Flower Pot Ice Cream Treats, Yummy and Fun!

Melanie had her birthday in January.  She is a gymnast and we had a birthday party for her at her gymnastic school.  One of the fun party treats that Melanie and her brother had a great time making was this great Flower Pot Ice Cream Treat.  They were a big hit.

We started by picking up a clay pot for each party guest.  You can get whatever size you want but the small ones are fine.  

Then Melanie cut a lot of pictures out old gardening magazines.  Most of them were flowers.  She was expecting a few boys so she cut out some animals for the boys clay pots.  Then she took some modge podge glue and had a great time placing them on the outside of the clay pots.

They came out so cute.  

Next we baked a cake.  Just a regular box cake mix. We used a sheet pan 10x13.  Then let it cool completely.  We cut out wax paper into circles the size of the bottom of the pots and placed it in the pot.  We took some strips of wax paper and lined the inside sides of the pot.  You don't have to do this but we didn't want the food to have a funny taste.  

Now you take a circle the size of the bottom of the clay pot.  We used a drinking glass.  This is to cut out a piece of cake to place in the bottom of the clay pot.  Do this for every clay pot you have.  

Next you will take some of your favorite ice cream and fill the clay pot almost to the top. Place a cut straw the size of your pot in the center.  This is where you will place your flower. 

 You will need to leave room for your dirt.  Your dirt is a bag of Oreo cookies ground in a food processor.  But before you place the dirt on the ice cream we placed a few gummy worms in each pot on the ice cream for a sweet surprise.  Place the dirt over the gummy worms and you are done until the party.  Place your treat in the freezer.  When its time for the party take your flower pot and place your flower in the center straw and surprise your guest with a great Ice cream Flower Pot!

Don't leave your day job

Making a farm work and then making the farm work for you takes time.  You will need an income to pay for all the start up cost that come with it.  It is not like you have to put a lot of money out the day you start your farm but each week you must invest time and money.  Other than selling a few eggs and maybe a zucchini or two all the money has been out going and not an incoming status.  So far.

As much as we try to use our resources wisely you still have many weekly expenses.  Repairs is a major one.  With an old farm house always something needs to be replaced or repaired.  Animal feed and supplies you need to get them going can add up fast.  Being self sufficient is a major goal of ours but there are items you just have to buy from the big box stores.  We try to be informed shoppers and make sure we are not paying more than we have to for anything.  We never impulse buy, we always do our research and find the best place to purchase. Try to find out if any discounts are available.  We look around our own home first to see if we might have something that would do whatever job needs to be done.  Then we might go to our local dump and see if they might have it there.  While there we look to see if there is something we might need in the future.  I will write a blog later on how we built a smoker house on just supplies from our local dump.  All the wood was free.  The best place we have discovered is our local auction.  When we first moved here we found they have an auction every week.  Then every few months they have an equipment action.  Well we bought thousands of dollars of farm supplies for pennies on the dollar.  It was a fun day also.  Be careful an auction can become an addiction.  We love going.  I mean what is better than finding recycled items and helping someone make a buck at the same time.  The best part is you are not giving all your earnings to the big box stores and you are keeping it with the little guy, just like you.  

The other recourse's are Internet.  Craigslist, ebay, and other swap and trading sites help you save money.  They can help you make money also.  Look around your house.  I am sure you have items you have not touched for months, even years.  Sell it.  You don't need it.  You could use that money for something else.  Trading is big now.  You can make out better sometimes if you trade items.  You don't have to be a farmer to do this.  It works for everyone.  Clear out the clutter and make some money.  Plus we might be able to use something you have. :)

We are trying to make some money selling the handmade crafts Russell makes with the kids.  This will help with repairs and animal feed/care.  You can check out our farm store often for new items they make.

www.etsy.com/shop/RoundHouseFarm7 follow this link and you will see what we are selling this week.  All the profits will go to our homesteads incurred cost to get it going and thriving as an active farm.  

Russell works hard.  He goes to work as a car sales man at Central Maine Toyota in Waterville, Maine.  He works long days and when his day is done there he comes home and does his farm work.  He works hard on the farm on his days off.  He is always repairing or building something.  He has a list a mile long.  He could be home full-time on the farm and have work to do 12 hours a day.  At this time in our journey he is our major income provider and has to keep his day job.  Selling cars is what Russell has done for years and he is a great guy to buy a car from.  He knows the Toyota brand better than anyone.  Plus he is an honest person and likes to get to know people.  That helps him in the business.  Winter is a slow time of year in the automobile business but he works for a great dealership.  They have great customers and a great following.  So he is doing fair for this time of year.  All we can ask is that our bills are paid and that we can move ahead with our farming way of life.  Him working hard most of his day has made this happen for our family.  

So if anyone needs a Toyota, they sell other vehicles also, please go to Central Maine Toyota in Waterville and please ask for Russell Bradley.  Tell him you read his family blog.  He will love it.  

