Dinnertime at Cupcake Ranch

I tried to order the sheep deck chair from Premier last weekend, but it’s back-ordered until the 15th. On the bright side, that gives me two solid weeks to really infiltrate the sheep. I’m making it part of my morning routine (and by “part of my morning routine,” I mean “the entirety of my morning routine,” because I don’t have an actual routine per se, aside from peeing and getting coffee into my gut at some point).

I set up a chair and I’ve been lurking around every morning while they enjoy their fresh hay. My plan is to start handling them a bit as I go. Hopefully by the time the sheep chair arrives, they’ll be less antsy pantsy and it won’t be traumatic for any of us. I might also fashion a little makeshift gate from cattle panels to cordon off the little section around the feeder. Then I can have the deck chair over the corner gate, and everyone who’s not being bumrushed into the chair and trimmed up can be nibbling to calm them down. In fact! Oh, I’ll leave them hayless the night before so they’ll be hungry and relatively less full and squirmy.

Of course, none of my brilliant plans of animal husbandry ever work out. But still. Keep trying!

I bought the grill paint and scrubbed out all my roaster inserts for my roaster re-enameling experiment, but between my Secret Project and Woolfest this weekend I’m going to force myself to wait to actually try it out. I will definitely report back with the results. I hope for success and to start snapping up cheap roasters when I find them on sale, because each can hold a couple pounds of combed top.

I have to go bottle my beer tonight. I blew it off before Christmas, but my 2nd batch in the primary has been sitting there for about 3 weeks, and everyone warns not to leave it in the primary more than a month. I only have enough bottles for the first batch (currently in the secondary), so assuming the gravity is correct, the plan is to bottle that batch and move the other to the secondary. And then start some cider next week! Yip!