Christmas 2020 Cookies and Treats

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to All!!! Mike and I had a whirlwind build up to Christmas but Christmas day was gloriously quiet. We had a nice brunch and an awesome Prime Rib dinner from Lisa's kitchen. I baked all December and ended up with 18 different cookies/candy that I gave away.

And:

My 2020 Cookies/Candy. From Left to Right. Orange Balls, Peanut Butter Cookies, Sugar Drop Cookies, White Orange Chip, Molasses Cookies, Sparkling Toffee Cookies, Cherry Garcia Cookies, Rolo Stuffed Cookies, Snickerdoodles, Chocolate Crinkles, Fluffy Chocolate Chip, Mounds Bars, Buckeye Bars, Peppermint Patties, Pecan Coconut Praline Cookies, Sugar Cookie Cut Outs, Cranberry Shortbread Stars and Chcolate Covered Pretzels. Happy New Year to all!!

Where The Heck Were We??

Hello everyone. It has been a really really long time. Life has been crazy busy for Mike and I and a lot has happened since my last post. On top of that my laptop dies along with all of my pictures and documents. I will try to copy some of my pictures from Facebook to share some stories. I left off with us working on the long side fence. After that we moved to the back 400 feet. We had a lot of clearing to do and piut the fence up. I'm sorry to say I only have the before picture and the after. Before:

After:

Meanwhile the new farm baby, Prince is growing and Princess is loving farm life.

Apparently the new computer doesn't support blogger either as I can't see my pictures as I type. I will do my best to get caught up and then I can get to this year which has been a good one even with all the craziness. Next up we will do some cross fecning and build another barn. We are getting ready for Miniature Zebus. How cool is that:) Since I am up at 5am each morning I should be able to write more.

Technical Difficulties

Hello everyone. This is just let you know that Blogger no longer supports my old computer/operating system and I can no longer make updates. I've ordered a new computer and then I will transfer pictures. All is well here. Mike, Princess and I are all busy and still doing all kinds of things. I will do my best to write some stories in the next couple of weeks.

1250 Feet Of Fencing

The side 1250 feet is cleared and all the poles and t posts are in place.  Now it's time to stretch and 

install the wire.

We are using the Red Brand four foot high 2x4 Non Climb Horse Fencing.  This will keep or at least deter other animals from coming in and also keep the goats in.  Since Mike and I are doing this ourselves we decided to use the 100 foot rolls.  It's just easier for us to handle.

We also needed a way to unroll the wire that wouldn't be too hard.  Since we are going through the woods we can't unroll it on the ground and lift up.  Mike came up with an "unwinder" to help us.  He attached a heavy chain to a 2x6 piece of wood.  We used a pole to get the chain through the middle hole of the fence.  After we did that we stood the roll up on the piece of wood.  Then we attached the chain to the tractor auger arm using a swivel hook.  This will help us unroll the fence.

We are ready to roll...or unroll in this case.  We could not live without this tractor, lol.  It has definitely paid for itself with all of the crazy things it has done for us.  As you can see Mike twisted his ankle so this is going to be a slower job. 

Poles are ready for wire fencing.

We used fencing staples to get the end of the wire attached to the corner pole.  While Mike slowly pulled the tractor forward I unrolled the wire and loosely attached it to the t posts so it wouldn't fall over.  The t posts are set every 10 feet but I only tied the wire every 30 feet or so.

The first section is pulled, tightened and stapled in.

And back to the house for the next roll:

We start out by nailing that starting section of the fence to the Pole and overlapping the last section:

We do the same thing to unroll it for 100 feet.  Since the wire is in 100 foot rolls we placed our main poles about 97 feet apart so we would have enough to staple into each pole.   Our t-posts are 10 feet apart.



Mike is hooking up the wire fence stretcher bar:

Once the bar is hooked to the fence wire we can use a chain to wrap it around the tractor bucket...then Mike will slowly pull while I go back and take off the temporary ties:

How the fence looks before we pull it tight.

