Books to read and snow!

In the Kitchen

I am enjoying some much needed rest.  Yesterday morning, the first thing that Mark said was "pie".  So, naturally, I had to make a pie.  I made a cherry pie (I had made several quarts of cherry pie filling this past summer) and put a "crumb-like" topping on top...it was good!

Reading...

Now that things are slowing down, I have been doing a little bit of reading.  I don't really care for fiction books.  I read a lot more "how-to" kind of books.  

I happened to find this book called Locally Laid by Lucie B. Amundsen a few months ago.  Locally Laid is a humorous telling of this unlikely egg farm start up and through it, a painless lesson in America’s food system.  I really enjoyed this book so I started looking for other books that were about beginning farmers.  

Next, I read, Hit by a Farm by Catherine Friend. Catherine Friend was happy being an author and writing instructor. She always wore clean clothes. She never had anything disagreeable stuck to the bottom of her shoes. That all changed the day she agreed to help her partner Melissa fulfill Melissa’s lifelong ambition to farm in Minnesota. Catherine and Melissa embark on a rural odyssey filled with sheep, goats, chicken, llamas, and a host of other natural disasters. As it turns out, farming isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.  I really enjoyed this one, lots of humor and real world advice about farming and balancing it all.

I found another book about chickens (they also have goats, alpacas, sheep and more) called Dirty Chick by Antonia Murphy.  The family in this book moved from California to New Zealand and started a farm.  They also have a child with a disability and I did not know that when I picked up this book but it added another dimension for me, personally, as I could totally relate to parts of the book when she is talking about school and other concerns.  An uproarious memoir chronicling the misadventures of a born-and-bred San Franciscan who leaves city life to become an artisanal farmer in New Zealand.

Lastly, I know that our local food Co-op has a book club but I have always been too busy to even look at the title of the book that is being read.  I noticed in my Facebook feed that the next book club book is 5 Acres and A Dream The Book by Leigh Tate.  This really caught my attention so I ordered it right away and I am just loving it and only have a couple of chapters left.  I am going to try and go to the book club discussion next month.

Snow!

We have gotten several inches of snow over the past week and more in on the way.  We had some leftover wood from last year and we have used it all up which is a little sad.  It is so nice to have a fire when it's cold and snowy.  I just could not justify spending a few hundred dollars for wood (when we might be moving soon...hopefully...).  

Coal in the driveway helping Henry shovel snow.

Beehive with snow!

Sunflower with snow hat.

I grew only one sunflower this past year to grow at our house.  This sunflower is for seeds.  Although I put all the sunflower flowers to bed, I never got around to harvesting my seed sunflower.  He seems to be holding up pretty well even with this big snow hat!

Future Farm and business plan update...

Future Farm

I will be going out on Thursday, December 8 to meet the owner of the property I mentioned in the last blog.  This property sits right behind the Walmart in Moscow.  I will try to describe it.  Walmart sits mid-way up a large hill.  The hill/road actually extends above Walmart and there is a Quick Care and surgery center located at the top of the ridge.  So, you are driving on this paved road and then there is a road block on the right and a small gravel road to the left with a sign that says "No Outlet".

Drive way entrance to property at edge of town.
You can see the University of Idaho dairy farm straight ahead in this photo.

This is the driveway to the property.  Once you come over to the other side of that ridge, it is just the 2 houses surrounded by beautiful Palouse farmland for miles.  The road literally just dead ends at these 2 houses right outside of town.  The owner is coming in from Montana and will be in the area (if the weather holds out).  It is supposed to snow/rain today (Sunday) and then get bitterly cold this week with lows in the teens.  In fact, I think it is supposed to be 16 degrees on the morning when we meet.  

House for sale behind town

Here is a google map image of the property.  I believe the house I have circled here is the one that is for sale.  There is another house you can see in the lower left part of this picture and several outbuildings.  I do not know where the property boundaries are drawn but hope to find this out on Thursday.  There are LOTS of apple trees on the property but that is about all I know at this time.

Here is the house circled and showing the dairy farm to the east and town to the south of property.

Here is a google map image of the property.  I believe the house I have circled here is the one that is for sale.  There is another house you can see in the lower left part of this picture and several outbuildings.  I do not know where the property boundaries are drawn but hope to find this out on Thursday.  There are LOTS of apple trees on the property but that is about all I know at this time.  Let's just say that this house definitely fits of criteria of being within 5 miles of town.

I was reading the newspaper and happened to glance at the Real Estate section and saw another possibility.  This house is outside of town and I have to make sure it is still within the Moscow School District.  1061 Howell Road Troy ID Views out every window of this 3 bedroom 2 bath home situated on 8.22 Acre between Moscow & Troy. Inside amenities include large living room, dining with gas stove, & coutry kitchen. House features vaulted ceilings, tiled floor entry, & expansive southern deck. Outside is the new garage (26'X24'), old garage (16'X21'), goat pen (21'X8'), green house (8'X16'), chicken house (8'X8') and barn. Property is located at Howell which was a rail road stop. Since the railroad tracks are gone,enjoy the Latah Trail.  In the newspaper, the address was listed as Moscow, but I have a feeling it is a Troy address and this would mean that the boys would have to switch schools.  I am not really excited about that idea but I know that there would be more land at this house.  I am going to go and see it this week too.

Business Plan

I set a goal of having Mark's business plan for the egg business completed before he turns 16.  Well, he turns 16 on January 11 which is just about a month from now.  I have been working on the business plan a lot lately.  I pretty much have the written part completed and now I am adding the financial details.  I am confident that I will be ready to share it soon and would appreciate input at that time.

In the Kitchen

I have been making several homemade gifts for Christmas and I will share all that after the holidays (don't want to give away the gift surprises).  Other than that, things have slowed down here on the farm side of things.  The sunflowers rows are sleeping and the bee activity is minimal as they are hunkered down with their honey for the winter...