Happy Birthday Time Capsule

Today is my mom's birthday! The whole family surprised her a day early. We helped her celebrate with lunch and a cake. Her birthday party wasn't complete without a homemade gift. The kids gift this year was to add to the time capsule that we buried on her birthday five years ago, June 16, 2016. 

I looked up my blog post from 2016 to study the picture of where we buried the time capsule. It was right next to a tree. It wasn't the best place to bury it but it was easy to find. Getting around the roots wasn't as easy. 

Once the metal coffee can was carefully dug up, we were all disappointed that it had rusted through the bottom. We found the wet remnants of drawings and pictures. The small ninja turtle toy made it without too much damage. My mom added some fabric and one of her smut books to the coffee can five years ago. The fabric came out somewhat rusty but otherwise in tact. The book was a wet mess. 

The metal coffee can was a bad choice so we replaced it with a plastic ice cream bucket. We dried the fabric from 2016 and added that back into the bucket along with the small ninja turtle toy. We added the following new items to the bucket: 

• Our pandemic masks
• A Pokemon card
• A laminated Flat Stanley my son made for a school project
• Perler bead art
• A name snowman my daughter made in Preschool
• My mom also added another smut book

We put everything in zip lock baggies and secured the bucket with duck tape. Hopefully, this will keep everything in tact. We buried it back under the tree. I marked June 16, 2026 on my Google calendar. I doubt we will forget this birthday tradition but now I will get a reminder. 

Happy Birthday Elmo! 

(Elmo is the name my nephew gave my mom which is what the grandkids call her.)  

2020

2020: You              . (Insert whatever descriptive word that comes to mind.) For me, it's a few swear words that I won't mention. When the swearing dies down, I think of it like I would my own child. It was challenging, it tested our patience, it made us cry but it also brought great joy in sweet little things. It also brought great strength that we didn't know we had.

This was our 2020 year:

January: We built a greenhouse from scrap material. We started our first Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) which was a subscription for pork and chicken. 

February: We grew and harvested lettuce and broccoli sprouts. 

March: 75 Red Ranger chicks were made comfortable in the greenhouse to protect them from the cold. 

Our first and second grader were adjusting to homeschooling. 

April: We planted potatoes and onions in the garden and added a compost pile. Six Hampshire pigs arrived. They braved the April snow.  

May: We started our Saturday morning no contact pork and chicken deliveries. We continue to make those deliveries to our customers. 

June: We started our Farmer's Market season. Our first chicken egg that was incubated completely by a hen, hatched on Father's Day. We named him JJ, Jeff Jr. He is a beautiful rooster that crows every morning at 6am. (It's still dark outside JJ.) 

Our second grader made his first communion in a socially distanced masked mass. 

July: We expanded to more chickens and more pigs. 

The kids enjoyed running around, playing in mud, eating out of the garden, and petting the pigs and chickens. 

August: Deracho hit. We lost electricity for a week. Our family and friends helped us with whatever we needed. 

September: The kids started back to school in person. Jeff was permanently laid off, so I went back to work as a substitute teacher. 

October: Jeff shuttled the kids to and from school, played with our 4 and 2-year old, worked on beautiful cars, and was a gentleman farmer. 

November: We continued meat deliveries every Saturday morning. Jeff got a job with a local manufacturer. 

December: We made plans to expand in 2021 while we balanced working and child care.

2020: you may have been a doosey but we'll always remember you.  

Soap

Everyone uses soap but rarely does anyone know what's in it. I only just realized the components to soap when it became a solution for our 20lbs of lard from our pigs. I started freezing the lard but I could only make so many pie crusts before lard started taking over our freezer. Now we are avid soap makers and sell it at our farmer's market. We make it with lye, water, lard, and essential oils. It's very interesting to see the public's reaction to our lard soap. I think it's interesting enough to share.

1. “Oh, I don't use lye soap.” said one customer.

Our reaction was to inform her that all soap is made with lye. If there is no lye then it's NOT soap, it's detergent.

2. “Isn't lye bad for your skin?”

Lye mixed with water and fat chemically reacts in a process called saponification. Once that happens the finished product of soap doesn't contain lye because the fat neutralizes the lye.

3. “On an ingredient label of Dove or Irish Spring it doesn't say lye.”

Lye became a word that consumers didn't want to hear so labels now use a different name for it. It is more likely saponified oils or sodium cocoate, which is sodium hydroxide (lye) mixed with coconut oil. Each soap manufacturer has their own recipe which can make it less harsh based on how much fat or oil they put in it. All the recipes start with lye, water, and some sort of fat, oil, or butter.

4. “Why do some soaps advertise no lye.”

Some people use soap melts to make their soap. When they use soap melts, they are using soap chips that they are melting, adding color and fragrance to, and pouring into their own molds. They are finishing the soap making process, but someone else did all the work to make soap chips or melts.

5. “I can smell the lard.”

Yes, plain soap with no fragrance will smell like whatever fat or oil that is used. However, it washes away clean and doesn't leave you smelling like lard. It is also very moisturizing.

