Sugar Creek Farm

Today I finally got around to purchasing the cable I need to hook the video camera up to my new laptop. Yer in for a whole lotta fun now! Well, depending on your definition of fun I guess. But I have plans for next summer to show you my “Pied Piper of the Chickens on Pasture” routine. Can’t wait, can you?

However for my first video share we’ll go with Madeline singing at this summer’s 4-H Share-the-Fun event at our county fair. Pardon the bad videography. I was being a bad stage mom, trying to videotape with one hand and give her a hand signal with the other to stop clapping and pick up the microphone already. As usual, she ignored me. And as it turns out, she didn’t need my suggestions. She earned a trip to the Iowa State Fair for her performance.

Fall equals football around here. Once afternoon chores are done it’s game on.

Rafe is all about the football this year. When I gave him a task to do the other day, he replied, “But Mom, I’ve got stuff to do! I’ve got to go out and play football by myself, and then I’ve got to hang with Dad!” (Mom wins, of course, and the task got done before football.)

Kicking and punting are his favorite things. Must be genetic. Matt and his brother were both kickers. First…a practice kick.

Then the real deal.

Olivia, still in chore boots, joins in the game.

A miss…

And then the tackle.

In beef news, I’ve got 2 in the “win” column now. We took a heifer to the locker tonight. Matt guessed 1280 pounds, I said between 1225 and 1250. She was 1260, which put me within 15 pounds again!

Louisa

All right, all right, enough pig pictures. How about a nice heifer? Lousia is a beauty.

Sunday we took the first beef to the locker, and will continue with one each week for 6 weeks. It’s always nice when the beef starts to go in. This time of year is when the cash flow crunch is heaviest, and week by week the beef sales start to alleviate that.

Whenever we take an animal to the locker we always go to the elevator first, weigh loaded, unload the animal(s) at the locker, go back to the elevator, and weigh empty. In between the two weigh-ins we each make a guess as to how much the animal will weigh.

Now I know nothing about cattle, don’t know how to look at one and decide if it’s “ready”. Matt picked out the steer he thought was best finished – a round rump, hip pin bones not protruding too much, nice smooth cover. Matt guessed 1305 pounds, I guessed 1365. This steer weighed 1380 pounds – I was only 15 pounds off! I won’t let Matt soon forget that 🙂

We still have a few quarters or bundles (essentially an 1/8th of a beef) available for February and March. Just holler if you want to reserve one!

Can you spot them? So cute!

We’ve had some amazing weather this month. Not the usual northern Iowa late-October cold and chill. Here’s a pictorial tour of our garden right now. I can’t believe how much food is out there still. There have been some cool nights lately, we haven’t covered anything, and it’s all still doing remarkably. We’ve got to make time this weekend to get everything harvested.

Kohlrabi and snapdragons

Chile peppers

Brussel sprouts

Paste tomatoes

Carrots

Cabbage

There’s also sweet potatoes to be dug, and more drying beans to pick.

Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous fall day. A good day to get out and pick the drying beans. I had my nephew here, and he and Rafe were busy digging holes and hauling loads of dirt around the garden. (I think they were “harvesting”, after getting to “help” my brother and dad in the fields the last few weeks.) But curiosity got the better of them and they came over to help me.

Soldier

Black Turtle

I think I like growing drying beans even better than heirloom tomatoes. So many pretty colors!

And such good helpers.

Matt says it’s time to put some beef on this here blog, but I’ve just got too many cute pig pictures to share! This is the litter that was born last Friday. How cute and shiny are they?!

And I thought nursing was tough! Makes my nips hurt just looking at this picture.

Thanks to everybody that left a comment for my Blogiversary! If you haven’t yet, please leave one here. I’ve loved reading them! I don’t get a ton of comments normally, so sometimes when I hit ‘Post’ I swear I hear an echo.

To wrap up this Blogiversary Celebration, here are my favorite posts from 2006:

Matt’s 2005 year in review

Commotion in the coop

Barn Fire

What’s in your butter dish

Sugar Creek Farm goes Hollywood and What a Trip

62

Spring tree

Clutzy with a capital C

Look what I found

Well that was interesting

Initiative

Overheard

So tired

Anticipation

Random gardening advice

Chickens have taken over my garage

Our chicken setup: A novel

Nerve wracking and 111 and Fret, fretted, will fret

Still life

So much for quiet

Holy cow, er, pig! Yesterday’s post was my 500th! As a “Happy Blogiversary” gift, would anyone still reading this little blog please leave a comment?

Here’s the very first post.

Some other favorite posts from 2004 & 2005. I’ll post 2006 and 2007 favorites tomorrow.

2004 Recap

One of these things (part 1)

Ike

Good news

Free range pork

Why we do this

Head to head

Bad morning and 44

Optimism

Ouch

The 6-week-old piglets have had free range of the farm, and you just never know where you’re going to spot them…out in the pasture, in the corn crib/chicken coop, in the corn field. Matt got a pen built for them this weekend so that they can be weaned from their mama now. I’m sure she’s relieved.

Our second sow farrowed on Friday. She had 12, layed on 3, and the remaining 9 look great. Pictures to come…

Breakfast of champions – a Sugar Creek Farm breakfast sausage patty topped off with homemade syrup 🙂

Just a quick product update:

Chickens are sold out for the year! I only had about 29 extra’s out of 146. I took them to the Farmers Market and they sold like hotcakes. I’ll be raising a whole extra batch next year, so we will have chicken available in June, July and October. But please please pre-order if you can, as early as you can. You can pre-order now for chicken next year! Pre-ordering with any of our products helps us so much with planning. If I get a lot of chicken pre-orders early in the year I will still have time to add a fourth batch for September.

Pork is sold out for the year! So we will now start taking pre-orders for the next batches, which will be ready in March and April.

Beef is also sold out for the year! We still have slots available for February & March butchering, but only 6 quarters left at this point. So let me know if you want on the list for any of those. Otherwise we are taking pre-orders for Fall ’08. Yes, I’ve already sold beef for Fall ’08 🙂

If you aren’t on our mailing list for our yearly newsletter, but want to be, just email me your mailing address. The newsletter comes out February-ish to let you know what will be available for the year at what prices, and includes the pre-order form for all of our products. But we do take pre-orders any time, by email, in phone, or in person.

That’s it for now! Thank you to all of our loyal “old” customers, and the many new ones that have given us a try this year. Your support for our farm and local eating is so appreciated!