Beef, it's what's for dinner

Raise your hand if you like beef. Seriously, raise it and wave it around like you just don't care. I know I sure do. Today we got another addition (temporary addition) to the farm. We got a calf. Margo's dad hooked us up with a Holstein steer from one of his dairy farmers. It is still pretty young. We are going to get it big and then get it butchered and eat him. The beef we raise will be so much better quality then what you can get at the store. Anyway, we are getting closer and closer to the old mcdonald farm. We probably won't get any more new kinds of animal until next summer though. I hope you can all come see the new addition soon. We are trying to decide on a name so any suggestions would be welcome. A couple we have thought of so far are Jody and Carl.

Snakes on a Farm

Well, summer is here. You know what that means. Besides me wearing a speedo. The snakes are out. I don't want this to deter any of you from coming to visit us, but I have killed 3 snakes so far. I guess that is what happens when you live in the country. The good thing is that none of them were poisonous. I have killed a black snake, a spreading adder otherwise known as a hognose, and a milksnake. I killed the milksnake today but I got a pic before I did.

Very Interesting

Here is a quote from a interesting story Martha posted on her blog that I thought I would share (click on the quote to read the full story. "Last year, spending in Iraq amounted to less than 1 percent of the total economy — about as much as Americans spent shopping online and less than half what they spent at Wal-Mart" It gives a little perspective. I find this interesting on two fronts. First, it is interesting for all the people who complain about the money we are spending on the war. Second it is crazy how much money we have compared to the rest of the world. I wonder how much good we could do for the less fortunate if we would quit spending so much money on stuff we don't need.

Anyone got any Pitocin?

One of our goats is about to burst like a huge pimple on a teenagers head. She is pregnant and we thought she should have had her babies a week or two ago but she still hasn't. She is huge. Here is a great pic to give you an idea. It is pretty impressive actually, usually a goat is about as wide as its legs are apart.

We're Growing

We went to the Centerton Livestock Auction last night. We took three of our goats to sell. We made good money off of them but I spent more than I made. I bought some ducks and 4 goats. I am very happy with the goats. I bought 2 older nannies, 1 real young nanny and 1 young billy. I did not intend to buy the billy, I bid on it thinking it was a nanny and after I was the winning bidder I found out it was a billy. It's okay though because I decided to just keep it and use him as my billy for this year since I got rid of the other billy. The two older goats are heinz 57 brush goats and the two younger ones are boer cross. The funniest thing we saw at the auction was a mexican guy bought a turkey and to transport it home he put it in the trunk of his Honda Accord, it was awesome. I highly recommend checking out the Centerton Livestock Auction the next time any of you get a chance. Here are some pics.

Here is the goats I sold in the goat carrier I made.


The Ducks


The two older nanny goats


The young nanny and young billy (the close ones)

The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music

Tonight, Margo and I sat around the firepit outside which is always a good time. This night was really good because there are lots of good sounds outside this time of year. It was nice just to sit and listen to the music. Here is a quick rundown of the things we heard.

Rooster crowing over at the neighbors
Frogs croaking in the pond
Frogs croaking in the trees
Dogs Barking in the distance
Crickets chirping (a sign of summer arriving)
Whippoorwill calling (a sign of summer)
Girl screaming for help in the distance (just kidding)
Owl hooting
Helicopter flying over.

It was a very pleasant evening.

Chickens

We bought some chickens this past week. We have been looking for some for a while and I finally found some in the paper for sale. We bought 13 total and they are several different breeds, all egg-laying chickens. Three of the chickens are Araucana and they lay blue and green colored eggs which is kind of cool. Anyway, I am really excited to have them, chickens are quickly becoming one of my favorite farm animals. We have been getting 8-10 eggs every day so we have been using all our egg recipes. If anyone needs any eggs let us know.

