Apple Cake

This morning we made an apple cake.  Not just any ordinary apple cake however, but the very recipe on the back of the book, “The Apple Cake” by Nienke van Hichtum.  We love this story.  It reinforces not only the idea of sharing and giving, but of community as well.

We first heard about this book from my dear friend Nicole who writes Frontier Dreams.  She raved about it and so we knew we’d love it too, and do we ever!  It is one of the “go-to” stories at storytime around here.  And is perfectly suited for my budding cook as well.  Xi is facinated with cooking and has even learned how to make her own scrambled eggs.  Every so often we get a craving for a delicious apple cake and out comes the book.

If you haven’t seen this book, I highly recommend seeking it out.  Not only is the story beautiful, but the illustrations are beautiful as well.

Now we are going to go enjoy a slice of cake and our story…hope you have a perfectly peaceful Saturday.  Peace!

Just some randomness from the yard while waiting for Farm Girl to arrive home from school.

Peace!

With the holidays over you would think I could catch my breath.  But unfortunately there was some unexpected dental work (broke a tooth eating yummy quail…youch!), and now a flu bug which has bitten.  So give me a few days and I’ll be back to share our little adventures here on the farm.  I ordered wool felt, so look for new crowns along with the normal gardening, crafting, kid stuff that makes up life here on AmLo Farms.

Much love and Peace!

Well, it looks like our darling Kubra kept her modesty all those many months ago and didn’t end up with children after all.  Drats!  She should be due, well even over due, and there are absolutely no signs of anything.  I thought for sure she was looking wider, but then she didn’t grow anymore and we figured only 1 kid inside.  Nope, I think she just got wider in preparation for Winter.  So we’ll try again!  What a let down though…hah!

We’ve also had some chicken deaths in the past few weeks.  The hawk is still hanging around apparently as we had 2 gals just up and missing.  No signs of anything amiss, just gone.  Then the break in and 2 more disappeared in the night…plenty of evidence of this though as the trail of feathers out the back of the coop made me think, Rocky the Racoon.  This bugger is sneaky too.  We’ve set the safe trap, no luck but the food in it is gone everytime.  We’ve had to resort to barracading the run door every night.  So right now, after the other night’s break in, we are down to 12 gals.  I’ll get more in the Spring, but it’s always a little disheartening when one is lost.  We are not in the city and out here by the Lake is kind of country for this area.  Lots of wild animals roaming around and mini groves to live in.  I love it, but the price is you lose some livestock every now and then. 

I did manage to get my Spring garden started.  Yes it’s early, yes most of you are under a mountain of snow and yes it hasn’t broken 40 here in the past few days, but I have learned alot living out here and one of the main lessons is if I don’t start my garden in January, most things won’t produce a lot if the heat sets in early like it has the last 2 years.  So seeds are in the ground and a good 8 inches of leaf mulch is keeping things warm.  I have more to plant, including melons and squash.  With the squash, I am going to try my dear friend Cheryl’s suggestion from Conscious Gardening and plant mums around them.  Apparently they keep the borers away.  I am game to try!

The girls are doing well.  With the holidays over, things are finally settling down and getting back to a routine.  Don’t get me wrong, we had a blast with all my family!  Super time to be honest, but it is also good for the girls to get back to a normal day and Lola was thrilled to get back to school.  All those hats, gloves and scarves made and bought for them are coming in handy this week with the early morning bus rides.  It has been cold for here.  I wonder if we will get snow like we did last year in February.  Hmmm……

So I will end this with the latest of Xi’s photography.  She discovered the new aps on my phone and had a grand time with them when we went out for our anniversary the other night.  Yes, we took the kids to celebrate at our favorite place…Uncle Billy’s.  We also had our dear friend Richie with us.   I will be dedicating an entire post to this place soon, so watch for it.  You will NOT want to miss out on experiencing the food and beer there.  Seriously some of the best around!

Much love and as always, Peace!

Wow!  The last month and a half just flew by!  I will be posting pictures of our holidays and filling everyone in on where we were and what we’ve been doing.  I apologize for being so late on a post, however I do have a good excuse…Handmade Holidays!  90% of everything given by us was handmade this holiday and while it took me away from my computer, it really made me feel good when the kids were so excited by their new treasures I worked so hard on.  My entire family was visiting with all my sisters staying here at one point….fun was had by all!

So look for a new post this week and we’ll be back up and running with news, photos and reviews galore! 

Hope your holidays were amazing!  Peace!

We had an unexpected guest at our house yesterday. Apparently he thought our free ranging chickens were an invite! I was sitting here at the desk and heard a chicken screaming – yes, they scream when in danger. I ran out there and up against the fence I saw what I thought to be a dog. I figured the chicken had tried to run under the fence and the dog pounced on it so I ran up to the back fence about 5 feet from this when a head turned and looked at me….and it wasn’t Lassie! I’ve never been this close to a bird of prey before and believe me, they are a formidable presence! It immediately spread it’s wings out and we just stared at each other for what seemed like moments but must have been seconds. Suddenly, it silently came straight up and flew to the roof, right above where Jason was standing. The chicken scurried to safety, the girls were standing there with mouths agape and Jason and I were trying to figure out what to do. I wanted to get the other chickens put up, but that bird was big and not liking that I already interrupted his meal a first time. When it finally flew into the oak tree by the girls’ playset, I got braver. We all suddenly kicked into high gear with the girls gathering the cats inside and I, camera in hand, went hunting chooks. They were all hiding very well and I didn’t want to disturb them and have their worst fear realized with a silent swoop, so I just watched the bird and he watched me. This went on for about 45 minutes before he flew into the branch just above the coop and stared into it greedily. I swear he licked his lips. Then he suddenly just flew away to the neighbor’s yard. That’s when I decided it was our cue to get the chickens to safety.

