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Thursday, August 30, 2012

Almost 4 Months Old

 
The past 4 months have really flown by.  I feel like I've been back to work for forever, but when I think about how much has happened this year I realize how quickly time escapes.  Children grow too quickly.  Speaking of time flying, my poor mom made me burst into tears this past weekend.  All she asked was if I would be sending Anna to pre-school next year:  at 3 years old.  I had no idea they could go to pre-school so young!  And even if we didn't send her that young, the fact that she could go at 4, which once seemed far away, now seems right around the corner.  I literally had tears running down my face immediately. 

 
On a happier note, Clara has found her voice.  She is such a little talker.  I tried taking a video but it really doesn't compare to a live rendition.  Anyway, here is a 2.5 minute video of her "talking."
 
 
She's getting stronger every day.  I was amazed at how well she could hold herself up while on her tummy. 
 
 
Pretty soon she will be rampaging through a long list of firsts- first tooth, first foods, first crawl, and first steps.  Oh first year, slow down!


Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Fun on the Farm!

 
Anna has so much fun going to the barn to visit the animals.  I told her, let's get your bibs on like daddy and go to the barn!  She replies, "Look mommy, I'm a farmer, like daddy!"
 




Monday, August 20, 2012

Sweet Corn

Last year we bought our corn from a local farmer, but this year we planted two rows out in our garden.  Eric says that the corn required the least amount of work on his part to grow.  He took one drive through with the corn planter and the plants grow so fast that they quickly shade out any weeds. 

So into my freezer goes many dozens of ears of corn.  I had intentions of keeping track of how many dozen ears, but it gets too difficult to remember as you're juggling blanching, cooling, cutting, and packing.  Plus mommy duties.  I figure I've got about 40+ half-quarts frozen and 15 pint-sized jars of corn.  I think we're set for the year.

I think I husked corn for a year...

I used this large pot to blanch the corn for 5-6 minutes.  Later I switched to a smaller pot, as I figured out that I can't quite reach the corn that sinks to the bottom with my tongs.  After getting my fingers in the hot boiling water several times I figured many more blanching sessions was worth saving my hands.



I discovered that this was the easiest set-up:  one side of the sink I cleaned really well and filled with cold water.  In the other bay I put a large bowl to cut the corn into.  My stove is directly across from the sink (open the oven door and you almost hit the sink counter), so it was very easy to throw the ears from hot water to cold.


I placed a regular bowl in the bottom of the larger bowl to set the ear of corn on.


I used an electric knife.  I found that this really made the job quicker and easier and a little more fun.  I've hardly used my electric knife.  Maybe annually to cut a ham or turkey.  So I felt like I was getting some value out of it.



Repeat many times.  The blanching time allows you to work in between on cutting or packing.  Or keep an eye on the kids.  I really really wish I had that open concept house where I can see the girls at all times.  Instead, I run from kitchen to living room every 5 minutes.  (I have this fear that Anna is going to drop a toy on Clara's head one day soon). 


I mostly froze our corn, because I think it turns out well that way.  I did give canning it a try, but we haven't tasted it yet so I can't say whether I'll do it again next year. 


Yummy!

Friday, August 17, 2012

Little Clara

Little Clara turned three months old on August 8th.  She is really growing and changing every day.  This week she discovered her thumb.  Anna was a pacifier baby, and I kept trying pacifiers with Clara but she usually spit it back out or sucked for a few minutes at the most.  The other night when I put her to bed, in went her thumb and she instantly closed her eyes and fell asleep.  I knew at that moment that she was going to suck her thumb. 


From that night on she has been sleeping through the night, 10 hours.  I'll take it.  Eventually we will have to think about ways to get her to stop sucking her thumb, but for now I think it's pretty cute.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Feeding the Calves!

Anna was so cute feeding the calves the other day that I had to run back to the house to get my camera.  Our calves are housed outdoors in huts.  This works really well for calves because they prefer to be outdoors with plenty of ventilation, light, and cool air.  They even do well in the winter, although we do put tarps up to shelter them better from the wind. 