We have learned a lot since we started making soap. We were completely unaware of the process or what went into it. Now we have over a year of soap making experience and are happy to educate the public about soap. We enjoy making it, but the best part is using the lard that our pigs give us.

The Good Things

As we go into the 4^th of July weekend, we are reminded that 2020 is half over. Sometimes I think it has flown by and other times I think that it will never be over. 2020 has seen an impeachment trial, a global pandemic, a country wide lockdown, the death of George Floyd, and global protests. With all the devastating events, I like to think of all the positive things going on around our farm.

Here are all the good things:

1. Our local hatcher offered us baby chicks back in March. We hadn't ordered them and weren't ready for them, but we said yes anyway. That was dumb luck because our hatcher wasn't able to get us any more chicks until June.

2. We let Mother Nature do its thing for our broody hen. We gave her some fertilized eggs and she hatched out a chick. That is the first time we have taken a completely hands off approach and let the hen do all the work.

3. Our pig developed a prolapse, which had us making plans to butcher him. Instead, we named him Kermit and put him in a pen by himself. Within a week the prolapse healed and we took the chance of putting him back with the other pigs. Currently, he is happily enjoying life with his brothers and sisters.

4. We built a greenhouse completely out of recycled parts. My husband had a vision and used pieces that he had salvaged over the years. I'm proud to say that all the plants on our farm were started from seed.

5. The pigs are in tractors, which means they are moved to new grass every couple of days. Planting gardens behind them is new this year. Our boys each have their own garden that they planted behind the pigs. They planned it and picked out the seeds from our collection.

6. When our garden showed initial signs of pests, we put the laying hens in their run surrounding the garden. A couple of days eating bugs made a huge difference. Their natural pest control saved our plants.

7. With our kids homeschooling, they had time to help with the animals. They have successfully tamed the pigs. They named them and even give them belly rubs. This makes it much easier for us to work with them.

8. We created a worm farm that is the ultimate recycling center. We dug up red wigglers from last years pig pen and gave them a new home with kitchen scraps. They eat through compost very quickly and in return give us castings.

9. We are lucky to be part of the Cartwright Farmer's Market. It's a great agriculture resource and a great community of hard working people.

10. Our customers are showing up at the farmers market despite the risk. We are grateful to have loyal customers year after year.

It's hard to think of the positive things when there is so much negative. It hasn't always been roses and chocolates around our farm, but the good far out shadows the bad. That is what keeps us going.

Stay safe and healthy. 

It Starts At Home

I was relaxing on the couch snuggling under a blanket with my 7-year old and 8-year old when the evening news came on the TV. When the top story showed the horrific video of the George Floyd murder, I was about ready to turn the channel. I'm in the habit of shielding the kids but this time I realized that they needed to see it. They stayed quiet and just watched. I tried not to interrupt their confusion while I looked on in horror. I answered any questions they had and gave explanations to their whys as best I could. I had a lot of why questions myself.

We are a white family in Iowa. We are well intentioned, but my sons will not know what it feels like to be discriminated against. It becomes our job to make them understand that Black Lives Matter. It will be our job to make them understand that just by saying we treat everyone equally isn't enough. Equal is not fair. That motto was something I used to teach high school students. Every student wanted everything to be the same; however, every student had different abilities and backgrounds. Many students complained about other students getting into college because of their race. My answer to that was with a question, “Would you trade places with them?”

My husband calls himself a white privileged male. I have reservations about putting the chickens to bed at night because of the heavy coyote population, which is when my husband first called himself a privileged white male. He explained that I was taught, as a woman, to be cautious and prepared, even afraid in some cases while my husband has never needed those teachings. Now African American children are being taught to be cautious, prepared, and afraid of the police while I'm teaching my children to go to the police for help.

Parents that are keeping silent about race are contributing to the problem. Ignoring race or believing that we are all equal means that we will all ignore the issue. Will you stop someone from being racist or will you ignore it? Many people don't want a confrontation, so it's easier to ignore the problem. Three other police officers didn't stop George Floyd's murder.

In this country's dark hour, I will be holding my children close and asking them about how they are feeling when they watch the news or asking how they would respond. I will be reading more anti racism books and watching more videos about MLK and Rosa Parks.

For the adults reading this, I encourage you to educate yourself. What if George Floyd was your son, brother, father, or friend? If you respond on social media to Black Lives Matter with All Lives Matter, I feel like you don't understand and need more information. All lives do matter, but don't diminish black lives by saying that we are all equal.

I'm a supporter of peaceful protests. If there is something wrong it's everyone's duty to say something or do something. As an adult, I can vote for local officials and find ways to contribute to my own community. This community that my husband and I live, work, grow our business, and raise our children in needs everyone to be in this together. We are all human beings, 99.9% of our DNA is the same. Don't stay silent, teach your children.

Food System

According to the National Farmers Union, farmers and ranchers receive only 14.6 cents of every dollar consumers spend on food in the US. The rest of that dollar goes to marketing, processing, wholesaling, distribution and retailing. With so little money going back to the farmer, they have to produce more and more to make a living. So instead of producing a hundred pigs in a year they are producing 10,000. This also contributes to why only 2% of the population are farmers and why one farmer can feed 155 people. It's out of necessity. They have to produce a lot to stay in business.

