Calf #2 & #3

Found this little cutie on Saturday morning! Another heifer!!

Then found this one when we got here today.  Another heifer!!

Checked on her a few hours later and weren't sure that she had nursed,  so we loaded her up and brought her to the lot. Of course she had to pee all down my leg!!

After working with her for a little while,  Jeff got her nursing. We'll leave them in the lot overnight just to keep an eye on them.

Can't believe that a month has past!!

So much has been going on here on the farm! Lots of pictures to see!😊

We attended this year's Mother Earth News Fair in Belton,  Tx . Saw Marty Raney and Kaytlynn got to love on a baby goat!

The tomatoes are growing , but way too slow this year.😣

Made a batch of homemade chicken stock.  This is SO  easy to do and tastes much better than storebought.  Not to mention the health benefits!

Went to Lake Jackson for one of Peyton's baseball games.  He played an amazing game 

 He's getting so good!

We put out 2 swarm catch honey bee hives at the beginning of the week. Hoping to catch some free bees!🐝

And we had the first calf of the year born this week. A little heifer! She is black , shiny and tiny!! Maloo did a good job! Now she needs a name - the letter s this year 

Been busy getting the raised beds up and going. We ate our first salad this week from them. Wonderful taste! Jeff opened the beehive in the pasture yesterday and they have a little honey! Will need to add a super in a week. And will check on the ones in Coldspring later today. Along with the other 2 cows that are due to calve at any moment! Have another batch of eggs in the incubator,  the last ones were rotten 😲, 12 of these are green eggs , so hoping for a good hatch.  Borrowed an egg turner this time and it sure makes it easier to do! Also have made a trip to the beach,  but it's so wet that it's hard to enjoy yourselves . Planning to get the porch built and dirt hauled in soon. Well need to get busy,  hopefully will catch up quicker in the next week!

Busy Bees!!

The girls are coming and going today! They are very active and loving this 75+ degree day. So many of them that I couldn't get any closer to take pictures; they let me know that I was close enough!🤔😒🐝🐝

January 28-February 1, 2020-BUSY!!

Been busy around here this last week. Started out making spicy, hot ketchup for the first time. It was fun to make and not too much trouble; will make it again this summer when our garden veggies are ripe. Have a little over $8 in it, so not too bad for 5 pints. I couldn't stand to throw the thick paste looking leftovers out, so I canned them up for tomato paste. But this stuff is HOT; might leave the habanero peppers out next time?

                                                                             

The next day I decided to make homemade kolaches; I'd never tried this one either... Kylee was home sick from school, so I had her and Jordan helping me out! They came out really good, but next time I won't cook them near as long.

On Friday we stopped by the feed store in Coldspring and picked up 10 lbs of seed potatoes-could NOT believe they were 90 cents a pound! WHAT!!!! Also picked up a few herbs, brocolli, cabbage and lettuce plants.

Saturday morning brought with it hog butchering day! YEAH!! Had lots of help from Alana and some of the grandkids, so it didn't take too long, but still a long day for us. But so worth it!

Sunday morning Jeff got the link sausage out of the smokehouse and I got the last of the fat rendered out. Ended up with 45 lbs of sausage and 6 1/2 quarts of lard to fry fish in and for making biscuits! Yummy! And the bacon is curing in the refrigerator!!

Then today Jeff got the garden tilled up and ready to plant potatoes next week. The ground looks and smells so good!

Got the Black Krim tomato seeds planted yesterday.  Then my seed order came in, so this morning got Homestead and Floradade planted.  Floradade is the new variety for this year,  hopefully they'll do great here in East Texas!

Made cookies today :

 Then 2 loaves of bread:

 Then chicken spaghetti for supper!

Been working getting our raised beds cleaned up and ready to plant.  Got snow peas,  beets and spinach in today ahead of tomorrow's expected rain.

Baby chick hatch not good. Only had 5 hatch,  but 1 has died. Will set up the incubator again in a few weeks. 

We've decided to go to the Mother Earth News Fair in Belton this year.  We skipped last year,  but looking forward to it this time around and Kaytlynn is going with us!! 

