shrek, mayonnaise and 30lbs of chicken...

That sums up my day. I'm a little depressed and on a pity me wagon so empathy or stop reading now. :) I'll try to hold back.

So my disastrous date Saturday was about as bad as I thought. Another one of those "I have a ton of respect for you but there's no spark." Boy have I heard that line before. Over and over and over again. Truth is I need a Shrek, someone so damn fugly that they forgive my fugliness. That's me holding back. I promise you won't hear anymore about it.

Today I made mayonnaise! Seriously. And it was really really good. I'm shocked at how easy it is to make and boy who knew that real mayonnaise was yellow? Well as yellow as the yolks you put in it. I think I might try it with the whites too next time. I read that it makes it lighter colored and thicker. I'm also going to find some different oil to experiment with. Turns out cheap olive oil needs more spices to cover up the cheap olive oil taste. And here I thought I was being classy by buying olive oil in the first place. That'll learn me!

Tomorrow I'm going to make a loaf of russian rye bread and some chicken salad with that mayonnaise.

Chicken. So I got back 30lbs of chicken today. Only $38 to process. Not too bad, though that's not counting all the feed they've eaten because I kept putting off butchering them. Not my fault. I'm a mom and a home maker and a healer of boo boo's, not an animal slaughterer. So there. :) Anyways. So tonight I stuck one of those big guys in the crock pot, well I tried, he didn't fit. So I found the biggest pot I had and stuffed him in it. He barely fit. The lid wouldn't shut till he was cook so thoroughly that his legs fell off. I know how's that for a mental image if you didn't know what I was talking about? Anyways. So in went the bird 3.85lbs of bird, a bottle of porter, a bottle of wheat and enough water to cover most of him. Along with some bay leaves, sage and other yummy chicken spices. Oh and a big ole stick of butter (no not goat butter, I haven't made that yet). He's been cooking slowly since about 3pm. We picked off what we could eat for dinner and the rest of him will cook down till I can separate the bones from the meat. The juices will be cooked down, the meat and herbs put into their proper homes and I'll have stock, chicken noodle soup and chicken salad. I really need a pressure canner. That's the next thing on my list. And more canning jars (the goats are using almost all of mine).

So overall today wasn't so bad. Mr. eHarmony was a flop but hey. What can you do? I can't afford a face lift so I guess I'm stuck looking for Shrek. I wonder if Shrek has a good career and goes to church. Hmm... I guess anything is possible. I did go from a housewife to a milkmaid/farmer. If that's possible anything is!

Oops. Sorry I wasn't spose to mention that again. I'm going to cross it out for you so you don't have to read it. I told you I was feeling sorry for myself. It doesn't happen too often but sometimes. It hurts. Rejection. I know, screw him, what does he know? Not much obviously. But still it's hard to get there without getting all jaded and thick skinned. I don't want to think everyone is a dillhole. I really don't. It's not his fault I'm buttugly. It's the pain. He was nice. Well maybe not so much. I'm way too easy to get too. Time to toughen up! Roar!

Anyways.

I think I'm going to have to put my garden customers off another week and I really don't like to have to do that. But it poured down rain almost all day. Just came down by the bucket full. Seriously. It's so freakin' depressing. All this rain and I'm going to need some of that chicken noodle soup because I'm going to be sick.

Anyways.

I sincerely hope the rest of you are having better luck at love and gardening than I am. Kiss your significant other, they're such a wonderful part of being human.

Good night!

All this rain is SOOOO depressing...

How do you get out of a slump when it's caused by the weather? The last two mornings I slept through my alarm. That's how down all this rain has got me. I started milking the goats twice a day this week which means with missing mornings it's once a day in the evening instead of twice a day. But what do you do? The volume on my alarm is at it's highest. I'm sure it's just all this weather that has me down (couldn't have been the disaster of a date I had Saturday night). I'm completely unmotivated. Even my Monday morning cleaning routine got skipped. Tuesday saw me doing laundry and dishes which I didn't do Monday. Sometimes I hate being the only adult in this house. That's depressing too. Do you see the theme here?

Farm chores do continue though. There was a gathering of hands in the barn last night for milking, which I am really thankful for.

My oldest saves me sometimes. She's such a blessing to have around. She's only 8 but she begs to help with milking every single day. I've let her try a few squirts in the past but today I handed over the goat to her. She made it about half way through before she handed her back. We only take half a gallon of milk up to the house every day so we milk that into quart jars and then milk the baby goats milk into the pail. The goat on the stand is Georgia, this is her first year milking and she gave us a single doe kid. She's very patient.

Another blurry shot. My aunt Nina came over. She's also someone who saves me. When I was growing up she was the only real parent I had and although she didn't really know what to do as a parent she made me go to church 3x's a week. I'm thankful for that. Anyways. So she came over to watch Elizabeth while Michelle and I caught the roosters. She came while we were milking and so I encouraged her to get in touch with her childhood. Her family had cows which when the electricity went out she got to help milk. Two old pros on the stand. The goat on the stand is Icy, she gave me the triplets and a gallon of milk every time I milk her. She's been very forgiving of my newness. She also has teats on her that cramp my hands every time I milk.

My garden is slowly growing. Slowly. No I don't have any pictures of it because I'd be too embarrassed to show them anyways. My chinese cabbage has bolted (I mentioned that before) and now has beautiful yellow flowers on it. It's a rather attractive plant and taste great too. I keep meaning to get out and plant corn and more lettuce but it's so wet and muddy I think the seeds would just get moldy. I'm half debating putting off my garden customers one more week because I can't imagine the weather being any different by Monday. I guess  it could be worse. It could be snowing or hailing or a tornado could take away my entire garden. Now that would be a good excuse to put off my garden customers. :)

Oh and the roosters. All but three are gone. 9 birds and I'm sure they were atleast 50lbs of poultry. I only picked up one crate from the butcher because the note said it'd hold about 10. Well they fit but it was a tight squeeze. When I took the crate back I took a look at some of the other crates full of birds and I am now pretty sure I should have grabbed two crates because all the other chickens were half the size of the roosters I took in. I guess that's what I get for keeping them for a year. I might try to fire up the bbq and grill chicken tonight. Or I could cook one whole in the oven, I don't think it'd fit in the crock pot. I'll have fresh chicken stock for cooking. Oh chicken salad. Now I'm hungry. I'm going to make a loaf of dill rye bread so I have something to put chicken salad on tomorrow for lunch. I should talk about food more often it just raised my spirits. :) Think I'll be sick of chicken by the end of summer? Maybe by the end of June. Ah June. May really didn't leave much room for anything. I hope June isn't the same.

Anyways. I need to find some vita B or something. Maybe a nap. I need some sunshine.

Anyways. Have a great week!