Sugar Creek Farm

A couple of links for your Monday morning.

There’s another blogger in the family! Madeline is taking Food & Nutrition for one of her 4-H projects this year. So she’s started learning to cook, and is keeping a recipe journal in the process. You can find her recipe journal at Maddog in the Kitchen .

And my favorite soapmaker is on her way to fame and fortune after a shout-out in Cooking Light magazine. I can personally testify to the amazing-ness of her Amazing Kitchen Soap. And the Gardener’s Soap. And the Green Pear, Honeysuckle, Apple Blossom, Berry Berry Nice, Kudzu and Gardenia. I have a couple of those cool wooden soap holders, too. Since Matt started using her soap, his eczema has cleared up!

“Rafe, you’re going to be a good boy in here.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re going to stay by me and not run and just look and not touch anything.”

“Why?”

“Because you love your mama.”

“You so silly, mom!”

Before we finally rid this year’s garden of weeds and frost-killed tomato plants, we let Sara have at it for a couple of hours. Matt just called her over to the gate, let her out of the pasture, and walked her over to the garden. She’s such a tame girl! Then I hung around doing yardwork and kept an eye on her. No need for a fence – she had a ball eating the soft tomatoes and rooting for missed potatoes.

Abbie kept an eye on her, too.

It’s fun to watch Abbie try to figure out how to do what her instincts are telling her to do. Her instincts were telling her to keep that pig in the garden. She would follow a couple of feet behind Sarah and let out a bark now and again. But if Sarah would turn around and look at her, Abbie would turn tail and run behind me. Still very much a puppy!

One of the guys where Matt works decided to get out of chickens and into bees instead. So we’re the lucky benefactors of this beautiful batch of pampered poultry and some nice chicken equipment, in exchange for some frozen chickens and some cartons of eggs.

The “blonde” chick at the back is Marilyn Monroe, and one of the two roosters is (I think) Elvis. Some of the others have names, too, but I can’t remember now who’s who.

The free-range chicken thing is getting a little out of hand. Not that they cause any problems, in fact they eat a lot of bugs out of the lawn and pretty the place up while they’re doing it. And it’s not that we’ve got a predator problem. Everyone’s very good at coming back into the corn crib to roost at night, except a few outdoor-types who insist on roosting in a tree right outside the corncrib.

It’s the fact that I’ve got 19 hens plus 20 pullets plus 14 new chicks (not sure if they’re hens or pullets) plus a silkie…and I’m only getting 13 eggs a day. We’ve either got to figure out where they’re laying, or round them all up and shut them in the coop for a couple of days so they figure out the nest boxes. That would require stringing poultry netting across the ceiling of the coop. The walls stop short of the corn crib roof and these girls can fly! They roost clear up in the rafters of the corn crib. One of these days we’ll get around to it.

The piglets grow so fast! I wanted to get a picture of them so I recruited Rafe, whose favorite “job” is running them out of the shed.

No losses to tetanus this time – the males got both the vaccine and the anti-toxin when they were castrated.

Sarah has about a month off without piglets nursing or Winston looking for action. She’s so happy 🙂 At the time the piglets were weaned they were so big that they’d just rush her and knock her down so they could nurse.

Love those curled up tails.

Our dilapidated old shed with Rafe’s bright yellow Tonka parked inside. Conspicuous evidence of his playtime here.

Make your entry at Photo Friday.

The potato and onion harvest is in. Into the garage, anyway. We have yet to haul them down to the basement for winter storage, but for now an empty cattle tank works.

One group is definitely a red potato. The other looks like Yukon gold on the inside. I really thought we did russets, too, but I’m not seeing any now. Will have to dig out my ordering records. The yellow onions are wonderful.

Despite my novice planting technique, the sweet potatoes yielded really well.

Matt could eat potatoes for 3 meals a day. Must be those “Quinn” ancestors. Bring on the potato recipes, everyone!

Our one remaining Silky is still here. She waits around for the Araucanas to lay their little blue eggs, and then she sits on their eggs for them. She’s such a sweetie!

In honor of Public Power Week Osage Municipal Utilities held an open house for their customers. So Matt got to spend the day giving bucket truck rides to kids. The girls love it when they get to ride with Dad. Rafe and me, not so much. We stayed on the ground.

Matt and Olivia on the way up

All the way up

Matt and Madeline on their way to the sun

This was as high as Rafe would go