Time for Peach Cobbler!

There are few things that I enjoy more than the smell of fresh peaches and a hot, fresh peach cobbler right out of the oven (although the smell of a fresh cut hay field comes in a close second!)! My little peach tree went into overtime this year making those delicious smelling little fruits... must've been all that sweet talking I did ;). I've been picking peaches, peeling peaches and freezing peaches all week and now it's time to reap the benefits! We're having peach cobbler and peach daiquiris this weekend before I head off to Brasstown, NC Sunday afternoon to start my week long metal smithing workshop at the John C. Campbell School of Folk Art. (Hopefully I'll have lots of pics and stories to share next week =)
Here's the recipe if you get a hold of some fresh Georgia peaches in your market (or I like to use blackberries too when they're in season, apples work well, cherries or even pears) and it's super easy too!

Peach Cobbler

1 stick butter, melted

1 cup plus 3 Tablespoons granulated sugar, divided

1 cup all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 to 4 ripe peaches, peeled, pitted and thinly sliced

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Heat oven to 375

Pour melted butter into a 2 quart baking dish (11 x 7 or 8 inch square). In mixing bowl combine 1 cup of sugar, the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir to blend. Stir in milk and vanilla until blended. Pour the batter over the melted butter. Toss peaches with the remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. Arrange peach slices over the batter. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. The top will be browned and the edges will begin to pull away from the pan.

Don't forget to top it off with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

ENJOY! =)

The Chick Inn has Arrived!

Even though it's cold and rainy I am a happy girl today and so are my little chick a loos - Their chicken condo (aka a coop but it's just too cute to be called a coop) has arrived! So cute that I see 3 other folks decided they needed one too! I asked where the other 3 were going and 1 is going to Dublin, GA, one somewhere near Savannah and the other is going to Lakeland, FL. I ordered it from a company in Pennsylvania (it's built by the Amish which I think is pretty neat in itself) last Thursday and I wasn't expecting it for another 2-3 weeks but they called yesterday and said they were in South Carolina with it and they would have it here by 10am today. Talk about a fast turn-around time! And it matches our horse barn perfectly down to the green tin roof! Some of my neighbors drove by as they were unloading it and I think one nearly broke his neck trying to turn around to see what in the world we were doing ;). They had this neat little pulley system that just rolled it to the end onto a hydraulic lift and then to the ground. They put little rubber wheels on it and the driver and Dan just pushed it where it needed to go! Pretty nifty!

After we got it situated I had to go get the ladies and introduce them to their new home. They've been tucked away in the barn for the last few days because it was just so bitter cold but now they have their own little warm home to come and go as they please. Laverne is checking out all the new "bedrooms" ;).

And here comes Mona to see what's going on. Nothing entices Laverne quite like food - the others came and went but not her! If there's food involved she's staying put! In fact I'm looking out the window now and I think she's still in there!

Now I've decided the chicken condo needs a name and I've about settled on "The Chick Inn" (a play on check in -I know I'm dorky ;) unless someone else has an idea I like better. And then I'll have someone on Etsy make me a little wooden sign to hang out front. =)

If you ever need a chicken coop or a barn - they deliver full size horse barns too! - I highly recommend Horizon Structures! We found them at the Georgia National Fair in Perry this past fall and I have been dreaming about this cute little coop since I laid eyes on it in October. So Merry late Christmas to me and the chick a loos!

Hope your Sunday is filled with pleasant little surprises! =)

Mandy says...

