April showers... wait SNOW?? Again?

OK, it really isn't a lot of snow, just what the old timers call a skiff, but geez it is almost May!  That grass should be green, not white!  Ritter agrees and was real excited about going into the barn to get out of the muddy cold.  Well, technically Ritter is excited whenever we talk to him, but especially when he gets to go see the goats, chickens, and barn kitties (ok, there IS a barn kitty behind that door).  Nothing makes him happier then seeing a barn kitty in the middle of the field that he can chase, even if he does get into trouble for it.  Most times the kitties simply rub up against him and give him lots of love though. 

Managed to take a picture of one of the wildflowers growing on the hillside...  Click link to read more!


it is always fun to see them growing when everything else looks so very bare still.  Living in the high desert makes you really appreciate when the wildflowers bloom.  Even though they are very small, and you really need to look closely to see some of them. 

I got up this morning and started early, stripping ham off the bone that had been in the slow cooker all night.  It is the time of year that I almost always make bean soup, so I had soaked black beans, pinto beans, and great northern white beans overnight.  The house smelled awesome all morning as I cooked the soups.  I put two cups per sealer bag and froze most of it, the great northern beans will cook all day in the slow cooker.  Bean soup will make a wonderful dinner tonight, and having some soup in the freezer for an easy meal will be nice.

In between making soup and doing dishes 4 times, I prepared another loaf of Pain au Levain with mixed starters, and also milked the goats.  The two kitties who live in our outbuildings really love this time of year, because they get milk.  Pudge is orange and lives in the barn with her kitten, and Mitten Kitten is the multi-color furball.  Pudge is a little bit standoffish, but Mitten makes up for it by being really sweet.  Here they are waiting for me to finish milking Red, who is in the stanchion.  The doe kid who is suckling her mom, Olympia was abandoned. Goats will do that sometimes when they have more than 2 kids.  I bottle feed at night and in the morning put the kid on Olympia in the stanchion, which makes things a little bit easier.  Red is the mother of the little black doe kid, and Olympia is the mother of the 3 other kids.

These are 100% Whole Wheat cinnamon rolls, and boy were they good!  I had one this morning for breakfast.  I made them with splenda, and they didn't have any sugar in them at all.  I put raisins and pecans on at the same time I put the cinnamon, splenda, and a little bit of melted butter to hold things together when they were rolled up.  Even the cream cheese topping was made with splenda rather than sugar.  I love when something just comes together and tastes really good!  I just haven't figured out how to take the shortening out of these, without losing some of the wonderful texture that goes with it!

It's been a busy day, bread is still rising, dinner is in the slow cooker, all the critters seem to be happy, laundry is drying, and I even had a little bit of time to post a blog.  Overall a pretty good day for a Monday Tuesday!  Sigh, it's only 3 pm, but I feel like it's time for a NAP.