Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Reader Be Warned!

I'm going to rant. I'm sorry for all of the people that read this blog to get a good chuckle at some of the stupid things we do. I'm going to rant. (Deep Breath)

HAVE YOU SEEN THE PRICES OF FOOD!!!!!!!!

Me and Hubby went to Kroger's today. Hoping to get a few things. Not a whole buggy full, just a few things. The food didn't cover the bottom of the buggy. IT COST ME $58.57! I know it may not seem a bunch of money for people who pay 100s of dollars a week for food. But the thing is, I don't. I usually get the off brand items, the basics, and if, and only if, something is on sale, I might buy a name brand item. I know how much each item cost usually before I go. Why, because I usually get the same items. Cheese, milk, butter, (you can tell I don't have a milk cow)flour, sugar, you know, basics. I know how much things cost. A 16 slice pack of cheese use to be 1.54, now it was 2.24. Wow, what a jump! It wasn't just one item, it was 70% of them.

So now that I have seen this, I'm planning my garden for this spring. I don't know how to make spaghetti sauce, but I'll learn. I made salsa this summer, but not enough. Never again. Hubby will learn to like summer squash.(okay, I said that because I just wanted to see if he will actually try it instead of snarling his nose at it.) We are going to plant potatoes for the first time. Yep, I'm actually going to PLAN the garden.

Okay, I am done ranting now. I feel better. Pheeew.

So until next time......

Small Farm Girl, ranter.

Monday, December 28, 2009

I Told You So

Well, I told you I would post a picture of my Fat Baby Boots.(Which I LOVE!) So here they are.



The dark part on the bottom is where I just washed them off. They had mud on them already. Hey, I buy boots to work in, not just to look pretty. lol.



They are made so that they are a little wider at the feet for stability. They are shorter too so that they aren't tight on your calfes. I really like these boots. The only problem that I have with them, is that they aren't made in the U.S.A. But if I could find some made in the U.S., I would buy them instead.

I also told you I would post pictures of T-Bone. Well, here he is. See, looks just like Sir Loin of Beef.

T-Bone



Sir Loin of Beef



Now that Christmas is over.(Yee Haw!) Things can get back to normal around here. I'm starting to get the "fever." The fever of wanting to get my garden started, wanting to think about buying chicks, and everyday "summer" things. It is 28 degrees out side, and I'm wanting to put out a garden. You always want what you can't have. lol. Please remind me of this feeling when around August I am pulling out my hair because I am overwhelmed. Hopeful this coming summer, my garden can be a little bit bigger than it was last summer. That's my goal anyway.

Oh, well, until next time.....

Small Farm Girl, dreamer.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas Eve

Here at our house, Hubby's kids come over on Christmas Eve day to open presents. We all were happy about what "Santa" brought us. I got a new pair of "Fat Baby" boots. Now I can't use the excuse of not having boots to go out an feed the chickens. lol. I guess it's my turn now. So, I went out to feed the chickens.

Now, we have a St. Bernard. He's really easy to take care of. He even does his "business" out in the pasture. Out of the 5 years that we have had him, he hasn't "gone" in our yard. Until.......(get ready) I wore my new boots out to feed the chickens. He not only "went" in our yard, he "went" in the path from our house to the chicken house. Let's just say the new boots are broke in.

Here is some photos of our new calf that was born last Thursday.



We decided to call him "Sir Loin of Beef."


Then, we went out Monday and found another calf had been born. It's a bull too! We are calling him T-Bone. I'll post pictures of him later too. But, he pretty much looks like Sir Loin of Beef.

My plan is to blog tomorrow but, I know how things happen. So if I don't,

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!!!!!

Small Farm Girl, new stinky boot owner.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Snow Storm

We have snow!!!!! I love it! Let me rephrase that. I love the excitement that snow brings.I love how people will stampede to the grocery store to buy milk, eggs, and bread. They all will be talking about the amount of snow that they heard we were going to get. "I heard we were going to get 3 inches." "I heard that we were going to get 5 inches." It goes on and on from there.

Well, we did get around 5 inches of snow. Wet,wet snow. We lost power for a few hours. There are some still people without power. I welcome the peace. You don't realize how noisy your world is, until you don't have electric. No hum from the refrigerator. No hum from the fan on the wood burning stove. All is still and peaceful. I sat down and croqueted Glamor Girl a scarf for Christmas. I read a magazine. I lit candles and just enjoyed the peace. If it wasn't for the freezer full of food, I could live like this. Until, I tried to do dishes. No water pressure. I had to go and dip water out of our cistern. Other than it being a little cold, it didn't bother me. I heated the water up on the wood stove and done the dishes. Just when I thought I could really get use to this, the electric came back on. I almost went and flipped the main breaker for our house. lol

Oh, and another thing that happened in this snow storm. We had a new calf born. The first one we have had for over a year since we had to get a new bull. Why is it that babies have to be born on the worst days? I don't know if it's a bull or heifer, or which cow had it. I haven't gotten close to it yet. When I do, I will post pictures.

So until next time....

Small Farm Girl, snow lover.

Monday, December 14, 2009

No Horse Yet

Well the horse didn't pan out. He was what I wanted physically, but not mentally. He was being adopted out because he was too nervous for the current owner. I think he had ADD. LOL. He would pace in his stall wanting out. You let him out. He would like it for a few minutes. Then he would pace at the gate wanting back in. He didn't associate with the other horses either. He just had too many issues for what I wanted. I'm in no big hurry. The right horse will come around.

Tonight me and Hubby went Christmas shopping. Now that's an experience. I hate shopping. Except we did go to Tractor Supply. I don't mind shopping there. We got a bit of our shopping done. But, there is always that one person that you have no idea what to get them. If they ever want something, they just go out and get it themselves. So then what do YOU get them. I suggested toilet paper. Everybody needs it at some point in their lives. It didn't go over very good. lol. Oh well, I'm sure it will hit me sooner or later. (the idea for a present, not the toilet paper)

So until next time....

Small Farm Girl, non shopper.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Facebook

Have you ever run into a friend that you haven't seen in about 5 years and it felt like you have never been apart? Well that's what happened to me today at the grocery store. (See, Kroger's is good for something!) We chatted for a while. And yes, we blocked isles. (Quit looking at me that way!) It just felt so good to see her again. You know the kind of good I'm talking about,the good, warm, fuzzy feeling good. We said we would stay in contact with each other over facebook. So I went home, got right on the computer, went to FB, and couldn't find her! Oh no!!!!!!! I went through 510 people looking at pictures looking for her. I didn't know there could be that many people with her name. Still nothing. I was heart broken. Then I went back to my home page and what did I see? A friend request! She found me!!!! How wonderful!

As I was skimming down through FB, a came across a picture of a beautiful Quarter horse for sale. What?! There's usually not pictures of horses on my FB. A lot of my friends don't have horses. This deserved a closer look. And I did look closer. I've been looking for another horse. I'm done with the "walking" horses around here. I have tried for 15 years to like them. I have. I just can't compare them to a good Quarter horse. Their temperament is different and everything. So I called my friend, and now I'm going to go check this horse out. We shall see. I don't want just another horse. I want the horse that will "click" with me. If he doesn't, I will just go on down the road. As cheap as horses are now, I should have no problem finding one that does "click". I told hubby that if I decide to get this horse, he wouldn't have to buy me a Christmas present. hehehehe. That got him. I'm tricky, huh? I'll keep you up to date on the search.

So until next time....

