The twins are growing up!

Miracle Moo and Molly

Frances Butter and Mama, Hershey

Miracle looking past the fall decorations,

"My they look delish!"

My Three Girls

"OH, HELLO, Franci!"

Good friends and Firewood!

With all of the health issues Man has been having we've been behind on getting ready for winter.

We heat with wood, so firewood is essential for us.

Great friends of ours (Boy's Best Friend's family) arranged for some wood to be dropped off and also brought another load.  We had a firewood work day as all the "boys" cut and split wood.

When it was all said in done, we had another 3 cords to keep us warm this winter!

A HUGE THANK YOU to our friends!

My handsome young MAN

Well, it has happened.  My Boy is no longer a Boy, but becoming a Man!  

I will still call him Boy (as he will always be to me, my Baby!), but as you can see from the pictures, it's not a very accurate term!

Today he turns 14 (Sob)

I am very proud of who he is becoming.  He is pretty thoughtful and polite.

He's becoming more responsible.

He has always been a sweetie!

He's taller than I am, and weighs more than his Daddy did when we got married.

It's hard to see but the markings on the wall next to me below are his measurements since we moved to the farm 5 years ago.  The first mark is near my elbow.  Now he is about 6 foot!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MY PRECIOUS SON!

A Homestead Birthday Gift from Boy's Best Friend

Boy's Best Friend gifted him a great homestead gift of a chainsaw.

He's so excited to use it!

Our Boy's Dream Come True....Combining

The day before Boy's birthday, the fields around our homestead were harvested.

And Boy got to ride along!!  He rode along in the combine a few years ago.  

This year he rode in the Case International Harvester Steiger.  Otherwise know as the "Dingle Hopper Truck". (It's the red truck) It's the "chaser" truck with a hopper trailer for the combines to empty into out in the field and then it comes back to load it into the semis to go to the silos. 

He would love to drive these million dollar machines for real in the future.

In the meantime, I am so grateful that we live in a place where it's even a

 possibility for him to watch and ride along!

I am a BAAAD blogger....

This summer/fall has been crazy busy with the normal, and the not so normal stuff going on.  I haven't blogged, I've barely facebooked.  Now that things are starting to wind down on the farm, I am going to try to retro post all that went on this summer and fall!  And it's been a lot, so be sure to page back occasionally.  The current plan is to work oldest to newest, but keeping this reminder post at the top.  So I will be going back to August time frame to post.

You may or may not remember that I have a looming "101 in 1001" deadline (23 days to be exact.)  And one of the goals is to have the blog caught up by then.  We're looking at almost 50 posts going up in the next 23 days.  Hold onto your hat!  And I will also have some "guest posts" from my Man.  He has spent a bunch of time this summer stuck in his chair, and he HAS been updating what he's been doing on a Homesteading board we are a part of on Facebook.  So I will be reposting his pictures and commentaries too!

And as Jackie Gleason used to say...And away we go.....

Drying Jalapenos

Yogurt Take #2

Ever seen a floating tree?!?

Teen Bonfire

ONe of the goals of the farm has always to be a place for fellowship.  This October has seen the fruitition of that hope.  We hosted the Homeschool Group's "Mom's Night Out." with 18 Moms in our little farm house.  Then we had the Farmer's Market and had lots of friends-old and new show up to support us.  Finally we hosted the Homeschool Group's Teen Group Bonfire.  We had about 30 teens and parents here.  

The night started very wet and rainy and not looking like a good night for sitting around a fire....but God answers prayer and it did clear up.  The fire was wet, but then a Dad showed up with 10 boxes of back tax records that needed burnt...and there you go! 

Fun had by all.  The cows and bunnies were loved on, There were endless rounds of flashlight tag (of some variation.) Hot dogs and s'mores eaten. 

This is the only picture we got....and it turned out great!

Grow out Bunnies!

About 9 weeks ago, we posted pictures of the baby bunnies...

Here they are now.  One Mama had 4 babies...the other had an amazing 8!!  The Mama that had 4 is an amazing mama (Mopsy Jr) and we were able to foster the 2 smaller from the other litter to her.  Rabbits can be a bit violent and will sometimes kill intruders even if they are little itty bitty baby bunnies.  But not Mopsy!  She raised those bunnies just like her own.

