little roundtop

Back in October, I decided to put up a small roundtop shelter for winter hay storage. Not a big building project; a simple kit that comes in a box. Very popular in these parts.

The Little Green Sportswagon as rolling workbench.

Just to give you a frame of reference, here are five good-sized bales. Right now my little herd eats about one of these bales every day; they'll need more in winter. Bales vary in size and weight, depending on the plants, the time of harvest, the weather, and the baler. Lighter bales are easier for me to handle, but then of course more bales are needed. The goats care about the poundage they get to eat, not the number of bales I have to drag around. They are funny that way.

 

The pallet and a vapor barrier (here, a tastefully-arranged assemblage of overlapping feed bags) are necessary to prevent mold forming on the bottom bales. Mold is the very devil. Moldy/dusty hay becomes a very expensive mudhole-filler.

~~~

The roundtop turned into not my simplest project.

First, there was a backorder.

Then, there was a dead birch to be taken down.

Finally, there was the 12x20' frame to assemble and anchor.

The whole process took a lot of patience. And expense.

And most of November,

during which I was very anxious to Get The Hay. 

 

I'm still not sure it's properly "up."

But it's as "up" as it's likely to be this year.
And I've been working on the interior:

Isn't this a beautiful sight?
There are about 60 bales in there now.
I'll be comfortable with 120 more.

Even though I supplement the goats' feed with a bagged forage product and oats, good hay is an important mainstay of their diet. If I can fill the little roundtop with enough hay for several months, I won't have to scramble to bring home a few more bales every week, all winter long. It will be a load off my mind.

(Was that the most appropriate use of that expression ever?)

I had hoped to buy all I need from my neighbor, but he had a bad year and has already sold me all that he could without cutting off his other customers. My original HayMan, who is a good friend but lives quite a distance from here, was sold out before he had even made his second cutting last summer. I have two back-up suppliers, but the quality is not great...which will mean more waste, right from the get-go.
And as you know...

Goats do not need any help generating wasted hay.

See all that beautiful clean hay on the floor?
It was in the feeder two minutes ago.
Then LeShodu pulled it out, bit by bit.
Now she considers it inedible.
Because It Touched The Floor.

I'll have to get busy this weekend, making calls.

Hay farmers are the most popular people I know.

Flashback from last Winter: Meals on Wheels Boots

One meal for two goats in a separate paddock.

Sometimes a luncheon hamper is easier than dragging a sled.

Happy Saturday, everyone!

May your hay never touch the floor.

~~~~~

cranberry apple mosaic cake

Rhode Island Greening

This is a rare post for Comptonia: a recipe.

Do you already have a favorite recipe for a simple cake with cranberries? If so, I'd love to hear it - put a link in the comments, please! If not, maybe you'd like to try this one. I don't think it belongs to anyone in particular, and I'm not sure how much tinkering I've done with it by now. Some, for sure.

But I've now made this cake three times in two weeks, the exact same way each time. Including once at 4AM, when I was tired of trying to sleep. A cake that I can put together after a sleepless night is a pretty good recipe to jot down, I think.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1/4 pound) butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

3 eggs (or two huge eggs)

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

8 oz (2 cups) whole cranberries

½ large or 1 small apple

optional: 2-3 TBS white sugar plus 1/2 tsp

~~~

butter and flour bottom and sides of 9” springform pan

(or use parchment paper)

preheat oven to 350F

cream together:

1/2 c butter

1 c brown sugar

Blending after each addition, add:

3 eggs (or two huge eggs)

add:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

add:

2 c (8 oz.) whole cranberries

optional: 2 or 3 TBS white sugar, if the cranberry:batter ratio is worrying.

The batter will be very stiff. Coax gently into pan.

Thinly slice and peel apple. (Genuine food prep tip: I always slice apples first, then peel each slice with a single pass of the knife. Quick, efficient, easy.)

Break apple slices into pieces and lightly press into top for mosaic.

Bake at 350F for 55 minutes. During first 10 minutes, go outside and distribute apple peelings and core to goats. Be rigorously fair, even though some will believe their neighbor got more.

Remove pan from oven, place on cooling rack. Sprinkle ½ tsp white sugar on top (optional), remove side of pan. Cool at least somewhat before slicing.

If you try this cake, please let me know how you like it!

~~~~~

frost

Saturday was downright balmy.

For much of the day, I worked in shirtsleeves.

Shirtsleeves!

Saturday night the temperature plummeted again.

Sunday morning was nose-bitingly cold,

but sunny and still.

Very pleasant. Very beautiful.

I took these pictures en route to the barn.

As the rising sun reached each plant, the frost melted.

Plants two feet apart looked completely different.

I had to work fast.

This meant chores were postponed for ten minutes.

Background music for these images was provided by

a cacophony of outraged goatsong,

courtesy of the Cloud Harvest gang.

I will not be uploading the audio.

You're welcome. 

The shrill voices of Tansy and Fern rose above the entire herd.

Ceaselessly.

Shriekingly.

You would not believe how indignant two tiny goats can be.

As if those two fuzzy little pudgeballs are lacking for grub!

I think they didn't want to set a precedent.

"Photography before breakfast?

Not on our watch!"

 

And now November ends as a new week begins.

And it's time to head for the barn.

I hope you have a wonder-full Monday.

~~~~~

housework can be sort of fun

One of the benefits of cleaning out and defrosting the chest freezer, is knowing that eight gallon jugs of cider will soon create a perfect new bottom layer.

Another benefit is the fun challenge of using up what's left in the freezer. Like baking and roasting and stewing the last of the organic chicken purchased when it was on sale. And those crazy frozen "pumpkin" waffles which I will never - ever - buy again, but which will be eaten this time and not wasted.

And this morning, the cranberries.

Question: how many cranberries can be added to one cake?

Answer: not sure yet!

Will let you know when the cake has cooled. If it turns out to be a mass of cranberries lightly held together with fragments of cake, I will know I have gone a bit too far.

Fun to experiment, anyway! And I wish you could walk through my kitchen right now - the aroma is wonderful. Like taffy? Fudge? Hard to say exactly, I can't identify it. Maybe it's just been too long since I used sugar in a recipe!

~~~

I rarely do this, but I'm coming back with an update.

Less than an hour after posting.

Because:

The cranberry ratio is Just Right!
What a lucky, happy bake :)

~~~~~

evening chores

Evening chores now begin at about 3:30 PM.

But today I had an appointment, and didn't get home til 4:30.

So I finished up by moonlight.

Handheld, one-second exposures.

Just for fun.

~~~~~