The Wait Continues

Well, the builders haven't been back the last two days. Their ladders are still there, and we haven't gotten the final bill yet so I am assuming they just went to another project for a bit and will be back to finish ours. It seems as if they are trying to juggle quite a few projects right now, but it is hard to be patient especially when they are so close to being done.

At least the ridge vent is on the roof now and all of the doors can be closed so we don't have to worry about water getting in anymore. It is also possible to lock everything up so maybe we'll start moving things over anyway.

Day 12 of Construction

They are sooooo close to being done! It looks like there isn't even 1/2 a days work left. If it wasn't for the ladders they left, I would have thought that they just overlooked a few of the details. Here are some pictures:

6 Random Things that Led to Farming

Today I was tagged by my friend Lindsie at This Abode to write 6 random things about myself. I encourage everyone to check out her blog - it's a great one!

So here are my 6 random things. I will preface it by saying that these are actually things that have been popping into my head as we have started up on this farming journey. They didn't directly lead to us farming, but when I look back at them I can see how they fed into what we are doing. So here I go. This may make me look like a nerd! :)

1) For some random reason in high school, I decided to keep a record of every penny I spent and earned. I would write down my transactions on a little 2x3 notebook I kept in my purse. Then I would take it home and enter it into a spreadsheet I put together on our old Macintosh Performa. I could then see where my money was coming from and going to.

2) Ever since I was young I have had aquarium fish. When I was in junior high and high school, my interest in aquarium fish really took off, and I decided to start raising guppies. Maybe it was because they were relaxing, maybe because I love to go fishing, maybe because I wanted to make money, maybe it was because I enjoyed the record keeping and management of it all . . . but I had at least 5-6 tanks of them upstairs and in our basement at one time. They were really pretty - I remember they were Blue Delta Tails and Pink Flamingos. I kept careful records of how many were born, how much I spent on them, how many I sold, and what I earned from them. It was either those records or the ones from my Buff Cochin raising project that went to the Iowa State Fair. Although I knew it was a strange hobby, I enjoyed it.

When I met Ethan at UNI, I told him about what I had done. He set up 3 tanks and tried it himself. I don't think any of his made it to the pet store though. :) We still have a 55 gal aquarium of fish that we have kept multiple types of fish in, but I'm afraid to say that our fish days are probably over once we move to the farm with no central air and just a wood burning stove.

3) This is somewhat related to above, but my relatives (that's you Tim) had a computer that you could do a career assessment on. You answered questions about your interests and skills, and it gave you a printout of what careers you would be well suited for. I did this my junior or senior year of high school. Everyone laughed at me when my top career was "Animal Breeder". I laughed too and thought that even though I enjoyed working with animals I would never be an animal breeder for my career. What a random career.

4) I also love working with plants. My bedroom looked like a rain forest in Junior High and High School. I had all kinds of indoor plants (and a cockatiel and parakeets) in my room. I enjoyed working with the plants - seeing how I could propagate them and under what conditions they would grow well in. I took care of our family garden in the summer too. meaning I planted it, weeded it, and ate what grew in it. (I don't know if I did it more for the food or the great tan!) Also, I was the one who pruned and trimmed all of the bushes, fruit trees, and shade trees on our 4 acres. It was a type of art to get them to look nice, and it was interesting to see how the trimming affected them.

5) My mom was the Home Ec teacher at my high school. I was the bad daughter and never took any of her classes, even though both of my brothers did. I filled my schedule with as much math and science as I could fit in, and then I used my left over time slot to take the agriculture class every year - aquaculture, farm business management, and two other things. I was also in FFA. I didn't really know what I wanted to do with them. We lived in the country but just with 4 acres and a variety of small country pets. I just knew I enjoyed that kind of stuff.

6) At the end of my Junior year of college I decided that I was going to Iowa State and was going to do something with horticulture. I went with my parents and my cousin Tim. We signed up to meet with advisers and get the full tour. When we got there, the only thing they showed me was their turf grass management program. I was so bored. I didn't want to spend my life working on a golf course taking care of their grass.

Around Christmas of my senior year, I decided to open one of the multiple college mailings that I usually threw away. It was from a Christian college, as were many of the other letters that got tossed in the trash. After I opened it, my eyes immediately fell on the words "Christian Education". It was like they were in bold print. At that moment I wrote off Iowa State and decided to go to UNI to major in Education. I graduated with a degree in Early Childhood Education and Elementary Education. I spent quite a bit of time reading in the small campus greenhouse though.

Just a few years ago I was quite upset to find out that Iowa State has scores of green houses that I never had heard about, as well as multiple horticulture programs besides turf grass management. It all worked out though. I met my wonderful husband my freshman year at UNI, worked 2 years at a Cono Christian School as the 4-6 grade teacher after graduation (we also had 6-8 high school boys living in our basement in our care), and then I became a stay at home wife and mom - and I absolutely love teaching our kids.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

So there you go. The budgeting that I did has helped me with managing our money up until now where we felt able to make the move to the country, and I believe it will help me with keeping our financial records with the farm. The fish (and chicken) projects were a great learning experience and I'm sure will be a help with our registered Dexter herd, other animals, and finding which divisions of the farm are most profitable. Little did I know, but the career assessment may have been more accurate than I thought it was. What I learned about plants has definitely helped me get going with our gardening and food preservation (although you wouldn't be able to tell from this year!) Although I was the bad daughter in my class choices in high school, I believe they have benefited me with what we are starting up. And lastly, although my college choice may have been a more beneficial career choice if I went to Iowa State (although I do LOVE teaching!), UNI was definitely the better family choice - which holds far more importance than any career!

