Brazy Creek Farm

Body wash from Bar soap

2012-02-08T09:05:00.000-08:00

Here is a easy way to make your own body wash from bar soap. I used 2 bars from our own homemade soap. Its super easy! You can use any bar soap, I had some of our Lavender on hand and added some Milk and Honey soap fragrance to it. You can also use a essential oil or leave it plain as well.

I used two of these round Bars, Around 2.5oz each.

Grate them up

Put the soap shavings into a saucepan, Add 1 1/2 to 2 cups of water depending on the desired consistency you would like. Melt over medium low heat stirring constantly.When the soap shavings are melted you can now add your fragrance or essential oil.

Let the liquid soap cool for 20 minutes, If its to thick you can heat it back up and add more water. When cooled you can funnel the soap into whatever bottle you would like. I used a shampoo bottle.

This is a great way to make your own body wash without all the added chemicals and unknown ingredients in the store brands.And it smells yummy!

-Free Range Chicken Gardens -contest

2012-02-01T15:16:00.000-08:00

Here is a great contest for all the garden and chicken lovers. I really want to see this book! Since I would like to know what there inputs on keeping chickens free ranged in a garden are. Mine always seem to devour everything in sight LOL.

Timber Press is hosting a giveaway through February 17th where entrants can win...

• A copy of Free-Range Chicken Gardens

• $50 gift certificate to McMurray Hatchery

• A downloadable coop plan

from The Garden Coop

• Organic seeds and forage mix from

Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply

Awesome!

Pictures of the day

2012-01-18T14:08:00.000-08:00

It's a cold day here today.Most the animals have decided to stay in the barn where it's nice and cozy. The only critters you will see outside are the dogs and the sheep, since they both cannot feel the cold much.So this gave me an opportunity to snap a few pictures as I was walking around the farm.

Its Lambing season soon.This Ewe had only one baby a few days ago. Twins are more common.These are Jacobs sheep, They are usually spotted or have patches of black or brown. Usually we get one or two all white lambs out of 60 or so babies. I love the white babies, They remind me of the Snuggle bear.

This is how pigs stay warm.
These are the Pot Belly pigs. Don't they look cozy all snuggled up together?

Did you spot this little guy in the pile? He has the best spot in the group and is buried in warmth

The chickens were all lined up in a row, They were trying to keep warm in this little bit of sun coming through the barn doors.

It's too cold for Josie and Elle May, So they peek outside. The cold doesn't seem to bother Bella. Notice their Fat bellies. They are due to kid in a few weeks.

Alex our Mini Nubian Buck and the girls, minus Lily and Violet who were hiding.

Alex is a silly boy. He loves to play with me whenever I come in the pen. This might not be a good habit to start with him but he cracks me up and he is a harmless sweet boy. He is a Ham, But what Buck isn't. That's why I love them so much.

Ive been going outside several times a day to check on Josie and Elle. They are Due February 22nd. I think Alex may have gotten to them earlier, as they are showing signs that it may be closer than what I thought. I cannot wait for cute Lil Mini Nubian floppy eared babies!

Reused....Recycled....Save big!

2012-01-10T14:52:00.000-08:00

I love the idea of reusing and recycling everyone's so called garbage into something useful and at the same time saving us tons of money.Ive been known to garbage pick, and stop on the side of the road when I see an old window or something useful.
While I was browsing around on the black hole called "Pinterest" The site of distraction – sucking me into its greatness for hours on end. I stumbled upon a bunch of photo's of people reusing and recycling Pallets into pure awesomeness. And with projects that never seem to end around here and a very tight budget, we began our search for these useful pieces of greatness.

I see so many pallets going to waste, When they could be turned into such amazing things
Here are a few facts about Pallets in America:

*200 Million - # of trees that are logged every year for pallets

*500,000 - # of trees are felled every day for pallets
*40% - Overall US wood consumption % for pallets

So we scored big time and brought home a trailer full of Pallets. we have a few projects in mind.

*First on the list are compost bins, Super easy to do with pallets
*Next is a milk shed, Since my doe's are due in a month I will need a place to milk them.

*And the 3rd and biggest project is a pallet greenhouse.

( Should take awhile)

So instead of buying wood we vow to save as many pallets from the landfill as we can.
I will be putting up the finished projects on the blog as they are finished because "man time" as I call it is precious around here, and we never seem to have enough of it. Brad is a working machine and I can only do so much without a man around lol.

So here is the simple Pallet compost bins done with 5 pallets joined with L brackets and screws. This was so easy that my mom and I were able to just slap it together. And with this Oddly warm January weather we were able to do this. And paint it!! Never have I said I was able to paint outside in the middle of a Midwestern winter!

This is the front side facing the road. We stained it to match.

The inside

Next is the milking shed which we have started on already. Pics to come!

Kip and his Friend Gurdie the goose

2011-12-21T19:53:00.000-08:00

(This video has music, You may need to disable blog music below)

This story starts about A month ago. We had around 8 geese we took in to be processed, My mom decided to keep the one pretty looking white goose for breeding. I appropriately named her Gurdie, Since she looks like a Gurdie to me.
Gurdie roamed around sadly for a few days missing her siblings, which made me feel pretty horrible for taking the others in. After all Geese are smarter creatures than what most people believe. They all have their own personalities and pet like traits, unlike chickens and other barn yard poultry.

After a little while we noticed Gurdie following Kip everywhere he went. At first we though she was being territorial or maybe didn't like Kip. Since Gurdie used to be kind of temperamental when she was with her clan. Since she has been alone she has calmed down a lot and has become more sociable.
I think we knew they had become friends when every time Kip would bark (which is very often) Gurdie would do her goosey honk. She follows him everywhere all the time now. Its pretty entertaining watching them throughout the day.
I love it when two completely different animal species can love each other and become friends. I think if people could spend time with animals they could learn a great deal on forgiveness,Love,and friendship.Or maybe to just live in the moment like a dog, to forget the past and the future and to just be ♥

Before the snow flies

2011-12-02T16:44:00.000-08:00

So much has to be done around the farm that has been put off or we haven't found the time for before the snow flies.So Brad took the day off today and we got some much needed work done. The garden has been mowed and plowed, Plastic has been pulled, Potatoes dug, The rest of the Arugula and Swiss chard picked and done! Now all we have to do is spread some manure and everything is finished for the year in the garden.

Mowing was first on the list. Our garden was a grass field. We have had several complaints from conventional farmers telling us we needed to spray. I just say I don't mind picking in the weeds, Plus its is so pretty in the fall LOL I actually use the grass as centerpieces and its beautiful!

The plastic needed pulling. I don't like the idea of using so much plastic but there is no way we could do without it! It keeps the plants from being overwhelmed with weeds in the summer and it also keeps the bugs at bay some since the plastic heats up.We have found dead cucumber beetles on it from the summer sun. Awesome!

