2020: Where are we now?

The Beginning Farmer Show Podcast and YouTube Vlog!

It has been a LONG time since I've posted last, and almost as long since I've even signed on here. 

Honestly, I miss documenting what we've been up to, miss the community and encouragement from all who comment, and miss looking back over where we have been. 

Even so, I was starting to miss greater things with keeping up my blog. We now have 6 children, and I was missing time with them - which led me to slowly and eventually fade off of blogging. I don't plan to start back up anytime soon, (although I would be thrilled to find the day had an extra hour reserved for me to do just that!), but I did want to provide a quick update for those who started this journey with us, before we had even moved out of town.

Currently, we are still continuing our farm and are about to start our 12th year. Our 4 sons and 2 daughters,  ages 2 -16, bless us with a richness that far outweighs the slower pace of farm progress that happens with a young family of 8. I continue to homeschool all of the children as well as produce and preserve the vast majority of what we eat throughout the year. (Usually 500 quarts are canned in addition to the freezer and storm shelter being filled.) Ethan continues to work as a pastor in town to provide for our living expenses while the farm income is devoted to continuing to set up our farm. He also does his best to keep sharing our journey, knowing how helpful resources have been to him as we have started up our beginning farming journey. 

Recently, Ethan started documenting what is going on here on again on his YouTube channel and has been consistently sharing a number of videos each week. 

He has also produced over 150 podcast episodes since 2013. 

I am thankful that he has been able to keep up with documenting our journey, and am glad to have our journey pieced together for sharing with the generations down the road. I also hope that it is helpful and an encouragement for anyone else out there who might be starting or considering to start a beginning farming journey of their own. Thanks for joining along with us!

Rolling over the New Year in Canning

Just before Thanksgiving, I canned the last of my ripened frost tomatoes from my garden.  I still have a small box of tomatoes that are slowly changing to red, but they won't be enough to can.

After canning these tomatoes, it was time to give my canner a little break.  My extra time was spent decorating our house to celebrate Christmas, as well as doing some baking and candy making with the kids.
Our cookie baking project was quite rewarding for me this year as I watched our 9, 8, 5, and 2 year old mix up the cookies by themselves, a first for them. I was blessed to see the kids work together to read a recipe, gather and measure the ingredients, and figure out ways that all 4 of them could take part in the preparation of the cookies, all while enjoying each other.

Trust me, not all days and moments are played out this well, but I treasure the ones that are!

Our kids spent a whole afternoon mixing dough and stashing it away in the fridge to be pulled out over the next few days, ready to be baked into holiday cookies and decorated.  We then added the candies we had made, put our cookie plates together, and delivered these plates to our neighbors, accompanied by a handmade card from the kids and our contact information to be referred to if an emergency arises or a cup of sugar is needed.

Now that the Christmas season has given way to the New Year, it is time to start my canner back up.  This is the time of year that I can my broths, seasoned beans, and meats: shanks, hocks, and stew birds.  I will also sort through the produce in the storm shelter/cellar as I am able, dehydrating apples, canning apple sauce, and canning any squash or root vegetables that I feel the need to can.

With the New Year, I will also restart my canning count and look over my count from 2013. From the notes I made back at Thanksgiving, after I canned up my last frost tomatoes, I was at 522 quarts worth of canned, frozen, or dehydrated products this year - 445 of which were Crooked Gap Farm products, the other 77 of which were from local fruit trees, gardens, and fields.

This, by far, is the most I have ever canned.

In 2012, the combination of Ethan's achilles tendon tear and the record setting drought that stretched our finances and my sanity (trying to keep up with the chores on my own as well as the garden, house work, and care of our children) made me realize how important and valuable the preserved food I had on hand was.  Not only was it food that didn't have to be purchased from the store, but it was food that helped make a quick meal in a year where I referred to meals more as survival fuel than as a meal.

This kicked in gear an extra drive to put as much away as I could from our garden in 2013.  Last year was also the first year our garden was completely established since we first plowed it up, moved pigs through, and fenced the livestock out, which all contributed to preserving more than I ever have. 

The 2013 bounty from our farm now fills our pantry, cellar and overflowes into our hallway, where boxes and tubs of CGF produce await a new storage area to be constructed in our mud room.

