Tana is Thrilled
More snow photos coming soon. Need a bigger blizzard right now? You'll find links to lots more snowstorms here (scroll down past the playful pups). I've also just added the cute half to Tuesday's heart rock post, which was the whole reason for it in the first place, yet I somehow completely spaced it out until that crazy Sylvester kept walking into more photos this afternoon. And here I was hoping to be more organized and on top of things this year!
© Copyright 2010 FarmgirlFare.com, the three inches of snow covered foodie farm blog (which makes that white Christmas already seem like nothing) where the sheep have so much wool (or hair) to keep them warm in winter that they often choose to sleep outside during snowstorms, but you just get the sense that for some of them, this is definitely not their favorite time of year.
Drink Up!
Thank you all so much for another fabulous online year. This whole blogging thing continues to amaze and surprise and delight me. I just love it—and I love how many wonderful people I've 'met' from all over the world. Here's hoping to find even more time to share photos, stories, and recipes from my crazy country life with you next year!
Anything you'd like to see more (or less) of in the coming year? Do speak up! I'm constantly fine tuning what I post according to your feedback and am always open to ideas and suggestions.
Fine feathered friend fan? Flap over and end your year here:
2/14/06: 5pm and Looking for Love
7/21/06: And Sheeeeeeee's SAFE!
6/1/07: Whitey Gets Her Wish
6/5/07: I'm Just Wai-tin' On A Friend
6/17/07: Whitey and her Baby Chicks
6/19/07: Caution—Foodie Forming
8/2/07: Curious Chickie
8/3/07: Baby's First Perch
8/4/07: Baby's First Dust Bath
8/5/07: Mother As Landing Pad
8/9/07: Cock-a-doodle-doo!
8/26/07: Capturing a Quiet Moment
11/22/07: Enjoying A Feast
1/26/08: Faithful Chicken Guard?
3/6/08: Do Chickens Ever Smile?
4/5/08: Chicken Dance
4/9/08: Rooster Two-Step
4/20/08: 2008 Chick Days Are Here!
4/22/08: Who Needs Ducks?
4/24/08: Country Classifieds
5/6/08: Baby Cary Checks Out the Chickens
6/3/08: Chicken Snacks (Not a Recipe)
10/2/08: Gossip Central
10/11/08: Farm Fresh Eggs, They're What's For Breakfast
1/28/09: Snowed In! (scroll down for chickens)
2/11/09: Evie and Esmeralda Learn to Count
3/7/09: Cluck! Cluck! Cluck!
4/13/09: Chick Days Are Here Again!
6/12/09: Last One Born's a Rotten Egg!
6/14/09: Another Chick Pic
6/15/09: Pizza Party
8/23/09: Morning Peace
10/25/09: Egg Layers, the Next Generation
12/3/09: Look Up, Look Down
1/1/10: Little Guy with a Big Feathery Future
1/6/10: Easiest Guard Job Ever
1/18/10: Somebody's Laying Green Eggs
2/21/10: Two's Company
3/18/10: Chick Days Again?
4/5/10: Peep! Peep! Peep!
5/30/10: You Awake?
6/11/10: Just Hatchin' Out
6/15/10: Hangin' Out
6/23/10: Wordless Wednesday Dose of Cat and Chicken Cute
7/1/10: First Corn of the Season!
8/14/10: A Cheeky Chick
9/15/10: Um, Excuse Me
© Copyright 2009 FarmgirlFare.com, the no drinking and flying (and probably going to—yet again—fall asleep before midnight) foodie farm blog where in order to drink, chickens have to lean over and take in water through their beaks, then lift their heads and glug glug glug it down, then lean back over, lift and glug, lean back over, lift and glug. . . They're always amusing to watch, especially the baby chicks.