Time to gently pull:

Once the fence is tight Mike staples it into the wood post:

Then he uses the cutoff wheel to cut the extra part off:

 This is about 300 feet finished:

And the next 200 feet:

This was a rougher area but we got it done.  Originally we couldn't see through this area and the hole used to be flooded.  We did a nice job going down the hole and back up the other side.  The side fence is done:

Gotta loves those pictures.  It makes it look so easy, lol.  There was a lot of prep work involved for this side.  We had massive amounts of clearing and tree cutting before we could even begin with the fencing.  This was our hardest and longest area to fence so I'm glad it's finished.  Setting the poles and doing the wire actually isn't very hard.  It was the clearing that was the worst.


That's all for today.  Next week we will be taking a big tree down that is close to the building.

Having Some Fun and Making Pretzels With The Girls

My next set of pictures is a Pretzel Making Party I had for the girls.  We had a fun time and the homemade pretzels were amazing:)

I'll start with the recipe we used:

Pretzels

4 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 teaspoon white sugar

1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)   

5 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup white sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/2 cup baking soda

4 cups hot water

1/4 cup kosher salt, for topping

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in 1 1/4 cup warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, mix together flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt. Make a well in the center; add the oil and yeast mixture. Mix and form into a dough. If the mixture is dry, add one or two more tablespoons of water. Knead the dough until smooth, about 7 to 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl, and turn to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Grease 2 baking sheets.

In a large bowl, dissolve baking soda in 4 cups hot water; set aside. When risen, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope and twist into a pretzel shape. Once all of the dough is shaped, dip each pretzel into the baking soda-hot water solution and place pretzels on baking sheets. Sprinkle with kosher salt.

Bake in preheated oven until browned, about 8 minutes.

After the dough was made everyone got a hunk of their own dough to knead:

This dough is very forgiving which makes it great for young people to learn how to make:)

More kneading, rolling and squishing:)

Mike and Princess waiting for a sample:)

 
After Kneading the dough, the girls rolled it out and made their pretzel shapes:

And:

Each pretzel shape gets dipped into the baking soda water mix before going on the silpat(baking mats)

Then they get baked and now for the best part.



Yummy fresh homemade pretzels:)

Time to eat:)

And we are ready:

Oops....Em reminded me that I didn't have her favorite treat.  She is making homemade peppermint patties which are so good.  Hmm....maybe next time we will dip the pretzels into melted peppermint chocolate, lol.

Quick story with some great girls and some fun baking.  Next up...back to work.  See you next week for some more fencing.

Meeting New Family, Barrel Racing, Our First Baby Goat Being Born and Princess Has A Friend

The location of our FL farm has some strange coincidences.  First off Mike and I used to RV and be snowbirds at a campground very close to here. We actually knew some of the roads and some of the stores like Tractor Supply:)  Next our two close camping friends from way back live about 10 miles away.

And out of the blue one day I got a message from a woman who said "I think we are related".  It turns out she is one of Mike's cousins and she lives about 15 minutes from us on her farm.  Mike hasn't seen her since they were kids in NY.  Small world.  Anyway we started doing things with her and her daughter.  At the time, Katrina, was new to Barrel Racing, and has since progressed to be a very good rider.  Mike and I would go to the Cowboy Church to see her ride.  I loved watching the really young kids ride and the church had the best burgers, lol.  I miss doing that as they no longer have the barrel racing there.

Our cousins would also come and play games with Mike and I.  One of our favorites is Double Nines Dominoes.

Katrina spending a few nights with us and hanging out on the farm:

Using Mike's headphones and eating his pistachios.

 Out for a ride:

Getting attacked for some Animal Crackers, lol.

Poor Princess hates getting a bath.  She is so tiny without all the hair, lol.

Our calendar picture for my SIL.  She makes calendars every year for all of our family members.

