Well, this past weekend, we were out and about on the farm, and around the local area.. Digging in my gardens, it was startling to see just how dry some of it is already.. then we did some work in the pastures and while my front big pasture still has some wet area’s, my slew is down to mud, and my pond is down by half..
Lets break pond info.. this our eighth spring, two springs, the pond overflowed and joined the slew area, five springs the pond filled and would be full to the brim right now, and this year.. we are down by half.. hmmmm
Then I went for walk in my past cow pasture (aka Small pasture) and was very surprised to realize that is green yes but also dry.. my wetter area’s did not swish under foot, so I headed to my lowest spot and its summer dry as well..
The weather gave us April in March and I have a late june water dryout in the first two weeks of april! Just to drive home, Farmer R was working in his back field, and he had dust behind his tractor, normally, he can’t even get on the land at this point, its to wet, I’m flood zone, that never flooded this spring..
Needless to say, we have already put and extra gutter, the rainbarrels and are looking at doing an extra roof or two to create a bigger storage amount.. my back well which is drilled is and will produce water as its nice and deep but my front house well is already showing of a dropping water table.. this is not good, as we typically do major house cleaning in the spring as we have lots of water, good thing I did alot last month..
I think we are going to have to start our late summer/early fall water rationing in regards tothe house now, instead of late june or july..hmmm I need some good heavy spring rains so fill up a dozen or so 55 gallon drums..
What is this going to do in regards to my hay crop? Garden crops etc.. not bad enough that everything is off in regards to starting timing, now I am going to have to worry about watering.. I am going to have to do even more dry land spacing in the gardens and mulch heavily to keep what I have in the soil..
One more reason to really like those hugelbeet’s, they hold alot of water in the wood and release it much slower for the plants.. So anyone in ontario that got hit with this early spring, also finding it dry in their area?
We took a lovely little 3.6 km hike in the woods and around a bit of a little lake yesterday, it was the yellow loop, come join us on the hike in a series of photos I took!
Now as fate would have it, we saw the only bigger wildlife on the walk near the end, as we were just about to join up to the smaller walk to the lake and back, and it was this handsome big fella..
What can I say, I didn’t have ham in the freezer but I wanted the meat to be 0 mile.. so put the old thinking cap on, I do have some very nice legs of lamb, so I cured up two of them, one is being smoked and slow cooked for later use but this one was baked into a lovely lamb ham with root veggies for our Easter Dinner. I think that the color turned out great, we had it for supper on good friday, and then yesterday when we came home late from our hike, we cubed up all the veggies, some of the cured lamb and made a stew, still have a good feed of it left for today, plus lots of cured lamb for another dish or two to be figured out.
We moved the trough to a bright sun spot by the front of the main garden fence and we filled it up 3/4 of the way with half done compost from last falls pile, it has heated once and has been turned by the pigs once.. once it was filled up, I watered it down to get it going again..
Now I placed glass on top to act as a greenhouse effect, the big piece will stay, but I have a small overlap piece on the end that can be added or removed with ease to increase or reduce the heat I can easily throw a thick old wool blanket to drape over it, on a very cold night but as the compost will act as a slow acting heat matt, at this time of the years is very unlikely that it will be needed.
I’m sure that credit goes to someone or something with the TCD logo but it was a repost on the site so just know it was not me, and we will go from there..
Got my back to the wall, got my bedding, and as many eggs as I can cover and the urge to be a momma is ruling me.. Try and take my eggs and I will peek you.. Don’t even look at me wrong or I will warn you right where you can go! LOL Don’t mess with me, I’m a warrior momma..
Flour, a bit of olive oil, lots of mixed dried herbs, two duck yolks and a touch of cold water.. 
Mix, and work into a dough.. allow to rest before rolling it out.. Split the dough into two, roll your top first and you want it about 15 percent bigger then your bottom roll out, so when you split it, make one just a bit bigger for the top.. use your flour to keep it all from sticking and roll out and then lift and move over your top to rest, then roll your bottom out, and then run your ravioli pasta rolling pin over it or score it with a pizza cutter in lines. 
Fill them with a scant 1/2 tsp of the filling of your choice. In this case, finely diced slow roasted pork hock, minced onion and finely diced celery with a touch of my homemade green pepper pasta sauce to bind it together. Carefully lift your top over and then match your roller and roll over it once slowly and with good force.. then take your pizza cutter and finish the lines. 
Pinch the edges on each one as you lift them up and lightly flour them as you do so.. then allow to rest at least five min, just to help your seals a bit.. Heat up a big pot of salt boiling water, and slip them in one at a time, the water should not be at a roiling boil so you can’t see but it should be boiling enough that the ravioli will lift within the first 15 to 20 seconds after it hits the bottom as you don’t want them stick.. they will take about 2 min or so to cook though an float to the top, have a cast iron just warm with a touch of melted butter, as they rise, slip them out with a slotted spoon and move them over to the butter pan. 
Toss them to coat them in butter, it will thicken a touch with the fresh pasta, give it a touch sea salt and black pepper and a put a little bit of basil on top. Dig in and enjoy.. DH gave it a 2 thumbs up!
Just another Day on the Farm 