HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

We just got back from Trick or Treating.  I believe it was a success.  Nobody died. No spankings were handed out.  By all accounts a success.  We went to Milan this year ,which, I've never been Trick or Treating there before.  It was really nice. Milan is such a cozy little town and the people are all quite friendly.  We met our friends Stephanie and Zach and their kids there and walked the streets begging for candy with our kids together. 

When we got back from the Halloween festivities my mom was waiting for us at our house with dinner ready to eat.  I knew she was coming so it wasn't a surprise, but it sure was nice to come home at dinner time and not have to unpack the kids and costumes and everything and then still have to worry about what to eat.  I sure appreciate moments like that.  I sure have a good momma.  

 Earlier today I was working on my truck, replacing the U-Joint, and needed some help pushing the bearings out of the yoke and getting the new ones in.  I took it down to my grandpa's figuring that I'd just need to borrow his tools mostly, but as with every repair job I've ever looked at it wound up being more than I had bargained for. Ugh!  So, when I got down to their house he came out to the shop and helped me. Very appreciative of that I am.  I enjoy moments with my grandpa more and more the older we both get.  I'm very aware of the fact that my grandparents won't be around forever, and try my darndest these days to make sure I get to enjoy my time with them and learn from them.  Spending time with him out in the shop today was great!  Even though not too much gets said of much importance, the time spent with him is priceless and I enjoy listening to him tell stories.  In case you don't know my grandpa, he's got more stories than you can shake a stick at.  I like hearing stories about when he was a kid and the old days.  Stories about hunting and fishing.  Stories about working on the family farm and an endless number of other topics.  Anyway, enough of that reflective, softy pants stuff.  We got half of the U-Joint work done today before I had to take the kids candy begging.  I'll be back tomorrow after church to finish the job with him.

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Speaking of the old days, the picture above is of my great, great grandma Krisha. She was an avid fisher woman I'm told.  It must be where my love for fishing originates.  I got this picture when I was researching my family history.  I have done nothing with my family tree recently, but I plan on getting right back into the research once it's cold and snowing outside again.  I learned so much about my family when I was putting that family tree together.  It was awesome!! It's really interesting and I think everyone should put a detailed family tree together of their own.  It's very educating.  I learned of a place called Drennen, West Virginia.  I knew that on my dad's side our family was from WV, but I never knew the town of Drennen existed.  Yes, it is named after my great, great, great grandpa John F. Drennen.  He was one of the original settlers of that area, and became the town's first postmaster.  Pretty cool.  There is a thousand other great facts and stories about my people waiting to be found.  I hope to get a detailed history of the people of my lineage wrote down and preserved for my kids and grand kids.  It's important stuff.

It's been so stinking windy here for so long lately I'm about to freak out.  This morning it was 34 degrees outside, and windy.  Winter is on its way. 

Well, goodnight for now.  Scared Shrekless is coming on.  Gotta go! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

I think there's a baby in there......

     Becky had an ultrasound today.  The doctor wanted to take a look to see how things were coming along in there because-and I find this hard to believe- she is a little big. ( I love you honey :)  So I went with Becky this afternoon and it was really cool because that baby sure felt real today.  The technology is absolutely amazing.  The technician showed us some really good pictures of that boy and with some of that 3D imagery she took some pictures of his face. It was really cool!!!  I think there is a real baby in there.  Holy Cats!

      A pretty big storm rolled through here earlier this afternoon.  Mark Johnson (our local meteorologist) said that it was the largest low pressure system ever recorded in the month of October.  Pretty impressive.  I imagine if that storm had blown through here in like December or January it would have been a pretty serious snow storm.  Everybody here on the farm is alive and accounted for.  I move the hens into the coop this morning before I left for work.  They were not too excited about being caught and moved, but they don't realize how good they've got it in that barn out of the wind and rain.  

