Busy... But Can't Remember What We've Been Up To!!

I swear, I keep thinking about posting... but never at the right time... I'll think of something to post, say, when I'm driving... or remember that I haven't posted, you know, when I'm just about to fall asleep at night... that sort of thing. Getting older SUCKS!! :)

Anyhow, as always, we've been busy around here. We put up some more Christmas stuff this weekend... decorated the banister... cut some stencils and we bought some of that snow in a can stuff and we're gonna try that out on some windows. Both Shawn and I are a bit obsessed with the snow in a can stuff, as we always wanted it as kids and never got any. Now we're adults and we can do whatever we want, so na na na na boo boo! ;) I'm sure it won't be near as fun or exciting as either of us has imagined over the years though.

I think it was Friday when I went crazy with 3 tubes of caulk upstairs. I caulked around all the upstairs windows and the windows in the mud room. They are not the original windows to the house and they are really quite crappy. (I'd rather deal with leaky OLD charming windows that leaky not so old crappy windows.)

I think its helped cut down the drafts a bit, but the windows themselves also leak some, so we may try that temporary plastic stuff that you put on with a hair dryer on some of the worst ones and see if it helps. I need about another 3 tubes of caulking to finish the main floor windows, I just have to remember to BUY it!!

We also cleaned up the house over the weekend as we had some guests over to visit us and our goats and I really didn't want them to know that we live in a pig sty... oh wait, now the whole world knows!! ha ha

I spent today running around... went to the feed store and got more grain for the boys.. also picked up a bag of beet pulp for them (more on that in a minute) and 2 bales of pine shavings. Also talked to my hay/straw guy about getting some more straw... I've used 7 of the 10 bales that he brought me originally and I don't want to run out. He'll bring them to the feed store and then I'll pick them up there in the mini van... means I can get them when I want and not have to wait for him to drive down in the dark after he's done at the feed store in the evening. Suits me great :)

So I bought some shredded (not pellets) beet pulp to feed to my goats. Mostly, the point of the beet pulp was to offer something else to eat that would also provide them some extra water in their diet. It's winter and I worry they aren't drinking enough (although, they are drinking almost as much as when it was warmer, so I'm just being a mother hen.)

I brought it home and dumped it into a garbage can so it wouldn't get wet or allow the rodents in... and then I took a small amount (that's always KEY with beet pulp!!) and put it in a bucket, brought the bucket in the house, put in hot tap water (about 3:1) and let it soak while I mucked out their shelter. Came back in and it was nicely soaked and mushy, still warm, but not hot.

I took it out to them in their feed pans and set it out for them... they did think I brought grain and were very disappointed to find I put goat "poison" in their feed pans instead. Apparently beet pulp is repulsive. I even squeezed some out with my hands and tried hand feeding it and nope! absolutely not! Fussy goats... I left the feed pans with the beet pulp out there, thinking maybe they'd eat it later. NOPE.

I'll try again tomorrow and add a bit of their grain to it and see if that entices them. It's a weird texture and they don't have any older animals to show them that its ok to eat it.... and they ARE just babies that were just started on grain before they came here... but still!!! EAT IT ALREADY!

Goats have a reputation for eating everything... like tin cans and old boots... but with my goats, nothing could be farther from the truth... they are fussy!!! I bring out some lettuce leaves... perfectly fine, *I* would still eat them... and sometimes they gobble them... but should a leaf ever fall on the ground...NOPE, not eating THAT... its *dirty*!

Same with hay... they are bigger wasters than horses!! "Oh I pulled that out while looking for the tastiest fluffiest bits and now I can't possibly eat that... its filthy and not suitable for royalty such as myself!" Grrrr! Fussy buggers.

Yet, these same creatures think NOTHING of pooping in their water bucket... their feed pan or their hay feeder. Umm, hello, maybe you should think that through?!?!

Tonight Shawn and I took the projector screen and wrapped it in that plastic stuff that skids get wrapped in. We wrapped it about a thousand times in different directions and once we were satisfied that it was reasonably well protected, we put it in the basement, laying across some boxes so its not directly on the floor. It's kind of a "white elephant" in this house... no good place to hang it and use it... yet, we don't really want to sell it or anything either. So we'll store it for a while... maybe we'll come up with a plan of how we could actually use it. Who knows? At least its out of my living room where I eventually plan to set up the Christmas tree.

Besides going to the feed store today, I also ran around and did some secret Christmas things... bought a few gifts... that sort of thing.

I've also been considering making some sort of Christmas yum yum eat'em. That's Shawn speak for making something tasty. I thought about making sugar cookies and I haven't ruled it out. I have an idea that adding ground up vanilla bean might be yummy. The other thing I was thinking about was something my mom made years ago and I don't really remember what it was other than yummy.

I know it involved Eagle brand sweet and condensed milk and somehow you mixed that with something... maybe icing sugar and you ended up with little balls of tasty goodness... she sometimes mixed almond extract or peppermint extract.. and little silver balls or sugar sprinkles or maybe a nut went on top. They were very sweet and almost like fudge.

Again, I have this idea that adding vanilla extract and maybe ground up vanilla bean might be awesome. Maybe if Mom is reading this she will remember what I'm talking about and fill me in on the details that I've forgotten and maybe just maybe even have a recipe or something for me. (hint hint!!) :) And why did she stop making it?? Was it as delicious as I remember?? Wait.. Fondant? Is that what it was called??? Perhaps.

Anyhow... I'm not sure if I'll end up doing either of those things... but I've been thinking about it anyhow... weird for me for sure... I can roast meat and stuff, but I'm no baker! But being out here without access to all my mother's home baking sure makes me crave stuff like that!!!

Well that's as much as I can remember about what's been going on lately so I'll leave it at that for now! :)