Sugar Creek Farm

Social networking

2009-10-31T22:52:00.003-05:00

Me: I have a twitch.

Matt: {blank stare}

Me: In the front of my hip, right under my pants pocket. So I always think my cell phone is vibrating.

Matt: Isn't that what you do on Facebook? You twitcher?

Me: I think you mean tweet on Twitter. It's got nothing to do with Facebook.

Matt: Riiiight, that's it.

1 year ago:

Sidekick

Pumpkin pictures

If you give a boy a camera...

Halloween sneak preview

Farm kids gone bad

2009-10-21T22:19:00.002-05:00

See that red splotch on the side of the front bale? The farm kid version of graffiti.

I'd had a can of spraypaint out, trying to mark out a volleyball court in the grass for the girls. A few days later I spotted this little piece of work. I suspect the middle child - she's a compulsive artist, and this wouldn't be her first act of graffiti around here.

1 year ago:

Culling

Delivery

2009-10-15T21:03:00.002-05:00

I've come to the conclusion that I should just outfit the front porch with nest boxes. Then the hens can deliver the eggs to me, instead of me going on my Easter egg hunt every day.

I noticed quite the clutch of eggs in this washtub/flower planter next to the front door. (Poor flowers have been done in by the nasty winter weather we've had lately!) The next day, I caught the hen in the act. Now that's service - eggs layed right outside the front door!

1 year ago:

How to Cook : German Porkchops

Splendour

Taking care of business

Fall piglets

2009-10-08T21:24:00.002-05:00

Matilda with her new litter - I took this picture yesterday a little while after they were born

When I went to write this post, I realized that I never told the tale of our first spring farrowing with the new gilts. So here's that backstory...

2 out of the 3 (the mostly white one and the mostly black one) did pretty well. One had a litter of 12 and one a litter of 10. They were pretty good mothers, especially for first-timers and considering the sorta crude conditions we have to farrow in. The interesting thing was, though, that they really didn't like Matt coming around. He would go in to check on them and they'd get all riled, jump up and end up stepping on a piglet or two. They ended up weaning 4 and 8 - not the greatest but better than the Chesters had generally done.

I, however, could go in the pen with them and it didn't bother them a bit (as long as I didn't make anybody squeal.) This really bothered Matt. He took it a bit personally. I told him next time to just leave them alone, let them do their thing, and stay out of it.

The third gilt wasn't so great. She had her litter outside, in the rain in a mud puddle and lost them all. We gave her another chance, but this time around the other 2 have farrowed within 2 days of each other and she's not even bagging up. So we're wondering if she's even bred. She's definitely the low girl on the totem pole - the other 2 don't like to share their food with her and chase her away. Maybe they did the same thing with Ollie! So if she indeed didn't get bred she'll be going down the road and we'll keep a gilt or 2 back from the spring litter.

Chicken wondering what in the heck these things are doing in her space. Some hens have been laying eggs in here while it's sat empty.

Monday Matt had a touch of the stomach flu, so he stayed home from work and didn't get out to do chores as early in the morning as usual. When he did get out there he found that one gilt had farrowed - a beautiful litter of 12! He called back up to the house and said, "I think the stomach flu was God's way of keeping me out of her way while she farrowed." Just like I'd told him - stay out of their way and let them do their thing. The second sow farrowed Wednesday, a litter of 11!

The first litter, born Monday. I took this picture Wednesday.

This summer Matt's been sucking up to the girls big time, talking sweet to them and scratching their ears and their backs every day when he brings them their feed. And it seems to have paid off. They still don't want him to get too close, but they at least tolerate him getting close enough to get a head count. So far each sow has lost just 1 pig. Hopefully they're the kind of moms we think they are, and will get the offspring through this cold snap (down to 28 tomorrow night!)

Love the colors. They look so long at this age!

1 year ago:

Why is it

Let's review

'Tis the season

2009-10-04T21:47:00.004-05:00

No, not that season. Football season. I've written about it before here and here. It's no different this year. If anything, it's just getting more intense.

Me: Rafe, what's your favorite position?

R: Kicker, just like Dad & Uncle Rick.

I'm convinced football kicking is some sort of Miller genetic mutation

Me: What's your second favorite position?

R: Receiver.

"Mom, take some pictures of my moves!"

Evading the other team's defense

Me: What's your third favorite position?

R: Defensive linebacker, just like Dad.

