Animal Duty

So we went to the farm once more. This time we could not avoid animal duty. Planting is a rewarding activity, but contrary to expectations we also loved cleaning up after those little guys and gals and feeding them! Look at the bunch of them all ready and hungry to be fed! It was such a motley assortment yet so beautiful that they had me at the first cluck.

There were goats, pigs, geese and chickens of course. Remember Em? Well she certainly has the attitude. The other geese we met were just your ordinary farm geese while Emily had this very human like possessiveness.

While the boys were off strutting their stuff, the girls were found commiserating together. Probably pondering why the guys are adorned in such glorious colors while they were dressed in leftovers. Even the common rooster seems to have more color to him than us they say!

Totally unconcerned with all the goings on in the farm are the bunnies. They eat, sleep, hop some, eat more, sleep more and hop more. Well, you get the idea.

It was definitely fun being among the animals as opposed to just going there to observe. Hope to do more of this. Thanks are due to the last owner who so graciously donated her farmhouses and land to the city so we can still experience this life in the midst of all the urban growth and technology that pervades nowadays.

Pictures From The Farm

This gorgeous guy greeted us at the farm where we went volunteering this weekend. My daughter took this picture for me after painstakingly following him around wherever he went. Many of his buddies could be seen wandering around the farm along with the roosters and hens. The following picture gives us the root for the moniker 'peacock blue'. It is the same guy by the way.

 We reached there by 8AM and started planting seeds for the spring. There were these little plastic cells that we filled with potting soil, dampened with water, made little holes and placed one little seed in each and covered it all up. At the end we made tag posts for each of the seeds we planted and staked them inside the cells so we know what is coming up. There were different kinds of tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. We will be going back next weekend too since my son needs a few more hours to fulfill his requirements. This time though I think it will be a little more involved as we will be cleaning up after the farm animals and feeding them. I can't says I am looking forward to the cleaning part of it. I was surprised to know that my son didn't have an issue. Must be all that litter clean up they are doing for our much loved kitty cat. A good side effect!

See these two guys living in the farm. One is exotic and so is kept in a cage and the other is not so exotic and therefore free to move around. I think both of them look great. Don't you?

 Here is the goose who seems to be the queen of the farm. She loves the farm person who was helping to set us up. Apparently if she sees anyone talking to him she will come and peck at them and generally want them to move away from him. Very possessive, this one! It was hilarious to watch. I didn't know geese can be like that.

 After an hour and a half of hard work (not!) the kids played on the play structure while we walked around the farm. Then we thought we deserve some breakfast and treated ourselves to a cafe nearby. Had to take a snap of the cool pattern that was on the latte.

Back To The Basics

So while our landscaping was going on we had made two vegetable beds in the space where we had planted before. I was too impatient to wait till spring and so what you see up there are the easy-to-grow in cold weather plants. There are lettuce, onions, herbs etc. We also have flower bulbs in one section but only some have come up so far. My daughter and I did the planting and she was eager to sprinkle on some carrot seeds too. Guess who peeked out to greet the sun this week! I hope they will grow enough so I can replant them properly. We are learning as we do.

My son's 8th grade teacher has give them a requirement to rack up volunteer hours every quarter. He had a spot at the Library but now that the lady has gone on a maternity break that has stopped. So we heard about this farm from his school as a good place for volunteering and visited it. This duck like bird was hiding in the compost bin. Cute Eh? My son discovered her. Me thinks the lady is incubating.

So it is that the four of us are going farming next Saturday guys! I balked when they suggested cleaning the animals and I hope we will get some fun chores first like feeding the animals and gardening. Even though I grew up in a farm and shamelessly enjoyed all the benefits, my contribution to farming was limited. I did enjoy going with my Mom and visiting the cows when they got back in the evening after a full day of grazing. She had pet names for them like 'sumalatha', 'pushparani' 'kochammini' etc. Since one of her pet names for me was 'ammini' I assume she loved them ladies much too. She and my oldest brother has the greenest thumbs but I am going to beat them. Hey, a girl can always hope.

Happy Holidays!

There is no evidence of food since I couldn't get pictures before they finished. You'll just have to take my word for it. I do however have a picture of our house all lighted up for Christmas. You will of course note the natural light provided from up above to accentuate the whole effect.

So Thanksgiving went by. We had turkey at a friend's place and we made turkey at home the next day because both my kids just love it. This year I made fruitcake for home and family. All finished and shipped. Kids don't like this very much though. Neighbors delivered delicious cakes and so we've been having a sweet fest this holiday season. My HAunt has e-mailed me her cheesecake recipe which is to die for. I will post a pic and recipe once I make it. We've had some setbacks in terms of health in the immediate family. No, not the four of us but it is a source of sadness. By God's grace things seem to be contained now. Hope and pray this progress will continue.

It is almost time to put away the nativity set and dismantle the christmas tree but basic laziness and busy work schedule is interfering with best laid plans. Kids are off for their usual two weeks. I am happy to be mostly staying home with them even if I have to do some work from home to alleviate pressure buildup at work. Hope you are all having a good time during the holidays. I will leave you with the gingerbread house that my girl and her friend made on a playdate.

Happy New Year!

Nope,  I am not lost in time. This is the first post of this lazy year and I reserve the right to wish you all a Happy New Year! Hope it is going well so far. Also wanted to make a note on the 5th blog anniversary which came and went unnoticed on Jan 16th, 2013.

