Down On The Farm

Count Your Blessings Monday

noreply@blogger.com (Marci) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 04:10:00 +0000

Here is an opportunity for you to give thanks unto the Lord for a blessing in your life. If you have a blog, please sign Mr. Linky below and post on your blog. Please link back to this blog and you may use the picture above. If you do not have a blog, leave a comment on this post telling us what you are thankful for and what you are counting as a blessing today. This is a way that we can encourage one another. Many of our blessings we will have pictures of and we can share those as well. I think that many times we forget that it is a blessing to be able to breath, to get out of bed, to hold a baby... Share your blessings with us. They encourage others. We can share so many other things.... special gifts, recipes, let's take the time to share how God has blessed us!!

Today I am thankful that I got a 3 day weekend with my sweet Michael. We enjoyed each other's company and we got a lot of things done. Also, the quilt I won came in the mail!!
I won this quilt over at Farmhouse Primitives. She asked for people to share a recipe with her. For each recipe you gave her, she entered your name. I was so thrilled I cried. It is much bigger than I thought. In this picture it is spread the whole length of my loveseat.

We got some more work done in the garden. I have been harvesting the garlic in bunches and hanging it to dry. I still have quite a bit to do, but I am running out of places to hang it, or at least places I can reach.

We picked some black raspberries from around the property. I hope to get enough to make some jam.

This corner flower bed FINALLY got weeded. My dear sweetheart did the weeding. We put down newspaper thickly and then covered with mulch. We did plant a few things as well. It could use more, but for now it looks 500% better than it did.

We got the grass cut and a bunch of bush hogging that needed done is now finished.

Michael cut all around our fruit trees and our grapes. There are lots of grapes on the vines right now. I hope the animals don't eat them.

He added mulch around many of the trees and bushes.
Here is my 2 echinacea. I bought them at the same time and they were the same size. Every year, the one on the right is always bigger with more blooms. I have no idea why.

It was just nice to be with each other and working together. Thank you Lord for a wonderful husband. We have had 29 good years together.

Home Dairy Questions

noreply@blogger.com (Marci) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 20:29:00 +0000

Robin asked me some questions about making butter with cows milk versus goats milk. For goats milk you need a cream separator. For some cows milk it is helpful. However, if you have a Jersey, you will probably not need one. You can see a thick head of cream on the milk we strain. It does not take a really long time to separate either. Give it 4 hours or so and you should see a lot of cream at the top. I wrote a post here showing the cream on our milk. I also had an entire post on making butter. You can find that here.

You can make butter in lots of different ways. I usually have several gallons to get the cream off of. So, I use my DLX Mixer. In the past, if I have smaller amounts I fill a quart jar half full of cream and shake it. I do have a small glass churn, but the turning radius of the handle is so small, it gets really tiring.

Here is a gallon of Buttercup's milk. You can see the cream line. That is about a pint of cream.

Her cream is so thick and lucious, it even stands up higher than the ladle. See the milk in the jar, with bits of cream still floating on top.
Here is the butter almost done.
Here it is draining before I work the rest of the whey out of it.
On another note about milk... Ohio, has fallen with other states like Pennsylvania to the lobbyists. The growth hormone can be used on the cows, but they are not allowed to put on the label whether the milk has the hormones in it or not. The only people in the state for it were the dairy farmers that use it. However, the pockets of our Ag people have been lined by large corporations. We got sold out for money. This is another reason to have your own milk animal.

More Cow Talk

noreply@blogger.com (Marci) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 18:12:00 +0000

Mr. or Mrs. Anonymous had another question. They want to know how we get the cows to come when we want to milk them. First of all let me tell you this... We are spoiled with Buttercup. She has been so tame from the beginning. For the most part you could walk out to the pasture and milk her. In the last few years, she has gotten a bit more "restless" than that. She will usually stand there and wait for you to come and get her. Last night, Michael had given the cows fresh grass before he grabbed her for milking. She does not like to come when there is fresh grass. He got her up in our front yard and she jerked free of his hold and would not let him catch her. She did not run away, but just far enough to keep out of reach. She ran through our front yard. I called her and she looked at me. I was standing near where she is milked. She ran over to that area and Michael nabbed her halter and hooked her up. She is hooked up to a long lead (about 4 feet that is loose), so she can move around, but usually doesn't.