Small Farm Girl, Horse looker.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

My Cobwebs Are Blowing

It's soooooooo cold! Oh, and windy too! We had wind gusting around 60 mph here. That's windy. The wind moved the chicken house on it's foundation. Hubby has to get the tractor to move it back. Our chicken house is a BIG chicken house. It"s probably 7ft tall, 10ft long, six ft wide. The wind moved it! That just blows my mind. (Get it? "blows?" .."wind?" Never mind.)

The wind also ripped our fancy dancy plastic on the side of our house. Ripped it all the way off. So, the wind that is now COLD(20*), is blowing through our house. BBBBRRRRRR!!!!!We woke up this morning to a temp of 54* in our house. The thermometer is only 6 ft from the wood stove. DOUBLE BBBRRRRR!!!!

The only thing that saved us was(okay, this is not very "homesteady")our electric blanket. I love my electric blanket. Well not really, but right now, I love my electric blanket. Any other time, I hate the electric blanket. I hate the "false" feel of heat that it provides. No matter how low I put the settings, it is too hot for me. I like getting warm with my own body heat and tons of blankets. You know, blankets so thick and heavy that you need to sleep with a bumper jack to jack up the covers just so you can turn over. Now that's how I normally like to sleep on a cold night. But, when the wind is whipping through the house, I LOVE my electric blanket.

Hubby went and got us some new thicker plastic and has wrapped our house again. I think I'll keep him around. But you know what? I'm still going to sleep with my electric blanket tonight. hehehe

So until next time.....

Small Farm Girl, electric blanket lover(for now).

Monday, December 7, 2009

Big Changes A Coming!

Well we have been busy around here. Going to Christmas gatherings and such. Work has been busy too. Which, I guess that could be good. We always could use some more money. Oh, and the big change.....? If everything goes as planned, we will be getting custody of Glamour Girl.(Hubby's daughter)We found out that she hasn't been going to school. She has already missed 18 day since school has started. Her excuse? "She just can't seem to get up." Could it have anything to do with the fact that she stays out all night? Na, couldn't be that. Could it be that when she does get home, she stays up until 5 am? No, surely not. Could it be that her mom is lazy and won't get her out of bed. No, can't be that either. I bet it's the schools fault for having school to early in the morning. Ya! That's it!!!!

Big changes are a coming!

So until later......

Small Farm Girl, eye opener

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Winter has officially arrived here! How do I know? We have wrapped our house. Not just the windows, the whole house. If you haven't been following this blog for very long, you will need to know that the house we live in now was built back in the 1860's. It's not the grand house you would imagine, it's the "poor farmer" type of house. Anyway, we get a 10 ft tall, 100 ft long piece of plastic and literally wrap the outside of our house. It make such a difference! It cuts down on the wind blowing through all of the cracks and crevices. That is why we are building a new house. This one is about to fall down. We don't figure it will be too long until we move into the new one. I can hardly wait.

Another sign that winter has arrived, people are talking about having all of their Christmas shopping done. I hate them.(okay, not really, well maybe a little bit)Each year I tell myself that I am going to start shopping earlier. Never happens. I don't know why. I am just now getting over my stuffed belly from Thanksgiving. I just now am coming out of my turkey coma. I shouldn't have to think about shopping now. I think we should partition the courts to move Thanksgiving to a month that doesn't have a good holiday. Like August, or March. We don't need St. Patrick's Day. If we did that, we would have a longer time to get ready for Christmas. It's just a thought. LOL!

Okay, I'm done for now. Until next time.....

Small Farm Girl, Buh Humbug.

Monday, November 30, 2009

Early Christmas Party

Today me and Hubby went to my uncle's house for an early family Christmas party. It's about a 2 hour drive north of here. I didn't realize the difference a few miles could make in the temps. The wind was whipping over the flat land adding to the cold. Well, I guess it wasn't really THAT cold, but I wanted to get back to the hills a soon as possible.

Anyway, it was nice to see family that I haven't seen for a while. It was like we had never been apart. We swear and swear that we will get together more often through the year, but things just don't happen. Then we see each other and wonder why. Ever have anyone like that?

Another thing I found out while I was at the Christmas party was, a 14 month old little boy does not care if there are steps around. He is going to walk straight no matter what. My cousin has three boys. Their ages are 14 months, 3, and 5 years. The 14 month old reminded me of one of those toy trucks that you wind up and let go and it bounces off of one wall,stops, turns around, and goes and bounces off of the next wall. He was non stop! I know he fell off of the step, from the kitchen to the living room, a thousand times. He would cry, get up, and do it again! You would think sooner or later, he would get it. He didn't. Watching these 3 boys was the best form of birth control ever!!!!!I now know me and Hubby made the right decision NOT having children. lol. But, they were cute. hehehehe.Their mom told me that God made children that age cute on purpose. That way you don't leave them at Wal-mart. Funny. Being a mom has got to be the hardest job ever!!!!!!!

Oh well, it was a fun time anyway. I will be able to look back at this day and laugh.

So until next time.....

Small Farm Girl, don't even think about asking me to babysit. lol

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Wondering What To Say

I'm gonna try this again. I really love to blog. I like being connected to people from around the country. I feels like we are all friends. But, I'm not that good at coming up with things to blog about. I read some peoples blogs who write every day. I wish I could do that. How do they come up with things to blog about? I'm not good at talking on the phone. I'm not good at writing letters either(wink Kelle). After the first few minutes, I'm not good at talking to a person face to face. I just run out of things to say. But, I'm going to try. Maybe not every day, but a lot more than I am blogging now. ( Happy now Lil Sis?)

Now, back to everyday life.....

We had a nice Thanksgiving around here. Visiting with family and friends. Isn't that what Thanksgiving is all about? And of course, I ate too much. Two days in a row. I am officially starting a diet. lol.

We have been working with the horses a lot. We also received another two horses to the farm. Scout's mom came back to the farm after staying down at Hubby's dad's house for awhile. She needed to lose some weight. We also ended up getting another horse from Hubby's dad. Her name is Ginger. (I'll have pictures later.) She is another horse that was starved almost to death. She is(or was) a beautiful quarter horse. (I have a small spot in my heart for quarter horses. I use to barrel race when I lived up north.) Any way, we are going to have to put some weight back on her. I am this close to starting a horse rescue. It seems that's all we are doing lately. But, I'm afraid we would be bombarded with thousands of offers for horses to come here.

The last time I heard, there are over 20,000 horses that have been let lose in the state of Ky alone. People just can't afford to keep them. Horses have no value now. You can get a good horse for less than $100. That's including the saddle! It has been made illegal to kill horses for meat in the state of Kentucky. Now I am NOT for slaughtering beautiful horses just because you don't want them anymore, but I am also not for just letting them lose where they can be hit by trucks and trains, or, they could get diseases and die. Yes, I know there is mustangs out west that live in the wild. But, out west there is open spaces for them to run and be free. Kentucky is a little more populated. I have no answer for this hard question. All I know is I am doing my part in helping out these poor creatures.

Hey, for a person that doesn't have much to say, I sure said a lot today. lol

Until next time.....

Small Farm Girl, blabber mouth.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Good Things Come In Three's

It was a pretty good around here today. We finally got a live person on the phone and told them that the person they were trying to reach did not live here. They told us that they would take our names off of the calling list. Good thing #1.

We FINALLY got all of the burrs out of the horses manes. Good thing #2.

Oh, and good thing #3?



