We have a winner!

Wow, this was harder than I thought it was going to be! So many good suggestions.

"Bandit" from both Quilted Simple and Haymaker was very cute.

Matt's favorite was "Rocky" from David. But I think this calf's a lover, not a fighter. And since the prize is one of my pictures, I got to overrule him.

"Dominoe" from Sea 2 Shore Farm was in the running right up until the end.

Loved Karen's "Kiss" idea, hailing back to my rock band days.

Debbie's "Blackjack" idea was another one pretty fitting for this little guy. Jack was our "boy name" when we had our daughters and it's still a favorite of mine.

"Marcel" from Blue Yonder was a great one, and did you know that when I was 13 my best friend and I did a pantomime act and won ourselves a trip to the Iowa State Fair? Good times.

But ultimately I had to go with Judy and call this calf "Shakespeare". (With a hat tip to Farm Mom who brought up the Shakespeare connection with "Revelry"!) It was his dramatic start to life and his theatrical white mask that makes "Shakespeare" fit so well.

So Twinville and Judy, please email me your name, mailing address, and what photo you'd like to themillers92 (at) osage (dot) net. I'll be sending your pick in a 5x7 print with a white border, suitable for framing :) (And Judy, if you want either one of these photos of Shakespeare instead of one from the group just let me know.)

Thanks for playing, everybody! Keep your thinking caps on...another "Name That Calf Contest" coming up Sunday night!

Time for a contest!

Edited to add:
(1) I changed to allow anonymous comments. So if you comment anonymously just leave your name in your comment so I can tell the anonymous's apart.
(2) I added a picture of Zorro (for you, Twinville:)

As of this morning, our last calf is on the ground! So it's time to finish naming these guys...wanna help? (So far we have Zorro, and Dimitry.)

This is calf #3, a handsome little bull calf who started off life in dramatic fashion.



In his closeup you can see he's got funny little old man hair in his ears! And a cute speckly nose.



So leave your suggestions in the comments of this post. Comments will close at 9 p.m. Central tomorrow (Wednesday).

Winner gets their pick of a 5x7 photo from this collection that I'm preparing for sale on Etsy:

Sugar Creek Farm :: Images

And since Twinville named Zorro, she gets first pick of the pics! (Email me or leave a comment with the name of the picture you'd like.)

Ready, set, go...can't wait to see what you guys come up with!


3 years ago:

Chix pix

Dude!

This is one of Madeline's fair pigs. His crazy look was cracking me up the other day!


3 years ago:

Today I am...

2 years ago:

Spring tree

Little peep

Rafe's kindergarten teacher got an incubator and some hatching eggs for their class this spring. Quite an exciting event for them! I don't remember how many eggs they started out with but finally 3 hatched, right during class on Thursday. So they made these cute "The chicks are here!" hats, and got to show off their chicks to the whole rest of the school.

I am so going to wear that hat every time I get a new batch of chicks this summer.



His teacher had already talked to me about taking the chicks after they hatched, and she was ready to re-home them after school on Friday. 2 of the 3 had bad legs. So the janitor was good enough to take them. (As Rafe's teacher explained, he had a special place for them.) And one little chick got to come and live with us.

Rafe named him Peep.



Peep is too small to stick in the brooder with the 3-week-old broiler chicks. So we put him in a Rubbermaid tote with a heat lamp hung above it. But chicks are like most animals. They don't like to be alone. I had one runt in my batch of broiler chicks so I pulled him out and stuck him in the box with Peep.



Whenever Big Chick eats, Little Peep eats. Whenever Big Chick drinks, Little Peep drinks. Quite cute!

Peep is a broiler, but I've promised Rafe we won't butcher Peep. So after he gets big enough I guess he'll get to go free-range with the laying hens.

That should be interesting.

Flexible

Calf #3 shows off his flexibility. It gives me a charlie horse just to look at him!


3 years ago:

Virginia bluebells

2 years ago:

The baby parade continues

1 year ago:

Seeing double

Uno

It's just like in the card game, where you say "Uno!" when you're down to your last card. This awful spring we're having - they're calling for snow on Sunday - has us down to the last pig in the litter.


3 years ago:

Holy moly

Are you my mother?

