tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44547527785559594212024-03-13T14:54:56.887-07:004 Acres FarmAn experiment in sustainable living at 7000 feet.Kerri Ohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12744424433988127754noreply@blogger.comBlogger49125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4454752778555959421.post-19586186082895618532013-12-29T14:28:00.001-08:002013-12-29T14:28:28.885-08:00Moving Right Along...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYm4hIS-6nGycDKTUhrBO_ZAoq49isX-UsbVH_N9dc_mvUn5NCt4Xf6ZYESvplGg0Vwk5fQ8p2QcmTdvOuXImIm_g8_o1S2KxvoKrWoHeZuand1YNyOhZFtNavV_vGp4P1sO7gjOWvX0Y/s1600/Life-is-short-Fill-it.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="630" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYm4hIS-6nGycDKTUhrBO_ZAoq49isX-UsbVH_N9dc_mvUn5NCt4Xf6ZYESvplGg0Vwk5fQ8p2QcmTdvOuXImIm_g8_o1S2KxvoKrWoHeZuand1YNyOhZFtNavV_vGp4P1sO7gjOWvX0Y/s640/Life-is-short-Fill-it.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A HUGE thank you to everyone that has read this blog! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We've decided to move our adventures (online and off). Please join us at <a href="http://thepaleohomestead.com/">ThePaleoHomestead.com</a>!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Kerri Ohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12744424433988127754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4454752778555959421.post-50699390686278545032013-10-03T12:47:00.000-07:002013-10-03T12:47:22.534-07:00Bloom Where You're Planted<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4CiSnqILlqcL9WCoeUp94cSeeqrzJm03DA8SJtMwwgWI9wssA7BdUJUdcLVsWVJhOkPsOANLq2TFAkxpdoR3Od1BeuTfFocXWV4r68mb-831XFCz705UAXg3tJpmNiLQuiAUhwP9qqx4/s1600/Bloom-where-youre-planted.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4CiSnqILlqcL9WCoeUp94cSeeqrzJm03DA8SJtMwwgWI9wssA7BdUJUdcLVsWVJhOkPsOANLq2TFAkxpdoR3Od1BeuTfFocXWV4r68mb-831XFCz705UAXg3tJpmNiLQuiAUhwP9qqx4/s400/Bloom-where-youre-planted.jpg" width="365" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Looong time no post.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I had thought I would be posting on a new blog by now. Our plan was to sell 4 Acres and be moved somewhere with more land by now.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That hasn't happened.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, I shall bloom where I am planted...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Quick updates:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We had a baby girl in June and have enjoyed the heck out of life this spring and summer. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Baby O's first goat walk.</span></td></tr>
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The spring calves came.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The wild asparagus came.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Red and the gang enjoyed many a shenanigan in the Colorado sunshine.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ellie and Fiona are quite grown up and ever finding new ways to escape Goatopia.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The girls with their winter coats. They were quite the shaggy things.<br />(couldn't find a spring/summer pic)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We didn't plant much because life was just too busy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The strawberries and blueberries both came back this year though. Hooray! The strawberries did quite well. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We did plant some spaghetti squash from seeds we saved from last year's heirloom spaghetti squash. But...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Apparently we have a lot to learn about seed saving. The seeds produced three different squash: one that looked normal, one that looked like it had made nooky with the yellow squash last year, and one that looked like it had made nooky with the zucchini last year. Huh.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But, we are eating them anyway and they're still good. We call them mutant squash. It freaks my 10 year old out that way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And now, the leaves are turning and we have started our homeschool year. So, I guess it's another winter at 4 Acres...</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHb5KVBZ-83mp3Oizm87fV6Tp3vZmsnl78mI07Qj_NCFTXuztbyghaQcrSnc-Q_C4g8uPxA-DFPjSFxKx9nNxIOcAbngFUH3f9d1orrob_CppZkSBekpF2nXjXSg7HrxMTDcPyVa6oSrU/s1600/thisisco.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHb5KVBZ-83mp3Oizm87fV6Tp3vZmsnl78mI07Qj_NCFTXuztbyghaQcrSnc-Q_C4g8uPxA-DFPjSFxKx9nNxIOcAbngFUH3f9d1orrob_CppZkSBekpF2nXjXSg7HrxMTDcPyVa6oSrU/s320/thisisco.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Life is good. What can I say?</span></div>
<br />Kerri Ohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12744424433988127754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4454752778555959421.post-84177534603202418782013-01-27T11:29:00.000-08:002013-01-27T11:29:23.280-08:004 Acres Farm For Sale!<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So much fun stuff going on around here! We're aiming to list our cute little Colorado homestead for sale the end of February. Fingers crossed we can get everything ready in time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Project 1: Finish the master bathroom.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We should be starting the kitchen this week! I'm so excited. I'll take more video. Can't wait for you to see.</span></div>
Kerri Ohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12744424433988127754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4454752778555959421.post-21374301155998795762013-01-07T08:48:00.000-08:002013-01-07T08:48:02.684-08:00Video Update!<div style="text-align: center;">
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Kerri Ohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12744424433988127754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4454752778555959421.post-2211706935767956172012-12-30T16:00:00.003-08:002012-12-30T16:03:30.599-08:00It's Time<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Darran and I have known for some time that we wanted to move to more land. But as recently as last year we didn't feel it was financially possible. So we decided to start right where we were and not postpone our plans, our lives, because we only had 4 acres.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm so thankful that we did. It's been an amazing year. We've learned so much. We've lived our priorities. It's opened our eyes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As 2012 comes to a close we've realized it's time. It's time to go.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's been a hard decision for us. This wonderful home is the only home we've lived in together. We've spent our entire 10 years of marriage here. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bigger than that: this house was built by Darran's great grandfather in 1918 and has only been owned by a member of the family since.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bigger than that: I grew up in this town. My father grew up in this town. My grandfather grew up in this town. My great grandfather moved here to raise his family. Darran's family likewise. In fact, both sides of his family have been here since his great grandfather on the one side and great-great on the other. Our roots here are deep.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bigger than all of that: we know deep in our hearts that we are meant to leave this place and begin writing our own story.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As I said in my last post we've found land that we want to buy. I have to admit it looks impossible from here, but we've never let that stop us before.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The bank will not lend us money on the land unless we have a contract on this house or 30% down. As we can afford both payments we had hoped that we could buy the new land and still keep this place until we built a house there. But, no go.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This spring we will be taking a huge leap of faith and putting this house up for sale without another house to move into if it sells. While I had hoped for the security of at least having the new land purchased before we did that, it is what it is.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm hoping with all that I am that this house sells quickly. I see such a wonderful future for my little family; I see it so clearly that it's hard to be patient. I want to go tomorrow!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Darran's a little uneasy about selling this house with only bare land to go to, but I told him that I don't care if I have to live in an army tent or a camper trailer on the new land while we build a house. He knows me well enough to know I'm just crazy enough to mean that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Of course we have no guarantee that the land won't sell to someone else in the meantime. Our other option would be to come up with the 30% down payment. $48,000. Then we could still live here while building a house...hey, miracles happen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So I wait and I plan and I hope. Because I know it's time.</span></div>
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Kerri Ohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12744424433988127754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4454752778555959421.post-75756163010842654012012-10-07T14:39:00.001-07:002012-10-07T14:59:44.066-07:00Fading Into Fall<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Things are fading into fall around here. We've had our first freeze and so the garden is done. I went out and told it thanks for the great year! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Last week we harvested the rest of the pumpkins, squash, cucumbers, and tomatoes. The corn didn't quite have time to mature, but we had 5 or 6 good ears.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> All in all we had a pretty decent harvest considering the crazy dry year we had.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Leaves are turning beautiful shades of yellow, orange, and red. We even had a little snow a few days ago.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fall always seems like the end to spring's beginning to me. This year is no different. Except maybe a little bit more nostalgic as we plan for this to be our last fall here. (Did I mention we found land we want to buy and will likely be moving?! I'll post on that soon.) I find myself enjoying the leaves a little bit more. Enjoying our walks with the goats a little bit more. Revelling in the awesomeness of this place.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRBFl6GmbBWFCqEv7s-WgDXTIJPqtK4W9ym1UTHG8-3SOzGgXK0H6EqiU7TbCwuu_f0hvvMmx1PBSdJZ2BNkY78LVfWgjMdOUWTVF78tIIleCbjOzeaQJ6MCgZA708OiiK4sPapgS1QvI/s1600/2012-09-15+12.51.13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRBFl6GmbBWFCqEv7s-WgDXTIJPqtK4W9ym1UTHG8-3SOzGgXK0H6EqiU7TbCwuu_f0hvvMmx1PBSdJZ2BNkY78LVfWgjMdOUWTVF78tIIleCbjOzeaQJ6MCgZA708OiiK4sPapgS1QvI/s320/2012-09-15+12.51.13.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm2S6rxzv_GQO6iiYIEa5n-iewp4Mipd8WjY2KEdFqALCQo03DTJooFAQ_huY_O8zpVXOQ1aAIflHHVTmrGtAj0nKOTm9eGu7OmffesFKQEyT381QT3NKkri02tDrrh4Orsy9fOEECXk8/s1600/2012-09-26+12.55.57.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm2S6rxzv_GQO6iiYIEa5n-iewp4Mipd8WjY2KEdFqALCQo03DTJooFAQ_huY_O8zpVXOQ1aAIflHHVTmrGtAj0nKOTm9eGu7OmffesFKQEyT381QT3NKkri02tDrrh4Orsy9fOEECXk8/s320/2012-09-26+12.55.57.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Not in a sad way, but in a thankful way. I'm thankful for our time here. BUT I look forward to moving to more land. To taking this homesteading thing up a few notches! At the same time we'll miss this place. Lots of great memories here.</span></div>
