A new year, new projects, new baby… new rhythm!

Hi there friends,

Sorry I didn’t write that much recently.  It has been pretty crazy around these parts.  Winter is our “slow” season, but getting to that point is very hard!  It seems like things just run faster and faster!  Thanksgiving comes, Pennsylvania Deer Season comes, Christmas, New Years and then boom we are suddenly halfway through January!  I’ve got plans for all the way through February!  By February I’ll be 6 months Pregnant with our 3^rd little boy!  YIKES! 

Things did “slow down” some around here.  Chores are much less for my husband, so he is home earlier in the evening and doesn’t have a lot to do in the mornings.  However, in a few days when our dairy cow has her calf chores will get much longer!  Milking her 2x a day and handling all that milk is a long process.  We are also in the process of building a butcher shop on the farm so that we can process our own meats!  This has been a dream of Pete’s for many years now, and we are finally doing it!  This will add another facet to all that we do here on Heritage Farm and change up what his “normal” days look like. 

This picture is actually from last winter... I'm sorry I don't have current ones. I'll get some!  

Micah with his"best friends" Lester and Dudley! 2015

Again, this is from last year!  Sorry!  2015

Winter on the farm is placid and quiet for the most part.  We move the chickens to the hoop house for their winter accommodations.  Feed and water are brought in to them by hand 2x a day.  The pigs are all warm and cozy in the barn for the winter.  The sheep are out in the pasture with the woods as their shelter from the wind.  They are out there with the donkeys and a few cows.  Princess Buttercup the Jersey Dairy cow is in the barn awaiting her new arrival!  The farm dog Reuben spends his days perched on the bench in the mudroom looking out at the white cold world around him.  He has little desire to go out in the frozen tundra.  It’s a whole different pace than May-November.  Everyone wants to keep warm and get through these next few months till spring comes again.  How we long for those warm day and green grass to run in. 

My boys!  Jan 2016

On the home front things have gotten into a nice winter routine so to speak.  Micah has started some preschool workbooks.  He is loving doing them.  Many days he’ll do a few pages in those books and spend the rest of the day playing with his toys with Patrick.  Patrick is starting to become less of a baby and more of a little boy.  He plays actively with his brother.  Watching them laugh with each other, play games with each other, wrestle with each other and read together is so touching.  Patrick imitates everything Micah does as any little brother would do.  Their personalities are very different tho.  I love just watching them express themselves in their own unique way.    Both of them are growing up so much.  We are excited and anxious to see what this new little boy will bring to our family.  Micah’s starting to understand that there’s a baby in mommy’s tummy.  Patrick still points to himself and says baby!  The new baby is sure to shake up the “routine” and establish a new one.  We praise the Lord for his gift of this new life.  I’m excited to see where He is leading us. 

My littlest reader!  Jan 2016

There are possibly some other new items on the horizon, and I’ll be sure to let you in on those as they progress! 

For now, enjoy the placid ness of the farm in winter!  J

Til next time

Tara

Fall 2015 is here

Fall is here and I’m getting ready to bake

Heritage Farm September 20, 2015.  Notice the faint leaves changing color in the woods?

Hi there friends.  Have the leaves started changing color where you are?  They started here.  I’ve posted a pic here in the blog of all the leaves starting to change.  The breeze is cooler and I’m here longing for summer to stay a bit longer.  I don’t want to have hoodies and stay bundled up… I love shorts and sunshine and warm breezes.  Tis the season tho.  Summer is by far our busiest time of year here on the farm and I’m starting to be ready for that part to slow down.  We have 3 more weeks of processing chickens and then 2 weeks of turkeys and poultry for the 2015 season will come to a close.  That is a major HORRAY here!  I love what we do, raising our food in the way that God designed it to be raised, but I’m ready for slower paces and new plans.

Pie Pumpkins we grew to be supplemental Pig Food!

Micah and Patrick

This fall/winter my goal is to be able to supplement our winter income of frozen meats and eggs with the Heritage Homemade baking.  I bake lots of breads and cinnamon rolls for our farmers markets throughout the summer time.  Fridays are a mad house in the baking kitchen.  There’s breads rising, baking and cinnamon rolls waiting to be iced! All those markets come to a close at the end of October and that’s when I’ll transition to full steam ahead baking for my Etsy shop and our Buying Clubs. I’m excited to see where God takes this and so happy to get the opportunity to stay home with my little ones and still earn income for our family.  I’ve got all sorts of plans for cookie trays, pies, brownies and other goodies I’ll make fresh for folks and deliver right to them!  I’m so excited.  If it doesn’t pan out as I hope, I’ll probably go get a part time job somewhere in town and work till spring.  I hope that isn’t the case though.  I’ll miss out on so much time with my boys when I can be teaching Micah more letters and numbers and cuddles with Patrick!  (I know many mom's don't have this choice like I do.  I am blessed to be able to do this, and I don't take it for granted.) We shall see.  God is good and He is my provider. 