     I've got some maintenance work to perform on my truck soon.  Some of it routine maintenance and a few things that are becoming more urgent by the day.  I need to change the oil on my truck and probably should do some pre-winter type checks of fluids and the like.  My U-Joint on the truck is starting to fail.  It's been giving some vibrations and noise as of late and I'm getting nervous that I'm going to be stranded somewhere.  I need to work on the darn thing, but I HATE working on vehicles.  Kinda funny considering I went to tech school to learn to be a mechanic a few years back.  I hate it.  I'm not really good at it, it takes way more time than I like to invest in it and did I mention that I don't particularly care for it.? Well anyway I may do that repair this weekend.  We'll see. 

Scarecrows, Jack O' Lanterns, and Pumpkin Pie

     Fall just very well be my favorite time of year.  Yes, it's getting colder. Yes, my garden is barren and not growing a thing save the garlic Tate and I just planted (104 cloves of garlic to be exact).  Yes, soon enough it will be so cold and blustery outside that going from the house to van or truck will be downright painful, but there is something in the air this time of year.  Something, almost romantic about it even.  I'm not sure what it is but I truly enjoy it.

     

     We built our scarecrow earlier this week.  I'm glad we got to do it, but it wasn't as fun and relaxed as last year because this year Becky wasn't home and I was trying to get dinner ready amid kids trying to finish homework. It was a busy night.  

     So as I said Tate and I planted garlic on Sunday.  We planted 104 cloves which is about twice as much as last year.  We used the biggest cloves that we had from last year leaving anything smaller for cooking.  Four of the cloves were huge!  These four came from our CSA share.  I'm not sure what kind they are, but they sure were massive so we planted them.  We shall see what we end up with come next summer.

     First thing in the morning I'm moving the hens back to the chicken coop.  Becky, Gram, and Mark Johnson all three warned me that winds in the 60 to 70 MPH range are expected tomorrow afternoon. YIKES!!!

Proof!!!

      The camera is working once more! Thank God! As it turns out the batteries that I was trying to use are apparently no good anymore.  I used some new ones that aren't rechargeable ones, but were brand new and "badabing"! It worked.  So here is proof by picture that the things I've been writing about weren't a fabrication of my imagination.
     Look here at the before and after pictures of the barn. These photos were taken about two months apart.  That Nemo girl tore it up.  Quite impressive when you see the contrast between the two pictures.  It's getting colder and windier out and winter is getting closer with every passing day.  Pretty soon it will be time to get Nemo and Sugar in their barn or barns for the winter where they will be able to lounge around and wait out Old Man Winter.
     I'm heading to bed.  See you tomorrow.

SQUASH, SQUASH AND MORE SQUASH...

     We've got  more squash in our house right now than you can shake a stick at.  I'm not sure what the number of squash is that you can longer shake the proverbial stick at, but we've got a pile of them.  It is certainly a pile to people not accustomed to eating much squash.....yet.  We have Butternut Squash, Acorn Squash, Spaghetti Squash, pie pumpkins, and something called a Carnival Squash.  So, we are trying to learn about squash.  Becky baked a pumpkin pie out of the puree of a pie pumpkin that we got from our CSA.  She googled the "how to" of the procedure and we went to town.  It turned out really well and I believe that everyone who came over to the house on Sunday enjoyed it.  It was really quite easy to do too.  Tonight for dinner we had Spaghetti Squash with some of our homemade tomato sauce that we canned.  Delicious!!!! The kids, except for Brodey, protested and had leftover tacos instead.  Becky saved the seeds from the squash for me and I'm laying them out to dry so that we can plant them next year.  I'm excited.  I had seconds.....and thirds.  As I write this I am literally standing at the island in the kitchen because I'm baking another pumpkin pie.  We still had some pumpkin that was pureed and needs using.  I'm freezing what I don't use tonight in this pie. 

     I have been sprinkling some scratch grains and and pumpkin guts in the garden and the chickens have been tilling it up quite nicely.  I'll be planting garlic on Saturday and the chickens will have prepared the soil for me ahead of time.  I shouldn't need to do much at all before planting the cloves of garlic.  It makes so much sense to let the animals do most of the work for you.  They work for you and love doing it.  It's great.

