Barn Clean-up

Today was a big barn clean up day....lots of work!

Part of our winter hay

AND great news!!  My camera came today! 

Lets more posts with lots of pictures coming soon.

More ways to WIN!!

The last few days' blog posts have been short and late...but I appreciate that you are still sticking around to read!!

Keepin in real!  Quatro the kitty lovin on my boots!

I've been getting the gardens cleaned up for fall (and prepared for planting some cool weather crops) and it has been an "all daylight" kind of days. 

Today, I picked my guys up from the airport.  It's nice to have everyone here again.

In other news....my Ford Escape, whose name is Sadie...decided she needs all eyes on her.

Her muffler broke and it's like driving a 747 (or a harley?) down the freeway. 

 I feel all eyes on us now!

(BOY, I can't wait for the camera to get here!

As a THANK YOU for continuing to read along, I want to give you extra opportunities to win the reader prize package.  I've been trying to figure out "Rafflecopter" and all those things, but in the meantime....Here are more ways to get your name in the hat:

*Comment on every post.

*Send a friend over and have them mention you in their comment. (Entry for both of you).

*Share the post on Facebook

*Follow the blog (Wiget on the sideboard) 5 extra entries!

*Follow Cackleberry Hollow / Wallace Homestead on Pinterest

*Repin one of my posts on your Pinterest.

Giveaway will be on the Blogoversary and if you are local you can pick up your prize at the festival -or if you are not local, I will ship it after the festival on October 8th!

Thanks for helping get the word out!

Too busy....

I was too busy today to take any pictures...oh yeah, and also, I don't have a camera....

But good news, I found a replacement camera on eBay and it should be here next week.

My parents have been such a big help on the farm this fall!  They came out and we got so much done.
Dad and I had to do way too much re-wiring on the barn.  One light had an issue and once it was fixed that cause more issues.  But everything is working now.

Dad and I also harvested the last of the sweet corn, then Mom blanched it and we all got it packaged up for the freezer.  10 quarts.  That's besides the 2 dozen for the CSA tomorrow.  This was my first time doing a large scale corn patch.  One half of the patch was blown down about a month ago in a bad storm.

My guys have decided to take an earlier flight and will be home tomorrow afternoon.  I try to do "big" projects when they are away, but haven't even started on it....so I guess, no big project besides corn this time.

Happy Birthday Mom

Today is my Mother-in-law's 93rd birthday.

Portraits taken by K Aulger, September 2013

Man and Boy took a flight out this morning to spend the evening with her. 

This will likely be the "Good-bye for now" trip as she went into hospice care last week.

The "Fall Festival" is coming!!

It's just a little over a month (YIKES) until 

our 3rd annual "Really Local Farm Market & Craft Fair"!!

As you know I've been making jam, jelly and salsa like crazy for our booth!  

I was asked by a (new) reader (Hi, D!) for more information about the Festival.

It's always on the second Saturday of October, so this year it is on October 8th.

10 am to 2 pm.

I will have farm fresh produce, eggs, and (if I can get the chickens to quit eating them) pumpkins. 

Also, if weather cooperates, we will have fall decorations (Indian corn, mums, corn stalks, etc).

Additionally, we will have our Homestead Yummies

Jams, Jellies, Salsa, Pickles

Bread, Cookies, Candies

Possibly Jerky

Man will be cooking up his delicious BBQ Ribs and Pulled Pork.

Boy will have his Snack Shack with chips and drinks

He will also have a limited number of his wood and acrylic turned pens. And some other handmade gifts from wood.

Our vendors so far this year are outstanding!!  Applications are still rolling in, so there will be plenty more but currently we have:

NikCo is all about adding a little beauty and whimsy to every day life. http://www.etsy.com/shop/NikCo

https://www.facebook.com/NikCo-361111847309832/

Trigeminal Neuralgia Awareness Earrings.

Our "Kid Collection"-These are girls in our homeschooling group that have some of their homemade goodies to share including cupcakes, crocheted dish c

lothes, American Girl clothes, and friendship bracelets.