Anna spent about half an hour just moving grain buckets from one calf to the other.  Some were heavier than others, which she found challenging.  Sometimes she stacked three buckets together, and sometimes she distributed one to each calf.


Move it here...


Move it there...

Oops, this one needs a bucket, too!


She also enjoyed identifying the colors of the buckets.


She says, "Yay, Anna feedin' the calves!"

The calves were curious about what was going on.


Look how cute her butt is all muddy.  She fell down a little incline.  It had been raining for a couple of days off and on, so her new little pink boots were getting broken in well.

Ta-Da!





Sunday, August 12, 2012

Little Corn Husker


Our sweet corn from the garden is finally ready (August 12) and we were excited to taste it.  I made Anna work for her supper.  Here is a video of her determined to husk that ear of corn.  She husks corn like she unwraps presents.  Slowly and methodically.




Friday, August 10, 2012

Our Girls

Girls are so much fun!

I enjoy saying, "how are my girls?" when I pick them up after a day of work.  I enjoy dresses, and pink and purple, and I'm really looking forward to doing girly things like prom dress shopping and make-overs.


I think they look a lot alike, with some minor differences.  Clara's eyes are still gray, whereas Anna's eyes turned deep brown within a month or two of birth (like her daddy's).  I don't think that Clara's will be bright blue, but they may be gray, or green, or hazel, or even brown eventually.

Clara always sleeps with her hands clasped by her face.  I love this picture because she looks like she is praying.

Since I've returned to work I feel like I hardly ever get to cuddle with my girls anymore.  It makes the time we have together very precious.  Clara fell asleep leaning against me.


She loves the cow-shaped mirror that hangs over her play mat and really seems interested in watching herself kick.  She's actually quite content to lay there by herself for a long time.


Anna says "cheese!"

Smiley girl!  I swear, all you have to do is look at her and she'll smile back at you.  She loves interaction!

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Of Life and Death...

This morning Eric brought 3 roosters to the Amish for slaughter.  We bought 12 baby chicks in March to raise up for eggs.  The chicks were supposed to be sorted for sex (all females) but we ended up with 4 roosters out of the bunch.  We really just want eggs, but the roosters will make good meat.  We are keeping one of them just for kicks and to hear the early morning "cock-a-doodle-doo!" that we've gotten used to.


Eric brought one of the roosters over for Anna to pet while we were loading the car for work in the morning.  She pet him and was pretty excited to see him up close.  She played with the baby chicks when they were little, but this big guy looks nothing like the fuzzy baby he started out to be.  She really enjoys listening to them crow in the morning and early afternoon (yes, I never knew that they were so vocal in the afternoon as well as the break of dawn). 

She had no idea that this guy was on his way to be slaughtered.  Even if she did know, she will be raised face to face with the cycle of life on the farm.  Calves are born, baby bulls are sent to the auction barn within a few days, and older mother cows who aren't productive anymore are sent for meat.  I've grown up knowing how all of this works, and you learn to not get attached.  Such is the life on a farm!

Monday, August 6, 2012

County Fair!




This was Clara's first fair.  I of course couldn't resist buying two cow outfits online at zulily.com at least 6 months ago, with the intention of dressing the girls up in them for the Fair.  Anna's was a cute black and white checkered dress with a cow face on the front and two cow-print bows on the shoulders.  Clara's was actually a boy's outfit that came with a green shirt.  I ordered the outfit before she was confirmed to be another girl.  I just swapped out the green shirt for a pink onesie, some pink frilly socks, and a pink headband. 

Not shown anywhere in the pictures are her really cute shoes.  They look like a cow, complete with a little cow tail hanging off of the back.  They say "moo" on the bottom of each foot.  Anna wore them for her first fair.  This is Anna at her first fair in 2010.  We spent all week there because I was still on maternity leave.


I haven't missed the Fair since I started showing dairy cows in 1999.  Now I am just a spectator at the cow shows, but I've spent quite a few years participating.  I expect that the girls will want to show cows when they are old enough. 

