Just another Day on the Farm

I thawed out four spring lamb chops, boned them and then butterflied the meat, put it in a mix of olive oil and a herbed lemon mix for 6 hours, then gave a little mallet work to make them paper thin, these are going to stay tender but be the ultra quiet cooked lamb..

Peeled and sliced a large onion and one large apple and drizzled them with a mix of honey/oil to roast off in the oven with a touch of salt and cracked black pepper on them.

Took a big old bunch of horseradish greens, stemmed them out, and I will quick toss them in some butter and almond slivers with a touch of red wine vinager into the hot pan after I take our my lamb for stunningly awesome wilted green but you could use any greens you want to make this happen.

I had cold boiled potatos that I am going to slice and spice and then grill them with a touch of oil on a hot cast iron for the side..

For my drink, I am making a lovely fresh rhubarb mint tea, one full big rhubarb stick, trimmed and washed and cut into 3 inch peices, about 1/2 cup of fresh apple mint leaves, one half cup of sugar and it will make half gallon jar full of fresh tea.. Will heat an simmer till the rhubarb is soft, then strain, pour into the jar and fill with cold water and chill..

This is as good as a hot tea as it is as a cold one.. its so yummy!

Had a girlfriend pick me up today for a lovely lunch and visit and on the drop off, ended up having a little walk about, and I looked at my farm with fresh eyes.. it kinda startled me, but then it tends to do that..

Its messy, and there are compost piles here and there, there are pens that need to be cleaned, they only have a few days to a weeks worth of chicken, duck poo in the outdoor one’s and normally I would not even notice it, I would just huh, its rained (poured really) and its all wet and I will wait for it to dry and because typically I let all the birds out to free-range, I don’t worry about it to much, the ducks will all bath in the pond and the chickens will dirt bath.. Turkey’s so tame that they will sit to be petted, but lots of molting going on at the moment and a few ragged looking hens that are sitting..

Then the sheep, would they come when called, of course not, they were to busy hanging in the barn or grazing to care that I called them, so instead of a flock of healthy sheep with lambs, friend only gets to see the one sickly sheep up by the house, tied out.. home in a little pen, tried to put a tarp over top, dang wind kept ripping it off, so in the middle of a storm, we hauled out and put in a huge sheet of plywood, works like a charm, but wow looking at it with fresh eyes and I have a pen with a sick sheep with healthy lamb at the side with what looks like a makeshit (or was that make SH$#^ roof in there for them)

Of course the truth is, she gets extra grain twice a day with no issues from the other sheep that don’t need it, and she gets pick of the yard moved twice daily which means that she gets the best choose fresh feed on the farm.

Gave her a super cute well handled 3 coming 4 week old bunny, clean, heathy and bright eyed but as I did it realize, we still have not fixed that lid (needs a new hing) we have been holding it down with a big old rock,, talk about makeshifting as you go..

Then hit my garden, I am well aware that my garden does not look like anything you will see in a book, there are patches of nettles, there are all kinds of things that look wild and overgrown and everywhere you look its ground cover or green cover, there is hardly a spot in the whole garden that shows bare earth.. it looks like a jungle, and it is.. a huge messy jungle that will grow and produce amazing amounts of food..

Head out into the front yard, have a peek at some of the different wild fruits, planted fruit tree’s etc but again seeing it with new eyes, it also looks like a overgrown mess, but I see horestail, and wild strawberry, wild galic, wild violets, ditch lilies, different kinds of soft fruits rhubarb, and milkweed just to name a few, all things I pick, collect and use but to the naked eye.. wow, mow and then mow some more.

But the one that made me finally just let go and start laughing at myself and my farm was the shit covered pants by my front door.. what can I say, he was cleaning barn stalls, stunk like what he was cleaning and I refused to have them enter my house, never giving it a thought when I left, just I will get a “work/farm” load together soon enough, until I looked at them with fresh eyes.. only on a farm where the work is done by hand and not in a tractor would this be a true issue and then it jumped me right back to my childhood and the amount of times, my mother said.. Cloths off, and rince off in the horse trough or use the garden hose before setting foot in the house..

Cuz to be honest, I like my farm, my peace, my quiet and if I had to choose between a tidy front step with those pants in my house or a messy front step until I am ready to give them a wash, I know which one I will choose every time..

