Spooooooky!

Eggs- it's what's for dinner!

Kale, onion and garlic scramble with farm fresh eggs--it's what's been for dinner lately since our oven is on the fritz! Fingers crossed that Farmer J can fix it soon... I'm going crazy not being able to bake!

Rescue animals rescued me

Why rescue one kitten when you can get two?  I mean really...this melts my heart!

My work days at home are just that much better with these two around!

...even if they get all up in my business- literally!

Naughty Goat Boys

Guess who keeps escaping?

Well... They are now on a lease! Take that Ciaran and Padraig!

This farmer's wife is at peace knowing her husband's favorite goats won't get away on her watch!

Busting out!

Someday, I hope we can be full-time farmers and "work" part-time.  Now, it's the opposite, which works on most days, especially when it's fall or winter and the farm chores are less (until the baby lambs are born in late winter/early spring.) Or in summer, when Farmer J is home more and teaching less.  Or over his school winter break, when I, lovingly, let him do ALL the farm chores in our cold, Midwestern weather. 

Currently, on a typical Monday and Wednesday, I drop off the boys at school, work like mad for six hours, pick up the boys from school, and we go do any after school sports or errands, before heading back to the farm.  Then... it's homework, making dinner, baths and getting the boys ready for school the next day.  Once they are in bed, I'm back at my computer working for a few more hours until Farmer J gets home around 10 from teaching all day in the big city.   These are long days, I won't lie.  But... as the boys get older, these days are getting easier and easier (with the exception of helping JJ with his math homework.)

But some days, like last Wednesday, I thought it is mad that Farmer J and I both have full-time jobs, while trying to sustain and build our farm to what we dream it can be, as we raise our boys!  A beginning farm is time and money intensive.  And our "real jobs" provide us with a predictable income, stability, peace of mind, a retirement, as well as life and health insurance- so we gratefully work.  And for the most part, things "work" out pretty well.

And then it's last Wednesday, and I'm tired from my mad dash of work and staying up late the night before (knowing full well tonight will be another late night) and parenting alone while J is working.  And the boys are tired and hungry from a full day at school, followed by a trip to the grocery store, for groceries needed for the next day's school lunches and breakfast. Finally, we pull into our driveway, already slightly dreading the unloading of the bags of groceries and coats and backpacks when we see...

the ram, ewes, lambs and goats are all out of the pasture and roaming around our yard and nearby corn field.  

At first, all I can do is stop myself from crying, screaming or laughing hysterically.  But then I take a deep breath, say a silent prayer for patience (and that no animal is dead, lost or near the highway) and try and come up with a plan.  The boys are freaking out because they are afraid of the ram on the loose, and rightfully so. We have, appropriately, put in their very impressionable minds, the importance of staying away from the 200 pound, testosterone poisoned animal, that likes to 'ram' any person who comes near his flock of ewes.

I firmly tell them to wait in the car until I have the ram on his lease, in the pasture.  And as I hear myself telling them that, I'm trying to figure out how I will get ahold of the ram's collar without him ramming me.  He's rammed me before, when he was only a few feet away, and that hurt.  I didn't want to imagine the damage he could do when he got a running start. 

I opened my car door slightly, called "treat time," which resulted in the whole herd running toward our car, and used my car door as a metal shield until I could get Duncan close enough to grab his collar.  Success.  I had his collar.  But now what?  Duncan is a 200 pound animal and I weigh just a bit more than 1/2 of his total weight.  Who do you think will win when push comes to shove? 

By the grace of God, (and I really mean this because I still have no idea how I did it) I got the ram, all the ewes, the wild lamb boys and the naughty goat boys ALL in the pasture.  Then JJ helped me shut the pasture gate as I ran to get out before any of them could escape!

I then gave them a good helping of grain to keep them busy and reinforce why they should stay in their pasture!

Next, while I'm thinking about the frozen groceries melting in my trunk with our recent unseasonably warm weather and how my new cute work boots must be full of poo, grass, mud and hay, we went looking at the pasture fencing to see where the ruminants escaped.  And we had to do this fast, before they filled up on grain and decided the grass IS greener on the other side (because it is not grass at all but a corn field full of delicious field corn right from the husk).  

JJ found the spot quickly and I did what I could to mend the fence, without any tools or gloves or strong, Farmer J calloused hands. 

My dear friend Sarah gave me a copy of "Anne of Green Gables."  I'm now reading, "Anne of Avonlea." When I went to bed, later than I had hoped, I thought of a scene in my book when Anne's cow escaped into her neighbor's field and all the trouble that caused! 

