BUSY, BUSY

You've maybe noticed I haven't blogged in quite a while. Actually, I blog almost every day, but now I do it for money :-) Because of that and being on Facebook, it seems hard to find time to write on Farm Muse. But here I am! Let's see what I can tell you about.

Cats and kittens are always a hot topic around here. Spitz had 4 babies early this spring, and all are doing well. These pictures were taken on March 31:
Maggie, Tobie,
Dottie, Rambo.
Rambo has moved to Florida, but we hear he has made the adjustment quite nicely.

Carson had 3 babies back in January. I posted a video of one of them earlier this year, but they're all grown up now. Lightning, Samantha, & Obama:
Carson has new babies in the junk pile. Katie and I saw them (sort of) and there are at least four. After we found them, Carson moved them and we haven't found them again. She's so sneaky.

Marshall came up for a few days over Easter and Spring Break.
Steve Carroll hid the eggs,
Maria & Beth Carroll and Marshall found the eggs,
and Kathryn & Haylee stopped by later in the afternoon.
A trip to the farm isn't complete without driving the bobcat,
playing with the kittens,
teaching Weldon something new (pop rocks),
and reading bedtime stories.

Katie has been spending some time here on the farm while making arrangements to move to NY. Before flying to NY to hunt for an apartment, we visited Anna and Marshall in Charlotte .
Weldon was sure glad to see me when I got home :-)

On Mother's Day we had a surprise visit from Scott, Jennifer, and Aniston. Aniston loved Dottie, but we couldn't convince them they needed another cat.
Scott was here, really! I just didn't get a picture of him.

Katie had a successful trip to NY, finding an apartment in Brooklyn. She's busy packing and so am I. I'm driving up with her in a few days to help her get moved in. Then I'll fly back home. I've really become a gadabout in my old age, haven't I???

I know this blog is called Farm Muse but I don't write much about the farm. I think I'll have Weldon "ghost write" a spot to tell you how difficult and disappointing things have been. Of course, it has finally stopped raining so he will finally be able to harvest the wheat, if he can finally get some parts for the machinery. So he'll finally be too busy to write and tell you his sad story. The good news is, we keep on laughing and smiling and enjoying each other and life. YAY!!

MY MINI-VACATION ... Part Two: Miami
I forgot to mention that it was rainy and cold when I left home on Saturday morning. I hadn't gone very far when I realized the heater in the car wasn't working. Fortunately, I had a jacket and gloves in the car but, by the time I got to Anna's, I was just about frozen. I didn't realize how cold my toes were until I got in the house, and when Marshall hugged me, he exclaimed, "Grandma is COLD!!"

So, I left the cold rain of Charlotte behind and flew into the warm sunshine of Ft. Lauderdale. Katie picked me up and our first stop was a Japanese grocery store that also had a sushi bar. We had a nice little lunch and then strolled through the store looking at all the Japanese goodies (and weirdies). We bought these green tea treats and enjoyed them later. They have a spongy, gooshy texture (like marshmallows) and have red bean paste inside. Is that right, Katie?? Anyway ... Yummy! We stopped to get gas and then home to Miami Beach. That evening, Sebastien (a friend from our Haiti days) took us out to a Japanese restaurant. Katie can probably tell you what everyone ordered, but what I know for sure is that I didn't have sushi. I had cooked pork and Japanese veggies in some kind of delicious sauce and white sticky rice. Katie and I shared green tea ice cream for dessert. Here are Sebastien and his girlfriend Neysa, and Katie who actually knows how to use chopsticks. I guess everyone knew how to use chopsticks, except me. The waitress noticed and brought me a fork :-) It was so pleasant to be walking wherever we went and not getting cold or wet.

On Monday, Katie had to work (she works from home), so I took out my Japan stuff and pictures from 2 years ago and got everything organized and put into empty scrapbook pages. A lot of good memories, and when I have some time to start scrapbooking again, it'll be smooth sailing. After Katie had had enough of work, we walked to Cheeseburger Baby and had ... cheeseburgers, baby! and fries. Wow! Talk about delish!! It was almost painful to walk home, but so worth it :-)

On Tuesday we went to see Slumdog Millionaire. What a fabulous movie. It affected me the same way as reading Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt ... awful but wonderful. Our evening meal was at a cute little French cafe, Cafe a la Folie. We knew we were going to have dessert, so we ordered sparingly. I had French onion soup and Katie had a wonderful salad, and they brought out some crusty yummy rolls, of course. We shared our entrees with one another and then each ordered creme brulee. What can I say?? We're like little piggies when it comes to good food.

And then it was Wednesday already, my going home day - and it was raining a little. Before heading to the airport, we decided to go to IKEA in Ft. Lauderdale. Although a new IKEA just opened in Charlotte, I had never been to one, so we had a good time checking out all the stuff. And, of course, we had to be a little silly. There was a mirrored vanity and the doors were also mirrored on the inside, so we stuck our heads in and took a pic. And I thought this sink would be good for Weldon to wash up in when we get our new wash/laundry room done. Time to check out and head to the airport. So sad :-(

I got to there in plenty of time, especially considering my flight was delayed by an hour!! Anna was waiting for me when I arrived in Charlotte (about 6pm). We went back to her place, I picked up my overnight bag, and I drove on home. Aren't little getaways grand?!

MY MINI-VACATION ... Part One: Charlotte

On March 4th, Katie sent me an email to tell me that Jet Blue was having a sale on flights to Ft. Lauderdale. Did I want to come for a visit? Well, duh!!! After a quick consultation with Weldon, I started searching for a flight. I had already planned to be at Anna's on March 14, so I decided to fly out of Charlotte on the 15th and return on the 18th. I didn't want to stay away too long, because I feel guilty knowing that Edith does my milking chores when I'm gone (with never a complaining word, I might add).

Saturday with Anna and Marshall was a lot of fun, as always. March 10th was Marshall's 10th birthday, so we had to take a little trip to Target (surprise!!) so he could spend some of his birthday money from Katie, Edith, Pat and Great Grandma Schmidt. He bought 2 shirts, body wash, and a video game.
Other than that, we just enjoyed our time together at home. We played Uno and made pizza from scratch, using a pizza crust recipe that I used when the girls were little.

Are you ready for a long, goofy story about the recipe? If not, simply skip the next paragraph.

In February, a friend of Katie's sent me an email, saying that Katie had told him about the fantastic pizza dough recipe I have and could I send it to him. Well, I was stumped. I wrote to Katie, What recipe??? She didn't remember exactly, except that we always used it in Haiti, it called for whole wheat flour but we used white, and the recipe card was in my green plastic recipe box. So ... I look through the box. No recipe. I ask Anna. She remembered it had honey in it and the recipe was in my green plastic recipe box. Searched again. No recipe. I don't quite remember how it happened, but I mentioned the pizza crust on Facebook and a gal we worked with in Haiti wrote, "I use your pizza crust recipe all the time. Everyone in Haiti always said I made the best pizza." What??? You have THE recipe?? Yes! so she emailed it to me. When I got it, the name of the recipe was GRAHAM FLOUR PIZZA CRUST. Hmmmm... little bells going off in my head. I remembered going through my recipe box some time ago and thinking, "graham flour?! like, who buys that any more??" so I thought I must have thrown out the recipe without even looking at it. I thought I also had a graham flour bread recipe, so I decided to look through the box once more and if there were NO graham flour recipes, I would know that that's what had happened. And, lo and behold, there's the Graham Flour Pizza Crust recipe, big as (3x5) life. We all had a good laugh.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled program.

So here are some pictures of us making and eating the pizza. Sure enough, it was fantastic!! :-)


We had a lazy Sunday morning together and then they took me to the airport. After that, they went to a birthday party for Marshall. The party was originally scheduled for Saturday (which was why I was planning to be in Charlotte on the 14th), but was then changed to Sunday (after I had already bought my ticket to Florida). Needless to say, I missed the party. Anna sent me pictures, so I'll include a few of them for your enjoyment.
Isn't this the cutest cake?! That's Marshall's wrestling picture :-)
Anna made him a quilt. Marshall had actually picked out the fabrics and the pattern he liked. Pretty cool, huh?

Part two of this mini-travelogue (Miami) will be posted within a couple of days. Trust me.

Kitty Spa
During the cold months, a fire is built in the stove in the milk tank room each morning and evening so the room is nice and toasty. I call this room the Kitty Spa! At one end of the room is the milk tank , and here's the other end of the room with the wood stove and miscellaneous milking supplies.

When we go down to do chores, we let the cats and kittens come in so they can get warmed up. They are spoiled rotten. There are 9 cats visible in the middle picture above, but there are probably another 5 or 6 just outside your field of vision. That's Johnny Carson by the stove and Spitz's kittens Spice, Spots, and Sparks in the picture on the right.
Kitten Kaboodle is smart and always manages to have her babies in the milk tank room. Here they are in January , happy to sleep in their box; and now they have to be like the big kitties and sleep anywhere and everywhere . From front to back: Kitten Kaboodle ("Boo"), Gretchen & Shadow, Spike, and Boogaloo.
There is a fan over the stove that blows some of the warm air into the milk parlor so we don't freeze to death while we're milking when it's really cold. This morning we didn't even need to wear our hooded sweatshirts while we were working in the milk pit!

I'm wearing my favorite sweatshirt. Can you see what it says? "I'm in over my head..." Standing in that milk pit, I don't think there's a truer statement ... except maybe "Sh** happens!"
The cats (we have 40+) await fresh, warm milk every morning and evening, which I deliver to 5 locations. I told you they were spoiled!!! Kit Carson has moved her three "babies" from the junk yard to the little shed next to our house. One of these days they'll move to the hay barn (I hope!) and then I won't have to bring milk to this fifth location. Carson (the mom) is in the center, with Samantha on the left and Lightning on the right.
Carson's third baby, Obama, is a scaredy cat and won't come out until he's sure it's safe.
I hope you've enjoyed this little visit to the Kitty Spa and the milk parlor. Want a kitty??

I SURE KNOW HOW TO PICK 'EM

The following is a quote (January 8, 2009) from Hoard's Dairyman, The National Dairy Farm Magazine:

"It's official, at least in the eyes of the Wall Street Journal writers, that dairy farming isn't much fun. In the January 5 issue of the New York-based business paper, dairy farming ranked 199 out of 200 professions. The only job below it was lumberjack."

My first husband was a lumberjack for 4 years in Brimson, MN. My second (and last!) husband is a dairy farmer.

I SURE KNOW HOW TO PICK 'EM