Pete & Repeat

2 cute little heifers, that look a lot alike! Fortunately one wears white socks so that I can tell them apart.


4 years ago:

Holy Moly

Virginia Bluebells

3 years ago:

The baby parade continues

2 years ago:

Whatchimacallit

Cow hip lifter

Seeing double

1 year ago:

Are you my mother?

Uno

Flexible

Little Peep

How to Cook : Eggs Benedict

Once upon a time, a long time ago...I turned 30. And one of my best friends from high school did, too, just 7 days before me. So I flew out to San Francisco to celebrate with her.


Me, left, Susan, right

Susan and I share a love of food. I wouldn't exactly call us foodies, though. I think having Ding Dongs and nacho cheese dip on your favorite foods list disqualifies a person from that moniker. Regardless, we ate some really good food for our birthdays. It was in San Francisco I had a breakfast I'll never forget.

Buckwheat pancakes.

Fried potatoes.

And eggs benedict.





The aftermath.


Fast forward to today. The hens are laying again. I'm in need of an egg dish to fix for supper. I decided to give the home version of eggs benedict a go. With a few changes, of course

Eggs benedict is usually made with Canadian bacon. We have cottage bacon made when we butcher pork, and it reminds me a little of Canadian bacon. I like to use it on pizza, or to lean up a BLT. I thought it would work just fine in my version of eggs benedict.



Then you have to poach your eggs. Simply get a saucepan half full of water boiling then reduce to a simmer. Crack an egg into a measuring cup, then quickly slide the egg from the cup into the simmering water.



Cook 3 to 5 minutes, to desired doneness. The eggs kind of look like jellyfish while they cook.



Remove the egg from the saucepan with a slotted spoon. Place Canadian bacon, or cottage bacon, atop an English muffin. I changed things up a little here, too, and used slices of English muffin bread. It was delicious! Put an egg on top of the bacon, add Hollondaise sauce and sprinkle with paprika.

Hollandaise sauce is simple to make, and is yet another good use for extra eggs. Melt 1/2 cup butter, 1 Tablespoon lemon juice and 1 Tablespoon water in a glass measuring cup in the microwave. Place 3 egg yolks in a bowl, then slowly whisk the melted butter mixture into the egg yolks. Cook this mixture in the microwave 30 to 45 seconds, whisking every 10 seconds, until thickened.

My home version of eggs benedict turned out yummy, and made a wonderful spring meal paired with asparagus.




4 years ago:

Overheard

1 year ago:

Alarmed

How to Cook : Bean & Ham Soup

Is there anything sexier than a man tilling your garden? (And some random chicken.)

I didn't think so.


4 years ago:

Lined up at the buffet

1 year ago:

I'm it

Beak to the grindstone

The first batch of chicks for this year is in the garage brooder pen. These guys are all business when it comes to eating.


2 years ago:

Go fly a kite

1 year ago:

The huddled masses

Portrait

This is Pretty Girl. Don't tell the others, but she's Matt's favorite cow. He loves Herefords, and Pretty Girl was the first one he bought. I guess there's always a special place in a guy's heart for his first Hereford.


4 years ago:

Welcome, Art and Socks!

Monday

Happiness is...

3 years ago:

Easter calf

Take 2

I love the piglets at this age

2 years ago:

Chicks will pick a sunny spot on the floor

1 year ago:

Whazzup, chicken butt?

Just in case you were wondering

How to Cook : Ground Pork

Numero dos

Calf #2 is on the ground, and so far so good.



But as you can imagine, I'm now impossibly paranoid. My office window overlooks the cows' winter lot, and I'm constantly checking on them. Today this little girl layed in the same spot for what seemed like much too long. But eventually her mother did rouse her for a bite to eat.



Isn't she cute? I love how she looks like she's wearing a hoodie!

We have another cow that looks just like this one, and she had a calf that looks just like this one. I've got to try and get a picture of them, if I can tell who's who!


2 years ago:

Frosty

Garden, April

This has been one of the nicest springs I can remember. The mud hasn't been too bad, the weather's been warm. The farmers are getting a good start in the fields. Madeline had her first track meet of the season yesterday and we had a gorgeous afternoon for sitting in the bleachers cheering. (And yay for her 8th grade team for winning the meet! They placed in every single event. She placed 1st in the 1500m, she anchored the shuttle hurdle team which placed 2nd, and she anchored the 4x400 which placed 1st.)

Of course, all of this has me worried that we're in for a drought. Because as you all know by now, I'm a fretter.

So I'm really itching to get in the garden. With the late harvest last fall (due to the epic floods) my dad didn't have time to get the garden turned then. So Sunday afternoon he brought over his big rig + the soil saver.



As you can see, Rafe had to ride along with Grandpa.



Down one side,



up the other side,



a few times through the middle and the job was done.



Hopefully we can get time to till and plant some early-season crops before the rain Saturday. I'm just craving something fresh & green!


