Ragdollcatlady's Just a Little Patch of Weeds Farm journal

[Four Winds Ranch]

Soooo sorry about your little Rinky!!!
I love Raviolianna!!!! If I ever get goats I want ones like her!!! What breeding is she?
Sounds like you guys did good at the 4-H Fair!!! We have one coming up in 2 weeks as well, but ours is strictly beef steers, Show & Sale!
Your DD has awesome pigeons!!! I don't know to much about them and didn't know there was different breeds!!! Love Rousseau I can see why he won!!

 

[ragdollcatlady]

Bridge and 4 Winds,

Thanks for the condolences. I had the hardest time burying him. I didn't realize just how attached I was to him, but 10 years is a pretty long time. My DH offered several times to do the shoveling, since I was crying so hard I couldn't even see, but I needed to do it myself. It was a part of my saying goodbye I guess. I was so sad at the way he went....I didn't want t o see him get sick or more fragile, but it would have been nice if he just fell asleep and didn't wake up one day. Not easier for me, but I would have felt better knowing it was really his time.

I don't know if I mentioned it on here before, but one of my little daycare babies had pointed to Dinky one day asking what he was. She wasn't talking much yet and as I reached through the baby gate and gave him a little scratch I said "this is Dinky, he is a dog. " She looked at me , with this look on her face that said she totally did not believe me and said "meow" very authoritatively! LOL She had really big dogs at home and with his fluffy coat and pointy ears I did had to agree that he looked more like a cat than a dog. The fact that he was smaller than half of the cats here didn't help either. He didn't care what you called him as long as you loved on him.

My trip was really fun. I have an awesome family and it is always a good time getting to stop and visit even if it is never long enough. I wasn't back 2 days when mom was already calling to say that my grandma is ready to do it again...anytime! I just saw a pic from the family get together that weekend (I wasn't able to go) and it is really cool to see mom, grandma and a few of the aunts , uncles and cousins. We have a huge family so it is rare that even most of us can get together. My aunt from chicago, coming in was a pretty big deal. I am really glad she went with us and I was able to see her for at least a few hours.

I thought naming my little goat after the really expensive raviolis I bought to bribe the DH was a funny thing. I think the anna on the end sounds a little like Pollyanna...and she is really a very happy and sociable little thing so that fits too. And she is red and white like raviolis in a tomato/marinara sauce. She is a boer by the way. She will be one of my breeders for a meat producing herd for my family. She is Andys new girlfriend...he just has to wait for her to grow up a little. She was an orphan too. I think the mom in me just loves them more for it.

 

[ragdollcatlady]

4Winds,

Good luck on the show! Even with the one calf roughing her up my DD still loves them. I am still exhausted, but it is a good kind. I may not get to do this much longer with my kids so I try and enjoy it as much as I can.

I didn't really know about all the different pigeons either until we got a few. I did know that they have King pigeons that are bred to be bigger for eating, but I thought that just color patterns were as different as they came. Boy was I wrong! I actually saw some for sale that had curly feathers like my sebastopol geese!

The day after she got Rousseau, DD found a brown and white pigeon at her school. Some of the kids at P.E. were standing around looking at it. She was on the asphalt and not moving. It is already really hot here so DD picked her up (to the horror of the other kids that were sure she was going to get bit) and asked the janitor to help her find a cool spot with some water for her. She mentioned that it was clearly someones pet by the legband and the fact that she didn't flinch when picked up. The janitor was proud that someone knew what to do for her and asked if she wanted to take her home. DD went after school to retrieve her from the area they had left her in and brought her home. So now she has 5 pigeons.

 

[ragdollcatlady]

I just have to share this recipe. I call it Pizza Casserole.

I was trying to come up with a way to use up left over garlic bread. We love it and use a lot of it, but once it is refrigerated, it gets too hard to use/eat again. I prefer to use real butter, fresh garlic and seasonings so it is very flavorful. We don't usually have the really soft bread, this is the thick crust / firm/ whole grain type of sourdough bread. We also freeze it, so sometimes, I end up with freezer burned bread. I hate to throw it out even though it is fine in the compost and the animals make good use out of it. I used a strata type base for this.

My kids like my cooking, but this one got serious compliments, especially for a "leftovers" meal.

I filled a casserole pan with cut up, 1/2 inch squares of garlic bread and added a little plain sourdough to fill it up (about 3/4 of the pan full).
12 eggs
3 cups of milk
Scramble up the eggs and milk and pour over the bread. I let it set at least 1/2 hour while I prep the rest of the filling, turning/mixing and making sure the egg/ milk mix gets soaked in well. You could also let this set overnight in the fridge if you wanted.

2 cups of cubed pepperoni, I buy the butts from the discount store in a big package for $4.99 and it will make 2 casseroles and still have some left over. I cut the cubes around 1/4 inch or so.

One can of black olives. I use small olives and I crush them rather than slice to save time. I just hold them between two fingers and squish! It takes me about one minute to crush a whole can.

One can of diced tomatoes.

One cup of shredded mozzerella.

I use my hands to gently and barely mix the rest of the ingredients into the casserole. I try not to let all the filling fall to the bottom. Cover it with foil and bake at 375 for 1 1/2 hours. Uncover and add one more cup of mozzerella over the top and bake for another 1/2 hour.

