Weekend Meanderings

Our weekend began with a little sadness.

We said goodbye to one of the fainting goats...

Nettie B.

It's always hard to lose one of the animals,

but we find comfort in knowing that they live good lives-

and that their days are stress-free with the best possible

living conditions.

And though we wish that all of our animal friends would live much

longer lives,

we understand that this is life... it is a finite condition.

We are gifted this precious, limited time on this beautiful earth

and it is our task to make the most of our days.

To care for our animal friends is a happy privilege,

and we are grateful for that opportunity.

Our goat family has shrunk to just five-

Sally (with horns) and her Mom, O'Malley (without)...

Andy and Gracie...

And Sissy...

O'Malley is the last of our very first goats.

She came to the farm when she was just a few months old.

The other four were born here on the farm, as was Nettie.

We had a wonderful weekend at home, surrounded by nature.

Friday evening we took the dogs over to the Hundred Acre Wood.

It's probably their most favorite activity.

The evening was perfectly ripe for adventure,

with dramatic skies above as the sun began its descent to the horizon.

We went for a 20 mile bike ride early Saturday morning.

The fog was so thick, that our hair and clothes were wet after the first

ten miles.

One of the things that I love most about riding through the countryside

is the wildflowers along the roadsides.

Each week something new begins to blossom.

Black-eyed Susans are abundant now.

Common mullein:

Knapweed:

Butterfly weed:

Toadflax:

Sumac:

And now the wild blackberries have begun to ripen.

I picked both wild and domesticated blackberries this weekend

and froze a quart for winter use.

I'll be picking more as they ripen each day.

We harvested the onions and hung them in the cellar to dry.

I harvested zucchini,

and baked some chocolate chip zucchini bread.

Last night's supper was spaghetti sauce on spiralized zucchini (zoodles).

I've been picking the gomphrena (globe amaranth) that I planted from seed.

Each day I pick the longest stems and keep adding them to 

this scale in my kitchen to dry.

My pile gets lovelier by the day!

I also spent a bit of time sewing this weekend.

By Sunday afternoon I had finished 60 new face masks and listed

them on my Etsy shop.

They sell quickly... so I'll get back to work sometime again this week.

Sunday afternoon we had some great fun...

horsing around.

But that will have to wait for tomorrow's blog post.

Video included.