Grow where you're planted

Austin are you going to be a basketball player when you get older Blake asked? No (he laughs) I'm gonna be a farmer. Me too or maybe I can be the vet for the farm says Savannah. Yup ill be a farmer boy and you will be the farmer girl. This was the conversation between my husband daughter and nephew this weekend. Like a lot of kids there age to them there dads have really cool jobs. As I sat down to write this the two of them show up at the front door jeans wet and muddy up to the knees and somehow there feet that were now bare also covered in mud. What were you two doing, I asked. Well we found a puddle to wash our boots off in they explained as Austin dumps the water out of his boots. Our daughter was the first of the grandchildren born into the farm followed by my nephew. They both spent several days a week in the barn from the time they were infants till now as did the two that followed. let me just say milking while 39 weeks pregnant is somewhat hilarious to watc...

        While messing with my phone in the waiting room I somehow deleted the original version of this post from last week and I can’t get it back.😜 So I guess I will take the opportunity to edit it a little. I woke up this morning wondering if me trying to start a blog about farm life and my life as a mom was even a good idea. I’m not a big social media person and there are a lot of farmers wives who are very talented writers blogging about there experience and it’s intimidating.  After a trip to New England last summer I realized by billboards I had seen that there is a lot of misinformation out there about agriculture and thought maybe If I give it a shot I could shed a positive light on farming. I have second guessed myself daily about writing about our life and this morning said God I don’t know about this? It might not be for me( Not that writing this blog is in anyway changing my life right now). To me putting my thoughts and life out there for anyo...

We have had some crazy weather for the middle of  January in southern Pennsylvania . We have gone from snow, to rain, to sunny and 60 degrees in the last 2 weeks. On one of the warmer days I was helping my husband feed the calves and one decided to wonder off and my daughter spent the rest of the time playing with or trying to catch it. I'm always amazed at how my kids can be so easily amused by the simplest thing. I am no longer helping on the farm regularly and I miss it so much. I know you hear people say things like it runs in my blood when talking about a lifestyle, or some type of career or whatever it may be. I just didn't know that I would find that to be true of myself. I was raised on a dairy farm the oldest of 3 kids and daughter of a forth generation dairy farmer. As a kid all I did was tag along or play in the barn when it came to the farm I never actually did the work. My dad was diagnosed with cancer in his mid thirties and as it progressed the decision was ...

IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS!      I can hardly believe there is only a few days left till Christmas. I had little hands that wanted to help decorate the house for Christmas this year. You can pretty much see our whole house with the exceptions of the bedrooms from our front door so It only takes a few minutes so put up some greens and things to make it look a little more festive. The girls loved helping and even though they are only 5 and 2 they had opinions of where they thought things needed to go. This made for a few laughs and a few reminders that the manger scene is not a toy, IT WILL BREAK! It made me think of my mom reminding my brothers of the same thing as they loaded Mary and Joseph in there toy tractor and wagons. There are a few pieces of her manger scene that are now glued on.     The girls loved making snow flakes out of coffee filters and the little one was a little surprised that all the little cuts she made when opened...

          Who doesn't love a delicious chocolate chip cookie! Of course nothing goes better with fresh baked cookies than a nice cold glass of milk. Obviously i'm a fan of milk being the wife of a dairy farmer. Plus the health benefits of milk make me feel better about the fact that the cookies are not the most nutritious thing I could be eating. There are so many different recipes for chocolate chip cookies and I have tried many but this one is hands down the best I have tried. A few years ago a family friend made these and I wanted the recipe. She was kind enough to give it and I hardly ever make any other kind. Don't freak out when you read the ingredients it makes a lot of cookies and its more than worth the calories. They freeze really well so if you if you can't eat them all or just need to not have them always in sight like we do you can stick half in the freezer to pull out later. I have also made the dough and froze all or some of it. It works ou...

                      As of yesterday the 2019 harvest season ended. I spent a good part of the last 24 hours trying to keep the smell of manure out of my house. I failed, no amount of candles could totally rid my house of the lovely combination of pig and cow poop. The last of the crops for this year were off the fields so that meant the fields would be covered in manure. Oh well its a very small price to pay for the joy of farm life. So thankful for another safe and successful harvest season. I find myself a little more on edge when I know someone is climbing, or up in the silo running on very little sleep and working around and running heavy equipment. There are a lot of little prayers said those days and nights. With harvest done that means most evenings my husband will be home with the kids and I, with the exception of hunting of course. The kids will how ever miss ridding along in the tractor, the girls each took turns ...

BEST ROLLS EVER!!!!                                                    https://thestayathomechef.com/the-best-homemade-dinner-rolls-ever/             With the weather getting colder and the holidays fast approaching I have been doing a lot more baking. I am not the worlds best cook by a long shot, but I do ok when it comes to baking. There are a few things I bake that my husband and kids love and ask for often, this is one of their favorites. I found this recipe a few months ago and I have made it many times since. I have an aunt who makes the most amazing homemade bread, but I had always been afraid to try it. I always thought it would be to frustrating and time consuming. This recipe though is really simple and easy to make especially with a stand mixer and dough hook.  I do make it slightly different than the recipe ...