This fall I was looking through my notebook of canning records, and I also came across an old post of what I had canned in 2007, while we were still in town. As I read this post, I kind of chuckled at myself and how proud I was of comparably few jars I canned that year. 

But then I stopped and reflected. 

I was proud.  And I had every right to be proud.

Really, those jars were a bigger accomplishment that year than the canning I did this year.  You see, for 3 years I had kept a pressure canner hidden away in my house, scared to death that I would blow the thing up, or even myself, if I tried to use it. 

But I wanted to learn, and so I gathered up some bravery, did quite a bit of research, and gave the thing a try. 

That's kind of how this whole homesteading/farming journey has been for me. Ethan and I have farmers in family tree and both visited family farms while growing up, but neither of us had much training in the arts and skills of farming and keeping a homestead.  Even before we felt called to farm, I remember how overwhelmed I was with all of the skills I wanted to learn and do, and I still am overwhelmed with what I would still like to accomplish.

With the recollection of my canning journey, I am reminded that some of the biggest accomplishments are those first steps, and although some of these first steps might come with some tumbles, they all are steps in the journey as I learn and grow.  One of the biggest dangers to not taking those first steps, or even the next steps ahead, is trading the readiness to learn and grow into the fear of failing.

So I want to encourage you.  Are there any skills you would like to learn? If you are like me, there are many!  Pick just one.  Do a little research, and take the next step.  Don't be afraid if it doesn't turn out like you had planned. Learn from your experience. Then try again.

And while you are at it, bring someone along with you on your journey.

A child, a friend, a neighbor.

Learn together. Share together. Enjoy together.

Follow The Beginning Farmer's Wife on Facebook for additional personal peeks at building a family farm.

Tools of My Trade

Much of what I preserve is pressure canned due to their low acidity in order to kill all bacteria that would cause dangerous foodborne illnesses. They can be safely canned by using the recommended times and pressures given for your altitude. I have a couple older Mirro pressure canners given to me that work wonderfully, and my mom has a newer one that she loves as well. If you do some asking around, you might find someone who has given up canning and has one available, or you can look for one like the one pictured below. It should hold around 9 pint jars or 7 quart jars.

This book is a wonderful book for beginning pressure canning.  It includes the science behind safe canning, tools needed for canning, the method of canning, and is filled with tons of recipes that will help you can anything from produce from your garden to meats and broths.  I still enjoy flipping through my book to find new recipes to try!

Hoops for a Hoop House!

Today a couple of our farming neighbors/friends came over to help us get the hoops fitted in place for the hoop house we have been working on.  Their helping hands and tractor with the loader were such a help.  We have a bit of straightening to do, and then we will be pulling the tarp over - one of the last steps before the pigs can move in. 

Once the first phase of this project is done, Ethan hopes to share a more detailed overview on his blog.  Until then, I will leave you with some snapshots of the day. (You can click on the photos to see them enlarged.)

 

Running Cable and Placing Pipe Joints 

Moving Right Along

 Finishing the End Hoop

A Closer View 

Hooking Up the Tension Cable

Hoops are Up!

And one of my favorite pictures . . . our 5 year old spent quite a bit of the afternoon in the tractor cab with our neighbor. At the end of the day, he was even allowed to do some of the driving.  It is such a blessing to be part of a community where others not only lend helping hands, but also where friendships are built - including with our children.

Follow The Beginning Farmer's Wife on Facebook for additional personal peeks at building a family farm.

Gifted From Farmhouses of Old

As a young girl, I spent many weekends on my grandparent's farms.  My dad's home farm was 15 minutes east of our house. My mom's home farm was 45 minutes west. Often, we would spend Saturday on one farm and Sunday on the next.

My dad's family had 8 boys born into their family and 4 girls (one of which lived but a short while after birth).  All of these siblings left the farm for other occupations, although one of my aunts did marry back into the farming lifestyle, and one of my uncles bought the farm house to live in with his family when my grandparents moved into town.

My mom's family had 2 boys and 3 girls born into the family. Both boys continue to farm the fields around the homeland, with their houses just a brisk walk from the farm house, which is now being rented.

As I mentioned, my growing up years were filled with memories on my grandparents' farms, the common meeting place for the brothers and sisters, as well as my many cousins (which number near 50 now, not counting spouses and the next generation).

