Sugar Creek Farm

Punks & bluebells

2008-05-12T22:31:00.002-05:00

Yesterday afternoon we gathered "the cousins" for a little bluebell photo op. Bluebell pictures are a mostly annual tradition over at my parents' farm (there have been a few years in the last 12 when the spring weather didn't cooperate.)

The boyz...

and the girls.

3 years ago:

Use the force

From the "Why We Do This" category

Lookin' for love

2 years ago:

Louisa

Quack

Back to the chicken pictures

2008-05-09T20:56:00.003-05:00

After a long winter the chickens spend a lot of time just soaking up the spring sun.

3 years ago:

Goings on

2 years ago:

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming

1 year ago:

The best part of waking up

Yeehaw!

2008-05-08T22:00:00.003-05:00

I was going to post a chicken picture today.

And then Madeline went and broke the Osage 7th grade girls record for the mile.

Scratch the chicken picture.

1 year ago:

Newest resident

Spring self-portrait

2008-05-07T21:18:00.002-05:00

* Rubber chore boots replace snow boots

* Chairs returned to the front porch

* Green grass

* Still need a stocking cap

I am rooster

2008-05-06T22:51:00.002-05:00

Hear me crow!

Soooo good looking.

Lookit me and my bad self.

3 years ago:

Our Farming Heritage - Part I

1 year ago:

Train kept-a rollin'

And the winner is..

2008-05-05T21:46:00.002-05:00

Oh my gosh (or "O.M.G." as my eldest daughter would say), you guys are good! So many answers that I just couldn't choose. I couldn't! So I handed the laptop over to Matt and made him pick.

There were a whole lot of names that made me hungry. For chocolate. And coffee. And pie. And ice cream. I thought Aileen's continuation of the Shakespeare theme was brilliant. Kristi's observation that he has George Clooney eyes - how right she is! After this contest's entry and the last one, I think Patti is jonesing for some beef ;)

So I made Matt choose, and after he hemmed and hawed (what does that even mean?) he finally went with ... (drumroll please)...Bullwinkle! Thanks for the name, Carrie! A calf named after a moose - perfect!

Carrie, please email me your pick of the photos and your mailing address to themillers92 (at) osage (dot) net.

Stay tuned, another contest coming up...soon :)

3 years ago:

Up close and personal

It's another "Name That Calf" contest!

2008-05-04T21:52:00.004-05:00

You already met Number Six's baby a couple of weeks ago - a cute solid brownish-black bull calf. Now you get to help name him!

Once again, winner will get pick of a 5x7 photo from this collection:

Sugar Creek Farm::Images

(or you can choose the picture of "your" calf shown here!)

Comments will close tomorrow (Monday) at 9 p.m. central.

Can't wait to hear what you come up with!

(Twinville - I need your mailing address to send Zorro's picture your way. But I understand you've been a little preoccupied this week with the fire, so no hurry! Email themillers92 (at) osage (dot) net whenever you get around to it. Hope everyone is safe!)

(Judy - I also need your mailing address, and which picture you'd like for your win naming Shakespeare. Thanks!)

3 years ago:

Moved

State track

2008-05-03T23:30:00.002-05:00

Today I drove a car full of girls down to the Iowa middle school girls state track meet in Ankeny, just one in a caravan of cars from Osage. Spring track meets in Iowa (or tennis, or golf, or trap shoot meets for that matter) are an interesting game for the spectator as well as athlete, because you just never know what kind of weather you're going to be sitting in. Today was cold (started in the mid-30's, "warmed" up into the 40's in the afternoon) and windy (20 to 30 mph). So along came the sleeping bags, hats, mittens and winter coats. But at least it wasn't raining, a rare thing this spring, and the sun was out. Except nobody was thinking sunscreen or lip balm this time of year and after 10 hours in a set of west-facing bleachers we all looked rather pink.

So though there were (many) portions of it that were long and rather boring (like 6 heats of the 1500), it was still fun to watch the girls compete at this level and I was glad I went. Despite only getting in 2.5 meets around the rain so far this spring they did all right. There was some tough competition!

Madeline ran first leg of the shuttle hurdle relay, 400 (last) leg of the sprint medley, and anchored the 4 x 400.

Here she is coming over the first hurdle (in the middle in the green & the black under armour). She just ran this race in a meet for the first time last Thursday, so I was a little nervous about it. But their team placed 4th overall in this event in the small schools division, so I guess I worried for nothing (as usual, I guess.)

She likes to run the 7 flight hurdles. And yet it seems to me like she's got a distance runner's build. But what do I know?

Just last week she started running the mile, and got 2nd in last Thursday's track meet - only 10 seconds off the 7th grade girls school record. So she's excited to work at improving her time this week and gunning for that record :)

3 years ago:

Neighborly advice

This little piggy

2 years ago:

Bottle babies

Graduate

1 year ago:

Chicken decorating

Quilt squares

Convo

2008-05-01T19:34:00.002-05:00

Madeline & Rafe were helping Matt fix fence in the pasture last weekend where I caught them having a little convo on the tractor.

3 years ago:

Cold

2 years ago:

A new month

1 year ago:

Springtime

We have a winner!

2008-04-30T22:33:00.002-05:00

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!

2008-04-29T21:26:00.006-05:00

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!

2008-04-28T21:54:00.003-05:00

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

2008-04-27T20:13:00.002-05:00

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

2008-04-26T23:59:00.000-05:00

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

2008-04-24T22:00:00.002-05:00

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?

2008-04-23T20:44:00.003-05:00

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

2008-04-22T21:41:00.003-05:00

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

2008-04-22T20:31:00.000-05:00

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

2008-04-21T22:20:00.003-05:00

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

2008-04-20T20:28:00.003-05:00

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

2008-04-18T20:36:00.007-05:00

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...

2008-04-18T18:51:00.000-05:00

...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?

2008-04-17T21:56:00.003-05:00

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

2008-04-17T21:19:00.004-05:00

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

2008-04-15T21:29:00.003-05:00

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