So.... the trip to India went well and we are back in the rat race as if that was a dream. Great to see my Mom after so long. She is her cheerful busy self which is a relief at this age. This December was not all that in terms of weather in Kerala. Sweat was pouring down the entire body anytime we had to be outside. Coming back to sunny California was another jolt. We were welcomed by one of the coldest weird weather fronts in recent history. Now I understand what it means to go 'from the frying pan into the burning fire'. Only in our case it was, 'from the steaming pot into the freezing chamber'. So I decided to chill (pun intended) and hibernate. But every gopher has to come up for air one day. Er.. The kids and I saw some gophers doing just that on the library grounds on a recent trip. So here I am but having no pictures I cannot yet post anything.

I just replaced my laptop with a new one and the pictures I had on the old one are yet to be uploaded here. I am almost done with the taxes though. What else? I finally learned to make a decent 'chicken noodle soup' that the kids deemed passable. The recipe came from the lunch lady at the kids's school. Her recipe is very easy to make and the ingredients readily available in the Grocery store. I have yet to snap a picture but the very memory of the warm, filling soup on a cold winter night is making me want to prepare another batch soon. It is time to start the veggie garden but I find myself hesitant to step out of the house. It is not as cold now but the mental block is still there. Maybe I'll grow some herbs on the window sill as I'd been promising myself. I'll soon be back with some pictures. 

Howdy Folks?

Ah..the long weekend was refreshing... I could use one of these every month. One can always wish. Eh? Roasted the bird and all the accompaniments. I am a little wary of snapping pictures when company is present since that could be seen as the telltale sign of a food blog:-) It is similar to feeling squirmy when I see a cop car on the road even if I am a law abiding and safe driver. Almost always! So no pictures at all but the turkey was the tastiest yet. Kids helped splendidly with potato peeling and cleaning the sink all in anticipation of the Thanksgiving dinner and I felt gratified. For why would I be doing all this if not for them? My son was quite content with the leftovers for the next two days! A cue to stop with the curries and start with the roasting? Don't know. We are going to India after a gap of 5 years. Looking forward to see the leap year changes happening in the old homeland. Main aim is to see the aging parents. Mom, HMom and Hdad are all excited and so are we. Going to India is never a vacation because of all the running around between two families. I am just afraid of saying "I need a vacation" on the first day back at work. The look on my boss's face: priceless:-) OK guys so I just came up to say hello and hope all of you are doing well and to wish you all wonderful holidays. i.e if I don't come up again until the New Year.

Awards And Anniversaries!

Er.. There is only one award and one anniversary. I went for the plural because it sounded way better than 'an award and an anniversary':-))) The anniversary is of my blogs. Yes, they've been in existence now for four years! I am happy that I have them ready to oblige when the need hits me. Yet they are pliant and waiting when I run dry. Maybe I should get a dog. eh? My daughter and I have discussed this many times and we even got rejected in a puppy adoption interview because H and I work full time. So now we are thinking of a compromise and maybe thinking of getting a cat. They are such independent creatures yet so cuddly! It is still a big commitment and so we have not yet wet our feet on that one.

And...now for the award. Reflections in her kindness has given me the versatile blogger award. I am truly honored and am hoping to fulfill the tag that came with it though I am not very sure if I will succeed. Thanks Nance!

The rules of this tag:

 Add the Versatile Blogger Award picture to your Blog Post
 Thank the Blogger who nominated you
 Share 7 Random things about yourself
 Nominate 15 fellow Bloggers
 Inform the Bloggers of their nomination

Instead of 15 I bestow this award to all my readers who blog and urge them to put this up and follow the rules as necessary including the random tag.

As for 7 random things about myself, here we go in no particular order:

1. I am a woman.

2. I am a mother.

3. I am a sister.

4. I am a wife.

5. I am a daughter.

6. I am an aunt.

7. I am a niece.

Hey, I am getting the hang of this and loving it. I want to add more!

8. I am a granddaughter.

9. I am not a grandmother yet and hope it will stay that way for a reasonable time for all involved:-)

10. I am a grand niece.

11. I am a daughter-in-law.

12. I am a sister-in-law.

13. I am a niece-in-law.

14. I am an aunt-in-law.

15. Changing the tone a bit now: I am a friend.

16. I am a blogger.

17. I am an employee.

18. I am a citizen.

19. I used to be a student. Wish I could be again...

20. I love to read. Bet you couldn't have seen that coming!

21. I love to cook/experiment new things.

22. I am remodeling our kitchen.

OK. time to stop and take stock of what we have here. See number 22? Yup that is what is going on in our kitchen as we speak. Only, instead of the promised 4 days it is now into the 3rd week that we have been doing without a kitchen. So then how are we surviving? The kids subsist on butter chicken and naan lovingly cooked by the nearby Indian store cooks, I on brioche bread from Whole Foods topped with honey and H on the brown rice we had cooked before all this started but which is now finished. If the contractors won't get off their lovely bottoms and speed things up we might be heading towards marital disharmony with all the juggling that's been going on... It is not all that bad though. We steam/bake our way into most that we can and do cook some food outside. If only it wasn't winter though... I am having some fun on the side doing kitchen decor shopping. It is supposed to be all done by this Thursday and I have fingers crossed left and right so wish me luck.

Thanks nance, I guess I got a little carried away but I had fun doing the tag.