Rainy Day Learning

Designer Jewelry by Chicken Girl

Rain, rain, go away, come again another day!  Why do we sing that?  Just before the rain, we were saying how much we needed the rain.  Besides, it makes for a great excuse to stay indoors and have some good quality time with those you love.  It is perfect snuggle weather to climb in a bed, any bed, or couch and read a good classic book with your kids, or watch a timeless movie.  In our case, we chose to watch a Discovery program about the largest squid!  Very interesting I must say.  It did lead to quite the discussion as we watched sperm being pulled from it's body.  Lol!  Papa Roo, where were you?

Chicken Girl has found a new passion, cooking!  She always cooks for her chickens down by their coop, but now she has decided she enjoys cooking for her family.  Boo Ya!  She is starting out with pretty simple things, like pancakes, biscuits, tortillas, eggs,  and bacon.  Of course we all know the simplest things to make are sometimes the most delicious.

Beautiful!

What chicken could resist this?

The chickens have their own personal Chef! 

Making dumplings from scratch!

Trying her hand at making cream puffs! 

Pancakes from scratch.  No mix in this house!

Scratch biscuits of course!   

Pastries are looking good!

Tortillas!

Sometimes on these cool, rainy days, it's just fun to be spontaneous!  We decided in the middle of the day, the three of us would go hunting.  I know, silly right?!  Even though we are a hunting family, Chicken Girl is the one member of our family that is just not that interested.  For whatever reason, it sounded like fun to go sit in the woods with her mom and big brother, in the rain I might add.  So off we went.  It really wasn't about killing anything.  It was the experience, the laughter, and memories being made.  What deer in their right mind would walk out into an opening with three people playing on their iPhones, pulling bark off a tree, and snickering under their breathes?  "ZERO"!  Now a squirrel, well that is another story.  When Chicken Girl spotted a squirrel,  her mind thought "SQUIRREL DUMPLINGS"!  So big brother obliged her.  Of course that is one of his favorite meals.  Guess it was a successful hunt after all.

And we are off!

Camo at it's best! 

Checking out the range!

Txting in the woods!  Hehe!

Choot 'Em, Choot 'Em!

This is going to make some good dumplings!

Yeah!  He got him!

Are you able to see all the subjects that were covered in our day? Let's see ..... art, math, science, reading, home economics, poultry husbandry, physics, survivalism...  And the best part, they were loving every moment, which means what they are learning is sticking!!!  I am so thankful that we followed God's leading for me to stay home with our children and teach them so they would develop a love of learning.  I am totally confident that they will do great things in their lifetime and my prayer continues to be that whatever it is, God will be glorified.

Fall is in the Air

Wow!  Is it really October already?  I cannot believe I haven't posted since July!

Fall truly is my favorite time of the year, at least until winter!  Lol!  I guess there is something I love best about every season and for "Fall",  it's the freshness of the air, the crisp breeze, and the beautiful colors of the foliage .  I think the cooler weather actually gives the animals a little extra spunk too.

Well, things are changing here on the farm as we begin our preparations for retirement and our final move with the military, ending a wonderful 30 year career.  It is bitter sweet as we prepare to close this chapter of our lives but we are all super excited about the new adventure that awaits us back in Texas.

Papa Roo has probably planted his last garden here.  What a beauty it is right now!   It's full of nice greens, lots of herbs, a few tomato and pepper plants, and of course, some beautiful flowers.  Whoever moves here to the farm is going to inherit some amazingly, rich, organic soil for gardening and a super lush pasture, thanks to our broilers.  I hope they love gardening and farm life as much as we do.   I think this weekend will be our final Tractor Supply animal swap.  For those that follow our blog, you know how much Chicken Girl and I love these swaps. That is our shopping therapy, not to mention, great mommy/daughter time.  We have begun our purging process, as we always do prior to a move.  That is one good thing about moving around with the military.  It gives you a reason to do a deep clean every few years.  Lol!  It forces you to look around and see just how much stuff you have accumulated in such a short time, both inside and out.  When you are just living life everyday, you tend to overlook the piles of stuff you have everywhere.  They begin looking like permanent fixtures.  Let's just say, we have a lot of work to do.  You always want to leave a place in better shape than when you got there.

So much has happened since I last blogged, I think I will just post some pics that will highlight our last few months.  Birthdays, farm days, road trip, out of state company, exploring TX property, fun with friends, hunting season prep = priceless memories!!!

Happy Birthday Chicken Girl!

Mommy, there's a bear behind you!!!

A few of the pampered chickens

Precious friends visiting from MS

Mommy's driving the BIG ole rolling TOAD!

