School has started!

What a frenzied last few weeks! The garden is in full swing, and we have been harvesting for Tuesday produce deliveries and Saturday Farmers Market in Sandpoint. We of course also harvest for ourselves and I have been trying to get a bit of canning in also. This picture is of our

outside washing and process area. I love having running water outside to clean produce, no messy kitchen.

The last week of August we spent at the Bonner County Fair because the kids were showing and selling their market hogs. They did pretty well, and were happy to sell at the Auction. It was crazy for us because we drove back and forth everyday to do our chores at home along with fair chores. We did manage to stay at fair a few nights in our trailer which the kids enjoy. After we got home on Sunday, the kids packed up fresh clothes and went camping with friends for three days, to leave mom and dad to clean out the trailer and recoop! I managed to get the rest of their shopping done while they were gone and we got bedrooms cleaned and organized before school started, yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love clean rooms at the start of school.

So this Tuesday was the first day back and of course produce delivery day, so another busy one for me, but yesterday I didn't HAVE TO DO ANYTHING OR BE ANYWHERE, so I puttered around the house and got a few things cleaned and enjoyed the peace of no running!

Today, back on track, I am making jam for this weekends market, I have pretty much sold out and need to restock, also this is Taste of the Market weekend, so I need to have some samples available of my goodies I make, along with all the produce I bring. Not sure how long I will be able to harvest, it has been a bit chilly the last few days...

Fair Time

So no matter how much I organize and prepare, getting ready to go to fair is insane!
I clean and pack the trailer, even though I clean it when we put it away it still gets dusty.
I keep kitchen items and linens on board but I still need to go through and make sure everything is there and clean.

Every year we have to fix or replace something, did I mention that the trailer is 35 years old? We got a great deal and for a week at fair so worth it. So this year had to replace the toilet, found one and cleaned & packed the trailer this week, in between produce deliveries, finishing our fair books, birthing piglets, getting feed and baking for the market this Saturday. Have I mentioned the month of August is my least favorite month.

Got the trailer up to fair last night to get a decent spot, won't actually haul the hogs or ourselves up until this Tuesday. Now I only have to unload feed and harvest and pack for market tomorrow. Winter is starting to look better everyday!

Once I get to fair we have a great time, lots of time in the hog barn of course and we take the kids to the Demolition Derby on Saturday night.

I have this vision that next year will be better and more organized, I say that every year and in some ways that does happen, but we always end up with drama too. Such is the life of a farmer,
but I couldn't imagine a job I would love more.

Drama Week

This week has been a nightmare! Started on Monday going to help daughter #2 finish moving, that went ok even though we needed to drive an hour to help. Long day and the little kids and I were beat. Managed to keep the household/farm running pretty smoothly.

Tuesday started out good, and I thought at about 7:30 I so have things together. Big, huge mistake! Tuesday is produce delivery day, so I need to bake mini breads first thing in the morning and then harvest. Well by 7:45 two of our sows had busted out of their pen. So after moving multiple pigs around and some pen revamping we got everyone situated. So by 9:00 I am back at the house to start baking, got that done along with vacuuming and hanging out the laundry. By 10:15 on to the garden to harvest, of course hot already but I could manage. Fifteen minutes later Alex is rushing Alyssa to the house, she stepped on a nail, so out comes the peroxide and after some cleaning things are okay. Needed to find her shot records, so realized she needed a tetnus shot. Back to harvesting and will get the shot on our delivery route in the afternoon. So the rest of the afternoon is uneventful, get everything done, daughter #2, Amanda decides to come up for the night, so have to make a decent dinner etc.

Wednesday was looking really promising, that is my quiet day, no deliveries, I usually don't even need to go to town. I try to can or do some other project that needs done. Well by 9:30 Alyssa was at the house from the barn sick. She looked awful, as the day progressed she was getting worse and her fever was getting higher. Took her back to the clinic thinking maybe a reaction to the shot, ended up at the ER with a meningitis scare, only to end up being a reaction to the tetnus shot. Imagine that, I thought that was what it might be, so tons of tests later, she is fine!

Thank God! I can't remember the last time I was so scared.

Needless to say I am hoping for a quiet day of baking today! Will be another hot one today, with thunderstorms possible this afternoon.

Our tour and a field trip!

