Goals for Today

I have 2 goals for today. One is to sweep and mop my kitchen. The other is to write something on this blog! Both are way, way, way overdue. Things have slowed down a bit and I figured out how to reformat my computer. It finally works well enough to load pictures - so - I'm back!

The markets are basically over. I'm still doing the Burlington Farmer's Market from 4-7pm on Thursdays inside at the Hotel Burlington (3rd and Valley) and you might occasionally see me hanging out with my die-hard friend Lou (pictured above) in Hamilton on Wednesday afternoons or Saturday mornings if it's nice. Lou needs some company and I'm not working any other paying job at the moment so I might as well. I've done a couple of craft shows as well. They haven't been to lucrative. I had a goal of doing one a month this winter, but I don't know if it's worth it. Haven't lost any money, but breaking even: is it worth all that work? I enjoy it, so I'm on the fence right now about whether or not I ought to continue. It could get better if the economy improves, and I am able to do some PR work promoting our eggs ... I don't know, we'll see.

Grampa Tom got done working for the seed company last week, but now he's helping Lane get his crops out. If you look clear down the road, in this picture, you can see where he's working today. Part of the corn is cut and there are a couple of John Deere specks on the corner. I'm still trying to figure out how to work my new camera so you'll have to use your imagination a bit.

The gardens are pretty much gone. We do have a little spinach and swiss chard under plastic yet and a few late herbs. I've been down in the back and Grampa's been gone, so things are still pretty much a mess, but the chickens love it!

We sold all the lambs early in November, but as you can see, we should be having more soon.

Molly and Lady are doing great! Molly went into heat about a month after I last posted so either she lost a litter or she was just }"pms"ing. Anyway, I hope we don't have a litter coming now. Lady went into heat too after Molly. We will see what happens. We are going to get them both fixed soon! Molly is so funny. She has a real sweet tooth. I have to watch her when I am transferring pies or cookies into or out of the car because she will steal them.We haven't had any more problems with them killing chicken's, although they did let a couple of stray dogs come take out a few the other day. I came home to them just laying in the yard as the stray dogs gleefully ran after chickens and the cats! They won't put up with a raccoon or a coyote, but they'll just let another dog reek havoc. They love other dogs and it was like they were just laying there saying, "Boy, are you guys in BIG trouble."

Ol' Blue has made his peace with the girls. The girls pretty much rule outside, but they've made friends. He likes to romp around with Lady and he's taught Molly all about stealing eggs from the hen house. He and Bear (the female black cat) are still best buds too. He's the only animal that is welcome in the house so that's some consolation. The tom cat thinks he ought to be allowed in the house too, but I'm adamant about making my house a cat spray free zone. I can still smell the remnants of the last tomcat territory war in one of my bedrooms. Grampa Tom says I'm crazy, but he can't smell nasty stuff. The other two cats are still around, but I didn't see them as I was out taking pictures.

Well, so much for my rambling! On to the kitchen! If I had some grow lamps, I wouldn't bother cleaning. It would be easier just to plant it, but my house is to dark for plants

God Bless You All!

~Love, Grama Sue

The Internet Meets Bailing Wire

Soon after Grampa Tom got his fancy-schmancy new John Deere tractor, he forgot about the roll-bar and hit my internet satellite dish. He cracked the brace that held it in place and since then I've had to take a hammer to it periodically to knock it into place. Yesterday, I went out to bang on it and decided the hammering was just making the entire thing to loose.

Desperate, I cried out to God, "LORD, what am I going to do?" I the next few moments, I had an awesome thought! Bailing wire! So I fixed my internet with bailing wire. I think I've been on the farm way to long.

No Time!

Has it been almost a month since I last posted? I keep telling myself " You have to blog. You have to blog. But it hasn't been done. Life has been a wonderful whirlwind and I'm loving every moment! Well, today I forced myself to take a bunch of pictures and promised myself again that I would update you all as to what's happening on the farm, but I can't seem to load the pictures! So here is my picture-less blog ...

