Welcome to the New Year

Now that we can put one year behind us, I think it important to be ever so grateful for what we have had, even though times are tougher. I don't know why I have been recently been thinking about this, but for some reason outside of Thanks Giving, I have been thinking about all that I have. I am sure there are many, if not most of you, who realize this on a daily basis. But as for me, it has now recently sunk in.

This Christmas, I can honestly say that I never went hungry...at all. There was so much yummy food the table was overflowing. Even though there is less money, there is more family. Even though we can't have everything we want, we have everything we need. Even though its cold outside, its warm in our hearts. When winter comes, Spring is around the corner. When it seems the worst, people bring out the best. Though it seems lonely sometimes, there are always those to surround us. Ans when the year is at its worst, we can look forward to a fresh tomorrow.

I don't know where that all came from, but its just something that has been on my heart as I reflect on this past year. So as you go through the last few days of the year and into the next, I hope that you will constantly reflect on what you have and the ones you love.

Happy New Years!

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Christmas 09

Another Christmas has come and gone, and like all, it was a good one. I completely forgot to take a picture of the food, so you will have just imagine. We had Brussels sprouts with chestnuts and pearl onions, dressing, mash potatoes, gravy, green been casserole, turkey, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and pecan pie.

It was definitely a feast. I was so full, that I didn't have any of the pecan pie the day after Christmas day! The first thing that we did Christmas morning was to take family pictures. I know most NORMAL families open presents upon awaking, well not us. First thing was eating our tradition Christmas breakfast of bread pudding and fruit salad; along with getting dressed for our family picture. The pictures really turned out nice. I am only posting a select few, as that if I were to post them all, there would be no room to tell you about them. If I might say, the family looked really nice. The theme for these pics was black, white, and gray with a vest. Not all of us are wearing vests, but for those who go the memo, did. We have pics of the entire family, along with those of just the boys, the girls, all the couples, and so on. It was a lot of fun, hurrying through the pictures so that we could open presents. No I have not grown up completely. I do like the whole present aspect of this season. This year, we did a Secret Santa, it was really quite fun. I had one my brothers.

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Market and Carrots???

Tonight I had my first raw carrot since the farmers market....Don't panic, the last market was was only like a week ago and I have eaten cooked carrots since then. As I said before, I ate a salad that had some raw carrots from the store, in it. They were gross. Not sweet, rather they were bitter. I have no idea why. For some strange reason I have this strange addiction to market. It makes me so high. I always get so happy after I go to market. The atmosphere is so great. All the familiar people; I've met met many people there and many of the vendors have come to know me by name. I am definatly sad that it is all over. So to give me a lessor high, I thought I would reminisce and just show you some of the pics. I love to go to the Clintonville, Worthington, and Westerville markets. So who knows you may run into me some day.

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My Moss

My dad and I recently redid my room. We repainted the walls, the ceiling, and put new trim in. I will admit, it looks pretty sweet. When I was redoing the room, I thought it would be really neat to have some moss plants in it, to give it that naturalistic rustic feel that I love. My sister had some very beautiful pots that were used as centerpieces for her wedding> I grabbed some of those and made out like a bandit. We have moss in the backyard, that was really attractive looking. My dad had brought it back when he went up to the Michigan house. It really shaggy looking with lots of bright and dark highlights. We also had some standard moss that feels more like velvet. Quickly I grabbed the moss and again made out like a bandit. I wish I had taken picks of the process when I was making it, but alas I did not, so use your imagination.
I added some crushed pop cans to the bottom, because I did not have enough potting mix to fill all three containers. Then I added a couple of inches of potting mix (depending on the height that I was looking for). Lastly, I applied the moss on top and secured it with metal hooks.
FYI; when you remove the moss from your yard (or wherever), you need to take some of the original soil with it. Just like all other plants, it needs it roots, no matter how shallow.

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I'm Chicken

Here recently, I have been looking into getting a chicken. Even before I moved to the farm, I had been tossing the idea back and forth in my head...You know, they could produce eggs for us, free fertilizer, and pest control. So many good things can come from a chicken. After I had been exposed to some real chickens that I had lived with for six months, I have come to the realization that... I WANT A CHICKEN!!!! (That sounds really spoiled, but I promise, its not)

Obviously there is a catch.

• I live in the city, so I don't have all that much room to raise them
• What do I do with it in the winter! It gets cold in Ohio
• Will my parents agree with having a chicken in the back yard?
• Will the neighbors agree?

So many questions, some of which are still not answered. I have a list of some breeds that I would like to get.

• Ameraucana, Australorp or Black Australorp, Buckeye, Chantecler Delaware, New Hampshire or New Hampshire Red, Orpington, Plymouth Rock, Sussex, Wyandotte.

So if you have any suggestions please let me know. I have found a place where the chicken can have a little run and will fit a coop. I have seen that some of the chicken breeds are cold hardy, so I will probably get one of those. Because, what do you do with a chicken in the winter? This is why I will get my chicken next year in the spring! I have talked to my mom about it, and she's all in. When she was a girl, she lived on a turkey farm where my grandpa raised 25,000 turkeys. So she likes the idea. I haven't told my dad yet, he might be more skeptical. I think that all my neighbors will be cool with it as long as it doesn't make a whole lot of noise or smell.
So I just told my dad that I wanted a chicken, and he was cool with it. Of course, He brought up more problems with it, but I'll turn him into liking it. So please give me your suggestions and ideas!



The chicken in the last picture, that I am kissing, is one of the baby chicks from the previous pictures. These baby chicks, I incubated from some eggs and the end result is them being KISSED!!!!!!

