Farm Tour

This past weekend the 3 of us traveled 15 min. down the road to tour a local farm. Pike Valley Farm raises 32,000 natural and organic chickens/year and is the largest producer of pastured poultry in the nation. They are young, only 5 years old, but are mighty! The Pike family has done a remarkable job of modeling their products after Joel Salatin. It was such a fun experience to tour their acreage on a hay wagon! In addition to poultry they have beef and pork, too. We were inspired and re-energized for our oh, so-much-smaller journey into processing 14 roosters this weekend! Please check out Pike Valley and support their growing business...only until we are able to provide some of those things here at Palisades Point, mind you :).

lavender

summer family pic

Farm

I figured these were pretty self-explanatory! Our laying hens are great...staying out of my mulch, in their pen and laying eggs. I am happy and healthy. Oh, and the chickens are too. Corn looks promising this year. This is all sweet corn. Happy Monday!

Tuesday's Tomatoes

The secret is in the mulch. For years we have read about, watched others, done the work for others, and tried our best to mulch our garden. It keeps the weeds at bay, amends the soil, and looks neat and tidy. Mulching, that is. Yeah...it also takes a good source from which to get the mulch and a way to haul it. This year we finally had a way to haul it (old truck was running), a place to get it free (AC horse farm), and made the time to put it down (in the heat and humidity we just made it happen). We've decided we'll mulch for several years and then take a break and lay plastic. Mulching is a lot of work if I haven't convinced you of this by now!

http://www.ssawg.org/dawson-photos.html#

For words that match the beating of my heart, go here...http://www.ssawg.org/dawson.htmlf
"And, if you get bored, I truly understand. I will not hold it against you," said with a smile. One of my favorite lines about his weeding techniques is..."he uses a wheel hoe and hand hoe, with hand weeding as a last resort." Amen. I'd like you to chuckle along with this "farmer" about the fact that we do not own a single hoe. Huh? No hoe you ask? Why not? Weeding by hand keeps us humble. We've decided humility is over-rated. Anybody got a hoe? Wait, don't answer that...we'll just go to Lowe's.

S'mores, campfires, family that are truly friends...what more could we ask for!?





We made our first batch of salsa on Friday. We thought it was pretty good. Our friends Jon and Heather came over for dinner and liked it too. So, that clinched the flavor factor. Jon is such a great friend...he helps us fix all of our breaks here at the farm. I guess we should call him Dr. Jon. And, Heather is so sweet...she is one of the funniest girls I know. We break stuff just to have an excuse to have them over.

Our little man has finally learned to read by himself for more than a second. We all sit around reading our individual books or magazines...or tractor calendars, as the case may be. We hear lots of mumbling about "turn key on, get up on tractor, get down, ride tractor, daddy ride tractor," and so on and so on and so on.

Big news here at 272 Brenda Way. Mommy has not slept well for awhile now. Between John waking at least once in the night (not SO much anymore, but toddler dreams wake him now), Charley snoring and rolling and flailing, I just don't get more than an hour or two of consecutive sleep each night. I guess that's been going on for years now... Anyway, we made a decision to have Charley sleep upstairs for a few night while I tried to see if I could get more sleep. And, it's worked! I slept 6 consecutive hours on Friday night. And, last night I slept for 9 entire hours without waking up once! Maybe my crankiness, irritability, ill attitude, and there are more words I can use to describe it but won't, is waning. Could it be possible that this was the answer all along!? I do have to add that I am trying a gluten and lactose free diet. I've been "free" for about a month now. I can honestly say it's made a difference. I don't have excema and do feel less irritable. Hopefully, with these changes in my life I will feel more balanced and "normal." No laughing, folks. Oh ok, you I have my permission...I love self-deprecation.

Thanks for listening to me ramble about life. Who knew I would ever be one to share myself online. I guess motherhood and a little growth did that for me. Oh, and did I mention gardening, fresh air, naps and plenty of loving animals around?! Ok. Enough.

And, one last picture to hint at the fun we had with family...isn't my sister-in-law beautiful?!

We'll be back with more soon!

Love to all.

Family Affair

My mom bought the fabric and Charley's mom sewed! We love 'em. The "hammie" had to say "cheese" and get in the second picture.