First Lambs

Here are the pictures I promised y'all of my very first lambs. Taffy had twins! Praise the Lord that she had no complications. I just woke up Tuesday morning, and there they were, cute as can be!

They are so adorable and so much fun to watch. And Taffy is the best mama sheep ever. She takes really good care of her babies. Whenever they cry, she stops whatever she is doing to go check on them. Now I'm waiting on Esmerelda and Puff to have their lambs. I might have 6 lambs before too long.

Here's one

and the other one

Here they are with their mama

-Tricia Ann

Floating Row Cover

One day recently, it was very windy. I was inside when I heard Mom calling, "Tricia Ann, come look at this!" It was a huge piece of row cover that had blown out of the garden and gotten stuck in the trees at the edge of the pasture. It looked like a giant sail:

Sheep Shearing

Whenever I have spare time and it's sunny out, I've been working on shearing my sheep. It's not as easy as I imagined, and it takes a long time., but I am getting faster. I've finished 3 out of 5 sheep. I still have Mo and Laz to go. I hate to shear Mo because her woolliness is so cute, and I'm not really looking forward to doing Laz - somehow I don't think he will be as compliant as the girls.

I am expecting lambs very soon! I am so excited, and can't wait for them to be born. I will be sure to post pictures when they get here.

Here's a picture of Puff; who ironically, is not so puffy anymore.

Whenever I am out shearing, Daisy comes over to watch. Turns out that it's a spectator sport. She really likes the John Deere lawn mower seat.

-Tricia Ann

Hoss, The Lap-Dog :)

Recent Photos

The last time I posted, I really intended to begin posting more regularly - that was 3 months ago! I'm sorry for the lack of posts. We have been busier than ever around here. Here are some pictures of recent happenings.

I put together our big yearly seed order at the beginning of February. Gimli helped by sitting on all my seed catalogs.

Hoss has been loving the sunshine and breezy weather. He has been a very good Hoss lately; staying out of the garden, protecting the animals, and not jumping on people...at least not often.

I re-vamped my soap business in December - got new soap molds, redesigned the packaging, and came up with several new kinds to offer. It has paid off. I can hardly make enough soap to keep up with the demand.

During the past couple months, when there hasn't been as much outside work to do, I've been working in the "marketing department" :) I designed brochures for Jacob's grass fed meat and this year's CSA. I was happy to use all my own photography this year...no more stock photos!

We have had an ongoing struggle with how to display prices and special signs at our farmer's market booth. Mom had the great idea to use black plastic "chalkboard" signs like they use at Whole Foods. So, we asked one of the managers there what they use to create them, and he gave us a bunch of sign-making supplies. Mom ordered me a video on how to design the lettering. I have made 3 so far. It's really fun. Here's one of them:

This week, we began construction on our new equipment shed.

Dad and Jacob milled all these posts out of Cedar trees from our woods. How cool is that?

And this one? Well, to get the story, you'll have to read this week's edition of the Gimli Report in the BCF Newsletter when it comes out tomorrow. You can sign up here, or read it on our Facebook page.

-Tricia Ann

Pictures of My Sheep

I finally got a new computer. Yay! I promised a couple people pictures of my new sheep and now I can finally post them.

This is Puff

And this is Taffy (Jacob named all of them on the way home from picking them up).

They are Romneys and have very nice wool. I can't wait to have some yarn from my own sheep's fleeces!

And here I am with Mo, the little ewe lamb. She is absolutely adorable!

I'll post pictures of Esmerelda and the ram when I can get some good ones. They don't pose very well.

A Great Farming Blog

Hey y'all! I know it's been a while since I've posted, but I've been having computer issues and I haven't made it to the Apple store yet. :/

In the meantime, I thought I'd post a link to one of our favorite farming blogs: Hearth to Harvest

The author of Hearth to Harvest is a friend who is an experienced farmer, and she has a wealth of information to share. She and her family run River Cottage Farm. They are committed to producing healthy, local food. So, check it out. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

-Tricia Ann

Dare To Be Different!

Spreading The Word - Scotland

You should know your local farmer...even in the U.K.! My friend sent these to me after recently visiting England and Scotland. Thank you!

Stirling Bridge in Scotland

Westminster Abbey in London, England.

So, where has your "Who's Your Farmer?" shirt been?

