KK's gone huntin', Laney Rae is standing (sort of)

Yesterday was a fun day. We got to hang out around the house and play.

Kaylyn has turned into quite the outdoors gal. She has been fascinated with deer. But, not like the one in Bambi.

Jason has gone hunting the passed few weeks every morning. He got (nice way of saying 'shot') a deer before Christmas. Our freezer has thanked him for it and so has my belly. The deer is really delicious!

And did I mention he processed it (meaning skinned, cleaned, gutted, chopped up, and ground up) himself? The man is amazing. And did I mention that KK watched? Wow. We are turning into regular ole' hillbillies.

She has been asking for a while to go hunting with him. We've prepared her every single time she has asked by saying things like 'You know daddy has to shoot the deer with his gun to get the deer?' and 'Hunting requires that you be completely still and quiet. We don't know if you even know what those two words mean.' We've pretty much said everything except for 'The deer will die and be blasted into smithereens'. And yet, she still would reply that she wanted to go......every time.

This evening Jason woke KK up from her nap to see if she wanted to go hunting with daddy. She quickly woke up and leaped out of bed.

Jason had on his camouflage shirt and KK, being the fashion diva glamazon that she is, noticed that she DID NOT. We designed a make-shift hunting get up just for her. But, it HAD to be a camo dress.

Here is the 'design' and all its glory. We even had to make a hat out of the sleeve of the shirt because 'the deer would see her blonde hair' as she so eloquently put it.







Gotta love girls. Jason surely is the BEST sport about being surrounded by all of these females! KK will look back and treasure these moments she went hunting with daddy. Apparently she did really well. She didn't feel 'official' enough in the camping chairs that Jason brought for them to sit in. Instead, she wanted to relish in the full experience and climb up the tree in the deer stand.

When I went back inside the house from taking these photos and seeing my two precious hunters off, I was greeted by Laney Rae like this.






Homegirl was standing in her bed! She isn't even crawling yet. Jason and I really think she is going to skip crawling and go straight to walking. In the meantime, she just bounces everywhere.

Needless to say, there were a few 'firsts' in the Kramer home today.

Good ole' recipes times 2

I've been trying to get even more creative with our recipe collection of healthy dishes.

I still have yet to find a good homemade whole wheat bread recipe without any white flour that can easily be made without a bread machine. But, then again I haven't really looked very hard either nor attempted to make a loaf more than once. There are so many out there. So, if you know of one feel free to pass it along. Jason will be thrilled.

In the meantime, we've come to like this Ezekiel bread. You can find it in your grocer's freezer in the health/bread section. The texture is a bit stiff for my liking, but the health benefits are wonderful. My search still continues for homemade bread.

However, I have successfully mastered an amazing homemade cornbread recipe that goes great with a pot of soup or chili on a cold winter's day.

Healthy Cornbread

1 cup of Cornmeal (Bob's Red Mill Cornmeal, Medium Grind- flour/baking isle)
1 cup Stone Ground Whole Wheat (Bob's Red Mill)
1/2 tsp Salt
4 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp of Sugar (optional- we use Organic Evaporated Cane Juice)
1 egg
1 cup Goat's milk (trust me here, it is good:)
1/4 cup Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 425. Sift together dry ingredients in a bowl. Then add the remaining ingredients and stir really well making sure all ingredients are evenly dispersed. Coat a cast iron skillet with olive oil really well. If you don't have cast iron, use a glass dish (the next best healthy thing to bake with). Still coat the glass with olive oil. Pour cornbread mixture into skillet/dish and bake for 20 minutes.

The texture of this cornbread is amazing. And so soft too! We love this stuff with a touch of honey drizzled on top.

Here are a few other recipes that have been cooked, tasted, and approved!

Chicken and Cabbage Soup

4 cups of chicken (shredded and picked off bone)
4 cups of Organic free-range chicken broth
3 cups of water
6 red potatoes cut into cubes
1 1/2 cups carrots (shredded or sliced....which ever you prefer)
3 cups of chopped cabbage
1 white onion chopped up
1 bushel of chopped parsley
2 tbsp of garlic
Dash of red pepper (be careful not to add too much because it will be spicy)
1 tbsp of celery salt
Salt
Pepper

Bring all ingredients to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer for about 30 minutes. Cabbage is soooooo good for you. The only problem is actually eating it. This soup is a great way to get cabbage incorporated into your diet and taste really well too! I'm serious. My house didn't STINK at all when I cooked this.

Chicken, Lime, & Cilantro Pasta

3 cups of chicken (cooked and cubed)
1/2 chopped white onion
artichoke hearts (not marinated in oil, but vinegar)
1 can diced tomatoes and green chiles
1 cup Organic free-range chicken broth
1 bushel of chopped cilantro
2 limes
1 tbsp Nutmeg
2 tbsp Garlic
Salt
Pepper
1 box Whole Wheat Penne pasta (we use Heartland)

Prepared chicken as you normally would. I cook mine in a little bit of olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic. Sometimes I boil a whole chicken and pick it off the bone. It just depends what I have on hand. Boil noodles as directed. Place all ingredients except for broth and lime in a cast iron skillet and saute together on medium high heat for 15 minutes. Add broth and squeeze lime into the pasta. Simmer for another 5 minutes. Stir pasta and mixture together. You can always increase lime if you prefer more. Yummy!

Deliciously Healthy Salad Dressing

2 cloves of Garlic
Lime Juice (I like a lot!!)
Kosher Salt
Cracked Pepper
One Part Apple Cider Vinegar
One Part Balsamic Vinegar
One Part Olive Oil

Whisk all ingredients together and serve over your favorite salad. Apple Cider Vinegar is AMAZING for your body. Read more about that HERE. We love this salad dressing. And this is a great way for me to eat ACV without having to guzzle it down.

