Sneak Peek of the Gardens

What I like most about these gorgeous chives is that they came up from last years garden.

Lots of beet greens with pink chunks of plump goodness growing below.

Hard neck & Soft neck garlic that Maine Man planted last fall.

Harvest will be in July

Flower Girl passing off a pea to one of her buddies.

Below is MM’s little princess Callie

Above is the strawberry beds that MM threatens to till in every year so I now maintain them. I think this year will be our most abundant harvest.

The greenhouse is thriving. MM has spent endless hours tending the gardens. We’ve been eating fresh goodness since the end of April starting with lettuce (several kinds) followed by beet greens, spinach, bok choy, swiss chard, broccoli and turnip.

The picture below is of a Kiwi bush. It has yet to bear fruit. Any other fellow Mainers ever grown these before? If so I’d love to hear if it will survive and/or thrive in this climate….it looks good so far! We planted them last Spring.

One of the smaller gardens. Each year MM tills up a little more ground.

Pictured below is turnip grown in the greenhouse. I have several more stored in the shed refrigerator. We usually serve it mashed or roasted. We would love to hear how other’s best like to eat or serve turnip….must have recipes anyone?

Happy Birthday Country Boy!

It is hard to believe my first born is 11!


Where have the years gone?

You've become such an amazing young man!

We are SO proud to call you OUR boy!

AWESOME ball player you've become....

...Snapping turtle wrestler





....Snake Whisperer



.... Amazing Big Brother




....Fish catching

....Bird saving, cabin building, deer slaying, guitar playing, farm helper. You truly have NO problems living up to your name Country Boy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Bud, We LOVE YOU!!

Bad to the Bone!

Last Sunday, Mother's Day Bob FINALLY met his maker. He was the farm bully and everyone feared him except Maine Man. Bob didn't mess with MM very often, only tangled with him on rare occasions. His near death experiences reminded him to stay clear of MM. However he picked on everyone else and I was his #1 target, he made me cry on more than one occassion. So basically if you planned on being within 8 feet of him you'd best have a weapon although that did not always stop him. Really... he has attacked me with a pitch fork in hand. He's picked on the kids, both my parents knocking my mom to the ground and he once left a spur in my already injured father's leg. We gave him away once with fair warning and by the end of the summer he returned. As of lately he had become more aggressive running rapidly from afar unexpectedly and I had ENOUGH! That morning I awoken to Flower Girl screaming "Boooooooob". She was out picking fresh eggs to cook me breakfast in bed. Country Boy came up to my room and I said "kill him". With no resistance CB went out and did the deed. They skinned him and he & all the fixings were in the crock pot by 9 am. After all day simmering he was tough as heck. I feed out what meat I could pull off the bones to the dogs. I'm sure our Boxer, Rona took great pleasure in eating Bob because she often fell victim of his violent attacks. The broth I saved for soup stock. Tonight I cooked up a DELICIOUS Asparagus Bisque and the rest I froze. The recipe came from this Bed & Breakfast web site for anybody that is interested. (under lunch then soups). Some of the asparagus came from our garden (first time ever!!) and since I did not have enough some was store bought :)
It has taken a little getting use to not being guarded in the farm yard but it has been a pleasure!

Every Picture Tells a Story

Last weeks we started hearing squeaks coming from Country Boy's incubator.

Within a few hours they were busting out of their shells. We helped the above chicken break out a bit because he was really struggling and one of the last to hatch. We've never had good luck with "helping out" but amazingly this little guy survived.

Not a great incubation rate this time around. Only 10 out of 40 eggs hatched. Better luck next time around. The key is to keep a moist environment which we lacked on a little towards the end. Our bad!

CB sold them within a couple days. Now he has his incubator filled with Muscovy eggs. We also have a Momma Muscovy sitting on a nest of eggs. Hers will hatch out way before the batch in the incubator. Remember last year when one of our hens hatched out and tended 26 ducklings? Now that is just crazy!

Sappin' Time

If you look closely you can see the sap running down the bark.
CB helping his Dad drill some holes in the maple trees.

Couldn't help but take a picture of this. CB's friend got his outdoor gear wet so we supplied him with a stylin' attire. Camo overalls and my flowered bog boots. LOL.
I have been sworn to secrecy so I will never tell which friend it was!

Last night was cool and today was a beautiful day filled
with sunshine.

I'm sure the buckets are filling right up.

