View from the cheap seats

This is Madeline, batting for her travel team "Osage Pink". Like the hot pink polka-dot socks?

Our summer evenings these days go like this. Matt gets off work and he and Madeline do chores. Then he and the kids head for the lawn to work on pitching practice for Madeline, and batting practice for all three of them. I either watch, or shag balls for them. We head to a ball game, or two if both girls are playing on the same night. (In that case we're at the ball diamond from 5:30 until 9:00.) Come home, and Madeline usually wants to work on pitching and batting again until it's too dark to see the ball. Olivia and I get the horse out and go for a ride. Rafe catches lightning bugs.

I love the time spent outdoors, the summertime activities, the long days, warm weather and light summer breezes. The feeling of grass under my bare feet. Cows out grazing. Visiting with everyone at the ball game. Watching the kids' skills improve, cheering them on when they make an out or hit a double, cheering them up when they don't pull out a win. A sweaty, dirty, shirtless boy, skin tanned dark brown, hair lightened by the sun. Tonight I was wishing I could capture it, store it, and hit "play back" sometime next winter. Is it weird to feel sentimental, to long for something while you're still in the middle of it?

It's been a crazy month. The house is never clean, not all at once anyway. The laundry is never caught up. Supper is either a fend-for-yourself event, or concession stand food. Olivia's last game was tonight. After Madeline's park-&-rec team tournaments the next two nights, and a triple-header for her travel team on Saturday, ball will be over for this summer. And I'm already starting to miss it.

Hothogs

When the weather heats up, like it's supposed to this week, Madeline goes out in the afternoon and gets a mud puddle going for the pigs.


These are her fair pigs. (There's another one hiding somewhere, for a total of 5.) Their names are Bridget, Lena, Carmen, Tibby and Eric. (Name that movie, anyone?)

The county fair is coming up in just two weeks. She's got a lot of pig baths to give before then to get them cleaned up and show ready!

Duck, Duck, Gone

Or, a Series of Unfortunate Farm Events


Uh-oh, someone's out of the nest.


I'll save you!


Cuteness abounds


Back safe and sound

Now I'd really like the story to just end right there. Unfortunately farming isn't all cuteness and fluff. If you're looking for cuteness and fluff, you might want to try another blog about puppies or kittens or rainbow ponies. This blog you're reading right now is peppered with tales of tragedy and woe.

Two ducks were setting on nests in the duck shed. The night before these pictures were taken, all of the first duck's ducklings disappeared. The night after these pictures were taken, all of these ducklings disappeared. No sign of them at all.

The first duck sat on her remaining eggs for a couple more days and then gave up and left. The second duck is still setting. Except that there was another unfortunate farm event today, wherein our boar Oliver escaped his pen, found the duck shed, and proceeded to lunch on duck eggs. So I'm not even sure if she has anything left to set on. (And the rotten egg smell emanating from the duck shed is extremely unfortunate.)

Then I saw another duck that had apparently hatched her eggs in the pasture somewhere. I could see her marching across the pasture with a bunch of ducklings following. Now I haven't seen them in a couple of days. I'm hoping I'm just not looking at the right time of day.

I have 2 more ducks setting on nests in the chicken coop. Let's hope for some success there. If not, then I guess ducks are just not going to be a good fit on our farm. Unfortunately.

Daily deposit

I have this chicken. An Americauna (Aracauna?) hen. Apparently she takes our advertisement for "Fresh" Eggs very seriously.



She climbs the steps to the front porch, looking around to see if Ava is paying attention. The coast is clear.



She settles into the cats' crate.

Some time elapses. Often she is interrupted by Ava who chases her out of the crate and off the porch. But she is persistant, waiting out the dog and returning to the box over and over again until the job is done. Today she is left in peace.



Her daily deposit made, she checks around for Ava again...



...and makes her getaway.



It doesn't get any fresher than that.

Something pretty

for your Monday morning. Sorry to be so scarce around here. If you need something, you can find us at the softball diamonds :)

Spinach, yum!

I'll bet my mother cannot believe I now think spinach is delicious. I was never a spinach lover until we started growing our own. But once you grow something, then you have to figure out what to do with it. And this here is my newest favorite way to fix it. A far cry from that slimy stuff I remember my mother cooking. (No offense, Mom.)

This started out as part of a filling for a quiche. But I loved it so much I now make it as a side dish.