     Above is a picture of one of our favorite fishing spots at the Norwalk Reservoir at sunset.  Beautiful!! We didn't get in nearly as much fishing this summer as we did the summer before.  I think I'm going to have to get up and go for a couple hours as a last hoorah!!!  Maybe this weekend.  Although fishing for bluegill and catfish will be out until next spring, the cold weather brings with it the Steelhead making their annual spawning run into the rivers.  Bring it!!! I'm ready.   

Fall in Full Swing

     Today is the last soccer game of the year. Thank God! I'm soccered right out for awhile.  Brodey plays at ten and a banquet to follow (free lunch). Then we're done 'til spring.  It's going to be another busy day, but I hope we'll get some work and play done around here too. 

   Like I said soccer is at ten, but my truck and I and maybe the big boys are going to go pick up a remnant piece of carpet Becky bought for us to put in the living room.  It's a pretty nice piece and pretty good price.  It should keep the floor a little warmer on our toes this winter not to mention that we weren't really crazy about the baby crawling around on our super hard and rough floor in the living room.  So I'm going to go pick up that and then meet Becky at the soccer fields.

     When we get home from soccer we are going to start decorating for fall.  The kids had a blast doing that last year.  We'll go to the farmer's market and get some pumpkins to make Jack O' Lanterns (the pumpkins I planted in the garden were a complete failure) and we're going to make a scare crow too.  Last year we just used some old hay from our hay barn.  We all had fun doing it I think.

    

     Later this afternoon our friends Frank and Mandy and their three kids might come over to visit and for dinner too. We really enjoy having them as friends.  It's nice when you have friends that you realize are truly there for you no matter what.  We are truly blessed to know them. I got Becky, Frank and Mandy on my team all by coaching T-Ball.  Pretty good investment I would say.

     I've really been day dreaming a lot about the possibilities that could become of Red Rooster Ranch.  I've got to sit down and make a business plan.  I'm terribly scatter brained in life and will need my exact intentions and plans wrote down in order to stay focused and on task.  There is a lot of things still that need to be done before the snow flies here. I'm still interested in getting a small hoophouse built to house the hens in for the winter, but I"m  not sure I have the resources to get it done before the baby or winter.  We shall see about it.  I really don't want to just put them back in the chicken coop for the winter.  I mean it worked okay for last year's girls, but it gets mighty cold and egg production should be better if they are in a hot house. I've got several plans for one including the one pictured below from Polyface Farms.  Obviously mine won't be as big as that, but I'm not sure how big I want it.  I could get by with a relatively small one. There are only thirty-five hens.  But I intend to grow next year too so......I'm not sure what I'm doing yet.  I'll keep you posted.  I'll see if I can post more pics tonight....

Start the countdown.....

     So, we've got forty-eight days until the baby arrives.  Actually, less than that....no way is Becky going to make it to November 30. No way at all.  I've got some serious work to do around this place before that.

 (Disclaimer: This is NOT a picture of Becky.  Nor does this picture indicate that I personally have ever or will ever be pregnant. I'm not for that.)

Nemo-dini

Finally, Nemo is living up to her goat reputation.  That is the reputation that goats are escape artists.  Now let me clarify.  I haven't had Nemo tied up too extra hard.  She's still very little and not strong enough to move the huge cement block I've had laying on her chain.....until today.
     So, my grandma had to get the kids off of the bus today for us because Becky and I wouldn't be here when they got home from school. When I got off of work I went to my grandparent's house and picked Becky's three up. My grandma was telling me how when she got to the house Nemo had her chain tangled up and was crying for her.  So when the kids got off of the bus she had Riley help get the goat untangled and all was well. I said "thank you" and got the kids rounded up and the four of us (Riley, Brenna, Brodey and myself) headed the mile or so home from Gram and Pop's house.  When we pulled in the drive  Miss Nemo was waiting for us and actually came running to my truck like a dog. It was funny and Riley and I were laughing. So we got out and Nemo followed the kids and I as we walked back out to the hay barn where I had staked her out this morning before I left for work.  I put her back where she started the day and Riley was like "Wait a minute.  When I got home from school Nemo was over by the "junk" barn tangled up in some wood.  I just thought you moved her over there this morning. Are you telling me that she got loose earlier?"  So here Nemo started out by the hay barn got loose and then tangled herself up by the "junk" barn. Then Riley and Gram untangled her and re staked her somehow by the "junk" barn and she was loose by the time we got back home.  So now that I had her back where she belonged I realized that I needed to run into town to get some more feed for the hens.  We left and I thought as we were pulling out of the driveway "I hope that goat stays put". Wrong.  We came back about forty-five minutes later, now dark, and I couldn't see whether Nemo was where she belonged or not.  Then from my immediate right as I'm pulling up to the garage "BAAAAAA". LOL. That turd was off again.  This time obviously shame on me, but how funny. So I took her chain off of her and led her into the fenced in yard with the chickens for the night.  She was not happy with me for that decision, but that'll keep her in until I come up with a more sturdy solution for her.  She's apparently put on some weight and muscle working those vines over.