Her daughter Molasses is another story. The guys would have to chase her and catch her to bring her in. Some of the new calves started nursing off of her and since we really didn't need the extra milk from her at that time, we just let her play wet nurse to her calf and one other. When we did milk her, we had to put her in a stanchion we built that held her head still. We also got a tail holder as she was fond of hitting us with her often wet tail. If we have to milk her again, we will be adding a back section to our stanchion so that she can not go side to side. She was a real stinker to milk. She never kicked us, but she did kick over the bucket and move around and knock Michael off of his milking stool (upside down bucket).

With Clover, we are giving her a little bit of milk in water each night that she comes for. I also try to give her peanuts and apple pieces occasionally. Find a treat they like and set up a routine where you bring them up near where you would milk them and then give them the treat. Another thing is all our milkers (it used to be all our cows) have on control halters. A control halter has a chain that goes under their chin and through a metal ring. Then there is a larger metal ring on the end of the chain to keep it from going back through. If you hook a lead to it, or even just grab it, when the try to get away, it pulls the chain up tight under their chin. They don't like that, so they don't fight as hard. I would put one of those on your cow and then do the treat thing above. Maybe hook her to something, talk to her, brush her, give her a treat. Make her want to come to you.

Here are some more cow pictures for you. These are 3 little guys that we got at a day old to raise up for meat. One of them belongs to the Wonderful Neighbors.

Here they are again with one of the Wonderful Neighbors.

Here are 2 steers we currently have. The darker one is the Wonderful Neighbors.

Here is Molasses with her last calf, Paddy.

Joshua used to be our cow milker. He milked by hand. He was the fastest milker we ever saw. Of course the cow danced a bit because of his strong grip. Buttercup used to love him, but he is not around her too much anymore. We bartered with someone for our milk machine. It is old, but it does the trick.

Cow Questions

noreply@blogger.com (Marci) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:20:00 +0000

An anonymous person asked us a couple of questions about our cows and how we handle them. I know that Fridays have been new episodes of "Tails" From The Farm, but I have not written the new episode yet. Sorry.... I will get on the ball or at least try to.

The two questions they asked us were in regards to what our cows eat and why we leave the horns on. First let me introduce you to some of our cows and give you some information there. This is Buttercup. She is probably my favorite animal on the farm after Star our dog. I LOVE Buttercup. She is a Jersey Milk Cow. She is gentle and loyal and gives wonderfully thick cream and milk. This picture was taken by the son of a friend of mine. Buttercup has short horns. When we got her (at around 3 years old) she already had them.

This is Molasses and one of her calves. We bred Buttercup to an old line of Jerseys that were not bred up to needing grain to keep up with milk production. Molasses was the calf from that breeding. She is naturally polled, which just means that she never grew any horns and never will. Evidently the bull whose semen we used was polled. When Molasses was born, I named her Honey because she was that beautiful shade of light brown like her mother. Then she turned dark on me and I had to change her name. =) Jerseys come in all shades from very light (almost white) to very dark (almost black). Every calf she has given us is naturally polled like she is and they are very dark. That is Paddy standing next to her in the picture... Short for Hamburger Patty.

This is Clover. She is NOT a Holstein. Buttercup was bred to a Jersey bull and she is the result. We have had several people tell us that she is Jersey. One of the big indicators would be that she should be much larger than she is. Anyway, Clover is a heifer calf. That just means that she has never had a calf of her own. She is now one year old. She does have horns, but we waited too long to dehorn her, so we are stuck with them. We had one calf in Florida that we had the horns removed after they were a bit bigger and it was HORRIBLE. I cried like a baby and the calf was in shock. We will deal with horns.

These next couple of pictures are Jersey Steers that we bottle raised and then raised for meat. They both have horns. Their horns don't get much longer than what you see in these pictures before we send them to the butcher. We have never had a problem to this point of one of them using their horns in an ugly way, so we just leave them alone.

That probably answers your questions about why we didn't dehorn.

On to the other question. We used to give Buttercup grain. In fact there were times that she was up to 16 lbs. of grain a day. One spring after the grass was really coming in lush and green, we started backing her grain down slowly. The less we gave her, the more her milk increased. Not by huge amounts, but it did increase. In the end, we got her totally off of the grain and she does fine. This last winter, because the hay was not too good of quality due to the drought, we were giving her beet pulp when we milked her to make sure she stayed in shape. We also gave her some alfalfa cubes. We believe that cows were intended to graze and not eat grain. They get some grain from the grasses that get too long, but for the most part it is grass or hay for forage. They have all done well. If this does not answer you questions, let us know and we will try to help you.