Plowing was a chore today actually. I think we may need to upgrade to a bigger one. The grass kept getting stuck in it today, requiring Brad to stop every 20 feet or so to be cleaned out.

To my surprise I found some broccoli left that was hidden in the weeds. I kept the greens for the goats and chomped on the heads while working. I must say this was some of the best broccoli Ive tasted, I'm sure the frost had something to do with that. It was so so sweet! even though it was a little past ripe.

The best tasting spinach ever! They say it gets sweeter and better after a frost.This spinach tasted like a sweet almond, Exactly! Amazing!

We harvested the rest of the Swiss chard and arugula for ourselves. Surprisingly it grew back pretty fast in this cold weather.This is a lot of Chard. Maybe I will make soup with it.

The arugula Grew back amazingly fast since our last market!

Brad found this French Breakfast radish that was hidden and grew all summer.

Let there be light

2011-12-01T20:07:00.000-08:00

The chicken house is now lit for the winter and its a big relief!

Its been a little pathetic around here when it comes to egg production.For a couple months we have been way below average for 200 hens and haven't been able to keep up with demand for some of our loyal costumers.We finally decided to light up the chicken house. We sort of put it off since It was pretty expensive to light a mobile chicken house in the pasture,450 feet of extension cord isn't cheap!
We used our grow lights with a timer for the lighting. We also went and bought some cattle panel to make a little pen for overwinter. We open it up during the day and close it up at night. So now we wait and see if this extra amount of light helps any, I sure hope so!

Brad getting everything situated in the coop

It looks a little messy but Were making do for now.

Roosting up for the night. Its nice to finally be able to see in the coop at night. Actually it's kinda of fun to go down there at night in the cold, sit in the warm coop with Brad and talk.

All comfy cozy.
We use the deep litter system in the winter months. We layer shavings and use barn lime and Diatomaceous Earth to keep it dry. This layering of the bedding decomposes and creates heat like a compost pile. Not too much heat but just enough to make it cozy for the girls without having to use too many heat lamps.

Puppies..Wonderful wonderful puppies♥

2011-11-28T16:59:00.000-08:00

I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me they are the role model for being alive. ~Gilda Radner

Puppy update. They are getting big, fluffy, and so darn cute!

All but one of our pups are sold. We have a little girl pup left.
It is going to be a sad day when these little fluff balls of love leave the farm. They bring pure joy. Nothing can make you feel better like sitting with a puppy for a few minutes, and you instantly feel amazingly happy.
If I could, I would be surrounded by puppies all the time hahaha well that would be impossible and irresponsible and would probably classify someone as running a puppy mill.But its still a dream :)
The puppies are starting to wag their cute lil tails when you walk in and are starting to run around and play. Man they grow so fast, I see the change daily.

This is the biggest pup in the litter of 6. He is a watcher and is always checking things out.

My goal: To soak up as much puppy love I can until these little guys go to their new homes.

Eggplant Preserves

2011-11-11T07:49:00.000-08:00

Here is a simple and easy recipe for all your extra fall Eggplant

Brad came in from the garden a few days ago with a grocery sack full of eggplant that went unseen. Mostly because they were hidden in the weeds lol. Now I'm not a huge fan of eggplant. It's always been bitter tasting to me. And I hate wasting the veggies so I decided to make a preserve out of it all. This recipe is so yummy. Its very clovey tasting and almost resembles a pie like flavor. This is great for crackers or would also be awesome on Ham,or as a marinade. Another great idea is on a grilled turkey and provolone sandwich when used as a chutney.

Eggplant Preserves

Ingredients:
2 lbs eggplant, peeled and cut into 1/2'' cubes
3 cups white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 tbs finely ground clove
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/4 cups lemon juice
5 cups water

Instructions:

1. combine eggplant with 3 cups of water and 1 cup lemon juice in a pot and bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes until eggplant is tender, stirring occasionally. Drain.

2. Add remaining 2 cups of water, white and brown sugar, spices and 1/4 cups of lemon juice. Bring to boil then reduce heat and simmer for approx. 25-30 minutes as the syrup thickens, mixing frequently.
( I added pectin to this recipe to make it thicker)

3.Cool and transfer preserves to sterilized jars. Store in refrigerator for up to one week.

What can we eat?

2011-10-27T12:48:00.000-07:00

Here is a link I wanted to share of some new reports saying that some chicken meat may contain small amounts of arsenic
FDA: Some chicken may have small amount of arsenic

And another great Link!

http://scienceline.org/2006/09/env-wenner-arsenic/

The thing that gets me is they claim that although the meat may contain arsenic, that the amount in the meat is so small that it poses no threat to human health...Seriously!! come on. I really don't want any amount in the food I eat. This is very disturbing! How did the arsenic even get there to begin with? Arsenic causes cancer even at the low levels currently found in our enviroment. Arsenic also causes, Heart disease,and diabetes!

The commercial broiler chicken industry has a decade old practice of intentionally putting arsenic into the chicken feed as a microbe inhibitor, But why...I want to know WHY!! What is the reason for this? Is there really anything we can safely eat anymore?
Which brings me to the reason and importance of being more self sufficient.
When Brad and I had our Broiler chickens processed I had been very hesitant to eating one yet.These chickens became like pets to me, and would greet me every morning. But after reading this, I now have one finally thawing in my kitchen LOL. This is what it took I suppose to make me finally eat one of our Birds. I know that next year we will be doing more free ranged birds to fill up our freezer!
Self sufficient and off the grid....Our goals!

An exciting day of new life on the farm

2011-10-27T11:47:00.000-07:00

The puppies are here, the puppies are here! Yes it is an exciting day here on the farm. Bella is a new mommy to 6 healthy chubby pups. 2 males and 4 females. All with beautiful badger markings.

(Bella in labor and looking very uncomfortable)

Bella went into labor yesterday morning. She began nesting and looked irritated. She had her first puppy at 9:00pm, and had a puppy ever hour until the last one was born at 2:00am. All went well with no problems.

Here is a little video

Cute Fuzzy adorable Pyrenees puppies

2011-09-29T11:25:00.000-07:00

For as long as I can remember Ive always wanted to raise and breed Great Pyrenees dogs. This breed isn't for everyone, but they are an amazing breed! Our main reason for choosing this breed is for protection of our livestock, along with the Pyrenees sweet gentle nature with their flock,small animals and people.

On Valentines day 2007 Brad bought me my dream and the most adorable puppy! My Sammy Bear.
This is Sam at just 9 weeks, He was BIG boy!!

Building my dream slowly a few years later Bella joined the family.
A year and a half later, and an OK from our vet, (Since you usually wait a full 2 years) We planned a romantic date for the two. Puppies on their way!! We can't wait! If all went well She will be due November 1st 2011

Our reason for wanting to breed the Pyrenees is this breed is kind of hard to find in our area, I feel there is a need for this breed in our area. For livestock farmers, or just people who want a amazing, sweet, gentle giant of a dog that is also able to keep predators away. The Pyrenees have also been used to watch over children instead of livestock!
Even though the Pyrenees is super gentle and sweet, these dogs can be very aggressive when they need to be. They usually sleep a lot during the day and are up at night barking and keeping critters away.

