The Beginning Farmer's Wife

Landscaping Advice Wanted :)

2013-05-09T11:32:00.001-05:00

Things around here have been a bit crazy, to say the least, the last 4/5 years. We are now into the start of our 5th year on the farm, and I am (hopefully) able to landscape the entrance to the house, and the rest of the homestead this year.

Apart from our mudroom entrance and lawn, the entrance to our house has been a mixture of mud and weeds. This week I tilled up the random weeds and had the kids help me bring some stones up from our ravine. I have a general idea of what I want to do for the walkway to the house and walkway between the porch and mudroom door, but I can't figure out what materials to use. (I can think of many things to use out of our budget, just not within.) So I am asking for a blogging brainstorm from any followers that are still out there!

You should be able to click on the photos to enlarge.

This first picture shows the walkway to the porch from the drive. The stones I put there temporarily are to keep feet from being muddy. They are too soft of stone to be permanent stones (one is already broken). The triangle area with the bell will be ornamental grasses with the bell on a post. There is also another walkway behind the bell leading to the mudroom entrance. The flower bed against the house will be for roses. (It is on the east of the house).

This picture shows the walkway to the mudroom.

This picture shows the full area. The flower bed separating the drive from the lawn will be for some shorter bushes and spring bulbs.

So for my question? What would you do on with a low budget for these walkways and the borders for them. I would love to do large flat stones but our farm's stones are too soft, and I'm pretty sure buying them would be majorly out of the budget. I have thought of pea gravel. Not my favorite choice because of winter shoveling, but it would work. I have also thought of scattered flat stones with pea gravel in between. I think that wouldn't hit the budget either. As for the borders, I was thinking stones again, but more rounded ones. I could probably scrounge enough of those up here and there. I do know I want it to look natural - cement is not high on the list at all. What do you think??

Thanks so much!

Happy Easter 2013!

2013-03-26T18:22:00.000-05:00

We are patiently awaiting spring here. It is almost the end of March, and we still have snow on the ground - the last batch coming just this past Sunday. Today Ethan had to take another trip to the woods for more wood (an important thing when you don't have a furnace!)

Even though it doesn't feel like spring, the animals know it's coming though. Our chickens have kicked into Easter Egg mode, hiding their eggs all across the farm in an effort to steal a nest and hatch some chicks. It is fun for awhile. The key word, awhile. I will admit that it is also kind of fun too when I don't find a nest, and momma hen proudly appears later with a batch full of trailing chicks.

Since Easter is this Sunday, I thought I would share spring's Easter Egg hunt at Crooked Gap Farm. :)

Behind the roll of wire

On top of the feed wagon

Between some tin

Over the sow, on a straw bale

In the hay stack

In the feed trough

Outside, between a board and our brooding building

And all washed up!

The Beginning Farmer Show - New from the Beginning Farmer!

2013-03-14T22:00:00.002-05:00

I can't tell you the number of days I think of things I would like to blog about, photos I would like to take and post, stories I would love to share. Awhile back, however, when I told my kids "Just a minute, Mommy is busy," one too many times while writing a blog post, I decided that blogging would need to wait until the kids were in bed and the house/farm work is done for the day (to avoid the same phrase the next day while catching up on dishes or laundry due to blogging in the evening.)

As you can see from my lack of posts . . . my days are full.

I wanted to take a quick break tonight, though, as a birthday present to Ethan (his birthday is today!), to share about a new farm project he has going on - his podcast called The Beginning Farmer Show. You can see his first post, copied and pasted below, or head over to his blog and view and listen to them both.

Enjoy!

The Very First Episode of The Beginning Farmer Show!

This is something that I have wanted to do for over a year now, but never had the guts to go out and accomplish it. I thought about it ... planned for it ... gathered the equipment to do it ... and finally just as I did with farming ... I had to just get out there and do it! With all of that being said, I'm not completely pleased with this very first episode and realize that I need to work on my audio quality, iTunes integration, feeds, and so much more. I am glad to have at least one episode out there though ...

On this very first episode of The Beginning Farmer Show I share a quick update on how the farm (and myself) has handled the winter so far. It has been a winter that hasn't gone exactly as planned and I'm sure I'll be playing catch up because of that this spring. After the quick Crooked Gap Farm update I dive right into a discussion of Heritage Breed Livestock and why I believe they work for my farm, but how they may not be exactly right for your farm ... that is a decision that you will have to make.

Finally, there are many lessons that I have learned since we began the farm almost five years ago and I want to share some of those lessons with everyone in hopes that they don't make the same mistakes. This weeks "Hard Lesson Learned" actually goes hand in hand with my main topic of Heritage Breed Livestock as I talk about some of the mistakes I made in purchasing some of the initial stock for the farm.

If you are interested in learning more about Rare or Heritage Breed Livestock please check out The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy. As always you can follow along with The Beginning Farmer and Crooked Gap Farm by checking out these links ...

I would love to have you interact with the The Beginning Farmer Show. Feel free to comment on this post with your suggestions, questions, ideas, or even podcasting tips! You can also always reach The Beginning Farmer through e-mail.

P.S. If you know about podcasting, Feedburner feeds, and all of that good stuff I would love to hear from someone about why two posts that contain links to .pdf's are showing up in my subscription to the show. It is very frustrating to me!

Thanksgiving Thankfulness from the Farmer's Wife

2012-11-22T20:12:00.000-06:00

Every year we have so much to be thankful for, and every year that we are able to continue farming is counted as a blessing - this year especially.

