Around the farm stuff...

I must admit that although our garden and farm are still producing, by this time of year, my get-up-and-go kind of goes. I'm not checking on it like I should be. Granted, it's waning. But, we do have tomatoes, green beans, green peppers, and jalapenos that are coming in. I've put a few pints of beans by and some salsa as well. Last year I turned to freezing because of the ease and speed, but this year I am considering the benefits of the preserved food being able to sit on a shelf as opposed to spending money keeping it cold. We have two upright freezers that live in the basement and they stay pretty full with meat: farm-raised rabbit, pork, and chicken; venison and squirrel; and beef from down the road. Any space I could free up in the freezer would be good. Occasionally I get a little help in the garden. I call for my "eagle eyes" to find the green beans hiding in the depths of the plant. They come in night gowns or sometimes nothing at all to help me pick for a minute or two. Or, at least stand there with me while I pick.

My favorite tool for harvest is my apron. I find myself tying one on frequently in the kitchen or when I'm headed out to pick. Although, I have recently been designing one in my head that has a toggle for easy carrying. 

In other news, we took our goat Louisa, to the open goat show at the Harrison County Fair this year. Last year, Cam went just to observe and see what it was all about. This is not the 4H show for the kiddos, anyone can enter. So, we took a goat this year to see how she'd do and for the experience. Turns out, she WON! Grand Champion! She not only won her category of senior does (she's actually just a yearling milker), but she won overall! We were so pleased!

Showing goats has some rules to it, you see. Cam was really not familiar with the showmanship aspect of it. Luckily, the families that were there were very friendly and helpful. One loaned Cam their clippers to trip Louisa's tail in the required fashion (buzzed with a tuft on the end). They gave him pointers for the future about how to spruce her up a bit for the competition. It was great. They were even whispering pointers in the ring about where to stand. Now, that's sportsmanship.

We all went to cheer Cam and Louisa on. Lila told Cam afterward he'd done a "stupendous job!". We were very proud of both of them. 

 

Cam tried really hard to get a good pic of Louisa with her ribbons. She was none too cooperative. She's trying to flee the scene! We hope that next year Lila will take the reigns and show the goats in mini-4H.

Ice Cream Social

Bernie showing off her yummy bowl.

 We held our annual Midsummer Night's Ice Cream Dream this year. As always, it was so much fun. I made five plus gallons of goat milk ice cream that was delicious. We provide the ice cream and each family brings a topping or mix-in to share. This year was especially fun with the variety of toppings brought. We had crushed oreos, no-bake cookies, sprinkles, mini Reese cups, whip cream, and jelly beans, just to name a few. The hardest part was choosing which ones to put on!

Beautiful Ezra.

There *may* have been some pee on the slide. I'm not naming names.

 It just so happened that the ice cream social coincided with milking time, which usually draws a crowd. It always fascinates me to see who is interested in trying their hand at it. Jane, for instance. Jane is my good friend Bon's mother-in-law. Bonnie now lives in California with her new hubby, Colin. They happened to be in town for the ice cream social (yay!). I then found out that Bon's in-laws would be in town, too and promptly invited them to be part of the fun. I don't know them very well, but I never would have expected that she would jump at the chance to milk a goat! Who knew!? I was so pleasantly surprised!

Bonnie and Me. She came all the way from Cali for my ice cream! 

 The thing I love about recent parties at our house is the kids. They run wild. They have free, safe reign of our huge yard. I love to feel so confident that nothing bad is going to happen to this wild group of kiddos. They are crawling through the corn rows, whooping, hollering, finding secret hideouts and being beautiful, happy children. I really love it.

Not quite whooping and hollering with the big kids yet.

My gal Melissa and sweet Cece or "Baby HeHe" to Maggie who doesn't say her "S"

 Here's one of my favorite pics of the evening. Bonnie, her sister Amanda, Melissa, and me. We all grew up together and I was glad to capture this fun moment with the four-of-us.

The most exciting part of the evening happened after most of the guests had gone. There was a missing set of keys. It was well after dark by this time, so we got out the flashlights and scoured the yard. Looking in every nook and cranny we could think of. Alas, no keys. I got up the next day and searched the yard in a grid-like-cop-show fashion. Alas, no keys. Luckily, the keys were found later that day in the belongings of one three-year-old boy who may or may not be the culprit of the slide pee. Can't wait to see what next year brings!

Farm Fun Day

Oh, how I do look forward to Farm Fun Day. Not sure how many years I've been hosting, I think this may be the third. There's nothing very special about the day, just a big play date at the farm, but it is so much fun to get a big group of mamas together for a pitch-in and let the kids run wild.

 The striped tights were a big hit this year.

I couldn't believe that even though the air temperature was only upper 70's, the kids couldn't wait to get into the water! So much fun to be had.

 

Lots of baby-passing, baby-nursing, and baby-holding up in here. Seeing as how we had two La Leche League leaders and lots of members, there was much talk of breastfeeding, but conversation also veered to fit-throwing, skee ball tournaments, tattoos, canning, and recipes. What a lovely community of mothering. It doesn't get much better than this.It took me awhile to find a group of women to call my mothering community. I'm so glad that I have. My husband joked a couple years ago about my bestie Rhonda, "If I'd have known how good she was for Molly, I would have bought her one years ago!" If only it were that easy! These are the kind of women that are raising great kids, would give you the shirt off their backs and are glad to was a few dishes.

Round about two, the pushing and screaming became a little more frequent and we all knew it was time to pack up and say goodbye for now. But, there's always next year.Thanks for a great day, ladies!

