For the Love of Berries!

For a few short weeks in June, our lives here on DewKist revolve around the berry - the strawberry, that is. 

This is actually a huge exaggeration when you take a moment to remember the history of our acreage.

In the past, our farm was the original U-Pick strawberry farm in the area. The original owners, a lovely older couple who live on the other side of the creek, grew ten acres of these garnet, bit-sized fruits. For years, they enjoyed families who returned every summer to take advantage of the beautiful strawberry crop - my own family included.

There's so much history here. So many stories were shared. It's an honor to live here for sure.

One of the previous owners of DewKist decided they couldn't keep up with the amount of work necessary to keep this place running, so they plowed under the strawberry fields. I wonder if that lovely couple who started it all felt just as crushed as the strawberry plants did that day. It must've been sad to witness.

In comparison to what the farm used to be, our little personal strawberry patch seems small, but for a family of five, it seems quite large. It consists of four twenty-foot rows, giving a grand total of 80 feet of berry picking. We chose the "Jewel" variety, and they've become our favorite. The plants stay compact, growing up more than out, and the berries are large with high-rise stems that are easy to cut. The fruit is dark red and extremely juicy and sweet. 

Berries, however, don't wait for a convenient time; they ripen whether you're ready or not. That means, we have to pick them on Monday... 

Tuesday...

This year, we planted the "Jewel" variety. It's our favorite.

Wednesday...

and Thursday...

Of course, our family is eating up all the fresh strawberries we can, and we put them in cereal, ice cream, quick-bread loaves, etc. Pinterest has been quite helpful as well, when it comes to finding recipes. I added strawberries to this banana bread recipe I found on  the Shockingly Delicious website. I gave some away, and the family ate the rest...all except for our youngest, who somehow never claimed his share.

We also gave away strawberries to friends, neighbors, and coworkers. Hubby and I decided that this was our favorite thing to do with our surplus of berries. I mean, what's better than sharing parts of the farm, right? Sometimes we both wish it was still an operating U-Pick farm. It would've been fun to watch families venture out between the rows of plants, while toddlers stain there chubby hands with berry juice. :)

Year after year, however, my husband and I make strawberry freezer jam.  That's what we did this evening. I picked them. He mashed them. We both measured and stirred. I heated the pectin. He stirred it into the berries. I filled the jelly jars. He sealed them up. Nineteen jars later, we were finished for the night.

We'll probably make more jam later in the week, as we typically have thirty jars in our freezer.  Or perhaps we'll find a few people who would like to stop by and pick some berries for themselves (hint, hint).

Now...I think the raspberries are coming next...sigh....

Sharon

Just Another One of my Crazy Ideas!

I confess. When I'm given time to think, I come up with ideas. And when my husband is on a business trip, I've been known to execute some of these ideas.

Like the time he was in China, and I took the kids to the Humane Society for our first indoor pet...I remember him calling home to see how we were. "We're good," I said, "Matt's team won the baseball game, and we bought a cat." I mean, what could he say? He was in China!

Two years ago, when hubby was out of town, I couldn't resist the purchase of our chicken coop. Now, before you all go jumping to conclusions, I want you to know that my husband is always okay with what I choose to do...in the end...once the initial shock wears off. Hahaha. But really, he's a good sport. 

That's why, when I told him I'd like to move the coop to a new location, he went right to work. Before we remodeled our horse barn, we had placed the coop alongside it. With the new look to the barn, it became clear that the coop didn't fit in.

The coop was originally where you can see the dirt alongside the barn. As you can see, the chickens had no shade. :(

So, because our new flock of chickens is to arrive in about one week, I thought the coop should be moved somewhere where its rustic appearance would make more sense. AND it needed to be in a place where there was shade. Gotta have happy chickens!

It sounds easy to move a small building to a new cozy location...

But then it needs electricity, which means digging a trench (courtesy of our oldest son)....

And then a fence needs to be constructed, which means digging holes. (My arms are STILL sore.) Nine holes were dug...I think. I really can't remember because I only helped dig four. :)

Because shade was needed, a nice space under the pines needed to be cleared.

That's my hard-working husband, chainsaw in hand.

It was a full day's work. Our muscles were sore, and most of the day, we nibbled on strawberries from the garden and iced tea, all while spraying ourselves with vanilla-scented spray to keep the ten billion gnats away.