Our days were simple.  Looking for long lost golf balls that young farm boys had hit into the field so many years before we came along, blowing bubbles that floated into the summer sky, water fights to wash away the summer heat, peaceful walks to gaze at growing gardens, sitting on the porch and calling dibs on passing cars when days were lazy, football games when fall called for activity, and cold winter evenings of popping popcorn on the stove, playing with the few simple toys in the closet, card games around the kitchen tables, and the occasional sled ride pulled behind a tractor.

Life was simple and times were peaceful on the farm.  For us at least, who didn't carry the burdens of the farm.

As I became older, I grew to know more and more of the struggles of life on the farm through stories told and memories shared, both from my grandparents and from their children.

I know that struggles can either tear families apart or bind families together.  I am thankful that I have been blessed to see many ways that my aunts and uncles have been bonded together.

Not only were there strong bonds built in their individual families, but there were bonds built between the two sides of my extended family, who both understood the joys and struggles of farming life.  It wasn't uncommon for holiday gatherings to include both sides of my family. 

I remember one Easter in particular, that I looked around the room and greeted my grandparents: "Hi Grandma, Hi Grandma, Hi Grandma (my great grandma), Hi Grandpa, Hi Grandpa."

It was rightly pointed out to me how blessed I was. 

As the years went by, families started spreading out more and more.

And as years continued to wander off, so did the strength of my grandparents, which kept them from those large family gatherings. 

But those bonds remained.

A few years before my maternal grandmother passed away, she told me that she wanted me to have a beaded Christmas tree that my paternal grandmother had made for her.  I told her to write my name on the back of it, and when she was done enjoying it, I would be honored to have it.

I remember the days when my paternal grandmother was making these trees. I was in younger elementary and can still picture her farmhouse dining room table filled with trays of brightly colored beads and costume jewelry gathered from garage sales.  My grandma loving crafted a tree for each of her children, as well as others whom she loved, with beads and charms picked out just for them, just as she carefully crafted her love towards her friends and family through her faith.

The tree that my paternal grandma gifted my maternal grandma includes an A in the middle for Anna Alice, her name.  She also included a K in the bottom corner.  K for Kies, the name I grew up with.  It includes butterflies, flowers, and reminders of my grandma Anna Alice's sprawling flower garden on their homestead, which she so diligently took care of, and which I strolled by along side her on each visit as she showed me the changing colors of each season as the years continued to wander by.

This tree now hangs in my farmhouse dining room at Christmas.

A reminder of my grandparents.

Of bonds formed.

Bonds formed by two families who didn't raise their families together, but who both raised their farm families through times of joys and times of struggles, of which there were many.

This tree from farmhouses of old glimmers memories of joy during each Christmas season and flickers encouragement of perseverance, played out through faith in the One who sustains, when struggles come.

I can't think of a more fitting gift from my Grandma Anna Alice, as well as from my Grandma Kies.

Follow The Beginning Farmer's Wife on Facebook for additional personal peeks at building a family farm.

It's Canning Season . . .

It's canning season.   I've been canning throughout the summer, but now is the time where things really pick up.  This time comes with mixed feelings.

In one sense, it is wonderful to see my efforts in the garden come to fruition . . . or vegetablition, whichever you prefer.  After all of the planting in the spring, the mulching, the weeding, etc - it's nice to get some rewards out of the garden.

On the other hand, some days I just don't want to deal with the garden.  I've been in there hours on end for the last 4-5 months. I have other things I'd rather do, or just other things I need to do, or I just want to go to bed.  But when the produce is ready, the produce is ready.  If you don't take care of it, it spoils.  And then what was the point of putting in all of that labor beforehand.

On those days, I have chosen to tackle my garden tiredness two ways.  First, I have realized that my hobby has turned into my job.  It's a way that I can save money for our family.  A penny saved is a penny earned, right?  And then I remember that I am blessed to be able to have a job, a way to contribute to our family, that is at home.  On the farm.  With the kids. (Who are not always in the garden with me, mostly because of their age, but are playing nearby as I watch their joy in being on our farm with each other.)

The second thing I do is to try and build memories.  When I take my 5 gallons of beans needing to be snapped on our weekend away visiting family or to Bible study or to a visit with family friends, I have often had our friends and family offer to help. (Which isn't why I take them - it just needs to be done.) Or when I sit on the porch with the kids after supper, I call them over and we have a little contest.  Can they keep up with me snapping the ends off of the beans faster than I can snap the bug bites off?

