Apparently Peanuts are like Crack Balls...

to goats! I never would have guessed it  but now I have seen it with my own eyes! Yes,I have read on other blogs that  some goats like peanuts. So, on a whim, at one of the many,many trips I make to Tractor Supply I grabbed a bag of peanuts and threw them in the buggy. Plain peanuts.With the shells on. Plain.  Not half priced experimental government mind control peanuts. Just plain. All it took was to open the bag out side the goat pen. The scent must have carried on the breeze. Every goat froze,lifted their heads and sniffed the peanut laced air....kind of like on the nature shows when a herd of some hoofed food animal catches whiff of a lion near by..eyes bugged and nostrils flared and a stampede of peanut crazed goats thundered towards me!

I was amazed! Did they have some genetic programming deep in there goatie DNA that turned them in to some kind of peanut craving zombie goats?

Hmmm...I am going to say yes,that must be what is going on!

Let me tell you, we quickly discovered these goats will do anything for a peanut!  Of course, we used this newly acquired knowledge to totally entertain ourselves at the goats expense! Hey,it's not like they weren't getting paid with peanuts! We saw it as a win win situation!

Even the long battle for herd queen between Nibbles and Doodah will come to a stop and they will share a peanut! Unheard of I tell you! Usually the only thing these two come together on is a good t-boning or head butt!

Nibbles doesn't care if The Boy makes her look silly for a peanut...

dignity matters nothing when it comes to the delectable peanut!

See, just look at her! She would dance in circles in a tutu if it meant getting a peanut!

Then we have the poor lesser zombies...umm goats that circle around  with eye bugging and nostrils flaring waiting for the alpha goats to be distracted long enough for them to sneak in to get their peanut fix! Sweet Minnie,of course you can have a  peanut!

Dolly Doodle too! And let me tell you ..do not go in that pen wearing anything that might have had, at some time or another,peanuts in the pockets!

Apparently goats are like blood hounds when it come to sniffing out peanuts and will ,scouts honor, try to gnaw off your pocket to get to a little peanut dust! I am thinking it only takes one peanut to completely make an addict out of a goat. Just one.Who knew?

A Couple of Goofballs...

This was at the Houston Aquarium, one of the places we went while Hubby was home. These two,I tell ya! They are always cutting up! Every picture of them together looks just like these..well minus the giant, fake, man eating white tiger!

They may be goofballs but they are my goofballs and I am glad I have them!

Apple Butter and Tattler Lids

Apple season down here means apples are shipped in from more northerly places so I usually do not do any apple kind of things. Pears are what we have down here and you can really substitute them for apples in most things. I do make a batch of apple butter every year though,which you can make with pears if you need to but I will usually splurge and buy some  nice organic apples. Besides,with the heatwave and drought, mostly the drought because pears can take the heat, we had no pears this year. Usually we are pear poor down here! Seriously, folks will abandon buckets of them on your doorsteps!
So, I made a batch of apple butter in the crock pot. I love the ole crock pot,it is the busy or lazy persons friend! I am both!

I also tried out the Tattler Lids for the first time. I had a perfect success with them! I like that they are BPA free and reusable!

The cost of  regular lids just keep going up so I figure they will pay for them selves in no time. The BPA thing is getting to be such an issue I suspect Ball and the rest will soon be making their lids BPA free but that will probably be another excuse for them to raise the price! They are already advertising their freezer containers as BPA free. I don't figure I will ever collect up enough of the Tattler Lids to do all my canning unless the company has  something like a thousand lid giveaway and I am lucky enough to win but still....I think I will just get a box here and there and who knows..like my jars I may get a closet full eventually! Maybe I will ask for Tattler Lids as Christmas gifts! The lids have a slightly different way to do them so read the instructions..no big deal, it just tells you when and how to tighten them. I like them and if you haven't tried them I do recommend them. The Tattler folks did not give me anything to say that, although if any of them are reading I would be happy to have some free ones!

I will give you my super easy and, we think, yummy recipe for crock pot apple butter.This is so simple a recipe it is a great thing to make if haven't canned before and wanted to try something!

5 1/2 lbs of apples       I usually do half granny smith and half some other sweeter apple
4    C  sugar                I do half brown sugar because I like it that away
2    tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt

Peel,core and finely chop apples. Mix everything in your crock pot. Cover and cook 1 hr on high. Reduce to low and cook 9-11 hrs or until your desired  thickness. We don't do smooth apple butter we like ours chunky so I usually get out the ole tater masher and just mash it up good. You can run it through a food mill or blender ,again what ever way you like it! BWB can it.

The Good,The Bad and The Ugly

Hmmm...what it that trailer doing stuck up the side of that tree?

It was attached to this truck that is rolled over in the woods...