Mopsy's other 3- a solid red and two broken reds.

Mopsy's daughter and her two fosters.

Can you say stew?!

Guest Post from Man: Making Jerky Convo on Facebook...

This has been a long running conversation with some other homesteading folks on a Facebook Community Board.  I pulled off the names and such and changed them to initials for some privacy (R.P, H.A., and B.M)  As you may figure out, my icon is the combine. B.M's son and father delivered firewood to us last week.

10/14/14
Making ground jerky again today. Man that stuff goes fast. Looks like I need another feeder calf to grow out. Today's flavors are: Hot & Spicy, Onion Garlic Hickory blend, and Original flavor. Our city friends love it as much as we do. Still need some venison (anyone?) and should have more fresh rabbit to jerk next week

• •  Saw two road kill does on I-71 between here and town. If I had a pickup, I'd have brought them over for you. ;-)

    October 14 at 1:12pm · 
  •  Gee thanks... Not doing roadkill anymore ;-)

    
    
  •  My kids got me this poster one year for my birthday: 

  

  
  

  
•  Just finished up with Hot & Spicy. You know it's good when it makes your hands tingle from handling it... haha! Sure smells good in here.

  October 14 at 3:26pm ·
• RP- I busted a gut about 5 times reading the menu closer. Funny, yes, but definitely bad taste ;-)

  October 14 at 6:05pm · 
• How 'bout this slogan for BBQ: "If you can choke it we can smoke it"

  October 14 at 6:09pm ·
•  My favorite was "Guess That Mess"

  October 14 at 6:28pm 
• We have deer from last yr still in freezer will that work?

  October 14 at 10:12pm · 
•  H.A. - Cabela's has jerky spice mix for game which is probably better than what I use for beef. If you want to pick some up I can make some venison jerky for you.

  October 19 at 11:50pm · 
•  Sure I can stop and pick up some after my dr apt

  October 20 at 8:14am · 
•  Just finished another batch of beef jerky. We wanted another 3 lbs of cracked pepper & garlic and in only 30 minute the house smells awesome! I still want to do some chicken and...? This will be done dehydrating in a few hours.

  October 31 at 5:22pm · 
•  Have u ever done rabbit jerky?

  October 31 at 5:30pm · 
•  OMG I am so Jealous . My Son and Dad came in bragging on how good your jerky was!!! Jealous I tell ya Jealous! lol

  October 31 at 6:42pm · 
• 

  October 31 at 6:43pm ·
•  LOL, I'm glad they liked it. We appreciate their hard work.... You're welcome to stop by and have some or they can take some home to you. Just let me know and I'll save some as it don't last long!

  October 31 at 7:05pm · 
• Yes, I did rabbit jerky. It turned out super tough so it needs to be mixed with, say, chicken or beef or?

  October 31 at 7:20pm ·
• Turkey jerkey.

  October 31 at 7:47pm ·
• 

  B.M all sounds good. Just save me couple lil pieces and when they deliver wood again I wont be so jealous lol

  October 31 at 8:11pm · 
•  B.M and thank you. My son came in and that was all he talked about for several minutes. lol

  October 31 at 8:12pm ·
• Cracked Pepper & Garlic Jerky is almost done and will get vacuum sealed in 2 strip packages this morning then straight into the freezer. I haven't done much of this flavor (once, I think) but it's really good too. The dryer gets cleaned up for apples and bananas later today. Then, back to jerky (venison & chicken hopefully) on Monday. My meat grinder has a jerky/sausage attachment I may have to try since I've only used the jerky gun.

  November 1 at 7:11am ·
• Amazing when I think about it... Beef raised on the premises, Cow & calf together 'till butchering time and all the memories in between. And did I mention? Very Tasty! That's 3 lbs of meat to make 1.1 lbs of jerky. Now, on to making dried apple slices. :-D

  

  November 1 at 10:04am ·
•  B.M. - I'll give the guys 3 packs. One each of Pepper & Garlic, Original, and Hot & Spicy with a stern warning they have to share! ;-)

  November 1 at 11:04am ·