Family Outing

Pig 'n Grapes

This past summer we made an arrangement with a local vineyard that helps us both.  After they harvest grapes for their wine, they're left with spent grape skins.  They used to throw these into their compost pile, but they decompose very slow and it was more trouble than it was worth.

Here's where our farm comes in.

We met the folks that own the vineyard at a dinner at the end of August.  They found out we have pigs at our farm and immediately a light bulb went on.  The owner, Steve, grabbed Dan and took him to their processing area and showed him giant tubs of grape skins.  He asked if we thought our pigs would like to eat them.  Not only would the pigs enjoy the grape skins, we've read that if you feed pigs fruit shortly before processing their meat will take on the sweetness from the fruit.  To say we were excited is an understatement.

For the last 3 months, our pigs have been dining on vineyard quality grapes every couple of weeks.  Here's a picture of them chowing down...



Our pigs will be going to butcher in about two weeks... we're really excited to taste the results!

Family pictures

About a month ago a friend of mine announced that she wanted to pursue her love of photography and start a business.  We're not typically the "staged photograph" kind of family, but she asked if we'd be willing to allow her to take photographs of us to build her portfolio.  Seemed like a win-win situation for everyone.

She came out to our house on a beautiful October morning and took pictures around the farm so it would be a natural setting.  We started the day with family pictures...

Then we moved onto maternity pictures.  These are so hard to do.  I  looked at some online and they ranged anywhere from elegant and tasteful to umm...not so tasteful.  I sent my friend a link to some that I really liked to show her what I was comfortable with. I'm 30-weeks along in these pictures.

We're hoping to also have her take baby pictures after Baby Girl Thayer gets here.  I'll be sure to post them if we do!

Sick little boy

We've had a pretty crazy week and the reason my posts are so far behind.  Let me fill you in...

  

·        Other than jaundice at birth and a summer cold, Samuel hasn't been sick at all.  However, he started not feeling well on Wednesday morning (10/26). His lips were blue and he seemed a little "off".  At lunch he threw up and was definitely not himself.  I took him to his doctor that afternoon and we all thought it was a stomach flu.  He threw up once more Wednesday night and by Thursday morning his breathing was very labored. We called his doctor back and he told us to take him to the ER.  At this point, he thought the heavy breathing was possibly from being dehydrated. We could also tell that Samuel was becoming weaker and having a hard time staying awake as the morning went on.

By the time we arrived at the ER in St. Louis at 10:30am, he was like a rag doll.  His eyes were sunken in and was very pale.  He never lost consciousness, but was pretty close.  The combination of his lifeless body, labored breathing, flu-like symptoms, yet minus a fever, almost immediately made the ER doctor think it was a blood sugar issue.  After preliminary blood work was done, the ER doctor came in to tell me that he was waiting for one final test, but that he thought Samuel was diabetic.  After my shock and some preliminary discussion, we decided to wait for the final test before going into more detail.  Thirty minutes later diabetes was confirmed.  Normal blood glucose levels for a non-diabetic is 70-110… Samuel’s was 981.  When glucose levels are extremely high, as Samuel's was, the body can't use sugar (glucose) as a fuel source because there is no insulin or not enough.  Fat is used for fuel instead.  As fats are broken down, acids called ketones build up in the blood and urine. In high levels, ketones are poisonous and can cause coma and death. This condition is known as ketoacidosis. 

      Within minutes I was informed that Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center had been called and a transport team was on their way to transfer Samuel.  They said he would likely be there for 3-5 days and that his first 24 hours there would be crucial.  When ketones and glucose levels are this high, it has to be dropped very slowly to avoid brain swelling.  When the transport team arrived, it reminded me of US Marshals coming in and taking over from local authorities.  The team consisted of 6 people all having specific tasks.  The ER team backed off only to provide assistance and the transport team took over and started prepping Samuel for his move.  They got an insulin drip going, swapped out tubes and hoses and transferred him to a transport bed.  Within 10 minutes they were walking out the door telling me where to meet them at Cardinal Glennon's.

      Here is a picture of Samuel in the ER...

      We spent 27 hours in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).  They checked his blood glucose levels every hour to ensure they were dropping, but not too fast to avoid brain swelling.  Poor Samuel got so tired of being pricked and having blood drawn that when someone just entered the room and started to go near him, he started crying.  By Friday morning, he was past the critical stage.  Friday afternoon they took him off the insulin drip and switched him to shots.  He was also allowed to eat so they could see how his blood glucose levels were reacting to eating and shots.  Although he was still dropping and spiking, he was stable enough to be moved to a regular room Friday evening.

      While he was being stabilized, Cardinal Glennon requires parents to go through 3 days of training to learn how to care for a child with diabetes.  We met with several Endocrinologist (diabetes doctors), diabetic nurses and dietitians.  We received all the necessary equipment and were taught how to use it.  Our training taught us that all carbs aren’t equal and affect the body differently in a diabetic’s world (ex: milk is a carb, but cheese isn’t.  Peas are, but carrots aren’t). 