I should have been an architect

It is finished. Today, I finished the barn and I am very happy to be done with it. It all went up really well and I did not have any major problems getting it all finished. I wish I had a nickel for every time I hit my finger with the hammer and I would be rich. It does not look too bad, it's just a big silver building. We now have the capability of having more animals which is nice. I am not sure what all we will get this year, my next purchase will probably be a calf to raise and butcher in the fall. I wanted to say thanks again to all the guys who helped us put the trusses up. And I wanted to give a really big shout out to Jeremy for going the extra mile and helping me a lot with putting up boards and tin. Here are some pics so you can check it out.

Front

Side

Back (faces the road)

Inside


The Architect (notice the tuxedo shirt)

You might be Amish if......

Today was barn raising day. It wasn't the greatest day to work on it but it wasn't too terrible either. I was worried about all my measurements working out but it ended up going together great so far. I am building an open face barn and I am using old chicken house trusses that hook to a post. The lumber and tin are also off of old chicken houses, it is cheaper that way. It is 20' by 30' which should take care of most of our needs. I invited friends out to join in the fun because there was no way Margo and I could do it on our own. My friends who took me up on the offer were Todd, Zack (my brother), Jeremy, and Jonathan. My friends who did not come to help are not my friends anymore. Just kidding. I am very grateful for everyone's help because I could not have done it without them. We got the main trusses up and Jeremy and I got all the wood on the top to nail the tin to. It will take me a few more days to get it all finished. I am very pleased with it so far, not to bad for not being Amish. Whenever I get it done we can get more animals since we will have shelter for them. Here are a few pics from today. Click on the pictures link on the side to see more.

The Crew from left to right:Jonathan, Jeremy, Me, Todd, Zack


Barn Raising


Big Pimpin'


What we did today

Earthworm Heaven

A few posts ago, I talked about a new type of gardening I am trying at our farm. I thought about how to set up my garden long and hard because the best spot for the garden is an area where it stays a little more wet because it is a low lying area and there are some underground springs in the area. After discussing with my uncle who is a Master Gardener, I decided that I wanted to do No Till, Raised Bed gardening. I bought a book about it called The Vegetable Gardener's Bible which I highly recommend to all you vegetable gardeners out there. The book teaches you to use the W-O-R-D system-Wide rows, Organic methods, Raised beds, Deep soil. In theory, you don't have to ever till and you don't have to worry to much about weeds because you use lots of mulch. It is also supposed to produce twice as much from the same size garden because you use wide beds.
Here is a rundown of my garden. For now, it is about 40 feet by 40 feet but it may get bigger. My rows are 40 inches wide and the paths between them are 24 inches wide. I dug out the paths and put that soil on the beds to raise them up. This past weekend I went to the City of Fayetteville's Compost Facility. They take leaves, grass clippings and other yard waste from people and compost it. They have big machines that turn it. When it is fully composted they sell it to the public for $20 a truckload. They even test it to make sure it is safe for gardens and it gets the organic garden seal of approval. This compost is the best compost I have ever seen in my entire life. I was so shocked when I saw how good it was. I highly recommend it to anyone to use in their garden. Back to my garden. I used the compost to put on my beds to help raise them up some more and help improve my soil. I then got some free straw from the UofA horse barn. It is the stuff they rake out after it has been used in the horse stalls. It is about 95% straw and 5% horse manure. I am putting that on top for mulch to help keep the moisture in and the weeds out. After this year I will use old leaves from our place for mulch. In the paths I am using newspaper with shredded paper on top for the walkway. That will keep the weeds away and provide a mud free walking space. By the way, I need a lot more shredded paper, so if any of you have access to shredded paper please save it for me and I will get it from you the next time I see you. Hopefully an earthworm village will move in to the garden soon and they will take care of all the tilling. It is a lot of work getting it set up but once it gets going there won't be a whole lot of work to do except mulching in the fall, and planting and mulching in the spring. I hope it all works as well as the book describes and as well as the picture I have in my head. I probably won't have it completely going until next year but I will get some plants in this year. Here are some pics of the garden so far.

