Category Archives: Farm Life

It’s Finally Looking a Bit Like Christmas

It’s three days before Christmas and the tree finally has more than just lights and mitten garland on it.  With so much of our lives revolving around animals, most of the decorations are animal themed with a few special ornaments we have made or collected over the years to commemorate special things in our lives. In the last couple of decades together, there has only been a handful of years that we weren’t able to go cut down our tree and bring it home.  Some years we have had to drive literally hours to get to a tree farm but it is always worth it.  Spending time choosing the right tree and bringing it home to fill the house with good smells and good cheer makes for terrific memories.

 

This tree farm has activities for families in addition to getting to cut down your own tree.

This tree farm has activities for families in addition to getting to cut down your own tree.

 

Lumberjack hubby cutting down the tree.

Lumberjack hubby cutting down the tree.

The tree farm gift shop.

The tree farm gift shop.

The finished Christmas tree.

The finished Christmas tree with soft, non-fragile ornaments at the bottom to keep curious furballs safe :).

Lit up and reflected in the window.

Reflections of Christmas.

 

This year’s tree came from Yesterland Farm in Canton, Texas.

Please Note:  Our tree is not decorated with icicles – AKA tinsel.  Although we love the shimmer effect that icicles give to a tree, we gave them up years ago because they are unsafe for pets.  Just one long, thin strand can cause injuries like a strangulated tongue, intestinal obstruction, or even death if ingested by your pet.  And just because you don’t see your pet eating things like this doesn’t mean it can’t happen.  How often do you find icicles months after Christmas is over – or Easter grass when you are cleaning for Christmas?

Think safety for your pets when you do your holiday decorating.

21 Days and Counting – Incubator Test Run

First eggs in the incubator

First eggs in the incubator

21 days.  In 21 days we will hopefully have a few chicks emerge from their shells and grace us with their little peeps.  Our first adventure in incubating and hatching our own eggs begins with our spiffy new incubator.

We’ve been through the instructions (multiple times) that came with the incubator and set the temperature, the humidity level, and the rotation.  And now, tonight, we have our first 7 precious eggs warming up.  Of course I’m nervous.  The books say that a lot can happen to cause an unsuccessful hatch, things within our control as well as things out of our control.  Eventually we’d like to have one of the chickens go “broody” and want to incubate and hatch eggs for us, but until we are at that point, our little incubator will hopefully do a great job of turning and warming the eggs while the chicks develop!

 

Thanksgiving 2012

Night is falling on Thanksgiving and our turkey is nearly ready to take out of the oven.  I managed to get the brine finished in time so the turkey got a full 24 hours in the herbed brining liquid.  We snacked on persimmons, horned fruit, cheese, and crackers along with Thanksgiving Grog (frozen OJ, cranberry juice, apple cider, and Sprite) to tide us over until dinner is ready later this evening.  The dogs enjoyed time on the couch with us and the chickens had a Thanksgiving feast of grain treat balls, kale, and blackberries.  And we watched as our neighbor managed to get his tractor stuck in the pond.  While the pond we share with our neighbor may be dry, apparently it isn’t dry enough to drive a tractor around in.  (Yes, we did offer to help but it was declined and the poor tractor sits off-kilter in the pond by itself since its owner has left it due to the darkening skies.)

Most of the time in this part of Texas, there isn’t a lot of color in the fall.  Generally trees are dead and brown by the time there has been sufficient chilly weather to spur the trees to change colors.  While making a last-minute run into town yesterday for Turkey Day fixin’s, a few colored trees caught my eye, making it seem a little more like Thanksgiving season (despite the warm, shorts weather).

Happy Thanksgiving! 

« Older Entries Recent Entries »