Stampede Family Farm

Almost A New Year

2011-12-26T19:30:00.003-06:00

The Holidays are over and A New Year is almost here. Hard to believe that another year is over. It seems that 2011, went by in a whirlwind storm. I can hardly remember what all went on. Since I'm thinking about it now, I am going to reflect on this past year.

Everyone had a birthday of course. The kids are getting older. This year the kids at home turned 4, 7, 12 and 14. The other two are now 22 and 26 years old, with growing families too. So far, I have six grandchildren. Linola has 4 and Jaymon has two. I will be getting another grandchild in the new year. I hope its a girl.

Timber is still the one who loves and cares for all the horses and other farm animals. Both Timber and Linda still love the theatre and their brother Jesse is starting to like it too. He recently played Tiny Tim in the community theatre. The girls were in the play too. A whole month of practice and 11 public shows later Jesse found out he liked the theatre.

Bobby is still working out at the Morton Salt Mine. He really likes this job. Its been almost 4 years now since he started and he has been in a number of positions and jobs. He is now in school for machinist and is working 12 hour days seven days a week most of the time. The holidays gave him a little break and some R & R.

I'm still at home with all the kids. Schooling, Farming and Running the kids to activities.

Our summer was a hot & dry one. We started in May with 90 degree temps and before June was over we were in the 100's and not one drop of rain. It stayed like that for 88 straight days getting has hot as 118. We did finally get a little break in Sept. because the temp dropped to the upper 90's, two weeks later it was in the lower 80's and we were freezing. Amazing how we got use to the heat. Because of the extreme summer we didn't get much done, except keep some animals alive. We could not keep our garden up and I barely kept the fruit trees alive. I did loose some shrubs and berry plants. The lawn died too. We had to use our rationed water for the animals and let the plants go. There will be a lot of yard cleaning in the spring, because we have lost a number of large trees due to the drought.

2011 is a year for the record books and a lesson in survival for us. We are looking forward to a new year and a new season. Looking for some new experiences and memories too. Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and until then here is a couple pictures of my children and grandchildren.

In this picture is Timber, Jaymon, Me, Linola, Linda and Jesse in front

In this one is Aden, Faith, Me, Jasmine and Jeremiah, AJ and Avery

End of Summer?

2011-09-16T00:13:00.002-05:00

Wow! What a summer we have had. I was beginning to wonder if the heat would ever end. Texas has had extreme temperatures this year and it has really been difficult to deal with. Added to the extreme heat we are in a drought.

Where we live in Texas, we have had over 80 days of 100+ temperatures. To put that in perspective, the normal number of days at or above 100 degrees is 7. Yes, only 7 days. We have had 11 to 12 times that amount. Needless to say, my children did not spend much time outside.

Added to the heat was extreme drought. Normal rain fall for this area to date would be around 30". I believe we have had a total of 12" of rain. Again, needless to say, ALL plants are dead and some trees may not make it.

Last night we had a light shower (I mean "light"! didn't even moisten the dust in the rain gauge) and some cool winds from the north. Todays high temp was 84 degrees. Wow. Our low this morning was 64 degrees, that is a whooping 40 degree drop and we needed jackets this morning. LOL

I hope our highs stay near the low 80's for the next three months. My kids need some outdoor time. It wouldn't hurt to have a little rain with that too.

Praying for our firefighters who have been fighting an outbreak of wild fires since the Labor Day weekend.

Garden is growing

2011-05-11T23:23:00.000-05:00

Our youngest sitting in the squash patch. We are starting to get fresh veggies.

Here is the first Cantaloupe. Only one right now, but the vines are covered in flowers.

We found a handful of green beans. I'm so glad that we planted a second round of bean plants

We also found two tiny watermelons. Looking forward to eating those

Welcome to the Farm

2011-05-02T17:39:00.003-05:00

Our family would like to welcome two new baby turkeys to the farm. These will be the large Broad Breasted Bronze Turkeys. My son has named them "cheep" and "cheep cheep" The rest of us have named them Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. LOL

Yes they will end up in the freezer come fall, but for now they are so cute. Aren't they?

Oh, I forgot to mention that our farm animals live in the house for the first couple weeks here. This picture was taken on my desk.

Container garden

2011-04-30T14:45:00.002-05:00

Even though we have the large garden, some things just do better in containers. Like lettuce and radishes. Here are my radishes growing in their container. Looks like they are about ready.

It only takes about four weeks to grow radishes.

After picking a handful, it does look like its time to harvest all of them and replant a new batch.

2011-04-28T14:53:00.001-05:00

My kids found this bullfrog on our property and were having a great time playing with it. Usually we find toads or tree frogs.

This frog was fun because of his long legs.

The garden is starting to grow

2011-04-18T16:54:00.006-05:00

Our garden is not doing very well this year. We have really had one issue after another trying to just get started. The greenhouse was not done until March, so the seeds were started late. Some seeds did not even take well (my Roma tomato) and some got too tall before we even got them in the ground. Other plants did much better.

Our potatoes. Thirty plants growing great in their mulch hill. This is the one and only plant that was put in the garden on time.

Here are some of our homemade tomato cages. They are made out of scrap wood and left over fence. I still need about 9 more. But we ran out of time.

Here my husband and daughter are putting in the watermelon that we started in the greenhouse. They should take pretty easy. We'll see soon enough

Now if we could just get past the never ending drought that we are having, we might actually get some food out of this garden.

Ducks

2011-04-08T21:31:00.003-05:00

We purchased two ducks 2 months ago. I wanted them for our pond. They are now getting big enough to let them out for exploring and a little dip in the pool. Soon I will put them on the pond. Hopefully the don't fly away.

Here they are having their first dip in the pool.