Tonight we will begin the boiling down process on top of the wood stove. This weekend we may boil some down over an open fire. The wood stove is our preferred lazy-man method. But, there truly is nothing like the taste of maple syrup boiled down over a fire.

Random Rambling

(Almost) Always willing to do a project....Flower Girl was cutting up old towels into rags.

She cut them a little smaller then planned. So instead of using them as rags I've been keeping a basket of them in the kitchen and we've been using them as we would use paper towels. Since we spend a good amount of time in the kitchen we seem to use lots of them. Maine Man thinks I'm insane. I like to keep it that way ;) Keeps life interesting!

Me fooling around when we went to New Hampshire for my procedure. The morning of the vertebroplasty we took the kids to a REALLY cool place called Montshire Musuem of Science. It is actually in Vermont, about a 10 minute drive from where we were staying in NH. When I returned home my best friend said "only you would make a something like this into a field trip for your kids". We both had a good laugh! There were moments of the trip I laid there wondering whatever possessed me to take them along. Like after the 350th time they asked to go to the pool or when they jumped on the bed the night I had the procedure..... Yikes! But overall I was glad they were with me, especially the day of the procedure. If they had not been there to support me I would have been very emotional. Don't let me kid you, the night before I did do a little bargaining with God. However, I was very calm and at peace with the choices I had made when it came to that day. It helps that I really trusted & respected the doctor that was about to screw a large needle through my shoulder into by neck and fill the vertebrae with cement right next to my spinal cord. The procedure went very well and it was a good experience for the kids to be involved in.

Unfortunately, my medical dilemma continues with quite an interesting twist. I will share the story when I get some more definite answers. I feel that if one person can benefit from my story it will make sharing it worth while.

I am out of work for one more week. Next week is already filled with 3 physical therapy appointments and yet another trip to the doctors. I am fortunate in that we have FINALLY figured out where the true source of my pain is coming from. I am able to get relief although the situation is not always ideal. Both mentally & physically I am in a MUCH better place but I still have some things to work through. Little vague, sorry...I will tell more when I know more.

Home Sweet Home

I had to laugh when I saw this and grab my camera of course. FG was hugging Rona but her head was behind her.

We returned home yesterday after our looooong road trip. THANKS for all the well wishes! The procedure went very well now just waiting to see if it worked, time will tell!

So happy to be home!

I can see the light.....

It's been a long time coming! After getting a few opinions on what to do about my neck I have finally decided to have a procedure called a vertebroplasy. Basically the doctor will place a needle in my vertebrae and fill it will cement . I am praying this will relieve my symptoms! I am SO ready to get off this roller-coaster ride and have things back to normal again. Oh...the things we take for granted! This will be my final post before we go on a long road trip at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. I have yet to be nervous about the procedure just hopeful that all goes as planned. The kids are just plain old excited to be staying at a hotel that has not only a pool but a hot tub....lol. They too will be happy to have their Momma back....not the one that has to lay down every couple hours to relieve the pain because every medication out there seems to make her sick.

I will end this part of my post with a quote I read last night in Oprah's magazine. I thought it was perfect for my circumstance.

"I know for sure that in every challenging experience there's an opportunity to grow, enhance your life, or learn something invaluable about yourself. Every challenge can make you stronger if you allow it."~Oprah

Flower Girl was home sick all week with a fever. By Friday she was a little antsy so I taught her to sew by hand. It took her about 5 minutes and she was sewing better then I. It kept her busy for a while and she loved it. I have a few more projects lined up for her. Since I did not pay much attention to Home Ec I'd like to learn really sew again right along with her. I may ask my neighbor's sister to give us some mini lessons after I pull out my dusty old sewing machine. She has been mentoring me through crocheting. That has been an entertaining experience. I am on my second dishcloth, my first came out the shape of a triangle...lol. If all works out with my circumstance I have even considered homeschooling in the future. It is something I have always been interested in and FG recently asked if she could do it next year. Country Boy says he wants no part of it....lol. I am sure it would not take long before he changed his mind but maybe not. I believe it is important for the child to want to do it rather than be forced into it. I have time to reconsider but for now I am educating myself of the possibilities. A few questions for the homeschooling folks that follow my blog.... do you follow a curriculum, if so what one do you use? I am interested in a nature based curriculum, potentially one you could correspond with sending in papers to be graded and such. Any thoughts on this? Hoping to go to a conference in the next month or two before committing to this crazy endeavor.

