I am not super woman!!

Contrary to what some people who really know me think, I am not super woman!! I make mistakes, and sometimes fall on my face.

I am attempting the March Food Storage Challenge over at http/livingmydreamlifeonthefarm.wordpress.com/, let me just say that I have already blown it!

The idea behind this is to eat only what is in your food storage for a month, I had very good intentions last Wednesday when I read about this, I have decent food storage and I do produce most of my food, so I figured I would give it a try.

Thursday was great, most of Friday good, but Friday night is when I blew it... my kids were at their older sisters for the night and my honey wanted a date night and dinner out. Let me just say time to ourselves without kids, is pretty slim, and yes we could have stayed home, but then I just start working and he watches t.v. so I caved ( I can be a push-over sometimes) and we went out. I could have omitted this in my blog, but then I wouldn't be accepting of how hard this challenge can be.

So now my rules--eating out of food storage as much as possible without my family revolting against me. It is not a stretch for me not to go to the store, I hate shopping! My goal is to see
how long I can go without shopping. I didn't know about this challenge before last Wednesday, so I know there are areas of my food storage that is lacking.

My other rule, this challenge does not include beverages, if I have to cook and scrounge for food, I will need a glass of wine while I am doing it, and my honey will need a beer to cope with my crazy ideas!! LOL But I will be doing more research on homemade wine, it is on my to-do list.

Obviously I am not as disciplined as some of the other bloggers, but I will try my hardest to eat what I have stored. I will keep everyone posted about my success and failure during this month.

So far this is what we have eaten:

March 1-- Breakfast: Smoothies Dinner: Left-over potato soup
March 2-- Breakfast: Smoothies for kids, bowl of cereal for me Dinner: eat-out
March 3-- Breakfast burritos, with farm eggs & canned potatoes Dinner will be chili with our beef and tomatoes in the crockpot to go to oldest daughters get together, also taking pepper jelly from my bff and chips (last bag from food storage)

I make my honey's lunches, I eat whatever I can scrounge and the kids eat at school.

So far this is where I am at, wish me luck as the month progresses...

New Years Day!

I love New Years Day, not only is my husbands birthday, Happy 43rd Honey!! But it is the beginning of farm season. I take November & December off, try not to think of anything farm related as I play during the holiday season. I decorate, bake and just have a great holiday season, we hang out with family and friends, eat and drink too much I am sure, and just enjoy the season, but then it happens, farm life sneaks up on me, and I can't help but start planning!

Today was seed order day! I spent most of my day going through my seeds and my new catalog deciding what I would need for this season, I needed to order more of certain varieties, I forget I need enough produce to sell at market throughout the season! I also went through my paperwork from last year and cleaned out my farm binder, getting ready for a new season, I even redid my meat order form to send to my customers this week.

I have the 2012 garden mapped out for the year, of course it is in pencil in case I need to revise it, but it looks pretty good right now. Oh and my honey, he is sitting next to me, watching football enjoying his birthday greatly!!!!

Here's to a happy, healthy and productive 2012 and maybe a bit more blogging...

Garden Progress

This spring has definately been cold and wet! We have had to get the garden work done between rain storms and puddles. This is the garden in May, we always plant the tomatoes and all of our vine crops in black weed barrier, it keeps their roots nice and toasty and keeps the weeds down for us. This year we are adding the peppers and herbs to this list.

These are my guys working so very hard weeding on Fathers Day. We had to get the bulk of our work done, this was one of our rare nice days! Alyssa and I got the rest of the garden planted while they weeded, that was huge. It is amazing how well the weeds grow in this weather.

This is our hilltop view of the farmhouse and our garden. This year we have 21 rows, they are 4' by 50'. Since it has been so cold we covered our warm weather crops with row cover.

The tall greens in the front of the picture is our garlic, it should be ready to harvest the end of July/beg. of August. The four mulched rows are our potatoes.

Hope you enjoyed the garden tour, more pictures as the garden grows...

Time does fly!!

Where has the last 4 months gone since I last posted?? Perhaps to all the snow and rain we were having, oh wait, it is still raining at least half the week.

Perhaps the time went to the sports the kids were doing or the spring cleaning I thought I would have time to do.

