my little zookeeper

Lillian finished her 2nd bout of zoo camp today. The picture is of her holding an armadillo. She did great and has demonstarted for us her armadillo defense pose. She said it is armadillo yoga.

In other news, I cannot locate my Ipod. I think I will hyperventilate.

Also, I have woken up at 4 am for the past 2 days in a row. I miss remeron. This morning, I said forget this and went to the kitchen and took a muscle relaxer.

What herbivore do I look like?

All signs point to it being garlic harvest time. Lillian and I dug a few bulbs yesterday to make sure. Lillian was "using up all her might" clawing the sun baked earth away from one with her hands and said"what herbivore do I look like mom?"

After congratulating her on her vocab, I took a few stabs at it and she finally told me she was a squirrel---(technically an omnivore I believe.)

If that wasn't enough (and it was), we pulled a baby "cosmic purple" carrot out of the ground to check our progress and she wanted to eat it beofre I could even wash it off with the hose!

There are many times a week when I wonder what I was thinking starting a farm and then I have experiences like the ones above and I know exactly why. It makes it all worth it.

It was just about a year ago while listenin to Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle that I decided to take this on. Now we have 4 goats, 27 chickens, and a huge garden. It is a hellacious amount of work and I have developed muscles I haven't had for years. It's crazy, but I love it.

Lillian is now the proud owner of her own yoga mat and Yoga Pretzels card deck. We do yoga together 3-4 times a week. The card deck is awesome and I highly recommend it.

Boogie Woogie

I bought sour cherries at the Farmer's Market this morning with the idea of making a batch of jam and a pie for the freezer. I stopped at Payless for sugar-free pectin. After I spent 1 1/2 hours pitting cherries, I found out that the sure-jel sugar free brand only works with splenda or sugar. Crappo! I used sugar and made the reduced sugar version. Note to self and others interested in making jam or jelly without refined sugar---use the ball brand. They have you use apple juice and no additional sweetener or an alternative sweetener. I use agave nectar and the results have been great!!

Lizzie's feet are doing much better and the process is getting easier too. She doesn't like it, but will tolerate me holding one hoof at a time first in Epsom salts and then in antibiotic baths. She seems to know it is helping.

Lillian is going great, although she is getting dark circles under her eyes and I wonder if she is going to get sick. We had playgroup, yoga, and our weekly sushi lunch yesterday. She is a natural yogi. It is a great class. Our teacher, Suni, is from Puerto Rico and told us she organizes a Spanish speaking play group and asked us to come. She also runs a local mom's group that organizes lots of activities. Hopefully, it will not be like Mom's Club---way too blond, suburban, and pink!!! Since she teaches yoga and is from PR I hold out as lot of hope. And she has a 4 year old named Sebastian. Lily and I have one week of yoga left, but we signed up for another month session. It has been a great class.

I am still sleeping very poorly. I call the ND and the MD to get their opinions on what to do.
ND--continue the seditol plus herbal blend over the weekend and see how it goes, Monday she will prescribe an extended release melatonin.
MD--wanted me to try trazodone. After researching this I decided no way. Some studies say it is tumor causing. give me a break. get good sleep so I can die prematurely of cancer??

Needless to say, I will wait for melatonin and hope that helps.

The video is of Lillian dancing at La Scala. It was the grand opening of the bar and Lillian had an absolutely fantastic time. The musician is Joe Young.

cucumbers!!

Night before last, Lillian had the first cucumber right out of the garden. We are growing an heirloom variety called mini white and they are delicious. There was another yesterday, so mom got a taste too. We will soon have a steady little crop.

Lizzie, our milking doe has an infection on her feet. One foot is pretty bad. I had been cleaning and disinfecting daily with a little success, but things got worse quickly and Dr. Alinovi paid us a visit yesterday. Now, before milking I am soaking each hoof in epsom salts and then in an antibiotic bath. It is a big pain in the butt, but I am so glad it is helping her. By doing the topical soaks, we get to keep our milk. An antibiotic shot would have meant 28 days off milk. I hope this works.

