The Story of the One That Got Away

Merry Christmas to you all! My gift is an actual post! Hahaha (well, it would be funny if it wasn't true)!

We spent this past week up at our farm. One of the things we do there (and by "we," I mean The Husband) is hunt. We arrived at the farm on Monday afternoon and The Husband promptly went out to hunt deer. The Boy stayed home and helped The Grandma. The Girl and I went out for pedicures.

Tuesday morning, The Husband went back out. That afternoon, he called me to tell me he'd shot a deer, but needed help tracking her. I loaded up both kids and off we went. We had NO luck at all. No deer, no arrow, no blood...nothing.

Wednesday morning, The Husband went back out, but this time, he took both kids. They were very eager to go. He was not planning on actually hunting per se, but he had the kids to show them. He put The Boy in a tree stand and kept The Girl with him.

Shortly after getting settled, The Girl whispered to The Husband, "Daddy! Daddy!" The Husband shushed her..."Not now, Honey. It's time to be quiet." "Daddy! DADDY," she tried again, this time adding, "DADDY...BLOOD!" The Husband looked and sure enough, there was blood...a TINY bit of it. Here you can see The Girl pointing it out:



Well, imagine The Husband's surprise! The Husband and The Girl headed toward The Boy. They were going to try to track the deer. They looked a bit, but decided to come home and get ME first. WHAT were they thinking?! OK - in all honesty, they came home to use the potty and eat, but I'm going to stick with my story.

I got dressed and off we all went to the farm to track the deer.




We tracked her for a good 300 yards through the woods to a clearing, where, somehow, the arrow had worked its way out of the doe. Problem was, there was no doe. In fact, once we came to the arrow, there was no more sign of blood. It's like she somehow removed the arrow and disappeared. It was terribly frustrating for us all.

I'd always heard fish stories of the one that got away, but never doe stories. As it turns out, The Husband nicked a tiny tree limb with the arrow so he did not hit the doe where he was aiming. Our best guess is he shot high and she somehow survived...or went VERY far before dying.

There was one kill for the week, though. Thursday night, I saw a possum in the garden. The Husband grabbed a shotgun and managed to kill the offending possum! He was huge, but not a trophy and DEFINITELY not dinner!

Please Stand By...

I have a bajillion posts to write; however, I'm having a hard time making the time to write them all! Since I last wrote (LAST WEEK) there have been two trips to the farm, a wienie roast, and a whole lot of progress.

I promise to catch up soon...VERY soon! As soon as football and gymnastics slow down. Oh - wait - they're just starting! Eek!!

And - thanks for all the suggestions for the coffee dilemma. We did, on our most recent trip, bring our camping coffee pot up to the farm, so we at least have that. I'm definitely going to get some of those Starbucks Via packets. They come highly recommended!

Coffee

We made a quick trip up to the farm this weekend (and I'll post about that later). Since it was a super quick trip, we decided to stay at the Mother-In-Law's house.

We did not work particularly late Saturday night, but we did get up early Sunday morning so we could get a bunch done before coming back home. Neither the Mother-In-Law nor her husband drinks coffee. They do not even own a coffee pot! The Horror!

I should mention there was an offer of some instant coffee, but I just knew that was NOT going to work; nor was the General Foods International Coffee. I needed REAL coffee...and badly!

THIS is a problem!

I should also point out that the Mother-In-Law lives in a tiny country town that does not have a grocery store or gas station...no "Quickie Mart" to run to for a cup of Joe!

I managed to start my day with a Diet Coke, hoping it would stave off the potential bad mood I knew I'd be in without my coffee (not to mention the headache!). Once we ate breakfast and went to the farm, I left The Husband and The Boy and took off in search of my fix. I found it about 20 miles down the highway at the next town...a town that boasts not one, but two convenience stores, a drug store, and at least one grocery! I grabbed an extra large coffee to go and all was right with the world!

Why I don't like impulse shopping

I mentioned that the other day was our 15th wedding anniversary. It was a week day and The Husband had to work late, so we did not do anything to celebrate. Our plan was to go on a date Saturday night.

Originally, we had planned to try to go on a mini-vacation (sans kids) but neither of our work schedules lent themselves to such fun or adventure. A standard date was all we were going to get!

I don't remember our 5th anniversary much. It was quite a while ago. I remember The Husband was out of town, but I don't recall what we did when he got home. I can't recall what we exchanged for gifts. It is entirely possible we did not exchange gifts at all, since I was not working and we had two small children.

For our 10th anniversary, we (impulsively) bought a 1965 Mustang fastback. Our plan was to restore it. We both love old cars (he more than I, but still). We kept that Mustang for a couple of years, but had to get rid of it. The Husband was unexpectedly transferred and we had no place to keep the car (at this point, it had no longer had an engine). We sold it to a friend.

For our 15th anniversary, we bought a Polaris Ranger. With nearly 80 acres, we knew we would need it on the farm. We have so much work to do there that this guy is going to be worth his weight in gold!

