New Norm Farm

A Family Farm Making Local Food Production the Norm – Again!

Farm Updates

A Bearded Farm Journal – Day 20

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Wednesday February 21st, I ordered my boots!! They should be here Friday and my wife already has a ceremony planned to properly dispose of the old boots. She says the dumpster is calling for them. Even I have to admit, I will be happy to see them go.

The past couple of days have been pretty busy. My cousin Adam Gamble passed away last week and we had the funeral in Jasper TN on Tuesday afternoon/evening. The travel to Jasper was a little bit of a challenge as it was about an hour drive. Unfortunately, there was no time available to take off work. We had to rush and get all the farm chores done and the animals taken care of before leaving. The good thing is that the company I work for allows me to work from home so I was able to get a lot of the work done on my work breaks. Today we had the graveside service. I was able to get time off so I could be a pallbearer. It was a sad time but also a good time because I got to see some of my family that I have not seen in a while.

I look forward to tomorrow as I hope things will slow down and let us take a breath. The weather this week has been warm and we are having early signs of spring. It is nice to see but at the same time it makes me realize how far behind we are. Just a few things that we need to get done before spring: Order broiler chicks, Prep garden spot(need the rain to stay away for a few days), clean/fix brooder, fix chicken tractor, finish covering the orchard & part of the garden with wood chips, and I am sure a few more items that haven’t come to mind at the moment. We will get it done. The one important thing I have learned in farming is to not give up and keep moving forward and try to make some progress each day.

Well, till next time. Get in the Dirt & Get Growing!!!

Kyle – a bearded farmer

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Bearded Farm Journal – Day 19

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Monday February 19th, hope everybody had a great weekend. Happy President’s Day. We may not always agree with our leaders but the one thing we can agree on is that they need our prayers  Well that is enough of a political slant for me today. I may write another blog post on my political views but not today.

Surprise, Surprise, I have not ordered my boots yet. I plan to order the boots today. I looked at my work gloves and boots this morning and finally realized that I am really hard on my clothes. As I donned my grocery bags to keep the mud off my socks, I knew today is the day. The boots are getting ordered!

Update on our milk cow breeding situation, we chose to put Daisy and Poppy with the beef herd so they get the benefits of rotational grazing. We moved them down on Thursday and let them have all day Friday to adjust. It seemed to go well. They are still working out the pecking order but overall Daisy and Poppy seem very happy. Friday evening I started bringing Daisy up to the paddock by the house that way I can milk in the morning. It seems to be going well so far. I hope Daisy gets bred.  I have seen Oreo, our bull, sniffing around but he hasn’t been caught in the action yet.

The piglets are getting big. We are a little concerned about the runt. She seems to be stalled on her growth.

Well, till next time. Get in the Dirt & Get Growing!!!

Kyle – a bearded farmer

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love is Sweet

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On most holidays the kids like to have a mini party after school to celebrate. So, for Valentine’s Day we decided to make some sugar cookies for a treat….and since this recipe makes so many cookies, everybody can have one (or two!)

The thing I really like about this sugar cookie recipe, well, actually two things…

First, there is no refrigeration needed, you can start rolling out the cookie dough right after mixing! Which, when you have really young “bakers”, their patience levels are not very long, so this works out great!

Second, you can not really overwork the dough, and again, when there are little hands rolling out the cookies the dough can really take a beating!

The kids always love baking, especially when they can be involved from start to finish. So, grab your ingredients & some cute little bakers and let’s get baking!

Here is your ingredient list:

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1tbsp vanilla/almond extract
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • 1 cup butter (2 sticks butter)

First, go ahead and preheat your oven to 350.

Then, in a large mixing bowl, melt your 2 sticks of butter.  

Next, add your egg and 1 cup sugar and cream together.

Add in your baking powder and extract of your choice, you only need 1tbsp of vanilla or 1 tbsp of almond extract. I have even used lemon and peppermint extract before in this recipe and they all turn out great! Have I mentioned, this recipe is just about perfect!

Now, we are going to begin adding our flour one cup at a time.

Mix well between each cup

By the time your last cup of flour is added, your dough will be very thick and you may have to get your hands in it… which is where your little bakers come in handy!

Roll the dough out and cut into shapes using cookie cutters. I have used both plastic cookie cutters and metal and this dough works great for both!

Once you have your cookies cut, lay them onto a greased cookie sheet. Hopefully, you have a larger cookie sheet that is larger and in better shape than mine, but this is what we had to work with, so…  

Then into the oven the cookies go. Bake at 350 for 10-15min. If your cookies are not all the same thickness, you may want to check them regularly. Our cookies are all different shapes & sizes, so I kept a close eye on them.

Next, take the cookies out of the oven and lay them on a cooling rack to cool for 10-15minutes.

Then decorate with icing, cool whip, or just sprinkles. I will say if using sprinkles I have found the sprinkles stick better if you sprinkle the uncooked cookies first, then bake them with sprinkles on top.

I think the kids had a great time… and cannot wait to dig into this sweet treat!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Kraft ya later,

– Kassy the Homesteading Momma

A Bearded Farm Journal – Day 18

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Wednesday February 14th, Happy Valentines day!! I hope everybody enjoyed the day. It was another rainy day on the farm. All the animals are doing good.

