The 95%...

Wow! What a day-

Recently we had an inspection of the dairy facility.  Too make a long explanation short, this one involved many farms, and their total score had to be 90% or above to pass.  The group squeaked by with a 90% exactly.  Today we got our score-a 98%.  Now most people would be thrilled with this, and normally we would be too-except for one little problem.  The 2 points they deducted were from the inspection of the well that feeds the house, not the barn.  They inspected the wrong well, found a problem with it, and deducted 2 points from our score.  So, needless to say, we are a part of the "95%-plus-you-get-a-hat-and-not-a-plaque" club.  Don't worry-I made some phone calls.

Our oldest son, the budding electrician, was trying to make a sale to our daughter today, and boy did she want this item:

She insisted I give her $10.00-which I did not.  I told her to ask him what the family discount was.  She came back, and said that it was $5.00.  I still did not give her the money.  She came back a third time, very excited.
     "Mom! What if I make cookies, and sell them to Daddy? Then can I buy it?"
     Okay, now I had to give her a lot of credit for coming up with that.  She's 5 yrs. old and has already connected the dots on work, money, and rewards.  To encourage her resourcefulness, I agreed.  I did not mention to her the costs of making the cookies.  We'll get to that part later on.  Her excitement was just too much to dampen today.

On the farm.....

We've been offering the cows some supplemental hay.  Some of our paddocks are less than stellar and do not have enough for a full feeding.  We feed the hay on the feed pad at the new barn, but don't let them lay in the barn (they lay in the paddock).  Tonight's paddock had an exceptional buffet of grass.  It was interesting to see that most of the cows went straight out to graze after milking, without eating the balage (hay).  However, about 30 cows stayed at the barn and ate the hay.  This made me want to go and record their names, and sell all of their offspring next Spring.  I want cows that are going to forge in the paddock and put some effort into attaining their own feed, not just stand in the barn, free-loading, waiting for it to be fed to them.  Given this is an election year, I thought too many people might read too much into this observation of mine, so I almost didn't share this.  From a business point of view, it makes sense.  Those cows work for me, and I want them to do just that-work.  I'll stop sharing now.

Great job to those who thought of creative ways to get from point A to B, and to those who were short-changed-you're great too.  Your efforts might not be rewarded the way that they should be, but the truth always comes out.

Cookie, anyone?

-Terri



 

Home Canned Tomato Soup

Home canned tomato soup is one my family's favorites.  I like it because it healthy and convenient all in one jar!  At mealtime it only needs to be warmed up.

 

First, quarter your tomatoes and fill up your roaster pans.





 



 

Next put those roaster pans in a 350 oven for 1.5 hours.

 

Get your supplies ready while those bake.  I use a fruit & vegetable strainer on my KitchenAid stand mixer.  I use this for applesauce, too.

 



 

Process your tomatoes through the strainer.  Hand crank strainers work just fine, too.

 

 

The recipe I use calls for 10 quarts of tomato juice, so I use 5 jars, fill them each twice, and dump them into a big pot.

 

 

To this you add sugar, canning salt, pepper, onion salt and celery salt.

 

 

While this heats up on the stove, melt 1lb of butter in a saucepan, and have 2 cups of flour ready.

 

 

After the butter melts, mix in the flour, followed by some juice to make a smooth mixture.

 

 

Now, mix this in with the soup in your big pot. Bring to boil, and its ready to can!

 

 

Process quarts 30 minutes in a hot water bath canner.

 

 

Today's bushel made 19.75 jars of soup, 2 jars of juice (used to goulash, soup, etc.) and about 6 large tomatoes in the fridge for BLT's. Yum!!

 

Some people think that juicing tomatoes wastes too much of the tomato.  You actually get the keep the juice and the pulp, and only let go of the seeds, skins, and cores.  From 1 bushel (-6) tomatoes, I had this to feed to the pigs:

 

 

Here is the link to the recipe I used:

 

Easy Canned Tomato Soup

 

Happy Canning!

-Terri

Gravel, Gutters & A Third Lamb???

Fall on our farm is usually a time to coast-there is no more new calves, most of the haying is done, and the activities of summer wind down as we settle into a more regular daily routine.  However, this year we have found ourselves to still be quite busy with all the things that are left on our "to do" list.  The plethora of rain we received the spring and summer created a harship on the whole farm.  Not only did it create excessive damage to the cow lane,  lesser quality pasture, a garden that's producing at about 10% of it's normal production, it was a lot of stress on the driveway.  Rick said to me one day, "I have Sean coming with his dozer and a couple loads of gravel to fill the holes in the driveway."  Sounds like a little repair, right? Nope-we got a whole new driveway!  Your car won't bottom out if you drive up to the barn now-and neither will the milkman!

 

 

We also had new gutters installed on the shop/pole barn.   Benjamin Thomas Carpentry has done all of our gutters. They're seamless, and have held up well.  On this day he brought his daughter to help, and with Rick they finished just in time for the next rain.  This time, the water was directed away from the barn. Hooray!!!!  

Last Tuesday, we got a third lamb!  This one is just visiting, though. Our good friend Chris bought a buck (boy un-casterated) and brought it over to visit Bonnie and Avery.  If all goes well we'll have new baby lambs next February.  The lambs, which will be born at the right time for 4-hers, are suppose to be sold, which is suppose to make this project break-even (or better). Stay tuned!

We started school last Tuesday with the rest of Michigan.  We are trying some new curriculum for our older son, and so we are both learning many new things!  I'm very grateful for friends who have helped me learn how to administer and operate the program.  An exciting addition to our homeschool this year is Kid #4!  He started pre-school.  He was so excited the night before, he dragged Rick into the office to show him his crayons and pencils.  He said "Look! 2 long ones and lots of short ones!"  :)  If that's all it takes, why then I'll go buy you a box of 64!

Rick has taken up running.  It seems to come very easy for him.  He said he wanted to so we had something to do/work on together.  His intentions are very sweet, but quite frankly, he runs faster than I can keep up with.  Imagine what he could do if he practiced?  At our last 5k, he got his medal, and I said "that's the fourth time he's run."  Another lady asked, "you mean, run a 5k, right?" and I said "no...ever. He's only run 4 times in his adult life." We continue to sign up for 5ks in our area.  Many of them raise funds for worthy causes and it keeps us running.  It's too easy to quit if there is no goal.

Rick's first 5k at the Harrison Street Fair.  It was a last minute decision while we were on vacation.  Want to know the easiest way to earn a medal? Join a race that only has 11 people.  That's right folks, they're all pictured above!

This was the toughest run I've ran.  I was slow by 2 minutes, Mom by 4 minutes, and according to Rick's time at the Farm to Fork, he was slow by about 2 minutes. 

One of the problems with this blog is how long-winded the writer gets-so I'll save the tomato tutorial and the camping pictures until next time!