"Thank you" for her hay! And this is why I do what I do - well besides the fact that I love it but if it weren't for them I probably wouldn't do this on the scale that I do now. My work supports all the critters here on our little farm including vet bills, feed and the occassional treat which can add up to quite a bit this time of year. Hay has been steadily increasing in price due to the drought we've been having here in the south and the rising fuel costs we experienced this summer. I bought hay this past fall at $6.25 a bale and when you need 100 bales to get through the winter well that's quite a bit of green they're chewing up out there! But I wouldn't trade them for anything. I love Mandy (aka My Woman) and all my "kids" more than I can express but she and I have a special bond. I bought her when she was 6 and I was 19 and that was nearly 18 years ago. I had wanted a horse since I could actually speak the word horse - which my mom claims was my first word ;). I asked for a horse for every occassion I could possibly imagine getting a gift - I even asked the Easter Bunny to bring me a horse instead of an Easter basket. And when I was in elementary school I wouldn't wear any clothing (including socks, undies and pjs) unless it had horses on it. Drove my poor mom batty! Luckily Jordache was all the rage then and I think I wore the same 2 pairs of jeans with horses running across the pockets every single day. To be at least a tiny bit cooperative I would settle for unicorns too. I had the most extensive My Little Pony collection and I still have my Breyer horse collection. I would get extra credit from my 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Nash, because I used the word pony or horse in every single sentence that we had to construct with our daily vocabulary list. It didn't matter what the word was I always found a way to incorporate horses into it. For some reason I still remember the sentence I used for the word "quality". I wrote "If you own a horse and ride alot you will need a quality saddle." To say I was obsessed would have been an understatement.

Of course no one ever bought me a horse because we really didn't have anywhere to keep one. I begged my parents to let me have one and keep it at my grandparents (which my grandparents agreed to) but mom said it wouldn't be fair to ask them to take care of a horse. There was no way we could get over there every day during the week and deep down I knew she was right. So as a teenager instead of saving up for clothes or a car I saved up my money to buy a horse and pay for her board. Shortly after I bought her my parents closed on a house that had 8 acres and a barn and I was ecstatic! After months of trekking back and forth between my house and her boarding facility Mandy could finally come home and live with me! My boyfriend at the time was getting increasingly jealous that I was spending more time in the barn and riding than I was with him. So he bought his own horse, King (pictured above with Louis in the barn), so he could join us I suppose. Mandy doesn't much like human men and she never approved of him. If he even attempted to ride her she would immediately try to buck him off. I learned to trust her judgement in men and always introduced her to my dates - call me crazy but she was and still is an excellent judge of human character. And when she said Dan was a keeper well he's a keeper ;). Anyway the ex-boyfriend and I obviously parted ways but I couldn't bear to part with King and neither could Mandy so I acquired him on a trade out deal of sorts. We had bought a horse trailer together so the deal I proposed was that he keep the trailer and sell it and I'd keep King. So 18 years later and a move to the other side of the state here we are. We don't do much riding any longer because King is nearing 30 and has arthritis (he did alot of barrel racing in his younger days) and I don't think his sight is anywhere near what it used to be because he gets startled quite easily now. These days our riding is pretty much limited to a leisurely stroll around the lake here and that's perfectly ok with me because I enjoy their company more than anything else. So again all of us here at the little farm say "Thank you" to those who help support us and those wishing us well too! =)

Pieces of me

It’s often assumed that I grew up on a farm but actually I grew up in a subdivision surrounded by houses on every side. I think I was born with an affinity for living on a farm though and I probably inherited that from my mom’s parents. They had a little 5 acre farm where my grandfather raised goats, a garden where they grew most of their produce for the year, pear and apple trees, a little creek that ran through their property where I’d collect crawdaddies (crawfish as most people know them), seemed they always had at least one cow and he always had 5 or 6 Beagles. Running rabbits, as he called it, was a favorite past time even though it did not meet my approval. I remember having "talks", or more like lectures, with his dogs and telling them they absolutely could not/should not harm any bunnies. There were times when they had chickens and the occasional pig but my grandfather had a fondness in particular to goats. I spent nearly every weekend there and most days during summer vacation preferring that to staying home and playing with all the kids in the neighborhood. I’d call my granddaddy and ask if I could come over and even though my mom would say “They may have other things to do today” his answer was always the same – “Sure little buddy!” I was his corn shucking, bean shelling, tomato picking, dog feeding, goat herding buddy and I loved every minute of it. My grandfather passed away in 1997 but I know he’d be right at home here (and sometimes I think he is) on Wolf Skin Road helping me collect all the pecans that have made their way to the ground.

Cluck Cluck

I've had a couple of requests to share more chicken mugshots so here you go! Say "hi" to Mona =)