Just another Day on the Farm

Brandy Fall Photos

Posted on November 10, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Well, the day was cool, with winds gusting upward of 40 and later it would be more like 80.. Despite that, the early morning light was great for the photos.. p1090365

The good thing about this was I asked hubby to just keep taking photos and while I did get a few great classic photos, I also got a amazing mix of just happened ones..

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So those are they two more classic, on to the fun ones..

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She was smiling, (lift lip to show teeth) when I said, kiss..

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She had me laughing thought it, because this was done at liberty (no lead, no halter, it was all about asking her..

Now on to the more.. connecting photos..

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This one begged to be black an white..

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And I have an outstanding evening sunset only my big girl one..

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So pleased to have these amazing photos to share..

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God Bless You, Sweet Girl.. Rest in Peace.. Gone But Never to be Forgotten..

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Thank you for sharing my world with me for the last years, you have left your hoof prints all over my heart, life and pasture, you were Dh’s first ride.. you always looked after him, and now sweetheart there will be no more pain (for any that did not know, Brandy has a painful hoof disease progressing in both front feet that while we manged it, there was no cure) but there will also be no more greeting nickers, no more sweet horse smell when i bury my nose in your neck, no more kisses, hugs and a million other small daily interactions we have had over the years.. You will be missed..

Posted in Life moves on daily | 4 Comments

High Bush Cranberries 2016

Posted on November 7, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

This year was a bumper crop of high bush cranberries

The berry size this year was just amazing, the biggest I have ever seen..

While we did lose about half the crop by waiting till after a the first few frosts, the birds agree that these are juicy and much sweeter then normal and they were already getting into them..

Just like our local apples, grapes, these were effected by the dry, high heat and drought conditions for the summer, followed by a few weeks of rain.. it has clearly effected the flavour profile of this years harvest.. its good, in some ways its outstanding but its not the normal flavour or undertones for these bushes here on the farm

After steam juicing them, an then reducing the juice by half and making it into a syrup for storage, I put away 17 pints of highly flavoured juice (If I Was to use it would be at a 3 or 4 to one with water if you wanted to drink it) I have a few plans for this..

The skins and stones were put to dry

This was a very long dry to get it to the final stages I wanted.. crisp cracking dry

At this point, its ready to be ripped into small stripes and bagged for storage or ground into a powered to be used in different ways.

Meeow-Meeow

Posted on November 5, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Hounds go nuts with alert barking
I rush to window to check, the fox is around these days
Look out window.. see cats in low pose-frozen
Rush to door, say, stay to the hound and call, kitty kitty
As I go hurry up… black cat??

…

there are five cats frozen looking at me.. four I know..
The scared skinny four to five month old solid black short hair kitten, I do not.. it ran towards my building an is under in one of the farm cats winter straw bed area..

Great.. just great.. now I need to lock up all the farm cats, and see if I can bait an live trap the wee thing and figure out, drop off, stray or true feral..

Dear Hubby, says, I think I saw this new kitty in the barn a day ago but thought it was boo cat but it was dark an it was in the sheep birthing pen..

Jason.. so I had a chat with our little stray
Me: a Chat?
Jason: ya, she followed me and so I sat on the straw bale and it came up to the stump (which is about three feet away) and I talked to it
Me : ok, and you chatted?
Jason: ya, meow, meow.. twirl Twirl, tail swish.. …
Me: (thinking, so the kitty was flirting with my hubby LOL)
Jason, so I think I can live trap it pretty easy and that its not feral.
Me: ok, bait it with wet cat food..and when we catch it, we will move it to the kitty tower in the house for training and gentling
Jason: out the door
Jason back in the door in like 30 second..
Hey Hon..
Me ya
Jason.. its a she, its a wee baby kitten and its in the house, it let me pick her up and carry her in and she is chowing down in the kitty tower..

So meet Meow, Meow, a young (three to four month old) short hair all black little female.. if she is three pounds at max, she is hungry and thinner but she is not in bad shape overall.. Sadly, I am thinking she is a drop off.

