Elmer's New Trick

David is really good at training Elmer, and this is their latest trick! They're working on perfecting a couple more, so I'll post those at a later date.

Happy Sheep

California has happy cows. I have happy sheep!!!

Preg Checks and Cookies

Those two things don't really go together, do they?

Let's start out with the pregnancy checks! I borrowed my friend's Draminski Pregnancy Detector so I could check the sheep, Darla and Purl.

The detector is pretty neat, and if I had more than two sheep I'd have to save up money to buy my own. It's a little, portable ultra sound that detects the presence of amniotic fluid in the uterus. Sometimes it can read full bladders, but usually it's pretty accurate. Plus, I've found that normally sheep squat to urinate when you catch them (because they're stressed), so their bladders usually aren't too full. The meter recommends testing between 75-90 days bred. If you check too early there might not be enough amniotic fluid to cause a signal, and if you wait too late, the lamb(s) are too big and you can't get a signal from the fluid.

The detector itself looks very simple. It has one button (the on/off). You can't mess that up! You can see June had to inspect it first.




Then there's the probe. The probe needs some type of lubricant to ensure good contact with the skin of the animal.



You can use vegetable oil or KY jelly or lotion. This is what Lindsay sent with the detector.

I made a little video while I checked Purl. PLEASE ignore what I'm saying in the video. I was flustered and trying to check her and film at the same time. I say a few things that are incorrect. The main thing- I always check on the RIGHT side of the animal, not the left. First you turn on the probe, then you put the lotion or oil on the probe. It will beep about once per second. You put the probe on the right flank, in the area where there's little or no wool. You then point the probe up toward the spine and slightly forward. Usually you can get a signal within a few minutes, but once you get used to it you can get one in a second or two. If the ewe is pregnant, you should hear a rapid beeping. It also helps to have someone hold the sheep to test them. I had to tie Purl to the hay rack and she was a little fidgety. I would have waited until David got home so he could help me, but he gets home after dark and I couldn't wait.

Ok, so now you can watch the video. I recommend you turn off your sound first. ;-)

So Purl is definitely pregnant! I checked Darla after this, but I could not get a pregnant signal. There are 3 possible reasons why:

1. She's not bred.

2. She's too far along to get a signal.

3. She's not far enough along to get a signal.

I'm really hoping it's not #1. I doubt it's #2 because she's not looking very pregnant. I really think it might be #3 because I picked her up November 8th and it's possible she'd just gotten bred. If that's the case, she could possibly be only about 40 or so days bred. I'll try again in a month!

I tried to preg check June, but I'm not sure the meter works on goats (though the website says it can possibly work on goats). She had too much hair and I couldn't even get a signal at all.

Oh, and I tried it on myself. I'm not pregnant. ;-)

On to the cookies! I made more sugar cookies last night because we have work luncheon today!

I had fun with these. I was up late decorating them, but it was fun!

They're almost too cute to eat! Almost.

Yesterday was cookie making day, since I have a cookie exchange to go to today. Are you familiar with cookie exchanges? Well, if not, I'll tell you about it. My friend has a cookie exchange every year. She invites girl friends over and has a little party, with food and drinks. Each of the attendees brings a certain amount of a certain type of cookie (this year we are supposed to bring 6-7 dozen cookies. After we eat, we do the exchange. All of the cookies get set out and we all get a certain number of each type of cookie! So, today I'll arrive with 7 dozen sugar cookies, but I'll go home with 7 dozen assorted types of cookies, made by all of the other girls. It's great, because I don't have to go through the work of making all those different types of cookies.

I decided to make some sugar cookies, since they're fun and you can ice them. They're very Christmasy to me. I used the recipe out of my 1973 edition Good Housekeeping cookbook (better known as "the red cookbook" or "the big cookbook") that my mom gave me as a gift several years ago. If you don't have that cookbook, you need to get it. It's the go-to cookbook in this house.

I was really excited about rolling out these cookies because the kids were having rest time, and David was out of the house hauling a car for his friend. That meant I had quiet, uninterrupted (well, the kids didn't quite get that concept yesterday) time to bake my cookies! I turned on the Christmas music station on TV and went to town!

First, I rolled out the dough. I like it fairly thin, and I also wanted to stretch the recipe a bit.


I got a new snowflake shaped cookie cutter from Bylers when Becky and I went during her Thanksgiving visit.


