A Rare Look

At the back of the house. 

And a closer look at the three steers. Ivan, Patch and Milton. Ivan is one year old and Patch and Milton are two last month. 

Shirley The Jersey. A Christmas Story.

Some friends of ours wanted to go on a trip, but they had a cow they needed taking care of . Papa said sure and told me later, but I was fine with that. They brought her over the 22nd of December. Her name is Shirley and she reminds me of a large happy dog. She is inquisitive and alert. She walked right over the wire fence to explore the pigs and right back in again when Papa put the fence down. She is easy to catch and lead and she seems to be, very much, a people cow. You know; instead of a people person? She's a people cow. Shirley is a purebred jersey cow with a rough coat. I'd never seen a Jersey with a rough coat. Looks neat. I knew she was in labour the night she got here so I put her in our new calf pen with Ivan, Isabel's calf, and watched her for a bit. Until 1am actually when my feet were frozen and my eyes kept closing all by themselves. I went inside to bed but resolved to wake up in a couple hours to check on her. I must have been tired because the next hour I saw was 8am!! I thought, for sure, there would be a calf but no! While I was still scratching my head over that she lay down and gave a little push and I saw feet!! I ran inside and woke up the kids, made them get jackets on and boots and we all went out to stare at the cow! Then we went back inside as nothing was happening..that friendly cow kept saying 'good morning' to everyone and wouldn't lay down again to push the calf out!!   I stayed outside and watched her and when she was down again and staying down I called the kids and they all came out and watched the calf being born! Papa stayed inside with S but the other 6 were all there. Wonderful experience! Shirley did so good and after the calf was out and she was up she shared the love and licked Ivan all over just the same as she did her calf! A Christmas Eve calf! What a wonderful reminder of life and love and Jesus! 

L hand milking Shirley. Norman is the red calf, Ivan the black calf. 

 What a busy day it was. A friend and two of her children came for breakfast, a wonderful lady dropped off a quilt, a couple of guys showed up to pick up a freezer full of old meat for bait (a very big pig that died a couple years ago in the bush that we were going to feed to the dogs and never did as it smelled so bad!), Papa took the oldest 4 kids skating with church family for two hours while I cleaned house and napped littles,  R and her 6 kids came to see the calf and have a quick visit. C's and their 4 boys stopped in to see their cow Shirley and name the new calf Norman (city slickers anyone?). At one point there were 17 children in the house! Papa and Mr. C went to pick up some hay. Everyone was visiting and having a great time! I totally forgot it was Christmas Eve! The dog barked, the kids yelled, Grandma and Grandpa are here! The families were introduced, the calves seen again, the snowsuits, gloves, hats and children packed up, hugs given, good byes said, Papa and Mr. C arrived. R and her children left, C's packed up their boys, checked and double checked for mittens and jackets and oh don't forget the babies boots! Than a moment of silence. Ahh. 

Children chattering excitedly, Christmas Eve! We've remembered! Gingerbread houses and snack night and Grandma and Grandpa and excitement reined! I remember Papa hugged me and I smiled at him and we went into the kitchen to set up for the gingerbread house decorating. We decorated, we chatted and ate, we even opened gifts and hugged and laughed and then we were saying good bye again to Grandpa and Grandma and yelling MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Then again the house had a moment of silence before the little excited voices. Reminding us. Another Tradition. A wonderful Tradition, the annual watching of 'The Nativity Story.'  

Later that night after the kids were in bed Papa and I took a couple deep breaths and finished a few surprises for the next days giving. When the house was ready for bed I went out once again in the dark cold night to check the calves and Shirley and marvel. Every birth is a gift but God becoming man, being birthed into this human world to save us from sin is the greatest gift of all! What a personal reminder of the magic of life, the God thing that opened my eyes and quiets my heart. Thank you Jesus! 

*Disclaimer. Our children close their eyes for several minutes several times in the movie 'The Nativity Story' we also fast forward the first part and both births. 