Me, a modern day "Anne"! Which reminds me, we need to name our farm- "Anne" had a beautiful way of naming her favorite places with fun, imaginative names!  But that is another post, for another day!

As all days do, this busy one came to a peaceful end. Thankfully, the groceries didn't melt, my boots cleaned up easily, JJ didn't have too much homework and the boys went to bed better than most nights...dreaming of escaping sheep and a runaway ram!

And eventually, I found my bed, tired but thankful for our own farm, our animals (safely in their pasture), farmer J home safely from work, two healthy and happy boys asleep in their beds and the chance to live this crazy life all over again tomorrow!

Birthday cake; take two!

JJ recently had a big ole birthday and I made him a cake...and that flopped miserably...and then I made him another cake!

Besides the waste of ingredients, including beautifully orange, farm fresh egg yolks (the cake recipe calls for 8 yolks for the "yellow cake"), the waste of time and pure frustration, I can say the second cake tasted amazing and I whole heartedly recommend it.  See the link below!

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/24972/davids-yellow-cake/

For the second cake, I had to use three store purchased eggs- (as I already used EIGHT eggs in the first cake and my hens are laying less with the shorter days); it's pretty easy to tell which ones my happy, free ranging, country air loving hens laid! I must say I was proud of my girls and their plump, orange yolks--which I know contributed greatly to the cake tasting so scrumptious! 

Now that's a yellow cake batter- simply egg yolks, butter, sugar, flour, salt and baking powder!  I'll never use a box mix again!

It's amazing how badly a cake turns out when you forget to add two of the six ingredients- especially the baking powder!  

Birthday cake for the chickens!!!

Ta-da! The frosting was ok; the sprinkles were a mistake but the actual cake was de-lish!

...and gobbled up!  

The next time you have an excessive amount of eggs (which for me won't be until next spring/summer), consider this yellow cake recipe! I'm already excited to bake it again- next time with a rich, chocolate frosting.

And to that sweet, 9 year old, boy, that I made this cake for...twice...words can't express how thankful I am that your heavenly spirit picked me to give you life all those years ago! You, my first answered prayer of a child, gave me the gift of being able to become a "mama", YOUR mama! Love you sweet boy!

Goat play pen

I've heard of an afternoon cat nap but never this...

Minutes after getting my naughty, goat boy escapees into our (Fort Knox) back deck (where they absolutely cannot escape) they were out like a light! 

Our goats love to be by their humans. The minute they are near us, they calm down. On warm days like today, I keep the screen door closed but the large glass door open. The goats love being close to us and we love knowing their safe and not near the busy road!

Now I don't always want my back porch to be a large goat play pen/ crib- but until our pastures/fences are goat proof- this will work for here and there.

Later, once it's dark, the goats want to snuggle with the sheep in the manger. At night, they will walk right from our back porch into the pasture without any trouble. That never happens during the day. One reason to be thankful for early darkness!

Butter beware!

We store our butter on top of our microwave-- which means there is always some butter remnants all over my shiny appliance. I used to clean a microwave with paper towel and a blue colored window cleaner! No longer!

The delicious, but oh so greasy, butter hides under this cute container!

This is my original "enviro cloth".  The first Norwex products I ever bought were the "enviro cloth" and purple "window or polishing cloth". They come together in the "basic package."

Here's is my polishing (or some say 'window') cloth! I use it to polish up anything I want to shine (windows, exterior of appliances, glass in artwork or picture frames, stemware, glasses, computer screens...)

Now I clean my microwave with my kitchen cloth, purple polishing cloth and just water. No nasty blue chemicals sprayed in our kitchen and inhaled into our bodies. 

If you want to take a first step toward cleaning your house with less chemicals-- and often using just a microfiber cloth and water... I recommend starting with the "basic package."  

http://www.norwex.biz/PublicStore/stores/KellyKindschi/AM/product/Basic-Package,1933.aspx

See the link above- as Norwex describes their products so much more eloquently than I can!

GOS Farmer

Anyone else have a picture of a pig on their fridge?

Farmer J put this up a few months ago, without saying a word. He is trying to, ever so sneakily, get me on board with the idea of getting a few baby piglets this spring! 

And I must be warming up to the idea because I have this contact in my phone, "GOS farmer."