At the beginning of the year we were having to take a good hard look at the logistics of even being able to stay on our farm. Ethan had a transition in his town work and had been working retail for a year. It became apparent, however, that his retail job was not a job that would fit with keeping the farm going. After many long discussions, we decided to be open to the possibility of a move for Ethan to be involved in a ministry job. And so the applications started going out and the interviews started, up to 2 hours away from our farm - which of course would mean selling the farm.

Right as we were in this process, however, Ethan was approached out of the blue by a church within our town. Ethan met with the leaders of this church to find out what their vision was as they were wanting to learn more about what Ethan's ministry passions were. Before we knew it, Ethan was offered a full time position, which he started within a month. Not only did this offer allow Ethan to follow his call to ministry, but it also allowed us to keep the farm.

I was amazed and humbled with the timing of this job. It started the same week that our Downtown Des Moines Farmers' Market started. To be perfectly honest, I was a little worried (read very panicy) as to how farming/farmers' market season/retail job would work for our family. After 10 weeks of Ethan's new job, I had learned that I really shouldn't have spent so much time worrying.

And then it happened. One fateful evening at our homeschool softball game, an evening I had stayed at home with the kids for some reason, Ethan tore his achilles tendon. (He did make the out though!) As we sat in the ER trying to process the injury, the questions popped up once more (as they have multiple times, yearly, since we started the farm). Do we keep going? Do we sell the animals and keep the land? Do we just sell it all, buy a small acreage in the country, and become a boating/fishing family once more?

Thankfully, my good friend, who had driven Ethan to the ER where I would meet up with him, looked me in the eyes and told me not to worry - people would rally behind us and help us get through. And that is just what happened.

Ethan ended up in a splint for 3 weeks, followed by surgery and a cast for 6 weeks, followed by a walking boot another 3 weeks. After developing planter faciatis, he was taken out of his walking boot to start physical therapy (which he continues). I won't lie and say I was not frazzled, completely exhausted, and sometimes went a little nutso from taking over the farm work this summer, but I will say that the Lord provided for our needs.

We were never without family, homeschool friends, and church friends to help us out with things I couldn't get done myself - loading hogs and lamb for the locker, setting up new fence, doing improvements on the farm, manning the market booth when Ethan couldn't, etc. I also had a meal a week provided to me once each week by my homeschool friends. I can't say enough how I looked forward to that night of no cooking after early morning chores, hot afternoon chores (did I mention we had historic heat and drought this year), and after supper till the sun went down chores - all while trying to keep the housework up, garden growing, and husband and kids loved.

Ethan kept reminding me it was temporary. And it was. One day, shortly after the Farm Crawl (where 1000+ people visit our farm) and as homeschooling was starting, Ethan took over the chores again, be it ever so slowly and carefully. And then our 6 months of Saturday farmers' markets were over. And now we are in a time of "rest" (for those who have town jobs and farm as we do, you know rest is said in relation to the rest of the year).

Today is Thanksgiving. Each and every day I am thankful to the Lord for His sacrifice on the cross, which paid the penalty for my sins, and for His resurrection that promised life eternal to all who would follow Him . . . for His sacrifice and promise to me.

But today is a day where I also count my blessings from Him - for Ethan's new job which allowed us to keep the farm. For family, friends, and our new church family who helped keep our farm afloat this year. For our customers who cheered us on and blew us away with our best year yet and an increasing demand for our meat. And for what the farm has provided for our family - including the lessons learned.

It seems appropriate that this year is the first year we have had a Thanksgiving meal made completely with food from our farm. I am reminded of the grace that was given this year to have a meal like this, in a year of drought and injury, and of the grace to be yet another year on the farm.

From our farm: sweet corn, broccoli, carrots, pickles (cucumber and dill), potatoes, sweet potatoes, heritage breed chicken, green beans, cooked carrots

Our sweet children, who were troopers this summer and helped me with growing, harvesting, and preserving each item above.

To Clean Out a Clothes Closet

2012-11-19T21:10:00.005-06:00

As I have said many times, it's not as much the size of house or number of people in the house that makes a house overfull . . . it's the amount of STUFF in the house.

We are in a constant battle of making room in our house, and just this fall I have come up with a way to keep our closets from getting overcrowded.

To start with, you will need to be semi organized - keeping long sleeves together, short sleeves together, dress shirts together, etc. Once you have gotten that taken care of, you are ready to go.

When you put away your clean clothes, hang them at the BACK of the area where they belong. Next, make a habit of choosing your clothes from the FRONT of the type of clothes you are wanting to wear. Do likewise with your dresser - stick the just laundered clothes on the bottom of the pile, choose from the top.

It will soon become apparent as to which clothes you are continually skipping over because you have something you like better in back of them. These skip over clothes are the ones that you seriously need to ask yourself why you keep them.

Two helpful questions when dealing with stuff:

Is this adding to or taking from my life. (The taking from usually shows itself as taking away time with shuffling it around because it is in the way or shuffling more important things around because the lesser is taking up space that could be used otherwise.)
Could this item bless someone else more than it blesses me?

So there you have it. Since I just hung up Ethan's clothes and told him the method to my recent madness, I thought I would share with you as well. :)

Garden Fencing

2012-08-30T17:55:00.004-05:00

Things have been quite different around the farm with Ethan's torn achilles tendon. I have pictures of my August garden, I just haven't had a chance to put my post together. In an attempt to keep my blog going, I have a post from a guest blogger - our 8 year old son, Caleb. Enjoy. :)

On August 22nd we had a work day to put fence around the garden to keep the animals out. It was at my house. We had family and friends come to help.