No, I think it went to everyday life, that somehow just gets a moving and doesn't stop, with family, friends and a farm, things just keep moving.

We have been working pretty hard this spring, getting pigs & steers, delivering goat kids, trying to get the garden in between rain showers, of course we also had my honey's work schedule, school, soccer, wedding planning and now the farmers market!

Some days I just wish time would creep instead of fly...

Daddy's Birthday

Today was my "Idaho" dads 76th. birthday, we had a party at our house with all the family.
Even though they aren't my real parents, Chuck and Arlene have been in my life for the past 20 years. Mommy and Daddy have been such a constant in my life, I am definately the person that I am today because of their love and support. I am so glad I adopted them so many years ago!

We enjoyed a great dinner of lasagna, salad and garlic bread. We have the best parties when our family gets together, my sister, husband, son & new baby boy, my oldest daughter and her fiance, and my #2 daughter came up from where she lives an hour away.

Alyssa lighting the candles and we are all singing Happy Birthday...

Mommy and Daddy have been married 50+ years, the are an inspiration to us all.

Daddy after blowing out the candles and the smoke clearing, enjoyed cake and ice cream.

We definately are party central at our house and I am the party queen. I love every minute

of our family time, in such a busy world, a party is a great place to be.

Spring Seeding

Spring seeding has begun on Four Seasons Farm. I try to start the peppers and tomatoes during the middle of February. We need that much time to have them the size to sell for our first Farmers Market, the first Saturday of May.
This is my seeding table, with my seeds organized and my planting chart.I usually try to have 3-4 varieties of one vegetable in each tray.

These are the flats when they are seeded and setting on the heat mat, there is enough room for 4 trays. I started 9 varieties of tomatoes, 4 varieties of peppers and basil.

As you can see our garden area is almost completely free of snow, we just have a bit to melt, by this weekend, it should be all gone, not to say we won't get more, but at this time of the year, it won't be here for very long.
I am hoping to plant the cold frames with spinach on the 1st. of March, hopefully the weather will cooperate.

Early spring is definately here on the farm, I am hoping this weekend or next to clean the goat barn, we have babies coming...

Every fall I am so happy for the break, to just hang out at home and work on my house projects and to visit with friends. I love the winter months because the kids play basketball, which is uninterrupted from farm projects. But then, the snow starts melting, the goats are getting rounder, I see green sprouts in the pastures and I just get so excited for a new year of farming.
Every year is a do-over, to correct your mistakes from last year, to add a bit more to this year.

I never thought I would love what I do so much, definately wasn't what I thought my life would be, but now, wouldn't change it for the world!

Puppy Love and Old Man Winter

Meet our newest addition to our farm family, Millie our corgie/heeler cross, she is about 10 weeks old and totally adorable. We have had her for a week now and she is behaving very well.
Her training has been going very well also, the whole family absolutely adores her, and hopefully this spring we will train her to herd something. Just not sure what yet!

Yes, the weather guessers might be right, we could be having the worst winter in 55 years, with this La Nina weather pattern. Spokane has already beat the winter of 55 for snow totals. Are you getting this, 1955, worst winter in 55 years, we are in the year 2010, you do the math and grab a snow shovel, lol. This is our house in all its snow glory, of course I didn't get the corn stalks and pumpkins picked up from our fall decor display before the snow came, might have to wait till spring for that.

My #1 son, Alex, (my only son) is doing an awesome job of plowing us out. He works so hard, so when his dad gets home, dad doesn't have to plow us out, since he has just plowed for the county! My boys work very hard this time of year, hoping they get a bit of a break soon.

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!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday was bark day!

Every fall and sometimes when we have time in the spring, we go to Panhandle Post and get a load of bark. This year we only had time this fall because of all the spring rain we had.

It is really nice and shredded and totally cheap, $20.oo for a truck load up to the racks! And they load it! The animals all love it in their pens, it keeps the mud down to a minimum and looks and smells great. Yesterday we picked it up and unloaded on the most gorgeous fall day, kids were at school and usually they help, but pretty easy for me and my honey, couldn't have asked for a better day.

