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When we first moved out here we instantly fell inlove with the pond in the middle of our acreage. I told Den that since it was staying deep despite the drought that i bet there were fish in it! Especially since you could see the remains of someones old trot line. He said no way..no fish could live in water that dirty! Well ive fished a lot of okie red ponds and i know they can! But being a good wife i said nothing. Then the other weekend he came in all excited from shooting frogs in the pond and said.. there are fish in our pond!!! I had to say..i told you so i have to admit :) Since then we've had a blast fishing the pond. Since the droughts been over its swelled in size to a little over an acre and we are catching a whole lot of sunfish and a whole lot of the mystery fish. We thought it was a large mouthed bass. A friend insists they are crappies. The largest ones weigh about 2 lbs and have an awfully big mouth for a crappie! This is one that i caught..
And here is one that Den caught..
Can you name that fish??
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Theres something about the coming of cool crisp fall weather that makes me hungry for soups, stews and roasts! Here in Oklahoma Ike has brought us an early cool spell, which will probably be followed by indian summer since ive taken the air conditioner down for the winter! This is my favorite pork roast recipe! Ingredients: 4 lb or larger boston butt roast 8 potatoes peeled and quartered 1 lb baby carrots 1 red delicious apple (or other sweet apple) cut in eights 1 small red onion sliced and ringed. 3 cloves of garlic 1 tsp safe 1/2 tsp thyme 1 tsp black pepper salt to taste olive oil apple juice Preheat over to 350 degrees. In a small bowl mix together sage, thyme, salt and pepper. To prepare roast cut each clove of garlic lengthwise so that you have thin slivers of garlic. Make small random cuts in the roast and insert the garlic slivers. Then drizzle the roast with olive oil and sprinkle with the spice mixture. Place the roast with the fat side down in a roasting pan. Cook uncovered for 20 minutes. Turn the roast over so that the fat side is up and reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Roast uncovered for about 2 1/2 hours (longer for a larger roast). Turn roast over and add vegetables with the potatoes on the bottom followed by the carrots, apples and onions. Place a couple pieces of apples and onions on the top of the roast. Add apple juice so that there is about an inch of apple juice in the bottom of the pan. Cover and return to oven for an additional hour and 15 minutes or until vegetables are cooked and meat shreddeds easily. Remove from oven and enjoy!
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 Yesterday i got a really neat lesson in Sheep Psychology!
I had shut the last ewe to lamb and her twin lambs in the barn because the lambs were a little weak at birth. I think her milk was a bit slow to come in and they were born on a really damp chilly day. After 2 days i was satisfied that they were hale and hearty and turned her out with the other sheep at feeding time. They all ate together just fine..then my lesson began!
I have turned all the other new mothers back out within a day or two..if i ever penned them at all since they are hair sheep and used to lambing on their own with the flock with no problems. Not this time!
Sugar..who is a very sweet white ewe finished eating and called her lamb to nurse. Her lamb was munching the hay that id just tossed in for them and ignored her. She called for about 5 minutes. Her lamb kept ignoring her. Her lamb is about 2 months old. Then her gaze fell upon the 2 new lambs by their mom and she marched right over and said..give me my babies!!! Their mom of course struck a foot at her and said..these are my lambs leave them alone!! The ewes started butting heads and several other ewes wandered over to watch. One of the other ewes kind of lured one of the babies off to one side and started licking her tushie and nudging her to nurse. That made sugar mad and she went after that ewe! I was afraid the lambs were going to get hurt and went in and move all the flock away from the new mom.
Sugar found her lamb and nursed her and i thought that would be that. Not so. As soon as i left the pasture she went right back for those lambs that she was sure were hers! Once again a bunch of ewes gathered round them. It was like a school yard fight where two ppl are fighting and all the others gather round to egg them on!
So once again i went in and broke up the fight. I left the pasture and the ram went to stand between the new mom and sugar. She backed off a little and stood there..then 2 other ewes came up and they all three backed off the ram! And bam the two ewes got into it again!
Id had enough and was afraid one of the lambs was going to get seriously hurt. I know they need to work things out but i guess not til the lambs are older! I picked up one lamb and held it low and pony (the new mom) followed me right into the barn stall with it. Then i realized that the door was tied open and id have to set the lamb down and untie it. I figured shed take it back out. Nope! She had had enough too! She took her lamb to the back of the stall and then looked at me like..okay now go get the other one would ya! So i did lol.
I'll leave them penned for a week or so until the lambs are big enough and smart enough to get out of the way when the ewes fight..and hopefully sugar wont still think that they are hers!
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