Sam came from Buddy Bottoms Boer goat farm in Iowa. He came from show and working lines. There is a big difference in straight working and straight show lines in this breed.
Sam for example is a lot bigger and has a Immensely super thick fluffy long coat, which is common in show lines. Burrs and sticks have to be worked or cut out.

Bella is on the smaller side, and has a shorter close to the body coat type,

Its still thick compared to most other breeds, But it's much thinner than Sammy's coat and burrs and sticks don't get stuck in her hair as easily. This is typical of straight working lines. Mainly because the working lines of Pyrenees needed a thick yet short coat so no debris would get stuck to their hair while working sheep and goats in the Pyrenees mountains.

If interested in a Pyrenees pup please contact us on Facebook. Puppies will not be registered. Sam Is AKC but Bella is not.I don't feel the need breed registered dogs, I would rather breed for working ability.

Washed in golden beautiful-ness

2011-09-23T11:14:00.000-07:00

It's the first day of fall and everything is washed in golden beautiful-ness!
Fall is my favorite season and gives me a warm cozy feeling. I think that's just my bodies way of setting into a hibernation mode lol.
I love the lighting this time of year, Its more muted and warm toned. I could sit outside for hours just soaking it all in as the birds gather and the geese fly overhead. The corn and soybean fields are just beautiful, as the warm fall sun gleams a honey toned cast over it all. Even things as simple as the grass are a sight to be seen. The golden seed head swaying back and forth like stalks of wheat.As everything and Everyone gets ready for the arrival of winter.Fall also means breeding season here on the farm, and getting everything situated in the barn and winterized. And Projects finished before the cold weather hits. And an exciting time as well, as we will be expecting a litter of Great Pyrenees pups on November 1st and goat babies in February and March! As Life dies back in fall we welocome new life in the middle of it all. Exciting times here on the farm.
Its also means my clothesline drying days are dwindling down as things just aren't drying as fast as they were.A very sad reality in my world!
But as we say goodbye to summer and the growing seasons, The cold weather crops are in for Octobers harvest. We will have radishes,lettuce,arugula,spinach,and Swiss Chard. Maybe that will give us a taste of spring again before we put the garden to rest for the year.

One of the goats out in the beautiful fall grass

Brad out checking the fall seedling up in the garden

All life is precious

2011-09-08T10:58:00.000-07:00

So yesterday we had a load of hay come in from our hay guy. I saw a big cat that wasn't ours jump out as the wagon was coming down our drive. I thought "Oh great another wild cat on the farm" As this usually happens every year when hay comes lol.
As it was being unloaded, my brother stumbled upon a new litter of 4 kittens that must have been born in the bales a week ago I'm guessing as their eyes aren't open yet.
Now We could have called up our hay guy and have him come and get them, But I couldn't do that.
Ive heard to many horror stories of what these "Old time farmer mentality" guys do to a litter of farm kittens. Too many cats on the farm, So they will dispose of them. Not taking into consideration of how all life is precious and everything has a purpose. I left the kitties on the hay wagon overnight thinking momma cat might come back and get them, But she didn't. So first thing this morning I brought them into the house, Fed them eyedroppers of goat milk and made them a cozy place to sleep. Their bellies are full and hopefully I will be able to find them good homes when the time comes.

My 15 year old Chihuaua, "Baby" is taking to them well, And is almost acting like they are puppies. I'm hoping she lays with them and keeps them warm. Baby has great maternal instincts. She took to a baby pot belly pig we had once.

Got Milk?

2011-09-07T09:15:00.000-07:00

We are now in Milk!

We have welcomed yet another goat to the family. This is our new Nubian doe "Hope" I call her Milly since that's what she looks like to me lol. I think I will make that a permanent name for her now. She is such a sweetie and is still getting used to her new family of goats and dogs. She is taking awhile to warm up to Sam and Bella, But she is doing great. She has a nice big udder, and her teats are nice and big, which makes milking her a breeze and a lot of fun! She is a big girl at 170#, good thing she is super gentle and easy going with the other girls.

We are getting 2 quarts of milk from her a day. Her milk is super sweet and creamy, and were all enjoying having fresh milk in the house!

Having to milk a goat twice a day has actually been good for me. Surprisingly for a farm girl I'm not a morning person, And I like my sleep.Sleeping in is a wonderful thing LOL. Ive been getting up earlier and on time now, Milly has to be milked every 12 hours. It's very enjoyable and relaxing milking her. The feel of her soft warm udders and the sound of the milk as it hits the pail, Listening to her breath and chew her grain as I milk. Its very relaxing and therapeutic I highly suggest it!

This mornings milk

Milly doesn't quite know what to think of Bella.Bella however loves Milly and tries giving her kisses

Morning Chores

2011-08-19T06:14:00.000-07:00

I just realized I had not blogged in a really long time. So I decided to take a video of the morning chores.

You may need to turn off the blog music below.

Swiss Chard, Potato & Garlic Soup

2011-06-20T13:51:00.000-07:00

Swiss Chard is a hard Veggie to sell. A lot of people run over to our booth thinking it's Rhubarb. They always ask me what can they do with it. Swiss Chard is a super food in my opinion, It's so full of nutrients!
So I thought I would try this soup out and share it since its So good! And super easy to make. It's not really soup weather outside but I had a bunch of leftover Swiss Chard from Market and I had to find something to make out of it.

1 bunch Swiss chard
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoons butter
3 cloves garlic, finely minced ( I added more to taste Since I love garlic)
4 cups chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 1/2 pound red potatoes, peeled and diced in 1/2 inch pieces
Salt and freshly milled black pepper to taste
1/4 - 1/2 cup Emmenthaler cheese, grated (Optional)

Clean Swiss chard. Remove leaves from heavy stems, keeping stems on side. Chop stems into 1/2 inch thick slices. Chop leaves into julienne. Keep separate. Set aside

Put oil butter and garlic in large soup pot. Let cook 5 minutes over low heat. Do not burn. This step is to allow garlic to release its juices.

Pour in broth and thyme. Put in potatoes and thick stems of the chard, raising heat to medium high. Bring to a boil. When boiling, lower heat to medium and cook until potatoes are beginning to soften, about 1 minutes. Stir in Swiss chard leaves and cook another 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Add pepper and salt to taste.

Serve with grated cheese on the side

This is what's for dinner tonight..Yummy!

It's a growing

2011-06-20T08:34:00.000-07:00

We finally had a variety of things to sell this Saturday at market. Turnips, Swiss Chard,Kohlrabi,Lettuces,And beets.

