Christmas Questionnaire

The blog at Fraker Farm did a fun Christmas question tag posting today, and bent the rules by offering it to anyone wanted to do it on their own blog, rather than pointing the finger at people. I liked that approach, so here is my effort to get in the spirit of the season!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? I prefer hot chocolate, especially with a marshmallow in it.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Wrapped always.

3. Colored light on house/tree or white? Ohhh, I love blue lights. I have white on my tree, but I like blue ones outside. The reflection on the snow makes everything so wintery.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No.

5. When do you put your decorations up? Depends on the year and how busy I am!

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? My mother makes wonderful cheese crispy biscuits, Welsh griddle cakes, and delightful Christmas pudding. All favourites!

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? Sometimes we've had family wrapping "contests" almost, for disguising things-Toblerone bars in particular. One year (I guess I was a young adult, more than a child for this memory, but on with the story), my father skillfully opened a full size Toblerone bar using a warm knife to soften the glue on the packaging, so that the opening "tear strip" thing wasn't damaged. He took out the bar, carefully unwrapped it, and made a replicate out of builder's plaster. He made it with a balsa wood core to keep the weight about right. After molding it perfectly, he rewrapped it carefully in the silver lining paper and resealed the box. I did not open it until about a week after Christmas. When I did open it, I was horrified, thinking it was moldy! I'm sure my face was worth a thousand words. Of course, he kept the real bar for me, but the joke is one of our classic Christmas memories.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I don't remember. I think maybe kids in my class told me.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Nope! Not here!

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Most of the ornaments are either special ones from my childhood or ones that have been collected on travels. I have lots of rabbit themed ornaments. Most are handmade.

11. Snow. Love it or dread it? Depends on whether there is ice under it and how long it lasts. I like some snow for Christmas, but I wish it was gone by the end of January, instead of March.

12. Can you ice skate? Yes, but I don't do it very often at all any more.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? So many things, but two that stand out are a handmade wooden cutting board from my father and a beautiful multicoloured scarf from my mother that she made for me, even though she doesn't very much like to knit or crochet! I like gifts full of love.

14. What is the most important thing about the holidays for you? Taking time to relax and appreciate the season. It is always better when I can spend it with family, but that is much harder these days, since I live far away. In this busy life, it is a short few days to wind down and enjoy.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? My mother's Christmas pudding with brandy butter!! Oh, and roasted parsnips.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? I love doing the huge crossword puzzle in the newspaper with my parents - it covers an entire centrefold page from the newspaper and takes a long time. We love crosswords and jigsaw puzzles too.

17. What tops your Christmas tree? A rabbit angel that I made.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? I love giving surprises and watching facial reactions as people open their gifts.

19. What is your favorite Christmas song? Anything from Mannheim Steamroller.

20. Candy Canes. Yum or Yuck? I like the peppermint ones and what I like best is to use one to stir a coffee or hot chocolate so that it ends up tasting minty.

21. What do you want for Christmas? A livestock trailer.

22. Do you attend an annual Christmas party? No.

23. Do you dress up for Christmas Eve or wear PJ's? Depends what I'm doing but usually PJs!

24. Do you own a Santa hat? No, but I do have footie pajamas that are red.

25. Who do you normally spend Christmas with? My family if I can, Kelly's family if I can't.

Hope that some of you readers will feel inspired to join in the holiday fun - feel free to do the Christmas Questionnaire on your own blogs!

Happy Holidays to all!

Muck Boots - Practical vs. Fun

The blog over at Laughing Orca Ranch had a post today on muck boots. I was very inspired by her fun and fancy muck boots. Mine are not quite as exciting, but still fun. In fact, if I post about them today, she will even let me have her fancy sticker for my blog. How can I resist?!

I keep my muck boots in the garage, primarily because they are mucky. This prevents the dispersal of muck throughout the house. It also reminds and encourages Kelly to leave his muck boots in the garage, which are invariably muckier than mine, and would do even more dispersal of muck into the house. So, the biggest problem with my muck boots at this time of year is that they are COLD when I put my feet into them.

I have two pairs of muck boots really. I do have some summer clogs but they are put away right now, so I will show my fall and winter muck boots. I have the sensible tall pair for deeper snow and muck, and the fun stripy pair for less challenging muck situations, or shallow snow. I was wearing the tall ones earlier this week but now I can use the short again since we've had some snow melt.