Are You Good Enough?

noreply@blogger.com (Marci) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 02:14:00 +0000

What does it take to get to heaven? Are YOU good enough?

Thursday Product Highlight

noreply@blogger.com (Marci) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:01:00 +0000

On Thursdays I plan on highlighting a product that we carry in the General Store. This will give people a chance to hear about why we chose to carry that product.

This week I am going to highlight the DLX. The DLX is a heavy duty mixer that can knead a large quantity of dough, mix a cake, whip a meringue or make butter from cream. I have used a DLX mixer for around 12 years. It has never let me down. When I first started using the DLX, I would make six loaves of bread at a time. You get a lighter more fluffy loaf of bread if you work the gluten properly. The DLX does an excellent job at this. It has a unique roller and scraper system which creams shortening, butter & margarine to silky perfection for delicious cakes, creams and cookies. The large capacity stainless steel bowl allows you to knead up to 23 cups (7lbs.) of flour, producing as much as 15 lbs. of the smoothest and most elastic dough. It has an efficient, high-torque 600 watt motor that runs smoothly and quietly without straining even with big batches of dough.

This is looking down into the stainless steel bowl that comes with it. You see the roller and if you look on the left side of the bowl, you will see the scraper.

It has two easy to read dials. One is for the speed and the other is a timer.

Mine did not come with this bowl, but it now comes with the DLX as well as the stainless bowl. This is a double whisk bowl. It will create beautiful meringues, beating up to 18 egg whites (or as few as one) with excellent results. You can also cream butter and shortening with sugar to the creamiest texture for all your cookie needs. When the white bowl is used, it is stationary (unlike the stainless bowl, which turns during use), and the whisks drive from below via a center column in the bowl (the white bowl is shaped something like a bunt cake.) This arrangement provides total access to the top of the Magic Mill bowl, with no overhead motor drive in the way.

You can also purchase a blender that fits on the DLX. It is a very high power blender.

This is the meat grinder attachment. We have used this when we were running low on ground beef, but still had plenty of other cuts. We have also used it to process a deer. We have and use this attachment as the meat grinder, but we also have the pasta disks that go on it to make simple and quick homemade pasta.

There are other attachments available. There is a flaker mill which I highly recommend. We buy our oats as groats rather than already rolled. We freshly roll our oats when ever we are making granola or baking. You can also use the flaker mill to roll barley and other soft grains. We use it to crack wheat when we make bear mush.

I would stand behind a DLX and highly recommend it. It has worked hard for my family. I use it to make butter for the family. It is available in our General Store.

Chicks are 4 Weeks Old

noreply@blogger.com (Marci) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:00:00 +0000

The chicks are now 4 weeks old. I kind of cheated on this a bit. I took their picture on Wednesday evening instead of Thursday afternoon like I have been. They grow SO fast.

Look how big their feet are!!

You can also see they are getting a bit ugly in the above picture. If you click on it and make it big, you will notice the chicken on the far left has more of a red comb on his head. He is probably a rooster and the other 2 are probably hens.

Hay Time On The Farm

noreply@blogger.com (Marci) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:20:00 +0000

They came and cut our hay a couple of days ago. We have a local man who will do the first cutting on shares. They came and used the tedder which spreads the hay out to dry and then they rake it into rows. The baler is next. We always do the first cutting in big round bales for the cows. It is usually the least nutritious of the cuttings. These first 2 pictures are the local man taking his share home.

Michael got out his rusty trusty tractor to put our share away in the barn.

The big pole on the back of the tractor is called a hay spear. They lower it as low as it will go. Then they back into a bale of hay on the round end. Then they lift it up with the hydraulics and take it into the barn. Once it is in place, it is lowered and the tractor pulls away and the weight of the bale on the ground (around 600 lbs.) holds it in place. Our tractor is not big enough and can't reach high enough to do a row on top of bales already on the ground, unless he has 2 strong guys to help push it up there. =) Tonight he only had me, so the hay will be one row high.