Demonstrating his dive

Just like that other season...enjoy it while it lasts, and take pictures.

1 year ago:

How to Cook : Swiss Steak

Twelve

2009-09-30T22:13:00.002-05:00

These birthdays, they just keep coming. My middle child is twelve.

I think I ask this every time, but it bears repeating.

How does this happen?

A study in contrasts.

Hates her name.

Makes us laugh.

(And sigh.)

Giving.

Funny.

Feisty.

And we love every bit of her. Happy Birthday, Liver Q.

Love,
Yo Mama

1 year ago:

Sampling

Eleven

At the back door

2009-09-28T21:23:00.002-05:00

I hate when they do this. Sit there and gaze longingly in the mudroom door, looking all sweet and cute and cuddly.

Must. Resist.

Day to Day :: September 23, 2009

2009-09-23T22:00:00.003-05:00

Things felt different this morning. Despite a night of almost no sleep there was a calm, a peace, a rightness inside me that I hadn't felt since I don't remember when.

In that sliver of time between the kids leaving for school and me heading upstairs to my office for the day job, I slipped on my boots and just walked around outside. Everything was still damp from yesterday's rain, and green and earthy-smelling. The morning sun made everything glisten and come to life. I pulled a few of the most obnoxious weeds from the flower beds.

The amazing thing was the silence. The cattle quietly munched hay. The pigs napped in the new mud. The hens searched the lawn for bugs.

It was the sound of contentment.

1 year ago:

Orangeglo

Fall

I wanna be a cowboy

Wow...and another survey

2009-09-22T12:01:00.002-05:00

Wow, you guys are so good! You already maxed out Olivia's first survey! (SurveyMonkey only allows 100 responses for the free version.) Thank you!

A number of people left a comment here, or on Facebook, what your "Other" choice was. Which got me to wondering if SurveyMonkey would let us set up a survey that would capture that "Other" choice. Whaddyaknow, it does!

So...here's a new survey that allows you to enter what your "Other" choice is:

Click Here to take Olivia's survey #2

The results from the first survey were:
Pizza 35
Other 33
Ice Cream 17
Mac & Cheese 7
Popcorn 6
Hot Dogs 2

Thank you again!

Help with homework, please?

2009-09-21T19:24:00.002-05:00

So Olivia has a homework assignment to create a survey question and collect responses from at least 75 people. Being my daughter and all, she asked if she could hijack the blog for the assignment.

The student

So if you would, please click the link below to take her survey:

Olivia's survey

Thanks for your help! Hopefully she'll get an "A" :)

How to Cook : Aunt Sandy's Oven Crispy Chicken

2009-09-14T21:19:00.004-05:00

I mentioned earlier that we had another batch of chickens butchered last week. Usually I just get them all as whole birds. But our processor does do cut-ups, so I decided to try that out this time and got about two thirds of them cut up.

I was thinking for supper tonight I'd just do the usual - the "Sunday Chicken and Rice" recipe from my church cookbook. I love church cookbooks. They're a collection of everyone's best recipes (so you know they're good) but they're also a little bit of a memory book. Many of the ladies whose recipes appear in this cookbook from 1981 have passed on. Some of them were my Sunday School teachers. I still remember which pew some of them sat in every Sunday. And I remember some of these recipes appearing at monthly church potluck dinners.

As I was flipping through the cookbook looking for that usual recipe, another caught my eye. It's from my Aunt Sandy, who passed away from cancer in (I think) the spring of 2000. I think about her all the time - usually when I'm oiling down my stainless steel sink with vegetable oil, because I remember her saying she did that every night before bed. Or when I'm telling Rafe to stop running in the house, because I remember her telling how she used to say that to her oldest, my cousin Chris, all the time.

I hadn't ever noticed this recipe before, but she was a great cook so I knew I had to try it. And wow. It was good. It was so good that it reminded Rafe we hadn't said the "food prayer" before supper, and he made us all stop right there so he could say it.

We're usually dark meat people, because none of us like dry white chicken breast. But tonight we literally bargained with each other for a hunk of breast meat. It was so tender and juicy. Just wow. That's the best I can come up with. Just wow.

Not only was it good, but it's super easy to whip up. It uses ingredients that I always have on hand, and took no time to prepare. I baked some Bush Delicata Squash - one of the few things to make it out of our garden alive this year - in the oven right alongside the chicken. Some Cottage Cheese Dill bread from the farmers market rounded out our plates.

