Big Pink Farm - Farm Blog

It's poultry time!

Mon, 16 May 2011 13:35:24 -0800

Three weeks ago, the first of the year's broiler chickens arrived in the mail.

They are big enough now with sufficient feathers to keep warm without the aid of a heat lamp, so their new homes are movable, bottomless coops on the grass. After experimenting with a hoop house style of movable coop that is tall enough for a person to walk into, which makes feeding and water extremely convenient but is highly prone to being blown away in high winds, we settled on lightweight but low to the ground coops that we built last year.

Continuing in the poultry vein...

Now that the weather has warmed up some - last week it was 80 degrees and today it's only 50, but you know what I mean - it's time to think about giving thanks. We plan to have fresh turkeys this year for Thanksgiving. We'll raise a limited number, so if you want a fresh bird for your holiday table, the time is now to place your order! We'll be taking orders for our turkeys raised on pasture until June 15. Forget everything you thought you knew about turkey. The flavor of one of these birds is beyond compare. Email us for more information about how to reserve your Thanksgiving turkey today!

Progress looks like a kitchen floor

Mon, 16 May 2011 12:58:04 -0800

After YEARS UPON YEARS of living with an unfinished floor in my kitchen, it's starting to look like just maybe I will be the proud new owner of a gorgeous hardwood floor sometime this year. Maybe. I hope. At any rate, Roger is busy planing wood that we harvested from the old corn crib here.

Caution: This video is LOUD!

Also, we just introduced a new soap scent: Sandalwood. It smells wonderful!

How to put a round hay bale into the feeder

Sat, 26 Feb 2011 13:59:51 -0800

It sounds simple enough. Let's break it down.

Step 1: Open the gate and try to herd goats into the farthest corner of their yard and then distract them while one person opens the feeder and directs the tractor operator.

Step 2: Watch in horror while one stray baby goat runs UNDERNEATH the tractor that is delivering the bale. Gesture frantically. Consider vomiting. Squeeze eyes shut so as not to witness the carnage that is about to ensue. Heave a sigh of relief when baby goat outruns the tractor and finds mama.

Step 3: Cast nervous glances over your shoulder at the progress with the bale while still trying to distract goats who, at this point, are getting wise to your game. Remind your helpers that they're not here to monkey around or throw snowballs at each other. Focus, people!

Step 4: Sensing that the goats are about to mutiny, stare at the tractor operator and will him to work faster. Heave another sigh of relief when, just like that, the bale is placed and the feeder is secure. Watch the tractor leave the yard and close the gate. Let the goats do what they want.

Step 5: Walk away nonchalantly. What, me worry?

You should enter this contest

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 12:40:33 -0800

This is going to be a quickie. I want you to check out the contest from Saving Dinner for a Hamilton Beach slow cooker. It ends tomorrow, so you have to be quick about it. They're giving away 3 free slow cookers, and so far only one person has qualified.

I'm going to be honest, clicking on the link also helps my chances in the contest. So even if you're not all that interested in getting enough points to win, please consider clicking the link and entering anyway. You'd be my best friend forever.

Words are overrated

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 08:47:51 -0800

But I have some photos to share, for what it's worth. Winter is rough stuff, but it helps a whole bunch to share days with the most adorable baby the world has ever known. But first, the annual Romeo kid photo, Christmas 2010 edition.

In other news, the chickens are starting to pick up their egg production a little, despite the snow and cold. I take that as a positive sign of imminent spring, and you should, too. Finding the eggs that they lay can be a bit of an adventure, though, since some of them like to build nests in the big hay bales that we feed the goats. It's like an Easter egg hunt every day, only without the candy.

Perhaps the surest sign of spring is the seed catalogs that have started to arrive almost daily in our mailbox.

Finally, this little video/photo montage of Ariel singing and strumming on the mandolin is NOT a sign of spring; it's just adorable, and I hope it will cheer you up some if you need cheering. And if you don't need cheering, I admire your optimism.

Settling in...

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 07:46:26 -0800

Welcome to the random thoughts in my head. It's been awhile since I've written anything here. I'm usually pretty lazy about keeping up this blog anyway, but since I became the mother of TEN kids, I'm finding it much harder to think in complete paragraphs.

Last night we ate the last of the garden's tomatoes. Not bad for December 1! Before the first frost several weeks ago, we rescued all the green tomatoes still on the vine. Most of them I turned into a savory green tomato relish which I processed using the boiling water bath method. Salsa in January makes the winter a little more bearable.

The rest of the tomatoes I carefully laid in a box and set aside for ripening. Over the weeks, they ripened slowly (or in some cases, they rotted, but I don't expect perfection), and we enjoyed them in salads. And then the remaining fresh tomatoes went into last night's dinner: rough chopped and roasted in a hot oven with onions, garlic, olive oil and basil. Served with sauteed chicken hearts (marinated and sliced thin, oh so yummy!), it became a nutrient-dense last farewell to summer. On December 1!

So now I have to make peace with winter.

In other news, Lucy is almost 3 months old. Great googly moogly, the time is flying by with her!

The days are long, but the years are short.

Labor Day

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 08:56:13 -0800

Guess what I did on Labor Day? Go ahead, guess.

Alright, here's a hint:

Lucy Nelsene Romeo was born just before 11am on Labor Day after a very short and peaceful labor at home. We are so very blessed.

And now she's a week old already! Time flies when you're blissed out on that new baby smell.

How does your garden grow?

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 08:22:36 -0800

With the help of worms, of course!

The garden is well established, and if I was a more consistent blogger, you'd know what it looks like now. Very weedy. But aside from the weeds, everything is coming up gangbusters. Potatoes, tomatoes, cabbage, peppers, eggplant, lettuce, swiss chard, beets, green beans...it's all good. I just don't have photo proof yet, because I'm a slacker. So you get to see photos from over a month ago instead.

Gardens don't just plant themselves, of course. They need help. They need worms, bees, chickens and humans.

Spring has sprung and the grass is riz

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 10:37:15 -0800

Spring is for planting. See what popped up in our garden? I wonder if they're edible?

I bet the toes are, at any rate. I'll do a taste test, and let you know in the near future. Deal?

We're branching out!

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:41:03 -0800

You probably already know that farming is not all we do here. Not by a long shot. For instance, we also are hard at work on our plans for total world domination, BWAHAHAHAHA! Okay, not really. I think I've been watching too many episodes of Pinky & the Brain on DVD.

Now really. We also custom make beautiful wood cabinetry. Check out the woodworking page if you don't believe me. Roger does stunning work, doesn't he? He's really quite talented (and handsome, too, heehee). And now he's adding to his repertoire with a new business venture. He's custom making bunk beds, loft beds and trundle beds for our clients in the 330 area code and near vicinity. If you live in the 330 area code and call 1-800-BunkBed, you'll be calling us.

One thing we're experimenting with is Google's AdWords. If you have any experience with this, I'd love to hear from you. Any tips, suggestions, warnings...anything that you think would help me while I figure out how to target ads. I'd sure appreciate it.

Meanwhile, I would really like to get one of those promotional codes that Google AdWords occasionally offer. I found an offer for a free code at this blog. Go there; maybe you can get a free code, too! (The offer is good only for fairly new users of AdWords.)

And, oh yeah, we also make babies here. Romeo child #10 is expected in late summer.