This is the upper part of our bank barn. It is huge. If you click on the picture and look you will be amazed to learn that the man we bought the property from had this barn disassembled somewhere else and brought here and re-assembled. I am totally in awe of that fact each time I go in and look around.

Here is Michael backing in to drop a bale down.

Star caught herself a pigeon. She will eat it. They fly a bit too low and the dogs snag them out of the air. We don't want pigeons in our barn, so we don't discourage them. If you click on this picture and look at the larger version, you will notice LOTS of pigeon poop in the hay on the right. They sit up in the rafters and poop all over our hay.

There is the first bale all in place.

I love to look out on the field all dotted with big round bales.

Here is a short video of Michael putting a bale in the barn. I am standing in the front of the barn with the camera.

Thank you Lord for the hay. Thank you for keeping it dry and helping us to get it in the barn!!

I called Michael's tractor his rusty trusty tractor. If you have children there is a book by the title. You can purchase it through this link and I get credit. It is a great book and tells about how the farmer doesn't want to buy a new shiny tractor, but relies on his old rusty trusty tractor. It is a must have farm book for children (or Mom's if you are like me). =)

The Fruits of the Forests

noreply@blogger.com (Marci) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 01:05:00 +0000

We keep hoping one day to find a golf cart or a gator type vehicle to use on the farm. As the chicks in the field grow, each pen takes their own bucket of water and feed. It all has to be hand carried out to the field, or we use the trunk of a car. This car is not reliable enough to drive anywhere, but it can haul feed to the chickens.
Here are some hickory nuts already growing. I have not seen them this big, this early.

The black raspberries are coming in. I have several patches that are wild on the property.

If you were to look at this little cluster right now, the dark one is missing. =) YUM!!!

This is the side of my house. It is a mess. There is Virginia Creeper growing up the walls and poke berry bushes keep coming up no matter how many times they are chopped down. We have multi flora roses (read briars) that have sprouted there. It is going to take a major overhaul. The vegetable garden was our first priority. We did finish planting it and have been weeding some of the rows that were not mulched. I saw my first Japanese Beetle of the season tonight. Those things are pesky.

Here are some close up of the flowers that are blooming right now. It just amazes me at how intricate God got with His design and yet each lily looks like the next one.

Well, thanks for spending another evening walking around the farm with me. I started a new exercise program today and I am already sore. I hope I can sleep.

Last Day Vision Forum Coupon

noreply@blogger.com (Marci) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:58:00 +0000

Vision Forum offered a special “thank you”. Between now and July 1, 2008, use the enclosed coupon to save $25 on your online order of $75 of merchandise or more! Redeem your coupon to stock up on summer reading supplies, or get ready for family summer fun with our Three-Man Balloon Launchers and Fun-Ride Zip Lines. This coupon may only be redeemed online, may not be retroactively applied to past orders, and expires at midnight on July 1, 2008

I have two codes that will not be used by our family. You are welcome to use one. If you get to the check out and it will not let you use it, it means that someone beat you to it. They are for a one time use only. If you click on the picture above or the link in the sidebar, I will get credit for your sale. Thanks. Here are the two coupon codes...

24C379CQ273H

R2862249NE7E

Count Your Blessings Monday

noreply@blogger.com (Marci) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 04:01:00 +0000

Today, I am counting my brother, Doug as a blessing. We take things for granted sometimes. He is a man's man. He works hard and is very strong. Regardless of what we see on the outside, he had a ticking time bomb on the inside. I am so grateful they found it and are working to get it under control before it got him. My 2 younger brothers were like my babies. I have a much different relationship with them than I do with my 2 older brothers. I am just thankful today that Doug is still around.

His Sheep Am I

noreply@blogger.com (Marci) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 02:26:00 +0000

