Counting Sheep.

Yes we are alive.

It feels like it's been ions since my last post. So much has been happening around here. All good, everyday stuff. But lots of stuff none the less.

Dan and I almost have enough funds set aside for a sweet evaporator set up for next years maple syruping. This year we spent 3 solid weeks boiling down the procedes from 26 taps. Next year, Dan has nearly 100 taps marked out. With the evaporator, we should have our boiling down to around a week. Do the math, and you see it's going to be so worth having the evaporator.

I've been doing a women's study group which I really need. 6 other women and I are dupming our kids on Grandma on Monday mornings and having at JP2's encycicals Mother of the Redeemer and the Vocation of Women. I have studied Mother of the Redeemer before and am really excited to re-study it (it's been, like 8 years ... wow ... ), but I haven't read the Vocation of Women, at least not that I can remember. And to study anything that John Paul wrote on women is to truly see Christ. Same thing when one studies men of course. But it is SO refreshing to read the Church's teachings on women with my own eyes and not through the filter of media, speculators, or other some such no-gooders. Because frankly, the Church is not down on women, as some would have us believe.

Otherwise, it's been go go go around here at the shire. Dan and I wrapped up what was left of our garden quick before a killing frost hit on Friday night. 19 degrees on October 8th. I'm pretty sure that was a record. We still have plenty of pumpkins, squash and gourds to sell at the market though. Still at least one good Saturday left there.

I am very excited to have found soft white wheat berries from the Whole Grain Milling Company in Welcome, Minnesota. They mill up a wonderful whole wheat pastry flour so I can make muffins, pancakes, and pumpkin breads nice and fluffy and delicious, and still use my freshly ground whole wheat flour. LOVE IT!

In other even more exciting news, I almost have Dan convinced to get some Shetland Sheep this spring! I've been scheming for sheep for some time. But last week seemed to be the clincher when Ana, Toby and I visited my friend and shepherd Lila. As we were in her barn, looking over the ewes and lambs, I noticed how comfortable Ana was with them, and vice versa. I thought, gosh, maybe I really can take care of sheep while having little kids around.

We still have some work to do in getting a pasture area picked out and outfitting the barn. Plus there is the business of locating some sheep. But hot dog, I am pumped.

Over and out.