Cornerstone Acres Farm 

As those of you who have read my previous blogs know, we recently aquired a couple of lovely barn cats. One of which is named Bob. Well Bob has free run of our hayloft with a ramp that allows him access to the lower level and outside. So far Bob has not chosen that option (although his sister has found her way out and now roams the neighborhood). Does anybody watch the cartoon sitcom "Bob's Burgers"? I'm hoping you have seen the episode where Bob "lives" in the walls, if so you will appreciate the following story. The addtion to our barn consists of a large bulding with essentially another building built within it. From the upper level there is about a 1 or 1-1/2 foot gap all the way around the "floor" that encorporates the insulation and dead air space between the outside wall and the inside wall. Well, OUR Bob decided to fall into an area of this dead space that is not accessable from the lower level. I went up for my morning visit with Bob and to my surprise hear meowing from inside the wall. I attempted to assist in his escape by lowering a 2x4 into the space at a angle hoping he would climb out. He meowed and purred and rolled, but prefered not to climb. I retrieved my laser light from the house and returned to try and entice Bob up the board. We spent at least a 1/2 hour playing attack the light, but nothing resembling an attempt to climb the board. All this time Bob is quite happy for all the play time he's getting - purring happily in the recesses of his wall. Finally about 45 minutes and a stiff neck ache into the ordeal I decided on a rope/noose to airlift him out. At first the rope was another play toy. We spent a good 15 minutes playing with the rope...until that precise moment when he finally stepped both front paws through the loop. Well I snagged him right into that loop and hauled him up. Funny thing, that guy just must have been done playing and was ready to be out of the wall. He never struggled nor did he protest in the least. He is now our very own Bob Belcher.

Now of course on to the Food Network channel. Let's call this show - REALLY Good Eats. No Alton Brown here, but I made one of the most delicious cakes I've ever had. Green tomato cake. If you like spice cake - you'll love this awesomely moist version.

Ingredients

4 cups chopped green tomatoes

1 tablespoon salt

1/2 cup butter

2 cups white sugar

2 eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Place chopped tomatoes in a bowl and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon salt. Let stand 10 minutes. Place in a colander, rinse with cold water and drain.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch baking pan.

3. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat until creamy.

4. Sift together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, soda and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add raisins and nuts to dry mixture; add dry ingredients to creamed mixture. Dough will be very stiff. Mix well.

5. Add drained tomatoes and mix well. Pour into the prepared 9 x 13 inch pan.

6. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean.

Really good with cream cheese frosting - it's quite moist though and hard to frost I did as some of the comments suggested and pureed the chopped green tomatoes after rinsing them. Good luck - it's yummy (and don't tell people what it is until AFTER they try it LOL)

From Food Nework on to RFD-TV.   Greg's training of Blackfoot Charlie is going very well.  He's been on his back riding him around the back pasture three times now.  If the weather would cooperate, he'd have been on him more often.  He really is a very smart, eager and friendly horse.  Greg's perseverance is amazing - I only wish I had the courage to try training a horse from scratch.  We did take a nice long ride just yesterday on Winchester and Amber.  The leaves are changing into their vibrant fall colors already.  I'll wait another week or two and get some good picutres posted.  It is always so lovely up here this time of year. 

Let's see what's happening on Extreme Home Makeover:  No Ty Pennington here, but Greg Wilson has completed the amazing and much needed project of installing the wood stove.  Of course it's one of those things that when you get it put up you really want to try it out.  It works great, nevermind  that the day was 65 degrees outside! 

The Home Shopping Network has come to Cornerstone Acres Farm.  Or perhaps I should say home selling network.  Hemi found a new home with a breeder just north of us.  Egg production has finally reached the point where we are able to offer some for sale.  We even have our sign out front:

 Now we'll be moving on to Planet Green.  Don't know if anybody has actually seen the show, but I liked it when I watched it...the Fabulous Beekman Boy's.  They were a gay couple and they were more of a cheese making operation.  I also don't believe that they knew a thing about their goats (other than making cheese) but hey it's the only show on TV that I could think of that actually featured goat farming.  Not much going on here in our goat world.  Rosie does seem to bet getting larger already. Maybe she's going to carry a large litter - or she's just getting fat.  Getting ready to get their barn cleaned out this week and filling up the compost pile.  Lily is still milking pretty good even though I missed a few milking days.  I was thinking today on how much of a "natural" she is at this whole milking thing.  I'm so glad she is my first milker - she's taught me even though she's never done it before herselt.  She runs right to the milking stand,  jumps on the stand, moves her feet where I need them to be, stands perfectly and goes back to the pen like a dream.   She has even taken very well to nursing kids who are not her own while she's on the stand.  I've been "training"  her daughter in the same way I worked with her as a little one.  I'm thinking she will be as super as her mother.  

And lastly we are moving the dial (or pushing a button as we do nowadays) to feature the TVGuide channel.  Although I've never watched the show I've seen one advertised called "Nails".  I figured since the other major project this week is getting the goats nails (hooves) done before the snow flies this was an appropriate show.  I don't expect any painting, but trimming will be the task at hand the next fine sunny day we have.  I really need to get the milking stand inside soon before winter.

Well, enough TV time for today.

Until next time....