We were happy the beets were finally ready to harvest. This year we grew three different kinds of Beets,Golden,traditional red, and a pink striped variety.I don't remember the specific names of them at the moment.We like the color it adds to the table and the different flavors.
This is the first time we are able to sell beets. Last years crop got overrun with weeds and they didn't grow much. We made sure to keep the beets as weed free as we could this time, and we've had a great turn out! We ended up selling mostly everything except for some Swiss Chard and some turnips. The Swiss chard will be processed today for the freezer.

I just love beets! They have such pretty rich coloring

Turnips and Swiss Chard

The cost of free ranging

2011-06-08T06:30:00.000-07:00

I love having our chickens being completely free ranged. We have them on a 2 acre pasture surrounded by woods. They love to scratch around underneath the tree's for bugs and worms. I even seen them catch mice (Gross) They are truly very happy chickens.

Lately we have been noticing a major decline in our egg production. We went from gathering around 40 eggs a day and within a month drop down to around 20! What was going on we wondered! Maybe it was the feed. So we switched to a higher protein feed and started feeding them black oil sunflower seeds. Still nothing.

No signs of anything wrong, No dead chickens...nothing.
Finally brad noticed one morning when going to open the coop up for the day, A bird hanging out of the crack in the coop door, Something tried dragging out one of the hens. It was dead and stuck. We looked around the coop and found scratch marks going up the sides of the coop! Something had climbed up into the rafters and had been getting our hens.
We figured it must have been a coon? And had been killing at least a hen a night. We were so shocked! We had no signs of anything being killed at all!

So brad spent an hour putting wire along the rafters of the coop in the front and back. It was another learning experience,They will find a way in!!

The bad thing about this pasture is our dogs cannot roam in it because the fencing is this pasture needs completely redone. However we did get one pasture finished and the dogs are finally out roaming the property. Hopefully their distant barks will keep critters away!

Alex

2011-06-07T07:04:00.000-07:00

This is our new little handsome guy "Alex". He came with the name Seamus pronounced (sheymus) We bought him from a breeder in Alexis Illinois so I thought the name Alex would fit him nicely.
Alex is a Mini Nubian, which is a cross between a Nigerian dwarf buck and a standard sized Nubian doe. Producing the look of a Nubian in a smaller size. Great for smaller farms or someone looking for a dairy goat with a high butterfat content in a smaller easier to handle size.

Alex and the girls are still getting used to each other and everyone seems to be getting along great! I cannot wait for cute lil floppy eared babies! Alex is only 3 months old so It might be a a month or 2 before he takes interest in them, Or we shall see when the girls come back into heat again.

Josie says thanks for the new friend! Elle never seems to want to be in my pictures lol she is camera shy I guess :0)

Easier than last year

2011-05-11T14:23:00.000-07:00

Planting is in full force with the big warm up we've had over the last several days.

First thing we really needed to get in were potatoes. If you check older posts you will find photos of last years potato planting. It was by far the hardest 3 days (Yes 3 days) Work Ive ever had!
4, 300 foot rows all trenched by hand.This year we were very fortunate and lucky to have our friend Jim Johansen (of Wesley acres produce) let us borrow his awesome antique potato planter. I was so happy when he offered it to us to use. With what took 3 days to do last year only took a mere 1 1/2 hour to do this year!! I could not believe it! I must have one. This thing trenched,buried,and Hilled the rows. And of course my mom and nephew wanted to try it. My nephew was actually better at it than the rest of us.

Brad and my mom getting ready to plant

And now my nephews turn

We are so lucky to have met such great generous people since we started doing the markets!

A HUGE thank you to Jim Johansen!

April Showers

2011-04-29T06:32:00.000-07:00

The weather has been crazy everywhere! We have had an abnormally cold and wet spring here in Illinois, Everything is waterlogged and over saturated. We are hoping for a nice dry sunny week, as we are way behind on planting! Our plants are all up but when it's this chilly they just kind of sit there and grow very slowly. The chicken house needs moved desperately, It is sitting in a puddle. Egg production has dropped from the lack of sunshine and temps, although they do enjoy finding the worms coming up in the muddy areas.

There is good from all this rain however. No worries about drought, and everything is such a beautiful rich shade of green!

Our white plum tree is in full bloom.

I love the curves of tulip leaves.

A gourd birdhouse

2011-04-19T15:13:00.000-07:00

I had a few extra gourds laying around from last years crop. Which failed might I add. But we did get a few gourds from our little patch, and so I decided to make a new birdhouse out of one of them. I really like the looks of the stained gourds but after scrubbing and scrubbing I just couldn't get the stains out of the gourd so I just painted it.

Before

And the after.
Still need to put a sealer on it and a hole to hang it.
hopefully there will be a new bird family making a nest in there soon!

Also painted this one up to. A little mushroom. You cannot see it in this picture, but I distressed the white with some distress ink. So it breaks all the white up a little and makes it look more like a fungus :0)

And since I stayed inside all day and bored out of my mind, I made my mom up a dozen eggs to stick in her fridge as a surprise lol. Hopefully this doesn't make her feel bad about eating them in the mourning. I did get a giggle out of my 2 year old nephew

Scenes around the farm this week

2011-04-15T08:29:00.000-07:00

I've been a little behind on blogging so thought I would share some scenes around the farm this week. Blogging for me is a bit hard this time of the year since we are so busy with planting and building things and all sorts of stuff. So here are a few pictures of our week.

Got some more onion plants in

Finally started working on putting the walls on the new coop.This is a work when you have extra time project lol

Spring storm

Broody hen now has a baby to care for under her wing

New babies everywhere

2011-04-08T10:40:00.000-07:00

Spring is so much fun on the farm. New babies being born everywhere!

This newborn Alpaca belongs to our neighbor Tamara Houseman of http://www.zengoaties.com/
She lives right next door, and I had to get a picture of this adorable little girl.You cannot tell from these photo's but she is so tiny! And soft too

The same day we welcomed 2 liters of cute little pot belly piglets. These little guys will double their weight in a few days. Nothing cuter than chubby little pot belly babies running around!

New baby chicks just in time for Easter

The barn is filled with baby lambs. They are so sweet

And baby goats. Here is a little baby that needed to be bottle fed. Sometimes the goat momma's aren't the best. Sheep on the other hand are such great mothers and never leave their babies side!

The deep litter system...Blah...

2011-04-04T10:06:00.000-07:00

The weather has warmed and it was time to clean out the coop over the weekend. We did a lot of looking online and reading on The deep Litter System for chicken coops before winter. You don't completely clean out the coops all winter and just keep putting fresh bedding on. It worked great throughout the cold temps and kept the coop and the hens nice and toasty from the decomposing litter underneath. But I am really reconsidering doing this again. It was way to much work to clean it out in the spring, I think we hauled 5 trailers full of bedding! I like a nice freshly cleaned coop. In the summer our coop is spotless, so I don't know if this deep litter thing is for us. There is nothing better than walking into a nice clean coop with the scent of pine bedding!
Do you do a deep litter system in the winter? What are your thoughts, do you Like or dislike it?

