Busy Times

We have been taking advantage of the warm beautiful weather lately. We finished the barrel stove and before we could move it a gust of wind came through and knocked it over and it broke a handle on our horsedrawn plow. A friend picked up a pair of new handles for us at the buggy shop and saved us a trip. It's one more thing to do having to replace them but it will be very nice having new handles next spring.
It dawned on me that it would be a good idea to make soap while it was warm in the house so I made two batches; a plain castille that is a wonderful bath soap and the same soap with oats and honey added. When I cut the oats and honey one into bars my little granddaughter kept saying, "that smells so good!" It made me hungry for oatmeal cookies! I planned on making a batch with lavender but didn't get around to it.
Today we rendered a lot of beef fat into tallow, cooking it outside in three very large pots over propane burners. It was good to get it done and just in time before the rain started. This is the first rain we have had in several weeks.
Wanted to get spinach cut yesterday but we had to make an unexpected trip into town. It is supposed to be quite a bit cooler the next couple of days.
Yesterday we sent two of our cows to be with a friend's bull. I can't wait until they're back.
We have a new little horse that is just the right size for the children. She has a very sweet disposition and is very easy to ride. They are having such fun! There was rain close by today and our grandson came riding up on her and stopped with a beautiful rainbow behind him. It was quite the sight.
I hope you are enjoying fall. It is a wonderful time of year.

Cold Frame Reminder

Here's your annual cold frame reminder. We have spinach large enough to eat now but the lettuce is coming on slower. If you still haven't tried a cold frame, you might want to consider it. It's pretty great to be able to eat fresh lettuce and spinach in the winter and LOTS of it in the spring before anyone else even has their seeds in the ground. And, it's weed- and insect-free gardening.
We got the garlic planted yesterday and covered it with a thick layer of straw. I love growing garlic! You don't need much room to give it a try. Plant your garlic cloves pointed-side-up spaced about 5 inches apart and cover with straw. Next summer you will have your very own fresh garlic!
Millie is doing very well and getting used to the place. She is very sweet and so beautiful!
There is a freeze warning tonight so we harvested more comfrey leaves and blackberry leaves to dry while we could! Sure hate to see everything go. Well, there is a time for everything.
How are your fall activities coming along?
Nancy

Meet Millie!

Blogger could do people like me a BIG favor and not ever change how to do something. Like posting pictures, for example. If you scroll down to the bottom of this page you can see a picture of our new beautiful Belgian, Millie! :-} (Yes, I'll keep working on it.)

Autumn Harvesting

The weather has been so wonderful. After the very difficult weather this year it is all the more enjoyed and appreciated. It is so fun to be outside looking at all of the Fall beauty.
We gathered black walnuts for the hulls (I give the nuts away) and I will strip them off of the shells and dry them. We also located a large maple tree to tap next year (exciting!) and we found wild rose hips. They are so very sweet when ripe and loaded with vitamin C! We also found some persimmons and that was good for a laugh! (As soon as I could use my mouth again!) I tried them once before and my mouth puckered like crazy so I thought maybe they just weren't ripe enough. Well, that's not the case! It was very ripe and it dried up my mouth immediately so that it was hard to swallow. That's the last time I'll try them! (I hope.)
We talked to an Amish man that has a wood cook stove for sale. It is in very good shape and at a reasonable price. It would be good for a summer kitchen because it isn't an airtight one that you would want to also use for heat. Someone with us asked me why I want one. I was kind of caught off-guard because I hadn't thought about "why" in a long time. I gave all of the standard sensible answers (good in power outages for back-up cooking and heating, cheaper to use because you provide your own fuel, food tastes better cooked with wood) but felt like something was missing. When we got home I thought about it and realized that all of those things are very good reasons but there is more:
It takes more time and attention; involving me in the work, and slowing me down. It brings me to a place where simply living life becomes important again. And enjoyable. Living life becomes enough. Again. Does that make sense?
Nancy

Journey To Simplify-Part Eight

Unfortunately, we found out that the owner of this farm didn't want to sell after all. (We weren't the first that he had told this. The previous tenants had done outside work on the place thinking that they were buying it and we met several others that had had dishonest dealings with the man.) We knew that Jack's job would be ending soon so we thought it a good idea to try to find other land that we could buy with his severance. We began looking around the state and just weren't having any luck. We had the idea to ask Jack's dad if we could buy a piece of his farm and he said yes. It was a relief that we wouldn't have to move to a new area. We had so many wonderful times at that place and really wanted it to be home, but we felt good that we were moving close by and would be able to help take care of Jack's dad who had emphysema.
After totally renovating the old farm house that we lived in, I had thought to myself that I never wanted to do it again. Well.... Jack's dad said we could have the part of the farm with the original farm house on it, and it would save us a lot of money to fix it up instead of building a new one. We thought that made good sense and dove in. Yep. Here we go again......
Nancy

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Barn

We have had an incredible amount of rain the last three years and so, have had an incredible amount of mud.
Jack was trying to get the gate open while carrying the new calf to the barn and his foot got stuck in the mud. When he lifted up his foot it came out of the boot. Now he's standing on one foot while juggling a very heavy and awkward to carry calf. Not wanting to put the calf down he put his bootless foot down in the deep mud. Then he had to put the calf down anyway to pull his boot out of the mud, take his muddy sock off, put his bare foot in the boot, open the gate, pick the calf up, carry it in, put the calf down, close the gate, pick the calf up and continue on to the barn.
Phew!
All in a day's work....
Nancy
P.S. You've probably already figured out that I'm married to one great guy.

New Calf!

Our Jersey, Clara, had a little heifer calf tonight! She is SO cute! Jack is moving her and mother to the barn right now as we are expecting thunderstorms tonight. I'll have pictures on here soon. A very amazing thing happened with a butterfly when she was being born and I can't wait to share it with you!
Hope all is well with you!
Nancy