Spring 4-1-2011

2011-04-01T17:16:00.002-05:00

Oh my! It has been months since I have posted anything. I Guess that is what happens when you have a second family move in. Seems like with all the extra people we could get a lot done around here and I would have a ton of spare time. Not the case. More people = less spare time.

We got a really late start on the building of the greenhouse. But, it is now finished. Well, except the inside door. The weather was already too warm to worry about the inside door anyway. But I was able to use the greenhouse to start my seeds. Hooray! No more seeds sitting in my kitchen floor. It was also VERY handy to have a new faucet plumbed out the the greenhouse. Now I don't have to lug buckets of water out there to keep things growing.

We also plumbed a faucet out by the garden and animal yards. Much easier to water the garden and fill those water tanks for the animals. Here's a picture of the new greenhouse.

Next is a picture of our tilled garden, ready for some plants. This is our 2nd full garden planned in this spot and the garden soil is awesome. I spent all last year putting our kitchen compost, horse manure, goat manure and lawn clippings in there. It looks and feels great. I just hope the plants do well. In the picture it looks huge, but I don't think it really is. We did install 3 sprinklers to cover the whole garden bed when watering.

I need to go around and take some more pictures of all the trees, and plants that I have going now. Most of my landscape is fruits and veggies. I do have some ornamental plants too.

Our Kinda Fun

2011-03-22T15:39:00.001-05:00

Alright here it is. When our day is done and the sun is going down, it is time to play. I am ashamed to say that we partake in redneck games..... yes, it is what it looks like.... lawn mower races. LOL This was a lot of fun and I only say that because my mower won the race.

We also take the time to teach the younger ones how to race...um....I mean drive the mower in a safe and professional manner.

Here on the Farm

2010-12-31T16:56:00.003-06:00

Family life has been very busy here on the farm. With my adult son, Jaymon and his family moving back here to Texas from New York, our normal life has been a world wind of errands. Our combined families made a total of 10 people here, with another one on the way.

Much running to doctors and other necessary appointments. Plus the usual farm chores, house chores, homeschooling and jobs, I have not had a minute of spare time. Often spending 7 am to 2 am taking care of all that needed to be done before passing out in bed again.

Needless to say, I have not been able to document in pictures, or post about our homesteading/farming life.

Right now we have completed the new plumbing out to the greenhouse and another route out to the animal stalls, pens and animal yards. We have also been repairing and replacing all the siding on the house that was old or damaged from last years storm. Another project we have been working on is in the woods. Thinning out the under brush, taking out dead trees and cleaning up the creek that leads to our pond (the creek is dry right now).

Soon we will start on replacing the roof on the house and recovering the greenhouse. Then the garden tilling will need to be started to kill off last years weed growth so we can plan out our garden for the spring. Still have so much to do, but I believe the more we get done the smoother the farm will run.

Horse training has been put on hold until warmer weather. But we are keeping up with the basics. My daughters have been able to get on both of the mustangs at anytime with or without riding gear. I feel we have them pretty gentle now. In the spring we will start teaching real communication to the horses. I want both these horses to be ridable by anyone.

The latest news is the birth of my 5th grandchild. My first granddaughter, Jasmine Renee, arrived on December 28th, 2010 at 6 am. She weighed in at a tiny 5lbs 10oz. Mom and baby are in great health. For this we are blessed. Here is a picture of her.

Little Update on the Horse Training

2010-08-29T18:47:00.003-05:00

Below are some pictures of my husband with a black eye and his wrist in a cast. Horse business is dangers. It does not matter how friendly or well trained they are, a horse can hurt you, just because of their sheer size and the fact that they are animals and can not reason with you or think out what their actions can do.
In this case my husband was working with a fairly young horse and after a very successful day of training, my husband got a little too relaxed and did something that spooked the horse. My husband ended up on the ground and then we all had to go to the ER.
He will be in a cast for 6-10 weeks.

Desensitize Training

2010-08-24T15:13:00.004-05:00

Part of the pony training we are doing is to desensitize the horses from things that might spook or scare the horse. So we set up an obstacle course with different things like, stuff hanging from a tree, brush, a tarp, a hose and some ply wood. One of the ponies went through the course just a little jumpy and then did it all with no problems. The other horse balked at every part of the course. She had to be lead and coaxed at every step. But she did get comfortable and didn't worry so much.

This is Pony. He is the one that we thought would give us trouble. Turns out he had less problems with this exercise.

This is Misty. To our surprise she was really nervous about this test and really had to be talked into doing it. But she gave in and did the course.

I'm glad we did this exercise because we just learned that the two horses fears were opposite than what we thought.

Trying something new

2010-06-17T12:15:00.003-05:00

There seems to be a lot of time between my post. Its not that I don't have anything to say, I'm am just very busy trying to keep up with all the chores around the farm that I can not get to the blog. I also like to add pictures to all my blog post and it seems that I keep forgetting to bring the camera out on my projects. But, I did remember this time.

This project was to clean up my flower beds around the base of my house. We needed to weed it... AGAIN! Its seems we can't keep them weed free and the weeds grow so fast. We also can not seem to keep them watered enough. They dry out too fast. So the solution is to kill the weeds and mulch. We don't like to use chemical weed killer and we can not pay for commercial mulch. Our solution? Newspaper and lawn clippings. We have a very large lawn, a riding mower and a bagger to catch the clippings. We'll put this to work for us.

First, we pulled most of the weeds out by hand. Notice that the dirt is like clay, which does not hold water very well. The plants will suffer for that.

We then placed 3 sheets of newspaper on the ground, over lapping the edges. We wet the paper as we went along to keep it from blowing away.