All of this makes me think of these verses, God's plan for my life, and the way he created me. No point in fighting it. :)

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. ~Psalm 139:13-14

In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps. ~Proverbs 9:16

Thanks, Lindsie, for the opportunity for reflection. (Make sure to check out This Abode!)

Day 11 of Construction

Since today was a detail day with construction, you might want to click on the pictures to see the detail a bit closer.

The final trim work, ridge vent, and slider are all that is really left for our builder now.

From this first picture, you can see the soffit is now in place under the roof overhang. The soffit is complete all around the house. They also got the trim in place on one of the corners. It looks really sharp, and up close it looks like a white column.


















They also got started on the detail work of the porch. The red siding is halfway across the porch overhang, and some of the trim is started along side it. I think this really sets off the porch. You can see the difference from yesterday's picture.




Yesterday the builder thought they would be completed on Wednesday, so hopefully tomorrow we will see every last bit of trim on and will be able to start locking things up inside. Ethan ran into someone driving their 4 wheeler around the house last week when he went out, and tonight I saw more fresh 4 wheeler tracks. I will feel better when we can put some of our things behind lock and key.

Day 10 of Construction

Ethan has quite a busy week this week, so this morning I went out to the farm with the kids to check on the pigs.

When we pulled up, I was quite excited to see that our builders were back! Today they are working on the ends of the house. When I went back out at noon to spray the pigs down (it is HOT this week - high humidity and heat index over 100) they had one of the sides done already. They said that they hope to be completely done with the building by Wednesday.





Also, when I pulled up and hopped out of the truck this morning, there was a gravel truck that followed me in. I was quite confused for a bit since I hadn't ordered any gravel for the drive yet, but I soon found out that they were starting to bring the loads of rock and sand for the septic system. Good news for us girls on the farm!Other than that, I picked some more berries during my morning trip before it got too hot. I will put these in the freezer and combine them with my next picking so I am sure to have enough for all blackberry jam.

The second picture is from 10:30 am on Tuesday. They were just finishing putting the last siding pieces on the peak when I pulled up. They were also working on the soffit on the mudroom.

Double Berry Jam

This week as I walked down to the ravine to gather blackberries, the cool of the valley hit me about the same time as the sweet smell in the air. I knew the blackberries were starting to swing into full gear!

I have saved my last two pickings of blackberries in the fridge so yesterday afternoon I thought I would give jam making a try. I am usually quite nervous when I try something new like this, as I was when I started experimenting with canning last year.

I would prefer to learn along side someone who is up to date on the safety standards with canning. It is hard to find people who still do canning though and who are familiar with how things have changed since Grandma did it. It is even harder to coordinate time to work together too, especially with two little ones and our random building schedule this summer. Thankfully, I live in the information age and have the help of the internet at my fingertips! (Although, you have to remember to check sources and cross examine information since anyone can post anything they want, accurate or not - including myself!)

So, after digging up recipes for blackberry jam, I finally gave it a try. It was surprisingly easier than I thought, and the Sure-Jell box of pectin even had step by step instructions - which I found after looking for them on the internet. The internet was still useful, however, since I was able to see pictures, get the steps in more details, and learn a few tips not included in the pectin packet.

My jam turned out great, and although I found out mid process that the blackberries I had weren't quite enough, I had some frozen strawberries on hand that I added to make my blackberry jam a double berry jam. I think it was a good addition to the jam, although I'm curious to what plain blackberry jam tastes like. I'm hoping to pick enough next round to do find out the answer!

Here is a site that I found that was very helpful.

Also, although I know to put vinegar in the water bath when canning, I didn't think of it while doing jam. The jars came out quite cloudy on the outside from the minerals, but a good wipe down with vinegar made them sparkle again to show off the beautifully colored jam inside.

And one more thing . . . someone once told me not to buy off brand sugar when making jam, as it usually contains beet sugar - which doesn't allow for a good set. So I bought the pure cane sugar, and my jam set nicely.

Who Wants to be Stewed?

Ethan and I have been a bit disappointed with our new hens. If you remember, we brought back 6 from Ethan's uncle. This is the same number we had last summer when we were getting a 2-3 dozen eggs a week. With these hens, we are happy to get 1/2 dozen a week.

I have had my suspicions about these hens. There has been a time or two when we have been out to the farm in the evening and have pulled up to see an egg in the box. When we go to collect the egg before we leave, however, it is gone. So I've been thinking that maybe it isn't the laying of the eggs that is the problem, but the eating of the eggs - by the chickens.

Well, today we were out at the farm for 2 hours talking with the Des Moines register. When we pulled up there was an egg in the nest box. I grabbed it right away. While we were visiting, 2 more eggs appeared in the nest box. Out they came too!

Hmmmm . . . as many eggs in 2 hours as we sometimes find in a week. Something doesn't seem right about that! So, unless we can find a way to get these hens to stop eating their eggs, they might not stick around that long. Feed is too expensive to just end up feeding them the eggs that pay their keep.

Anyone have any ideas or things that you know work?