Sorry, food photography is so not my forte!

So, without further adieu, the recipe!

Aunt Sandy's Oven Crispy Chicken

1 chicken, cut up
1 egg
2 T. milk
2 T. minced dried onion
1 c. instant potato flakes
1/2 T. chili powder
1/4 c. Parmesan cheese
1/4 c. butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place butter in shallow baking pan and put in the oven while it preheats, until butter is melted. Remove from oven.

Combine onion, potato flakes, chili powder and parmesan cheese in a shallow bowl. Combine egg and milk in another shallow bowl. Salt and pepper chicken, then dip in egg/milk mixture. Then roll in potato mixture. Place skin side down in baking pan and bake 30 minutes; turn chicken pieces over and bake another 30 minutes.

Laborful day

2009-09-12T19:37:00.002-05:00

Mmm, hams!

Labor Day was indeed a day of labor for us. Fortunately many hands make light work! Our customer-friends & their daughter volunteered to come over & help, and we were so glad they did. How nice was that, spending their holiday wrangling our chickens :)

But before we got to the chicken wrangling, they helped us load 3 pigs and haul them to the locker.

And then herd the current batch of feeders into the vacated space.

Then we loaded 150 3-week-old broiler chicks into the trailer, hauled them out to the pasture, unloaded each one again and placed them into the shed in the pasture.

Then it was time to load 150 7-week-old broiler chickens into the trailer. One. By. One. It's a good workout for arms & shoulders!

At that point we let our friends head home. We hauled the chickens to the processor at Greene, and unloaded each one again there. Then it was back home, with a treat of supper from the drive-in. It was a good day, and a lot of big jobs done with a little help from our friends. Thanks, guys!

1 year ago:

Speaking of stocking up

A peek at the chick brooder

Take a hike

Take a hike, part 2

A little help here?

2009-09-08T10:00:00.002-05:00

Fatman

In the chaos that seems to be life these days, we've lost the lists of who ordered what.

This situation is giving me a stomachache.

If I have a filled-out order form, and/or a deposit check, we're good.

But we took 3 pigs to the locker yesterday. Our neighbor is getting one. We were keeping one to sell at farmers market. But I can't remember who wanted the third one. Obviously it was someone that said "Put me down for a whole hog" but didn't fill out the form or give us a deposit.

Or, the other possibility, we didn't actually have it sold & were keeping 2 for the farm.

So...if it was you that asked for a hog for August/September and you haven't heard from me, please give me a call or an email asap.

Or...if you'd like this here hog - if we don't hear from the person that actually ordered it - also give me a call or an email asap. The locker will be wanting to cut it up in the next few days. This is the last of the girls' 4-H pigs, so the money actually goes to them, and the breeding on this pig is a little leaner than what the October pigs will be.

And...we're also still taking orders for:

*Chickens - Batch 3 will be ready the end of this week, Batch 4 the first week of October. We are now offering them either whole or cut up.

*Pork - The first of our new genetics will be ready the end of October. Tasty! Order half or whole hog.

*Beef - Butchering will start in November and continue through December. We do quarters & halves, and also bundles which are an 1/8th of beef - about 50 pounds that includes the full range of cuts - steaks, roasts, ground, etc.

To order email sugarcreekfarm (at) osage (dot) net

Day to Day :: September 1, 2009

2009-09-01T22:02:00.002-05:00

It took all of us to flush the stray pig out of the cornfield. Giggles, and shouts of "I found him! Over here!" drifted out from the thick dark green mass of rustling leaves.

Would I miss this, if we stop farming? I know I'd miss telling the story.

Life gets in the way

2009-08-31T21:52:00.003-05:00

So, here we are again. A rather large chunk of time has elapsed since my last post. As I responded to Karen this morning, it's a combination of life and lack of writing mojo that's conspired to keep me from this space.

The other thing that's kept me quiet are discussions Matt & I have been having about the future of this little farm of ours. Or rather, trying to have. Again, life gets in the way and these conversation occur in snippets as we pass by. Like the proverbial ships in the night we only have time to flash signals and convey short messages to each other.

But before I get into all that, here's August at Sugar Creek Farm in pictures. There are stories behind all these pictures, but I'll just give you the teasers for now...

Shooting lessons with the BB gun

A new customer meets his future dinner

A tiny kitten was rescued

School started. (Despite her absence from this picture, Madeline started school, too. But she's a freshman this year, and the freshman volleyball team practices at 6 a.m. I know, right?!? So she was long gone by this time.)

