Bread, Visiting, Animals, Dinner, and Springtime

Last Friday, the new and newly-seasoned Dutch oven got a trial run on the bread recipe...22 hours and 45 minutes in the making, 1/4 teaspoon of dry yeast, and no kneading produced this...

Who knew this utterly simple bread recipe could render such outstanding results.

On other fronts, the 2-3 inches of rain cleared up much of the snow leaving a gorgeous sky at the farm and Aidan and I had a walk to check the pond status...

No frogs. Nights were still well below freezing.

Rain skies clearing up at sunset.

It was a nice time overnight at the farm with the family, a first-for-Aidan view of The King's Speech, and watching Gonzaga win for the move to the final game.

As predicted, Sandy arrived on Monday. A remarkable time to catch up on our lives, and learn more about our younger generations of children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. We worked in a walk and encountered another neighbor who was dog-walking at the small nearby park. Sandy loves the dogs...

Introductions.

Weather Report: Surprise! It's Spring.

Suddenly, the temperatures rose and all manner of growth and activity is taking place. The abundant rain has made puddles in the yard and plop, plop, plopping along came a frog in Marge's back yard. It paused for a moment in a drier spot...

Wendy, John and Aidan had Sandy and I over for dinner on Tuesday.

Wendy and Sandy relaxing after the cook's tour.

Then came the barn tour. Included: web cams in the "birthing" stall where the two mama goats will soon have their babies.

Since the ground was still sopping wet, Wendy started moving the boy goats into the barn for the night...






John got home from work in time to enjoy the screened in back porch with the rest of us. A first time this benighted spring. We watched Wendy move the rest of the goats and Austin to the barn...










Toby, Frezz, Fancy, and Sebastian joined us on the porch and Aidan administered lots of TLC...

Soon, it was time for Wendy's delicious dinner. Afterward, Aidan played the piece he has been practicing for four months to be part of his repertoire and that he'll play at a competition next Saturday. Plus, he played some of his accomplished pieces for his Great-Aunt Sandy.

He also made a panorama shot of the sunset we watched happening from the back porch...

And this...