Plum Creek Creations

Sick of Winter- Some Pics From Summer

2009-12-14T19:15:00.000-06:00

I am already sick of looking at snow, so I dug out a few photos I had taken last summer. I am wishing it was spring and winter has barely started! Ugh!

I was very lucky one day when we were all out in the Jeep for a drive and happened to see this doe and her two fawns, and even luckier they stayed still while we turned around and then let me get a few shots!

Hen Sweater

2009-10-21T09:03:00.002-05:00

I have quite a flock of free-range chickens on my farm- probably around 75 or so. My main breeds are Delaware, Rhode Island Whites, Cochins, and Buff Brahmas. I also have some Barred Rocks and Rhode Island Reds. One of the problems with having roosters, (other than when the crow right outside the bedroom window) is that the hens they have chosen as their favorites, become bald along their backs. Some even end up with sores and with the upcoming winter, I have been concerned about them getting cold. So after a little research, I found the Little Hen Rescue's site, with patterns for hen sweaters out of fleece and knitting: http://littlehenrescue.co.uk/jumpers.aspx. Personally I prefer crochet, since I can complete projects quickly and I needed to make several sweaters. So I came up with a crochet pattern myself and have already made 4 hen sweaters. The hens get used to wearing clothing surprisingly quickly, and I hope this saves their backs and maybe they can regrow their feathers. I am posting my pattern if anyone has the same problem, just wants to put a sweater on their hen, or wants to make some to donate to the Little Hen Rescue.

Hen Sweater

Yarn: worsted weight
Hook: H/8 or size needed for gauge
Gauge: 14 sts = 4 1/8”. 12 rows = 4”.

Ch 29 loosely, leaving an 18 inch tail.
1) Sc in second chain from hook and in each chain across. Ch 1, turn. (28 sc)
2-4) Sc in each sc across. Ch 1, turn.
5) Dec sc in first two sc, sc across to last 2 sc, dec sc. Ch 1, turn. (26 sc)
6-8) Sc in each sc across. Ch 1, turn.
9) Dec sc in first two sc, sc across to last 2 sc, dec sc. Ch 1, turn. (24 sc)
10-12) Sc in each sc across. Ch 1, turn.
13) Dec sc in first two sc, sc across to last 2 sc, dec sc. Ch 1, turn. (22 sc)
14-16) Sc in each sc across. Ch 1, turn.
17) Dec sc in first two sc, sc across to last 2 sc, dec sc. Ch 1, turn. (20 sc)
18-20) Sc in each sc across. Ch 1, turn.
21) Dec sc in first two sc, sc across to last 2 sc, dec sc. Ch 1, turn. (18 sc)
22-24) Sc in each sc across. Ch 1, turn.
25) Dec sc in first two sc, sc across to last 2 sc, dec sc. Ch 1, turn. (16 sc)
26-28) Sc in each sc across. Ch 1, turn.
29) Dec sc in first two sc, sc across to last 2 sc, dec sc. Ch 1, turn. (14 sc)
30-32) Sc in each sc across. Ch 1, turn.
33) Dec sc in first two sc, sc across to last 2 sc, dec sc. Ch 1, turn. (12 sc)
34-35) Sc in each sc across. Ch 1, turn.
36) Sc in each sc across. Ch 4, turn. Ch 4 counts as first treble crochet.
37) Tr in second and third sc. Sl st around post of last tr made. Sl st in next 7 sc. Ch 4, tr in last 2 sc. Ch 4, turn.
38) Tr in second and third tr. Ch 6. Tr in last three tr. Ch 1, turn.
39) Sc in each tr and chain across. Ch 1, turn. (12 sc)
40-41) Sc in each sc across. Ch 1, turn.
42) Sc twice in first sc. Sc across to last stitch. Sc twice in last sc. Ch 1, turn. (14 sc)
43-45) Sc in each sc across. Ch 1, turn.
46) Sc twice in first sc. Sc across to last stitch. Sc twice in last sc. Ch 1, turn. (16 sc)
47-49) Sc in each sc across. Ch 1, turn.
50) Sc twice in first sc. Sc across to last stitch. Sc twice in last sc. Ch 1, turn. (18 sc)
51-53) Sc in each sc across. Ch 1, turn.
54) Sc twice in first sc. Sc across to last stitch. Sc twice in last sc. Ch 1, turn. (20 sc)
55-57) Sc in each sc across. Ch 1, turn.
58) Sc twice in first sc. Sc across to last stitch. Sc twice in last sc. Ch 1, turn. (22 sc)
59-61) Sc in each sc across. Ch 1, turn.
62) Sc twice in first sc. Sc across to last stitch. Sc twice in last sc. Ch 1, turn. (24 sc)
63-65) Sc in each sc across. Ch 1, turn.
66) Sc twice in first sc. Sc across to last stitch. Sc twice in last sc. Ch 1, turn. (26 sc)
67-69) Sc in each sc across. Ch 1, turn.
70) Sc twice in first sc. Sc across to last stitch. Sc twice in last sc. Ch 1, turn. (28 sc)
71-74) Sc in each sc across. Cut yarn, leaving 18 inch tail.

Finishing: Fold in half, matching sides. Using yarn tails, stitch up the sides at the bottom about 3 inches, leaving the rest of the sides open for the wings. Weave in ends.

Birds! Birds! Birds!

2009-06-07T11:10:00.013-05:00

I've taken a few pictures of birds on my recent hiking trips. Most common seem to be the red-winged blackbirds. They were really abundant in the prairies of Whitewater Canyon- that's where I snapped both of these shots.

Of course the robins are always plentiful as well. Though they don't seem to sit still long enough to get a good shot of them. This one sitting in a tree one day in Plum Creek Park cooperated with me:

This hawk was flying around as I was leaving Indian Bluffs. I was still very much in picture-taking mode, even though I had taken around 60 pictures while hiking. I just had to pull over and snap a shot of this one!

This pair of birds was running around the prairie area of Whitewater Canyon. I don't know what they are, so if anyone out there knows, please tell me. They were pretty quick- I had a hard time keeping up to them and trying to take their pictures!

This last one is a cardinal I caught checking out my front yard. I just happened to glance out the window and caught a flash of red. I was so happy that he stayed while I got my camera. Cardinals are one of my favorites!

Wildflowers and Wilderness

2009-06-01T15:51:00.009-05:00

I've been doing a lot of hiking lately, and have remembered to bring my camera with me. I have mostly been focused on taking pictures of wildflowers, but I've also gotten some good shots of birds, fungi, and trees.

One unfortunate side affect of all the hiking, is all the ticks I have brought home. I have had a total of nine wood ticks on me already this year. I got six of them on one hiking trip to Pictured Rocks alone! I really need to put a scarf around my dreads on these trips in the future! Here's one of the little buggers that I found in my hair while on the trail:

I have taken a boatload of pictures- I've got tons more for future posts. Plus, I entered a photo contest by the Jones County Conservation Board. I sent in four photos for that and the boys had to help me pick because I was having trouble whittling them down.

My husband had to work every day for the last week, so I didn't get out hiking. I can't wait for the boys to get a little older so that they can hike farther. Tate can go a decent ways, but walks really slowly on the way back. Sully's little legs won't take him really far, and a lot of parks don't have trails that will accommodate the stroller.

I'm going to keep a running list of all the parks I hike at this year. So far: Indian Bluffs, Pictured Rocks, Indian Hills, Plum Creek Park, Bailey's Ford, Milo Forest, and Pin Oak. Not a bad list for May!

Baby Chicks!

2009-05-06T09:51:00.007-05:00

We have some new babies at the farm again! This time it's baby chicks, fresh from the incubator. I now have 15 fuzzy little chicks in my camper, whose sole purpose is brooding chicks and ducklings, and occasionally housing baby goats and mamas.

The kids and I really enjoyed watching the chicks hatch; Sullivan in particular loves baby animals, so this was right up his alley. He was rather impatient though, he wanted me to just open the eggs! He also loves to talk to the chicks in their own language. He's very proficient at animal-speak. :)

I have already refilled the incubator for another hatch in about 3 weeks. I also plan to order some ducklings later this month. I only have 2 ducks left and I think they would like some company. With all the flooding we have been getting (again) around here lately, I think they are the happiest animals on the farm!

Happy Birthday To Me!

2009-04-19T19:38:00.004-05:00

It's my birthday! 31- though Tate keeps saying I'm 21- I like his better! Here's my two greatest accomplishments in the first 31:

It's That Time of Year Again!

2009-03-18T09:00:00.007-05:00

I haven't posted for awhile! I hadn't realized it had been this long! The winter has been long and pretty boring, but the weather is getting nicer, and babies are being born! The trees are getting buds and my rhubarb is starting to peek out. Joe and I have been busy stockpiling wood for next winter and getting things done outside since the weather is cooperating.

