First Farm Tour

Our 1st Farm Tour was a huge success and a huge amount of FUN!  Our first tour was also a fundraiser for the St. Martin de Porres Family Retreat Center that friends of ours are working hard to make a reality.  It will be a place away from the fast-paced, technology driven world, a place where families can rest in the Lord.

Our day began with a visit to our broiler pen where the kids and broilers were equally excited about all of the activity.  Anthony held a hen for the kids to pet while others gave the birds extra food to eat.  We call the broilers "pigs with beaks" because they love to eat!  We also explained how the chickens get fresh grass and bugs each day because we move their home to keep them clean and happy.

Our second stop was the bee hives.  Here we talked about how important the bees are to humans and why we must do everything we can to help the bees survive and thrive.  

The kids were excited to feed and hold the rabbits.  Here at the farm house they also had a chance to play with the dogs, feed the pigs, and visit Josie the Jersey and her calf Hershey.

Homemade pumpkin cookies were enjoyed at the farm house before the group hiked out into the field to visit the eggmobile and the hens.  There they fed the layers and collected eggs.

After the eggmobile visit the hike continued to the picnic area.

After lunch the kids enjoyed making butter with Josie's cream and a scavenger hunt that took them all over the farm.

As they say, a great time was had by all.  The cool fall day, the smell of wood smoke, and the shade of the slowly changing leaves made a perfect spot for a Saturday afternoon nap.  I hope you can join us next time...

My Chicken and Noodles

Practically everyone in the house has had some sort of cold or fever over the past two weeks.  That's the one thing big families like to share, illnesses.  So, I offered to make some chicken and noodles.  Here's what I did step by step with pictures...mainly so I have record and recipe that I don't have to look up again!

For the noodles I combined 2 Cup of flour, 1 teaspoons of salt, an egg (pasture raised of course), and a teaspoon and one half of water.

I kneaded it into a ball...

I then rolled it flat, like almost transparent.  After that I cut it in half and laid one half on another and cut it in half again. Then, yeah, cut it in half again then I began slicing into noodles.

Cut and floured noodles.  I then let them dry on a cookie sheet.

While all of this was going on, little did you know I was boiling my chicken in a pot.  It was one of our broilers from this spring.  I put the whole bird in still frozen.  After the water came to a boil I reduced it to a simmer and let it cook for an hour.

I then separated the meat from the bones and put the carcass in the freezer for stock later.  After removing the chicken from the pot I added - 1 onion, 1/3 cup of celery, 1/3 cup of carrots, 2 Tbsps of Chicken Base and brought it to a boil for 15 mins.  Then I mixed 5 oz of evaporated milk and 2 Tbsps of Corn Starch and added and the noodles to the simmering mix.  After the noodles had simmered for about 15 mins, I added the chicken for 5 and then served over mashed potatoes.

Birthday, Anniversary, and more...

It was another busy weekend on the farm.  By weekend I mean Friday and Sunday.  My Saturday's are still out to pasture at this time while I continue to work at the car lot.  Sunday was my parents 45th Wedding Anniversary.  We also celebrated Catherine's 8th Birthday and my brother's return from his trip to Israel.

This is my first attempt at a cake from scratch.  Why in the world would anyone buy some box mix?  It was fairly easy and turned out very good.  Frosting is from scratch too.  In the end, the taste is really what matters, right.  Oh and a pet peeve, don't make me read your life story before I can have access to a recipe, that's just cruel!

We have about 6 baby bunnies on the farm right now.  Daniel took the opportunity to play (read torture) with many of them.  Yes, he's cute.  YES, he's ornery!  He should really be supervised 24/7.

This cool guy is an Eight Spotted Forester.  It's a pretty cool looking moth with a so-so name.  I bet his friends make fun of him.  Learn more here.

It never fails that some of my favorite flowers are actually invasive species.  Oh well, survival of the fittest, right?  Apparently these are Dame's Rocket and they smell great, especially in the evening.

Oh yeah, we grilled some fresh asparagus from the garden along with some peppers and mushrooms Friday night.  I don't believe asparagus should be prepared any other way.  Just sayin'.

The chicken tractor is certainly making progress.  Dad and Anthony did the majority of the work on Friday with a little help from me.  Most of my attention was devoted to making the nesting boxes that will be attached to the eggmobile and allow us to collect eggs from the outside.

Here's what nesting boxes for 100+ chickens looks like.  I hope to put plans for all of these items, including the eggmobile, on the blog soon.  I know I wish I would have had plans to go on!!

The nesting boxes aren't attached but rather rest on the outside of the eggmobile.  I've done this to allow for easy detachment so that we can move them inside our hoop houses when the weather is no longer conducive for the hens to be out in the eggmobile.

The dynamic duo ready to work!

Overall, it was a productive and enjoyable weekend on the farm.  We are now nervously awaiting our 50 broilers, 35 of which have already been purchased by friends and family.  Nervously awaiting because we have no real home for them since the eggmobile is not finished and the layers are still in the coop (future brooder) until it is finished.  I think they'll end up in the basement for a couple of days...or weeks... yikes!