 

    

Nemo is a machine

Man, oh man, that Nemo girl is tearing through those grapevines and brush around the barn.  Last week while it was raining day and night I kept her close to the barn so she could come in out of the weather, but as long as it has been nice out I've moved her daily along the east side of the barn.  She has it just about whipped.  I think today will be her last day on the east side. Tonight when I get home from work I'll be turning the corner with her and she can start to decimate the north side next.  On Saturday, with my goat and pregnant wife watching, I began pulling down and out all of the dead, trampled vines that she (Nemo, not Becky) had left in her wake.  I ended up getting most of the east side cleaned up on Saturday.  Sometime this week I'll haul the pile of vines over to where I intend to burn them this winter.  I'll get some pictures of the barn up here shortly I hope.
     Well, Becky and I moved our growing batch of laying hens to the field pen that has been sitting vacant since the broilers' departure from the farm.  We did that on Saturday as well.  They are still trying to figure out the morning move and so I'm still having to move it extra slow because one of them gets a leg caught on the trailing side of the pen every time.  They'll get it soon enough.  The broilers eventually did and I'm sure that these hens are smarter than those meaty monsters were.  Once they have been moved in the morning to fresh grass they really go at it.  Their grain consumption is way down from when they were in the brooder.  They seem to really love all of that green grass and fresh bugs.  Mmm, Mmmm, good! Anyway I wanted to get them out on pasture for a month or so before it really gets cold around here.  I'm going to make an honest effort to get them a hoophouse built for winter housing.  The hoophouse acts as a greenhouse and the birds stay nice and toasty during the day which means that they should still lay pretty good for us through the winter.  I'm expecting the first eggs the week of November 29th.  We'll see. Keep your fingers crossed. 

    Above is a picture of the inside of one of the hoophouses at Polyface Farm in Swoope, Va.  Becky and I are trying to model our farm after this one.  At polyface the hens go into these houses and keep warm and clean.  They dust bathe in the sawdust floor and to the left you can see the rabbit cages.  The chickens scratch through the rabbit droppings and keep the bedding composting.  The chickens act as sanitizers for the whole operation and therefore keeps the ammonia smell down to nothing.  In industrial models rabbits are the most heavily medicated animals of all, but at Polyface no meds are needed.  It's amazing what can happen when you work with nature instead of against it.

LONG DAYS. SHORT YEARS.

