Sunday, July 8, 2012

Fresh Eggs Farm Update 7.8.12


Beautiful flowers from my husband. Take note gentlemen - you don't have to spend money to make your partner happy - sometimes, happiness is taking the time to cut flowers from the yard and put them in a vase and set them on your wife's table. <3


Our newest inside kitty, Bella - she came from Captain's litter (Captian, our outside kitty had a litter of five of the most beautiful kittens - with black fur, but it is smoky as you get close to her skin).

Huge storms hit our area last week - I was working an event for my job. This is what our tent looked like when we were able to go back to it.

Another view of our tent - the stacks of lightbulbs we nicely arranged and the table on the right was upright when we left. In the background, you can see Verizon's tent - it flew down here from two tents away and wrapped around that vintage military vehicle. It literally bent the 4" poles that held it up. I couldn't imagine if we didn't get away when we did.

Looks like a disaster! This is the Verizon tent - our tent is two more down. Their displays are trashed.

Finished first attempt at Chicken Pot Pie - DELICIOUS!

Chicken Pot Pie - before we put the tops on.

Cora and Daddy rolling out the crust for pot pie.

Josie and Blossom - working on their tans!

Gage won tickets for getting good grades! It was a great time! The Reds won!!!! And since there were 11+ strike outs, everyone got free LaRosa's pizza and free UDF ice cream!!!! DELICIOUS!!!

A picture from our seats...those tiny little ants down there...those are baseball players!!!

Feeding time! I think they know LOL

Itty and her poor little broken leg :-(

Our first attempt at Goat's Milk CHEESE!!!!

Oh hell yeah! It was awesome - who would have ever imagined we'd be able to milk a goat, in our back yard and create something this amazing!?!?!

Our cheese - after it has been drained. Isn't it gorgeous!?!

Our cheese while it drains.

Our pea harvest - peas on the left, shells on the right. They were so delicious. Now, my kids love peas :-) Even raw!

Cora loves peas - look how many she got in just one pod!

Like two...or wait three...no more like four...oh, I guess it's like eight peas in a pod.

Peas!

Thanks Mabel!

Who is that handsome man straining our milk?!
Harvest! On the left, leftover pea pods, so we have seeds for next year! In the middle - yummy onions! On the right, our potato harvest...so delicious.
I feel like the pictures are so random, but honestly, that is kinda how our life is....so...very...random. As I mentioned in my last post...my husband and I are going through a bit of a rough patch. I'm not sure what the future holds for us, but  I hope that it holds amazing mornings of coffee on the porch, watching our children...and their children running around after animals in our front yard, long talks about our hopes and dreams...and love. A good step to assuring that will happen is to do very simple things that lets your partner know that you are thinking of them. One morning, my husband woke up before I did and went out to our gardens our front and cut some of our beautiful flowers. He arranged them and put them in a vase, so when I woke up, the flowers were sitting on the table next to my favorite chair. Simple things like that help me remember our oh so good times and help ease the pain of the bad times. I'm thankful he is making an effort to make things right.
We've added a few more members to our family...Captain, one of our outside kitties, surprisingly had a litter of five kittens and decided to raise them in our garage. We found homes for two of the kittens (thanks to our daughter Kait and one of Drake's friends) and one of the sweet kitties found her way into our home. We still have two little boys left outside. We are feeding and caring for them and hopefully they will be good mousers and mole killers for the property.
Last weekend, we had an event at Wright Patt Field - around the time that the gates were supposed to enter, patrol came around and said that they were not letting people onto the field and that they were encouraging people to have a "Weather Plan B" - after watching the clouds roll in a bit, we decided that we should stack all of our event stuff in the middle table of our tent and make our way to our vehicles, temporarily. We started to walk toward our van, did I mention that Mark and Gage had gone for ice and we didn't know where they were? So that left me, one of my co-workers, Drake and Cora to get to a safe place. Right about the time that we were at the security tent, a huge gust of wind hit and the tent went up in the air. Military men and women were yelling and trying to grab the poles so we could get away from the structure. We ran the other direction - realizing that we needed to get to a safe place, but not really sure where that place was. As we were trying to make our way out of another gate area, an Air Force member came and said we needed to get off the base and offered to carry Cora - he scooped her up and took off running. We followed along - running as fast as we could...the wind blowing hard enough that it nearly pushed me over, and would have certainly knocked Cora to the ground if the Air Force Service Member hadn't helped us out. Still afraid because I couldn't find Mark and Gage and scared that this was getting ready to get really bad...we ran into a gas station and the first faces I saw were Mark and Gage...thankful. The next little bit was pretty terrifying. But thankfully, we all made it through the ordeal safe and sound. The pictures above don't really give a good idea of the devastation that the storm did...but it was really bad.
We made homemade chicken pot pie and it was delicious. We used homegrown peas, onions and potatoes and used Nana's "Never Fail" Pie Crust for the top and bottom. I'm hoping that next year, we'll also have carrots and chicken grown and raised right here at Fresh Eggs.
Our animals are silly - Josie and Blossom are loving this hot weather we've been having. We took the hose out and tried to hose everyone down, since you know...it hit 103 degrees here! But the only animals who really enjoyed the spray down were Josie and Blossom. Josie would put her face right into the hose spray. It was really funny to watch how excited they got. All of the animals will try to fit in the small hallway that we runs the center of the barn - they know when it's feeding time. I'm going to try to get a video of the sounds they make when they hear our voices - every time it makes my heart feel warm and I laugh. I love having these goofballs here.
Gage won tickets for a Cincinnati Reds game - our tickets were in the nose bleed area - but it was still a great time! Plus the kids got to see the city. In fact, I was asked to work in the office in Cincinnati for two days this week. During that time, my company put me up in a hotel and I had Mark and the kids join me. While I was at work, Mark took the kids to explore the city and in the evenings we were able to listen to sounds and enjoy the hustle and bustle of the city. Gage, my city boy, needs to have that balance in his life - and honestly, I think it is good for all of us to get out of the country from time to time to remember the pros and cons of city living.
WE MADE CHEESE! Cheese!!! From milk...from a goat...from our back yard. It was amazing. I cannot wait to make more. It is delicious...and it makes me proud that we were able to accomplish this. Can't wait to learn how to make other kinds - the one we made was a simple Chevre, which is essentially like a cream cheese type texture.
Our large garden is growing - I'm hoping that we still get a nice harvest from it. Although, we've been suffering from a drought this year, as much of the US has been...so maybe not as much of a harvest as we could have. Fingers crossed, we will be able to get some fresh cucumbers (perhaps a couple batches of pickles), some zucchini, maybe corn and some other yummies. Our early raised beds did well - we got a basket load of potatoes, onions and peas and were able to dry some of the pea pods for next year's planting.
Again, I feel like this blog has been all over the place, without a real "theme" - but there is always so much going on around here. I'm glad I've been keeping up with my goal of taking more pictures. I think pictures just add so much to the experience of what goes on here. Maybe next time we do cheese, I can do a how-to walk through on what we did.
Well, right now, I need to go so that I can have a few minutes to sit on our front porch and then Mark and I are going to a Barenaked Ladies/Blues Traveler show...BTW, did you know that Blues Traveler was the very first concert that Mark and I went to when we were first dating...and now we are going to see them again approximately 16 1/2 years later...and we are getting ready to celebrate our 16th wedding anniversary on July 23rd...fate? Maybe...