Fall Happenings

I can't believe I haven't posted since May, so much has happened. The farm has just moved along, even though our summer wasn't so great. We only have 2 more farmers markets left!
Produce deliveries are done for the season and we are starting to button up things for winter.
We already have 6 garden rows cleaned out, only 15 more to go, woo hoo! Have our last batch of meat birds, our Thanksgiving turkeys, our last butcher hogs and our steers all go to process in October. I am hoping November is a quiet family month. Kids are back at school so we have volleyball and football games to attend, along with farm work. Somehow it is all getting done, thank god for the good weather this week. Our surprise this week, a rogue hen who doesn't stay in the coop hatched out 11 babies, what a wonderful fall present. Already planning on changes to the farm next week, and getting ready to plant 10# of garlic for next summer harvest.

Already May!

I cannot believe it is almost the middle of May! This year is just flying by, it will be snowing before I know it.

Tons of stuff has been happening on the farm, had a surprise litter of piglets, didn't think the sow had bred, but managed to save some to raise for butcher hogs. The goat kids are getting really big and running everywhere. Our pasture birds are getting big and will go to the processor next month. Got our second batch of meat chicks last week so we are just rolling right along. Also picked up our steers to raise for fall processing so they are enjoying our pastures and all the fresh spring grass.

Finally managed to get the packing shed all painted, hope to move things in today. Can't wait to have all my supplies nice and organized, it will make the harvest season so enjoyable.

Have gone to two Sandpoint Farmers Markets so far this season, it of course has rained both times. Even with the cruddy weather we sold plants and goodies so I am not complaining, we have an awesome awning so we stay dry, but it is still a bit cold.

Starting this week the weather is supposed to get better and be in the 70's, I hope so, I need to thaw out these bones, lol.

Have got a few things in to the garden, peas and onions are sprouting, waiting for the chard and radishes. Will pick some spinach this week I planted in March, have two more plantings seeded, really trying to do better with succession planting, it definately is my weakness.

Have lots of nice plants this year to take to market and hoping the garden does well, this being our second season in Sandpoint, I think we should have a better year than last, and I was really happy with our last years sales. After 7 years at the Newport Market, Sandpoint feels like the big leagues for sure.

Hoping to do better this garden season with my blogging and to get some pictures posted, wish me luck!

Photos!!

Here are the photos I wasn't able to get printed for the post below, fabulous new steps and my tomato babies!

Busy weekend!

Was a bit surprised with how busy we were this weekend on the farm. Started our Friday with a trip to Home Depot to get supplies to wire, insulate and finish the packing shed. That is where I store and process produce throughout the summer garden season. We have only had it about 8 years and just used it the way it was. Don't want to rush into anything.

Saturday was spring chicken coop cleaning day, got that done pretty quickly along with cleaning a small shed next to it for feed and supplies, just kept everything inside the coop before but the chickens would rather roost on the feed cans than on their roosting ladder, imagine that.

Moved onto the packing shed, needed to level it before wiring could begin, also needed to build stairs after the leveling process was done. After leveling but before the stairs we emptied the shed into the large horse trailer that we are using now for storage. That will motivate me to finish it as I will need that trailer to get spring steers. Another trip to the hardward store for stair risers and some vent covers.

Why is it that every project takes twice as long and costs twice as much as you think???

Sunday was definately a day of multi-tasking, while the boys built stairs and started the wiring, I got going in the greenhouse. I moved a few flats of tomato starts out from under the grow lights in the basement to the greenhouse. A huge bale of potting soil later, I had a shelf and a half full of tomato starts, almost 300! I still have a flat and a 1/3rd. to transplant, not sure what I was thinking, I guess plenty of tomatoes to take to the Sandpoint Farmers Market in May.

Today is a cool, drizzly day, a great day for the tomatoes to be cozy in the greenhouse with the heater on, way warmer than the basement.

Goat kids have arrived!

Our Nubian cross doe just delivered two boer cross kids Sunday evening! They are adorable, we have a doeling, Camille and a buckling, Cupid, he has a heart shaped spot on his back. They are doing super good and Chocolate their mom is doing a great job. Just in the time it took to work on todays blog and upload this picture, I had another doe, Zeva in labor in the pasture!!!

By the time I got there she had already delivered a kid. After I added shavings to her birthing pen, grabbed the kid and pulled her into her pen within a few minutes she had another. So far everyone is good. Heading down to check on everyone... more pictures to come...