Crockpot Borshch

A certain someone has a birthday tomorrow so I am making one of her favorite dishes -- borshch (aka borscht).

I was making stock from soup bones (already a derivation from the recipe) when I had an idea. I am going to make several freezer bag portions that can be just thrown in the crockpot when needed.

The first thing I did is make stock. I threw about 6 soup bones in with a lot of water and added carrots, onions, celery, garlic, wine, tomato juice, salt, and pepper.

Then I separately chopped portions of cabbage, beets, and beef, and put them equally in three freezer bags. When the broth is cool I will divide it into thirds and add it to the freezer bags. I'll freeze two of them and we'll have the other for dinner tomorrow night.

I'd like to say happy birthday to my darling wife, who gets sweeter as she gets riper. (That's because the complex sugar are breaking down in to simpler, tastier ones.) I love you Nikki.

Goat ownership -- day one

My morning greeting

Meet Penny and Albert

Meet the newest additions to our family -- Albert and Penny, our pet goats. Albert is the one with silver fur and is a wether (neutered male). Penny is the one with reddish fur and is a doeling. Albert is a Spanish-Savannah cross and Penny is a Spanish-Boer cross. Here's how we wound up with goats:

We wanted a small animal project for our time in Montana. Our original thought was laying hens. We asked our landlady when we moved in and she said she didn't care but that they would likely attract skunks and weasels. No thanks. We thought some more and decided we could get a dairy goat. We'd have lots of fresh milk for drinking and cheesemaking. We'd also save money on travel because we'd never be able to leave. That didn't actually bother us but we had trouble finding any dairy goats for sale. We were referred to a goat rancher named Yvonne Tucker, who raises meat goats south of Pendroy.

She didn't have any but gave us a few leads and also made a fairly convincing argument for why we should buy a couple of meat goats from her. We called the other leads but struck out. Meat goats it is.

Sunday morning we went out to see Yvonne and her husband Craig's operation, Smoke Ridge. They have hundreds of meat goats. They sell a lot for meat but also appear to be one of the big breeders of Spanish goats in the U.S. We first saw her bottle babies. Then we went down the hill to see some that were for sale. There we saw the future Penny and Albert, both of whom came right up to us and were very friendly. Georgie is absolutely loving this, being in the pen with about 20 goats and several guard dogs. She actually preferred the dogs but if she wants us to get her a dog she'll have to say so in a complete sentence.

Anyway, we continued our tour with a stop at the breeding bucks' pen. Breeding bucks are every bit as disgusting as you can imagine. They exist for one task and everything else is just killing time until that happens.

Finally we went to a large pasture where dozens (100s?) of goats were grazing/browsing. Yvonne called them over and they all came running as a herd. Pretty soon we were all swarmed with goats. Georgie was screaming with delight. Soon though, they realized that we hadn't brought them any gifts and they started to amble away.

We left Yvonne, telling her we were sold. We just needed to make a few adjustments at home.

Then we made our way to Great Falls. We went first to the Big R farm and ranch store. Actually first we went to the drive-thru Starbucks for Nikki. Not too much drive-thru decaf in Dupuyer. Then we made our way to Big R. We got some little things like a waterer and feed bucket. We got a 50lb. bag of salt and a roll of tie wire. And we got Penny a green collar and leash and Albert a purple collar and leash. We are hoping to be able to take time on walks around Dupe.

After Big R we went to Home Depot to work out our fencing issues. Our yard is almost completely fenced. Most of it is woven wire with wood posts and some wood bars across the top. The two things we had to do to make it goat-ready is to close off one area from the cistern to the outer fence and to add a gate to the outer yard. It was supplies for this -- a chain link gate, welded wire fencing, and metal posts -- that we got at Home Depot.

Both of these projects ended up being fairly easy. I did have to use one of the metal posts for the gate though, so we'll need some more of those to make the fence patch more stable. We are almost counting on Penny and Albert crafting some kind of escape plan, we just don't know what it is yet.

Nikki got home late from school today so we had to rush to Conrad to get a few more supplies, then back to Choteau to get our goats. Yvonne was ready for us and took us down to their pen. We loaded both of them together in a big dog carrier (goats don't like to be alone apparently). What a ride home - Albert and Penny were talking to us the whole way. Georgie loved it at first but after a while didn't seem like she wanted to be in a car with two goats.

We let them out and the yard and they started eating our grass right away. They seemed fairly quiet until I walked away and then they started yelling for me to come back. Our landlady Janet helped us finish out the fencing so they could come into the inner yard. Then Janet, Nikki, and I had grilled burgers outside. Then I let the goats in here. I think I will keep them in this inner part at night. It's better fenced and keeps the noise away from the neighbors.

For the last hour or so Penny has been standing on top of her carrier looking in the house at Aslan while Aslan, who is very freaked out, is sitting in the window staring at her.