A week ago, we went to my brother's church because they were going to pray for him. The pastor talked about sheep and he said that when we are called sheep in the Bible, that it is not a compliment. He talked about how dumb sheep are and that they don't have any natural defense. Some animals have ferocious growls and teeth or claws, some have a shell to hide in like a turtle. He talked about how the Mama skunk teaches her babies. Something tried to get them all. She told them all to turn around, bow their heads and then she said, "Let us spray". =) I guess sheep don't have those types of defense, but if you have ever tried to corner one in a shed, watch out. I have been tackled by a sheep. However, it is true that sheep know their shepherd if the shepherd spends lots of time with them. My matriarch sheep, Sunshine knows me. She will come to my husband too, but she knows me. I can get her to move from pasture to pasture by simply leading her (having a can of grain helps). She trusts me. The other sheep trust her. She knows my voice. I think of God and His Son, Jesus. We are to follow them as sheep do a shepherd. Do I hear an audible voice saying, "Yes, buy that vehicle!" No, I don't, but I do hear my Shepherd when I listen. It is that still small inner voice that tells you what you need to do, or suggests another path to follow, or brings to your mind a verse that helps at that moment. If I hear Him and still do not obey, what does that mean? The bottom line is that I don't trust Him. He has given us all sorts of directions in His Word. What my role as a wife should be... How I should treat an enemy... To obey the laws of the land until they cross His law... Let's go back to that first one, my role as a wife. I need to trust God to work through my husband. Many times I feel like unless I speak up we are in trouble. My husband asks me what I think on most things. He does not always do what I think. I need to trust God to work through Him. If I fuss at him, or cop an attitude or get angry, then I am not trusting. My Shepherd has told me that I need to do this. Do I trust? How have you heard the voice of the Lord?

Here are some pictures of my sheep. They are wet in these pictures. They were out in the rain eating.

This is Pepper. See how her colors have changed?

This is either Lindsey or Woolsey.

This is Knit or Purl by the twin of the one above. Remember how black they were at birth? Look how chubby she is? Most of that is just wool.

I also took a picture of the cows, so I thought I would post it too.

Someone asked me in the last post if I spin the wool. I do, but have not done it for awhile. I need to get back into it. One of my favorite books starts out with a picture of a Grandma holding her first grandchild. The books says, "On the day I was born, my Grandma wrapped me in a blanket made from the wool of her very own sheep." I want to be able to do that. I need to get the yarn made, so I can start working on a blanket. Joshua is getting married this fall and it takes me awhile to get something done. I want it all ready and waiting for whenever that first one comes along.

An update on my brother... He is home and has a defibrillator / pacemaker installed. He has a whole new way of living to learn. He has to make changes to what he eats and what he does. There are all sorts of restrictions about magnetic fields. He can't use the cell phone on the same side of his pacemaker. He can' t go through regular airport security. He can't weld or work on a running engine. He can't hang out with the greeter at Wal-mart because of the metal detectors at the door. Thank you all for praying.

Little Bits of Lots of Things

noreply@blogger.com (Marci) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 19:18:00 +0000

Today, I pulled one of my garlic up to check on it. I think they are ready to harvest. We had a really nice size bulb on the end. I should have put something in the picture to show you how big it is. The stem was really thick.
Here is another couple of pictures of my little banty silky chicks. I love their markings.

We have been getting lots of small rains. We did have a pretty nice rain the other night. This is what it does to the garden where we don't have mulch yet. Can you see the rows of corn in the back? Beans and beets are in the front. We have already been out there trying to remedy the situation and got stopped by another little rain shower. We are VERY grateful for the rain as we were in a drought last year at this time.

Here is one of the pepper plants. Something was eating them before we planted them. I hope they survive.

The same thing with our cabbage. I have seen a lot of those little white butterflies out there. They are very hard to catch.

Here are my pole beans coming up by the trellis my sweet Michael put up for me.

Here is my zucchini. The leaves do this every year. Is this a fungus or do zucchini leaves always get the white stuff like this? Does anyone know?

I scattered all sorts of lettuce seeds under another trellis. They are starting to come up. At this point it is hard to tell what is weeds and what is lettuce other than the really light green stuff.

Can you believe it? This is Pepper. Her colors are really changing.

I am not sure which of my little black lambs this is, but wow... do you see all the light color under the black?

Here is Charity with Knit or Purl. I love these little lambs faces.

This rooster is HUGE. He surprises me sometimes when I see him from the house. I wonder if there is a dog back by the chickens. He saw me coming and headed for the chicken jungle. I showed you the chicken yard in a video here. It was mostly bare then. This picture and the next picture shows you what a nice shady area they have.

This is one of the peach trees in the chicken yard area. They are covered in peaches.

This is a picture of a wild cherry in that area. Most of them are already gone. I guess the birds eat them green.

We went to get feed today from an organic farmer. I love how the heads on this grain is bowing down. You may have to click on the next 2 pictures to see the detail. The second picture is of grain right next to this first grain. I am not sure what either one is. I know he has grown wheat, oats and other crops.