Smile!  You are on camera

How do you like the apron I made?

A day at the animal swap with friends

Birthday sleep over

Our sweet friend from AR came for a visit

Long time friend from Chicago came to visit

Having some "wine" down time at winery

A little ATV time with  a friend

Papa Roo loves our newest addition

Getting ready for bow season

Picasso has nothing on God!

It was a tie - dye kind of day

Exploring the creek on our new property

Can you spot our first copper head find?

I think they are going to like living here!

First project done!

We have a spring!!!!!

We had a surprise waiting for us when we arrived
home from our TX road trip .
Two little silkies!!!

Now that is a BIG deer track!

Do you see a chicken theme?

Let the Canning Begin

One of my favorite times of the year is here!  Woo Hoo!!!  It is canning season.  It is such a family affair.  The family that cans together, stays together.  Lol!  The entire family gets involved.  I love when the kids are in the kitchen helping.  It teaches them cooperation and patience, not to mention all the great science lessons.  I think it is very important that we teach our children how to be sufficient in living off the land.  It is definitely a much healthier lifestyle than fast foods.  When they have a part in the process, it gives them a sense of pride and accomplishment when they see the end product.  It makes Friday night pizza nights more special when we spread that homemade sauce on the dough that we made ourselves and we top it with fresh or dried tomatoes grown in our garden.  When we pop the lid on a fresh jar of dill pickles, it makes your mouth water.  Yes, it takes work and time to do all these things.  That is where the patience comes in.  In today's world, it's easy to loose that character trait.  We want instant gratification, however, the best is always worth waiting for.

Okay, I think by now you have figured out that I really love canning so for the next few weeks, my canners will be permanent fixtures in my kitchen.   Now let me share with you what we have been doing.  The tomatoes are plentiful right now so pizza and spaghetti sauce are a high priority.  We use a lot of both and our goal is to put away enough to last us the entire year.  Yep!  I know that is a lot of canning but you just can't duplicate the great taste from a Hunts tomato can off the grocery store shelf.  We are also drying tomatoes with fresh basil from our garden.  These make excellent snacks for the kids and they give a super fresh pop to many of our favorite dishes, like stir fries, soups, and salads, to name a few.  Again, you just can't buy that fresh flavor!  Another favorite, is fresh dill pickles.  Yeah, we are a sour bunch.  Lol!  We all love our dills.

Permanent  stove fixture

Pizza Sauce

Sealing the sauce and pickles

The finished product!

Fresh tomatoes/basil ready to be dried

We will also be making some yellow tomato jam and blackberry jelly this week.  My son and I love the jam poured over cream cheese and then spread over some ritz crackers.  Mmm, mmm, good!

In between all the canning, we are still processing our broilers. I cannot express how great it is to have pasture raised chicken back in our freezer.  You can read more about this process on our Broiler Adventure pages.

 Yesterday was a very exciting day for us.  We sold our first order of 30 broilers.  It was a lot of work but we were very pleased with the end product and packaging.  The bonus of this sale was getting to see some long time friends of 10+ years.  They drove down to the farm to pick up their order and have lunch with us.  Papa Roo cooked some scrumptious venison burgers, the boys shot their bows and guns, and Chicken girl did her thing in teaching them all about the chickens.  The adults had a great time catching up with life events over the past years.  I am so grateful for the friends we have met through out our military career.  Without the moves, we would have missed out on a lot of blessings.

Well, there is much to do today so I better go fire up the stove!

Papa Roo's Pacific Adventure

It has been quite the busy summer for our family.  We all went to TX to close on our property in May.  The kids and I went back to TX for a couple of weeks in July to help our family during fireworks season.  We arrived home on a Saturday evening and I took Papa Roo to the airport at 7 am the next morning.  He was gone for two weeks traveling all over the Pacific region for the Air Force.  During his travels he was able to see and do some very cool things.  I won't bore you with details but I will share some of the awesome pictures he took.

Arriving in Hawaii

What a backyard view!

Looks delicious! 

Paradise

The Conference held in Korea this year

De-militarized Zone
The area between North/South Korea

DO NOT retrieve your golf ball!

Our dear sweet neighbors in Okinawa

All the kiddos

The restaurant owners!

What a special bond our family has with our friends in Okinawa. Papa Roo contacted them via email about his trip.  They in turn put together a dinner at a friend's restaurant for a long awaited reunion.  They had the entire restaurant to themselves.   The only thing missing was the kids and I.  We did get to face time with them, which was very, very cool!

Views of Tokyo from the helicopter

Welcome home Papa Roo!