What an exciting adventure! I am excited to spend the day with them tomorrow. It was dark pretty much as soon as we got set up tonight so none of us really got to enjoy our newest family members.

More pictures from Saturday

Grandpa came over today and was nice enough to help us haul water again. We used the 350 gallon tank in the store and made three loads. On the first I completely soaked myself. When we got back I changed clothes. Then on the second trip I completely soaked myself again. By the third trip I had figured it out but by then I was already all wet. Afterwards we had a late breakfast at Panther Cafe. We think we may have found another water solution so this should be our last water trip. Thanks again to Grandpa for all his help!

First avocado

Georgie just tried her first avocado. She didn't take to it with quite the enthusiasm as the sweet potatoes but I am hopeful that the Texas in her will start to shine through. Incidentally, the whole family had avocado tonight, as we made fajitas with some of our grass-fed beef and had avocado as a garnish.

School spirit

Georgie got her first taste of the hardwood today -- in this case literally. Watching little kids at the school play basketball made me ancy to get here out there to shoot some hoops.

These photos were taken as stills with the video camera, in case you're wondering why they look weird.

Basketball wasn't the main event though, it was today's pow-wow. It was basically a school assembly with drumming, singing, and dancing. Some of the kids even wore traditional clothing. The elementary students danced in a circle and the junior high and high schoolers mostly sat around looking bored. I took a lot of video of it but because Nikki's research needs to stay anonymous, I can't post it.

After school was out, we headed back home but kept on driving through Dupuyer and headed to Choteau. We ordered some greek yogurt at our natural food store and it had come in. As we were leaving Mountain Front Market, I heard a police siren. It didn't even register with me at first, recent DC resident as I am. But after a second I realized that police sirens are probably a little more rare in Choteau. As it turned out, there was nothing to be alarmed about -- it was the Choteau HS homecoming parade. Nikki and I jumped in the car and headed down a parallel street to try and get to the front of the parade. I took pictures of it with the real camera but can't seem to find it.

One of the floats had some little kids and said 'Class of 2021'. Nikki did some quick math and pointed out that Georgie will be the class of 2026. That made both of us feel very old.

Thursday

Today Georgie and I got to go to school with mommy. Georgie was excited.

The drive up there

The area near the school

On a back road near the school we saw a unicorn.

Proving ever-mythical, the unicorn disappeared back into the magical forest.


We are going back to school again tomorrow. It's Native American Week throughout MT so there are all kinds of fun and games, like shinny -- a crazy hockey-like sport played with a ball and straight sticks on a gym floor.

Change of plans

The steaks were frozen so we went with burgers instead. Same cow though, so same delicious beef. Also, the grill cooked the meat thoroughly and evenly, and left it juicy, something I am not accustomed to with my limited grilling abilities.

B.A.G.

It's Wednesday and that seems like good enough reason to break in the big grill. Tonight one of us will be having a top sirloin steak and one of us a t-bone. Thanks again to Georgie's grandpapa for getting us such a nice grill. In case you can't tell, this thing is about as high as my waist and could could 6-8 steaks at once.



Grandpapa also got us charcoal starter after our disastrous attempt to start the old grill with nail polish remover.

Here's my cheering section. I'm a little alarmed at how much Georgie likes fire.

First solo feeding

We've moved Georgie's solid meal to the daytime, in part because she is still not crazy about taking a bottle from me. So here we are enjoying some sweet potato.

Good morning

Georgie still can't crawl but tries hard every day. She still managed to get all the way across the living room through a series of rolls, rotations, and backwards scoots.

Bye Bye Grandparents!

We just got back from Great Falls and Georgie is in a really good mood. I guess she doesn't realize that she won't see Nana and Grandpapa for about 6 weeks. Actually she's probably in a good mood because she slept for hours in the car today.

We took Nana and Grandpapa down to the airport this morning. First stop was Starbucks of course. Then we went to Target and Big R to pick up a few household necessities. Grandpapa bought us a nice grill at Big R. With so much meat in our freezer, we need something better to cook it on.

We all went to hang out at the airport next, but Georgie was tired so we didn't stay very long. We drove around while so Georgie could sleep, then stopped at a combination gas station/c-store/casino/laundromat to do laundry. I had to go into the casino to get quarters and decided right there I have no desire to ever play video keno. It was really smoky and no one looked happy. Also, no one looked like they had ever won anything in their entire lives.

Anyway, then we picked up a few groceries and headed home. We met Grandma Marilyn along the way to get some mail and she also brought us some homemade chicken soup and cookies (thanks!).

We just go home and I put the grill together. It's huge. We are going to need a few more friends.

More diaper covers

Adam and Katie actually made Georgie three diaper covers. Here they are. Thanks guys! (And thanks mom for finishing the legs.)

Georgie loves sweet potatoes (and Uncle Kevin)

We all went to Pierre's last night for a salmon dinner. Georgie got to eat too.

Uncle Kevin went back home today. Georgie will miss him

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