General Update. Nov. 2013

I went on the computer to the blog tonight to make sure I don't forget how to blog. It's been a bit crazy around here you see and I'm still trying to get my feet back under me and remember that there are other things to do besides school, butchering, and housework and parenting.. well when the kids are asleep anyway. SO here you go... general update of our life.. crazy as it is :)

We've had two birthdays, which reminds me I need to change my about me again. E turned 7, and I already blogged about that here. And G turned two and we had her party last week. I'll hopefully post that soon. Other than that fun we've pretty much been busy putting up the animal harvest of the year.

Meatball the 3 year old steer we brought home, hung for two weeks and cut and wrapped and frozen. One simple sentence but a heck of a lot of meat and work since we did the entire thing ourselves. We sure are enjoying having beef again though :) OH and we bought a new meat grinder.. it's amazing!! Gobbles up the meat quick as a wink! Super quiet too.. Papa and I can chat while we work with this grinder.

6 pigs have hit the freezers, some for us, some for others. We have 4 more to do. There is a tote of sausage on the back porch waiting for Papa to smoke from our last butchering marathon. About 130 lbs of it. Pork pepperoni, summer and Mennonite sausage. Tastes great, we tried it all :) At one point we had a production line going. Papa cutting pork chops with the electric meat saw, J bringing them to the butcher table, L, E and R using canning rings to scrape the bone chips off and passing them to me to have the fat trimmed and do the final bagging. 10 chops to a bag. 12.5 bags. 3 pigs worth of chops. I don't see the point in packaging it in small packages.. I'm rarely going to get out just one bag. Normally I do two. Then we have leftovers :) I know.. we like to eat. We like to eat MEAT!!! lol. Papa's got bacon making in the back room and more frozen waiting to be sliced. Slicer is likely next on our to buy list as the place in town were we've always gotten it done can no longer slice it for us. Slicing bacon by hand is HARD WORK!! I don't mind work but 20 sides of bacon is a bit much to hand slice.

As we are butchering there is a lot of hides and innards and things in the lagoon.. which means we are seeing Eagles again. The kids have been taking pictures of them. So far there are only two but we are hoping we get the 8 or so we had last year later on in the season.

Term one of home schooling requirements 'to do' list was saved by a patch of cold weather.. kids couldn't spend much time outside so we actually almost finished the work for Term 1 before the deadline.. I don't feel to bad that we didn't. We only missed one assignment which is awesome work as we got 12 weeks of science and Social Studies work a mere month before the end of term. Some crazy changes to the curriculum in the school we go through. This term we are, hopefully, done with the changes and it will go smoother.

 R is reading and doing so wonderfully. She loves it and has been pecking away at her term 2 work for awhile now as she flew through her reading program. I'm really enjoying J's set up this year and he is too.. his system is a bit different now with his grade 4 teacher and we both like it.

S is doing really well. He's got cheeks :) Loves his jolly jumper. Tried banana's and HATED them. Sleeps long stretches at night, often is only up once around 5 or 6 am. And is in general a very happy smiley giggly little boy. He loves to laugh. If you laugh near him he bursts into giggles. Today I put him on his belly on the floor and he scooted.. later on I did it again and noticed he is bringing his knees up in order to move forward. Crawling is not far off. He has great hand eye coordination and rarely misses when he grabs things or shoves things in his mouth. I was going to wait until 6 months for solids but Papa's work has a Christmas Party that I want to attend so I will try him on cream of wheat soon. Just so I can go to the Party and Grandma will have something to feed him if she needs too. With the other boys I normally started solids at 4 months but S just isn't as hungry as L and J were. He's no where close to the constantly hungry J3 was at this age.. mind you he's only about 14 lbs and J3 was something like 20lbs at this age. S really is a Griggs :) J3 takes a bit more after my side of the family. I tried banana's just to see if he was really interested at all and he really was not. I'll likely wait another week now and try again. If nothing else I'll send it along and Grandma will have it if she needs it. The party will likely only last about 3 hours and we'll be near Grandma's house so I can go nurse him if I need too. And no I won't be leaving him a bottle.. I've not bottle fed the 1st six and I don't plan on starting with the 7th ;)

I realize I'm skipping around from family to farm but this next thing is both :) We got a couple more piglets to raise up on bottles. My uncle's pig had too many again and he brought two little female, gilts, piglets over Monday afternoon. We named them Sausage and Chops. The smaller one is Chops.. she's got attitude! They weighed in at 1.5 lbs and 3 lbs Monday when we got them. We are going to weigh them each week for a while and see how they grow. They are super cute. Sausage does seem to have a problem with her legs but it seems to be getting better as she gains strength. They were a week old when we got them, but very small. I put a glass square pan of milk in their tote tonight and I can hear them drinking it!! The pan is heavy enough they cannot get their little pig noses under it and tip it out!