We got a saddle on Scout for the first time!!!! He done really good too! We found out that if you went slow with him, he would get spooked. But, if you would just throw things around him, he didn't really mind. Sure he shied a little when I went to place the saddle on his back, but it was a big scary thing getting ready to attack him. After putting the saddle up close to his head a couple times, he didn't mind it at all. We cinched him up tight and everything. I'm sooooo proud of him. Hopefully we(Hubby) will be riding him before the weekend.

I will do any ground work when it comes to horses. That is my favorite part. Since I worked at the racetrack in Columbus Oh, I have loved ground work. I don't need to ride the horse to enjoy the training. Plus, since I have gotten older than 18, it hurts to hit the ground(Imagine that). Not that I have ever been thrown from a horse before. I haven't. But I have bailed a few times. lol. I was thrown from a donkey before, but that's another story for another time.

Anyway, three good things have happened today. Now, if only we can keep it up this whole week.

So until next time.....

Small Farm Girl,wanta be horse trainer.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

"Press One Please"

I am sooooo behind on my blogging! We have been kinda busy. Hubby has been fixing fence for a few days now. Those vines can take over! They can pull down a fence in no time. He started out with a weed eater. Then he moved on to a chainsaw. Finally he started to make progress. It's started to look pretty good around here. Well, at least in the back field. lol.

We were going to kill some chickens today. We have a few that are getting long in the tooth(or long in the beak), and they haven't been laying much this year. So instead of feeding them through this winter, we thought that THEY could feed US through the winter. Anyway, they got a stay today from the executioner's hatchet. It was too winding to keep our fire going under the pot of water for scalding. Man, they were lucky. Oh well, maybe tomorrow.

So instead of killing chickens, we worked on getting burrs out of the horses manes and tails. Now that's a job! Scout was full of them. His tail looked like a possum's tail. We didn't get all of them out today. Scout isn't used to being handled for long periods of time. He'll get use to it though. We plan on putting a saddle on him in a few days. That should be interesting. I'll try to get some pictures.

Oh, I wanted to tell you about a phone call we got around 8:45 last night. It was a bill collector. Well, it was a recording of a bill collector. They were looking for a person that doesn't live here. So the recording said,"If this is"the person's name", please press one. If this is not "the person's name", then press two." I pressed two. Then the recording said," If "the persons name" is there and you need to get that person, press one. If "the person's name" is not there, press two." I pressed two. Then the recording said, "Please call the number 1-888-xxx-xxxx to talk to a customer serves rep. Good bye." So I thought I would call that number and inform them that the person they are looking for doesn't live here, so they can take our phone number out of their system and we wouldn't get the annoying phone calls. I got another recording that said, " This number is no longer in service." AAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!

So every other day or so, we will get a bill collector call our house looking for this person. As soon as I can talk to a live person, I'll tell them that the person doesn't live here. Until then, I'll just pick it up, say "Hello," and then hang up.
Oh, well.

So until next time.....

Small Farm Girl, phone hanger-upper.

Monday, October 26, 2009

I Hate Them!

I love fall. There, I said it. It's my favorite time of year.The beautiful leaves, the crisp air, and the first smell of wood smoke rising from chimneys.But,(you knew that was coming)I HATE spiders coming into my house! Springtime? The eight legged creatures are a welcome site in my garden. I don't even think about stepping on them. I know they are there to catch and eat the unwanted pest that make my garden their own personal smorgasbord. I don't mind them there.

But,(there it is again), don't come into my house. In a few short months, spiders go from being my friend, to my sworn enemy. They go from,"Oh look, a spider. Hello little spider." to "OH MY GOSH! A SPIDER!!!!!KILL IT! KILL IT!" My Hubby is busy laughing at me as I come flying out of the bathroom naked, screaming my fool head off, begging him to kill the monster that dared to crawl into my bathtub.

He says they are coming into the house just to get warm. I DON'T CARE! If they want to stay warm, they need to gather little twigs during the summer and start them a small spider fire to stay warm. They could spin themselves some spider coats,hats, and eight gloves out of spiderweb. They don't need to come into my house.They can keep themselves warm.

Now I am done ranting about the eight legged monsters. So until next time......

Small Farm Girl, arachnophobia

Saturday, October 24, 2009

I Can't Sleep!

It's a quarter to four in the morning and I am wide awake. Not because I want to be, it's just so hot in the house tonight. If you have a wood burning stove you understand. You start a fire in it because it's a little chilly. It feels so good when you first start it. Just takes the chill off. Then you throw a few sticks of wood on for the night thinking it will get colder. But, ooooooooooh no, it doesn't get cooler it gets warmer. Now I'm setting here with the doors and windows open trying to get some cool air in from outside. The weather is hard to predict this time of year.

Anyway, nothing really exciting has happened around here. I canned 11 quarts of apple butter a few days ago. It came out pretty good, but I think it needs more cinnamon. I will put more in the next batch. I make it in a big turkey roaster. It's soooooo easy that way.

This is what Hubby has been up to lately. I just love when a man does manual labor. lol.He has a lot cut and split. I look for it to be a hard winter so he is making sure we have enough.


Two weeks ago, we decided to go to an herb festival that had been advertised for some time now. It rained hard the night before. So when we arrived, they were having people park miles down the road, and they would bus you in. They had an old school bus driving back and forth delivering people to and from the festival. They also had a tractor pulling a big buggy full of people back and forth to their cars. We found what seemed to be a nice place to park. We paid our 5 dollars(yes 5 dollars to park) and started to go back into the field where everyone else was parking. Hubby asked the man taking the money if the ground was to soft to park there. We had out little Honda Civic(to save on gas,it was an hour drive to get there)and we didn't want to get stuck. "No problem," the man said,"Just follow that truck going in there and don't stop." Me and Hubby looked at each other and thought,"Okay, if you say so." Well, this is what happened. We got stuck.



Not only did we get stuck, but the white car got stuck. And if you look in the back ground, you will see another car that got stuck. The man just kept bringing in more cars and more cars kept getting stuck. It was the slimy clay mud.I know it doesn't look like much in this picture, but, it was like trying to drive on ice. The ground affects on the car was touching the mud. Notice how deep the white car had sunk. We asked the ladies in the car if they had talked to the guy taking the money. They told us that he had someone on the way. That was a 1/2 hour ago. So Hubby went to talk to the man himself. He was blaming Hubby for stopping his car. He said that was the reason we got stuck. I say the reason we stopped the car was BECAUSE we were stuck. People now a days.


Anyways, the cavalry finally came in the form of this big dump truck full of wood shavings.


This guy hooked a chain onto the cars and pulled them out. (And yes, that is an Amish driving the bobcat)



By the time we were pulled out, the festival was closed for the day. We were not happy campers. We did get out 5 dollars back though. We sat in front of his gates until he gave it back to us. (Yes, I'm a little bull headed)

But the next day, I had calmed down some and talked( tricked) Hubby back into going again. I really wanted to see all the herb stuff. So this time, we took the truck. Yes the gas mileage was horrible, but we were not going to get stuck this time. By the time we got there, a lot of the mud had dried up. We could have taken the car. Once again we paid our 5 dollars and went into the festival(which was held at some guy's farm)The flier that we saw said there would be 150 vendors. AAAAhhh yea. There might have been 50. Three out of those 50 had something to do with herbs. The rest were selling food or crafts or antiques. Don't get me wrong, I like those things too. But, I wouldn't have come back for crafts and antiques.(Well maybe the food, but that's a whole other issue that I have. lol)NO HERBS! Why call it an "herb festival" if you aren't going to have herbs? I guess we learned our lesson.

So until later....

Small Farm Girl, Mud Runner.