First I let the goats out. I figured with their horns and larger presence they might deter the predator for awhile. I found 7 out of 11 chickens and got them to safety in the coop with the babies. Flushed out one more and now was only missing 3. Nowhere to be found though. After a long while, I had to give up and figure they would come out before nightfall. I had to trust that the bird was scared off enough, or just annoyed enough more likely, that it went searching somewhere else for the time being. We got lucky, by evening the other 3 gals were clucking around the coop and more than happy to get inside with their friends. All are accounted for, and the one that was almost a meal is fine minus a few feathers.

Today, the girls have to be satisfied with coop and run though. I’m not taking any chances.

What a beautiful creature this was though! We found out it is a Red Tail Hawk. I thought they were much smaller, but nope. About the size of a small eagle and perfectly capable of taking a chicken or cat, or mommy as Xiola feared. Hah! Not quite that big I don’t think!

So who showed up unexpectedly for dinner at your house this fine holiday weekend? Hope they didn’t cause as much ruckus as our guest did!

Peace!

I wanted to send lots of love to the everyone at this holiday time!  Hope you all had as wonderful of a Thanksgiving as my family did.  We spent the time with some great friends and neighbors.  Lots of delicious food, laughter and love.  A cold front moved in during the afternoon, dropping the temps from 80 to below 60 in about an hour.  But the fire kept us all warm and cozy as we “porched it” for meal time.  My favorite time of year is here once again…I love the holidays!

Now on to the handmade gifts I am making for everyone, decorating for Winter, covering plants (hard freeze hitting tonight), and making sure the firewood is stacked by the fire pit in the front.  And the only things I bought today on “Black Friday” were food for the family so I now have the entire weekend to just kick back, munch on leftovers and know that the pantry is full for the next couple weeks at least.  Time to work on gifts, cookie making and all the good stuff that comes with this time of year. 

Hope you all are enjoying your weekend!!  Much love and as always, lots of Peace!

The following photos are pre-meal yesterday.  We were having so much fun I didn’t take one picture during the gathering!  Silly me…but here is how it looked when everyone got here.  Enjoy!

Here are a few photos of life here on the farm.  It’s Friday again….can’t believe that it’s been 2 weeks since my last post!  Life has been busy.  We are enjoying the lovely Fall weather that finally struck us this week!  Pumpkins have been carved with two more waiting for tomorrow to be made into masterpieces of one sort or another.  The porch is cleared of car projects and scrubbed.  Candle holders are cradling fresh wax for the porch nights by firelight, and we’ve lit the chiminaya a couple times already…the beginning of my favorite time of year.

Life continues to move forward, and right now life is very nice indeed.  Lots of laughter has been heard, good food is being eaten (Xi has taken a keen interest in Julia Childs, so we have been reading about her and even made her Potage Parmentier soup the other night), and continued love and support amongst our community here.  Life is happy, things are good.

I hope you all have a wonderfully scary Halloween weekend full of laughter, love and treats!  Peace!

We got some starts planted this weekend – broccoli, leeks and more lettuce.  I love working in the garden with the girls.  Lola is very enthusiastic to start, but then her interest wanes significantly after about 15 minutes and she’s on to the next thing..haha!  Xiola, however, is my gardener.  She says she loves to get her hands dirty and is quickly learning more and more about the plants she puts in the ground.  She is very tender about it too, talking to them and making sure they are standing up just right; the roots are placed in the dirt just so; and the earth is moved gently back into place before patting it all down.  She checks her plantings everyday and reports on the changes she sees.  Sunday she noticed the small potatoes she planted were sprouting up through the soil, and the beans she helped cage up were climbing higher and higher.  She notices every new flower that emerges and is quickly figuring out which is a weed and which is not.  She loves every moment of it from the dirty digging to the harvest.

Lola completely appreciates where it all comes from, but enjoys taking care of the animals more than actual gardening.  She gathers eggs, helps put chickens to bed for the night, feeds goats and ferrets, and is able to handle them all on her own when needed.  She has a wonderful understanding of their personalities and what may or may not be going on in their animal minds.  And she’s not afraid.  When Mongo got a little rough in his play with her and accidently got her with a horn, she came up and let me know, then went back down and didn’t flinch a bit about him being out.  She got right back on the horse, so to speak.  Hah!   She loves having gardens around her, and does understand alot more than average about them for her age, but really isn’t a fan of the actual work involved.  Her dream is to have a huge farm full of animals….she said her husband can grow the plants.  Hah!

I feel very fortunate that we are able to provide this environment for our kids.  They are learning so much about life and where their food comes from.  They understand our desire for organic living and how poisons change the nutritional values of our food and health of ourselves and our animals.  The understand that sometimes a chicken dies, and how baby goats are born, and patience is needed while waiting for beans to flower and make pods.  They play outside more than in, finding simple objects to turn into complicated play.  They teach their friends about it all too.  Sometimes, in today’s economy especially, it’s a struggle to make ends meet each month…but I will not complain because I feel like we landed in just the right place, on just the right property at just the right time.  The gods have blessed us and today I feel very fortunate and grateful. 

I hope you all are having a wonderful week.  This amazing weather makes everything possible!

Peace!

Sorry this took so long, busy couple of days.  But the winner is Cheryl from Conscious Gardening!   Congrats!!!  I will give your email to Patti and she can tell you how to claim your prize…a year’s membership to the spa!

We have another giveaway and review coming up, so keep on the lookout.  Hope everyone is enjoying the last days of summer…we sure are!

Peace!