Umm.. house.. nothing to report.. still there, nothings happening on it.. too BUSY BUSY BUSY putting in the meat harvest :)

Kittens.. seems like Daisy's kittens didn't make it. Never did see them but she's not skinny like she was last time, actually she's in superb shape, which makes me think they didn't survive. She must have abandoned them. Which is sad but there is nothing we can do about it so I'm not letting it get to me. Fluffs kittens are older and fine.. each one has been door trained. Some took longer than others. The little brown female got past J a couple of times but we did eventually teach her not to rush inside the minute a door opens. I won't have them in the house.. there are enough of us in here as it is :) 7 kids, 2 adults and 2 little pigs. Not bad for a two bedroom trailer with a addition!! Anyway now with her 3 kittens we have Daisy, Midnight, Fluff and the kittens are Caramel, Mischief and the so far unnamed orange male. Our last orange male has disappeared and we've not seen him in months. A good reason to keep a breeding female around.. cats don't seem to last long up in the north woods with the coyotes and wolves and eagles.

Papa is back to evening shifts. Noon to midnight, Wednesday thru Saturday. Which means I get less sleep then I would if he was on a normal shift but that's ok :) I like to see him at the end of the day and S often isn't in bed for the night until 11 anyway. I am taking my vitamins :) Dr. Nicole :)

Anyway. As always we are busy busy busy with family, farm, work and harvest. Some things get put off for later while we deal with more seasonal things.. for example I normally potty train right after their second birthday.. which G had almost 2 weeks ago now.. and no I'm not potty training her... I'm not going to either until later when butchering is done. It's not fair for any of us to do it now so we won't. It won't hurt her or me none to wait.

So things to look forward to on the farm is the end of pig butchering which should be not this weekend but next weekend. Isabel's calf which is due around the 23rd of December.. She's been AI'd to a Brown Swiss so we are hoping for a heifer. She sure is cranky these days and chasing Milton and Patch around a lot. Patch is still a scrawny little runt of a steer and both Papa and I have wondered if we did ourselves any favors when we got him from the dairy. We actually had him tied under a roof the 1st time it snowed as he was not looking good at all. He recovered well and is in with the cows now. He does have a nose for trouble and got out several times before we realized he could open our man gate by the milking area. Now the gate is bungied shut and he tries and tries but can't wiggle through anymore.

Oh right, the woodshed.. Pretty much done.. we got 6 inches of snow when Papa had two more piece of tin, one on each side, and the ridge cap to put on so neither of those are done but the snows pretty much off the roof now so he might get to that soon. We are loving the extra space and the wood dry and right by the house!!!

Our phone had a problem with our electric fence one morning when we had a dump of fresh snow so it's no longer working and we are phone less. We are looking into a cell phone to replace the home phone and hope to get that all figured out this weekend, but in the mean time are communicating mainly through Imessage and FB.


I have to say though that I LOVE MY LIFE. I'm not complaining as I write this. I'm explaining. I'm not whining. I'm winning my battles that are near to my heart. I'm taking a stand for what I believe to be right and doing it. If I wanted to whine I could tell you that I've been out of my yard 3 times, besides church, in the last 6 weeks and I miss the contact, however small, with the outside world. Another good reason to take my vitamins :) But I don't want to whine. That is not why I blog.

