Black is back..

Our East Friesian Ram (Trace) is all black with a white star on the top of his head. We have used him in our breeding for three years and usually we get a large varitey of colors in the lambs, but not this year. Out of 7 lambs that have been born 4 look just like Trace. We have also always gotten rams this year we got ewes. I was planning on keeping the female lambs to use as milking stock, (they should get cute girlie names) but they all look the same. How the heck is this farmer supposed to tell them apart?? Got any ideas??

Got Mud??????

YEP.. lots of it.

Goodbye Mrs. Snowman

The kids got home from school and made a mad dash outside after dropping off coats and sneakers in the front hall. I wondered what they had planed, the weather was lovely despite the snow. The sun was shining and temps were in the high 40's. The kiddos were busy as bees making Mrs. Snowman. She came to our farm for just a short visit. Today she is mostly gone. I guess it was the perfect way to usher out old man winter and bring in spring. Thanks for the visit Mrs. Snowman.

Darn Diaper Pattern.....

We are in a diaper disaster... I was very happy to have made with my own two hands about 50 cloth diapers for baby #6. I found what I thought a wonderful pattern, got the new fangled water proof fabrics, the new and improved fabric for the soaker, and a fancy snap press. I was stoked!! I sewed and sewed which for me is a trial. I envy people that can sew... I have sewing in my blood. My mother is awesome, my grandmother sewed for a profession and could make anything from a drawing...incredible women. I missed the sewing gene. I LOVE to sew when it goes right but most often the item that I have spent many a hour over ends up in the donate box or trash.
I also have issues with sewing machines.. they don't like me. I have bought NEW three sewing machines in my time, one was broke by movers, one putzed out because???? and the other that I am working with now skips stitches. I have done all I can to see why it is doing that but it is still set in missing a few stitches here and there. I got a wonderful machine form my grandmother it was computerized and did all these really cool stitches... for a while then it decided that sewing backwards was cool.. something in the computer went wonky and that was all she wrote... so you see making 50 diapers was for me a huge undertaking. I was so proud, I showed everyone who I could my cute diapers. Yes they were SO DARN CUTE!!!
The pattern said it would fit a baby tush from 8 pounds to 20. Ya right!! Baby #6 will be 7 weeks on Wednesday and weighs in at around 15 pounds. Do you see the above photos? I am on the LAST snap, and I had to squish those cute chubby thighs to get it snapped.
I am once again sewing diapers....new pattern...new and better fabrics...fold over elastic.....May the force be with my sewing machine!

What's up with the snow.....

Yuck! I was so enjoying the warmer weather. I was quite shocked this morning to find several inches of snow on the ground. I was crossing my fingers that we would just get a dusting. I hate snow!

Farm Library

When we were trying to decide where we were going to move on our return to the US, we felt that we wanted some property with some land. We could have a small farm. When we lived in Utah we had chickens and a goat... kinda a mini-farm in the city. We fell in love with the chickens and fresh eggs so having chickens was a given. We even had a few hens in Puerto Rico in a chicken tractor( the Gardner had to be bribed not to tell the homeowners association we had chickens!) I knew that our new farm would have much more space for bigger and better farm things. I was way excited and started doing research on what we should have. I really was not anywhere near anyone that had a farm so the next best thing was books.. I bought several books and subscribed to many of the popular farm magazines. Our goal was to be self sufficient. I wasn't too sure how we were going to do this. I did not grow up on a farm and hunky hubby is a total city boy.... we read everything we could get our hands on and when the time came we jumped in to our current farm. Now four years later I still reference back to these books and when I see a new one I just have to get it... I guess you can never have too many farm books!!

Pita Heaven

Fresh hot bread right out of the oven is pure bliss.... fresh hot soft pitas come in a close second. I have made pitas using several different recipes but have found a wonderful easy one over at Farmgirl Susans blog here http://foodiefarmgirl.blogspot.com/2005/09/pita-pita-i-too-much-eata.html
The only change that I made to her recipe was that I used half fresh ground whole wheat flour. They turned out beautiful, I had to sample one right away with some local honey....Oh Ya they are so Awesome.
We had the pitas with some of our own home grown lamb, lettuce,tomatoes, cucumbers, yogurt and some mango chutney. Oh so yummy!! The family scarfed them down in short order. I made 24 pitas and they were pretty much gone. Next time I'm gonna hide some for lunch the next day!!

I want it to be warm for good!!

We have finally gotten a break in the frigid weather, it has been in the 50's and 60's for the past few days. I have for the most part always lived in Missouri and know that we get these warm spells. I also know that this is just a teaser from Mother Nature, she likes to get your hopes up for warm weather and next thing you know she slaps you with anther bout of cold temps.
I was feeling optimistic and planted some spinach and lettuce Monday. I only planted one row. I HOPE I get a crop but just heard that we are supposed to get some snow tomorrow..... ick! I am tired of store bought veggies. I want some lovely garden fresh lettuce for my salad. This winter is taking FOREVER!!!!