It's hard to believe, but we've already had some minor flooding this year. The creek has been out it's banks four times already. It was really strange to have the flood waters freeze when it was really cold. Hopefully that's the worst of it, all the snow has melted, so hopefully last year's events won't repeat themselves.

I walked out to the barn to collect eggs Saturday morning and discovered Hester had had two kids. The doeling is mostly white with a little black and the buckling is mostly black with a little white. They are such little sweethearts and love laying the sunshine and playing outside. The doeling likes to nibble my chin, but the buckling calls for mama the whole time I hold him.

Last night I heard a baby goat crying and thought one of Hester's babies got stuck somewhere or couldn't find their way back to the barn, but when I got there, I found that Helga had also had two babies! I haven't checked the sex yet, but one is mostly silver and the other mostly white. Very cute!

I just checked on them this morning when I collected eggs and everyone is doing great! It's so nice to have baby goats again! I lost a few goats over the winter, so the new life in the barn renews the spirits!

The boys are happy to be able to play outside again, too! Laying around on the couch watching Annie and playing with their Legos and trains is getting old. Well, maybe not the watching Annie part, they can't seem to get enough of that movie!

I've finished tons of crochet projects over the winter to post, so check back later!

White Christmas

2008-12-10T23:58:00.009-06:00

The boys were amazed to wake up to the Christmas tree this morning. By this afternoon, they had all ready knocked it over! Tate can't wait for Santa Claus to bring him more toys. He has been impatiently waiting for Santa since the first snowfall.

The dogs have been enjoying playing in the snow- here they are along with their rooster friend. The dogs sleep in the garage at night since it's heated, and the rooster must have gone in and slept in the dog house at night. I didn't notice him when I put the dogs in, but they all got along, so I left him. He even went up to the bowl and ate dog food with them.

I have been crocheting like a wild woman, trying to get all my projects done by Christmas. I have always been a procrastinator, I work much better with a deadline looming. I have finished a few things- I only have a quilt, a bed scarf, an amigurumi monkey, and a hat to finish. Here are some of the things I have finished:

Lilac bed scarf for my mom.

American Flag afghan for my dad.

Camouflage hat and mittens for Tate and Sullivan.

Amigurumi monkey for my niece, Samantha, the monkey nut.

Here's hoping I get everything finished in time for Christmas! I hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday season. Merry Christmas!

Hamster Heaven

2008-11-23T20:32:00.005-06:00

Here are some new additions to our family! We are now the proud pet-parents of three hamsters. Above is Juju, a long-haired Syrian. She was my first hamster, and I picked her because she was running on the exercise wheel like crazy while all the other hamsters slept.

She's really funny and has the food bowl empty within an hour of me filling it. She carries it all up to her sleeping room and sticks it in a pile in the corner. Another corner is for peeing and another corner is for sleeping, with her bedding piled in it.

Then I rescued Vega (above) and Nova (below) from the humane society. They are female dwarf hamsters. Vega is 4 months old and Nova, who is her daughter, is 3 weeks old. Nova escaped from the exercise ball the other night and I about had a heart attack, but she was found hiding in Tate's room. The kids love watching the hamsters!

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T21:07:00.001-05:00

Happy Halloween!

From Tate, the construction worker:

And Sullivan, the train engineer:

And my niece, Samantha, batgirl:

Let Sleeping Babies Lie

2008-10-22T23:04:00.011-05:00

I decided to do a blog post on my boys sleeping after checking out fellow blogger, Jenn's, adorable sleeping baby pictures at http://ihatewhine.blogspot.com/. The above one is Sullivan, and yes he really was sleeping like that!

Have you ever heard the saying, "never wake a sleeping baby?" Well, if you are a parent, you know exactly how true that is. Not to mention how cute they are sleeping. I could stand and watch my kids sleep for half the night.

Sully can not sleep without his blankie, as a matter of fact, he has four of them the same material so that they can get washed regularly. Though at the moment he has 3 of them in bed with him, which he was very insistent on. He also has two stuffed kitties he couldn't sleep without. Here is the picture of him I took just minutes ago:

He's really growing like a weed, as you can see he no longer fits in the crib sideways without being crunched up, which apparently he likes.

Someday Tate is going to bring home a girlfriend to introduce to me, and I am going to embarrass the bejeebers out of him with pictures of him as a child, especially the above one of him sleeping in the car with a Barbie head. ;)

Tate likes to sleep with furry stuffed animals, though he is starting to get away from that a little. He has been getting by with just one, instead of 3 or more he usually has. His three favorites are Josie, a black & white Shih Tzu just like our real one by the same name; House, a stuffed Yorkie he named himself; and Kolby, a gold & white Shih Tzu just like our real Kolby.

Sometimes, our real dogs have stood in for the stuffed ones. Most of them don't have a problem with Tate playing with their fur or using them as a pillow.

Both boys suck their thumbs, but Tate is a lot more attached to his. Once the thumb is in the mouth, nothing will do but sleep, no matter where he may be.

Here he is tonight, with his beloved Kasey Kahne pillow I made him. Out like a light!

Fall Splendor in Clayton County

2008-10-18T23:55:00.007-05:00

Fall is definitely here! We took a little roadtrip through Clayton County last week to check out the leaves. Every view was picturesque- this is just a small sampling of my pictures from that day.

Tate and Sullivan had fun looking at trees, rivers, and trains. I was of course on the lookout for fossil-collecting sites. I knew of some road cuts near Millville which I scoped out on the way by. I also found several washed-out places that might be good collecting.

The past couple nights have gotten pretty chilly, so the leaves have been falling like crazy. It's a good thing we took this trip last week! I haven't been able to spend as much time outside with it getting colder, because of the kids, but I have managed to hike and fossil-collect while keeping the kids occupied when cutting firewood.

We are getting quite a supply of wood built up for the winter. I am starting to get tired of loading firewood, but it's good exercise! We had the cement poured for the wood burner and the chunk of sidewalk Joe had to break up to trench for the pipe. We had a fun time trying to keep the kids, dogs, cats, and chickens out of the cement!

The sidewalk now has little cat and dog paw prints across it, but it's really cute, so I left it. The kids put their footprints on the slab for the wood stove, which made Sullivan cry, of course. :)

I hope you enjoyed my autumn pictures of Clayton County, Iowa!

Clinging to Summer

2008-09-16T23:32:00.008-05:00

I do not want summer to end! I have been spending as much time outside as I possibly can to enjoy the weather and scenery before it's cold and snowy. Yikes! I don't even want to think about snow yet! The picture above I took at Backbone State Park in Delaware County, Iowa. I have been obsessed lately with rocks and fossils and living in northeastern Iowa gives me a great opportunity to study the Hopkinton Formation- Backbone in particular being a great place to observe the karst terrain, such as caves and springs. You can learn more about Backbone State Park and the Hopkinton Formation here: http://www.igsb.uiowa.edu/Browse/backbone/backbone.htm

Another project I have been working on outdoors, is cataloging and photographing headstones at rural cemeteries in the area. I have started with Plum Creek Cemetery, just down the road a couple miles. Once I was finished, I got really interested in the people buried there and have done a ton of research on the people who were pioneers to this area in the mid to late 1800s.

A lot of the stones are almost unreadable and some have been broken and repaired. I wanted to get pictures before they are completely unreadable and for people researching their genealogy who don't live in the area. I plan to start a blog or site with my pictures and the information on the people I have gathered, but that sounds more like a winter project. :)

After having an udder full of milk for four weeks, Nellie finally gave birth last week. To a whopping four kids, no less. Here she is with 3 of her kids, the fourth was very weak and cold, so I had taken her into the house. She couldn't stand, could barely hold her head up, and couldn't suck, so I fed her with my finger and a syringe and warmed her up with my rice bag. A few hours later, she was walking and sucking strongly, so I took her back to the barn and Nellie welcomed her back. I sat with her awhile and helped her figure out nursing, and now she's absolutely fine!

This picture was taken shortly after I brought her in, so she doesn't look very good. I need to get out and take more pictures, because they are running and jumping and going crazy out there! There are two doelings and two bucklings and they are in a variety of sizes! One of the boys is huge- easily twice the size of the smallest- and he was trying to eat oat straw on the day he was born!

Here's Tate and Annie perched on a trailer load of the oat straw. Tate loves sitting up there and watching the goats and chickens in the front hog lot. He made me sit up there with him the other day and tell him all the names of the goats. Several times, actually! Annie climbs on top the pile every time she walks by it, rather than walking around, she goes over.