So I guess in closing my blog today I want people to follow their dreams.  Everything takes time, hard work and energy.  The ending result can be your own piece of mind.  The happiness of you doing what you dreamed of.  Most of all if you don't try you will never know.   Give your dreams a try!

Breeding time, so much to learn

Owning a farm has been a daily lesson.  Before we purchased our first animal we purchased about five books about animals and farming/homesteading.  It is something you just don't open the door of a home and say, OK I want a farm and lets do it.  It takes some planning.   Some things you find out along the way.
We have found out farmers are very friendly people very willing to help out other farmers.  They are willing to give advise to get you started.  To talk to an ole timer is interesting to say the least.
Their whole mentality is why we wanted to take this journey on in the first place.  A farmer has an inner peace, I think like no other profession.  Farming is a job that is never ending, 24/7 days a week.  You are always on call.  But the pride you have from your bounty is unremarkable.  The way you feel about your family, homestead and all your sweat equity gives you a better quality of life.  I truly believe this.
In our plan we have vegetables, compost, rotation, animals, breeding, butchering, meat, eggs, milk and whatever other uses we can think of our land can provide us.  Now we would love to add more to this like grains in the future but we have some work to do on our land to provide the quality soil for this to happen.  This will take equipment we don't have at this time.  Our limited funds hold us back from doing things fast.  We must take baby steps on every process.  But we are doing it.  This home and farm need a lot of work.  We did know this when we bought it.  But we took on the task because my husband is handy and we have a strong son that can help him.  They work well together.  It takes a family to make a farm work.  Most of all takes time nothing happens overnight.
First we started with some chicks.  But first we had to build a chicken coop.  That cost money.  We try to use recycled materials as much as possible.  With chicks soon came eggs.  With eggs and chick also came compost for the garden.  This helps with our organic homestead.
Next we purchased pigs.  I have written some post on our pigs.   We have butchered a few of our pigs and stuffed our freezer with the finest pork we have ever tasted.  Now we are in the process of breeding two sows for a couple of litters of piglets.  Our plans are to sell some and to keep some for our meat for this years freezer.  We look forward to the bounty of raising pigs.
Now our goats.  We have blogged about our goats.  We just love our goats.  Recently we added a new goat to our herd.  We call him Master Billy Goat.  He is our Buck and will do our breeding for our two girls.

We have been so lucky with our animals.  He is just the kindest buck.  Most people say bucks can be mean or ornery but not him.  We are lucky, I think he has done his job so if all goes well we will have two baby goats coming in July.
With babies coming that means we will have two goats in milk.  That just thrills us.  We have been waiting for goats in milk for a while.  It will be in the plan to get at least one more goat.  But we must take things slow.  So with goats milk we will be able to have of course milk but also we can make cheese and soap.  This will help the farm out a lot.
So by July we should be full swing with piglets, baby goats and maybe even baby chicks all over again.  Our garden should be full swing by then also.  We are hoping it will produce even better this year.  Day by day the hard work that takes 24/7, 365 days a year does pay off.  When you sit at your table and eat your own grown food and drink a fresh glass of milk I don't think you can get any better.

Pigs

Last fall we were so excited when we purchased our first piglets.  We purchased two male piglets that had been, what they call, cut.  That means they had been fixed.  The breeders of the piglets will do this when the piglets are just a few days or about a week old.  The breeders state this will make the temperament of the pig better during the process of raising them.  Plus it will let you keep them together with the little girls without the problem of breeding happening.

Our two boys we picked up from a local farmer and we put them in a crate in the back of my SUV to bring them home.  At this age they are small enough to do this, if it is a short ride.  They will go to the bathroom so you will want to make sure you have a bottom on the crate and shavings in the crate.  But for a short ride it works out fine.  

Our plan for these two pigs were to raise them for the meat.  The plan was a five or six month process.  When we brought them home they were placed in our garden area.  It was spring before planting time.  We had plans of the pigs tilling the area and doing some composting of the soil before we would plant our garden.  That plan worked out well.  

Just before we were ready to start our garden we set up some electric fencing in a wooded area with some grass section for them to make their new home.  Then we would rotational graze them every week or so when they would till up the land.  They would grow and thrive that way.  

The process of raising pigs was going so well we decided to purchase a couple of sows ( female pigs).  Our plan is to breed them when they are old enough and have piglets of our own.  Then we found the right Boar one day and brought him home.  This will be our daddy pig.  He was so gentle he came home on Russell's lap.

We named him Big Red.  He is the cutest and the nicest pig ever!  Now lets count we have five pigs on the farm.  Well the town of Skowhegan has a fair every year.  During this fair they have what is called a pig scramble.  I had never heard of that before.  But to let you in on it if you have never heard of it either, its when you put about 4 piglets in an area with about 10 children and if you catch a pig its yours.  Well my daughter had to go with her friend in hopes she would catch a pig.  

