Look at me guys, blogging two days in a row! On fiiiiire.
Note: To understand the title of this blog, watch the below video. If you have a similar type of humor, you should find this amusing. My roommate and boyfriend think these people are the funniest ever to live it seems. I can’t say I feel that way… but it’s a good giggle-inducer.
Well, I hope that brightened your day a little! It’s rainy and cruddy over here today, again. Mer. So I’m here eating a delicious brownie somebody in my family made (chocolate with chocolate chips and peanut butter chips, yeah…) and making some strawberry lemonade. Actually, Kiley and I finished the lemonade so now I’m sitting here enjoying it. Soak in with your eyes.
Le-mon-aide
It’s pretty good if I do say so myself. The only thing I would change about it is that I couldn’t find one of those mesh strainer things in my kitchen, so there’s kind of a plethora of seeds in the drink. It doesn’t change the flavor or anything though, just adds a little crunch to the mix. I even went so far as to try and pour the strawberry sauce in those coffee strainers or whatever they’re called but the mix was too thick 
.. I get an A for effort at least. Take a peep at the recipe below if you so desire.
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Sparkling Strawberry Lemonade
Yields: about 6.5 cups of lemonade
Fresh Strawberry Sauce Ingredients:
1 dry pint fresh strawberries, rinsed and hulled (or maybe a little more)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons cold water
Lemonade Ingredients:
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup very hot water
1 cup fresh lemon juice
4-1/2 cups cold seltzer or sparkling water
Optional Accoutrements:
lemon juice and sugar for glass rims
sprigs of fresh mint
fresh strawberries
slices of lemon
crushed ice
bendy straws!
Directions:
Make strawberry sauce: In a food processor or blender, puree the berries, sugar, lemon juice and water until smooth. Strain the berry mixture into a clean bowl and discard the seeds. Stir in additional sugar, if needed. Cover and refrigerate until used.
Make lemonade: In a pitcher, combine the sugar and hot water and stir until the sugar has dissolved into a syrup. Stir in the lemon juice and cold seltzer water. Add the strawberry sauce and stir to combine. Pour over ice into tall glasses rimmed with sugar (dip rims into lemon juice and then sugar). Garnish with fresh strawberries and other accoutrements, if using. Strawberry lemonade keeps at least 3 days in the refrigerator.
(credit given)
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So, here’s a random decision I have made. I have been craving to have my own house in the last year or so. Living with my roommates this year was nice and all, but I want a real house that I can decorate and make my own and such, yah know? Obviously, I am aware that this can’t happen until after I graduate college – most likely years after that, considering the shit economy we have currently. Oh well. Either way I am constantly storing cool house ideas in my brain, and my newest one is goats! And of course chickens.
I’ve had the idea in my head that I want chickens since the beginning of this year. I was house sitting for a woman who had about 8 chickens (all females) and they were so easy to take care of! Literally all I had to do was make sure they were safe in the barn at night, collect their eggs daily, and let them out in the morning when I went to take care of the horses. I didn’t even have to give them food or water since it was done for the week. So I mean, why should anyone not have chickens? Think about it.. they aren’t very expensive to purchase and upkeep is cheap as well. Chicken food is dirt cheap, and I also read today that chickens eat chicken egg shells! How convenient is that?! The chickens lay the eggs, you eat them, save the shells and feed it back to the chickens for the extra protein that is necessary for their diet. You can tell if a chicken needs more protein if the shell is super fragile or altogether missing. It’s a self-sustaining system and I think it’s awesome. Other than food and water, all you need to do is have a yard (it doesn’t even have to be big) and build a shed for them to sleep in at night save from hungry mouths. Just make sure they have the proper diet, or you won’t really get too many eggs to eat on the daily. I know eggs aren’t too expensive or anything, but think of the money you could save over a long period of time if you are solely using the eggs your pets lay. Pretty cool, eh?
** just beware though: if you have all girls, the eggs will be edible, but if you have a rooster who is fertilizing the eggs, you will be eating baby chicks, which in my book is not cool. So stick to having all ladies, or keep the babies to increase your flock. **
So, besides chickens I also want at least one goat. Preferably two, because if I were a goat I would want a friend to keep me company. At my house right now, we have two pet goats: Deianira and Samson, and they’re kind of hilarious. We’re pretty sure Deianira has a brain tick or something, she’s a bit special. We love her though, so it’s all good. They’re called Pigmy goats so they’re smaller than usual, but they still get darn fat. Anyway, while reading about how you should feed eggshells to chickens, I read about what you can feed goats… and they eat everything! Sometimes they can be dumb enough to eat non-edible things (Deianira chews on shoe strings and anything she can get her mouth around), but you can feed them all food scraps besides eggshells. They’ll even eat orange peels and lemon rinds. It may be just me and those who like being eco-friendly and sustainable and stuff, but it’s so cool that all my food scraps can be used to feed pet goats! Less money for goat food, and less nonsense that goes into the garbage disposal (= saving energy) and the landfills. I’m not saying that I like goats immensely or anything, but they can be cool and it just is my cup of tea to have a house that doesn’t add to the destruction of the earth.
Deianira
Samson & Deianira
Totes McGoats
Now, aren’t they precious? They are much fatter and bigger now, but I mean… that’s what happens when things aren’t babies anymore. Boo.
Well, I’m going to go do something now. I have my first day of my internship tomorrow! Stay tuned. Eeeeee.
azuremarie 