That time of year

When the praying mantises show up. 

I think they are so cool! It's the only bug that can turn it's head and look at you!

The dogs were out playing in the yard, digging holes and having fun.

I love to see them like this because they have so much fun running and barking and digging. That's the sort of life every dog should have!

Mr Smudgy-face

Little Miss Dirty-Paws

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Irish Stew and No-knead Dinner Rolls

I hit two home runs for dinner tonight! Irish Stew and No-Knead Dinner Rolls :) The Irish Stew was a very simple crockpot recipe in my old Betty Crocker cookbook. I bought two pounds of local lamb stew meat last week, and I browned it (I used a little bacon fat to get it going, but after that it rendered quite a bit of fat out of the lamb). I browned it in the skillet, because my only dutch oven is a campfire oven, so it has legs, which makes it difficult to use on the stovetop. As I finished browing each batch I moved them to the dutch oven. While the next batch browned I chopped onions, carrots and potatoes and layered those on top of the meat. Repeat for three batches. Sprinkle some of my freshly dried thyme on top, deglaze the browning skillet with canned beef broth and pour all those lovely browned bits into the dutch oven, lid on, and parked it in a 300 degree oven for two hours. Then we turned it down to warm and left it for another three hours. At the very end I made a quick roux on the stovetop and stirred it in to thicken it up. Dave said it was a winner. The meat was just falling apart, and the veg was still in big chunks, but quite soft. Delicious!

The No-Knead Dinner Rolls was a recipe a friend recommended. It took about an hour and a half of rising time, but it was worth it. Delicious, fluffy rolls, a perfect companion to sop up the Irish Stew from the bottom of the bowl.

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My house - another view

This view from a different maps site shows a better angle for viewing the back yard/pasture area.

The blue lines are the property lines. The red outline on the left is the 'front field', and the bare square of dirt in that field is where I had a friend plow it with their tractor to try and have a garden, which didn't work out because the ground was soft and rocky, the plants didn't grow well, the weeds invaded, and I ended up abandoning that plan. However, I still think this area might make a nice winter pasture for a few small animals, like some goats or sheep. This picture was taken several years ago, and the trees in the front field are much bigger now.

The red outline on the right is what we call the backyard, or the back field. It's a nice little pasture, and the goats were quite happy there for the winter a couple years ago, though it was hard to get food to them without having to tramp downhill through the slippery mud. The shed on the top right of that area is the hay shed, which is the backside of the chicken coop, and it was a nice shelter for the goats that one winter.

When I look at it like this it sure looks like a lot of space!

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My House!

Google has updated the satellite view of our house. For a long time it was frozen in time with the shop half-finished.

Now it is complete, and the little pasture shelter we built a couple years ago is visible. So is a chicken tractor in the side yard, and my yellow wheelbarrow just outside the back fence. My yellow mustang project car is in the driveway, though surprisingly enough the two 'regular' cars are not. The doors are open on the chicken house at the top of the picture. It must have been a hot day! Mid-summer, I'd guess, from the yellow grass in the yard and pasture.

As you can see, our property is mostly pasture. If only I could figure out how to make it earn it's keep. I love my little wanna-be farm!

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Kitty door

The door to the back bedroom has a kitty door cut into the bottom of it, and sometimes while we're back there working Barclay likes to lay there with his head through the kitty door watching us.

Sometime Navi likes to get in on the act!

Good thing Barclay is so patient!

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