Filed under: July 2016 | Tags: Canned Peaches, edible fruit, farmer, Fresh Peaches, ice cream, Peach Pie, Peaches
July 13, 2016
It’s a favorite time of year for me. The peaches are ripe! These are fresh, hand picked, succulent, juicy pieces of heaven. They are sweet and so juicy that you have to suck when you bite and the sweet nectar still drips off your elbow! If there is any better fruit than this, God kept it for himself!
Connie has canned just under thirty quarts of these beauties and managed to even freeze the contents for five pies. This is a tough job especially when I am hanging off her arm eating almost as fast as she peels. I simply can’t get sick of them. The freestone variety that she is canning now is edible right down to the pit. They pop out allowing this ravenous farmer to enjoy the seasonal treat all the way to my fingers and I’ve licked a sore spot on them!
This pie filling gets frozen for now, but will be wrapped in two flaky crusts and served with ice cold, ice cream. This is one treat that makes for an awesome evening, sitting on the porch, while my eyes drink in the sights of my farm. It doesn’t get much better than that!
Filed under: June 2016 | Tags: draft horses, first cutting, hay tedder, haying, ice cream, making hay, steel wheels
June 15, 2016
Um, okay, steel wheels on the hay tedder, steel wheels on the forecart and a steel seat to sit on! Talk about a rough ride! After several hours over the last few days, all of our first cutting hay has been mowed, raked, tedded, raked again, baled and put away. The horses and I slept well last night. The tedder in the photo above is used to fluff the hay to aid in drying and curing. It is a simple machine that works like a dream…the ride, well it is more like a nightmare.
This forecart is where the horses hook on to the machine. I bought it from an Amish friend of mine. They are not allowed to use rubber tires, long story but part of their religious beliefs. I just figured what the heck, I’ll use it that way. It works fine, but I can see it will be a good thing to make my fields smoother. I will start using a thick pad in the meantime. The seat is not hard on my butt, it just makes my spine hurt. Those bumps go all the way to this old man’s neck!
I thought about using the filly yesterday, but then thought better of it. Her first hitch will probably be to the sled or wagon. I will get her used to the banging of a steel contraption behind her a little later in her training. Chances are, she would have been fine, but I didn’t want things to turn bad on a day when I had no help around in case it was needed.
We are a little slow around here this morning. We worked to almost midnight getting the hay all in and under cover. The equipment too was stored before I quit for the day. Now, we will move on to another project….the project of filling the woodshed. Good work for men and horses because we only work at it in the early morning, then again in the cool of evening. The afternoons are spent in the shade of a building working at some trivial task or perhaps eating ice cream 🙂
Filed under: June 2016 | Tags: hay making, ice cream, Small Farming, strawberries
June 9, 2016
We picked these berries this afternoon. They are very sweet and tasty. I was going to rip the plants out this spring, but didn’t get it done. I am very glad, because the new plants I planted all died. This makes these taste even sweeter! I will move some of them to a new bed once the season is over, but for now we will enjoy them where they grow.
We have entered a weather cycle where we get a day or two of sun, then rain. The pastures love it, but it makes it impossible to make dry hay. I will be mowing tomorrow to roll some up for wet silage bales. The cows love that feed. It also allows me to get some lush first cutting hay off the fields and put up for winter feeding. The dry hay needed for the horses, will just have to be made when the weather straightens out a bit.
There is no shortage of work. Garden planting, pumpkin planting continues along with daily chores. The corn needs cultivated and the lawn needs mowed, but the good thing is…I can reward myself with fresh strawberries and ice cream!