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<br />Kerri Ohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12744424433988127754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4454752778555959421.post-84293598509030493412012-09-08T18:42:00.000-07:002012-09-08T18:47:20.203-07:00But Most Times it IS Sunshine, Rainbows, and Unicorns<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlOoy6e4UgaNi9Ta1DKBbpHOejxe6IhM_Q1nVE22ERPyInA4pKN-Is_-N_FG5A-eo0toMKnu-X9Q3309oBjwP7u50zseaVREx1UhWJuFolwzZ7chqSEuxaSyonHm5saMF6ZGX7DVCqf3M/s1600/2012-09-05+14.22.38.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlOoy6e4UgaNi9Ta1DKBbpHOejxe6IhM_Q1nVE22ERPyInA4pKN-Is_-N_FG5A-eo0toMKnu-X9Q3309oBjwP7u50zseaVREx1UhWJuFolwzZ7chqSEuxaSyonHm5saMF6ZGX7DVCqf3M/s320/2012-09-05+14.22.38.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The deer quite like my spaghetti squash. They've eaten 4 so far. You're welcome Mr. Bambi.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Call me insanely optimistic, but I always think that when things get <a href="http://4acresfarm.blogspot.com/2012/09/its-not-all-sunshine-rainbows-and.html" target="_blank">really, really bad</a> there is something really good on its way. Yes, last week was a bad week for us, but this week has seemed like there were little miracles waiting around every corner.</span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSQqyf-pQJ72DfwtFgJuXh_CyFteEWFMm3sFewsugJDkltgt7G3-74Mh8_ATEH-DOeS5VcAmVSmkOR76oF76pfm0d_CiCKVxG9152flTZj6JAklC9IAZK1jeT8GMq_wqMuANlu9sosFLc/s1600/2012-09-03+13.42.09.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSQqyf-pQJ72DfwtFgJuXh_CyFteEWFMm3sFewsugJDkltgt7G3-74Mh8_ATEH-DOeS5VcAmVSmkOR76oF76pfm0d_CiCKVxG9152flTZj6JAklC9IAZK1jeT8GMq_wqMuANlu9sosFLc/s320/2012-09-03+13.42.09.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Yes, the deer have been enjoying my beloved spaghetti squash, but I managed to pick two like this one. Yum. <a href="http://fitviews.blogspot.com/2011/10/recipe-spaghetti-squash-spaghetti.html" target="_blank">Paleo spaghetti</a> here we come.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW0b6S_wMD0XTEM19zcfCtwPoMr1Gsrub7SIBgJkv_AJgtXJHw4TtGVmuW1eJYfma5D94hZmwXY8yUqCpEg9GayHEwyBsPQ1AWIpedSi-Iw4JCY8OCe-b_D33RdygPQShRYkRfnQpTLrc/s1600/tomatoes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW0b6S_wMD0XTEM19zcfCtwPoMr1Gsrub7SIBgJkv_AJgtXJHw4TtGVmuW1eJYfma5D94hZmwXY8yUqCpEg9GayHEwyBsPQ1AWIpedSi-Iw4JCY8OCe-b_D33RdygPQShRYkRfnQpTLrc/s320/tomatoes.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The tomatoes are putting on like crazy and we've been able to start picking them! Let me tell you, it's absolutely true that there is nothing like a homegrown tomato. Store bought doesn't even begin to compare.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Eating farm/garden straight to the table is am amazing thing. Who needs a recipe? I just chopped up some heirloom white cucumber, some of our amazing tomatoes, drizzled a little olive oil on, and sprinkled with a little sea salt and basil. Best. Thing. Ever.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7zzCURvuaFMhg2ohDN2rNTQkKRpBl8rdQlOiADeyBbCHqbPuYSZDje83WSg4uY1bmwthITyyB2kpQKtNQErCxf52LXVIrSfUqc6XQ8LkgxISC-xxpZHOQuvcIs0xkbbmTHBri3FLVTIo/s1600/2012-09-08+16.54.48.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7zzCURvuaFMhg2ohDN2rNTQkKRpBl8rdQlOiADeyBbCHqbPuYSZDje83WSg4uY1bmwthITyyB2kpQKtNQErCxf52LXVIrSfUqc6XQ8LkgxISC-xxpZHOQuvcIs0xkbbmTHBri3FLVTIo/s320/2012-09-08+16.54.48.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Do you remember that flowered tree we found last spring? OK, you probably don't. There was a tree at the far back corner of our property, half hidden by willows and chokecherries, with blooms on it last spring. We had never noticed that tree before. To our knowledge there were only chokecherries, willows, and cottonwoods back there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We hadn't been going back to the second creek where this tree is because bears had been enjoying the chokecherries back there. Call me crazy, but I was going to let them help themselves! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The chokecherries have been all eaten for a couple of weeks. Saturday we decided to go check "the tree". I walked back there and saw something bright and red.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrIkPMO5eJ56CCvtD21rCC7RwOS5zAD-TyWZKaUbDvj0IbskJiQpcdOmeS8riNQRR-oTfaYZ_BIHvCKFoOPuXSRITQGQp-rlDQ2TAKtiPErEtrKl-KNlIAh9Tup4Bnn-Eku3sXlk-6vX4/s1600/2012-09-08+13.48.06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrIkPMO5eJ56CCvtD21rCC7RwOS5zAD-TyWZKaUbDvj0IbskJiQpcdOmeS8riNQRR-oTfaYZ_BIHvCKFoOPuXSRITQGQp-rlDQ2TAKtiPErEtrKl-KNlIAh9Tup4Bnn-Eku3sXlk-6vX4/s320/2012-09-08+13.48.06.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's an apple tree! We'd suspected it might be a crab apple. Those are common around here. But if it is it's like no crab apple I've ever seen. The apples are bigger than a crab apple and are slightly tart, but tasty. Crab apples are generally very bitter/sour.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP5aGmPYDvlSZkXBntlQV7QivUC-RfHPtPlQ-5mgbBf1Ssdi5fKu5kOyJ7vMDQV9BaAmzstmboBWEvzmNCHKTqqtwDO3P0zCKh2Zc83N9OEra5f0bAFiA1G3KobOtjBxbtoV2Y4sOfvIo/s1600/2012-09-08+13.48.54.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP5aGmPYDvlSZkXBntlQV7QivUC-RfHPtPlQ-5mgbBf1Ssdi5fKu5kOyJ7vMDQV9BaAmzstmboBWEvzmNCHKTqqtwDO3P0zCKh2Zc83N9OEra5f0bAFiA1G3KobOtjBxbtoV2Y4sOfvIo/s320/2012-09-08+13.48.54.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's right next to a small pond and the second creek, so I'm sure the roots are drinking well. They must be, because e</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">ven with the crazy dry year we've had the tree was filled with little yummy apples!</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It took a lot of work to cut the willows and chokecherries away to get to the tree, but we were so excited we made quick work of it. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You'd have thought we'd found gold.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ-sLC_3cj1cBRBWZY8LqPx_MFPigHQmHDzGS389d_p6hvgHJ5JSmiam9bNGRIpNOlUKN-HSHRHEX406QG6xZJfwlmn-UMBBUBii9qDBC1juQv74FGXDtLbJMjkutx6A7RQ2rDEvm7x8c/s1600/2012-09-08+14.42.26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ-sLC_3cj1cBRBWZY8LqPx_MFPigHQmHDzGS389d_p6hvgHJ5JSmiam9bNGRIpNOlUKN-HSHRHEX406QG6xZJfwlmn-UMBBUBii9qDBC1juQv74FGXDtLbJMjkutx6A7RQ2rDEvm7x8c/s320/2012-09-08+14.42.26.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ellie and Fiona were great help picking apples.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We've done better than expected financially this summer and have started working on the house again. (You have no idea how amazing this is, we haven't been financially able to work on the house in YEARS). We painted it and will be putting new counter tops in the kitchen soon! I'll do a full post on our house soon, it has a very cool story.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWH9bao8qG6MPIC7C1zr6xpV7_IvgiWEN6UOQyRThjuf8LL17x4XIaiCgA8tn1_de0fIPHdRICX3ChnjMsA5OxpMJVJnPTWEwaGBIXh4HKphcwUVdi5smPNIKT8w8VWslltRE-Aoe5dRY/s1600/house.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWH9bao8qG6MPIC7C1zr6xpV7_IvgiWEN6UOQyRThjuf8LL17x4XIaiCgA8tn1_de0fIPHdRICX3ChnjMsA5OxpMJVJnPTWEwaGBIXh4HKphcwUVdi5smPNIKT8w8VWslltRE-Aoe5dRY/s320/house.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We've also had lots of purple beans, green beans, peas, zucchini, yellow squash, and eggs of course. Oh yes, and Red is happy as ever.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuH3QXScf1xphBIUneTomP7uEGrwBNz_IBE4NGvzjFFQE3o0vjjYH-q8RQFrww-TWlzbynkul7KENU2mDS3as0uaBFt-R6bbay_gsB_4hX4XDbCW71HsQxT8CWESZB21Dorgz9pOgGrCU/s1600/2012-08-15+11.41.50.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuH3QXScf1xphBIUneTomP7uEGrwBNz_IBE4NGvzjFFQE3o0vjjYH-q8RQFrww-TWlzbynkul7KENU2mDS3as0uaBFt-R6bbay_gsB_4hX4XDbCW71HsQxT8CWESZB21Dorgz9pOgGrCU/s320/2012-08-15+11.41.50.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's been a good week. Life is amazing. Tough times come, but tough times always go. We are grateful.</span></div>
<br />Kerri Ohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12744424433988127754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4454752778555959421.post-3314627123560851632012-09-05T06:32:00.001-07:002012-09-05T06:32:08.910-07:00It's Not All Sunshine, Rainbows, and Unicorns<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have another post I'm working on with updates and garden pics and good news...this is not that post however.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We've had a tough week. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQePcwGaCkprGpwQLY65R7Uvl55O0VlpQfbl0fG1wxqXHF4I_P3zM-Wv0WjcRhARlA8J4G_KKR7-i7S2EfN_fN9eclxQR6q5xo1Jv0-D8YH3U3V4AMiH4LB8tPFb3L2DteMgGNRALjDK8/s1600/DSC00108.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQePcwGaCkprGpwQLY65R7Uvl55O0VlpQfbl0fG1wxqXHF4I_P3zM-Wv0WjcRhARlA8J4G_KKR7-i7S2EfN_fN9eclxQR6q5xo1Jv0-D8YH3U3V4AMiH4LB8tPFb3L2DteMgGNRALjDK8/s320/DSC00108.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of our spring calves</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You see, we're passionate about grass feeding our cows. Generally that is not an issue, it's just what we do, but this year has been tough because it hasn't RAINED. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our cows have been on a pasture that we leased for the summer because of the dry year and my dad's place not having enough pasture. On top of the cost of the leased pasture (we share all costs with my parents thank goodness) there will need to be hay bought for the winter, again because of the dry year my dad's place made no hay either.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Not a big deal. There are dry years, there are wet years. We adjust and move on.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However, in the last 3 days 3 of our cows have died. We're not sure why. We've called the vet and hope to figure out what's going on soon. In the meantime we are moving the cows back to my dad's because of concern it's something they're ingesting.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Two of those were steers that were to be our food for the next year. The other was a mama cow with a 3 month old calf. Together with my parents we had 14 cows at the beginning of the summer, and 11 right now today.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So...on top of all of those expenses we will now have to figure out what to put in our freezers for the next year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I hesitated sharing this post. But this is our reality right now. This is the truth of our lives. Our spirits are good. We know this can be part of the deal. But, at the same time we care about our animals. They're not just feedlot numbers to us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We've had a tough week.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Kerri Ohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12744424433988127754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4454752778555959421.post-50035750061256063832012-08-13T08:35:00.000-07:002012-08-13T08:35:40.633-07:00Totally Worth It<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As Darran and I lay in an exhausted heap on the living room floor last night I asked him what I should post about on 4 Acres this week. He said, "I don't know." I said, well what do you remember about this week. He said, "zzzzzzz." Well, not really zzzzz, but he'd nodded off. That really did answer my question though.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This last week has been a whole lot of hard work. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We've been pumping water with a hand pump and bailing buckets into a pipe system to water the garden. Every day, sometimes twice a day. FYI: water is heavy.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is a VERY old pump, it breaks almost daily. It's a dang good thing Darran has skillz.</td></tr>
