Monday, April 16, 2012

Window Insulation New Hampshire Style

Classic New Hampshire...
We watched our neighbor a block down the street seal up his windows before winter. It was almost 90 degrees today. Just wondering when he's going to remove all that duct tape and let the fresh spring air in.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Weekend Gardening 1


Seeds planted:
Spinach (two varieties)
Broccoli Raab
Sweet Peas

Seeds almost planted:
Sugar Snap Peas (forgot to soak them overnight)

Seeds started:
Sugar Pie Pumpkins
Alyssum (two varieties)
Basil
Johnny Jump Ups
Cumin (we also ate some of the cumin seeds!)

Seedlings transplanted:
Chamomile

Quality time with the animals:
A LOT

And there is always time for a little baking, in this case, strawberry semolina muffins:

All in all a great weekend, although it started (not surprisingly) with sheep trouble. Saturday morning I spied a little patch of nettles coming up. As soon as I finished saying to Michael that I was going to pick them and we'd have nettles and potatoes for dinner, Bunny trotted over, pushed her head through the fence and began eating them! Unbelievable.

That wasn't the only trouble with sheep. Baa Baa broke through the fence and into our garden. The other sheep, sensing a weakness in the perimeter, immediately gathered on their side of the breach and tried to push in. Michael stood guard and Anna lured them back to their shed with grain. We were able to get Baa Baa out without any damage. In fact, he ate down some overgrown grass, so it turned out to be a win-win situation, although a little tense at first considering the amount of destruction that can be caused in a matter of minutes by a single large sheep.

Crash couldn't get enough of the new bed that Michael was prepping and settled in for the afternoon, forcing Michael to call it quits early. I sense a little collusion between the boys!

Anna was a busy bee, as usual, but always finds time to be a friend to her animals. Look at Lucy's face as Anna is scratching her. Pure bliss! The sheep and chickens really love Anna.

Monday, April 2, 2012

4 Flavors of Ice Cream


All in the freezer at one time.  And Anna and I are not even big ice cream eaters. Let me explain. It all started with Anna saying how much she loves creamsicles.  Then the conversation went something like this:

We can make our own creamsicles with vanilla ice cream and orange sherbet.
Let's go to the co-op and get some.
(No orange sherbet)
Let's get vanilla and raspberry sorbet. That would be a great combination.
(Bought them and were walking back to the apartment)
I'm surprised you didn't just get the coconut. It's your favorite and it would be great with raspberry.
It would be, but so would the belgian chocolate. And we've been meaning to try that.
Mmmm.  Chocolate and raspberry. That would be great with the vanilla too.
Actually it would be really great with coconut.
(Back to the co-op for chocolate and coconut)