What a life...

Today was a beautiful day out in the country, sunny and starting to warm up a little.  I went into town today (about 20 minutes away) in search of a bread loaf pan, some gardening books, and some groceries for our friends' visit next weekend.  Oh, and some more pants for Joey to wear to work.  I went to the Salvation Army thrift store to see if they had a bread pan, but no luck.  I did find a set of 20 notecards with sheep on them, though.  They cost me 32 cents.  (Wish I could say the same for my groceries.)  Next up was the Macomb Public Library.  They have this awesome section in the upstairs where all the non-fiction books are that has very tall shelves and has a kinda tucked-away feeling.  Every time I go back there, I always spend a long time flipping through interesting books.  And it's really quiet.  And then I start thinking, how long have I been back here?  How long are they open today?  What if they closed the library and no one knew I was back here? (Which would probably be o.k. with me, I'd just stay in the 600's section (science and technology) around 630-640 (yes, that is the Dewey Decimal System) which are my favorite books: essays and history of farming, gardening, and animals.  (Yes, I am a nerd.)  Here is a list of the books I did check out:


The Shepherd's Guidebook by Margaret Bradbury
An American Homeplace by Donald McCaig
Betty Crocker's Picture Cookbook (a reprint of the book originally pub. 1950!)
52 Weekend Garden Projects by Nancy Bubel
Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois
Growing and Using Herbs in the Midwest by Rosemary Divock (coincidence her name is Rosemary???)
Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally by Alisa Smith & J.B. MacKinnon


Should be some good reading, I'll let you know.  Oh yeah, I did get a cheesy bean and rice burrito from Taco Bell between the thrift store and the library which I ate in my car in the library parking lot.  And then a grandma and her grandchildren got in the car next to me and she kept staring at me like I was some creep eating Taco Bell in the library parking lot.  Which I'm not, I promise!  Interesting how I picked up a book on eating locally after I got fast food.  Didn't even realize that until I typed it.


So then I got groceries and Joey's pants for work.  When I got home, Joey pulled in from work right after me (I must have planned that perfectly so he could carry the groceries inside.)  We let the chickens and the ducks out to roam the yard and Phyllis and Paddy out of the barn into the pasture with the rest of the ewes.  Patrick is frolicking now-adorable.  And the other ewes barely paid him any attention.  He's just "one of the girls" now.  But he still sticks pretty close to his mom.  Joey is looking to borrow some shears now from someone so he can shear around the other ewe's backsides tomorrow to clean them up before they lamb.  Phyllis was sheared right before we got her in January but our merinos haven't been sheared since we got them.  They are big woolly messes right now.  


I am going to try and make homemade bread tomorrow (hence the search for the loaf pan.)  I didn't find a used one so my dad is bringing one of my mom's extras with him when he visits us tomorrow to pick up his old grain binder that he bought out here but hasn't taken home yet.  Can't wait to show him our lamb!  I'll give you the recipe if the bread turns out.

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