We had some really great family time.

Our road got paved. The furniture may actually stay dust-free for more than 24 hours now.

So! Even though I've been quiet in my virtual space, you can see that life's been anything but quiet this side of the screen. But I really will try to be present here more often in September. One website that I really love is Habit. I'm thinking I may try something like this on my blog - shorter more frequent posts, but sill writing longer posts as I have time. Stay tuned...

1 year ago:

Mr. Duck says

Welcome, Globe Gazette readers!

Confession

Back on duty

Bee Haiku

Messin' with me

Fourth and final

Endless summer

Favorite things (with apologies to Julie Andrews)

Morning at the chicken pen

Come 'n get it (+ the "F" word)

Helpful

2009-08-12T21:44:00.002-05:00

I mentioned in my last post that the almost-12-year-old middle daughter is the resident worrier around here. She's also especially helpful when we work cattle.

Her job is to wait for a calf or cow to enter the chute...

with a smile...

and then slide that big, heavy metal bar in behind it, as quickly as possible without getting her fingers pinched, so that they can't back out.

She also soothes babies...

and mamas alike.

There are some tasks that she doesn't really care for...like banding the bull calves.

We leave the bull wrangling to Matt & my brother & my dad.

1 year ago:

Cedar Valley Memories 2008

Watchin' out for me

2009-08-10T21:52:00.004-05:00

The hens are getting a little too free-rangey with their free-ranginess & have taken to helping themselves to the brooder chicks' buffet

It's good to know my middle daughter is watching out for me. This morning I went out to feed the broiler chicks in the pasture. About the time I got done my cell phone rang.

Me: Hello?

Olivia: Where are you?

Me: I was feeding the broiler chicks. I'm just heading back to the house. Why?

Olivia: It doesn't usually take you that long to do chores. I thought maybe you got hurt.

Me: How would I get hurt doing chicken chores?!?

Olivia: Um, it's happened before.

Me: Oh right, good point.

1 year ago:

Lessons in entrepreneurship

Where's Ollie?

This duck just hasn't got her head on straight!

Ask the Readers : Fencing

Installment #8 of "One of these things just doesn't belong here"

Stock up!

2009-08-04T20:53:00.002-05:00

Stock? Get it?

It's that time of year, time to start thinking about stocking up for winter. Buying "on-the-hoof" is the least expensive way to fill your freezer with delicious naturally-raised meats. Here's what we still have available for your freezer:

Beef
* Beef quarters will be available in November or December. It usually takes 2 or 3 quarters of beef to get our family of 5 through a year.

Pork
* Our August pork is sold out, but the first of our new genetics will be ready for October. We usually keep 2 whole hogs a year for ourselves.

Chicken
* We have chickens available to reserve for both September and October. That makes 8 chickenless months until the first batch of 2010 is ready. I usually keep at least 2 chickens per month for ourselves (i.e. 16 chickens in the freezer to get us through winter.)

Of course we have only so many animals, many are already spoken for, & we save a certain number for farmers markets. So if you'd like to get on the reserved list just email sugarcreekfarm@osage.net and I'll get you pricing info.

If you need some help with buying your meat this way, there's a wonderful new publication from Iowa State University: Beef and Pork Whole Animal Buying Guide It's available for purchase as a spiral-bound booklet or you can download the PDF file for free!

Fair 2009

2009-08-04T20:32:00.002-05:00

Another year of fair, over and gone already. It was a fun one! Beautiful weather, and with only pigs there to chore this year (no horse or cattle like last year), it was a lot less tiring. Both girls had projects considered for state, which was nice even though nothing ended up going. Here are just a few highlights:

Our county fair was a couple weeks later this year, which made it fall on Madeline's birthday. So her friends decorated her pen in the swine barn :)

The girls sang a duet for Share-the-Fun this year. I forgot to bring Kleenex and was sorry. They were chosen as 1st Alternate to state.

Blue ribbon cookies

Madeline did pretty well with her pigs this year. It's always interesting to see how her naturally-raised pigs stack up against the other pigs at fair. Her best placing was 6th in the Pen of 3 class.

And now the start of school is just around the corner. Summer goes by way too fast!

1 year ago:

Time out

Fourteen

2009-07-30T19:26:00.000-05:00

What can I say about this girl of ours that I didn't say last year? We still like her pretty well, teenagerhood and all. She seems to still like us, too, most of the time anyway.

