I’m away from home at the Michigan Vet Conference this weekend. I want to get a post up but don’t feel like saying a lot so I thought it would be a good time to post some pictures. These are all from the last few months (some are from fall). I’ll take advantage of the hotel’s wireless and upload these now instead of fighting with my connection at home. Enjoy! Brian’s grader, our grain setup in the background. Our first batch of Seventh Generation TP, Maci apparently wanted it out of the box! The TP neatly stacked in the cabinet. We really like it BTW. Sam doesn’t help much when I’m sewing. Our Christmas tree with all western ornaments this year. It is hard to see but look close: you can see Maci’s paw about to clock Baxter upside the head, and him about to fight back. They box all the time! He crammed himself behind the printer to recuperate. And they’re friends again…usually not this cozy. This is from early fall. Brian built this calf shelter in one day. I had mixed feelings about treated lumber and decided it is better for us than replacing/rebuilding every few years. I
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Back 2 Basics and Other Challenges
I’ve decided to start the Back 2 Basics Harvest Keeper Challenge for 2009. Chicken eggs will be the only thing on the list for now but I am excited to see things rack up once spring arrives. This will be very good for me because I kept no records from all of the farming and canning I did last year. Check out my sidebar if you’re interested, and go visit Farm Mom for a better example. Other challenge updates: We haven’t been using our corn burner at all due to it malfunctioning and refusing to keep a fire going. Brian is trying to track down the problem but in the meantime we’re blowing our budget with all the fuel oil we’re burning. So much for keeping track of the corn we use! We do keep the thermostat set low (58-62 F) and I finally found the controls for our dual heated blanket so we use that every night to take the edge off. I covered most of our windows with the clear plastics kits in the fall and although I don’t how much that is helping I do like that I can’t feel a breeze when I walk by the
Continue readingJust Checking In
No real great content here, just checking in. I’ve had a very enjoyable weekend with 4 days off in a row. The only downside was that Brian was gone hunting in the U.P. but I did get in lots of quality time with the dogs. Today the 3 of them plus me and the cat all crashed out on the couch for a long nap. All I had to do was make the 20 ft. walk out the back door and gather the chicken eggs. The sheep and chickens are pretty easy to take care of this time of year, just have to refill the feeders and waterers every couple days. I’ve started looking in to our options for rebuilding the barn, including hoophouse type structures. I’ll be sharing what we learn about their pros and cons here, plus I just finished You Can Farm by Joel Salatin and started Keeping a Family Cow, so there should be some book reviews coming soon. I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday weekend! 🙂
Continue readingIndependence Days Challenge Update
Okay, time for an update: 1. Plant something. Well, I should be planting garlic. Instead, I’m about to order some. I kind of forgot now was the time to plant it until I saw the post about it over at Children in the Corn. So that’s next for planting. 2. Harvest something. We’ve been busy lately harvesting our cash crops (soybeans & corn currently) and doing all the fun stuff that comes along with that, such as paying crop insurance and deciding when to sell our bounty. Crop prices have been a big roller coaster with the economical issues going on lately.In my home garden I have vegetable spaghetti that needs to be picked and probably some peas. Our apple trees are finally done. 3. Preserve something. Ugg. I didn’t know canning season was so long. I’ve made a big dent in my apple stores but bought some more the other day. I’ve got 2 dehydrators going making apple chips and their is no room to even make a sandwich on the counter with all the cans of applesauce and pie filling. The end is near, I hope. Then I’ll be canning pumpkin. 4. Prep something. I finally got Brian
Continue readingI’m Back! I’m Back!!!
Yay! Although I have been actively lurking (if that makes any sense) I haven’t been ready to jump back in to blogging until now! Things were so crazy all summer planning the wedding and then playing catch up. I started making a list everyday of 3 or 4 things I wanted to get done that day and updating here finally made the list. I spent most of the time making the new banner at the top and updating the sidebar but I just wanted to post quickly and let everyone know that I’m back!! Look for a more compelling post soon.
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