The chickens love to scratch around in the old bedding.Pretty gross but fun to watch them

The sheep with their new baby lambs hung around all day with curiosity to what we were doing. They are so darn cute!

Freedom

2011-04-01T08:05:00.000-07:00

Our new goat paddock is done! The girls have been staying in a stall, So I'm so happy they have a big ole pen to run and play in. It is being used as a goat/dog paddock for the time being. Last week Sammy And Bella got out of the pasture, They were missing all day. Sam came home Bella never did.Thankfully she was found and taken to Doggy Jail LOL. What a headache! So until we can get the electric fence fixed in the pasture they will be staying with the goats,
Elle May and Josie.

They all get along great, Bella has become pretty attached to them. She licks them and just loves them. We fixed up an old Hog shed, put a new roof on it,and Painted it.Perfect size for everyone.

Elle May being Goofy as always. She was just bred with my neighbors Nigerian Dwarf buck,So if all goes well we should have what they call mini Nubian babies this August!

They are so funny!They crack me up. Josie likes the camera

Sammy and Josie

Gone Broody

2011-03-31T19:47:00.000-07:00

Finally one of the hens has gone broody! We have been waiting for this.Hopefully we will not be ordering chicks anymore and this girl will be hatching eggs for us. I found her in the barn in a dark corner on a huge pile of eggs.I'm guessing she is laying on 12+ They are spilling out from underneath her. She has been missing for some time now, I guess she wanted to run off and start a family! So I moved her and her eggs (forgot to count them) into the chick box and gave her a nice cozy spot to sit and hatch them out. I love watching her, She is so gentle with her eggs. If one spills out she will gently tuck it back under her.Don't get to close though! She is very protective of them and will puff her feathers up, make squawking noises and tries to go for your hand lol

I will candle them tomorrow to see if they are all fertile eggs.

Best Strawberry Rhubarb Pie ever!!

2011-03-25T10:47:00.000-07:00

Yes! Almost time for Brad's famous Strawberry Rhubarb pie! There truly is nothing better.Good thing he only likes making the mini pies otherwise I would be in trouble lol. We sell these adorable little mini pies at the Trinity Market on Utica Ridge road in Bettendorf. This year we will only have a limited number of pies due to our busy schedule. unless you contact us and let us know you would like one made. You will be in heaven! They are the perfect deep dish size for yourself or to share. Our rhubarb is up and growing fast so It shouldn't be long!
Surprisingly Brad is an amazing pie maker. This recipe has been passed down from my family and from my Great Grandmother who owned a bake shop. Sadly I cannot bake so it has now been passed down from my Mom to Brad lol.

Oh on another note, Be sure to come and try our Buttermilk squares which are out of this world amazing! Also a family recipe and just plain sinful. They are dangerous to have extra's around here because I eat them all hahaha.

Goats a Silly creatures

2011-03-23T07:07:00.000-07:00

I think out of all the animals here on the farm,The Goats would have to be the most entertaining animals. They are so Silly.The babies are fun to watch as they hop around almost as it they were dancing.

You could watch them for hours as long as you had some good obstacles for them to play on!

They Love making silly faces

And I have to give the little pot belly pigs some credit too. They are hilarious,They can't bend their bodies so when they play they will just run around and move in circles, It cracks me up! and They like to smile.

Egg production is up!

2011-03-23T06:37:00.000-07:00

Yay for spring,Our egg production is up! The hens dropped off laying dramatically this winter as expected. We were only getting around 7-10 eggs a a day out of 100+ hens!
We were a bit worried, but now that the weather has warmed up egg production is up!
We are now getting around 3 dozen a day.
Hopefully we gather more than that this summer as we have around 75 young hens that aren't laying yet. And we just ordered some more chicks. Easter Eggers, We can't wait! We will have a very unique egg color variety this year.Super dark chocolate brown eggs mixed with regular brown,white,pink,blue,and green! It will make gathering the eggs even more exciting!

Spring is early

2011-03-17T06:58:00.000-07:00

Ok so spring came a bit early for us this year.This is the earliest we have gotten anything in the ground.

Maybe It's because we have spring fever and couldn't wait to dig our hands into the dirt.
The smell of the moist dirt was pure happiness.There is no better smell!

It was so perfect yesterday so we decided to do a dirt test with the tiller. The dirt was perfect! Not to wet and nice and crumbly. So we thought what the heck might as well till up the whole garden while the ground was dry and the weather was nice. It took most of the day.My day was spent watching brad and sitting in the dirt. I was just soaking it up! Felt good to be so close to the earth,That's what I've been waiting for.So to my relief we have beets and carrots planted. Hopefully they are ready by market day this may!

Checking everything over

The last of the tilling.

Loading the seeder with beet seeds

Seeding the ground.OK I know the rows are crooked lol. A lot of other growers are very careful to get perfectly straight rows. But that just doesn't matter to us I guess.All that matters to us is that those beets will be fresh and that no chemicals will have ever touched them.

Next on the list to plant Is our lettuces and Kohlrabi.Hopefully It's a dry spring!

Chick-n-Salad

2011-03-04T18:22:00.000-08:00

A salad for the chickens from last nights leftovers.

I love giving the chickens scraps, and watching them scratch around at them, and fight over the little bits of salad leaves. This is my daily kind of entertainment around here. I don't watch much T.V, No housewives or Jersey shore, And I don't go shopping much or go to the movies. I get free healthy entertainment from watching my animals. Watching chickens almost memorizes me.There is something very,very relaxing about watching them peck around.

And I had to get a picture while I could of our beautiful Americana rooster. Unfortunately when we bought the Americana's we got all roosters.So no colored eggs for us. But I do enjoy these guys though,They are nice to look at!

Giant weird egg

2011-03-01T11:12:00.000-08:00

This is the weirdest egg.
The pictures don't do it justice to how weird it is.
And It's a really big egg too (poor chicken ) This thing is as big as a duck egg.

When I went to gather the eggs this mourning It was like this egg was staring at me lol.
I noticed it right when I walked into the chicken house and said "WOW".I was almost kind of scared to pick it up because I though it was one of those rare soft eggs that you sometimes get. But nope it was a regular hard egg just weird.This egg has wrinkles and ridges all over it. Like frank-en egg lol.I bet it's double yolked!

Now I am going to wonder what chicken layed this egg.

This is as far as the carton will close!

The weird egg amongst our already jumbo eggs.

Josie and Elle May

2011-02-28T13:56:00.000-08:00

Our new Future Nubian milking goats

Josie

And Elle May

I couldn't believe how hard it was to find this breed of dairy goat. Although I have never had a Nubian goat before, They have always been my favorite breed. I love their long floppy ears And playful personalities.