Number Six's baby gives Star a sniff and decides he prefers his mother to the nanny.


1 year ago:

Cow hip lifter

How to Cook : Bean & Ham Soup

I told you I was going to tantalize you with pork recipes, and an ulterior motive of selling the hogs we're taking to the butcher next Monday the 28th. So far it's working, because we've sold 2 this week! So here's another recipe to further tempt you.

Soup season is coming to an end, but I'm still craving it on these rainy April days. And yet these rainy April days are some of the busiest, with all of the spring animal babies, the yard work and gardening to be done, the kids' overlapping sports (track, softball, volleyball, soccer), besides the day jobs and the normal work of keeping the household together. So there's no time for the involved soups of winter. Bean & ham soup fits the bill perfectly!



You'll need a one pound bag of dried beans. Pretty much any kind of beans will do. The bags with all different kinds of beans, usually called a "soup mix", are nice. But our little local grocery store doesn't always have those. In that case I just use northern or navy beans.

Put the beans in a colander and rinse them under cold water. Pick through them real quick and pick out anything that looks objectionable. Then dump them in the crockpot.



I use smoked ham hocks for this soup, but you could also use the leftover bone and meaty bits from Sunday's ham dinner. Throw that in the crockpot with the beans.

Some bean soup mixes come with flavoring packets. You can sprinkle that over the ham & beans if you want. I didn't notice when I bought them, but the beans I bought came with a Creole seasoning packet. That didn't sound too great to me, so I ditched it. Instead I seasoned the soup with a tablespoon of salt, a teaspoon of granulated garlic, and a couple of bay leaves. If you're watching your sodium intake, omit the salt entirely. The ham hock is salty enough.



Cover the whole mess with about 3 quarts of water. Cook in the crockpot on high 8 to 10 hours. Newer crockpots cook hot enough that 8 hours is sufficient. Older crockpots cook at a lower temperature and may need another hour or two to get the beans cooked through.

Before serving, remove the bay leaves and discard. Remove the ham hock, shred the meat from the bone, and add the meat back into the soup. Give it a good stir and it's ready to eat!

So, hungry now? If you're finally ready to put a half or whole hog in your freezer, just email themillers92 (at) osage (dot) net to get on the list for Monday!

Bean & Ham Soup
1 ham hock or leftover ham bone & meat
1 pound bag dried beans
1 T. salt (optional)
1 t. granulated garlic
2 bay leaves
3 quarts water

Rinse and pick through beans. Place in crockpot with ham hock and seasonings. Cover with 3 quarts water. Cook on high 8 to 10 hours.

Alarmed

This is the look I got, trying to get a picture of Number Six's new calf. She's actually one of our more docile cows. But still, she didn't appreciate me going all paparazzi, climbing on top of cornstalk bales trying to get a picture of her little guy.

However I succeeded in my mission - pictures soon!


3 years ago:

Another step

Overheard

1 year ago:

Whatchimacallit

I'm it

Jeannelle @ Midlife by Farmlight tagged me last week. I'm supposed to post one picture of the view from my front door, and one picture of the view from my back door.

Of course when it comes to pictures, I can't stop at just one.

So here's the view(s) from our front door. I really should have taken a picture of the spot I'm standing in. Previous owners had removed the original porch. We had a new one put back on a few years ago, and I'm still in love with it.


Looking north. And the end of our driveway is a "Sugar Creek Farm" sign that oldest daughter made as a 4-H project.


Looking east. A bunch of cornstalks to rake out of the yard. There's a story there that has to do with snowmobilers.


Looking northeast, the kid's play area. It was finally warm and dry enough this weekend to break out the pitching net.


Looking south. The woodchip pile, some hay bales and cornstalk bales, the blue tractor, and the dilapidated machine shed. The animal sheds and lots sit on the south part of the farm.

And then there's the view from the back door. Up until a couple of years ago, you couldn't get out the back door because a previous owner had put that foam insulation stuff around the entire foundation and foamed right over the back door. Guess they didn't use it. When we had the new basement put under the house we rectified that situation, and eventually added a deck back there. It's a great spot to sit and watch the goings-on in the pasture and on the creek. No matter how hot it is it's cool back there, sitting under a tree as it does.


