Christmas

Aren't they cute? This is a picture of my grandfather on his birthday. He turned 92. 92!!! Yeah that's right. I think he's pretty awesome, and he loves to hang out with his great grandson. (The kid likes it too!)

Grandpa got several good presents this year for his birthday, but my cousin gave him a toy helicopter. Really it was for both the kid and grandpa! They had way too much fun playing with it during the birthday party.

I love to sit and listen to my grandfather, he has so much knowledge. Stuff I can't even imagine he knows how to do, and can even explain how to do it to someone else. Really he's forgotten so much more than I will ever know. I think our elders have such a wealth of knowledge, we just need to remember to ask them for it!

Back in the saddle

SERIOUSLY!!! I am trying to get better at the whole blogging thing. Currently I'm not so great remembering to blog something, but they say a habit takes about 7 weeks to be a habit...so my goal is one blog post every seven weeks, every Thursday.  I am even going to put it into my calendar with a reminder to actually post something...

Week 1 of 7

This picture is from September, and may be one of my favorite ones from the farm. Jack is probably complaining about the radish crop and I was probably in a great mood because I wasn't listening to him.

Out of this this garden we got radishes, turnips, cabbage, and mixed greens this fall. I enjoy when he is out there in his garden. I really think it's his therapy. I enjoy making jewelry, him-vegetables! Fun combo uh?

This winter we are enjoying our cold weather veggies with our dinners. No radishes were saved (my dad ate every bit we didn't sell at the farmers markets. Turnips are used in lots and lots of soups. Cabbages, what few we ate due to a lack of rain, were used immediately. And mixed greens were sold all over the county to customers and restaurants.

It is nice to know that my family is nurished with good fresh, local, raised on our farm pork and venison, and veggies we stored or canned. It allows me to have a grocery bill of around $100 a month (if I meal plan and stay creative).

Happy next few days!

I HATE FLIES

I know you shouldn't use the word hate. But I HATE FLIES, obviously since I have stated it twice already!

I have waged my own natural war against them. At least in my own home. I am trying to keep with our all natural low processing, no pesticides lifestyle in my battle so below are some of my solutions.

I have tried the fly flap (aka the fly swatter) front. I've won a few battles on that front. 

I am doing the hang a bag of water over the door with pennies in it. It is supposed to help persuade the flies not to come in because the bag is supposed to look resemble a hornet nest. Apparently flies are afraid of hornets, and this keeps flies out.

Picture via http://www.commonsensehome.com/

My next attack will be the bait method. Cut a 2 litter bottle at the bend. Set the lid off to the side. Place a piece of water soaked meat in the bottom of the bottle. Put the lid (without the cap) inverted into the bottle. Tape around the edge of the lid and bottle "sealing" it down. I'm not sure if you have to hang it or not, but I'm going to try both ways (which means I'll have 2 of these traps).

Do you have any methods you've tested to be good?

Events

As we continue to grow and work on our farm we are participating in more events throughout the 

area.

Seeds to Silverware was a local foody dinner that was FABULOUS! we donated all the meat for the main course and the soup. Super good!!

We then designed the display you see below. Man the food was good. And so was the company!

One of those events was the Cleveland Co Fair. The largest county fair in the southeast. We had a booth on display about the benefits of grass fed meats.

 Then we also did the Grillin' to Chillin' demo in Rutherford County. I did not get to attend it, but had to "send" my dad (as Mr. Cowboy was wandering along the Appalachian Trail).

All were successfull and fun and we are thankful for the opportunity to participate in all.

New Project

Jimmy has a new project. This baby calf is about 6 weeks old. He is so excited (for now) about him. Bottle feeding in the pouring rain is no fun though. I'm sure we'll get to do that soon as a monsoon has set in for the week.

Secret Cup-cakes

Do any of you have family that really isn't blood relations, but people you know whom you got to choose that you loved them more than as much as your own family? You know, your "Aunt Betty" who is your mom's best friend, and whom you can talk to NO matter what!!! Someone whom knows everything about you, but whom you don't have to love, but you do. Yeah, me too.

I was over at my "Aunt" Judi's house the other weekend. She made these crazy good cupcakes and I  helped! :)

 

 We made a regular box cake. Obviously it was a chocolate cake mix. We filled the mini muffin tins about 1/3 of the way with mix. Then we added the mini Reeces Cups and topped them off with a little more cake batter. Bakes as directed. Decorated and...

