BBR-Days on the Farm

I work hard to find books that show an accurate picture of farm life, so when we get a great one as a gift it means that much more.  This week's Book Barn Reviews is Days on the Farm by Kim Lewis.  It is my favorite book ever given to my boys by my aunt Carolyn.

Kim Lewis lives on a farm and does an amazing job of telling the stories about the dogs that work on the farm. 

She shows relationships between farm kids and the working dogs and how most farm kids at certain points in their life can't wait to grow up to be like dad.

 

Maybe I am partial to this book because we were training 2 Border Collie pups when she gave it to my boys.  I really could see them in all of these stories.

This book is a chapter book with several stories and a higher reading level than most I have shared with you so far.  What are your favorite farm story books?  What was your favorite as a child growing up?

-A Kansas Farm Mom

Check out the rest of my 30 days of Blogging and the other farm bloggers joining me.

Tribute to Stock Show Moms

I grew up loving to show livestock.  I currently have one son that also has the love.  Growing up, I didn't realize how much my parents did for me and how much I appreciated all the other parents at the shows.  It is safe to say that there was a whole village raising me that happened to also show and love Limousin cattle.  They are all still like family to me.

I hope you enjoy this video tribute to livestock show mom's everywhere.  Please feel free to share it with your friends and those that made a difference in helping you become who you are.

Bless all the 4-H and FFA parents out there.  They make an impact on so many lives, not just their own children.  Thank you to all the stock show mom's that I had growing up!  I hope I can be half the mom that some of you were to me.  These kids are NOT Just a Farm Kid and their dad's are pretty special, too.

-A Kansas Farm Mom

One Thing is For Sure: Every Living Thing Will Die

A couple of weeks ago I received this question in a message from one of my Facebook followers, “Hey I have a question for you. We had a calf that died 2 weeks ago and I am trying to figure out a way to let H know that he is dead and so I am needing help on how to tell him. How do you let a 2 year old know that a cow is dead? We have about 8 head of cows and we have a long horn heifer that we bought at a sale. She is registered. I would love to bring H over to see your cows an all. Hope all is going well.”

This got me to thinking that maybe several moms out there have the same question.  When you raise animals whether it is as many as we have or just a few backyard chickens, death and dying is something that we all have to deal with and if your kids are involved with chores they will notice if an animal is missing.

Calving season is rapidly approaching on our farm.  Like it or not, some calves aren’t meant to make it without a miracle and some cows are going to have problems.  Just like some people have problems.  Our family has been praying for a year for the CDH Cherub Killian who was born with a huge hole in his diaphragm.  You can follow the story of this little fighter who was given a 5% chance of survival and just celebrated his first birthday last week here.  I am sure there are probably calves born with a similar problem and we never know it.  

When our oldest son was probably 2 years old, we had a cow die suddenly in one of the pastures.  Instead of taking him to that pasture and listen to the why, why, why questions, we sent him to feed in another pasture with grandpa while we disposed on the dead cow.  We were given a hard lesson in don’t try to avoid the situation when we got the phone call from grandpa that THREE heifers had fallen through the ice on the pond and drowned.  Needless, to say we still had to answer the questions of why, why, why.  Ever since that day, we have been totally honest with the kids if we have had a calf or cow that is really sick that they may die.  We are also honest when they do pass on.

When the boys were both older, some of our neighbors left for spring break only to have a ewe have twins in the rain.  The ewe had the smallest one in a barrel that was holding water, so he was very cold and almost hypothermic.  We took him to our house and tried to keep it warm and fed for several days.   One morning, the boys came into the kitchen and asked if the lamb was still alive.  When I told them yes, they were excited and went off to see him.  At that point, I realized that I had exposed my kids to more death that most kids their age and they could deal with it.

I have found that my kids can deal better with a calf that has died than when we sell one.  They know that God made the decision to take that calf from us.  They don’t like it when mom and dad make that decision and always try to question us.  

I know I don’t have any cut and dried answers that are always right all the time.  I have just found that kids like their parents to be open and honest with them and don’t like things sugar coated.  In fact, I think my kids respect me for it.

-A Kansas Farm Mom

Shared on:

Down Home Blog Hop 
Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop 

Kindergarten Farm Day 2012

The Farmer’s cousin and I planned a fun filled day for the Kindergarten kids at our local school.  It is one of those things that you get to be in charge of when you are a farmer and you have a Kindergarten student.  Here are some pictures from the day.  I even made the front page of the local newspaper showing the kids a wheat field!

The Farmer’s cousin did a great job showing the kids his planting equipment.  He even started the tractor and drove it a little so the kids could see how it worked!  Some of them jumped when the tractor started.  LOL

 

He also showed them his combine and tried to explain to them how it worked as well.  For those of you that don’t know.  The header cuts off the wheat, then the wheat is ran over rasp bars that breaks the kernals loose, then a fan blows the light chaff out and finally a set a “screens”  lets the heavier wheat fall though while the lighter material is sent out the back of the combine.  That’s it ….in a nut shell.  LOL

My mother-in-law talked to the kids about how wool from sheep is spun into yarn and used to make clothing and blankets.  Doesn't she have a great display?

My father-in-law graciously accepted the job of supervising the petting of the sheep.  The lambs are our oldest son's 4-H projects.  The kids like the feel of a lamb’s wool.

The Farmer talked to the kids about corn and soybeans.  He had an awesome backdrop of a corn field.  He had soybean plants that had been planted at different intervals so the kids could see how a legume grows.  He also had a table full of products that are made from corn or soybeans.  These products really intrigued the teachers.

