Galloway Farm

A warm Saturday was just what we needed to help us make it through the last few weeks of winter…

Claude & Persimmon have become quite a pair.

Winter means lots of fallen limbs that add up to quite a brush pile.

Unloading feed bags is sort of a right of passage for growing boys.

The house is coming right along…

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After what’s been an unusually cold, wet winter, a 55 degree sunny Sunday afternoon was just what the doctor ordered. We went by after church to see how the house was coming along. We’ve done that plenty of times this winter; but today it felt nice enough to walk around the farm and hang out. These are the days that get you through till spring, which just over a month away!

The house is coming right along.

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The boys and I spent a cold, windy day at the farm today just being boys and being outside. Making fires, playing with the animals, normal Saturday stuff.
The boys were using their new walkie talkies and started picking up another kid somewhere else. Lots of questions back and forth with “Ben”. “Where do you live?” Ben said. My son Hubbard quickly replied “I can’t tell you that punk!” I made him apologize to the boy on the other end of a walkie talkie. The conversation between about six boys went on till I hear one of mine say “His daddy is bringing him here!” I didn’t really believe it of course.
But about ten minutes later, sure enough here came three boys and a dad walking down toward the barn! Long story short, the boys spent the next two hours playing football and wresting with my boys. Mike, the dad, and I became fast friends and have a lot in common. We both have a bunch of kids, home school, live 3.5 miles apart and like being outside! I guess you never know where new friends will pop up, but I sure didn’t expect them to come through my kid’s walkie talkies!

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My sun Hubbard recently made a sun dial in the gravel of our horse arena. It was super easy and he could tell me what time it was within a few minutes. Here’s how it works:
– Draw a circle in the dirt.
– Put a stick in the ground in the center of the circle.
– Using a compass (your cell phone has one), put 12:00 where the compass points north
– Add in the other numbers
– The sun will cast a shadow that will show you the time. (Just an hour hand)

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The kids and I miss gardening during the off season. We spend lots of time browsing seed magazines and talking about what to plant. This year I bought a truck load of local horse manure. I’ve read that it’s good for the garden soil and that it will compost into rich top soil.

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We recently had some unusually cold weather. We didn’t get above freezing for several days. That means I spend my lunch hour breaking ice, making sure the animals have fresh water and checking on them to make sure they’re okay. I accounted for everyone except the pigs. I was a little worried and went searching for them. After searching the field, I decided to check the haystack, and sure enough…

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Planting strawberries can be a great addition to your garden or an easy stand alone garden project. If you get the materials ahead of time, your kids can easily do the whole project by themselves.
Strawberries are often grown in containers because they tend to take over the rest of your garden. We chose two tractor tires that I got free from the local tire store. First, lay some chicken wire under your tires to keep pests from burrowing up.

Next, after your kids get done climbing on your bags of soil,

Let them dump and spread the dirt into the tire.

Last, let them plant the strawberry plants in the loose soil and give them a drink of water. Most people plant strawberries in spring and have to wait a year before they get many berries. But planting in fall can give your plants enough time to give you a nice first season harvest in summer.

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We went to see Ken the fish truck guy as he made his last local visit till spring.
We mostly went to buy minnows for the bass in our pond but we also ended up getting a few grass carp, some mosquito fish (they eat mosquito larvae), and some white albino catfish.

Buying fish and adding them to the water is always a lot of fun and a great experience for the kids.

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There’s something extra fun when you can eat things that you grow. We have two chestnut trees on the farm. But until this fall, we’ve never tried them out. Here’s what we learned that you’ll need to know if you plan to harvest some chestnuts to eat:

First, be careful. Chestnuts grow inside of a porcupine looking husk that is very sharp. These sharp pieces will go right through a flip flop and straight into your foot if you step on one.

Next thing to know is that ripening chestnuts will be on the ground (brown); not still green on the tree. Once they fall, the husk will split open and give you a chestnut.

The nut itself is inside the soft brown shell you pick up off the ground. Your kids will want to bite the shell open, but I advise against it. Use a tool to pull the soft shell and inside you will find a yellow chestnut!

Chestnuts can be eaten raw and have a unique sweet taste. We’ve eaten many this way. Or you may want to “roast them over an open” fire for a roasted taste. Just don’t get them too hot or they’ll pop like a firecracker…which is also fun sometimes. Either way, enjoying chestnuts is easy and fun.

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What a gorgeous October night it was as 70 team members from work came together with their families for a total of around 200 people. From the ribs on the grill to the smores bar by the fire, eating and relaxing with your friends is a wonderful way to have fun and build unity at the same time.

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