Here is a field of grain turning golden for the harvest.

I hope you enjoyed the picture tour. Let me know if you have answers to my zucchini question above.

Franklin Springs Media

noreply@blogger.com (Marci) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:30:00 +0000

I am an affiliate with Franklin Springs Media. The companies that I am an affiliate with are companies that my own family knows and uses. There are a couple of them that really sell quality items that help to encourage and build up godly families. Vision Forum is one and Franklin Springs Media is another. We have most of the videos put out by this company. I would highly recommend any of them.

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This is probably my favorite of their films... Our Journey Home. When his family life demanded change, Tommy Waller took a giant step. A Journey Home tells the story of the extraordinary path traveled by Tommy Waller, his wife, and their 11 children. This sensitive documentary spans Tommy’s journey from 80 hour work weeks to a remote community in rural Tennessee to the other side of the world.
The Eden String Quartet - Their road to becoming accomplished musicians has been anything but ordinary. Join the Miller sisters - Megan, Krista, Leah, and Therese - on the fascinating journey from their family’s cattle ranch to their distinction as an outstanding stringed quartet. The beneficiaries of a multi-generational vision for God-honoring family, the Millers encourage, entertain, and inspire an appreciation of hymns and classical music - and for the building of families that honor the Lord.
The Peasall Sisters~Family Harmony - Their life as a home schooling family of six children changed overnight when they recorded songs for the Grammy Award winning soundtrack for O Brother, Where Art Thou? What remained constant, though, was their commitment to their faith and their family. The Peasall Sisters: Family Harmony is a celebration of their beautiful music and their enduring focus on being a God-honoring family.
Still Standing~The Stonewall Jackson Story - His legacy as a military genius is widely renowned. Now, in Still Standing: The Stonewall Jackson Story, his legacy as a man of resolute Christian character is captured in this revealing documentary. Through stunning High Definition videography and expert narrative, Still Standing traces the life of Stonewall Jackson—from his orphaned childhood, to the Sunday School class he taught for African Americans, to the role he played as a General. Still Standing inspires, entertains, and educates.
Measure Twice, Cut Once - Measure Twice, Cut Once is a fun-filled building adventure that provides kids of all ages with a great introduction to essential carpentry skills. A step-by-step how-to DVD that is centered around a tree fort building project, this DVD features six young men (ages 16 and under) taking on the adventure of constructing their own tree fort, and in the process teaching important carpentry skills.
These films are sure to be favorites in your home.

Please Pray for my Brother Doug

noreply@blogger.com (Marci) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:53:00 +0000

I am the only girl in my family. I had four brothers, 2 older and 2 younger. Doug is my baby brother. I was 8 years old when he was born. Both of my younger brothers were my babies. About 3 years ago Doug had some health issues with his lung. He had part of one lung removed. At the time they wondered about his heart because of the chest pain, but ruled that out and figured out it was his lung.

He had to take some medical tests for work. During those tests, they noticed an irregular EKG. They told him to follow up with her own doctor, which he did. A stress test was ordered. The stress test showed that he had less than 20% use of his heart. The doctor was all concerned and asked if he had walked up the stairs or taken the elevator. Doug had taken the stairs 2 at a time. He then started asking how he was feeling, etc. They said he could drop dead at any moment.

They sent him to a heart doctor and he had an ultrasound done of Doug's heart. To make a long story short, the first test was right. The doctor kept saying he was amazed and had really thought the first test could not have been right. He was shocked when the test he ran confirmed it. Doug had a heart cath today. There is no blockage. They said that sometime in the recent past he has had a massive heart attack. They tried to think back and could think of a couple of times he felt weird, but nothing like he was having a heart attack. They are going to put in a defibrillator/pace maker combination device. He will have to make some major life changes and start taking some medications. They are hoping to get it up to 30%.

Pray for his wife Debbie, and their boys, Jake & Nick. Thanks!! Also, pray for my Dad. He has such a hard time seeing someone in his family hurting in anyway.

Here are some younger pictures of Doug.

Here is my Dad and my four brothers.

This was a couple of years ago. Ain't he cute??