 I blog for my kids. Like a scrapbook. Which reminds me G has been saying some pretty funny stuff lately! I want to remember how Papa and I make pancakes the morning of the first snow, we kick the kids outside and make them pancakes while they play in the snow and then when breakfast is ready they come in and we eat hot pancakes and drink hot chocolate and talk about the wonderful world God made for us. (And yes I know that's a long long crazy sentence but that's me :) Say it really fast and a bit breathless :) )  I also blog for you.. the reader who actually made it to the end of this book. The Aunt Linda's. The family far away and nearby. The Momys Ladies.The random person who found our crazy life by accident and enjoys reading these rambling posts. The old friend. The large family curious person who wonders how we make it work. The odd person we have that random chance encounter with at the store. So thanks for reading and HEY I know your out there so leave me a comment or two and prove it :)  


Well I feel like I've written a book after my recent silence. I hope you enjoyed it. I will try very hard to sit down at the computer more often and keep you lovely people updated.. and post pictures.

Good Night and GOD BLESS!!!!

Cow Update

The calves got moved to the back where the pigs have been and given the pond and the lease. Milton is looking awesome but Patch is still a mere shadow of what he could be. He is finally out of the 'bag of bones' category. He just doesn't seem to be a good keeper no matter what we do.  

Our friend S came and AI'd (artificial insemination) Maggie last Sunday and we did get confirmation that Isabel is bred and should calve right before Christmas. They are both AI to brown swiss and we are hoping for a heifer :) The cows are looking wonderful. Sleek and fat. They have the last hay bale on the place as they are out of grass.  We've fed 4 bales this summer including the one they are eating now. Our place is just too small to feed two milking cows. We only have the 2.5 acres in grass :) you see. Oh and M's acre :) They cannot go in to the lease as it is too much bush and their bags would get torn up. Our winters hay is already arranged, we trade meat birds for hay, and we just need to make delivery arrangements and get the storage spot ready and stack and tarp it when it gets here. 

The Chicken Whisperer

Those hens know who feeds them :) 

We call L 'The Chicken Whisperer' 

And a random picture of Milton and some hens.. 

You Never Know....

What you'll see on our yard!!  

Sometimes it's kids playing a rousing game of soccer, or chickens eating grass, full grown cows munching around the trampoline, or little pigs rooting in the dirt. There are almost always laying hens and children, dogs and toys. A couple of weeks ago it was calves as well..

Everybody loves Papa. 

Patch; still a little wild.

J3 and Milton.

Calf and beer.... such is the homestead life!! 

Calf, Papa's shadow (also know as Chip) and beer... 

Ah it's the homebrewing/homesteading life!! 

Patch Having Fun.

The Calves Are Out On Grass :)

The cows think it's wonderful!! 

So cute to see two great big milk cows go gaga over two little cute calves!! 

The cows even sleep by the pen now! 

J, L and I set the fence up and then J and L held the fence up, turned off!, while Papa led the calves one at a time to the fence and I walked behind them as 'motivation.' Milton did quite well on the lead but little Patch fought and fought and fought!! When he finally did get in the fence Papa sat down and let him tire himself out on the lead rope until he stopped fighting it. J ran to turn the fence on and we watched while the calves learned electric fence. 

Milton checking to see if Papa had anything to eat. 

Yum.. green stuff!! 

Ah.. this is what we were looking for!! They are about a month apart in ages.. Milton being older. Patch is very small though for his age. I wonder if he will catch up! We shall see! He sure has attitude!! 

Milton and Patch

Hanging out. 

Update.. April 15th :)

Oh this is a general life update. I've got a few minutes to type while the kids are doing school..

Papa's two weeks off went extremely fast. No surprise there :) We actually got quite a lot done considering the weather didn't do a lot of cooperating. On his last day home we got 13 inches of heavy nasty wet SNOW!! J is doing a weather chart for the month of April and lets just say the weather was NASTY for a good chunk of Papa's days off. We did have some nice sunny days were we spent hours outside; kids in the snow and mud and Papa and I working on the house. We also had some OK type days where the kids played outside or inside while Papa and I worked on the house and came in for short warm ups/kid checks every time we could no longer feel our fingers. We also had some cold days where we did a lot of critter planning and school curriculum planing and fiddling with our house plans.