3 comments:

  1. So Cool, making your own cheese. Goodness, such a milestone. I'd have to buy the milk but one day Im going to make ricotta. My son loves Spinach and Ricotta in puff pastry. Do you follow The Greening of Gavin? He is local here and runs workshops on cheesemaking (also being off the grid), also Rhonda from Down To Earth - She's like my surrogate mother with all her wisdom and advice, though my Mum is very much a lively 83 yr old rocking her world about 6 hrs north of here. I loved your photo's and the produce. Those peas are SOOOOO green. Its a better day today - so no gloomies. Hope you and Mark enjoyed the show.

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  2. Lynda,
    I read this and your other comment too - I've been putting everything "out there" on my blog - I know that some bloggers only blog the good or gloss over the bad...but this is my real life and sometimes...real life is a difficult to muddle through. We all reach our breaking point...and although I know that it was hard for you to come back and deal with everything on the home front - it's good that you took a weekend of "you time". It's those time that freshen you just enough to get through the rough times.
    I feel like I've hit my breaking point here - with everything going on with Mark, the farm, work - I've often equated my life with the guy I saw that had a bunch of plates spinning on long poles - as long as he would spend a little time on each one, he could keep them all spinning - but you can only do that for so long...spin spin this plate...spin spin that plate and sometime you aren't going to spin one plate hard enough and it will fall, taking down the rest of the plates and poles with it. Right now, I feel a little like I'm sitting on the ground in a pile of broken plates and trying to make sure that I have enough super glue to glue them back together.
    For now though, I'm brushing myself off and trying to be positive about the good things in my life (and trying not to melt down too much when the bad things come seeping back into my brain).
    The concert was AMAZING! It was so so much fun.
    ...and the cheesemaking was great too! I've not heard of the people that you mentioned, but I will check them out for sure. :-) Thanks! ...and if you didn't live 1/2 way across the world, I'd give you goat's milk - we have far more than we can use LOL
    It's amazing how eating fresh veggies (like warm peas straight from the garden) is so different than eating frozen or canned peas.

    I'm glad today is a better day for you. Hopefully, now that our heat wave has subsided a bit I can get my hands dirty - after work tonight. :-)

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  3. Great analogy re plates. If I didnt live 1/2 way round the world I would drop by for sleep overs instead of paying AUD 250 a night to stay on a farm. Don't laugh - ive paid more, just to get out of the city and be able to put a match to a log. Oh - and if I didnt live 1/2 way round the world I'd give you some glue too. You have achieved so much. Do you remember one rainy Sunday I read your entire archives. Perhaps you need to re-visit sometimes where you were not long ago and how much you craved your crazy life in your little homestead. Please do check out Down to Earth - it is an amazing source of information on all things around the home and garden but also life affirming and pro choice at all stages of life. Her book is great and she had many followers in US so maybe its available there.

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