It's finally over

Well my six straight weeks of travel with multiple nights away from home each week has finally come to an end, but not without a few casualties.

We are all still alive, but my house, specifically my kitchen table, has seen much better days.  All of our mail and other odds and ends are stacked on top of each other waiting for me to take care of them next week.

Two weeks ago after spending the entire week in Chicago for a work meeting, I came home on Friday afternoon with a fever.  Thankfully Big Sissy saved the day by taking care of me and Little Sissy on Friday night until The Farmer and Bubby got home.  It's amazing what an almost 8 year old can do when their mommy is sick.  The next day, I was diagnosed with strep throat which is never fun for an adult or a kid. 

Bubby and The Farmer battled a fever off and on over the weekend, but everyone returned to work and school on Monday except for me.  I needed one more day to recover.  Unfortunately, when I woke up on Tuesday morning, my eye was glued shut so I had to make another trip to the doctor because I had pink eye. 

And as you know when it rains, it pours...

Because Tuesday night I ended up at the doctor again with Big Sissy and Bubby.  They were both diagnosed with strep throat.  And on Wednesday, The Farmer fell victim to strep throat.  The only blessing in all of this is that somehow Little Sissy stayed healthy. 

Well two weeks later, we are all finally doing better and I am slowly but surely returning to blogging.  Now, I just have to find my kitchen table. 

Wordless Wednesday - Yummy, yummy in our tummies

October is National Pork Month or Porktober.

We always eat a  lot of pork at our house, but we have been trying new recipes this month to broaden our pork recipe collection.

Thanks to some yummy recipes from Amy's Dinner and GOODeness Gracious, we have found too keeper recipes.  Be sure to check them out...



The Best Porkchops from GOODEness Gracious

Beer Braised Baby Backs

I hope your family enjoys these recipes as much as mine!

Linked to Wordless Wednesday at The Snyder 5 and A Beautiful Mess. 

Halloween Craft Time at the pig pen

Not that I have a lot of spare time as a full-time working momma and a Real Farmwife of America, but in the spare time that I do have, I try to do as much as I can.  One of the organizations that I belong to is Extension Homemakers.  This is a nation-wide organization.  In our state it is facilitated by the Extension Service through Purdue University who also facilitates all 4-H activities.  

When I married The Farmer, I joined his mother's club.  (This made my Gramma very happy as she had been a very active member in the county where I grew up.)  The members of our club range from age 33 to 80 so there are a lot of good stories and memories shared by our members at our meetings and we always have fun.  Our club is very big on community service and we are always doing something to give back to others.  

Any way at our last meeting, my mother-in-law and I decided to do a craft lesson for all of members.  After seeing it on Katie at On the Banks of Squaw Creek's blog, we decided to have everyone make a toilet paper pumpkin.  I had never seen these before Katie's blog, but they are super cute and super easy to make so be sure to check it out.  You can make these pumpkins as simple or fancy as you want, so it was the perfect craft for our club.  

Now we always have some kids running around during our meeting including my 3 so we decided to take a craft for the kids to do ... wedding bell ghosts.  We found this is some magazine, but I can't remember which one so I'm sorry I can't link you to their website, but basically you need white tissue paper wedding bells, black construction paper, cheesecloth, and glue.

After assembling each bell, you cut out 2 eyes and a mouth with the black construction paper.

Then glue them to the bell.

Then take a piece of cheesecloth and run the string at the top of the bell through the cheesecloth.

Now you have the perfect Halloween ghost.

 

 BOO!

 

What a difference a week makes...

What a difference a week makes...

Last Sunday, the 3 kids, myself, and my mother-in-law ventured out to Kelsay Farms to Experience the Farm thanks to tickets that Amy and Liz from 2 Maids a Milking and Kelsay Farms gave us.

You may be wondering why we would want to Experience the Farm when we live on a farm.  Well much to Bubby's excitement, Kelsay Farms is a dairy farm which means they raise cows.  Although we love being pig farmers, we love dairy products especially milk, cheese, and ice cream at this pig pen so we wanted to see the cows of course.

So why does a week make a difference?  Well last Sunday, Fall weather was definitely here.  We wore several layers, scarves, and even took hats and gloves for our adventure last Sunday.  As I sit here today, I would think it was still summer if we didn't have a combine running today on our family farm as it is over 80 degrees probably 20 degrees warmer than last Sunday.  So either way, fall or summer temperatures, we would all recommend that you visit Kelsay Farms this October and Experience the Farm. 