Well the results were, my daughter did not catch one but her friend did.  Her Best friend lives in town and they don't have a place for the pig to live.  So we became foster parents for her pig that they named Betty.  So now we have six pigs on the farm.  Six pigs with three of them being raised to be butcherd.  

Three will be raised for breeding purposes.  Here on our farm we are trying to raise all of our animals as organic and natural as possible.  We believe in rotational grazing all the animals and organic food whenever possible.  The owners of Betty happen to own the Grist Mill in the town of Skowhegan that process all the grain for Maine.  So for raising their pig they supply our farm with the natural grain for the pigs.  You cant get any better than that.  Our pigs eat better than we do.  They love it.  

Time has gone by and the growing and slaughtering process has happened for three of our pigs.  Please let me tell you the quality of meat that was raised here on the farm.  I would say like no other meat that my family has ever tasted.  I can not speak because I eat a vegan diet and did not try any of it but I cooked it all and I have never seen anything so juicy and you could just tell it was the best quality pork.  

Humanly raising animals make all the difference in the end result.  What you feed them and how you treat them and how you let them live gives you the best quality of meat.  

Today we have our Big Red, Lilly and Lola our two mommas that we hope will be due in the spring with piglets.

Going through the winter has not been easy raising pigs.  Not on them, they don't seem to mind.  It is cold on us to feed them and make sure they have fresh water.  Water freezes here so fast.  So making sure they have fresh water is the most important thing.  And if someone ever tells you that pigs don't eat hay well they are wrong.  Pigs love hay.  They love to eat it in the winter when the ground is frozen and it is hard for them to till the ground.  It helps keep them busy.  I hope you liked the information about our pigs and please ask questions and I will keep you posted on the status of the litters of piglets.

Never any free time,let's make birdhouses

When you start a farm the last thing you think of is never ending work, right. It does seem like the list of to do things grows every day. Then we add new items that most likely don't need to be done. One thing the family has taken on as a farm house hobby is making birdhouses.

I guess it all started when my son started wood shop at the high school. He was in need of a project. So his father and I said we would love some birdhouses around the farm. 

He made a birdhouse alright. More like a bird hotel. We just loved it. 

Now it made us want more birdhouses around the farm. So the kids and daddy have been busy. Turning everything into a custom birdhouse. One of a kind birdhouses you will only find here at Round House Farm. 

Here is one made out of a Vintage Milk Jug. 

Dad and Mel work hard together to get them just right. 

Now we have started to sell them to help with some of the cost on the farm. You can check out our store often for our products. 

https://www.etsy.com/shop/RoundHouseFarm7

Round House Farm Cheese Crackers

Well on the farm we try to make most of our food homemade. Store bought items like most bread and cracker products have added ingredients we don't want or need. I (mom) eat primarily a vegan diet but the others in our home eat a regular diet. But I try to conform most of our food choices around a vegan base.

So when I found a recipe for crackers I did put my own twist on it using vegan butter and for my use I substitute vegan Cheese and add nutritional yeast. They are just as good if not better. 

But really the basic is just take these simple ingrediants below and play with the spices till you find your favorite flavor. 

1 cup flour

4 tsp butter

3-6 oz cheese (if you are using a soft cheese use less)

2 tbls water

You take all ingrediants in processer till small chucks are formed. 

Then you can add any spices just try 1/2 tsp or less depending on the spice. Give it a few more pulses. Now you can add your water one tbls at a time till you get a ball. 

Now put on wax paper and place in fridge for about 20 mins. 

Now pre heat oven to 350. 

Roll out your crackers pretty thin. Then I take a pizza cuter and make small squares. 

Next you want to take a fork and press the four sides and then place them on a lined cookie sheet. They will not expand so they can be placed close together. 

After you fill the sheet you will take a toothpick and poke a whole in center of each one. 

Now you add more spice or salt at this time and then place in oven for 13 to 15 mins. I did turn mine after 13 mins then let them cook for another 3 mins. They came out great!

A lot has happened in a year!

Well it has been a whole year now and we have survived. We made it through the coldest part of the year, at least I think. So much has happened since my last blog. I will write to catch you up in a few blogs over the next couple of days.

But one thing is for sure this has been the best move for my family. The children are doing great in school. They both are making great friends and doing great academicly. They have stated they are very happy living in Skowhegan Maine and that they are happy we made the move. 

Round House Farm continues to grow and we work on improvements as we can afford them. All the animals seem to be doing fine through the cold winter, so far. We do our best to keep them as Warm and dry as possible with plenty of fresh water. That's the biggest chore, water freezes so fast around here. 

Well it's late so I will write in the morning!

This is our newest goat master Billy Goat, we hope he will bring us some summer babies.