Sugar Creek Farm

Our February delivery date for Mason City will be Wednesday, February 20th at 6:00 in the southwest corner of the KMart parking lot. Call orders in to 641.732.4915 or email to sugarcreekfarm@osage.net by Monday, February 18th. See you soon!

We’ll be making deliveries to Mason City this Wednesday, January 23rd. Usually we meet at 6:30 p.m. in the KMart parking lot, but if you can come earlier let me know. Call orders to 641.732.4915 or email to sugarcreekfarm@osage.net by noon on Tuesday the 22nd.

I know, I know. I barely posted in 2012. Won’t promise anything for 2013, won’t wax poetic about how I’d really like to be here more often (I would!) But wanted to let anyone that’s still around these parts know that we are indeed still kicking around on our little square of the planet.

So what do we spend our time on, since it’s obviously not writing blog posts? Well there’s our day jobs (Matt’s still doing his lineman thing, I’m still doing my software development thing.) And of course there’s the farm. There are parts of it that are going well, and parts that are sucking the life out of the parts that are going well. (Ahem! I’m talking to you, pigs!) And then there’s the offspring. We now have a senior, a freshman, and a 5th grader. Between volleyball, football, basketball, cheerleading, track, softball, church, 4-H, band, and chorus activities they keep us well entertained.

I’m planning/hoping to do a Project Life album this year, and planning/hoping to do more picture taking than I have in a while. So I’m planning/hoping to have more to share with you here even if it means I go off-topic and ramble about whatever comes to mind, farm and non-farm related alike.

So that’s the update. If you have any burning questions, any detailed updates you’d like to hear, anything at all… just leave a comment! I promise to post again before 2014 rolls in!

Because of the weather our first delivery date has been postponed to this Friday, December 21. Same bat time, same bat channel. (6:30 p.m., KMart parking lot in the southwest corner) Email orders to sugarcreekfarm@osage.net or call 641.732.4915 by Friday at noon.

Yeah, we love that you love to cook!

Our Olivia… you woke up this morning and all of a sudden you’re 15. It doesn’t seem right. You’re the baby sister. Baby sisters are not 15 years old.

You’re so quiet most of the time in public that people can’t quite believe that at home you’re our goofy, loud middle child. I hope in the coming years you’ll let more people see that side of you, because it’s pretty awesome.

I love watching you play volleyball…

… and pitching softball. You have such a quiet confidence, and a natural “knowing” of how to play those 2 sports.

Of course, like most sisters, you & yours have your fighty moments. But I’m seeing the two of you getting closer now that you’re both in high school.

And at the same time I see you starting to come out of your sister’s shadow and come into your own. I’m really excited about that 🙂

You’ve made some hard choices this past year about what path you want your life to take. Your dad & I are extremely proud of that and the way you’ve handled things.

Happy One-Five, Liver Quinn.

Love,
Yo Mama

What do you do when you send the rest of the family to the fair to watch the demolition derby, and find yourself with an evening at home all to yourself?

Please tell me you venture out into your garden, pick various and sundry vegetables, and then line them all up for a family portrait.

No? Well, don’t I feel a little weird now.

I love the alien look of the kohlrabi.

Lovely, lovely cucumbers that I plan to slice up and have with onions and dressing. The recipe comes from an old church cookbook and includes the instructions “dressing can be reused up to three times before throwing out.” Indeed.

Broccoli. Nom, nom.

And yes, I even love that overachiever of garden vegetables, the zucchini.

I’m hoping I’ve guessed at the ripeness of this watermelon correctly.

A peck of to-be-pickled peppers.

It was a nice surprise to find so many things in the garden tonight, hanging on in the midst of this awful drought!

Garden of August past

Wow. Just, wow. Seventeen. About to be a senior in high school. College visits. Trying to figure out a major. Wow.

A full slate of extracurricular’s – volleyball, wrestling cheerleader, track, chorus, band, 4-H. A part-time job waitressing. Inducted into National Honor Society last year. We couldn’t be more proud.

She is still that happy, funny girl she’s always been. Still hugs everybody. Still loves to sing, and sing, and sing.

Letting go of the reins has been a process, but not nearly as awful as I imagined it would be. It’s to her credit that it’s been easier than expected. Even though I wish I could somehow keep her here with us forever, I’m also really excited to see where life takes her. I think it’s going to be good.

But thank goodness I have these to look back on…

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Happy One-Seven, Maddog.

Love,
Yo Mama

For all of you that have been asking, this Friday we’ll be back at the North Iowa farmers market in Mason City and we’ll have chickens with us!!

And on Saturday we’ll be at a new event, the North Iowa Herb Fest in Clear Lake. Should be a fun day! You can find more information about the Herb Fest here: http://www.facebook.com/events/114187955388931/

If you can’t make either of these, just give us a call at the farm and we can make arrangements for you to stop out and get chickens (and anything else you need for summer grilling!)