cup of tea

It was a beautiful Mother's Day here and basically a beautiful weekend all around.  At sewing circle on Saturday one of the ladies told me about a tea pot that she uses to steep her tea with, so she sent me the link to where she bought hers.  When it came, I just had to brew myself a cup of my favorite loose-leaf tea.  This little tea pot works so nice.

Then on Sunday at church all the moms were given a rose to take home and some potted flowers to plant at home.

I planted the potted annuals in my vintage ice cream maker that I bought at the Amish auction last May.  It was filled with flowers and they were just beautiful.  I need to get a few more flowers to put in the middle of the ice cream maker so it will be much fuller.

We have not had any rain since the rains we had in early spring, but today is cloud covered with some light rain, which really hasn't amounted to a whole lot.

In the meantime, while the rain tries to fall, I think I'll go brew myself another cup of tea :)

what spring brings

 Yay!!! Spring is finally showing up, and with that it brings so much to our farm.  Fixing fence is one of the things on the list that needs to get done before the large animals can be let out on pasture.  The storms we had caused some branches to come down and unfortunately a branch landed on our fence in the back pasture that needed to be repaired.  I actually like helping putting up fence and fixing fence, it gets me outside.

We make paddocks for the cows as we do rotational grazing for our cows, and when we do that, those cows seem to know that they are going to be let out of the corral.  We don't keep them there all winter only when spring gets closer as they will tear up the pasture so bad that the pastures will be pretty much ruined.

They kept their eyes on us the whole time we were putting up the electric fence that we use to make the paddocks.

Calves are new to the electric fence, and this calf whose name is Violet has to learn that the fence is not her friend.  Violet got out and it took her a bit to figure out that all the big cows did not follow her. (LOL)  We only name the cows we plan to keep.

Trees are finally leafing out, and our grapevines are looking good this year.

We purchased a greenhouse and I was so excited to get started with the plants we like to grow.  The black barrel is filled with water to keep the greenhouse warm at night when the temps dip low.  I also use the water to water the plants.

Life is going good; Jim has been slowly feeling better finally getting his strength back not 100% but almost there.  Treatments seem to be working and we feel so blessed.

catching up

Wow, Wow, Wow!!  Has it really been almost 4 months since I've posted last?  It's so hard to believe.  I really had no intention of staying away so long, but on my last post we were on our way to Texas for our granddaughter's graduation, and when we left for home, she came back with us and stayed for a couple of months before heading back to Texas to get ready for college.  In that time, we had 3 other grandchildren come to stay for a week with us as well.  We were busy, busy, busy.  Just as I was trying to catch my breath after everyone was gone, canning season started.

Our granddaughter thrived here on our farm, having lived in the city her whole life.  Though being around animals, large or small, she really took to it.  She is very calm around them and respects them.

Here she is helping to move the calves to another pasture.

We decided this year not to cut our own hay.  Hay is pretty cheap right now here in our area and seems to be everyone wants to sell hay, so that's the route we took.  One evening we unloaded the hay wagon and filled our hay mow with the bales.

While hubby did all the lifting of the bales, I sat and waited and enjoyed the view until my help was needed ;)

I didn't take a lot of photos this summer, it was just too busy and when I did remember to the moment was gone.

The strawberries were ripe when the grands were here, so strawberry rhubarb pie filling was made.

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I still have a few more things to put up, such as potatoes, beets and making sauerkraut.  

Hope your summer has been good as ours sure was, even though I didn't get any blogging done, I couldn't give up the time spent with grandchildren here on our farm.

suncatcher

 

Well, we had some snow mixed with rain weather last week and my sun-catcher had not seen any sun since I hung it up.  This is a diamond dots project that I had made. I had purchased it at the last quilt retreat and really enjoyed making it.  I have never done this, and I enjoyed this small project, but I don't think I will pick it up full-time, maybe another small one I would do, too much I have on my plate already but smaller ones like this didn’t take time at all. 

lots of good bacteria

Before getting our milk cow I had started making sourdough starter.  This particular starter has been going since December of 2019.  It's taken on many forms over the past few years.  I've experimented with different types of flours to feed it with, and I always go back to our fresh ground wheat flour.  I used to keep a lot of starter but now I only keep enough starter to make a recipe with.  This starter has so many bubbles and this particular starter I put in the refrigerator to use in my next recipe.  Putting it in the refrigerator will slow down the fermentation.

I've been wanting to make homemade mayonnaise and finally did.  Unlike most recipes this mayonnaise is fermented and will sit on the counter for 6-10 hours after which I will put in the fridge where it will last for 2+ months.  If you click on the italic pink colored words that is a link for the recipe and will be in all my posts, just an FYI.

Also, since having a milk cow we make yogurt and with the whey that we drain out of the yogurt I used a bit in the mayo I made.  We also make our own culture and haven't bought any to make our yogurt.  You can use plain yogurt or buy the cultures from folks who sell it.  It took us a few tries to get it right and we have been off to the races with making our own culture and yogurt.

From our apples we also make Apple Cider Vinegar, and there is nothing like homemade ACV.

With all the culture growing in our home we have a lot of good live cultures that are helping with our gut health.  Sourdough also helps with gut health and digestion.

Since we are getting closer to retirement and are fairly in good health so far, no medications taken by either of us, I am working hard to keep it that way.  But raising and making our own food has really saved money for us.  I hardly go to the grocery store; I do buy from the Amish store near us where I get my spices and buy my flour in bulk.  I don't use much sugar in recipes and have changed up old reliable recipes where I either cut down on sugar amounts or eliminated it all together and believe it or not apple pie is actually very sweet when no sugar is added.