Not to leave Sullivan out, here his is with his newfound storage method for food he has no interest in eating. Which isn't very often. The pea fit nicely, but tonight he was trying to stick in pieces of his pork chop, which didn't work so well!

Boys, Cookie, and Yarn

2008-08-25T17:06:00.008-05:00

It's been a busy summer so far. Joe and I floated the Maquoketa River from Hopkinton to Monticello- last month we did Delhi to Hopkinton. Someday we hope to be able to say we floated the entire Maquoketa. I'm fried to a crisp and am trying to do my best to stay out of the sun today because the sun beating down on my shoulders and face doesn't feel very pleasant. The boys kept Grandma and Grandpa Picray busy for the day while we floated.

Tate has been loving to color lately. Unfortunately, most of this coloring has been on himself or Sullivan, if he can get him to stay still long enough. Sullivan has become a talking machine, even saying two and three words sentences. His favorite word is still "No!" He just loves to disagree with anything.

The boys got a new puppy. Annie has been depressed without Corky, so we got this new puppy, who Tate named Cookie. She is very good with the kids, and they adore her. Joe was working on building her a fenced-in area, but hit himself in the head with a T-post that broke and had to stop. He had a nice gash on his forehead, which scared Tate a bit. Cookie has been living in the house with us until her pen is finished, and she really likes all the dogs. The other dogs don't really care about her, except Zoie, who loves to play with her.

I have been working on yarn-dyeing and jewelry for my etsy shop. I also listed most of my vintage clothing collection, because with two kids now, I really don't have the space. Also because of having two kids, I don't fit into most of it anymore anyway. :)

I used Wilton's food coloring for the skein of yarn above. My inspiration was jewel tones, and it turned out exactly as I imagined it.

These yarns are available at my etsy shop at www.plumcreekcreations.etsy.com- check it out!

Plum Creek Creations

2008-08-08T23:21:00.012-05:00

I have recently opened an etsy shop called Plum Creek Creations which you can visit at http://www.plumcreekcreations.etsy.com/. I have been busy creating jewelry for the shop lately and have been having a blast doing it! My beads and wire and findings have actually pretty much taken over the living room!

Rainbow Reverie available in my etsy shop for $19

I'm not sure where my ideas are coming from, sometimes I just see a bead I like and design around it. Sometimes I pick a color or two and go from there. Tate loves looking at all the beads and seeing the finished jewelry. I may have a budding designer on my hands, as long as he didn't inherit his dad's colorblindness!

Imperial Elegance available in my etsy shop for $19

All this jewelry-making has put all other works-in-progress to a standstill. I haven't crocheted in quite awhile, but I really need to get back to it, as I have several ideas for Christmas gifts. It's kind of difficult to believe how quickly the holiday season has been sneaking up, with the high temperatures we have been having.

Earth Goddess available in my etsy shop for $19

Things have been so busy around here lately. Cleaning up from the floods and doing a lot of refencing is most of it. Three baby goats have been born in the last few weeks, and a couple does are due any time now. Helga had a boy, named Nitro, and Hester had a boy, Wrangler, and a girl, Cherokee. I have to get out and take some pictures!

Springtime Fantasy available in my etsy shop for $19

www.plumcreekcreations.etsy.com

Idyllic Iowa

2008-06-21T19:26:00.008-05:00

Joe, the kids, and I took a drive today in the Jeep and I couldn't resist taking some pictures of these cows. They looked so content to ramble around the hillside. Tate loved the brown calf and keeps asking where it went. Tate was the reason we stopped in the first place, as he was worming his way out of his seatbelt and we had to stop the vehicle to get him to put it back on.

Joe thought Tate was talking about the cream-colored cow, because he was asking "Es bloun cow go, Mama?" and Joe interpreted it as "blonde cow." Tate loves riding in the Jeep, even more so today because Joe took the windows out so we could all see better.

There have been some beautiful sunsets lately and I have been quick enough with my camera to capture some of them. It's nice to have had mainly clear skies for about the past week. Things are finally starting to dry out!

With the warm weather finally here, I have been working on shaving the Shih Tzus fur. Chester looks so handsome with his fresh haircut-he probably feels a lot better, being a black dog. So far I have Chester and Kolby finished, and Bailey almost done. So that just leaves Josie, Daisy, Violet, and Zoie.

I finally figured out where Big Stripe's litter of kittens under the trailer is. I found a hole in the plastic that holds the insulation, so I took my camera and stuck it in the hole and took a picture. Sure enough, I saw a kitten, so I stuck Big Stripe up there to get all the kittens to come out and took some more pictures. As far as I could tell, there are 3. She has started moving them to the barn today; I saw 2 of them down there and actually caught and pet one of them, who tried and tried to bite and scratch me, but eventually he calmed down a bit.

I have also really gotten into dyeing my own yarn with Kool-Aid. I bought a bunch of undyed wool for socks, and also some worsted weight, and I have been doing some experimenting. It is really easy to do and nearly impossible to screw up. The pink with bits of green is to make something for myself, though I don't know what, yet. The blue, orange, and green is to knit some socks for the boys. Now if I could just stop dyeing more yarn and actually knit or crochet with the stuff I have done :)

Enough Rain Already!

2008-06-09T19:02:00.004-05:00

We've had three floods in the last couple weeks, the one last night being the worst of all of them. The water came up very quickly around 11 last night, luckily Joe went out back to feed the puppies and saw the water at the bottom step already. We've never had water this high in our five years here. The current washed some of the puppies under the deck where they were struggling to keep their heads above water.

These pictures are from the floods on Memorial Day and the Friday after. The floods from last night were gone by morning, so all I got was after pictures. After saving the puppies, we had to move the older dogs to the garage because their pen was also underwater. Then I looked in the hog lot at the front of the barn and saw about a foot of water. I ran to the barn with a flashlight and we moved all the baby goats to the camper. The older goats we left because they were standing on a ledge and were only knee-deep in water. The horses were in the back of the barn and were also knee-deep in water.

The two horses in the back were too scared to come into the barn because they couldn't tell where the big step was, so I had to wade out in hip-deep water in the pasture to get them. I ended up tieing them in the barn so they wouldn't go back out there. One of the goats went out and almost drowned when the current caught him where it was really deep, but he managed to swim out of it without my help. I put all the chickens on the wall in the barn- they were soaked to the skin.

This morning when we woke up, the floodwaters had receded. We were fine and all our animals were safe, but we lost a lot of stuff. All our firewood for next winter is gone, though we found a small portion of it down the road about a half mile, along with one of my big cages, which is in the ditch. About a mile away in the ditch we found one of my raised beds for the garden. Our big farmgate from the backyard is nowhere and our big plastic barrel is really far away in a field. (We think it is- it's too far away to tell for sure.)

Our roads are all but washed away and the gravel from them fills the ditches. Bridges have huge holes in them and a lot of roads in our county, including ours, are closed, ours has been closed since Memorial Day. We have more rain in the forecast this week, which is about the last thing we need right now. No one has had a chance to clean up and make repairs much from one flood when the next comes along. I think eastern Iowa deserves a break!

More Babies!

2008-05-23T21:02:00.006-05:00

Glory finally gave birth on Monday, surprisingly enough, to a singleton. Glory was huge and I thought she would have twins or triplets. She had a little doeling, who is pretty good-sized. She seems almost as big as Avenger's babies, who are a month older! She is very pretty and I've never had one this color before, so she's definitely a keeper! I've decided to call her Durango.

I let Joe name Avenger's two doelings: Rubicon (Ruby, for short) and Sahara. So now we have a couple Jeeps to add to the Dodges! They are growing like weeds, but can still slip out the cattle panels to munch on greener pastures.

They are very comical to watch when they're jumping off things and butting heads. They also like to sleep in tires like Durango does. Gives them a little buffer from the horses and other goats. At least until it gets dark and the chickens roost on them like they are in a football huddle.

I moved Hermione's kittens to the barn after she killed one of the chicks. She left them there for a week or two, but the other day moved them under the front steps. I took them back to the barn, but she brought them back again, so there they stay. She puts them inside a hole in the landing before you go in our front door at night because there is insulation for the trailer inside to keep them warm.

Their names are Sugar, Spice, and Henry. Henry is the one that was almost dead when I found her. She must remember that I was the one who saved her, because she's the only one that purrs for me so far. Henry is silver tabby and white. Sugar and Spice are dilute calicos.

Mother's Day Presents

2008-05-13T23:49:00.006-05:00

Here are my two new additions I got for Mother's Day! The brown and white pinto is a gelding named Elvis and the brown with blonde mane and tail I named Diamond. Elvis is so tiny- his back only comes to mid-thigh on me, and I'm pretty short. They are both sweeties.