Looking south. The dirt in the foreground is our vegetable garden running east-west. The cattle are still in their winter lot - the pasture isn't fit yet to turn them out. As you can see, everybody was just relaxing and soaking up the sun today.


Looking southwest over the garden, the pasture and the railroad trestle. My favorite view.


Looking northwest, you can (sort of) see the pasture shed for the broiler chickens, and a couple of neighboring houses beyond the railroad tracks. Hoping to move the broilers out there this weekend, if the weather cooperates.


Looking north we see a part of another neighbor's farm.

Now you're it! If you're reading this, consider yourself tagged! Be sure to come back here and leave a link in the comments to your own post. And then go visit Jeannelle @ Midlife by Farmlight. She's a fellow Iowan and blogs from her dairy farm!


3 years ago:

Lined up at the buffet

The huddled masses

The broiler chickens have come to associate me with food. When I come in the garage they all run to the end of the brooder and try to peep over the edge to see if I'm filling their feeders.


3 years ago:

Happiness is...

2 years ago:

I love the piglets at this age

1 year ago:

Go fly a kite

How to Cook : Ground Pork

Ground pork is an under appreciated meat. I only just recently started cooking with it myself. It makes great maid-rite type sandwiches. It's real tasty in place of ground beef in all kinds of Italian dishes. And I like to brown it with some seasoned salt as a pizza topping.

I've been wanting to experiment with seasoning plain ground pork for various types of sausage. Tonight was the night. I tried an Italian sausage recipe, and a breakfast sausage recipe, and used them to top a couple of homemade pizzas.

Let me tell you...it was easy, and it was delicious! I had to make some modifications because I didn't have all the ingredients called for in the recipes I started with. For example, the Italian sausage recipe calls for anise or fennel seed. The only seeds I had in the house were caraway seeds, so in they went. But experimenting was half the fun! And now the wheels in my brain are turning with the possibilities for variations on the theme. I'm on a mission to create my very own secret family recipe :)

But I'm not there yet, so I'll share with you my starting recipes. The great thing about making your own sausage is that you can omit unwanted ingredients such as msg or other things you might be allergic to, you can control the salt content, and you can make it as spicy or as mild as you like!

Each of these seasoning recipes is enough to season one pound of ground pork. To save time you could multiply the recipe, store it in a ziplock bag, and then just take out the amount you need each time. I put the ground pork in a bowl, and mixed the seasoning ingredients in a separate bowl. If you want you can run your seasonings through a spice grinder or coffee grinder. I prefer the au naturale quality of having bits of seeds and flakes of parsley visible in the final product.

And also I had a 6-year-old boy whiiiining about how staaaaaarving he was. So I took all shortcuts possible.

Sprinkle the seasonings over the meat and get ready to get your hands messy! Squeeze and mix the seasoning all through the ground pork with your hands. For optimum flavor you can then let it set in the refrigerator overnight so that the flavors really meld into the meat. I'm not that much of a planner-aheader, (and there was the aforementioned 6-year-old boy), so once I had it all mixed in good I immediately browned the meat. You could also shape the seasoned pork into patties and fry them.

So go ahead and experiment, get creative! Then come back here and let me know what you came up with...or keep your new recipe a family secret if you want ;)

If you're interested in a half or whole hog, just email themillers92 (at) osage (dot) net. Last spring butchering date is Monday April 28!

Italian Sausage Seasoning
1 t. ground black pepper
2 t. dried parsley
1-1/2 t. dried Italian seasoning
1 t. garlic powder or 2 T. fresh minced garlic
3/4 t. crushed anise seed or fennel seed
1/2 t. paprika
1 t. minced dried onions
2 t. salt

Combine spices. Run through a grinder, if desired. Mix well into 1 pound ground pork. Refrigerate up to 8 hours, if desired. Brown meat, or shape into sausage patties and fry.

Notes: As I mentioned, I didn't have anise or fennel seeds, so I substitued caraway seeds. Also I thought 2 t. salt made the final product too salty, so next time I will only use 1 t.