Our efforts paid off, I believe. The coop is now nestled beside some white pines at the end of our garden. It should be an ideal place to watch the chickens while I play in the garden, and maybe they'll even get to sample some of the garden produce.

Everyone seems to be happy. The chickens will be too.  That being said, I will NEVER do this much work again....

...until the next crazy idea. 

Sharon

See you on Vine

Ok....does anyone out there have the Vine app on their iPhone? I love it!

It's so fun to create little videos of the farm happenings. Like the other night when we were playing a very rustic game of horseshoes in the barn....it's fun to have a way to share it with you all. :)

Just hover over the image below, be sure to click the volume button on the top left of the image so you can hear the sound, then click on the image.




Anyway, if you have a Vine account, I'd love to have you follow me at DewKistGirl so I can follow you back.

Meanwhile, enjoy the next clip I recorded during tonight's feeding time.

More Sugar. Less Sugar

It was warm.

Now it's cold.

Mother Nature appears to be menopausal this spring.

But for the few days of heaven that we experienced less than one week ago, I was able to work with the horses. I feel bad because I seem to only photograph my own horses, and I rarely photograph my son's horse, Sugar.

Truth is...

She's obese.

So I seem to take pictures of my fit horses. Shame on me. :(

The good news is that we've been working with Sugar for a couple of months now. She's on a diet and exercise program.

Here's the transformation. Pay special attention to her belly.

Before

More Sugar

I find it funny that in the picture above, Sugar is eating. Then, in the picture below, she's exercising. We could all learn something from this. :)

After

Less Sugar

I'll try to take pictures of Sugar a little more often. She really does like the attention, and she'll make a great halter horse for the show ring.  I've bonded with her over these past few months, but you'll never see me riding her. You see, Sugar only allows men to steer her from above. She's put me in my place. Apparently, my place is on the ground. 

More pictures of Sugar to come.

Sharon

A Weekend on DewKist Farm

Our oldest son graduates from high school in just a few weeks, making family moments that much more special.

So, when last weekend started out with a mid-morning family breakfast, I knew good things were to come.

Fresh fruit (and yummy fruit dip) on a warm spring day...makes a girl wish her garden was ready! 

Of course, bacon makes everything better!

The chickens begged me for a wind chime on the front porch of their coop, so I caved. 

The boys enjoyed tearing up their 4-wheeler track....

...and taking time to rest.

It was while I was hanging with my boys that I had an idea! Why not start making a fairy garden? Thanks to the hundreds of ideas on Pinterest, I felt inspired to start my own. Now, don't expect much. I have no intention of making this anything extravagant, but I do plan on having some fun walking through the woods to find little treasures that a garden fairy would find suitable for her home. So far, I've made a pebble path that leads to where her front door will be. 

While I was scouting around for fairy findings, I noticed Toby, our younger collie, had found his own little place under some white pines. It looks like everyone enjoyed the day!

Loving the country, from our place to yours.

Sharon

Chronic Respiratory Disease in Chickens

If one of the kids begins to sneeze, it's no surprise. But the sound of a chicken sneezing turned my head a few times.

It started with just one of the Buff Orpingtons, the ones I picked up at the small post office a few miles down the rode. When they called to say that my twenty-five day-old chicks had arrived, I was elated. My youngest son wanted to tag along for the trip to pick up the chicks. School could wait. This was an epic field trip.

The chicks warmed our hearts with their fluffy cuteness and teeny tiny chirps and cheeps.

I was their momma - the only thing they had to take care of their needs.

But a single sneeze was cause for alert, and soon enough, there were more chickens sneezing. A thorough internet search left me confused as to what was causing the sneezing and loose stools in the coop critters, so I went on www.justanswer.com to chat with an expert bird veterinarian. For the cost of a typical vet visit (and there are no chicken vets in our area), I was able to correspond with someone who could help me isolate the problem.

Dr. Bob asked me about the health of my Buffs prior to this event. They had been happy and healthy. His next question was if I had added any new chickens to the coop lately.

Oh....my....goodness....YES!!!! Just a few weeks ago, I had purchased some chickens from a farm an hour away. Grrrr. Surely he knew his chickens were carriers, yet he ships thousands per year. Shame on me for not researching this first.

The Little Culprits and one of the Big Buffs

The new chickens, however, were the only chickens NOT ill. Dr. Bob mentioned that they were most likely carriers of an illness. Based on the symptoms listed below, Dr. Bob suggested that my chickens had been exposed to Chronic Respiratory Disease:

• Sneezing or coughing sounds
• loose stools
• ceased or reduced egg production
• bad odor from the chickens' face area (and yes, it IS a terrible smell!)