And with each memory I put a mark on the lid.  GK for when I sat with my grandma snapping beans as she shared with me about the orchard that was on her farm when she was growing up.  How their large farming family was poorer than poor but let friends and family come and not purchase but freely pick from the 50 or so apple trees that were on their farm when they purchased it. WBS for my friends in my Women's Bible Study who snapped beans as we visited and shared about the Lord.  I and J for my two littlest boys who joyfully plucked tomatoes out of the cold water bath in order to hand them to me to prepare them for filling up the quart jars.

After those marks of memories go on the lids, the jars go into my pantry.  As the pantry turns from empty jars to a colorful array of jars packed with the harvest, I am reminded of how the Lord has provided for our family and has blessed my efforts.

After I have cleared out and tilled up the garden, and as the days grow shorter and nights turn colder, we start pulling out those jars one by one to fill the plates on our table.  And as I pop off the lids, with the sweet little marks from our children and the marks I put on as well, I am reminded of the memories made throughout the summer and of those who have blessed our family as they have joined me while I do my part for our family.

Follow The Beginning Farmer's Wife on Facebook for additional personal peeks at building a family farm.

Tools of My Trade

Beans must be pressure canned due to their low acidity in order to kill all bacteria that would cause dangerous food born illnesses. They can be safely canned by using the recommended times and pressures given for your altitude. I have a couple older Mirro pressure canners given to me that work wonderfully, and my mom has a newer one that she loves as well. If you do some asking around, you might find someone who has given up canning and has one available, or you can look for one like the one pictured below. It should hold around 9 pint jars or 7 quart jars.

I also have some canning tools that are invaluable. The wide funnel helps keep messes to a minimum when filling jars. When I heat my lids, I just drop them into the hot water of my canner and then lift them out with the magnetic wand. The jar lifters are great for getting those hot jars out of the canner as well. You can buy these tools separately at many stores, or you can purchase them in a kit which contains other useful canning tools, such as the one pictured below.

Thanksgiving Thankfulness from the Farmer's Wife

Every year we have so much to be thankful for, and every year that we are able to continue farming is counted as a blessing - this year especially.

At the beginning of the year we were having to take a good hard look at the logistics of even being able to stay on our farm.  Ethan had a transition in his town work and had been working retail for a year.  It became apparent, however, that his retail job was not a job that would fit with keeping the farm going.  After many long discussions, we decided to be open to the possibility of a move for Ethan to be involved in a ministry job. And so the applications started going out and the interviews started, up to 2 hours away from our farm - which of course would mean selling the farm.

Right as we were in this process, however, Ethan was approached out of the blue by a church within our town.  Ethan met with the leaders of this church to find out what their vision was as they were wanting to learn more about what Ethan's ministry passions were.  Before we knew it, Ethan was offered a full time position, which he started within a month. Not only did this offer allow Ethan to follow his call to ministry, but it also allowed us to keep the farm.

I was amazed and humbled with the timing of this job.  It started the same week that our Downtown Des Moines Farmers' Market started. To be perfectly honest, I was a little worried (read very panicy) as to how farming/farmers' market season/retail job would work for our family.  After 10 weeks of Ethan's new job, I had learned that I really shouldn't have spent so much time worrying.

And then it happened.  One fateful evening at our homeschool softball game, an evening I had stayed at home with the kids for some reason, Ethan tore his achilles tendon. (He did make the out though!) As we sat in the ER trying to process the injury, the questions popped up once more (as they have multiple times, yearly, since we started the farm).  Do we keep going?  Do we sell the animals and keep the land?  Do we just sell it all, buy a small acreage in the country, and become a boating/fishing family once more? 

Thankfully, my good friend, who had driven Ethan to the ER where I would meet up with him, looked me in the eyes and told me not to worry - people would rally behind us and help us get through.  And that is just what happened.

Ethan ended up in a splint for 3 weeks, followed by surgery and a cast for 6 weeks, followed by a walking boot another 3 weeks.  After developing planter faciatis, he was taken out of his walking boot to start physical therapy (which he continues).  I won't lie and say I was not frazzled, completely exhausted, and sometimes went a little nutso from taking over the farm work this summer, but I will say that the Lord provided for our needs.