Breakfast Sausage Seasoning
1/2 T. brown sugar
1 t. dried sage
1 t. salt
1/2 t. ground black pepper
1/8 t. marjoram
pinch crushed red pepper flakes
pinch ground cloves

Follow directions given for Italian Sausage above.

Notes: I only had ground sage, so I substituted 1/4 t. for the dried sage. I didn't have any marjoram, so I substituted 1/8 t. ground thyme there.

Just in case you were wondering...

...yes, Zorro is still cute!


3 years ago:

Monday

2 years ago:

Take 2

1 year ago:

Chicks will pick a sunny spot on the floor

Whazzup, chicken butt?

Yes, I have the humor level of a 12-year-old boy.

As the broiler chickens lose their baby feathers they sometimes end up with bare butts for a while, looking a little like baboons. They definitely don't stay in the cute little puffball stage for long.

Changing gears now...we still have 3 hogs left to sell for April 28 butchering, and that will be it until fall! So my plan is to tempt you with some delicious pork recipes in the coming days. Stay tuned...


3 years ago:

Welcome Art and Socks!

2 years ago:

Easter calf

1 year ago:

Frosty

Ag Speedlinking: 04.17.08

Wow, it's been over a month since I did an Ag Speedlinking post! What can I say, life's gotten busy has spring as (oh so slowly) approached. Speaking of spring...Mad had a track meet today and at one point it hailed on us. Hailed! They ran anyway. Onto the links!

*****

This Earth Day an unlikely foe: Biofuels
"As we are rushing to fill our fuel tanks with corn, we are affecting the global price of food and contributing to the destruction of the forests and other vital natural systems we meant to protect. Misguided biofuel mandates are actually exacerbating environmental harms and causing human suffering while failing to truly deliver energy independence."

*****

New farm bill lacks development money
From the Des Moines Register
"What good does it do if we keep giving more money to farmers but they don't have any towns, they don't have churches, they don't have hospitals, they don't have schools, they don't have water?"

*****

Rethinking farm bill subsidies crucial
"What can we citizens expect if the proposed $300 billion farm bill is signed into law? ...More than $4 billion in permanent disaster assistance to growers in the Northern Plains. The brainchild of Montana Democrat and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, this is essentially a trust fund to guarantee income to farmers plowing up prairies and grasslands -- lands prone to drought and erosion -- to plant corn and wheat. Many observers fear a second Dust Bowl."

*****

I know, I know

I said I wasn't going to post anymore pictures of wet little calves. But I was clicking through my files and came across this one of Zorro from last week. And it's just so cute I can't stand it. I mean look at those eyes. And those ears. And that wet, slightly curly hair.

Madeline had her first track meet today, finally! Finally it was warm and dry, but windy with gusts up to 50 mph. She ran anchor in the 4x800, first leg in the 4x400, and the 200m low hurdles. Their 7th grade Osage team won the meet, over 7 other teams! So it was a great way to start off the season. I'm not really sure how she did individually. Matt and I had to do our yearly "band parent" duty in the concession stand, so I couldn't watch real close and with the wind I couldn't hear the announcer.

I need to get out and snap some pictures of our "rescue calf". But I've been procrastinating because I have something special in mind for when I finally post his picture. Stay tuned...


3 years ago:

A Good Day

1 year ago:

Simba

King Corn television premiere

The documentary "King Corn" premieres tonight on public television's "Independent Lens" series. Check here for your local listings and to find out more about the film. I believe Iowa PTV isn't showing it until April 20.

Edited to add:

If you get IPTV Digital there are additional showings:

Tue April 15 - 9 p.m.
Wed April 16 - 12:30 a.m.
Fri April 18 - 10 a.m.
Mon April 21 - 9 a.m.

To access digital IPTV add ".1" to whatever channel you're receiving IPTV on. So around here, for channel 24 Mason City, it would be channel 24.1

Non-digital IPTV is showing it on Sunday April 20 at 10:30 p.m.

Today's chick fix

They're so cute when they drink!




Their fearless leader


3 years ago:

Eat, Drink and Be Married

Chicks, batch 1

Our first batch of chickens for 2008 is underway! 153 cute little peepers.

Here's an overview of our brooder pen setup:


I've been having Ike sleep in the garage with them at night, so he can start bonding with his charges. Hopefully, with last year's experience as chicken herd guard, he'll fall right into his duties again this year.