P.S. I'm going back to bed now.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

I know, I know, it's been a long time since my last blog. I could say I've been busy with the garden, but, we have already had a hard freeze and the garden is done. I could say we have been canning all kinds of food, but, I'm out of things to can, except apples. I could say I've been busy with kids, but once again, I don't have any. So, I'm going to chalk this one up to just being lazy.lol.

Okay, do you remember this horse? She likes to eat, a lot.


One day I noticed she was laying on the ground. Now, her being a lazy and fat horse, she doesn't normally lie down. So, I went over to her to see what was up. She was laying on the ground groaning. Not good. I pulled on her halter and she slowly got up. She couldn't stand up normally. Not good, again. She acted like she was stiff and didn't want to move. I checked her stomach for sounds. There were sounds, no colic. That was a good sign. Then I tried to move her. She would walk, but she acted like it hurt her.

To make a long story short, she was foundered. How? We have no idea. It's not a bad case of founder, but a case never the less. What do you do for founder? First off, we have to get the weight off of her. At least 300 lbs. Yes, that is 300 lbs. She is way too fat. The next thing we do is to get her to stand in some cold water, twice a day, for about 20 minutes. This helps with the heat that builds up in her feet. Here are some pictures I took today as Hubby had her in the water. Check out the color of the trees.



She is a very affectionate horse.


It's been a few weeks since she foundered herself. She is slowly getting better.


Oh, and I thought I would throw this one in just for you "Slow Dog." We have a pretty sky here too. lol



So for now....

Small Farm Girl,being lazy.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

How did I get here?

I have been trying to check into my ancestors. Not to see if I'm from some famous king or anything. I'm just asking my aunts and uncles, Mom and Dad, and Grandpa, what they remember about their childhood and the people in it.

For example, I found out that my Great Grandma Lawhun was an Indian princess from the Cherokee nation. My Great Grandpa, whose name I still don't know, traded goods to her father for her hand in marriage. From what I can gather, she was very young when he done this. Grandma always held a grudge toward Grandpa for taking her away from her family. I can say, I don't blame her.

Another thing I have found out about my family, is that my Dad's side of the family is from London England. But,(and here's the kicker) they were caught doing something illegal and was given the choice of moving to Wales or moving to the "New World" as indentured servants. My ancestors picked the later. They decided to go to the "New World." But, once their feet hit the soil, they took off for the hills of Appalachia. That is how we came to be here. For years the family would travel from one homestead to the next. They would clean the land and basically get it ready for the real owner. Then they would move to the next homestead that needed cleaned. It wasn't until later, when my dad had been born, did they buy land and settle on it. That land is still in the family today.

I still have more digging to do. It's amazing what you can find if you do a little bit of talking and listening to older relatives. Just ask them about what they remember about their family when they were growing up.

So until next time....

Small Farm Girl, royalty or convict, you decide.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Hi everyone! Just thought I would stop in and catch up on a few things.

I have been making loaves of bread! I've been "afraid" of yeast for years. Why? I have no idea. It's not like it can eat me, or pull off my toe nails one at a time. It's just yeast. But for some reason I have skipped over any recipes that had yeast in them. So, I faced the almighty yeast monster, and I came out the victor!

Hubby says it taste very good. I really can't be sure, because when I make a new loaf, for some reason, it doesn't last long enough for me to get more than a small slice. Maybe we have a bread eating monster around here.

Now that I have conquer my fears, I want to try different recipes. I would like to make a lighter, fluffier, bread. I would like to make a sweet bread. Maybe, even make some cinnamon rolls. Yummmmmmmm. Maybe I shouldn't have faced my fear of yeast. Now, I'm going to have a new fear,a fear of the bathroom scales.

So until next time.....

Small Farm Girl, baker.

P.S. If anyone has a good bread recipe out there, I would really appreciate it if you could give it to me, or at least point me in the right direction. lol

Monday, September 28, 2009

Sorry it's been a while since my last post. Not much going on around here that I thought was blog worthy. Red and Scout are eating grass like crazy out in the pasture. We wormed them hoping, maybe, that they would start filling out more. Scout is doing much better. He has more energy and is running all over like he is a race horse. Red is taking some time. He is 21yrs old. I hope he can pull out of it. He is the sweetest thing. He loves people.

This last weekend Hubby has been working on the house. It's getting closer and closer to moving into. I told him I will move in as soon as the electric is on. I don't care if it doesn't have drywall on the walls, or that it doesn't have flooring down. I want in my house. lol. We can use bed sheets for walls, and area rugs for the floors. I would really like to get out of "The Shack" before it gets really cold outside.

Apples are ripening around the area. As soon as we get a little money back, I want to get a few bushels from the local orchard and make apple butter. Hubby has already ate all of the peach butter. For a man who doesn't like peaches, he sure put a hurtin' on the peach butter. lol. Since complaining of how tired I was of canning veggies from the garden, I can hardly wait to can apples. lol. No wonder men say they don't understand women.

Oh, by the way, IT'S COLD AROUND HERE!!!!! We had a cold front come through early this morning. It's cold and it's very windy. The meteorologist say we will be lucky to get out of the 50's in the next few days. And, we may even see a light frost one night this week. WOW! Time sure does fly by. It seems just like yesterday I was trying to figure how much to plant in the garden. Soon it will be( I dare to say it) Christmas. I'm thinking about giving homemade gifts this year. (Hey Lil Sis, you can make some suggestions here. lol)

Well, I guess I'll blog later. Sometimes things that are mundane to us,may be very interesting to others. So as boring as I might think it is around here, I'll try to keep you guys up to date. lol. If you have any questions to ask me, feel free. I'll try to answer them all. (Please no boxers or briefs questions. You really don't want me to answer that. lol)

So until later.....

Small Farm Girl, scatter brained.

Monday, September 21, 2009

To Be,or Not To Be......

Me and Hubby went to a chili festival this weekend and look what we saw. Isn't that the cutest thing?


They had a few horses and ponies pulling carts of people around the streets of Huntington. One street over, there were thousands(okay,maybe not thousands) of people cooking chili. You buy a cup of chili for a dollar and all of the money goes to the Ronald McDonald House. That's a great charity. My cousin had to use it when his new born was in the hospital for a few weeks. That was a few years ago, and the baby is fine now. But, he wouldn't have been able to stay with his child if it wasn't for the Ronald McDonald House. They provided a place for him to stay.

Anyway, me and Hubby had a nice time there. Until it got too crowded. And, boy, it got crowded. So we went home to where we could breathe. lol. Here's another picture of some of the horses.


We had a few people needing more details about the horses that we are trying to fatten up. We took the pictures of Red and Scout at our house. We have plenty of grass for them here. The place that they were at WAS over 100 acres, but, it was all hills and trees. No grass. There was just a little bit of grass around the ponds and down on a small flat by the road.

This is what the horses look like that have been kept at our house.


Fat!!!!! Or are they expecting? We had one of our neighbors stud horse break out of his fence. It wasn't hard for him to break out. It was an electric fence that they had turned off 3 days before. Okay, let me explain to you if you don't know anything about horses. Stud horses(stallions) "laugh" at electric fences if there are mares around. Especially, if that electric fence has been turned off for 3 days.

Anyway, their stud horse came up and visited our mares, at 4:00am in the morning, back in November of last year. He didn't get into the fence, but it is just a barb wire fence. One strand was broke. It snagged Hubby's mare's leg and made a huge gash on it. We had to doctor it for a while. Once again, I was not a happy camper. The neighbor that I'm talking about, is not the good neighbor moving in across from us. It's a neighbor that moved in down the road from us a few years ago.

