Coming soon....Wild Turkey Farm pics

We were at the farm yesterday doing our daily chores and I did take my camera so I will have some updated pictures soon!!

We have had another litter of pigs and a total of 3 baby lambs.

We have also had a lot of rain the last couple of weeks so we have done the things that have to be done but not much more than that. We have been busy in the greenhouse though.

Yesterday we were moving our chickens to a new patch of pasture. Lee & Charlie were in the bobcat moving the mobile chicken coop and my job was to guard the opening and not let the chickens escape.

Sounds easy enough but the opening that I was guarding was at least 30 feet and it wasn't just a few chickens I needed to keep in it was 195 chickens. The chickens did realize there was an opening and they did run toward the opening. I was running back and forth, back and forth waving my hands in the air. Then I fell down in the mud! What do you think Lee & Charlie were doing? If you guessed laughing you would be correct!!

I'm happy to say that only 2 chickens managed to get out. They're lucky I didn't take them home for chicken stew!

Saturday...what a day

As you all know by now, we sell at 2 Farmer's Markets during the spring and summer. The Davidson Market has had a winter market every other Saturday from 9 to 11. Lee has been going to this Market but this Saturday he had a conflict so it was my turn to go to the Market. It was nice to be back at the Market and see some of my regular customers. Where else do I have 2 little girls call me the "Bacon Lady"? The Market will be back in full swing in May and it will be every Saturday from 8 to 12 noon. Come visit Us!

Once I got home I decided to make a Key Lime Pie. I have tons of cookbooks and I try to make something new from one of my cookbooks every week (this does not always happen though). It was just fate when I went grocery shopping on Friday afternoon that they had a small bag of key limes on sale.

The recipe was very easy!

The crust was made from crushed graham crackers and melted butter.

I guess I just never thought about getting the juice out of a key lime. If you have never seen a key lime they are very small- not much bigger than a walnut.

The recipe called for 2/3 cup lime juice. It took me forever to "juice" the limes but I did it. The recipe also called for 2 teaspoons of lime zest. I got to practice some of my skills learned from watching cooking shows on PBS.

Next I separate 3 egg yolks. No problem. Mix the lime zest and the egg yolks were still doing good. Next pour in a can of sweetened condensed milk- YIKES- we got a problem. I had a bad can of sweetened condensed milk it was brown and if you don't know it shouldn't have been brown it should have been white!

I was so very glad that the lime juice that I had struggled with was not in there or I would have been just a little upset!! So luckily I had another can of sweetened condensed milk. So I zested some more limes and cracked 3 more eggs and separated the yolks.

The end product was a delicious Key Lime Pie. It is very "limey." I think that the key limes are tarter than regular limes. Lee & Charlie liked it a lot, Rosty has not tried it yet.

The kids did not help me with this pie but they do like to help in the kitchen. A few weeks a go I bought a bag of bananas that were very ripe. They were actually for banana bread but they had a cookie recipe on the bag so we decided to make some banana peanut butter cookies. I measured everything out beforehand and then had the boys come in the kitchen and they got to mix everything together. I was going to let them actually roll the cookies into a ball because the recipe said it would be a dough-like consistency. Well, it wasn't it was more batter like so I decided to just drop the cookies on the parchment paper and hope for the best! While the cookies were baking I reread the recipe..oops...I was suppose to use baking soda not baking powder. Lesson learned! Rosty ate a cookie and said it was good but I threw them away.

Slow Food on 60 Minutes

Here is a clip from 60 Minutes about the Slow Food Movement:

http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/slow_food/blog_post/alice_waters_on_60_minutes/

In part of the clip they are at Slow Food 2008 which was held in San Francisco. A local chef, Andrea Reusing of The Lantern Restaurant in Chapel Hill prepared cracklings and head cheese from Wild Turkey Farms pork. So we were a very small part of Slow Food 2008.

Are you wearing green today?

Just in the past few years have I realized that there is a whole lot more to St. Patrick's Day than wearing green.

At Rosty's first babysitter there was a family there that was Irish. The father came to America as a teenager. I loved to hear their dad or grandparents talk.

So here is a quick history of St. Patrick's Day:

St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17th which is the anniversary of the death of St. Patrick.

At the age of 16 Patrick was taken prisoner by a group of Irish raiders who were attacking his family estate. He was held in captivity for 6 years. He worked as a shepherd alone & outdoors and he relied upon his religion to get him through during this time he became a devout Christian. He eventually escaped (according to his writings God's voice spoke to him in a dream). He then had a second revelation- an angel in a dream who told him to go to Ireland to become a missionary. He studied religion for 15 years and after he was ordained as a priest was sent to Ireland to minister to the Christians already living in Ireland & to begin converting the Irish to Christianity.

This is St. Patrick in a nutshell but history.com has more information if you are interested in learning more about St. Patrick. Which is where this info came from- consider this me citing a source!

The symbols & traditions page was also very interesting.

