ahh garden work...

Do you remember when I blogged about all my tomatoes? Well here they are, a few pictures anyways! We had 18 tomato plants this year and they produced lots of tomatoes! I think I had 5-6 bushels of them over the course of the summer! I was very pleased with that too. I had to buy spaghetti sauce last winter when my supply ran out, boy I hated to do that! If I can do it myself, I'd rather do it, and with the food we eat, I like to know where it's coming from. Besides, my husband loves my sauce, and he hates pasta! So I get to eat pasta and he likes the flavor of it!! Win win for both I think! My mouth just waters looking at these beautiful tomatoes, all warm and juicy from the summer heat, just begging to be picked and turned into a tomato sandwich, grilled cheese and tomato,  mozzarella cheese, oh the list goes on and on!! I think you get the picture! We had enough tomatoes for pasta sauce, pizza sauce, and some stewed tomatoes for soups this winter! I'd like to try ketchup, and salsa next year. I think my supply will last until next summer too! I like that, knowing I have a beautiful cubbord, made by my husband, filled with our canned goods to eat and enjoy the fruit of our hands this winter! I find something very satisfying about working in the garden, getting my hands brown with dirt, sweat dripping down my back, the kids happily picking right along beside me. Knowing all the hard work of gardening and canning will be worth it come winter. Something in Maine we are always preparing for! Speaking of winter I better go and get some wood on the fire before it goes out!

One of 18 tomato plants loaded with tomatoes! If you look close you can see the green ones!

I love the way the sun was hitting this tomato cluster! 

This is one of the many bushels of tomatoes I canned this summer!

The final products! The small one is pizza sauce, then pasta sauce, then stewed tomatoes! Yummy!

winter projects...

Well I guess now that the snow is now here, probably to stay I have a little more time to do some other non-farm projects. No hay to get in before it rains, you know the typical farm things. I am working on a baby blanket for a friend of mine, who is having a girl, in case you couldn't tell from the wonderful color of the blanket. I don't think the camera did the color justice, it's called strawberry, by Simply Soft and I love it! The stitch is a seed stitch, what a pain, but I love the way the patten comes out. One of my sisters tells me I'm crazy to make another blanket in the seed stitch, but... what can I say I'm a glutton for punishment!! haha!! I think maybe I'll step outside my comfort zone of my limited ability of knitting and actually get and follow a pattern! (There is one that I want to try, and was going to for this blanket, but procrastinated, and didn't get it done). My grandmother would be proud to here that. She shutters every time I call with a knitting question, and she asks what pattern I'm using, and I say "Oh I'm just winging it!" I can see her shuddering now as I type that! So I think I'll try a pattern with some left over yarn, this winter and count the stitches and all!! Yeah! Maybe I'll keep you posted, if I actually do that. I  know of a few more friends that are expecting babies next year so maybe..... I should go and finish the blanket, the baby shower is on Saturday, and I have some knitting left to do to finish her gift!! But before you go check out the blanket!!

check out my view!

I can see the flickering of the fire in our wood stove, yellow and red out of the corner of my eye and feel it's warmth spreading all over me and the house keeping out the cold, almost winter night air. I though of the beautiful sunsets that I get to enjoy almost all year long here on the farm, and wanted to share two of the sunsets we had this year. They are all different and breathtakingly beautiful, like a painter that turns the plain white canvas into something spectacular with the colors coming off the canvas and screaming "here I am!" I never tire of looking at the sunsets. Even when we are crazy busy on the farm I am sometimes shocked to see the time slipping into darkness and the sun peeks out from behind a cloud and sets it on fire with it's beauty. Both of these pictures were taken from across the street from our farm. I can see the sunset from my large kitchen window, but sometimes wonder outside with the camera to try to capture it's beauty, or just enjoy watching the sun fade down behind the mountains. I feel blessed with such a view and have enjoyed it for 11 years! Matthew and I have often said that one of the hardest things to leave behind when we settle our own land will be the sunsets that we have enjoyed here! We hopefully will have a spectacular view from our farm and will become native to that land! I hope you enjoy them too! 

This has to be my favorite picture of the sunset! I never get tired of looking at it.  It reminds me of my Creator that His art work is timeless.

Ahhh the beauty of life!

meet the crew...

Well this is us!!

Abby & Time Out

 

                                                                 Minty, DaLaney & Daisy
                                      DaLaney loves her sheep, and as you can see they love her too!

The great mousers Laural and Hardy! They are great cats and are fun to watch too. We are very pleased that they are such good hunters and best buddies!