With that knowledge, I knew we wouldn't be able to survive farming the conventional way. We couldn't afford the infrastructure and being at the mercy of the markets. Our farm business model is based on personal food production. We know we can't compete with the efficiency of the corporation farm models. However, we can compete at being effective. We are the marketers, retailers, and distributors.

Our farm has been the home for our black and white pigs for about a month. Six of them are rooting up grass while dodging rain and snow in their movable pig tractor. The runt of the litter is all white with a black head. Her little body and happy wagging tail remind me of my late rat terrier, Annie. So much so, that I named her Annie. I know that Annie is destined for the dinner table. She will feed many families. I have always explained to our four kids that we treat them the best that we can and in return they gift us with their meat.

Raising our kids to have that kind of relationship with the food system has always been a goal, so it breaks my heart to see the global food system broken. Milk being dumped because the DFA doesn't have any businesses to take it. Vegetables being plowed under for the same reason. Hundreds of pigs being euthanized because processors are shutting down. This problem comes from relying on the “King” corporations for our food. The food system relies so heavily on 5 main corporations that when one aspect of a corporation fails, it's devastating. This will trickle down and impact every town in America. Many people are quick to condemn the farmer for not finding other ways to market their commodity. We have even gotten questions about why farmers can't just hold the pigs until they can be processed. The world sees it as so much waste when people are starving. Not many people are thinking about the farmer. That farmer that has to dump his hard work down the drain. That farmer that has to spend more time and money destroying what he spent months nurturing. That farmer that has to kill an animal that would have fed people. These farmers are controlled by the corporations which are dictating the market right now in response to the pandemic. These corporations that are so big, that if even one of them has a hiccup, it will affect the entire food system.

In the last six weeks, our farm has seen increased sales in our meat products. Most businesses that sell farm products direct to consumers has experienced growth. I feel like consumers are finally seeing more clearly how their food gets to their table, and it's not the green pastures they thought it was. I want consumers to stop turning a blind eye to the food system. I want all consumers to be completely aware of how that food got to their table. I also want consumers to find local farmers and purchase their food from them. Farmer's markets are opening up in the next week, at least here in Iowa. I can't tell you what a difference buying local will do for the community. Keep your money local.

As always, stay safe and healthy. 

Homesteading

A friend of mine asked me what homesteading was. I was a little shocked that she was unfamiliar with the term, especially now. I gave her my definition, which is being self sufficient. A person working towards self sufficiency grows their own food and makes their own things. This could be done anywhere.

During this historical time of the pandemic, I have busied myself more intensely with homesteading. Being self sufficient has always been a goal for us, now the lifestyle has sucked me in completely.

These are our homesteading adventures during this time:

Homeschooling: One Sunday night, the governor announced her recommendation for schools to be postponed for at least 4 weeks. The following Monday morning, I had a schedule for my first and second graders that coincided with my schedule that was already in place for my preschooler and 2 year old. I know that I thrive in schedules and so do my kids. That was something that I could control when everything else felt uncertain. School is also something that gives me comfort, so it seemed natural to homeschool.

Bread Making: I have a bread machine where I can dump all the ingredients in. That is my kind of bread making. My husband also introduced me to beer bread. It's quick and we like to experiment with adding things to it like cheese.

Soap Making: With so many pigs being processed, we have a lot of lard. I tried using lard for pie crusts and cooking, but I still couldn't go through a 5lb block. When I tried soap, it was a great experience. It just takes lard, lye, and water. I add lavender essential oil to make it smell nice. Now it's all the soap we use.

Gardening: I love to grow things. Planting a seed is the ultimate hopeful act. A seed is a baby plant waiting to be born and grow up. I have been planting my garden by covering the raised beds with corrugated plastic sheets. With the soil temperature warm enough, I plant the seeds. I will keep the beds covered until May 5 which is roughly the last day of frost. I have also been planting in the greenhouse. We just harvested our microgreens, which can easily be grown in a south facing window in the house.

Chicken Wrangling: The laying hens wander around our farm. I like to train them with kitchen scraps. Really, I like to carry a bucket around the yard and have them follow me. The broilers, meat chickens, are still in the brooder that is in the corner of the greenhouse. We have their chicken tractor next to the greenhouse waiting for them. I'm tracking the weather to decide when they will move.

Fences and Tractors: We have been reconfiguring our layout of the pig's and chicken's pasture to make better use of our land. So the permanent pens that we inherited will be made into our sweet corn patch while the pig and chicken tractors are improved.

Hoarding vs Larder: I grew up with my parents preserving food through canning or freezing. Their larder was usually full. Our larder isn't full; however, we are still enjoying our homemade applesauce, crushed tomatoes, salsa, bone broth, and maple syrup from 2019. I despise going to the grocery store, which has given me motivation to preserve our own food. Now that the rhubarb is starting to pop, I'm researching jam recipes.

Being a homesteader is a passion for my husband and I. We love this lifestyle. I think the world needs more homesteading.

I hope this finds you all safe and healthy.