I lined the pan with parchment paper, so I didn't have to grease the pan. I just recently (within the last year) starting using parchment paper in the kitchen, and I LOVE it.


All baked. 8.5 dozen cookies. Now for the icing.


I used the decorative icing recipe from the same cookbook. It was simple. 1 1/4 cups confectioners sugar, 1/8 tsp cream of tartar, and an egg white. Mix on high speed until you can run a knife through it and the line stays.

Then I tried to decorate the cookies so they looked something like this, but that quickly flew out the window. That's hard! So instead, I thought it would be pretty to sprinkle some blue sugar on the icing. Only, I didn't have any blue sugar. It's ok, I thought. I'll just mix some blue food coloring in my sugar and mix it up! Well, I didn't have any liquid food coloring, only gel. Oops. So, I put the sugar in the food processor and added some food coloring. This is what I ended up with.


But I like it. It's kinda pretty with the flecks of blue.

So this is what the cookies ended up looking like.


It took a few hours and 2 batches of icing to frost all of them.


But I think they're cute. And I'm excited for the exchange!!


And I have a dozen and a half cookies left over that we can eat at home! Sweet!

Friday Night at Home

Kylee has been asking if she can help me cook dinner lately. To be honest, most times I'd rather do it myself because it's much quicker. Last night, however, I decided it'd be a good time to have her help me, since it was the weekend and I didn't have a "dinner deadline".

First she helped with the corn bread. Home girl can crack some eggs!


Then she helped me with the chili. She is a very good pourer. David was working hard at some delicious garlic bread. Unfortunately we forgot about it and it got a little over done. Poor guy. He really put a lot of effort in it, and it was still good even though it was slightly over done.


Smile for the camera!


Devin helped out by feeding the dogs. He's really good at it. He even makes the dogs sit and "wait" for their food. He'll then tell them "okay" and they'll dig in. We taught the dogs to sit and wait so they don't rush the food all crazy-like.


And guess what came in the mail today?!!!!!! My order from knitpicks.com!! I saw this great mushroom hat from the purl bee, and really wanted to make it! My Aunt Linda gave me some great advice on where to get needles (since I can't find any 16" circular needles in the stores around here), so I ordered some along with this beautiful yarn! It's SO soft, I think it'll make a really nice hat. It's the comfy sport yarn, and I got the seafoam. I'm not sure when I'll start the hat. I've never knitted in the round, so I need to go google some how-to videos!



Well, I'm off to make about 7 dozen sugar cookies for a cookie exchange tomorrow!

Dinner and Drinks

Last night David and I went to my work Christmas party. It's held at a seafood restaurant not too terribly far from us. It's nice to get out with everyone in a more casual environment, and it's fun to see the people who have a few drinks and get more "lively". We never have anyone that's too lively though. ;-)

I couldn't resist taking a picture in front of this little Christmas display. They had the cutest stuffed deer, and to the right of the picture there were some little stuffed husky sled dogs set up. Sorry, it's a cell phone picture.

When we got home, I tried taking some pictures of us in front of the mirror. I'd left my camera at home so I didn't get to take any good ones while we were out. I'm so fed up with my camera at the moment. It just seems it only takes good pictures outside. Darn it, there's lots to take INSIDE too. I want a DSLR, but there's not room in the budget at the moment.

See David's face? He absolutely hates to take pictures, and will try to sabatoge any picture I take of him.

It gets worse...

It was cold last night, so I decided to make some nice hot cocoa. I got the recipe off the Hershey's Cocoa container. I added some really cute marshmallows I found on sale at Walmart for only a dolla.

Can you guess what they are?

Look closer.

They're snowmen. Yes, snowmen. Really. *ahem*

Anyhoo, the recipe is as follows:

"PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" Hot Cocoa

2 Tbsp sugar

2-3 tsp Hershe's cocoa

dash salt

1 c milk

1/4 tsp vanilla

Microwave the milk until it's hot, then add slowly to the cocoa mixture. Add vanilla. Stir, and enjoy! Oh, and don't accidently misread the recipe and add cocoa in Tbsp instead of tsp. Way too cocoa-y. Not that I've done that or anything.

Shop Update

I managed to update the shop. I listed some cell phone cozies. I still have tons more to list. It's a tedious process...and I think I'm becoming allergic. ;-)