Saturday's Black and White Holstein show is always a big deal, so I brought both girls up for the day.  Showing cows is a competitive sport, believe it or not.  Eric's family still shows their registered Holsteins each year, and my youngest sister, Emily, brought a cow in to show for her last year in the youth show (up to age 21).  We were happy that she won Best Bred and Owned of the Holstein Youth Show.  During the show, I took the girls for strolls through the sheep and pig barns.
 

Anna really loves sheep.


She wanted to pet this one so bad!


Clara, 2.5 months old, slept a lot, and was pretty good the whole day.  I had to take her back to the car just once to nurse her and change diapers.  Otherwise she was either asleep or awake and looking around at all of the sights and sounds.





Anna had fun watching the cows in the show ring and being with her family.



But as the day wore on, Anna got really tired.  She was a little grumpy by the end of the show.  By 3pm, she fell asleep in the stroller, and slept the whole way home.


Friday, August 3, 2012

What I like about putting food in jars:

1.  You have to follow a recipe.  This might be tough for some people.  Some daring cooks throw ingredients in a pot and watch the magic happen.  I have never been one of those cooks.  I follow a recipe.  Pretty much every time.  I still pull open the cookbook to see how to make a pie crust, even though I've made pies a hundred times.  I still follow the recipe on the back of the Bisquick box for pancakes, even though I make pancakes at least once a week.  Sure, I experiment sometimes with substituting ingredients if I don't have something on hand.  But my mac and cheese is straight out of the Betty Crocker cookbook.  Somehow I never manage to accurately memorize a recipe and don't even ask me to experiment on a classic!  With canning, you need to follow the recipe to a T, or you risk ruining your hard work or worse, getting sick off of improperly preserved pickles.

2.  Jars of food are pretty on a shelf.  There is nothing better than organizing your little stockpile of jars.  I totally get why people on the coupon shows buy and stockpile.  They have OCD about arranging their treasures on the shelf.  I am not a couponer, but I do enjoy lining up my jars.  The raspberry and strawberry jams are a beautiful red, and the pickles and green beans are amazing shades of green. 



3.  Preserving tradition.  People used to can out of necessity.  Then it became something to do to save money and to put up one's garden.  Now, it is a hobby.  Canned products in the grocery store are so cheap, it is arguable if you really save all that much money canning your own fruits and vegetables.  Plus, frozen products are so handy and taste pretty fresh.  But there is something nostalgic about food in jars that gets me going.  I mean, how neat is it that I am storing my jars where Eric's grandmother (and her grandmother) stored hers for years.

4.  Preserving local.  I am a "local" nut.  I am not a true locavore (someone who eats food only from within a certain mile radius of home).  But I believe in the value of buying local for economic development and to support healthy and vibrant communities.  At work, I am involved in a variety of projects to increase the utlization of local products in our county.  So I guess I'd better walk the walk and talk the talk.

5.  What else am I going to do with all of these cucumbers?  I can't stand to see things go to waste.  And since Eric is REALLY into gardening, I've gotta do something with the stuff!  I used to just freeze everything, but it's not that much less work and the taste of freezer-burnt green beans is absolutely disgusting. 


6.  It lasts for a long time!  Canned products are shelf-stable for 12 months to ? years.  I like feeling that if we had a complete societal meltdown and we all had to live off of the grid and independently, we'd survive a lot longer than most!  I'm not paranoid, and no, we do not have a bomb shelter just in case.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Sweet Pictures

I am reminded of how much occurs in the course of one year when children are small.  Last summer Anna was not quite walking.  She waited until 14 months to really get going, so a good portion of the summer she was immobile outdoors.  She spent time sitting outside but she wasn't a big fan of crawling in the grass.

These pictures were taken by a semi-professional photographer in May, just before Anna's first birthday.  I love them because they were taken on our farm.


Loves kitties!  She is holding onto one of Eric's old horsedrawn implements.


Holding onto the barn for balance.


One of me holding her in the barn.


And one of Eric holding her.


She had the cutest headband on that brought out the yellow flowers on her dress, but that quickly came off.  Here she is sitting near the peonies, which have been growing in our yard for years.  Someday I will post pictures of our gladiolas, which were planted by Eric's grandmother and remind me of her every July when they bloom.


One of our few family portraits.  Now we will need to get another family picture taken with Clara.