February 2011

I have horrible writer's block this month. Pretty sure it's because February is a short month and I'm feeling pressured to get something written on time. There's lots of product information to share but other than that, it's been a relatively boring month - no great livestock stories to share. I told this to Kurt, the resident optimist. His response, "The surest way to guarantee a run of bad luck is to talk about how you haven't had any lately." We'll see what March holds.

The rest of my soap making supplies arrived by FedEx this week. I'm hoping to make a batch or two this weekend - if something goes wrong, that may be my story for March! If all goes well, I hope to have a product to share by this summer.

The weather this month has been nuts. The girls have had several "snow" days - mostly they were frigid days with very little snow. One morning, the outside thermometer read -20 degrees. It may have been colder but that's as low as the thermometer will register. The next week, the car thermometer read 82! Crazy! The extreme cold and big swings in temps have stressed our poor hens and they've slowed down considerably. Hopefully, the longer days and more stable weather will encourage more egg-laying.

During the brutally cold morning, we lost power for a little over an hour - just long enough for the pump to freeze. Kurt was smart enough to put a heat lamp out the night before but that hour without heat was too long. Thankfully, it didn't take much to get water moving again once the power came back on. We were ready to flip the generator on about the time the lights came back on. The big girls thought it was a bit of an adventure - especially when they found out school was closed. Anna, on the other hand, was really bothered that there weren't any lights - anywhere. She'd walk from room to room making forlorn announcements: "My bedroom doesn't have any lights." "No lights in the bathroom." "Sissy, you don't have lights."

Right now, we are running a special on our Hot Diggity Dogs. We think our all beef, no added nitrate/nitrites hot dogs are great and we've heard that you do, too. Now, through the end of March and while supplies last, any time you buy 4 packages of hot dogs, we'll give you a pack for free to share with a friend.

I'll be in Greensburg, Pratt and Wichita on Tuesday, March 1st if there's something you need. We should be back in town sometime again this month as we plan spring visits with Grandma.

We have a great variety of pork right now - roasts, 2 types of pork sausage and ground pork, pork chops, and hams - perfect for Easter dinner. Questions about any particular cut, let me know.

Kurt took the last of our hogs and two beeves to McPherson last week. We're going to have a few new products made this time. We're going to have beef sticks made in 4ounce packages, pork beer brats, breakfast sausage and some ham and roast beef deli meat. We're also restocking hamburger patties, ground beef, roasts, beef jerky, fillets, all beef brats and bacon.

We're starting to plan our garden for the spring - I always have big, big plans. . . this year, we've scaled back a little and hope to have more success. We've even ordered a few early turkeys to help us keep a handle on the grasshoppers. I'm also hoping the girls are big enough to be more effective helpers - time spent teaching now will surely pay off in the future. Kurt also plans to help more since he won't be spending all his time in the hay field.

I'm starting to visit with other interested people about the Farmers' Market in Coldwater - we'll keep you posted with the details. I'm excited about the interest we had last year!

I think one of the things I enjoy about the winter - it's certainly not the cold - is the dark evenings. Kurt comes in early because it's too dark to work outside, the girls are in bed at a decent time and both Kurt and I end up with our noses in a book. His book usually ends up on his nose when he falls asleep in the recliner . . . When I've not been studying up on soapmaking, I've been poking around in a couple of cookbooks: The Lost Art of Real Cooking: Rediscovering the Pleasures of Traditional Foods One Recipe at a Time and The Little House Cookbook: Frontier Foods From Laura Ingalls Wilder's Classic Stories. Cooking without a hard and fast recipe intrigues me. I've gotten much better through our married life at this type cooking. Actually cooking, in general if you ask Kurt. There are several go-to recipes that I don't measure for anymore but baking - no way. I'm trying to decide how adventurous I'm ready to be - sauerkraut? Sourdough bread with "wild" yeast? I'll keep you posted.

And then there's the book I ordered for myself that Kurt latched onto - Deeply Rooted: Unconventional Farmers in the Age of Agribusiness. It's three farmers' stories and how they are using their own set of rules. They seem to ignore farm policy of the 70's - "get big or get out." Very thought provoking.

It's time to start thinking about reserving your quarter, half or whole beef. To help us plan for the spring, we'd like to know by April 15th if you'd like beef this spring. It will be first come, first serve - if we've talked about it, go ahead and send me an email to confirm. Animals are scheduled to go to the processor on May 13th and they'll be ready 2-3 weeks after that. Go to our price page or email me if you have questions about pricing on beef.

If you're not quite ready for beef right now, you may want to think about a fall animal. Currently, we charge $1.10 per pound live weight plus some freight and you pay the processing fees - a quarter averages around $450 total for approximately 100 pounds of meat. If you reserve part or all of a fall animal by April 15th, you can lock in our current price of $1.10 per pound. We are asking that you put down a $100 per quarter for a deposit to guarantee your beef. Animals purchased after April 15th will be priced at $1.20 per pound live weight - this pencils out to about a $25 per quarter increase in price.

I'm not sure how many of you follow the commodity cattle markets but they've been climbing steadily for several months. Other commodities are also rising and this has been reflected in the grocery store prices. Currently, the price for a finished commodity steer is about $1.10 per pound. We believe that the beef we are producing is better than anything you can get on the commodity market. In order to remain profitable, we will be raising the price of our quarters, halves and wholes to $1.20 per pound after April 15th. Kurt and I have agreed that if the price of beef in the commodity market drops significantly, our price will reflect that as well - something that rarely occurs in the grocery store.

Family updates:

Kurt - He's figuring and planning. Every morning, I find him at the kitchen table "ciphering." I think he likes that time of the day because it's the one time of day that the house is quiet and he's not tired. He's planning cattle movements through paddocks or trying to decide cutting instructions for the processor.

Andi: The last month has been full of forensics which I thoroughly enjoy. I also started taking a "Holy Yoga" class which has been wonderfully relaxing.

Allison: She's been playing basketball - her peewee team is much more confident this year! She's also been spelling like crazy trying to get ready for the spelling bee. Update - she made it to the 4th round and was eliminated on "integral."

Natalie: Her gymnastics class got to perform at a high school game. I'm her momma so I can tell you how good her cartwheels were - what a strong little girl!

Anna: I'm remembering that 3 is a much harder age than 2! Anna is just sure she can do almost everything "all by herself!" Someday, this independent streak will serve her well - someday. Anna is also the entertainer (hmmm. . .. could it be because she's the "baby?") Always trying funnies out on new audiences and then laughing gleefully if she can get you to join in.

One more family story. Last Sunday, we had caught the basketball bug and headed to the school gym to shoot some hoops (one of the benefits of living in a small town). Unfortunately, we could only find one ball - next time, we'll take our own. Hmmm .. . what to do with one ball - play a game of 2 on 3, of course! Kurt and Anna vs. Allison, Natalie and myself. The teams would have been pretty fair except Kurt had to lift Anna on his shoulders every time she shot. That made rebounding a little tricky. The game also moved a little too fast for Anna which isn't saying much. Soooo, we switched to 2 on 2. Kurt and I against Natalie and Allison - full court. They had the short basket and we took a regulation goal. I think it was at this point that Kurt realized I hadn't been exaggerating all those years I said I was not a basketball player. He believes me now. (When I read this month's Rattle out loud to Kurt, he laughed loudly at this point. He won't say I stink out loud but we all know.) We had a good time even with Anna's tears. Next times, we'll take a short hoop in for Anna to play with.

Hoping you're starting to see signs of spring.