BAM!!!!!!!! That's about all I can say. They were super yummy and held a fun surprise for the people who didn't help with the baking process. :)

Fresh food

Now this looks delish, right??

 

 IT WAS!!!!!!

It was super yummy. Our meat was featured at Pleasant City Wood Fire Grill in Shelby, NC. They create a wonderful new specials menu each week based on what is available at the Foothills Farmers Market. Jim, the restaurant manager, does a wonderful job of creating new and innovative recipes each week.

The picture above was of the Pork Chop sandwich that he created. Did I mention it was good? IT WAS!!! Jim pan seared the pork chop. He cooked the apples and onions until they were caramelized. The cheese was made by a local creamery. The bread was also locally baked! There was also mustard on there, and really I think that the mustard added the nicest of twang to the sandwich. Again GOOD!!

Market Day

Just a normal day at the market. We are selling meat and jewelry. I know odd combination,r right? But you have to what keeps you sane. It's been a rainy week at the farm. And supposed to rain all day today too. But hat helps the 500 cabbage plant we have set out.

Let's get this party started!

It's the first day of second grade for The Littlest Cowboy. We always take a picture of the first day of school and put it in that years' folder of saved art projects and report cards. That way one day I can look through it with his children...sorry I'm getting a little teary eyed.

What a weekend. We celebrated Mr. Cowboy's birthday this weekend. Our merry band of three along with the folks from Nature's Barn Natural Products, Ken and Lauren Mooney, had a great time. We traveled up to the Catalooche Valley in the Blueridge Mountains to see the elk (Mr. Cowboy's favorite!), then some hiking and historical lessons about the area, lunch and a trip to REI (also his favorite!)

I honestly don't know many friends who'll get up at 4am and meet us at our house at 5am to drive 2 hours to go watch some humongous animals with a seven year old flopping around in the back seat with you then go hiking, and shopping with you. We had SO much fun!!!

I mean who could resist this awesomeness.  This is a shot of one of the many houses in the Cataloochee Valley, from inside it's neighboring barn.

Fall season

Well, since I am now (at least for the next while a work from home mom) I feel the urge to blog again. Maybe I'll get in such a routine again, that I'll actually keep it up correctly. I'm going to blog about this crazy place I call home. Farm life, rodeo, the farmer's market, and the constant struggle to remain sane in it all. A few pictures here and there, dinner plans for us (sometimes) and money saving wanna be hopes. Maybe if I can make enough cash from my little farm a few renovations.

So without further ado...

Mr Cowboy

Myself---Mrs. Cowgirl

 

The Monster---AKA Littlest Cowboy

That's us one small and slightly productive farm/rodeo/loving family. Honestly these are some of my most favorite photos of us. The two boy shots were taken by me, and mine was taken by a good friend of ours.

Tomorrow will be a post about dinner. Did you know you can write all your posts in a day and have them post on their own!!!!!! Crazy Awesome!!!! So I'm hoping to jump on a few incase I need a few to fill in when I'm having a stressful non creative day.

Dinner

The other night we enjoyed a yummy quiche. It was good for so many reasons. Some of which are that EVERY ingredient was fresh, I baked it myself, a from scratch pie crust, and there was 2; all for under $4 a quiche.And these guys could easily feed 4-5 people. So that works out to $1 a person. 

Please ignore the horrible looking pie crust...Somedays are just not pie crust days.

Poverty Creek Farm's Manly Sausage Quiche

2 Pie crusts (recipe to follow)

12 farm fresh eggs

1 cup milk

8 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded

1 lb Poverty Creek Farm Hot Breakfast Sausage, loosely cooked

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a medium sized bowl whisk together the eggs and milk. Stir in the shredded mozzarella cheese. Once thoroughly mixed fold in the sausage.
3. Pour mixture evenly between the 2 pie crusts.
4. Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes or until the top of the quiche is browned and firm.
5. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Pie Crust

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt 

1 cup shortening, chilled

6 tablespoons ice water

  

1. Whisk the flour and salt together in a medium size bowl. With a pastry blender, cut in the cold shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Drizzle 2 to 3 tablespoons ice water over flour. Toss mixture with a fork to moisten, adding more water a few drops at a time until the dough comes together. 
2. Gently gather dough particles together into a ball, divide dough in half and reform into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for at least 30 minutes before rolling. 
3. Roll out dough, and put in a pie plate. Fill with desired filling and bake. 

I am telling you this stuff is AWESOME!!!! My family eats it up! Even Mr. Cowboy remember him?