Roosters and Roasters

The day started with our first ever rooster crow at Havenacre Homestead. He did it twice, both very croaky. How often do people witness that?! 😅 Too bad it happened at 5:15am. Too bad it happened on a day I didn't need to get up at 5:30am. Still, pretty special we got to experience our rooster's first crow. 

Today was my home catch-up day, although I didn't spend much time at home... my day involved a lot of driving around with a few hours in between at home to cram my tasks. Tire rotation, chiropractor appointment, home to pick up the girls, dropping them off at school, home again for a few hours, lunch with my sister, home again, packing food for the Backpack Food Program with people from church, home again, then picking up the girls from school. 

My at-home tasks were laundry, figuring out what to do with the last of our goat milk, and canning tomatoes. I am probably going to attempt a wild fermented cottage cheese with the goat milk. Stay tuned for details in a future post. 

I wanted to make marinara sauce with the tomatoes (a gift from someone at church; my garden still isn't producing much). One article I read suggested putting halved tomatoes in a 350 degree oven for five minutes to get the skins to peel super easily. That method didn't work for me. I suspect my oven thermometer is off and it didn't get hot enough right away. Eventually, I gave up and put all the tomatoes in stock pots to boil. After they boiled, I ran them through a strainer and put them in a roaster to reduce. Of course this took all day with my little bits of time, so the roaster reduction will happen overnight. Maybe I can get to the actual canning step tomorrow after school?

On the way home from picking up the girls, we swung by a garage sale, something on the list of things we wanted to do before they leave Saturday. Garage sales are a new concept for them; they don't exist in Japan. The girls were amazed at all the random things for sale. Yua got another Adidas sweatshirt, this one for $3. She debated a  small rolling suitcase for $2 but decided to pass. Hohomi debated a small ceramic Christmas tree shaped dish for $0.50 and also passed. I found the exact high chair I want to buy for Baby H, gently used, complete with straps, a tray liner, and a seat cushion, all for $15! Score! I also got some magnetic cupboard door locks.

We hopped in the car and then noticed another garage sale across the street a few houses down. They wanted to check that one out too. No new purchases for them, although the scrapbooking supplies captured their attention. I got some Lincoln logs to add to our small collection. 

Our supper was tator tot hotdish (another thing on the to-do list before Saturday). Big hit, possibly Hohomi's favorite meal we've had. Yua said this was her second favorite; porcupine meatballs are her first. After supper we had tea and plum pie/ice cream on the deck with G's parents. Mopsy, Raz, and Misty joined us (we let Misty out of the pasture to come onto the deck). They behaved themselves, for the most part. 😜 The cats tried to climb on the table and Misty attempted to snitch some pie.