Some photos of the happy couple...
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| KIOW |
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| KIOW |
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| BELLE |
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Goat Romance ;)
It's that time of year when we start arranging marriages for the goats. ;) Belle was the first one to be bred, and Milly is bred now also (at least, we're hoping they are bred!) We rented a buck from a goat farm. His name is Kiow (kee-o). He's actually a pretty cute little guy, from Grand Champion blood lines, too! =)
Some photos of the happy couple...
Some photos of the happy couple...
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Farmwife's Journal - December 29th
The warm days have created some ice rink challenges, but the good news is there isn't any snow to shovel and when the ice is solid the weather is great for skating. And have been doing a lot of ice skating - family hockey! It's good exercise and a fun time with other families. Mostly fun...this past week, we had two adults get hurt (on different nights). :( The ice just get harder as you get older. :)
The puppies are doing great! Cute as ever! Princess just started barking at night, like Jackson does, showing that she is feeling the need to defend the place. :) Guess she is growing up. :(
I wasn't planning on taking this week off of school, but the weather has been so nice, and well...the kids talked me into it. :) Ben and Jonny got model ships for Christmas, so they have been very consumed with those this week. And Mike and I are trying to get our plans for next year in place. We have some new ideas for the market, and we are getting more excited for the coming season, which is a good thing! Every fall I convince myself that I don't want to do the market anymore. I just get so burned out. But the time off in the winter revives me! :) We are considering changing our hours though and not having such a long season. But we will let you know more about that later. :) Pray for us as we make decisions on how we can best serve you.
Happy New Year from the Farm! :)
The puppies are doing great! Cute as ever! Princess just started barking at night, like Jackson does, showing that she is feeling the need to defend the place. :) Guess she is growing up. :(
I wasn't planning on taking this week off of school, but the weather has been so nice, and well...the kids talked me into it. :) Ben and Jonny got model ships for Christmas, so they have been very consumed with those this week. And Mike and I are trying to get our plans for next year in place. We have some new ideas for the market, and we are getting more excited for the coming season, which is a good thing! Every fall I convince myself that I don't want to do the market anymore. I just get so burned out. But the time off in the winter revives me! :) We are considering changing our hours though and not having such a long season. But we will let you know more about that later. :) Pray for us as we make decisions on how we can best serve you.
Happy New Year from the Farm! :)
Friday, December 16, 2011
Christmas Music
Here are a couple pictures of my kids and their friends, the Mahlstedts, playing Christmas music for the residents of Dassel Lakeside Home.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Getting the Tree
On Sunday afternoon, after church, we bundled up and headed over to Turks Trees to cut down our Christmas tree. This year a miracle happened! The first tree we examined was the one we cut down! :) Usually we search and search...and search for the perfect tree, which for our house means tall and thin!
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| Jonny cutting down the tree |
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| Putting the lights on the tree |
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| Decorating the tree |
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| Eggnog |
One of our traditions is to make Eggnog and sip it while we decorate the tree. Here is our recipe...Enjoy! :)
To our blender we add:
1 cup yogurt
1/4 cup maple syrup (We use boxelder syrup! :))
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. nutmeg
4 egg yolks
dollop of cream
and then fill the rest of the blender with milk! Yum! :)
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Farmwife's Journal - December 4th
AHHHHH....I feel all settled into life again. It's a good feeling! We had a week of "nothing major" going on and it was wonderful.
Today we decorated the house for Christmas. Now it's all warm and cozy in here with the glow of Christmas lights....and it's snowing as I write - perfect! :)
Other than decorating, it was just an ordinary work day on the farm. Mike and the boys wormed the puppies and the sheep, trimmed goat hooves, cut down the asparagus, and put lights up by the pond for skating time. Then they boiled deer heads...sound like fun? After dinner they took them to the car wash and cleaned them....cool guy stuff! ??? :)
Emily and I went for a walk this afternoon and on our way she checked in on her bunny and sure enough, Bella was in labor! By the time we got back, she had three bunnies. Emily is beyond excited...as you can imagine. :)
Before dinner, Em and I brushed all three dogs. Now that is a chore! Jackson is a pleasure to brush. He loves it! Captain is also fun to brush, but he is such a fluff ball, it takes forever to get through him. Then there is Princess. I love her, but she is such a pain sometimes. If she would stop biting at the brush, you might be able to get her looking nice. Often it takes two (some days three) of us to brush her - one or two holding and the other brushing. She has so much energy. Usually we run her around and get her all worn out before we brush her hoping that we can tire her out enough to get her to sit still, but it doesn't help. :)
We just laugh at how different Captain and Princess are. My friend, who is a breeder, says it's the difference between boy and girl dogs. Both of their pens are out the back door, on either side of the patio, so we can peek at them any time during the day. Princess is usually running around with her sheep hide in her mouth, swinging her head back and forth as if she is killing it. Or she is digging a hole, running around her dog pen doing lap after lap, or barking at Jackson. Captain is usually just sitting there watching her. :)
When we bought the dogs, we were told that the naughty ones are easier to train. We have found that to be true! Princess has been so easy to train, but Captain, well, he usually could care less. ;) But he is coming along!