I helped dig holes and put posts in the ground. I watched and learned that the more square it is the better it looks. We used steel and wood posts, and we put the small wood posts 30'' in the ground and the big wood posts 36''.

I had fun helping on Work Day.

Potatoes and Sweet Corn - Ethan's Favorites!

2012-08-08T11:51:00.003-05:00

Ethan's a meat and potatoes kind of guy, and corn is also one of the few veggies he will eat. So this week's harvest is for him!

The kids and I finished bringing in the last of the potatoes. My potato plants got skeletonized this year from potato beetles so I was happy with what I got. Next year I am hoping my secret garden weapon (guinea foul that I hatched out) will help take care of garden pests.

I also started to bring in the first of the sweet corn. We have had a historical drought this year, so many of my corn plants didn't put on ears or if they did, they didn't pollinate. Again, I am happy with what I have gotten so far due to the year.

The first, and probably biggest, picking of corn.

Not a ton, but it ended up being more than I expected in the roaster.

I like to pack my food to freeze into sandwich baggies which I put put into gallon freezer zip locks. It allows me to freeze smaller portions for recipe flexibility and less waste. Sandwich baggies are also cheaper to toss than quart zip locks. When I empty a gallon zip lock, I will rinse it out (although it is usually clean), and store it for the next harvest - just changing the year on the bag.

Potato Harvest

2012-07-20T13:33:00.000-05:00

I just finished harvesting the last bit of my red potatoes before lunch. This is the first year I have actually gotten my potatoes to do anything, and I am pleased with what I ended up with. Part of it is getting the garden more set up, and part of it is knowing a bit more of how to properly grow potatoes. I have one more variety, Kennebec I think, to harvest after the tops die down Now I just need to decide how I'm going to store them: peeled and canned, sliced and dehydrated, or in the cellar (which needs some work to make it better for preserving food). What is your favorite way to keep your potato harvest?

p.s. I did get my "How does your garden grow - July" photos taken. But between our computer being broken for a few weeks and Ethan having just tore his achilles tendon, I haven't had a chance to put the post together. I better hurry because August is coming!

How Does Your Garden Grow? July 1st

2012-07-01T09:44:00.000-05:00

July 1st: We have been short on rain lately, but the garden is coming along alright. Thing have been busy so I haven't gotten all of what I had hoped planted, but I have gotten the most important things in.

** Click on photos to see them enlarged and scroll through backwards to watch progression **

Full View

BUMMER! Forgot to take a picture

July 1st: Enjoyed some more strawberries, kids' flowers coming up nicely - my flower plots planted

June 1st: Enjoyed a few strawberries from new transplants. Kids each planted a plot of flower seeds opposite strawberries. Needint to plant my flower plots. Excited to see experimental direct seeded asparagus up and joining asparagus transplants started indoor from seed.

Quadrant 1


July 1st: harvesting and canning green beans and broccoli, enjoying the first of my late planted peas, cauliflower planted

June 1st: needing to plant herbs, lettuce behind peas, and eventually fall broccoli and cauliflower

Quadrant 2

July 1st - harvesting some carrots and lettuce, onions and carrots planted between tomato plants - needing to plant acorn squash and basil. needing to support tomatoes

June 1st: harvesting lettuce and baby carrots - needing to plant acorn squash and basil

Quadrant 3

July 1st - sunflowers and all corn planted - planted pumpkins and gourds elsewhere on farm

June 1st : needing to plant 3 rows of late sweet corn, sunflowers, pumpkins, and gourds

Quadrant 4

July 1st: all plants planted. volunteer watermelon came up were beans were going so didn't plant beans (will try fall beans in place of potatoes)

June 1st - needing to plant 3rd row of sweet potato slips, watermelon and beans

Blueberries and Vines

July1st: enjoyed many blueberries form smaller bushes, planted second row of blueberries - needing to move grapes over a few feet to the right, plant another planting of sunflowers, and mulch

June 1st: nibbled on some unripe, but nicely tart, blueberries - needing lots of work and planting yet!

De-Beeing our New Shed

2012-06-24T07:45:00.000-05:00

Earlier this spring we brought in a new building to our farm. We are going to fix it up and put it to use soon - but first we had to get out the bees! Our friend who keeps some hives on our farm helped us with this, and he got a new hive.

The tiny opening where they were going in

Setting up the "Bee Vac"

Getting some of the bees from the outside first

Time to move inside. There entrance was right under where the sunlight was coming in.

Corner board removed. Except those aren't honey bees, but bumble bees!

Removing the bumble bees

There are the honey bees!

A peek inside

A better peek inside

Collecting the bees

A shot downward after many bees had been captured

Bees in their box, ready to be relocated.

I had to leave for the last part, but the comb was removed - the honey was not dry enough to be used so it will be given to the bees who will take it into their new hive. And now our building is ready to be worked on!

How Does Your Garden Grow? - June 1st

2012-06-01T17:04:00.000-05:00

I thought it would be fun to do a little photo journal of my garden this year. This is the first year I have really had it set up how I want. We've been slowly tilling up new land, running hogs in it for fertilization, and battling the joys of starting a new garden. (Weeds, grass, soil quality, etc.) There's a little more work that needs to be done - putting a border and rock down at the hydrant, tilling up the berry/grape end (not shown in the drawing) and fencing it in. (We will be using field fence and will be including the orchard in the fence, which is directly behind the garden - this is as much to keep our livestock out!)