-Tricia Ann

Spreading The Word - Hopedale, Illinois

Thanks to the E. family for sending me this picture. This little guy is spreading the local food message too!

-Tricia Ann

Spreading The Word - The Gulf of Mexico

Spreading the local food message across the globe! Photo credit goes to Olivia.

-Tricia Ann

Into the Light

I was flipping through the latest issue of Organic Gardening Magazine one day last week, when I happened upon an article about garden photography. It suggested shooting into the sunlight early in the morning. I had never thought of this, and couldn't wait to try it. So yesterday morning while I was picking lettuce and green onions, I kept an eye on the sun, waiting for just the right time. Just as I saw it peeking over the trees, I grabbed my camera and started shooting. I discovered pretty quickly that I needed to switch to manual mode because the photos were under-exposed. The result? Some of the best garden shots I've ever taken! Here are just a few. I may post more later, if I have time.

I'm so happy that my sunflowers are finally blooming!

And lest I bore you with garden photographs, here are some people.

Jacob is saying, "If I were at a Mexican concert, I'd yell, 'Pollo Para No Dinero!'"

Speaking a little Spanish is sometimes worse than speaking none. Can any of y'all guess what he meant? :D

It was so funny that we laughed about it all morning.

Okay, so I need to work on self-portraiture now. ;)

-Tricia Ann

Drought and Recent Photos

As y'all can see by our lack of posts, we've been swamped with garden work lately. In addition to all the harvesting, weeding, fertilizing, and making deliveries, it has been bone dry around here, so the garden has needed lots of irrigation. The problem is that our well has gone from 11 gallons-per-minute to 1 gallon-per-minute. So, we haven't had enough water to irrigate. All the plants have been getting very wilty, and we haven't been able to plant anything. Dad has been working out a solution. He got a pump and everything we need to get water from the creek up the hill to the garden. He and Jacob began putting it all together yesterday, but it's not done yet. In the meantime, we've been fervently praying for rain, and this morning the Lord is pouring the rain down on us! We're so thankful.

Here are some pictures I've taken recently. Hopefully, I can get some more up soon.

The cherry tomatoes are starting to come in! This is a mix of Sungold and Lemon Drop. All you CSA members should be getting these pretty soon.

Red trucks just make awesome pictures. I think so anyway. Jacob has listed MJ on Craigslist. :( I'll be so sad when he sells her.

We dug up a few potatoes to see how they were coming along. I love growing these...they're so pretty. We have Sangre (red), Purple Viking, and Nicola (white) in this picture.

And lastly, Jacob bought me a pair of white aviator shades. :)

Our New Farm Intern Program

Meet Rambo and Pedro.

Okay, so maybe the heat's been a little too much for us today. ;)

The Storm Rolls In...

King Corn

Jacob has posted a review of the movie King Corn on his blog, Music City Moo Dude. He also posted some photos from his Alabama trip. Check it out... Jacob's a very entertaining writer.

Hoss-Training and CSA

Hoss is really sweet, and I don't think he would ever hurt a chicken on purpose, but he plays roughly, and might injure one accidentally. So, Jacob and I have been trying to train him to be very gentle with them. I'm not sure he gets it completely, but he's improving steadily. Mom took some pictures of one of our training sessions.

Our CSA begins tomorrow! It rained all morning, so we had to harvest all the veggies this afternoon. Here's what this week's basket looks like:

'Rudolf' radishes

-Tricia Ann

Farm News

With all the rain we've been getting, the garden is growing by leaps and bounds. We've been planting like crazy around here - tomatoes, watermelons, squash, cucumbers, and lots of other good stuff, including a gazillion heads of lettuce. For those of you wondering how many "a gazillion" is, it is approximately 2000. Yeah, that sounds like a lot, even to me!

We are 10 days and counting from the beginning of our CSA. Here's a picture of part of the garden.

Can you guess what Jacob did on Saturday?

Yep. He played paintball with some of his buddies. They were very nice to let me take some pictures.

In other news, we got all the siding on our house! A big thank you to all the people who helped us finish up this project.

As you can see, the house is a nice monotone gray now.

Jacob is heading down to Alabama to help with clean-up from the tornadoes. He and two of his friends are leaving at 4:00 tomorrow morning. I'm sure he'd appreciate your prayers for safe travel and that he would be a blessing to the families he is going to be helping.

-Tricia Ann