Friday, May 28, 2010

Pearl Alley Market

So, today Amy took me to the Pearl Alley Market with her to "help" vend! She was really great at getting me around to meet a few people to help me with my project and I got a few numbers for some people who I think can really help give me some great information!

The day was long, fun, and wonderful! Lots of little shops I got to look at around the place as well as looking at all the goodies people from the market were selling. I met a few people who in general just wanted to chat with me about my project and get to know a Mikamy Meadow volunteer!! :D 

Amy is such a dear to work with, she is so knowledgeable (I can't say that enough), and is being a tremendous help with my project! Here are some picture's I took of the day! Please enjoy them, and stop by this market if you live in or near Columbus Ohio!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Around my house

Here are some recent picture's I have taken!

A trip to the Farmers Market

I had my 4H club demonstration today and I choice to do mine on my Urban Homesteading project. I titled it "A trip to the Farmers Market". 

In my talk I covered 5 points on how to shop at the farmers market, and why you should support the farmers market. 

My club liked my project so much that they voted me to represent them at the Union County Fair's Demonstration Day contest. I really hope to win State Fair for this demonstration.  


Here are some picture's, even though they are not great. 



Rabbit update

They are doing great. We currently have about 32 kits in the barn!

Here is one litter. It's 4 broken black Mini Rex and 1 solid black Mini Rex. They are about 3 weeks old in this picture and are growing good. I hope to get some show kits from this litter. This doe has 1 leg, and has produced a daughter with now 1 leg! So we are hoping for some winners in this litter! *Fingers crossed*


Rain Fresh Harvest

Rain Fresh Harvest

I went on a tour of the Rain Fresh Harvest green house in Plain City, Ohio. I loved it! Such nice people, and a great place to look around! Barry answered so many questions everyone had, was very knowledgeable and was over all it was a wonderful tour!  


I suggest supporting him, and I hope that if you are near his business you'll top and take a look! While you are there, I really hope you get a chance to meet his sweet, lovable, adorable chocolate lab! :P 


Here are a few picture's from my tour. 



Mikamy Meadows


Amy Mattingly of West Liberty, Ohio has been a wonderful help in my project for my Urban Homesteading. She is letting me work alongside her on her projects and teaching me more about organic gardening, soap making, candles, ect. 


Although I've only worked with her a few times, I am really enjoying it. She is such a nice person to know and I so look forward to getting to know her better!! 


Please, please, take a look at her site and consider some of her products. She has a wonderful selection and is so knowledgeable. 


Here are some picture's of her Guinea Fowl. 


Wednesday, April 21, 2010

The babies have landed!

We now have 10 snug kits. Our beautiful doe, Shesta, from my later post delivered yesterday 5 little kits. Then today another one of my does, Ginger, kindled 5 kits as well. Here are the babies from Shesta, as I have yet to take picture's of Gingers litter.



Around the farm everything is going well. Recently I've decided to take up a small hobby of fixing up old furniture and making things from window frames, ect. (picture's will come later). I, at the current moment, am fixing up a pair of old window shutters to become a pretty garden display.

I have a demonstration coming up for 4H in one month and I am pulling together those details. My demonstration will be titled "A trip to the Farmers Market", where I will teach my group about the farmers market and things sold/bought there. I have many wonderful ideas and I'll post picture's once I am done!

I'm trying to plan a trip to a beef cattle farm at the moment  too. 

I think this is all for the update right now. Hopefully everyone is enjoying reading my blog! I know, I don't post often. :(

The girl being, Me

Monday, April 19, 2010

Lambs

A HUGE thank you to Woodland Dorsets, the Woods family for giving me a tour of their lovely farm and showing me their animals to help with part of my 4H project!! 



They maintained a herd of about 20 animals, all very well kept and healthy. This family raises and shows them, but was more than welcome to let me ask questions about lambs in general. Thanks again Woods family!! :D

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Rabbits

Well rabbits in our barn are ready to kindle soon, and here is one of our little broken black Mini Rex does, Shesta preparing her nesting box. She is due next Thursday and she's always been a good Dam for me! We also have 4 other does due on the same day, one doe due the next day and then we have 8 does due early next month.


These rabbits do not produce meat for us, they are my show animals and they produce manure for the garden. I sell the non-showable animals to a cull man and he pays me for them. With that money, I pay for my herds feed.

Onions

We dug up some Onion plants last Saturday and are going to put them in the smaller garden.They've been growing in the same spot for about 4 years and every year we've just tilled over them not realizing what they really are... now we realized it and plan to keep them!!

Here are the beauties!

Spring

It's finally here, and I've spent some time taking some picture's recently! :D Enjoy!
Please note all the following pictures were taken by myself, and are copy written. 

Flowers

The other day I planted some flower seeds in front of the barn door that hopefully will be up by the middle of June for my graduation party. We shall mark their progress by updating with picture's later on, but for now here is the mixture... minus the sunflower seeds.

