Ba ba black sheep

Here's our ram

here's our lamb

here's our flock

I may knit a sock

More Rabbits

Christian is in love. He holds them, rocks them, sings to them and is always happy to see them.

My grandpa gave us his old horse trailer and since cow prices are through the roof this fall, we are waiting until spring to get any calfs and in the mean time, the trailer has become home to 4 bunny rabbits that were given to us from an old high school friend. These are for pets, (not meat) and will be set free to roam the property with our other "free range" rabbit in the spring.

 In the mean time, they are loved on daily... sometimes to their dismay... and the trailer is an amazing babysitter! =) I planted three fruit trees on the hillside just by the trailer, with Christian shut in with the rabbits. I could hear him singing to them the whole time and laughing, it was so cute!

Large Black Hogs

I have to say, so far, these pigs are my favorite farm animal...

And they were the ones I was the most leary about getting. There is so much talk about how aggressive pigs can be, what escape artists they are, etc.. but so far... They are quiet, they are content to lay around and relax and they are always super grateful for their food and water.

We have them in a large area so they can graze on pasture and grubs and root around as they please. I think this is why we are not experianceing the issues we were warned of...

Free range chickens

I love having a creek. I love not having to fill up a waterer for the chickens...

They just drink from the creek...

Fancy that...

My little workers

Here's Elle SCRUBBING her little table. It had so much paint on it from the fall party. I caught sight of her working at cleaning it out the window...

Christian is hammering away at a decorated pumpkin...

Elle scrubs and scrubs...

And scrubs..

He's checking the integrity of the hammer... ;)

I love that my kids have farm chores... and so do they!

And here they are having a bath after the long day! Ha! We gave dada a special foot rub in the tub of hot soapy water, while he relaxed on the couch and then that turned in to the kids wanting to have their bath in that tub downstairs... It is so funny what kids think is exciting.... 'oooo... a bath, in a tub we can hardely fit in, down in a big open room, with none of our bathtoys or cushy bathmat.... oooo..... how exciting!' =)

Cider Press

We got a cider press! I have been wanting on of these for years! So fun for all ages. We have made about 30 gallons so far, all from apples from neighbors trees that would have otherwise just been wasted on the ground. Some of these pictures were taken at our fall party- very fun. The hogs, chickens and sheep all love to eat the pulp that is left so none is wasted. All that sugar sweet fruit helps fatten up the critters (and humans) for the winter.

Ben and Charolett...ahem.... bacon and sausage...

We ran out of bacon.... so we got these... =) They are SO cute! I am glad they are ugly when they are older... that'll make the whole "bacon" thing much easier. =) We still have one 1/2 available and one 1/4. $5/lb hanging weight (somewhere around 80-110lbs for whole??) plus cut and wrap paid to butcher. (about 55 cents/pound... depends on how much you want smoked). We need $100 deposit for 1/2 $50 for a 1/4 (helps cushion our high feed costs).  Email if interested. They are being raised on pasture, with access to wooded area to root for bugs/grubs, being fed apple pulp from cider press, corn from garden, pumpkins and some food scraps as well as store bought hog feed.

 

Braided Onions

I am not actually a huge fan of onions. I ask them to be removed from my burgers, don't put them on salad and I have NEVER bit in to one like an apple. I am a huge baby when it comes to cutting them, my eyes water for a LONG time and I wear my kids swim goggles whenever they are handy. HOWEVER- I know how healthy onions are for you and do enjoy them in things that I can't really taste them in- like soups, sauces, salsa, stews, roasts, etc... This was my first year growing them and I honestly did it with my mother in law in mind because she LOVES onions and uses them in everything. So here is a little less than 1/2 of the onions I grew this year. They are being hung to dry. I think that ideally this should be done in a dark space (?) but to my understanding it is suppose to be warm (80 degrees or so) so I am trying this. The door to the greenhouse (the one I am standing in taking the pictures) is open so it doesn't trap moisture in there or anything, (it is suppose to be dry)- anyway, we'll see how it works in about 2 weeks I will know. I did ut some down below the shelves in a bottom vented box as well to see if the dark makes a difference. If anyone has experiance with this and wants to comment- that'd be great! =)

And here is one of actually quite a few little watermelons I have growing in the greenhouse right now. It was an experiment to see if I could get them to grow in our climate in an open greenhouse, so far it looks like it is working, we'll see if they get to size or not. That'll be SO great if we can grow our own watermellons! Yum.

