Beef and Carrot Yum

As Pixie gets older, we look for ways to fill her life with small luxuries. Recently, we have been making her food from scratch. This delight contains raw hamburger, raw beef liver, one soft-boiled egg: shell and all, carrots, brown rice, brewer’s yeast, and her dose of glucosamine/chondroitin. We add regular dry dog food for texture. She LOVES it.

Apparently, the calcium in the egg shells balances the phosphorus in the meat. Bones would do this in the “wild”. The vegetables are cooked soft, as partially digested vegetables would be in a wolf’s prey. It’s nice to know for sure what we are feeding her and very nice to see her enjoy something we prepared for her.

Careen’s Considerations:

1. Make sure there are hooks in the cob walls to hang hammocks from!

2. Mixing one’s own little batch of cob gives the stomper complete control of the batch. Dancing alone has it’s merit.

3. Really wet batches are easy on the body and quick to mix.

4. A nice little pot of tea makes breaks more special. (Especially fermented and rolled Dong Ding! Thank you for leaving some, Careen!)

5. Carve out little Fairy Corners by guiding growth and weeding out even native invasives.

6. Make sure wood embedded in cob stay nice and dry. Here is her idea for window installation we are considering.

7. When the cob is not doing what you want it to do and you become mad at the walls, sleep on it.

Guest House

The tent fits perfectly on our little deck. It is a perfect little tea room, napping hut, matinee theater, or just an escape from hungry mosquitoes.

Careen, contemplating

Greg with oatmeal

Cobbing Feet; Busy Feet

Nathan and Wally

Careen, contemplating

Greg with oatmeal

Cobbing Feet; Busy Feet

Nathan and Wally

Jammy Robertsons

1/2 c. BUTTER
1/4 c. SUGAR (I used lavender sugar)
1 Tbsp. LEMON ZEST
1 1/2 c. FLOUR
1/4 tsp. BAKING POWDER
A squeeze of LEMON JUICE 
A splash each of VANILLA and ALMOND EXTRACTS
A bit of your favorite FRUIT JAM

Cream butter, sugar and lemon zest until smooth. Add flour and lightly squeeze with fingers until uniformly crumbly. Add lemon juice and the vanilla and almond extracts. Use hands to work into a big ball of thick paste.

Roll out to 1/4″ thick and cut into small squares. Depress your finger into the center of each. Poke little holes with a fork around the edges. Dollop a tiny bit of your favorite jam into the fingerprints. (Pictured: Beverly Kramer’s Homemade Strawberry Jam)

Bake in a moderately hot oven (I use a wood stove, but 350 degrees should work) until lightly brown. Eat with a nice cup of strong, hot tea and a worthy friend.

P.S. I hid a chocolate chip in a couple. Surprise!

male

This is the male wasp. He showed up first. The males wait for the females to find this log and lay eggs in the larvae of the horn-tail wasps. Thanks for letting us know what’s inside! Luckily, this post is not load-bearing and is  temporary.

female

The males are big. About 2.5 inches. The female is huge: 3.5 or so. She has a long ovipositor that looks like a ferocious stinger. Intimidating but not aggressive. She showed up a few days later and started carefully exploring the post, tapping and moving along slowly. There were dozens of males to a handful of females.

When she found the spot where the larvae were snuggled, she started drilling into the wood with her ovipositor. Her rear end sort of flipped inside-out and the ovipositor forked on either side of her abdomen. (The pictures would be better had I not been completely freaked out by the sight of her!)

drilling

The drill took only 5-10 minutes.

laying eggs

Then she deposited her eggs in the horn-tail wasp’s larvae. And took off. The males buzzed around for days afterward, waiting for the young females to emerge. We missed the hatching, sadly.

male 2

So many little (and big) wonders to see and learn from surround us.

End of lesson.