Ag Week Special Blog--Monday, The Farmer

As many of you already know, I refer to my Farmer as DH (his initials, although he is a 'dear husband' as well) or The Farmer. It kinda started when he didn't want me talking about him on Facebook.........he's 'tough' like that! LOL Anyway, in celebration of Ag week, I am going to blog about what I know about Agriculture, and since I learned most of it from him, he's up first!




Adding hay to the feed grinder, he laughs and says his hobby is 'grinding feed'


We've been married almost 23 years. We live on the farm that his parents bought when he was about 5. We live in the house that he grew up in. We are raising our 4 kids on the farm. We farm in partnership with his youngest sister and her husband. Our farm is located mostly in SW Monroe County MO, with a little bit in western Audrain County. Our kids belong to an Audrain County 4H club, and go to school 'two counties' away, at Centralia, in Boone county. (granted two counties away is about 10 miles)



The Farmer and me at Senior Football night, last fall.


We have a mostly registered Angus cattle herd. We also take care of a herd of Gelbvieh cattle owned by our neighbor. We feed them silage all winter, then graze and feed  a little hay through the summer. We usually sell the calves at around 600-700 pounds. We feed out a few to sell as butcher beef. Our kids mostly pick their show cattle from our herd. With our partners being ABS dealers, we serve as the 'testing grounds' for new bull semen, it's helpful for them to see what kind of calves certain bulls produce.

MSF 2008, hard to believe that picture is almost 5 yrs old, but looking at our boys today, they've changed a lot since then.

The Farmer sells seed corn and soybeans through a company called Big Cob out of Nebraska. It helps pay our seed bill, plus adds a little income. We generally plant a test plot each year to show the neighbors the different varieties we have available. Planting and harvesting that are both labor inducive jobs.

We raise corn and soybeans. We usually plant some wheat. We also have several acres of alfalfa. We do some custom work for neighbors. Mainly knifing on anhydrous or harvesting. Although we have been doing several custom baling jobs the last several years as well.

Chopping Silage, this is our cattle's winter feed.

We aren't 100% 'Green' or 'Red' there are some of each in the shed. My Farmer says it can be purple as long as it runs and gets the job done. We are lucky to have good John Deere and Case IH dealers locally when the need for parts arises.

The Farmer went to NWMSU in Maryville and got his BS in Agricultural Mechanics. Most of the time if something breaks down, he can fix it. The same goes for anything, not just tractors..... It amazes me how he can look at a problem and start thinking how it can be corrected. Definitely a talent, I am glad he has.

I feel very blessed to have The Farmer in my life. He takes very good care of us, he feeds his share of the world.

From Tulip~
KH
:)

Silent Sunday (I know its usually Saturday, but wasn't here for much of it)

Macy really enjoyed the warmer weather this week, potty breaks seemed to take a LONG time.

One of my favorite shots to get, Sam's arm raised by the ref after the match, in Victory!



A quick shot of him 'getting ready' to wrestle, he has to go out in the hall and paces back and forth, listens to iPod, gets in the mode.


Busy week, ended with Sam getting 2nd at Regionals and a trip to State Tournament in two weeks.


6 practices till we say good bye to our Wrestling club days and yes that kinda makes me sad,
From Tulip~
KH
:)

What's for Dinner Wednesday--Bread (fakin' it AGAIN)

When I got my bread machine years ago, I used the mixes, and tried a few recipes from the owners manual, but never found anything I was all that excited about until I found this recipe. If I could remember where I got the recipe, I would give the credit where it's due, but I have no idea where I got it and have had it so long, it's hard to tell.

ONE HOUR WHITE BREAD
9 oz warm water
2 T oil
2 T sugar
1 t salt
3 C flour (I usually use bread flour, if I have it)
5 t yeast (also I use the bread machine version of this as well)

Add ingredients in the order listed, making a 'well' in the flour to hold the yeast.

Set your bread machine to 'express bake' (one hour loaf setting) and start it baking. One hour later, you will have this:

Let it cool.............................

Slice and serve, you might want some butter and maybe a little home canned grape jelly with it. At least we did as you can see:

If your family likes it as much as mine does, pretty soon, you will have this:



I think what I like about this recipe is that it is a one hour recipe. I never plan ahead well enough to do the 3 hour recipes that come with the owners manual. I like that I can start this recipe and then make the rest of supper and it's all done at the same time. My family must agree, they gobble it up everytime. I would tell you how long it keeps but it's never lasted through a meal here.

So now go dig that bread machine out of the cabinet and try this---TONIGHT!

Glad to share another 'comfort food' that isn't hard to make,
From Tulip~
KH
:)

Silent Saturday-Famous Missourians, Relay Quilt, Wrestling



District 7, 14U, 190lbs, CHAMPION!




