I wished for a fine cold day …
and that is exactly what we got … 
with plenty of Sunday to hang out in the wintry sun all day.
The Duke of Kupa …
… was particularly spectacular with his sparkly colour. 
We went to collect the hay from a lovely old farm …
where this dog …
… and this little boy’s Daddy’s grandfather lives.
It is a beautiful old farm. It was a very reasonable price of six dollars a bale. Though I said to John, last year I would have been appalled at buying hay at six dollars a bale and today I think it is a good price. Everything is relative to something else.
Good morning. Yesterday I made mint and chocolate ice cream with my very own mint essence. To make the essence I packed a jar with mint from the neighbours that has been in her garden so long it has no name, covered it with everclear (you can use a good vodka too) and left it for a few months. Strained, it is very minty and bright green. Now we are wondering what else to use it with. Maybe I should add some to yesterdays yoghurt, well maybe not!!
I wish you all a fun and safe New Year’s Eve. We will be in bed early as usual as Daisy has no respect for sore heads or tired milkers. So I do not mind at all if you have an extra glass for me. And speaking of Daisy, after beginning the process to see if she has mastitis or not, she turned around yesterday morning and gave 5 pounds more milk than usual. So whatever is bothering her is not accelerating at all. I am still going to have her milk tested though, just to be sure. Something is not right.
Have a lovely day and a Happy New Year. See you next year. Just before dawn as usual.
celi
The new year arrives, whether we’re watching for it or not, doesn’t it?
We’re in the ‘Not’ catagory here, too…
Hope your Monday is as good as Sunday was…
See you next year!
Monday is warmer so far which is nice, though the sun has tucked itself away again.. ah well, e made the most of it yesterday.. c
Hmm, maybe some mint jelly for your next lamb roast? I have been loving being back on the Farmy and reading updates on all the animals. Just watched NZ Sky Tower fireworks, OZ next in about an hour. We are about 9 hours away still. Wishing you, our John and everybody on the Farmy a very happy New Year and a prosperous and self sufficient 2013. Laura
Oh yes, mint jelly is a grand idea, i will find a recipe that uses essence.. morning laura! c
Kupa certainly does look stunning.
Happy New Year – I just saw the fireworks over Auckland on the BBC website
Kupa was a jewel yesterday, such a delight to have on the farmy.. maybe i should have looked at NZ’s fireworks too, never even thought of it! c
Happy New Year to you and everyone on the farmy! We are anxiously awaiting news of our newest family member to arrive this morning. Surgery scheduled for 8:30 a.m. (in about an hour) Son and daughter in law left for the hospital around 5:30 a.m. Don”t think I can hold my breath that long!
Hurray for a lovely sunny day on the farm and more milk from Daisy. Hope she’s ok! I tried to reproduce a peacock “eye” on an enameled pendant, but did not like the result…didn’t get the colors right… I vote for mint jelly too! Nothing like mint with lamb!
How exciting and terrifying, all mmy love for you and the family, at least that birthday won’t be hard to remember! .. c
We have a wonderful, perfect little boy! Born at 8:55 this morning, Eastern time. We feel so blessed!
We go to bed early, too. How about flavouring some fudge with mint? I like the look of your hay farm.
Kupa is in good colour – I’ve saved the picture for further inspiration.
I love it when you collect pictures ViV, Kupa would make an amazing window I am thinking!!.. c
Happy New Year, beautiful girl!
Happy New Year Julie.. c
What a wonderful barn – just beautiful – and what is “everclear”? How are there so many mad people in such a wonderful looking place? Happy New Year and thanks for a year of great posts:)
Everclear is a 70 proof alcohol .. I use it when I make the limoncello, i think everclear is just the brand name.. c
Good day! Toss some of that minty hooch into some milky hot chocolate! Mmmmm … hot chocolate. All calm here, although it’s raining and blowing a gale — hubby is repairing the hanging light in the dining room that I broke this morning. Tried to remove the bulb. Poof-Bang and then tinkling of glass all over the place. Blood. Bandages. Fixed up. Good as new. All’s well that ends well. Happy new year!
Goodness me. Be careful out there. Minty hot chocolate sounds perfect right about now, I am cold in my study, time to move upstairs! c
happy new year on the farmy! i will be in bed way before midnight. i made soup and 6 loaves of bread to take to the homeless shelter along with dozens and dozens of xmas cookies. maybe daisy was just missing you?