Well, after a check from me, no ear mites, good overall condition other then being on the thin side, its very clear that someone did love this kitten, she knows what a house is, she was clearly raised with other cats, dogs, used a litterbox, snuggles, purrs an kneeds on her people, she is used to being picked up and carried, she let me groom out the burrs in her tail an trim her nails..

but from her weight loss, an from the first time hubby spotted her to me to catching her, was about five days, in which time she lost a good bit of weight.. she is safe now warm, with a full tummy and I will need to get her shots, worming an a spay.. if she is staying an not being rehomed.

Shame on whoever dropped this sweet all black kitten off at the farm, you guessed right that we would do the right thing but so much could have gone wrong!

Better photos to come

Posted in Life moves on daily | 2 Comments

Happy Birthday Blog!

Posted on November 4, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Wow, Six Years today on the blog, time is flying by.. So first thing I need to say.. THANK you! for being here, for reading, for commenting, for sighing yup in a number of ways, by email, by rrs, by twitter or by facebook regardless of the way you get and read the blog.. its great to gave you here!

I have written an shared 2, 496 posts with you over the 6 years 🙂 I have share big things and little things, I have share daily chores and trips out, I have covered bigger social views and share deeply personal things over the years, lots of photos, lots of recipes an food

I hope that I have shown many things about the farm, the garden, the critters, the cycles of nature and how it ties into the daily work on the homestead.

12 years on the farm, six years of sharing with you.. a unexpected journey but so worth it!

I lift my glass to the farm, the blog and my readership!

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged 6 years blogging, blog birthday, blogger, happy birthday, long lasting blogger | 4 Comments

Prayers if willing..

Posted on November 3, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Hi Folks, Going to be a little quieter on the blog for just a touch, I am taking photos an will continue working on posts that will be coming up but Dear Hubbies Mom is currently in hospital an we are praying and hoping for the best, she is in good care and each day we know a little more medically info wise.. its one moment at a time right now..

if you pray, I would be grateful if you wanted to send a prayer for her health, thank you

Posted in Life moves on daily | 2 Comments

Rutabaga Stew

Posted on November 1, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

love this recipe for a great turnip stew.. hope you will too..

The Minnesota Farm Woman

I often think about my ancestors, most of them real Farm Women, and how they managed to survive on what they grew in this cold climate with such a short growing season. If the weeds took over the garden, they wouldn’t have beans to can. If the potatoes got blight, their children’s’ stomachs would growl. They always had rutabagas, though, to get them through the tough times. I even have a letter written by my great-grandmother who was worrying about the rutabaga crop one cold and cloudy summer. Rutabagas are the most versatile vegetable I know. You can boil them, roast them with olive oil and garlic, fry them, eat them raw or pickle them. Although I’ve never tried it, I’ve heard you can even eat the greens. They are easy to grow and are great keepers. I don’t think there is anyone in northern Minnesota who doesn’t know what a rutabaga…

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Last Trip out into bush, new land 2016

Posted on October 31, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Well, its been a grand year out camping, hiking, boating an more, I had said to hubby last year, I miss camping, I miss getting out.. over 20 plus hikes, three bigger camping trips and yesterday, I got the most amazing day as a belated birthday present from a dear friend.. she knows me well!

My only trip this year into quebec this year..

it was a grand day and we could not have asked for better weather, we had rain an or snow for most of the week, and given that winter is coming on us, the day was good, but we did have cold damp, some sun, overcast, rain, sleet, snow, see your breath, and back again.. I was in two layers on the bottom including windproof pants over my jeans, four layers, I took a few layers off for photos quick but the jacket, scarf, hat and mitts were needed as was a big fire to warm up by

The official holiday season was closed, so we had extra hiking in an out.. and we had the whole area to ourselves, other then a few quads and hunters that were using a trail further up inland

There was presents an amazing food, this was my present from a awesome friend co-worked with hubby.. thank you guys! we were all in good moods lol

My man posed nicely, looking very natural, but we needed a pop of orange to be safe in the bush, he blended to well..

I on the other hand was less colorful.. but for my hunter orange scarf.. which I needed because I took some mushroom and beach walks..

