Farmer Ed

We have been harvesting cabbage along this fall and there is getting to be just a few left... they have survived single digit temps and are still pretty.  This one harvested on Dec. 21

Jubal won 9th with his watermelon that won 1st in the county fair...  Considering the state has a lot of watermelon producers and entries ( he even beat the big local producer) its something.  Remember he originally got the seed from a raffle at our bee club and kept an eye on the melon all summer long

Jed won 2nd with his honey...  because the honey looked so good we think we could maybe have taken 1st if we had used a more decorative jar.

 

Tomatoes in Italian dressing... Yum Yum

Salsa galore

Acorn Squash... filled with a couple pats of butter and honey

Assorted zucchini Jams

Jubal's giant watermelon figured it weighed about 75lbs

 

Colt nursing when horses stop for a blow

 

Jubal getting banjo lessons from the sister of the founder of the Dixie Chicks while Rosie looks on

Gracie working with her colt... getting the colt use to having its feet lifted

teaching her to lead

colt is pretty subdued

Lesson over time to get back to mama

All the ears that are too small for market, we pick for our own use...  Hitched up the horse this morning for a trip to the field.

 

 

Many hands make short work of it

Molly loves to work...  waiting for the load

 

No respect

unloading time

 

Tomatoes are protected with 2ft high Polycarbonate that our friend gave us.  Cattle panels are 30 inches apart

 

Our goal is to have tomatoes and melons by the 1st of June.

The girls skim the cream off of the milk from our Holstein milk cow and then take turns shaking

 

The finished product... of course after you taste it you'd throw sticks at store bought.

 

Bartered with our neighbor... we would butcher and process their calf for a portion of the meat.

We knew it was going to be a full day so we got up at the crack of dawn and drove the tractor about 6 miles to the neighbors and killed and gutted the calf.  It probably weighed 400lbs on the hoof.

My son Jubal had the experience, as soon as we shot the calf and cut its throat, Jed and Jubal grabbed a leg so I could start gutting it.  The calf still had nerve reflexes and kicked him right in the chest with a hoof and flattened him.  He was alright but sore.

When we got it back home we 1st skinned it.

 

Quartered it with a sawzall.

 

Some beautiful meat don't you agree!

 

The gals had an assembly line in the kitchen which you didn't want to get in the way of.

Gracie ran a machine that removed the blood from the package and vacuum sealed it.

Mr C, who owned the calf and I make hamburger.

A kitchen-aid meat grinder can keep grinding meat non-stop except when you have to clean it.

Winnowing wheat... traded cantaloupes to a local farmer for wheat out of field. You have to pour it from bucket to bucket about 4 times for the box fan to blow away the chaff.

Milling the wheat... We built a milling table with plans that are free on Popular Mechanics website. Its good exercise and you appreciate what folks use to go thru to get their wheat ground.

 

Weighed in at 27.5 lbs...   everyone had their fill!