Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Coming Home

It feels so good to be home. The smell of the air is so different here in Illinois than it is in Florida. It's hot this time of year up here but it is a different hot: not the drippy sopping wet sweaty heat I am used to at home in the south.

It is also nice to be with my kidlets. They are all growing up so fast and becoming their own people. It is nice to see how they have grown and talk to them about their activities throughout the year and see the end results of their 4-H projects as they ready them for the fair this weekend.

I am looking forward to the fairs, it has been a long year for us and I am so ready for some fun. I can smell the cotton candy and kettle corn already! I love walking through the exhibit halls, seeing the projects all the young people brought in for judging. There is always so much creativity and innovation in their creations. I enjoy witnessing the ideas of the next generation of world leaders, inventors, businessmen and women, farmers, artists and more.

My favorite part is to walk through all the animal barns and see the happy healthy animals these 4-Her's and Junior exhibitors have raised. It makes my heart happy to know that they will be the next generation of farmers to feed our nation. This weekend I will take root in the beef barns, watching the cattle and kids and listening to their lively banter and witnessing their jovial antics. There is never a dull moment in the beef barn.

I am hoping to see some family, have some great ice cream at my favorite drive in, take a drive through my home county to drive by and revisit the pastures filled with gorgeous green grasses, endless cornfields, old rustic barns, quaint small towns, rivers both small and massive, big rolling hills and ancient limestone cuts that make this area so great to come home to.

Just breathing the air makes me nostalgic. It is so good to be able to "come home".

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Well, it is hell getting old. Don't do it... Its a trick!

I am pretty strong and kinda agile for a gal who has terrible arthritis in every joint and who has undergone several major surgeries on joints and too many minor ones to count. I have been hauling feed and dirt, digging up dirt, sand and manure, fossil hunting in mines and rivers, have been crawling in and out of trucks hauling dirt, rocks, manure etc for many years. Well, today I can say is the first time I have fallen out of the tuck. No I am not hurt badly but I do have a nasty foot long very dark bruise starting to show down my left leg and a second nasty one on my right leg.

This comes a couple weeks after I had a four hundred pound rain barrel fall on me and pin me down. That one gave me a concussion as my head hit the steel pig cage on the way down. UGH. Poor ole Wilbur the 400 pound boar was out and came over to see what was happening and as I had his corn in my hands when I fell he came over to see what the heck was taking me so long. All I saw were those tusks and started screaming. He looked at me like "what the heck is she screaming at? She is on top of MY corn!!!" He walked away like nothing was happening. I didn't hurt hardly at all from that and it should have been the worst pain; my knee was twisted sideways until Bill got the barrel off me. I was pinned there for a while, screaming my head off. Not a good day.

So todays embarrasment, yes my ego is bruised too, showed me that I am not invincable and maybe I should stay on the ground from now on. I am going to let the tractor do the majority of the work and if I get one less bucket load in that truck so be it. At least I will still have a heartbeat.

Many thanks go out to Aaron, who was loading the truck with the tractor, for catching me on the way down. I had a bad feeling about my dismounting the truck and I had asked him to stand behind me in case I fall. After he caught me as I fell ass over teacup, he said, "nice planning". I limped away, bruised in ego as much as body, and all I could say was, "that's gonna leave a mark".....


Friday, February 27, 2015

It is carzy here at the homestead as it is spring and planting is right around the corner. We have two new baby goats so ffeding bottles every four hurs and watching them play is our only entertainment. We also have a new pig, Wilbur, a 300 pound Hampshire boar. He was emaciated when he arrived but as put on about fifty pounds in ten days and is looking better each day. He get all the extra produce from the garden, 40 fresh scrambled eggs a day, daily baths, a nice pasture to root and nap in so he is in hog heaven. We are harvesting our watermelon radishes which grew as big as softball, truly I mistook them for turnips. We roasted some with turnips and carrots last night with some olive oil, garlic and sea salt and they were amazing. I am looking forward to planting and have been working on getting a seed inventory. We got the seed collection organized, mostly, thanks to Delphine, she has been a godsend this year!!! We are starting to move some of the beds ad refresh them and the rest with gorgeous composted manure from a loal farm we have partnered with. We look forward to the new season, I hope you will all come visit soon. 

Our woofers have been working like mad and have been hauling manure, emptying beds, feeding baby goats, going to classes, we attended an alpaca birthing program where we learned to assist with difficult births, it was amazing and we even had a lab where we could practice ientifying positions of the cria inside the mother and also to practice moving the amanimpulating cria to allow passage into the birth canal. It was an incredible experience and we hope to do more classes like that one. We held two classes here already this year, one was for spring gardening in Florida and other zone 9 areas and Delphone held another short class on seed starting as she is the queen of germination!

We madly labled and packed up 33 entries for the strawberry fest's canning anc baking competitions. We have several interns entered and even Bill and I and some friends got in on the action. We go tomorrow to se if we won anything. I am excited. I earned a grand champion ribbon last year with our chicken soup. I am hoping to do well but I drem of another pretty purple ribbon!!! :)

The dogs are getting a bit neglected with all the babies around but they have been spending time with the girls as they unload manure trucks. They seem to enjoy watching us work. I'm thinking "get off your butt and grab a shovel" but I am glad they are out in the fresh air enjoying being with us, I hope to start working them soon once the frenzy of hauling is over and we settle into maintaining the garden once it is planted. 

The market is going strong and we hope to see you all there the second Saturday of March. We will have eggs, veggies, greens and so much more. I made a fresh batch of laundry soap and hope to make some more soon. We made marmalade last week from our sour oranges and our intern Lisa made us a french rabbit dish for diner that was incredible. Always something interesting happening in the kitchen. Annelise and I made homemade noodles last week and she was amazed at how simple it is to make this tasty morsel from scratch. I do hope she takes it back to France and makes some in the future. 

Thats all for now. I will try and write again soon.