Tuesday December 14, 2010
The winter landscape often offers that perfect hint of color for your flower arrangements. Here, I added winterberry and inkberry to a store-bought bouquet. Just looking at it makes me happy!
Monday December 13, 2010
Life speeds by. I am guilty of moving from one important task/client/responsibility to another. While I am thankful, I rarely get to savor anymore. But my mind savors and my thoughts wander and create the "Nice Things To Do List." On that list, I want to thank Rick Iemolini for recommending my interior decorating services to Nancy Fernandez Mills last winter. In the serendipity category, it turns out that Nancy is a TV producer, had produced a show on PBS, and is now interested in health counseling, nutrition and food. And she writes the blog content for Liberty Medical which offers products for people with diabetes. And the next thing you know, Nancy asks me if I'd be interested in developing some recipes and shooting some videos for Liberty Medical.
How cool is that!! We've shot 16 videos. But the topic of diabetes and its epidemic proportions is not lost on me. My grandmother had diabetes. My dear friend John Kaiser had diabetes, my new friend, Alex Elman had diabetes (she had a pancreas and kidney transplant it was so severe), and countless others are suffering. And through Nancy, I have developed recipes that are diabetes-friendly. WOW!
Here's a photo of Nancy and Me from the video shoot last week. A big thank you to you Nancy. xxoo
Sunday December 12, 2010
It's quite funny when the wild turkeys parade through our yard. The chickens disappear in a flash and Uni, the guinea fowl, seems strangely attracted to them.
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Friday December 10, 2010
One of the hardest parts of being from a concoction family is that we know the basic steps and principles but sometimes we add a little of this, a little of that, and we think we'll remember what we did. Are you guilty of the same? And when you go to make it again - you know the basic steps but you can't remember for the life of you what you added last time to make it so special. And guess what you do? You add a little of this, a little of that and another concoction is born....
I am now trying to religiously write down and photograph what I do. Fortunately, the Liberty Medical video series forced me to capture my chicken piccata concoction and it's a keeper. There were zero, nicht, zip leftovers!!
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Thursday December 09, 2010
So, the move went well - all four days of it. All Ways Moving in Pittsfield
has the greatest crew of guys - each one taller, stronger, more handsome and
nicer than the next! The red little house I rented for the winter in
Pittsfield is packed full, the garage at my ex's is packed full and the
contents of my farm store has even spilled over into his office space. Boy,
it is amazing how much stuff I have! I guess that is what happens when you
add up the four bedroom house with basement and attic, a barn, a greenhouse,
a shed and a farm store.
Speaking of farm store, I'll be setting up a new "farm store space" at the
office/garage on S. Merriam St. in Pittsfield this winter. It will be open a
couple of afternoons a week or by appointment and I'll have all of the
wonderful cuts of lamb, gorgeous hand dyed yarns and luxurious silky
sheepskins everyone loves, available for sale. There's even enough room for
me to set up my big loom! Check my website sometime in February for more
information. Maybe, if life is settled in nicely I'll even be able to have a
couple of fiber workshops there in March!
The sheep are all doing well. They are still out grazing in the pasture -
this little bit of snow hasn't slowed them down a bit. The nice thing about
snow is that I don't have to bring them water every day. They much prefer to
eat the clean, fresh snow and don't bother with the water in the tanks. Of
course, snow means I have to slog through it as I reset the fences to give
the girls fresh grazing, but I would rather slog through snow, than mud.
Dolly, our Blue Heeler who was born and raised in North Carolina has been
having the best time in the snow. She loves to bite it and go sniffing
through it after moles in the grass. Jynx, our Border Collie is an old hand
at snow, and he doesn't play in it as much as she does. He would rather just
get to work. The dogs and barn cats are spending the winter at the barn
where the pregnant ewes will be. The rental house is "no pets," but the
landlord did allow us to have Pumpkin Kitty, so he is an indoor cat for this
winter. I think he has gained 2 pounds this week alone since all he does now
is eat and sleep.
Nancy, the ultrasound technician is coming to pregnancy check the ewes on
the 13th. Then we'll have an idea of how many ewes will be lambing, when
they will lamb and how many lambs they are carrying. Knowing this helps us
feed them properly, provide them with adequate shelter before lambing and
gives me an idea of what my farmers market sales might be looking like next
season.
Today I reached the 500 hour mark on my tractor. My sweet little Kubota has
only worked about 100 hours per year, what an easy life for a tractor! Today
it worked hard. I cleaned out the bunk silo at the farm I am renting for the
winter for the sheep. I'll store their wrapped bales of hay in it. The first
load of wrapped bales arrives tomorrow. I better remember to bring my
checkbook with me to pay for them. I purchase all my wrapped bales from the
Leabs at Ioka Valley Farm in Hancock. Don Leab knows how to grow good feed
and it makes better business sense for me to purchase my winter feed than to
make the capital investment in equipment and still have to worry about the
weather; than to try to harvest it myself.
Until next week, I'll be unpacking boxes and readying the barn for the
sheep!
Tuesday December 07, 2010
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Here's a beauty shot of the diabetes-friendly blueberry coffee cake. It's quite a production getting all the details right!!