The Power of Community...

I know you've heard me speak about the power of community before. When we had the fiasco with the pear and honey order, we couldn't believe how much our friends and family came together to help us out.

And yet again, I have reason to rave about the power of living by good neighbors. Mountain Man has been frustrated with how little time he has to build his coop - one weekend, we were scheduled to have two days of straight snowfall. Since Mountain Man only had this time before his next 9 day shift, he decided to just work through it.

At first, it was just Constable and himself.

But, then, about mid-morning, one of our neighbors (the one that trades us milk for eggs) came over to offer his assistance.

After working for about an hour, our OTHER neighbor to the other side of us came over with some extra tools and manpower. Together, the 3 men worked to get the roofing over the coop to keep the snow out.

They worked out there for most of the afternoon. We brought out hot chocolate, chatted a bit, and called it a day.

I am constantly amazed at how much people can pull together in a time of need. Mountain Man was called the other day to help chop up more wood for someone down the street who had run out of wood for their woodstove. His father was elderly, and he had just gone through another surgery, and was incapacitated. After they finished, the elderly patriarch came over, hugged him, and thanked him with tears in his eyes. Mountain Man said seeing the humility and sincerity in that man's eyes was more than worth it. It humbles you. We are so grateful to be given these opportunities to serve and be served.

I know it seems counter-intuitive, but when it comes to self-reliance, it is VERY important to first, know your neighbors, and second, foster a sense of community to be able to serve and depend on each other. If you can't find that where you are at, I'd suggest you move to a better location... I think I have a great area in mind... :)

Mountain Man's Ongoing Project...

We've been a little over zealous in our first year at the farm - when we first moved here, one of Mountain Man's friends at work gave us our first chickens (they'd outgrown the cute lovable chick stage from Easter), and we quickly fell in love with the idea and wanted a few more. But, when we went to look at more chicks, we couldn't decide which ones we wanted, so we took them all! I know, we're a little impulsive at times.

Once home, we came to the conclusion that the existing coop was too small for all the chicks, but they adapted quickly, sleeping in the trees above them. We didn't mind it so much as it was summer. But, NOW it's winter! The chickens (and the turkeys) still sleep in the trees unless it's SUPER cold, and then they all pile into this teeny tiny coop to stay warm.

So, we decided to build a super roomy coop for all of them! Poor Mountain Man has been trying to do this in his off-time, but he doesn't really have any...but this is what he started out with.

Each day, when he got some time and a clear day, he worked some more...

(a trap door in the back of the coop to sweep poo and straw into a compost pile)

...and sometimes he worked at night,

he is often accompanied by Constable,

We'll keep you updated on the progress. :)

The costumes continue...

Constable and Beans LOVE to dress up - and pose! Dressing up as a cowboy has become a regular occurence for Constable. He believes that if we live on a farm, we have to dress like we live on a farm - like cowboys! He approves of our overalls, but when I try to change my clothes to go into town....boy, does he not like that!! This is an outfit he pulled together the other day when it was time to go into town...complete with poses...

These were all his own poses, I promise! No guidance whatsoever from me...

(take note - this baby toy was NOT in the previous two pics - Xander needed a prop for his pose!)

What a ham!

Happy Halloween!! (I know, I know...)

Constable and Beans "practicing before the big day" - two weeks before the big day... :)

So, it took me a while to post these halloween shots because I had to make sure it was okay with my sis to post the pics of her chilluns as well. You see, Constable had decided that he wanted to be Indiana Jones this year - Mountain Man has been in charge of creating his costume in years past, and this year was no different. But, Indiana Jones sounded original and fairly easy to do, so with a few trips to DI, and a few things in the closet and craft centers, we came up with a pretty good costume.