The dogs are so sweet. They are gaining weight and looking much better! We had a problem about a week ago. They killed the geese and then went after the chickens, but they seem to understand we won't put up with that. I think the geese were a territorial thing (the geese were eating their food and trying to take over their sleeping spot) and they thought they were helping me with the chickens because I was throwing chickens that were roosting outside into the hen house at night. One of the chickens clawed me. I yelped and Molly and Lady are very protective!

The other day, they were under the house when I went to leave. I wanted to shut them up so they wouldn't bother the chickens while I was gone so I lured them out with a couple of eggs in bowls. I tried to give them time to eat the eggs before I shut them in the livestock trailer, but they started playing around so I put them away and left the eggs in the bowls. When I got home, I let them out and went to gather eggs. I put the egg bucket near the door while I took care of something else and Molly started sniffing at the eggs. I told her no, so she went over and laid down by the bowls that had eggs before I left (Blue had eaten them by now) and smacked it with her paw as if to say, "Well, where is MY egg!" They are so smart!

Molly seems to be with puppies! I talked to the lady who gave them to us. She thinks the daddy is a bull mastiff so they should be pretty good LGD's. If you are interested in a pup, let me know!

Grandpa had abandoned me for the time being. He took a temporary job with a seed company for a few weeks, so I'm on my own. The garden is slowing down some, but I still don't know how he did it when I took off for assessing classes this summer. It's a lot of work for 1 person! Grandma Whitson has been helping me some. We have put up about 60 quarts of green beans and about 6 gallons of tomatoes. Next on the agenda is apples. Our apples are very small this year, but we are planning to make apple butter to take to the Iowa markets.

I am taking apples and grapes from Baxter's Vineyards in Nauvoo to the markets.

Most of the markets will probably end within the next month, but Burlington is planning to have a weekly market until Christmas and then monthly until May. I will probably be there!

We went to a poultry show last Saturday. Grandpa entered our eggs in a contest that judged the quality and we won first prize! Our younger chickens are starting to lay. We haven't had enough eggs to take to the farmer's markets, but we're back in business now.

Well, I think I'll leave the rest for a time when I can upload pictures.


GOD BLESS YOU ALL!

LOVE, GRAMA SUE

Corn picking

Well folks, I've gone from sleeping around to working a corner. Haven't stayed with any old folks all summer, but since my last post I've been doing a lot of sitting on the corner of the 4-way stop in Dallas City selling sweet corn, melons and other various stuff. Pretty good little market! Sometimes there's 2 or 3 of us crazy farmers sitting there.

We've been growing the sweet corn up at my son's on the bluff above Dallas. He suggested I try sitting there. It's convenient (dont' have to haul the corn very far) and the town doesn't have a grocery store so the people really appreciate me. I'm planning to spend the day there tomorrow. We had about an acre of corn come on about 2 weeks ago. Usually, you have a week, maybe two, to harvest sweet corn once it gets ripe, but thankfully the weather has been cool and rainy so it is lasting long enough for us to get most of it sold. I think God must like us! We will probably be done picking near the end of this week. I've gotten out of most of the picking duty by sitting on the corner while Grampa, my son, his in-laws and Jesse's friends pick. Am I smart or what??? But Sunday, I did venture into the field and took a few pics for you.

Here's the crew:



My boy is the one with the gunny sack on his head.I did manage to get a picture of him without it. Ha, Ha Jess! Here he is: Jess (my istsy, bitsy, tiny baby boy). The guy behind the trailer is Ray (boyfriend of Jesse's MIL). Ray has been selling a ton of sweet corn for us over in Ft. Madison as well as picking quite a bit. Thank you Ray! Jess has been selling a quite a bit too in the evenings down in Dallas.


This is Grampa Tom and Judy (Devan's mom). We picked 9 of these big bags in about an hour Sunday. There's about 6 or 7 dozen ears per bag.




This is Jess lugging a bag to the tractor. Glad I have these big strong guys to help!




We've been eating corn for lunch and supper almost every day. It has been so good! We try to sell it within a few days, but we've had some in our fridge for over a week and it was still delicious.