These Two little girls are 10 months old. They will be bred shortly to our Toggenburg Buck. That should be a cute combination! We don't have a Nubian boyfriend for these two but that's ok, We still love the mixed breed babies, It's fun to see what you get.

If everything goes well, these guys should be in milk by late summer. In preparation I'm getting our barn office cleaned and ready to be our new milking room. We will have our milking stand in there,a sink,and a refrigerator, so we can chill the milk fast. This is going to be a exiting new thing for us!

-------------------------------
Most of the goats here on the farm are Pygmy crosses for my parents petting zoo.
I'm used to their personalities.
So when I brought these two girls home yesterday I could tell the difference right away!

For starters they are very loud!
They sound like they are being murdered when they cry LOL. It cracks me up.

They are a lot more aloof and curious than the other breeds we have. But very friendly.

Overall I think they are big Goof balls! I noticed they like to throw their heads around a lot, They are natural comedians lol

These girls are going to be the most spoiled goats in the barn! They went on a walk with me this mourning to the chicken house. With their new pink collars and leads of course! lol

Spring means work

2011-02-28T10:05:00.000-08:00

Springtime on the farm means major spring cleanup of the laziness of winter.
And the beginning of sore muscles that haven't been worked much lol.

Not saying we don't get our fare share of farm chores and duties in winter time. But when the weather warms up a bit we all get in a major cleaning mood and go to town!

The last warm up we had we got a lot of stuff done in the day. Thank god for helpful family members willing to come out and help wrangle goats and sheep up for their springtime vaccinations,hoof trimmings,and dehorning babies. The day goes by a lot faster when you have a few hands and a lot of laughing!

My mom and my dad giving a vaccination to this little goatee

Our list of things to do when the temps warm up again

-Cobwebs and dust to clean in the barn
-Empty Feed sacks piled up to be thrown away
-Barn floor to be raked
-Stalls to be completely mucked and cleaned out
-All feed pans and water dished to be completely bleached and sanitized
--------------------------------------------
We were also able to get a lot of the down tree's that were cut down in late fall, Chopped,split,and stacked. The tree's are shared by our neighbors and us, they are right on the property line. There were a few dead ones that needed taken down. The pile is smaller but still some left to do.

I think it's time to replace some of the old hay buckets as well LOL. This one ASAP! all that sharp metal isn't good in the barn, But makes for a cute picture :0)

Bella and friends

2011-02-25T15:04:00.000-08:00

(This video has its own music,you may need to turn off the blog music below)

Our little Dairy kids are growing so fast!
We expanded their pen so they would have some room to run in the horse stall. I decided it was time for Bella to meet these little guys. She loved it and was so gentle with them! She is truly the sweetest dog! Sammy is one lucky guy LOL.

Nothing makes me happier or clears my mind than sitting and spending time with my animals. They are so therapeutic!
Watching little goat babies jump around instantly makes you smile :0)

A new home

2011-02-23T10:57:00.000-08:00

We have finally got a start on the new coop!
Well I shouldn't say we, more like Brad.
It was supposed to be done this winter but for some reason we go into Hibernation mode around here as soon as the temps get below 40 degrees lol. So now that it's a bit warmer, bring on the projects!
The new coop is being put on an old hay wagon frame, Makes it A lot easier to move it around the pastures.We still need to find some tires for this thing. Our other coop is on heavy duty Skids.Which works great as well But we cannot get it over our bridge to one of the pastures. Glad we will be able to do that with this new coop!

I like the idea of using this old Axle and recycling it into something useful.I know if we wouldn't have brought it home and rescued it, That it would have probably been used as scrap. Plus it was free from a friend ~SCORE~.
Not sure what look were going for yet,As Brad's building designs are what he likes to call them, pulled out of his You know what lol. I was thinking about going with a green roof, One that you can plant on. That would be neat looking I think, And cheaper than a tin roof! We will see how it comes along. But for now Brad spent some time last weekend and finished the floor! So maybe he will work on the walls this weekend.

Getting the axle in the garage. Its been sitting outside all winter.

Putting the floor together

Some pictures of Mobile coops we might go off.

Here is a green roof. Isn't it awesome and adorable? lol Just wondering what I could plant that would be low maintenance. Grass? then I would have to mow it. However I Could put a few chickens on it to eat it down :0)

Little ones

2011-02-12T09:37:00.000-08:00
There here! My new baby dairy goats. I really wanted to get Nubians but they are so hard to find! Instead we welcomed a little alpine and a Saanen doe. I cannot wait to make some homemade goats milk butter and cheese! I think I'm going to try and find a doe in milk until these little girls are ready. So I have yet another project for Brad to do, Make me a milking stand lol. Poor brad always has something to make or do on his list. Ah that reminds me, His next project is another mobile chicken coop for our new pullets, and he is going to attempt to make a plastic mulch layer and tomato trans planter.Glad he took some welding classes in college. This is going to be a really busy spring for us! Wait isn't every spring..I think I say this every year LOL. Here are some pictures, more to come since these aren't the best. I took these in a hurry while bottle feeding them this mourning.

Alpine doe. I like the name Eleanor for her I think LOL

Little Saanen doe. Thinking about naming her Heidi

This is a little buckling my mom bought. He has a clef pallet and wouldnt have made it if not bottle fed. Thought we would give him a good life here on the farm. We are naming him Harry :0)

First Chocolate egg!

2011-02-09T20:25:00.000-08:00

I went into the chicken house this mourning and to my surprise gathered one our first dark brown eggs from one of our chocolate egg-er hens.A weird term for a chicken but I love it, Reminds me of Charlie and the chocolate factory Ha! The hens that are laying these are our Welsummer (Also known as the Kellogg's cereal chicken)and Barnevelder chickens. They are a considered a rare heritage breed.They are very cool looking too! I Love these rich dark brown eggs, You have to be careful though when you wash them as the brown color on these chocolate eggs washes off.

Illinois Certified

2011-02-09T19:26:00.001-08:00

We are now certified to sell eggs in the state of Illinois! We are so excited. This means we will now be selling eggs at the Trinity Farmers Market in Moline this year! One of the requirements to sell eggs in Illinois is to candle them. This is to make sure they are perfect no cracks Etc. I feel so nostalgic using this old antique egg candler. It was Brad's Grandma's when she was younger. She used to have her own egg business in Cedar County Iowa. With around 300 hens. It's seen it's better days and is a tad rusty but it works great, They truly don't make things like they used to! This old candler works 10 times better than the new hobby farm modernized types that you can buy! Glad we can carry on the tradition

Farm Video

2010-10-12T09:52:00.000-07:00
little video I made of some of the animals here on the Farm.