Pre-garden


After building the rows


After putting on the compost from Fayetteville-notice the difference in color from the normal dirt above and the compost.


And finally, after the straw.

The News You've All Been Waiting For

We have big news we wanted to share about the question we seem to get most often these days. We are having a baby. We found out for sure on Friday and we are very excited. We decided we had waited long enough. Most of our friends already have a baby or two so we thought we should join in the fun. It seems everyone these days tries to come up with a creative way to tell people but I thought it would be kind of fun just to put it on the blog. Anyway, this will mean big changes at the Farm of Hale. This may be jumping the gun but we already have some first names in mind. If it is a girl - April. If it is a boy - Fools.

Holy Blooming Dogwoods

We have about a billion dogwood trees on our property and they are starting to bloom right now, it is really nice. I thought I would share.

At least I'm not a pansy.

My latest project has been working on putting in the garden. I am going to make a pretty big one that will produce enough vegetables that I can freeze and can to sustain us for most of the year. It will be next year before it will be completely ready and I will be able to do everything I want. There was not a garden here when we moved in so I am making it from raw ground and it is taking some time because I am trying a new type of gardening. This year I will just have a few plants because I am still working on getting it set up and improving the soil. I will post some pictures soon when I get more of it done and I will explain my new type of gardening I am trying. For now I thought I would put up a picture of me with my tiller.


Also, Molly and Dylan had this thing on their blog. You can go to a website and answer some questions and it will tell you what kind of flower you are. I thought it fit in with the gardening theme, so here is mine. At least I'm not a pansy.

I am a Violet "You have a shy personality. You tend to hesitate before trying new things or meeting new people. But once people get to know you, you open up and show the world what you are really all about."

I Love Fire and Squirrels

This past week I got to work on a little project that I have really been looking forward to completing. It wasn't a project that was vital to the farm but more for our enjoyment and the enjoyment of people who come to visit us. The project was to build a fire pit. We got to try it out for the first time last night. We roasted hotdogs and made smores, it was a lot of fun. The best part was just sitting watching the fire on a cool night. We hope some of you can come by and give it a test drive sometime, I think you will really enjoy it.


On a side note, we have tons of squirrels out here in the country. One of them perches itself on a fencepost that you can see out the back window. I finally got some good pictures of it the other day so I thought I would post them. So, here you go.

New Nephew

The extended family is growing. Margo's brother and sister-in-law had their baby today. His name is Cooper Harland Daniel (I may just call him mini), he came out the size of a 4 year old (9lbs 5oz and 22inches long(some men are longer than others)). Megan (the mom) is doing good and Mini is doing pretty good, he came out a little too fast so that caused some problems but nothing major. This brings us up to 4 nephews and 2 nieces.

I am Mary Francis if you please, I am Mary Francis if you don't please

We have another new addition to the pet collection. We have a new cat. One of our other cats ran off with its lover and so we were down to just one cat (Spot). Spot has been our most loyal cat, two others have gone but she is still here and she was one of the original cats we got. Back to the new one. A friend at work gave her to us. She was an inside/outside cat at their house and was not working out for them so she asked if we could take her on the farm where she would just be an outside cat. Her name is Mary Francis and she is a Siamese and she is kind of old. She is awesome looking though. Hopefully she will stay around because she will be a nice addition to the farm.

Meet Jake

Our collection of animals got a little bigger today. I have been wanting to get another dog, one that is more aggressive and protective. I like our current dog Macy just fine but she is pretty much worthless as a farm dog. She does not bark when people drive up or other dogs come around. She roams over to the neighbors houses. She is just too friendly. I happened to see an add in the Star Shopper this past week for a free 1 year old dog, and it was the exact breed that I have been wanting. The owner was getting rid of it because they weren't home enough to give it the kind of attention it needs and it needed more room to run and play which we have plenty of. The new dog is a red Australian Cattle Dog (aka red heeler) and his name is Jake. He definitely is going to be more protective because he is already barking at stuff, the only bad thing is he is not used to us being his master (I love calling myself the master, if only Margo would call me that) so he barks at us. But I think he will be great once he gets used to us and the new place as long as Macy does not lead him to the dark side. Here are some pics.