It was MUCH too cold to stucco though we did get all our stucco sand, lime and cement mix home :) We also got windows in! Some of the frames are finished but not all of them and we are waiting for our front 6 by 4.5 foot window to come in so we can install it :) I'm looking forward to that!! Most of the lathe is at least up where it belongs if not done and the stuff that's waiting needs the windows to be done first. We also have two outside corners we need to lathe and stuff straw into.. but with the snow pile off the roof these areas are really hard to get at so it will wait until we can get to them.

We got our chicken order in, 400 unsexed Cornish giant meat birds,  and they should be arriving May 3rd. Papa also got the feed ration figured out and ordered what he needed for that. Our normal supplier for wheat will not have any this year so we are shipping up corn from down south which will add a bit to the cost of the bird but not a lot.

We called the local dairy too and they didn't have any calves for sale in the start of April but told us to call back. So we did and they'd had their first bull calf that morning. If all goes well we'll be picking him up this Wednesday or Thursday :) The dairy is close to the place where we are borrowing a boar pig and we are hoping to get both at the same time :)

We also took some time and made some memories, helped others and had some fun too :) We got quite used to having Papa around and now will have to get used to his new schedule of day shift. We are looking forward to having him home for supper every night and having Saturdays off. It does throw a wrench in any doctor appointments I have for Baby S but we think we have figured out a way to do the appointments on his lunch hour. Hopefully it will work well and I will not have to look for sitters every two weeks for the next 6 weeks and every week after that! That's a lot of sitters :)

Baby S is doing very well.. growing and showing and giving my internals a workout when ever he's awake. He is a very active baby at this point and I'm just hoping he slows down some before he's born as I'd like to cuddle him instead of watch him run off!! Mostly kidding but he is very active!! Between 9 and 12 weeks to go :)

The kids re-started school today and only have about 5 weeks left, at their current pace, to get done about a month early. We should have about a month off before Baby S's due date and possibly 6 weeks between the end of school and the his birth. Right now the weather is still mostly wet and cool and it's a good time to be homeschooling in the North! Our next years basic curriculum is ordered and I'm having a bit of fun looking into fun stuff to do on the side next year.

Other upcoming events are the hopeful arrival of spring one of these days bring us some warmer weather, dry ground and green grass!! When this event finally does happen, we have big hopes for the month of May, we are going to be having a stuccoing work day!!! Come one come all :) But first..

SPRING WHERE ARE YOU??? COME ON SPRING LET's HAVE SOME FUN!!!!


(From one of my favorite Franklin Movies EVER!!)

G's 2 Yard Dash!

Now that we have a calf right in front of the front porch we've had a couple of interesting moments. The big kids go out several times a day to talk/pet/look at Milton the calf. G is unable to do that by herself. 

G is not allowed in the entrance because of the wood stove and the dangers there of and she can't open the door. There is a black rug between the entrance and the trailer and the edge of the rug is as far as she is allowed to go alone. 

In the spring the wood stove often over produces heat during the last half of the day and as I'm still drying laundry in there I don't mind. I just let it and open some windows and often the doors in the entrance. G likes this. She will stand on the edge of the rug and look outside, but sometimes it's just too much for her. I love watching her. G will be happy on the edge of the rug looking outside and then, when she thinks I'm not looking, she glances around a little (never behind her :) ) and BOLTS for the front door.. the 2 yard dash to FREEDOM and, of course, the calf/cats/dog which she loves. She normally gets about half way there and some alert kid is already letting me know and I catch her just slowing down to very carefully step over the door frame and on to the porch!! She is quite the little sprinter! 

Yup I'm a stinker!! 

Since then we've been teaching her to come to one of us and grab our hands and say CALF (which she can say very well) and then she is allowed to walk to the front porch and have a visit with the animal crew that hangs out on the front porch. 

Maggie's Calf! March 22nd/2013

 I knew Maggie was in labor yesterday when I saw her with her tail up and how restless she was. She would lay down and get up and lay down and get up. When I went outside to take a looks see after several hours of watching from the window I saw this! There wasn't even time to go get the kids...I did get it on camera though and a MOVIE of his birth!! 