I must say that I feel more fun and light hearted when I wear the stripy ones. The green ones, while very practical, have a sort of serious "let's get down to business" feel about them, as if I can't just go frolic with the hens. I might have to get another pair of fun ones now, based on the ones I saw from Laughing Orca Ranch. I feel a bit of adventure coming on in my muck boot choices in future.
When I went to take these photos, I lifted my green muck boots and found a poor little dead mouse under them. It wasn't stepped on, so I'm not sure why it died, and why it had to do so under my boots. No obvious trauma on it. I put it in the rubbish bin, but I do feel bad for it. Not that I really want them in my garage, but all little creatures have their place. It didn't look like a nursing mama mouse, so hopefully there isn't a nest of babies in the garage somewhere needing attention. Otherwise I might be tempted to let them nest in my muck boot. Only temporarily of course.

Eggy Bliss

Wow. My hens are tremendous and I love them all! Today was a 9 egg day. Yesterday was miserable with cold winds and snow and general winter unpleasantness. I felt sure that today would be a bad egg day as a result. I was so wrong. I have no idea what the hens were celebrating, but I feel sure they must have been well pleased with something to give me 3 more eggs than my best egg day, and 4 more eggs than my usual egg days of late. I just want to go give every hen a little cuddly squeeze of thanks. They would probably be less delighted with that than I would be, so I shall leave them to their roosting.

Here is a picture of today's eggs. I set them in this lovely asparagus dish that I found on our summer vacation in North Carolina. I'm not a huge fan of antique shops, but Kelly loves to look for old tools, so I prowl around in a sort of grumpy manner saying to myself "Now why would anybody want to buy that thing?" when I look at some of the items. I should not be so harsh, I know, but some of the items for sale really make me wonder. Anyway, in one of the antique shops we stopped in, while Kelly was ogling wood planes in a locked cabinet, I found this rather quirky dish for $12, so I bought it. I have no idea if it is antique or not, but I do love asparagus, and the texture of the dish delighted me. I'm sure somebody will read this post and say "Now why did she want to buy that thing?!" There is a wee bit of shine to the eggs because they were cold when I brought them inside, so they had a bit of condensation develop on them. I wiped them with a paper towel but they persisted in being shiny! Two blue eggs! Hooray!
In addition, I was remiss yesterday, because I did not fully show the extent of the tractor. Please note that I am now rectifying that error. Here is the front snow plow part. I find it large and intimidating but Kelly is very excited about it. I am excited about the job it will do in clearing the driveway. Maybe that is what the hens were celebrating!

Now we're farming!

I can barely contain my excitement. Are you ready for this? No, no, Muffin still didn't have her baby goat and I'm quite sure now that she's not pregnant and never was. Little strumpet! Still, the disappointment of no baby goat is clearly overshadowed by the acquisition of....a TRACTOR!!! Yes, indeed, a real tractor has found its way to the barn. It was on Craig's List, the home of all good deals, and it was pointed out by friends of ours who are many years and acres ahead of us on this farm learning curve.

Anyway, after going to look it over and drive it around, Kelly pronounced it the "right one" and so it was. It is a Kubota tractor with a belly mower, a rear snow blade, and a front snow blade. It has 720 hours on it, which is really quite reasonable, and it has a 3 point hitch. This is particularly thrilling for me because it means we can get a proper tiller to till up my vegetable garden in the spring, and that nearly makes me giggle with glee.
Never before in my life did I think that a tractor would ever generate such a thrill. If anybody had even suggested so a few years ago, I likely would have given them the hairy eyeball treatment. But lo and behold, I would have been wrong, much as it pains me to say so.

So in order to honour this exciting moment, I am doing a give-away! Yes, after visiting any number of interesting arts and crafts blogs with fun and interesting give-aways, I have decided to do one myself. This one is not crafty or artsy, because my muse is taking time off. This is a tomato seed give-away. It is for an unopened packet of "Garden Peach" tomato from Seed Savers Exchange. It's one I bought late this year so I was going to start them for spring 2009. Instead, it is my very first give-away item. I will describe its packet blurb "Offered under a variety of names to American gardeners since the middle 1800s. Fuzzy fruits ripen to yellow and often have a hint of pink blush when fully ripe. Outstanding flavor, rarely cracks. Indeterminate. 70-75 days from transplant." There are 50 seeds in the packet.

