(Rainbow) Pudding

As a Heinz 57 Variety American some percentage of me is Irish (NO REALLY) so in honor of those those ancestors I usually celebrate the day with corned beef and cabbage, a non-Guinness beer, and some article of clothing that is green. Growing up we only observed the latter. My mom was a notorious pincher. If you weren't wearing green - WATCH OUT!

Four Wheel Chicken Chasing

Someone I talked to recently confided in me that their kids sometimes let their chickens out for sport. They attempt to catch them using nets while riding a four wheeler. But lately, when the chickens hear the four wheeler start up, they all run back to the coop. That's just no fun.

Here are my tips for catching chickens:
- Do so in low light conditions
- Move slowly until the last second, then make a wild lunge
- Pin them down across their wings
- Ignore their distressed clucks. They'll forget in a few minutes.
- If at night, lead them using a flash light

Spring Planting & Bloom Day

In the past two weeks there have been numerous signs that spring is here. Since I pay attention to my plants and garden, I have become better at noticing exactly how nature ramps up for the growing season.

- Robins
- Red-winged blackbird
- Thousand-leggers
- Chickens are laying more eggs
- waking up in the middle of the night because of wind/thunder
- Trees in bloom
- We can finally air out our stanky house of our germs and filth!
- Bats (I think they woke up early - we've had really warm weather this week)
- All sorts of budding and growing plants
- a million complaints on Facebook about allergies
- First dandelion flower >: l

Buckwheat Chips?? (蕎麦掻き, aka Sobagaki)

It took a bit of detective work to figure out what exactly was going on with this recipe. For one thing, buckwheat chips sounds really a lot like "cow chips." I was successful, eventually - several pages in Japanese translated to English then lots and lots of googling.

Picture mostly unrelated, but hilarious!

Goat's Milk Ice Cream

Only a few days into it and I can tell there's a huge difference between my attempts at milking last year and this year. The obvious: Last year I traded time with the kids - they got to run with her during the day and learn how to be goats, and at night I separated them. I got anywhere from 3-5 cups of milk each morning. It was enough, and then in May she got into some pine needles and LET ME TELL YOU WHAT: That tasted like a funky old goat butt from then on out.

I think Adam Sandler knows what that might be like.