Baker in the Making

Last week Flower Girl baked the best Ginger Snap's Ever! She got the recipe from All Recipes.com , Mom's Ginger Snaps. Love that site, great resource! She made the first batch with a little help from me. Then the following night she made a double batch all by herself. Half for her class and the rest my workplace X-Rated Dining Divas luncheon. The third night when I got home from work she had made another batch independently once again. Not to shabby for an 8 year old. Last night she made peanutbutter cookies. Now I just need to train her to do the dishes after ;) Hoping her love for cooking continues!

Moments That Make It All Worthwhile

Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE age 8?

Last night when I was helping Flower Girl cook some goodies for her school lunch she said ...."Mom you know what I love? I love cooking with you and I love spending time with you."

A few hours before that she gave me a story she wrote at school.

By Flower Girl

Moms & Dads

deadectated to my mom and dad

Moms and dads are the best thing every. they're the only person I love and will always love for every. They take care of you feed you buy you thing you need or want. They're everything to a kid and a kids dream of having because they can't live with out partents because the can't live by them self they need parents and I swear they are the best thing in the world. I love my parentes so much I wish I could spend every momnet I have with them. I love you so much mom and dad I really do.

Do I have the sweetest kids or what? Hoping to reflect on this letter when she is 16 ;) The picture above was taken just before the Father/Daughter dance.

What Makes Me Tick ~day 13

A couple months back I was talking with one of the doctors at work who loves to cook. He said "I love to cook because food makes people happy and I like making people happy."

I couldn't have said it better. So true!

I thought about posting this tonight while I was making Flower Girl a batch of soup at 8pm for her lunch tomorrow. She wanted no part in bringing in a little can of Campbell's. I've created a monster ;) After the ROUGH week I've had what I really wanted to do was kick back but sometimes you just do things out of love.

In the end it always pays off. When I came up to bed she had a glass of ice water on my bedside table, and "I Love You" stick-it note on my computer, she had folded and put away the laundry that was on my bed, and a BIG thanks for making her soup.

And it also helps when Maine Man says things like.......

"I love that you love to cook. I love that you cook with the kids. And I love to eat the food you cook"

If he only knew I wrote down what he said to me way back on 12/31....I'm not to be trusted, lol. God I love that man!

My Little Onion Chopper ~ day 11

No need in crying when your cooking up dinner.

Clever and effective idea the kids came up with.

In the past I have refrigerated the onions prior to cutting them up.

I thought that was effective but I am not always good at planning that far ahead.

Sad to report but these are store bought onions. (ha, actually this picture just above is celery, lol) Last year's harvest was marginal. This year Maine Man will try to grow them in ash as it has been said to be an effective way of growing onions. What about you? Do you have any tricks to cutting up onions without fighting back tears? How about growing onions? Any gardening tips to share? Would love to hear all your secrets!

Muscovies - day 2

When we first bought Muscovies the intention was for meat and eggs. As everything here on our small farm, it must serve a purpose. Well.....we came to liking them and they became a novelty around the farm. We occasionally sell some to a friend that takes them to market and bring others to auction. Maine Man just really hates killing them and our freezers have been well stocked. We have only eaten one and honestly it was the best duck we've ever had! One word to describe what they taste like is roast beef. Any how we are couple months into winter here and we have too darn many of them! In the summer even if we have a bunch they are mostly at the pond but this time of year they are in the barn and the door yard. A little too much poo for my liking. Yesterday when I pulled in the yard between the ducks & the chickens I thought for sure I was at a freakin zoo. So today MM is doing the deed along with his 8 year old daughter as I hide inside doing chores and preparing lunch. Not a good day to be a duck on the farm.

Farm Display @ the Fair

Last Tuesday Maine Man and I worked late into the night preparing our display for the fair. It was all worth it, we won FIRST place out of 4 farms! The rules were to display at least 20 items you produce on your farm, it must be educational, and it is also judged on presentation. We also brought along the chicken plucker that MM built, that was a BIG hit!

Flower Girl also took first place for her butternut squash

and her Green Peppers from the hoop house



Country Boy received three blue ribbons. This squash is called Long Island Cheese, isn't it a beauty? I bought the seeds on clearance at Johnny's this Spring. Can't wait to cook one up!

CB's Hubbard, he also entered a pumpkin but I forgot to take a picture.

Great weekend full of fair food. I surely gained a few pounds!