Cows do like order and calm in their lives and it is possible that the change caused her bad temper, her bad temper meant she was not well milked and i think that this may have contributed to it.. but she is eating and drinking and giving good milk so i am not even sure why i am uneasy about her health.. c
Best wishes to all creatures, great and small
a yes.. even the small.. thank you .. best wishes abound.. c
Everything IS sparkling! Like jewels. I’m gonna try that mint stuff. Yu-um. Have you ever made your own limoncello?
I do, when i can get organic, unwaxed lemons, which is hard out here as we cannot grow lemons in this cold.. c
I love the fact you have a peacock. I’ve only ever seen them at our local wildlife park. $6.50 a bale. Ouch! That’s a lot. Locally, we can buy it anywhere from $2 to $4 a bale. Most of the time, it is $3 a bale. Three or four years ago however, you couldn’t find hay to buy even if you wanted to pay $10 a bale. This is why I plan to be able to make enough hay to feed my life stock. We’re small (only 6 hay-eating animals (including a pony); 8 once the goat and sheep give birth this spring), so need only about 400 bales a year. We can get 250 bales off our own hay field, so we’re close to be self-supplying.
Hmm you use more hay than us, but we have grass I guess. We have a two acre field for hay too, for the same reason you do. It is good to grow your own isn’t it. Usually I pay $3 but this year was a bad year, I am hoping the price will go back down!! c
Wow what beautiful photos… Happy days
It was a beautiful day,, have a good one too! c
Beautiful Kupa and you have given us a beautiful year on the farmy – thank you! How about Mint juleps and you can pretend it´s a hot summer´s day?! A Very Happy 2013 to you all
What an excellent idea, maybe we will have one to celebrate the coming of a New Year!.. morning Tanya! c
Thanks for your blog! I love all your pictures too. Happy New Year! I look forward to reading another year’s worth of adventures on the farmy.
GMom
So do I, who knows what will happen next! c
Happy New Year, C.
Happy New Year to the whole farmy! Maybe you should just down a glass of that mint Everclear before bed…
Happy New Year to all on the farmy, and to all visitors as well!
Guten Rutsch! 新年快乐 2013!
That does look like a nice crisp day, C. Glad everything is back to normal on the farmy. I like the sound of that ice cream, and the mint essence sounds wonderful! Hope you have a wonderful new year and yes, I will have that extra glass of bubbly for you. Cheers!
Kupa has become such a delightful and sparkly addition to the farmy
…..unexpected as are the delightful shush sisters….went to get
one and someone decided two……they are a pair indeed.
So glad ‘boss is seemingly better. Also glad you are getting her
milk tested, we have to follow our ‘gut with our animals since
they have not learned english yet.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL AT THE FARMY !!
Happy New Year tomorrow!!! Is there a bruise on your lovely cows bag? On the quarter that isn’t acting right? She may have kicked herself…yes they can do that…just like women with large bosoms. A knot maybe. The test from TrapperCreek should be able to tell you something. From our ages ago experience the best thing to do is to keep milking so that quarter doesn’t dry up. Maybe the breeder would have an idea.
It’s snowing here…lots of snow and its WET snow. A lovely end of the year treat!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com
¸.•*¨*•♪♫♫♪HAPPY NEW YEAR ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥
Can just smell the minty goodness!
Always love bright crisp winter days since colors seem so much brighter – the rugged barn picture – and the Duke’s are wonderful. Such textures and contrasts.
Cheers to all on the farmy – may the new year be wonderful.
I am glad you found some extra hay to get you throught until the srpring grasses. As always I love your farm pictures.
Wishing you all a wonderful new year!
Your mint and chocolate ice cream sounds wonderful. I am wondering if you could make some rather tasty mojitos with some of your mint essence.
I adore sparkly days. Happy New Year to you and farmy!
A happy new year to all in the kingdom of the Farmy. Becoming a vicarious member of this magical place has been a highlight of 2012. I click on this post and suddenly I am there – checking on the Shush sisters, worrying about Daisy, admiring everyone, and thinking how clever the wee beasties are. Cousin Husband and I send all our love and heart-felt best wishes for a wonderful 2013. V.