I have decided to garden with quadrant gardening. I will be rotating the 4 sections of my vegetable garden each year (moving 1 section to the right) to help control disease and nutrient loss. I used some resources to piece together my quadrants. It isn't exactly what was recommend, but it is what works for the types and amounts of plants I grow. I also have some permanent and semi-permanent beds. On the back, north side of the garden, is my asparagus. In the front I have a strawberry patch and cut flower patch. I will rotate the strawberries and flowers every 3 years for the benefit of the strawberries. And then directly behind the strawberries and cut flowers is a permanent border with rhubarb.

Click to Enlarge

I realize that it is a little hard to read the words on my drawing. Here's what's in each quadrant.

Quadrant 1: Peas, cucumber, dill, green beans, yellow wax beans, cauliflower, broccoli, cantaloupe, herbs

Quadrant 2: Sweet peppers, green bell peppers, banana peppers, zucchini, summer squash, acorn squash, carrots, onions, lettuce, spinach, slicing and cherry tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, San Marzano tomatoes, onions and carrots, basil

Quadrant 3: Corn with beans, pumpkins, gourds

Quadrant 4: Potatoes, sweet potatoes, beans, watermelon.

I have almost all of the above planted. I got things in a little later than hoped, but it's much earlier than I have been able to other years. I'm also excited that this year I was able to start all of my plants from seed, either inside or in the garden, except my hot peppers. I only wanted 1 or 2 of each variety so it just worked better to buy those.

So with all of that said . . . here's how my garden grows in June. :)

Full View: Enjoyed a few strawberries from new transplants. Excited to see experimental direct seeded asparagus up and joining asparagus transplants started indoor from seed.

Quadrant 1: needing to plant herbs, lettuce behind peas, and eventually fall broccoli and cauliflower

Quadrant 2 : harvesting lettuce and baby carrots - needing to plant acorn squash and basil

Quadrant 3 - needing to plant 3 rows of late sweet corn, sunflowers, pumpkins, and gourds

Quadrant 4 - needing to plant 3rd row of sweet potato slips, watermelon and beans

Blueberries and Vines: nibbled on some unripe, but nicely tart, blueberries - needing lots of work and planting yet!

The 3rd Building on CGF Arrives!

2012-04-29T20:56:00.000-05:00

As many of our blog followers might know, we purchased our farm about 4 years ago with absolutely nothing on it except trees, grasses, and massive ant hills. We have come along way since we first broke ground here, but we still have quite a bit of set up to do!

One of the things that we are much in need of is more structures. We have our house and our open face shed that we built, but that is it. With all of our different livestock, we really would like more buildings.

About 1/2 mile away, on the top of the hill on an old farmstead, we saw this old 12 x 20 grain building. We contacted the owners of the land, met with them and enjoyed hearing the history of the farmstead, and we were given permission to purchase and move the building.

Since it was built with 3 skids, which had been resting on concrete, it would have been a simple-ish task to move it to our property after a good snow, pulling it behind our tractor. But alas, we didn't have much snow this winter and it is now almost May. So we did the next best thing. Ethan got ahold of his cousin, who also farms and can do about anything - and who has a grate trailer and an assortment of tractors, and requested some help.

I trailed behind with the camera to capture the process. Here's my best attempt.
*You can click on the photos to enlarge them.

Ethan and Verne hooked up the front corners of the building with chains to the loaders of 2 4020 tractors. They then lifted up the front of the building.

Verne backed the trailer under the building. (The trailer had some steel extensions on the bed so the skids would have support on them.)

Next, the building was hooked up to the winch. This would have easily pulled the building up onto the trailer . . . except the winch wasn't getting power from the batteries or something. I didn't ask!

So plan B - Pull both tractors parallel to the trailer, hook them up again to the corners of the building, and back the tractors up to pull the building onto the trailer.

Now, the large, heavy building somewhat was on pivot point being pulled on different corners by 2 tractors. All I will say is that it is a bit tricky to reverse at the same rate with 2 different tractors, and I was glad with the building was on the trailer and sitting still!

After the building was on the trailer, I had to take off to town with our kiddos for our home school coop.

Ethan said that they then chained the building to the trailer and headed down the road.

The 1/2 mile drive was uneventful, and they pulled up into our pasture behind the house.

Unloading the building seemed to be a bit easier, although pulling the building off with the tractor didn't seem to be the best way to go power wise. They kept the tractor chained up, though, and just pulled the trailer ahead. The weight of the tractor seemed to do the trick as the trailer pulled ahead, and the building slid off the back. Just before the last part of the building came off the trailer, they once again hooked the building up to both tractor loaders to hold it in the air while they finished pulling the trailer out, and then they gently lowered the end of the building to the ground.

So now we have another building here! We have a bit of work to do before we use it though. First off - we discovered that it came with honey bees in the walls! Thankfully we have a bee keeping friend who is excited to capture the colony for a hive. We then need will need to reside it to keep it tight. We need to make it predator safe since we plan on brooding some chicks in one of half of it. (There is a full wall in the middle, dividing the building in half.) And lastly, before we pull it to its permanent location, we want to put some lengths of cement down to help it be level and stay off of the ground. Since we will be putting a bit of work and some money into it, we want it to last a long time!

So there you have it! Hopefully I can get some pictures and posts of the bee extraction and fixing up of it. I'm sure excited to put it to use though!

Asparagus and Fruit!

2012-04-09T11:27:00.003-05:00

If you know Ethan and myself well, you will know that he is the meat guy and I am the fruit and vegetable gal. Ethan would be perfectly happy to only eat meat - and never fruits or vegetables. And although I do enjoy smaller portions of good meat, I would be perfectly happy to live off of fruits and vegetables.

