Happy New Year!

 Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.

Happy New Year to you and yours!  

Guess What?

Our little farm has good news!! 

The chickens have started laying again and even MORE good news the young chickens have started laying too!! Yay!! The whole family is sooo happy!

The Young Chickens, Last Summer

This Is What Christmas Is All About....

"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, 'Fear not: for behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.' And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.'"
[Linus picks up his blanket and walks back towards Charlie Brown] 

That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

Merry Christmas!! 

Snow, Snow, and You Guessed it More Snow!

Ted was outside with daddy, keeping him company. Well, dad shoveled and blew 17 inches of snow...

And the bad news is more, yes more is to come! Ugh...  Doesn't Ted look like he was really trying to help?

Black Friday

Talk around the water bowl... good thing we aren't turkeys!! 

A Day to be Thankful!

 We pause to thank the Lord above for family and friends who give us love!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Making Applesauce and a Clean Coop

 Today, we made cranberry applesauce for Thanksgiving and a batch of regular applesauce. Yummy!! 

Applesauce Recipe 

**You Will Need: 

About 16 cups chopped apples 

1 1/2 cup of water

3/4 cup of sugar (more or less depending on the sweetness of your apples)

**Directions:

Peel, core, and chop apples and put in a 4 quart pan with water and sugar. 

Cook till soft, then mash apples through a colander. 

Refrigerate and enjoy or process in hot water bath for later. 

To make Cranberry Applesauce...

cook 1 bag of cranberries, with a cup of sugar and a cup of water.

Mash through colander and add to applesauce.

"Seconds" but yummy and perfect for applesauce

Apple Corer/Peeler

Cooking Down the Apples

Mashing

Cooking Down Cranberries

A nice clean coop! 

And...

 introducing the young chickens to the older ones.

 The Coop Cleaner ummm or just helper?

Queens of the Coop

These are all the pictures for now... all the other chickens were camera shy or just kept moving!

Veteran's Day Tribute

Veteran's Day is an annual United States holiday honoring military veterans. A federal holiday, it is observed on November 11. It is also celebrated as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day in other parts of the world, falling on November 11, the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I. (Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice.)  Veteran's Day is day to honor those who have fought and those who are currently serving in the United States Armed Forces. They maybe or have served their countries as well as communities. Today is the day to honor those who put their lives on the line for our freedom. Today we should all talk to a Veteran and kindly thank then for their serve.


Thank You, to all the men and women who have served and are currently serving for our country and risking their lives for our freedom!

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds Recipe

Ingredients:

• One medium sized pumpkin
• Salt
• Olive oil

Directions:

1 Preheat oven to 400°F. Cut open the pumpkin and use a strong metal spoon to scoop out the insides. Separate the seeds from the stringy core. Rinse the seeds.
2 In a small saucepan, add the seeds to water, about 2 cups of water to every half cup of seeds. Add a half tablespoon of salt for every cup of water (more if you like your seeds saltier). Bring to a boil. Let simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and drain.
3 Spread about a tablespoon of olive oil over the bottom of a roasting pan. Spread the seeds out over the roasting pan, all in one layer. Bake on the top rack until the seeds begin to brown, 10-20 minutes. When browned to your satisfaction, remove from the oven and let the pan cool on a rack. Let the seeds cool all the way down before eating. Either crack to remove the inner seed (a lot of work and in my opinion, unnecessary) or eat whole.

Very Yummy!

Animal Swap!

This morning we got up at 6:00 and drove to an animal swap. We looked around and found lots of chickens, ducks, geese, pigeons, other various game birds, rabbits, goats, donkeys, miniature horses, sheep, dogs, cats, and pot belly pigs. There were so many things to see and we had a great time! But, you know you can't go and not pick up a little something. We got 4 twelve week old black silkies and one light brown frazzle. We would have got more frazzles, but it was her last one there. For all of you who don't know a frazzle is a cross between a silkie and a frizzle.

 This is the light brown frazzle. We named her Dazzle!

 The black silkies have yet to be named.

Anyone want to help name them?

If one of them is a rooster, it has to be named Kramer, from Seinfeld. He already has the hair!

Too Much Rain!

It started raining on Wednesday and rained until Friday! Non-stop, not kidding! It wasn't just sprinkling, it was down pouring. We got 12 plus inches of rain. Here are some pictures of the damage around our house. Many of the neighboring cities are really flooded and some towns are evacuating people.

 A bean field full of water.
The crops were almost ready to be picked, but now the farmers are going to have to wait longer.

 Water in a corn field, it almost covers the corn!

 Many roads and bridges were full of water and no was allowed to drive on them.

 The river over flowing into the ditches and roads.

 Another road and bridge closed.

 The river is so high!

 This was a gravel road! Now it's a lake.