We were never without family, homeschool friends, and church friends to help us out with things I couldn't get done myself - loading hogs and lamb for the locker, setting up new fence, doing improvements on the farm, manning the market booth when Ethan couldn't, etc.  I also had a meal a week provided to me once each week by my homeschool friends.  I can't say enough how I looked forward to that night of no cooking after early morning chores, hot afternoon chores (did I mention we had historic heat and drought this year), and after supper till the sun went down chores - all while trying to keep the housework up, garden growing, and husband and kids loved.

Ethan kept reminding me it was temporary.  And it was.  One day, shortly after the Farm Crawl (where 1000+ people visit our farm) and as homeschooling was starting, Ethan took over the chores again, be it ever so slowly and carefully. And then our 6 months of Saturday farmers' markets were over.  And now we are in a time of "rest" (for those who have town jobs and farm as we do, you know rest is said in relation to the rest of the year).

Today is Thanksgiving.  Each and every day I am thankful to the Lord for His sacrifice on the cross, which paid the penalty for my sins, and for His resurrection that promised life eternal to all who would follow Him . . . for His sacrifice and promise to me.

But today is a day where I also count my blessings from Him - for Ethan's new job which allowed us to keep the farm.  For family, friends, and our new church family who helped keep our farm afloat this year.  For our customers who cheered us on and blew us away with our best year yet and an increasing demand for our meat. And for what the farm has provided for our family - including the lessons learned.

It seems appropriate that this year is the first year we have had a Thanksgiving meal made completely with food from our farm.  I am reminded of the grace that was given this year to have a meal like this, in a year of drought and injury, and of the grace to be yet another year on the farm.

From our farm: sweet corn, broccoli, carrots, pickles (cucumber and dill), potatoes, sweet potatoes, heritage breed chicken, green beans, cooked carrots

Our sweet children, who were troopers this summer and helped me with growing, harvesting, and preserving each item above.

Follow The Beginning Farmer's Wife on Facebook for additional personal peeks at building a family farm.

Garden Fencing

Things have been quite different around the farm with Ethan's torn achilles tendon.  I have pictures of my August garden, I just haven't had a chance to put my post together.  In an attempt to keep my blog going, I have a post from a guest blogger - our 8 year old son, Caleb.  Enjoy. :)



On August 22nd we had a work day to put fence around the garden to keep the animals out. It was at my house. We had family and friends come to help.

I helped dig holes and put posts in the ground. I watched and learned that the more square it is the better it looks. We used steel and wood posts, and we put the small wood posts 30'' in the ground and the big wood posts 36''. 

I had fun helping on Work Day.

De-Beeing our New Shed

Earlier this spring we brought in a new building to our farm. We are going to fix it up and put it to use soon - but first we had to get out the bees!  Our friend who keeps some hives on our farm helped us with this, and he got a new hive.

 

The tiny opening where they were going in 

Setting up the "Bee Vac"

 

Getting some of the bees from the outside first

 

Time to move inside.  There entrance was right under where the sunlight was coming in.

 

Corner board removed.  Except those aren't honey bees, but bumble bees!

 

Removing the bumble bees

 

There are the honey bees!

 

A peek inside

 

A better peek inside 

 

Collecting the bees

 

A shot downward after many bees had been captured

     

  

Bees in their box, ready to be relocated.

I had to leave for the last part, but the comb was removed - the honey was not dry enough to be used so it will be given to the bees who will take it into their new hive.  And now our building is ready to be worked on!

The 3rd Building on CGF Arrives!

As many of our blog followers might know, we purchased our farm about 4 years ago with absolutely nothing on it except trees, grasses, and massive ant hills. We have come along way since we first broke ground here, but we still have quite a bit of set up to do! 

One of the things that we are much in need of is more structures.  We have our house and our open face shed that we built, but that is it.  With all of our different livestock, we really would like more buildings.


About 1/2 mile away, on the top of the hill on an old farmstead, we saw this old 12 x 20 grain building.  We contacted the owners of the land, met with them and enjoyed hearing the history of the farmstead, and we were given permission to purchase and move the building.