They both lead very nicely and come right over to me whenever they see me. I have them separated from the other horses for a few days while they get used to each other. All the horses meet at the shared fence and "chat." Stetson is wound up about the newbies- I need him to calm down a bit before I mix everyone together. Stetson thought he could sneak in with me while I was feeding them, but I was onto him. He wanted to see the new horses more than he wanted his grain, which is very unusual for the horse I affectionately call "Big Butt."

Diamond looks a lot like Cinders- I'll really have to look twice. As a matter of fact, when I brought the new horses in, Cinders immediately ran to Diamond- maybe they are long-lost sisters or something. Diamond one has one eye, but it doesn't seem to affect her at all. Some of the goats were scared of the new horses, including Lester, who is my resident bully. Both horses are very kid-friendly, as they came from a home with 7 children, so my 2 shouldn't faze them a bit!

Barnyard Buddies

2008-05-05T16:33:00.009-05:00

When I took a stroll outside to take some pictures of my animals for this post, everyone was laying around in the sunshine. They are as glad as I am to see the weather finally warm up. All the chickens and some of the goats came over to me to see what I was doing. They try to beg treats off me all the time. The other day it was some thawed strawberries that had been in the freezer too long, and the days it was raining, I had been giving the chickens worms I found.I mowed some grass today and threw it in the pasture for the goats and horses, so they were happy. The lawn sweeper picked up a lot of the corn stalks that washed into the yard with the flood, so they got some of that, too. The baby goats are in a dog kennel in the front yard that's on wheels, so when they eat all the grass, I move them along. They are busy cleaning up weeds and grass in my garden for me while also fertilizing. It's a win-win situation!

A bunch of the goats keep escaping the barn through some fencing they tore down, so they have been keeping weeds and grass down in the back near the barn. They don't go very far and always come back on the run when they see me coming. They don't want to miss out on grain! I store my livestock feed in a Rubbermaid garbage can, but they started figuring out how to get the lid off and were helping themselves, so I had to also bungee-strap the lid down.

The other day I found some kittens in the barn. The mother had forgotten she had them and left them laying all over the place out in the open. Two didn't make it, two were very hungry, and the other one was near death. He was cold and couldn't move much. I took them and the mama cat and locked them up in the camper and she started feeding them. The one that was cold couldn't nurse- he was too weak, so I took him in the house and warmed him and gave him some baby formula. That livened him up enough that I could take him back to his mama. She took him back and has been taking care of them ever since.

They are now starting to open their eyes. They are very cute and I'm glad that so far they are doing well. I love calico kittens the best! The calico cat in the picture at the top of this post isn't the mama, she's just one of my favorites. The mama to these guys is a tortoiseshell and the dad, Sheila, is striped and white.

For the time being, I am keeping the mama cat and her kittens in the same camper as my baby chicks. I have been feeding the mama very well so she won't mess with the chicks. I don't think she will- she moved her kittens as far from them as she could. So this is working for now. I guess I've got more baby animals than I know what to do with!

To share with other farm girls and to learn about the Farm Girl way of life visit: http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/

More babies!

2008-05-01T17:02:00.006-05:00

My thirtieth birthday was April 19th and with the flood I never got around to blogging about my birthday presents from Daisy! She gave birth to 5 adorable puppies in the wee hours of my birthday. What a good girl! They are growing so fast and should be opening their eyes very soon. Chester got the job done once again! He could care less though- once the fun part of the job is over, that's it for him!

They are all very nicely marked and have the cutest little faces! Zelda's puppies are growing quickly too- they have had their eyes open awhile now and are getting around pretty well. They are going to outgrow their home in the bathroom soon! Which is good, because I want my bathroom back!

Last Friday, the same day as the flood, I got my baby chicks in the mail. The mailwoman actually called me from down the road because by the time she got out our way, the road was flooded, so Joe took the Jeep down to pick them up. I had the camper all ready to go for them- I call it Mama's Chicken Shack, though I use it for other baby animals too.

I received 4 bantam cochins, 2 of which are the red ones in the picture, the other 2 are dark. The other five black ones are Barred Rocks. 5 of the yellow ones are Rhode Island Whites and the other 5 are Delawares. I ordered from Ideal this time, and was very pleased with their service and selection. The chicks are thriving and starting to get their feathers. Tate was so excited when the box came because they were all peeping like mad. I asked him what was in the box and he said "Acksuppies!" which is what he calls birds so he was pretty much right!

Getting Crafty

2008-04-29T22:21:00.013-05:00

Most of my crafting time lately has been devoted to crocheting. I am still very much a beginner, but I'm starting to get the hang of it. The past few days, I have been practicing crocheting in the round, so I made a set of dishcloths for my kitchen. I chose mostly blues in the yarn to accent my cobalt dishware.

These were very fun and quick to make- my kind of project, since I have the bad habit of getting sick of a project about halfway though and setting it aside to eventually melt into the couch cushions. I will probably end up using them more for table decorations than anything.

I made this crocheted kerchief out of nylon twine, which took a little getting used to. It liked to stick to my hook if I got crocheted to tightly. The finished kerchief is a little heavy, but I still really like it. Near the top are a few stripes of different shades of pink, as I ran out of the original twine and couldn't find any more of that brand. So I made stripes in different pinks hopefully so it looks like it was done on purpose. :)

I made the Chic & Simple Belt out of Crochet Today for myself, and of course used pink yarn. I got a little carried away on the length- apparently I'm not as fat as I think I am! I haven't decided whether to just leave it long or to fix it. The buckle is actually a clippy thing I found at the local farm store. They were very cheap, but look really cool as a buckle. I picked up several packages of them for a few bucks. Maybe on my next belt I'll get the length right.

I made myself this bath scrubby from a pattern I found on Ravelry. It looked complicated, but once I got crocheting it, it was surprisingly easy. I will probably make a lot of these for gifts and such. I had almost enough yarn to finish it using one skein, but ran out at the end. I didn't have any more in this colorway, but I had some that had all those colors except the mint green and white, so I used it. Since I only needed a little, it wasn't very noticeable.

Another quick project I have been working on is making crocheted fake food for the kids. Tate got a kitchen set for his birthday and him and Sullivan love it. The main problem with the plastic fake food you buy at the store is that kids are inevitably going to put it in their mouth and chomp down. This makes it dented and pretty much doesn't resemble food anymore, so I decided to make something more durable and easy to wash. This was my first cookie (chocolate chip) and I have several others done, just needing little finishing touches. I also am working on an egg.

You can check out my crochet projects both completed and work-in-progress by looking me up at http://www.ravelry.com/. My name is plumcreekmama on there as well, and I try to keep it updated with my projects.

To share with other farm girls and to learn about the Farm Girl way of life visit: http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/

In The Garden

2008-04-27T07:12:00.009-05:00

I have been anxious all winter waiting for spring to arrive. This was one of the longest winters I can remember. The weather hasn't been very cooperative this spring either. It's been very cold at night and we've had snow a couple times this April, with more snow in the forecast. Add that to all the rain and flooding and it seems as though I'll never get the garden going! Above is a picture of one of my raised beds containing rhubarb, chives, strawberries, and my runaway blackberries. I can't wait to make rhubarb pie!
Above is a little plot where I had dug out a bunch of rock from the foundation of the old farmhouse that stood there. I used the stone to ring some flower garden areas in the front yard. I filled the hole in and planted a sucker from a rosebush my grandma grew at her farm. Around it I planted some peonies, which are just starting to come up and get some leaves. Peonies and roses are my two favorite flowers and I consider them a must for a farm garden.

In the back I have a raised box with raspberries. The floodwater dislodged it, but I think it will be all right. I need to do a lot of work with the raspberries anyway. They are my favorite fruit and always so expensive in the store, so I want to add many more, with the intention of freezing some.

In the picture above is one of my raised beds in the herb garden. The water moved it and destroyed the stone circle I built in the middle. I'm pretty much planning on starting all over with the herb garden anyway. Last year the weeds really got away from me. I am going to keep the layout of the raised beds the same, but I am going to redo all the plants. I need to make better plant markers this time, as the old ones are missing or unreadable.

My seedlings are doing well. Hopefully the weather will warm up and they can go out in the cold frame soon. I transplanted my honeylocust seedlings to bigger pots last night. Even though I haven't started outside in the vegetable garden, there is still tons of gardening to keep me busy.

To share with other farm girls and to learn about the Farm Girl way of life visit: http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/

Flooded Out

2008-04-26T17:55:00.005-05:00

With all the rain we've had lately, yesterday everything started flooding. The Plum Creek runs across the road from our house on the other side of a cornfield. The field was already full yesterday morning when I got up and was starting to go over the road. We watched it come up all day and went for a little drive in the afternoon to check out the area. Some places nearby the roads were already starting to wash away.