Someone on a four-wheeler checking out the damage.

Pictures cannot even begin to explain the damage from the rain. 

-Fall-

Broom Corn

Red Sunflowers

Just some fall pictures! Can't believe that September is halfway over. Almost time to get ready for winter! Time flies when you are having fun! 

P.S. That is why we don't have many posts in for this month. Not enough time!

 We also had a very cute little visitor! Her name was Lily and she ran from the neighbors house to our house. About half a mile! Long way for such a little puppy. Ted really enjoyed the company, though!

Pizza, Spaghetti, or Lasagna Sauce for Canning

We love this recipe! We hope you will try it out and love it too. It tastes so good in the winter, to have fresh tomato sauce, to use for pizza, spaghetti, or lasagna.

Pizza, Spaghetti, or Lasagna Sauce for Canning

Ingredients:

40 cups blended tomatoes  (puree in blender)

3 green peppers (blended with tomatoes)

6-7 onions (blended with tomatoes)

4 1/2 Tbs. oregano or 1/2 cup packed fresh oregano

2 1/2 Tbs. basil or 1/4 cup packed fresh basil 

5 Tbs. garlic powder or 1 1/3 cup cleaned fresh garlic

2 Tbs. & 2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. ground cayenne pepper

1/2 cup sugar

1-6 lb. 15 oz. can tomato paste or 8-12 oz. cans tomato paste

1 Tbs. ground pepper

Combine all the above ingredients. Cook until the foam is gone. About 2 hours. Put in sterile jars. Process in hot water bath. Pints- 40 minutes. Quarts- 50 minutes. 

Today we got eleven quarts from the above recipe. 

Tomatoes and green peppers are needed in this recipe

Sauce is cooking till the foam is gone

Cans in the cooker 

A New Month

Happy September!

August went by so fast... as did the rest of the summer. I am so sad to say summer is pretty much over and so happy to say fall has arrived! The weather makes it seem like summer, but the days are becoming shorter and soon winter will be upon us. Winter is a whole other story, but anyway Happy September!

Regular pumpkin, still looks pretty big!

Speaking of fall, this year we are growing Big Max pumpkins they are coming along quite well. The only problem is they grow to be 300 pounds...how are we to get them out of the garden? LOL! We will think of something when the time comes. We are also growing Broom Corn and Indian Corn which are types of ornamental corn. Along with gourds and regular pumpkins. 

With all these beautiful things you can make a cute little display like this

 

Raspberry Jam

We picked raspberries from our raspberry patch today. Our berries are ever bearing bushes, which means they have fruit on them almost all summer. This also means multiple pickings. The other pickings we ate! Yummy! Like on cake and ice cream! Anyway we are making freezer jam with the berries. This jam seems to set up better, than canned jam.  

Yummy Raspberries

Also, we are canning tomatoes like crazy! Froze sweet corn the other day and made dilly beans. Tomorrow we will pick, blanch, and freeze some green beans. Stay tuned for our recipe on blanching green beans, it's so good! 

Wanted: Corn Thieves

We just got back from a week at the cabin, we had so much fun camping, fishing, boating, and four- wheeling. But... we came home to find someone had eaten some of our sweet corn! Those darn raccoons!! Our corn is not quit ready but the coons ate it anyway. Tonight we put a radio out there, which is said to work to keep those raccoons away. We would love to hear any ideas to keep the coons away and to save what corn we have.

Wanted: Corn Thieves

Summer Canning

Ted "guarding" the fresh produce!

These are just a few of the MANY tomatoes that are to become salsa, spaghetti sauce, marinara sauce, or stewed tomatoes. We also have cucumbers coming for dill and bread & butter pickles. We are also going to be canning many more things so stay tuned!

This book looks awesome! You can enter in a drawing giveaway at http://mountainhomequilts.blogspot.com/ Which by the way is a very interesting blog so... go check it out! Also check out my poll and vote.

Helpful Hint for Keeping Rabbits Cool

In these hot August days, the heat can cause a lot of stress on animals. We have found some ways to keep bunnies cool and happy. Today the temps. reached over 90 degrees F and it felt like 100.

This is Skipper the rabbit(not such a great picture, but it shows the point.) She is licking a chunk of ice cubes. The rabbits seem to enjoy eating the ice and it cools them off.

Mr. Molly likes to rest his head and feet on the frozen water bottle. I just take used water bottles and fill them with water and pop them in the freezer. The rabbits really enjoy laying by them or even on them.

Snickers likes to lay by his water bottle. You may ask, "do the rabbits eat the plastic bottles?" No, they do not, our bunnies just lay by the bottles or on them, but never do they eat them.

Ted and the goats love to eat ice too on hot days!

What do you do to cool your animals when the temp. rises?