Our farm is definitely a meat farm. There's no getting around that. But, I would love to take my love for fruits and vegetables - eating, growing, and preserving them, and add a little bit to the farm as well. Since these things aren't the main focus of the farm (read - our money and time need to go into the meat aspect of the farm right now), the fruits and veggies are going to need to be added slowly. This year I've made some steps ahead though!

Along with my orchard, I finally got a nice row of black raspberries to winter over from moving starts up from the woods. My brother dug up a rhubarb plant he didn't want from his new house - I divided around 60 roots from this plant! I am also receiving some additional strawberry plants from my mom and everbearing red raspberries from a family friend.

I've had my eye on some asparagus in the ditches that I would have liked to move, but from what I have read, it is very hard to move. Since I don't have a lot of time to spend trying to transplant something that might not take and not a lot of money to buy crowns for the size of patch I would like, I decided to give seeds a try.

So I purchased about $5 worth of seeds, made homemade planting pots out of newspaper and filled them with our very own compost, read the planting instructions, and planted the seeds. (I tried half in my planting pots and half outside just to experiment. I haven't disturbed the mulch outside where I planted the ones outside, but my inside ones are growing!

I'm excited to see what will happen with these 200 seeds I planted, and I hope to have a nice asparagus patch down the road!

Rabbits are Joining our Farm!

2012-03-26T10:50:00.006-05:00

Our 7 yr old son, Caleb, has had a project going for the last few years making potholders and selling them to earn money for Gospel for Asia, along with managing and keeping a blog for it - Five Loaves Two Fish. Well, now that he is close to turning eight and his sister is 6, it is time to pass the potholder creating to her. He wanted to find something else to take the place of his potholder business, and while reading You Can Farm by Joel Salatin, he discovered that Daniel, Mr. Salatin's son, began raising rabbits when he was 7.

Caleb decided that he would like to try to raise rabbits too, so for Christmas we bought him the book Story's Guide to Raising Rabbits, by Bob Bennett (There are a couple pages in this book that might be TMI for young kids, by the way - they can easily be removed though.) Since then, he has been reading, studying it, and taking notes over it, and this weekend he got his first rabbit. :)

On Saturday, Ethan and Caleb purchased the materials and built a movable, pastured rabbit hutch. Ethan didn't really have a design to work with, but did combine a few designs he came across and has heard about. Each breeding doe will have a hutch like the one above, which will be her permanent home that moves across the pasture. When her babies are old enough to be weaned, they will be moved to a grower pen - yet to be built.

Here is another picture of the hutch while it was being constructed. You can see the slats that allow the rabbit to graze and that the top slants a bit to allow rain to drain off.

This is the nesting area (minus the next box), and Caleb's first doe. This is a Champagne d'Argent rabbit, a heritage breed rabbit. We are also looking at getting some Creme d'Argent rabbits, which are just a color variation of the d'Argent rabbits.

Caleb is quite excited to finally have his rabbit, and is looking forward to getting a couple more bucks and does. Along with learning to care for his rabbits, Caleb will also be keeping breeding records for his rabbits, learning to keep track of finances through Quick Books (along with learning about getting a loan from his parents - and paying back that loan!), and various other things that go along with running a business. Caleb will also be putting a percentage of the money he earns into long term savings, offering (he wants to continue his Gospel for Asia projects), and spending - investing in his business or using it for getting something fun. He is quite excited about raising rabbits, and it is a great opportunity for learning quite a bit!

Helpful links we used:
http://polyfaceapprentice.blogspot.com/2009/02/hare-pen.html#links
http://livingthefrugallife.blogspot.com/2009/03/meat-rabbits-on-pasture.html

Our Newest Farm Babies

2012-02-08T12:13:00.002-06:00

I realize that I don't post much to my blog anymore. Life is still quite full with keeping the farm and farm business going, picking up and delivering meat, Ethan still working 40 hours in town, and still homeschooling our children - now ages 7, 6, 3, and 13 months. I just couldn't help but put up some pictures of the little babies that have arrived on our farm the last few weeks though.

First a background story: This summer this momma pig surprised us by making a nest against a log out of gathered, fresh twigs. She had her baby pigs right out in the open woods, and they did wonderful! This is what pigs were created to do!

This same momma pig just had another litter of piggies a few weeks ago. She had 10 - all 10 survived and are doing great. No farrowing crates needed for our smart momma pigs! (We don't own any by the way - the dumb mommas go elsewhere.) As you can see, half of her piggies look like her and half like their 100% purebred heritage Hereford daddy.

This is the first of our little lambs, born a week ago. It is a Katahdin hair sheep and is doing wonderfully.

Just yesterday, we had a little calf born. Our heritage Dexter momma did a great job cleaning him up, drying him off, and getting him nursing. A must when born in the snow.

I would love to show you some new chicks, but as you can see by the snow - it's not quite time. These are the eggs gathered from this morning. I've been dreaming about hatching some out in an incubator for some more layers to be ready this summer, but we will have to wait until the weather warms and hens go clucky. (Unless anyone in the area has an incubator they are no longer in need of.)

So there you have it - the newest additions to Crooked Gap Farm.

Diaper Help

2012-01-06T09:20:00.001-06:00

click on picture to enlarge

This is for all of the cloth diapering experts out there. Why some of my diapers go in looking like the first diaper and then come out looking like the 2nd?? I'm wondering if one of my kiddos is off balance? (I'm diapering a 1 year old and a 3 year old during nap time.)

