It is getting to be that time of year again,the time I love,canning time! I really can things year round,like chicken,broth,soup and things I find on sale at the grocery store, but  I just love when the garden starts making! Oh, it is just a little bit right now but soon it will be lots! One thing I canned the other day for the very first time was spiced pickled beats from my garden!

I like to put things that only one person will eat in single serving jars. Only I eat beets. Ever heard the expression faster than greased lightening? Well that is how fast my boys run if you mention beets! I love beets,they have that nice dirt flavor and I love dirt! Not to eat it of course but I love the smell of it fresh turned,to sink my hands in it,to walk barefoot across the coolness of it....sigh....and the growing things in it too.  I am just an earthy woman what can I say,lol! I guess the right way to say beets taste like dirt is to say they are earthy!
I have also frozen a  gallon bag of sliced and battered yellow squash...because squash needs to be  fried or it's just too healthy!

And  canned 6 pints of green beans and frozen 2 gallon bags of turnip greens! Oh, the tomatoes are so close to getting ripe I can almost taste them!

 Of course,in true southern fashion,the biggest ones have already been fried!

The peppers are starting to make...this one is a chili..

I thought I would show you my Clary sage in bloom. Isn't it lovely!

It is a very useful medicinal plant and easy to grow.If you would like to read more about it here in a link.  So, are you canning anything yet?
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Scooter

I thought I would show you all some new and, of course, adorable pictures of Scooter! I think he is the prettiest of our spring kids! Just look at his face!

He is the sweetest too. Definitely a lap goatie! The Boy keeps hinting how he wishes he could keep Scooter. Every new batch of kids there is always going to be one he wants to keep! The  goatie boys have been banded and I am happy to report that sweet Scooter and his brother Pedro,who is pretty sweet too, will be going to their new home next week! A wonderful home at a friends house. They will have 2 boys of their own to spoil them and will live with 2 mini horses! I just love when I know the people who take home our goaties!

Here is Scooter snacking on some yummy bark!

Just like a human boy, he is looking around and hoping his brother and sisters don't notice he has found something yummy!

Uh-Oh! Too late!  Look who's coming!

It's sister Zippy! She can munch bark with the best of them!

I am linking up with Farm Friend Friday! I have missed it the last few weeks but I am making it this week! Go on over and check out all the great farm blogs,you'll be glad you did!

The Dolly Doodle Report

 It's me! The one and only Dolly Doodle here to give you an update on what has been going on around here!

I have been helping out my Maa a lot these last couple of days and it is hard work let me tell you! You see, when my Maa works around the farm she will take me with her. She puts on my harness and a leash and I go with her to help in what ever she is doing. Mostly the leash just drags behind me because I like to be with my Maa and follow her but my  Maa says she feels safer if she can get a hold of me if she needs too. I  go with my Maa all kinds of places except the garden. She never takes me there .....something about me being about as much use as a plague of locust out there! Well, I don't know what a plagues of locust are but they must be mighty useful if they are half as good as me!

I know you all are wondering what I have been helping with lately and I am going to tell you. Berry picking!

I am a very good goatie helper at berry picking! First I watch the house and when ever my Maa comes out I maaaaaaaa her name loudly and repeatedly so she knows I am ready to go to work! She says things I can not hear from where I am but eventually she says,"Alright Doodle!"  Doodle, that is what she calls me! Then she comes and gets me and off we go! You may be wondering how I help pick berries.Well , I don't really pick the berries I don't like them at all. I help by eating all the leaves, poison ivy and devil weed so my Maaa can 

 get to her berries!

Maa says she has to get enough berries to make jelly for Daaad. I don't know what jelly is but if she will throw some poison ivy or devil weed in there I will help Daaad eat it!

I help my Maa by making sure I am always eating right where she is picking.  So,I usually stand right between her legs and try to eat exactly where her fingers are so I can remove all the leaves that may be in her way....

This is my job right now. It is a very,very important job which makes me a very important goatie!  I try to tell all the other goats how important I am and that they should butt me less and let me have more of the grain but they are just the unsophisticated kind of goats and don't understand the importance of my work! My Maa says one day when I am a big goatie I will be a milking Nanny but until then I can be her helper. I sure hope Daaad wants lots of jelly because I  really love berry picking!

Happy Easter !!!

                             Happy Easter to all my friends!

Adventures in the Money Pit

 I know a lot of you out there are just beginning your spring but it is almost over here. We are supposed to hit 90* in the next day or so. Oh, and don't forget to add in the severe drought and wind that won't stop blowing at what feels like 100 mph. I feel cheated....I want my springtime goodness! I want cool,wet  mornings and abundant growth not dragging hoses in drenching humidity while every petal is blown from my wilted flowers by this relentless wind. Yes,I am whining! But seriously, Mother Nature,enough is enough!

