December 2010

Just a few photos from December. Not much going on farm-wise, but we're keeping very busy!















Finally enough snow to play in!




















After riding slowly over the horseshoe field we compacted the snow enough that the tractor could ride on a path without bogging down. Great sledding fun!













































And our DS turned 12 years old. What a wonderful age!
















Our Jesse tree. A new Christmas tradition.

Moving the pig shed

The piggies are moving to the big pasture!

We hooked the shed up to the Farmall with chains. Dan built it on skids so we could move it easily.















And in its new home next to Butterbelle's shed.
















We made a makeshift livestock trailer. Getting the pigs in was tricky, but we managed! Five kids went along for the ride :)












Re-homed and happy. Butterbelle is very curious about her new neighbors!

Shed complete

Or about as complete as it's going to be for now. We were going to put a door on.. not too sure about that now.















From the back.

















Just in time for that incoming storm?!













We are feeding Butterbelle in the shed now so she can be used to that. We'll milk her in here, right where she's standing. We still have to build a milk stanchion.











She seems happy enough :)

Fall is beautiful.

It seems that when temperatures get nice and crisp the fall colors become beautifully vivid.

So pretty.

Sides start going up!

Butterbelle thinks it's pretty neat!

Milk shed roof goes on!

Today we put the roof on the milk shed. Our two oldest DDs were at a Bible quiz meet, so we were four hands short, but still managed quite well :)


Our cow tried to help, but was more annoying than helpful!


DS distracted her by feeding her pears, that worked for a short while.




My hubby is an amazing man... I don't think there's anything he *can't* do.


The sun is sinking and the shed has a beautiful new roof :)

First Hunt!

Two of our children went on their first hunt today.


DS was first up and shot a 14 point buck.


DD was next and shot an 8 point buck.

Good job to both kids! They shot them both at 55 yards at exactly the same hunting spot, the one in the morning, the other in the later afternoon. Thank you for the venison for our freezer :)

Kefir Milk Grains

Today our kefir milk grains arrived in the mail.



Admittedly, they don't look like very much, do they?



But they're going to make some very yummy kefir milk!

Mulefoot Boar

Today we picked up our mulefoot boar. He is SO cute!

Since the very first thing he did when we got him was to go over to his water trough and blow bubbles in the water, we have named him Mr. Bubbles.

Milk Shed Progress

It's coming along nicely :)

The Tractor is Running!!!

Dan got the tractor to run after changing the battery and the fuel strainer (filter). Go Dan!!! Of course everybody had to get a ride to celebrate :)

Cow Shed in progress!

Butterbelle needs a shed to take shelter from the winter weather.



We need a shed to store hay and to milk Butterbelle in comfort. So we're starting to build our cow shed/milking shed. It's going to be great!!!

Final Summer Squash Harvest?

With the temperatures dropping we headed out to the garden to pick all the ripe tomatoes and summer squash we could find. As you can see, we still had a LOT of squash out there, the yellow crooked neck squashes are really only good for Fall decorations now. The patty pan squashes will be cut in half and baked in the oven, pulp removed and frozen. The zucchini will be turned into various delightful zucchini concoctions :)

And the beans! This is our first decent bean harvest, and we got two baskets full and still a lot of smaller beans out there waiting to grow a wee bit more before we head out to pick them. Today we canned 5 more jars of zucchini relish (the kids love it!) and we canned 8 1/2 quarts of green beans. For this I used the pressure canner for the very first time (yay me!) To say I was nervous would be an understatement! Everything went very well though and the weight jiggled like it should and we had no mishaps. Now I have a bit more confidence and will try out some of those yummy recipes like stew and soups.

As you can see we also got a lot of tomatoes, the children have already finished off a lot of them on sandwiches, but I want to dehydrate some more for "sun dried tomatoes." I need to get a decent food mill so I can more easily make things like pasta sauce and other tomato recipes.

BUTTERBELLE & PIGS

In other news, Butterbelle's next heat cycle has come and gone, and she didn't bellow or run the fence at all, so it looks like we have a pregnant cow! Wooohoooo!!!! :) Her calf will be due towards the end of May.

Also, in mid October we will be going to pay for and collect our Mulefoot boar piglet. The Ossabaw and Mulefoot cross should make a nice meat pig. Our pigs are getting very friendly and enjoy being scratched and patted when we take them their food.

Sweet 16

Our oldest DD recently turned 16. What a wonderful age, and a wonderful young woman she has turned out to be.



She received a lot of really neat gifts for her birthday, the highlight though was an antique hope chest. It took quite some searching to find one, and all the antique stores we asked about it were surprised to hear of a 16 year old wanting one for her birthday. I guess we don't have "run of the mill" children, LOL! She is really pleased with that hope chest, it's a beauty!





She wanted to go see the Patee House Museum for her birthday, so we headed to St. Joe's for the day.





The museum is pretty neat, such a lot of history, and it was quite something to stand in the room where the Pony Express first started. They have a lot of very interesting exhibits, definitely worth a visit if you're in the area. Everybody got to have a ride on the "Wild Things" carousel, which is quite different to any other carousels we've seen.









Jesse James' house is also located on the grounds, it was moved there from its original location a few blocks away. They still have the hole in the wall from the bullet that killed him when he was standing on a chair to straighten a picture. Where he fell left two blood stains on the hardwood floor, and people actually broke into the house and removed and stole chips of bloodstained wood. Weird.





For a late lunch/early dinner we headed to Cracker Barrel - our first visit! We really enjoyed the food and the service. Everything was delicious :)

After we got home we had cake and tea to end the day.



Happy birthday beautiful daughter, we love you!