We purchased this on Saturday. The Girl had gymnastics, so we went to look while she was at gym. Then, after we picked her up, we went up to purchase it. The process was incredibly easy and stress-free...until the end! We have a trailer that we'd swung by the house to grab before heading up to the dealership. Once all the paperwork was finalized, we went to load the UTV onto the trailer...except it didn't fit! I could not believe it. The salesman was not concerned; many people simply load them in the beds of their pick-up trucks. They got the forklift and lifted the UTV.

Guess what didn't fit. Go ahead. Guess. I've got time!

The salesman was really nice and offered to loan us a 6 x 10 trailer for the weekend so we could get home. Since we knew our 5 x 8 wasn't going to help us get the UTV to the farm, we realized we had to buy the trailer. The Husband was planning on getting rid of our smaller trailer, but I pointed out that the Ranger has the capability and power to tow the smaller trailer and we will DEFINITELY use it on the farm, so we now own TWO trailers.

See why I'm not such a fan of the impulse shopping?! All the same, the Ranger is cool as hell and super fun to drive!

A Riddle

What do you get when you cross two kids and a huge apple tree?

You get apples, of course. LOTS of apples. 5+ gallons of apples, to be exact!

What the heck can I possibly do with that many apples? There is no way we could eat them all (and, truth be told, many have bruises and such from falling off the tree while the kids were picking).

I decided to try my hand at making applesauce.

And, here is where, if I was good, I'd have taken photos all along the way to show the process. I even thought about doing it before making the last batch...but I didn't. Get over it!

I am currently making the last batch (because I'm *that* multi-talented)! I was amazed at how simple it is and more impressed by how YUMMY it is!

I'll admit my first batch was rather small. I used about 3/4 of the apples from the one gallon bucket. I was stunned by how good it was when I was finished. I was at my mom's house at the time of that first batch, and luckily for me, she has a food mill:

That guy made the process OH, so much easier! (Ignore the "click to enlarge" as it will do nothing!) When I came home, I brought the food mill with me...mostly because I brought a 5 gallon bucket of apples home too!

I did try my hand at making apple pie as well, and it was OK, but I did not add enough sugar, so it had to be eaten with vanilla ice cream!

Back to the applesauce! I will happily share the recipe I used, but I don't know what kind of apples I used! I found the recipe online but adapted it some. The recipe today was as follows:

2 gallon buckets full of apples
3 cups water
lemon juice (I did not measure...just pour some in)
cinnamon (again...no measuring)
nutmeg (still no measuring!)
sugar (as needed to taste...I had hoped not to use any, but my apples were not quite sweet enough)

Core and cut all apples. I did not bother to peel my apples, but you can if you want. While coring and cutting, I placed all pieces in ice water to help prevent browning. Put water in large pot and dump apples on top. Add lemon juice and stir. Add cinnamon and nutmeg and stir again. Bring to a boil and then reduce to simmer. Cover and simmer for 10 - 15 min, (or until apples turn to mush) stirring every 4 - 5 min or so.

Ladle mixture into food mill (OVER A BOWL!!!) and begin milling. Once finished, taste and add sugar as needed.

Voila! Applesauce!

15 random things - farm edition

1. There is such a thing as a shit-spreader, although it is commonly called a manure spreader.

2. Tractors come in ALL sizes from cute little ones to ginormous ones.

3. Just as cars are doing in Detroit, tractors are going retro! This is a brand new model.

4. Tractor attachments are expensive!

5. We need several attachments!

6. I need to learn how to "can" foods.

7. Why is it called "canning" when you put things in glass jars?

8. 79 acres is a LOT of land. (OK...technically, I knew that, but sometimes, it's overwhelming.)

9. I love old grain bins.

10. There are catalogs for chickens! I looked through two different ones last week.

11. There are special spreaders for chicken poop too.

12. Chicken poop spreaders fling chicken poop 50 feet!

13. Hawks are territorial; we have several at our farm.

14. The Husband saw a coyote on the farm the other day. I think that's cool as hell, but The Husband does not.

15. The color of a chicken does not necessarily determine the color of its egg.

There is so much more, but am at a loss right now. Happy Trails and have a Happy 4th of July. Remember what it means.

Adventures in Farming - Chapter 3

Well, I have no new photos today, but I will update on our adventures. Technically, I do have photos, but there is nothing particularly new about them and they'd probably be boring to you!

We went back up to the farm to do some work. We keep forgetting how big it is...except when The Husband is mowing. I swear, he's mowed at least a full year's worth and barely dented the property! Our goal was to mow all that is "tillable," but that was NOT going to happen! A portion of the property where the house will sit is done and maybe half of another field is done. That's all!

We also decided to change our house plans (which I'm sure will happen another dozen times or so)! We have decided that we are going to build a small cottage first. It will serve as a guest house when our house is built. It also means we will build a smaller home for ourselves, as we will have the extra cottage for when we have company.