Princess likes one of our chickens, lol.

And some exciting news.  Our first baby goat born on the farm.  We were there for his birth and to make sure there were no problems.  Birthing in action!!

Mama did a wonderful job and is now cleaning him up.

Mama gets special treatment now:)  She is in a separate "birthing" pen and has her own food and bowls so she doesn't have to fight anyone else for food.  She has time to bond with her baby with no stress.  It also gives Mike and I time to bond with the baby as we want all goats born here o be very people friendly.

The water bowl is off the ground and high enough for Mama to reach but not the baby at first.  Accidents can happen with bowls of water and baby goats.  Better to be safe until the baby is more stable and on the move.

Logan is very interested in "his" boy.  Proud papa, lol.  Logan is also wearing his anti breeding apron.

Next week is some more fencing to get ready for more animals.

Making A Trip To TN To Close On The Old Farm and My Goat Girls Taking Care of Things In Florida

Of all times for the farm to sell it has to be winter, lol.  Mike and I will have to make the trip with the RV and trailer back to the mountains to empty the house and the store.  Hopefully we can make it up the driveway which is always an unknown factor in the winter.  We do have the chainsaw on board just in case.

It ended up being a crazy whirlwind of a trip.  We watched the weather for an opportunity to get back, rent a Penske truck, get loaded up, go to the closing and get back to Florida.

We wanted to make sure we got there first thing in the morning so we left in the afternoon the day before.  This is a first trip for Princess and she is not going to like a 12 hour drive.  Lucky for her we made it to Cabella's in Charlotte before closing time and she was able to go inside the store and see people which is her favorite thing to do.  Then we slept in the RV until early early morning and finished the drive.  On a not so good note, Mike got sick so we had to stop and pick up cold medications to help him make it through.  We have a lot of work to do and not much time.

We picked up the Penske truck on the way out of town.  Since we can't get the truck up our driveway we will park it at the store.  We will use the trailer to load everything up and transfer it to the store and then the moving truck.

We did get the bulk done the first two days.  We cleared out the house and we are sleeping on the floor with blankets.

I'm going to miss this view and the privacy!!

Princess seems to like this cooler weather:

What a rag a muffin, lol.

I took her to say goodbye to Niki.  That was sad.  I have to leave Niki behind but she is in the place she loved the most.

And speaking of Princess we did have a scare.  After Mike and I got the bulk of the work done we visited the Farm Supply and stopped at Jimmy's on the way back.  While talking to Jimmy in his parking lot Princess was eating stuff in the gravel.  When we got back to the house we realized she was eating grease and who knows what else that spilled on the gravel at Jimmy's.  She started to get really sick.  I called my vet here in FL and told her what happened.  She told me to give her activated charcoal.  Uh yeah...in the mountains, no one is open, and no stores are close.  Then Mike remembered that we had some at the store for aquariums.  Well that had to do.  We gave that to Princess in the amount our vet told me.  It was a very long night worrying about our new pup.  Thankfully the next morning she was ok:)


Meanwhile back at home in Florida the goat girls are taking care of our goats and chickens.  Each day I get an update and pictures:)



Sweet little Angel

Tiffany giving some love

Emily loves that Cocoa:)

Erin being attacked for some food, lol.

Ahh....and Mama finally letting others hold her

Emily and Baby

Erin getting Logan used to her:)

And something they did that was really cute.  It was Honey's 1st birthday while we were gone.  The girls and their nieces gave her special treatment.  Honey got locked in the barn without the other goats and got some fresh picked leaves to enjoy:)

And she is loving every minute it of it:)  They also sang Happy Birthday to her and sent me a video.  My goat girls are so cute:)

Well it was a tough trip with a lot of hard work.  And even rougher with Mike being sick and the scare with Princess.  But we got it done.  The TN farm is sold and although we will miss it, it will be nice to be settled in one place for a change:)