nice day, oat meatloaf, dog's thyroid, turkey's

I'm still wearing spikes around the barn, but today was beautiful, and the goats moved up the side of the mountain where the sun hits and the snow has melted.My camera was on a 12X zoom for this photo. The LAST day of December is by far the warmest day of December, we'll see what January 2011 brings.

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Do you put oats in your meatloaf?
Grit Magazine
From the current issue, I tried the mini meatloaves recipe, fairly tasty.
my photo

their photo, looks more appetizing than mine I think.

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We took the Irish Terriers, Bliss and Brawn, to Dr. Beckworth's today. Blissi's hair is falling out, the doc checked for parasites but nothing, he said she may have a thyroid problem, and we'll need to do a blood test after the holidays when the lab courier is running.
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Mike's sinus infection has turned in to bronchitis, but he refuses to go to the 24/7 Urgent Care. I keep telling him that the Z-pak stuff really helped me.
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Buddies, Franklin and Jefferson, are doing great but Bennie not so much. We've got Bennie safely away from F&J, on the other 1/2 of the poultry coop, but Bennie is grieving for his other home and his girlfriend, Chestnut, that is still living there.
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We got Franklin as a mature tom and he almost grieved himself to death after we brought him home, he lost a lot of weight and didn't gobble for a couple of months. Turkey's are very emotional.

His head has been real red like that ever since we brought him here, he's very stressed, so Wish Bennie a Happy 2011.

snowblowing and salad

Main roads are basically open but now trying to clear side roads here in Watauga County. Mike and I are still hiking up and down our road/driveway.

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My goat and chicken buddy, Paula , says she makes the broccoli salad adding in sunflower seeds and bean sprouts, which I'll love the added crunch. Also, a fella at work says he uses sour cream rather than mayo. Check out the previous post for the recipe, give it a try, and let me know what you think.

On Christmas Day, the local newpaper was several days old and I kept intending to read it. I was sleepy, crawled in bed with the newspaper. Opened to the OBITUARIES, and I read CAROLYN GARRISON. Y'all wouldn't know Carolyn, but do you ever have those moments, where you don't think you are looking at something correctly, or not comprehending correctly? I'm trying to focus and in my mind, CAROLYN GARRISON, I'm thinking not my CAROLYN GARRISON. CAROLYN GARRISON! She died on Dec 19th and was buried on Dec 23rd. 55 years old, dropped dead of a heart attack. My buddy. Oh, how we laughed with each other, we cracked each other up. We saw the world through the same cynical glasses.

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I'm just relaying the story, because it sort of compares to how I felt on the morning of Sept 11th 2001, I was sleeping in bed with a horrible head cold, my father-in-law called, HURRY, TURN ON THE TV!, click. After knocking everything off my nightstand, I got the TV turned on, and I'm staring at the screen, thinking I'm trippin' on Nyquil, I'm trying to make sense of what I'm seeing.

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Carolyn's obituary was another unexpected shocking moment, seems too overwhelming to comprehend.

broccoli salad, snow, short video

Posted Sunday at 4:15PM
From Ray, our local weatherman - The northwest flow stage of the current storm is picking up this afternoon and will last well into Monday. Today and Monday, higher elevations right along the TN/NC line will pick up a foot or more of new snow. Winds will become very strong tonight and Monday. True blizzard conditions will develop this afternoon at higher elevations right along the NC/TN line and last into early Monday.

Yes, we live very close to the TN line.

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I've got a good and easy broccoli salad for ya. Ann brought it yesterday to Christmas dinner.
broccoli
cauliflower
raisins
bacon (real bacon bits)
SAUCE MIXTURE
1/2 c of mayo
1/4 sugar
1 T red-wine vinegar

very tasty. I didn't have any califlower. I think Ann's broccoli was raw but I brought my frozen broccoli just to a boil.

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Our driveway after father-in-law got up here with his tractor.

Hasn't gotten windy yet so the snow in laying in the trees.

a White and Fun Christmas

At 8:30AM this morning, we visited Jeremy. Saturday mornings is the only visitation at the jail. Too snowy for his mother, Sherry, to come from her house but it was Mike and and James and Mary there. I brought my laptop to show him my Christmas Eve blog, so he could see his kids Daniel and Nora, but the jailor wouldn't allow it. We talk to him on a telephone through a thick glass. He seemed quite depressed. We told him the kids got a lot of presents. Nora especially liked the Barbie-fake nails. You could see him imagining her.

