Yesterday we had an old fashioned day and the Cadet and I toddled about the farm doing our work. Just the two of us.
We picked apples for the dehydrator and pies, and apples off the ground for the pigs.
We found a butterfly – a monarch – in a wood of milkweed – a protected plant on our property.
We stood for ages and watched the goats, trying to figure out how they were getting out of their night time run. Then repaired the hole.
We fed birds and goats and pigs and peeked in on sleeping calves and sleeping pregnant pigs. (Poppy has three days to go now). Led in the milk cow, fixed a fence. She collected eggs and caught lost chickens and threw balls for dogs.
It was a lovely old fashioned farming day.
Then Grandpa came to pick her up and I went in to begin dinner before the milking. It was a soft and gentle afternoon. The morning rain cleared to a nice warm day with sun.
I have a feeling we may have seen the last of the bad rain. Fingers crossed.
I hope you have a lovely day.
Love your friend on the farm
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
70 responses to “The Cadet and I”
“watching the goats” 😉 So true that sometimes we must stop all activity to watch our livestock. Rushing, rushing, rushing and we miss too much!
Yes, the first lesson I learnt on the farm, stop and watch.. c
love the idea of an apple dehydratior….whatever it may be….I’d like one any way as it appears to be linked to pies:)
It is a regular dehydrator, i load it up with fruit and dry them for the winter muesli.. the pies are something else entirely though i am thinking of an apple tarte tatiin – is that spelt right? c
My grandmother used to make fried pies with dried apples. They were delicious.
fried pies, now that sounds interesting.. how did she make them?
This is the closest I’ve found to what she did: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/fried-apple-pies-241208 The crust could run from pie crust to biscuits (and the shortening would be bacon fat) and was not sweet–the filling, however was. She used a large cast iron fry pan. If you have a sweet tooth, you can glaze them, but they don’t need it. I’m still trying to figure out the biscuit crust, as that’s what she used most often. The pie crust for these needs to be buttery-flaky-sturdy. Good luck!
I always marvel at how, your just being that much farther south than southern Minnesota, makes such a difference in plant growth and production. I have numerous milkweed plants on my city yard. Like you, I protect them.
Also, your nurturing of The Cadet continues to delight me. Well done, Miss C.
How is Tane feeling? Are he and Tima behaving?
Tane and Tima are back together, she is almost due to cycle again so we will see. He is fully recovered thank goodness.. c
Good to hear about the kunekunes. phew.
I know.. such drama.. c
Along the side of our house (the only place I can grow anything) I have many milkweed plants. This year I discovered at least 5 larvae munching away on the leaves and flowers. I haveno idea how I happened to have milkweed but I make sure they are protected. They multiply like weeds, for sure. The “fragrance” is sickly sweet.
July already! Oh I hope it is a good month with no ridiculous amounts of rain but plenty of healthy piglets.
I think I have milkweed in the back of my house and didn’t know what it was – thank you!. I thought of you last night as a swanky lightning storm rolled through town and off across the plains, and wondered if it would dissipate or build up steam before it reached you. Please tell the Cadet that I am a huge fan of hers!
such a lovely day! My fingers are crossed too!
I am a day late, I was galavanting & having fun yesterday and again this morning. Today was at a slower pace with (for me) a chest tightening dull heavy 23°C. What a wonderful day for the cadet, chief helper for the duration! May your weather settle and poppy have an easy birthing!
‘galavanting’ – what an interesting & beautfully sounding word! Never have heard it before……. I am learning a lot here. 🙂
Your English is great! I am so happy you can learn a few more words here too.. Watch out you don’t start talking like a New Zealander though (laugh!).. c
Oh, thank you, Celi, what a kind reply! I am often quite doubtful about my English, because I have no living practise. So sometimes I wonder how you express things the way I would have said it in exactly the same way in my language but just translated literally (for instance the placement of the verb). And then I think it must be wrong and might be a wrong English – but it seems not to be so. So maybe that is the NZ way sometimes? It sounds very likeable and more familiar to me though.
I’m feeling honored by you laud… 🙂
or an irish woman!
My galavanting is rather tame these days. Yesterday was with crochert/ knitting group and today I took an elderly friend for coffee and a walk.
Nice! 🙂
it is my dream to come up and work and write on the farmy for a few days. Sounds idyllic!
I hope you are able to fulfill that dream soon – the Coop is a perfect writing space.
I thought I’d write from Sheila’s spot in the barn. I think she’d be a good muse.
She is down the back in a puddle of mud at the moment – that might be a good spot too!! She has different hullo sound for different people, I wonder how she would talk to you…
Sounds like a lovely dreamy sort of afternoon; a nice change from bad weather and a houseful of wonderful guests. As much as I do love visitors, I also highly value quiet times to gather my senses once again. I didn’t know Monarchs only lay eggs on milkweed and I suppose that’s why they are rarely seen in the city. That’s a huge surprise to see you gathering apples already! Ontario is a huge apple producer but they are not ready for harvest until September, and they are being harvested right up to sometime in November. So the Cadet has your hundred percent attention for a couple of weeks — nice 🙂
Hoping today is as lovely as yesterday, and looking forward to bunches of wee squealing piggies soon! ~ Mame
This is a very very old tree, the old timers call it a Pie Apple tree. Most of its apples are already on the ground and gone floury.. if picked at the right time they cook into a puffy sauce in minutes.. not sweet though.. c
That sounds like a Bramley apple, big, knobbly and tart, cooks down to fluff so very easy to turn into applesauce and luscious baked apples with brown sugar and raisins in them. I can’t get them here, and I miss the strong, tart flavour. Mmmm, apple fritters, too…
Up here I have heard it said “Spies for pies”, the Northern Spy being a popular variety. My favourite is the old MacIntosh for pies… loads of flavour and very tart, which of course can be tamed with sugar 🙂
See?!! I knew goats get out. Mares eat oats and goats get out and little lambs play scrabble. Brent would love a goat, but I’m not for it at all. Crazy things. It’s all because at the San Diego petting zoo, a goat ate my saltines. We’ll just leave it there. This is a family show.
Oh dear.. how rude of the goat to eat your saltines – probably had a deprived childhood. .. c
I know our cadet is growing, but it seems to me that her countenance has changed, no? She looks more upright and confident, not slouchy and trying to hide in plain sight. Her appearances in the blog thoroughly warm my heart’s cockles. ❤ I still have designs to send my own "cadet" to you someday, even though she is in her 20s with a toddler on her hip. *L* Not only would it be a dream come true for her, I think it would do them both a world of good.
She has been through the wars our girl and is just starting to find her feet again i think. That would be great if your daughter came with her hip full of toddler- they would fit beautifully in the Coop – I even have a shelf of childrens toys just for those occassions!
Lovely pic of the Monarch, I love seeing the orange butterflies in the garden, any butterfly really! Such a feeling of peaceful day your words conveyed, days like that are good for the soul, even by distant association I think!
I am having a couple of peaceful slow days too with my John off at the ‘up north’ place bonding with his son. (Need help? 1-800 call dad!) haha.Without having to think about meals or schedules I’m just puttering the days away. Today I had a first of the year ride on my horse, no boogey men (that’s a GOOD thing).
Kate, I have added you to my prayer list, if I get many more added I will have to walk three miles instead of two! And yes, Celi, Poppy is also on that list!
We didn’t have rain yesterday! And that’s all I’m going to say about the weather 😉