Hope you all had a great weekend and enjoy seeing some of the beautiful country I live in 🙂

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged camping, good times, hikes | 2 Comments

Dry Skin in Fall.. A little help from the kitchen

Posted on October 29, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

The fall wind has been brutal.. cold, chapping and its been damp at time but not in a good way.. more of a its like I am living by the sea with a cold, hard damp wind..

Needless to say my skin has been taking a beating and I needed to step up my game and give it a much deeper drink of moisturizer.

So here is my quick and easy go to skin care recipe..

Are you ready???

Coconut oil and a few drops of EO..

So the trick is to start with the coconut oil in a solid state, I made enough to do my face, neck and hands for about a month.. I used 1/4th of a cup of my best coconut oil in solid state, I added in 3 drops of Pepperment EO and then you need your blender.

I am not sure you can do this by hand, but a hand turned blender or I guess if you really wanted you could blend and then whisk the heck out of it.. but I use my little hand held blender.. bet it till its about 1.5 to 2 times in volume..

That’s it.. beat till smooth, beat till fluffy, beat till it will hold tiny soft peaks, and then jar it up in a clean dry jar with a lid, store at room temp and a little of this goes a long way..

Now this is not a put it on and then go.. It needs time to soak in, it needs time to be gently rubbed in depending on how much you use, it will need between a few min to up to ten.. now I don’t mean that you need to do nothing during that time, just that it will be a bit wet, shiny and working its way in..

I find that beating it fluffy makes a big difference in how it goes on and how it soaks in.. its worth the tiny bit of time it takes to do it.. plus it spreads any eo that I want to use into it very evenly.

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged dry winter skin, homemade skin lotion, whipping coconut oil | 2 Comments

Fall Sheep Shearing.

Posted on October 28, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Well, I would like to say that I am getting better but I am not sure that is true.. I do like that I can do it so much faster with the new shears.. and Whiskey’s wool was looking mighty fine.. he had a very poor coat that I took off this spring, it was a mix of shell and matted wool, but he grew a very nice coat this year.. pretty clean, and over five inches since his last shear

The bad will be used for the garden use and the good will be a mix of cleaned and felted and for insulation.. its amazing how well it works when used that way..

Well, I clearly still have a lot to learn! but practise will improve how they turn out, and I did not clean him up, I could have but thought I would show you the real deal of this learning curve..

Anyway, I have one bag with good, one bag with garden-farm use and a ram that gave me the dirty look that said.. women, Its fall, and the wind is cold.. he has spent more time eating in the barn then normal and when at the big hay feeder, he tends to pull it out and then lay down and eat on the blocked wind side to the feeder, he is not a silly boy, he got it figured out.. and it will rapidly grow back enough to give him more protection..

I was pleased to see that under that wool he was in decent shape given how poorly our pasture was with the drought.. I have been struggling with making them eat their hay (when they want pasture) and their grains and extra’s and so forth..

All my ewes were flushed in aug-sept and they all were first time breed in oct.. so if they took and do not cycle again in Nov, I will have a flood of lambs in march but I also have one or two that are out of season breed.

I have a few extra wool lambs that I am going to butcher yet and will be working on their pelts, we will see how it goes..

Posted in Life moves on daily | 6 Comments

My Bucket List Blog..

Posted on October 27, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Hi Guys,

I am still working on the months reviews of costs, no worries the meals are being written done and I WILL get it done for you! but the birthday bubble went before and after the day and now I am trying to catch up..

So I am taking turning 44 both in stride and with a bit of a AHHHHH at the same time.. and I have been having a interesting struggle, I have found myself wanting to write posts that just do not really fit this blog.. perhaps a bit to raw in tone, or about life’s more messy bits, or perhaps the odd swear word or two..

But I must write it out.. while my husband writes stories because they flow out of it.. I blog in the same way.. the words must flow, the photo’s will be taken!

So for those that want to do so.. feel free to check out Farmgal’s Bucket List.. its not going to have recipes, and while it will touch on critters, its not about the farm (but I am sure it will come in at times) it will be more personal in a many ways..

Feel free to pop over and have a look at it, I might let folks know about it a few time a year on this blog but otherwise, I plan to keep them apart, no regular link on this site etc