Archive for December, 2006
December 17, 2006 – Christmas Letter Page 1 of 4
Once again, it’s time for the annual Christmas Letter. I like to take a little different tack than most and try to have some fun. The next few days, I’ll post a page or so.
Without further ado, Page 1 of the Christmas Letter.
December 16, 2006 – New Local Foodie Magazine
There’s a new publication devoted to the family farmers, chefs, and food artisans in eastern and Central Iowa titled Edible Iowa River Valley.
The first issue has articles on heritage turkeys, microbrews, a day trip from Iowa City to Decorah, foraging for wild mushrooms, and restaurant reviews. It’s a publication geared towards foodies and farmers equally. You can find out more at the ebible web site.
December 15, 2006 – Dog House Upgrade
The 50 degree days continue. Was able to get more stuff put away/cleaned up and begin to renovate the 2 buck doghouse. First order of business was the roof.
Here it is after the old roof is lifted off.
The insulating panels are put in place.
Finally, the new steel roofing (leftover from the corn crib- now three sides of the corn crib are done). All that remains on the doghouse is the siding on the walls, but that will wait for a while.
December 14, 2006 – Thingamajig Thursday #53
Wow, over a year of thingamajigs has past.
Here’s this week’s “Thingamajig Thursday” entry. Also check out last week’s answer.
As always, put your guess in a comment below.
Answer….
This is the tip of a light from a Christmas light bulb.
December 13, 2006 – Delays
Here our freshly cut tree still sits in the garage stuffed around bags of insulation three days after we cut it down.
Our usual tree farm has been sold as development land and is no longer a tree farm. The place we went didn’t have much selection, but we’ll make the tree work if we ever get it up – it’s finals week for Linda, I’m getting the Christmas letter written, produced, and out the door and there’s evening kids holiday concerts, so we haven’t been around much – maybe this weekend it gets up.
December 12, 2006 – Martin’s Portrait
The other day I had Martin (5 yrs old) take a picture of me and then he asked if he could take some pictures. So I let him have the camera and he wandered around the farm taking pictures – there are lots of pictures of tractor axles, the ground, animals in the distance and this, my favorite one of the bunch.
This is a head and shoulders self-portrait of his shadow on the shed – you can see the tassle on his hat hanging down from his head. Nice work Martin!
December 11, 2006 – 27 Servings
I’ve been going to Costco for about a year now and today was the first time I brought something home that wasn’t a good purchase in the eyes of the other adult in the household. Of course, the danger in buying in bulk is that stuff goes bad before you can eat it, or it ends up being something you don’t want to eat.
I was excited to see the large can of clams this week. Linda always makes clam chowder over Christmas, and I reasoned, this will be a nice surprise to already have the clams in hand a week before they are needed. I thought he can may be a bit large, but looked at the size of the can, and remembered the stock pot that holds the soup and the can seemed not large looking at it that way.
Well, it is a bit large when I found out the cans Linda used in the past were more tuna-sized than soup sized. Then I looked at the label and realized it may be a bit large.
The serves 27 kind of jumps out at you. Guess I’ll be looking for oyster recipes soon!
December 10, 2006 – Roving Bands of Chickens
The warm weather continues. The chickens are liking the lack of snow cover. Once the snow comes, the free-range roaming instincts are limited.
This is one of the roosters we hatched ourselves. He’s pretty happy with himself this evening. (But then, the roosters always seem quite happy with themselves.)
He’s the leader of the group of “gypsy chickens” who roam separately from the rest of the flock and end up in places they shouldn’t be. We are actually looking forward to a few snow days so they can learn were they should be. These chickens do not lay in the nest boxes – we find clutches of eggs here and there from this roaming band.
December 9, 2006 – More Siding
Today was the first warm day since I moved the scaffolding to the north side of the corn crib and was able to get the most challenging (highest) pieces up and start down on the other side.
Here I’m tearing down the third section high after already tearing down the fourth section high. I’ll be happy when this is done for this year. Next year we can work on the doors. It’s a bit of a time stretch to work on this in the heart of the busy season, but a day near 50 in December calls out for a job like this to get some attention.
December 8, 2006 – Photo Friday “Fresh”
This week’s Photo Friday Contest theme is “Fresh.” Here’s a shot from the high hopes archives of milk about as fresh as you can get it!
This is one of our milk goats, Paulina.
We all know there’s more than one meaning to “fresh” so keeping that in mind, and in keeping with the goat theme, here’s another photo.
Back up to about 6 months before the milking picture for Mr. Billy getting “fresh” with his lady!
December 7, 2006 – Thingamajig Thursday #52
Here’s this week’s “Thingamajig Thursday” entry. It’s a real thingamajig this week! Also check out last week’s answer.
As always, put your guess in a comment below.
Answer…..This is the motor that runs the fuel pot stirrer in the corn stove.
December 6, 2006 – Rudolph
Tonight was the elementary school’s Christmas program. It was a milestone of sorts for us. It was the first time in 5 seasons we could sit and watch the program without caring for a baby, entertaining a toddler, or trying to keep a preschooler still for the program as Martin was on stage rather than in our laps or bouncing around between us.
Here he is with some of his classmates after the show!
December 5, 2006 – Winter Through a Child’s Eyes
Every once in a while it’s nice to have a child around to remind me of the important things. We had a very light flurry of snow and Martin was so excited for the snow.
He went outside and even though there wasn’t enough to sled, make snow angels, or make a fort – there was enough to try to catch a flake on his tongue. He had a blast for five minutes, enjoyed what there was and went on with his life.
I’m dreading the sub-zero windchills and lack of real snow and he’s out there laughing and catching snowflakes on his tongue.
December 4, 2006 – Gift Boxes
It’s now time for the shameless commerce portion of the blog. This year we’ve decided to offer gift boxes of products from our farm – various combinations of pure beeswax candles, hand made soap, and jams.
This is the big sampler box.
This is the medium sampler box.
You can look at all the boxes at the high hopes gardens web site.
For those wishing to order not in the local area, we’ll add actual shipping costs to the order and ship them where/when you want them to go. Just send us the shipping zip code and we’ll estimate shipping and let you know. The shipping should be between three and seven dollars, depending on location and shipping method.
You can pay us instantly via paypal or send a check in snail mail. Send us an e-mail to highhopes@prairieinet.net for more info or if you have questions.
