Blog Archives

Thankful

11/26/2014

I had this post ready around 4:00 today, but hadn't had time yet to publish it. Today was a busy day, like normal. Brad's mom and her husband are moving from the farm that Brad grew up on down the road from us and Brad went to get a larger trailer for them to load up vehicles and equipment onto. He brought the truck and trailer home to check over and make a small repair inside the cab of the truck. He came in to clean-up as we had to go to the family visitation for his grandfather that passed away last weekend. We were hurrying to get the children ready and they were heading out the door to get in the van when Hannah told Ray there was a fire. He looked, thinking it was just the burn barrel, when he saw the truck on fire. Brad ran outside while I called 911. Luckily for us, a passing car had already called the fire in and our volunteer fire department in Sedgwick was here quickly. They were able to put the fire out before more damage occurred. The Lord was watching over us again today. The wind was from the right direction and didn't catch our row of cedar trees on fire and it didn't spread to the new hoop building you see in the background with our tractor inside. It could have been a lot worse. The truck looks to be a total loss, although Brad did say the structure of the cab itself looked decent. We'll assess more in the morning and wait and hear from the insurance company. It appears that a pack rat nest in the dog house of the engine area (Truthfully, I have no idea what that means) was what caused the fire. Once the engine was shut down the heat from the turbo ignited the nest. Three units responded and there was a bit of a traffic jam, but we got lucky. It could have been a lot worse. Thank you Lord!

On to my original post! :)

We have so much to be thankful for this year. First, we are thankful to Lord and the prayers he has answered. Between illnesses and injuries, job changes, and major changes on the farm the Lord has always been there for us. Maybe not always in the timing that we wanted, but he is faithful in us as long as we are in Him. I am thankful for my wonderful husband. Through the ups and downs of this year we have been each others rock and we truly are stronger because of it. I couldn't imagine life without him. I'm thankful for our beautiful children. Life is crazy most days, but I couldn't imagine going through life without them all. They may make me want to pull my hair out some days and give up on home schooling, but then there are the moments everyday where they make me laugh uncontrollably, watch them learn and discover something new, and continue to grow in character that is pleasing to us and to the Lord. We are thankful to our family and our friends who have helped us along the way. To taking time off of their weekends to help assemble buildings, to giving advice how to proceed forward. Without them we wouldn't have gotten as far as we have this year. And last, but not least, thankful for the CSA members who stuck with us through the transition from Fiat Farm to Serenity Farm. We are so touched by comments we are hearing at the drops and through email from members about the excitement and the work that we are doing. Brad and I are passionate about providing quality food for our family and for all of yours. To continue our success we will need you and your support. Spread the word this holiday season with your family and friends and have them check out our website and see what they think about delicious, nutritious, local food that they could have each week starting next spring. I am thankful for the "down" time we have right now, but I am so excited to get our seeds started and transplanted and see new growth out in the field. I can't wait for fresh snap peas, mouth-watering tomatoes, juicy watermelons, and more pasture-ranged eggs than I can cook up for breakfast. The possibilities are endless this coming year and we know it will be hard work, but are so looking forward to providing you with the food that you desire.

We wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends. If you feel like it, please share in the comment section what you are thankful for this year.

Hoping our day tomorrow is less eventful than it was today!

Until next time,

Tiff

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Brrrr

11/17/2014

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I don't know about you, but I was not ready for it to be this cold already. We knew the cold was coming for several days, but it never fails that every year there is a mad dash to get everything buttoned up. Maybe we were caught off guard since the first cold spell was so early, but more likely, we've just been so busy trying to finish things up outside knowing that the warmer weather would be done soon that we felt the time crunch. Our Monday in the nice 70 degree weather was spent getting the animals ready. Ray and Sam helped with loading hay into the wagon behind the 4-wheeler to fill the pig huts with bedding and some for the pigs to nibble on too. They also cleaned the stock tanks, refilled, and got the heated deicers plugged in. Next, the lambs shelter was modified and extra hay bedding was brought in. The chickens were left in their chicken tractors, but we wrapped them in tarps (the tractors, not the chickens :) to keep the cold north wind from blowing straight in. Ray and I covered the lettuces and kale in the greenhouse with extra layers of frost blankets to hold in the heat. Brad spent the afternoon putting foam boards into a wooden box so we could store the soaked pig feed with a lamp to keep the feed from freezing. We quickly sealed up gaps around the door frame of the greenhouse and covered the vents with foam to keep the wind from blowing through. When all was said and done, we were in for the night around 10pm, six hours after the front blew through the farm.

Before the weather changed we were able to complete the work on our tarp building. Around 5pm one evening the wind went calm so we called up my father-in-law and a close family friend and in four hours the tarp was set up, pulled over, and tied down with no complications. In fact, I ran into town to get some pizza for dinner since this was a spur of the moment event and dinner hadn't yet been planned and by the time I got back (I was gone only 10 minutes) they had the tarp pulled up and over. It reminded of me when I ran to the grocery store when they put up all the greenhouse frames before I got back. It was a relief that it went as smoothly as it did, so I won't complain about missing the cool stuff. The next day the plywood boards were put up on three sides. Now it's ready to be filled!