After Joe left to go to work at 5:00, the power went out at our house. I called Joe, who was getting gas in Hopkinton and he said the power was out there too. Mom said the power was out in Monticello and Dad said Cascade's was out too. Joe came home because they shut the factory down, and before he got home our power came back on.

We went back and forth about whether we should try to evacuate or not. We live in a very flat area, but our trailer and barn sit a little higher than everything else. We decided to go for another drive to check out the situation. We took the Jeep since it has 33" tires and sits up nice and high. We tried one direction, but the water was so high at the T intersection we couldn't tell where exactly the road was. You can see by the road signs that the water was really high.

So then we tried leaving the other direction, which had been flooded all day. We got going and it just kept getting deeper and deeper. We opened our doors and it was just below the frame. Joe decided to keep going because he thought that was the deepest. It wasn't. It got too deep and the current was pushing us off the road toward the creek, where the current was moving super fast. I have never been so scared! Luckily we made it through before we were completely off the road.

Down the road at another T intersection, the road was covered a long ways and the road was starting to wash away, so we only had one direction we could go. We decided we better try to find a way back home before it got any higher. We went all the way around to the other T, but it had gotten a lot worse in the last 15 minutes. We thought maybe we could drive through the field in the back of our house, but it was too muddy, so we were stuck. We ended up staying at my parent's house.

I worried all night about the animals. The kids didn't sleep very well either. Sullivan ended up sleeping in the bed with us, so I kept waking up to check on him. As soon as the kids were finished with breakfast this morning, we packed up and headed for home. My stomach was in knots all the way, hoping that everything was all right and that we could get home. We definitely had good luck. The water was off the roads and we made it!

All the animals were fine and nothing seemed damaged. Our woodpile started floating away and is scattered throughout our backyard and the neighboring cornfield. Luckily our fence stopped most of it. Some of the boxes for my raised beds in the garden were dislodged. Joe's campfire scrap wood had floated away, but we found it about 50 feet away, still in a pile! Other than that, things are just wet and dirty and there are corn stalks everywhere. I consider us very blessed and hope all our neighbors had the same luck!

Spotlight on Kolby

2008-04-18T21:43:00.009-05:00

Sherwoods Lil Bailey Kolby, called Lil B when he was a puppy, then Kolby, was born March 26, 2003. He is a Shih Tzu, the firstborn in Bailey and Josie second litter. His litter-brother Chase Dakota James "Chase" is my parent's dog, so they still visit each other from time to time. Kolby was originally for sale, but after the family that first wanted him changed their minds, I cried and cried and promised him he could stay with me forever. And I have been glad ever since.

Kolby (whose nickname is Friend) can be quite the troublemaker. He has a knack for getting food off the kitchen table and Sully's highchair. After he cleans Sullivan's highchair tray, he usually takes a nap up there before getting down. Even when we make sure all the chairs are pushed in around the table, he gets on the chair and squeezes his way onto the table. There's just no stopping him! He doesn't take no for an answer.

Besides the highchair, Kolby likes to sleep in other strange places, his favorite being a basket of clean clothes fresh from the dryer. He's kind of a weeny dog- scary things often happen to him. When he was a puppy, he got his dog tag caught in the heat register and went crazy. He also came to the barn with me one time and a wire that was hooked to a tarp got caught in his fur, and he went yelping away, tarp flying after him! It was a good couple years before he would ever set paw in the barn again.

He has always loved water- when the bowl is empty or he's just too lazy to look, he jumps in the bathtub and barks until we come and turn the water on. Just for a few seconds, to get the bottom of the bathtub wet so he can lick it all off. When he was a puppy, we couldn't figure out why his water bowl was always empty. I finally caught him one day digging in it and splashing all the water out. I'm just glad he outgrew that!

Kolby is such a gentle soul, he loves his belly and face rubbed, but gets really mad if you tickle his paws. He's very ticklish and gets so mad that he hides his back paws under his head and glares at you. One of his favorite activities is picking up the dog toys and putting them away in the toybox. I don't know where he learned this- I didn't teach him. I guess he's just a neat freak at heart!

In The Kitchen/ Domestic Bliss

2008-04-17T13:05:00.008-05:00

My favorite thing is my kitchen is my collection of cobalt blue dishes. I have been collecting cobalt glass for a few years now. I need more cabinet space before I buy much more of it! I am very quickly running out of room in my kitchen.

This is my wallpaper border in the kitchen. It was here when we moved in, but I really like it, so I haven't changed it. The walls are sage green with darker green sponged over the top. Off the kitchen is my pantry and my computer space. The wallpaper in here is very pretty too.

My pantry no longer has food in it- it's where I keep my dishes. The reason for this being the fact that we couldn't keep the mice out of anything. We put the food in higher-up cabinets, and we haven't had the mice get into it since. I don't think they were too happy finding dishes in their own personal grocery store. They continue to get into food that gets left on the counter, so we have to be careful. That's one of the few bad things about living in the country-mice!

Last fall I dried and canned tons of herbs for teas, seasonings, and sachets. I have a pretty big area for my herb garden and want to expand it even more this year. Mint is one of my favorites, and I try to plant every variety I can get my hands on. Some varieties I have tried are: peppermint, spearmint, candy mint, chocolate mint, variegated mint, apple mint, and orange mint. My herb garden is located just off the kitchen, through a gate in the backyard, so it's nice and close for cooking and baking.

This year I have started a bunch of lavender seedlings for the herb garden. Lavender can be used in so many ways- I don't think I could ever grow enough! Here is an excellent recipe for lavender tea bread, courtesy of Shikairi at allrecipes.com:

Lavender Tea Bread

INGREDIENTS:
3/4 cup milk
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh
lavender
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. Combine the milk and lavender in a small saucepan over medium heat. Heat to a simmer, then remove from heat, and allow to cool slightly.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg until the mixture is light and fluffy. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture alternately with the milk and lavender until just blended. Pour into the prepared pan.
4. Bake for 50 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a wooden pick inserted into the crown of the loaf comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack.

To share with other farm girls and to learn about the Farm Girl way of life visit: http://www.maryjanesfarm.org

Goat Babies!

2008-04-14T13:01:00.010-05:00

The farm is blooming with life this week! On the same day the Sheltie puppies were born, Avenger, my Nigerian dwarf goat, gave birth to two kids (from a pygmy buck). The mostly white one is bashful and always looks the other way, but the agouti one is very brave. It charges at me already!I was on the computer last night blogging about the Sheltie puppies when I heard the baby goats bleating. It took me awhile to figure out where the sound was coming from and what it was! Once I walked outside I immediately knew it was coming from the barn and I ran down there with a flashlight and moved Avenger and the babies to my camper, which I use as a birthing stall for goats and a chicken brooder.

Up until about a week ago, the camper was parked down by the barn, but I had Joe move it up close to the house so I had it close to outlets to plug in the chicken brooder lights. Moving Avenger up there was a real chore since she doesn't walk very well on a leash and I pretty much dragged her most of the way. My chicks aren't coming until next week, so by then I'll have somewhere outside to put Avenger and the kids outside.

I took a little walk around while I was outside with my camera and it didn't take long for the chickens and goats to realize I was outside. They came on the run hoping I was bringing them something good to eat. I took a couple pictures of them and then through them in some hay.

As I walked by my herb garden, I noticed some mint already growing like mad. Up near the front yard I checked on the rhubarb and sure enough, it is starting to pop out of the ground as well. I can't wait to make some rhubarb pie! It's been a couple years since I planted the rhubarb, so I will harvest it pretty heavily this year.

Then up by the mailbox I noticed my first flower of the year. This little yellow crocus was all by it's lonesome up there, though I noticed other bulbs starting to come up. It seems like spring is really starting to get going now. I am so happy that the grass is green again!

Farm Girl Heart

2008-04-13T20:56:00.015-05:00

I haven't always been a farmgirl at heart; it's a fairly recent development. Five years ago, my husband and I decided we wanted to live in the country, neither one of us having ever lived in the country before. We found a little place in our price range with almost 6 acres of land and made it our home.

I have been an animal nut my entire life and it was my dream to have lots of animals, especially goats and chickens. I have now had chickens for a few years and I'm now spoiled when it comes to eggs. It's either my own free-range, farm-fresh eggs or nothing! I've got ducks now as well, so when I can find them I have duck eggs too.

As you can see, I'm such a bonafide farm girl, I don't really care if my eggs have manure on them! It just adds a little character.