3 years ago:

Today I am...

2 years ago:

Spring

Chix Oh Six

Dimitry

Hopefully this is the last photo of a wet little calf that I post! Isn't he cute?!? Another day or so of this mess and we're supposed to be back on the upswing into spring.

This little guy was born Wednesday afternoon. The kids got out of school early, and Olivia had a friend over to play. They were all out jumping on the trampoline and got to see Dmitry being born! So Olivia and her friend (a "town girl" who thought that was a pretty cool thing to see) thought they should get to name him. I don't know where the name "Dimitry" came from, but that's what they came up with.

Yesterday's calf is doing great so far. He was even out and about in the rain this afternoon, running and jumping through the mud! In fact all 3 calves were romping about this afternoon. A very reassuring thing to see - they're weathering the weather well.


3 years ago:

Flarp

2 years ago:

Take me to the river

1 year ago:

Tragic tale o' the day

It's like some kind of farm soap opera

I mean really, the drama!

I mentioned yesterday that we had a cow in labor. We watched. We waited. We checked. No calf. Morning came. No calf. At that point I was thinking things were taking too long and we weren't going to have a good outcome.

On top of that, the weather here has been downright nasty. Driving rain, wind in 45mph gusts, temps in the 30s. I felt so sorry for Zorro and the other new calf that was born just yesterday afternoon! I wanted to go out and put little rain slickers on them.

So I took Madeline to the orthodontist and we picked up the broiler chicks on our way home. When I pulled in the driveway about 11 a.m., there was a new calf! I was so relieved. He was standing up even, but soaked to the bone.

After I got the chicks situated I looked out to see what was going on with the cow & calf, but didn't see them. I headed out to see where they were, and about that time Matt pulled in for lunch. We found the mama in the shed, but that newborn baby couldn't navigate the mud and was laying outside the shed in the mud.

Matt looked at me, hitched up his pants, and said, "Now I'm going to go get my @$$ kicked by a cow." He went out, grabbed that calf out of the mud, and hauled him inside the shed.









I ran in the house and grabbed some towels and Matt got him dried off as much as he could, until Mama Cow got really upset and came after her baby.

When Matt did chores after work the calf was still in the shed, and standing up and trying to nurse. So that's good. But I'll be fretting about all 3 of the new babies...the rain is supposed to turn to snow tomorrow afternoon.


3 years ago:

Our new friend Troy
I wish we were having the weather today that we were having on this day 3 years ago!

2 years ago:

Spread a little sunshine

1 year ago:

Spring, O Spring

I'm a big boy now

Zorro was standing up to the bale feeder munching away today like a big boy calf. So cute! Of course he's got Nanny Star right there with him.

Tomorrow...more babies! Another calf was born this afternoon, and we have a third cow in labor tonight. Plus I'm picking up 150 broiler chicks in the morning!


3 years ago:

Happy trails

2 years ago:

George

1 year ago:

Cuteness

At large

Madeline's pigs are still at large. They do go sleep in their port-a-hut, for naps during the day and also at night. Generally they can be found hanging out with the cattle, but once in a while they venture up into our yard. Ava does her best to keep them under control. She's learning to be helpful with her herding, despite us not really knowing how to teach her. Matt & Olivia worked on re-doing all of our pig shelters this weekend, but the weather didn't cooperate for them to finish up. Hopefully they'll get Madeline's pigs contained yet this week.







On a sad note, yesterday afternoon Matt found another one of Madeline's gilts dead. Just laying in their port-a-hut where they sleep. We have no idea what happened to her. She hadn't shown signs of illness. She doesn't have any obvious marks or injuries. It should be warm enough, and they should be big enough, that they wouldn't pile.

I do know that I'm getting mighty tired of things dying around here. Matt attributes it to our abysmal lack of facilities. I still think this farm is cursed. Okay, not really. But maybe.

Over my dead body

That seems to be what Star is saying here. The mama cow had gone off to have some lunch at the bale feeder, and Star stepped in as babysitter/bodyguard. She really loves that calf.