Yes, unfortunately, this is how Hubby's week at home ended. Don't worry he is fine! He just popped out the back window and started taking pictures...!

The Boy had his hopes on this truck when he turned 16....I had my doubts it would make it that long! Let's just say Hubby is not getting any good driving awards! Granted,he doesn't drive in China and when he is home I drive when we are together because well...his driving makes me a nervous wreck! So he is a little out of practice in the driving department.

I would like to be able to say he was run off the road by a crazy driver or swerved to miss a wandering deer or wild hog..or maybe a  stray dog but...nope,he did this all by himself...

took a curve too fast and over corrected and the trailer took on a life of it's own and slung him around even more till he was upside down and  in the woods...

The second blessing, besides Hubby walking away, was that The Boy was not with him. The Boy goes everywhere with his dad and by the grace of God did not leave with him that morning! The passenger side is a bit frightening.
Those who know my Hubby will not even be surprised by this little incident or that he walked away form it. He is one of those hyper folks who always seem to eventually find a mishap of one kind or the other but will usually walk away unscathed or relatively minor injuries compared to the event! He never lets it slow him down though. I do admit as he is hitting middle age these events are getting further apart,thank  goodness! It has been about a year since his last incident of falling through some scaffolding on the oil rig he was building about 3 stories in the air,luckily he was able to catch hold of something! Limped away with a buggered up leg and didn't miss a beat... My friend Texan jokingly said he is why my hair went prematurely gray! I told Hubby I was going to start a business of charging folks $10 to rub on him for luck!

You all know my motto....Life is and adventure!

A Short Break

I have a few minutes this morning to give a quick shout out to everyone, I will be an a short break. As a lot of you know my Hubby works back and forth in China. He has been gone 7 weeks this time and was supposed to get a month at home.Wellll....after about 3 days he got THE call and they need him back so he will end up with about 10 days home. It is hard to complain about it  with so many folks out of work., we put it in perspective and count our blessings. So,we have to cram in the most important "Honey-Dos" balanced with some quality family time .We are busy, busy, busy! I told him he would be worn out and he said he could sleep on the plane! I will will catch up with everyone in a few days and have some post of what went on around here!  One thing I,and most everyone else,am grateful for is it has finally cooled off some! We are having daytime temps in the 80's whooo-hooo! So,at least we are not burning up as we do all this running around! See you all soon....

Goats Make Good Drums

 Every evening me and The Boy try to spend time in the goat pen before it is time to  give the goaties their supper and put them to bed. It is always great entertainment! Goats have BIG personalities and you never know what will go on out in their pen.When we first go out it is chaos! Everyone comes running in case of treats because well, often there are treats! Then they kind of settle down and take their turns getting attention. One of the things that happens on  occasion is drumming. Tonight it was Nibbles who wanted to be musical....ummm..maybe I should say Nibbles wanted to be the musical instrument!

Nibbles was a bottle baby and is very close to The Boy.When she was a baby she lived in the house and slept in a clothes hamper next to The Boys bed.  She wants to be close as possible to him all the time. She really tries to sit in his lap still but she is just too big! As she and The Boy sat together tonight he was patting on her like he was playing a goat drum!

 You can see she was loving it...just sitting there chewing cud and enjoying all the patting!

  Maybe I can take them to the fair to perform and people can put change in a can for them,lol! It could help with the goat feed fund!

 Nibbles says,"Hey,I did not tell ya you could stop..."

  Back to drumming...

  "What was the Nibbles,...more drumming!?!?!"

... pat- pat- patta- pat- pat....my arms are getting tired.....

 I am not sure who is actually in charge here,The Boy or Nibbles!

A boy and his goat..life is good!

A Project Done!

 You all may remember a while back I went to Navasota to the WC Mercantile and got myself stocked up on wool . I thought this merino and silk was beautiful and could not wait to spin it !

I was right, it was wonderful to spin! I think it turned out to be a lovely yarn!

I decided to make some hand warmers from this pattern, which seems to be quiet popular  because I have seen it on several other blogs. Please ignore the terrible looking farm woman fingernails! I used a bigger needle size to accommodate my more"chunky " yarn and had shorten the amount of rows for the hand and thumb area which was no big deal. I am no perfectionist and have no problem adjusting what I have to make what I want,lol!

It just so happens I have enough yarn to make a cowl to go with these which I think will go great this fall with a  denim  jacket! It is still hot as heck here but hot weather is the time to be making your cool weather stuff.   I usually always have something on my wheel and a knitting project and at least 1 or 2 sewing projects going at once!  Yes, it takes longer to finish them but that seems to be the way I operate when it comes to projects!
We are suppose to cool off this weekend and by cooling I mean the 90's instead of the 100's! AND a possibility of rain ! It is almost too much for me to hope for...sigh.

So anyone else making winter goodies?