Then we would dump the bags of grass clippings on the paper and we spread that around making sure to get under the plants, but not right on the plant stem. I then soaked the grass clippings with water, so they would settle into place and water the ground at the same time.

A few days later the grass clippings are turning brown. They are also pressed tighter together.

My thinking is that the newspaper will work as a weed block for a little while and the clippings will hold the water on the dirt to keep it moist (also, the clippings help hide the paper) This should encourage worms too. By the end of summer, I imagine the weeds will be getting through. I will wait until the fall when the flowers die back. Then I will cover the whole area with paper again and cover the paper with the fall leaves I will need to mow up. The old mulch will then become food for the worms and nutrient for the ground. By next spring the flower bed soil should be in tip top shape. Good for the plants and worms... and good for my water bill. I'll let you know how this works out.

2010-05-08T17:26:00.003-05:00

I always have my first morning, cup of coffee outside on the porch. I enjoy sitting outside watching the farm wake up. Usually the horses are either grazing in the back pasture or rolling in the dust and galloping around. The goats will be busy eating grass or leaves in their goat pen, while the dogs are doing their morning stretch.
The birds are usually bouncing from feeder to bird bath and the squirrels jump through the tree tops with whatever nuts or fruit they may have found and the pig tries to sneak out for a bite before I can see him. My cats sit in the yard trying to decide what to go after.
Yesterday morning, I had coffee in hand and went out the door. Before I could even sit down I noticed something new. Small, brown and LOOKING at me.

There in the front pasture was a little foal. Standing there next to her momma, just looking up towards the house. She was so beautiful and so unexpected. I called the girls out right away to see (and to confirm what I saw) they went to squealing like greased up little piggies in a hog wrangle. We did kinda think the mare might be pregnant but we didn't know for sure. She never really showed. Even our vet (we didn't have him do an exam, just pointed her out) wasn't sure she was. A week after he saw her, she had the baby. So we were VERY surprised. I must say, we are pleased to welcome "Flicka" on to our farm.

Welcome Flicka

Weathering the storm

2010-04-24T20:31:00.004-05:00

Last night we had a major storm roll through East TX. Our little town was right in its path too. I woke up, at 2 am to the sound of a train and a lot of banging around on the house. I ran around the house closing windows, amid the lights blinking on and off, because the rain was blowing sideways and coming straight in. After that I tried to get a weather report. First with the TV, but the cable was out. Then with the radio, but the power went off and on. So I grabbed the hand crank radio and could only get ONE station to tune in and it wasn't the weather. That is when I called my spouse at work to see if he had heard anything, but he had not. By this point the wind was howling and we could hear limbs breaking. The power came back on and I jumped on the computer and pulled up the local TV station and found out that we were in the middle of a HUGE storm..... with rotation. The weather man never said a tornado had touched down, but we were in a tornado warning. As soon as I got the report, I could tell the storm had moved on. As a matter of fact I was still on the phone with Bobby, who was at work 22 miles away and he said it had just hit there. The time laps was only 20 minutes. I still stayed awake for a couple hours and then finally went to bed at 4 am. The next morning we went out to survey the damage. This is what we found.

This is a picture of the eves of the house. All this trim will need to be replaced. It probably needed it anyway.

The next two pictures are the pear tree we lost. This tree was about twenty years old and gave a lot of fruit every fall. This is our biggest loss. But I just happen to have another one that I just purchased and now I know where we will put it.

I find it amazing that this tree managed to fall in the one place that didn't have a car, lawn mower or the pool in its path. It missed all of that.

My little potato patch with all the debris blown all over it.

More limbs and debris near all the animal pens. The huge Oak Trees in and around the animal pens are still standing and none of the animals were harmed.

This last picture is a branch that is about 12" diameter. It cracked length wise and did not disconnect from the tree. The other end of it is hanging down toward the ground. The base of this tree is 3 feet from the back corner of our house, which is my bedroom. The wind was blowing from that side of the house and after finding this we figured out that the whole broken branch was swinging in the storm slapping the side of the house. That was the banging I heard.

We were lucky. All we have is just a bunch of clean up to do. Some of my neighbors have a little more damage. One neighbor had a very large tree land on his BIG tractor. Life doesn't look to good for that tractor anymore... poor thing. I gave thanks to the Lord for keeping us safe.

Farm Accident

2010-04-09T17:08:00.000-05:00

Sometime bad things happen on the farm. Most are just an accident and most happen to the humans on the farm. Our most recent experience was an accident with our little pony.

Chief is a Shetland Paint.... Stud! He's 15 years old and pretty easy going. He's small and easy for the kids to handle. We really adore him too.

We recently sold 2 horses and reduced the herd to just 3 horses. Chief being the stud that he is wanted to let Pony know that the mare was his. He chased poor Pony for a very long time. Since his mind was only on one thing he missed place his senses and plowed, at a full run, into a gate held into place by a railroad tie fence post. He split his head open and required stitches.

Pretty scary when you are in the middle of it, but once the emergency part is over and the mess cleaned up, it doesn't look so bad. Needless to say, he will being seeing the Vet on Tues. the 20th to end some of that hard headed stud attitude.

Bird Bath Kitty Bed

2010-02-21T15:22:00.002-06:00

I just had to take this picture. It made me laugh when I saw it. The bird bath is made of solid concrete and in the last few months has quit holding water. It was warmed by the sun a few hours before the kitty found that it was a nice warm place to nap. I got the first picture of the kitty sleeping when my son saw what I was doing and came over and woke the kitty up. Life on the farm is always an adventure.