Pioneer Dress #2

 This is Lila's "Laura dress". It is made from a homespun-type fabric we bought from Joann. I followed an old pattern Simplicity 9708 that my friend Diane had given me. I used the new version of this pattern for Maggie's dress.  Lila wore this outfit to piano lessons today. I don't know what her teacher must think. Between her bike helmets, outlandish fashion, and pioneer dresses, my girl certainly has her own styles. I miss the (very short) days when I could dress her like a doll where everything matched from head-to-toe.  These days, if I try to make suggestions, she calmly tells me, "Mommy, I'm different than this family, please let me wear it". She has her own style. You can't tell here, but under the dress she is wearing her purple patent leather flats because "they are the most old-fashioned shoes" she owns. I know some day she will probably come to me (as I did to my mother) and say "How could you let me leave the house like that!?" I think I will calmly reply "Just wait, my darling, wait until you have a daughter of your own, then we'll talk".

As a funny side note, I mentioned that Maggie wore her dress to church last weekend. Afterward, word got back to me that a middle-school age young woman saw Maggie wearing her dress and asked her mother flatly, "Did you make me wear dresses like that when I was little?" To which her crafty mother simply responded, "No". The young woman was relieved and said "Good." 

I do hope my girls look back on all this and smile. I do hope they remember these days with fond and joyful memories as I know I will. I hope they know their mother loved them well.

Maggie's birthday

My girl turned three.  It seems a little unreal. My sweet girl has gotten so independent in so many ways, but is still so much more of a baby than Lila was at this age.  Of course, when Lila was three, we had a real baby around and probably less tolerant of those behaviors.  But, I must admit, some of her babyisms are just so stinking cute.  I could listen to her talk all day long.  She is still s-less at the beginning of words.  So, her birthday party was "Trawberry Hortake" themed.  She enjoyed being the birthday girl as much as her mommy does and was glad to draw it out over a week's time.  We celebrated with the grandparents on the night of her actual birthday with a homemade calzone dinner.  Her actual party we held on St. Patrick's Day.  It was gorgeous weather and we left the house wide open.  Our yard is so much better for entertaining than inside the house.  So, I was thrilled to see the sun shining and temps in the 70's. 

 I purchased this template for the strawberry favor boxes, although it appears there are quite a few free templates out there.  I enlarged the template quite a bit so that it could hold more goodies!

 The puppies made an appearance and were well-loved and carried around the whole yard.  My nephew especially liked them and after they were put away, kept asking where they went.  "Puppy?"  "Puppy?".

These are some very special boys in our life.  Left to right, "Opa", my nephew Worth, my handsome farm husband, and his Grandad. I caught a rare moment with all of them smiling, even Grandad!  What a fun day celebrating my favorite Maggie in the whole wide world.

Raised Beds Rock!

 

I am loving our garden this year!  We changed gears and tried something new, and we have been so pleased with it!   In the past, we have had a large garden spot and planted lots of produce.  But inevitably, our good intentions would be taken over by weeds and the hard work needed to keep it looking nice and producing well would be forgotten.  We have always had enough to can and freeze, but it always felt like *a lot* of work!  

This year, Cam built a beautiful raised bed in our yard.  It has ended up being so wonderful!  We don't have to weed as much, don't have to water as much, it looks awesome, it's concentrated and just all in all, feels easier and more pleasing.  He designed it himself, using the mulched walkway to ensure that every area would be accessible without standing on the soil to prevent compaction. Granted, our harvest may not be as big this year, but it will probably be a lot more manageable!  

 

In each of the southerly corners we have green beans ready to climb these rustic poles.  Along the back you can see the livestock fence panel.  We are using that end for our climbing plants.  Our first harvest was peas that grew up the panels.  We just removed those plants a few days ago, fed them to our garbage disposals, and made room for squash, zucchini, tomatoes, etc.  

Beets!

We have been harvesting salad, peas, and we just harvested some beets.  The peas and salad were quite prolific.  The girls would munch the peas right off the vine while they were out playing.  Have I mentioned that I love our garden? =)

Living Garbage Disposals

Lined up to eat

Ok, we don't actually feed them garbage, but they do eat pretty much every scrap of food that is left on our plates.  We have raised pigs now for three or four years.  The first year we had seven or eight up on the hill.  The main purpose of the pigs was to try to seal in the pond that's up there.  Their wallowing, pooping, walking, and generally living on the space was said to be a great way of making the bowl-shaped depression that was unable to hold water into a pond.  So, we bought pigs.  We did a co-op adventure that year, raising the pigs for not only ourselves, but our neighbors and friends.  We each paid a share of the feed costs and then when the time came for butchering, everyone paid their own bill.  Because, if you didn't know it folks, that's what  you do with farm pigs.  They did a pretty good job that first year, but we felt the "pond" could still hold water even better with another year of pig living.  So, again they came. 

Cam got really tired of toting water and feed up the hill twice a day for several of the hottest months of the year, so this year, we scaled back and he built a more permanent shelter in which to house them in that is near the barn.  The down side to that is that they're near the barn.  Which also means near the house where we can smell their smelliness.  And, yes, folks, they do smell.  Cam positioned the pen in such a way that the wind doesn't often blow from the pen to the house, but when it does, peeeeeuuuuuu!  
Aside from the smell, I do actually like having the porkers around.  It makes me feel pretty good that our "waste" becomes food for them and any excess we have actually makes it cheaper to raise these guys because it means less feed to buy. It's also really nice to know exactly where our pork comes from and how it was raised.  I love that the distance from the farm to plate is, oh, about 100 feet.