Our workshop went really well, we had about 15 people total. We toured by the chicken coop, then on to the barn to see all the animals. We then went through the garden to end up at the picnic area in the shade for snacks and networking time. The weather looked ugly in the morning but cleared off nicely by noon. I think everyone left with some good farm info and hopefully can apply it to their future projects.

Went to a workshop last night at High Country Orchard at Greenbluff. They were talking about food safety and value-added projects, really good info provided. They have awesome outside areas for their customers and we finished the evening off with pie, so worth the drive!

So needless to say today I am tired, went to bed way past my bedtime. Need to go harvest more brocolli to blanch and freeze, we are in brocolli heaven this season. Also need to have the kids check on the pie cherries, might be making pie filling and jam this week, gotta love farm life, never a dull moment. Thank goodness for winter, then I can catch up on my sleep!

Week 2 of produce deliveries went well this week, everyone loved what was in their bags last week, I love how every week something new ripens, it is so fun to put new stuff in the bags every week. The kids decided they like harvesting and washing way better than weeding.

I hope everyones summer is going well!

Farm Life

This is an early spring shot of the garden, it has grown alot since this picture was taken.

So what have we done lately, well lots of weeding, the kids have been doing an awesome job, as well as my dear hubby, we have all been working really hard getting ready for our workshop/tour we are hosting this Sunday, July 12. A fabulous organization we belong to, Rural Roots, is coordinating this and we are hosting.

http://www.ruralroots.org/

So of course, my crazy, perfection ways take over, like a farm can be perfect, please!!! But, I will try of course, lol. This week is reality week, just getting done what we absolutely can. But I am sure everything will look fine, it always does.

Betsi had her piglets last week, she had 10 but we have 6 left. That is the life of a pig farmer, the mortality rate is high, but it so so worth it, I love the piglets!

Last week, we picked up our first load of hay, four tons! And used our elevator to move it to the back of the barn, that was awesome! This week we will pick up six more tons, that should get us through the winter. Have I mentioned I hate to move hay, I am the stacker, and I hate it, but when it is done I am so relieved!!!

We had some really nice rain today, a bit of wind, but so much cooler than last week, like 15 degrees cooler! It sure felt good after last weeks heat. Most of this week will be cooler with a few rain showers here and there, good farm work weather that is for sure!

I will let you know how the tour went next week, wish me luck!

Soap Day!

This blogging takes a huge committment. I have been very bad about keeping up, I need a system like I have developed for everything else on the farm. The only way we get so much done is because we have all these systems and schedules, not very romantic of a farm life like some people think. But this totally works for us. So I am really going to try to get better about my posts.

So today I made soap! I have been a soap dabbler for a few years now, but my friend, Jennifer over at CedarHouse Soaps has been really encouraging so I made a batch this morning and so far so good. This is only my fifth batch in my life so you can see I am definiately a dabbler.

On the farm front, butcher hogs going to the processor today and I am waiting patiently for piglets, one of my sows looks like she will explode any minute. I will keep you posted.
Garden is doing well despite the weeds and the cold, cloudy weather. I am really hoping for some heat soon.

Loving the weather!

So the last couple of days we have had sun, clouds, hail, wind and snow, gotta love spring in North Idaho. Last week we got a couple of teaser nice days, washed a few house windows, raked some of the yard, even did some pruning and clean-up on Easter Sunday! Then back to cruddy weather. The good news, tomorrow is supposed to start getting nice so outside here I come! I need to get the rest of the plants to the greenhouse and finish transplanting. Also need to get my plant list together for my customer orders. Always so much to do and so little time. Just to keep you informed of the latest crisis, Alex was playing golf with a stick and cow pies and accidentally hit Alyssa in the head with the stick. Blood everywhere but she is fine. Lots of ice and attention and she will be good as new. Gotta love farm kids, they get hurt at every turn!

Crisis Management

So crisis management is the new term we are using this farm season. I got this great phrase from a farmer up in Bonners Ferry where we bought the steers and hay from. He says that farmers are always in a state of crisis management and that is so true! Just last week, the chick crisis,I was going to try to get some earlier layers at a local feed store that was having chick days on Thursday & Friday, that was a fiasco with the ones I wanted coming in early and being sold and the 2nd choice being sold out by the time I got there. Then the potato/onion crisis, my local feed store hadn't received them the week before last when I got my weekly feed, so I called this last week so my Honey when he was going to pick up my feed could get them. Well of course one variety of potatoes was sold out and they didn't have a variety of onions that I needed so I called another feed store had them put some aside for me and Honey picked them up for me on his way with my other feed. My regular feed store is assuring me my new layer chicks will arrive April 24 so I am trying to relax about the chick crisis.

