Get ready

I woke up this morning and all I could smell in my kitchen was Macaroni Pie (think baked mac and cheese but way better). I will finally get around to posting my recipe for this small piece of heaven on earth :) I have a few variations of the recipe and we may explore all of them, or maybe I'll explore them all and have a tasting at the house and the winner will be declared. So many options, so little time. :)

Calf Update:
Judd and Treva have taken wonderfully to each other. After reading several articles on the dangers of raising dairy bulls on the bottle, we heeded the suggestion to allow Treva and the herd to raise him. He is not yet given full access to the herd, he has a nice room in the smaller part of the barn where the pigs used to live. He is close enough for them to see but far enough that they can't quite touch.

Treva had no issue letting the little guy nurse and he has all the nursing instincts working in full force. She was not keen on the headbutting of her udder however and has since taught him not to do that or at least how to anticipate her leg when she has had enough of the bumping. We started them off slowly by putting him on her while she was in the stanchion but by the second day, when he was around meeting the others, she had no problem standing around and letting him nurse in the open. Quinn is the most interested, I think he feels the kinship of being an orphan calf. Of course he didn't have a Treva to mother him :( While I've heard wonderful things about Dexter's and their ability to adopt calves, I would say hands down that a Jersey is better.

The weather has warmed up nicely today, Judd will get more time out to play in the first corral and Treva will go in with him when it is time to nurse. She is getting fairly big now that she is 6 months pregnant, though Christmas doesn't look quite so big being 9 months pregnant - it must be a perspective thing. Well once again we are on calf watch and will let you know when the blessed day occurs.

Now, if you've never heard of Macaroni pie, I'd suggest you read up a bit more, forget what you thought you knew; mine is better :) Oh and the image above is not a pic of one of mine but it was the closest one I could find to give you an idea :)


photo courtesy: lilandra's flickr account