Not white enough for you? Bundle up and hunker down:
12/2/06: Snowstorms & Snowfall & Very Cold Hearts
12/3/06: Bear is on Alert No Matter What the Weather
12/4/06: I Said Show Business, Not Snow Business
12/5/06: Same Scene New View—My Favorite Hayfield Landscape
12/9/06: Molasses Ginger Spice Snaps Photo Shoot—The Whole Picture
2/3/07: Stock Dog Extraordinaire and Sheep Shearing Snow Delays
12/16/07: Winter, Take One
12/17/07: It's Never Too Cold for a Tummy Rub
2/3/08: Handyman Special
2/4/08: Saturday Was a Snow Day—And Doris Was Thrilled
2/12/08: Frozen Water Everywhere & Not a Drop To Drink
2/16/08: Snowed In, Day Six
2/19/08: Eco Art or Washed Up Junk?
2/20/08: Our Resident Weather Girls
2/21/08: Another Day, Another Ice Storm (Dan is Ecstatic)
2/23/08: Please Don't Step on My Heart
2/24/08: Snowed In More
2/25/08: A Rare Winter Sight—And Geese!
3/2/08: How Do Donkeys Order Lunch?
3/5/08: Seasonal Eating
1/28/09: Snowed In!
1/29/09: Lone But Not Alone
1/31/09: A Cold Breakfast Will Be Served in the South Pen
2/1/09: Moping Marta?
2/2/09: Icy Looks
2/4/09: Still Snowed In
2/4/09: Three Dog Sight
2/5/09: Daisy Off Duty
2/7/09: Being Watched
2/9/09: When Eating and Sleeping Schedules Collide
2/10/09: So Long, Snow
3/3/09: Little Beagle, Big Snowstorm
3/3/09: Just How Deep Was that Snow?
3/4/09: Food as Furniture
3/5/09: Last Snow Photo of the Season
12/25/09: It's White!
© Copyright 2009 FarmgirlFare.com the work hard, play hard foodie farm blog where the only thing better than watching two happy dogs romping around and wrestling together is watching them do it in freshly fallen snow. When my foodie mom—who is visiting from California for the holidays—saw the photo I'd put up as my computer desktop background (the 11th one above), she couldn't stop saying, "That picture of Bear and Daisy is so cute!" to which I replied, "That's why I couldn't stop at just one." Sometimes you simply have to post the whole series.
Also Known as Mamas-to-Be on a Mini Manure Mountain
Want to see more wooly wonders?
Sheep Photos 1
Sheep Photos 2
Sheep Photos 3
Sheep Photos 4
Sheep Photos 5
Sheep Photos 6
Sheep Photos 7
Sheep Photos 8
© Copyright 2009 FarmgirlFare.com, the high steppin' foodie farm blog where the fences are supposed to be taller than the sheep, but when I walked down to the barn this morning (yes—that's a corner of the new barn!), I found these two girls on top of a pile of bedding hay forked out of the barn during construction (sheep love to climp up on things) looking like they were planning to make a leap for it. Fortunately they decided to climb down and munch on some nice breakfast hay instead.
Lots more photos below. . .
Happy, Healthy, and Plenty to Eat—the Best Gift of All
Okay, So Maybe Some of Us Could Always Use More Treats
Little donations made in the name of friends and family can add up to a whole lot of help. In case you don't already have a favorite needy charity, I thought I'd share some of mine (besides our always struggling and overcrowded local animal shelter, of course, where we rescued Topaz, Sarah Kate, and Mr. Midnight last year). All of these worthy causes are dedicated to helping provide good food and lives for people and animals. Most of them offer gift ideas with some sort of 'interactive' opportunity.
Menu for Hope 6
The annual Menu for Hope fundraising raffle is going on now through December 31st. During the past five years, food bloggers from around the world have raised nearly $250,000 to help feed people around the world. This year all monies will go to the United Nations World Programme's Purchase for Progress program, which assists low-income farmers to raise crops and support their local economies.
