Monday, January 26, 2009

Winter days



The winter days may be dark and gray, but there is no doubt spring is on its way! We ordered a bunch of vegi-seeds and planing on getting a big crop in this spring. We got some really nice heirlooms like the "early Wonder Beet" and "Kentucky Wonder bean" and "Moon and Start Watermelon". Last year I only had time to get the seedlings in the ground and i didn"t get to see the through the season, although there was still some boccoli waiting for me in November. We hope to be in NY around April, to move into our new CABIN! Hopefully we will be able to get everything in the ground it time- of course we will have lots of help from Saule by then I'm sure...



Yippie! Everybody has been helping get it ready for our arrival, working on the yard, the goats, the house- Its been like an old fashioned bard raising, sadly not all together but same idea. We still have lots of projects to complete, but its livable, and we are really looking forward to giving it our final touches.

The goats are all due to kid some time around april/may, so there is going to be lots and lots going on at home. We are planning a goat roast for some time in the early summer and hope everyone can come! bring your drums, whistles, kazoos, fireworks, and tents. more on that later.

Any way for now we have been really enjoying our time here together. Pollo's mother cooks up delicious feasts every sunday. We spend lots of time with each other, and took really nice hike out to a castle and lake near here this past weekend. My latest projects are homemade ginger ale, fudge, and sour kraut! Which i fermented for about a month and turned out great! yum yum....

I do miss our days in Central where we would sip juice and lay around with naked baby, but living here inside the towers and walls of a medieval castle is pretty nice as well.

Dust of Snow


Dust of Snow by Robert Frost (1923)

The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.




Hello world! Here we are back on the map again after a few month hiatus. We have made our way back around the globe and are currently sending this from our big comfy cozy bed here in Vilnius. Its cold and rainy outside, but that doest stop the adventures of jungle baby!



We got her Lithuanian birth certificate today- which means she is officially Lithuanian! Yippee! Not that we didn't already know that from those big blue eyes of hers. So now she has three passports! lucky girl...and Pollos green card application was approved! So looks like we will all be legal now...wondering if they will send us a collar and a tag in the mail the way they do when you license your dogs....

Lately Saules best time of day is in the morning and she is really allot of fun. Giggling and playing with us. She roles around in the bed to find her tete, and wakes him up. She's more fun everyday (IMHO!) and thats a good thing because right now she runs the show round 'here :)

Shes almost got some teeth coming through, we know this because she tells us how much of a pain they are every evening. She still hates tummy time, prefers standing, and we figure she will walking any day now.... forget crawling... not going to happen. She's drooling all the time, and giving lots of cute sloppy kisses.



Uncle jesse came to visit last week, and we all had allot of fun. He was a great help with everything, even Saule at the end of a long da teething we took lots of walks in the old town and went to see the fish in the super market. We went to the KGB prison and i nursed her on the floor in the torture chamber. lol. He just happened to come during the week when Lithuania kicked the Russians out back in the '90s, so we enjoyed lots of related parades and such at the parliament. Saule even got to witness her first political protest :)


me and Saule made oatmeal raisin cookies and they were so good! oatmeal may help lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease but did you know its also linked to better milk supply!? bring on the cookies :)



3/4 cup butter, softened
* 3/4 cup white sugar
* 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar (can use white if you cant get brown like me :)
* 2 eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 2 3/4 cups rolled oats
* 1 cup raisins
*

* DIRECTIONS
* Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
* In large bowl, cream together butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs and vanilla until fluffy. Stir together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Gradually beat into butter mixture. Stir in oats and raisins. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
* Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown. Cool slightly, remove from sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.