I am amazed at how good food really is especially when you cut out sugar like in this apple pie above.  The apple flavor came through and these are apples we have stored from our purchase at the apple orchard late this past fall, they were second apples and half price.  The crust was made from the Leaf Lard that I had rendered down.  Jim actually said it was the best pie crust he has ever eaten.

This is what's been happening on our farm and in our life, trying to enjoy the life we have and trying to stay somewhat healthy as we go.

Life is just so good when you keep it simple.

making lard

The start of 2025 has been a busy one.  We butchered our pigs that we were raising, with the lard we took the leaf lard and rendered it down.

Our final result was 18 quarts of really good lard that I use for pie crust, biscuits or any kind of pastry.  I've always wanted to render the leaf lard separately, instead of mixing and rendering all the lard together and I totally love the results.

life on the homestead

Everything is green here and we still need to get a few more seeds in the ground, but it has been raining here and the ground is pretty wet to till it up.

Our barn cat had a litter of kittens, they are just adorable.

Another storm came the other day and rained for two days; we got a total of 4.5 inches.

We planted spinach last fall and had been able to pick it most of the winter and early spring.  It's starting to bolt now but we are still managing to get a good amount from our picking.  My husband and I love a good spinach salad and with a homemade dressing it's delicious.

 

Jim plowed and area to plant corn.  The corn we have grown is for feed to feed our animals in the winter when we have to supplement their food.  Here the chickens decided to follow Jim when he was plowing the field.

Life here on the homestead has been busy and will continue to be busy all the way till the fall after all the harvesting and canning is done.

chit-chat

On Sunday we took a drive and happened to drive by the eagle's nest that I posted about a few posts back.  There was one eagle, not sure if it was the male or female guarding the nest.  I was driving and stopped and opened the window to take a few photos, and I could hear it warning me to back off.

Life living in a pretty rural area is wonderful, but there is one drawback for me and that is pizza. I do miss my pizza, or I should say a good pizza. So, years ago I decided to fix that and started making my own.  Now I have the best of both worlds :)

After all our company that we had in March when sugaring was going on left, our pup was totally exhausted, and I'd say depressed.  She had so much attention and basically ran the whole time they were all here.  I think it was a few days before she was herself again.  Poor Suuvi, she was left with two "old" folks all the young ones left her (LOL).

Well, I'm off to do chores, I hope you all have a wonderful day!

laundry day and food

I love hanging clothes out on the line and I love my Amish clothesline.  We live near the Amish, and this is the type of clothesline most of the Amish women use, and I just had to purchase one myself, I think the clothes actually dry a lot faster so far up in the air.

For hubby's birthday he wanted steak on the grill, so we went to the town butcher shop/deli to get a couple of nice steaks to grill.  We didn't eat all the steak, so hubby got the idea to make a sandwich he saw online.  He kind of made his own recipe from the picture.  It was more of a grilled sandwich you had to eat with a knife and fork.

How we made it...recipes 

Bread...we used homemade wheat bread.  

Sliced steak...enough to put on a sandwich.

Sliced onion

Garlic clove

Ghee...about a tablespoon or you can use butter.

Mozzarella cheese...enough for a sandwich

Jalapeño slices...you don't have to put them on the sandwich if you don't like anything hot.

Sauté the onion and garlic in the Ghee.  Add the sliced meat to heat up but not over cooked since it was already cooked.  Add the slice jalapeño slices to your meat mixture.

Butter your bread and put it together like you would a grilled cheese and cook it the same way.

This was a really tasty sandwich, and we had a little bit of potato salad leftover from the steak meal and it was the perfect side dish to go with the sandwich.

I have to say last weekend was not only a nice one it was a tasty one.

happy birthday

 Hubby had a birthday last Saturday, and I made him a carrot cake for his birthday.

I found the recipe from this website, Tastes Better from Scratch, the link goes to the recipe I used.  It was so tasty, I think it was the best cake I've made in a very long time.  We couldn't eat all of the cake just the two of us, so I cut them in slices and flash froze them, once they were frozen I put them in containers for us to enjoy later one piece at a time ;)

feeling blessed

I went on a quilt retreat this past weekend and had a wonderful time, I always have a great time at retreats, but this one was by far the best.

On the way to the retreat I spied this eagles nest but didn't have time to stop, but on the way home I did and spied an eagle in the nest.  My phone camera didn't focus that well but you can see the top of the eagles head.

We got rain yesterday and some last night :) YAY!!

It was nice to see a double rainbow, but by the time I came out it was almost gone.

The best news we got about 10 days ago was that we became great grandparents.  We have not seen our great grandson yet but our grandson who lives in another state sent us photos of their new baby.

Life is good here and I feel so blessed.

will spring ever come?

It's April and you would think it was the middle of December or January with the snow we got.

So, since I couldn't go anywhere with the snowstorm happening, I made some sourdough crackers from the sourdough that I have had going since I believe December 2018.  I was quite impressed with the flavor and how they turned out.

Life here on our homestead has been pretty busy, we made maple syrup this year but started later than most folks around here did.  January just seemed too early to be tapping trees.  We only boiled about 6 times, but we did get enough syrup for the year and family came up from Texas for the first time and enjoyed sugaring.  Our pup Suuvi got so much love and attention from the granddaughters that she was very depressed after they were gone.  She has since perked up and back to her old tricks.

Hope you all are doing well and had a wonderful Easter.