An evening in the lower 40

The many years of parenting are slowly coming to an end at our house.  Danny is 26, Becky is 24 and they both live out on their own.  Our youngest, Kelly, is now 16 and a Junior in High School.  She is in sports, has her drivers license and a part-time babysitting job.  So, John and I have a lot of alone time. 



 Tonight, we enjoyed a four-wheeler ride down through the farm, crossing the creek,  and we ended up in the lower 40 (acres).  We recently purchased this part of the Century-old family farm from the estate of my beloved Uncle Buddy. It joins our property and we are honoring the lease that he had with a man who farms alfalfa hay, cane, pumpkins and corn.  We "keep an eye on the place" about once every 2 weeks or so.  Tonight was nice.  We slowly made our way to the lower 40, walked up the wooded hills and then back down to the fields.  It's beautiful down there. 


The lower fields which are leased out.  The sights are breath-taking.



More than 100 years ago, this beautiful pond was an iron ore mine.  Now, we can sit by it and dream of the life of Grandpa Marsh.  I think he would really love this place.

As we came back up, we stopped at the old barn, that was (about 120 years ago) fully utilized as a dairy barn, sheep barn, hay loft, etc by my grandfather.  The old barn is nearly falling down, but we love to walk through it and pretend that we know exactly what it was used for, and I imagine grandpa milking "Butter" in there.   

We will soon be taking the old barn down, as there isn't enough to save, and building a newer one for our small herd of beef cows.  We plan to bulldoze the old brushy fields and make them workable again.  I'd love to have the farm be a working farm once again, just like grandpa used to have it.

This is an old dry creek bed.  It's so gorgeous this time of year. 

We will plant a nice orchard, raise some beef, cut hay, and fish in the old pond.  When the old house just can't be lived in anymore by renters, we'll probably take it down too.  I might just have to build a little farm house where the old house stands now.  I think Grandpa Marsh would like that.

I don't want to wish my life away, but retirement sounds so good........

Peace

Hot pepper hands

Today, I learned that you should never EVER chop jalapeno peppers without gloves.

Peace.......

Comfort food

When the seasons change from the hot and humid days of summer, to the cool and rainy temptations of autumn, comfort food comes to mind at my house.  I knew when I woke this morning to the sounds of a steady rain, lightning and thunder, that I would have something simmering all day.  I take every Wednesday off of work to be a mom, a wife, a volunteer, a daughter.  I use this day, in the middle of the week, to prepare a hot, nutritious meal for my family.  I get my laundry caught up, I dust, I sweep.  Sometimes, I get a nap. 

Well, today is no exception.  I got up and made my bed.  I had a bowl of Cheerios and began the pot of ham and beans.  I prefer white navy beans.  That's what my sweet mom made for us when we were growing up.  John likes the brown beans.  So, I switch it up now and then so that he's happy.  Today, it was my turn.  I washed the beans, took out some ham that I had put in the freezer from a previous meal, added a little salt and pepper and then let the stove do the rest of the work.  The beans have been simmering all day, and I've cooked them down so that there is a rich, thick gravy.

The cornbread, probably my favorite part of this meal, is baked in my old iron skillet.  The cookies, (Hillary Clinton's recipe) is my family's absolute favorite cookie. 

So, in less than an hour, we will sit down at the table on this cool rainy September afternoon, and enjoy a delicious, healthy, comforting and home-cooked meal. 

Peace.

Am I a Homesteader? I sure hope I am!

Millions of Americans have joined the band wagon in getting back to the land, growing their own food, (or at least knowing where it came from) exercising, and just "doing the right thing".  I am no exception, except the exercising.  For the last five years, or so, John and I have made strides in creating and building our homestead here in Central Missouri.  In the past, we've had sheep and goats.  We have moved on from those two species due to them not being a good fit for us.  Now we have beef and dairy cows.  We also have chickens for meat and eggs. 

In addition to our livestock, we have been working on building an orchard.  So far, our orchard sports a peach tree, two apple, one pear, two cherry and three plum.  The late frost got all of my apple tree blooms, so it was bare.  My peach tree found the same fate.  Our cherry tree gave us a handful of fruit,  and our pear tree will give us about 10 pears.  But that's ok!  Our orchard is only about 3 years young.  We also planted four blueberry bushes last fall, and they don't seem to be growing at all.  This fall, I will heavily mulch them with seasoned manure and a layer of mowed leaves. 

The garden gave us corn, green beans, okra, cucumbers, tomatoes, green peppers, jalapeno peppers.  We canned that bounty.  Hopefully, next year will be bigger and better.  But, I'm satisfied and thankful for what we did get.   I also processed two bushels of peaches from the local farmers market. 

The milk cow gives us more than we ever imagined.  Fresh milk, heavy cream.  With that, we make our own butter, cheese, whey.....and I can my excess milk.  That canned milk can be used for gravy, pancakes, and other recipes calling for milk...even pumpkin pie!