For every $10 donated, you earn a virtual raffle ticket for any one of the dozens of fabulous food related prizes (seriously, they just keep getting more and more amazing). One year I bought a ticket for a gluten-free goodie basket from Shauna for a gluten-free friend, and she won!
Dorothy's Café at the Blue House of Hospitality
Kelli Martin Brew lives with her family in a house of hospitality in Gainesville, Florida, where, says Kelli, "Our particular mission is to get healthy, delicious food to folks who most need it. We usually bake around 36 loaves of bread a week for guests who come to our 'free café,' and for day laborers with whom we share breakfast each Friday at several local labor pools."
Kelli's whole wheat 'bread for the people,' as she calls is, is made from locally purchased organic ingredients and costs about $2.50 a loaf to produce. Why not creatively break bread with others for the holidays? Bake up a batch of Kelli's Pain aux Raisins Secs et Noisettes ou Pacanes recipe (Bread with Golden Raisins and Hazelnuts or Pecans) which she shared with us over at A Year in Bread, and give a homemade loaf to friends and loved ones, along with a note explaining how you also made a four loaf/$10 donation (or eight loaf/$20 donation) in their name to the Blue House of the Gainesville Catholic Worker. You can read more about their projects here and find support information here.
A Place to Bark. . . and Meow
Bernie Berlin is one of the most hardworking, kind hearted people on the planet. Each year she singlehandedly saves hundreds of homeless dogs and cats from being put to death through her non-profit rescue project, A Place to Bark and Meow—and also somehow finds the time to blog about it.
Bernie is desperately trying to finish building a new shelter for the dozens of animals always in her care, and now through December 31st, all tax-deductible donations will be matched by the Zoline Foundation. Donation information is here.
Kitchen Gardeners International
Kitchen Gardeners International is a 501c3 nonprofit organization founded in Maine, USA whose mission is to empower individuals, families, and communities to achieve greater levels of food self-reliance through the promotion of kitchen gardening, home cooking, and sustainable local food systems. Their network of friends and supporters now includes over 19,000 kitchen gardeners from 100 countries, with new ones signing up each week (it's free to join, so go sign up!). KGI led the successful campaign for an organic White House Kitchen Garden—which now has a 'First Hoophouse' to extend the growing season!
KGI coordinates International Kitchen Garden Day, publishes a free e-mail newsletter, offers all sorts of online educational resources, and has a partnership program to help small, community-based groups start or scale up kitchen garden projects. There's also a kitchen gardeners' forum where you can connect with kitchen gardeners around the world. Donation information is here.
The Wild Animal Sanctuary
Established in 1980, The Wild Animal Sanctuary is a 320-acre state and federally licensed zoological facility and 501c3 nonprofit organization located 30 miles northeast of Denver, Colorado. It's home to more than 200 rescured carnivores—who eat a lot. The Wild Animal Sanctuary's mission is to rescue and provide life-long homes for large exotic and endangered captive wild animals, and to educate the public about the causes of, and solutions to America's captive wildlife crisis.
There are all sorts of ways you can help The Wild Animal Sanctuary, including by adopting an animal (what a neat gift!) or shopping for unique gifts at their online store. If you're in the Denver area, you can even visit the sanctuary and see the animals.
Kiva
Kiva's mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty. This person-to-person micro-lending website provides microloans to unique entrepreneurs around the world. You decide who gets your loan money (I love supporting other sheep farmers), and you can reloan it over and over each time it's paid back. Learn more about what kiva is here and how their lending program works here. Printed and emailed kiva gift certificates are even available.
Farm Aid
Back in October, I was invited to attend the Farm Aid 2009 concert in St. Louis and do some live blogging for the FarmAid website. What an inspiring experience! (And of course the music was amazing.) Farm Aid is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to keep family farmers on their land.
Over the past 24 years, Farm Aid has raised nearly $36 million dollars to support programs that help farmers thrive, create and strengthen connections between farmers and eaters, take action to change the dominant system of industrial agriculture, and promote food from family farms.
