It’s been another eventful week for us.

Saturday was Tom’s birthday.  It was a relatively low-key celebration for him this year.  We had moved the cows to the donkey pen because their pasture was too muddy.  They seem to be enjoying their new digs

I finally figured out how to feed the alpaca without the sheep stealing the food.  I use this old sheep feeder, and he can use his long neck to reach the feed where the sheep cannot.

We went out to Chuckanut Manor for Tom’s dinner.  Unfortunately it is not as good as it used to be, which is sad.  I got him some bluetooth headphones, A Life Magazine from when he was born, and some cider apple trees.  He received nice presents from our family as well.

On Tuesday Tom had an appointment at Harborview to follow up on his burnt vocal cords.  They are still damaged.  The speech therapists hadn’t done what they were supposed to so we are going to try again.  After the appointment we headed west.  There was an iconic view of the Smith Tower with the Sound and the Olympics.

But then there was an iconic view which also included a ferry.

We drove by the now permanently closed Merchant Cafe.  We had visited the longest running restaurant in Seattle for my birthday last year so this is quite sad.

We went to the Pike Place Market with Ryeleigh.  She absolutely loved it.  Lots of smells.  We were heading to DeLaurenti to buy some Italian foods for Sunday Sauce.  She couldn’t go inside but ended up peeing on the sidewalk, much to the amusement of the nearby vendors.  This is the time of the year to go to the Market as it was much less crowded than usual.

I bought a frozen lasagne as well, and we had it for dinner that evening.  It was really good.  Then it was relaxing time on the couch.

On Wednesday I had my weaving zoom in the morning.  So I decided to let the animals out of the barn first so they could enjoy the brief light more.  I had a great zoom and weaving, but then we let the beagle out.  I think because I let the animals out before the beagle, the peafowl decided to explore our back yard.  The beagle went completely crazy.  She treed two of them who are in the photo.  But then she dug yet again under the fence into the pasture to chase others.  It was mayhem.  I managed to catch her and move her to the porch where she proceeded to chew up our porch gate.  Tom fixed the fencing yet again. The peafowl untreed themselves.  There was peace on the prairie yet again.

Wednesday was my Sunday Sauce day (also called Sunday gravy or sugo).  I had clipped this recipe out of our local newspaper 2 years ago and definitely wanted to make it.  So I assembled the ingredients including this somewhat scary sauce.

I used our pork shoulder, Italian sausage and carrots.  The pepper sauce, canned tomatoes and meatballs came from Delaurenti.  It took all afternoon.

Meanwhile Wally was petted by Tom.

Then the sauce was ready.  We put it over gnocchi that I purchased from DeLaurenti as well.  It was really good.  And an excellent January dinner.  Tom has bought some bread from Three Girls Bakery in the Market to go with it.

This morning I was getting ready to participate in my weekly spinning zoom.  There was a gorgeous sunrise out of my fiber room window upstairs.

I visited my rheumatologist this afternoon, and it was all good news.  Then I came home and made Paprikash and German Red Cabbage for dinner.  I used one of our chickens for the Paprikash.

The dumplings did not work out, but the rest was great.  Tom didn’t try the cabbage, of course.  Another great January meal.

This has been my week so far.  Lots of leftovers again.