On the Farm: Visitors, Animals, and Food!

Summertime Farm Visitors

On our little farm along with the animals, there was food and several visitors. All of the visitors were family. After moving out here, the remodeling started… and the inside of the house was a jumble. Having any guests was completely out of the question, especially if they were staying overnight. Next came COVID and traveling and overnights were also not a good idea. Not the that I need to tell you, that lasted more than a year! Now that travel is less restrictive, some family has finally managed a visit and we thoroughly enjoy each one. It has sure made the summertime go faster than usual.

Visitors to the farm included my Nephew and his daughter, Miss A visited for several days again, on the way home from Missouri. Miss A came with a desire to sew and visit with the animals. We fulfilled both. Her dad thought a Distillery tour would be fun. One of the kids, the son, his spouse, and the grandkids came to visit as well. We did lots of investigating everything we could do here, and a visit to the Slugger Bat Factory (many baseball fans in the family). Lastly, the hub’s sister and spouse came too. We stayed home, but we sure did lots of stuff, along with fishing and target practice! Different types of activities for each group!

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Farm Animals and Food

This years pigs are not nearly as cute or friendly as Piggy Ann and Iggy Piggy were. These 2 porcine animals were a little younger and a bit slower off the starting line, but the weather warmed up they settled in. These 2 are really are more like farm pigs and all about the food!!! With the summertime heat, they really like the mud wallow and this year they actually had a pool we had so much rain in one day.

I have mentioned this before, this year we have 3 cows in the farm pasture. Only ‘Sir Loin’ is ours. They are all steers and I call them ‘the Cow Boys’ when they are all in a group. I have discovered that cows like lots of different foods from the garden. The cows now have their own scrap bucket, (yep I save all kinds of scraps), they get the carrot, zucchini, cucumber, lettuce bits, and apple cores. The pigs get everything else, except meat and coffee grounds. The chickens get whatever treat I have the most of. They all came to the fence because they thought I had a treat for them.

Summertime Garden Food

We of course planted a garden again. The spring started off a little cool and the summer started off with a lot of rain. So the plants grew… but the fruiting was slow. Then one day it was summertime, the sun came out and stayed. The cucumbers took off and who knew there could be so many? The corn came in, but so did the corn worms and silk beetles. We got 4 ears and we let the cows have the rest. And then the tomatoes!!! Look at all these tomatoes. Only 4 days worth! There are more on the window sill. I will turn them in a sauce or soup and freeze. The cherry tomatoes are for grazing, but realistically we can’t eat that many, so I dehydrate several hundred every couple of days. I will grind them into a powder, and by adding a bit of water I get instant tomato sauce or tomato soup.

Those little yellow orbs are not tomatoes. They are ‘lemon cucumbers’ and are food from my childhood in California. I call them a west coast treat because it seems the only people that are familiar with them appear to be from the west. I have introduced many Kentuckians to these sweet crispy little gems. No, they don’t taste like a lemon, they get their name from the shape and color. On the left are butternut squash… hundreds of those too… but that is for an entirely different reason than prolific plants. With the heat of August, the summertime garden is just about done!!!

Cooking with Gas

Somewhere between the rain and the sunshine, we decided that the glass-topped electric stove needed to go. While they say it is possible to can food with a glass-top range, it takes forever. A gas range is a much better option. We had to order the new range and wait for the arrival. In the meantime, I had a new gas line to the kitchen installed. Since the stove was installed I have preserved a few things. Mostly pickles, dill, bread and butter, and a jar of refrigerator pickles. (we had hundreds of cucumbers from 4 plants. Next year I will try my hand at preserving more of the farm products.

Busy Bees

Not only is the kitchen humming this summer, but most of the groups and guilds are back to meetings. It is fun to be back in a room with so many other like-minded folks. One quilt guild sponsors a fall quilt show so I am preparing to have a booth and doing something I avoided. Since moving I had not set up a new photo studio. The natural lighting was not optimal. That issue was solved by adding some softbox lighting. I now have a real photo studio, but as you can see it is not huge!!!

I have added new stock to the store… Pin Cups, BladeSavers, and Magic Pins are all the rage… They are all game-changers for the sewing room. They make whatever they do so much easier or better than the predecessor!!! There is still more to come… but unfortunately, I need to sleep… but I’m getting it done as fast as I can!!!

More Later and thanks for sticking with me… even if I am not as regular as I need to be.

Beth