4 years ago:

A good day

2 years ago:

Simba

1 year ago:

I know, I know

That had to hurt

See that egg? Front row, third from the right? Every once in a while someone lays a giant egg, and it just makes my hiney tingle.


4 years ago:

Eat, drink and be married

1 year ago:

Today's chick fix

Trusting my instincts (or not)

Remember this guy?



He was 6 days old on Saturday, and had been doing good all week. When I checked on him Saturday morning he was just standing in the pile of cornstalks that the cows like to sleep on. I thought to myself that he didn't look as spunky as usual, but I don't know much about cows so I dismissed the thought.



Some friends came out to see the baby chicks and I wanted to show them the new calf. His mother was at the bale feeder eating, but he was nowhere to be seen. Matt found him in the shed, next to the water tank laying in a puddle, now definitely acting very dumpy.



So Matt hauled him out of there and tried to get some electrolytes down him. He swallowed but wouldn't suck, so we asked my brother to have a look at him. His breathing was clear, he wasn't scouring, he just seemed dehydrated. So my brother tubed him to get some more electrolytes in him.



Unfortunately our Easter morning didn't bring a miraculous return from the almost-dead. Our first calf of the '09 calving season became the first loss of the '09 calving season. And I'm wondering why I don't trust my own instincts.


4 years ago:

Today I am...

3 years ago:

Chix Oh Six

1 year ago:

Chicks, batch 1

Happy Easter!

4 years ago:

Happy trails

Our new friend Troy

Flarp

3 years ago:

George

Spread a little sunshine

Take me to the river

Spring

2 years ago:

Cuteness

Spring, O Spring

Tragic tale o' the day

1 year ago:

I'm a big boy now

It's like some kind of farm soap opera

Dimitry

Photogenic

Matt would like this blog to be all cows, all the time. But really, this time of year, they make for rather boring photo subjects. They just hang around, waiting for the grass to green up or to give birth.

Chickens, on the other hand, are interesting. All. year. round.







The colors. The clucking. The antics. I keep chickens as much for entertainment as for eggs.


1 year ago:

At large

New digs

The 4-H pigs are finally out of my garage. They really seem to be enjoying their new digs. Theirs is the small port-a-hut that you can barely see, with large round bales on either side and squares stacked in front of the entrance to cut the wind. (The large port-a-hut behind it will be for farrowing next week!) Today when I went out to check on them they were laying in a pile in the doorway, getting a little sunburn on their butts!

My house no longer smells like a petting zoo...for a couple days, anyway, until 150 chicks arrive on Thursday.


4 years ago:

Peeps galore!

1 year ago:

Over my dead body

Sunrise

Saturday morning, about 6:30 a.m. There's not a whole lot that needs to be said about this one, except maybe...wow.

1 down

First calf of '09 (and some random chicken)

Today's predicted winter storm never did bring any snow...but it brought us our first calf! Good 'ol number 68 dropped a nice big bull calf this afternoon.



Oy, those ears! Kill me with cuteness. What a wonderful way to go.


4 years ago:

Function = Beauty

Rock-n-Roll Baby

Peeps

Practicality

3 years ago:

New litter

2 years ago:

I make cows nervous

1 year ago:

Direct marketing and the economy

Weekend chicken blogging

A musical kind of day

Some days are like that...

This little pullet made me laugh! Some days are like that. You find yourself just wanting to bury your head and shut out the world for a while.

The weather forecast is calling for 6 inches of snow this weekend. I'd like to shut out that bit of news!


3 years ago:

62

2 years ago:

New-ish cow

Piggies

1 year ago:

It just never gets old

New gilts

These girls have been in the works since late last summer. One of our farmers market customers mentioned that the farmer they bought pork from was getting out of pigs. I asked if he had breeding stock to sell, since we were looking to cull our Chester Whites. (Here's the backstory on that saga.) He didn't but hooked us up with this really wonderful pig guy, Marlan Braet, and we arranged to buy some gilts bred to farrow in the spring.

Last Sunday it was finally time to go and pick them up. We met Marlan in Lowden, and then trekked all the way over the (Mississippi) river and through the woods into Illinois. Marlan had actually sold his breeding herd to another farmer, who was nice enough to sell us our pick of his bred gilts.

Here's what we came home with, 3 (predominantly) Hamp gilts bred to Duroc:






You can see that our new pullets formed a welcoming committee!

They're really nice handling pigs! As you can see, they warmed right up to Matt.


It was a long day, but I'm very hopeful it was worth the trip. The farm these girls came from was very similar to ours - it wasn't a confinement setup and they were not at all pampered :) And they're just so calm and easy to work with.

Marlan is a guy that knows pigs, and pork, and obviously had put a lot of work into developing this herd. Here's a great article about him [PDF] from Iowa Edible River Valley magazine. He was such an interesting guy to spend the afternoon with!

We should be farrowing in just a couple of weeks. Hopefully I'll have good results to report then!


4 years ago:

Preparation

1 year ago:

You have GOT to be kidding me