You might be a redneck if.....

It seems that our billy goat got injured. I am not sure what caused it, but he has an open scrape area on his right side behind his front right leg. Either he caught it on something or one of the other goats gored him with their horns. It is not too bad of a scrape, but he won't quit messing with it so it won't heal. So I decided to play goat nurse tonight and Margo was my lovely goat nursing assistant. I sprayed the area with some antibacterial stuff and then taped him up so he is not able to mess with the open area and keep it from healing. I don't really have official goat medical supplies so I made do with what I have. It worked pretty good it just looks a little redneck. I think we were already a little redneck because I think anyone in the world that actually has a billy goat can be considered a little redneck. Back to my goat ER story, check out the picture below and you will see why my medical patch job is redneck.

It's called duct tape and it will fix anything.

Margo's not dead, No, She is alive

We had one interesting night tonight. Let me start from the beginning. A few days ago Margo started having bad neck pain and headaches. Then today she started having a high fever, nausea, chills, and dizziness. The first thing I thought of with these symptoms was meningitis so I told her to go the doctor. The only one she could get in to today was a walk in clinic so she went there and they ruled out everything they could. They recommended she go to the ER so they could make sure it was not meningitis. We headed to WRMC, which for all of you who don't know has the busiest ER in the state.
Here is a quick rundown of the experience.
2 hours waiting until she got checked in and triaged
1 hour waiting after being triaged and put in the "urgent" category to be taken to a room
1 hour waiting in the room on the doctor
1 urine test
5 minutes with the doctor
Here are some of the things we got to experience while waiting.
1 little girl puking
1 teenager with a broken finger
1 guy with a broken foot
1 guy who got hit in the face with a baseball
too many kids to count crying because they were sick
1 girl brought in by ambulance who got hit by a motorcycle after getting off a bus-she made the local news tonight
1 guy who OD'd on meth
1 cockroach
lots of other random injuries and illnesses
The verdict
the good news-Margo is not going to die, she just has some random virus that they don't know what it is
the best news-Margo is not pregnant
the bad news-we missed the Office

Spring has Sprung

I am making the official declaration that spring is here. Not to say we won't have any more cold weather but not much more, and the majority of the days from now on are going to be warmer instead of colder. How do you know this you may ask. One simple way......the frogs. It seems that yesterday for the first time since last fall, our millions of frogs in our smaller of the two ponds started singing. It is such a great sound, click here for a sample of what it sounds like. It is so nice to sit outside and just listen. You should all feel free to come have a listen anytime, it will sooth your soul.

Home Again, Home Again

We got back from Denver late last night, that is such a long drive. We are happy to be home and we had a great time in Denver. It is a great place but what made the trip truly special was getting to hang out with Walt and Annie. They are such awesome people and so much fun. I felt like we really got to know them better as a couple. I wish we lived closer to them so we could see each other more. Here are some pics of them in case you don't know them.

I love the Serengeti

Yesterday we went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. It was really cool. They had lots of good exhibits and lots of cool interactive stuff for kids. It kind of made me wish I had kids and lived in Denver so I could take them there. They even had dinosaur fossils which was really cool. Also at this museum, there was an IMAX theater and a planetarium. We watched a show about black holes at the planetarium which wasn't all that great but it was narrated by Liam Neeson which was nice. The IMAX show on the other hand was awesome. It was about the Serengeti and all the animals. It was so amazing. It made me want to go live there... or maybe just visit. It also made me wish we had an IMAX theater in NWA because I think I would go see every show. They are so cool and interesting. Going to this museum today kind of made me wish we lived in a major city so we had cool stuff like we saw today. Be sure to check out the pics.
On a side note, I just wanted to tell everyone that everyday we have been here except Sunday, it has snowed. It has made the vacation even better because it really makes you feel like you are in a different place. I personally have been really digging Denver. I could totally see myself living here, it is such a great place. I hope that NWA turns out as good as Denver as it grows.

