Why?

 Why do cattle lick each other?  This is Short Stuff (he used to be short!) licking The Bull, Duncan.  So I get the heirarchy thing - the herd paying homage to their king.  Or rather sucking up to the Big Boy.  I never think of cattle as grooming animals like cats, but I see them licking each other often.  I asked my 87 year old aunt, who has been around cattle her whole life, but she didn't know why, just that they always do it.

You Don't Want The Bull Mad At You

I went out to feed Mama Cow a bit extra this morning.  She is 18 years old, nursing a big calf and is showing the drain from the baby.  By the way the baby is 6 months old and she still patiently lets him nurse.  I don't usually feed her, so she wasn't sure of my "Come on Mamma" call.  Finally I got here into her special feeding place, but not without getting the attention of everyone else . Nothing gets by the bull that has to do with his herd and you never want the bull to be mad at you.  To make nice with Duncan, I brought him some extra feed.



I was surprised by the amount of curl in his horns.  I don't usually look down on him.

New Day Bed with Surround Views

My Favorite Season

The south pond is full this year.  












I brought in my winter squash from curing this weekend.  This is my best haul - golden acorn, blue hubbard, butternut, delica, baby pumkins, and more.  There is some squash soup in my future.






I found a squash soup recipe that has pear, maple syrup and sriracha.  The combination of sweet and hot was perfect.

Thumbprint Cookies w/ Lingonberry Jam (GF)

Things I Love About my Kitchen

We just installed this Rev A Shelf http://www.rev-a-shelf.com/ to organize the pots and lids.  It holds my big skillet and wok.  The part I really love is the lid organizer.  In the back right is my pressure cooker lid an lumpy unstackable thing.  And see that really big skillet lid; there is room for it and lots of other lids.


















This is my baking center - a pull out shelf for my mixer, on the right a fully extendable drawer for the flours, sugar, ect. and on the left my measurement equipment drawer including a scale.  Yes I bake using a scale.  It is especially important for gluten free baking.  On the granite counter the ingredients for gluten free Thumbprint Cookies - rice flour, sweet rice flour and arrowroot starch plus the ordinary ingredients.  I used lingonberry jam in the print.  The granite counter top is wonderful for baking.  You need less flour when shaping and rolling..

This is my open dishwasher and dish and silverware drawers.  I can unpack almost my entire dishwasher all in one spot - very quick and convenient.