Just enjoyed a morning of NZ travels and the homecoming like a couple chapters of a good book- The upside of saving several weeks of posts for one morning over a cup of green chai Favorite bits besides the beaches and lovely scenery were the feelings you transpired of being with loved ones, drift net parties (will fit perfectly into our island life), and a couple of written lines… One about the feeling of the stretched rubber band snapping and dropping you in the moment forever and that anywhere we are, we miss somewhere.
Happy New Year…. wendy
Of course, you would know that I appreciate that old farm and that little boy is, oh, just so darned cute. Good to hear you got more hay at a good price.
Happy New Year to you, John and the rest of the Farmy!
Say, how is the Old Codger doing? I haven’t heard anything about him in a long, long time.
These photos are gorgeous, such shimmering, vivid colours. Happy New Year to you all.
It does look like a gorgeous, crisp day on the farmy!! I had no idea you had a peacock! Well, you never stop surprising me! Now, why didn’t I think of infusing my mint in vodka…
Happy New Year, Celi!! What a gorgeous sunny day, but I bet it’s freezing!
We use our homemade spearmint essence to flavour truffles and spearmint creams!
Spearmint cream sounds divine! Happy new year celia.. c
Happy New Year!
Happy New year to you! I’m also one who prefers to see the dawn of the new year smile. Loved your photos of The Duke of Kupa, I can;t talk my family into letting mehave a peacock..
Love leanne NZ
tell them it is a big chook! c
And let me also wish you a very happy new year, Celi. One with many more surprises and joy-filled moments. You bring a sense of adventure with you wherever you go, so I’m looking forward to hearing more about life on your wonderful farmy. I had some “peacock” encounters earlier this month myself. I’ll be sharing about that when I can, and I’ll alert you to the post so you can see some California peafowl!
Blessings to you and yours, and I’ll travel over tomorrow to share the new day and the new year.
Thanks for the idea of mint essence! Wow! Must try that! oxo
it is so easy! and super minty.. I look forward to your ‘fowl’ stories!! c
It’s good to know Daisy is on the mend. I didn’t know you could make your own essence. You are very creative and I’m sure you’ll come up with lots of ways to use it up. Happy New Year, Cecilia xx
Happy New Year!
From being eleven hours into 2013 may I send the warmest New Year’s wishes to the farmy! It’s alright this side of the New Year bells and the famous Sydney Harbour fireworks fired off alright with no great surprises! Love that first photo of some very contented and rather plump cats: methinks all is well in your world
!
Morning Eha and i am so glad you made it into 2013 intact.. have a lovely New Day! c
Actually, I believe Miss Daisy was just missing you! Happy New Year! Faith.
morning faith, she is pretending that she does not care! But i know better.. c
A blessed New Year to you.
and for you too Alice, i am wondering how your garden planning is coming along.. i must pop over.. c
Just piles of cardboard right now. Hoping for a small plot in a nearby community garden this year.
that would be very cool.. c
Happy New Year! I hope you enjoy your evening and I’m thankful you had a sparkly day – the pictures are so vivid and stunning.
Morning kristy.. i wonder how your new years is going, did you cook anything special.. after all that christmas cooking maybe you are being a wee bit casual? I shall pop over and see.. c
Kupa looks resplendent! Today it is fine and hot in Auckland; so glad you had a fine day, even if cold, and that you got your hay for what sounds like a good price compared to the other reports. Glad too, to hear that Daisy is picking up and responding to the good attention she is receiving.
Happy new year Celi, and may it bring many good things. I still keep thinking, when I walk up to the Ponsonby shops, Cecilia was here just a little while ago. No doubt it seems like an age already from where you are now.
just the other day.. and i walked from ponsonby all the way down to the viaduct, it was grand! Auckland was kind to me! c
Everyone is looking particularly beautiful at the farmy. Happy 2013!
Happy Happy New Year to you all Celi!!! xoxoxo
All the best for 2013 – may it be peaceful and prosperous for you, your family, and all of your readers
Happy New Year I loved every photo EVERCLEAR is the other name MOONSHINE lol man makes me want a small dish of that tasty Ice cream for sure!
” Now we are wondering what else to use it with.”
~*~*~*~
Never fear of where you may find
a use for your Minty essence,
Cakes, cookies, and guests too,
will sparkle in its presence.
~*~*~*~
Sorry, Celi, I couldn’t help myself.
You crazy girl!!! Love it! c
What beautiful colours in that photo of Kupa!