Biking To The Farmers Market

Yesterday at around 10am we left for what would be a 10 mile bike ride to the Farmers Market. At first, I was a little worried about the distance and all the hills, but it turned out that it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was pretty windy and very cold. I had on sweatpants with shorts underneath, long warm socks, and a jacket which kept me on the warm side the whole trip. On the way there the wind was pushing us along, but on the way back a whole differnent story. When we got to the Farmers Market tables were set up with all kinds of produce and homemade goodies on them.

 During this season things like squash, pumpkins, eggplant, and corn were popular. There was also bread, eggs, homemade soaps and jewlry, some meat, and lots more. We almost were going to buy some goat meat, but the gentlemen selling it did not have any available at the time. I have never had goat meat before so it would've been a treat for me. Since we have goats and are contemplating if we will ever decide to butcher I wanted to do a little taste testing to see if its worth it. :) After browsing a little more we ended up with a bag of broccoli and $2 worth of molasses cookies (which by the way, were delicious) we then started back home. In the end I was very proud of myself and could easily do it again.

Peeps!

Thought you might like to see the newest members of the farm. These are our peeps, they are meat chickens and we will butcher them in the winter sometime. Aren't they adorable! We picked them up from the post office on Thursday of last week. So not quite a week old.

National 'Turn Off The TV' Week

This week my family and I are chosing to not wach any television THE WHOLE WEEK. I am sorta happy and sorta sad. Here are some interesting facts about TV courtesy of: http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/turnoffweek/TV.turnoff.week.html.

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT TV

1. Number of 30-second commercials seen in a year by an average child: 20,000

2. Number of minutes per week that parents spend in meaningful conversation with their children: 38.5

3. Number of minutes per week that the average child watches television: 1,680

4. Percentage of children ages 6-17 who have TV's in their bedrooms: 50

5. Percentage of day care centers that use TV during a typical day: 70

6. Hours per year the average American youth spends in school: 900 hours

7. Hours per year the average American youth watches television: 1500

8. Percentage of Americans that regularly watch television while eating dinner: 66

WOW! Maybe you this post will inspire you to either chose not to watch any TV at all this week, or maybe just limit the amount you watch each day. I also encourage you to visit the website I posted above. There are some cool things on it!

Take Care.

God's Creatures Big and Small

These next couple of pictures are of the animals on my farm.

Enjoy!!

These are our chickens. This picture was taken by my sister Kate. Lovely!

HAH! I absolutely love this picture. The picture is of our 5 month old goats. These are the triplets in particular, Taffi, Ty, and Lila

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These are the twins. Star and Iris. They are also 5 months old.

And this is baby and mama. Ruby (5 months old) the brown one and Sugar the mama. We will sell Sugar this Saturday so we will only have the 6 babies.

Onto the cows, this is Rosie our heifer born in May. She is the baby of Sweet Pea.

This is Sweet Pea the mama of Rosie shown in the picture above. She is a mix between Red Devin and Hereford.

This is our other calf, Rudy. He is the baby of Scarlett. Sorry not a very good picture.

 

This is Scarlett. She is the mama of Rudy and the nicest one of them all.

Now this is MY baby. His name is Neighbor, I know its a little weird. We inherited him when we moved into our house. He is so handsome.

This is my other baby, Lily. We got her when she was just a kitten. She loves this pot. There used to be an alive plant in it???

I saved the best for last. Jesse our beautiful black lab. She is such a sweetie. There is only one thing about her that makes her unique she eats EVERYTHING from watermelon rinds to egg shells.

Thanks for checking out the animals in my life.

Take Care

Hard Work Pays Off

Hard Work Pays Off.

Our afternoon farm project today was making compost bin(s). We started out with taking measurements and putting them on graph paper, and then we started the building process. By the way, this job was done by my sister Kate and I (no parental help), so we felt pretty "cool" after we finished. Our supplies included 21 3ft. bales of straw, 11 metal rods, graph paper and pencil, pitch fork, rake, strength to pick up the bales which of course all came from me. I mean DUH!! :)

The picture above is the proof of our hardwork. Sorry, it is a little blurry.
Take Care.

