Garden Plant Stakes

Easy DIY Garden Plant Stakes

It has been in the single digits here in Ohio, even down to -0- degrees one morning this week.
And the wind chill makes it even worst.

This time of year and this kind of weather makes me long for warm summer days and my garden.

Each year I try to mark my vegetable seed rows with a plant marker so I know where the row is and what's in it.

Here is an inexpensive plant stake that's easy to make.

Easy Hay Feeder

Building a Pallet Hay Feeder

We started our goat herd in November of 2012.
Our baby goats, 3 kids, are now about 3 to 3 1/2  months old and finally weaned.

I started shopping around for a good quality hay feeder.  Goats are notorious for wasting hay.  My goat mentor and giver of the goats, Shelby, told me early on that if I wanted to save money on feed and hay, I needed to buy or build feeders.
Goats pull large amounts of hay onto the floor at a time, then once on the floor it is just too dirty and unclean for them to even think about eating!
Spoiled rotten goats, says I.

The Old Farmers Exchange

I wrote this in 2007 I think,  and sent it out in an email to family members who might remember the old feed store in the town where we grew up. I was asked about this just a couple days ago and asked if I would post it on this blog.
So here it is:

The Old Grove City Farmers Exchange

While in a committee meeting this morning I got news that the silos for the Grove City Farmers Exchange were going to be torn down. I decided to stop and get a couple photos. There were quite a few other people there, a small crowd even.  There were older people who remember how Grove City used to be, farmers, shop owners, neighbors, even people sitting in lawn chairs, all had come to watch and a few others like me taking photos.

Gift Tags

Homemade Gift Tags

Ever wish you had something you could do with the greeting cards left over from the Holidays?
Here’s a great way to reuse or recycle them.
Make your own homemade one of a kind gift tags!

Use these templates or make your own shape and style:

Easy To Make Doughnuts

Homemade Doughnuts

Cutting out doughnuts with my old cutter

I have been researching flour and trying to find a better quality and healthier brand to use.
I came across an article in the Mother Earth News magazine my husband recently picked up for me. It’s about bread making and using a more natural flour.  One of the flour brands recommended was King Authur.

There is nothing better than homemade-fresh-from-the-oven bread topped with real butter.  When growing up my mother made us loaves of bread, and I have yet to taste better.

Home Grown and Buying Local

What's in our food?

There are so many reports out now about the dangers of GMO's,  High Fructose Corn Syrup,  Preservatives,  Chemicals and many other things in our food. 
Evidence is growing that many foods with additives are addictive like cocaine according to a growing body of Scientific Research.

I think it is a good idea for everyone to make their own choice about what they are consuming, but the choice should at least be an informed decision. 

After a lot of reading and research, my husband and I have been slowly changing our eating habits over the last few years.  We grow more of our own food in our vegetable and herb gardens and hope to continue to expand.

Cranberry Nut Granola

Homemade Granola

Last year at Christmas I received a jar of homemade granola. It was a basic granola, great for putting on cereal and yogurt and eating right out of the jar as a snack. It didn’t last long!

That gift got me thinking all year about making my own granola, and now that Christmas is right around the corner, it’s a perfect time to try it.

What is granola?  Granola is a breakfast or snack food consisting of oats, nuts and honey. Raisins, dried fruits and dates are sometimes added. Some even have puffed rice. The granola is baked until crisp.

Besides serving as a breakfast and snack food, granola is often eaten while hiking, camping or backpacking because it is lightweight, high in calories and easy to store.

Keeping Goats

Little Miss Claudia Milkmouth

WE HAVE BABY GOATS!

It’s a long story as to how I received goats as a gift for Thanksgiving, but I’ll try to condense the story.

Long, long ago in a land far away (Wisconsin) my husband, fresh out of college, started selling insurance. His territory was northern Wisconsin. He went door to door to farmers, and one farm he called on was the Burish Dairy Farm. As time passed, my husband quit selling insurance, but he remained close friends with the dairy farmers. More time passed, he took a job offer and moved to Ohio and him and I met.

We decided to get married in Wisconsin on a Christmas trip to see the Burish’s, even getting married in a beautiful little picturesque snow covered church in Cadott, down the road from the Burish dairy farm.

Chicken or the Egg

Eggs, Eggs and More Eggs:
As some of you know one of my dreams was raising chickens. That dream I have fulfilled with beautiful fat happy chickens I raised from babies.