GOS stands for Gloucestershire Old Spot!  You can see why the abbreviation is helpful.  The GOS is a "heritage" or "endangered" pig breed. (Of note, our Tunis sheep are a heritage breed of sheep; and the goats- once again are just cute and serve no real "greater good" purpose, well, except making Farmer J very happy and driving me crazy with their daily Houdini escapes from their fenced in pasture!) 

Heritage breeds are breeds of animals that were populating this world before commercial agriculture took over.  Think--Noah's Ark!  I'm of course kidding, but you get the picture. 

Just like "heirloom" vegetables are found in many farm to table restaurants- so are heritage breeds of livestock. 

The name pretty much gives it away-- but the GOS is originally from England. And the "old spots" refers to ... you guessed it... A spotted pig!

The GOS is also called "The Cottager's Pig" and the "Orchard Pig." 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloucestershire_Old_Spots

The link above has some great pictures and all the information you could hope for on the GOS pig-- like a farm version of Melatonin -- you'll likely fall asleep in the midst of reading it -- unless you are Farmer J- or married to him!

Some interesting bits of info on the GOS:

- The Prince of Wales has them on his Gloucester country estate--which I do love!

- The females tend to be "devoted" mamas-- which I do love!

- The pigs demeanor is calm and good for small farmettes--which I do love!

- The females can get up to 500 lbs! This is the bit I'm having trouble with- 500 lb animal means 500 lb animal size poo!

- Farmer J tells me the pork is "marbled" and quite tasty! The last time I ate pork was in the '90s- so not sure how much that detail means to me! But... I do realize  a meat animal should taste good, if we ever want to sell it to local, farm to table restaurants. 

And back to the "GOS farmer" contact in my phone- we found a farmer that lives within a few hours of our farm that has this breed! A farm tour is in our, not too distant, future!  Stay tuned!

Our local farmers market...

is coming to a close soon. And that makes me so sad on many different levels.  First off, it means the growing, gardening, fresh produce time of the year is coming to an end.  Second, it means I can't get amazing, inexpensive, fresh, tasty and local produce (see below) every Wednesday night...all while supporting small scale farmers. And third, it means one less opportunity to be a part of our towns community.

$8 for all this produce! 

In Norwex produce bags and into the fridge.

We've been eating these veggies all week-though not as much of the kale as I had hoped!  I'm hoping to make a veggie egg scramble tomorrow night-- once I find where my hens are hiding their free range eggs!

We are still working on eating up all our food to waste less veggies and money-but at least our animals can eat some of what is left over- with the remainder going to the chickens and compost pile.  

The winter is long but come spring- the farmers market will return!  

If you plant it, it will grow!

Planting an indoor herb garden with my Pickle... (and Ciaran) who is wearing flip flops in October-- what could be better! 

Ciaran, aka mischievous goat boy, had to watch from behind the gate!

Fingers crossed we will have fresh basil, oregano and parsley all winter long!

(Thanks Auntie Billie!)

Can you blame the guy?

I come into the kitchen and I see this... (and of course, before I stop him... I grab my phone to take a picture, because that is what blogging has done to me!)

And can you blame the guy for drinking the water out of the green onion and beet bowl ... when his human caretaker (mmm hmmm Pickle) keeps forgetting to fill his water dish?!

I filled up his dish...and that's why he loves me the best (the fact that he sees me clean out his litter box everyday and that 99.9% of the time I'm the one who remembers to give him his food too, well, that doesn't hurt either!) 

Spearmint Sweetness

After a long weekend of feeling sick, tired and just plain ole' run down (Pickle shared his cold germs with me), I was so tired I almost went to bed without brushing my teeth. Please don't judge me! But then, I remembered this!

When Pickle gave me a hug "goodnight", while I was catching up on work from last week, he proudly informed me that he had my (and Dada's) toothbrush all ready for bedtime!

That gem of a boy! He knew I was tired and sick...and he helped take care of his mama! To all the women who have told me I need a daughter to care for me when I'm older...nope...I don't. I have two sons who will do that job beautifully and lovingly! Children show love in so many ways-- we just have to slow down (and stay awake) long enough to notice them all! 

You know you're a farmer when...

You have managed to fit NINE bags of "lamb chow" in your Camry (that you picked up at the feed mill over your lunch hour...instead of getting lunch!) 

Our ruminates didn't like the feed we had been giving them since we moved, so when I was near our old feed mill, I stocked up! Now our lambs, goats and sheep come a running when I call "treat time"!  

When I texted Farmer J that I had 9 bags of feed in my car, he texted back "I've never loved you more!" Sweet...but really...not even after I birthed your 99.9 percentile head sons?!