Goats Milk

2010-02-15T14:44:00.004-06:00

Just wanted to post a picture I took after milking the goat. Right now we are milking just one goat, Flower. This is our second time she has been our milker. The first time was a learning experience for me. I never could get her to milk more then a pint a day. Now I have her giving me a quart a day. One thing I figured out, is the baby goat will not stop nursing even after I start milking, which may be the reason I couldn't get much last time. So, for now we have to keep the baby goat, Petal, away from mom. The baby is almost a year old and still wants to nurse.

I am storing the milk in plastic juice bottles that I have saved from our favorite juice, pomegranate. The POM brand bottles are fancy and have a nice thread on lid. They only hold a quart and a half, but I still like them.

Today's Pictures

2010-02-12T16:06:00.003-06:00

I wanted to post a few more pictures of the snow on our farm. I took some when I got up around 7. After breakfast and putting on our warm layers we all went out in the woods, around 11 am and took more pictures. The snow is all melting away and we are left with mud now. Our winter wonderland was wonderful while it lasted. Enjoy!

We got snow

2010-02-11T18:14:00.002-06:00

Well, it actually happened. We got snow here in East TX. It doesn't happen often, but when it does everything is beautiful. Makes our place look so clean, quiet and peaceful. Thank you Lord for giving us seasons with unexpected change.

Bath time

2010-02-11T12:38:00.002-06:00

Nothing better than bath time with bubbles.

Getting Prepared

2010-01-07T15:28:00.002-06:00

Here in East TX, we are having freezing temperatures like we have not seen in 12 to 13 years. No major snow or ice problems yet, just really cold. I've been thinking and worrying about it for a couple days now. One thing I noticed is how fast we are going through the propane to run the furnace.
So I got to thinking about my outdoor animals. One dog is very comfortable in the goat shed. They all cuddle up and stay nice and warm. The dog has a very thick coat, so I think the goats cuddle him, not the other way around. The point is the goats and that dog are fine. The other dog does not have farm animals to cuddle with. I have decided that she will be coming in the house for the next 5 days or so. I already have two cats in the house, so why not the dog too. We are suppose to warm up after that. The horses are ok too. I hope! They all have heavy coats this year and they herd together in the shelter. I do have to go out and break ice from their water, but other than that they should be fine as long as we don't have any wet weather.
To get the house ready, we unhooked the garden hoses and wrapped the outdoor faucets with beach towels. We also drained the pool equipment. Indoors we put the mini blinds to use to cover the windows. Makes me feel all cooped up, but it does reduce the cold air coming in. Tonight I will open all the cabinets that have plumbing in them, so that the heat in the house can keep them warm. I will also drip one faucet just to keep the water flowing. I did fill a few jugs with water, just in case the plumbing freezes. I sure can't live without my coffee, so the water is for that.
Beyond that, I can not think of anything to do that will make any real difference. If the power goes out there is nothing I can really do for heating. We just do without. We do have a small generator that could run the fridge and freezer or maybe a space heater. Guess I better make sure we have gas on hand for it.
Thats it here on the farm. Just dealing with winter weather issues and dreaming of spring.

Homemade Bread

2009-10-12T12:50:00.005-05:00

Here is a bread recipe that I just love. I don't have a bread machine, so I have to do the mix it, time it to let it rise and then use bread pans and time it baking in the oven. This recipe is simple which makes the rest of the work not seem so bad. Anyway this is the recipe and directions......
1/2 cup milk, 3 TBSP Sugar, 2 tsp salt, 3 TBSP butter. Heat first 4 ingredients in pan to dissolve sugar. 1-1/2 cups warm water, 4-1/2 tsp yeast. Dissolve yeast in water. Mix water/yeast with the milk mix and add 4 cups flour. Start mixing with your mixer using dough hooks. Add 1/2 cup flour at a time (up to 2 cups) until dough starts to ball and look a little elastic. Put dough in greased bowl and let rise to double in size (about 1 hour) punch down and divid dough into two greased bread pans and let rise until dough reaches top of pan (30m to 1 hour) Bake @ 400 degrees for 30 mins. remove from pans and cool on wire rack. Time from start to finish 2-1/2 to 3 hours.

I have not messed this up yet. Sometimes the dough looks sticky, but bakes fine. Sometimes it looks dry, but still bakes fine. So to me, its a no fail recipe. LOL!

Bird Nest Update

2009-07-13T17:13:00.003-05:00

I wanted to post this picture of our little bird nest (I blogged about them about two weeks ago) that we have on our porch. The eggs hatched last week, only 14 days after we found them. They are about 9 or 10 days old right now. We did the internet search (of course) and found that both parents will take care of the babies and yes we have seen both of them. We also found out that the babies start leaving in as little as 15 days old. I can see 4 of the babies in this picture, but there was about 7 eggs originally. I will try to count them as they get bigger. More later.....

I am coming back to edit this post with a new picture. I just went out this morning and found the babies hopping out of the nest. Two were caught by the cat and one I put back in the nest with the other 3. So I guess there was 6 birds altogether. Here is the last picture. I am sure these babies will be gone by morning....

July 4th

2009-07-04T23:06:00.000-05:00

At the risk of repeating myself. I would like to say how much I enjoy the 4th of July fireworks.

We go to see the fireworks right here in our hometown. We have a little community park and the Edom VFD puts on the show. There's always a live band (which is a local group) we say the pledge and we get to visit with ALL our neighbors. We park our trucks right on the park green and have a basic hometown tailgate party (family friendly, of course). When it gets dark the fire department puts on an awesome firework display set to patriotic music. As grand as any big city. Then we can head home, just a mile down the road. What a perfect way to spend time with the family.

Last Day of June

2009-06-30T18:40:00.002-05:00

I wanted to get one more post in here before the month ended. Today is June 30th and I better hurry.