The excitement to find the first egg, well unless you have raised chickens you have no idea the anticipation that goes into each visit to the coop, wondering if today is the day I will find our first egg. Being the goof that I am, I cried over that first egg.

There is a kinship formed with the chickens when you raise them, and all of a sudden I was sadden by the thought of eating those perfect eggs my chickens had created. So I decided I would be the one to eat those first few eggs myself. It was something I felt I needed to do since I was the one to nurture the chicks into adulthood. Doing so completed a very beautiful cycle, as I see it.

Dachshunds & Kitty Catch A Hawk

This is a story about my mean Dachshunds and their sidekick Kitty tricking a hawk.

A Red Tailed Hawk has been circling our farm all summer.
I suppose the delicious looking chickens are on his want list for dinner. 
And we are missing one of two young barn cats.

Well this morning, the hawk swooped down and tried to pick up one of my mini Dachshunds! But Lucas and Josie (2 of our dachshunds) turned the tables on that hawk and brought him down.

I ran out to save the doggies, only to end up saving the hawk from the killer Wiener dogs.

In case you didn’t know, Wiener dogs are not fluffy sissy lap dogs, although they love to snuggle. They are classified in the Hound Group by American Kennel Club (AKC).

So no matter how much I spoil and pamper these Dachshunds, dress them up in silly clothes, bath them, take them to the groomer, it does not change their nature.
All they want to do is track something down with those powerful sniffers of theirs and kill it.

If only the hawk had known that!

Good Old Fashion Dinner Party

A Women's Only Formal Dinner Party
Women are unique, special, intelligent and gifted.
But a lot of the time, all our time is taken up with work, kids, husbands, partners, housework and lots of stress, leaving very little time to ourselves.

My daughter Alexis, my son’s girlfriend Jennica and I decided to host a girls only night.
Another friend we consulted, Heidi, suggested we make it a formal dinner party and all of us dress up.
What a great idea that turned out to be! We had such a fun time admiring each other’s outfits and the SHOES! Each lady had on just a fantastic pair of heels, all to die for!
Jennica put together a playlist for background music which included lots of love and romance songs (of course) and also songs about woman empowerment.

Jennica, Alexis and I spent an evening shopping for a new tablecloth, something feminine and with a summer feel, and kicked around ideas for the menu.

Watermelon Margaritas

Planning a Girls Only Dinner Party

I'm planning a girls only Dinner Party and I need to come up with a couple cocktails that women might love.
Today, while searching websites, I came across a Watermelon Margarita recipe!
Sounds so "summer" and delicious, (That blog that has since gone to blog heaven).

I changed the recipe a bit and came up with my own version:

Woman Sisterhood

Wow, it's been a busy summer!  I have been so busy with the yard, garden, chickens, and family that haven't had much time to be online.

I'm in the middle of planning a girls only dinner party and came across this quote I really like:

"What liberation of women has given us all, is not forcing us down a particular road.
Instead, it has given us a choice. We have a choice to have our families and run them as we want.
We may marry, we may not. We may have children, we may not. 
We may work, we may not.
But never, ever should what each of us do be devalued and denigrated in the eyes of others – especially by us women.
We are a powerful, purposeful sisterhood, and – differences or not – long may we all remember it."

~ Marilyn Stowe Blog

South Dakota Vacation Ideas

Camping and Sight Seeing

We have been to the Black Hills twice and Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons once.

This summer trip was originally planned as a tent camping trip to Yellowstone National Park, but because our son needed to take a summer course for college, our trip was revised to only go as far as the Black Hills.

Both previous trips west, we rented cabins or stayed in a hotel or lodge. This trip we wanted to tent camp to experience all the beautiful wilderness South Dakota has to offer.

Italian Dinner Party

My son and his girlfriend Jennica

Italian (Birthday) Dinner Party In Our Barn
My son’s girlfriend Jennica’s birthday was coming up in June, so she asked me if we could have a party in our barn. We hashed over a few ideas, and came up with an Italian Dinner Party theme.

We searched the web for ideas, decorations and food because although I have had people over for dinner, and hosted larger Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners, I have not had a semi-formal dinner party in a barn!
Jennica and I decided to keep it simple: Appetizers, wine, salad, garlic bread, the main dish and desserts.

Please keep in mind this party can also be in your backyard under a shade tree, on the patio or even indoors!
Jennica started out with an invitation list of 16, enlarged it to 20 and ended up with 18 guests for dinner.