O good heavens old fashion by hand farming is a messy business, but the rewards are so sweet!

http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/ditchproject/?History:Ditch_Design_and_Construction:Early_Ditch-Digging_Technology

http://homestead.org/GinGetz/HorsePower/Horsepwr2htm

Well, I could not find any photo or write ups with a ox or oxen using the slip but I did find this great site that had a horse photo or to, I will put up photo of learning the ropes with Girl in the future, I am pretty sure that I will need to replace the arms on my slip fairly quickly, as I don’t believe that a) they are as long as they should be and b) they can hold up to heavy steady work.. but for now, here is a good example of them in use, I can’t help but wonder if a small rigged harness on my big ram could be put to use working in the tigher spaces in the barn or maybe Marty..lots of thinking to do on that one..

What I have been able to learn is this.. Leave it flat, load it with whatever you want, push back on the handles just a touch to lift the lip and move heavy loads across the farm.. Leave it level and use it as a scoop to clean out stalls in the barn, level it level and can be used to level ground in garden, or yard etc.. Tip the handles down and it will cut into compost piles or dirt or sod etc to move them from place to place, that same move will work for snow to clear a path etc.

I’m tired and that means my spelling and grammer gets even worse then normal, so here is hoping that this post is not going to have gibberish 🙂

Ever heard of the high low game, I first saw it in the movie called the “Story of us”, they did as a family around the dinner table, and when I meet DH and we started date/living together (there really was no inbetween on that one, we meet online and after writing and talking for so many weeks etc, we decided I would fly up and we would take a trip back down together an by the end of the holiday, we would either be together or not)

So you always have to say your lows first, so that you always finish on a postive high note, we tend to do them just before we got to sleep, a way to round out the day, that moment of quiet that comes after you are finally in bed and the house and work and life can just fade away, giving you time to reflect on your day.. I made it a personal rule that you always have to have as many or more highs then lows listed, three lows, at least three good things..

Now over the years what high-low has shown me within the relationship with my husband is that we can spend the whole day together, sometimes in the same vehicle, or working side by side on projects or even on holidays and at least 80 percent of the time, within those typically two to five remarks, something will have been big to one and missed by the other.. Its a very important way to find out what matters to your loved ones, its a way to learn and stop trouble before it becomes a real issue.. Like noticing that someone say things in the low area repeatedly, or has trouble finding highs.. its a good time to plan a special trip off the farm or make a favorite meal or do a bit more of their chores and give them relaxing time or sometimes book in some good old fashioned hard labour, with my man, often just getting a few extra chores done and giving him time to “walk about” his farm, for an hour or more looking at his plants/trees/critters will just melt that office stress away.. for me because the farm is my never ending job, getting off for even a few hours can make a big difference to my mood at times..

All of the above for your relationships are great reason’s to bring this idea into your life but I have also done it with other peaple over the year while I am traveling or folks are visiting or I am staying with friends and there is one more thing about this that I think is what takes this from a game into a what can be a life changing moment in your day..

You need to stop, think, and share out loud both your lows and your highs, that means that you have to find a way to form what is bothering you and by speaking it, you are letting it go even if its only in that first small way of just allowing it to be.. You that step of admitting it, well its basicly like that.. you have to say what that low is and just by saying it, you can begin to either start forgiving, start forgetting or start figuring out how to work your way around, under, over or though it!

However its that ending on a high note before going to sleep that I believe to be the most important thing, because really its a form of pray, of gratiute given, of respect for your life, its being able to say that the good things today was, a) Going horseback Riding, b) hearing the singing of birds all day c)seeing your first firefly of the year

Now those don’t seem like much, but lets break that down a little, Riding-outdoor-friends-nature-having to be settled in who you are, so that your horse can feel settled with you on its back, If you have ever ridden, you know that you can’t help but feel in awe of the world around you and the animal you are on.. The birds singing, their joy at life, singing lifts the mind and spirit in such a delightful way, it reminds you that now is the time of renewal and growth, and the firefly.. its takes me back to my childhood, but also grounds me to this land, to this farm, to this life in its own way.. we moved here in the spring, and I remember feeling that it was all so new and strange and I missed my family and my life up north and there was no garden, no farm critters, just the purr-pots and the hounds that had moved with us just a couple tree’s and grass and more bugs, o god the blood suckers that spring drove us from building to building, but one night DH called me out and said you have to come.. LOOK! and the whole yard was filled with firefly, something from our past in alberta, missing in the north and here on this bit of land we call our own.. and we stood there in each others arms and just watched.. it was one of those first steps into finding our way here..