For my newer friends who may not know, we live in a 104 year old dilapidated money pit. That  is fine with me...I get to live a hermity life in the country and have my animals and garden and not care if  an old bathtub sits in the yard or if the grass is mowed before I get a ticket. Plus, if I want to walk out to the shed naked there is no one to give hysterical blindness too! Not that I do that...not very often any how... When we first moved in I was on fire to get work done on the house...but after about a year I fizzled out. I decided I could live with a lot of ..hmm...imperfections, stained asbestos ceiling tiles don't really look all that bad after all right? Don't get in a panic..they are not really asbestos..I don't think. My Hubby is home for a decent amount of time from his adventuresome  life of  a globe trotting oil man so I decided it was time for a new home improvement project.  The Boy's bathroom. So I go and buy the stuff...new sink,toilette, I will spare you the picture of what the inside of the this toilette looked like but I don't think dynamite could have blasted out what ever was stuck in there! I tried everything short of battery acid!

A new mirror,lights,flooring...you get the picture.
Let me add Hubby is never thrilled at the prospect of home improvement. I ask him why  on  Earth he bought this place when it needed so much work and he hates home improvement projects. He replied,"Looked fine to me." Men!
I may have forgot to mention the previous owners did some home improvements of their own....a lot of them made the old place go from old home to death trap!  Just a few months ago the well quit working. We had the repair man out. He couldn't believe the tank hadn't exploded from the pressure! It was set up wrong and he said if it had exploded it could have torn through the house and for sure killed any one in it's path.  Made me feel real good considering I had been out there beating around on it with a wrench! Come to think of it, every repair man who has ever come out has just shook their head and   told us that what ever they were working on wasn't done right. I think this has a lot to do with Hubby's aversion to the home improvement projects, once he starts one he has double the work trying to fix the things done by folks before us. A lot of the previous folks  problems, I believe, had something to do with  the amount of beer cans everywhere and by everywhere I mean places like under the house,in the attic in the barns and sheds,under the chicken coop and well, you get the picture! I have nothing against responsible drinking. Heck I have been know to drink a bottle of wine now and again. In fact the government told me it was mandatory around PMS time for the good of mankind everywhere! BUT...there are some rules everyone should follow. Don't drive. Don't beat your kids. Don't have a case of Old Milwaukee and  re wire the AC unit. What makes a person down a dozen beers and  suddenly decide it is time to install  that new ceiling fan or build on a bedroom?

What started me writing this was Hubby walking through the house mumbling under his breath something about he wouldn't care if it just burned down to the ground and where are the band aids! I found him the band aids but told him to hush! He knows what the wiring is like in this house!

At this rate The Boy may be "using" the woods till next winter!

Blast from the Past

Well not the too far in the past...about 3 years I guess. But when those years are boy and goatie years... a lot of growing was done in that time! I was going through old files tonight and found some forgotten treasures...don't you just love it when that happens? A smile spreads across my face and my heart says...goodness that seems like yesterday, was it really that long ago..sigh? I found these photos of The Boy and Baby Butter Bean! We are in the truck going somewhere.We often took Butter Bean with us because he was a bottle baby,he did real good riding too, just like he expected us to drive him about town and it was no big deal!

This was at the end of The Boy's "little boy" years. He now has the face of a young man,a teenager. And Bean...well...you all know how he grew up! He is the diva of the goat yard, Little Buddy to Mr.Tumnus,eater of the most treats and forever the First Goatie, the one who started it all!!!

Just look at that face,would you have expected anything less????!!!???

How Does Your Garden Grow....

Despite being in severe drought here in Southeast Texas my garden is growing. I am very thankful for having a very deep well! I even have a few apples on 2 of my apple trees I planted when we moved here 3 years ago.

Apples are The Boys favorite and he keeps a close eye on these and threatens any birds that dare to fly too close!

My tomatoes are doing really well! I have them mulched deep with hay and water about twice a week...

and they have begun to put on fruit! This year,despite the drought,I am getting fruit because we did not go directly into blazing heat! If you live in a more pleasant climate you might not know that tomatoes won't make if the night temps get out of the 60's.

 Potatoes! I have two good rows of them! I am tickled pink by this because this is the first year here that I have gotten them to grow! Usually, our Springs are so wet they just rot...feast or famine with the rain here I tell ya!

I have also managed to get up some green beans ,purple hull peas,squashes,cucumber,cantaloupe,okra,butter beans,corn,watermelon, turnip greens and some kale!

This is one of my raised beds.It is full of all kinds of stuff...onions..horse radish...lettuce....

Peppers...chives...leeks..oregano..rhubarb...a grape vine growing on the fence..

 I finally made my bottle tree! I used this post that one of my roses grows on!

This clematis also grows  with the rose on the bottle tree pole.

  Of course I have to put in  a goatie picture or two! Butter Bean  loves living next to the raised beds...

He knows I cannot resist his cute goatie face and will give him a snack of his favorite..beet leaves!

I mean really,could you resist that face?!?!???