Chicken Update & Story

noreply@blogger.com (Marci) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:02:00 +0000

The broiler chicks got moved out into the chicken tractors on Monday evening. We split them between 2 pens. In a few weeks, we will split them again and make 3 pens. They get lots of fresh air and sunshine. The tarps are down because we had a storm blow through and are expecting another one. They can be rolled up on the sides when the weather is nice.

Here are a couple of pictures of the chicks in the pen. They are now 3 weeks old. The red thing you see hanging down is there waterer. It is called a Bell Waterer. There is a 6 gallon bucket hanging above it that is full of water.

They are all bunched up in the corner here because they see me and the dogs at this end of the pen. =)

If you click on this picture and make it larger, there is a story there. Did you see it? Part of it is partially hidden.

Here you can watch the story unfold.

We have trained our dogs to keep unknown animals off of our property. I heard a cat holler like there was a cat fight. Then I heard the dogs barking. At first they must have treed it because I saw the dogs jumping up at a tree. By the time I grabbed the camera and got out there, the cat was on the potato planter. The big yellow dog you see leaving the crime scene in the above video belongs to The Wonderful Neighbors. I guess he figured since I was going to film the crime he had better leave. =) This is not our cat. It wandered into the wrong place. And just so I don't get any hate mail, I walked away and took my dogs with me letting the cat have a chance to run off. We walked out to the movable pens and then checked on the chicks in the brooder. I have not heard a cat scream or dogs bark, so I think he must have high tailed it out of here.

Thursday Product Highlight

noreply@blogger.com (Marci) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:01:00 +0000

On Thursdays I plan on highlighting a product that we carry in the General Store. This will give people a chance to hear about why we chose to carry that product.

One of the first changes we made in our lifestyle was to switch to freshly ground wheat. I wrote about the health benefits of freshly ground wheat here. Unless you plan on pounding your wheat between rocks, you need a grain mill. There are many different grain mills available. I have used four different kinds on a regular basis at one time or another. There are differences between them. I have not done the math lately, but when we first started grinding our own wheat and making all of our bread, a loaf of bread costs me around 30 cents. I know that price has gone up, especially lately with the cost of wheat going through the roof. I still think it is cheaper to make your bread from freshly ground wheat than it is to use store bought flour. We carry several different kind of grain mills. I am going to tell you a little about each of them. The first one is the Nutrimill. This is an electric grain mill. I have never personally used this particular mill, although the mill I use most of the time is electric. I have talked to a couple of people who have this mill and use it. They are thrilled with it. If I ever have to replace the mill I have now, I would buy one of these.

The Nutrimill uses a high speed impact chamber to create flour from grains and beans, a well-proven milling method. But the Nutrimill has raised the bar for grain mills with new features and abilities users have asked for — a combination of features found in no other mill. The first of these is the ability to grind super fine flour (much finer than any other impact mill) and also adjust to produce the coarser flour grind you need for perfect corn breads. Its impact grain milling heads mean you'll have no stone glazing. Nutrimill has a 400% range of adjustment from fine to coarse, ten times greater than other mills! This grain mill turns out terrific flour, quickly and easily

The next 2 mills are actually the same one, but one is hand operated and the other has a motor base. I have never used the motor base, but I have used the hand operated one. This is what we used most of the time when we lived in our non-electric Amish home. I love this mill. It is so easy to turn the handle that even a child would be able to do it. It created fine flour that we were able to use for our breads and other goodies. I have held onto it because it is great to use in a power outage. You can get the motor base and also get a hand base so that you could use it either way. There are also several attachments that you can get to go with it. One of those attachments is a flaker mill. A flaker mill is also a great tool. You can buy your oats as groats instead of already rolled. Then you roll them fresh right before you use them. When I make my granola, I always roll my own oats, but I throw a handful of barley and other grains in there. Some grains it tends to crush a little (like brown rice) and other grains it cracks (like wheat), but it will flake the softer grains. We run wheat through and crack it. Then we add milk and make bear mush which is a very tasty nutritious and filling breakfast cereal. There is also a food processor attachment you can get. I have never used that because I have a separate food processor. This mill is very easy to clean and maintain. I would highly recommend it. The first picture shows it with the motor base attached. The second one shows the hand base that clamps to your counter.