After I finished brushing Princess today, I was putting her in her pen, and when I unhooked her collar she bolted for the gate. I went running after her. She ran between the house and Captain's pen and then around the corner of his pen. Running as fast as I could, I bent to grab on to her and she stopped and rolled over, thinking we were playing some fun game. At that point, I went sailing over her and rolled over onto the HARD ground. My first thought was, "I am so glad we do not have neighbors!". My second thought was, "Oh, my back!" Then when I got up and called Princess, she happily came to me, like nothing had happened. As I put her in her pen, I mumbled under my breath something about not getting anymore female puppies! :{
Today we decorated the house for Christmas. Now it's all warm and cozy in here with the glow of Christmas lights....and it's snowing as I write - perfect! :)
Other than decorating, it was just an ordinary work day on the farm. Mike and the boys wormed the puppies and the sheep, trimmed goat hooves, cut down the asparagus, and put lights up by the pond for skating time. Then they boiled deer heads...sound like fun? After dinner they took them to the car wash and cleaned them....cool guy stuff! ??? :)
Emily and I went for a walk this afternoon and on our way she checked in on her bunny and sure enough, Bella was in labor! By the time we got back, she had three bunnies. Emily is beyond excited...as you can imagine. :)
Before dinner, Em and I brushed all three dogs. Now that is a chore! Jackson is a pleasure to brush. He loves it! Captain is also fun to brush, but he is such a fluff ball, it takes forever to get through him. Then there is Princess. I love her, but she is such a pain sometimes. If she would stop biting at the brush, you might be able to get her looking nice. Often it takes two (some days three) of us to brush her - one or two holding and the other brushing. She has so much energy. Usually we run her around and get her all worn out before we brush her hoping that we can tire her out enough to get her to sit still, but it doesn't help. :)
We just laugh at how different Captain and Princess are. My friend, who is a breeder, says it's the difference between boy and girl dogs. Both of their pens are out the back door, on either side of the patio, so we can peek at them any time during the day. Princess is usually running around with her sheep hide in her mouth, swinging her head back and forth as if she is killing it. Or she is digging a hole, running around her dog pen doing lap after lap, or barking at Jackson. Captain is usually just sitting there watching her. :)
When we bought the dogs, we were told that the naughty ones are easier to train. We have found that to be true! Princess has been so easy to train, but Captain, well, he usually could care less. ;) But he is coming along!
After I finished brushing Princess today, I was putting her in her pen, and when I unhooked her collar she bolted for the gate. I went running after her. She ran between the house and Captain's pen and then around the corner of his pen. Running as fast as I could, I bent to grab on to her and she stopped and rolled over, thinking we were playing some fun game. At that point, I went sailing over her and rolled over onto the HARD ground. My first thought was, "I am so glad we do not have neighbors!". My second thought was, "Oh, my back!" Then when I got up and called Princess, she happily came to me, like nothing had happened. As I put her in her pen, I mumbled under my breath something about not getting anymore female puppies! :{
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Housman Farms Goes on Vacation!
Yeah! A vacation!!! Thanks so much to our friends, the Mahlstedt family, for taking care of our farm while we were gone. We are considering hiring them. :) We think they take better care of our farm than we do! :)
Here are some picture of our time together up at Breezy Point. We had a blast! It wasn't what most people would consider a vacation because we are not very good at sitting around and relaxing. We played soccer every day at the gym, went swimming all but one day, played hockey at the local arena one day for two hours, and did some hiking. Emily and I spent most of Black Friday shopping, which was anything but relaxing. :) I felt like I was able to get more exercise on vacation for a week, than I did all year. :) Yes, we are an odd group! :)
The pictures.....
Here are some picture of our time together up at Breezy Point. We had a blast! It wasn't what most people would consider a vacation because we are not very good at sitting around and relaxing. We played soccer every day at the gym, went swimming all but one day, played hockey at the local arena one day for two hours, and did some hiking. Emily and I spent most of Black Friday shopping, which was anything but relaxing. :) I felt like I was able to get more exercise on vacation for a week, than I did all year. :) Yes, we are an odd group! :)
The pictures.....
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| Rest stop on our way to Breezy Point |
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| Daily swim at 9am! |
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| Playin' hockey |
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| Fancy dinner at Antlers in Breezy Point |
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| Ben and Jonny at the top of the fire tower in Pequot Lakes-yikes! |
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| Coffee before shopping in Nisswa on Black Friday |
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| Horse-drawn wagon rides |
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| Awesome fireworks in Nisswa on Black Friday! |
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