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My Garden at Rest

So as you can imagine, since it is Fall, the leaves are falling. Obvious statement, right. Well, what most of us don't realize is that the very leaves that fall from our trees are packed full of nutrients for our yards. Just look at the forests in the US. The soil under that canape of trees is some of the richest soil anywhere. Why, because of all the organic matter that is produced and not removed. I'm not saying that we should never rake our leaves or clean them out of the road. If we did that, we would have a lot of upset neighbors. What I am saying is that why not use them to dress our gardens. I did this last year with some success. The problem I ran into was that I did not shred my leaves fine enough, so they didn't break down nearly as fast as I wanted. Last year, I used my leaf blower (I don't know why they call them this since I was not blowing but sucking the leafs), and it didn't shred the leafs well enough. This year I mowed them...twice! And they got really fine. So I am expecting them to break down much faster. A couple of days ago, my next-door-neighbor wanted to be really nice and mow up all of our leaves. He DIDN'T get far. I ran outside and asked him not to mow them, so that I could...I wanted to keep them... As you can imagine, he just gave me this funny look, and said "okay". So here we are. I want to expand my veggie garden, so I will be doing something similar to Lasagna Gardening, developed by Patricia Lanza. We will see how I do. In the garden now is a lone Arugula plant and some Broccoli plants. so my garden is not at complete rest!

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Last Farm Blog

So I know I did not blog a lot this past summer, even though I promised I would. As you can imagine, my summer has been a whirl wind! Since my internship has ended, it seemed only fitting to to give the farm one last farewell. So here is my encomium to the Farm...

Thanks to the interns, pets, and of course the amazing Farmer Dick; I had one of the best summers of my life! Even with all the summers filled with camps and fun trips to other countries, this one has been by far the best. I learned so much; some dealing with agriculture and some not so much. The first week of leaving the farm, was really sad. I felt so homesick, I had even started calling the Farm my home. For six months I had lived there, cooked there, made friends, laughed, cried, and jammed with some of the neatest people I have met. So I guess, in some way, this post is a tribute to them along with the farm. You always hear about studies that say the more you laugh the younger you get. Laughter does good like medicine. Well if that is the case, I should end up being a very healthy very young baby. I have tlaughed more hardily there, than any one place. I can remember he good times that we spent on top of my camper, just talking with the other interns and having an all around good time.

When I had first found out about this opportunity to intern on an organic farm. I was so excited, but in some ways, I had mixed emotions. I had only met Dick (the Farmer) at market. What would it be like to live with him the entire summer? I have to admit, there was some apprehension about it. But it was awesome, there was no TV, no internet, for the longest time I didn't even have a radio. This is part of the reason I only posted twice. But I kinda liked it that way. Even since being home, I've watched very little television. I loved all the cows, the horses, donkey, dog, cat, chickens, and people. Oh by the by; all the previous chickens got eaten, so the old ones are no more. But I incubated some more from the old chickens fertilized eggs. So, we have more now! One of the interns, found a puff mushroom that was over 8lbs! it was bigger than both of our heads, and probably heavier too....hehehehe. jpk.

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Farm Update

It has been a long time since I have posted in a long time, but I am now home and decided I would change all of this. So since the last time, I have done a ton of work and have an amazing tan! The Garden has grown so much it keeps getting bigger and so do the weeds. We are growing everything; carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, zucchini, yellow summer squash, peas, yellow purple and green beans, swiss chard, beets, romaine lettuce, red butterhead lettuce, leeks, red and yellow onions, kale, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, red white and blue potatoes, banana peppers, jalapeno peppers, bell peppers, sweet corn, kohlrabi, basil, herbs, and all sort of things that I have forgotten. So as you can tell, there is a lot that we have and that I take care of at the farm. Here at Flying J Farm, we have something called CSA. Now some of you may know what a CSA is or may even belong to one. CSA is an acronym for Community Supported Agriculture. CSA members basically join into the farm life. They pay in advance and each week they pick up or we deliver several bags of fresh organic veggies. We have about 11 CSA members of which 4 come and pick up at the farm. Whenever they come over to the farm to help us out and pick up their veggies, it is a blast. Since most of the families have young kids, we are always doing games like wheel barrel and water chugging races. Afterwords we take hay rides, go to the lake, and take horse back rides! It is a lot of fun. Along with that, I make lunch for everyone at the farm from things that we grow.

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Farm Update

So I though, I would give you all an update on my life in the farm. Since I don't have internet access at the farm, so I have to wait until I come home for a visit. Thus you will have to wait till I come home to visit and see how I am doing. So as usual it is AMAZING. I live in a little piece of paradise, my trailer home; on a 300 acre farm. There is an amazing Golden Retriever dog, named Jewels; who sleeps outside my trailer to greet me in the morning...love that dog, and she is so adorable.
So I thought I would take you through some of my chores. On one of the rare sunny days that we had here in Ohio, Dick, the proprietor of the farm decided that is was time to plant potatoes. I guess, when you start seeing the dandelions bloom. It means the soil has warmed up enough for the potatoes to grow! So there is a tip for all of you people. One of the other part-time interns came in, and together we cut 600 pounds of potatoes! That's a lot of potatoes, if you couldn't tell.
After the potatoes, I water the greenhouse 1-2 times a day. for all of you who LOVE plants and would kill to have a greenhouse, then I will have to start watching my back. I have the pleasure of watering a HUGE greenhouse, and stay in the 70ish degree weather whenever I want. These are some of the plants that are in the greenhouse.
I also feed the 23 chicken, 1 rooster, and collect the eggs. Usually we get anywhere 15-18 eggs each day, and sell a dozen for 3 dollars. When I broke one of the eggs they weren't yellow, they were orange! It just goes to show that the things grown on the farm are soooo much better for you! There are also cows, lots and lots of cows.

Till the next time I have access to the internet!

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