But, what was funny was, we had planned to visit with my sis in the big city, and go trick-or-treating with cousins, and grandparents. And guess what their boy was? Indiana Jones!! Hah! What luck! Neither one of us ever mentioned what our kids were going to be, so it was quite the surprise. A fun one, since Constable pretty much idolizes his cousin. :)

When I asked what Beans wanted to be for Halloween, she said the pink monster again. This was what she was last year, so it was A-okay by me to reuse it. She barely fit into it - it will HAVE to be laid to rest after this Halloween no matter what. Poor girl - she'll be so sad.

Her lady cousin was dressed in a beautiful mermaid costume that was made by her grandmother. Boy, I wish I had her skills...her creativity...and maybe her time, too.... :)

(love the pose, here)

And then, there were two - Baby GIRL Tots and Baby Girl Cousin. I capitalize GIRL for Tots because my poor babe is ALWAYS mistaken for a boy, even in pink outfits. Anyways, Tots was dressed in a cute ladybug costume, but WAS NOT HAPPY the majority of the time. Too hungry. Wanted a candy of a DIFFERENT variety... :)

But, Baby Girl Cousin was a definite highlight. She was an absolutely ADORABLE pirate! I could just eat her up...

And Papa was with us - he was dressed up as...

PAPA!! :)

I had an absolute blast with family. They threw a perfect birthday party for my kids while we were there- and it couldn't have been better timing for us to have a little help...

I love my Nana and sis!!

Zaycon Foods...

There were quite a few people that asked me about the food from Zaycon Foods - where does it come from? Is it organic? etc...

So, I thought you'd be interested in this response to my inquiries...

"Our chicken is provided by several well-known suppliers in the United states, Sanderson Farms, Peco Foods, and Pilgrims. The chicken are generally housed in large barnlike structures, designed to protect from predators, and the elements. The chickens are not caged, but free to roam around the facility in which they are housed. All our suppliers feed their flocks with corn and soy grown in the USA. As you probably know, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are allowed in corn and soy production within our country. So it is possible the chickens have feed that contained GMOs. The use of added hormones in chicken is prohibited by the USDA. The only hormones found in our chickens are those that occur naturally. Antibiotics may be used at times in the life of a bird if illness is present. If antibiotics are required to keep our chickens in the best possible health, they are used under the strict supervision of highly trained veterinarians. Our chicken supplier provides 100% natural chicken. This means they don’t add anything to the fresh chicken. There are no additives, artificial ingredients or preservatives. Some companies add a solution to their fresh chicken products that can include water, salt, carrageenan (a seaweed extract) or broth. Ours is always a single ingredient product: 100% natural chicken.

The ground beef is processed here in the USA by a Midwest Packing Company. We are not offering completely grass fed beef at this time. The beef cattle have a grass diet which is supplemented by grain after they reach a certain weight. There are no hormones or antibiotics in the beef and it is 100% grown in the USA. I hope this answers your question.

Attached is the Bacon Food Label. Have a great Holiday Season!"

I couldn't find the bacon food label - if you want it, though, I'll get it again... :)

Sorry...

(view during our sledding activity at dusk)

Well, I do have a pretty good excuse for not being online for awhile. I couldn't find my camera cord to upload images, alas no pretty pictures to illustrate a day in the life. But, today I found it,

and I have a TON to share with you! :)

These next few posts may be out of sync as far as actual dates go, but I'm sure you won't mind too much. I'll try to keep as clear as possible.

Today was a perfect winter's day for our family. We woke up late, and had chile egg puffs for breakfast. I homeschooled Constable and Beans for about an hour, then we all got our morning

chores done. Then, Mountain Man proceeded to start on a new dinner for tonight.

One of the things I love about my husband's work is that he has to cook, and he has to be good at it. So, occasionally, he comes home really excited about a new recipe he's learned from another firefighter (they take turns cooking) and wants to cook it for us. Twist my arm, why dontcha!