She's dealt with some tough things this past year, and handled them with grace and strength.

She's never intentionally unkind to anyone, and when she does mess up she steps up and makes amends. And she is quick to forgive & forget, whether asked or not.

She & I can really get each other laughing. Especially at Target.

I've already informed her that there will be mandatory daily phone calls home when she goes to college.

Happy One-Four, Maddog.

Love,
Yo Mama

Vacation

2009-07-29T10:13:00.003-05:00

Seriously? 3 weeks since I posted? I have no idea. As Olivia would say, "I know, what?!?" Sorry about that...

So...we managed to find 4.5 days this summer where we could get away in between softball season, volleyball camps and the county fair. We headed for one of our favorite areas, Prairie du Chien, and spent time doing some of our favorite activities:

Campfire cooking, with pork chops & sweetcorn we brought along

Visiting the various beautiful parks along the Mississippi

The traditional picture in Yogi's basket at the campgrounds where we stay

This week we're in the midst of our county fair, another busy but fun week! I'll be back with pictures...promise :)

Reconnaissance

2009-07-08T22:24:00.002-05:00

Matt & Rafe reclaiming the brassicas

What with all the ball playing going on around here, the garden was planted late and then left to the weeds. So we've spent some time lately trying to rescue it. Just a couple rows of beans, and a row of carrots & greens, and it will all be ours again!

Nothing's been harvested yet, because we got things planted so late. But the zucchini & kohlrabi are getting close. And the late-planted greens have enjoyed the mostly cool early summer and we should be eating fresh salad this weekend!

1 year ago:

Upcoming

Lessons in Marketing : Funky Chickens

Chicken wrangling

Interlopers

2009-06-29T19:16:00.002-05:00

It's always fun when the piglets are at that age where they're old enough to be adventurous and small enough to slip through the fences. One evening, as the cows were coming back up from the pasture, they found piglets hanging out on their turf.

Everybody just sort of eyed each other up and down... I was waiting for it to turn into the gang fight scene from West Side Story.

But pretty soon a mama stepped in and put a stop to the shenanigans.

Good thing, or there's no telling what might have happened.

Don't send out the search party just yet

2009-06-22T22:35:00.002-05:00

Both girls are playing softball, and this year Rafe gets to play t-ball for the first time.

Rafe & Liv's games are in the evenings, and Madeline's are during the day.

Which adds up to a lot of bleacher time.

And in between the day jobs and the ball games, we somehow manage to do farmers markets, do chores, castrate baby pigs, haul broiler chickens to the processor & pick them up again, and haul home loads of hay.

But why is it that the laundry is always the thing to fall by the wayside? Maybe that's just me.

1 year ago:

This week

It's that time again!

Mama said knock you out

Birdseye view

2009-06-15T22:37:00.003-05:00

My cousin had asked if we'd like to have a ride in his helicopter. Um, yes! Yesterday was the day.

Matt and Madeline were totally stoked about it. Me & Olivia & Rafe were a little more on the fence. Rafe thought he might do it if he had "muffins" for his ears, but in the end he decided against it.

Matt getting in

It was a very cute little helicopter, just big enough for the pilot and one passenger.

Matt going up

Madeline coming down

I was on the fence - I hate flying in general - but the photo opportunity was just too much for me to pass up. And I was so glad I went, it was a blast! It wasn't scary, and it didn't make me motion-sick or anything! The view was incredible.

The only time I got a little nervous was when we stopped for fuel. To fuel up, Tim had to land the helicopter on a platform built on a flatbed trailer. Then he started cranking on various knobs and such. Then he looked at me and said, "I've got everything locked down, you shouldn't take off." And then he left me, alone, in the helicopter, perched on a suddenly very small platform on the back of a truck, with the helicopter still running!

Um, shouldn't take off?!?

But all was well. He's a pro.

In this next picture our house is about right in the middle.

Our house again

And our pasture

Cows (& Star) in the pasture

Our house, and garden to the left. The garden has been very slow getting going this cold, wet & busy spring.

House, with the meat wagon parked in front.

My favorite picture of the day...garden, pasture, creek. The broiler chickens are in the upper right.

Olivia going up.

Thanks again, Tim! We enjoyed it so much!

1 year ago:

Checking in

It's not nice to fool Mother Nature

Flood pictures