For other healthy recipes, you view those from a previous post HERE.

The blog has arrived!

I'm so thrilled and excited to announce that Farmer Jason has posted his very first post on his very own blog!

I can't wait for you to see and learn about Yonder Way Farm through his eyes and heart. He truly is gifted with passion and knowledge about turning our farm into something unlike anything in this area.

I love this man more than this blog post could do justice. I'm just plain ole' excited that you get to learn more about this incredible man that I adore and take a peak at what goes on inside his bald head.

I have been encouraging him for quite a while now about starting a blog that contained the daily happenings around the farm. He is a big journal-er (word?) and has a journal filled with farm facts.

I love that he walks out to the rain gauge every time it rains to see how much rain we received....and writes it in his journal.

I love that he knows how long the cows have been on their particular pad grazing for however many days in ALL 31 pads........and writes it in his journal.

I love that he knows the temperature for that day, the week before that, and the week after that........and writes it in his journal.

I love that he is the chicken whisperer, cow whisperer, goat whisperer, pig whisperer, and Rowdy whisperer all rolled up into one person. (just kidding.......not really:)

I love that he knows exactly how many eggs our chickens have laid since we've had them. I just asked him this question and this was his answer. Really. I'm not kidding.

"Honey, how many eggs have our chickens laid since we've had them?" (I KNEW that he knew the answer. How is that for confidence?)

"Total?"

"Yes."

"Jimminy crickets. Well let's see. We've probably averaged 6 eggs per day. Times 30 days a month which is 180 eggs times 6 months which is 1,080 eggs."

I'm not even kidding the man is incredible with numbers. He said his 'hobby' during one of our premarital counseling sessions that his 'hobby' was playing with numbers. Ha! Who knew he'd use this 'hobby' in farming.

I love that he knows every minute detail about this farm and what makes it tick.

His prayer is his vision and his vision is his prayer.

Go see what he is up to and subscribe to it (I use bloglines.com to subsribe)! I highly recommend it.

FARMER JASON'S BLOG

This link will also be conveniently located to the right of this blog.

Farm Update through pictures

I haven't posted much about the farm lately.

Things are still growing and Jason is still working tremendously hard. The rye and clover grasses that he planted in October are starting to come up. Our pastures are getting greener and greener as the seeds make their way up into a full blown blade of grass. In a month or so, our pastures will be picturesque.



The cows are being rotated throughout the fields in small 1-2 acres pads. They usually stay on the pads about a day and then move on to the next. The point of rotating is so that the cows focus in on one small area and eat it all down before they get moved. The manure in such a small area is pushed and shoved back into the earth which fertilizes and puts all kinds of good stuff into the dirt. We are up to 36 total cows right now with more to come in January. Jason thinks the cows will be ready in the Spring.

We've lost a lot of chickens to a hawk. But, have no fear. Jason is here! He caught that hawk and had to teach him a lesson. We haven't lost any since then to hawks. We are up to about a dozen of eggs a day.

The 2 older sows are getting more and more beautiful- if that's possible for a pig to be beautiful. We've decided to keep the two bigger ones and breed them for more piglets. They are really show quality and have taken a liking to their daily belly rubs by none other than farmer Jason. We are in the process of getting an enormous boar for breeding. Hopefully we will have Spring piglets.

We've learned a lot through this entire farming adventure. But, the biggest thing we've learned is that there is a season for everything. Things don't just happen overnight. It is a patient process that requires planning and performance and lots of prayer. I am reminded of the scripture in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.

1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,

3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,

5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,

7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,

8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

Here are some recent pictures of what is going on around here.

Farmhouse Facelift Finale, Part 1

We couldn't be more thrilled and thankful about our house. It is perfect. I have finally successfully taken and posted pictures of the house. The pictures really don't do it justice. You need to come out and see it in real life (hint, hint:). We can't wait to have sweet family and friends come out to visit us (hint, hint:).

We love that this is the original farmhouse out here on the property and tried our darnedest to keep with the farmhouse style. It is unreal to think that this is the same exact house with just a different use of square footage. We didn't add any additions- just reconfigured the space and made it more user friendly for our family. The house went from 2 bedrooms & 3 bathrooms to 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.

There is so much room! I haven't even filled up the closets or bathroom drawers and shelves....which will come in handy raising girls in this house.

This is part one of two parts. I will post pictures of our bedroom, Laney Rae's room, and the exterior later. But, there were SOOOOO many pictures of just these rooms.

Our Living Room








And what is behind those doors......but an office of course. A messy one! We used our old doors to make a partition.



The girl's bathroom!



The Kitchen.....my favorite room and where I spend most of my time! It is so fun being in this kitchen.



Farmhouse sink.



Butcher Block counter tops with a beaded board back splash.





Our Kitchen Island and where we eat most of our meals.







Dining Room





KK's room....schoolhouse-themed (duh, ya think????)









KK's Reading Wagon




Our Christmas Tree and Decor







More pictures to come later of the rest of the house!

Family Pics

Here are the latest pictures of our family. Since Laney Rae has been on this earth, there is only ONE picture of all 4 of us together. That picture was taken in the creativity inspiring location of my hospital bed 5 hours after delivering Laney Rae. I look pretty awesome in them.

Needless to say, it was time for an update.

My sister was nice enough and patient enough to snap some of us together. I, of course, couldn't resist taking a few of my own of my sweet little girls and cute hubby.

These will be donning a New Year's photo card near you since Christmas is...oh, I don't know......9 days away.

And I promise pictures of the house are coming soon! We are all settled in and even have our Christmas tree up. Every time I think about taking pictures it is dark outside which since we live in the country means it is dark EVERYWHERE. No street lights here.

Thanks for stopping by!
lyns