She just turned around, laid down and pushed him out!! Two pushes :) She MOOOOO'd while she pushed which I've never seen a cow do before! Isabel was quite excited too but after he was born she left. J and I pushed him up to her head as she wasn't getting up and she cleaned him off a bit. Finally I was worried because she wasn't standing up, after about 35 minutes, and got purposely too close and she got up. He got up right after that and was nursing very soon after that! When I saw how active he was I called Papa.. we'd not decided if we wanted him to nurse her or not. I thought we did because it's so much better for both of them but we've also had trouble with calves who suck til they are 2... or in the freezer!! As soon as Isabel saw him trying to suck SHE WANTED HIM!! I had to fight her off!! J ran back to the house and got a bucket of sweet mix and called her and sure enough off she went a running. He got her locked in the milking parlor, GOOD JOB J!!, and Maggie and baby had some alone time. He had a good meal and she cleaned him off. 

Isabel got left in the milking parlor for about 90 minutes.. I wanted them to have a little time together before I had to take him away. These same to cows fought over Isabel's calf last year and it got a bit rough so we figured it would just be safer to take him away from them both.. the same thing we did to Star last year. Isabel was actually using her head as a wedge to get between Maggie and the calf. She also used her head on Maggie a few times to chase her off.. what a circus!! When I found out we had a bull calf I WHOOPED super loud!! We don't know her exact dates but the later they calve often means heifer where as the sooner they calve means bull. I really wanted a bull!! 

So now he lives in his little pen in the front of the house! I'm SO glad Papa put it up on his last day off as I'm really not sure where I would have put him if not for the pen. Here are the kids checking him out. He's tired.. He had to walk, get pushed, a long ways from the hay bale, to the milking parlor (Maggie WOULD NOT go in without him) and then to the front of the house and his little pen. After I got him in I milked both cows and let them out. Maggie searched for him for about 20 minutes and unless he bawls she doesn't even call for him. He has a heat lamp because he was shivering. I also covered him with straw. This morning we hit -15C here and he was as far away from the heat lamp as he could get and still be in the pen.. so I think unless it gets really cold he will not be needing a heat lamp anymore! 

Last night when Papa got home we took a bottle out and got about a cup into him. His cord was still bleeding, which I'd been worried about all evening and googled, so we tied it off with a piece of dental floss.. what Google recommended. :) We had to do it twice as the first time didn't work but the second did and it stopped bleeding and this morning it's looking nice and dry like it should be. 

So here he is! He needs a name.. 

an M name, because he's Maggie's bull calf. 

We already have a Meatloaf.

Papa is thinking Milton . 

He is all black.. not a speck of white on him. 

I think Milton sounds smart and he is that!! This morning he drank a bottle full like a pro!! I don't see weeks of force feeding in my future with this little guy!! 

Still I do like my name too... Melt'n :) 

As in Melt'n in my mouth :) 

Maybe this guy will be Milton and his, hopefully, soon to be stall mate from a local dairy, will be Melt'n. :) 

So what do you think?? 

Thankful Thursdays!! March 21st!

Miss Maggie heavy with calf! Look at that bag!! I can't believe it's still getting bigger everyday! From the back you can't even see the quarter lines! She looks very rectangle these days. She is very fat for a Holstein and we are excited to see how much milk she'll be giving!! 

The cows salt block is on a stump in front of her.. she's licking it. Yes.. ON A STUMP!! 

We do have that much snow. 

Miss Isabel. She's been officially milking for a year and 8 days. Still gives about 4 or 5 gallons a day. We will probably dry her up when Maggie calves.. We recently AI'd her for the 2nd try and if it doesn't take we will probably take her to a bull. She is a good quiet cow who has really only bonded with Maggie. Where as Maggie has bonded with the dogs as well as Isabel and will lick all three! 

She was staring at Tucker.. 

Tucker.. handsome is't he? I need to get a picture of him standing next to Chip or Papa so you can see how big he is. We thought he'd stopped growing UP awhile ago but then just last week I noticed he's grown UP again. He was already bigger then both his parents before this last growth spurt so we really aren't sure how big he'll get! I love his coloring!! 

