So I made Tom an Ultimate Coconut Cake after my recovery from my back pain event for all of his extra work and chauffeuring.  Here it is:Here is the recipe.  I was intrigued by it since the ingredients are so coconut based.  But It did not look or taste as great as I thought it would.  So I will stick with the coconut cake recipe that I made for him for his birthday.

So the rest of the cake went to the pigs.  As we are in their final days, I decided to bake sweet stuff for them.  I like to bake but cannot eat it, and Tom eats only small amounts of it.  So this is my opportunity to bake things that I want to try out.  I made them two Krusteaz lemon pound cakes.   Then I made them Peabody Hotel Vanilla Muffins.   I took a photo of the recipe when we were at the hotel in Memphis.  So I wanted to try it, and this was the perfect opportunity.

Since the pigs are so fond of jam, I decided to add a little strawberry jam in the middle for some of them.  This definitely helped the flavor per Tom.

And the pigs like them too.

In other farm news, our second hand washer from Habitat for Humanity gave out just after the 30 day warranty.  So Monday a fancy brand new washer arrived:

It was on sale but still expensive.  But we NEED to have a reliable washer here for all the dirt we deal with.

I fed the Jack O Lanterns to the animals this week.  They seemed to enjoy them.

I am still awestruck when I see the sunshine on the sheep’s wool this time of year.  It always make me stop and admire it.

I was up especially early this morning doing chores as it was goat fall maintenance day.  And the sunrise was gorgeous.  Unfortunately the barn camera does not quite capture the red tones in it.

In the afternoon, after the maintenance was done I gathered some plant parts for dyeing.

nettle leaves

Dandelion blossoms

comfrey leaves

willow stems with leaves

Plus I finished drying the ripe figs my mother gave to me on Sunday.  I am trying to feed the unripe ones to the chickens, but I am not sure they are interested.  I will know in the morning if they are gone.  Otherwise I did find some South American and Italian recipes to be able to use them.  Here are the dried ones:

I am also drying some quince that did not make it in the quince-asian pear cider.  I am drying the dye plants as well.

So that is the news from Schoonover Farm!