Winter Tomatoes

2011-11-16T12:01:00.005-06:00

Thank you to Blue Gate Farm for awarding us the Liebster Blog award. :) We love Blue Gate Farm and the great things they do with their veggies! Check them out if you haven't already.

The "Liebster Blog" award is given to up-and-coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers ("Liebster" is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, beloved, loveliest, cutest etc.)

Last year, before we ourselves were on the Farm Crawl, I was talking with Jill at Blue Gate about keeping green tomatoes to ripen after the growing season. I didn't get a chance to last year, but this year I picked every single green tomato before the heavy frost came. I brought them in the house and set them in a sunny window. You can keep them out of the sun in a cooler area, bringing them out to ripen as you want them, but I wanted to ripen them quickly to can some more sauce.

Marzano Sauce Tomatoes

As you can see, they are ripening at different speeds. I've been sorting them as they change colors, and today I sliced up all my red ones - about 3+ gallons worth (that were once green), and am ready to run them through my Champion Juicer and make some spaghetti sauce. It's been fun to watch them ripen, great to have more to can, and wonderful to still have some home grown tomatoes for sandwiches and tacos!

Maybe next year I'll put some green ones in the cellar and see just how long into winter I can pull out tomatoes for our own home grown tomatoes.

Rendering Lard

2011-10-28T20:01:00.002-05:00

Rendering lard may sound a bit scary, but it is actually quite a simple process. The steps consist of:

Melt
Strain
Store

Here are some photos throughout the process.

Step 1: Melt

I started off with 3 frozen 4-5lb packages of ground Crooked Gap Farm lard. Start the heat low (mine was 1-2 on our electric stove) until you get a nice puddle of melted lard. Once you get a nice puddle, you can turn the heat up a bit (I went from 3-5). Stir occasionally, taking care to scrape the bottom. If your lard starts bubbling, you might want to turn it down. This will keep the meat bits from scorching on the bottom. I also like to use a heavy pan, in these pictures - my pressure canner pan, to keep the lard from scorching. The bits of meat in the lard will start to float. Once they sink again, your lard is ready to strain!

8:55 am :: Starting to melt frozen lard.

9:50 am :: Lard is melting nicely. I can turn up the heat a little since there is a good amount of melted lard.

11:14 am :: Lard "bricks" are gone. Bits of meat are floating. (You can actually start straining lard at this point if you like - the first few batches will be your whitest lard.)

3:05 pm :: Came in from chores to find bits of meat had sunk to the bottom. Done!

Step 2: Strain

I recently discovered how helpful it is to use two strainers when straining the lard. The bottom strainer has a layer of cheesecloth (found in the Walmart Craft department for making ghosts and things). The cheesecloth will strain out the tiniest bits of meat and allow the liquid to drip through. The top strainer catches the larger bits of meat and keeps the cheesecloth less clogged up. The bits of meat caught in the top strainer can be returned to the pan to melt down further and further until you get cracklings, if you like them. (Hopefully I'll get pictures of the crackling process sometime.) You can either strain your lard into the container you want to store it in, another pan to keep it warm before filling smaller containers, or straight into smaller containers - which I'm not so talented in doing.

Strainer 1 set up with cheesecloth over container.

Strainer 2 set inside strainer 1 to catch meat and help keep cheesecloth clean.

Step 3: Store

After you have strained your lard and filled your sterilized containers, you need to set it aside and allow it to cool. This can take a day or more to completely finish depending on the temperature and size of container. You can either let your lard cool at room temperature or put it right into the freezer to get a more even consistency. Lard will keep best if the final product is stored in the freezer, but it can also be kept in the fridge, root cellar, or on the counter if kept sealed.

After your lard has been strained into a container of your choice. I used this large bucket since I have a project up my sleeves! While your lard is still warm, it will have a deep amber color. Just set it aside now to cool.

Once your lard has fully cooled, it will be a beautiful white color.

One of my favorite ways to store lard is in quart jars - ready to pull out and use for my cooking. The lids will self seal as the lard cools.

Using your Lard
You may notice that your lard is quite soft and might almost be runny at room temperature - this is a good thing! It shows the high quality of your lard - unlike the lard that has been hydrogenated at the grocery store. In order to make your lard easier to work with, you may want to put it in the fridge or freezer a bit before using it, especially if cutting it into pastries.

More Info
For more info on the home rendered lard and its health benefits, see the following sites:

The Unbearable Lightness of Lard: http://hardscrabbletimes.com/2008/08/29/the-unbearable-lightness-of-lard/
Praise the Lard: http://www.pri.org/health/praise-the-lard1453.html
What's "The good lard" http://www.pri.org/stories/health/praise-the-lard1453.html

2011 Farm Crawl

2011-09-26T17:05:00.001-05:00

If you haven't been following our farm on Facebook, you might be wondering if we are still around. Well, we are - we are just completely caught up in farm life! Ethan is still working 40 hours in town, I'm still homeschooling and taking care of our 4 kids, and we are still trying to keep the farm moving ahead. We have been slowly making progress here as we continue to expand not only our farm, but also our markets, as we have started selling at the Downtown Des Moines Farmers Market on Saturdays. Needless to say, our days are full!!

We've had many people who have wanted to come get a little tour of our place over the last couple of years, and we hope to be able to do this more at some point when Ethan moves more of his time to on the farm. For those of you itching to get a glimpse, however, we would like to extend an invitation to come on out this Sunday, October 2nd for the 2011 Farm Crawl.

We are blessed to have a great group of like minded farmers for neighbors, and we have been blessed to be welcomed to their tour of farms, know as the Farm Crawl. So, if you are able, come on over and say "Hi" - and let us know you read our blog too!

