Farm, facts, and food

Picked up my weekly dozen eggs at the farm. Absolutely addicted to these eggs - what will I do when we go back to Florida? The chickens have a great life, they move to a different field each week (with the pigs & guard dogs) to rotate the grass growth. They've been in the most distant points at the farm for weeks, but were back close to the home buildings when I was there. That's one of their portable egg laying stations - looks like a camper to me...
Naughty Flap was back the very next day for a petunia dessert snack. Not sure what I'll be able to do to convince her to go back to clover.
Finished book #41 - very good - School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister. Novel of a cooking school with wonderful food descriptions and interesting life stories of the students. Not sure if it affected me, all I can say is shortly after finishing it, I just had to bake some banana bread...
Went to our annual homeowner's meeting, which was so much more interesting than your regular (suburban) HOA. New things I learned:
AUM (Animal Unit Month) This pertains to our leased cattle grazing. Star Mt has been rated for a maximum of 125 AUM - which means weight of cattle regarding how much they eat per month. A very loose example - a big fat cow is probably 1100 or more lbs, hence eating lot & lots, which rates as a 1.1 AUM. A few people thought there were too many in here last summer, so the rancher put in about the same number (90 approx) but this time, all are year old steers.(600 lbs) They rate a .6 AUM and obviously eat less. Okay, don't fall asleep here - for those of us who live here, it matters. cow + grass = lots of poop & beaten up fields. Who knew there was a scientific formula for this stuff.
2. Head gate - a flood gate that controls the flow of water, in this case Carbon Creek to divert water into the pasture. First, had no idea there was one, and it's old & not working so repairs are now scheduled because, another don't fall asleep here, we must defend our water rights. Again, didn't know Star Mt. had any.but we do and you use it or lose it... All our neighboring ranches have these rights as well, and it's a big deal.
3. Hunting rules - this is on our common ground away from the homes and across the road where deer & elk hunting is allowed. More owners meant too many people were roaming around with guns last season, so now you have to sign up, sign in, and generally behave according to the new safety rules. All good things to me.
So there you have it - and not even a HOA fee increase!
Mark & I went to the Crested Butte farmer's market today. Missed you Heather! Bought quite a few things, yes, including yet another pottery bowl from my pottery lady. Good thing I bought today, she goes in for shoulder surgery soon and won't be able to throw (fling?) any bowls for awhile. Mark got into the spirit of the thing as well - was quite serious about buying those onions.