bullfrogs & bulldogs | 2011 August

sometimes the good die young

August 30, 2011 By Amandauser 13 Comments

I knew the day would eventually come. It could have happened when I was living in the suburbs of Seattle but it didn’t. It happened here, on the farm.

If you are an animal person it’s never easy losing one of them. In a post way back in June I talked about how I anthropomorphize. In writing it I was of course trying to be funny but in all honesty, there was a bit of truth in it. My pets are members of my family and it started way back when and to this day, hasn’t changed. They may not give monetarily or even be able to give their opinion on aspects of life but they do give something pretty darn special. Otherwise, nobody would have domesticated them to begin with.

Whenever I lose one I always find myself surprised by the sadness and huge amount of loss I feel. It’s an eerie feeling not knowing what happened. Our minds start to go to those sad places, those places where one wishes and prays they went instantly with little to no suffering. My mind goes to those places, especially when finding evidence in the yard of the contrary.

If there is something as a perfect pet it was her. It’s ironic, I never really wanted her in the beginning. For one, she didn’t have a tail. What cat doesn’t have a tail? But she did everything in her power to get my attention and I realized that I wasn’t leaving that shelter without her.

I know, I know. I sound like a crazy cat woman. But if that’s the label one wants to give me because I care for my pets and think of them as part of the family, well, I’ll wear that one proudly.

You were a sweet little girl Lucy. I’m glad your determination shined through and I got to have you for these past four years.

Taken by a friend who was watching her as I was traveling the world. Lucy in her snuggie.

I guess this is the part of farm life I know I’ll never get use to. Actually, this is the part of life I’m not sure I’ll ever get use to. To be honest, it’s just a part of life that sucks. That part where sometimes the good die young.

Filed Under: Farm Life Tagged With: Cats, death, dying too young, Farm Life

August 22,1984

August 22, 2011 By Amandauser 5 Comments

A purple baby arrived and we called him Nick. Why was he purple you ask? Well, he had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck when he was delivered.

This purple little guy soon turned a normal pinkish color and immediately was loved by everyone that came into his presence.

My younger brother turns 27 today. Man, where does the time go? I remember, as if it was yesterday, dancing to Sesame Street in our living room and making him play grocery store with me when we were very young.

His advice, maturity, and wisdom is always taken to heart and at times, I forget he is my younger brother. There isn’t a person who meets Nick that doesn’t find great joy in his presence. He is, by far, one of the most special ones. Just ask anyone who knows him.

Happy Birthday little brother! I hope you have the best day!

Filed Under: Life in General

feature friday – brownies for dinner

August 20, 2011 By Amandauser Leave a Comment

More often then not, I think I should have followed my affinity for sweets and went to pastry school many years ago. I’ve always been fascinated with the aesthetic side of baking and to be fair, the taste of it.

I’m the first one to suggest dessert when I go out to dinner and always happy to whip up something tasty when there are guest over. Often, if you see me in a dazed and confused state, I’m thinking one of two things but usually its food.

One of my favorite things to do is find baking recipes and alter it to my taste. Even though baking is more of an exact science, I love to play around with recipes and seeing what happens.

When I stumbled upon Brownies for Dinner I knew it was a match made in heaven. Since I’ve been known to forgo a regular dinner for a big bowl of ice cream, the title alone was enough to make me dig further.

Brownies for Dinner is filled with delicious and inspiring recipes that will satisfy your sweet tooth without bursting your belt buckle. Patricia, the author, loves her sweets but wants to find balance and fit into her jeans as well. Here, she offers up just the right mix of decadent treats with lower cal favorites.

But I think I’d still like my brownie for dinner please!

Filed Under: Life in General Tagged With: baked goods, balance, Brownies for dinner, diet, food

sometimes in life you lose them

August 17, 2011 By Amandauser 6 Comments

We started off with twenty-six baby chicks and six days later, we are left with twenty-two. One died during the flight from the hatchery and the other three passed over the last couple of days.

