Celebrating Spring With a New Coat of Paint

Spring has arrived! It's official, and I am loving it. Projects that had been put off till warmer weather are in full swing. One of those big projects was to get the barn painted...red. Deciding on the color of the barns on our farm was a big decision and since the neighbors barns are all black we decided to go with red.

 Thanks to our Grandma for letting us tear down the old tobacco barn to build a new barn here on Growing Boys Farm. While it was a lot of work tearing down an old barn, building the barn out of reclaimed wood was very gratifying and I have to say seeing it painted bright red the same as the old family tobacco barn is nice too.

 

While painting an entire barn is not exactly an easy project it is very rewarding in the end to see this huge building all painted. And...one perk to painting a barn is no tarps or drops cloths are necessary, you can be as messy as needed. Yes our clothes, hair, shoes, and sunglasses all bare the tale-tell spatter of red paint which happens to be oil based and hard to remove.

I think the cows are enjoying the new paint job as well or maybe they were just happy to have their heads buried in the hay rack.

 

 

 

 

Waffles anyone?

Delicious waffles are the breakfast of choice these days at Growing Boys Farm.

 

It's maple syrup time again! The trees have been tapped and the sap is running like crazy.

Between a round with the flu and then another round of sub zero temperatures it wasn't easy this year to find time to tap our Maple trees but a friend put a bug in my ear about a new way to boil down the sap. Remember last year when we boiled over a big open pit? That was great for the growing boys to play in and see how many sticks they could catch on fire and it was great for roasting marshmallows but it was not great plan for boiling sap. The ash tends to fly up and land in the sap pans which makes the syrup have a distinctly smoked flavor which doesn't go well with pancakes. This year we decided to try boiling down the sap on our wood heating stove. We like to keep a steamer on the stove because our house gets so dry in the winter and we thought the sap boiling down would just replace our steamer for a few weeks. It turns out that the process is a little slow but works beautifully and since we already need the fire for heat we aren't wasting any extra fuel. For us it's a great deal.

So far we have just over a gallon of syrup and the growing boys goal is to make enough syrup to last us all year on those delicious waffles.

When it takes so long to make it you use your syrup a little more sparingly then if you bought it at the store but that's probably a good thing too. Do you have maple trees? Why not tap one and see what you get?

New Sewing Machine

The old sewing machine bit the dust. It was a sad day.

We tried hard to revive it mostly because I have a hard time spending money on anything new but also because my old baby also did embroidery which I love. Then, because I was about to have a nervous break down since there wasn't a working sewing machine in the house we loaded up and headed to the nearest dealer. We bought a brand spanking new sewing machine! You heard that right, not an old one from the Goodwill, not a second hand one passed down from my Grandmother, a brand new one. And I LOVE it.

Now to get started on all those projects sitting around. I think I will start with the quilt.

Announcing the Growing Boys Farm CSA!!!

It's official, Growing Boys Farm is doing a CSA this year. What is a CSA you ask? CSA actually stands for Community Supported Agriculture and it's actually an agreement between the Farmer (us) and the Eater (you). You agree to pay for food from the farm each week and we agree to deliver a basket of goodies to you. The awesome thing about this agreement is that we here on the farm are also eaters and we eat what comes from the farm and we love good food, so you can be sure that what you get each week in your basket of goodies is the freshest most delicious food.  Growing Boys CSA will also include flowers bouquets so that you can pretty up your table as you eat, or your bedroom , or bathroom, or well flowers are nice wherever in my opinion.
Fruit is another thing we eat a lot of here on our farm so we will be partnering with another local farm to provide fresh blueberries, strawberries, apples etc. when in season in your weekly basket of goodies.
Would a CSA work for your family? Would you like to support a local farm? Do you like fresh veggies, fruit, flowers?
Below you can find a little more information about our expected harvest schedule, delivery dates and cost.

  If you want to know more please ask because we are here to support you too!

Christmas Card

Just thought we would share our Christmas card. Merry Christmas!

Tree Time

 We all have those traditions that really make it feel like Christmas. Those baking cookies with grandma, caroling with friends, cocoa and movies snuggled up on the couch kind of traditions. For me that tradition is the getting of the Christmas tree. I don't mean just going up to the attic or the barn loft and dusting off the artificial tree. I mean choosing that one beautiful tree among all trees that will be the center of all the decoration for this season.
In our family the tree choosing starts a few weeks before the 25th. We all meet at my parents. My father sharpens up the ax while the mommas bundle all the babies. I say babies but our babies are much bigger this year. Then we all head out across the field and to the woods. Once we're to the cedar thicket we meander in and out among all the trees, some too skinny in my opinion some with two many holes or bare spots and Daddy always says at least one or two choices are way too big to fit in the house. In the end we all stand gazing at the one tree that has caught our attention and each person says yea or nay. This is the tree! Usually at this point angels from heaven are shining down while singing.
It is now time to cut the tree. While this task always fell to my Father, the last few years he has passed on the actual cutting of the tree to a younger generation. Our Growing Boys are now the fellers of the tree taking turn with the ax as we all watch with pride ready to yell TIMBER.

 

Our lovely little tree is then packed back out of the woods and across the field to the house where it will be trimmed and propped up in the stand.

 

The lights and decorations are hung with care as children play about. We discuss how beautiful the tree is and how it compares to last years.

Usually there is food but always there is the warmth of family

and the fondness of tradition.

 

(This is the tree at Growing Boys Farm, not the same tree as pictured above. I forgot to take a picture of the finished tree from my parents, but this way you can see our tree!)

Growing Boys with a Camera

The Growing Boys were mulling about in the house wanting to play computer games the other day when I decided to send them out with the camera. I always like to see what they see. What things do they notice through the lens that I might over look. This is one of the pictures that came back. I think it is of the dead bugs trapped in the high tunnel but the colors really grab my attention.

 And...we are still bottle feeding calves.