Remembering September 11, 2001

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:National_Park_Service_9-11_Statue_of_Liberty_and_WTC_fire.jpg
This is a picture of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001. I am sure all of you who are reading this remember the day of the attacks. This summer I read the book Every Now and Then by Karen Kingsbury. It was about a firefighter that went into the building and risked his life to save others who were still caught inside when the collision occurred. What a sacrifice.

So many questions I have about the whole disaster. What were the terrorists thinking? Though many people have felt hatred and vengeance towards the people that did such a horrible thing. As a Christian, I believe forgiveness is the right thing to do in a situation like that. Even though the loss and hurt we feel is so strong WWJD? (What would Jesus Do?). Another question, What would I do if I had lost someone is the attack? I am sure it would be easier to feel hate towards the terrorists, but like I said before is that right? I would encourage you to pray today for those who are still feeling grief and anger.
Take Care,

Healthcare Debate 2009

This week my dad assigned my sister and I a research project about the current Health care Debate that is making headlines. Let me know what you think. Or maybe you don't really care, I understand I wasn't that pumped about it either when I heard about my assignment. I mean I support Obama all the way, but I am not a true political fanatic. So anyways, give your comments to me let me know what your personal opinion is, and don't get to crazy (SEAN).

Take Care,

Rainy Day

I woke up this morning to the sound of rain hitting my tin roof. I love rain, especially the sound of it hitting my roof. Today was my first day back into the rountine of school after a 3 day weekend. Last night for supper we had hobo dinners or tin foil dinners. If you are not familiar with what hobo dinners are, here is what they are. First you get a sheet of tin foil and put a couple pieces of cabbage on the piece of tin foil then you can put carrots, potatos, hamburger or sausage, onion, and some salt and pepper on the cabbage. Then put more cabbage on top and wrap the piece of tin foil around the dinner. After you have all that secured tight you put it in the fire and wait about a half n hour. Oh and after its done put some ketchup and mustard on it............yummmy!!! Anyways, sorry about the change of blog templet some many times. I like to try new things! :)

Take Care,

Bye Bye JJ, Buddy, and Biggin!

Today was a fun day that I spent mostly with my dad. At around 10:30 my dad went to get the trailer so we would be able to take our 3 steers to the county sale barn to sell. When he returned we loaded up JJ, Buddy, and Biggin into the trailer. I will give you a little background info about these three steers. After my sisters and I received our stimulus package last year we each decided we would invest in an animal that we would raise and then receive a profit from. My younger sister and I chose to each buy a calf and my other sister bought 20 hens. My dad also purchased a calve too. My calf's name was JJ, (my family teased about about my name choice they would say "JayJay the jet plane that's me from the show, it got on my last nerve at times) my sisters was named Buddy, and my dads was Biggin. My younger sister, dad and I then had to bucket feed our calves with milk supplement that we made up every morning and evening. It took some discipline to wake up every morning at 7am IN THE SUMMER and feed these calves. After our calves were weened off and no longer needed milk we let them out on the pasture to graze till today when they were sold.

As I said earlier we loaded the steers into the trailer and my dad and I set off to the sale barn where later our steers would be sold. After we unloaded them at the sale barn we then waited until they were weighed. After they were weighed we headed back home for lunch. Then at around 1pm we went back to sale barn for the sale. Of course cows are the last ones to sell so it took 1-2 hours before our steers were sold, but while we waited we treated our selves to drinks and french fries. yum yum! I love my dad! At around 3pm our babies were sold. boo hoo! I won't mention the prices, but I will say my dad and I were pleased.
Take Care,

"Oh Happy Day"

What a beautiful day, the weather was what I call P-E-R-F-E-C-T. Not too hot not too cold. A nice breeze and the sun was shining bright the whole day. Amen. Anyways, I thought I would share with you my bible memory verse that I am memorizing for homeschool.
It comes from Matthew 5:1-11:

1When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 "Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
8 "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 "Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

What a powerful message that Jesus brought to his disciples. Instead of trying to just memorize this passage I have been studying and digging deeper into what Jesus was saying. I think that is now one of my favorite preachings of Jesus. So I encourage you to open up your bible and read God's word and who knows God might speak to you through what you read.
Take Care,