Our garden has kept us very busy. Some plants have matured faster than others. The potatoes have been harvested. I don't really have a way to store them, so we are just eating good tasting potatoes nearly each day. I ended up with about 40lbs out of 2 rows of them. Pretty good. The Roma tomatoes (good for canning) are just now turning red. I am still getting bell peppers too. The green beans gave me a good harvest, but are now dead, because of an underground critter that bit the roots off. Still waiting on the cantaloupe. Still getting squash and cucumber. The corn seemed to grow ok, put I didn't have that much planted, so we have gotten 3 meals worth out of that.

That is my update for the garden.

Summertime on the Farm

2009-06-20T16:29:00.019-05:00

We have really been enjoying the farm this summer. Usually we are off on some trip to somewhere and I guess we miss a lot of the wildlife here. This tree frog is one of many that we have here every night. They seem to like meeting each other at our pool. So Bobby went and picked a few up so the kids could play with them. Later he put them on the rail to take pictures of them. To our surprise their croaking and barking sounds brought up a snake too. We did not take a picture of the snake.

This flower basket is hanging at our porch and we walk past it every day. A house wren has made a nest inside where the plant is. Seems like it wouldn't want to be that close to us. But it is.

Here is the nest.....

Here are the eggs in the nest. There are five eggs so far.....

The girls found this little guy near our shed. I thought we had bunnies under the shed, because I had found their "door" the other day. Which is very near our garden and pear trees. This is just a baby. Here I am holding it in one hand and taking a picture with my other hand. We did let him go back where we found him. But he really needs to stay out of my garden.

Garden Update

2009-06-03T20:55:00.004-05:00

Its June and since the sun finally came out things are really growing in the garden now. Cucumber, potatoes, green beans and squash are all giving us food now. The corn is still growing and so are the tomatoes. Bell peppers are getting flowers and we even have little green cantaloupe on the vines. Our sweet peas didn't make it and the okra (which usually does well) is pretty sad looking. We seem to have the bugs under control. The little green bugs are gone and we have plenty of ladybugs, so they must be doing their job. The grass growing in the garden is another story. We can't keep up with the hand pulling. I did expect to have a problem with this, since the garden is in a new location and this area use to be part of the horse pasture. So the grasses just grow and grow. It won't grow in the lawn at all, but it'll grow in the garden. Go figure. Anyway, I have reached the point that I am keeping the grass pulled from around the plants, but letting it go everywhere else.

Another problem that has come up is the gophers. First the bunnies eating the tops of the plants and now the gophers are eating the bottoms of the plants. So, I have lost a few young plants. Maybe we won't miss them too much.

Cucumber Tunnel

2009-05-31T20:33:00.000-05:00

I wanted to post a picture of our cucumber tunnel. Bobby made this to support the cucumber plants as they grew. I thought it would be neat to have it a tunnel so that little man could find a way to enjoy the garden too. It worked out pretty good. Next year we will need to make it longer and space the plants a little further apart. But, it is working the way it is and we are getting plenty of cucumber. Wish I knew a way to pickle without it taking days on end. Guess we will just have to eat these as fast as we can.

Garlic Harvest

2009-05-17T18:47:00.002-05:00

Today we pulled up a few of the garlics to see how they are doing. The tops have started to die back and from what I have read that is the time to harvest them. Once we pulled up the few in the top picture we realized that they are big enough so we pulled up the rest of them. We got 'way more' than I expected (I'll explain). I am very pleased with the turn out.

First off, the garlic we used was left over gloves we had purchased the year before in a gallon container that was refrigerated. We ate and used most of them, but what was left was expired and didn't look great. I didn't want to throw them out, so we decided to plant them. The area we planted them in was not very good soil. We didn't have a place that was prepared last year and I didn't want them in a place that would end up being in the way. So, my husband and son planted the garlic around our pear tree, just to "see" what would happen. This was done September of 2008, we didn't have to tend to them much. I pulled weeds just before winter and once this spring. That's it! All the watering was rain water. So this turned out to be very little maintenance. Looks like we will do this again in September.

Pony Training

2009-05-06T16:44:00.003-05:00

Today we decided to work with one of the little horses and see about getting him ready for riding. We tied him up and brushed him out. He was use to that. Then we got out the blanket and showed it to him. He sure eyeballed the blanket and he danced around a bit. Then, before he knew what happen.... it was on his back. We stood there, he stood there and then he went back to eating. Ok, out comes the saddle. It creaks and makes noise, so the pony starts dancing again. We hold him still, throw on the saddle and he just stands there trembling. After he calms down Bobby tightened it on. So far so good. So we leave him alone for just a bit so he can get use to the feel. He just goes back to eating.

After a while we return and start walking him around. He side stepped a couple times then he seemed to realize that he could walk normal with a saddle. This all seemed too easy.... we thought this would take a couple tries. Since it was easy we wanted to move to the next step and put weight on the saddle. This is where it got fun! We got a feed sack that weights 5o lbs. It crinkled and made noise so that worried the pony a lot. We put the sack on and he started to jump around. The sack fell off. We then got an empty sack and stood next to him crinkling it and shaking it near him. We let him stick his head in and smell the feed that was once in it. He was ok with the noise and the smell and his head in a sack. So, we picked up the full one and put it on him again. He stood there. This was awesome. We walked him around like that for about 10 minutes, let him drink water, eat hay and walked some more. This was still too easy, which made us want to do more...............

We did. He took it all. In the end our 12 year old daughter was in the saddle riding the pony with daddy leading. There was a couple jumpy moments. After the first time he jumped around my daughter was thrilled and wanted to keep doing it. I am still a little shocked that we managed all this within a couple hours. Here's the picture of my rodeo girl.