Only at our farm! He finally got the legs stuck in the fence and Jeff was able to pull it off his head. Never a dull moment!!

Got the baby quilt finished this morning along with two burp towels. The picture makes it look much darker than it is. Not perfect; I like to think of them as artisan!!

The tomato seeds are finally popping up! The older seeds haven't yet, but I'll give them a few more days.

Birds have finally shown up on my birdfeeeders at the back porch. I love watching them! Our weather is so sticky and warm, supposed to stay that way all week. Another cold front is due in this weekend; sure hope we don't need to turn the a/c on. We can't even hang the laundry outside, it gets wetter out there..... Have a Blessed day!

Soap Making/Quilt Sewing Day

Decided to try out a new soap recipe/ technique.  Crock pot soap was a little different than what I've made in the past.  We'll see in a few weeks how it turns out!!

Mixing it all together. 

After a few minutes,  it comes to "trace". Looks like pudding...

What it looks like after cooking for 50 minutes. 

Got it in the molds to harden overnight.  Will pop them out tomorrow and let them cure for a few weeks.  I added lavender essential oil, so we'll see how good they smell....

Spending time getting the quilt top sewn up today and also planning to make homemade tortillas for supper tonight for the first time.  Fingers crossed,  been wanting to try doing this for a while. 

New Quilt

Been a busy week around here. The girls went back to school, I've been working on taxes, and just various other farm chores. We went up and banded Little Red's bull calf yesterday and wormed Maggie (our milk cow). She's been looking a little rough lately, so thought we'd give her an extra dose of wormer.

Started working on another baby quilt today. Hopefully I've got enough squares cut out; it just seems to take me forever to get them cut out and almost no time to sew them up.

I'll post a picture of it when I finish it. 

We are expecting some really strong storms tomorrow night, hopefully we won't lose power! Have a great rest of your week. God Bless and stay safe!

Bread Making Day!

Decided to bake a few loaves of bread today.  Haven't tried baking bread in awhile and had actually lost this recipe. 

 The dough ready to rise for an hour. 

Fresh out of the oven! It smells amazing in here! And almost a whole loaf eaten with supper says that it tastes awesome!

Seed Starting Day on the Farm

We usually start the tomato seeds and a few others right after the first of the year. Decided this year to wait a little longer on some of the warm weather crops like the cucumbers and squash. I planted 48 cells of tomatoes: Big Red, Amish Paste, Pink Brandywine, Mortgage Lifter, Roma, and Abe Lincoln. Each cell has 2-3 seeds and when they get 3-4 leaves, I'll separate them up into individual cells. I can't stand the thought of just snipping the extras off, so I give each of them their own pot to grow in! Praying God will bless us with loads of tomatoes this year!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year  from Our Farm to you! We had a really blessed evening with our friends Leslie and Brent. Jeff made homemeade chicken and dumplings, yeast rolls and cinnamon rolls. Brent bought LOTS of fireworks for the grandkids and they enjoyed shooting them off so much! Roxie on the other hand, didn't like them one bit, poor baby.

Our youngest daughter and her girls moved in with us yesterday until her husband is able to find them a place to live. So our household doubled in size overnight. We are blessed to have them here even if only for a little while.
Been trying to get some of our beeswax rendered out for a few days. Finally got it done a few hours ago, now onto getting it added to chap stick, lotion and soap, etc!

This is what the wax looks like after Jeff squeezes the last bit of honey out.

I put it in an old pot, add water and boil it until it all becomes liquid.

I then let it cool. The wax becomes a really pretty yellow and floats to the top of the water. The brown is all the trash.

The flip side- it looks to me like cooked ground meat. I try to scrape as much of it off as I can, then put it back in the pot to heat again, watching very closely due to it being just straight wax this time.

I then pour it through cheesecloth to catch the last of the impurities.

Then it gets poured into my 1 ounce bar molds to cool.

And now it's ready to use!

I also made homemade blueberry muffins for breakfast this morning. Used the pig mold my mom got for the gkids, turned out sooo cute!

Have a safe and Happy 2020!!