Here's a picture of the mare in question. Now, she is fat, I know. But is it baby or not? Only time will tell. If she is, can you get child support for a colt?


Yes I know about the flies, we have fixed them. I also know about the fence being loose. We have fixed it too. Please, no bad comments. All has been taken care of.lol.

So until later.....

Small Farm Girl, horse caretaker.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

I'm Mad!

We have horses. We have three horses. Two mares and a young gelding. The gelding is from one of our mares. So, when he became 6 months old, we weaned him. We took him to Hubby's dad's house. Hubby's dad has an older gelding,named Red,(original huh) that we thought would get along with Scout, our young gelding. Anyway, Hubby's dad took Scout and Red to a place where he has 3 other horses. A few hundred acres on a few hills. You would think a horses dream. Land to run on, with no humans.

These horses have been there for a while. Scout is now 2 1/2 years old. We worked with him before we put him on the hill so he would be easy to catch and lead. We thought these horses were being taken care of. We are going to break Scout to ride soon, so we decided to go and check on the horses. Imagine our horror when we saw this....



This is Red. He was a show horse. When he left our farm 2 1/2 years ago, he was so fat he could have stood to lose about 100 pounds. We is an old style Tennessee Walker. He is suppose to have large round hind quarters and a thick chest and neck. He sure doesn't have it now. This horse was starving to death. These pictures don't show how thin he really is. I plan on getting better pictures to post on here later.


And Scout,(once again you can't hardly tell in this picture)he has lost a lot of weight too. With him being a younger horse,he was in better shape than Red. But, He can still stand to put on at least 50 pounds.


Right now, I'm mad. I'm mad that anyone could let horses get in this bad of shape. We thought that Hubby's dad was taking care of them. Guess not. Looks like me and Hubby have two projects on our hands. It's a good thing we saw them and brought them home before it got worse.

So for now.....

Small Farm Girl, horse rescuer.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Jumped the Gun

Okay, my last post I talked about just eating locally. As I got to studying the things in my pantry, I realize this is going to take a little bit of planning and organizing. So, maybe I should have said that we are going to try HARDER to eat locally.lol. I want to be able to grow everything we need and eat here on the farm. But, it's not going to happen over night. I realize that now. One day and one purchase at a time. Me and Hubby were discussing how much we actually did this year towards our goal. We canned and froze quite a bit of food. More than we did the year before.(Which was hardly anything) Next year, we will do even more. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't just snap my fingers and it would all happen at once. Although, wouldn't that be nice?

Another thing I learned was, if you are making your own food from your pantry, you have to plan more. You can't just pop an 11 pound ham into the microwave after you get off work. It doesn't work that way. Although, once again, it would be nice. So I found out that one of the things that I have to learn is meal planning. I thought I was good at that. WRONG! Hotdogs don't count when it comes to planning good local and nutritional foods to eat.

So, I'm taking back the things I said in my last post. (at least some of it) There are guide lines that we want to go by, (like eat local, organic, not genetically modified, and eat our own food that WE grow.)but it's going to take a little longer to get where we want. But you have admit, we are closer than when we started.

So for now.....

Small Farm Girl,gun jumper.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

A few people wanted to see our new house we are building(and when I say we, I mean my Hubby). Well, here is one side. We don't know if we should call this the front because this is the side of our driveway. This is going to be where everyone enters.



Here's a side view(kinda). We plan on building a celler there one day. It's going to be to the right of the house. Just put it on the list.


This is the side that points to the road. (If you can see it around the horse and trees).Sorry it's so fuzzy. I was on the back of a four wheeler when I took it.


Yesterday me and Hubby went to a local festival. I just love festivals. I would rather go to a festival than a fair anyday. I don't know if it's the actual festival verses fair thing, or if it's a fall verses summer thing. Festivals remind me of fall, and pumpkins, and frosty mornings. Oh, it can't get much better.

Now on to another subject:

There is something me and Hubby are trying to do now. We are going to try and eat locally. First, we want to NOT go to the grocery store so often. We would go at least once a week, spend close to a hundred dollars, and still not have anything good to eat at home.We also went OUT to eat a lot. (could explain the weight problem lol.) Eating locally HAS to be better for you. The food has to be fresher and therefore better for you. And when I say locally, I don't mean a local restarant. lol. We are going to grow a lot of our food. What we can't grow we are going to try and get locally. What we can't get locally, I guess we will try to do without.

I have been looking into genetically modified foods. SCARY!!!!! It makes a person not want to eat ANYTHING! Once again, another reason to raise your own foods. If you haven't looked into these foods, please do so. The more people know about them, the better off we will be.

I didn't want this to be a preachy post, but, I have just started getting info about this myself lately. I have never heard about all of these things, but it now makes me think more about my food. I guess that's a good thing.

So for now.....

Small Farm Girl,local eater.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

So far this has been a busy weekend. Me and Hubby went to the Amish country, that is only about an hour away from our house, yesterday. We have never visited that part of the Amish community. All the things that we have ever heard about the Amish, were about the ones in northern Ohio. That's about a 5 hour drive for us. I could have kicked myself. They have just about the same thing here as they have up there. It's just not as commercialized. Which to me, is a good thing. Their stuff is still expensive though. The whole "bulk food" stores puzzle me. Aren't they suppose to be cheaper? Well, not the ones that I seen. They were MORE expensive. But, their stores were still full of non-Amish people. Do people think that since it's Amish that it's suppose to be better? Sorry, I thought M&Ms are the same anywhere you get them. Especially when they have the "M" on them. I don't know maybe I'm being too picky, but I don't think enriched flour should be over a $1 a pound. Anyway, we still had a good time. We like driving around and "exploring."

Today, we went to Hubby's family reunion. It was held at a relatives house that lived on the Ohio River. It was beautiful. I love watching that water. You see so many different things on the river. Different boats, different birds, and different barges go up and down the river all day long. I'll post some of the pictures I took later on. Anyway, we had a really nice time. We met relatives that we didn't know. Plus we got a new place to fish on the river. lol. We know there are fish there, we saw them jumping in the water.

So after the fun weekend, the holiday is going to be a "work" day for us. I can't stand not getting anything done around the house. Hubby and his dad are going to be working on the new house tomorrow. He's working on the wiring. We are soooooo close to moving in. I told him as soon as he gets electric down there, I'm moving in. I don't care if I have to use old sheets as walls. I want in my new house before our old one falls down around our heads. I'm getting excited.

Well that's all I've got for now.

Until later.......

Small Farm Girl,explorer.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Not Good

Hubby didn't get the job. It must not have been meant to be. Oh well, back to the drawing board. Must not dwell on it, move forward.

Do any of you out there in Blog Land live on a dirt road? Sure it's nice not to have that much traffic speeding by. But to live on a dirt road you get this...




Me and Hubby went to a car show with our own car looking like this.(Our car was not in the show.) As we were there, a small child decided our car need washed.(I don't know where they got that idea.) So they proceded to "wash" our car for us. If you look real close, you will see the "wash job" they did for us. lol. We didn't notice it until we came home that night. Well I guess the little "washer" saw everyone else cleaning dust off of their cars. They just didn't want to be left out. lol. Oh well, I guess we will have to wash our car. But after our first trip home, it will look just like this again.


Thank's to everyone who wished Hubby luck. It's nice to know you care.