Tulip CC  Relay for Life Team Raffle Quilt




Famous Missourian, Harry S. Truman (AKA Jenna Claire)



What a week, more so, what a day!
From Tulip~
KH
:)

What's for Dinner Wednesday--Chicken Noodle Soup, 'fakin it'

First off I will admit, this isn't as homemade as it could be, but I didn't open a can of Campbell's so I am calling it homemade. This is my Chicken noodle soup 'recipe'

I buy the large can of cooked chicken at Sam's club, use boxed chicken broth, Knorr chicken stock, egg noodles and frozen mixed veggies. Add everything but the noodles and bring to a boil.

 

Add noodles and turn it down to simmer until noodles are tender. Nothing super complicated, but my family loves it, and I pretend I really worked hard making it! ;)

Of course you could use your own cooked chicken and use the broth from cooking it, and make your own noodles, but this is as close to homemade as I generally have time for at this point in my life. This quick version of homemade allows us to eat this soup even on a busy night.

Loving that comfort food doesn't have to be complicated,

From Tulip~

KH

:)



Sewing Sunday's--Lots of Projects!

Well we didn't have LOTS of other things going on this weekend. That was a good thing for lots of reasons. The Farmer is still battling the massive snow and lots of heifers who don't seem to have their calves without his help and none of them getting the memo that Labor and Delivery is open 9am to 5 pm! :) Macy is getting into a routine. Our niece and nephew had their birthday party last night. But I have LOTS of projects that I need to get sewn, so in between all else that is going on, I have taken over the dining room table turned it into sewing central.
I have been working on some quilts for a friend. The last one is finally pieced. Here it is:

It's for her son's new baby. He played football in college and the center is part of his old jersey. The squares are made following a tutorial I found on You-Tube 3 Dudes Quilting they are made with Jelly Rolls Strips and twist on the Half Square Triangle blocks. I didn't use an actual jelly roll, just cut my own strips 2.5 inches wide. These turned out cute, but so much sewing on the bias made the quilt difficult to put together as it was easy to buckles and humps.

The other project I am working on a is a quilt for our church's Relay for Life team. It's a pattern I found on the Moda Bake Shop, Field of Tulips. We are taking some creative freedoms from the original layout. Here are a few of the squares:

 

 

We chose 'Little Black Dress' from Moda fabrics as we thought that it was both neutral and would go well with school colors. The tutorial has been a challenge, now that I figured out the modifications needed, the squares are coming right together. Hopefully I will soon be able to show you some pictures of the completed quilt top.

 

For now, I should get back to sewing. So many projects to finish, with graduation coming up, several gifts need to get completed! In a perfect world I would sit and sew all day long (and the house would be clean, food cooked, laundry done, etc, etc..............)

 

Trying to type while stopping every 3 seconds to take another thing away from puppy but must get back to sewing,

From Tulip~

KH

:)

 

Week of Milestones

So my last post was my official 200th post. (I thought I had hit it earlier, but realized the counter included some rough drafts, so the actual one was today's post) Also today I received my 5,000th page view. Kinda cool. I started this blog to share about my family. It's evolved into something much more. I really try to share about our farm, our family, the things we eat and places we love. I sometimes wish I was more knowledgable to make this a true farm blog, or that I took better pictures so that you, the readers could 'see' the story more clearly OR that I was a more productive quilter to share all the projects that I do, but well after 200 posts, you probably realize that isn't me.
One thing that is me, is I am a person who likes to share the things I love with others. So in celebration of my 200th post and 5,000th page view (that's the count of how many times people have came to my blog to read my crazy stories, in case you didn't know) I am going to do a give-away. I will randomly draw a name of the people who comment on this post. I haven't decided 100% what you will get, but it will be handmade and somehow tie into our farm.
Thank you for indulging me and continuing to come back and see what we are up to here at H&K Farms in Beautiful Downtown Tulip!
Typing while listening to overactive puppy complain about being put to bed and thinking of heading there myself,
From Tulip~
KH
:)

Silent Saturday (or as 'quiet' as I can be!)



Before the Tourney at Camdenton, love that my wrestler has friends from all over!




The 'look' I always feel sorry for his opponents when I see this look, be nice Samuel!

  

And its a winner! (was three times last week!) My favorite shot to get, outside of the ref smacking the mat when he gets a pin!

JH giving Macy her bath, a little smaller than what my Cattle Whisperer is used to bathing.

She stood there and didn't try to jump out or even cry. While she looks dejected, I think she knew a professional was in charge.



Clean and beautiful again!

 Since I am not supposed to write anything but captions and a closing--guess that's all--hoping you are having a GREAT Saturday,
From Tulip~
KH
:)

So you wanna Quilt?!?!?!?

Over the last few years, I have taken up quilting, or to be more specific, piecing quilts. Like most people my first sewing experiences were 4H projects or Home Ec assignments. Over the years I have always had a sewing machine. I have always sewn something. Particularly the big boys had many homemade Halloween costumes. Alot of the curtains in our house, I have made. In the last few years, many of the gifts I have given, have been quilts! Our little town has a great quilt shop, Material Girl Quilt Shop. It's ran by a good friend of mine, Meredith. Over the years I have exercised my creative impulses by crafting, scrapbooking, now quilting. I have to say I love it.