 
     Another long day is coming to an end.  It seems like bed time can't come soon enough many nights.  For example, I got the kids on the bus this morning and then went to work.  I worked until five this afternoon and then I had to stop and pick up Tate and Kennedy from their mom's house and bust a move to get home because Tate and Riley had soccer practice at six.  So, we got home and Becky had grilled cheese sandwiches ready for us.  Tate changed into his soccer stuff and the boys and I rushed to practice.  I helped the coach run drills with the kids until seven and then we came home.  Tate had some homework to finish, so he hopped up to the counter to do that while I fixed Becky some dinner since she didn't eat a sandwich when the rest of us did.  Whew!  I'm exhausted and ready for nine o'clock....every single night.  I guess that is just life with kids.  I"m not trying to be too big of whiner pants.  My hope is that when I"m finally home during the day I'll be able to keep up on the food, dishes and laundry a lot better so that our evenings will be more enjoyable. I heard on the radio recently that when you are a parent the days are long, but the years are short.  Even though our kids are still quite young, with Tate and Riley being only eight and nine respectively, it's hard to believe that the boys' are in third grade, the twins are in Kindergarten and Kennedy will be starting school next year. So, yes, the days are looooooooooooong, but I know the years will fly by and when they are gone they're gone. It is my hope then to simplify things here, and make our time with the kids still in the house about much more than homework, sporting events and all of the other business that comes with being school aged.  We hope to teach the kids how important family is and how there is so much more to life than all of the petty, stupid stuff that we tend to make it about.
       We ended up making the chicken stock over the weekend.  It seems to have turned out pretty good.  In all we ended up with seven quarts and three pint jars of stock. 
     I can't wait for the weekend to get here.  I'm not sure what all we'll get involved with, but it's supposed to be pretty nice I guess so I'm going to try to get some work done outside. It'll be a good chance to get things cleaned up for the year and ready for winter, which will be here before we know it. We've got a couple soccer games first thing Saturday morning and then I guess we are free the rest of the day.  I'm going to try and get Becky to take some time off this weekend too.  Maybe I can force her to lay on the couch and watch tv most of the day Saturday.  She needs the rest.  Until tomorrow.....

RAIN RAIN GO AWAY....

So as I was saying earlier we had some running around to do today. Well, it's almost over.  First we went to soccer and it rained.  Then we went from the soccer field to watch Riley run in the fun run. And it rained.  Then we went to the Harvest Happenings at Osborne Park.......and it rained....hard.  Still, with all the water it was a pretty good day and I think the kids had fun at the harvest party.  Right now Riley is at his friend's birthday party and I'll be going to pick him up before too long.  All the rain and gloom made it feel like a a chili night for dinner. So right now I've got chili cooking in the crock pot and I've got all the necks and backs from our broilers cooking in a big stock pot to can some chicken stock later tonight. I've never done stock before so we'll see how it goes.

    Also, as I posted earlier, we took the broilers down to a Mennonite family to be processed.  I really envy their simple way of life.  Although the physical work they put in is more than probably most of us will ever know, they are not bogged down with all of the "stuff" that makes life so complicated for us. Our "stuff" makes life so much more complicated than it needs to be.  A while back I read a book called Better Off by Eric Brende.  It really makes you take a look at life and how we would be able to enjoy it more fully if we weren't being held hostage by our obsession with technology.  It's the story of a man and his wife who as an adjunct to his graduate studies at M.I.T., decide to live among a group of Amish who live so minimally that many in the greater Amish community consider them antiquated.  Brende and his wife live with the "Minimites", as he refers to them, for eighteen months.  It is really eye opening.  I recommend that everyone reads it. 

BROILER HARVEST

Good Morning everyone!  It's 7:30 AM Saturday morning as I write this. I'm looking out the window and man does it look cold out there.  I think the sun forgot to rise and it looks like it could rain any second.  The good news is as soon as I finish this post I'm going outside to do chores. After those are done we've got to start running for the day.  The boys have soccer games at nine and ten and then the big boys are participating in a fun run at noon.  Becky has to head to Sandusky to promote her new program at a harvest festival put on by the metroparks.  I think I'll take the kids up there for that awhile too.  Then we've got to jet back Wakeman to take Riley to a birthday party one of his buddies is having. Ugh! I hate all the running. 
     On Wednesday of this week the big boys and I took our broilers to be butchered.  Thank goodness the boys were here to give me a hand catching them and putting them in a cage I rigged up for transporting them.  We took them to a Mennonite couple that some friends of ours referred us to. I was surprised to find that they only lived less than fifteen miles away.  We went back Thursday to get the finished product.  We finished with thirty seven broilers in the end.  It seemed like way more when it was a finished product than when they were still living birds. So now the freezer is full and I'm interested to see how long our chicken along with the quarter- beef we bought lasts us. 
I gotta go to soccer we shall continue this conversation later....