Anyways, he came home the other morning raving about a chicken noodle soup they'd made while on his shift. With homemade noodles... :) This morning he cooked up some chicken breasts in stock (they used a whole chicken, but we didn't have one plucked on hand). We love Shirley J's chicken stock - not only does it last up to 20 years in storage, but it also has no MSG, which is hard to find in bullion. I'm getting distracted.

Once it stews for awhile, he strains the fat out of the stock and chops up the chicken - we did pretty big pieces because by the time your soup is done, they flake into smaller pieces anyway. Then, we added dried onions from the cannery, celery, dried carrots from the cannery(our fresh carrots weren't very sweet, so we opted to try out the dehydrated - I'm glad we did), peas, and corn. We also added salt, and freshly ground peppercorns (another whole spice that we store whole and grind with our mortar and pestle --I've transitioned over to whole spices when possible--I'll save the explanation for another post!).

Then, we turned our attention to the noodles.

Mountain Man said it's actually really easy to make fresh pasta. All you need is flour, eggs, and salt. I asked him how much? He said, uh, you guess. Hmmm....I already know I'm going to botch this, I say. No, he says, it's all a matter of just knowing what you need it to be. What?! Can my husband please fail at something? No? Fine. Moving on...

He kneads the dough 'til it's ready..(uh, huh, you know, when it's READY), then he starts to roll it out,

slices thick strips with a pizza cutter, and then we get to the fun stage. The kids joined in as we fed it through our pasta maker to make thick, lovely noodles. Aren't they purty? :)

Because fresh noodles cook very fast, we decided to hold off on putting the noodles into the soup. Instead, we all threw on our snow gear, and went sledding in the ravine behind the house(excuse the red eyes, please. I have not yet installed my editing program onto this computer). At sunset. A beautiful time to enjoy ourselves. We examined and identified animal tracks in the fresh snow (we found a deer, a rabbit, a coyote, and a bobcat - to me they all look VERY similar, but we learned that you actually look at several factors to identify tracks - such as placement, patterns, etc).

Then, we came back home to a crackling fire in the woodstove, and a wonderful smelling dinner. We added the noodles (hanging the leftovers to dry),

baked the rolls,

and mixed some lemon juice into lemonade. I pulled out some of our flavored ice cubes (these were strawberry) to add a little flair.

The kids said the chicken noodle soup trumped our man stew, which is amazing seeing as they LOVE man stew. Not only has this opened a great new recipe to our collection, but it has opened my eyes to the world of fresh pasta. We are anxious to try it again!

Responsibilities on the Farm...

One of the reasons we decided to move to a more rural setting was because my 7-year old son thrives when given responsibility, but we felt like he was losing this desire as he spent more time with his peers in the city. So, we were excited to see him so eager to jump into working on the farm. But, I had no idea how much to expect until I saw him yesterday morning during the snow storm. The day before, Mountain Man explained to him that he would have to keep the supply of firewood going in the home by bringing some from the mudroom to the woodstove each morning, and restocking the mudroom as needed. When I woke up that morning, Constable was already dressed in his snow gear, and outside checking for eggs. I threw on some clothes and joined him in feeding and watering the animals. Then, I came back inside to work on some breakfast (eggs - who would've guessed?). While washing some of the dishes, I happen to glance out the window. This is what I saw:

When Constable comes in, he proceeds to tell me about how he filled the blue bucket (in the picture), tried to push it to the door, found it to be too heavy, moved the logs into the cart, and couldn't move that either. I asked him if he needed my help. "Nope, I'm just taking a little break for breakfast; then, I'll be strong again and will move it the rest of the way." And that's just what he did..

He stayed out in the snow all day - he built this amazing wall that I wish I had gotten a pic of. All I got was this:

Even though the snow melted away, you can still see the detail in these pics - each individual block that he made by "filling the bucket with snow and then stepping on it to make it hard and stuck together."

the brick-maker

And the arc of the wall made out of his blocks. The way he puts things together is just amazing to me - definitely a quality that his father gifted to him...