The spot where I used to keep the chickens is going to be planted with Indian corn this year, so my chickens will have given me more than just eggs. That ground is very well fertilized! The Indian corn is for decoration at Thanksgiving and winter feed for the horses, goats, chickens, and ducks.

I am trying to grow as much of my own produce as I can this year. I have tons of seedlings started on my bookshelf in my bedroom. I packed away three shelves of books temporarily to have room for seed starting. My garden area is pretty weedy still from last year. It will be burnt as soon as we get a day that is calm. I also want to fence the garden in so I can keep ducks and chickens in the plot over the fall and winter for easy cleanup and fertilizer.

My husband and I are currently working on fencing a new dog pen with higher fencing this time. The drifts we had this winter were no match for 4 foot fence, so we are going with 5 foot this time. The grass inside the pen will be mowed completely by goat power.

And what farm girl would be without several farm cats? Not me!

To share with other farmgirls and to learn more about the farm girl way of life visit: http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/

Sheltie Babies!

2008-04-13T19:53:00.006-05:00

I am super excited- Zelda had her puppies this morning! Francie (who is Zelda's daughter from her first litter) heard the puppies yipping and started barking, which woke me up. This was about 4 this morning. She has four beautiful puppies- two girls and two boys.

This is my first litter of puppies this year, which is a far cry from the busy year I had last year. I had already had 3 litters by this time last year, with one more litter in May. And I won't be delivering puppies while in labor myself, like I did last year. Josie had puppies, then I went to the hospital and had Sullivan. One of my Shih Tzus, Daisy, is due later this month.

Other than that, I have been working on organizing Tate's room. He broke a window and got glass embedded in his carpet, so my Dad ripped it out and Mom and Joe put down linoleum. With the number of times he has peed on the floor in his room since, I'm glad we didn't do carpet! Since I had to move everything out anyway, I'm getting things put into tubs and hopefully his room won't be quite the disaster it was! I had to take a picture of my boys yesterday- they were ready for the Nascar race.

As you can see in the background, my craft stuff is a disaster area too. I have been working on organizing this area as well, but I seem to spend a lot more time crafting than putting away crafting items. Plus I seem to buy more every time I leave the house, so I sometimes feel as though I move one step forward and about three steps back.

I finished my crocheted headwrap from Mary Jane's Stitching Room book. I made it in pink (of course) crochet thread:

I started a very pretty scarf from the magazine Interweave Crochet, called Arachne's Tears Scarf, designed by Debra Lea. I chose to crochet mine from pink (go figure) nylon thread and I have it about halfway done. Since I took the picture, I have done the beads (pink- imagine that) on that half. Once this scarf is done, it will be one of my most treasured accessories.

Tie One On

2008-04-07T17:06:00.002-05:00

This is my apron for a farmgirl chapter I am in called Bees Without Borders. We all got the bee and clover fabric in whichever color we liked best: pink, blue, or yellow. I used mostly pink for mine (of course), but I used some blue in the waistband and pockets. I don't wear this one for anything I may get dirty at, because it's very special. One I do wear for doing chores and things is my cowgirl half-apron:

I didn't even know what I was going to do with this fabric when I bought it. I saw it sitting in a remnant bin and thought "pink, cowgirls, I'm gettin' it!" This was my first apron I made and I love it. My favorite thing to do in it is to feed chickens and pick up eggs and put them in the pocket.

I bought a bunch of aprons at an antique store one time. They have all been well-used, but I love them anyway. I wear them for any ole' thing and usually always have pockets to repair.

I wear aprons for cleaning as well so I can stow stuff in the pockets that need to go to other rooms, so I don't have to keep walking back and forth. Tate likes to see me wearing aprons, expressed with his usual "Ooooh, Mama!" He, however, wasn't as thrilled to wear one, especially in a picture!

To share with other farm girls and to learn about the Farm Girl way of life visit: http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/

Tate's Afghan & My Seedlings

2008-03-29T19:34:00.010-05:00

I just finished up Tate's afghan. I made it similar to the one I made the baby. Tate picked out the camouflage blue yarn and I picked out the light blue and navy to match. I already had the periwinkle frosting yarn and didn't know what I had originally bought it for, so I used it one the edges.

Tate was really pleased with it- he calls it his "pretty blanket." Even my husband liked it and he usually doesn't pay to much attention to such things. I have already started one for Sullivan and had about five rows done before I ripped it back out and started over because the beginning chains were too tight. I have about 6 or 7 rows done on it now.

My seeds have been sprouting like mad! The tomato plants were the first to come up, closely followed by the lavender. My honeylocust seeds are growing like crazy too! They are getting quite a few leaves on them already.

I'll be happy when all the snow is gone in the garden so I can start getting it ready. I don't recall ever having snow still around this late in the year. The barn is full of horse/goat manure to put on the garden, plus my compost barrel is pretty full. I really need to work on getting my herb garden back in shape. I also need to do a lot of work on the raspberries and asparagus. I can't wait for the weather to get nice to I can spend some much-needed time outside.

Around the Farm

2008-03-29T18:40:00.007-05:00

I was out taking pictures around the farm the past few days. Above is Helga and her baby, Caliber, who was our first kid of the year, born in January. In the background you can see a group of my chickens roosting on a tire. The goats and chickens all like to lay together in front of the barn in the sunshine, but as soon as they see me, they come running, expecting food, so I never get a picture of it!

You can see behind Kassie and Whisper that there is still some drifted snow that's going to take awhile to melt. The pasture is very bare and muddy- one of my first projects this spring is to fence off more pasture and close this section off to regrow. I have another pasture, but it's small and I need to make it a whole lot bigger before I can let everyone into it.

There's a little bit of melting snow in front of the barn. The ducks will definitely miss the puddles, but no one else will. I only have 4 ducks left, since the dogs killed some of them earlier in the winter before I moved them to the barn. I have been watching the local farm store so I can get some more ducklings. My chickens will be arriving near the end of the month, so I want to get some ducklings around then as well.

This is one of my many mousers, Sheila. He is one of my favorites, but is sort of a big weenie. He used to be very wild, but one time he was gone for a week and came home running, soaking wet and ran right to me. He let me pet him then and ever since that day. In the picture he is eyeballing the farm dogs- he has no trust for them.

I was very excited to see buds on my lilacs. Spring really is here! The scent of lilacs is one of my favorite smells, along with peonies and roses. I have been noticing tons of birds- or "acksuppies" as Tate calls them. I have no idea where he got that!

Swapping: Felt Pins and Yo-Yos

2008-03-25T15:56:00.003-05:00

I was very busy all day yesterday finishing up on my felt pins for Grace's (katmom) swap on Mary Jane's farmgirl boards. I had a really good time making them- they're very easy to do. Once I get started, inspiration keeps coming and I don't have enough hands to make everything I want to. I used a lot of yo-yos this time with coordinating buttons and felt. I also made a brown cow like the black and white one I did earlier that everyone liked so much.

It's actually kind of hard to stop making them once you've started! I also finished my series of seasons with a tree. I had done winter and spring last month. I made summer, with apple buttons on the tree and flower buttons around it. I also made autumn, with red, yellow, and orange buttons on the tree and falling from it, symbolizing falling leaves. It was kind of hard to let go of all my beautiful creations, but I know that the other farmgirls will treasure them.

I also started a yo-yo swap with the farmgirls. I have about half of mine done so far, with the other half cut and ready to be stitched. Two of the farmgirls (sissysquilts' are the autumn-colored and levisgrammy's are the blues and purples) have already sent me theirs:

I have been working on a yo-yo quilt for quite some time now. I wanted to host a swap so I can get some different fabrics in it and to share some of my fabrics that I have more than I need. A lot of times when I go to buy fabric, I find myself only looking at pink fabrics and ignoring all the other colors, so it helps to trade yo-yos with people who are obsessed with the color pink!

Little Bit of Flooding

2008-03-24T10:15:00.012-05:00

Across the road, the Plum Creek has been high with all the melting snow for the past week or so. The other night I walked outside and could hear rushing water and the cornfield was filling up with water. By morning it had gone down some, but I took a few pictures anyway. It floods quite often- last October it flooded so much that Tate, Annie, and I rowed the flatbottom boat from the barn to the end of our property and back!

This is the first time I have seen our creek flood with snow still on the ground. There used to be three big trees on the bank in this spot of the creek, but the flood last fall took all of them out. Bald eagles used to be in those trees all the time. Now the only big tree around the area is the old Silver Maple in our front yard.