Daryl Roche Glass Artisan will be sharing his handmade Glass Drinking Straws, Glass icicles, and Glass Pendants.

Then we have the 5 Savvy Sisters each with a booth:

The Country Road: Variety of Hand crafted primitive decor items

Natures Emporium: Hand crafter potpourri, dried flowers, seeds

Take a Hike:  Walking sticks, bird houses, seeds

Houseplant Fever:  Houseplants home started and grown, in a variety of pots.

Bobbin Robin: Grocery bag holders, burp cloths, denim aprons, purses and more.

I'll update again on the 15th with all the additional vendors!!

BE SURE TO COME OUT TO SEE US!

Iona's Spa Day

About two weeks ago, Iona our guard Pyrenees broke her line and she and Danny went for a "run."  The two of them were gone the WHOLE night.  (usually when they go out for a run they are back within a few hours....but I digress.  When they got back both were covered in burrs from the sticker bushes.  All Pyrenees have double coats.  See how big our girl looks!  

Here's the "bad" dogs a few days before their adventure:

Well, after much brushing and sweat and tears, it became obvious that I was going to have to have Iona clipped.  As much as I hated to....

Here is my "Poodle" now:

She looks so small!!!

Jam...Jelly...Salsa!

We are in full swing getting ready for the coming "Really Local Farm Market & Craft Fair" and winter.

My whole family has been such a blessing, pitching in to chop, dice and stir stuff.  Both of my guys have helped and just this past week, my parents came out to put in long full days on the farm! Between the 5 of us, we have canned over 175 jars in the past 10 days!!  Mostly it's been Salsa, as I've come up with a recipe that is so yummy that everyone likes it!  We have 30 pints ready for the Festival, and another 60 quarts/pints for the winter.  On the "hot side", I have 27 jars of "cowboy candy" mellowing.


Plus, the jam/jelly machine has started.  Last year we sold out of 3 flavors of jam right away, so already I've been making double and triple batches of those (Strawberry/Rhubarb, Razzleberry, and Elderberry).  Plus Dad came up with a new combo to add to our selection this year of Strawberry/Blueberry--it is outstanding!!  This week, we also added more straight Strawberry and Lilac syrup for Ice cream.  Here's the list of what we have on hand so far:

• Strawberry
• Strawberry/Rhubarb
• Strawberry/Blueberry
• Blueberry
• Cherry
• Apple Cider
• Watermelon
• Black Raspberry (Jelly-no seeds)
• Red Raspberry
• Golden Raspberry
• Blackberry
• Peach
• Concord Grape
• Cinnamon Apple
• Peach Vanilla
• Carrot Cake
• Razzleberry (Red Raspberry/Blackberry)
• Coffee
• Lilac Jelly *
• Lilac Syrup *
• Violet *

*Small Batch, limited quantity, slightly higher priced due to nature of product.

On the current "To Make" list is:

• More Carrot Cake
• Sweet Tea Jelly
• Tomato Jam
• "Traffic" Jam
• Christmas Jelly
• Gingerbread Spice Jelly
• Red Pepper Jelly
• Root Beer or Mt.Dew Jelly (??)
• Pumpkin Pie Jam

What do you think?  What jams / jellies do you love?  What one have I forgotten??

Countdown to Blogoversary!!

I have been blogging on and off (more off than on lately) for 10 years!  Unbelievable!!! 

September 27, 2006 was the first post I ever wrote....it's on a blog that is no longer public and journals all the trials and tribulations as we worked on getting ready to open our scrapbook bed & breakfast in Amish country only to have the whole thing implode 3 days before closing...but that it was definitely God's will because shortly after that, I had to have spinal surgery.  

Then when I was spending all my time writing about our first chickens, and our dreams went a different direction, I started this blog.

Look at how little our Boy was with his first chicken!!

I haven't been writing for lots of reasons.  My beloved Canon Camera bit the bullet in the one day between the calves births this spring.  And not having pictures, has made it less fun to blog.  Add to that the crazy busy of teaching two new mamas the whole milking routine and growing (AND WEEDING-UG) for the CSA, milk delivery....etc.  I haven't had much down time. 

