Still haven’t got our garlic planted. We started, but my husband was using a shovel to over turn the soil, which is currently a grassy field. I told him it would take forever to get it done that way….should have let him go at it because my idea of getting our Mantis tiller fixed and working has delayed us even more. I bought the tiller with the knowledge that it had a leak in the gas line but my husband was unable to seal the leak with silicone gel. I think we are beyond his small engine repair knowledge and will have to take it to be serviced. Guess hand tilling will have to do before we get another freeze.
Archive for Farm Stuff
Fatal Attraction?
Talk about living in critterville….my daughter went outside this morning only to discover another dead mouse had joined the first dead mouse in the stainless steel bowl. Fatal attraction? Ha! 
Is it the itty bitty amount of food that is the attraction, the stainless steel bowl or a dead mouse spouse? My daughter just said that was awful but I am a little giddy this morning after my super hero candies! Seriously. We were given some candy this week and when my husband brought it home I started, “I wish you’d tell your mother not to send that stuff home.” Only to find out it was gifted by another. Ooops. Should have thrown it out but we have been eating it. Or should I say I have been eating it. The children had a treasure hunt yesterday with some of it.
Anyhoo….candy has nothing to do with the fatal attraction of the dead mice, only to do with my sugar high!
So what do you think is attracting the mice to the bowl?
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Unwanted Critters
Happy Thanksgiving! (Still working on those two posts….)
Living in the country has presented a variety of critters around our place. Back in the summer we were all sitting around the dining room table and got a whiff of skunk through our patio doors. Yep, let’s just say that was unpleasant to say the least. From that time on our boys swore (not literally) that a skunk lived in one of the pine trees on our rented property! In reality we have no evidence of a skunk living on our property.
Then we have had some mice visit us. The first made its appearance in the garage, which was quickly vacated by a mouse trap. More recently one was found in our basement. We think the basement mouse was just a visitor because there was no evidence of him being there long…if you know what I mean? (I mean there was no mouse poop/droppings.)
This past week the boys informed me that there was a dead mouse in one of my stainless steel bowls they had used to take out veggie scraps to the compost pile but left the bowl outside….to catch a mouse. Uggh. Just what I need to lose a bowl over. Really. That bowl won’t be found in my kitchen again!
Road Kill Critters
Our road is really, really busy for being a country road and cars go really, really fast. So one weekend morning we woke up and one of the children had gone out to play (yes, they go out all times of the day and night now since there are no neighbors to bother!) and came running back in to say there was a possum dead out front (where the road runs by). Sure enough there was a dead possum almost off the road. Of course, everyone, but me and baby, had to go take a look at the road kill.
I can only imagine what that possum or skunk would have done if we had chickens!
Possum photo to come, but I have to change computers to upload it!
Unwanted Human Critters
The title “Unwanted Human Critters” is more in tongue in cheek than it is to sound mean. Living just 20 minutes from our old town puts us in a whole new culture. Seriously. In our townhouse community, as close as the houses are/were, we could go days without talking to anyone. That is townhouse/suburban culture. Here in the country we have had strangers knock on our door to see if we were selling our chicken equipment. Yes, all because it was in plain view.
Just this week we had a man stop and ask my husband if we wanted to buy his ten chickens because he was moving and needed to sell them. If it had not been fall and we had had our fencing, we might have considered it.
We did not know these people at all.
Then there is the fact that one of our sons decided to roll under our neighbors fence to say hi to their dog making him and unwanted human critter! Yes. Our neighbors on the same side of the road as us are probably an acre or two away and our boys after the conventional soybean farmer had harvested have played out in the acres behind our property (acres we are hoping to rent in the future). Our neighbor came a-knocking to let us know of our son’s escapade. Then they inform us their dog is a guard dog and has a history of biting the UPS man or anyone that comes on the property. Thankfully the dog was in its kennel at the time, but the neighbors have a surveillance camera since they have been robbed before and caught our son in action! We are grateful for the understanding of our kind neighbors, but our son(s) both got a talking to about respecting other people’s property.
Never a dull moment in the country! We are lovin’ it, in spite of unwanted critters!
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Planting Garlic
Farming has its elements of convenience and inconvenience. I love the convenience we have now with living right on the property that we will be farming. It is convenient to grow our own food. The inconvenience comes with weather, the timing of planting and harvesting. For the purpose of this belated Health & Garden Tuesday, I will be covering the inconvenience of planting garlic.