You can find directions and more info at www.farmcrawl.com, but here's an excerpt from the website.

Farm Crawl 2011

Eight independent family farm operations, all within an easy drive of each other in south-central Iowa, are jointly hosting open houses. Enjoy a leisurely autumn day “crawling” from farm to farm (Okay, you don't actually crawl, you drive yourself between farms).

Come visit south Marion County/north Lucas County (one hour south of Des Moines) to see each of our individual operations. Tour the farms, visit the animals, meet the farmers, sample the goodies, purchase locally grown & produced products, and have lots of fun in the beautiful Iowa countryside! Visit special guest vendors at some of the farms. FREE admission onto all of the farms (there is a charge to enter the corn-maze at Dan-D Farm).

NO PETS - for the safety of our farm animals and guests, please leave your animals at home.

The eight farms include: Blue Gate Farm, Coyote Run Farm, Dan-D Farms, Pierce’s Pumpkin Patch
Reichert’s Dairy Air, Schneider Orchards, White Breast Pottery and Weaving and new this year: Crooked Gap Farm.

Shed Fire!

2011-05-05T08:29:00.003-05:00

This morning, while it was still fairly dark, I woke up as it started to rain. While I was semi-dozing off, I heard what sounded to be the rumble of a train. With all of the tornadoes recently, I started looking out the window to see what the sky was like. Ethan asked what I was doing, and I told him it sounded like a train. He said, "Yup, it does." (We can hear a train from our house if the wind is right.)

I then thought I heard an animal in distress, so I thought maybe one of our cows was having a calf. I sat up and peeked out the window again. This time I noticed a warm yellow glow coming from the shed where our lambs and ewes are presently at. This warm yellow glow was flickering and flashing. And I continued to hear a rumble. I immediately exclaimed, "The shed is on fire!!"

Ethan looked out the window, jumped out of bed, and ran towards the mudroom. I followed right behind.

We both threw on our mud boots and ran outside into the rain in our pj's, Ethan towards the hydrant and I towards the end of the hose, which was by the shed.

I then stopped.

I looked at the flashing, dancing yellow glow reflecting off of the white inside of the shed's siding.

There was no use of turning on the faucet.

It was just the hood of a work light left on blowing in the wind, erratically casting its glow on the shed walls.

And a train in the distance.

And no new calf.

So we went back to bed, I told my husband sorry I am a dork, and I managed to fall asleep again only to dream of barn fires. I must say, we have way cooler barns in my dreams.

And the Winner of the Great Egg Hunt is . . .

2011-05-03T17:00:00.005-05:00

. . . a pair of banties.

I thought I have done a pretty good job of finding stolen nests, but I noticed that there were 2 banty hens that disappeared around the same time. I thought it was possible that they had been picked off by some predator, but I was also wondering if they might not show up before too long since they had tried to steal some nests earlier this spring.

A few days ago, while watering the sheep, one of these hens appeared out of nowhere and then disappeared into nowhere. I tried to look around to see if I could find her hiding anywhere close by, but I had no luck.

Today I was digging holes for some trees that should be arriving, when I thought I heard something that sounded a bit like a baby chick in the shed. I looked into the sheep area and saw the little banty hen again. And I was sure that what I heard was a baby chick. I followed the sound and came to the boards along the shed wall.

I know I have checked between the boards and wall before for eggs, but there was the chick. And a couple of unhatched eggs. I don't know how she got past me, but she did. Good camo I guess.

Well, the incessant cheeping of the stuck little chick seemed to bring out the other banty hen. So now there were the two that I had been missing. I wasn't sure which was the mom. Maybe both?? Chickens have been known to share nests, especially little tiny ones like these.

The chick is between the walls, one hen on one side, and the second hen outside sticking her beak under

So I set up a pen for the chicks and hens, because being stuck between 2 walls just wouldn't do for the chick. I then proceeded to catch the hen I thought was the mom (who was paying the most attention to the cheeping) and the chick. I caged them up, got them some water, and then saw the free hen go to check out the nest. Great. Wrong bird?

The little chick and the not much bigger banty hen

At about the exact same time, I started to hear peeping. The chick I rescued was snug under a momma hen. This was more peeping! Coming from the stock trailer.

I went inside of the trailer, but it was quite empty, apart from 3 eggs that were in the usual stolen nest spot. But the peeping was definitely coming from the trailer. After a little additional listening, I determined that the peeping was coming from the front storage area of the trailer. After a bit of fiddling with the door, I got the storage area open.

And a storage area it is!!

After removing buckets and feed bags, I was down to the heavy stuff

I carefully started removing things, including rolled up heavy floor mats, not wanting to crush any chicks or hatching eggs. Eventually I found them!

Floor mat #1 removed - a fold of floor mat #2

Oh boy! What a nest!!

The hens, however, were now all jumbled now, and I wasn't sure if the real mom would take this nest again - let alone the other hen.

So I gathered the 3 chicks and the other eggs, which were hatching, and set up another pen. I gave all but one chick to one hen and the eggs and the youngest looking chick (to keep her on the eggs so she wouldn't fight to get to chicks) to the other.

So now we will wait and see if any more chicks hatch. Unfortunately, only one of the eggs/chicks that hatched were from a regular sized chicken. The big clutch was all banty eggs - not too exciting to get in your dozen farm fresh eggs, they're quite small.

