Raking

So despite all of the rain over the weekend, the cut grass did not look too bad on Monday morning.  Here is Tom checking it out.

 

So we decided to try to rake it and see what happens.  If nothing else, we can see if our rake works.  Here is Tom checking it out.  He replaced a couple of tines, and more will need to be replaced.

And here is the video he sent me from his phone.  It worked really well.

Unfortunately it rained again yesterday so it is not likely that this cut grass can be saved as hay.  But we are learning how to use the equipment.  Next is getting the baler working.

Here are photos of some of the critters (the chicks roosting, the cat sleeping and Dete eating).

PS  I survived my endoscopy yesterday, but nothing obvious on the scope.  So I am waiting for biopsy results.

One of the Missing Eyes

So the other day I was planting corn in our garden, and I found an eye.  I put it in my pocket for safe keeping then forgot it.  I found it in the laundry, placed it on the dryer for safe keeping and then lost it again.  Yesterday I found it under the dryer.

So likely very few of you will remember the case of the missing eyesballs from over 6 years ago.  At that time the two missing eyeballs were from the owl and the tree face.  So I investigated yesterday morning whose eyeball this was.  Below is the owl now.  Obviously his “good” eye has clouded over time.  But I thought that the nubbin on the back of the found eyeball would not fit in the back of the owl’s eye socket.  So I went to find the tree face.

The tree face had been destroyed when part of the tree came down a few years ago.  There is nothing left but a few fragments on the ground.  But if you look at the old photo of the tree face, the eyes were quite different than this one.

So it is definitely the one from the owl.  How it made it to the garden is unclear.  We have composted the beddings from the barn and spread them in the garden but still unclear how it made it into the bedding.  But anyway happy to have part of the mystery solved.  I will keep it as a souvenir.

In our storm we got 1.7 inches of rain.  That is impressive.  No flooding but definitely things are wet, including our cut “hay”.

We had resurrected the tomato hothouse the other day (Tom mostly).  Yesterday I noticed two garter snakes in there.  They must enjoy the warmth, and that storm must have been rough for them.  We like these snakes because they eat our slugs, so happy to have them safe and comfortable.

Treacle Tart and Protests

I made this tart from the Downton Abbey Cookbook yesterday afternoon to have for dessert.  This is a dish for the servants’ hall and is based on a recipe from Warne’s New Model Cookery from 1925.  The pastry is made from flour, butter and water.  Here it is before going in the refrigerator for 1/2 hour.

In case you weren’t sure, this is golden treacle.

Two thirds of the dough is rolled out into a bottom crust.

The filling is made from bread crumbs, treacle, lemon juice and grated zest.  I am now realizing that grated lemon zest may not be low fiber so maybe I should not have had this.  Too late now.  Here it is coming out of the oven.

We had it for dessert after the low fiber dinner.  We topped it with whipped cream.

It was really good and lemony.  I thought it was great.  We ate this while watching the protests, police confrontations, graffiti, looting and arson happening nationwide after the killing on Monday of George Floyd.  It is all so upsetting and made me wonder what is going to become of our country.