Twinville's kids thought this little guy looked like a "Zorro". We thought that was pretty fitting, so Zorro it is! Thanks, Twinville :)


3 years ago:

Peeps galore

A musical kind of day

Today was high school state music contest, for both band & vocal soloists and ensembles. I accompanied 8 students on the piano for their instrument solos. I've played for the yearly middle school contest the past 3 years but this is the first time I've played at the high school level. It was fun to get to know some of the high school students, and to have an excuse to sit down at the piano and play every night.

Tonight Matt & I went to the "legendary Surf Ballroom" to hear some friends' bands plus the one that I played keyboards in for 3 years.


3 years ago:

Practicality

Weekend chicken blogging

Temperatures finally climbed into the 50's today! The chickens were out sunning themselves, but smartly found shelter from the still-cold spring winds.




3 years ago:

Rock-n-roll Baby

Peeps

2 years ago:

New litter

1 year ago:

I make cows nervous

Direct marketing & the economy

Looks like we'll soon have another kind of baby around here! Those pigs sure like their mud. They do manage to keep their port-a-hut relatively clean, at least. This weekend's projects include moving the mama's to drier ground, if any can be found.

We're all hearing about the state of the economy these days. Around here that leads to discussions on what this will mean for our business, direct-marketing our beef, pork & chicken. Will the rising gas, energy and food prices mean that our customers will have to cut back on how much they buy from us? Or are people becoming more aware of the issues surrounding industrially-produced food and making local sustainably-raised food a priority in their budgets?

The jury's still out here. On the one hand we've had more sales here at the farm this winter than last winter, and the local store that carries our meat has bought more than last year. Despite the fact that we had to raise prices significantly because of rising feed costs, we've had more chicken and on-the-hoof beef & pork pre-orders than last year and received them earlier in the year. Farmers market starts in just over a month and I'm hopeful that it's going to go even better for us this year. We got our name and reputation out there last year and can build on that, plus we'll be at two markets this year instead of one.

On the other hand we've had more cancellations of pre-orders than we've experienced before (though the vast majority of them were about timing and not for financial reasons.) At the moment we're fretting about the hogs a bit. Out of the litter of 8 pigs we butchered last month we had 3-1/2 unsold. We butchered those into cuts to sell at farmers market this summer. Out of this month's litter of 7, we only have 3 sold. We're not really sure if we can move those other 4 at Farmers Market, in addition to the 3-1/2.

[Edited to add...that was wild! At the very moment I typed that, someone called and ordered a whole hog! So make that 3 left to sell...]

But I was encouraged by an article in this past Sunday's Des Moines Register, "High cost for food lets czars envision a new era". The presidents of Whole Foods and Stonyfield Farms spoke to students at Drake and Iowa State last week "about the success of green businesses and where the movement is headed."

"The higher food prices climb, the more recalls there are, the more people learn about problems associated with coventional food from industrialized farms, the better it is for natural and organic food producers, they said."

So what do you think? If you're a farmer, have you experienced any changes in your sales lately? If so, how have they changed, and to what do you attribute the change? If you're a consumer, are your food budget and the type of items you buy changing? If so, why?


3 years ago:

Function = Beauty

2 years ago:

Go read it

It just never gets old

This calf is fresh!

These are the days when I'm especially glad I work at home. When I went to the kitchen to get some breakfast this morning I glanced out the window and saw one of the younger Hereford cows in labor. A half hour later this little guy was on the ground. I grabbed the camera and ran out.


Thank goodness humans aren't expected to get up and walk before they're an hour old!

Cows hate me, so I stood on the other side of the fence with the row of cornstalk bales between us.


It's gotta be here somewhere.

New calves, new piglets, new chicks - no matter the species, new babies just never get old. It's a miracle each and every time.


Uff!


It's okay honey, try again.

Kind of like us human moms - lick 'em off and send 'em back out there!





At this point I went back in the house. Like I said, cows hate me. I figured the bonding would progress better without me sticking my camera in their business.



And when I came back out at lunch the little guy was all dried off and fluffy, nursing like a champ. Isn't he a handsome fella? Such a nice blocky, masucline look to him.



Star took an immediate liking to him. She had to sack out for her nap right by the new baby.


2 years ago:

62

1 year ago:

Piggies