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...

Phew!

Finally finished the plums - I ended up with 17 pints, 12 half-pints, and 3 little teeny jars of plum butter(not counting the 5 or 6 pints I gave the landlord, and the few half-pints I gave to some of the men that helped us with our firewood). I could've gotten WAY more if I had been on top of it, but alas, some of it had to go to the chickens and the compost.

Lesson #1 on the farm - one plum tree is more than enough for our needs. How many do we have? Seven! Hm...

I thought I'd be moving on to the pomegranates, but they seem to be staying well, so tomorrow, I'll start working on the apples. Since we have a ton of applesauce, and with my new found love of butters, we'll be trying out some different apple butter recipes to see what ones we love. Then, I'll probably make just a few more applesauces to share with family and to use with our pomegranate leathers when we get to them.

How's everyone else's harvest season going? :)

Our First Snow (Barely)

The other day, we woke up, and there was snow on the mountains. Our kids were so excited that they put on their snow gear, pulled their sleds out of storage, and BEGGED for us to go out and play. So, we finished up with the morning chores and headed out to find us a good hill. Only to find that the snow was not looking promising. We searched and searched for a good place to sled, but the snow was SO sparse that we couldn't find anything good. But, that didn't stop us! We got out of the car and Constable took off up the trail; yelling down to us, he's found us a great spot! This is what it looks like...

Hah!! Makes me laugh just thinking about it.

Ah, but we had a great snowball fight; Constable and Mountain Man made a miniature snowman, and we came home for some hot chocolate. Happy thoughts.

Which reminds me of a cute thing - Beans, whenever we pull into the driveway to our home, yells out, "Sweet home, sweet home!" It reminds me of Nana, who always said, "Home sweet home," when we were growing up... :)

Heavenly Plum Butter...

k, I'm NOT a fan of plums. At all. I don't know why, but they've just never been as great as some of the more spectacular fruits - strawberries, peaches, raspberries, nectarines...mmmm. :)

So, when I discovered that I had to preserve these things, I had NO idea what to do. And there were so MANY! So, I figured, what better way than to experiment with some recipes! And I found one that I just love, love, love. It's plum butter. Let me tell you a little about this treat.

First of all, I've been on a kick lately with sugar. Not where I eat it, but where I find ways to lessen its presence. It started with my apple molasses muffins. The first time I made them, I thought they tasted bland. Mountain Man loved them. Really? Maybe I'll try it again. The next time I made them, I thought the apple flavor was exquisite! Hm...maybe I like it. Third time? I was hooked. They are delicious! Once the sugar flavoring was toned down a bit, I started to notice that my taste buds have other taste sensations! The same thing happened with my grandmother's old blueberry muffin recipe. First time I tasted it, I thought - sheesh! Did I forget the sugar? Next muffin, I thought, wow, the blueberries really are great. And I ate another one... :)

I know you are probably sick and tired of hearing about Mountain Man's survival week, but this was exactly what they were demonstrating with the food. Our culture is SO stuck on salty and sweet, that we've lost the enjoyment, the complexity of the flavor of our foods. I once heard that the average person consumed something like 8 pounds of sugar in a year 100 years ago. Now we consume, what 60 pounds a year? Now, I'm not one to cut out a TON of sugar - I do like to baby my sweet tooth, ESPECIALLY around the holidays, but when I find something less sugar that's just as tasty, heck, I'm all for it! (And most of you know that I'm not down with the unnatural substitutions - give me molasses, honey, maple syrup, or agave, but I'll pass on the aspartame, saccharin, and sucralose)

So, when I found out about plum butter, I was all about trying it. And let me tell you, this is my new joy in canning! Let me explain - to make plum jam, you need 6 cups of plums, and a whopping 8 cups of sugar! Oh, my! I can't believe how much sugar I go through in the harvest season! But, plum butter calls for 2 quarts (8 cups) of plums, and only 2 1/2 cups of sugar. Then, you simmer the plums down to a thicker consistency, add a little cinnamon, and voila! You've got plum butter. I do not like plums, but I LOVE plum butter! We've had it for the jelly in peanut butter and jelly, and it works just as great as jelly. So, another great recipe with less sugar and lots of flavor!! Yea!!

Next project, I think I will try some yummy apple butter!

Harvest Season STILL Going...

Well, yesterday I spent the day canning tomatoes - I made marinara sauce and ketchup (thanks to my dear sister for the tomatoes - I've got some ketchup for you along with other goodies to pay you back!) I was worried for awhile because I hadn't restocked enough marinara sauce for the next year, and I am SO against buying it at the store now that I've had the good stuff from home. So, luckily, I was able to bottle a few more pints for storage.

I was excited to see my pile of produce to preserve dwindling down. My plums were steadily disappearing. My 100 pound pile of pomegranates were waiting patiently for their turn(we still have another pomegranate tree to pick after this batch, too). So, today, I thought I'd go ahead and start working on these chores...

Alas, it is never to work out the way I'd like. I spent the morning reorganizing the children's play/homeschool room. I'm almost done with it, and am super-excited with how it's coming together. As soon as Mountain Man got home, he got called to help with splitting some wood for some of the less fortunate in our ward. Then, he got to take a bunch home for our own preparations. Hopefully, we've gotten enough, but we'll see.

Then, we got word that we might be getting snow tonight. So, after dinner, we got geared up to go back outside to put away everything we could before the snow hit. We got into the orchard and decided to pick the rest of the apples in the trees. Now, before you say anything, we've been slowly working our way through the apple trees ever since they started ripening in late August. We've been eating our apple molasses muffins at least once a week, in addition to the apple desserts, sliced apples, and the apples we pick when we do our walk through every day. We've been eating a LOT of apples. Plus, our landlords have come to pick our apples a few times as well. So, when I went out a couple of weeks ago, I picked the rest of the apples in our Southwest orchard, and there wasn't that much left. Likewise in the North orchard. I thought it would be similar when we went out to the Southeast orchard today. We got out there tonight, and there were TONS to be picked!! We ended up with about 80 pounds worth, which was delightful! I took out all the bags and searched out the creme de la creme of the apples to save for eating throughout the winter (they'll stay in our cold storage room, aka the garage until we notice any critters getting to the food - hopefully by then, we'll have our second fridge). Now, we've got apples to make some applesauce and apple butter.

Just when you think you've gotten one chore done, two more are added to the list... I still love the farm life. Don't try and talk me out of it...I'm convinced that this is feeding my soul. :)

A Little Too Country

Mountain Man came in the other day and said, "Look, I've created the farmer's version of the Baby Bjorn!"

I just love that she's smiling in there!