Baby Girl

2010-10-12T09:20:00.001-07:00

It's always fun to get a new baby on the farm. Brad bought me a female Great Pyrenees puppy for my birthday, We named her Bella. Our plans are to breed her to Sammy in a couple years. She is such a sweet girl, so calm and gentle. And is great with the chickens! She isn't in with the goats and sheep full time yet like Sammy. She is still to small. I tried putting her in with them for the day and they started head butting her pretty hard. So we will have to wait until she gets bigger. I don't want her getting hurt. She will follow me when I go out to feed the chickens and follows Sammy everywhere he goes...They are in Love lol. She is on the smaller side so she won't grow to be as big as Sam.
Her parents were smaller and from working stock, Sammy was from show/working stock. Pyrenees from pure working stock tend to be less hairy and don't have as much of a block build like Sammy does. She seems like she will be a great guardian dog, She is a watcher and will sit and just watch everything..Which is a good sign! She doesn't have that crazy wanna play puppy attitude.

Radish cover

2010-08-05T14:19:00.000-07:00

I know I'm behind on this but I am trying to catch up LOL. If you haven't seen the July issue of radish magazine yet we were on the front cover! We are so excited about this. I was a nervous wreck before the photo shoot but it all went smoothly. Sarah Gardner (The new editor of Radish) was so great and we had a great time even though it rained a bit on us.We thought they did such a great job on the article and we were really impressed! I do have to add that we are only doing 2 markets a week now. In the article it states we do 4 markets but we cut it back to two. It was becoming so much work and we weren't able to get anything done with 4 markets. That's one of the reason's we were late getting our plants in this summer. We are learning as we go and have learned so much this year. Our mistakes will only make things better next year :0)

Potato Prep before planting...

2010-04-13T18:56:00.000-07:00

Its time to plant the potatoes! Brad and I spent the day getting our potato bed ready, and cutting and prepping the potatoes for planting. We have never tried growing potatoes, so this will be our first year. We started out with 350 pounds to see how it goes. I was getting a little intimidated and overwhelmed by the amount of potatoes that other people plant and grow for the markets LOL. But if all goes well this year we will most likely expand the potato beds. I know in a couple day's when planting begins our backs are going to hurt at the end of the day!

Planting time..

2010-04-05T17:38:00.000-07:00

Its finally been nice and dry enough out to start planting our early vegetables. We were also able to get out and test out our new Tiller. Which we are very happy with! We planted a lot of different lettuces (both head and loose leaf types, Carrots,a lot of radishes,turnips,and beets. We weren't able to get our Kohlrabi in and a few other veggies though because a storm was coming in. Guess we will have to wait a few day's for that. It will be nice to rest a little bit after planting is finished! My back is achy, And I have a bad sunburn. But I LOVE it! There is nothing like it in my opinion. Fresh air and dirt under my nails, Now that's living!

Making do...

2010-03-30T09:46:00.000-07:00

Brad and I are really getting tired of all the plants in the house,So we figured it was time to start hardening them off. We don't have a greenhouse yet so we built this makeshift 50ft coldframe for around $5.00. We gathered some small willow branches from around the pond for the hoops. It works perfectly! We put a couple of trays of plants in for the whole day to make sure they would be ok before we put them all out. Someday I dream/hope to have a big greenhouse and hoophouses. That would make everything easier!

Nothing better than dried on the line...

2010-03-19T13:41:00.000-07:00

Oh I was so excited to be able to wash and hang some of my bedding out on the line today! I had to make a makeshift clothesline on the cherry tree until I can get some posts put in to make a permanent one. There is nothing better than line dried sheets. There is something about them that makes me sleep so good and soundly. I love the crispness and the fresh air smell. I know I will get a really good nights sleep tonight!

Goodbye winter!

2010-02-25T19:56:00.000-08:00

Its starting to warm up a little bit here (If you want to call it that). It's Supposed to be 40 degrees in a few days Hopefully! Time to say goodbye to winter! I'm so ready for it to be over with.
Can't wait for,

warm days and cool spring nights

The smell of spring rain on the warm cement

Spring storms and the sound of thunder

planting the garden

Being outside working all day,then comming in exhausted and with dirt under my nails and a sunburn ,Then taking a Shower and bed LOL

The sound of birds singing

Oh I can't wait seriously! Hopefully this was the last snowy sunset I will see this year.

A family eats together

2010-02-18T17:56:00.000-08:00
It was so nice out today I thought I would go in the barn with my video camera while I fed Sammy. I thought this was so cute. I put some food in the bucket for Sam and then came a bunch of scavengers LOL. They all ate peacefully together though. Sammy a kitten,a rooster and chicken,and one of the pot belly piglets. They were munching on extra dog food. :0)

Time to start the seeds

2010-02-18T17:37:00.000-08:00

The time has come to start some of our seeds! We are just starting the pepper plants right now. Tomatoes and all that in a few weeks. Here we are doing our hot peppers. We planted 900 hots. We are going to be starting our sweet peppers this weekend another 900! .Soon they will be popping there little heads out of the dirt. That is my favorite part.I don't like the anticipation of waiting for them to pop up. I worry they won't grow LOL.(I do this every year). I worry,Did we plant the seeds to deep,overwater them, is it warm enough for them to germinate? But once they do op up I love watching them grow. Just touching the potting soil and the smell of it has got me in the gardening mood!

Handy Man......

2010-02-10T09:43:00.000-08:00

I'm so glad that Brad has become so handy these day's. We really needed some display boxes for our produce at the market.So after spending some time in the garage he made these! They are perfect for displaying.They are shallow so you can see what is inside of them and lightweight. I'm still trying to decided wether to stain them or keep them natural colored. He still has a few more winter projects he would like to get done before spring. Such as making a bunch of birdhouses for the market and home show.

Scientists in india create super tomatoes

2010-02-04T18:44:00.000-08:00

What is this world comming to,and what is the price we will pay for an longer lasting tomato? Scientists are claiming they do not know the long term affects of these tomatoes and their nutritional value.So it would be like eating water nutritinally wise in the long run. What goes bad is what's good for you! You think genetically modified food will help starving people? Bio tech companies make GMO's so they can make more money pure and simple. Just look at the US. Monsanto makes Roundup ready corn--> farmers overproduce it--> the price drops so farmers can't support themselves-- they get welfare (of course they call it subsidies)
Meanwhile the American people are fatter than they've ever been, because cheap food is crappy food.

All the while Monsanto is making billions, and the billions of hungry people and the world is still hungry. If you would like to read the article for yourself here is the link.http://www.slashfood.com/2010/02/03/scientists-in-india-create-super-tomatoes/

Another good Documentary

2010-02-03T07:40:00.000-08:00

Brad and I watched a Documentary called King corn! This is another one I think everyone should watch,Its an eye opener.It shows that almost everything we eat has some form of corn in it. Thats why american's are so obese and that Diabetes has risen in this country dramatically!! I'm really going to be watching what I buy at the grocery store from now on! Most people assume that a chicken nugget is just a piece of fried chicken, right? Wrong! Did you know that a McDonald's Chicken McNugget is 56% corn? If you want to know what’s in your food and how its grown, rent King Corn. This documentary exposes the Crop's Ubiquity and Potential Harm.