Oh and Katie, the picture at the top of my blog, is in Amish country. Me and Hubby went to Ohio's Amish country for our 10th year anniversary. Funny though, we do have Amish that live about one hour away from us. But, we went 6 hours away so we could see THOSE Amish. I know doesn't make much since, but we don't always do things that make sence. lol

So for now......

Small Farm Girl,soon to be car washer.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Fingers Crossed

Look what went over our house a few days ago. It was so low it shook the house windows. It also spooked the horses and cattle. We have had them come over before, but never that low. You could see the guns on the front of it and everything. Kinda scary huh?


Okay, now for the news......(drum roll please) Hubby has a job interview tomorrow!!!!!!YEA!!!!!!!! He filled out an application on line last night. They called him this morning. That was fast! I hope that's a good sign. He has been laid off for 9 months.(I didn't realize it had been that long until I just now added it up.) We wont know what to do with a normal sized paycheck. I'm sure I'll find something though. lol. Now, if Hubby gets this job, we might actually get to SAVE money instead of living from paycheck to paycheck. How weird will that be? So all of you out in Blog Land,please pray, cross your fingers, wish him luck, knock on wood,or do a little job dance. lol. But we both have decided, if it is meant for him to have this job, he will get it.

I'll keep you up to date.

Until later.....

Small Farm Girl, hopeful

Monday, August 31, 2009

Neighbors

We are getting neighbors. The land across the road was for sale for a while. Oh how I dreaded the thought of a trailer park going in there. Those seem to be popping up all over around here. People buying large parcels of land. Land that use to be someones farm, then splitting it up in to smaller pieces. People bring in trailers until that's all you see for miles. Not that there is anything wrong with trailers themselves. It's just seems that when you get a lot of them in an area, you end up with a few people who you really don't want to live beside. I just didn't want my "little house on the prairie" to be upset by "MTV cribs."

Anyway,(I kind of got off course)a young feller bought over 50 acres. Yea!!!!!! No splitting the farm up.But,(get ready for it)he told us today that the reason he bought the land was to homestead on. Double YEA!!!He and his soon to be wife are going to have their own little homestead too. With goats and milk cows and herbs and chickens and.....(I could go on and on.)I'm so excited. Now I can talk to someone face to face about the things that are important to me. I can tell them about how I am thinking about getting a milk goat and they won't look at me with a disgusted look on their face and say,"Why?" Triple YEA!!!!!!!We are already talking about swapping seeds and books about gardening. I couldn't have hand picked a better neighbor for us to have.

Now, what has been going on around here this week. First of all, I didn't realize that it has been so long since I last posted. Time just seems to be flying by. It's going to be (do I dare say it?) Christmas real soon. I would tell you what I'm going to get my family for presents this year but, they read this too. (No cheating Lil Sis!) Pretty soon we will be cranking up the wood burner for some serious heat. Already the nights are in the lower 50's. I love this time of year.

Boy, this post is all over the place. Since the garden has pretty well pooped out, I'm hoping to blog more. We shall see how that goes. lol

Until next time......

Small Farm Girl, neighbor.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

First Day Party

Hi guys!WHA SUP!(didn't that sound all ghetto?) I'll tell you wha sup here, the thermometer! It got hot. All at once, HOT! But, it always does when it's time for hay. That's what Hubby has been doing all week. HAY. I think I actually heard him talking in his sleep about hay, poor guy. lol.

Another thing that has happened, is the schools around here have started. (Watch out for the school buses!) When me and my sister were in school, my mom would have what we called "A First Day Party." On the first day of school,Mom would call cousins and aunts and uncles to come over for cake and ice cream. Just like a birthday party,except no presents.(unless you wanted to bring them, I would never say no to presents.)Since all of my cousins started school on the same day as me and Lil Sis, it was their "first day party" too. We would all gather around the table and laugh and tell about our first days of school. It was like letting off steam. Sometimes there would be more than 30 people there in our little kitchen. It didn't matter to us, we were having fun and eating cake and ice cream.

As we all got older, and graduated from school, the "first day parties" slowly stopped. It got so disappointing when you would see the school buses go by your house on the first day of school, and knowing that you wouldn't have a "first day party." It wasn't a "first day" for you. Oh well,that's what happens when you get old. Until..........

My uncle married a school teacher!!!!!YEA!!!! We started having our "first day parties" again! So last Monday, we all gathered at his house with a cake and ice cream. She was sooooooo surprised. We sang "Happy First Day" and everything. It was just like old time, except we were all older now. But what a great time we all had.Although we didn't go in the back yard and play kick ball. lol. So if you are needing a pick-me-up for the kids because they had to go back to school, try a "first day party." It will do wonders.

Until later.....

Small Farm Girl, partier.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

What's Up?

Hi everyone! It's hard to believe it's been so long since I've posted. Wow, time flies! We have been pretty busy around here. Hubby has been cutting lots and lots of hay. I'm not complaining. It's always good to have lots and lots of hay. The corn has been coming on pretty good too. I've been freezing and freezing, lots and lots of corn.(see a pattern here?)

Well I told you I would post some pictures of my herb garden. Not to pretty right now. All of the things laying around in the garden is to dissuade Luke from getting into the garden. Notice the caution tape? There is electric fence wire between them. The fence doesn't have electric to it, it's just a small barrier for him.He's too lazy to try to go through it. (knock on wood)



The other day I had my hair cut at work. My hair had gotten to the point of either cutting it or shaving it. (girls, you know where I'm coming from)I told the hairstylist just to do something. I didn't care what. Well this is what she gave me. Not bad, kinda cute,now that I look at the pictures, but just not my style. The sides of my head reminded me of chicken wings.



So I asked Hubby what he though. He look me, his head tilted sideways. "Turn around," he said. I turned.


He started laughing. "Guess what?" he said. "Chicken butt!"

"What?"

"You have a chicken on your head! The back of your head looks like a chicken's butt."

Well, if you look at it, I guess it does. Needless to say, the next day at work, I had it cut into a totally different style. Not because of what he said, but because I kind of thought the same thing.lol

So until later....

Small Farm Girl, chicken head.

Monday, August 17, 2009

"Weed" Garden

A few days ago me and Hubby bought some herbs for the herb garden. I'm going to try and start a nice one. I want one that has some herbs for cooking and some for medicinal proposes. I think herbs are powerful "weeds." I also think the art of using them is lost. Not many people believe in herbs anymore, except for making food taste good. My ancestors believed in them, and I'll bet your ancestors did too. Maybe you still do. I hope so. We need more people to be able to use natures remedies instead of the synthetic "medicine"that mainstream doctors are pushing now. I'm not here to say mainstream medicine is wrong or right. What I am saying,is don't overlook nature for some things.

Anyway, I needed to get my new "gems" into the ground today. But, since I have been making salsa and freezing corn all day long, I found myself outside in the dark planting the herbs. I was going to plant them early tomorrow morning but, it's suppose to really rain around here the next few days. So,my window of opportunity was shrinking. I had all but one more to plant when the phone started to ring. So, laying down all my planting tools, I went inside to answer it. Of course, it was nothing important. But, as I went back outside to finish the garden, what did I see? My St. Bernard scratching a place in the newly tilled earth! He was making his self a nice place to sleep! AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!Of course I yelled at him to get out of my garden. (Yes, I know he just wanted a cool place to lay. Please don't comment on my being mean to him. lol) That's when he looked at me like, "What?" As he was getting up to leave, I turned around and Skeeter(my mini wiener dog) was squatting on the other side of the herb garden peeing!!!!I can't win for losing!

Oh well, I guess if my herbs can live through my dogs' punishments, they will be able to live through anything.

