Productive Day

So today I was cleaning the kitchen for Thanksgiving, I had started cleaning in July, got too busy to finish, so now I have started over. Normally when I clean I take everything down from each wall, wash and put back up. But since I had done that just a few months ago I just had to dust and move on.

Got the three walls re-done that I had completed in July, now I am starting on the last wall, which also has my dishes cupboard and the sink area. Tomorrow I hope to get quite a bit done, but will probably have to finish on Friday since I have plans on Thursday. It wouldn't take so long if I didn't have so much stuff!

When my honey and the kids got home from work and school today, we decided since it wasn't raining to go outside and get some more clean-up done. Moved some stumps I wanted for decor in the yard, then we moved to the garden.

I had to still tidy up the greenhouse and packing shed, also had pots and hoses to pick-up, my honey and the kids helped me get it all done, so even though the rows aren't clean (can do that in the spring) I won't be freaking out at the first snow.

A few more small projects and let the snow begin, and even though we are done with this years garden season, got my first 2011 seed catalog today, no rest for the weary.

Sorry no pics, forgot to take the camera to the garden.

Fall Finale!

We always finish our fall clean-up with the burning of the brush pile! We add to it all spring and summer and when we are done for the season we burn it and have a little party. Sometimes we have people over to celebrate but this year too much was going on so we decided to torch it on Sunday. I didn't even have hot dogs so it was a snack food and beverage party.

Ron & Alex trying to get it going and then Ron all excited when it starts to burn. Like you can't get something to burn with a propane torch!

Here's Alex adding some branches we just cut.

After we get the pile going, the kids decided they wanted to have paintball wars in the orchard area. Here's my kids coming back after alot of running and shooting. What an awesome family day on the farm.

Crazy week!

This is one of our farm views in the fall, I absolutely love it! Even with all the craziness, I am so
glad to have views like this to enjoy!

This week was super busy, I spoke at a class on Sustainable Farming last Tuesday night in Sandpoint. I talked about what we do on our diversified farm, how long we have been farming and I also show pictures of our farm.

I have been doing these classes every year for a friend and fellow farmer, Diane Green of Greentree Naturals, in Sandpoint. She teaches the class and her students every year are awesome, some want to go into farming as a profession while others want to just learn for themselves and their families.

The rest of the week was busy with the usual family/farm stuff.

Friday was crazy, had to go to Sandpoint to Woods Meat Processing to pick up my beef, 8 boxes later, I was stopping at Wal-Mart for a few essentials. Then home to shove those 8 boxes into the freezers. I had to then run the kids to Newport for their dental cleaning, a stop to drop off Lissy's friend, then home to make a goodie for my Farmers Market meeting and potluck.

We had our Farmers Market meeting and potluck in Sandpoint, (yes, another trip) but it was great to see all of our market friends and to see what will be happening in the next season. Lissy went with me and we took a apple cobbler to add to the potluck table. Kind of looking forward to next seasons market.

This next week we'll be getting ready for Thanksgiving, we will be having family and friends over to enjoy our 27# turkey!

Things have been kind of quiet on the farm front, still need to do a bit of garden/greenhouse cleaning, I am hoping we can squeeze that in before the snow!

Steers and Halloween Fun

So it was time to load the steers to take to the processors. Always a bit sad, but it is great to know we will have awesome beef for ourselves and our customers without any recalls. They left the farm over a week ago, so it will be time to pick up our meat soon. They were very nice steers, always staying in our pastures and never challenging the fences, no fun chasing cows through the neighborhood, been there, done that. They also put on some good weight this year with all the nice grassy pastures we had, the rain throughout our growing season really helped.

So of course, the day after steer loading was our Pumpkin Party, we always have a night when all the kids carve pumpkins, the big girls even come home, even though they hated it when I made them help the little kids years ago! Of course now that we can have wine time while we carve that is probably what brings them home.

I always make cupcakes and this year the Great Pumpkin brought their goodie bags early, lol.

I also made a pot of soup for dinner with cheesy biscuits. Yum!!

My awesome kids carving the biggest pumpkins I have ever grown! Tried a new variety, will probably go back to the old variety, these were rather large. Lots of pumpkin guts for the chickens though.


Here we have our spooky trick or treaters! Hannah, Alyssa's friend has been coming with us since they were in the first grade, they are now seventh graders! Maybe one more year??

I just love Halloween, it is my 2nd. favorite holiday with Christmas being #1.

Hope to have some things to blog about since farm season is over, will have to talk about the holidays I guess. We are all decorated for Turkey Day and it is coming soon!

Best Laid Plans

So my honey was off of work for the last 5 days, we had awesome plans to take advantage of the nice weather last week and do more farm winterizing. Well, after taking the hogs to the processor Wednesday, we get a frantic phone call from Amanda in Coeur d'Alene, her car won't start!

So, Thursday we head down to check on her car, got it started, left my Suburban, and brought hers to up to our mechanic. We thought starter, plus it needed some other work she had been putting off. On Friday, did deliveries, got feed, checked on the car, and still no farm work! Picked the car up, but it still needed some things done, so my honey heads to the parts store to get the supplies for what he could do. Back home to do more mechanic work!

Saturday was a volleyball tournament for Alyssa, that took most of the rainy day, again no farm work.

Sunday was raining, and still a bit more mechanic work, after getting her car all up and running, went to Coeur d'Alene to deliver it and get my Suburban.

Gotta love those kids, thank goodness Ron was off for those days to get things done for her car,
winter is coming and we can't have her an hour away with a unreliable car!

So maybe between rain storms this week we will do the absolute necessities, and clean up in the spring, like we always do! Calling for snow in the mountains, WINTER IS COMING!!!!!!!!!

Barn Work Day

Another gorgeous fall day in Priest River, how can you not want to be outside working? Sunday was barn cleaning day, we cleaned the goat barn, trimmed hooves, and wormed everyone. Now I know why my arm is hurting this morning, since we have 8 does, 32 little hooves can be a bit tough to trim in one setting!


Here is Alyssa cleaning the brooders, working with her happy farm heart! We had 7 chicks delivered to us by our new layer for this year, she is a Speckled Sussex, and is obviously a good mom, they will be in the brooder for awhile though.
Ronald, my honey, and main farm worker is working hard, hoping to catch some afternoon football when we are done! We just cleaned this barn this spring, so not too bad cleaning.
Alex, my #1 son, has his very happy farm smile on, he loves farm work as much as I do, the goats are in the background, anxiously awaiting a clean home. Again, the weather is gorgeous,
the weather man said the nicest October in 5 years. No wonder I am enjoying farm work so much this fall. Hope everyone is enjoying their fall work as much as I am!

Garlic Planting

Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day, thought about going to Coeur d'Alene to check out their farmers market since they will go on for two more weeks, but the practical farm side of me won out, and since we had to be back in town for commitments by noon anyways, we decided to get the garlic planted.

We decided to double our planting this year from 5# to 10#, and since I sell everything I grow, I figured it was a good idea. After breaking the heads apart, tilling and adding compost, we are planting, we ended up only using one row, since we added another hose in the center, our rows are 4' by 50', can't wait to clean it all next summer.
Another thing to cross off our fall list, yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!