Since it was built with 3 skids, which had been resting on concrete, it would have been a simple-ish task to move it to our property after a good snow, pulling it behind our tractor. But alas, we didn't have much snow this winter and it is now almost May.  So we did the next best thing. Ethan got ahold of his cousin, who also farms and can do about anything - and who has a grate trailer and an assortment of tractors, and requested some help.

I trailed behind with the camera to capture the process.  Here's my best attempt.
*You can click on the photos to enlarge them.


Ethan and Verne hooked up the front corners of the building with chains to the loaders of 2 4020 tractors.  They then lifted up the front of the building.


Verne backed the trailer under the building. (The trailer had some steel extensions on the bed so the skids would have support on them.)

Next, the building was hooked up to the winch.  This would have easily pulled the building up onto the trailer . . . except the winch wasn't getting power from the batteries or something.  I didn't ask!



So plan B - Pull both tractors parallel to the trailer, hook them up again to the corners of the building, and back the tractors up to pull the building onto the trailer.


 Now, the large, heavy building somewhat was on pivot point being pulled on different corners by 2 tractors.  All I will say is that it is a bit tricky to reverse at the same rate with 2 different tractors, and I was glad with the building was on the trailer and sitting still!


After the building was on the trailer, I had to take off to town with our kiddos for our home school coop.


Ethan said that they then chained the building to the trailer and headed down the road.


The 1/2 mile drive was uneventful, and they pulled up into our pasture behind the house.


Unloading the building seemed to be a bit easier, although pulling the building off with the tractor didn't seem to be the best way to go power wise.  They kept the tractor chained up, though, and just pulled the trailer ahead. The weight of the tractor seemed to do the trick as the trailer pulled ahead, and the building slid off the back.  Just before the last part of the building came off the trailer, they once again hooked the building up to both tractor loaders to hold it in the air while they finished pulling the trailer out, and then they gently lowered the end of the building to the ground.

So now we have another building here!  We have a bit of work to do before we use it though.  First off - we discovered that it came with honey bees in the walls! Thankfully we have a bee keeping friend who is excited to capture the colony for a hive.  We then need will need to reside it to keep it tight.  We need to make it predator safe since we plan on brooding some chicks in one of half of it. (There is a full wall in the middle, dividing the building in half.)  And lastly, before we pull it to its permanent location, we want to put some lengths of cement down to help it be level and stay off of the ground.  Since we will be putting a bit of work and some money into it, we want it to last a long time! 

So there you have it!  Hopefully I can get some pictures and posts of the bee extraction and fixing up of it. I'm sure excited to put it to use though!

Follow The Beginning Farmer's Wife on Facebook for additional personal peeks at building a family farm.

2011 Farm Crawl

If you haven't been following our farm on Facebook, you might be wondering if we are still around. Well, we are - we are just completely caught up in farm life!   Ethan is still working 40 hours in town, I'm still homeschooling and taking care of our 4 kids, and we are still trying to keep the farm moving ahead.  We have been slowly making progress here as we continue to expand not only our farm, but also our markets, as we have started selling at the Downtown Des Moines Farmers Market on Saturdays.  Needless to say, our days are full!!

We've had many people who have wanted to come get a little tour of our place over the last couple of years, and we hope to be able to do this more at some point when Ethan moves more of his time to on the farm.  For those of you itching to get a glimpse, however, we would like to extend an invitation to come on out this Sunday, October 2nd for the 2011 Farm Crawl.

We are blessed to have a great group of like minded farmers for neighbors, and we have been blessed to be welcomed to their tour of farms, know as the Farm Crawl.  So, if you are able, come on over and say "Hi" - and let us know you read our blog too!

You can find directions and more info at www.farmcrawl.com, but here's an excerpt from the website.

Farm Crawl 2011

Eight independent family farm operations, all within an easy drive of each other in south-central Iowa, are jointly hosting open houses. Enjoy a leisurely autumn day “crawling” from farm to farm (Okay, you don't actually crawl, you drive yourself between farms). 

Come visit south Marion County/north Lucas County (one hour south of Des Moines) to see each of our individual operations.   Tour the farms, visit the animals, meet the farmers, sample the goodies, purchase locally grown & produced products,  and have lots of fun in the beautiful Iowa countryside!  Visit special guest vendors at some of the farms.   FREE admission onto all of the farms (there is a charge to enter the corn-maze at Dan-D Farm).