      Over the weekend, we continued to receive training, started calculating his carbs at each meal and giving him his shots.  As soon as he stopped getting pricked each hour and after Mama and Dada started doing it, he didn't mind them.  (Now he actually laughs when we prick his finger.)  All weekend his doses continued to be adjusted to keep his levels more steady.  On Monday morning, it was decided that he was stable enough and we were well trained enough to go home.

Samuel gets finger pricks 4-6 times per day so we can check his glucose levels and will get 1-4 insulin shots per day depending on what he eats.  His diet doesn't really change though.  We have to account for everything he eats and have a very systematic eating schedule.  We calculate the number of carbs he eats and determine his insulin dose based on that number.  His glucose levels are still dropping and spiking some, so we are still tweaking insulin doses.  We have to call Cardinal Glennon every day to report his glucose levels and chat with a diabetic nurse to fine tune things.  Other than his daily eating/insulin routine, we have to get some special precautions setup.  He wears a diabetic wrist band now, we have to get an emergency bag setup to go in his diaper bag and keep fast acting sugars handy in case his glucose level drops.  Once these types of things are setup, hopefully we won’t need them often.

After coming home, his schedule was off from being in the hospital and was a little more clingy than he used to.  You could tell he was still a little weak too - he was having a hard time walking without his little legs giving out.  As of this morning, he is much stronger and played well on his own without getting fussy.

Dan and I still have a lot of adjusting to do... keeping track of his doses, glucose levels, measure and weighing his food, calculating carbs, doctor appointments, etc.  But, if this had to happen, I'd much rather it happen to him at 13 months versus 13 years old.  As he grows up, this will just be part of his life... his norm.  I think this will be much easier on him in the long run.

I'll be sure to keep you updated with any changes!

Dixie the Donkey

Since our guard dogs, Tim and Shy, have decided they don't want to guard the sheep, Dan was determined to find another solution.  After doing some research, he decided on a donkey.  Yup, you heard me... a donkey.  Apparently, from what research told him, donkeys are natural protectors of other animals.  Not just any donkey though... it has to be a 'standard' donkey, female and ideally young.  Thus our quest to find a donkey began.

If a few months ago you would have told me you could find donkeys on Craigslist, I would have bet you a large sum of money that you were wrong.  Turns out I would have lost that bet.  Dan actually found several listed.  One of them was A) close to us, B) a 'standard' donkey, C) female, D) young - 1 year old and E) cheap to boot!  Dan called the seller and made arrangements to go look at her.  Prior to the meeting he read up about donkey care so he could determine if she was healthy or not.  After his inspection, it appeared she was in good health and pretty well cared for, but the seller admitted his wife wanted nothing to do with the donkey, so her grooming was not maintained.  We know the seller didn't abuse her because she would go right up to him.  However, she was mistreated in that her hair was a matted mess.  Here's a picture of Dixie right after we got her home...




























To be entirely fair, donkeys hair doesn't shed well during their first summer.  Subsequent years, she'll shed her hair more naturally and won't require as much brushing.  However, it appears the previous owners hadn't made any attempt to groom her.

We've had Dixie for almost 2 months now and learned that she is a great guard donkey.  I was totally amazed to see that her instinct to guard the sheep was immediate and natural.  She somehow just knew what to do.  If the sheep start wandering farther than she'd like she'll either follow them, or corral them to keep them where they are.  We've also learned that Dixie is a big 'ole sweety!  When we enter the pasture she'll come right up and start nuzzling her nose into you.  If you start scratching her, she'll be your friend for life.  Sometimes when I'm done scratching her and try to leave, she walks in front of me blocking the path to exit the pasture.  The harder I try to get around her, the more determined she is to keep me there.

After we got her home, Dan immediately started brushing her hair and working out the matted clumps.  She doesn't loved to be brushed, but she'll tolerate it, except on her belly. Here's how Dixie looks now after her grooming sessions...



I'm told donkeys can live upwards of 40 years.  I think we're going to have lots of fun having Dixie around.  Maybe one of these days, when Samuel and his little sister are bigger, we can teach them how to ride on Dixie.  In case I didn't mention it, she's a BIG 'OLE SWEETY, so I'm sure she won't mind.

New website

Due to customer response, we've recently created a website for our farm.  You'll be able to find information about us, our farm and what's important to us.  We'll be updating it regularly to improve it, so feel free to share any feedback you have regarding the website... the layout, information you'd like to see, etc. 

Hope you enjoy!   

www.mesabifarm.com

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.

Crazy hair do's

About a month ago, Samuel started this weird habit of crawling into the corner of his crib when he sleeps.  Almost like he's shielding his eyes from light or trying to use the bumper as a pillow.  When he wakes up from his naps now, he often has some crazy hair! 

This particular day, he must have really had his head smashed into the corner because he also had a diamond patterned imprint from the bumper on his forehead!

