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.

make lemonade

 

I don't even know where to begin, so I'll just start from the beginning.  In December my husband went for double hernia surgery and later developed a cough that he just could not kick.  We thought it was just a bad cold and eventually it would go away.  As the days went by the cough lessened some but then his energy started getting to the point of not being able to walk up a flight of stairs without stopping halfway up.  So, off to the doctors we went and after the results of the blood work he was told to get to an ER asap.  We bypassed the two local hospitals and went straight to La Crossse where he was admitted and given a blood transfusion.  A hematologist and an internal medicine doctor came in and dropped the news that Jim had AFib, which the doctors feel was triggered by the anemia, and CLL which is Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia and also an Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia. We believe he could have had this for about 3 years.

We are so blessed to live in an area with such amazing medical care in both traditional medicine and non-traditional medicine.  We have such a wonderful Church family here and family who are so supportive.  

I had planned to come back to blogging again but did not expect to do a post like this.  I guess I needed to put this out there and say it, my husband has cancer and that's that.  Our life has been shaken up a bit, but we are very optimistic about his outcome and when life gives you lemons the only thing to do is make lemonade.

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.

in between the rains

It has been raining all day off and on, so in between rains I took a walk with my walking companion.  She always has to be ahead of everyone, no matter who is with her :)

We stopped to see the cows in the back pasture.  Jim is mowing the pastures in between the rains as well.  The cows do not like the tall grass, but it's been raining so much it has been hard to mow.

We made it to the road, and I never tire of this view.

Looking towards our farm everything looks so green compared to last summer.

 

By the time we both got back home we were soaking wet from the tall grass that we went through, Suuvi was pretty wet as well.  

I will not complain about the rains, but it can let up just a bit ;)

the milk cow

 

The heart of our farm.

One evening before a storm rolled in, we got the animals all settled in so that they would remain safe.  I know they are just animals and can probably weather any storm that comes, but we like to make sure they are all hunkered down and out of the elements, with the few shelters that we have they can go in to get out of the rain or even hail.  

Our milk cow gives us milk, with the milk we make cheese, yogurt, butter and enjoy the delicious cream.  With milk that gets too old but still good we feed the other animals with it.  The chickens and pigs love it, and we enjoy the eggs and meat that they provide.  When Jim milks the cow any cats around will get a treat, a bit of milk in a pan there in the milking parlor, and the cats keep the mice population down.  The manure from the cow fertilizes our pastures making them lusher, and the manure gets put on our gardens in the fall to fertilize them as well.  The gardens feed us, and the pastures feed her.

It's a circle on our farm, and it starts with our milk cow.  

She is the heart of our farm, and we love her so.

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.

life and death

We've had a sad week, we have lost 2 friends, one an 85 year old lady who was a person so full of life.  The small church was filled from corner to corner with people who wanted to say their last goodbyes to such a wonderful woman who was loved by all.  We've only known her since moving here but she took us under her wing and added us to her long list of folks who considered her not only a friend but family.

After getting back from the funeral I got a text that a very dear friend lost her oldest sister.  Two blows in one day.  Also gone is a beautiful lady who was taken way too young and whom everyone loved, and she loved them, family was everything to her and we were honored to be included among them.

They both are no longer in pain and have gone on to their heavenly home.

Looking out my window I see new life after death.  The peach, cherry and apple trees are in full bloom and the cherry tomatoes are starting to ripen to be enjoyed soon.

Peach Blossom

Cherry Blossom

Apple Blossom

Cherry Tomato

Most people don't like to talk about death, and I didn't always either, but it is life and I have tried to look for life after death and when I do that my heart heals from the sadness that comes when a dear loved one passes.

concrete work and art show

We went to our sons to help him with a concrete pour and the grandsons helped.  They are such hard workers and growing up so fast.

While there we got to go to our granddaughter's art show and the students put on a small concert. 

We were only there a couple of days as we have animals, but our neighbor will chore for us which is so awesome.  It is so nice to have such wonderful neighbors, but he is getting older and not sure how much longer he'll be able to chore for us.  Once we mentioned we could get someone else to chore and he got a bit upset thinking we didn't want him choring anymore.  So, he will chore for us as long he will be able to, he does have cattle still, but I think this is the last year he'll be doing calves.  He has 8 cows left out of about 40 cows.  He's slowing down but keeps himself busy that is for sure.

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.