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<br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We've been weeding like mad and hauling the weeds to the goats and chickens. (We try not to waste anything around here). Not to brag, but one thing I'm highly skilled at growing is weeds. Oh, and FYI: weeds, when in sufficient amounts, are heavy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Darran has been building Fort Knox back by the creek. Goatopia is getting an entire other layer of wire on top of the wire there now. These two tiny goats require quite the pen to be kept IN.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Goatopia.</td></tr>
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<br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I <a href="http://4acresfarm.blogspot.com/2012/03/how-to-make-homemade-laundry-soap.html" target="_blank">made laundry soap</a>. I've got it down to 20 minutes flat.</span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On top of those things, I've begun preparing for our homeschool year. We start in a week. Oh yes, and I've begun training for a 5k...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yes, it's been a week of reminding us how hard this lifestyle really can be. But it's also been a week of reminding us how rewarding this lifestyle can be.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yep, totally worth it.</span></div>
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Kerri Ohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12744424433988127754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4454752778555959421.post-55505356915541169812012-08-06T07:00:00.000-07:002012-08-06T07:00:05.882-07:00Not Licked Yet<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After feeling like our little experiment this year was a big fat flop (other than the eggs that we have in abundance) I was looking toward next year. Taking my lessons from this year's failures and making plans for doing better next year. I had really just about given up on this year; when we went on vacation we didn't even bother having anyone water the garden because we thought it was too far gone.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But lo and behold plants are amazing, resilient things and I am flat out amazed that this year will yield far and beyond what we'd originally thought. We returned from vacation and realized that many of these amazing heirloom varieties were holding on for dear life and would likely produce. Since then we've hauled water like crazy and had some rain recently (that made all the difference, there's just nothing like actual RAIN). I went out to the garden yesterday and was exceedingly excited to find:</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVhtXwVgl1dT9Z1fUrsWE7j1C22fS9YDkkYNYfFjJisYDq09S4ekq5Z01vZGxgFU_tRAgjSVAxdrQfceNWP8z9hWrew7BJs0gmwNMQHuSe-9FYzHzgm-F7Yv2xH2nZyg0h_4GZtWAaxvQ/s1600/yellow+squash.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVhtXwVgl1dT9Z1fUrsWE7j1C22fS9YDkkYNYfFjJisYDq09S4ekq5Z01vZGxgFU_tRAgjSVAxdrQfceNWP8z9hWrew7BJs0gmwNMQHuSe-9FYzHzgm-F7Yv2xH2nZyg0h_4GZtWAaxvQ/s320/yellow+squash.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Several little baby yellow squash.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ8TGmMXSU3VXloy3-DvwasKpJTzgYIT1B4hyphenhyphenV2mG8ihZjUUi62CSutjWJ2BIo0t1OV4n3gMMJWLPfRNrDjAqi0hWBvymtJGJsc3f7a942zFCFPfK9IztgkdL6pMITaCUe9kxzHim2t6s/s1600/purple+beans.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ8TGmMXSU3VXloy3-DvwasKpJTzgYIT1B4hyphenhyphenV2mG8ihZjUUi62CSutjWJ2BIo0t1OV4n3gMMJWLPfRNrDjAqi0hWBvymtJGJsc3f7a942zFCFPfK9IztgkdL6pMITaCUe9kxzHim2t6s/s320/purple+beans.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An entire row of purple beans are doing well and flowering!<br />
Darran informed me that purple beans turn green when you cook them.<br />
I informed him that we would eat them raw then, because we are <b>eating purple beans</b>!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2RDQFoNHX26SVCM30SCCY0TlNlPr0FbJ6OO1XDlbW_7vitq_O5oWFbgmzKsQM1GTbKliU2lK1ubV57UaW_zwtAjOWFEfXutM6fWK0wJ6DdJk_Rgf3oWvHhZwslPOLXdHcEefsO0ffSAk/s1600/zucchini+picked.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2RDQFoNHX26SVCM30SCCY0TlNlPr0FbJ6OO1XDlbW_7vitq_O5oWFbgmzKsQM1GTbKliU2lK1ubV57UaW_zwtAjOWFEfXutM6fWK0wJ6DdJk_Rgf3oWvHhZwslPOLXdHcEefsO0ffSAk/s320/zucchini+picked.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We picked this, our first zucchini ever on 4 Acres. I sort of felt it needed<br />
memorialized somehow. Can you bronze a zucchini? Guess we'll just eat it.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikv1T8OSgkU0XeOg6xSIzcLI2JQNmO7PFR4LsAMeLNnqC41-0ekQomP6hu_ktWnAZMzEGo6rw198pwOQvns1TWxoSJKWyfavCoY-MtIj6IqGdkrCzuHEF1e9mCJRU8rmNQL3mgb0ia73o/s1600/spaghetti+squash.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikv1T8OSgkU0XeOg6xSIzcLI2JQNmO7PFR4LsAMeLNnqC41-0ekQomP6hu_ktWnAZMzEGo6rw198pwOQvns1TWxoSJKWyfavCoY-MtIj6IqGdkrCzuHEF1e9mCJRU8rmNQL3mgb0ia73o/s320/spaghetti+squash.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">THIS I was most excited to find. Like, just won the lottery excited. Really.<br />
Our first ever spaghetti squash. I've never even heard of anyone growing spaghetti<br />
squash around here. Maybe they do? I've never seen it though. We love spaghetti squash.<br />
Ya, this little thing right here was nothing short of miraculous to me. Guess you had to be there?</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Will we grow most of our own food for the winter ahead as we'd hoped? No. But we are grateful that through this far from perfect, hectic, hot and dry, crazy summer we will have a pretty good first harvest here at 4 Acres.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mostly, we are grateful for the priceless family time and the adventures we've had while trying. And... </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Summer's not over and we're not licked yet!</span><br />
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</div>Kerri Ohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12744424433988127754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4454752778555959421.post-49997206807525660072012-08-01T06:00:00.000-07:002012-08-01T06:00:03.591-07:00Lower Sugar Chokecherry Jam Recipe<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Last weekend I made chokecherry jam and jelly. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-DNBe5QkoknMZA28_BNwN1YaBH3PavBxl3MDu9qP60V1VUMOLMgnc79gDWZ-vCIHypiVkZ0oTUEJcRATYsRelL149k4BwmHiwfxhamL9YrwrOMCMztr6jv1ndj_dFZRydZfRLTN7rTHM/s1600/chokecherries1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-DNBe5QkoknMZA28_BNwN1YaBH3PavBxl3MDu9qP60V1VUMOLMgnc79gDWZ-vCIHypiVkZ0oTUEJcRATYsRelL149k4BwmHiwfxhamL9YrwrOMCMztr6jv1ndj_dFZRydZfRLTN7rTHM/s320/chokecherries1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I don't ever remember the chokecherries being ready this early! This has been such a strange year.</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Making chokecherry jams, jellies, syrup, and wine is a tradition of sorts around here. It's been done for as long as there's been people here I suppose. Everyone's grandmother had the best chokecherry jelly recipe. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqvQFM11GNVlfXGdb6wnYxLU3k_gtiVOFtqqSvDNQg8iYR8zwAvkFkS-V-zm7ccn6HDrX_FZX7RFSU3p07qcOSTdW0-NKQvYRRIYWbTTQgdnJ3zmgHdeLMlu0meU-lQhaCEV7cVccgpJM/s1600/chokecherries2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqvQFM11GNVlfXGdb6wnYxLU3k_gtiVOFtqqSvDNQg8iYR8zwAvkFkS-V-zm7ccn6HDrX_FZX7RFSU3p07qcOSTdW0-NKQvYRRIYWbTTQgdnJ3zmgHdeLMlu0meU-lQhaCEV7cVccgpJM/s320/chokecherries2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If Ellie and Fiona had their way, they'd have kept them all to themselves!</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have fond memories of picking chokecherries by the bucketsful, of the delicious smells in the kitchen, and the ping of the jar lids as they sealed. My mom used to make chokecherry/crabapple jelly. Ah, memories...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Not many people still carry on the tradition around here, but me...well, I do.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Being that we eat paleo we don't eat as much jam and jelly as we used to, but I still like to make my own. Plus, I'm convinced most things that grow wild are better for us. In fact:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 13px; text-align: left;">100 g of raw, pitted chokecherries contains 379 mg of potassium, 67 mg of phosphorus, 60 mg of calcium and 27 mg of magnesium, along with lesser amounts of sodium, iron, zinc, copper and manganese. That same 100 g also has 168 IU of vitamin A, 347 mcg of lutein, 90 mcg of beta-carotene, 21.1 mcg of vitamin K and 5.5 mg of vitamin C. Chokecherries also contain a bit of vitamin E and the B vitamins thiamine, riboflavin, niacin and pantothenic acid. </span></span><br />