Needless to say after the chick crisis last Friday I was a bit cranky, but came home to triplets from my oldest doe(goat) Mocha. They are the cutest babies ever!!!! If I was more computer literate I could post a pic. but not there yet lol. We have Milo, Mikey & Mia and they are doing fabulous! Made my day so much better! So the weekend went pretty well, got two projects done each day before the rain started so was happy about that. Just had a quiet Easter just the four of us, which was nice. Usually I do a big family party, but not feeling it this year.

So the new week begins with partly sunny skies, although rain is forecasted for this afternoon, just in time for the little kids soccer practice, which I said I would help coach. What was I thinking?
Do I look like a soccer player? Anyways, the crisis of the morning is that a barn cat ripped a hole in the greenhouse plastic and decided to have a party with some of my plant starts! I was not a happy camper this morning when I went to open it up! So doing a bit of paperwork, posting on my blog with my cup of tea before I go to clean up the mess, not too much mess but still enough work to make me mad and it wasn't on the list for today!!!!!!! Again, crisis management.

Hope to still dust, vacuum and clean the bathroom, we will see!
Here's to a better week ahead!

Happy Spring

Oh my gosh, I think spring has finally sprung! We won't mention that we just had snow flurries last Friday! All of our snow is melted and yesterday was in the 60's and today is supposed to be a bit warmer, yeah!!!!!!!!! So farm life has settled down a bit, we hurried and built a new farrow pen out of an old horse stall since our other farrow pens (all four) which are on the north side of the barn all flooded. I can't imagine why with all the snow pack! So we took an old stall on the south side of the barn which has a wood floor and revamped it for farrowing, just in time I might add. We finished it Friday afternoon, moved Wilma our sow and by Saturday morning she was delivering! 6 live and 3 stillborn, but we still have 6 live ones! No roll-overs! That is what I call it when the sow accidentally lays on them which happens more that I would like. But hopefully with this new pen our mortality rate will decrease. We have 1 more to build but I have time, the other two sows aren't scheduled to deliver until June. Finally got the meat bird chicks, have had a few fatalities but that is expected. Also picked up 5 beef steers on Sunday, we have been a bit busy! Our biggest excitement last week, which was the kids spring break and my honey's week of vacation was that DD#2 Amanda came up and stayed a couple days on the farm. Nothing like having an adult child come home help out and hang out at the barn and have fun doing it! She is such a farm girl at heart. This week she is home prepping and planting her own garden, I taught her well, lol. Well need to get to the greenhouse, I am starting to move plants there from the basement as the temps. are getting a bit warmer. Bye for now!

Okay, I had good intentions, when I started this blog. My plan was to post at least once a week, well obviously that didn't happen. We have had a bit of farm drama this winter. Of course the taxes got done and filed, and I have a pretty good handle on the paperwork and the seeds are growing in the basement. The barn is another story! We lost most of two litters of piglets to the cold and I lost 3 goat kids out of 5, and lets not forget the chicks which were supposed to be here last week but now I'm told not sure when they will arrive. Of course that will set the brooder schedule off for the season but oh well. I can't do anything about these things so I am trying not to stress about any of it. Just keep going on with what I can control at this point. It sure isn't the weather since we just had another 6-8"of snow yesterday and last night. I HAD a clear driveway, path to the greenhouse and my cold frames were clear, of course not now, lol. So today more paperwork catch-up and transplanting in the basement and of course more seed starting. Hopefully now I can post a bit more often.

So here it is snowing again, but I can cross something off my farm to-do-list, create a blog. I thought it would be fun to post about happenings on the farm and everyone could keep up to date about us. So, yes it is snowing again today, we have had record amounts, and the kids are home again today, so I have help with chores, yeah, and hopefully I can get some farm paperwork done today. This time of year is all about my planning and getting organized, we have the yearly farm schedule completed, and need to get all farm books in order before tax time. Once February hits, we will be starting seeds and birthing and the cycle continues again...