Showing posts with label Farm Girl Friday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Farm Girl Friday. Show all posts

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Little Goat Herder

How could I not grab my camera and capture this...the sun was getting low, the kid had dressed herself in a cute country dress and styled her own hair...LoVe country living!!!






Blessings Kelsie
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Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Farm yard animal update...

Picked up these today at The Tractor Supply Co...Friday I will get 3 chicks from the local Ace store because TSC does not carry the breed of chicks I want...though those itty bitty bantam chicks they do have were hard to resist.

Talking of resisting, after tossing and turning most of the weekend, I decided I am just not up to the commitment of a bottle baby (sound familiar??)...So we may still get lucky and find a baby lamb to borrow for Saturday's photoshoot...if not...well we will still have Ducklings, chicks and the goats...and the booth setup is adorable...so we good :)

I guess while I am here I should give a quick Rocky update...he is currently laying quietly at my feet like a good dog, he even returned today with a cat present...He is making great strides with just one lesson...I am sure by the time we finished the 6weeks he will be the dog we know he should be....If only the 3yr old child was so easy to train lol.

Blessings Kelsie

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Friday, February 10, 2012

My Happy Mess

 Is this mess not a lovely sight to see??


Called a GF this morning to see how she was going with the final touches for her Daddy's wedding tomorrow and found out she was in need of some clips for the bridesmaids hair....Being so last minute the last thing she has time for is shopping for such things....So I did what any friend would do...



I asked her what colors and is there a theme?...She told me the girls are in yellow sundresses, denim jackets and boots...Yup, country cute for sure ...And this is what I came up with.

So with that out of the way I better git back to my house work and prepping for the Photoshoot I have booked this weekend...Excited much?? You betcha

Blessings Kelsie

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Show and Tell Friday
Potpourri Friday

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Old Water Pump

Hubby and I went location scouting this morning while taking Rocky for his morning run....Can't share those photos with you, because shhhh they are for a secret photoshoot...But on the way home I did snapped a couple of farm photos to share.


Love this pallet with John Deere stamped on it...and it is mine...YAY @ neighbors that let me have their trash.


Believe it or not this old water pump works...It was the one used to irrigate the watermelon fields last year.


I have a feeling they have had this baby for just a few years.


What is not to love about a rusty old gauge panel...for some reason it makes me think of the Tom Baker Tardis.

Blessings Kelsie

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Thursday, February 2, 2012

These are a few of my favorite things...

Yesterday after school Lil Sara put on her favorite dress and favorite cowgirl boots before we headed out to help with the new goat fences....
 How could I resist but to grab my favorite camera and capture a few fun snaps before we got to work?



These images show so many of my favorite things that I just had to share....


Warm afternoons even in Feb.
Wide open spaces for us to play in.
Hay bales to sit upon.
Girly pink, mixed with country chic.


My little girl...

All pitching in to get the work done..

Silly moments that make me laugh...

Blessings Kelsie

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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Taco Salad with Homemade Tortilla Bowl


I have shared this recipe before but it was part of a rather long post last year, so I thought I would share it again just as a stand alone recipe.

TACO SALAD BOWL


Ingredients: 
Extra Large Flour Tortillas
Pam none stick spray (I use canola)
1 pk Yellow Rice (I use Dixie Land because it has only 40mg Sodium content and I omit the additional salt the instructions tell you to add to boiling water)
1 pk Low Sodium Taco Mix (water and oil as per directions on pk)
1lb of ground beef (or you can sub ground turkey or even shredded chicken)
1/2 head of  Diced Lettuce (I used romaine for the one pictured because it is my fave)
1 or 2 fresh diced tomatoes
1/4 cup fresh cut green onion
shredded cheese (we like sharp cheddar)
Sour cream
Salsa of your choice

Pre-heat oven to 400F ... Invert small cereal bowls onto a cookie sheet (however many you want Tortilla bowls) Spray Tortillas with "Pam" front and back, drape one Tortilla per bowl...Place in oven and allow to cook for 15 minutes, or until golden around the edges...should give a nice hollow sound when tapped on.

Cook Yellow Rice as per packaging (again, I omit adding the salt)

Make the taco meat with the ground beef (or sub meat) according to packaging.

Assemble in this order:
Bowl, Rice, Lettuce, Meat, Cheese, Tomato and/or Salsa, Sour Cream, Green Onions.

You can add re-fried beans before the rice.... Avocado slices between the cheese and tomato or on the side.