<span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica;">source: </span><a href="http://www.livestrong.com/article/503861-the-nutritional-value-for-chokecherries/#ixzz21a7BOzw8" style="border: 0px; color: #003399; cursor: pointer; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Nutritional Value for Chokecherries</a></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Lower Sugar Chokecherry Jam</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">8 cups chokecherries washed and stems removed</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3 cups water</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 and 1/4 cup organic cane sugar</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 package Sure-Jell for less or no sugar (pink box)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Cook chokecherries and water in a large pot over low to medium heat until very soft. Stir as needed.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Strain mixture through a cheese cloth or colander to get pits out. I use a colander and potato masher to get as much of the fruit as possible without the pits.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Return mixture to stove over medium to medium-high heat. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mix together 1/4 cup sugar and the Sure-Jell. Add to the chokecherry mixture. Bring just to a boil, stirring constantly. Stir in remaining 1 cup of sugar until dissolved. Let boil for 1 minute stirring constantly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pour directly into hot jars and water bath can. I usually process in a water bath for 15 minutes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Makes 2 pint jars of jam.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I use </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">much</i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> less sugar than traditional recipes; I also use organic real cane sugar. Still, I wouldn't call this a paleo recipe, but it works for us. Those used to much sweeter recipes (many would call for double this much sugar) may not like this one, but I love how it's tangier and tastes more like chokecherries than traditional recipes. Yum.</span>
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</div>Kerri Ohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12744424433988127754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4454752778555959421.post-78189626007260514562012-07-30T06:00:00.000-07:002012-07-30T06:00:09.000-07:00A First Harvest?<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How about another edition of "<a href="http://4acresfarm.blogspot.com/2012/04/what-ive-managed-not-to-kill-so-far.html" target="_blank">What I've Managed Not to Kill So Far</a>!"? OK, OK, since the <a href="http://4acresfarm.blogspot.com/2012/04/updates-lessons-in-chicken-sht-and.html" target="_blank">mass execution of the heirloom seeds</a> I haven't really killed...much. But because of it we got the garden started much later than we'd hoped (we're talking the first and second week of June) and started most everything from seeds instead of seedlings. Best laid plans I guess...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With our short growing season (at just above 7,000 feet it's really more like 3 seconds) it's a toss up as to whether we'll wind up with much of a harvest this year...here's hoping for a late frost? Indian summer?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This summer has also been exceptionally hot and dry. We've watered the best we can, but we can't afford to just turn the hose on (we tried in June and our bill was $70 higher!). Mostly we have been hauling water in buckets from the creek. Talk about a workout! </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Between the late planting and the hot/dry weather I had almost completely given up hope, but the last week or two things are starting to come around. While not everything has exactly thrived this hot dry summer, we've done the best we could and I'm pleasantly surprised by what<i> is</i> doing well!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL6YnrUA_2861bMHdnoUAgfP5ZeUjBDtaLHwwx-LoufDGEtzWXYc2UWVXQ9hRuovJ8ar2vNerSRBztk5xGu6G9TZP7cHx1r19N91QeAxStE9_8-_D1xOD2OUBtLCp3kgXVVbV6Jl-egXU/s1600/corn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL6YnrUA_2861bMHdnoUAgfP5ZeUjBDtaLHwwx-LoufDGEtzWXYc2UWVXQ9hRuovJ8ar2vNerSRBztk5xGu6G9TZP7cHx1r19N91QeAxStE9_8-_D1xOD2OUBtLCp3kgXVVbV6Jl-egXU/s320/corn.jpg" width="238" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The corn is in a race against the frost...will it have time to mature before it turns cold???</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJYHMH3QuXqQGVtDliwJ98sGGNoR_cuJ8QVvoxIMCgl29LarLYYYZLCik0oHlUj5Gh9HDovfBIoirIjtirrr2oHup_EW8UZJWb3pPqOReE5y23a-Tb1e_C-QP1nq2GajikfJHS1vhy6pw/s1600/zucchini.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJYHMH3QuXqQGVtDliwJ98sGGNoR_cuJ8QVvoxIMCgl29LarLYYYZLCik0oHlUj5Gh9HDovfBIoirIjtirrr2oHup_EW8UZJWb3pPqOReE5y23a-Tb1e_C-QP1nq2GajikfJHS1vhy6pw/s320/zucchini.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our first zucchini! Considering how zucchini generally goes gangbusters around here we should do well here.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJlJGCO1q09MUINQVIWcgfe1LCDjCcy4Ez32fM4QTfPsywlLAJtZ8BhEe0zUKiVK8BE90R2Eh4juNs_U8sqn5CZHBSgIwSFtSnENzDv_K4s891pjDk9CJN0-2PObJqUocki3Ty1elkE-0/s1600/beets.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJlJGCO1q09MUINQVIWcgfe1LCDjCcy4Ez32fM4QTfPsywlLAJtZ8BhEe0zUKiVK8BE90R2Eh4juNs_U8sqn5CZHBSgIwSFtSnENzDv_K4s891pjDk9CJN0-2PObJqUocki3Ty1elkE-0/s320/beets.jpg" width="238" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There's about a half a row of beets doing well. Before we got the electric fence put up around the garden the deer munched their tops off, but they came back!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0WNOVRIQOrUwU3uObfrYI7XhKQQuoc2T93bzm_aBGI944twL7UUZhC2-xaK34CvcOrqo7PsjuV-jErDuPURMfWehp80PeGI2ZH3ju3hHBWbEg_nGSEHtGsHdjm06zYUyi1Wv9Dq_ITz8/s1600/cucumbers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0WNOVRIQOrUwU3uObfrYI7XhKQQuoc2T93bzm_aBGI944twL7UUZhC2-xaK34CvcOrqo7PsjuV-jErDuPURMfWehp80PeGI2ZH3ju3hHBWbEg_nGSEHtGsHdjm06zYUyi1Wv9Dq_ITz8/s320/cucumbers.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We planted several varieties of cucumber, but so far the only ones looking promising are these pickling cucumbers.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcF_IY-Ya3psSNPRltDZgge_TXOAhw91id5XkUQdV7iWBK07k81E_EemtWSCpvjxwpGOvE3b2t0Q_JELsp0rly0fgpHbEnRBBKR8wO5zm5v_DxpD8yMgr6P1fRZzwgUk6r3Ogr_r1g_UM/s1600/strawberry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcF_IY-Ya3psSNPRltDZgge_TXOAhw91id5XkUQdV7iWBK07k81E_EemtWSCpvjxwpGOvE3b2t0Q_JELsp0rly0fgpHbEnRBBKR8wO5zm5v_DxpD8yMgr6P1fRZzwgUk6r3Ogr_r1g_UM/s320/strawberry.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The strawberry patch is doing amazing (in spite of the vampire pumpkin plant trying to snuff it out). I just picked 4 to 6 of these thumb-sized strawberries from each plant!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgei3G2zmJIPz16JlxZaydJlJQO7VgWcxHJ14l6t2VqSbcjjvL3mkpO8aiRJrlOLbHrfjDUdwRLsgrfKpzj1BxzM99tL7-folCQh3oIv48BD-RRjuYg_SjSG956wqmKxWlQ4wkxtsV88y4/s1600/pumpkin+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgei3G2zmJIPz16JlxZaydJlJQO7VgWcxHJ14l6t2VqSbcjjvL3mkpO8aiRJrlOLbHrfjDUdwRLsgrfKpzj1BxzM99tL7-folCQh3oIv48BD-RRjuYg_SjSG956wqmKxWlQ4wkxtsV88y4/s320/pumpkin+1.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Speaking of the monster pumpkin plant...the pumpkins on it are growing like crazy.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDYOEypv9tgh7_6iLVLet1Lnpi4_hcCTrgG0LvOv0SimpYPqy7XtMnuAlmRsXZXOYkIF_BIwL5PNjr_JwJXebk3kcKeEEsJ3yH0bmmEnwPICjwddHj67wKky8c0Gg6xsoH23sBdYOKZa8/s1600/pumpkin+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDYOEypv9tgh7_6iLVLet1Lnpi4_hcCTrgG0LvOv0SimpYPqy7XtMnuAlmRsXZXOYkIF_BIwL5PNjr_JwJXebk3kcKeEEsJ3yH0bmmEnwPICjwddHj67wKky8c0Gg6xsoH23sBdYOKZa8/s320/pumpkin+2.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Just that one pumpkin plant already has 6 to 8 fair sized pumpkins on it!</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiWIitgEBMQnZT9fh-FppY-FagKQ6KoHvle5H2oPrdXCZM0kYOzFqE0BCntukhkB3XDtWxcAFAMLtH4PXCwLVZvFx9Y-brw18ppLaEBZqg9RZBAR2N6mS8AFlE3Xehyj4NIZ3XaZ-ZpVI/s1600/north+tomatoes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiWIitgEBMQnZT9fh-FppY-FagKQ6KoHvle5H2oPrdXCZM0kYOzFqE0BCntukhkB3XDtWxcAFAMLtH4PXCwLVZvFx9Y-brw18ppLaEBZqg9RZBAR2N6mS8AFlE3Xehyj4NIZ3XaZ-ZpVI/s320/north+tomatoes.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The tomato plants along the north fence are putting on like crazy.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMqj4b9cS3FQsI9OVAg8KjCnZEWH2pt5UMzlQYpBUrdlwHrQUMd6v7TXaaZtXcNkYKj3rSFbXULRbC21c73BfMHj5P06ue4BoJ1sWXxAXdxeibk9FS1B1zza0ELgrbeKbm3qxklDkjUeo/s1600/greenhouse+tomatoes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMqj4b9cS3FQsI9OVAg8KjCnZEWH2pt5UMzlQYpBUrdlwHrQUMd6v7TXaaZtXcNkYKj3rSFbXULRbC21c73BfMHj5P06ue4BoJ1sWXxAXdxeibk9FS1B1zza0ELgrbeKbm3qxklDkjUeo/s320/greenhouse+tomatoes.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The tomatoes in the greenhouse however only have a few. Any idea why they're not putting on more tomatoes?!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPYivKn2fFDpLQ_2us4utXikjRraUj5dsQie1oF3MCRhgOgYblFy3QOgYtdNNOIBYLJaS97X3IgCPAwYFSBybvYnq6qiQy5YkBfdVU7sSDP75jrdzIUxqgTENIVLREVfpHl1GluM0WTKo/s1600/blueberries.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPYivKn2fFDpLQ_2us4utXikjRraUj5dsQie1oF3MCRhgOgYblFy3QOgYtdNNOIBYLJaS97X3IgCPAwYFSBybvYnq6qiQy5YkBfdVU7sSDP75jrdzIUxqgTENIVLREVfpHl1GluM0WTKo/s320/blueberries.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We're even still getting a few blueberries.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are also lots of beans, peas, and lettuce I didn't take pictures of. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It looks like the broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, onions, and a few other things are just plain not going to make it, but we may just pull this thing out and have a decent first harvest after all! </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Cross your fingers.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Kerri Ohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12744424433988127754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4454752778555959421.post-2355703391892386672012-07-23T08:54:00.002-07:002012-07-23T09:00:29.803-07:00Misadventures in Wanna-Be-Farming<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This week has been...hilarious. There's really no other word for it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Darran built Ellie and Fiona a nice big pen out by the creek. With this being such a dry year it's the only place that's green and has enough groceries to sustain them. They have lush green to eat, plenty of space to run...it's a goatopia really. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBIh58mWE3cHkxwF-vbm24P-ObF8of_fDcB6t02fO8ZPQrGUpUukrYyOehxiPTU4Xe9VmBUhmn-6LZUpTrHRlJBxKD2eD3HE2LnoZX-lnK7uxPkNEcV8yEs_5kMVtGbKwnIfKaOYZSUK0/s1600/newpen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBIh58mWE3cHkxwF-vbm24P-ObF8of_fDcB6t02fO8ZPQrGUpUukrYyOehxiPTU4Xe9VmBUhmn-6LZUpTrHRlJBxKD2eD3HE2LnoZX-lnK7uxPkNEcV8yEs_5kMVtGbKwnIfKaOYZSUK0/s320/newpen.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ellie and Fiona's thoughts on it:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Alrighty then. Moving on...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Top on my list of things to start this spring was a strawberry patch. I love strawberry patches. My uncle had the biggest strawberry patch when I was growing up and since then one of the things I've wanted most in life is a big strawberry patch. What can I say? I'm easy to please.