Did you know that leprechauns have nothing to do with St. Patricks day. Walt Disney introduced the leprechaun in a 1959 film.

http://www.history.com/content/stpatricksday/symbols-and-traditions

Rosty loves Mommy

Last night after reading Rosty a story and listening to him say his prayers I gave him a kiss and told him that I loved him more than anything in this world.

His response was "Mommy I love you more than cookies."

What's in the garden??

We are working in the garden this week.

We got a late start due to the weather but Sunday & Monday we got all of our onions and leeks in the ground. We had about 45 bunches of onions with each bunch containing between 100- 120 onion plants & several bunches of leeks with the same amount. We have red, yellow and white onions. Do the math......that's a lot of onions!

I sure hope we are able to sell all of them or I will be asking for recipes that use onions & leek. Ever heard of onion jelly??

Today's project is potatoes.

We have 130 pounds of potatoes to plant this afternoon. We have red, white and blue potatoes.

Last year the Feed Store that we frequent had ordered blue potatoes and was giving them to the kids to plant. We took some to the Market and they were a big hit- high in antioxidants. So this year we will be having more blue potatoes.

I hope we get a lot done today because the weather has been really nice!

We have our lettuces and tomatoes started in the greenhouse too. I always think the garden look so pretty when the different lettuces are growing.

What is feeding?

I thought I would share what exactly feeding at the farm entails. It is not just giving the animals food and water.

To start with our animals are not all located together they are spread out over about 50 acres. Some of the animals have self-feeders that are refilled as needed. The pasture-raised pigs are on the 'back 40' so to speak. They are fed twice a day. They also get fresh water every other day. It is possible to walk back to the pasture to feed but to carry a 200 gallon water tank not quite as easy. So either the tractor or the truck goes back on those days. Also, if it's raining, snowing or cold I prefer to ride in the truck!

The pigs also need hay occasionally to bed down in their huts.

The cows are in the pasture so they also need water and hay taken to them.

The chicken & duck eggs are collected from the coop every evening.

We have some young chickens (195 to be exact) that are still shut up in their Cadillac of a chicken coop every night.

We also have several trays started in the greenhouse so they need to be watered and the heat turned on overnight.

Please remember that we both have "real" jobs and the feeding happens after 5 o'clock. That being said I have a wonderful husband who does most of this by himself. I do not help every night because of the boys, supper and general household chores. There are about 2 nights a week that I go home with the boys but I try to be there the rest of the time.

So sometimes feeding can take a couple of hours. Plus, there is always something that needs to be done at the farm.

We normally eat supper around 7 o'clock every night that way we can eat as a family.

This is a pretty typical day for us.....now. Once spring/summer is here and there is more sunlight our days get a lot longer. But I'll save that for another post.

Let me know if you want to come visit sometime.

Please continue to pray

Please continue to pray for the Riley Brilliant his parent's have a lot of decisions to make right now.

TUESDAY, MARCH 03, 2009 05:52 PM

Good morning! Riley had a decent night last night, though he does seem a little fussy. He has been having trouble with his temperature which has been spiking up from time to tine. He is still eating well,and resting in between. The surgeon that did his surgery came by earlier and mentioned that he still had quite a bit of blood on the brain, and that he wanted to leave him hooked up to the drain tube for another day or two. He also shared with us that Riley's tumor was approximately the size of an adult fist, quite large, especially considering the size of his head. He is recovering well, and we have been moved to the progressive unit, 8th floor, rm. 8019. We have been discussing options for Riley as far as chemotherapy is concerned, and have found little reason for optimism. The vast majority of likely treatment options are only viable with older children and adults. He is too young to receive radiation, which seems to be linked with greater success in treating these tumors. We have been checking around, and there are a few treatment options, all involving the use of intravenous or oral chemotherapy drugs either with or without bone marrow infusion therapy- quite an invasive and difficult procedure for adults, let alone an infant. Please pray for guidance for us in this time, that we may make the right decision for little Riley. It is quite a weighty matter to have to discuss, but we do take great comfort in knowing that his little life is in our Father's hands, and He can heal him, if it is His will to do so. We have confidence that whether Riley is healed by remission of the cancer, or by the Lord taking him home, either way, he will be well taken care of by Jesus. He says 'Let the little children come unto me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.'