The calf pen waiting on Maggie.. Yes this is just outside my front door.. Yes I like it that way :) 

Makes chores so much easier and it will keep the calf under shelter. The plywood is to block the wind. The gate is on the left by the pallets. The little 1X4 fence is because Star, our last calf, always tried to jump on to the porch and where this pen is at is LOWER then where Stars pen was at. 

Big Momma enjoys the sunshine!! Little 'Hairless' is beside her.. She has very little hair and most of it on her head. Born that way and it never did grow in.

Anyway our camera is home and working so be aware :) LOTS of pictures to take and post in the next little bit. Critters today.. Kids/Snow/house/Beer stuff coming soon :) 

First Steak... A Moment of Drooling...

Right before we went on 'the BIG TRIP' we butchered our 2.5 year old steer.. Steers-eye. His name was Bulls-eye (You know like the BBQ sauce)  but when it no longer described him we changed it :) He was the very last of "The Bindy Line' a line we are happy to be done with as they tended to be more high headed then we liked. ANYWAY!! When we got back from 'the BIG TRIP' we got some steaks out and Papa BBQ'd them!! WOWZA!!! Yes it was a picture taking moment.. we ate the last of our last beef in March.... traded some chicken for a little bit during the summer (a roast and some hamburger) but this was, quite likely, the 1st steaks we've had since last year at this time... and Man oh MAN did they taste good!!!! I think he BBQ'd 6 steaks.. and I don't think there was any left!! 

Harvest Time :)

For the most part harvest time on the Griggs Homestead involves animals. In the last week we've harvested 4 pigs and a steer!! And I only got two pictures of pig harvesting and that was on the second day when it was just Papa and I. The day before we had Mrs. E and her two lovely ladies :) from home church, and Mrs. M helping cut and wrap their pork and ours. The E family is trading potatoes, AI services for the cow, for their pork. Mrs. M also traded veggies from her garden this summer; zucchini, tomatoes, carrots, hot peppers, cukes, beets and more and babysitting for her pork. We like these kinds of trades! We cut and wrapped them in the entrance which is nice in this weather. After taking out a bunch of STUFF and putting plastic on the floor we put a piece of plywood on the table in there and covered it with plastic. Papa had the meat saw in the corner with more plastic under it. We started about 10:30 and stopped for 30 minutes of lunch to finish everything but the grinding and sausage stuffing by 3:30. The grinding was done by about 5 and we stuffed the sausage the next morning.. while the kids sat on the washer and watched and giggled. Apparently it's very funny! 

 Here are the three pictures I got! 

Papa putting casings on the stuffer. 

The meat in the tote and my wooden plunger to push the meat into the stuffer. 

A bunch of finished links. YUM!! I believe these are Dakota Hot dogs.

We made Mennonite sausage, Mc Griggers (breakfast type) sausage and Dakota hot dogs. 

Casings soaking in warm salt water. The best casings ever as they have the plastic inside which makes them MUCH faster to put on the stuffer. We did 73 lbs of sausage in an hour and a half and only had one casing rip!! AWESOME!!! 

Right now the steer looks like this 

but covered in plastic as beef has to hang for about 2 weeks to age nicely before cutting and wrapping. That's on the list for this weekend :) I can't wait!! 

Some Shots Around The Homestead And A Farm Update :)

I'm so used to doing a load of laundry every day that this morning I decided to hang out our bedding to air out because I actually didn't have a load of laundry to do. It's such a beautiful day I didn't want to waste it. I did end up doing a load of laundry anyway as I decided to do our bedding while the blankets hung. 

While I was hanging laundry Papa cut a hole in a pallet and got it ready to fill up the laying hens bulk feed storage.. more on that later. Doesn't Peggy Sue look nice in the sunshine?

Big pigs and little pigs having breakfast. The littlest piglets are 6 weeks on Monday. They will be weaned soon, maybe even Sunday night which will give us three days while Papa is off to deal with any that escape  and try and find the Momma pigs. We'll be taking the big pigs out and leaving the littles in. The big pigs will follow Papa and a bucket and Papa will lead them all the way down to the butcher pigs at the pond. 

My crazy rhubarb plant which doesn't seem to realize it's fall! 