We've had a beautiful white Christmas but don't have snow photo's yet.
Just FYI - James and Mary are Mike's parents. Mike has three younger sisters - Sherry, Sandy, and Tina (married to George, the contractor, and they have two sons, Saava and Demetre) - all live local.

On Christmas Eve, it's the immediate family for dinner and presents.

On Christmas Day, it's immediate family and some of Mary's sisters (Aldridge) and their living brother, Wade. Bernice, Jean, and Mary are sisiers. Ann is the wife of Wade.



Brandon and Richard are Wade and Ann's sons. Brandon, a fashion designer, lives in NYC and I want him to be a contestant on Project Runway.

Verleen is also an Aldridge sister. She sends delicious cakes to my workplace.

Jean's husband

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We departed the Wilcoxes, (James and Mary's) and went to George and Tina's house to play poker.

Mike and George wrestled, and now Saava wrestles for Appalachian State University and Demetre wrestles for Watauga High School. Saava and the team just got back from Reno, NV.

They just live over the hill from James and Mary so we didn't have to travel far. We parked at the Wilcoxes and hiked with spikes up our road.

I'll have some white Christmas photo's tomorrow.

deck the halls...

Our Wheaten Marans rooster died from frostbite to his comb, but our Cuckoo Marans rooster, Early, is doing fine. Benny is living on the other side of the poultry coop because Franklin and Jefferson are not welcoming him back. Poor Benny.


Playing cards down at the Wilcoxes on Christmas Eve.


Poor, humbled Cain, the red antlers are put on him every Christmas.

Deceased Heather was the mother of Daniel and Nora. Jeremy is in jail charged with double homicide. Now the kids live with Heather's mother, Jolene. Was nice to have Jolene and the kids with us.

We gave George a Greek calendar for Christmas, because George is Greek.

Bennie has been a bad turkey, gonna be a White Christmas

Bourbon Red Turkeys
Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats

Along with a couple of girls, we sold Bennie to our friends Carol and Duane at Kids Corral. Carol owns and operates a day care out of her home. Bennie (as in Ben of Ben Franklin), was behaving himself for a while, he was getting lots of attention from Duane and Carol and apparently wanted to keep them all to himself. He started chasing the day-care kids, to the point that they were crying and afraid to get out of the car when the parents were dropping their kids off. Carol and Duane tried to discipline Bennie but he's now too spoiled to mind them.

On Sunday, we met Carol and Duane in Pineloa, ate pizza at the Italian Restaurant, and brought Bennie back home. Franklin and Jefferson were less than thrilled to see Bennie so we'll see how things go.

Bennie got out of the truck at our house and saw the BEAR CROSSING sign, I think that humbled him a little bit.

Can you tell that Lucy and Pie's Mama is June?

Our local weatherman says we're gonna have a white Christmas, (at our house it's still white).
Some good little boys and girls must be wishing for a White Christmas, because that's what we are going to get. Clouds will increase Friday (Christmas Eve) with a wintry mix of sleet and snow developing either late in the day or early Friday night. Santa will have a slick ride. As colder air invades late Friday night, precipitation will change to all snow. Snow or snow showers will last through Christmas with cold temperatures. Much colder air comes Saturday night. Sunday will be cold and blustery with snow showers.

Stay tuned.

Wishing you an M-a-a-rry Christmas, Kahtoola MICROspikes, goat pouch, jingle-goat video

On the window at the ADGA [American Dairy Goat Association] office in Spindale, NC. Cut and pasted from the Dairy-Goat-Festival-and-Parade-of-Spindale FaceBook site.


My Kahtoola MICROspikes have been coming in real handy lately. I just ordered Mike a pair but SHHHsh, don't tell him.

From ETSY, I just ordered myself something for Christmas, a little goat-coin pouch, my wallet is falling apart, I think this is all I need anyway.


I found this goat-in-a-truck on the internet somewhere, isn't he cute? Great photo.




Jingle-Goat Video - Not my goats but a friend send this to me. Just darling. Don't know what kind of goats they are - some kind of long-bodied, ears-sideways kinda goats.