Since the spring season on the farm has always been a busy time for us, even before taking over the CSA, I always do a fall cleaning/purging of the home. I started in our living and dining room this week. I always hope that no one come to surprise visit us while I'm deep cleaning because it always looks worse before it looks better. I remember a couple of years ago I was cleaning the children's room and pulling stuff out of their closet. I had stuff everywhere and my oldest said to me that he thought I was cleaning their room, not making it worse. Sometimes to clean a mess, you have to make a bigger mess. Surely someone out there understands what I mean.

I hope you all enjoyed the snowfall we got. We got between 2-3 inches here. We will take any and all moisture we can get and if it comes in the form of snow, so be it. I know our children were quite happy to wake up on Sunday morning to a snow covered farm. We don't have any hills for sledding. A compost pile yes, but a true hill, no. So we make do and do it our own way. We hook up two sleds that Brad used when he was growing up and pull them behind the 4-wheeler in the field behind our house. Everyone comes inside cold, but happy. I have the hot cocoa ready and the wood stove is always warm and ready to sit by.

After a successful first drop a couple of weeks ago we are looking forward to our next this coming Thursday. We learned a lot about what works and what doesn't work when it comes to filling boxes. We will be learning more each time we do it and will have it down to an art by next spring.

Stay warm and enjoy the "warmer" temperature arriving later this week!

Until next time,

Tiff

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A little of this, a little of that

11/5/2014

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Life is very busy at Serenity Farm. Brad and I have been hopping from one thing to the next on the farm trying to get as much accomplished before the cold weather is here to stay. It finally feels like fall, instead of a long, never ending summer. The warmer temperatures were a blessing to us last month as it allowed our late planting for the fall to have some extra time to grow before the cooler days and nights arrived. We received our first freeze on Friday night into Saturday morning. Our tomato plants in the garden are a thing of the past and the sweet potatoes are now ready to be harvested. The row covers appeared to have done the job well and saved the small lettuces from freezing in the field. The greenhouse was nice and cool the next morning, but all looks well and is growing nicely.

Yum! Fresh lettuce!

Speaking of our greenhouse...we have discovered an excellent way to weed the areas where lots of grass was growing, but few to little crops, Chickens!!! Our personal broilers were being moved around the pasture each morning, but after having lots of weed/grass growth we decided to put them into the greenhouse and see what they could do. Wow! We were amazed. In a matter of hours they had cleared their section of grass, a few lettuces, and weeds and were ready to go to the next section. They created a nice seed bed for us and added a little extra fertilizer. That was a nice bonus! They should be ready for us to butcher in a couple more weeks. These chickens are the Cornish Cross and will NOT be the kind that we will raise next year for ourselves and members of Serenity Farm. These guys were at Orscheln's and we were able to get them for $1.oo a bird. That's pretty hard to pass up. They grow a little slower for us since we only feed once in the morning and then move them around for the day to forge for the rest of their food. We will be raising Freedom Ranger chicks next spring which are meant to forage on pasture, not huddle around the feed container.

Our Plymouth Barred Rock pullets are growing quite nicely. We did lose a few before moving them into the pasture and I believe I know who the culprit happened to be. Our mama cat and her babes. They hung around the chicken area a bit and I didn't think much of it until we went to move them and only counted 43 instead of 53! Naughty kitties! Four of these kitties have now been relocated to another farm and we are left with mama cat and her friendly baby.

Hannah checking on the vetch seeds

This past weekend Brad planted hairy vetch in our growing bed area and one acre where we will plant sweet corn in our field. Hairy vetch is used as a cover crop to add nitrogen to the soil, protect soil from erosion, help improve soil health, and provide weed control during growth in the spring and when left as a dead mulch at the soil surface. Hairy vetch can also be grazed or harvested as forage. Our plan is three weeks before we want to plant in the row beds to turn under the vetch and then cover with mulch plastic as a barrier for weed seeds to sprout. Three weeks is the recommended time you wait to plant after turning under a cover crop. We will do this to the beds as the planting time correlates, not before, in order to prevent weed growth and moisture loss. Hairy vetch can get quite tall and full. The flowers are edible.

Vetch in bloom

We have been working here and there on a hoop building for the past several months to store equipment and we are nearing completion. We are ready to put the tarp cover in place and add the wood sides. Mother Nature decided to delay our progress with several days of high winds. Trying to put a large piece of material up in high winds would be disastrous. When we were putting the plastic up on the greenhouse we got a very early start and we just barely got the plastic secured before the wind shifted and increased.

While up on the ladder Brad took several pictures of the pasture so you could see the work the pigs have done. They have literally destroyed our pasture, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. We have plans to reseed the pasture, but that won't happen until spring at this point. We have seed ready, but the pigs won't be off until it is too late to plant. From the pictures below you can see the area where the CSA pigs have been grazing. A couple days ago we shifted the fence to allow for a larger grazing area and separated our boars from the rest of the herd. They were getting a little too "excited".

Mama's little helper while moving the pig fence!

And, because he is just so darn cute, I had to include a picture of me with my "baby". My little boy, who really isn't so little anymore, loves to go where we go and while working on the pig fence this was the only way to have him tag along and keep him safe. He had a great view!

Until next time,

Tiff

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T

I want to be the best homesteader I can be, while teaching my children at home in the school room and outside on the farm.