Sonny's Bath & Baby Barn Swallows.........

Well, I gave Sonny his first bath of the season this morning. It is very hot here today with highs expected in the upper 90's and a heat index of 103!!! Sonny loved his bath, he stood like a statue for it, and I must say, as hot as it was, I enjoyed it too!

 All wet..................

Gettin' his butt sprayed, I think he loved it, LOL.........

For the past few months Sonny has been having watery stools, not diarrhea, or loose, he has the regular formed "meadow muffins", but just a lot of water with his bowel movements. We think it is from the green grass, but anyway, we have started him on a pro-biotic, so hopefully it will help. But, he had a lot of caked manure on his tail....it took me about 30 minutes just to wash and comb, and get all that out of his tail. I conditioned it 2 times and let it soak and viola....no more nasty manure caked tail.....yay!!!!......

He has such a pretty, dark auburn red colored tail...it touches the ground, so I was nervous about working on it without pulling a lot of his hair out....but I didn't have to pull as much of it out as I thought I would have to (thanks to Cowboy Magic....best stuff EVER!!!) So, it feels so good to have all that crap (pardon the pun) out of his tail!........

So, I got that done.....1 down, and 3 more to go, LOL.....I think Gunner will be next, I am gonna try and bathe him tomorrow. We are taking them all to get shod Tuesday, and I want them lookin' spiffy!

While I was working at the barn this morning, I heard the awfulest chirping and carrying on you have ever heard!! So I went around to our big stall around back where John Boy and Billy were at to check it out.  Laying on the ground on the empty side of the stall was this tiny baby barn swallow.......

Turns out, his mama had built her nest on top of the light fixture in the barn stall! I got to looking around, and there are 4 nest total on every light fixture in the barn! I don't know if it is a shock hazard or not with them being up there, but what are ya gonna do....if we tear the nests down, I'm sure they will just build them back......anyway...... I needed to turn John Boy and Billy out, so I went and got my ladder and climbed up and took some pictures of the nest, and I put the baby back in........

John Boy and Billy waiting for me to turn them out......if I hadn't seen the baby, they would have stepped right on it walking out of the barn!......

Even though I know it wouldn't last long, I put the baby back. It is time for them to leave the nest, they have outgrown it, so they are falling out. Mama was torn all to pieces with me being around her nest....she dive bombed me a couple times, so I snapped the pics and hurried down! I did manage to get a few pictures  of two of the mama birds flying around and  sitting on top of the door waiting for me to leave, LOL,.......

See mama, right in the middle, flying? She kept circling and warning me to leave, so I got outta there as soon as I put jr. back in the nest.......

Here is the little guy in my hand.....they have all their feathers in, so they should be flying away soon. The mamas are chirping and calling to them I guess to get them to fly. It's a good thing I found him before my cats did!

Well, I better get off here, Terry will be here in a few hours with a load of hay, and I get the privilege of helping him unload it on a 100 degree day...Yay!! I still have a few things to do outside and around the barn before he gets here, have a great Sunday everyone!!

~DEANNA~

Yum......Rustic Peach Tart........

I got some of the sweetest, juiciest peaches at Kroger, so I decided to make a peach tart with some of them. It is a free form rustic tart, and it turned out soooooooo good! You can make your own dough or use a store bought pie crust. I made my own, and it was worth the extra work!

INGREDIENTS


Crust (or you can use store-bought premade pastry, enough for a double crust)

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 egg yolk

1/4 cup granulated sugar

4-5 tablespoons ice water


1. Make a mound of flour on a work surface, then make a well in the center of the mound and put the butter, egg yolk, sugar, and 3 tablespoons of the cold water into it.

2. Mix the ingredients in the well with your fingertips, then begin incorporating the flour in until the mixture has the consistency of coarse meal. Add 1 tablespoon water and continue to blend, adding water 1/2 tablespoon at a time as needed to form a workable dough, gathering it into a ball.

3. Add a little flour to the work surface and knead the dough two or three times with the heels of your hands. Take care not to over knead. Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to 2 hours.


Filling


4 ripe peaches, pitted, halved, and cut into thick slices (I don’t peel them, but you can if you like)

3 tablespoons apricot preserves

2 tablespoons brown sugar


2 tablespoons cream

2 tablespoons coarse sugar



1. Preheat oven to 400F. Roll out chilled dough to make a circle about 12 inches in diameter. Place on a baking sheet and coat evenly with preserves to about 1 inch from the edge. Mound peach slices on dough, leaving that 1-inch border of dough around the peaches, then sprinkle peaches with brown sugar.

2. Fold up the dough and crimp the edges together to cup the peaches in a nest. There will still be a lot of peach showing in the center.

3. Brush the exposed crust with cream and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake 30 minutes in preheated oven, then allow to cool at least 10 minutes before serving.

Here is when I had the peaches on, and started rolling up the edges.....

Here she is.....all tucked in and ready to go in the oven......

And here is the finished tart, all golden brown right out of the oven.....hope you get to make it, enjoy!!!

On a side note.....the only thing I would do different is maybe not use really ripe peaches. Mine were getting a little soft, which caused some extra juice in the tart. Next time I will use ripe but still firm peaches. Still, it turned out very good!

My First Garlic Crop!!!

You guys probably think this is silly....but I am so excited, I just harvested my first garlic crop this morning! It isn't much, I think I only planted 10 cloves last fall because I was skeptical about whether or not I could grow it, so it's a very small crop, but I am very pleased (and suprised, LOL!) I am gonna plant about 3 or 4 times as much this fall. The bulbs are not huge, but they look and smell very healthy! I braided them the best I could ( I know, not the greatest job), and hung them up on the shed door in the shade to cure for a couple days before I bring them into the cool house to store them.

These were just from the regular garlic you buy at the store, but I think I will order this fall's planting from a grower..... from what I've read online, I will get bigger, better bulbs that way. Do any of you guys grow your own garlic, and if so, do you have any tips? We absolutely love it, I cook with it several times a week, so I can't wait to try it out!

All the critters are doing fine, I gave all 3 dogs a bath this morning....what a job! I ended up completely soaked, but I had been putting it off for a week! I had to get it done so I could put their Frontline on! The horses and mules are all fat and happy, loving the green grass and fresh cut hay! I got Sonny and Mr T up this morning, fed them breakfast and sprayed them down with fly spray. When I turned them out, they didn't want to hang around, they headed straight for the pasture to pick and get a drink, but I did manage to snap a picture of Mr T as he was walking off, LOL.....

That's all for now, maybe I can get around to posting about something interesting in a few days, have a great day everyone!

~DEANNA~

I'm Still Alive!!

Hey all,  I'm still alive, just been super busy the last month. This time of year is so hectic, I probably won't be able to post very often. Between taking care and working the mules and horses, taking care of the yardwork, selling on ebay, and now since it's hay time, I don't have time for anything else! But, just wanted to drop in and say I'm still around, and I will try to post some updated pics of everyone soon. Hope everyone is having a great summer!