Americans need to start growing their own food if they can, or at least be buying if from farmers markets. They stated in this show that most iowa farmers can't feed themselves like they could back in the day.Why? because almost all the corn that is grown cannot be digested unless processed. Pretty scary! So basically if grain farmers had to feed themselves they couldnt Like they could 30 years ago where almost every farmers grew and raised everything they ate! I think people need to get back to that way of life.

Giant eggs!

2010-02-01T13:06:00.000-08:00

Brad and I just bought 18 new hens to add to our flock. We bought Red Star hens and to our surprise they are the hens that lay the giant eggs! These hens are only 9 months old and lay some of the biggest brown eggs I have ever seen! They are like super Jumbo eggs! Some of them won't even fit into the egg cartons and have to be stored in bowls LOL.And the ones that will fit into the cartons fill it up and I can hardly close the carton as you can see. Some of them almost resemble duck eggs! Here is a picture of the ones that would fit into the cartons. Here is one of our large regular sized eggs compared to the super jumbo eggs lol. I kept an egg today that was the biggest egg I have ever seen! It measured 3 1/2'' long by 6'' around!!! I'm keeping it for as long as I can lol.

A sign of spring

2010-02-01T12:47:00.001-08:00

First sign that spring is near! We have babies being born like crazy! Our barn is filled with the sounds of lambs and goat kids. We also have a bunch of little baby pot belly pigs running around. This is always a fun time of year! Its like Christmas because I can't wait to see what color goat will be born next. We have around 70 goats so there are alot of them! Now the lambs all look alike color wise. They do have different faces though. Most of them look the same but sometimes you get one like this little guy, with a cute little fuzzy face.
Oh by the way all these little pot belly pigs are for sale! They are also related to Gary mativier's pig Frankie!

Brazy Creek Soaps

2010-01-21T13:49:00.000-08:00

We will be selling our all natural soaps this year! I'm so excited. All our soaps are made using the cold process soap method.Our soap is free of dyes and colorants and is scented using all natural 100% essential oils and fragrance oils.Right now we have Lavender and Oatmeal-milk-and honey available.
You can check out more on our website at, http://www.Brazycreekfarm.com. Check back often for more fragrances and prices. I'm going to try to get paypal up and going so It will be easy to buy of our site.

New Website now up and running.

2010-01-19T09:27:00.000-08:00
We have finally gotten our website published online,Yay! Its took me awhile to design it,and I wanted it to match this blog.I'm still not finished but I'm happy it's finally online. So if you wan't to check it out here it is,

http://www.Brazycreekfarm.com

First shipment of seeds.

2010-01-04T07:56:00.000-08:00

Our first shipment of seeds has arrived for the 2010 growing season! We ordered alot of green beans of different varieties! As well as many other vegetables. We are doing about a half acre of green beans this year.I'm sure my back will be in poor shape this year from picking them LOL.
We are ordering from several different seed companies this year. And still have alot more seeds comming. Its a little overwhelming! I think Brad has ordered a few thousand onion plants as well. Good thing we have a seeder this year so we don't have to do it all by hand as we did last! That was alot of backbreaking work!

A place to lay

2010-01-01T15:40:00.000-08:00

So Brad has finally built a nesting box for the girls so they have a place to lay! We have been using milk crates which work great, But in order to get certified to sell eggs we had to have a real nesting box. He still has to mount it off the ground. He might also make more once we get some more hens.We still have a few more things to get done to the hen house before we get USDA inspected. We have to put plywood over the insulation,and build a roost. And I will be painting or staining the house this spring. So much to do,so little time. There is only so much I can do before they become man(Brad)jobs Ha!

Soft Silent and slow,descends the snow

2009-12-24T18:14:00.000-08:00

Well I took these the other day,It was so pretty out! I love the way the snow softens everything. This is the house taken from out in the pasture. All the animals were in the barn staying warm exept for a few ducks. They were actually swimming in the creek right before I took this picture. I can't believe they dont freeze!
And Our Dog Sam was happy to be out playing in the snow as well! He reminds me of a big polar bear.

Snow Day

2009-12-08T13:19:00.000-08:00

Well we are getting a whole lot of snow today! By the end of this storm we are supposed to have around 10 inches on the ground! A good day to stay in with a movie and some hot chocolate I think! As you can see everyone is in the hibernation mood around the farm. This is Corky (the pot belly pig) all snug in his bed while the snow flutters down. Makes me want to do the same thing. I hope Brad can get out of the driveway tomorrow mourning, The back country roads always tend to be the worst.I always worry about him driving to work in the winter since he has a pretty long drive on I-80. From Geneseo To Davenport

Food,Inc....A must see!!!

2009-12-04T07:20:00.001-08:00
This movie is a must see for everyone!Makes me want to be a self sufficient farm in the near future! What lies we have been told and it really shows how we are controlled like a herd of sheep!

An intrduction from the website -
filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.

While revealing many concerns about our food system, FOOD, Inc.also reminds us that we each have the ability to change the system through our food choices.

Eggs For sale!

2009-12-01T12:12:00.001-08:00

Not all of our hens are laying but we still manage to get around a dozen a day! And Since the farmer's market is done for the season I have no way to sell them. If you or anyone yo know is interested in buying Fresh brown eggs just let me know. They are $2.50 a dozen.Price will go up to $3.00 this spring and summer when they will be free range. They are beautiful eggs! With dark yellow yolks and hard shells..Sure signs of healthy farm fresh eggs!

New Chicken Coop

2009-12-01T11:49:00.000-08:00

Yaaay our Chicken house is almost fisnished!!

Our chickens have been living in a little hog hut all summer (Temporary) And mostly free range.So before the colder weather hit we new we had to get a chicken house built. So here it is! Its not quite finished of course.
It still needs a door.some tin roofing and to be painted.And we also have to get some nesting boxes made and a roost. Its 12x12 and a lot warmer that the little hog hut!! Its on big heavy duty metal skids so It can be moved around the pasture easily so our chickens can be fed free range easily.Makes for healthier eggs!
Still trying to decide if I want to paint it or stain it. I think I'm going to go with a red tin roof so it matches the red barns. So It will either be yellow with a red tin roof or a honey colored stain.

I love Barn Quilt blocks!

2009-12-01T10:36:00.000-08:00

A new thing I have came across is Barn quilt blocks. I Love them! I think they add so much charm and color to a building! I think I may make one for our newly built chicken house.We will see how that goes LOL. Now what pattern to choose? It would only be right to choose the hen and chicks pattern I suppose,But I also like the look of the peace star as pictured.. Decisions, decisions.