Fall is coming soon.  We will soon be working on the wood pile.  We bought our hay for the winter and have it under cover.  We might even put a few of the older hens in the freezer.   I feel good.  We feel good.  I'm thankful. 

New to the family......

Meet Bambi!  Bambi is a 13 month old jersey heifer and she will be joining our farm on Tuesday.  I am very excited to have found this gem.  While in Houston MO, at my daughter's high school softball tournament, I called the number on the ad.  The advertisement was enticing...."13 month old.....gorgeous....ready to breed....mom on site.....mom is extraordinary..."  And, being that close to the owner, I had to go look.  Boy, am I glad I did.  Bambi is a fantastic-looking heifer.  See for yourself.....

Bambi

Homemade "Rotel" tomatoes

During the cold winter months, we eat a lot of hearty meals such as chili with cornbread and taco soup.  It just sticks to your ribs and makes you feel all happy inside.  Last summer, a friend of mine shared with me her recipe for homemade "rotel" tomatoes.  You can buy Rotel tomatoes in your grocery store.  That is the brand name.  They're very good, but they're not homemade.  And, when I can make something myself, I try to do so.

Today, my countertops were covered (and I mean covered) with jalapeno peppers and tomatoes from my garden.  Since I ran out of rotels last year, I decided to make another large batch.  Here's how I do it.


1 gallon tomatoes, peeled and chopped
3 green bell peppers, chopped
7 to 10 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped (7 for medium or 10 for hot)
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup white vinegar
2 Tbl canning salt

How 'bout a few pictures?

Chop all of your peppers and onions in small pieces.



I like to peel my tomatoes by scalding them in boiling water til the skins begin to crack.  Then, the skins peel off easily!



 Put all ingredients into large pot and bring to a boil.   Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring frequently.


Look at all of those delicious colors!





After 30 minutes, everything just comes together.

 Put rotel mixture into prepared jars.  I use the 8 oz jelly jars, as it is the same size as the store-bought cans which are used in my recipes.  Process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes.  This recipe will fill  approximately 12 of the small 8 oz jars.  Sometimes more, sometimes less.    I guess it depends on how juicy your tomatoes are? 

Look at that!

Now, all of those tomato peels can either be dehydrated and ground into a powder for use in stews and soups, be fed to the chickens, or put on the compost pile.  See, no waste!  Now, if you're like me, you didn't read the entire recipe before you began.  If that's the case, your fingers will be burning about now because you didn't wear gloves when you chopped the jalapenos. 

Enjoy, my friends......

Peace.

Another lesson learned, the hard way

My sweet Cinnamon ( my Jersey milk cown) is sick.  She hasn't been feeling well for two days now.  Yesterday morning when we went out to milk, she had no milk.  The calf (June) was spry and happy.  We figured June drank it all and was letting us know it by her antics in the field.  Cinnamon wouldn't come in to the barn.  We thought it odd, but figured we'd just chalk it up to the calf needing more. 

We took a trip yesterday afternoon to the local feed store to stock up on her dairy feed, and for the second time this week, they were out.  Once again, they sent us home with a beef cattle mix.........ok then.

Yesterday afternoon, Cinnamon was looking like she wasn't feeling well.  She wouldn't eat, the water trough wasn't missing any water, and she hung her head a bit.  We all have days when we don't feel well, right?  I felt her ears, no fever.  She seemed as if she had worked all day and just wanted to be left alone for a good long nap.  Well, for John, that's ok.....for a dairy cow, it's not.  It's a sign of illness.

Upon checking in with her again last night, we knew something was not right, and decided to call the vet first thing this morning if she wasn't better.  So, after a long and sleepless night for me, this morning she was worse.  It took me a long time to get her up.  After an hour of prodding, and waiting for the fog to lift (I thought I'd just throw that fog comment in), she finally got up around 7:00 am.  She wouldn't eat or drink.  She had no milk.  I called the vet. 

Well, he just left.  He gave her a calcium drench.  A calcium drench is basically shoving a tube down a cow's throat and pumping in gallons and gallons of a white chalky substance that looks like milk of magnesia.  Two grown men vs a 1000 pound sick cow.   Get the picture?  Mr. vet says that Cinnamon should be feeling much better by tonight. 

Changing her feed, to a second-rate feed to tide her over until her good stuff came in, proved to be the reason for her calcium deficiency problem.  Dairy cows with a calcium deficiency will show signs of joint pain (which she had), milk production decrease (which she had), along with the not eating/drinking/feeling well.........

The vet also "pumped her full of antibiotics" due to the raging pasture pneumonia in our area....just as a precaution.  So, we were told to "dump the milk for 3 days."  I can do that.  What I will NOT do is feed her anything but the best grain, ever again.  We have always given her the best grain, the best alfalfa hay, and the cleanest water.  To have the healthy, happy cows...we must do this.   If the feed store runs out again, down the road I will go.

Peace.