Mr. Responsible, our 4-H member, and my dad talked to the kids about cattle.  They showed them the 15 month old heifer and a 3.5 month old bottle calf that are also 4-H projects.  They talked about what they feed the calves and how he takes care of them.

Finally, the host and I talked to the kids about wheat.  They even had a wheat field close that the kids could look at.  I also talked to the kids about the various products that can be made from cattle other than beef…this might be a subject I cover during wheat harvest when I am too busy to write something else. 

The funniest response of the day was when I asked what was stored in this big round thing (aka a grain bin).  One kid actually said,  ”Chicken Nuggets!”  I guess my job an ag educator is safe for a little while.

I was even crazy enough to follow the kids back to school to do some ag crafts with them, with the help of some unbelievable friends and my mother in law, that never complained and helped all day!  Here the kids are painting with soil.  The Farmer’s cousin found this great lesson, but couldn’t get off work.  Thanks to our local Farm Bureau rep (also another Kindergartener's mom), the kids still got to paint with soil and modge podge.

 

The Farm Bureau rep (Wow!  She was a lifesaver!) also came up with this cool idea to make grain mosaics.  Here, three of the boys work on their mosaics.  She and I are ready to do a lot more of these.  It was fun, looked cool and was relaxing to do. When we get ours finished I will be sure to post pictures.

I played a game with the kids about how cows find their calves by scent.  I had 20 tubes with 10 different scents and they had to go find their calf.  Needless to say, after helping 60 kids try to find their calf 2 different times, I am not sure my nose will smell right for a while.

I also talked to them about how everything they eat comes from the farm.  We went through the label on their snack and were amazed by the number of commodities we found.  There are at least 10 different commodities in a package of Zinger snack cakes and they don’t have any nuts!

This week in review Pictures:

The wheat continues to turn more golden every day.  Anyone want to guess when
wheat harvest will begin?

The corn is continuing to grow and is enjoying the sunshine and warm days.

Soybean planting started this week.  The boys and I took a snack to the field
after school.

The soybeans are being planting by our drill instead of the planter for
various reasons to be covered in a future blog if you are interested.

W4DW- French Dip

In honor of Beef month, I am going to try something new.  Hopefully, I can start something called What’s for Dinner Wednesdays.  This month I will showcase some of my family’s favorite recipes featuring beef.  In the coming months, I am hoping some of my Farm Mom friends will share some of their recipes.  You see, I have friends from North Carolina to California and they raise everything from almonds to rice to sweet potatoes and strawberries.

It seems that when we get to the end of the beef supply in the freezer there is always quite a few roasts left in the freezer.  Here is a great recipe I have found for a crock pot French Dip.

1.  I like to use a 3 pound roast, usually a chuck roast.  Place in the crock pot.  Our beef is raised on grass for most of their life.  The last 120 days they are fed a diet of ground corn and soybean meal.  The corn is much higher in energy than grass and helps the calves put on some fat that is needed to make the beef tender and juicy.

2.  Add 2 cups of water, ½ cup soy sauce, 1 teaspoon dried rosemary, 1 teaspoon dried thyme, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 bay leaf and 3-5 whole peppercorns.  Did you know that soy sauce really does have soybeans in it?  And did you know that nearly 75% of the items found in the grocery store contain soy in some form?

3.  Cover and cook on high for 5-6 hours or 8-10 hours on low or until the beef is tender.  Remove meat from broth, shred with forks and keep warm.  The crock pot is a life saver for me when we are busy working 12 and 14 hour days.

4.  Strain broth and skim off fat.  

5.  Pour broth into small cups for dipping. 

6.  Serve beef on French rolls.  I like to make my own rolls when I have time.  I have a great recipe that uses my trusty bread machine.  Leave me a comment if you would like me to post it on a What’s for Dinner Wednesday.

I have found that you can make this recipe ahead and freeze the meat with the broth until you need it.  

 I try to keep my freezer stocked with food that can be heated up in a hurry.  There are some days when I leave the house that I may not walk back in until the boys are starving and then there are the harvest and planting days that are coming up rapidly. 

And there are days like last night.  As I was making my sandwich, to take a picture of it, I look out the window to see the 4-H lambs grazing in front of the house. O.M.G.  These are not yet lambs you can walk up to and pet.  Mr. Responsible had went in to give them some straw after the rainstorms and didn’t latch the gate.  20 minutes later, after calling The Farmer and my father-in-law in to help, I grabbed the really crazy one by the back leg.  What do city moms do for fun?  I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have things like this pop up…life would be boring.  Oh, and the Border Collies and Australian Shepherd were no help getting them caught.  

Well, at least the meat and broth was still in the Crock Pot so it was warm when we all got to go back in the house.  I am thinking I will be finding a new gate for the lamb pen tomorrow.  Hope you enjoy the French Dip! 

French Dip

    1 (3 lb) chuck roast                               1 t. dried thyme

    2 c. water                                               1 t. garlic powder

    ½ c. soy sauce                                       1 bay leaf

    1 t. dried rosemary                                3-5 whole peppercorns

    8 French rolls split

    Place roast in a slow cooker.  Add water, soy sauce, and      

    seasonings.  Cover and cook on high for 5-6 hours (or on low

    8-10 hours) or until beef is tender.  Remove meat from broth;

    shred with forks and keep warm.  Strain broth; skim off fat.

    Pour broth into small cups for dipping.  Serve beef on rolls. 

- A Kansas Farm Mom

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Easy, Beefy, Cheesy Burritos 
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