So as you can see, the banties won. I'm not sure if I'm going to keep all of them. Banties are wonderful for hatching out clutches of eggs, which I wanted them for. But I guess they are also wonderful at stealing nests. (Although not so wonderful at picking spots if they want their chicks to survive.) Maybe with some planning and planting of nests (there are tricks you can do with golf balls . . . but that's a whole other post), I can get these banties to work in our favor hatching out our regular chickens.

At least the chicks are cute. :)

The Great Egg Hunt

2011-04-26T15:54:00.000-05:00

Since we just had Easter, I figured this would be an appropriate time to put a post on about my Great Egg Hunt. It is kind of like an Easter egg hunt each day, although these eggs aren't filled with candy. I guess I could say they are filled with something even better though - a rich golden yolk bursting with Omega 3's and lots of other nutrients.

Our hens are more then just pastured poultry. They are what I like to call "Run of the Farm" chickens since they have, well, the run of the farm! (Including my garden and flower bed - but that is a price you have to pay.) All day long they run where ever they want chasing bugs and searching out the best forages of the day. Because of this, their eggs are incredible! But because of this, the eggs are also a little hard to find at times too! Especially in the spring when they want to steal a nest and hatch out chicks.


These ladies are taking a moment to scratch through our oat straw to find some oats.

So the Great Egg Hunt begins (or continues each day). Here are some of my stops.

The main nest box. This is where the not so adventurous hens go.

Another nest box in the shed . . .

A tub in the shed - This has been the longest running stolen nest, although it has cycled through which hen is using it.

I recently found this spot in the corner of the shed, only because of a couple eggs which had rolled out through the bottom and into the grass on the other side.

Ahh, yes. The manure spreader! Another popular spot.

The lawn cart will do for some hens.

Two stolen nests together in the livestock trailer which currently houses the pig feed. These hens are going easy on me.

Ethan found this one last night, right smack on top of a straw bale.

Although a nest box, it is outside attached to our chicken tractor which is not currently in use. I threw some straw in it though to try and catch the hens who wanted to hide their eggs outside. Tricked a few!

And this little lady in the dog cage, she will get to keep her eggs. She is broody and is sitting on a clutch I gave her. I will keep her shut up inside, safe from predators, (with plenty of food and water of course) until her chicks hatch.

Although not pictured, I was finding them in a hog hut for awhile too. I'm sure there are a few piles of eggs I haven't found yet also. These chickens are persistent. They really want to hatch out a clutch so they often will find a new spot to hide their eggs. And so the Great Egg Hunt will continue on!

Lambing Season has Begun!

2011-04-18T07:49:00.002-05:00

Ethan and I pulled in with the kids at 10:30 last night from a birthday/Easter get together. As I unloaded the kids, I heard a sound that didn't quite sound like a baby pig. (Yesterday morning before church Ethan announced that our sow had farrowed over the night.) As I listened closer, it sounded more like a lamb. According to the chart on when we should watch for our lambs to arrive, it was a little early. (The 21st was the day to start watching.) Even so, it was close.

I grabbed a flashlight and headed out to the nearby pasture, 2 kids waiting patiently in the van. My suspicions were correct. A little white wobbly legged lamb!

I quickly headed back to the van, called Ethan who was trailing behind me in the Expedition (We ended up driving to church separately due to the baby pigs that morning.), and took the kids inside to get ready for bed.

When Ethan got home he headed out to the pasture. I watched his headlamp bob across the pasture and into the shed twice as I got our little 3 month old Jonathan ready for bed. On one of these trips of his, I also saw that he was carrying a full grown sheep!

I headed outside myself after Jonathan was settled in. As I peeked into the shed I was not surprised to see the little white lamb and momma, but I was surprised to see lamb number 2! I didn't see or hear a second lamb when I first got home, and Ethan mentioned it wasn't standing well when he found it so it might have been born shortly after I saw the first.

Our first 2 lambs of the season - and first lambs born on the farm!

Last night was a cold, rainy night. Temps will be down to the 30's this week with highs in the 50's and plenty of rain forecasted. It's really not your ideal way to start your first season of lambing. but regardless, here we go!

Garden Prep

2011-03-23T16:45:00.001-05:00

Last week was a beautiful week weather wise. It made me think about our garden even more. We are expanding it this year (We had pigs beside it last year conditioning the soil for expansion), and hopefully we will get it out of the new garden stage and into a more established bed. We weren't able to get it tilled up in the fall because of a number of reasons, but we have a friend's tiller being tuned up right now to hopefully put to use soon.

Right now I also have my sweet potatoes growing at the kitchen sink's window, a spot in the laundry room ready to go for starting plants with a grow light (although I still need to buy my garden seeds), and I recently brought home sand and mixed my peat/sand mix today for doing cuttings. (I have decided to do greenwood cutting with the blueberries, raspberries, edlerberries, etc, but I'm planning on trying some hardwood boxwood cuttings this week yet, and maybe some other plants if I find a parent plant - I'll try to get pictures.)

I'd love to hear what you have going on for this season's garden. If you are still looking to get started this year, you can always start saving milk jugs, making homemade planting pots, or even give a try to starting sweet potatoes if you bring some home soon.

5 Signs of Spring

2011-03-18T18:57:00.000-05:00

Robins have been back for a little bit now, but yesterday really got me thinking spring. Here are 5 things I was able to enjoy yesterday.

The temperature hit the 70's
I took the winter cover feed sacks off of my orchard trees, reusing them as mulch
The hive of honeybees was very active
Spring peepers have begun singing
There is a hint of green in the grass

Part of our chicken flock searching for those first green blades of grass

Winter cover feed sack turned to mulch