History, Money, and Beer

These are a few of my favorite things. Yesterday on our trip we did a few tours of things in Denver. Our first stop was at the Colorado History Museum. It was an ok museum, they had some cool indian stuff and pioneer stuff to look at but I don't think I would recommend it to anyone. Our second stop was at the U.S. Mint. It was free which was nice and they had lots of old money which was really cool but we couldn't take pictures which sucked. They even had money from Roman times and Bible times like they had real mites like the woman gave in the Bible. It was a very interesting tour and they gave lots of good information and facts, for instance the average house had $70 worth of coins in their house and it costs more to make the penny and the nickel than what they are worth. I highly recommend that tour to everyone. The next stop of our day was at the Coors Brewery which was a great tour. We learned all about how they make beer. It was very interesting and we learned lots of cool facts like the the original Mr. Coors invented the aluminum can. They best part of that tour though was that we got free beer. And just let me warn all of you who may someday take a trip to this Mile High City and decide to drink a beer, the altitude makes the alcohol have a much greater affect on you. We were told that one beer at this altitude makes you feel like you had 3 beers. I did not really believe this when they told me but I believe it now.

Holy Ski Day

Yesterday was the big day of skiing. We were a little nervous about it but it turned out pretty good. We enrolled in ski school and learned a little about controlling ourselves while on skis. It was actually really helpful and I recommend taking a class to anyone out there who has never skied before and plans to go. We fell down a lot but I think overall we actually did really good. The best part was being up in the Rocky Mountains, it is really beautiful. It was a great day and it snowed quite a bit which was nice. Be sure and check out the rest of the pics by clicking on the link on the side. After we got home last night, we went out to the Melting Pot with Walt and Annie for dinner. It was really good and I don't think I have had that much fun in a while.

We're not in Kansas any more, thank the Lord

Well, we left the farm yesterday and started our vacation. We drove forever through hell (Kansas) and reached our destination of Denver last night. It was an interesting trip filled with great peril (not really, I just wanted to use that word). We made it from West Fork to Annie and Walt's house in Denver in 12 hours which is pretty good time I think. Kansas was very boring to drive through and I don't think I would want to live in there. There was like 1-2 feet of snow on the ground which was kind of cool considering I have never seen more than a foot of snow before. I have also never seen more anti-abortion signs in my entire life either than what there were along the interstate in Kansas. The big news of the drive though was.....I got a speeding ticket. As most of you know, I drive really fast and I have never gotten a speeding ticket. That streak came to an end yesterday in Kansas. The cop got me at 83mph in a 70mph zone which equaled $114. I am just glad he didn't get me when I was going faster. I tried to cry my way out of the ticket but that didn't work(just kidding). The other big news from Kansas is they have the world's biggest prairie dog. Very exciting. Today we are just going to hang out with Walt and Annie. We went to church this morning with them and that was pretty cool. As a visitor we got a free Nalgene bottle which I thought was very Denverish and for lunch we had Ethiopian food which wasn't to bad. Tomorrow is our big day of skiing which should be very interesting. I decided to make a picasa web album to put all our vacation pictures in so everyone can see them. There is a link on the right named "pictures" that will take you there.

Baby

Everyone has asked us ever since we got married when we are going to have a kid. Well, I have good news for all of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had one. That's right, we had our first baby goat on the farm today. We are really excited. We are a little unsure who the father is because the mama was running with 2 billy goats during the summer for a little while. We are hoping to get on Maury sometime so we can find out. Here is a picture taken with our fancy new camera. Our neighbors are going to look after the animals while we are gone on vacation. I hope it makes it ok while we are gone.