NO PETS - for the safety of our farm animals and guests, please leave your animals at home.

The eight farms include: Blue Gate Farm, Coyote Run Farm, Dan-D Farms, Pierce’s Pumpkin Patch
Reichert’s Dairy Air, Schneider Orchards, White Breast Pottery and Weaving and new this year: Crooked Gap Farm.

Follow The Beginning Farmer's Wife on Facebook for additional personal peeks at building a family farm.

Social Networking

A big part of getting our name out for our farm has been social networking. Obviously, our blogs have played a part. If you haven't found our other sites though, here's a list:

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/crookedgapfarm

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/crookedgapfarm

Our Website:
http://www.crookedgapfarm.com

Ethan's Blog:
http://thebeginningfarmer.blogspot.com

Another big part of getting our farm going has been all of the help we have received from others, including the help we are continuously getting from my parents as we press on in our set up. My dad has recently retired from John Deere and is now getting his woodworking business back in full swing again. (He did his woodworking full time for around 10 years when laid off during the farm crisis and part time once called back again until retirement.) My dad is also jumping in on the social networking scene. You can check out his craftsmanship and sites here:

His Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/TomKiesWoodworks

His Etsy Page:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/tomkieswoodworks

His Website/Blog:
http://tomkieswoodworks.blogspot.com

Just for a snapshot, here is one of his latest pieces of furniture - perfect for a farmer's mudroom (unfortunately, not ours).

This set of lockers includes 4 open lockers and 1 locker with a door for storage. Glove and hat cubbies are above each locker. Under and extending in front of the lockers, making a bench, are 5 divided boot boxes with individual hinged lids. This set of lockers is made of oak and raised panel construction.

Simple Joys on a Snowy Day

This afternoon, Ethan, my dad, and I went down to woods (while my mom played with the kids) to get some firewood for the next couple weeks of winter.

It was a beautiful day for being outside in the woods with the large fluffy snowflakes quietly floating down. The air was cool enough to keep me from overheating too much while carrying logs to the wagon, but not too cold to become uncomfortable if I would stop just to look around.

We were able to get a good number of trees cut and into the wagon today, hopefully enough for 2-3 weeks of heat if it doesn't get too frigid in February.

While I was working, I came across another reason why I love it here. Many times I find myself in wonder at the simple things that amuse and bring joy to my one year old. Often I wish to be that easily thrilled. Today, was one of those days where I felt just as amused and thrilled as Isaac: Taking in the beauty of the quite snowy woods, staring wide eyed while watching an 18 inch diameter log accidentally roll 30 feet down a hill - opposite the direction to the wagon, laughing as I tried to roll the log back up the woodsy hill and amused as it gathered the wet snow while becoming increasingly heavy but looking more and more like the bottom of Frosty the snowman, and also becoming confusingly excited over finding a large dead oak tree (where the snowman log originated from) that meant hotter fires and fewer loadings of the stove.

When we first started on this farming journey, there were a lot of romanticized thoughts about starting a small farm from scratch. Many days it has been anything but romantic, and even today brought its share of farm troubles. Cutting wood this afternoon, however, was one of the ways that the Lord not only refreshes me but also reminds me of the simple joys in life.

Merry Christmas from Stoneyfield Farm!

You might be thinking that I'm bit late and should be wishing you a Happy New Year. Well, it's still Christmas around here. We have 7 family Christmas parties in 9 days this year with 2 to go. So we're getting there.

As you might have noticed from Ethan and my blogs, or lack thereof, December has been a busy month. I read once that winter was supposed to be the down time for farmers. I feel like that is quite the opposite here. Chores go A LOT slower in the winter, equipment is harder to work with, and the animals need extra attention - especially with record setting snow storms and rain/sleet/ice/snow storms that go for days.

I have had multiple times where I have just about been ready to sit down and write a blog post, and then something comes up (or our home computer stops working for a few days here and there). So I now decided to just take a moment and let anyone who still happens to lurk know we're still hanging in there. We have managed to keep the fire going too, literally, with the help of church friends blessing us with a few truckloads of wood on a few separate occasions - without being asked and always when we just run out.

So to end this quick, random update - may the promise of Christmas continue into your New Year, even if you don't have 2 more Christmas parties left. :) Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!