Howdy :)

hat a busy couple of days its been around here! Finishing up the last round of flu-bugs before summer hits. Of course mommy's are the last one to get sick... Anyways I'd like to take a minute and show you around our little farm here and introduce you to the occupants!


Meet "skippy john jones" she's our beloved mouser and source of much entertainment! It's interesting to live with a siamese cat let me assure you... never a dull moment!


Next up is "Morgan Dorf" our stubborn dog. He has a tendancy of visiting the... well basically the whole county. What can I say he's social :) He does a good job running secruity detail around here though!


Next we have "Dash" also called "pooh bear". He's always paitent with us and enjoys getting the girls on the bus in the morning :) I'm happy to have him here with me! And I'm pretty sure he enjoys all the attention family and friends lavish on him when they visit! The wonderful old man of the farm Mr. Dash....



Last but not least our ladies of the farm yard!! The hens.... Only a few have names so far, the girls and I work on names as their personalities become more evident. So far we have named Roxanne, Henny-penny and Nermal. The ladies live a quiet life here they are free range and eat a varied diet of organic feed and garden scraps. I enjoy listening to them squak around the yard chase bugs.



Well thats pretty much the grand tour ladies and gents. It's not much but I enjoy it! I'll leave ya with a few other random shots from life on the farm... Blessings to you and yours from all of us!

Butter Making

Just thought I'd share how I make the butter for my girls. We don't buy or use margarine in our home. I much prefer the texture and taste of real honest butter. I usually keep a few store bought sticks in the freezer for cooking or baking. But for toast and other delights I keep home-churned butter on hand. If you are as blessed and live close to a dairy you can purchase heavy whipping cream there but you can also use one from the store. I have learned that store bought whipping cream will churn faster than the one bought from the dairy. It probably has something to do with the fat content. If you plan on doing it for the first time I would recomend store bought cream and use the mixer. By using the mixer you can see the 3 stages the butter goes through and get a feel for whats happeneing. It takes about 3 of the small cartons to make a good ammount of butter. It also takes some time and paitence!

You can use a hand mixer, a stand mixer, a mason jar, basically anything that will agitate the cream. Obvisously they are easier ways than others! :) I have an old glass jar butter churn that is on it's 4th generation as you might be able to tell in the picture. :) The kids, and I take turns while we sit on the porch turning the crank on the churn. I would estimate it takes about 45minutes to an hour of fast churning to get butter and another 15-20 minutes of rinsing to finish it off. This is why I say you may want to try it in a mixer for the first time.

The cream will go through 3 stages as it makes butter. The first is the inital cream stage. Make sure you shake the container well to get all of the cream blended before pouring it in. After blending for a while you will notice the cream turn to whipped cream. You can stop at this stage and add a little sugar for natural homeade whipped cream but that's not what I'm making today :)




So blend on and after some time you will notice the cream start to get an almost grainey appearance...


Keep pluggin along and it will turn into butter and buttermilk.


From here you drain off the buttermilk and save it in a jar for baking. (Makes lovely biscuits!)



Once that is done you will need to continue pressing the buttermilk out of the butter. You can do this step by hand, using two wooden spoons soaked in ice water. Use the spoons to roll a small piece of the butter into a ball and press the milk out of it. Once that has been done you will need to rinse the butter balls in ice water to continue to remove the buttermilk. This is important as the more buttermilk you leave in the butter the faster it will spoil. If you plan on using it quickly you can leave some of the milk in it and continue to mix it which turns it into whipped butter and will make spreading easier. You can also add salt to the butter during this step or you can leave it unsalted. I hope you try it and I hope you enjoy it!!!

Blessings to you and yours!

Chicken Noodle

Chicken Noodle
Originally uploaded by 10cent_star

A big pot of chicken soup is on the stove to warm up the family after playing in the snow for a few hours.

Typical Tuesdays

When I tell people that I don't have cable and only watch about 1/2 hour of TV per week, they often get the same look on their face. It sorta resembles a look as if I just told them I was dying of a terminal disease. Horror mixed with sympathy. It's usually followed with the same question....Why? I respond why not? It's a fair question why would I spend 4-5 hours every night engrossed in the television? Constantly filling my mind with images of things I should want or eat. Or even worse with images of sexual promisquety. Speaking of what is up with that??? Why do compaines think if they show me some half naked women wrapped in ribbons I will be more inclined to run out an purchase their chemical filled product to slather on my skin??? And where did we as a society lower our standards enough to accept the crap that is available out there? Things are getting more and more expensive yet they are less and less quality goods? Somehow we just seem to take it with a grain of salt and keep gobbling up this junk because the TV gods say we need it!!! Stand up say NO! Buy local buy handmade! Stop buying the junk!


Okay now that I got that outa my system :)!

So what does a family of 4 do whent he TV is not on?? Well we do lots of stuff... See the next few posts for details :)

Quiet Day at home

The snows falling and it seems the whole world is quiet! I love these days, and even more so when I don't have to go to work! I have lots of stuff I could be doing like finishing my crocheting, my knitting, my quilting. I could make some soap for the family (we are getting low), or a could backe some bread (again we are getting low). But so far the most I have accomplished is laundry. Which isn't really an accomplishment. The first load is spinning away and soon I'll have to get to hanging it up. It's winter and snowing as I said so the clothes line outside is pretty much not an option, I need to pick up another drying rack cuz the one I have gets pretty crowded. I'm sure my house looks pretty funny to city people when it's laundry day but we don't mind. All the clothes hanging up around the house add's to the hummidity which is badly needed since the corn stove REALLY drains the moisture and I'm pretty sure the cat is going to move out if I static shock her again! It's still early in the morning so I may surprise myself yet today! Ya never know I might just get the ambition to finish some of my projects! I better get it done soon spring is around the corner and then I will be to busy.