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was so excited when <a href="http://4acresfarm.blogspot.com/2012/04/what-ive-managed-not-to-kill-so-far.html" target="_blank">I had pretty much killed everything else</a>, but my strawberry patch was thriving!! </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-EkiZ_LM3mkI1HuK4dPd7PR3faT36rqaRCxGIaY0WAzv2fFUFUB9KWULl896s29qjhmxA5E9wb4m0sBljypkM8KUEFuoXfgwCMCZ3aQJiA-Hrndx2uSzMu1RyfTMafsDXgY2mb8JhU7A/s1600/strawberries.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-EkiZ_LM3mkI1HuK4dPd7PR3faT36rqaRCxGIaY0WAzv2fFUFUB9KWULl896s29qjhmxA5E9wb4m0sBljypkM8KUEFuoXfgwCMCZ3aQJiA-Hrndx2uSzMu1RyfTMafsDXgY2mb8JhU7A/s320/strawberries.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then, I saw this strange plant growing at one end. It wasn't a weed, but it wasn't a strawberry and it was in my strawberry patch! Darran said not to pick it, that it looked like a pumpkin, squash, or cucumber. My bet was pumpkin. You see, we had mixed some of the soil that had been composted by the chickens into the strawberry patch when we planted it. Last October we had fed the jack-o-lanterns (which had been grown with heirloom seeds) to the chickens. One of those crazy heirloom seeds had planted itself in my strawberry patch via the dirt from the chicken pen!</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9JSfCEONNlgkdkteUNVEtM5t72EtKZC7ALZWENbSRXpf4ZgGvstRr7C6N6gQv97SnK4IrmNbupUxFbrj_JZb0mQczb2gUdf96i0YRqNyMtBKOkcrPqMIG3udI2bdLbof9uojsGqcW9yQ/s1600/2012-07-22+10.20.54.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9JSfCEONNlgkdkteUNVEtM5t72EtKZC7ALZWENbSRXpf4ZgGvstRr7C6N6gQv97SnK4IrmNbupUxFbrj_JZb0mQczb2gUdf96i0YRqNyMtBKOkcrPqMIG3udI2bdLbof9uojsGqcW9yQ/s320/2012-07-22+10.20.54.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yep, it's a pumpkin.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The dang thing is on steroids or something.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6UW_ikBAz-_ZREWOxPu1AZ10GhqrAnQPPduZL9yhtNfYpTgBmCWjIRQRfcI72dPRqL0UW9HSw0lMWh7gdvO_hpg537VHuYtzzla3bpbLRkNz5SOqSmyMPpeZDMXyCvc1aBYFAxhVK-pg/s1600/2012-07-22+10.20.22.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6UW_ikBAz-_ZREWOxPu1AZ10GhqrAnQPPduZL9yhtNfYpTgBmCWjIRQRfcI72dPRqL0UW9HSw0lMWh7gdvO_hpg537VHuYtzzla3bpbLRkNz5SOqSmyMPpeZDMXyCvc1aBYFAxhVK-pg/s320/2012-07-22+10.20.22.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's completely trying to snuff out my strawberries.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3puovQzWWpue6n8oWHjN0ObSXMqsTL3XhoQ0XlCz7q6hP8Y1BRdgjBYGmsqMWMfHCIbQy3g5L93bgJ1122t1acJDamtLa5o1pPvcxE96C83iVvC08bjzYDbRaSBh_8j0je_dH4IBAQn4/s1600/2012-07-22+10.21.26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3puovQzWWpue6n8oWHjN0ObSXMqsTL3XhoQ0XlCz7q6hP8Y1BRdgjBYGmsqMWMfHCIbQy3g5L93bgJ1122t1acJDamtLa5o1pPvcxE96C83iVvC08bjzYDbRaSBh_8j0je_dH4IBAQn4/s320/2012-07-22+10.21.26.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's overgrown several strawberry plants.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But, I leave it be because with the luck we've had with the garden Darran thinks it may be one of the few things that produce.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, we'll have tomatoes and pumpkins come fall I guess. Oh, and speaking of tomatoes:</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJUYgxk5tsqPw6b7pHy2A62v-vC8zehwrU7LHcVw49oEwo5tIo9JvCchaFuMFu9J38tSEEvB7mdQQpDIqInfXPSBY0_5vfQhtFKA7goqrSe44cYBN56E_Y0kQKnEP5Cu9oLjBlq67LUN8/s1600/2012-07-22+10.31.55.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJUYgxk5tsqPw6b7pHy2A62v-vC8zehwrU7LHcVw49oEwo5tIo9JvCchaFuMFu9J38tSEEvB7mdQQpDIqInfXPSBY0_5vfQhtFKA7goqrSe44cYBN56E_Y0kQKnEP5Cu9oLjBlq67LUN8/s320/2012-07-22+10.31.55.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">They've finally started to put on tomatoes!</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The gate to the tomatoes on the north side of the house has been open for weeks. We figured out that the goats and chickens don't much like tomato plants. In fact, they'll go in and eat the weeds around them. Nice. Anyway, Red chicken doesn't go in there. At. All. </span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig1kO3U05qs_qvTdj7Ebuu1btW4ea8f5m1hRlBAPF36KGDQf9KFpc5CnCSsar0uSjt5M26vJt9aqUo1QUOXlq28YuscDt6Yi50IoA_nTJsu2znxQH9-wjVlA9CGqLiZ2_A2Bt052bZknk/s1600/2012-07-22+10.23.57.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig1kO3U05qs_qvTdj7Ebuu1btW4ea8f5m1hRlBAPF36KGDQf9KFpc5CnCSsar0uSjt5M26vJt9aqUo1QUOXlq28YuscDt6Yi50IoA_nTJsu2znxQH9-wjVlA9CGqLiZ2_A2Bt052bZknk/s320/2012-07-22+10.23.57.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Darran weeding the tomatoes with Red's help.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6aSxld1vjin-F8oNjwDaQI0eGYitps9wkcI0gfzFkLgpmm5cwWNsm5d3Pndcmss8_qAeHwWx1rbo_wX7IseInPdbwnqRpDJM_4nqDkQr1cV27uas7uyXdWrWYRNKFvcsvvfyI9NE5X-k/s1600/2012-07-22+10.18.44.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6aSxld1vjin-F8oNjwDaQI0eGYitps9wkcI0gfzFkLgpmm5cwWNsm5d3Pndcmss8_qAeHwWx1rbo_wX7IseInPdbwnqRpDJM_4nqDkQr1cV27uas7uyXdWrWYRNKFvcsvvfyI9NE5X-k/s320/2012-07-22+10.18.44.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">She's a good helper.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Unless one of us is in there. Then she's right along with you the whole time. Scratching and pecking, rooting around, and just going to town like a kid at Christmas. Then, when we leave, she leaves too. Silly Red.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Oh yes, and speaking of Red chicken! Darran was putting a new door knob on the back door (much to Fiona's chagrin, she had just about figured out how to open the previous lever-type one. I wish I was kidding.) and Red chicken spent the whole time trying to sneak around him and get into the kitchen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One last thing...We've had two more new additions this week. Yesterday the boys came bringing home frogs from my parents' house. Darran promptly built frogtopia:</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxXa1GBDJktnLQourbb9TBh0H44lnDgSLoL3SLe2lzsOreV4k0YdC4JqJlFjLZmuKif-_QAPJ2TuhvaxGrjh4aZmQ0CbqHPO-EbxGE7-4xP75EvH2uxeGNk_4QQw2PLhAuVbsMvv_a8to/s1600/2012-07-23+08.45.15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxXa1GBDJktnLQourbb9TBh0H44lnDgSLoL3SLe2lzsOreV4k0YdC4JqJlFjLZmuKif-_QAPJ2TuhvaxGrjh4aZmQ0CbqHPO-EbxGE7-4xP75EvH2uxeGNk_4QQw2PLhAuVbsMvv_a8to/s320/2012-07-23+08.45.15.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shall we take bets on whether Fiona teaches the frogs a thing or two?</td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Life is funny. We are grateful.</span></div>Kerri Ohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12744424433988127754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4454752778555959421.post-28813383593545710772012-07-09T18:29:00.001-07:002012-07-09T18:29:36.514-07:00Sustainawhat??<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's quite possible that this blog needs a new tagline. Experiment in sustainability?! The what you say?!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While sustainability is still our goal. It's definitely a longer term goal than we realized. What can I say...we've learned a LOT!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After the whole killing of the expensive heirloom seed fiasco we still managed to plant a late garden. However, this summer has been <b>hot and dry</b>. Colorado is burning up, literally. We've barely managed to keep a garden alive. With our short growing season it will be interesting if we wind up with much of a harvest.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I did manage some yummy lettuce and spinach in the greenhouse before it got too hot in there for them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The chickens and goats have pretty much ate up the yard (and even with watering it, it's pretty much burned up anyway). </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We've put most of the chickens back in the main pen and are having to feed them all way more than just the supplementing we were hoping for. Which means it's costing way more. Which means I've had to focus more on my <a href="http://fitviews.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">fitness blog</a>...because it's the one that helps pay the bills.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Darran is in the process of building the goats a pen on the land in the back. With the creek being back there it's still green and there's much more for them to eat. If I have my way there'll be some chickens snuck back there too. <i>Oops, look at that, now how'd they get back there?</i> There's a lot more bugs for them to eat there! (That's what we're struggling with, them getting enough protein. Especially since we don't feed them soy).</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBIh58mWE3cHkxwF-vbm24P-ObF8of_fDcB6t02fO8ZPQrGUpUukrYyOehxiPTU4Xe9VmBUhmn-6LZUpTrHRlJBxKD2eD3HE2LnoZX-lnK7uxPkNEcV8yEs_5kMVtGbKwnIfKaOYZSUK0/s1600/newpen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBIh58mWE3cHkxwF-vbm24P-ObF8of_fDcB6t02fO8ZPQrGUpUukrYyOehxiPTU4Xe9VmBUhmn-6LZUpTrHRlJBxKD2eD3HE2LnoZX-lnK7uxPkNEcV8yEs_5kMVtGbKwnIfKaOYZSUK0/s320/newpen.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ellie and Fiona munching where their new pen will be.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We have gotten some rain the past two days, so I have hope it will not all be a wash! Oh yes, and there will be tomatoes! Lots and lots of tomatoes. The greenhouse is full of gigantic tomato plants that are growing like mad and we have a row of them along the north fence. All of which we've managed to water enough to keep going. (You don't want to see my water bill!)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We also have some strawberry plants and two blueberry bushes doing well.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-EkiZ_LM3mkI1HuK4dPd7PR3faT36rqaRCxGIaY0WAzv2fFUFUB9KWULl896s29qjhmxA5E9wb4m0sBljypkM8KUEFuoXfgwCMCZ3aQJiA-Hrndx2uSzMu1RyfTMafsDXgY2mb8JhU7A/s1600/strawberries.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-EkiZ_LM3mkI1HuK4dPd7PR3faT36rqaRCxGIaY0WAzv2fFUFUB9KWULl896s29qjhmxA5E9wb4m0sBljypkM8KUEFuoXfgwCMCZ3aQJiA-Hrndx2uSzMu1RyfTMafsDXgY2mb8JhU7A/s320/strawberries.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yay strawberries! Do you see that bone dry ground around them?!</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With things not going as planned I've focused more on making sure my fitness blog is doing well, and it is. Thankfully! If we can't grow our food we have to make the money to buy it (crazy how that works). Darran has kept pretty busy with side jobs. Mostly mechanic work (my husband can fix anything). So financially, miraculously, we are doing well. Heck, if we can pay the bills I'm happy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sustainability? No. Growing most of our own food? No. Having a blast living our priorities and spending time together as a family? YES!</span>Kerri Ohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12744424433988127754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4454752778555959421.post-24753255401558814922012-05-23T07:38:00.000-07:002012-05-23T07:38:24.628-07:00More New Additions!