And this is just a photo I took this morning and just had to include it. I was too late with the camera to get her drinking out of it. =) We live close with our animals. =)

Pottery Shed

We have been working on converting our old chicken coop into a pottery shed. We insulated it and have started putting plywood up on the walls. We will paint the walls white and let the kids use them as "graffity" walls. Should be a nice extention of our tight quarters right now and may make a good little farm store in the future. Or just an amazing play house! =) For Christmas and birthday from Michael and my parents I got a pottery wheel! LOVE IT! Elle is really enjoying it too. Today we made 3 small bowls and a vase. All very simple, but things we needed around here.

Elle is so cute to see how hard she concentrates and really works at doing it right.

Crockpot Lard

We just bought 1/2 a pig from a farmer down the road. (he is who we will buy our piglets from when we are ready to raise piglets- hopefully next year). We are now enjoying what Michael calls "the best sausage I've ever had." Elle requests it every morning for breakfast. And I made incredible (if I do say so myself) pulled pork sandwiches the other night for dinner. It is so nice to enjoy quality meat, that we know where it came from, how it was treated, what it was fed and how it was processed. (we had our sausage made with NO MSG- so nice to get to choose.)

Here is how to easily render lard in a crockpot. I got the directions from Sheri at Polyface Farm.

Fill the crockpot with the pig fat. Put it on low for about 12-13 hours.... depends on how much fat you have in there, how big your crockpot is,etc... mine is pretty big and I had a lot of fat in it. I could have probably cooked it longer, but I was trying to time getting another batch in and done at a time I could take care of it (ie: not in the middle of the night.) I started the first batch about 9pm, it cooked the hole night and I put it up in the morning about 9:30 and immediately started the rest of the fat I had and put it up at about 9:30 that night.

I won't lie, it is abit nasty. this is what was left after I cooked it down. I disgarded, but could have made cracklings with them on the stove.

I strained it with cheese cloth when I poured it all into a pot. Then I folded cheese cloth again, times 4 and used a rubber band to hold it around a wide mouth mason jar and used a liquid measuring cup to scoop from the once filtered pan into the mason jar- being filtered through the cheese cloth again.

That's it! This photo is when it is still hot, I ended up with about 3 jars, put them in the fridge and they will turn white as they cool. They will last almost indefinately, are great for pie crusts, cookies, green beans, frying anything etc... It has gotten a bad rep, but is actually really good for you... especially compared to shortening. I must say it also worked really well to oil my wood counter tops! I spilled some on there and just decided to use a paper towel and rub it all around, and it sealed it real nice and gave it a good shine. The wood really soaked it up.

This method was SO easy! Literally 5-8 minutes of my time.

New Chicks!

Elle's chicks! We got aracauna's (that lay green and blue eggs), road island reds, black astrolops, and orphington buffs. (15 total)

Oh, and Elle lost her first tooth! (About a month ago.)

Elle had them in by the fire, in the play tunnel, wrapped in her baby blanket and asleep within minutes. She is the master of "cozy."

Rabbits... in a baby swing...

OH MY!

This is Cuddely.... she is VERY patient and long suffering... and therefore subjected to anything my little ones dream up for her to "enjoy". =) In the back is Jumpy... I could hardly believe she stood for this... but then... she is not having to straddle the swing...

See the hat Elle is wearing around her neck... that was her "baby" carrier 2 minutes before this photo... she had the rabbits in there, around her neck.

I think Cuddly actually liked it... a little... maybe?...

Elle did anyway.

Christian too..

Jumpy is so fluffy, she takes up the whole basket and completly covers Cuddly.

Skirt and snow boots... a perfect testiment to the day's weather... Love that girl...