Rain

Rain, rain go away.........

I walked past the rain gauge this evening on my way to the barn, just like I do three times everyday. It was empty! Since it's been raining off and on for the last week I thought it must have sprung a leak. Turns out my husband emptied it because it had reached the top at 5 inches. It's still raining.

The horses are huddled together with their tails to the wind just like you see in pictures. Heads hung low, they wait out the rain. The water drips from their manes and runs down their faces and patiently, uncomplaining, they wait.

The chickens go about their business hunting insects, exoskeleton protein pills. They seem undeterred by the precipitation that leaks from above. I doubt they feel the rain against their skin. Feathers are perfect for repelling rain. Think duck.

Dogs get wet, push their way past into the house before you can react and shake off right in front of the couch, shocking the TV watchers from their stupor.

I haven't seen the cat since Sunday.

Come again another day..................

Blog check

Being fairly new to the blog world I just today realized that there are comments on some of my posts. Thanks for the kind words of encouragement.

Now if it would quit raining, I could get to my garden. In the meantime, I'm off to make cheese, glorious cheese... bwahhahhaaaaa.

Challah

I love to bake, especially breads and fruit pies. My favorite bread books are by Peter Reinhart. This recipe comes from his book "The Bread Bakers Apprentice". This is one of the few breads in the book that can be made in one day. Most of them require two days to make.

It's a simple dough with simple ingredients. Milk, eggs, sugar, salt, butter and bread flour. I use quick yeast and mix it with the dry ingredients. It goes through three rises each taking about an hour. The dough is divided into three equal parts and braided to make an attractive loaf on the table. The beautiful brown color on the crust comes from the egg wash before baking and a sprinkle of poppy seed looks nice and gives a subtle citrus taste to the bread. A very good bread with a nice moist crumb and chewy texture.

A Shot of Courage

I now am the proud owner of four dogs. Crazy, huh? What can I say. I love dogs. My dear husband is such an enabler. I think he wanted the new dog just as much as I did. Her name is Tag and she's a working line German Shepherd Dog a few days shy of 1 year old. She comes with some issues. She is on the timid side and is on the bottom of the pack order, but that's okay. I can help her.

Tag and Maddie, our rescued Rottweiler, were outside catching balls I tossed for them. Maddie wears an e-collar because she doesn't always come when called and likes to go visiting. I got tired of chasing after her. She's a character and has a strong personality. She can get dogs to give in to her with just a "look". Call it the evil eye. People love her, dogs respect her.

I was throwing the balls and the dogs would chase after them. Maddie decided to chase Tag and steal her ball instead of going after her own. She would bump into her and make her spit it out.

I had a "lightbulb" moment. I gave Maddie a shot with the e-collar just as she was about to bump Tag in hopes of stealing her ball. The poke caused Maddie to back off. Tag got her courage up after that. She noticed Maddie had softened up on stealing her ball, so she decided to go after Maddie and steal her ball. Turn about is fair play.

We played for almost an hour with both dogs taking turns and playing fair. We'll see how it goes today. If I'm lucky, I won't have to give Maddie a shot so Tag can find her courage.