<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Just wanted to jump on here for a quick update. I've been terrible about updates lately!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've said before that we have cows. They don't live at 4 Acres Farm though...there's not enough room! My parents have 120 acres. Our cows live there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We calve later than most people around here. Most calve in February (likely in a snow storm). Recently we've had some new additions! Baby calves really are adorable.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQePcwGaCkprGpwQLY65R7Uvl55O0VlpQfbl0fG1wxqXHF4I_P3zM-Wv0WjcRhARlA8J4G_KKR7-i7S2EfN_fN9eclxQR6q5xo1Jv0-D8YH3U3V4AMiH4LB8tPFb3L2DteMgGNRALjDK8/s1600/DSC00108.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQePcwGaCkprGpwQLY65R7Uvl55O0VlpQfbl0fG1wxqXHF4I_P3zM-Wv0WjcRhARlA8J4G_KKR7-i7S2EfN_fN9eclxQR6q5xo1Jv0-D8YH3U3V4AMiH4LB8tPFb3L2DteMgGNRALjDK8/s320/DSC00108.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This one is about a week old now</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv0zv3Kdlibq93S6IZhM1gSg7SogOmQ4i-c1dG80yHau8WJlVHC1k9aGV-KBojBnxZP7GHgjURTovd8QVag3nFgoBBMd102n3_06oHya5nW6RzmpQjFhCoAVQeg0HKv80nrrgrkmaoAwY/s1600/DSC00111.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv0zv3Kdlibq93S6IZhM1gSg7SogOmQ4i-c1dG80yHau8WJlVHC1k9aGV-KBojBnxZP7GHgjURTovd8QVag3nFgoBBMd102n3_06oHya5nW6RzmpQjFhCoAVQeg0HKv80nrrgrkmaoAwY/s320/DSC00111.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This was taken yesterday when this one was about an hour old</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPiAun2aBp4JQzhGRarAR2rfD9unNIcLhDeMk8BFaetS-r_XZFgb0615VVx5jsePjMo-LTdlONWZ0hyeZjPdj_lL5Hgr0plio2EMFX6u7b_yXJDrqp87XPTkPNlV3m-XJd9eSA0PLc2ew/s1600/DSC00120.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPiAun2aBp4JQzhGRarAR2rfD9unNIcLhDeMk8BFaetS-r_XZFgb0615VVx5jsePjMo-LTdlONWZ0hyeZjPdj_lL5Hgr0plio2EMFX6u7b_yXJDrqp87XPTkPNlV3m-XJd9eSA0PLc2ew/s320/DSC00120.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This one is a little over a week old.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I will try to get video soon! Baby calves are so fun to watch play. I'll also update about the goats. They are feisty little things..their favorite meal? My pink rose bush. ;) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Life is good.</span>Kerri Ohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12744424433988127754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4454752778555959421.post-91452233260166428432012-04-26T04:00:00.000-07:002012-04-26T04:00:10.509-07:00Easy Homemade Fabric Softener Recipe<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy1SGiWnFCkSRx00lbuIE2I4fp86lme3Q3thLXxxsdd_ql-QjPe-8bJxxRuAx4HxClI8HqkP5xbR2v13jGh87F_0tx7xUC3QTWy36Xx_LP2x5WBpo1LhjDnVtgJuNyN_pUSOSzuoA6oIc/s1600/2012-04-21+10.20.14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy1SGiWnFCkSRx00lbuIE2I4fp86lme3Q3thLXxxsdd_ql-QjPe-8bJxxRuAx4HxClI8HqkP5xbR2v13jGh87F_0tx7xUC3QTWy36Xx_LP2x5WBpo1LhjDnVtgJuNyN_pUSOSzuoA6oIc/s320/2012-04-21+10.20.14.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've seen this one all over Pinterest and decided to give it a shot. I already had everything needed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Fabric Softener Recipe:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">White Vinegar</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Essential Oils of choice (I used sweet orange)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Container</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I filled an old fabric softener bottle (I've been saving all sorts of containers in anticipation of such things) with the vinegar and added about 20-25 drops of the sweet orange oil. Shake. Done. I'm going to try adding a 1/4 cup per load.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Have you ever tried a similar recipe?</span>Kerri Ohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12744424433988127754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4454752778555959421.post-71313379830531620702012-04-25T06:24:00.000-07:002012-07-09T18:02:59.121-07:00Homemade Dishwasher Soap and Rinse Aid<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The next item on my list of cleaning supplies to tackle was dishwasher detergent. I perused the internet for quite some time and finally came up with a hodge podge of several recipes.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqJ9Im4OFEGei9t1H9cXQKNxnBoPzO0WCUivG_G7IP1wCroOHIccImeref9YxGKSvUd6DA7CGrVJFzdifH8tBPRyMBBhEi-Fl6Kb_5Zbze7lfpcM8WLurcZR0P929Io2Q0IIWB5W5rLaQ/s1600/Dishwasher+soap+ingredients.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqJ9Im4OFEGei9t1H9cXQKNxnBoPzO0WCUivG_G7IP1wCroOHIccImeref9YxGKSvUd6DA7CGrVJFzdifH8tBPRyMBBhEi-Fl6Kb_5Zbze7lfpcM8WLurcZR0P929Io2Q0IIWB5W5rLaQ/s320/Dishwasher+soap+ingredients.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Homemade Dishwasher Detergent</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 cup Borax</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 cup Washing Soda</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1/2 cup Baking Soda</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1/2 cup Salt (Some recipes said kosher salt, I used what I had)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1/2 cup Citric Acid</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Several drops Essential Oil (optional, I used sweet orange)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of those little absorbent packets that come in vitamins, etc. I read that this helps avoid clumping.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Container</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBV3QWjQ19_WmYnW7N4zcBu0EqWwTfHKLb7z9ob2L8UgPJyvL2plBzT53A6IWN0-vGvao5-sdg6Ll5igZC436YDX1rShH-A_1rP5WyRso-kK32HwfaNp4fGsf6MiRUJTgy9RCCy2xoC8E/s1600/dishwasher+soap+finished.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBV3QWjQ19_WmYnW7N4zcBu0EqWwTfHKLb7z9ob2L8UgPJyvL2plBzT53A6IWN0-vGvao5-sdg6Ll5igZC436YDX1rShH-A_1rP5WyRso-kK32HwfaNp4fGsf6MiRUJTgy9RCCy2xoC8E/s320/dishwasher+soap+finished.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Throw everything together in your container and shake well. The essential oils clumped a bit, not sure if I'll use them next time. Use a fork to break up any clumps. Throw in the absorbent packet on top (and as they all say 'do not eat'). I'm using 1 Tablespoon in the pre-wash spot and 1 Tablespoon in the main wash spot in my dishwasher.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Rinse Aid</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Simply fill your rinse aid dispenser with white vinegar. I've been doing this for quite some time already.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Have you ever tried making dishwasher soap? How'd it do?</span><br />
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<span style="color: red; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">**Update</span><br />
<span style="color: red; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The rinse aid works perfectly...the dishwasher soap, not so much. Back to the drawing board. I find it just gets hard and you wind up scraping it out of the container. Also, it didn't clean that great.</span>Kerri Ohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12744424433988127754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4454752778555959421.post-49055796146773678752012-04-24T04:00:00.000-07:002012-04-24T04:00:10.079-07:00Ellie and Fiona<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The other day Darran announced that he'd found two baby girl goats on Craigslist. Still on bottles. $50 each. <br /><br />We had discussed getting goats to eat down the weeds and make our back property all around more usable. We've neglected it for...10 years-ish? Other than the boys and I playing at the creek we haven't done anything with that land. Needless to say the weeds have had a hay day.<br /><br />Sure, we could use a tractor or some other gas/diesel powered machine to mow the weeds, but how fun would that be? Also, the land is so un-even it might not even be possible. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I grew up with goats. Raising goats was a big part of my childhood. I showed them in 4-H. You probably didn't realize that you're talking to the Grand Champion in Showmanship at the County Fair in 19.....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anyways, back to these goats. We decided goats were the best answer to our weed problem and since we'd both grown up with goats we wanted our boys to have that experience too. We'd looked around and who knew goats could be so pricey? I told Darran that I wanted 2 or 3 girls, and only wanted to pay $50 for them. I was beyond excited when Darran found these two on Craigslist. We went and got them last Wednesday. They were 2 weeks old when we picked them up. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Baby goats are seriously the cutest thing ever. Proof:</span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimDB68sw8wbThqBXhveaPx1c4a7nqeeLkeDHAO1YDPL4e2X79SJFJrDvmdHGcGTuWlXtsoIch9EmpIiT5K1wC0Zympqf8-dI6uUbhJvP3EV8GPDBTqZv5Y60lQALkg-1LEwN7dl0J_Stw/s1600/2012-04-20+16.55.39.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimDB68sw8wbThqBXhveaPx1c4a7nqeeLkeDHAO1YDPL4e2X79SJFJrDvmdHGcGTuWlXtsoIch9EmpIiT5K1wC0Zympqf8-dI6uUbhJvP3EV8GPDBTqZv5Y60lQALkg-1LEwN7dl0J_Stw/s320/2012-04-20+16.55.39.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ellie is the one in front with the toothy grin and Fiona is the one who managed to wedge herself behind me.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Video from their first day home:</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-o5JEFL0aTn_jppeLHrz7q9p_YJtW39IkzB98tfMceRV2XtRoawUBOqvFVi8saS7UoGzlb84m3s5pyFYEcLyIxr2mGmJy6lXMW2lO_cuPS_qFjjxG0nAMSCvgK0fr2j2dmUke8jdwY0k/s1600/ellie+and+fiona.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-o5JEFL0aTn_jppeLHrz7q9p_YJtW39IkzB98tfMceRV2XtRoawUBOqvFVi8saS7UoGzlb84m3s5pyFYEcLyIxr2mGmJy6lXMW2lO_cuPS_qFjjxG0nAMSCvgK0fr2j2dmUke8jdwY0k/s320/ellie+and+fiona.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Soaking up some rays in front of their new house. Darran built it out of old pallets. Yes, he amazes me daily.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My 8 year old has informed me that the next thing he wants to raise is peacocks. I think I've created a monster, LOL.</span></div>
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<br /></div>Kerri Ohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12744424433988127754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4454752778555959421.post-41167922804456619572012-04-23T05:00:00.000-07:002012-07-09T18:03:45.636-07:00Homemade Toothpaste<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'll be posting all week the homemade concoctions I made this last weekend. This one I actually made a week ago. I've had this <a href="http://everydaypaleo.com/2011/09/27/easy-remineralizing-toothpaste-recipe/">toothpaste recipe</a> from one of my favorite blogs for quite a while. I already had the castile soap (in peppermint), coconut oil, and baking soda on hand, and ordered the calcium carbonate and xylitol from amazon. I omitted the optional ingredients to save money.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilbxV3frZvzDd3hQSiIBEPLehOCfrSBllCxPlHVW7XYZ8V3GEWrXADsh5RDIvM_ROrKc1HkJpFo2-1v1NHGQMqIKwrzPzcp6kFoJ0nz-MDy2IEDsTSY6gidaDSkRiLslqI3m32jHxNmNM/s1600/2012-04-13+17.07.24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilbxV3frZvzDd3hQSiIBEPLehOCfrSBllCxPlHVW7XYZ8V3GEWrXADsh5RDIvM_ROrKc1HkJpFo2-1v1NHGQMqIKwrzPzcp6kFoJ0nz-MDy2IEDsTSY6gidaDSkRiLslqI3m32jHxNmNM/s320/2012-04-13+17.07.24.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's really easy to make. The taste/texture takes a little bit of getting used to, but I like it fine now. I had been having some problems with my gums and after a week of switching to this they're better. Weird. But I'll take it!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Do you have a favorite homemade toothpaste recipe?</span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">**Update</span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I love this recipe! I notice a big difference in my gum health and my teeth are whiter. I will stick to this as toothpaste.</span></div>
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<br /></div>Kerri Ohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12744424433988127754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4454752778555959421.post-63700556133305325302012-04-16T18:43:00.000-07:002012-04-16T18:43:47.461-07:00What I've Managed NOT To Kill So Far<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The past few days have been home to a little doubt. All along I've tried to stay hopeful and positive, but around the edges a little bit of doubt has crept in. After <a href="http://4acresfarm.blogspot.com/2012/04/updates-lessons-in-chicken-sht-and.html">killing about $50 worth of heirloom seeds</a> I was beginning to doubt my abilities to grow anything! That and battling the <a href="http://4acresfarm.blogspot.com/2012/04/springtime-in-colorado.html">crazy Colorado weather</a> have made me question our sanity once or twice. Oh yes, and because of where we live not only is weather a problem, but also predators. We have all sorts of crazy wildlife that would love to have a chicken-snack. Bears? Check. Mountain lions? Check. Coyotes, bobcats, raccoon.... you get the idea. I've doubted our ability to keep the girls safe.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Growing most of our own food is a pretty big goal...and I feel I haven't done so hot so far! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But...</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy0NWovGRZoBn6f16B8ZbblGnVxwAPeavHZ2aTQjLnQPHMlMXx27bAPFpM0WCLVdwr5VE-jtlJP1uAw8DJ5cLhnLTmCVVIlRZBgRZ6X066tk03aKN8UwQPGxEwNpuit6Kx4DWCnhcJTts/s1600/abcde.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy0NWovGRZoBn6f16B8ZbblGnVxwAPeavHZ2aTQjLnQPHMlMXx27bAPFpM0WCLVdwr5VE-jtlJP1uAw8DJ5cLhnLTmCVVIlRZBgRZ6X066tk03aKN8UwQPGxEwNpuit6Kx4DWCnhcJTts/s320/abcde.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My lettuce is happily growing in the greenhouse even with the weather.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRpCzUktMgiWVClCd5oBNYXGqaeZzcjAuLiBHiZgp2K3QkfVsZEeeOVqORduQHeFw_TtwnR5LJHQz22PQgjrTQry6pv9LUsMJlP4-YmGgiuN0SBGAeLbu-OU_9zPl8EPFMmLwlZS27Ku8/s1600/abcdef.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRpCzUktMgiWVClCd5oBNYXGqaeZzcjAuLiBHiZgp2K3QkfVsZEeeOVqORduQHeFw_TtwnR5LJHQz22PQgjrTQry6pv9LUsMJlP4-YmGgiuN0SBGAeLbu-OU_9zPl8EPFMmLwlZS27Ku8/s320/abcdef.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One little strawberry plant is hanging on...oh, did I not tell you of the killing of the strawberry plants? Well, um...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgqr29SvKpyD6uXeky3c09TEyASPC1TchcnAXwSfTZABepwvyhpTRtt5_CI3RPmpPsstM4sIPFITVfU1l3zy3tQWwkE9KuxJAGkg-NQjlubP-tE3mWT0wxCUi9zAaqEv9jl6pagnwMRW4/s1600/abcdefg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgqr29SvKpyD6uXeky3c09TEyASPC1TchcnAXwSfTZABepwvyhpTRtt5_CI3RPmpPsstM4sIPFITVfU1l3zy3tQWwkE9KuxJAGkg-NQjlubP-tE3mWT0wxCUi9zAaqEv9jl6pagnwMRW4/s320/abcdefg.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spinach has braved it's little head in the greenhouse!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8sfO6sgeAv7rD3cfLej_637DYuUIa7T0oXXHxLAEFPoHaWU6KiZlSDddMcXr-4Oc48ohyphenhyphenxbHm9hgckDgziBinQDaN0e0B2aQ0wDf0uiENZs99W1Dx2_3oU1PXMLEzdl3bzI1xcgZw4wo/s1600/abc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8sfO6sgeAv7rD3cfLej_637DYuUIa7T0oXXHxLAEFPoHaWU6KiZlSDddMcXr-4Oc48ohyphenhyphenxbHm9hgckDgziBinQDaN0e0B2aQ0wDf0uiENZs99W1Dx2_3oU1PXMLEzdl3bzI1xcgZw4wo/s320/abc.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We're getting 21+ good, nutritious pastured chicken eggs a DAY right now! </td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Maybe we won't starve!</span><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I just have to give myself a little attitude check. I think that I'm so committed to growing/raising most of our own food that I just can't stand the thought of failing! It's all good. I truly believe we are right where we're meant to be, we just have a little learning to do yet! Everything won't happen over night. A little patience and perseverance, oh yes and a little faith...did I mention patience isn't my strong point? ;)</span><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Oh well, I'm off to check the asparagus.</span></div></div></div>Kerri Ohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12744424433988127754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4454752778555959421.post-68955724147178324972012-04-15T06:50:00.003-07:002012-04-15T16:07:48.780-07:00Springtime in ColoradoPhone blogging, sorry about the crooked pics. How's the weather where you are?<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPOuPZTBYo_lVvMyVPkch8UmiHtv3IMh2itF_f6Ofwcdf577n39Oa_nD4GSfzAGv6e4XjKZ3xqg0InNP9DFpeCp0-rv41GcShQlh3Nk5LLZLkWqbm_D-BTySamXY4szI6ZI1Q1U-h8s3k/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We got just over 6 inches of snow today (Sunday).</td></tr>
</tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEissC4mQj7bHno3nVemOXA8RWEQnTcEWIYqrwd8YnfnfpjRu9W6GLAJjzb2zC3odNFcFRspC3SYBuRrGVZbSOjTuMvFQgqV1wAxlxcXdQpltK0uSnB3bVMdOmGaNyjlW4syQ3xE3vT6iZg/" /><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrJbyJ43zZ44oJI6DFEgE9Rf01eOVFWlhejSS3XUnbCA67puDaSb2VausfeYPD3XtxPI3UpjHc7YSuTVmZ4ftTQEH8brP5jHuwAzCbouAyhWKsTKfFwFbXrXIjHpp11pNVcrCiJFXJCUg/s1600/2012-04-15+08.00.52.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrJbyJ43zZ44oJI6DFEgE9Rf01eOVFWlhejSS3XUnbCA67puDaSb2VausfeYPD3XtxPI3UpjHc7YSuTVmZ4ftTQEH8brP5jHuwAzCbouAyhWKsTKfFwFbXrXIjHpp11pNVcrCiJFXJCUg/s320/2012-04-15+08.00.52.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr5IlYQF-dQuuRur-YYDI9TbFcd62iVdRWlbXU6n-9YQpjg1mqY7G0riGB4vDf8uCwHzJifDfdrs8r96nQF2s3ZotgRNqAQyBdUBvEOr3kA1NoIsrr51aRHt78qrHkh8EXTpK4UHYw6XA/s1600/2012-04-15+08.01.14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr5IlYQF-dQuuRur-YYDI9TbFcd62iVdRWlbXU6n-9YQpjg1mqY7G0riGB4vDf8uCwHzJifDfdrs8r96nQF2s3ZotgRNqAQyBdUBvEOr3kA1NoIsrr51aRHt78qrHkh8EXTpK4UHYw6XA/s320/2012-04-15+08.01.14.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCm74mTzvj5c3bhvrxKubWlVKzKOYrhzgo_e4TS-12KVt8gDnVtBRq0TxR2MzvXxZddQLKsKMH3PXx2PTOtZeqBxdb2XztSYiHEJkXEBYwh5uRVbMqd9Mtp5x3VTwI71CWSlqZwfjepOg/s1600/2012-04-15+08.01.57.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCm74mTzvj5c3bhvrxKubWlVKzKOYrhzgo_e4TS-12KVt8gDnVtBRq0TxR2MzvXxZddQLKsKMH3PXx2PTOtZeqBxdb2XztSYiHEJkXEBYwh5uRVbMqd9Mtp5x3VTwI71CWSlqZwfjepOg/s320/2012-04-15+08.01.57.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Don't worry, we shoveled the girls out, but I had to get a pic first!</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">While I'm dreaming of planting the garden, the weather is most certainly not cooperating yet. </div></div>Kerri Ohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12744424433988127754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4454752778555959421.post-40986791331185549162012-04-11T12:35:00.000-07:002012-04-11T12:35:07.641-07:00Updates, Lessons in Chicken Sh*t, and Asparagus Stalking<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Busy, busy, busy.</b> Wow, have we been busy. I'll try not to just explode all over this post. I have so much to share!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We've finished two mobile chicken pens and have just over half the chickens out on pasture. Are they ever happy chickens! We've managed to build them from all reclaimed materials, but we did have to break down and go buy some chicken wire as we couldn't scrounge anything up.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimU0rj8OMguvGHKx5mQ-vB00-jMx6xPVmxXPqP9Bf2AmcjAh1ELPqBr-qYPMDWuXrrPfZ6CprvriI5H0u7_GAB6OCZMmrI4TtzUKsBn22jwpjwcQonkMKCFGj5ofuo1aLfHi9ACkBfmCg/s1600/2012-04-11+11.15.27.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimU0rj8OMguvGHKx5mQ-vB00-jMx6xPVmxXPqP9Bf2AmcjAh1ELPqBr-qYPMDWuXrrPfZ6CprvriI5H0u7_GAB6OCZMmrI4TtzUKsBn22jwpjwcQonkMKCFGj5ofuo1aLfHi9ACkBfmCg/s320/2012-04-11+11.15.27.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My 6 year old checking one of the mobile pens for eggs.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We have 1 or 2 more mobile pens to build for the egg layers and they'll all be on pasture. Then we hope to order more chicks for meat birds. I know, that may not be popular, but we're trying to grow/raise our own food...and we eat chicken. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've been researching how to make our own feed for our pastured birds and I'm now in the process of trying to procure local/sustainable ingredients for the feed we will supplement them with. That is no easy task. I'm just going to be OK with doing the best I can for now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Darran turns 41 today!</b> I'm going to make him some paleo walnut meal brownies. Shhh, don't tell. 41 also happens to be how many chickens we have right now. I'm taking that as a good sign. ;)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our seeds did not sprout. Not a one. <b>Too much chicken shit</b> in the potting soil we mixed ourselves; we'd thought it'd been aged enough, not so apparently. All those carefully selected and lovingly planted heirloom seeds...To the compost pile they went. Lesson learned. I did however start some lettuce in different soil in the greenhouse and....</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRoTW7_kPmqmayXF29R7d_VDjrzZ4yBHuJPIoctJKCm28Ml2b0MkgX7sQ7ivWQPTbtpqxJwDdMqKV80THUN_Z-mzs-FjAhLdJRB0zVOIN-nU8-Cvmp9n0GRSiHGuk1kF3v8ZaalDi3p2s/s1600/2012-04-04+14.14.24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRoTW7_kPmqmayXF29R7d_VDjrzZ4yBHuJPIoctJKCm28Ml2b0MkgX7sQ7ivWQPTbtpqxJwDdMqKV80THUN_Z-mzs-FjAhLdJRB0zVOIN-nU8-Cvmp9n0GRSiHGuk1kF3v8ZaalDi3p2s/s320/2012-04-04+14.14.24.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hooray! Oh yes, and speaking of chicken shit...<br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When we returned from our Easter fun we decided to move chickens into the second mobile pen Darran had just finished. As we were moving them my 8 year old almost dropped the one he was carrying. Now, had these been the older chickens I wouldn't have worried, but the young ones go crazy when loose and are hard to catch. I had one hen safely tucked under my left arm, so I grasped for his chicken with my right. I managed to grab her feet to keep her from escaping. (some people carry chickens around by their feet, it's perfectly safe, although I generally don't like to carry them this way) Just as I got ahold of her BLAST. She sprayed the front of me with chicken shit. So, there I was...hair done, makeup, the works and my hoodie and capris covered in chicken shit. What was I to do? Well, I went back for another chicken of course. Then when we were all done I chased my 8 year old around the yard begging for a hug. Can you believe he wouldn't give me one?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Ok, one last thing: Asparagus.</b> Last fall when we decided for sure we would launch into <a href="http://4acresfarm.blogspot.com/2011/11/sometimes-you-just-have-to-jump.html">this little endeavor</a> we went for a hike around our back property deciding how to best use it. While out we came across some dried up plants that Darran announced were wild asparagus. I was so freakin' excited; I grew up here and didn't know wild asparagus grew here! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Once the grass greened up this spring we began stalking asparagus. The boys and I would check the asparagus...daily. We'd march back behind the creek and check the three spots Darran had pointed out; sometimes twice a day. When Darran got home from fixing whatever for whoever (he does many side jobs to pay the bills) I'd drag him back to check asparagus. Then, a few days ago my six year old and I found:</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgnm6_j2Jh7ih2nMD3LWqL4d7lYsNwUSjcYAhikLm7sPXAmaecHWLlaluL_C3eV56sqxBhH_ziIp0U0bBcwAe8Afu_ZGp5GULZ7MY_iDE43f3Cxjce1UkGKSZdtFcaZGBF6g0AADHJ674/s1600/2012-04-07+07.51.40.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgnm6_j2Jh7ih2nMD3LWqL4d7lYsNwUSjcYAhikLm7sPXAmaecHWLlaluL_C3eV56sqxBhH_ziIp0U0bBcwAe8Afu_ZGp5GULZ7MY_iDE43f3Cxjce1UkGKSZdtFcaZGBF6g0AADHJ674/s320/2012-04-07+07.51.40.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And with that little asparagus spear all the trials melted away. The wasted heirloom seeds, the calluses, the tight budget, the being shot by the south end of a north-bound chicken...it was all good. I was so excited and grateful you'd have thought I had won the lottery. With that little asparagus spear I knew that everything is going to be OK.</span>Kerri Ohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12744424433988127754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4454752778555959421.post-27176799571341321772012-04-04T06:22:00.002-07:002012-04-04T06:28:01.975-07:00Wordless Wednesday<div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><img height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0JUX0rTvXtGVWwCO2EidQn7rACZHSCE_SXPLYhZ4gcpiJl1LjuN7EpdAhP2iW3OmEb8MMGZ-utuZ_kfpjbD49L7S1r5P-px524_pPprkSMrtKrzdaaXs0tIYa54Vnv7tHJs5FZFEraZ0/" width="320" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhbhD44KJ6f4cKBRkceFmdrVOTjkZQ-CC84tC9PwwmdjkUOlZokvpgeKkvZjBKLu6-9zdrtv_OIBgGrNfuo-9uX0b6z7VcYW0j8qBRUXfoclTYozY9iPKT0APytsDAvr5q-pyGs3RSj3U/s1600/2012-01-10+12.57.40.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhbhD44KJ6f4cKBRkceFmdrVOTjkZQ-CC84tC9PwwmdjkUOlZokvpgeKkvZjBKLu6-9zdrtv_OIBgGrNfuo-9uX0b6z7VcYW0j8qBRUXfoclTYozY9iPKT0APytsDAvr5q-pyGs3RSj3U/s1600/2012-01-10+12.57.40.png" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></div>Kerri Ohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12744424433988127754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4454752778555959421.post-55523709985102763802012-04-02T06:14:00.000-07:002012-04-02T06:14:14.082-07:00Bring on the Snow<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJxI3Il2M5R_qPoE5NtyIYgDWVTzj7_qT6SWw2RfmixvEaZM8ZoctNLQhiSssceWjhw16wP21kBO0oINbVYOQMKredv0oeS_ZfudMqcvDLcM96rlyeST7d5AyPJwKluf0LZ1-HdnFg9Us/s1600/IMG01682.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJxI3Il2M5R_qPoE5NtyIYgDWVTzj7_qT6SWw2RfmixvEaZM8ZoctNLQhiSssceWjhw16wP21kBO0oINbVYOQMKredv0oeS_ZfudMqcvDLcM96rlyeST7d5AyPJwKluf0LZ1-HdnFg9Us/s320/IMG01682.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I'm dreaming of a snow like this one.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The last week I've worked hard. Physically hard. On top of all of the farm work we have going on I'm reviewing a new fitness program for my <a href="http://fitviews.com/">fitness blog</a>. It's been a lot.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I fall into bed each night exhausted. Blissfully so. Tired from days spent working hard doing something you love is entirely different from normal tired. We call it "good tired".</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm good tired. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's supposed to snow today...which would mean less outside work for a day or two. I say bring on the snow!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(In other news, we got 21 eggs yesterday. Whoa!)</span>Kerri Ohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12744424433988127754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4454752778555959421.post-82978623499789676252012-03-26T05:00:00.009-07:002012-03-26T05:00:16.899-07:00Chicken and Greenhouse Update, Plus Seed Troubles<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I haven't updated on the general progress of things around here in quite a while, and boy do I have a lot to talk about...</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/qsetqsodWtQ" width="420"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMrZZjU8PFLeVAYk2CTqpRwoWqZePA778HEMupJJGNrxkyplWKW-gbGX2fhIMPcoHMx9oMn5AHybWlXK0vuHzdtd-OCWsaC344aF7k0XyI1sgIhRhXXQPqNBhnBaTgaWLH-mfNBOoAWdQ/s1600/2012-03-25+10.55.21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMrZZjU8PFLeVAYk2CTqpRwoWqZePA778HEMupJJGNrxkyplWKW-gbGX2fhIMPcoHMx9oMn5AHybWlXK0vuHzdtd-OCWsaC344aF7k0XyI1sgIhRhXXQPqNBhnBaTgaWLH-mfNBOoAWdQ/s320/2012-03-25+10.55.21.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We built this outside yard for the chickens from various chain-link fence parts from fence Darran took out for someone, plus some chicken wire we found in a junk pile. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the video I said 32 chickens, um, duh it's 41. I figured it out by adding how many we ordered with how many we had before. Seriously, they're too hard to count...There'll be a couple in the henhouse, a couple in the scratching shed and the rest outside, just when you get the ones inside counted a few slip outside... </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMyOSksc-dPC4ha0R4T-S3HBoKfEtZnFp6ILETOt9AY0iOm4eYl_2uHpYb7yuOj3WO7ROYVuE0pHQ9ghTApONoCsJzJojUAeHBb3SFAtEUACdGe_16DDgXfN3abyCJq8Og07zQocBEoKY/s1600/2012-03-25+10.55.00.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMyOSksc-dPC4ha0R4T-S3HBoKfEtZnFp6ILETOt9AY0iOm4eYl_2uHpYb7yuOj3WO7ROYVuE0pHQ9ghTApONoCsJzJojUAeHBb3SFAtEUACdGe_16DDgXfN3abyCJq8Og07zQocBEoKY/s320/2012-03-25+10.55.00.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The greenhouse is coming along nicely. It still looks pretty rough, but it should be functional soon. We've managed to make it entirely out of reclaimed materials, or materials we had already. Score.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn3YCcvh6vqV-OyJJCGTaPMYb1i_16HuJrXs1d402s8-9J_Pepe0ucANgbs2r6Ah6ul6u1Nv07N-pqiHp8Wr_bHyZMURtXzXBm3qU-KwQztwc8i2Bvbu7PquzHoARBiCj3gcHa98F6pY8/s1600/2012-03-25+10.58.00.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn3YCcvh6vqV-OyJJCGTaPMYb1i_16HuJrXs1d402s8-9J_Pepe0ucANgbs2r6Ah6ul6u1Nv07N-pqiHp8Wr_bHyZMURtXzXBm3qU-KwQztwc8i2Bvbu7PquzHoARBiCj3gcHa98F6pY8/s320/2012-03-25+10.58.00.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dancer says Hi.</span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZqNFNMJ7H1C9KxjICuHwNbdavLFmy0C9RIQhHoEnqZcCpMYIN_Wi0i-oSi8lgIu7C1H_66d02lZL66n1rZ5PZ23qo5m-67p2hnGCykIw11slz0qips2HdEVqlBgy6WuDTmlsvLq53Eas/s1600/2012-03-25+13.16.29.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZqNFNMJ7H1C9KxjICuHwNbdavLFmy0C9RIQhHoEnqZcCpMYIN_Wi0i-oSi8lgIu7C1H_66d02lZL66n1rZ5PZ23qo5m-67p2hnGCykIw11slz0qips2HdEVqlBgy6WuDTmlsvLq53Eas/s320/2012-03-25+13.16.29.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The seeds are passing 2 weeks since I planted them...and...NOTHING. Beginning to get worried!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWe8GDF7O76qKgA3fR1WHAcATX1Cdec9A2qJPT-oitiX6bv1NC0piPrc1MJ-TZRxxGM7oYLeT1dzNniF6u-garg7eyobpeduZsyiyEZt9Qt0dUJZywaw2JJhRLc_ICbDvBevU8x5ryN9E/s1600/2012-03-18+10.19.56.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWe8GDF7O76qKgA3fR1WHAcATX1Cdec9A2qJPT-oitiX6bv1NC0piPrc1MJ-TZRxxGM7oYLeT1dzNniF6u-garg7eyobpeduZsyiyEZt9Qt0dUJZywaw2JJhRLc_ICbDvBevU8x5ryN9E/s320/2012-03-18+10.19.56.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We're working on building several chicken tractors (aka mobile chicken pens) so that the chickens will be pastured for the summer. Again with reclaimed materials and things we already had. Every time I hear "chicken tractor" I imagine a chicken wildly driving off in a tractor. Don't you?</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgUBKrhD2moec8Zqn5xoXwrW39O25lKeYlxqdMYV0AYT2ivxpyTFQXKu8sWKdcogZ6A5b5qnnL7T-hmShZY19Mz6K0R1_Q6rHjSv7jst8Jfgfst4pSVGJz9sMZn3rvj07qJUSzuTsiQ5Y/s1600/2012-03-25+13.34.58.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgUBKrhD2moec8Zqn5xoXwrW39O25lKeYlxqdMYV0AYT2ivxpyTFQXKu8sWKdcogZ6A5b5qnnL7T-hmShZY19Mz6K0R1_Q6rHjSv7jst8Jfgfst4pSVGJz9sMZn3rvj07qJUSzuTsiQ5Y/s320/2012-03-25+13.34.58.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What I'm reading right now. (No matter what I do I can't get this pic right side up!)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1r5nQav7gS9_dYdupxzhwBzxRNY2mo1HMHj6SkJwjFzi12oxpmo5m2K9reDa9qClfahOdH9G9Q_BcXoYV90R3pJQ6sBtXzu8EkMeoD86ozuHjtt1lvIA_q9LARL2h7nLhFxvxRJ37UQE/s1600/2012-02-01+09.22.39.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1r5nQav7gS9_dYdupxzhwBzxRNY2mo1HMHj6SkJwjFzi12oxpmo5m2K9reDa9qClfahOdH9G9Q_BcXoYV90R3pJQ6sBtXzu8EkMeoD86ozuHjtt1lvIA_q9LARL2h7nLhFxvxRJ37UQE/s320/2012-02-01+09.22.39.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Last week was our homeschool spring break. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It was a good week. This is my 6 year old, 8 year old, and Koneko. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd37YMmW6BWv2GLvu9USJnLhyIJjw5HkcOQR_4Hy8T9qDwGYHsj7iqox8ecZ05X-tdQMyOMAocqMO3l4HQlb5oG0hPQGBXBJv4XitWyE0aBMs_jMdi0a08CnSskF-JbyoSp6Cq3BUBXTc/s1600/2012-03-25+14.25.36.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd37YMmW6BWv2GLvu9USJnLhyIJjw5HkcOQR_4Hy8T9qDwGYHsj7iqox8ecZ05X-tdQMyOMAocqMO3l4HQlb5oG0hPQGBXBJv4XitWyE0aBMs_jMdi0a08CnSskF-JbyoSp6Cq3BUBXTc/s320/2012-03-25+14.25.36.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Darran didn't do any outside work last week for spring break. He did however build a 10 x 14 deck on the back of the house. He used more of the reclaimed boards from the building he tore down for someone in Denver and some decking material he traded for.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Overall, life is good!</span></div>Kerri Ohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12744424433988127754noreply@blogger.com0