The Garden is Growing

2009-05-04T22:52:00.005-05:00

We had a very slow start to our veggie garden. With a couple spring freezes, we had a number of set backs. Finally the plants are in the ground and with all the rain we have had they are growing. We have sweet peas coming in and squash (squash can grow anywhere). I am also trying my hand at growing a row or two of potatoes. Here they are:

I dug in under the potatoes and sure enough I found new potatoes. So I am excited. Now, about that rain I mentioned. It not only helps the plants but the weeds love it too. So, tomorrow we have plans to go out and do some weeding. I will be getting all the kids to help too. Plus, I found little green bugs on a lot of my new plants (Aphids) But I also have lots of ladybugs. So do I wait on the ladybugs to do their job? I didn't want to wait, but I thought it would be ok to sprinkle DE on them. I went out today to do that and the green bugs were gone. So, I'll check them again tomorrow.

One More

2009-04-27T23:12:00.004-05:00

I did it again. I got one more pony. This one is a Shetland Pony. I ended up trading my horse for this little guy.

He's cute and the prefect size for Jesse. He's 15 years old and a pretty good guy, does everything you ask him to do. Minds us and the kids. Gives rides, gets in and out of trailer good and loves all the brushing my kids are doing to him. He needs the brushing but I think the kids are going to brush him bald. BUT...... he will challenge every single horse and pony around. ugh!

Which is why he is skinny. So we have him in his own space so that he doesn't run himself to death chasing the other horses. He may be getting a "special" visit to the vet soon.

Mustang Ponies

2009-04-01T18:27:00.002-05:00

We just purchased us some Mustang ponies. We have been looking at these horses for about 2 months and finally decided to go ahead and get them. The Blue Roan is about 4 years old and the brown is 2, while the Palomino is just under 2 years old. Timber is the one helping to pose the horses for their first picture and she is only 5 foot, so you can see that the ponies are not too large.

Yard Eggs

2009-03-28T19:05:00.002-05:00

Spring is in the air. How do I know? My chickens are laying full steam ahead. We have been raising chickens, selling eggs and hatching some for additions to our flock, for about 7 years now. At this time we have 38 hens and two roosters in the big flock. We also have 8 bantams. Well, this year when the temperatures reached about 68 degrees the hens started laying. We are getting anywhere from 30 to 36 eggs a day. Needless to say, we are eating eggs every single day, sometimes twice a day and selling as many as we can. Some of our buyers were very happy to see our egg sign out again and I was happy to see them coming to buy the overflow in the fridge.

New kid

2009-03-13T17:45:00.003-05:00

Here she is......... our new kid. She is only 4 days old, born on Tuesday, March 10th.

Tiny but doing good. Her official name is "Flower's Petal" but we are going to call her Petal. Silly, I know, but that is what happens when you let children name the animals.

We were a bit worried about the cold weather here, which dropped to 36 degrees today and doesn't look like it will improve much for a couple of days yet. So we rigged up a couple of heat lamps in the goat shed. That seems to be good enough.

2009-03-09T19:22:00.003-05:00

I know its been awhile since my last post. We have been very busy with repairs and building sheds and a hay barn. Also, we have been putting up some more fence and taking down old buildings. The garden has been a big focus of ours. Its in a new location this year and we had to clear it, till it and load it with compost, which we collected from the horses, goats and fall leaves. It all takes time. A lot of time. The good news is.... we can see a big difference. This is a picture of the new garden ready for planting.

This is our garlic, that has been growing since last October. Its not much, but I am proud of it.

These are the plants that I started about 10 days ago and are already coming up. They should be ready for the garden about April 1st.

Garden Now

2008-12-19T13:33:00.004-06:00

Seven days before Christmas and 68 degrees..... garden! Yep, that is what we are doing now. Along with decorating for Christmas, buying gifts and planning meals. We have so much to do, to be ready for a spring garden and with this warm winter day, might as well get out and get something started.Since we are putting the garden in a new location this year we have to get the ground ready with tilling and composting. We try to garden natural, using only manure from the horses, chicken, goats and kitchen scrapes. Plus we have to add in all the fall leaves so that they have time to compost.

Bobby is tilling now and later we will spread the manure and leaves that we have been cleaning up and piling near the garden area. He will then till all that in too. There is also a hill in the middle of the garden, so we will have to level that out some. This garden area will not be as big as the old location, but we should be able to manage this area better. Its closer to the house, closer to the water supply and simply out of the way of all the animals. I will write plenty more about this over the next few months.

Farm Raised Turkey

2008-11-28T15:16:00.002-06:00

Visit www.moblyng.com to make your own!

I wanted to raise our own Holiday Turkey, again this year. We purchased the turkey chicks at a local farm store. We got two, one to eat and one to sell. I was hoping to raise about a 20lb bird so I purchased in late spring. I also wanted them raised on forage, what ever they could find on their own. I was sure this would keep them small. But, I was mistaken. In the end we ended up with a clean and dressed bird that weighted over 30bls. I tried all the roasting pans I had and he was too big. We did get him stuffed into our large roasting pan, but there was no room for basting and I couldn't get the lid to fit. We ended up cutting him in half and cooking each half at different times. It still turned out to be a very tasty Thanksgiving meal.... just not very pretty.

New Goat pen

2008-11-17T16:57:00.000-06:00

Our original pen was pretty small and didn't give the goats much room to roam around. But it did have a nice shed to house them. Behind the pen was a lot of property that was unused. It seemed like wasted space to me and that is one of the reasons I wanted to update the pen. The other reason was the fence.... My horses had gotten into the area last year and really messed up the fence by trying to lean over it. So the work began.

Visit www.moblyng.com to make your own!