Until next time....

Small Farm Girl, herb-avore.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Rally On The River

Hey everyone, it's your long lost blogger Small Farm Girl. You know, the blogger that hasn't been blogging lately. This learning to homestead is pretty hard work. lol. But, it is worth it. Me and Hubby have been canning tomato juice, freezing corn,freezing cherry tomatoes, freezing bell peppers, and on top of all of that, working my "regular" job. Tomorrow we are going to try to can some sausa. I'm just going to make up the recipe as I go.

The garden has just about had it. It's croaking out it's last bit of food. In a way it's sad, but, in a way I'm doing back flips and yelling YAHOO! I'm just about done myself. Don't tell anyone, but I'm about ready for fall.

Oh yea, has anyone ever heard of being able to freeze turnips? We will have an abundance of them and I don't want them to go to waste. We don't have a root celler yet. Any suggestions would be apreciated.

Now to what me and Hubby did today. We went to a motorcycle rally. I have never seen so many motorcycles at one spot, at one time.


I have also never seen so many people that should NOT wear bikinis. Just because they make the bikini in your size, does NOT mean you have to wear it. There are images that are burned into my brain that I will probably never forget. EEEWWWWW!!!We didn't stay for more than an hour. Don't get me wrong, there were nice bikes there. There were also some people who did dress nice. It wasn't all bad. It was just soooo humid and hot, we just didn't want to stay around for long.



I had just taken this photo a few days ago and thought that I would post it today. Just so I could have a nice ending to this post. It has not been touched up or anything. I think it's beautiful. It's little things like these sunsets that me glad I live in the country.



So for now.....

Small Farm Girl, fashion guru.(LOL)

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Yea!!!!!!

You are all back!!!!!!!All of my blogs that I follow. All of my peeps.(Didn't that sound ghetto?)I'm soooooo glad you guys are back. I felt like an addict who couldn't get any drugs. I was FREAK'N OUT MAN!!!!But now, things can get back to normal. I can have my daily dose of my fellow homesteaders. You don't realize how much you really care about people until they are gone.

So WELCOME BACK Y'ALL!!!!

Small Farm Girl, blog reader.


p.s. Thank you all for your great comments in my time of need. lol

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

What????!!!!!

All of the blogs that I follow are completely gone!!!! I don't know what happened to them. It shows that I don't have any that I follow. Well, guess what, I do follow blogs.

So don't fret if I don't comment on your blog for a while, I'll get you back somehow.

sfg

small farm girl.....UP all night!

It's 3:20 in the morning, and I can't sleep. I've got HEART BURN!!!! We canned 19 quarts of tomato juice today. Of course, I had to drink some. (make that a lot!) Boy, am I paying for it now. Oh well, I figured since I was up, I would catch up on my blog. It's been a while since I have posted anything. Busy, very busy.

This last weekend me and Hubby went to my family reunion in Marion Oh. It took us about 3 hours to get there. I slept most of the way, up and back. I figure if I sleep on trips where we have to drive on a busy freeway, our marriage will last longer. lol. I am "professional" back seat driver.(I guess that would be a passanger seat driver.) I am constantly saying,"Watch that car!" or "That light is turning red!" or "Would you pay attention to the road and quit looking at that tractor!" I wouldn't even want me as a passanger.(Although, in all fairness, I have saved us from some wrecks by doing that.) I have got a hole worn out in the floorboard on the passanger side. It's where I am applying "MY break." So to keep Hubby from wringing my neck on "freeway" rides. I either sleep or read. (Thank goodness I don't get sick when I read in the car. That could be a whole other blog. :) )

Anyway, we had a really nice time seeing family and friends that we haven't seen in a long while. But I have a question,when you go to family reunions, why do you sit with the people you see the most through out the year? Shouldn't you mingle with everyone else? Shouldn't you be catching up on what THEY are doing? lol.

Okay, I'm getting off the subject here. Anyway, we had a great time. My dad and his brothers played music and there was a lot of dancing. Of course, it had to be the hottest day of the year. Boy did I get worn out.(although it was okay, I slept on the way home. :) ) We got back home around 8:00 pm that night. Happy to have seen family, and full from some really good food.

Today, me and Hubby canned and canned and canned. We had 4 five gallon buckets full of tomatoes. We would have had more, but it poured the rain and Hubby couldn't get back into the garden to pick more. I, for one, was glad. Canning 19 quarts of tomatoe juice is hard on fat girls. lol. If Hubby hadn't helped me, there was no way I could have done all of that today. We started around 4:30, and quit around 9:00 pm. There was tomatoe pieces and parts everywhere. So, I cleaned up and fixed us something to eat. I told Hubby we were going to have tomato soup to eat. I just got "The Look." (women, you know "the look." lol)

Well, I'm going to go and try to get some sleep. Maybe eat some Tums or something.

So for now.....

Small Farm Girl,fire breather.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Hi everyone! My last post was kind of a downer. I was just in a funk. I am back to normal now. Why? Because of all of YOUR blogs. You may wonder sometimes if it is worth writing your blog anymore or if it really matters if you do. Well IT DOES!!!! It helps to know there are others out there like myself, who thinks like I do. As I was reading other blogs these past few days, it makes me realize why we do what we do, why we work our tushes off to can beans and corn and pickles. One for the money saving "free" food, one for the satisfaction of knowing what is in the food you eat, and one for the feel of being out in the garden and creating things with your own hard work.(okay, nature had a little bit to do with it too.)So to everyone out there who is actually thinking of quiting with the blogging.Please don't. You may be making more of an impact than what you may think.

Okay, on to another topic. I've had a few people ask me about my peach butter recipe. Well here it is...

Get a bunch of peaches, peal them and take out the pits. Now you have a few decisions to make.You can either put them in a blender and palse them, or you can put them in a pot whole. If you keep them whole, cook them down and then mash them with a potatoe masher. I use a blender. It seems like it is faster. Then I add about 2 cups of sugar for each blender full. Actually I just add to taste. I find that some peaches are a little more tart than others. Then add cinnimon to taste.(do you see a pattern here?) If you want, add a bit(that's a technical term) of ginger. It's very simple. It's just what ever you like. Cook it down until it's the consistincy that you want. If you want it thicker, cook it longer. If you want it runny, don't cook it as long. But one thing,out of all of this that you have to do is, make sure you constantly stir it. It will stick and burn on the bottom if you don't. Then put it in jars and seal. Or, if you want freeze it in freezer bags. It taste the same. Hard recipe huh? lol

Well it's getting late and I'm going to go to bed.

Until next time.....

Small Farm Girl,motivated.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

I'm still here, I promise.

I'm still alive and kicking. I have not left you, nor have I been abducted by aliens. I am a slave to the garden right now. The veggies are getting ripe faster than I can can.(not the dance.) The beans are slowing down, but the tomatoes are just starting to hit their stride. Soon the corn will be coming on. It's times like these I wonder about just saying forget it. But then I read one of you guy's blogs and I get motivated again. I'm so glad I have "partners in crime" out there. It's good to know that other people are getting over whelmed too. I know, I know, sometime in January or February, I'll be glad I canned so much. I think I over did it for the first year of canning though. I have sooooooo much stuff that I want to do. Freeze the turnips, freeze more cherry tomatoes, pick and freeze zucchini and squash, freeze bell pepper strips,can some more beans, etc..etc..etc... I have to quit complaining though, I know not everyone can have the opportunity to do what me and Hubby are doing now. We are blessed with our small 50 acres. I shouldn't complain about using it to it potential. I just feel guilty about the cucumbers that are not being picked on time. And then, we have to throw them to the chickens. What a waste. If I could just keep up. Well, I knew that the main thing that I am concentrating on is tomatoes, corn, and green beans. Those are doing really good. Maybe next year I'll concentrate on more pickles or more frozen zucchini. Oh yea, and more pickled beets. I just love them! I've had a few people want the recipe for my beats, so here it is.......