Our plan is to go very simply and somewhat rustic in the cottage. I think we've decided on a 600 sq ft footprint. It will have two loft areas to serve as bedrooms, increasing the total square footage to around 1000. We have not even begun to look at floor plans...just sketching things out on our own. The cottage will be directly in front of the lake we intend to build; it will back up to the lake, actually. The Husband also wants to build a pavilion of sorts right off the lake for entertaining. I think it's going to be so neat.

That's about all for this update. Hope you are all having a wonderful summer. I'll keep you posted and put up new pix when I get some!

Adventures in Farming - Chapter 2

We went back up to the farm for a bit this weekend. I was only there one day; The Husband was there for two. There is a LOT of mowing to do!! It's amazing.

We spent time on Friday deciding where the driveway and future house will go. The driveway off the road was started LONG ago and is set.

We also now have a door on the shed/barn. We are pretty excited about this because it means we will no longer have to drive the tractor through town when we want to use it!

Here is the rest of the driveway...although we think we are actually going to move it to behind the clump of bushes you see in the distance (um...to the left, I guess, not behind!).

Here is what it looked like after The Husband mowed the entire house site.

It's really hard to see and the perspective is awful, but this is sort of where the house will go. I tried to outline it but I can't draw a straight line to save my life!

Originally, we were going to take down the grain bin, but it has become my FAVORITE feature on the property. I just LOVE it. We have no idea what we are going to do with it, but it BELONGS there!

If all else fails, we won't starve. There are already blackberries growing (that is the clump The Husband mowed around). Hopefully we will get some before the deer eat them!

We had our first visitor to the property. Actually, if all is fair, he was probably there first. He's pretty lucky, too, because we didn't find him until after The Husband mowed.

Even luckier is this little guy. It's amazing he survived the bush-hog. We are fairly certain he's a quail, in which case, The Husband wants to be sure he grows up...so he can be shot and eaten?! Ugh!

He clearly has a few thoughts about THAT idea!!

Until next time...

And don't forget to thank a veteran if you are out and about today! It is because of them we have our freedoms!

Adventures in Farming - Chapter 1

Yesterday, we decided on a whim to go up to the farm to get some work done. It is not far from here, but we did not make the decision until around noon, and The Girl was still at the gym. I grabbed her, she ate, and we got our stuff quickly, but it was just about 1:30 when we finally left town. It's a pretty easy drive - 95% highway driving, so it was an uneventful trip. We packed overnight bags and the dog in case we decided to stay.

Our first stop was my Mother-In-Law's house. At this time, it is where we are keeping our tractor.

This is the Mother-in-Law's husband on their tractor. The Husband loves their tractor, but was worried he'd spend more time working on the tractor than the farm! That's why he bought a new one (or so he says!).

The Husband had to hook-up the bush-hog (I haven't a clue if that is how it is written...I believe this is the very first time I've actually written that word). That took some doing.

Once it was ready to go, we headed to the property. That was fun. I followed in the truck as The Husband drove the tractor through town. It was almost 5pm when we got to the farm!

As we pulled up to the farm, we were both a little surprised at how long the grass had grown. We were there at Easter and it had been mowed; however, no one had mowed it since then, so the grass was easily waist high. The Husband set to mowin'. (That was a country sentence, wasn't it? See how good I'm getting at this?!)

This is the view as you come up to the farm...before you turn onto our road. Below is the newly framed space for the door on the shed.

After a good, solid 2 1/2 hours of mowing, The Husband was ready to call it quits for the day! There is noticeable change on the property, but he barely put a dent in what needed to be done. We realized, for the first time, that 79 acres is a LOT...and we hadn't even mowed a tenth of it!

Because ticks were such a problem last time we were at the farm, The Kids didn't have a whole lot of fun this trip. They spent most of their time in the truck playing games. The Dog did some investigating, but she too spent most of her time in the truck. I pulled one tick off her and one off me (neither had bitten; they were just crawling).

After we gave up mowing, we went back to my Mother-In-Law's to put the tractor away. The shed on the property does not have a door yet; it has come in, but is not on. We had dinner and decided that we are *just* crazy enough to go ahead and drive home rather than spend the night. We left at 9:15 and made it into our driveway at 11:45! It was a VERY long drive...but worth it to sleep in our own beds. In fact, the kids let us sleep in and we did not get up until 10am!

Green Acres

The Husband and I are officially land barons.

As of two days ago, we are the official owners of a 79 acre farm not too far from here. The farm had been in his family for a number of years, but it now in his and my names, hence the tractor! There are approximately 62 tillable acres on the farm; the rest is wooded. It has a barn of sorts and a grain bin, but we are going to remove the grain bin.

Here are some photos of the land and one of the kids playing in the creek.

More details will follow!

New Toys

As I said, there are some new and exciting things on the horizon. For starters, we have some new toys. Here is a picture of MY new toy...





Here is The Husband's new toy...except his came with a front loader!






Stay tuned! More to come.