The silly grin is 'typical Samuel'. He is the happiest kid I've ever seen when he wakes up from his naps - almost slap happy.  The only time this isn't the case is if we have to wake him up, which fortunately, isn't very often.

Another baby chick

Blackie, our mother-hen, hatched another baby after having sat on a batch of eggs for about two weeks.  Here are mama and baby soaking up some sun.

Mama and her babies

Dan's been taking more and more of the outside pictures and he happened to get a few of me.  Dan was on his way back up to the house from taking some pictures and he caught Samuel and I watching him from the family room window...



 

And although you can't "see" the baby in this picture, she's there.  Here, I'm 22 weeks pregnant with Samuel's little sister...

Happy sheep

The sheep have full run of the property now.  Dan used to enclose them in a large area via electric fencing to protect them.  He was especially afraid of stray dogs and coyotes while the lambs were small.  The electric fencing provided a jolt if any creatures tried to get in to bother the sheep. 

The lamb are almost as big as their mama's now though, so Dan thought it was time to let them roam more freely in one of the enclosed pastures, which is about 10 acres, at the far back of the property.  The only downfall to the new location is that we couldn't see them from the house.  They were there for a week or so, then one day we saw them up at the fence line behind the house.  Oh no!  I'm not exactly sure how, but they escaped.  The fence isn't down anywhere, so we can only guess that they got under it somehow.  Sheep aren't particularly smart, but they are apparently wily.  Just look at the picture below... doesn't this lamb look like he's devising some clever trick to deceive us?

Dan was going to line the perimeter of the enclosed pasture with electric fencing as a safeguard, but the ground is so hard he can't get the stakes in.  So, we've letting them roam free.  It's been about a month now and no harm yet.  They seem to be very happy running free.  They love running up to us when we enter the pasture.  They even like to play peek-a-boo behind trees...

And the ewe's like to show off their pretty eyelashes...

 But most of all, just like us, they like to hang out and be together...

Cruising

Samuel's officially a "cruiser".  He jets around the house holding onto furniture, walls and anything to help himself get around.  Unfortunately, he doesn't understand that some items move or are too light to help him - like empty boxes and rolling office chairs.  He's had two face plants so far, one resulting in a bloody mouth.  He seems to get over his woes pretty quickly though and gets back to cruising.

I place toys in the middle of the floor to entice him.  I figure one of these days, he'll want the toy badly enough that he'll let go to get to it.  So far this hasn't worked, but it shouldn't be too long!

Summer Vacation - Day 5 - Final Day

The whole reason we vacationed to Virginia was to attend Polyface Farm's Farm Field Day.  It's a day long event they do once every 3 years. The day consists of guided tours, topical discussions, and vendors to see hands-on how a pasture-based, organic farm operates.  Their mission is to leave the land in better condition year after year and feed people clean, healthy food in the process.

Although the day's activities didn't officially start until 8am, we arrived at 6am to watch morning chores and have free time to roam around before the set schedule started.  Since we're most interested in poultry, we headed out to the fields to get a close look at their chicken tractors, feed and water setup.

The chicken tractors and watering system are nearly identical to ours, but each morning Dan drags and I push our tractors.  Polyface has this cool, custom-made dolly that goes under one end so one person can pull from the other side.  We need to get out hands on plans to make a few of these!

Next we moved onto the butchering area.  They have a really nice covered area to work and a good equipment layout.  Dan and Samuel are checking it out...

At 8am, a whole-farm tour started.  Our first stop was at the FeatherNet - a portable hen house on skids that can be moved from paddock to paddock.

Then we saw their combined broiler and turkey tractors...




Not pictured on the whole-farm tour were also cows and pigs.  They had several discussion topics throughout the morning that we attended:

Interns, Apprentices, and Young Farmer Germination
Hay Shed, Deep Bedding and Pigaerator Composting... (and boy, do they have a lot of hay!)




Then they had quite the spread for lunch.  Grilled Polyface meats - chicken, pork and beef, tomatoes, cucumbers, peaches and chocolate cake.

After lunch we had more discussions:
Metropolitan Buying Clubs and Online Software
Chick Brooding...

We had about an hour before our final discussion. We wandered around the main hub of the farm trying to see everything we hadn't gotten to yet.  Some of the vendors that we purchase supplies from were there, so it was nice to meet and chat with them in person.

Our last topic was a Q & A session with farm owner, Joel Salatin.  It was an open forum where you could ask anything you wanted.  A lot of great questions were asked and Joel always has an interesting answer.  Usually a very long answer, but a good one.



Samuel started wearing down a little after 5pm, so he and I headed back to the car so Dan could finish the Q & A session.  At 6pm, we departed Polyface and started heading Missouri-bound.  We stopped around 10:30 for a good night sleep.  We woke up bright and early and continued our drive home, finally arriving around 5pm.  Fortunately, we had the good sense to take the following day off work too, so we could lounge around the house and recuperate!


THE END!