The weather has been absolutely beautiful and we are counting our blessings that it has been a warm season for our lambing. Since last wee’s blog, we have more than doubled our lamb count. We are now at 57 lambs with 22 ewes being milked. And we had another calf born. So needless to say, we are extremely blessed and happy things are progressing along nicely. As I write this, people are just as excited to see the lambs as we are and tours have been plentiful. We love that we can give firsthand experience of farming life and as some learned, you may even get to see the birthing process in action.

We hope that next weekend, the weather will be as beautiful as this but anything above zero will be a heat wave compared to the last few years which were about -30 PLUS a wind chill. We were thankful to always still have a great turnout but a little warmer weather would be a nice change of pace. We are hoping to have a few fun activities along with visiting the baby lambs.

So now that lambing is well underway, we can’t let things settle down too much, can we? We are itching to get out in the woods and start tapping trees to make maple syrup but I think we will wait. Yes, that might be a mistake cause you never know when Mother Nature might just throw us a curveball and make this the only timeframe for sapping. As the week progresses, you never know. Brian might just start pulling out the buckets/bags and hoping for freezing nights and warm days.

Each week I include a recipe. Below is one from Allrecipe.com. I switched out the andouille sausage with Maple Hill Farm kielbasa and the boneless chicken breast with Maple Hill Farm chicken thighs. Turned out to be a keeper.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons peanut oil, divided

• 1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning

• 10 ounces andouille sausage, sliced into rounds

• 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch pieces

• 1 onion, diced

• 1 small green bell pepper, diced

• 2 stalks celery, diced

• 3 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 (16 ounce) can crushed Italian tomatoes

• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce

• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

• 1 1/4 cups uncooked white rice

• 2 1/2 cups chicken broth

Directions

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of peanut oil in a large heavy Dutch oven over medium heat. Season the sausage and chicken pieces with Cajun seasoning. Saute sausage until browned. Remove with slotted spoon, and set aside. Add 1 tablespoon peanut oil, and saute chicken pieces until lightly browned on all sides. Remove with a slotted spoon, and set aside.

2. In the same pot, saute onion, bell pepper, celery and garlic until tender. Stir in crushed tomatoes, and season with red pepper, black pepper, salt, hot pepper sauce, Worcestershire sauce. Stir in chicken and sausage. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Stir in the rice and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed.