Cider Day 2022

 The cider press is put away and the cider is in the freezer!

We had two Cider Days this year. One was for our friends and neighbors, and one was for you and your families! 

It was so much fun to meet so many of you and have you visit our little farm.

Everyone who came was so nice. Thank you so much for being kind visitors.

So many apples to choose from!

Apples go into the grinder next.

Lots of metal teeth grind the apples to pulp!

...

See how fast it makes mush out of the apples? Imagine what it would do if your fingers got caught. Yikes!

The apple mush gets put into the basket. Someone uses the lever to press the apples so the juice comes out. Lots of you had a turn, and I hope you had fun learning about a simple machine.

The cider comes out through a hose. Someone makes sure the hose goes into a container.

Everyone who wants a taste gets one... or two... or three tastes!
I hope you thank your teachers for helping.

I'm sure our little playground was so glad to have so many children playing there again!

Sadie and Stormy loved all the visitors.

We had a great time with you all! Everyone was so kind and polite. Thank you for being nice to the animals, too.

Bye until next time!

Do I Like Living on a Farm? And Other Questions.

 

Yes, I'm happy that we have a farm. It's lots of work, but I like being outside every day. I like working hard, and I like being around the animals.

I like working in the garden. I like growing some of our food. I really like fresh eggs and milk every day! 

I like feeding the lambs in the spring. I like feeding the calf in the fall.

I like climbing fences (not gates). 

I don't like working in the heat of summer. July and August are hard because they are so hot. I love working in the spring and the fall. 

We live on a farm because we think it's good for our family. We learn to work hard, and we get to eat really good food because we have a little farm.

We grew everything on the plate at our farm. It was a delicious dinner!

There are lots of good things we learn and do on the farm. There are hard things, too. We still miss our cow, Echo. She died a few weeks ago.

Sometimes the garden doesn't grow as well as we hope, that's hard, too.

Happy thing and hard things are part of everything you choose to do.

Yes, we have cows on our farm. The cows are usually my favorite animal to work with every day.

I love watching the cows graze. It's so peaceful. They look so pretty out on the pasture.

Little Stormy is growing every day.  Sadie still loves her, and she loves Sadie.

It's so fun to feed Stormy! She comes running when she knows I have a bottle for her.

She cut her hoof this morning. I'm not sure what she cut it on. She may have stuck it through the fence. When she pulled it out, she may have scratched it.

I washed it off and put some medicine on it. The medicine for cows and other animals is blue. It kills lots of bacteria so the cut won't get infected.

I'm so happy that Stormy is an easy-going calf. She didn't mind me cleaning and caring for her hoof.

She rested in the stall for about an hour. After that she was out in the barnyard and the field like she usually is.

We have a lot of chickens! We get about a dozen eggs a day right now. Our chickens are all more than 2 years old. Older chickens don't lay as many eggs.

Have fun counting the chickens!

There are a few more chickens in the barn. A few weeks ago I showed you the hen and chicks inside the barn. They are growing and doing well. I forgot to take a picture of them for you today. 

Thanks for all your questions! I'll answer more next week.

And I'll see many of you later this afternoon for Cider Day!

Here are a few things to remember when you come:

Wear shoes with closed toes (no sandals or flip-flops)

Try turning the crank on the apple grinder.

Taste some fresh apple cider.

Pet the animals when they come to the fence. Never chase the animals.

Stay off the gates and the fences.

Take lots of pictures to share with your friends and family.

Ask lots of questions. 

Have fun while you are here! 

Big Cats and Garden Experiments

 We have 4 cats. One of them is named Tom. 

He's probably the biggest and most gentle cat you've ever met.

He loves the camper! Heather likes to sit out in the camper where it's quiet. She can work without interruptions. Tom loves to hang out with her in the camper.

Last week Jupiter snuck into the camper, and no one noticed!

Thankfully Matt heard him calling through the camper window the next day and let him out. 

Jupiter is a silly cat!

This is Midnight, our barn cat. She doesn't like to come in the house with the other cats. Her favorite place is in the barn. She loves sleeping in the hay. She's also got a few cozy places inside the barn. Those are her favorite places in the winter when it's cold.

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Sometimes our family eats all the leftovers from our meals. But sometimes we forget about them, and they get shoved into the back of the fridge. 

The chickens love it when we forget to eat the leftovers! Leftover day is one of their favorite days because they think they are getting treats!

What kind of treats do you like to eat? Halloween is coming soon! I bet you have some favorite kinds of candy!

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We love experiments at our house! We have a house full of scientists that like to try new things.

The nicer looking plants were all given a special liquid to help them grow. It's not fertilizer like most people use.

You can tell that the plants on the left didn't get any special drink. They don't look very big, and they don't look very healthy.

The other plants either had some just in the dirt, or had the seeds soaked in the special liquid before they were planted.

Experiments are fun! We learn new things whenever we try them!

We did the same experiment with the beans in this raised bed.

Can you tell which ones had the special liquid, and which ones didn't?

We have some more experiments planned for next year's garden. 

We also have some experiments planned in the kitchen.

Did you know you can experiment with different recipes? 

You can experiment by trying different kinds of food that you aren't used to.

There are all sorts of things you can do to discover new things!