Snow

We finally got a decent snow this past week. Unfortunately I had to work so I did not get to sled or play in the snow very much. I thought I would post a picture of our house in the snow. You can also see what I have been working on the past few weeks. I have been trying to clear out some of the trees in the front of the property. You can see the wood from those trees that Margo and I stacked underneath the deck. The supports for the deck make an excellent place for the wood. This wood will be for us to burn in the woodstove next year. I also thought I would post a picture John sent of me of last year when we were playing in the snow. I had quite an outfit on, it is a really funny picture.

Painter Prodigy

Martha had a link to this on her blog. This is an amazing 12 year old girl who paints pictures and talks to God. I was amazed by it so I thought I would share with everyone.

http://tinyurl.com/yxewot

I'm not a Rebel

I realize a lot of you may have a big question mark in your head in regards to this posting but I needed to post this (just needed to give someone a hard time). This is for John (and Trav). John this was taken from 10 feet away with a 5 year old Canon 2MP Powershot A40.

Santa vs. Jesus

Well, Christmas is over and I am happy about that. Overall it was pretty good. Here is a quick rundown of what we did. We hung out with friends on Friday night at John’s house in honor of the Tokar’s being in town. On Saturday, we picked up Annie and Walt at the airport and drove them down to Mena and stayed until Sunday. This was a lot of fun. We love hanging out with Walt and Annie and some of my favorite people to visit are her parents. You just feel good and when you are at their house and hanging out with them. It is like you don’t have a care in the world and you are just happy. I hope someday that people will feel like that when they come to our house. On Sunday night we went to Margo’s grandmother’s house and hung out with her family and then to her parent’s house to open presents. On Monday, all of my family came to our house and we cooked a big meal and opened presents. It was a very busy weekend and overall it went pretty good.
I do have some issues with Christmas. It is getting to be a little to much with the Santa Clause and all the presents. It seems like there is so much pressure on getting presents and getting the right one. And kids these days just want more and more and bigger and more expensive. I find it ridiculous that people go in debt over buying presents for their kids. I wish we would concentrate more on Jesus (of course) but also more on family. I like getting presents for people and receiving presents but there has got to be a better way. Maybe we should only be allowed to give each person one gift and that gift has to be something you make yourself. I told Margo the other day that we really need to come up with how we are going to treat Christmas once we have kids because I don’t want it to be like it is for a lot of families. One thing is for sure, my kids will not be taught that Santa Clause is real. I don’t want them to believe that if they are good all year than this jolly guy comes down in a sleigh with his flying reindeer and brings them presents. I would much rather teach them Jesus and make them excited about him.

Merry Christmas

For any of you who did not get a Christmas card from us, here is our picture that was on our Christmas card this year. I think it is our best one yet.




We tried to make it as much like the painting as possible, even the solemn looks.

Terrorists Attack the Farm!!!!!

Not really terrorists. But that is the thought that went through my head when I got home today. Let me start from the beginning. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Maybe not that beginning, because that might take a while. So when we bought the farm, there was a "barn" on the property. Although, originally it was not a barn. As I mentioned in my post about the chicken coop, hippies used to own this property and what we call the barn was their house. It is really scary but I am sure it was glorious to the hippies in its hayday. I thought I could turn this structure into a barn for the animals but finally decided it was not possible and it must go. My neighbor Mark had mentioned he might like to tear it down so he could use the wood from it to build a structure of some sort on his property. As hard as it was to give up the idea of making a huge fire of it, I agreed that he could tear it down. This was a couple of days ago that I told him he could tear it down. Well, when I got home today, he and his buddy had almost completely dismantled the entire thing, there was only one wall still standing. This is the point that the thought went through my head..."it looks like terrorists flew planes into my barn". Let me just say right here that I am not trying to make light of 9/11 but I saw ground zero two months after 9/11 and that is what it kind of reminded me of (except smaller). Anyway, I am very happy that this eyesore on my property is almost gone. Seriously though, it does look like a tornado came through.

Before Terrorists (and winter)


After Terrorists (today)