I not only sew for my family, I have taken it a step further, I teach basic sewing and quilting classes. I know that if I can do it, anyone can. Plus I find it so satisfying, I want others to enjoy this hobby as well. There's no better way to get them into it, than to show just how easy it really is. I would like to share some advice for things that have helped me. The first piece, I sort of already mentioned. That piece of advice is find a quilt shop and develop a relationship there. The people at quilt shops likely 'think like you do' and usually understand when you have 'crazy' questions.

One of my other goals is to help others gain confidence in their sewing ability. Not everyone will hand piece and quilt a postage stamp quilt, but everyone after gaining a few basic skills can make and enjoy making quilts. There are many tools out there to help you along the way. I am a visual learner. Taking quilt classes is great way to learn. You can watch the teacher create the project, bounce ideas off the other students and so much more.

If a quilting class isn't something that you can get to, there's many other choices out there. One of my favorites is, You-tube. There are gobs of tutorials for many quilting techniques. One in particular that I like to go to is Missouri Star Quilt Company, MSQC you tube link  they have a channel and update with new videos weekly. The thing I really like about them is that you can go back and watch over and over.

There are many great quilt blogs out there as well. One of my favorites in Moda Bake Shop go here. While it looks like a blog, each and every entry is a 'free pattern' Most of the patterns on MBS showcase great ways to use Moda Fabric Company's 'precut' retail items. Precuts are another 'quick and easy' tool for beginning quilting. Moda offers precuts in several popular sizes, 'Charm Packs' contain 5 inch squares, 'Layer Cakes' have 10 inch squares, and 'Jelly Rolls' have 2.5 inch strips. Many MANY projects can be made using these great precut packets!

Another quick tool I really recommend that a beginning quilt invest in would be a rotary cutter, cutting mat and ruler. The speed that would will be able to cut out projects will amaze you. Sure you will need the basics like a sewing machine,basic tools, like scissors, pins, thread, seam ripper. You will also want to have on hand a good iron and ironing board.

These are just some of the few speed tools and I sure there are an million more. If you are interested, I generally teach a monthly class on a basic quilt that you can likely complete over a weekend. Let me know if you'd like to join our group.
Enjoying the sharing of a quilting post and wishing I was actually quilting, instead of merely talking about it,
From Tulip~
KH
:)

Tune In Tuesdays--Friends with Blogs

Generally on Tuesday I post something about a book or a movie or a song that I like and why. Well today, I decided to share three blogs that I follow. They are all three written by other Farming Women, like myself. We all are involved in varying degrees in our farm operation. We've all got kids and have developed quite a friendship. I thought you might enjoy a recent Facebook 'Conversation' we had:

I posted the following question:


You knew you were a farm wife when....................... (for those who grew up on a farm, it may not have been as obvious, but I thought it might be a fun question) For me, when my dad laughed at me when we (just him and I) were driving down the highway and I cranked my neck around to see what series tractor was being hauled on a semi going the other way................I can think of more, but I will add after the rest take a turn. :)


Laurie Link you get excited about new seed caps, jackets, sweatshirts that your husband brings home.

Kathy Hasekamp LOL, my husband sells seed, I get excited now about him getting them passed out and them not sitting around my house, but yeah, you've got the idea........... how about when the State Fair falls early (like this year for MO) and that means you get a few days between getting home and starting school? Wait that might be farm MOM more than farm WIFE........ LOL

Nicole Small More free magazines are delivered.to your mailbox than ones you pay for.

Kathy Hasekamp .............if you've served lunch off the tailgate of the truck, don't own a cooler, water jug or many coffee mugs that don't have a seed, chemical or equipment logo on them.......

Julie Vogts when early meant 8:00pm he would be home!

Kathy Hasekamp early is anytime before dark isn't it?

Nicole Small You have ever left in the middle of a meal for a livestock emergency...cattle are out, or a heifer needs help calving.

Kathy Hasekamp yeap, or didn't eat said meal until ridiculously late like midnight because of aforementioned emergency............... arriving late to school, church or other social function because of cattle OR of course having to leave early, same reason.........

Nicole Small You have pulled coveralls on over dress clothes so you could leave as soon
as the farmer is done with needing you.

Laurie Link You have washed in your washing machine pliers, pens, nails, rocks, beans, etc......

Kathy Hasekamp and clean as much straw or grain out of lint trap in dryer as you do actual lint.

Laurie Link Lol Kathy! Kids played on the hay yesterday and I am finding hay through the house!


You can imagine the fun conversations we have. Their blogs are great reading as well. Please go visit them and tell them Kathy sent ya!

Tales of a Kansas Farm Mom

Country LINKed

Between the Sunsets

Getting in a quick blog entry while puppy sleeps and knowing the rest of the week is BUSY,
From Tulip~
KH
:)