Aunt Ester's Beets

5 cups of sugar
5 cups of vinegar
whole cloves

Wash and clean beets.Leave roots and about 2 to 3 inches of tops on the beets.Leaving a little bit of the tops on the beets keeps the color from leaking out. Cook beets until a fork can go in easily. (I pressure cook them at 15 lbs for 15 mins)While you are waiting for the beets to cook, bring sugar and vinegar to a rolling boil. After beets are cooked, take off peal. It should slide off easily along with the roots and stems. Make sure the beets are around the same size. Some may have to be cut in half or into quarters. Pack firmly into jars. Drop 6-8 whole cloves into jars after you put in the beets. Then pour liquid into jars with the beets and cloves. Put on lids and wait for the wonderful sound of the "POP"

See they are really easy! And, they are the best tasting beets in the world. I hope you try some. They are worth it.

Well, I'm gonna have to let you guys go for now. So until later.....


Small Farm Girl, tuckered out.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Spooky!!!!


This is the storm that went through today. Doesn't it look weird? It just sucked the fog from the hollers right up into the storm. If you didn't know any better, you would think it was a tornado. It wasn't though.

Well, the last two days have been pretty busy. Me and Mom canned beets yesterday. They turned out the most beautiful dark red. I just love pickled beets. We used my great aunt's recipe. I'll post it on here one of these days.lol Canning beets is easier than I thought it would be. I don't know why but, I was expecting something hard. Not at all!

Then I made some peach butter. That was easy too. I just peeled the peaches and put them in a blender. Pulsed them a few times. Not much, I didn't want them to be peach soup. I added a bunch of sugar, and boiled them down. Then I added cinnamon to taste. I honestly didn't measure any of it. It was all done to taste. It is soooo good. Hubby swears he hates peaches, but he loves the peach butter. Go figure.

Today I made pickles. I used Mrs Wages pickle mix again. I found some that was a little cheaper. It's easy too. And since I wasn't really planning to do pickles this year, easy is a good thing.

I also froze my cherry tomatoes. YUUUUMMMMMMY!!!!My own tomato flavored jawbreakers. Nothing like tomatoes in the middle of winter. I can just pop a few of them in my mouth in the middle of Feb, and that will hold me for a few more months. I also froze some summer squash and zucchini. They freeze very good. Just toss some in a skillet with a pat of butter and some salt. Maybe add some onion and garlic too. Wonderful!!!!I can eat my weight in these. ( and that's a lot!)

I was sitting on my front porch this morning, wondering why I wasn't getting many cherry tomatoes this year. I see the green ones, but it's like they just disappear. As I was sitting there. My dachshund(Skeeter) was sniffing around the tomato plants looking for critters.Or so I thought. I looked down at her and she had a ripe cherry tomato in her mouth! The thief!!!!! I yelled her name and she looked up at me like "What?" Nothing funnier than seeing a long black nose carrying around a small cherry tomato. I just had to laugh. The case of the missing tomatoes has been solved.

So until next time.....


Small Farm Girl, detective.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Right as I was writing this blog, Hubby asked if I wanted to go to his dad's house. Me, always up for a change in scenery, said yes. So we go down for a little bit. While we where there, someone stopped in and said there was a horse, a colt, and a burro lose down on the road. He thought it might belong to Hubby's stepsister. So we all get into the trucks, and go off on a horse wrangling mission. Sure enough it was her horse, so Hubby's stepmom led it back to her daughter's house. When we got there, her daughter told us that she didn't own a burro. We had to find a home for this 2 1/2 ft fall burro. I wanted it. But oooooooh no, right when I had Hubby convinced we needed it to keep coyotes and dogs away from out cattle, the owner of the burro shows up. He had no idea what to do with this burro. They had just bought it a few weeks ago for $60. It was his 5 year old girls birthday present. He didn't know how to lead it, or how to even put on a halter. He told us he had it in a tiny lot up by his house. He said his kids loved it like a dog. What he don't understand is, these animals are still able to kick and bite. Just because they are little doesn't mean they don't need respect. I sure hope that little girl doesn't get hurt.

Now for a brighter note.....

Hubby and my dad got the roof on the shelter. Looks pretty good, huh?



See Hubby can do it all. You would think he would have employers flocking to his door.



Oh, and Roz helped again.



This is what Dad is going to put under the shelter.



Oh, and this one too. Hey, notice that beware of dog sign there? I think it's funny.



Could you be afraid of this? I'm sure you could.


So until later......

Small Farm Girl, burro wrangler.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

The Mystery is Solved.

I canned 9 quarts of beans today. I love canning beans. It's sooooo easy. If I had enough beans, I could can all day long. My Dad always told me,"You eat what you can, what you can't, you can." Smart isn't he. lol

I also picked my first tomato out of the garden. A real tomato, not a cherry tomato. It was the only one. The rest are still very green. But, it won't be long now. This year I am concentrating on tomatoes, particularly tomato juice. We go through tomato juice so fast in the winter. Soups and chili, although, I can drink my weight in tomato juice too.(and that's saying a lot.)

Hubby has had a few bleeps on his job radar lately. I hope something pans out. Although I love him being at home, extra money is nice too. He has been laid off since back in December.(and hasn't done one dirty dish. Go figure.) If he gets this one job, he will be staying out of town for a whole 28 days. But, he will be home for 28 days after that. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I guess we'll just wait and see.

Oh, the other night when I couldn't sleep, well, I couldn't sleep last night either. But I did figure out why I couldn't sleep the night before. I was a human smorgasbord for mosquitoes. I am covered with mosquito bites! Did I say covered, I mean COVERED!!!!!!I stayed up last night scratching. I'm dying here. I believe someone could connect the dots and they would form a masterpiece. If anyone has a suggestion as to how to make these things quit itching, I am all ears. ( well actually I am all mosquito bites. But you get my point.)

Until later.....

Small Farm Girl, scratcher.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Sleepless in South Shore.

Have you ever woke up in the middle of the night and just can't get back to sleep? (like now) There is absoutley no way your body can lie down and even consider going to sleep. (like now) My mind jumps from one thing to another, nothing really important. I'm not really stressed about anything, I'm not hot or uncomfortable, and Hubby's not snoring THAT loud. It's just I can't sleep. If I don't though, I am going to be worthless tomorrow. It's funny though, out of all the things that my mind could be thinking about in the wee hours of the morning, I'm wondering what that skunk is doing. Okay that's it, I've offically lost it. I had better go back to bed.

Until later....

Small Farm Girl, insomniac.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Me and Hubby haven't been home much this week. He has been helping my Dad build his garage.



See that gizmo on the front of the tractor? Hubby and his dad designed that just for the purpose of putting up trusses. He's soooo clever.



Roz, Mom and Dad's dog, was helping too.




I don't want to make all of my friendly bloggers jealous, but the temps that day were in the lower 80's. See how nice and blue the sky was? It felt wonderful.



"Are you done taking pictures yet?"


Yes Roz, I'm done taking pictures. You can go back to "helping".

I hope I can get more time to blog this week.

Until next time.....

Small Farm Girl, contractor.