Blessings Kelsie

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Friday, January 20, 2012

Home Land Security....


It was all hands on deck yesterday as we rallied together as a family to defend what is ours...


Or at least what is left....Do you see those 12 lovely green, romaine lettuce plants??
No, me either...What I do see is scratch holes where they used to be and my compost and mulch flung around the garden.


Desperate times call for desparate measures...


Even the youngest dug in and helped...


Then supervised some more.... 


Our front line of de-Fence started to take shape by early afternoon....


Do not worry my lovelies...We will protect you from those ravenous meandering chickens.


Obviously we still needed to attach the chicken wire at this point...but how cute and rustic is it looking??

And finally a use for all cherry Laurel TREES we have all over the property.

We ran out of time, wire (15 ft short, wouldn't you know it) and light yesterday, but hope to finish up today...

Blessings Kelsie


Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Goat Playground


Today I moved a few things around in the goat pen hoping to create some interest in playing rather than eating...Deenie did seem pleased with the dog house move and explored inside and out.


 I enticed Boots on top with some oak leaves...Yes I know, kinda counter productive since it is supposed to give them something to do rather than eat 24/7.


Even with Boots showing the way, Deenie was less than impressed with the "balance beam"


Seems Boots will do about anything if you show him food, he crossed the beam a couple of times..


Now doesn't that all look like fun to you...I have a feeling Sara is going to be very excited by it after school today.

Blessings Kelsie

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Thursday, December 15, 2011

Farm or Zoo??...You tell me

Sally (the not so sick but still comes inside in a cat carrier at night) Chicken, bless her little chicken heart. We tried to put her back out with the flock yesterday but Bravo is just too rough and kept chasing her down, now she is limping again...I think she prefers the backyard...wonder how she would go living with the goats?

The others are laying pretty well for this time of year, we average 3 to 6 eggs a day and I have found ppl willing to buy said eggs...yay for Egg money...I might save up to buy me some new boots.

I finally tracked down some clippers and a rasping tool thingie, to do the goat hooves (3 stores and a week later) and today should hopefully be the day I will get them done...Also have to treat them for lice..ick...fortunately Goat Lice don't like ppl or anything other than goats and sheep...Does not stop my head from itching every time I think about it..*scratch scratch*

Talking of scratching, I have to bath the stinky dog today...no she is not really that stinky, well no more than a 13yr old dog stinks anyway...I was delighted to find out yesterday that I can attach a garden hose directly to the faucet in the utility room sink so at least Nardia will be getting a warm bath out side and not dirty up my bathroom this time.

Speaking of which, yesterday we got a little side tracked (hence why the dog did not get a bath even though I had the hose attached and ready to go) because we discovered the old fish pond at the old house had sprung a leak and 6 little fishes only had 2 inches of super muddy water to swim in...So we scooped them out and put them in an old paint can (as you do) and then spent the rest of our pre-pickup Sara time cleaning out the old bearded Dragon tank and praying it would hold water...cleaning old garden pond rocks that have been in a now broken plastic kitty litter bucket in the sun for 7yrs and a small water pump...and made them a home on my dinning room side board...I am starting to feel like I live in a zoo.

Talking of Zoos...and this is a little weird, but I did in fact see a monkey on the loose a couple of weeks back...It was sitting on the next neighbors fence (and by neighbor I mean the ppl 1/2mile down the road)..looking at me...I thought I was going crazy and from the tone of her voice when I called my neighbor at work, she thought I had lost my mind too...and being as we have spoken just once before at my mail box to exchange phone numbers this was a rather bizarre phone call to make to her at work...

It went like this.
Me - Sherri?
Her - Yes?
Me - Hi, this is Kelsie from down the road in the blue house...Do you have a pet monkey?
Her - Pardon?
Me - Do you have a pet monkey
Her - Ummm no??
Me (very quickly because I can tell from the tone of her voice she is verging on hanging up on this crazy woman from down the road)...I am out the front of you place and there is a monkey sitting on your fence.
Her - Really??...ummm did you call the sheriff??
Me - No..I wanted to make sure it did not belong to you.
Her - Can you? I am at work and have a class of kids right now.

hehe Can you imagine what was going thru her head at this time??...So turns out that I am not the first one to see this monkey in the area...and he has been sighted again since almost a mile away...or could it be we have a pack (do monkeys move in packs??) loose in the middle of no-where North Florida.