I planted 3 different things. Sun flowers, daisy's, and then a wild flower mixture. Hopefully they look as beautiful in June as they do in my head at the current moment! :D

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Easter Cake

Forgot to post this earlier. I decorated my second cake, and it, in my opinion, looked wonderful! Not the best picture to show it off though, sorry :(

Did you have a good Easter?

I had a wonderful Easter. Church service every night last week and family over Sunday night! :) What did you do for Easter? God is ALIVE! Praise him!

It's been a while, yesh I realize. I've been busy with Easter :P I am back though, fear not. I hope to update a little more things, but it's been rather slow here.

Yesterday I started training for my 5K that is in June or so. I only did a 12 minute mile, but it's pretty good for a chubby new runner, right? :P 

Our coach suggested  Runners World and I've enjoyed it so far! I think running will be a great thing. Some time alone. Just me and my ipod blaring in my ear! I think we are going out to by new run shoes tonight. I'm excited!

Our herbs are starting to come back up! I was outside walking to the barn and I smelled the sweetness of Peppermint in the air. I went to check on the plants and sure enough our sage is turning green and we have little peppermint sprouts coming up! How exciting!! I also noticed our chives, thyme, and chamomile popping up! Below is a little piece of peppermint.



We also went to the green house on Saturday and bought some plants. We put them in the window frame of the shed, and I fear they are fading away quickly. Sadly we haven't tilled yet (I know, right!) but I think we are this weekend!


My graduation party is coming up soon, and Mom is in the process of having dad make her an arbor to go in our seating area so she can grow some flowers and hanging out plants on them. We are planning to finish it before my party which is... about two months away. Please keep your fingers crossed!

I think thats the update I have for now. I'll try again soon! :D

Have a great Tuesday! The weather where I am at is amazing... I need to go for a run tonight before it gets too dark.

That girl being, Me

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Herb popovers

Last night I started the process of making herb popovers. The cooking time was far too long to finish them last night, so I just let the batter chill in the fridge over night. 

It was pretty easy to make, only a few ingredients. 















The herbs needed for this bread was Thyme, Sage and Basil. Although, if you fancy you could add other types to it. I didn't add the Celery Salt to this recipe, as I do not prefer celery.












All mixed up, just a few more stirrings! 












I didn't have the type of pans the recipe called for, so I used these mini bunt bake pans instead. It didn't work out the best, but it was still very tasty. 















 - The girl being, Me

Easy trail mix

Last night I made a very simple trail mix to enjoy for today and tomorrow. I just mixed a few things together from the pantry, and it turned out fairly nice. 










In my trail mix I have popcorn, chocolate chips, honey cheerios, pretzels, raisins, and mixed nuts. 

Other wonderful things to add into a trail mix are yogurt covered cereals, flavored popcorn, and assorted dried fruits.

Most of the trail mixes from the store have items that are high in salt content. They also contain more "fun foods", than healthy things. Making a trail mix at home gives you the power to choose what goes into your mix, it also yields more, and for less money. Even if you buy all organic, it's more than likely still cheaper to buy your own ingredients separate, and mix them up at home. 

- The girl being, Me

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

It's all in a days work

 So, today was spent taking care of the many chores around the yard that needed taking care of. Two just so happened to be on my week’s chore list… I spent about twenty minutes tending to the rabbits before getting my shovel. I left the gloves behind though! 

I cleaned up the manure/compost pile, and I’ve gained almost two whole feet of space. I basically just took what was from the front of the pile and moved it all to the back of the pile. It was pretty vigorous work, but more than worth it. 

Here are the before and after pictures. 



It's a compost/manure pile, so of course it's not the prettiest thing on the "farm", but I must say it looks better after. 
I also de-leafed a part of the herb garden, the only part with leaves in it actually. It was the Sage, Peppermint, Lavender, and Chamomile. 

Before and after:




Now all that's left is to clean the cages. I think I'll add some more things to the list, since I checked these two things off on the first day.

1. Clean rabbits cages
2. Cull 2 rabbits
3. Tattoo 5 rabbits

I'd also like to make some home made teething biscuits and some trail mix this week. 

That girl being, Me

Cake Decorating

Yesterday I spent the day making a cake for part of my cake decorating  4H project. One thing I learned was that I don't have much patience for something I am not very good at, Lol. I made it through though and managed to learn how to make a semi decent basket weave design. 

Learning how to make simple cakes is a great way to save money. Even if you take a short class, the cost of buying a cake from the store adds up with every birthday, holiday or special event. Plus you control what goes into the cake if you make it yourself. 

Most libraries supply many books on cake decorating, and how to get started. It's really easy to get a hold of them, and the supplies. It's cost effective too.


The process 

The recipe


The batter


The many tips we currently own


The 4H book explaining the proper ways to handle the frosting bag(s).


The finished product. My first attempt at the basket weave. Pretty much the entire cake was covered in it, because I wanted all the practice I could get from one cake.

I plan to practice with text(s) soon. For Easter I've been talked into making a basket cake for the family. We'll see how that works out, Lol.



- The girl being, Me