The prognosis is fair, depending on how a person looks at it.  Because the chickens are two years old, they most likely won't die like a younger group could. They will get over their colds, but the virus lives in their system forever, so if my chickens should ever get stressed, they will become ill once again. (Honestly, they have a wonderful life. Not much stress around here. LOL)

They don't look sick! (#denial)

They are still laying eggs, at a reduced rate though. And they still have energy to eat and run around the farm. I can wait it out until the chickens all need to be replaced, or I can replace them now. This means losing my first-born group of chicks, sterilizing the entire coop, ordering new chicks, and waiting six months for egg production to begin, AND hoping the virus hasn't lingered in some little corner of the coop.

For now, I will wait for the answer to come. I'm not ready to cull them all yet, but I suspect I'll know what to do when the time comes.

Lesson learned: Never be too quick to buy chickens from another location. Order chicks or hatch your own, if possible.

If you know anything about CRD in chickens, I'd love your feedback and/or advice on the subject. 

Sharon

I Will Build Myself a Farm

My mom loved to work on her cross-stitch projects.

She sewed dozens of beautiful pictures, ranging from flowers to scripture.

For one of my brothers, she stitched one that had various farm animals under the words, "I will build myself a farm."

And he did.

He became a dairy farmer, inspired by the countless summer visits to the farm owned by our Great Aunt Mary and Great Uncle Frank in Woodstock, Illinois. I know he would give them credit for igniting the passion he has for the land and the livestock. Although he's not farming any longer, my brother still possesses the traits of a farmer. He's peaceful, patient, reflective, logical, and sentimental.

Green fields of serenity are abundant in Iowa.

I can remember asking him, when I was just about twelve years old, "What's your favorite color?" He answered "green" because "it's the color of the fields." From that time on, my favorite color was green. I always looked up to my brother. Maybe this was because I saw a bit of myself in him.

It's no surprise that my brother was gifted the farm cross-stitch made by my mom. It was perfect for him. Little did she know, it was her daughter who was next in line for building herself a farm. (Can I have the cross-stitched picture now? Kidding. Sort of.)

My memories of Tante' Mary (German for Aunt) and Uncle Frank are mainly with the chickens. Every visit made to her farm led to her asking me to collect the eggs from the hens. I loved it. I remember walking into her large chicken house...the smell...the sounds....the dusty dirty surface under my feet.

Buff Orpington chickens - "orbs of sunshine"

In addition to the egg collecting, I also held the position of "German Potato Salad Taste Tester." Tante' Mary would stir in the vinegar, sugar, endive, salt, and pepper into a large bowl of red potatoes. When she believed it was nearly perfect, she'd hold a spoon out for me to sample. Now, she may have done this because I was a picky eater, and she simply wanted to see me eat something so I didn't waste away. "You eat like a bird," she would say. She might be proud of me now. Although I still haven't acquired the taste for wild duck, I no longer eat like a bird. I now eat more like a rabbit.

I will build myself a farm.

A fresh palette of sunsets never fail to impress.

This  will continue until I run out of ideas, which I hope is never! This is the most fun I've had in my forty-two years of life. Year after year, the scenery around here changes. Each sunset is different. Each crop is unique to the one before it. The animals change. The garden produce rotates, and there's always a new discovery (like the morel mushrooms that grow right in my backyard!)  May the building continue...for all of us.

Who do you credit for your passions in life?

My Life as a Farmer Coach

I wear many hats in a day.

I'm a woman, girl, wife, mom, friend, coach, and cook. But the one hat that I seem to wear everywhere I go is that of a farm girl.

As many of you may already know, I'm a women's life coach, and my clients have learned to appreciate my references to gardening and farming while I'm coaching them through their own lives.

I was recently deemed "a cultivator of extraordinary" - a title that I think is a perfect merge of my farm life and coaching life. Yes, I do like to cultivate the ground as much as I like to cultivate the hearts of my clients.

Earlier this week, I had the honor of appearing as a guest on Empower Radio's show titled The Attraction Factor. If you have 20 minutes to spare, listen to our conversation on growth, sprouts, manure, and getting over all the junk life can throw out way. I think you'll enjoy the farm/coach talk. 

Listen here.

Happy cultivating!

Sharon