We started out by tearing down some old field fence in a different area on our property, to recycle in the goat area. Then we planned out where the new fence would go. There was a dead tree that would end up inside the new pen, so we cut it down and left a 4' stump. This became one of the fence post corners. We then tied out the billy goat and the dog. We let the female goat have freedom of the first pasture. We took down the old fence and dug up all the post. Did some repairs to the shed and moved the dog house next to the goat shed. Then we laid out the fence line. It is square, about 100' X 100' and runs all the way around the shed and dog house and down to the very edge of our property under all the brush. We added two entry gates and buried the 4' fence about 6'' in the ground and covered sections of it in concrete. This wasn't done for the goats... more for the dog. He is a good digger and has spent most of his life on a leash because of it, but the way we did the fence and gate areas he can not dig out now and no longer has to be on a leash. Once the dog and goats were back in the pen they seemed very happy with it and we are too.

In God we still trust

2008-10-30T18:31:00.002-05:00

Enjoy this music video by Diamond Rio

Hit play button

2008-10-27T18:49:00.003-05:00

My goodness, its been nearly two months since my last post. I guess I should not be surprised, after all we have been busy.........

September started us off on a new school year. Lessons are a little more advanced this year and seem to be taking the girls a little longer to complete. Both girls are in Drama again and are in an American Girl Book Club. Jesse has started doing some school too, just not as much. Avery is now a toddler and has learned to climb everything. Nothing stops his adventure. We have had a couple of field trips too. One, was to the Salt Palace Museum, which is a museum based on the Salt Mine where Bobby works. Then, we have been to a couple of Festivals around our area. Seems to be one every weekend for every reason under the sun.

Bobby works ALL the time. His schedule is all over the place too. Sometimes he works days, sometimes nights and usually every weekend. Can't seem to make plans with that schedule.

We have also been working hard with the farm. Every free moment has been spent on that. We have a lot of space that was not really being put to good use. In the past it was all left for the horses. But with more animals and the need to get back to a real veggie garden, we have had to make some changes. First we needed to get the animal housing all in one location. Horses, goats, dogs and poultry are all going to be housed closer together with the horses having access to the pasture and the goats having a larger pen. The hay/feed/animal supply barn is going to be located in the same area so that feeding time is more efficient. But to do this we had to move some fence, tear down old shelters, clear some timber and under brush, install gates AND start building new out buildings... ALL at the same time. Well, at least that is what it feels like.

I have taken some "before" pictures and as the work gets done I will take the after pictures. I'm not sure how long this will take, but winter is coming and we have got to get this done.

For now, I wanted to share a picture of our Thanksgiving turkeys. We are raising two, this year. One is for us to eat and the other has already been sold with the same fate.

2008-09-05T19:51:00.008-05:00

We have had a run of moths. These are huge and colorful moths. I have not seen anything like this since we moved here 9 years ago, but now we see them everyday. This one was on Labor day.

This one on Wednesday------>>>

Bobby brought this one home from work

It was in the truck when he got ready to leave.

2008-09-03T19:17:00.003-05:00

Today we went to the Brookshires Wildlife Musuem. I didn't know that Bobby had never been. Its a neat little place. Full of stuffed wild trophy animals from all over the world and ocean too.
This museum also has a little replica of an old fashion grocery store. Its like a step back into time. Jesse and the girls loved it. They also had an old fire engine from 1952 that was actually used at the Mortin Salt Mine (where Bobby works) in Grand Saline.

2008-08-11T18:54:00.004-05:00

August 11........ One year ago today, Avery was born @ 31 weeks gestation. He weighted only 3lbs 11oz. and was so tiny, he looked just like a doll. Today, he is one year old. He is everything any other one year old is. He walks.......NO... he runs, he climbs.. even to the point of moving toys or books to give himself a leg up. He sits at the table and eats meals with us and he finally sleeps thru the night. This last year has been a roller coaster ride. With doctors appointments, illness and the endless amounts of time (and $$) it takes to care for a premee. His first birthday is a blessing. I am looking forward to this next year, with maybe a little less stress. We'll see how it goes.

Happy Birthday Avery

Doll House

2008-07-15T08:32:00.001-05:00

Timber's Birthday was July 10th. For her birthday she wanted us to finish the doll house we had been working on for a long time (5 months). So Bobby and I stopped every other project and got busy on this one. Did we ever put a lot of time in this. Bobby built the main frame. I stained, painted, wallpapered, carpeted and put down tile floor. He then designed the stairs, cut them out and I stained them and put them together. He installed them and the lights and then we put it all together in time for Timbers birthday. The main reason we designed our own doll house was so that it would fit the dolls we already had (Barbie). Plus we wanted it to last. Most of the one we saw for the tall dolls were very expensive and looked like they would fall apart if little brother entered the room. So we made our own, which makes it special to the girls. Once it was in their room, they played with it for hours, every day. We still want to make most of the furniture too, but for now they are using the plastic stuff and are very happy with that. I must admit, I have been in their floor playing barbies too!

4th of July

2008-07-05T08:11:00.001-05:00

Independence day! My favorite holiday. I know that we don't have any major party or shopping for this holiday, but that is why I love it. I don't have to "plan" anything or "do" anything. We go to see the fireworks right here in our hometown. We have a little community park and the Edom VFD puts on the show. There's always a live band (which is a local group) we say the pledge and we get to visit with ALL our neighbors. We park our trucks right on the park green and have a basic hometown tailgate party (family friendly, of course). When it gets dark the fire department puts on an awesome firework display set to patriotic music. As grand as any big city. Then we can head home, just a mile down the road. What a perfect way to spend time with the family.

We have been so busy.