 Add to that a new tablet that will not post correctly (I got the tablet specifically to be able to "blog on the fly") and it's just been too frustrating.

Eh, excuses, excuses!  Enough of that!

But I've discovered, I miss doing it.  

And since I have a milestone blogoversary coming up, we are going to do something about that!!

So starting today, I will endeavor to blog everyday between now and then (September 27, 2016).  And for every comment posted on the posts, I will put your name into a drawing for a gift of our Wallace Homestead Jam/Jelly Gift package!  So if you comment every day, then you have 32 chances to win!!  If you refer a new reader and they comment and say you sent them, I'll add another entry for you!

Thanks for reading!  I appreciate you more than you know!

Baby number 2 is here

This morning at about 7:30. And I looked out the back door and saw a miracle doing something odd. By the time I got dressed and got out there 5 minutes later there was a calf on the ground. We have another boy.

We haven't come up with a clever name for him yet so help us out post your suggestions in the comments.

Now my faithful Canon camera that I've had for 10 years has decided to up and quit on me so I didn't get pictures this morning and the tablet is still acting up. So I will post pictures as soon as I can in the meantime there are some pictures on Facebook.

baby #1 is here!

After being 10 days past due, Franci has finally calved this morning. At about 6:30 she gave birth to a little bull calf.  We have named him Porter H. Ouse.

I am blogging on a new tablet that refuses to post the pictures in Blogger. As soon as I figure out the problem I will post pictures of the new baby here. He is a healthy 62.5 pounds.

The crop duster came and was doing practice runs right after the baby was born. We decided that he came for the baby shower.

Calf Watch 2016

The Twins are going to be Mommies!!!

SOON!

Franci is due on 5/14 and Miracle is due on 5/21.  

Because they are first timers they can go up to two weeks early....which would be now!

We noticed during chore time tonight that Franci's udder has really grown in the last few days.  And we could see Miracle's baby moving around in there.  What fun.  I hope that we have a bit of a "warning" and time because my parents want to be on hand to see the birth and they live an hour away.  And Boy keeps asking various friends if they want to be here for it too. He seems to forget that I slept in the barn the last time when Hershey went into labor and it was still two days before we saw hooves.  And then MORE hooves.

In the meantime, I've been bringing the girls in and clipping them at the milking stations to give them a bit of sweet feed.  They will do most anything for Sweet Feed. In the past two days I've even been able to wash their udders and run the milker to help them get used to the routine.  

So here is a picture of my "Radiant" Miracle Moo.

Spring is a busy time!

Almost all seasons are busy on the farm. (what almost??) but spring seems to be especially busy.  I have mentally been keeping everyone informed with the blogging in my mind, but there seems to be a problem with my mind-to-type device.  LOL

Some of the things that have happened in the past two weeks (in no particular order):

* Figured out why the cows kept getting out of the pasture because the "operator" of the electric fence apparently is blonde....hmm.  So now they are enjoying the WHOLE field.

*Relocated roughly 300+ strawberry plants.

*Tilled the big garden area and started planting:

60 tomatoes

100 Red onion sets

12 trellis of cucumbers

planted squash (Green zucchini, Gold zucchini, white patty pan, yellow summer)

4 kinds of lettuce, radishes, kohlrabi, beets, red & green cabbage

brussel sprouts.

*Committed to doing CSA gardens this year. (We still have a few openings)

*Tilled a new garden and planted peas, green beans, purple beans, yellow wax beans and lima beans.

*Relocated now empty strawberry raised beds to a new area and filled with bunny compost into garden area that was a machine shed so it has a "foundation" and cannot be tilled.  This will be where eventually we'd like to have the greenhouse located.

*Pulled all the sticks from the ragweed stalks from another area and put up fencing in prepartion for 

PIGS!! (101)

The pigs will "till" that area for a week and then get moved to another area for tilling and then ultimately where they will grow into bacon for the summer.  The first area will be turned to a corn field.