Before we went to pick new corn, we froze about 6 dozen that we had left from some we had picked around 4 days earlier.The first step is to shuck the corn and wash it. I use a brush to get rid of all the silks. It works so much better than trying to pick each of them off individually.




The next step is to cut the corn off the cob. You have to be careful not to cut clear down to the cob so we aim for about 3/4 of the kernel. It seems like a lot of waste, but for us it isn't. Our chickens love picking on these cobs.


After that I blanch the corn for 4 1/2 minutes and then cool it quickly in cool water.



Then bag and put it in the freezer! We got 8 and 1/2 quarts out of this batch. If we do anymore, I expect to get more quarts per dozen. The next corn will be better filled out than this was and even better still.


Off to bed so I can get up early and head to Dallas!


GOD BLESS YOU ALL!

Grama's New Critters

The other night I went out to shut the chickens up and this fella jumped up and wanted me to pet him. It was dark and I couldn't see well, but he seemed bigger than the kittens. I picked him up and brought him in where I could see him well and sure enough, he's not one of mine. Anybody recognize him? He seems to have adopted us though! He has made himself at home and acts like he owns the place!

Thankfully, I don't have to shut the chickens up anymore. Devan (my sweet DIL) saw a couple of Great Pyrenees listed on freecycle last Thursday. We picked them up on Friday. They had been neglected by the person they had been given to and the original owner had taken them back, but she didn't have a place she could keep them. They are well-trained, beautiful dogs. In a month or two they ought to be back to good health. They are a mother and daughter pair that are 3 and 7 named Molly and Lady. The bigger one is the 3y/o. They are great with all the farm animals, but poor old Blue just doesn't know what to think of them. He's keeping his distance! They are only about 3 times as big as him!

Grampa is going to sell the lambs soon! If you want a whole or a 1/2 lamb put your order in! We have 2 or 3 sold directly at this point. He'll take whatever is left up to the sale barn in Keosaukua.

I'm so proud of myself! I put new supers on the bee hives in my short shorts and spaghetti straps and didn't even get stung. Sometimes my bravery surprises me. This is from the lady who wanted nothing to do with working the hives.

This post seems rather rambling and disjointed so I'll end it up with another completely random observation!

Thought for the Day

It's been hot here. Our veggies thrive in the hot weather as long as they're connected to the vine, but once removed, the heat destroys them pretty fast. We are designed to be connected to our creator. If we are connected to Him, heat actually can make us grow, but if we aren't, it will cause us to deteriorate fast! Get connected! He loves you!

God Bless You All! ~Love, Grama Sue

Bout Time I Posted

To busy to post lately! The garden is finally starting to really produce. We picked 34 pounds of green beans last night.

Unfortunately our egg production suddenly plummeted. Went out tonight to take a count and we are down about 40 hens. Been hearing a lot of cyotoes lately. Blue has been barking up a storm too. He's a good dog, but no match for a bunch of cyotoes. Good thing the new chicks are just about to start laying!

Oh how we need some good fence, some more buildings, a few Great Pyrenees and some more land! Somehow, someway ...

We have the market! Filling the demand is another problem. Guess it's a good problem to have :)

GOD BLESS YOU ALL!

A Home Grown Meal

Mmmmm! I love mid to late summer when pretty much everything I eat can be home grown!

On the menu tonight:

Lamb tenderloin grown by Grampa Tom, breading by Grama Sue.
We had a little lamb that was injured and wasn't going to make it, so we butchered it. Not much meat, but WOW is it good! I could do the no pork thing if I had to! I like lamb better! I also used my own whole wheat breading for this dish made with whole wheat flour, natural sea salt, my own dried onions, garlic, some chili powder and paprika.

Cucumber and onions from our garden in apple cider vinegar made with last year's apples.

Mashed kohlrabi with onion and cheese.

What a feast! I did cheat a little. Our little store in town gets day-old bread from Pepperidge Farms for $1.49. I buy a whole bunch at a time and put it in my freezer. And the ketchup, cheese and the spices came from the store. As long as I can get this cheap all natural bread, I probably won't make my own, but someday I hope to make my own ketchup, cheese and spices (other than salt)!




GOD BLESS YOU ALL!