It’s an interesting experience, watching these little guys grow and change. Without even thinking about it, you find yourself sneaking into the guest bedroom just to ‘check in on them,’ calling them little pet names like ‘lil buddy’, laughing at the silly things they do like run around in circles, gawk at how much they poop, and then you realize fifteen minutes has passed and you’ve just been hanging out with baby chicks watching them live their little lives.

The rational side of me knows that these little guys have a purpose and honestly, that makes me respect them even more. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do this but I’m surprised by how I’ve been able to detach myself more than usual. Kind of.

Over the last couple of days we’ve had two little guys that were struggling. Saturday morning when I came downstairs, I found that one of them had left this world for someplace else. To my surprise, his counterpart was still fighting hard. David and I realized that if this guy was going to make it we would need to help him out a bit. Not the first time either one of us has played Dr. Doolittle. We both have experience tending to our poor sick or injured pets so we felt rather equipped with the necessary skills to save this little guy. Or at least do our best trying.

We took turns going into the room every hour, helping him drink so he wouldn’t get dehydrated and ironic enough, we were told to hard-boil an egg, crumble it up and feed it to him. We were rooting for this little guy and honestly, I think a little part of both of us really thought he would make it.

Last night David came out from checking on them one last time. With him he was a plastic bag, tightly closed off, holding the delicate little body of that little baby chick.

“He didn’t make it.” David said.

“Really?” I relied with a pouty lip.

“It’s just kind of sad. I mean I was really rooting for him to pull through.”

“I know, we both were. But he’s in a better place now. He fought hard and we did absolutely everything we could.”

As we cleaned out his brooder and replaced it with fresh bedding and half of the thriving chicks, David and I sat in silence. It’s possible we were both thinking the same thing.

What have we gotten ourselves into?

Filed Under: Farm Life

chocolate and walnut ice cream sandwich

August 15, 2011 By Amandauser 2 Comments

Warm summer nights to me mean one thing: ice cream. A creamy pure vanilla bean ice cream is hard to beat. Except if you add two chocolate chip cookies to it and find yourself eating a chocolate, walnut (gluten AND vegan) free ice cream sandwich. DELICIOUS! I’m serious. I know what you are thinking. Gluten-free and vegan? How can that be good? But trust me. David agrees that these are by far the best cookies we’ve had in a long time. The walnuts and chocolate chips add the perfect texture. But don’t just take my word for it, go ahead and make it yourself.

What’s in them:

3/4 cup coconut oil (in it’s liquid state)

6-8 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

1 cup Turbinado Raw Sugar

2 cups Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Baking Flour

1/4 cup flax meal

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons xantham gum

3/4 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

(If you like sweeter cookies, add either 1/4 cup brown sugar or 1/4 cup more turbinado sugar)

Here’s how to make them:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. I actually had to increase the temp to 340 but gauge this on how your oven cooks. Also, if your coconut oil is solid, you will need to melt it by placing the glass jar in boiling hot water until it’s melted, about 10 minutes.

2. In a small bowl, mix the coconut oil, applesauce, salt, vanilla, and sugar.

3. In a different bowl, wisk flour, flax meal, baking soda and xantham gum until it is well mixed.

4. Combine wet ingredients with dry and mix till completely blended.

5. Use your hands to make each cookie ‘patty’ so they are the same size. You can really make them any size you want. Just roll them into a ball and flatten into what would look like a meat patty.

6. Bake for 10-15 minutes, then let cool all the way. Usually I like my cookies a little under baked but you want them a little more ‘done’ so they have a crunchy texture for the sandwich. I stick mine in the refrigerator so it is firm and cool for when we form the ice cream to it.

7. Once cool, scoop out the ice cream (works better if it is somewhat melted) on one side of the cookie and place the other end on top, slightly mushing them together. You can make your own vanilla bean ice cream or use a different flavor but we bought Julie’s Organic Vanilla Bean Ice Cream.

8. Place back in the freezer so they firm up.

9. Enjoy!

Filed Under: Recipes Tagged With: gluten-free baking, gluten-free chocolate chip walnut cookies, gluten-free ice cream sandwiches, Julie's Organic Ice Cream

one man’s junk is another man’s treasure: composting

August 15, 2011 By Amandauser 7 Comments

Between the two of us, David and I go through a lot of food and garbage. Sometimes it is rather amazing that we take out the garbage up to once a day. Before you jump to conclusions, we do recycle and I’ve set up a fancy system in the garage to separate glass, cardboard, plastic, and miscellaneous. However, we still manage to fill er’ up at a rather disturbing rate.

Aside from all the recycling we do, we still have a lot of waste, mostly food.

Growing up our neighbors had a compost bin. I never really understood it and honestly, I thought it was gross and at times it scared me. I mean, it had big worms crawling throughout it and it smelled.

When I grew up though and understood composting a little better, I always thought back to those neighbors and now I am rather proud of their efforts at being kind to the earth and their garden.

So here David and I are, in the mist of building our super cool 3-compartment composting bin. Well, we aren’t building it, his cousin is, and it’s going to be a beauty!

We have the space for it not to mention the waste. There is the want and need with my plan of expanding the garden 10 fold next spring. Now I just need to do a little research on the process of using it, finish slapping a few pieces of wood together and wala! We will be composting in no time!

Here is where the compost bin will go:

Here are the blueprints for the compost bin we are going to build:

Here is the compost been thus far:

And here is to saving the world (and our garden) one eggshell at a time! Cheers!

Filed Under: DIY and Crafts, Farm Life Tagged With: building a compost, compost bins, composting, garden, recycling, vegetable garden, waste composting

Crafty.Creative.Diy

August 12, 2011 By Amandauser Leave a Comment

Filed Under: My Top Favorites

Homestead. FarmLife. Life

August 12, 2011 By Amandauser Leave a Comment

Filed Under: My Top Favorites

feature friday- come on, ilene!

August 12, 2011 By Amandauser 3 Comments

We’ve all had the experience of hearing the song echo throughout restaurant speaker, left to hum the infamous lyrics for the rest of the day, if not week. When I stumbled across this blog, the name alone automatically grabbed my attention and had me singing that song once again.

Come on, Ilene is an adorable blog with creative and inspiring ideas all throughout. Whether it’s one of her tutorials on sewing a Seersucker Strawberry Skirt or a ‘how to’ on making a tasty treat, Ilene is inventive and worthy of checking out!

And hey, I’m sorry about the repetitive lyrics playing throughout your head today. So come on, Ilene!

Filed Under: Life in General Tagged With: Come on, creative blogs, great blogs, Ilene, tutorial blogs

the chicks are here!

August 11, 2011 By Amandauser 12 Comments

David and I woke this morning at 6:45am to the sound of the telephone ringing. On the other end was the mail carrier informing us that our 26 two-day old chicks had just arrived. After hanging up the phone, we paused momentarily and then the excitement erupted. “The BABY CHICKS are here!!! We sprung out of bed, scurrying to get to the post office before 8am, and because we were a tad bit excited.

Upon arriving, we rang the bell and after a few moments, a man carrying a cardboard box filled with 26 baby chickens opened the backdoor. The sweet chirps echoed from within.

“You must be here to pick up these guys.”

After scanning the box he handed them over to me, their new momma chicken.

As we walked to the car, I quietly started naming them and whispered sweet little nothings that only a proud new mother would say. I know there will be a day when these little guys will be hauled off to the butcher but for now, I will bask in the glory of motherhood.

When we got home we followed the instructions from what all the books and vast information on the internet have said to do thus far. One by one we picked up each chick and dipped its little beak in water waiting for it to drink for the first time. After, we showed each chick where it’s food was and watched as they instinctively ate the grainy, hard chick food.

When all chicks were watered and fed, we sat back and watched as their little personalities came to life. Already a few are showing some interesting dominating characteristics and others just quietly laid down and fell right to sleep.

I think it is safe to say the next six weeks are going to be nothing short of eventful. When the chicks have all there feathers and the fear of them getting too cold has passed, we will take them outside to live happily in their brand new chicken coop that is being built by GopherBoy Farms. Until then, they will live warm and cozy in our guest bedroom under the protective eye of momma chick Amanda.