Life on the Farm

I was asked several questions in the last post and will try to answer them.

No, the cows are not dairy cows. We don't produce milk, we produce meat. Please don't stand (or set) there and say "yuck". Most of Americans eat meat products on a daily basis. Whether it's beef, chicken, pork or turkey please be aware of where your meat is coming from! I won't use this as a soap-box ....but, YOU asked!

Since I'm a fourth generation farmer, it's natural that we promote what we raise. I'm not going to stand here and say only eat American-raised beef and grains, but I am going to say to make sure what you put in your mouth comes from a known source. If it's imported, is it up to the standards that you're familiar with? Be PICKY!

Okay...to make this a positive post, I dug out some children friendly pictures. We raised three boys on the farm. I've given the oldest boy his photo album already, so I'm short on pictures of him. You'll see more of the other two.
When we first bought our current house, I was pregnant with Troy. I wanted to stay home (DH worked in town), so we got the bright idea to raise bottle calves. We even had two milk cows at one time.....when did I ever have time to sleep? One summer the boys and I raised close to 100 bottle calves. Lots of bottles and lots of mixing milk. The most ever at one time was 35 calves.

When the vet started calling me and asking ME about how to doctor calves.....needless to say, we had a pretty good record of success with baby calves. Like I said, I was raised on the farm and I didn't want the opportunity of having all of this in front of the boys and them being in town at a babysitter.

This small farm has raised it all: rabbits (no, we didn't eat them), chickens, turkeys,sheep, pigs and calves. My kids have witness life, death, sickness and loads of dirt and fun. No, this life isn't for everybody but it's all I know....it's the way I was raised. Raising our own food and canning for winter was something they witnessed firsthand. It's not always the most economical, but I wanted them to learn where their food came from. I wanted them to appreciate what being a "Steward of God's Earth" really meant. I wanted them to know what a strawberry was really suppose to taste like--what smut on fresh corn looked like--how an animal relies on them to live--what it's like to get up in the middle of the night and witness birthing baby pigs. I wanted them to know what the saying "dancing like a chicken with his head cut off"...well, you get my point. We do have windmill here on the farm. It's not pumping water, but it makes a good decoration and conversation piece. I don't know how many more years it will stand up, but I'm protecting it for right now. The old barn needs to come down. It was built in the '20's and is in horrible shape. The materials used weren't the best and the years haven't been kind.

So, I hope I answered your questions. Yes, we eat what we raise and if you come to supper I'll cook you a hamburger. It probably is from a cow from our farm or if it's a sausage-burger it may of been pampered at a stock-show. May sound cruel, but it's a part of farm life. Our phiosophy is that we can either eat what we raise or go buy it at the grocery story. I'm just picky enough that I want to know that what I'm eating was raised with the quality of care we give.

Hoping that this week brings you some quilty-time because I'm sure as heck not getting any!