More Snow, Hunt for Baby Goat

More snow again this week! I don't like to deal
with the problems that snow causes, but it is good to have. I would rather have the snow in the winter than drought in the summer. (I keep telling myself this to make me feel better about the snow.)

I did not have work on Monday, since it was President's Day. I had intended to spend the day cleaning house, but I got wrapped up in looking for a goat. Yes, a goat. I have one. I will introduce her to you soon. She needs a companion and it is kidding season. I have been looking for someone
from whom I could get a new kid, but I want a Nubian that will grow up to be a good milking goat. So a friend and I spent the morning going to people with goats. (The number of people with goats around here has dropped dramatically in the last ten years and I am having troubles finding what I want.) I have arranged to buy an Alpine, if a girl is born, but I still want a Nubian. I did not find one. I have continued to look, call, and ask around all week long, but I have not found one. There is another family that I could get a goat from, but the goats are already born--two weeks old--and I was hoping for one born later is the season so I would have a shorter time to worry about bottle feeding her while I was at work all day long. (Also, they are beginning to push the age limit for dehorning, and I won't have a goat with horns.)

Yesterday I cut a bunch of tomatoes, celery, cauliflower, and long onions, and put them into my food dehydrator. (In the picture you can see dried tomatoes, onions, and celery.) We also tried eating some all-natural, dried peaches I bought a couple weeks ago. They were good, but not fantastic.

I have also included a picture of some summer squash I cooked for dinner tonight. Most of my cooked vegetables are cooked in one of two ways. Either I steam them or I do what I like to call "steam-fry" them. These are steam-fried. I put them into a frying pan with the lid on, usually with salt and a little butter, and them I slowly cook them until they are cooked all the way through. This way they simmer in their own juices and are never dry or really hot to "fry" in the pan.

I also learned a new word this week. I bought fifty pounds of "desiccated" coconut. The word desiccated was new to me. I had to look it up.