The yard and play area. There are at least two kids in this picture :) 

A zucchini plant I found that reseeded it's self in the cow pen. 

An empty wire cage. It kept the chickens out of the horse radish all summer.. and for a couple days it kept the cows out too.. but Isabel figured out she could move it and she moved it around and ate the whole thing. Sometimes I wonder why I bother! 

 Fluff :) and if you look very carefully you can see Hunter, orange tabby, in the background. I didn't even know he was there when I took the picture.

The ladies.. Isabel in the center, Norma Jean to the right and Star bringing up the rear. Papa and I tied Star, on her tether, close to the electric fence for several days until she learned to stay on one side of it :) Then we put her in with the cows. She learned her lesson really well and the two older cows are teaching her some cow manners. They have about 2 or 3 days of grass left then we will start feeding hay.. probably for the winter now. We've already fed one large square while we waited for grass to grow but the season is ending and we still aren't getting the rain we need to keep the grass growing.

Filling the layer feed storage. The pallet he cut a hole in is under the feed bag. There is a hole in the bottom of the bag that ties shut. So he locks the bobcats forks in place, opens the hole in the bottom of the bag and fills up the storage thing.

Here is our tarped hay stack, compost pile, bobcat parking, pallet storage area, and camper parking. I also got Papa's chain saw in the picture I see :) We should have almost enough hay for the winter.. We were expecting more grass so we might need a few more later on. 

My little garden area :) The onions and strawberries and the lettuce did wonderfully! 

Now all we need to do before winter is get firewood done, it's at about a 1/3 done, butcher a bunch of pigs and a steer, bring Maggie (our other milk cow) home, sell a whack of piglets and a couple of butcher sized pigs and move the keeper pigs into their winter barn, getting the hens to their winter barn with a light and winter pen, winterize the trailer/hoses/trucks/milking machine, and I'm sure several more things that just aren't coming to mind right now.. thankfully just looking at that list is making my eyes cross. 

And the good news is? Papa is now on 4 tens so he has three WHOLE days off every week and doesn't go to work until noon thirty the 4 days he works. :) :) :) So we finally might have time to get working on that list.. and the house.. and everything else :) 

Oh and Papa's back is MUCH better!! He's off morphine totally and is only going to the chiropractor every second week now!! YAY!! He's even been seen sitting!! 

So now you are updated on the homestead and Papa too :) 

My next job over the next few days is to update the kids pages :)  

A Summer Storm!

We had a heck of a storm pass through here today! Papa called from work right as it was starting to tell us about it. He had a hail stone over an inch long in one hand and the phone in the other!! We measured one and it was 3 cms!! Man did it ever rain!! It was loud too!! Hail on a tin roof! Papa said one of his bosses car got dented by the hail!! Craziness!! We have a small branch on the driveway and leaves flew everywhere, but as far as I know that is the only damage we suffered. 

A neat picture of water falling off the roof.

The hail was BOUNCING on the trampoline!! And for some odd reason it only stuck on one side.

The hail that came off the roof! 

A peice of hail I found on the back porch! Excuse the dirty feet.. I rarely wear socks ;) 

Norma Jean getting a little bit of shelter under the end of the roof. Both the cows were there but one of them touched the hot wire and then only Norma Jean was there!! Haha! 

Hail on the bare ground in front of the laying hens winter house. There was a pen there all winter. 

The water rushing off down the driveway! 

The farm actually did quite well with the storm. Chickens huddled under trees and shelters. Cows fought for the best spot behind the house. Poor Star, the calf, got left out in it as I`d moved her this morning into the middle of an area with no good rain shelter, but she was grazing just minutes after it quit. The only animals that did not do well were the new piglets. Both older momma`s did just fine with their litters but the little gilt was in the middle of moving hers when the storm hit and 4 of them ended up at the neighbors in the bush and I had to go rescue them and put them by the new nest. I got a couple of piglet snuggles in exchange :) Last I saw the gilt she still had piglets in 3 different places but close together and was still trying to make a nest instead of laying down, like the other two, to keep her babies warm. She did lose one last night that we saw yesterday was not looking good. We think she may have lay on it as new pig mothers sometimes do.