Bubby's favorite part was visiting with the cows and the milking parlor tour.  Big Sissy loved the 5 acre corn maze and bale mountain, and Little Sissy loved the Moo Choo Express.  My favorite part was just seeing the smiles on my kids faces and having a fun family day.

Farmer Fridays - It's a Guest Post from a Real Farmwife of America



For this week's Farmer Fridays, I'm very happy to feature my first ever guest bloggers, Liz and Amy from Two Maids a Milking, who happen to be two of The Real Farmwives of America.  So with no further ado, here is the guest post from Liz...


Kelsay Farms is a 6th generation family dairy farm in central Indiana. We milk around 500 head of Holstein cows 3 times a day. We farm around 2200 acres of corn, soybeans and hay. You can learn more about the history of our farm in our Real Farmwives of America post.



This time of year is very busy for us because like you have read in Heather’s Farmer Friday posts we are in the midst of fall harvest. This seasonal work comes on top of what we have to do to make sure all the cows are taken care of. Our cows are our number one priority. They are like family to us and we don’t sit down for dinner until they have all been fed.

The “close up” pen or maternity pen is my favorite barn on the farm. I have always loved watching cows give birth and helping the babies get a strong start in life. In fact when I was young and on my uncles dairy farm I talked one of my cousins in to going and finding ___ (can’t remember her name, you will see why in a second) she was the cow that was supposed to have her baby next. We climbed over a gate and before we knew it I was stung by over 15 different yellow jackets… not cool! Well she didn’t end up having the calf while we were there and it was a big bummer! Anyway we move cows that are about 2 weeks from having their calf to a special barn so we can watch them more closely. Most cows have their calves on their own without any problems but every now and then we have to help. Because there is a chance we make sure that someone checks that barn every 2 hours. The 2 month or so before she has her calf she is in a “dry” period or is taking a “vacation” from milking. We do this so all the feed she eats goes to growing her calf. A cow must have a calf in order to produce milk. A cow has her first calf once they are fully grown at about 2 years of age.



The other reason it is busy around the farm this time of year is because Amy has developed an agri-tourism business. Every October she has a corn maze, hay rides, a cow train, pumpkins and lots of other fun fall activities. The farm is open to the public on the weekends and during the week there are scheduled school and group tours. You can find out more at, http://www.kelsayfarms.com/. Also, be sure to watch out for a FAQ post focusing on the most asked questions during the fall tours!

Liz

Thanks Liz!  Last weekend my family and I had the pleasure of visiting Kelsay Farms thanks to free tickets from Amy and Liz and we had a blast.  I hope if you are in the Indy you can find time to visit Kelsay Farms this fall as it is a lot of fun!

Farmer Fridays - Time is flying by

 

Well this was a tough week for this mommy and farmer's wife ... I left on Tuesday afternoon for a work meeting and didn't return home until 4pm today.  What a long week it was and I sure missed a lot at home and on the farm.

Since it has been ages since we received any amount of rainfall on the farm, harvest was again in full swing this week on our family farm.  In fact, we finished soybean harvest this week.  I don't know if I remember being done with soybean harvest before October 1st during my 10 years of marriage to The Farmer. 

The sun has set on soybean harvest 2010.

Although we love harvest season on our family farm, it is always nice to make progress and finishing soybean harvest this week allowed us to do that.  Provided Mother Nature does not decided to grace us with significant rainfall anytime soon, we will probably be done with corn harvest in the next 7-10 days.  Where is the time going?  Harvest season is just flying by this year. 

Although time if flying by and I can't believe it, it is already October 1st and October is a big month for us.   For starters, October is National Pork Month.  As pig farmers, we are excited to celebrate pork for an entire month. We already eat a lot of pork around this pig pen so we will definitely be partaking in our share of pork burgers, ribs, and bacon to name a few pork items this month to celebrate and I hope to share some of those recipes in future posts.  What will you and your family be doing to celebrate National Pork Month?
 

Bubby and Big Sissy at our local food pantry when we donated 100 pounds of pork  for Christmas 2009.

October is also a big month as Big Sissy will turn 8 later in the month and that is one thing that really makes me wonder where the time has gone. How in the world do I have an 8 year old?  Well, somehow we do and that's just the way it works ... I guess. 


Big Sissy getting a manicure for her 7th Birthday.  This was her request for her present. 


I hope you all enjoyed the first installment of The Real Farmwives of America last week.  I'm really excited and grateful for all of the positive feedback I have received about it.  As part of another new edition to Farmer Fridays, next Friday, I will have a guest blogger, Amy and Liz from 2 Maids A Milking so be sure to check it out next Friday. 

Have a great weekend!!