Naming our Farm and 1901 Plat Map

Ethan is very interested in Early American history, especially the 18th century. John Adams has been a man that he respects, and when he found his farm name to be Stoneyfield Farm, he thought that would be a good name for our farm as well. We did quite a few searches to make sure it was a unique name, and we didn't find any matches. So Stoneyfield we became.

Well, it has become apparent to us that we are not along. Since naming our farm, we have discovered another company with the same name, although spelled differently - the reason we didn't come across it at first. Stonyfield Farm, which makes organic yogurt, has been around for a bit now and has grown into a well respected business.

Because of this, we decided that this year we are going to change our name.

SO - we are brainstorming! Here are some of the things we hope a name could reflect:

1- Early American history, particularly the 18th century, founding fathers, and/or early American farming

2- Family farms

3- Farming naturally, or "old fashioned"

Some other things:

We are starting to focus on heritage breeds. We have had Dexter Cattle, but we are also starting to focus on Hereford hogs - a heritage breed originating from Iowa and Nebraska.

We have also pulled up a plat mat from 1901 in hopes of finding something that would spark an idea. Although not much was sparked, it was interesting to see nonetheless.

The yellow square is our 40 acres of land. It was once part of Noah Simpson's 80 acres, which is the additional orange square. The homestead was on the far east of his property.

To the north was another homestead. From seeing this map and others, we can be fairly confident that we are the first homestead on our land.

There were also 3 schools in the area (purple), 2 churches (green), and 1 cemetery (white).

The 2 original homestead cites listed and the cemetery are still being used. The churches and schools are no longer around or have visible remains.

We are going to continue to do some digging around and brainstorming, and hopefully we will have our new name by summer so we can continue setting up our business.

p.s. We also checked out George Washington's farm names: Muddy Hole Farm, Union Farm, Mansion House Farm, Dogue Run Farm, River Farm, and Little Huntg. Creek Farm. Struck out there as well, although Ethan was particularly fond of Muddy Hole Farm with all of the rains we have had since we bought this place . . . sure has made things tough to get going.

Cloth Napkins, Hankies, and Milk Jugs

I'm always looking for ways to cut down on spending. One of the things that I have tried to cut down on is household consumables. A few years back I decided to make some cloth napkins and hankies.

To do this, I went to Walmart, when they still had their fabric department, and bought some inexpensive flannel. I then surged around the outside to make squares. I ended up with stripped wash cloth napkins, pink hankies for Hannah, and blue hankies for Caleb.

These have worked out really well. The napkins are great for cleaning spaghetti stained faces, and the kids can keep their hankies in their pockets or on their dinner chairs. They can go through as many as they would like, and if one get's left around, there's no guessing as to who's germs it holds.

I've tweeked the laundering of the napkins and hankies a bit to keep laundry hampers from becoming musty and gross. I now have a milk jug (easy to toss when needs replacing) under the kitchen sink that these napkins get dropped in. I put a touch of vinegar in the water, which keeps the water a bit more fresh and have a drip protector under the jug in case the kids don't get a cloth in all of the way and it wicks water out.

I also have a post it note sticker on my warm wash cycle, so whenever I do a load of warms I remember to retrieve the milk jug.

This seems to work out great for our kids, and it has really cut down on the paper napkins and kleenexes that we buy.

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.

Pig Parts?

Right now I am in Minnesota while Ethan is at home with the 2 older kids. I stole away to help some dear friends who are getting ready to adopt 2 girls from Ethiopia. Since I have a couple free minutes, I thought I would throw out a question.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of talking with a customer who purchased some of our pork, who also happens to be a chef. He was interested in having us save pork shanks and hoofs. Although we have had requests to save jowls and lard, this is a new request for us. So my question is . . . do any of you cook with any out of the ordinary pig parts - things that you wouldn't see at your typical meat counter? If you do, how do you prepare them?

I look forward to hearing responses, and hopefully I can toss up some pictures once I get back home. (We are in the process of setting up a new computer since our home one has pretty much officially died after months of squeezing every last bit of life out.)

Personalized Plaque Giveaway - Winner!!

Out of 43 eligible responses, random.org picked number 28. So the winner is . . . Suzy!

Congratulations, Suzy! You can check out her blog, Life at the Big Red Barn. Thanks to everyone for being a part. :)

I'd like to thank all of my faithful readers for continuing to check in this winter. And for checking in this week, I have a great giveaway that you can take part in! CSN stores has offered to give away a garden or house plaque to one of my US or Canadian readers.

For this giveaway, CSN has offered your choice of a personalized plaque - which is up to a $75 value. You can either chose the tractor plaque (9.25" H x 15.75" W ) or the chickadee plaque which comes with steaks (10.75" H x 16.125" W ) shown below. These plaques can be personalized with your family name, farm name, house numbers, or even a favorite phrase.
All you have to do is leave a comment with a valid e-mail address so I can contact you if you win. To protect from spam, you are welcome to leave it in the "johndoe at email dot com" format. I will also delete all comments after the giveaway.

All comments with e-mails left until January 18th will be placed in the giveway. Comments must be left on this post and not sent to my e-mail. Multiple comments from the same reader will disqualify the reader. I will use random.org to pick the winner and will announce the lucky reader shortly afterward.

Remember, you must have a US or Canadian mailing address to enter, and be sure to leave your e-mail address in your comment. :)

Thanks again for stopping by!

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!

How to Avoid Thawing a Turkey

Usually around Thanksgiving time, Ethan cooks a turkey and I freeze it for the meat for the year. We didn't get around to getting one last year with all of the building and moving, but the year before that we did. I remember that it was a big one, and I remember Ethan saying, "I'm never getting one this big again!".

Well, this year Ethan brought home a turkey. Obviously he didn't remember his declaration because it was a 24 lb turkey. In order to save freezer space, I canned all of it this year. So here is what a 24 lb turkey yields - along with a few meals and turkey sandwiches.
Next year we hope to have a non-Walmart turkey. I will see if I can convince Ethan into getting another 24 lb turkey so we can see the difference in amount of meat.

(Also, if you don't get my title, you will have to read the previous post.)

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