We are gearing up for the family reunion. 17 people for 4 days and 9 for 7 days. I have a menu and have a few things in the freezer already. Lillian is very excited. She is overjoyed at 4 cousins who will want to play, jump, and swim as much as she does.

My health is better in general. I am finally being treated for hypothyroidism and it has helped a great deal. I had to give my MD and ultimatum--treat me or I am leaving. I have gone off the remeron (anti-depressant that helped with sleep also). I have also stopped taking Singulair. Life without remeron is good in that I have already lost 5 pounds in 3 weeks (it heightens appetite greatly), but my sleep is suffering a lot. I still take zanaflex that gets me to sleep, but I sleep very poorly after the first few hours. I am trying some herbal remedies with the ND, but am already feeling the effects of my sleeping disorder coming back. I am especially concerned since I have a family reunion to host.

Ahhhh...popsicle days

I am not a heat person, but since moving to the country, summer has grown on me in a big way. We spend as much time outside as we do in and I love it. Having a pool makes the heat much more tolerable.

Friday night, we were all working in the garden when we heard one of our rooster's make a first attempt at crowing. it was pretty funny. Now more of them are doing it and practice is helping.

One of my favorite things about summer is that Lily and Paco have a nightly ritual of eating Popsicles on the porch after dinner. Lily gets in Dad's lap and they giggle and chat. Mom gets a chance to clean up the kitchen and get the milking tote ready.

Garden update---harvested beets, lots of lettuce, and 2 heads of cheddar cauliflower. Amish paste tomatoes have green tomatoes on them. All the squashes have blossoms except Zuchinno Rampicante and Tatume. Mouse melons are growing well, but no blossoms yet. Mini white cukes are growing great and have plenty of blossoms. Kale needs harvested. First tomatillos are forming and one eggplant has a small fruit. I made 2 batches of sugar free strawberry jam during the storm last night. The sugar free sure-jel worked great and I used 1 cup of agave nectar per batch as sweetener. The yield is far less due to the missing sugar, but now we have a product that is healthier for all of us and mom can eat!!

Father's Day---Lillian made Paco a picture of he and I getting married---complete with veil, dress, and us holding hands. that child is a ball of love. she drew herself in the picture too. She says that she wasn't born yet, but she was there in our hearts. wahhh!

A writer is born

Lillian is actively learning to write her letters and spell. You can practically see the gears clicking in her head. SHe drew a picture last night of herself, me and paco and labeled it dad, mom, and lily. What a wonder. She made it for me to take with me to the movies so I could have it in my purse. What a kid!! I will post it here.





Lily and I are taking yoga together on Fridays. We both love it. It is something physical I can do with her. After yoga, we go to the little health food cafe around the corner. Lillian has veggie sushi. She starts her new ballet class today. It will be closer to us and her friend Julia is in the same class.

Ants in my feet

Lillian was hopping up and down yelping the other night while getting ready for bed. After my inquiry, she told me that she had ants in her feet. She said they were all tingly and hurt. I explained that there were no ants and they were just asleep. She doesn't fully grasp the concept because then she said--oh, because I am too poky getting ready for bed? My feet fell asleep before I did!

we are adjusting to summer and it's more laid back schedule, but we have more work than ever!! Actually, now that the La Scala bar project is done and the house on 10Th street has refinished floors and renters now living there, we are not PSYCHO busy anymore, but still it's a bit crazy around here.

We are hosting a family reunion for a long July 4Th weekend and have a lot of garage cleaning out to do so we can turn it into a giant dining room. Our 4 car garage is MUCH bigger than our house and we can set up a nice dining room, IF we can move out the 13 years of accumulated ephemera and restaurant junk. Mom and dad very nicely bought us an extra fridge for the garage to hold all the food. We really need an extra fridge anyway between all the milk and produce being the fruits of our farm labor.

The garden is doing well. As huge as it is --about 3200 sq/ft, I could use more space!! We are already harvesting chard, lettuce, broccoli, and beets.

More later--Lily and I have to go pick chard for dinner and then take a dip!!

Mom is going to slip out tonight to see Sex and the City. Yippee!!