Eventful Day

After a very late and incredibly unproductive night, I woke up this morning and went for a 3 mile run on the Greenway by my apartment in a misty 55 degrees.  It was very refreshing and a nice start to what I hoped would be a very productive day.

I didn't get much done between my run and when I left to meet Megan and Leah (undergrads who work in our lab) so we could go to the TN Valley Fair!  We headed over to the ghetto, where the fairgrounds are, and got a super close parking spot.  We walked by all the food first to get a feel for our options before actually eating anything.  The day's delights included:

Chicken and Pork Kabobs

Fried Green Tomatoes

Deep Fried Milky Way

Sweet Potato Fries

and Deep Fried Snickers



We watched a few Junior Dairy classes where we saw adorable little heifers. 

We also visited the rabbit barn where we saw lots of different kinds, colors, sizes, and shapes. 

We ended the fair experience with the petting zoo.

 I almost played my favorite fair game (pick up the duck) but it cost FIVE DOLLARS, so I resisted.  While this wasn't the NC State Fair...it filled my deep fried snickers quota for the year and was a lot of fun.  Two new food items I had never seen before were deep fried KoolAid and a red velvet funnel cake.  I think I had enough grease for the day and didn't try either.

After the fair, I did some studying for my big test Monday and then went out to the barn to move Essau to the new farm.  The barn is relocating to Maryville (about 12 minutes more down the road from the current barn) and today was Essau's day to go.  The new barn has a much better turnout situation and Essau is a happy boy living next to his "girlfriend," Mia.  They also get to go out together and were enjoying running around in the big field this afternoon.  They are also pretty excited about grass! 

New stall

Pasture buddies

Run Big Man!

Love :)

Another exciting adventure of late is my first bread-making experience.  Louisa, from the lab, makes this bread often and let me copy the recipe from the book she uses, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day . It turned out AMAZING.  Probably the best bread I've ever tasted...and I have enough dough to make 3 more loaves!  I'm going to make one for my friends the Erwins and then will figure out something to do with the other two :)  They go very nicely with oil...especially fresh out of the oven!

Bread Making

Resting Loaf

Baking!!

My first loaf!!!