Sunday Rituals

Almost every Sunday I drink my coffee while my husband cooks us breakfast (lucky me!) and I make out my menus and to do list for the week. I then jot down the few things I will need to pick up at the grocery store (this week it was 5). After breakfast I clean the kitchen and start my Sunday ritual. I make granola for our breakfast during the coming week. It is a basic recipe with oats, maple syrup, organic canola oil, cinnamon and vanilla. I add whatever nuts and dried fruit I have on hand. I also cut up veggies, wash greens and lettuce and purge the refrigerator. This helps make short work of salads or having them on hand to toss in the steamer. The vegetables that look sad go into the broth pot along with all the trimmings, leaves and peelings. I also fix a large pot of soup. This is our "soup of the week" that can be lunch or a quick supper, along with a salad.

Today's soup is a creamy kale. I have lots of milk on hand and the kale is trying to make a comeback. I actually picked a large basket today. I put sausage, potatoes, onions and of course the veggie broth in it. I hard boiled some eggs for lunches or quick snacks. I also started some sprouts, buttermilk, sour cream and yogurt.

Once I had all that going I headed to the barn. The babies are growing like weeds, puppies and goats alike! Mama dog is now very proud of her brood and lets me hold them without trying to take them out of my hands.

I rinsed water buckets and filled mineral feeders. They are plowing through the minerals these days, I will have to pick up more this week.

While I was feeding the big barn , hubby was handling the smaller one. Apparently he didn't latch the gate tight and the two "boys" I moved last weekend made a beeline back down to where I was feeding. So we got to move the big alpine buck and Icelandic ram AGAIN. As we were dragging the ram up the drive, hubby made the comment that this was quite a workout. Ya think, I mumbled, did this last weekend. I moved the buck myself, as he had places to go later, and the buck still sports that lovely "aroma".

Feeding finished, I went to get the milking buckets. I moved Jasmine yesterday to a small grassy patch and boy did she repay me for it! I don't push her and she only gets grass, hay and minerals. She is late in lactation and I still get 1 1/2 gallons a day, milking just once daily but today was well over 2 gallons. Looks like there will be another cheese making frenzy this week!