*Divided the front pasture with electric tape in preparation for the U-Pick Pumpkin Patch (101).  After all the pumpkins the cows ate last fall, we have about 100 volunteer pumpkin plants (plus all the seeds that I could still plant)

*Moved some of the above pumpkin plants to space the plants out better  (Most were within 15 feet of the fenceline)

*Put a new 8 foot gate at the front of the pasture so u-pickers can get into the field (plus, that would have been nice when I had to hike the pasture multiple times when Bess was sick/dying).

*I have a broody chicken working on hatching out eggs and the chicks that we got back in February are now to the "teenage" phase.  I have at least one rooster that is trying to get the "notes" right.  His crow is hilarious!!

* The twins are due to calve in Mid-May!  Hershey's AI didn't take so she will continue to be milked until the girls get "trained" be be a part of our "Micro-dairy"

*4 Bunnies should be kindling at the end of May.  Boy started back up with 4H.

*Mulched all the "one stick wonders" which is the orchard we planted last year and the year before.  We might get some peaches this year. (Fingers crossed)

* Almost to a point that we can pick Violets, Dandelions and Lilacs for jelly.  Going to add Honeysuckle too, if I can catch the blooms.

*After a two year break, Man restarted the woodworking business.  Taking it slow, but it's nice that he can go out and enjoy his shop again!

I'm sure there is more, but I'm wore out from typing it all!  I'll have to do a photo journal of the farm so you can see all the improvements.

And for as long as the above list is......the to-dos that are left is twice as long...

WHEW!!

Spring! Spring! Spring has Sprung!

Horray!  The long winter is over...well mostly (it's going to get cold later this week "they" say)  but it was a gloriously warm Resurrection Sunday yesterday and I'm hopeful!

You know it's spring when there are buds on the trees, you need to do the taxes (ug), can't stay off Craigslist looking at fencing (and animals, and...and...) Your boots start sticking in the mud again....There are baby chicks in the pump house, and baby pepper plants in the homeschool room.  So many things to look forward to! 

Ok. Not a great picture

Spring is a wonderful time to reevaluate hopes and goals.  I love making lists and setting goals and making charts...the follow up I'm not as great with.  I have some new folks that have been checking out the blog (waving to A) and it reminds me that I need to do better at posting all the stuff going on here.  My "everyday" tends to be quite a bit different than most peoples, so...

In anticipation of spring, here are some of the upcoming goals, plans

We did a month-of-nothin in January, that went pretty well for a few weeks and then we had some "stuff" happen that derailed the effort. So trying that again in April!

Fencing.  This is a priority in my mind right now as we have calves coming in May and we want to add pigs in the next month so keeping them actually on the farm is important.

Updating the herdshare paperwork.  With the new calves, we will have new shares coming available and I need to get the information updated and sent out.

Hershey needs to be tested very soon to confirm that she is indeed pregnant.  She is not as big as I would think (but then again, last time there were twins in there!)  If she isn't we can just keep milking her until the twins calve, but if she is, then we need to stop milking pretty quick here. 

I've had at least 4 requests to restart the CSA for this year.  After talking it over with Man, I think I am going to do it again as well as the U-Pick Fall Pumpkin patch (more info on that soon).  We have decided that we will do the big market garden, but also utilize some of our other local growers (the Amish) around us to supplement the baskets when we have a low week.  Last year was a very odd growing season, so I'm hoping by reaching out to others that also have market gardens, we wont have the stress of feeling like we are shortchanging anyone!

You may know that before we started farming, we came very (VERY) close to realizing my dream of opening a scrapbooking bed & breakfast.  I thought that I had squashed that dream, but not really.  I may not be to the point to make that dream a reality, BUT I can start offering classes and crops again on a small scale. Especially faithbooking classes.  So I'm going to wiggle a few of those in (at least once a month) with the "farmy" classes. 

Oh, and BLOGGING!  That needs to be more of a priority.  So more pictures and more writing.

Help keep me accountable!!

Love, Rea