on the board and some easy sample projects to try. I figured I would start out easy and began making the scarf out of the book. Using the board, at least for the scarf, is pretty easy and goes pretty quickly. Still, I think for most of my knitting needs I will stick (no pun intended) with my needles. There is something cathartic about the feel the yarn sliding through your fingers and the sound of the needles clicking away. I will finish off the scarf and might make the matching head warmer for a gift or maybe for sale. I think the kids will really enjoy using this as they get older though. I have been wanting one of these knitting boards for some time and I am happy that I finally have one.