I caught a pair of geese cruising the creek when I had my camera out. We see quite a few of geese in this area, as well as Great Blue Herons, Bald Eagles, and pheasants. I've actually run over pheasant nests a couple times while mowing our acreage, so I took the eggs and put them under a heat lamp. Most of them actually hatched and when they got big enough, I released them.
Down the road about a mile, there is a tree with an eagle's nest in it. The eagles reuse it every year and you can see one in the nest and the other in the tree nearby standing guard. Eventually you can see the hatchlings heads popping up. I can't wait to try to get some good pictures this year with my new camera. There is also another nest about a mile or so in the other direction, but it's a ways back from the road. I'll have to go out walking with my camera and see what wildlife I can find.

Magnum

2008-03-15T19:05:00.011-05:00

On January 24 of this year, at 9:00 in the morning, a pygmy goat baby was born on my farm. The temperature outside was -19. The twin of this little boy didn't make it, as he was born in the snow, but this tough little guy was born in some hay, which gave him some warmth. The only reason I discovered him right away was because one of my Shelties, Gannon, got out of the backyard and I was running around trying to catch him. Which he thought was a fun game, of course. That's when I noticed the mama goat making a sound that wasn't usual. When I discovered him in the barn, I immediately took him into the house.

Tate was a good helper for me with getting the goat started on bottle feeding. I decided to name him Magnum, keeping with my tradition of naming my baby goats after Dodges. Magnum was scared the first day, but after that, he became used to being a house-goat.

Once he was a week old, he was unable to walk and I noticed his hooves and ears were swolled. I took him to my vet, who said he had frostbite and it would take three weeks for the swelling to go down, plus he would definitely lose his ears, and his back hooves could possibly fall off. He has been healing ever since. His ears did fall off and he is blind in his right eye. His front hooves are fine and his left back hoof just lost some fur, skin, and a little cartilege or something. His back right hoof is still sloughing off dead skin. He will lose more fur and skin, but I can't tell yet if he will lose his whole hoof or not. As long as he has the other 3 hooves, I think he will be okay. He has been getting around well for the past 2 weeks and is now able to run and jump a bit.

He gets along well with the kids and the dogs. He has been trying to headbutt everybody and doesn't understand why nobody does it back. He even headbutts our legs when we walk by him. He knows my voice very well and follows me everywhere I go. He loves sleeping on the dog pillow, especially if there's dogs on it. I'll be happy when he's healed and the weather is nice so he can play outside with the other goats. Though he's not much trouble in the house, I know he will have to move to the barn soon. The dogs may even miss him!

Garage Sale Finds

2008-03-15T17:46:00.007-05:00

Dubuque had a garage sale event at the fairgrounds and the Dubuque Humane Society had a garage sale fundraiser at the National Guard Armory today. I found some good stuff, including a huge bag of Mr. Potato heads and a bag of accessories for them for Tate and Sullivan ($18 for all of it). Tate was thrilled! I bought the hanging miniature quilt at the right for 75 cents, the sheep wearing a dress and bloomers for a dollar, and the ceramic pig (for Sullivan's farm-themed bedroom) for a dollar. I spent another 75 cents on the wooden Amish figures and cow.

The Holly Hobbie lunchbox and thermos were marked $25, but the guy said he'd sell them to me for $10, so I bought them. I love Holly Hobbie! It was a pretty good day garage salin'!

Getting Ready for Spring

2008-03-13T10:34:00.021-05:00

The weather has been warmer this week and snow is finally melting. I have been thinking about all the things I need to do to get ready for spring. I made an order of chicks through Ideal Poultry. I got some bantam cochins, Delaware pullets, Barred Rock pullets, and some Rhode Island Whites. There is something really excited about getting a peeping box in the mail. I have been moving my chickens and ducks into the barn because the dogs won't stay out of the coop and with the melting snow, it's too sloppy for the chickens. The barn is pretty dry, but there's a nice big puddle in the hog lot, so the ducks should be happy. The last 2 days I have come in from doing chores covered in chicken poop. Underneath the nastiness in the coop is a thick sheet of pure ice and I fell both days. The first time I hurt my knee, but at least I didn't lose the rooster I had under my left arm and I didn't crack the egg I held in my left hand. The second time I just fell on my butt, which didn't hurt at the time, but is a little sore now. I have about 8 more chickens to move today and then they're done. I'm still trying to figure out how to feed the poultry without the goats eating it. So far I'm feeding them at the same time, plus scattering scratch grain around.

I have been planning the garden the last few days. I have a bunch of seeds to get started this week. I have lavender, sweet basil, and rosemary for the herb garden. For tomatoes, I have Roma, Jubilee, Brandywine, Yellow Pear, and a packet of Best of Show Mix. I have sweet banana peppers and a packet of bell peppers in red, yellow, orange, white, purple, and chocolate. I also have some Sugar Baby Watermelon seeds to start.

I can't wait to see flowers blooming! I have peonies, lilacs, roses, tiger lilies, tulips, among others. Tate had me buy him so packets of flower seeds, so he's going to have his own flower garden this year. He's going to have asters, bachelor's buttons, zinnias, dwarf sunflowers, and marigolds. I bought a ton of sunflower seeds so I can plant a very long row of them. I am going to save the seeds for winter feed for the animals. I meant to do this last year, but after having Sullivan, I didn't have much time for gardening. I want to do some freezing and canning this year as well as selling at farmer's markets. I bought some onion sets and russet potatoes to plant, as well as carrots, parsnips, peas, beans, swiss chard, lettuce, and spinach. I can't wait to be eating my own organic produce! I couldn't believe the price of a little bag of lettuce at the store. It's insane! I'll save a lot of money by having my own produce, chickens, and eggs. I still would like to get a pig or two this year and maybe in a couple years get a cow. That would help immensely with the grocery bills!

Another big project on the spring agenda is creating a habitat for birds, bees, and butterflies. I planted trees a couple years ago that came in a songbird package from Iowa's State Forest Nursery. I need to put up some more feeders, as well as a couple birdbaths. I have quite a few flowers and herbs that they would like, but I want to have even more this year. I also need to put up some bird houses, I don't have any yet, so that's going to require some building. Better Homes and Gardens' website (http://www.bhg.com/) has a lot of plans and tips for creating wildlife-friendly gardens, so I will be spending a lot of time there.

My grandpa was an avid bird watcher and always had tons of feeders hanging around his deck. I'd like to continue that tradition so my sons learn to appreciate everything nature has to offer. Our dog, Annie, loves butterflies and I've seen her twirl all the way across the road to try and catch one. She never has though.

Earlier in the year I bought Tate and I bug nets and I'm making him a bug cage out of plastic canvas. We are going to have so much fun! I am starting to get very impatient waiting for all this snow to be gone. It's supposed to be in the 40s all week, so I don't think we have long to wait now!

Finished the Afghan

2008-03-06T12:56:00.009-06:00

Well, I did it! I finished my first crochet project, the baby afghan. It was originally going to be just the hot colored variegated yarn with the red yarn on the outside, but I thought it needed something more, so I added a yellow and an orange stripe to both side, then went around the entire thing with yellow frosting yarn. I'm happy with the way it turned out. I may have to make a couple for my boys next.

My next crochet project is the Crocheted Head Wrap on page 35 of Mary Jane's Stitching Room by Mary Jane Butters. Anytime I feel the need for some inspiration, I can open this book and there it is. I don't think there's a single project in the whole book that I don't want to try. Here is my progress on the headwrap so far:

My thirteen-month-old son, Sullivan saw me with the camera out to take the picture of my headwrap and made a beeline for me. Both my boys love having their picture taken! So much so that I'm about 2 years behind on scrapbooking. I have a pile of pictures you wouldn't believe!

Knittin' and Crochetin'

2008-02-29T19:32:00.011-06:00

I have been doing some knitting on my looms lately. I made a pair of fingerless gloves (right) for myself and a pair for Tate. They were pretty easy and fairly quick to make. I plan to make some more, now that I'm getting the hang of it. The only things I had made on my knitting looms previously was hats and scarves- I'm having fun trying different things with them as a lot of people are putting up different patterns for the looms. Way easier than knitting with needles, which I have tried, but never mastered.

The past couple weeks, I have been busy teaching myself how to crochet. On the left are some samples of stitches I made while learning the basics. My grandma is a crocheter and tried to teach me when I was a kid, but I guess I just wasn't ready. I'm really having fun with it now, and once you get the basic motions down, it's very relaxing and enjoyable. My first project is a baby afghan for some friends who just had a baby. Usually people make baby things in pastels, I decided to go a different route and use brights. My babies always loved staring at bright things!

Here it is about 2/3 finished:

I have been working on it several hours a day for 3 days now. I hope to get it finished this weekend. Then I want to work on learning some new stitches, so I will be cruising the internet a lot looking for interesting stitches and patterns to try. I have some crochet booklets from my grandma to look through also. Now I just need to get the dogs to stop taking off with my skeins of yarn and unravelling them all throughout the house and I'll be doing good!