But there is more...Last week the sheriff was in the area door knocking, trying to find out if anyone owns the Llama that is running loose just down the road from me....Good golly grief...I hope the neighbors with the Lion and Tiger rescue farm (1 miles as the crow flies to the east of us) is keep their animals locked up tight.

Oh and of COURSE there is another bobcat in the area, has been sighted multipul times and stolen a few turkeys already this yr...

So much for the quiet country life
Blessings Kelsie

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Friday, December 9, 2011

Inside the Chicken Coop...

I snapped a couple of photos thru the chicken wire with my phone lastnight of Lil Sara. She takes her chores very seriously, as I have mentioned before, these chores include feeding the chickens their nightly scratch, checking the crumble feeder has feed in it and collecting/counting/color identifying the eggs. (me and Daddy keep the water containers cleaned and filled because let's face it...that is not a job for a 3yr old unless you want lots of chicken coop mud all over her)

As you can see my coop is not a pretty thing at the moment...But I do love to dream about the day when we will have the money to build the coop/feed shed and dismantle this converted old carport that sits next to the driveway.



We have rehomed the "new" rooster as he and Bravo just could not agree to get along and kept trying to tear each other to pieces...But the ones that really suffered during this time were the hens...Rotating who got to come out of the coop to forage each day....Now with him gone, all the girls get to range free all over the property all day everyday...We average 4 to 6 eggs a day at the moment...I hope this will increase as time goes on.


We are still nursing Sally Chicken...Though now I think it is simply her leg was injured and she got a little malnurished and dehydrated from not being able to compete for food with the other 11 gals....She currently sleeping in a cat carrier at night in the laundry room because of the cooler weather and has free range of the fenced area outside the back door during the day...We have been giving her "Chick Start" electralite treated water, and a Vitamin supplement drench every couple of days, and just trying to leave her alone to rest as much as possible...She is still limping but is more active now than 2weeks ago...When ever she hears Bravo on the other side of the fence she runs and hides in the cat carrier...Smart girl.


Blessings Kelsie
Fall Farm Friends Friday @


Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Thankfully


The fall garden is growing...


Farmer Brown feed the goats their Oak branches this morning

We have cute 2 little goats to entertain and give us goatie snuggles.

We were able to put up a temp divider in the chicken coop.

The new chickens got to enjoy scratching around in the woods for the first time today.

And THANKFULLY they all came home to the coop to sleep tonight.

Happy Thanksgiving
Kelsie

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Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Farm Journal...Unexpected Blessings.

This week I was inspired by two lovely ladies...One an old friend (and a hero of mine) Kari and one new friend, Patty ..

Kari, is like an organized, homeschooling, artist, CEO, motivated woman super hero and has taught me so much with her fun journaling photographs, lists, and sticky notes.

And Patty with her "Homestead Diary" posts on her blog, showing me what I really should be keeping records off and how to put them into words that make sense to us "new farmers".

AND that has motivated me to finally crack open the journal I purchased the same week the goats came home and make use of it.

So here we have it, my Farm Journal...

Each month has a calendar overview at the beginning, I will record reminders of upcoming animal shots, vet visit etc...Post-its have stuff I need to research farther...

Inside each month I will record, daily diets for animals, health updates as needed, garden needs, and that kind of thing...Today's entry was not written at the time I took this photo and had a lot on it...I might need to think about upgrading to a bigger journal before I get to far into the entries and have to copy them over.

One of the reasons for such a long entry today was the unexpected expansion of our flock of chickens....Our wonderful neighbors needed to thin out theirs and asked us to choose who ever we want and as many as we want because otherwise they are going to the auction.
OMGosh...*happy chicken momma dance*

How could I not take the 3 Araucona hens and Rooster??
At least that is what I think they are called...My neighbor told me they lay green eggs (which was my guess as soon as I laid eyes on them)...I was planning to order some "Easter Eggers" come spring so this just speed up my dream a little.

The moment I saw the B&W girls, I knew I had to have them...My neighbor thought them to be Barrocks but I think they could be Wynodottes?..Well whatever you call them, they sure is pretty.

Bravo was not happy to see a new man in the coop...And they spent the next hour or so fronting up thru the fence at each other...

I think I will keep that fence between them for a few days at the very least....

Tomorrow I will go and get 3 more hens...Road Island Reds...They will join Bravo's girls...So maybe he will be not so threatened once he and the new Rooster have the same number of girls each lol.

Blessings Kelsie

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