This it the Country Living Grain Mill. We have used it many times as well. It is a high capacity hand operated mill that can easily be adapted to powered operation because its design incorporates a handle-flywheel which doubles as a v-belt pulley. Construction of the Country Living Grain Mill is strong cast metal alloy with super tough powder coat finish that won't chip or peel from anything short of severe abuse. It's a very nice mill to use and a very handsome piece of equipment with clean, functional lines and beautiful raised wheat heads on the side panels. We have friends that have hooked theirs up to an exercise bike. They get on and start pedaling. That way they get their exercise while grinding their wheat. It is very easy to use, but not quite as easy to turn as the Family Grain Mill. It produces a very fine flour and the grinding burrs have an extremely long life. This is one of the Cadillacs of hand powered grain mills. It does help if you are able to bolt it down to something. We have seen it just bolted on to a thick piece of board that allows it to still be portable.

Grinding your own wheat is a way to start making changes for your family. They can be included in the process. You get that fresh flour with all the nutrients that God put into that kernel of wheat. You can grind beans in any of these mills. Bean flour is great to make an almost instant refried type of bean mixture. It is also great to thicken soups with. When you put the beans with the whole grains you get a complete protein.

New Babies On The Farm

noreply@blogger.com (Marci) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:49:00 +0000

I have been saying that I wanted some banty chickens to put out in our big barn. I love the silkys. I used to have a white silky rooster. He looked sort of like a miniature ostrich with a bad hair day. =) Something must have gotten him. I want just a few out there to scratch through the manure and eat the bugs and larvae. Ginny had ordered chicks for her farmstead and I rode with her to go and pick them up. We spent the whole day together. She picked me up at 8:30AM and we did not get home until almost 6PM. We stopped at a lot of places.... thrift stores, greenhouses, fabric stores. We found some real deals. I had a friend who had an older set of Corelle dishes. She was looking to replace some of them that had been broken. They no longer sell them. I found a whole set that looked like brand new. I also found some dresses for another friend's little girl. She was having trouble finding clothes to fit her. All the dresses I found were on the 1/2 price rack or on the 25 cent rack.

Anyway, the second to last stop was the hatchery. I asked if they had any extra banties and they did. They did not have any white silkys, but they did have some partridge silkies and red ones and one other type. I told them I would take 4 of whatever they had. They gave me 2 partridge and I am not sure what the other two are. Here they are in our HUGE brooder. We had to put some boards in there to make the area smaller.

It really looked funny to have just 4 little chicks in there after just seeing 125 in there.

My Echinacea is opening up more. I did not realize it took that long for a bloom to open.

The orange lilies are also blooming. My cows ate some of them down to the ground.

Does anyone know what this is? I think it might be some sort of wild geranium or something. I am not sure if it is something that was planted or if it is a weed. =) The flower looks white in the picture, but it is actually purple.

Because I was gone yesterday, I have a ton to do today, so I had better get back at it!!!

Count Your Blessings Monday

noreply@blogger.com (Marci) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 04:02:00 +0000

I am thankful for the rain. Last year we had a drought and our pasture did not grow. We had very little hay because of it. We had to buy hay 3 times in early spring. We try to do rotational grazing and it was slim pickings. This year things are growing nicely. There has not been a ton of rain, but we have had rain and we are so grateful for it. True showers of blessings.

What are you thankful for today? What blessing has God brought your way this past week? He is there everyday if we will look for Him.

And The Winner Is...

noreply@blogger.com (Marci) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 18:45:00 +0000

Drum roll please......

I was trying to think of a really neat way to pick a name and be creative like Miss Andrea and Miss Kelly did here. I am too tired today to do that. So, I wrote everyone's name down in 3 columns. I and my men each picked some numbers until I had 7 numbers. Then I asked my dear sweet Michael if I should go across rows or down them. He chose down. So, I counted down to those 7 names and wrote them on identical scraps of paper and folded them. Then I had the men each pick a name. Michael then took the last 2 names, put them in his hand, mixed them up and made me pick with my eyes closed.

This person is from a state that is usually very hot. I also have a sister-in-law with this name, but she uses only one "l" in her name. I went back to read why she wanted this set of DVD's. Here is what she wrote: A friend referred me here for the DVD give-away. While I am sure they are great DVDs, I would love to win them to give to her. She is such a blessing to me and I would love to bless her family in this small way. How unselfish is that. Michelle, you are the winner. Please email me your full name and address. I will send them to Vision Forum so they can mail the set of DVD's out to you.

Thanks to all of you for entering!!! Thanks to Vision Forum for their generosity.