Another favorite craft I have picked up is making Aunt Philly's toothbrush rugs. They are rag rugs you make with an altered toothbrush or else you can buy the tool. On the right is the one I made my sister and brother-in-law for Christmas. You can find out more information on available patterns at http://www.auntphillys.com/. I bought the patterns at my local quilt shop and found them very easy to follow. No knitting or crocheting experience is necessary- anyone can do it! I have fabric to make myself one, but I seem to have this problem where I make stuff for others and never get around to making anything for myself. Oh, well, it's worth it when you see how much others appreciate a hand made gift. Hopefully in a few weeks I'll have a bunch more crocheted projects finished to post pictures of, so keep checking back!

Potty Training Triumphs and Tribulations

2008-02-26T16:14:00.005-06:00

My son Tate just turned 3 years old last month, and now we are working on potty training. Previously, he would stand at the toilet and pretend, but never went. A couple weeks ago, he finally peed in the toilet, so now he thinks he's pretty cool! He gets a sticker to put on a sheet of paper on the bathroom door when he goes potty, which he thinks is just great! The picture on the left I took the other morning, when he took off his pajamas and diaper and put on his big boy undies himself. One morning when I went in to get him for breakfast, he had his shirt and pants on, too. He even matched, which was very surprising. Maybe he could teach his dad!

At the right is a picture of the morning I wasn't laughing when I went in to get him up. Needless to say, he went directly into the bathtub! He hasn't pooped on the toilet yet, but I am waiting anxiously! His diapers are all used up and he just has pull-ups for at night and when we go somewhere, and undies and training pants for at home or short trips. He has gone potty at both grandparents' houses- next I want him to go potty when we're out and about. He has laser surgery tomorrow morning on the birthmark on his forehead, so we will try there next. Yesterday, he wanted to sit on the toilet awhile, so I saw the opportunity for a funny photo (boy, is he going to be mad at me when he gets older-especially when he graduates high school and I make a photo collage!) He was busy reading the new Grit magazine- checking out the tractor ads, like usual! That's my boy!

Here We Go Again

2008-02-23T22:06:00.000-06:00

Another winter storm is projected for Monday and Tuesday. Monday starts with rain and freezing rain turning to snow Monday night and Tuesday. We are in the 3-6" range- just what we need is more snow! The road crews are running out of places to put it! The drifts and pushed snow in the ditches is so high, road signs are barely sticking up. My husband took some pictures of the roads after the storm two weeks ago, we have since had a storm that dumped on us 1/2" of freezing rain and 6" of snow last week.

After the storm we had last week, it took 5 days for the roads to be cleared enough to leave our place in the car. Luckily, we have the Jeep, though it isn't very fun to have to put the kids in and isn't very warm. At least it's there in case of an emergency, and my husband can still usually get around, though he has gotten it stuck 4 times this winter and put it in the ditch once.

The horses don't seem to mind the snow too much, though the ice is a different story- that they will avoid at all costs. I saw them out laying in the snow in the sunshine today and they looked pretty comfortable. I've heard a lot of horses around here haven't been doing well and some even dying because of dehydration when their water freezes so quickly. We bought a stock tank heater this fall, which works very well and keeps our horses' and goats' water ice-free. To the left is Stetson, my stallion, also known as "Big Butt."

Above are Kassie and Cinders. Kassie is the white one and is broke to ride. To the right is Whisper. These three are all mares. Cinders is the oldest at 16, Kassie is 9, and Whisper and Stetson are both 2 years old. Kassie is always the first horse at the grain trough, though the others are never very far behind. If Kassie makes it to me before I have a chance to dump the bucket of grain in the trough, she sticks her head in and helps herself. Sometimes I have a heck of a time getting her head back out again, which allows a chance for the goats to stick their heads in as well. Then I'm in big trouble! If I see them coming, sometimes I am quick enough to hold the bucket on top of my head, which works very well when you have miniature horses and pygmy goats!

Then comes the fun of trying to dump a bucket of grain into a trough while 5 or 6 goats are standing in it, another 2 or 3 have their heads in the bucket, another has it's hooves in your arm, and the rest are standing by to maybe try and knock you down when you bend over. Then you will stumble, usually catching some part of your body on a pair of goat horns, and if you're lucky, a goat will be standing close by to break your fall. And if you're not lucky, you fall down in a pile of manure. Never a dull moment, that's for sure!

Feltin' and Quiltin'

2008-02-22T11:30:00.000-06:00

I have been thinking about what projects I want to work on with the cold and yucky weather that continues here. Crafting is the only thing keeping me on the saner side of things lately! Cabin fever is setting in to even people that actually like winter, so I guess I'm lucky to have so many hobbies to keep my hands busy (when they're not busy with kids and animals, that is). One of my current addictions is making felt pins, thanks to Grace's (katmom) felt pin swap on the MaryJanesFarm forum. I had thought it sounded like an interesting swap, and I had tons of felt laying around that I use in scrapbooking, but I had no idea how addicting they could be! The ideas keep pouring in and I find myself with more felt now than I started with, as I feel the need to have each color and shade of felt I can find! Here are some of my creations:

Another thing I have been doing a lot of in the past couple years, is learning to quilt. I love fabric and colors, so what better to use that for than in a quilt! I really enjoy the process of chosing a quilt to make and then going to the fabric store and picking out fabric. Definitely my favorite part of the process! Next comes cutting, which isn't one of my favorite things, but with a rotary cutter, isn't so bad. Then comes lots of sewing and ironing, which I like to do, but sometimes can get tiring, running back and forth from the sewing machine to the ironing board. Next is putting all the layers together and actually quilting it, which I'm still learning. My previous quilts I've done by machine, but I have a huge one I'm working on that I want to do by hand. I have been working on a quilt sampler so I can get the feel of it first. Last is doing the binding, which is one of my favorite steps. I love whipstitchin' the binding on and seeing the quilt all come together!

This is a quilt I made for my niece for Christmas. It has a lot of fun fabric with cats, birds, ballerinas, and flowers in pinks, blacks, and blues. This is the first real quilt I've ever made, and it turned out really well.

I also tied some fuzzy periwinkle blue yarn in the corner of each block.

This is another quilt I made for my niece when she was younger. It was made with different pink flannels and each piece was quilted individually, which made it easy to handle and quilt on the sewing machine.

It is in the shape of a cat and is from Simplicity pattern #4993, in which a bear and a dog are also quilts that can be made. I'm thinking of doing those for my boys. The way my sons like soft things, I know one of these quilts would get lots of use!

Next is a quilt I made my dad for Christmas. I saw this fabric, which has fishing, hunting, and camping scenes on it, and inspiration struck. I designed this one myself, which was a first for me. I quilted it with clear nylon thread, which was somewhat difficult to work with.

I have a few other quilts in various stages of construction. Some I just have the fabric, or just the fabric cut out, and I have one that the top is almost finished and ready for quilting. I am also working on a yo-yo quilt for myself, which will probably take me years to finish, as I usually chose to do projects that are intended for family before anything else!

Miserable Winter

2008-02-21T16:45:00.001-06:00

What a cold, miserable winter it's been! With all the snowstorms we have been getting here in Iowa, the drifts have become huge! My dogs all escaped the backyard by walking over the fence and my 2 big farm dogs have been jumping in the chicken pen. They killed one chicken and one duck, plus 2 other ducks are missing. Needless to say, Corky and Annie are now being corralled in the barn for their misbehavior. The goats and the horses seem to be fine in this weather, but they have to be getting sick of it too!

That's Nellie in the foreground, she's always first to come running. She was my first goat and is very friendly. Almost more like a dog. My other goats names are Noah, Garry, Glory, Freedom, Liberty, Helga, Hester, Lester, Cookie, Intrepid, Caliber, Ram, Charger, and Avenger. Plus there's baby Magnum, who is still living in the house, trying to get over severe frostbite from the day he was born and being bottlefed. He probably won't ever want to live in the barn!

I raise chickens for meat and eggs for my family. My breeds include Rhode Island Reds, Delawares, Buff Brahmas, and Cochins. I want to try some other breeds this spring. Last year, I hatched a lot of my own eggs, which was really fun. Actually watching a chick break from its egg has got to be one of the most miraculous things to see.

Last night's lunar eclipse was really beautiful! It took me forever to get a few decent pictures of it, as one of my dogs was sniffing me and putting his paws on my back. Plus it was -5 outside and my fingers and ears were freezing. It was still worthwhile to watch for awhile, but I was glad to get back inside!