Birthday boy

Samuel turned one on September 10th.  Hard to believe it's been a year already!  Since he really has no idea what's going on, we didn't have a big party for him.  We put up a few decorations, made a cake and wrapped a few presents, mostly for the sake of taking pictures.

Samuel seemed to be a little confused by the festivities, but enjoyed his cake- a gooey butter cake - especially since it was his first piece of cake and has had few other sweets.  Although, he didn't seem to like it anymore than his daily veggies, so we'll stick to our rare-sweets policy.




Since he obviously didn't know what to do, Mama helped him blow his candle out...

 

After cake it was time for presents.  First were blocks to learn shapes...

Then he got a onesie to match our John Deere Gator.  His first farm apparel...




And his final present was a barn activity play set.  It has a sheep, cow and horse to play with in the barn.  It also has various doors that open to make animal noises and plays Old MacDonalds Farm. 

All in all, he seemed to enjoy his day as he began life as a toddler! 

Cattle drive

In a previous post I mentioned a neighbor's bull kept coming over to our property.  He wasn't really hurting anything, but it was just a matter of time until that changed and he started plowing through things he shouldn't.  So every day or so, Dan would have to go out and try to get the bull back over.  In the old'n'days a farmer would drive cattle on horse back.  Now'a'days, we use mechanical means...

Our neighbor decided he didn't need a troublesome bull, so he opted to take him to market.  He and Dan loaded the bull up on a Sunday afternoon and off to auction he went.  So, no more wrangling bulls with 4x4's for us.  At least until the next cow or bull decides the grass is greener on the other side.

Samuel's 1st birthday

Samuel turned one on September 10th.  Hard to believe it's been a year already!  Since he really has no idea what's going on, we didn't have a big party for him.  We put up a few decorations, made a cake and wrapped a few presents, mostly for the sake of taking pictures.

Samuel seemed to be a little confused by the festivities, but enjoyed his cake- a gooey butter cake - especially since it was his first piece of cake and has had few other sweets.  Although, he didn't seem to like it anymore than his daily veggies, so we'll stick to our rare-sweets policy.

Homemade Coffee Creamer

During summer, I like nothing more than a nice, cold iced coffee.  I make a huge batch of coffee concentrate and keep it in the fridge to keep me in good supply.

However, I love fall.  And with the weather turning cool, it's time to switch back to hot coffee.  I love drinking it, smelling it and curling up on the couch with a mug to keep my hands warm.  But I'm not a true coffee connoisseur, I suppose, because I like flavored coffee.  Vanilla, almond, cinnamon... they're all good in my book.  On the supermarket shelves, you can find liquid coffee creamer in just about every imaginable flavor, but they're expensive and if you look at the ingredients, it's kind of scary.  It contains mostly things I can't pronounce and if I can't pronounce it, I probably shouldn't be ingesting it. Dan calls it "chemical creamer", which is probably more fitting.  So, what's a girl to do?  Make it from scratch, of course!

Here is a super easy recipe to make thick, creamy coffee creamer from scratch in whatever flavor tickles your fancy.

Base Recipe for Liquid Coffee Creamer

14 oz. Sweetened Condensed Milk (fat free works too!)

14 oz. Milk (whatever you have on hand)

Stir well to combine

After you make the base, add your flavorings and stir again.  Below are a few different options...

Vanilla

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

 

Almond

2 teaspoons almond extract

 Chocolate Almond

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

1 teaspoon almond extract

 Cappuccino

1 teaspoon almond extract

1/2 teaspoon orange extract

Strudel

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

Chocolate Raspberry

2 teaspoons cocoa powder

2 tablespoons raspberry syrup

Just wander through the extracts and flavored syrups in the baking aisle and you'll be able to come up with your own combinations!

ENJOY!

Farm Tour

At the end of August our county has an event called the Homegrown Farm Tour. Within about 20 minutes of us, there are several farms. Some small like us, others are large 2500 acre spreads. The Homegrown Farm tour puts an emphasis on eating locally and natural, healthy foods. The event is held over the weekend and is a self-guided tour of nine farms. You're given a map and just roam from farm to farm. Here's some of the things we saw on our tour...

Llama's...

Goats...

And Bison...

Dan and Samuel looked at a restored log cabin at one of the farms....

At the bison farm, we browsed through the gift shop.  We found a cute bison horn hat that stayed on Samuel's head only long enough for this picture...

After the farm tours ended, the committee hosting the event held a Field Dinner.  To follow the 'homegrown' theme, dinner highlighted seasonal veggies, meats from local farms and wines from the vineyard where the dinner was held.  In addition to bison and lamb from local farms, Dan and I had the privilege of donating ham for the dinner.  Each of the farms that donated meat were asked to say a few words about their farm, how the animals are raised, etc.  After eating more food than should be allowed, we had quite a few people come up to us letting us know it was either their favorite dish of the night or it was the best pork they've ever had!  We left the dinner having made some new friends, a small business arrangement with the vineyard and an invitation to be on the Homegrown Tour next year.  All in all, it was a good day for our little farm!

Random cuteness

Play time with Daddy...

Morning play time - sporting some snazzy slippers....

Pups

We have two Great Pyrenees guard dogs, still just pups though, to protect the sheep and our property.  They tend to sleep during the day, or so we expect, but come up to the house at night to stand guard.  Since we got them, we've yet to hear or see coyotes or stray dogs, so they seem to earn their keep.

 

Our neighbor has about 100 head of cattle and the dogs, Shy and Tim, seem to really like hanging out with the cows.  We'd prefer it if they would hang out with our sheep, seeing as that's why we got them, but at least they're protecting something.  Every once in a while one of the neighbors bull sneaks onto our property and the pups are always right there with him.  I think they're actually friends.  We try not to make too good of friends with them.  Guard dogs will pick a "focus" to protect and you don't want them to pick you - otherwise they won't protect the property and other animals.  They'll come up to us to get treats and their food, but are constantly aware and somewhat aloof around us.  It's a shame too, because when they're laying around, I just want to go up to them and start scratching their bellies and ears.





Not that they'd let me though.  Oh, I've gotten a couple of scratches in on Shy (pic above), but Tim is a different story.  He's beyond cautious.  Maybe they'll make good guard dogs after all.