Building a Boules Court

Building a Boules Court

Our favorite movie is Peter Mayle's “A Year in Provence”; I think we have seen it about 10 times (the only movie we have ever purchased to own). In the movie they play the game of boules, or petanque, as is is also called, and we just had to try it.

We found a great set of boules balls on ebay and decided we needed a court to play on. The big project of this year.

In our back yard, which is relatively flat, we had a flower garden that was being taken over by weeds. We figured this would be a good spot for the court. The first step was transplanting all the flowers, then cutting the weeds down with a mower. Lumber was cut with the saw mill, and a load of gravel was ordered. The court measures 13' by 38' and the bottom is covered with a weed blocking ground cloth.

We built the frame, got it level and started hauling in gravel (a skid steer worked real well for this part). Our court took about 12 yards of gravel. After the gravel was all in place we raked it as smooth as possible.
Already we have spend many hours playing boules, now we need to teach the game to a few friends!

A “What’s In the Frig?” Pasta Salad

Earlier today I was in the mood for a pasta salad, but I knew I really didn’t have a lot of ingredients on hand. I decided to scour the refrigerator to see what I could come up with.

I cooked about 3 cups of pasta and set it aside. I found walnuts and shredded some asiago cheese. Last summer I made pickled nasturtium seeds (“capers”) and pickled garlic scapes, and I knew these would be good in a salad. We recently bought some organic freshly pressed sunflower oil from a local farm. That and some of the brine from the garlic scapes would make a great dressing. From the spice drawer I decided on Italian herb blend.



I didn’t measure a thing. Just “a little of this, a bit of that” and tasted as I went along. I added a little extra sunflower oil at the end and mixed in all the ingredients.

It tastes great!

Easy Baking Recipes: Pumpkin Pie

Last week we cut up the last pumpkin from our garden. It was quite big, so we were able to make a lot of things with it.



Pumpkin Pie

1 pie shell, 8, unbaked
1 1/2 cups pumpkin; cooked and mashed
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon molasses
1 tablespoon flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1 large egg
1/2 cup cream (heavy)

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Grease a pie plate and line with pie shell.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well with a fork.

Pour into prepared pie plate.

Bake 55 to 65 minutes, until filling is firm.

Baked Apples

Baked Apples
6 large apples; peeled, cored and sliced
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cloves
2 tablespoons butter; melted
1/4 cup water

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9" x 7" baking dish.

Peel, core and slice apples into 8 pieces. Place in baking dish.

Combine sugar, flour and spices. Mix well and sprinkle over apple slices.

Pour melted butter over apples/flour mixture, then pour the water on top.

Bake 20 minutes uncovered, then 20 minutes covered. Serve warm. It is also good cold.

Carlo, Our Newest Member of the Family

On Saturday, June 12th, 2010 Emma's calf, Carlo was born. Emma is our Dexter, Hereford cross and was bred with a Dexter bull, so Carlo is ¾ Dexter and ¼ Hereford. Carlo is Emma's first calf, so we were hoping to be around in case she had any problems.

We weren't with her when the actual birth happened, but heard her mooing shortly after. Carlo was still wet when we found him and Emma was cleaning him up.

We thought everything was going to be fine (it was about 10PM by then) so we went to bed. About 3AM I was awoken by mooing. Carlo was on the wrong side of the fence, and Emma was letting me know about it. I got up, got him back with mama and noticed she wouldn't let him nurse. Every time he would try, she would kick him away. I got her into the stall, hooked her up, but she still wouldn't let him nurse.

I woke my husband up about 4AM and he came out to help. One of us had to hold Emma so she couldn't move around and the other had to guide Carlo to her udder. It was quite a chore, but he finally did get a full belly.

We had to do that for three mornings and two nights. By the third night Emma let him nurse on her own and now she is the perfect mother. She is nursing as she should, he has learned to stay with her or come when she calls and we are able to pat him and play with him without her getting upset.



Molly, our Dexter cow is due in August. This will be her third, so I don't think there will be any problems there. And Carlo will have a playmate.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
pinch salt
16 oz powdered sugar
1/2 cup baking cocoa
1/2 cup peanut butter

Butter an 8" x 8" square pan.

Melt butter in a medium to large sauce pan.

Add milk and vanilla and remove from heat.

Mix together the powdered sugar salt and baking cocoa. Gradually add to the milk/butter mixture and stir until well blended.

Stir in peanut butter. Mix well.

Press into prepared pan. Cool in the refrigerator a few hours before cutting into squares.

Yield: 16 good size pieces

Baby Ducks

This has been a tough year for our ducks. First, we lost Ivan, our Call duck to a mink and then Rebecca, a 9 year old Khaki Campbell to old age. That left Casandra, an Indian Runner, all by herself. Well, not completely by herself. She has 7 chickens to hang out with, but it hasn't been the same for her; the chickens don't really enjoy swimming in the pond.

Last week I called our local feed store and ordered 2 Pekin ducklings and got a phone call that they were in today. Since these are day old ducklings, they need to stay in our house for a while before they can go live in the chicken coop. We have raised many babies in our house, from chickens, ducks and turkeys to pheasants and guineas. I think we have it down to a science.

We have a few large plastic totes that we saved just for this purpose. At first we tried cardboard boxes, which worked out okay for all the animals except the ducks. Ducks are very messy drinkers and it didn't take long for the cardboard boxed to become a nuisance. The plastic totes work out very well.

We first put in a layer of shavings in the tote and then a bowl of food. The water container gets set on a brick to keep it off the bottom of the tote, and therefore stays a little cleaner. Shavings find their way into the waterer much too quickly.

Since our house is powered by solar, we don't use a heat lamp in the tote, but we do have a small red light that uses very little electricity. We heat up a brick in the oven (not too hot), wrap it in a towel and place this in the box. The red light does offer some heat, but it also seems to relax the birds for some reason; they seem to find the color soothing. We first noticed that with chicks.



The tote sits on top of our washer and dryer. We place some window screens on top (to keep young flyers in and cats out) and in the evening we place a towel over most of the top to be sure everyone is warm enough.