Spring Has Sprung on the Johnson Farm!

Here are a few pictures from some recent happenings on the Johnson Farm.........

The winter wheat is up......................

The crocus are up in the pasture......................

The first calf of the season.....

The second calf of the season.....

What do you think they are talking about??????

The drill is ready to plant spring wheat.........

A Simple Sewing Project

I love making blankets and/or burp rags as baby presents.  There is nothing more special than a homemade gift.  Really nothing.  My mother has made my kiddos plenty of homemade quilts, and blankies.  And, yes those are the ones they tote everywhere.  They make forts out of them, they go on trips with us in the car...literally everywhere!


So, here is a glimpse of a simple cotton receiving blanket I made for a friend.  She just had their third child, and it was a girl.  They are more the ranching type, than the farming type of operation (yes, there is a difference!), so I opted for some "cowgirl" material by Michael Miller paired with a pretty green.  It is just adorable! 

I love to sew, but I hated it as a child.  I was pretty sure my mother's Singer was going to bite my arm off and chew it up for supper.  Oh man, was I scared of that thing!  Of course, I was in 4-H....and on top of showing cattle, I also had to do sewing projects.  I mostly did quilts, and a little applique work.  There were alot of girls that did alot better job at sewing than I did. 

However, alot of time has passed  since then.  ALOT!  But now, there is nothing like the humming (or klunking if it is my cheap machine) of a sewing machine to drown out the sounds of my screaming and fighting kids.  Everything else just seems to fade away. 

A New Window From a Very Old House!

A couple years ago the house my great-grandparents lived in was torn down.  A very sad day indeed.  At one time my mother and her family lived in that house.  Mom was very sad about it. 

This is a picture of that house being moved in by a CAT....Can you see the window??? It is on the top of the window on the left. 

My little brother, the heartbreaker that he is......took that window out before the house was torn down, and gave it to Mom for Christmas

She in turn gave it to me to do something with......Really??? What to do??  This is a picture of it before I started working on it.  I am sure there is 10 coats of leaded paint on both sides of this thing!!!

After 4 coats of stripper.  (No....I am not lying, it really took that much!) I sanded it down, and it was ready for some stain.  It really could have used more attention, but my arms were tired from sanding.  As you can see.....I was so anxious to get started staining, I just got started right away before I took my pictures!

This is a picture of all of the glass taken out of the window.  It was all covered with layers of paint and caulk too.  So, I put some stripper on it too, and washed it up, and..............

Look how nice they turned out!  Only cut my finger once!  Back to the frame....

All stained, and ready for some varnish!

How nice!

Time to put the glass back in!  Flip it over.......Yes, I know I didn't refinish the back side of the window for a reason.  I wanted to keep the back original just for the history behind it. 

It is a good idea to make a "map" of what colors go where.  Then we (Farmer Johnson helped at this point) pushed those silver glass holders into the frame to hold the glass into place.

Here is a close up view.

Next came the caulk, we decided to use clear.  Orginally it has white, but we thought the clear would look nicer from the front.

Close up of the caulk! Then we let it dry over night.

All finished!  We did make a "hanger" on the back with two eyelet screws and wire.  Of course, I didn't take a picture of that part of the process, but I am sure you can use your imagination to figure out what it looks like.

 So there you have it... A new window from a very old house! 

It will be making the trip to Mom's for her birthday in a couple days....I am so excited to see her reaction.  She doesn't know that I have it refinished.  I will post pictures of the birthday excitement!

Happy Ag Week - Thank a Farmer

So......it is National Ag Week.   Farmer Johnson and I are members of the Spink/Faulk County Young Farmers & Ranchers Group, and for the last few years we have been going to elementary schools in the county to try and improve ag literacy in our youngsters.  It is hard to believe even HERE in the heart of agriculture...SOUTH DAKOTA......that A LOT of our youngsters have a huge disconnect with where their food comes from. 

So very sad. Very very sad! :(

So, off we went to Doland Elementary to read to the Kindergarten, Grades 1-2, & Grades 3-4.  Our good friend Becky took Grades 1&2; Farmer Johnson took Kindergarten (we didn't want to work him too hard ;), and I took Grades 3&4.

So, Farmer Johnson walked into his classroom armed with his "The Hungry Caterpillar" book, his crafts, and snacks.  According to him, it went WELL......Let's hope so. ;)

Here's the "caterpillar" for snack time...just some apples sliced up!  They thought it was pretty cool though!  Oh simple minds, how nice they are sometimes.

So, I hauled baby Leo with me, and we read "The Cat in the Hat" to the 3rd & 4th graders.  Of course they knew the book, very well.  But, what we did was relate how the cat balances all of that stuff...on top of standing on that ball.......to how farmers & ranchers balance lots of different responsibilities. 