The inconvenience comes in the form of waiting for the first frost and getting the garlic in the ground at the right time. How do I know what the right time is? My timing in most things is not the greatest. In the case of garlic, which is usually planted in the fall for a spring harvest, it is a mixed bag. My timing for ordering our garlic was actually very good. I had fun picking out a few varieties of garlic and making my purchase, but we are just getting to tilling, planting and mulching our 7 or 8 lbs of garlic. I fear if my timing is off it will ruin the quality and quantity of garlic we harvest next year. My inexperience makes me second guess myself no matter how many times I read over the planting recommendations. I am hoping we can complete this little project this week….but at the rate we finish things….hmmm….but it has to get done soon.
Nevertheless, I am excited! I am still a little shell shocked that we are actually farming our “own” land. It still doesn’t seem real. It has been three and a half months since we moved here and the farming aspect is not being lived out in full capacity. After all, we moved at the end of the growing season here in Illinois. At least the growing season for outside. There are many farmers who have high tunnels which allows them to extend their growing season….but that is a whole other topic!
Here’s to hoping the weather stays in the 50’s so we can get our garlic into the ground!
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You Know You Are a Farmer When……
I thought it would be funny (to us anyways!) to include a post about “You know you are a farmer when…” or “You know you live in the country when….” because we have had a few things happen that make us chuckle about living in the country/becoming farmers:
1. You buy a pair of overalls – for yourself, not your kids. 
2. You are dragging home manure in the back of your van to fertilize your garden – not from the store mind you, freshly shoveled stuff into bags from a local farm!
3. Pet food costs nearly as much as your family’s food bill (not really but if we keep adding animals it could – for real!)
4. When the stars and moon keep you awake at night because they are so bright.
5. Your garbage pile is nearly as big as your neighbor’s manure pile. (Ha! Not really, I was just running out of quick witted things to list! But we do put out more garbage here.)
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What I Hate About Photography
I love taking pictures of our family, of our outings etc. Photos seem to make memories last longer.
What I hate about photography is is getting the image so it can be used in multiple ways. For example: I changed the theme of Faith and Family Reviews last tonight and discovered that I could customize the header. I thought, “This will be great because then I can use family photos and make it more personal!” Yeah, right.
I went through dozens of photos only to discover that many of our photos are completely useless in regards to being a header. As with the one featured, it is blurry. Bah humbug. So bear with me as I learn the art of taking photos so they make great headers.
Perhaps we will take a vote on this month’s header from the few that are sort of useable. I will try to remember to switch them out over the next week so please let me know what you think.
Just maybe I will get some shots taken that will be useful….either that or I will find out my camera is the problem…..
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$2 Tuesdays
We recently discovered an organic raspberry farm in our area that has $2 Tuesdays. So this morning that is what we did – pick a few pints of raspberries. What fun we had! The children loved it and the farmers were very hospitable. We hope to go again as they will have berries for a while yet as they grow them in high tunnels, which they are doing in conjunction to a research project they are participating in.
This farm also had sheep they raise for wool, chickens that they had for pest control and they also hold different classes throughout the year. They have a couple I am interested in but I am not sure if the timing is right or not….have to wait to see.
We are hoping to put up some more jam if the berries last that long….
Of course, I forgot my camera yesterday and for some reason it is a pain to get photos off my phone, so while I have a few of us I did not get many nor did I get us actually picking berries. I had planned to go back but ran out of space on my phone, of course. The trials and tribulations of a mom trying to capture family memories. Any suggestions on how to be better prepared? Would love to hear them!
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Long Awaited Photos – Wordless Wednesday
Guess what I found at the townhouse on Saturday…..yes! The cord for my camera to connect to my computer! Yay! Here are some long awaited photos from the summer through yesterday and a peek into our lives:
Clouds over Mrs. A’s Farm.
This was when we just started planting out in Mrs. A’s field in the spring!
Early morning at Mrs. A’s Farm.
Some of these photos were taken by my 8 year old son.
Hairy little man. These next couple were taken by our oldest.
Thought this one was cool. We think our 9 year old took it.
Lefse making.
Hairy man loved lefse making!
Pretending to fish.
Lefse.
Rolling out lefse.
Happy boy.
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A New Addition – Wordless Wednesday
Sorry, this was suppose to go live two weeks ago, but I found it in my drafts folder……
See, I told you he was a new addition! But he is not a human addition, but the pet variety.
……And this went live this morning without a photo because I still have not found my camera cord, so I nabbed a photo of Robert that we emailed to Blaze’s owner. Sorry to those visiting earlier today and saw nothing! Surprise!
More of this story later….;-) Nothing like spiking your interest and curiosity, eh?
