Farm Fresh: Sharing our farm blessings

 We are so blessed to have this farm and for our kids to learn about animal husbandry and how to raise healthy food.  This year we have been finding new ways to share the farm with our "extended" family at church.  We have been bringing "fuzzy" treats to our Sunday School class. Our class only has 7 kids normally, but all the primary children come to our room after their class because they know that we bring fun baby animals to hold. So far we have brought: kittens, chicks, ducklings, and rabbit kits. Next time, we will bring our turkey poults.

We also have hosted two primary "play dates" on the farm, and are planning to do one more before the end of the summer.  We gave the kids a tour of the farm and let them hold all the baby animals.  We set up different stations so that they could all hold the same kind of animal at once. 

The littlest ones love sitting on the tractor and playing in our giant sand pit as much as seeing the animals!

Uncle A came to visit for a couple days.  We had some fun adventures playing together.  Brother M jumped over Uncle A with his RC car and they played a late late night game of Star Realms while I was working on some tasty things in the kitchen. 

The summer has been mild until this last week. We are having some 90F days. Brother M has been working hard to keep the rabbits cool in this heat (which is the hardest season for them).

The tomato harvest has picked up.  As soon as we had 30 lbs on the counter, I made our first batch of tomato sauce.  We have been out of it for about a month or more now. 

To go with the sauce I made some homemade noodles with dried (powdered) carrot greens in place of part of the flour. 

The tasters were skeptical at first, but homemade noodles, meatballs, and sauce won them over. 

The harvests have been great this year.  Plenty of potatoes.   Baby A learned the joy of finding buried treasure with brother S and miss L. 

We also harvested 100 lbs of spring carrots.

We planted the corn after the peas were done and it is making great progress.  Should be ready to harvest in late September. 

Brother S carefully planted and has been weeding his melon patch. Lots of melon babies are looking good so far. 

We have also been raising enough flowers to keep my kitchen and dining room always looking cheerful with fresh flowers. 

And the animals are multiplying well. Mama muscovy has taken good care of her brood. They have graduated to the big duck house. 

Speaking of which, we moved a bunch of things around.  Rabbit cages are mostly all in the high tunnel until I finish building their new permanent hutch alongside the barn (winter project).  I gave away a bunch of the oldest/rustiest cages. This hoop house has been moved to the East woods to be a pig shelter! We are picking up some IPP shoats next Saturday.  I am hurrying to finish their fenced area in the woods. That will be my main project this week.  

Baking with berries.  Lots of fun decorating parties have been making messes in the kitchen.

Swallow Falls Scout Camp Out and Pioneer Day

 The weekend before heading off to church youth camps, the big kids and hubby went on a scout camp out to Swallow Falls.  They had a great time hiking around and playing in, on, and behind the waterfalls.

This past Saturday this young kids had a primary Pioneer Day activity.  They had sack races, a stick pull, made butter, and shared pioneer stories from their ancestors. 

We also helped our buddies tattoo their 10 young kits in preparation for the county fair.  

July Camping Adventures

 The big kids and Hubby went off on another week long camping adventure -- the boys to Young Men's camp in Delaware and big sister A to Camp Round Meadow near Cunningham Falls. 

I think they all had a great time.  The boys were "roughing it" a lot more than the girls.  The girls had cabins with bathroom facilities this year.  Big sister A said that they had plenty of snacks.  Snacks available all day long practically and lots of candy being passed around. 

Lots of camp songs were sung.

Bishop's night skits:

The girls did some rock climbing and hiking. 

The boys went on a 20 mile bike ride, fished in the ocean, swam in the ocean, and got drenched. 

It would not be a normal week of camping around here without there being several big rainstorms! Hubby came home with 4 wet tents and hung them all in the barn and basement to dry.

The YM were camped out at Fort Miles State Park.  They visited Fort Miles and had some history lessons.

They biked around the State Park.

They fished off the pier and caught several interesting fish.

Including a puffer fish, which they were very excited about!

June on the Farm

 The weather was cool and dry for most of June, more like spring than summer.  We spent a lot of time outside enjoying the beautiful weather. 

We hosted a square dance in our barn, with a professional caller.  

It was one of Big Sister A and Big Brother M's Children and Youth goals in the social category. We had a lot of fun. 

We spent several days getting the barn all tidy and powerwashed.

Brother S is getting to be an expert in pruning and trellising up tomatoes.

Miss L and Brother S harvested and shelled so many pounds of peas.  Eventually, we had to use "you can watch a movie while you shell" as an incentive to keep shelling.

The youth from church had a big closing social with water games, volleyball, refreshments, and a skit.

The big kids and Daddy went to Scout camp for a week.  While they were gone, the younger three and I went on some fun adventures. We went to the Chinese buffet after working hard weeding.

We worked hard in the high tunnel while it was pouring rain. 

Miss L went on an adventure in search of horse toys to spend all her money on. And we discovered a magical brick and mortar toy store. 

We had ice cream rewards for getting all the chores done -- tidying up the house and helping in the garden.

For Sam's adventure, he wanted to go to the Air and Space museum.  He had learned a lot about planes since we were there last time. He had specific ones that he especially was hoping to see. 

We saw Grandpa J's plane from the Vietnam War. 

Our apricots fell off the tree because we had so much rain so fast.  We picked them up and they were yummy. We ate some fresh and also made apricot butter. 

We hosted a visit to the farm for 10 little children from the kids' classes at church. They were so excited to hold all the fuzzy animals... and play in the sand, and pick carrots, raspberries and currants. 

Baby A and I tested out the leftovers of a batch of black currant jam.  So delicious.

While I was outside pruning some fireblight and bacterial canker from our orchard, Brother S and Miss L made some creative gingerbread cookies.

Miss L sampled the first plums from our tree. 

Brother M has been kindly picking and bringing in wineberries for all to share.