So, just leave me a comment about my tractor, or about your favourite tomato, or anything else you'd like to chat about, and I will add your name to the giveaway list. I will put all the names in a hat and Kelly will pick one and I will send them out one week from today.

Happy gardening, happy farming, and happy day!

Monday Monday Update!

Well, sure enough, the tow truck showed up around 2, and the first thing he did was nearly go into the very same ditch that my car was in. He had significant difficulty finding a spot that his truck could remain stable enough to actually operate the winches to pull me out. Eventually, he determined that the best option was a sort of diagonal position across the middle of the road. Now, I can tell you, this gravel road is not well traveled as a rule. In fact, it's quite quiet really. But of course, after he had positioned himself such that nobody would be able to pass on either side, the vehicles began to arrive. First, a pickup truck towing a large piece of equipment. Second, a full 18-wheeler grain truck, full of corn of course (this is Iowa!) Then, a combine joined the line up. On the other side, we had a car, followed by an assortment of pickup trucks and SUVs, and a dozer. The car was slowly winched out of the ditch to a sort of middle-of-the-road position, and the winch operator told me to take my foot off the brake. So I did.

And I know you can guess what happened next. Of course! I gently, elegantly, and slowly slid backwards, into the very same ditch from whence I had just been removed!

The second time worked a charm, and I was able to stay in one place. However, upon attempting to start my car, the battery was dead. This was a result of having left my hazard lights flashing, but since I was on a blind corner, I had elected to do so to alert other drivers to my "sitting duck" car. The tow truck driver informed me that he didn't have a battery pack, but asked me if I had cables. Of course I have cables! My father taught me properly, and I have a black bag of safety gear, including jumper cables, spare bulbs, reflective blankets, WD-40, and other assorted items. I also have a first aid kit, a wool blanket, spare gloves and boots, and a partridge in a pear tree. Well, maybe not the partridge.

Unfortunately, my cables were woefully short, and the tow truck driver could not reposition his vehicle for fear of sliding into the ditch again, and for the fact that it would take him further from me, and I was the one needing a jump. So, he consulted with the driver of the 18-wheeler grain truck, who had a lovely long set of cables, and the pickup truck with the piece of equipment, and they made a chain of jumper cables, and finally my car was started. Sometimes, living in the country is delightful. People can be very kind and helpful. Everybody got their cables back and we all went on our way.

Upon arriving home, however, I found that I was unable to make it up the short stretch of gravel road that leads to my driveway. As a result, I am parked out there on the incline, and I will leave from that very spot tomorrow morning by backing out. And, I will take the other direction, which is still hilly and slippery, but doesn't have the hairpin turn. I hope, very fervently, not to have any more close encounters with ditches of any kind this winter.

Oh Monday, Monday...

So it hasn't started out really well for me. This morning is really cold, and with the heavy, wet snow we got yesterday, the roads are pretty icy. I headed out with the best of intentions, but at the top of my dirt road there is a hairpin turn to get onto the "main" dirt road that takes me to the paved road. The turn is onto a curving road that is canted at a strong angle. Well, I inched my way forward as I turned, and then suddenly, I was no longer driving the car, it was going its own way. I slid, very slowly, very elegantly, even perhaps "balletically" (if that's a word) into the ditch. It was gentle and slow - because I was barely moving when the whole thing happened. That whole area is just glazed snow and on such an angle that I had no options. The towing service hopes they can come by 2 pm. There are many cars off the road today. No wonder.

Fortunately, there was nothing of great significance on my work calendar today and my administrative assistant can send me things via e-mail if needed. I walked home, bringing with me the 2 dozen eggs that I had been taking to work.

So today I will talk about Poppy, because I have been remiss, and I have not introduced her to my blog yet. We got Poppy a couple of weeks ago, but things have been so busy that I haven't talked about her yet. So here she is!

Poppy is a Suffolk-Dorset-Rambouillet cross. She is simply adorable - very friendly and happy in nature. She has a very long tail, which I have not seen on a sheep before, but it adds to her sweet character. I love the colours in her fleece and she will be easy to shear because she is so good natured. We found Poppy on Craig's List and she was noted for good fleece and milk production so that's why she became part of our herd. She has integrated well with the Icelandic crew and we are excited to have her.

Silent Snowy Sunday