2008-06-16T16:27:00.003-05:00

Oh my! It is June 16th. It has been a month since I have posted anything. I will try to get ya up to date on our happenings. Lets see, the month of May was very busy for our family. We had many activities going on. We had soccer, a mother daughter tea, American Girl, end of soccer party, a class with the TPW dept. about snakes and gators. Then we had the end of school group camping trip the first weekend in June (which we had to really do a lot of work to the trailer to be able to go). We did all this while Bobby (daddy) was working many LONG hours at the Salt Mine. Avery had a few issues with minor illness, but it did take a lot of my time to care for him and his fussiness. He's better now from his latest illness, which I hope that is it until we can get him past his first Birthday, which is in August.

Coming up next month in our plans is 4th of July weekend. Then Timber's, birthday party. She'll be turning 11 years old. Then Lola's birthday, she'll be 23. Also in July, in the middle of the birthdays is VBS at our church. I will be working the crafts with the children. I really enjoy it, but that 3 hours each morning, really wears me out. Things should be calm around here after that (at least until Aug. that's when everything gets busy again)

Oh, the above picture? That is our frog family. They live in the drain pipes under our front step. Its a family of 5 and each one is a different size. The biggest is almost too big to get out of the pipe.

More Drama

2008-05-08T09:08:00.003-05:00

Recently, Linda was invited to do a play with another theatre group. She was a fill in for this play and had only 3 practices in less than three weeks to have her lines memorized. She did a great job. As a matter of fact all the kids did a great job. This play was a melodrama called "Switched at the Crossroads" it was very funny and the kids did a good job bringing out the humor of the play. This is a picture with Linda and 3 of the other girls in the play. The children had to come up with their own costumes and props for this production, but that was part of the fun.

We are very proud of ourselves

2008-04-12T19:43:00.000-05:00

Yes, this is some of the ribbons we earned at the county fair. All six photos placed, 3 first and 3 seconds in each of their divisions. I also got 3 blue ribbons in baking, canning and collections all of which also earned me 3 best of fair ribbons. In sewing I got a second and a third place. I am looking forward to next years fair, more for my girls than me, because now they have the bug. Both of them won ribbons too. Timber won a blue ribbon for baking in the Jr. class and Linda one second for her poem and third for her craft, both in the Jr. class. Junior class is for kids 9 years to 13 years and Linda was not yet 9, but really wanted to compete. Now they are working on projects for next year and even Jesse is asking what he can do for the fair. We also enjoyed the rides and other fair sights and sounds.

Just taking pictures

2008-04-06T19:27:00.003-05:00

Today we went out and took some photo's in a field near our home. I like taking photo's with some scenery and seeing what I get in the end. This time the Van Zandt county fair was coming up and I didn't feel like I had a good choice of photo's at home to enter in the fair, so I wanted to get some more. This one is a little too shadowed, but it is one of my favorites. It is very much like a little boy to pick flowers.... roots and all... for his momma. I think I have a pretty good selection for the fair. Still need to get them printed and matted.

New Room

2008-03-11T09:32:00.003-05:00

Here is our lastest project. The girls room needed a new look. It was dingy white with a wall paper border that was coming off. All the wall trim was a cheap wood grain "look". So we striped the room down, washed the walls. Added texture and began the re-decorating. The room is now a very pale pink with a light green trim. We wanted to go really light because the furniture is very dark. I then re-stained all of the shelves and picture frames in a very dark stain. The last thing I had to do was make the curtains. I looked everywhere in the stores for something that would go with the bedspreads. Couldn't find anything. So, since the bedspreads were quilted I went into my fabric closet and started picking pieces that would match the spreads. I then designed and made my own window treatments to match the beds. I have never quilted before, so this took a long time for me to figure out. There are some mistakes, but over all they look good and I am pleased with them.

Family Fun

2008-02-29T08:28:00.004-06:00

Yesterday, we had a family day. We went swimming and hiking. Played horseshoes and some other things. We had a great time together and this is something our family really needed to do. On one of our hikes we came across this friendly little guy. He came right up to us, twitched and wiggled like he expected something from us. Well it turns out that the squirrels around here are fed often by the guest. So we got some peanuts and came back out to feed him and get some pictures. He had no fear of us, even rough and tumble Jesse could not scare this little guy away. We spent about 30 mins. with this one taking a ton of pictures. Needless to say, he was very full when we left.

Hiking in the woods

2008-02-08T14:39:00.000-06:00

Today we went hiking in the woods on the back of our property. This is a great adventure for the kids. They find all kinds of things to look at, like the minnows in the pond, moss growing on the ground or tree. Not to mention finding the next tree that has fallen or a spider egg nest. With all of the leaves off of the trees, we found some very large birds nest too. I took a ton of pictures. I love the way some of them turned out. Avery is getting big enough to push himself up, so I got a few good ones of him.

Stormy Weather

2008-02-05T17:00:00.000-06:00

The weather man said that we were going to get storms this morning. I was worried because I had to take the girls into town for drama class. But it remained hot and sunny. After I got home, I was complaining to a friend that the weather man was wrong. We didn't get a drop of rain or the cool weather. Should have kept my mouth shut! All of a sudden this black cloud came over the house and started dropping hail. Within 5 minutes our yard was covered, but then it was raining really hard. By the time the rain stopped the ice was almost gone. The kids ran out with their camera and took a few pictures of the hail that was left. Needless to say, it cooled off nicely and the next day we had beautiful weather.

I sew too

2008-01-17T11:23:00.000-06:00

Ok, I admit that I love to sew. I have been doing it for years. I always had these ideas in my head of what I wanted for outfits, but couldn't find them. Which led to making my own, but I had to teach myself to sew. I am still learning and sewing is my creative outlet. This dress is the last one I made. It was made just for a friend of mines little girl.