I’d like to ask you my reader a question.  We as the farmers know all the facets that go into each piece of meat and each egg we produce.  From how much grass and hay the animal eats, to how much time it takes to wash each egg by hand, to how much each egg carton costs us.  Would you, the consumer like to know what goes into each item you buy from us, or some of them?  I wonder if you’d like to know why our chicken breast is $11.75/lb compared to what you can find it for at the Walmart, how much we actually earn profit on each dozen of eggs we sell.  I never want you to think we’d be complaining.  We do this because we know this is where God has called us to be.  We do this for Him.  Not for us.  But farming isn’t always a wealth making career choice.  Its hard work and long days, but you feel good about what you’ve done most days.  So what do you think?  Would that help you understand your food better?  Is that something you’d like to know about?  Please comment here or on my facebook page.  Thanks friends for being my friend.

Tara Burns

Down along the Clarion River

Princess Buttercup says HI!!!

Hay Widow. One of the few, the proud and the tired.

Hay widow-hood. It's long days, quick meals, and going crazy with my two little boys sometimes.  With the super wet summer we had this year, June was a total wash out. As a farmer this is really not good. We need to get our hay made in good time so that it has time to re grow and either be cut again or grazed by the animals.  The other problem with it not getting made when it is ready is that it starts to die standing in the field. The nutritional quality of it is diminished to almost nothing.   This causes them to have problems breeding and growing.  So you can see if the hay isn’t made in good time it causes major ripples for us. We need over 200 bales and so far we have about 80 some done.

I know this needs done.  I married Pete knowing this would be apart of our life. It doesn't make me like it anymore.  It makes for such long days.  Pete somedays even takes lunch with him so he doesn't get to come home for lunch and he is on that tractor till dark or later.  Dinners are late and the littles are crawling the walls! I love that when he is home they cling to him like glue so I can wrap up those final details and have a moment of reprieve knowing that they are fine with daddy. 

Saturday at the farmers market was a rough day.  Praise the Lord for our intern PJ.  He practically had to run our table by himself because I had a one year old who really doesn't like the idea of hanging out in his pack n play.  Micah loved visiting our neighbor vendor, and climbing on the coolers. Patrick wanted to crawl around the parking lot and eat rocks.  That's not ok little one! We would place him down on the table and he thought it was so fun to roll glass jars of jam!  No!  How about squishing the fresh baked breads? No!  Oh Patrick!  He is my little trouble maker but I love him dearly.  Soon I know he will be able to sit still and play with his toys like Micah, but for right now, nope.  The over riding part I have not mentioned that all moms will empathize with is that they are tired!  My boys are both sleepers. They don't usually get up until 8am each day.  When they don't get enough to sleep it makes for a really bad whiney day! Clingy whiney and just miserable!  Plus needing to go potty every 20 minutes!  Yeah, I can't tell you much about the business yesterday, but I can tell you about my littles!  I do treasure these days because I know they won't last long.  It just is hard to treasure when they are climbing on you and whining intensely

! 

The hardest part though comes on Sundays in hay season. Those tend to be the only day the weather cooperates with Pete this year.  Pete has to skip church so he can get it made.  He has church with just him and God on the tractor.  And those are the days when I can't get through a song during worship without having to tell Patrick to not lean over my arm to get away, tell Micah to stand when we stand, to tell Patrick he may not pull my earrings and he may not pull on my clothing.  Prayers when Micah is telling me to close my eyes but I can't because if I do who knows what Patrick will do!  Keeping Micah to stand when we stand and sit on the bench when we sit. Sundays are tough.  I so want to focus on the beautiful songs the worship team has picked and just rest in God’s presence but it is a rough start.

I thank the Lord that we have worked with Micah and he knows what is expected of him. He sits quietly during service and reads his books. He sings when we sing and other than getting fidgety sometimes and being a typical 3 year old, he is a great little one. Patrick is still too young to know what we do at church. We are working on it.

Until next time…

Tara