Back Row: Little Matt, & DaLaney
Front Row: Emma & Rachel 

Amy & Matthew

Magnolia aka Maggie
This is not at our farm, it is where we bought her. She was dry and going to calve in the middle of July!

Welcome high speed!! Very excited to have it, now I can share pictures! I don't have any pictures of the chickens that we have left, so I'll have to get one!! We put a heat light in the chicken coop, on a timer, so maybe they will lay eggs. I hate buying eggs at the store. I only use them for cooking, and I have a craving for egg mcmuffins and bacon too!! Oh well, we'll see!

update on time out...

We have been continuing Time Outs driving training. Say that fast! It's a mouthful! She's doing well with it too. She still gags and chews on the bit, but it gives her something to think about. We put the driving reins on her this afternoon, and I was the lucky one to walk behind her. Matthew walked beside her, and would signal me when he wanted me to gently pull back on the reins to get her to "whoa." Matthew would say whoa and I would gently put pressure on her mouth, to get her used to the feel of pressure on her mouth and link that to stopping. She did well. Abby was in the barn eating hay, and didn't seem to care, this time. Last time we worked with Time Out, Abby threw a fit! Running around bucking, kicking and neighing with great effort!  (I think she was wanting to be part of it too. I used to drive her.) We will continue to work with Time Out with the driving reins and see how she goes.  She once in a while she will dance sideways and throw her head, but with a quick snap of the lead and a firm "no" she settles down .She's very willing to learn and work. She is still young and there is still a good space in her knees, so we can't work her too hard, or we could damage her legs, and we don't want to do that. We are just taking it slow and easy, Time Out likes it like that. Matthew has a comforting voice and is slow and quiet with her, and she responds well to him.
We have acquired a "new" sleigh, and Matthew and some friends are out getting it now, and now we hope to be literally singing "oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh!!!" this winter! We had a delivery to make earlier this summer to a farm, and we saw it out and thought hhuuummmm... Well anyone that knows Matthew knows he's not one to let that sort of thing just go. He looked at me, looked at the sleigh, looked at me again, and got back out of the van. The kids and I just sat in the van and waited. Well, the owner of said sleigh was not home but the people that worked there said call him, so that night Matthew called him. The man never got back to him, so we figured it was a no go, but yesterday he (Matthew) ran into him and the guy was like just come get it, and get it outta there!! OK! So that is where he is now! Very excited about that. Now with the fore cart, and the sleigh we are all set to go for rides. And with Time Out in training we are praying things continue to go well and can enjoy it all!! I will keep you posted in our progress, and any rides we take, good or bad!

good quote

"Take the time to enjoy the humor of the farm. Watch the calves run across the field, kicking up their heels. Tussle with your children in the hay mow after the last bale is in. Enjoy the sunset." Joel Salatin, Family Friendly Farming (book)
Reminds me of the day Time Out jumped over a 3 foot snow drift last year! She was feeling frisky after the snow storm, her first winter and she loved it! Just running, jumping, kicking and rolling around in the snow, being a baby in her first winter here on the farm!

testing...

The sap evaporator, "saperator" is home and almost all set up for this spring! In with the new, out with the old, it's in the sap house and looks good. Matthew, Little Matt and one of Matthew's brothers came over to help set it up. Needs a few tweaks and a few more things and it will be finished and will be ready for boiling! Can't wait!
The rest of Thanksgiving week was well, horrible to say the least. I found out that something on the sawmill broke as well. Not sure if it's been fixed or not. The insurance company still has not even looked at the van, and we've been using my in-laws cars, and then last Sunday we lost the heater core, again! So it's back at the garage. The garage that has fixed it has been great to deal with too. Hopefully they will continue to be that way! And today Matthew found a hole in the tractor tent! And if it continues it will rip out the top and the tractor will not be covered! Aaaaaahhhhghggg. But the good news is it can be fixed. Called the company and it's only 20$ to get a patch kit, and he'll eat the shipping charge. Maggie should be coming into heat in the next few weeks as well.

The other day we went up into the back field, behind our neighbors house and cut some hay, that would have been second crop had we gotten to it, and piled it on the hay wagon loose and are feeding it to the horses. They like it and have been eating it right up! Little Matt drove the tractor, I pitched it on the wagon, Matthew tromped it down on the wagon, and the girls ran around giggling. DaLaney wanted to drive the tractor, but Daddy said not yet. Maybe next summer. Was fun!