A good trade...

 Now remember these...

They grow up into...

It's hard to tell, but the one in the center of the picture is a rooster as well as the one hiding on the left behind the pallet/roost.

Two cock-a-doodle in the morning (and every 5 min. afterward) roosters.

And roosters tend to get into crowing wars.

And that is not permissible in the confines of a quarter acre in a suburban neighborhood.

The neighbors don't quite appreciate roosters.

So I asked around.

And it paid off to do so.

I found a lady who lives about a mile away who's land has been deeded as a farm.

As long as she has farm animals, she keeps the farm title.

And as long as she has the farm title, the town can't make her get rid of any of her animals.

So she is quite happy now to have acquired two Easter Egger Roosters.

The roosters will be happier with an acre to forage upon with their hens (one leghorn and the rest are Easter Eggers.)

And they can play with a silly billy goat...

and two alpacas.

And when I went to make the final pre-drop off arrangements,

I was given not one, but two full large garbage bags full of

ALPACA FLEECE...

Yes, it's raw fleece that will need to be carded, spun, and then cleaned...

but wowza!  

Just imagine what will be happening here soon.

And there's going to be more fleece too as the farmer is getting them sheered again in a few weeks...

and I'm the only one she knows that can handle the fleece...

I think she'll be getting a matching set of winter gear soon.

Right now I am...

Obsessing over the new tax assessment in our county...it made national news when a parking space was assessed at $55,000.00 dollars (hey, I don't live in NYC for a reason.)  My appeal is in a little over 2 weeks...wish me luck!

Watching crazy play... apparently Jenga blocks are money and C. is a fancy chocolate maker who makes and sells footie jamies...W. tells her of extenuating circumstances that cause sales to go up or down...Summer...Blizzards...Day time forever!

Loving the "new" blue dresser given to us by our neighbor for my little boy...he's seven on Friday...I can't believe it.

Scared that time is going by too fast...my girl is already four and talking about being a ballerina and having babies...Good grief girly! Slow down and enjoy your childhood.

Longing for the greens to speed up and be ready for a nice fresh salad.

Getting ready for my dear mother-in-law to come over and "encourage" the kids to try on all of their clothes and see what still fits, what gets handed down, and what goes in storage.

Hoping you are loving the first day of SPRING as much as I am!

Scrumptious Saturday...mushrooms with flair

So, every Scrumptious Saturday has a bit of a story and this one is no exception.
In college, I had two people in my life with mushroom aversions.
The first was my (now) husband who just hates mushrooms...he detests them...cannot stand them.
The other was my roommate.

See, here in Western Pennsylvania, some old mines (or just caves) were retrofitted into mushroom caverns.  The most famous of these caverns is the one that Mr. (or rather Mister) Rogers toured.
And my roommate happened to spend her summers in the deep dark caverns harvesting mushrooms for minimum wage.

So she did not particularly care for them.

So over time, I didn't really have an option for mushrooms as they are verboten in this house.

Well, A friend of mine now runs a organic veggie buying club and I can get local organic mushrooms for $1.88 a pound, and a girl cannot turn that down after all, sometimes a girl just wants some mushrooms...and if you are going to break the rules, you might as well go all out...

So here you go...my go-to mushroom recipe

1 lb white button mushrooms stems removed and cleaned
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (go ahead and get the good stuff not the mystery powder in the green can...it's worth it.)
2 cloves of garlic (grate it after grating the Parmesan)
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (or toast a piece of bread and grate it after the garlic)
2 tsp Italian seasoning
a bit of garlic powder, salt, and pepper
1/4 cup olive oil

Grate and mix all ingredients except mushrooms and olive oil.  Add olive oil until slightly moistened (about 2 TBS)  Press the cheese and breadcrumb mixture into the mushroom caps.  Use about 2 TBS of the oil to liberally grease a cookie sheet and place the stuffed mushrooms on the pan (the oil helps cook the mushroom caps so do NOT skip this step or you will wind up with soggy caps.)  Drizzle the remaining oil over the mushroom caps and place in a preheated 400 degree oven.

For a delicious alternative to Chicken Parmesan, cover the mushrooms after baking as above, with marinara and cheese and bake until bubbly.

What did you make this week that was SCRUMPTIOUS!
Please send a link in the comments so we can all add a bit of variety to our diets!

Springing ahead...

I've been a bit off posting, but it's for a good reason.

Spring is here.

We got out our saved seeds from last year and began sowing our transplants.

And the most fun of all...the greens we planted in the cold box have begun to poke their little leafy heads out.

In not too much more time, we'll have salad, grown here at home, for dinner.

The peas are in.

The trenches for the potatoes are dug.

Even though it won't be time for a few months, I have the cucumber trellis all set up.

I have a vision.

Now all I have to do is wait.