For example: they are accountants, vets, mechanics, weathermen, construction workers, etc.......see not just FARMING right?  RIGHT 

Here is the snack I made for the 3rd & 4th graders........"Cat in the Hat" HATS...

sliced green apples for the brim of the hat, strawberries and bananas for the hat.  CUTE huh?  They were a HIT!!

SO HAPPY AG WEEK!!! 

 CHALLENGE YOURSELF TO LEARN WHERE YOUR FOOD COMES FROM. 

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY.....THANK FARMERS AND RANCHERS FOR PROVIDING SAFE AND NUTRITIOUS FOOD FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY!!

Thanks Farmer Johnson!

A Little Craving

I crave sweets.  Let me re-phrase that.  I CRAVE sweets! I mostly love chocolate and carmel.   Either together or seperate.  But mostly TOGETHER!!  But, anyways.....here is a quick snack that is just carmel....but you will love it anyways!  Trust me this carmel corn is ADDICTIVE!  

Pop - 3-4 quarts of popcorn in an air-popper, and put in a large brown paper bag from the grocery bag.

Next, in a microwave-safe bowl, put 1c. brown sugar, 1/2c. butter, 1/4 c. white corn syrup.  Put in microwave and cook until boiling.  I stir it up before it starts to boil, just so it is all combined.  Then boil for 1 minute. 

Take it out of the microwave, and quickly add 1/2 tsp. baking soda. 

Stir with a whisk the syrup will become thicker and frothy. 

Quickly pour over the popcorn in the bag.

Stir quickly......use a LONG spoon.  Or you will have sticky hands and arms!  Make sure you stir it up so that your popcorn is evenly coated. 

Next fold down your bag, so that it will fit in your microwave.   Cook 1 minute.  Take out and stir.  Fold your bag down again, and cook 1 minute longer.   

Take out of the microwave and stir once more.....then pour onto a large sheet pan. 

 Now.... you can let it cool..... or dig straight into it!

Farmer Johnson and I can eat a whole batch in one sitting.   I wouldn't recommend it,  but it just proves how addictive this stuff is.  I don't know how many people I have given this recipe to.  And, now it is yours.  Enjoy!!



One Chicken Two Chicken

Last week when I had a million things going on Farmer Johnson thought it would be a good idea to boil up a chicken for soup.  I said, well if I am going to go through the mess might as well do two!

One Chicken

Two Chickens in a very LARGE stockpot.

Fill almost to cover the chickens.  My chickens are frozen from a local Hutterite Colony down the road.  Since they are frozen they take up more room in the pot at first, but once they start to thaw, they will settle into the pot better.

Time to season up that water and chicken!!!

I don't measure, sorry!  A few bay leaves, a dash of minced garlic, a lot of black pepper, and some minced onion.  If you have a fresh onion use it, I happend to be out, so I used the dry minced.

Cut up some celery

Like my pretty carrots from my garden??

Cut them up!

Add it to your pot!

Cover your pot and bring your goodies to a boil!

Keep it covered, and turn your heat down to medium and let it cook for a couple hours. 

It is done when your chicken will fall apart and away from the bone.  If you use a fresh chicken, this won't take near as long, maybe 30 minutes.

Carefully take your chicken out of your stockpot and put on a large sheet pan or cookie sheet.  Let cool completely.  Your fingers will thank you later!

Let your stock cool for a bit.  Then strain your stock.  Carefully.  It is HOT!!

See....you'll catch all the goodies you put in your pot!  Put them in your "scrap bucket".....that is what we call it at our house.  I think Rachel Ray calls her's a "garbage bowl."  Or discard how you like.

My "scrap bucket(s)".....they get taken outside to my garden compost pile.  Can't just throw out all those good nutrients for next years garden crop.

These are 2 - 1 gallon ice cream buckets full of chicken stock!  That is a lot of stock....imagine what you could make with that!

Chill it so you can scoop the fat off when it solidifies.

See.....yucky!  You don't need that stuff!

All cleaned off!

Ready to use or ready to freeze.  Make sure you label it, or you might think it is ice cream during one of those late night cravings.  That may or may not have happend the last time I was pregnant ;) !

BACK TO THE CHICKEN

Clean all that meat off those bones!  Look at all that meat from those 2 chickens!

All cut up......this is about 10 cups of diced chicken.  That is enough for 5 recipes! 

I used 2 cups for a chicken spaghetti recipe, and then I froze the rest in quart freezer bags - 2 cups/each.  Just take out a bag when you are ready to make dinner!

 

If my grandmothers were still alive they would be so proud of me.  They used to do this all of the time.  They would even re-boil the chicken bones again.  That is a little much for me, but still like to pay tribute to that generation and their great cooking skills. 

Until next time.