Day Nine: Hide and Seek, Farm Style

The morning started out with a straight-down rain. I was up early editing videos for work. Once the kids woke up I went back upstairs had a good long snuggle in my bed with Taiya and William, Jeremy having gone to do chores. Breakfast was piecemeal: I had stale, reheated pancakes, Taiya had a bagel with jam and cream cheese, William had Cheerios.

I had a little more work to do on my computer, so I set the kids up with the other laptop, and they took turns between Teach Your Monster to Read and Epic. When they got tired of that, the sun was out! Thank goodness! I am going to be a sun-worshiper before this is over.

My garden bed with peas, radishes, and only
two broccoli plants. The rest are in other beds.

Dog house progress. Taiya and William plan
to paint it once it's ready.

We spent a lot of the rest of the day outside. I planted some cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower starts and covered them with row cover to try to keep cabbage worms out. Jeremy started building a dog house for the puppy we will be bringing home soon. Taiya and Jeremy went up in the afternoon to feed the puppies, and half of them were missing, as was the new baby goat. Since it was a sunny afternoon though, it wasn't a pressing matter. We still had evening chores to do and could find them then.

William and I made a big batch of no-knead bread dough while they were gone. He loves to "make it snow" by clapping his flour-covered hands while we're baking. He also loved making bread "like they do in the movies," by stretching the sticky dough in his hands. I'm not sure what movie that is in, but it made him happy. I took pictures, but as he was completely naked at this point, I won't be sharing those. My little naked chef. Don't worry, though. If you come over for dinner, I make my kids put on clothes before they help to cook.

Water Man in his natural habitat.

We all went up to do chores, but William wanted to walk the mile up to the farm, so he and I set out on foot while Taiya and Jeremy drove. They discovered some of the puppies helping Granddaddy as he worked on his latest project--building a little art studio. The chores were done before we were half way, because William, or should I say "Water Man" was busy building dams in the driveway ditch. They came and got us so we could help search for Bonnie's baby, who was still missing. This new baby goat is brown with gray spots, so when she's curled up she blends in very well with rocks, or cow pies, or sticks, or really anything. We drove slowly around the edges of the pastures, listening for baby goat cries, looking for a little furry lump. Nothing. The kids got some puppy time while Jeremy and I walked around some more. Nothing. We had to go home for dinner (smoked ribs! When Jeremy is stuck at home he smokes large quantities of meat) so we left Bonnie out of the pen to hopefully find her baby.

In addition to smoked ribs, we baked three loaves of bread from the dough we prepped earlier in the day. William came up with the idea to stick pecans on top. Taiya made her loaf baguette-shaped with pecans. They turned out well, though our oven is having trouble and would only get to 300 degrees. The pecan idea was genius though. I highly recommend--they tasted all toasty and sweet on top of the soft loaves. We had a dinner in multiple courses, since it was all ready at different times: first, slices of orange bell pepper, then ribs, then bread. Haphazard, but it worked.

Jeremy + smoker + meat =
delicious.

Our finished bread. It is much lighter brown
than usual due to a low baking temp
due to a malfunctioning oven.

After dinner, Jeremy went back up to the farm one last time to look for the missing baby goat, and he eventually found her in a brush pile, peacefully sleeping. I hope tomorrow she stays closer to home for her naps.