Kassy and I had to get off the farm today for a Bio-metric Screening today. Our health insurance through my work requires us to get a yearly check up to be sure that we are not using nicotine and that we are healthy. They do offer nice incentives for getting the check done. It had to land on the Valentines Day. It wasn’t that big of a deal as we don’t really celebrate the holiday but we were going to make the most of it and go grocery shopping. We don’t take many trips off the farm but we try to make the most of them.

We left the kiddos with my parents so it would be a little easier. Earlier in the day I put air in our front tire, we have been needing new tires but I hadn’t got around to getting them. Today God decided that it was the day. On the way to have our Bio-metric Screening done, the tire went completely flat with no hope of fixing. So, we had to call my dad to bring a jack. We didn’t have one in the car. Needless to say, we never made it to the screening. The bad part is we had to fast the whole day and it was for nothing.

After we put the spare tire on, we went to start the van and it wouldn’t start. We had to get a boost. When we got back on the road, we made it to Walmart and decided to go ahead and get tires.  We were starving so while they put tires on, we went over to the Mexican restaurant and got a bite to eat. It started out as a bad night but Kassy and I couldn’t help but laugh at the situation. The night turned into a well needed date night. God blessed us so much and I am thankful. My wife got dinner and 4 tires for Valentines Day. What did you or your spouse get?

Well, till next time. Get in the Dirt & Get Growing!!!

Kyle – a bearded farmer

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Bearded Farm Journal – Day 17

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Tuesday February 12, the boys went back to a normal school schedule in the morning. We are using The Ron Paul Curriculum which I would highly recommend to anyone who does or wants to home school. I believe it really has the goal to help set children up to be self-educators. The one thing we have found is that our kids need to learn how to take notes. It is a skill that I often take for granted and am realizing how important it is to learn. Kassy, to help the kids develop that skill, watched the weeks lessons and put together fill in the blank notes for the kids. Today was the first day and the report we got back from kiddos was that it helped a lot and made the lessons more fun.

The piglets are doing well. Penelope is starting to get those mothering instincts down. Kassy and I watched her as she used her nose to clear the area before laying down. Penelope also went down on her front legs first giving any remaining piglets time to move before laying her back end down.  I am very happy to see the progress.

I have decided to try option 2 for our milk cow to be bred. I believe she will enjoy spending time with the beef herd and getting more grazing time during the day after I have milked. I will bring her back up in the evening and leave Poppy with the other cows which should keep him happy and distracted. I plan to try this option on Thursday or Friday. I hope it goes well.

Well, till next time. Get in the Dirt & Get Growing!!!

Kyle – a bearded farmer

A Bearded Farm Journal – Day 16

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Monday February 11, today we let the boys sleep in a little while. They enjoyed that, the only thing they dislike about it is that it puts them doing their school work later in the day when they are usually playing. They will learn, it’s better to rise early than sleep in or at least I hope they will.

A piglet update, Little Scappy didn’t make it. Most likely momma accidentally laid on him during the night. It is a truly sad event when one of our livestock dies, so today has been a little heavy and well marked by all the rain. The remaining 5 piglets seem to happy and healthy. This is Penelope’s first time being a mom and she is learning. We believe she will get the hang of it. She is a really good pig and great with our kids.

The cows have stayed in there paddock all day. No escapes or visits from the neighbors bull. It is time to let Daisy be bred back. I am working out the logistics of how to get her and our bull Oreo together without making it to difficult on the milking process. The way it is right now, I have Daisy and Poppy in their own paddock close to the house away from the beef herd. I am able to quickly go out at night and put Daisy and Poppy up and keep them separated so I can milk in the morning. The options that I am looking at are:

Option 1 – After I milk in the morning, I could take Daisy down to the beef herd and let her stay with them til noon leaving Poppy in the paddock by the house. Then at noon I would bring Daisy back up to Poppy so he can nurse before being separated at night.

Option 2 – I can let Daisy and Poppy join the beef herd and bring just Daisy back up to the stall at night to separate Daisy and Poppy so I can milk first thing in the morning. Of course after milking I would take Daisy back to Poppy and the herd.

Option 3 – I could let Daisy and Poppy join the beef herd and not milk til I believe she is bred. Then I could bring them back up to the separate paddock.

Option 4 – Bring Oreo up to Daisy and Poppy.

I think options 3 and 4 are already cancelled but options 1 & 2 I am still debating. The thing I like about option 2 is that I would not have to necessarily stall Daisy at night. I could let her have run of the paddock which I think she would like. Also that would make the chore of cleaning out her stall go away. I don’t know. We shall see.

Our chickens are starting to spread out some of the wood chips. For a while all the wood chips were frozen but now they are not. The rain and a little bit of warmer weather has let earthworms start coming up. The chickens have been having a feeding frenzy. Kassy and I took time last night before all the chickens went up in the coop, when most people are inside watching TV, to just watch them feed and their social interactions. It is always fascinating. Kassy was telling me which ones she thought looked the prettiest and I of course kept pointing out the size of the worms they ate. It was one of the really enjoyable moments as a farmer and a husband to spend time together. It was not much time and we didn’t do anything big or special but it meant a lot to me to have my wife at my side just spending time together.

Just an FYI, I still have not ordered my boots.

Well, till next time. Get in the Dirt & Get Growing!!!

Kyle – a bearded farmer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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