Ruffled Feathers and Spilled Milk

Farming with ducks and dairy goats, chickens and children.

Yep. That. Again.

Posted on | February 21, 2013 | 4 Comments

My friend read yesterday’s blog post and sent me a picture of a cake.  A pig cake.

I was shocked.  I was stunned.  How did she know I needed a cake? I actually needed several cakes.

One cake was to celebrate.

We needed to celebrate because I am awesome.  I know this because my receipt from the Teeter told me so.  See?

I got $92.15 worth of groceries for only $26.42. I saved $65.73 in coupons.  It’s Super Doubles at the Teeter!  Woot!

It’s true that the kids will be eating Golden Grahams for a while.

But they will also be getting treats that we never buy unless we have $1.50 off coupons and it’s Super Doubles week.  Treats like this:

Treats that are perfect for… guess what?  Cake!!!

But that’s not the only awesomeness around here.  I went down to the garden to add an extra tarp and some straw to the pen for the piglets.  There might be freezing rain tomorrow morning.  Again.  And what I saw made me laugh out loud.  A gleeful, smoke-a-cigar-and-say-“I-love-it-when-a-plan-comes-together” laugh.

Because look what Pushy and Penny have managed to do in just 24 hours.  24 hours!

It’s a tilling party in the garden!  And that certainly deserves cake.

Plus, since the pigs were handling the garden work, I was able to get the seeds ready for the greenhouse.  Don’t hate on my fancy seedling trays and homemade heat mats.

Only 53 days until the last frost date.  Will your transplants be ready?  Tick, tock, people, tick, tock.

With the groceries and the gardening out of the way, I had time for a celebratory creation, made with the Cookies ‘n’ Creme drops we got on sale.

But the second cake was a bit more important.  It was a Thank You cake.

Special thanks were in order because Tulip, the magnificent milk producer, and Vanilla, Tina’s mother, are back.  Remember them?

Except now they are back to stay.  Their owner is getting out of the goat business and she gave them to us in exchange for future pork shares out of Penny and Pushy.  But not only did we manage a successful goat trade with her.  She also agreed to take on Sampson, our 5 year old Delaware rooster.

Sampson has been an incredible rooster.  He always kept a look out for danger, broke up any infighting among the hens, and never, ever spurred or chased us or any visitors.  But this year our secondary rooster, OJ, came into his own and took over the flock.  Which would have been fine.  Except that in the battle for dominance, he took out Sampson’s eye.  And although Sampson tolerated OJ’s presence for the past 2 years (as long as he did his mating in secret or out of sight of Sampson), OJ decided Sampson had to go.  He refused to let Sampson eat or sleep with the flock.  He took great joy in chasing him mercilessly around the barnyard anytime Sampson came into view.  And my handsome and mighty Sampson was reduced to cowering in the woods and running up to our vehicles when we pulled into the driveway, hoping for handouts.

Which we gave him.  Almost all of us kept pieces of dog food or animal crackers or bread crusts in our coat pockets.  So that if we stumbled upon Sampson, hiding behind a flower pot, or cringing around the corner of the coop, we had something to share with him.  But we knew it couldn’t go on forever—-he was dropping weight and his vision was hindered with only one good eye.  And he just happened to come running up for some peanut butter off the scraps spoon while my friend was over here discussing our goat trade.

His tale of woe had stirred her heart and, even though she didn’t need a rooster and didn’t even have a desire to have one, he was settling in over at her place by that evening.  And woke up in a new coop with a whole flock of girls entirely to himself.  Don’t be fooled, people.  Despite our ability to butcher meat we have raised ourselves, or put down an animal failing to thrive, farmers are sometimes just animal rescuers covered with thin layer of practicality.  Good luck, Sampson, and many thanks for his new home.

All of that good trading and goodwill deserved a special cake.  So we made my version of the pig cake to give to my friend.

Oh, my pigs weren’t as cute.

But they were yummier than the marzipan ones in the picture.  Marzipan.  Blech!  Why would you use such an awful tasting decoration when you can make pigs with candy melts, egg shell molds from the eggs you just used in the cake mix, and a ziploc bag as a pastry bag.  Don’t hate on my fancy decorative bakeware.

Since I was already 2 cakes down, I figured just one more sweet treat was in order.  After all, it’s my weekend to work.  In the freezing rain.  Surely, those of us required to spend Friday, Saturday, and Sunday away from our loved ones deserve a bit of chocolate to commiserate over.  Besides, I had to make the celebration cake out of vanilla ingredients since Middle doesn’t like chocolate.  What’s the point of baking if you aren’t making something chocolatey.  Or chocolatey and peanut buttery.  Like, say, with the Reese’s pieces candies from the Teeter sale.

Ah, now that’s something worth showing up at work for.  See you at Station 2, everybody!

In the end, we had an amazing trifecta of treats.

But I can’t take all the credit.  I had trained monkeys helpers.

Of course, it was my friend, KT, who put the idea of cake in my mind in the first place.  And it was exceedingly kind of the Teeter to donate cake decorating supplies.  But I suppose that’s enough about pigs and chocolate.  Really, 2 days in a row is pushing the limits.

After all, this blog is not just about pigs.  Or chocolate.  Or pigs and chocolate.

Except when it is.

Meh.

Category: Uncategorized

Comments

4 Responses to “Yep. That. Again.”

  1. Jennifer
    February 22nd, 2013 @ 3:38 am

    I love the pigs and chocolate!
    Great cakes too! And well worth it. Welcome to Pushy, Penny, Tulip and Vanilla. Love them! And congratulations to Samson – sounds like he’s in for some much needed space.
    Keep taking pics of the pigs too!

  2. Jill
    February 22nd, 2013 @ 5:52 am

    Good for Sampson! Cool cakes!! Be safe in the non-snow event that delayed school for 3 hours… sigh

  3. Liz
    February 22nd, 2013 @ 7:19 am

    Are you kidding? Everyday is a chocolate and piggy day 😉

  4. Kim
    February 22nd, 2013 @ 10:09 am

    MMMMmmmmm, chocolate……..

Leave a Reply





  • Archives

  • Tags

    barn beach bucks butcher cat chicken chickens chicks coop corn dog dogs duck ducklings ducks eggs fence flowers garden goat goats grass greenhouse guinea guineas keets kidding kids lettuce livestock guardian milking parade pig pony potatoes river rocks seedlings seeds snow straw bales tomatoes tractor transplants weeds
  • April 2024
    M T W T F S S
    1234567
    891011121314
    15161718192021
    22232425262728
    2930  

  • Meta

  • Humor & Funny Blogs - BlogCatalog Blog Directory
  • Best Green Blogs
  • Blogs Directory