Thank you so much for your prayers,

Jason

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 04, 2009 09:18 PM
We have been lucky enough to move to a different room today-much larger with a better view and two sofas so that we can both spend the night in Riley's room if we choose to do so! Today was a very difficult day for our family. Two years ago today, Jason's mother passed away. She was terminally ill from colon cancer. Just that memory paired with our current situation has created a lot of mixed emotions about our current situation. We must give a definitive answer about the treatment option we are going to use by this Friday.
At this time, we are favoring going to St. Jude's Children Hospital in Memphis, TN where Riley is eligible to participate in a clinical trial for children less than three years of age with highly malignant tumors. So far there are twenty-two children enrolled, but four of those children have the same cancer (GBM) as Riley, although we do not know if theirs began as congenital or not. We would be able to take Lizzie with us during this eight month process. This is a very scary and difficult time for our family since only God knows our future, and He prepares our way.
Following a CT scan earlier today, Riley's right drain tube must stay in for now as they are still getting a lot of blood off the brain. We are hoping it can come out within a couple of days. His temperature has come down, but we continue to give him Tylenol when he becomes extremely fussy, most likely due to the pressure built up in his head. All of his cultures came back negative yesterday, so he does not have any infection.
We are beginning to become overly tired due to long nights at the hospital, so we are beginning to take turns spending the night at home with Lizzie on a more frequent basis. If we do not return your phone calls or email at this time, please understand that we have a lot of information to research within the next couple of days in order to make the best possible decision for Riley.
Anyone (very strong) interested in a way to help the family? Bring your ax or chainsaw to help my dad cut wood (or better yet, bring the wood). Jason and I share an outdoor wood-burning stove with my parents who live next door. Jason normally helps my dad carry, cut, and stack the wood. My dad has taken over the responsibility of doing this task alone even while the woodstove continues to keep both houses warm. As most of you know, he has had five knee replacements and many other surgeries. I cannot personally afford to see him get hurt at this time-so any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated on my behalf (although he is stubborn and may refuse). :)
Continue to pray for our family as we continue to make decisions for Riley's future and hug your family close tonight for us.
Love,
Michelle

How I spent my child-free week-end

This past week-end we arranged for my parents to have some grandparent bonding time with the boys! We met them in Raleigh on Thursday night (because we had a delivery to make in Chapel Hill) and then met them again on Sunday afternoon in Laurinburg.

This was the first time that me and Lee have been at our house for more than a few hours without kids. We have been on a few overnight trips that the kids were not with us but never at our house. It was very, very quite and even though the boys weren't there I still watched Thomas the Tank Engine as I folded clothes..... I know I'm sad!

As I mentioned earlier we had a delivery in Chapel Hill so we asked my parents to meet us in Raleigh. We met at a gas station made the exchange and we were gone.

When I talked to moma the next day I asked how the trip home went. She said good until the DVD battery died and Charlie lost it (she didn't realize the adapter was in their bag). Charlie realized there was no more DVD player and no mommy! She finally got him to calm down by telling him to look for mommy and daddy in the van. Poor baby!!

By the time me and Lee got home we collapsed. Truth be told I don't remember the last 20 minutes of the trip I'm just glad Lee was awake enough to get us home.

Friday morning we get to sleep in later than usual. We had both taken the day off and I had plans but so did Lee and his plans were not my plans. We sent his brother on a mission- another delivery to Raleigh. Then we head to the farm. The plan was to plant onions but Lee had to till up the garden and all of this needed to be done before his 11 o'clock conference call. So when you have a plan what usually happens? In this case rain. The onions did not get planted.

Next stop- the greenhouse.

We plant several trays of various vegetables. For the second time I might add. We have a friend that has taken up residency in the greenhouse- a mouse. The first time we planted he dug up all our seeds and ate them!

It's about 2 o'clock now & we head home for lunch.

I take a shower, do some laundry, etc.

Next stop- sheep.

Since we got our new dog Annie she has been missing the sheep she used to guard so we got her a present. She now has 3 ewes and a wether (castrated male sheep) to guard. The sheep were caught up when we got there but getting them sorted and on the trailer was a different story. I should say getting the ones we wanted on the trailer........

All 3 ewes should be bred so we should have baby lambs this spring. Which means cute pics with the kids and a different meat to offer at the Farmer's Market.

Next stop- Stag & Doe.

This actually has nothing to do with deer.

Stag & Doe is a local restaurant and we got to go out with our neighbors for a nice meal.

After picking up the sheep, then dropping them off and feeding it was after 8 o'clock before we got home but our neighbors still went to eat with us.

SATURDAY

It was a rainy mess today. We had several people coming to the farm this morning to pick up various things so we needed to be around. Lee went and got a couple of ton of rock to put down where the tractors and the trucks come in and out of the pasture.

Since we were soaked to the bone we went home to shower and eat lunch.

We then go to Southern States to get more seeds & to the grocery store.

The weatherman was predicting snow on Sunday so every person in the county was at the grocery store.........

After putting the groceries away we get another call to meet someone at the farm. So we are back out there by 3 o'clock. As you can tell I had a very nice relaxing week-end with no kids!

It's still raining. We have to make our rounds at the farm. We get soaked again.

We must really love this farming stuff.

The night ended well though. We had a nice meal of lamb chops, filet, and New York Strip. We do occasionally get to eat some of our steaks! Lee did all of the cooking. We also had roasted potatoes and white asparagus. He also made some yummy guacamole!!! I could have just eaten that and nothing else.

SUNDAY

We called my parents and asked them to meet us around lunch time because the weatherman was calling for 4 to 7 inches of snow.

We had a muddy mess at the farm due to all the rain.

We lost 3 baby pigs.

I had a wonderful week-end with my husband even though most of it I was either freezing cold or wet or both.

The boys had a great time with my parents and did not want to come home.