Let cool and serve! YUM!

 

[Bridgemoof]

Wow that's a great looking recipe RagDoll! Looks delish!

 

[ragdollcatlady]

Thanks!

It really was good. The kids had the second one for snack and dinner the next night and DH never had a chance to even taste it. You snooze you lose around here.

 

[ragdollcatlady]

I made another casserole but this time it was an enchilada style one. DS said it tasted like a tamale casserole...either way it was pretty good. For that one I did all the bread, eggs, and milk the same, but I used a mix of ground beef, tomato and corn in an enchilada sauce with extra sauce and cheese over the top. I would add some corn bread or left over cooked cornmeal and some black olives for a real tamale style.....

Poor Nemo....she really died. No really...this time she was belly up on the bottom of the tank and didn't revive. I gave her a proper fish burial with the royal flush.....

Today is my DS 18th birthday! Good gravy he's old!

Still waiting on Georgia to pop...she seems bigger every day and her udder keeps expanding but nothing yet....I am thinking she will have a dozen or two by the time she decides to let them out if she keeps going like this.... Up until a few weeks ago I was impressed that she was so big but her underside was nice and straight and tucked up tight....then her belly fell through to the floor..... Poor girl! She walks with her hackles up half the time, doesn't follow the herd the whole way out when the go back to graze some, and she seems to ripple out the ends of her belly when she lays down. I hope she just waits for a time when I am home.....just in case.

The washer is still broken. I finally called maytag. I will never buy another maytag anything ever again! I could have bought another brand washer for all the money I have spent repairing this machine, and this was the replacement machine for the last one that broke (maytag), and the dryers control panel doesn't work (also a maytag).

I bought 4 turkey babies and gave them to Hannibal and Zim to raise...Hannibal is a good daddy bird..... Last night we tucked the babies under the boys and hope they will learn to sleep in the same area just till the babies have enough feathers to keep themselves warm. They are good about showing them the food though.

Power went out today for about 45 minutes. I hope all the eggs in the incubator are still good. I threw a towel over the top for the time it was out and the temp didn't get too low so I think we should be fine.

 

[ragdollcatlady]

So my truck blew up today. Something in the cooling system blew, and boy did it! There was a huge blast, then smoke, steam and coolant came flying out from under the hood. I am fine, but I need my truck and I can't really afford this right now.

My repair guy replaced the part in my washer, for the third time, and it worked for one wash then quit again. I am thinking the rest of the washer is shorting out that part so I need a new machine.

My baby turkeys disappeared over the last two days, I am thinking the possum is back so we set the trap.

I got the cornish cross chickie babies or DDs fair project. A few of them have gray or black spots. Pretty cute.

My lavender ameraucana chick died. I haven't had much luck in hatching my lavs this year. I think I need to take the other hens out of the breeding pen so my rooster can focus on Purple Poppy.

My new faverolle rooster is turning out very nice, even thought his beard hasn't grown back in yet. He has a more silver kind of look to his hackles, very white. Weird Altitude has a gold look to his. The new kid has more purple and blue sheen to his tail and Al has more green. I have some eggs from Sandy (my Sandhill girl) in my incubator and I think one from Daisy (my new girl) looks like it is developing.

I got to visit with my BFF today, compliments of my truck breaking down just down the street from her house, so that was good. It could have been when I wasn't so upset, but I guess with a best friend, anytime is a good time. She came out and got to see most of my farm critters. She is mostly pretty afraid of animals, especially of the bigger animals. She remembers goats, cows and pigs when she was on her grandmothers farm as a child. She was surprised at how calm and relaxing just watching the animals can be. One of her other friends had tried to explain just that.... It is pretty relaxing. She would love for me to find a job with better hours so we can hang out again. I agree.

 

[bonbean01]

Glad there was a little bit of good mixed in with the bad. So sorry about your little poochie

 

[ragdollcatlady]

Bon,

Thanks for the condolences. I find that I still hold the door and gate open after the big dogs come in.......waiting for him to catch up..... He was a rescue and came to us with some issues. He was terrified of a broom or any stick in your hands, wouldn't bark at all even to go outside, was even terrified to take a treat from our hands. After a few years, he learned to even bark at us to get our attention, paw at our legs to be petted and take most treats we offered him. He LOVED to be groomed...well not the process but loved being cleaned up and totally loved wearing clothes! I think he must have belonged to a little girl as a puppy. He would come prancing out of the grooming salon with bows in his hair! Ironically, for all he loved being cleaned up, he loved cows. When the neighbors would have a steer, he would always sneak through the fence and go visiting. He also loved to hang out around the bales of alfalfa even though he was very allergic to it. When I got the big dogs the new cabinet bed, he liked it so much, he decided to sleep on the pile of cleaning rags under another, smaller cabinet...his own cabinet bed! We loved him and gave him several good years.

I had a laughing out loud moment this morning. Raviolianna was hungry, I cut her evening bottle in half, last night, and she was acting like she was trying to convince Georgia to let her nurse. Of course Georgia was having nothing of that. I turned around and she had a milk mustache! LOL, Poor Georgia was pretty put out. Raviolianna must have had her chin on the floor since Georgia only has about 6 inches clearance under her. Ravi is already as tall as Georgia. Silly baby!