First, saute some chopped onion in butter. Then add a carton of fresh mushrooms, sliced, and saute those until soft. Finally add a big bunch of fresh spinach, torn in pieces. (Maybe 8 cups worth?) Saute until the spinach is soft. Salt and/or pepper to taste. Some fresh garlic sauteed with the onions would be good, too, I think. (I might have sprinkled in some granulated garlic powder, I don't remember for sure, but I add that to almost everything.)

Serve it up with fresh Sugar Creek Farm eggs, scrambled, and some Sugar Creek Farm bacon. Yum! I also like to make a spinach pesto. And spinach fritatta. And your classic spinach dip.

On tomorrow's To Do List: freeze spinach from the garden!

A little genealogy

As I was going through pictures tonight I came across this one that one of my kids took last weekend at a 4-H family potluck.



Recently I connected with a cousin, Kim, in California. (Hi Kim!) So I thought I'd post this picture of myself and she can tell me if there's any family resemblance to her branch of the Mehmen family tree.


Personally I think I bear a resemblance to this woman, my great-grandmother, Grace Hovenga Mehmen. Except that my face is longer.


But that part might have come from this guy, my grandpa, Frances Cornelius "Fritz" Mehmen. He definitely had the longer face.

What do you think?

Shout out if you have any Mehmen's or Hovenga's or Oeltjenbruns' in your family tree. (Think my dad's side of the family is very German at all?)

Miscellany

Onion sets

*For those of you in the area, I'll be at the Mason City Farmer's Market tomorrow (Friday) selling beef and pork. It's at the KMart parking lot from 3-6. Please, come and make some sort of mercy purchase from me. Or just say Hi and tell me you read the blog. I'll be there every Friday in June, and if things go well I'll continue Friday's thru the rest of summer and into fall.

*We are now able to accept debit cards, credit cards and foodstamp EBT cards, both here at the farm and at the farmers market. Hooray! (Thank you to Iowa Farm Bureau and the Iowa DHS for making this possible.)

*Between the 2 girls, we have ball games every night this week, Monday thru Friday, plus Sunday afternoon. Thus the lack of blog posts this week. And that's pretty much how the month of June is going to go. It gets a little stressful at times (we've eaten out waaaaay too much this week), but I really enjoy watching the girls and their friends play.

*Those of you who have ordered chickens from us can come and pick them up now. Give us a call or an email to arrange a time. Or hunt us down at the ball diamond.

*Can I just insert a little whine here? It's my blog, so I guess that I can. I've been really tired this week. I reduce my work hours in the summer, and start my mornings at 7 a.m. instead of 8:30. I am so. not. a. morning. person.

*The Center for Rural Affairs blog has a great series of posts on the new Farm Bill. If you eat, then this bill affects you. Read, form an opinion, contact your appointed representatives or Iowa Senator Tom Harkin.

early morning at the chicken pen

Tonight we loaded up the broiler chickens and took them down to the processor. They'll be butchered very early tomorrow morning, and I'll pick them up after they've been cooled to about 50 degrees.

Strangely, I wasn't very excited about spring this year. I wasn't ready to start the garden, I wasn't ready to start a new batch of chickens. But once they were here, morning chores became my most favorite part of the day.

You can see in the picture above how relaxed this batch of birds was. This was the usual scene. Some eating or drinking. Some resting. Some inside, some outside. Our new chicken shed ended up costing us more than we expected, but the difference it seems to have made in the disposition of the birds was worth it. It will be interesting to see if it holds true for the next batch. Some batches of birds just have nicer personalities than others.

We started with 128, and dropped 118 off tonight. That puts me at a death loss of 7.8%. This is good. I plan for 20%, and shoot for 10%. It is possible that we could lose one or a few yet. Some could succumb to stress overnight (we actually lost one in the trailer on the way to the processor), or sometimes the inspector will condemn a couple at butchering time. All are already sold, and have been for awhile. I have 54 sold already for the fall batch so I think I'll up that batch to 150 birds.

Making out with my macro lens

(A phrase I'm almost certain I lifted from Pioneer Woman.)


Painted daisy


Iris, Siberian (I think)


???
Update: Lynne emailed me to tell me this is Dianthus. And Susie in the comments is correct also, Sweet William being one type of Dianthus. Thanks, ladies!