Farm Aid’s mission is to build a vibrant, family farm-centered system of agriculture in America. Farm Aid artists and board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews host an annual concert to raise funds to support Farm Aid’s work with family farmers and to inspire people to choose family-farmed food, but donations are accepted throughout the year.
A Farm Aid membership makes a great gift, with or without some cool Farm Aid gear (a holiday sale with free shipping is going on now). Members can even watch this year's concert, along with past shows from Farm Aid's history. You can also take action here, learn more about the Farm Aid community here, connect to the land and each other at Homegrown.org, or follow Farm Aid on Twitter here. Or simply go text FARMER to 90999 on your cell phone to give $5 to Farm Aid and help keep family farmers on their land.
A great big thanks to all of you who have so generously given to these and other causes I've written about over the years. Wishing you a joyful, fulfilling, and delicious holiday season!© Copyright 2009 FarmgirlFare.com, the thankfully well fed foodie farm blog where everybody always has enough to eat—it's just that some critters think they're entitled to an endless supply of treats. But it can't be chocolate cake and organic carrots all the time now, can it?
Solstice Celebration?
Happy First Day of Winter!
© Copyright 2009 FarmgirlFare.com, the just passing through foodie farm blog where this feisty little wayward hunting hound (who is now safely back at home with the donkey peddling cowboy) was tied up on the bed of our old ton truck for her own good—she made the mistake of raiding Bear and Robin's dog dish on the kitchen porch at six o'clock in the morning, and they wanted to rip her throat out. Our beagle baby Robin may be 13 years old, but she's still up for a food fight.
Update: My apologies to anyone who was concerned by this photo. This hound is happy and healthy. Please see my comments below.
What Cold Weather?
© Copyright 2009 FarmgirlFare.com, the R-19 factor insulated foodie farm blog where wooly is wonderful, but even the Katahdin hair sheep (who look like this) are all fluffed up and extra huggable this time of year.
Heat Seeking Missile Molly Doodlebug on a Pile of Still Warm Jeans
I love my laundry line and use it all year round. Line dried clothes and sheets always smell so nice and fresh. And since our dryer only seems to have one heat setting these days—flame—using a clothesline not only saves electricity but severe disappointment as well. Who knew it was possible to shrink all your favorite t-shirts in one five minute stretch?
Around this time of year, though, my hardheaded determination to avoid the dryer means that a mountain range of dirty laundry starts slowly taking over the bedroom thanks to endless days of rain and/or snow and/or temperatures down in teens. There's nothing more disconcerting than a flannel bedsheet hanging frozen and stiff on the line (just ask my confused California foodie mom who is always willing to help whittle down that annoying laundry mountain when she visits, no matter what the season).
And while I'd rather let the laundry pile up and simply dress from the bottom of our clothing storage tubs (The Shack has a grand total of one little closet) than take a chance turning my favorite tees to size extra extra small, once in a while a pile of towels or Joe's jeans does emerge warm from the dryer—and The Doodle is on it faster than you can say snuggle up.
Want to see more of 4½ pound, 14-year-old Molly Doodlebug (who is, as always, purring on my lap as I type this)?
7/10/05: Meet Molly Doodlebug—aka The Doodle Monster
7/21/05: Warning—This Tea May Disrupt Your Sleep
9/3/05: Photoshoot Inspector
9/24/05: Window Washing
11/12/05: Cat in the Cookies
1/28/06: Weekend Cat Blogging
2/18/06: Herban Cat Crossing
4/1/06: Double Image
4/15/06: Cat in the Box
4/30/06: You Definitely Don't Want To Be on Her Bad Side
5/18/06: Big Day for a Little Lamb (scroll down to see Doodle)
7/1/06: Sharing Your Snack with a Lamb in the Living Room
9/10/06: Outside and Looking for Trouble
10/31/07: Happy Halloween!
1/7/08: Cute Things Come in Little Packages
9/1/09: Bright Light, Little Kitty
© Copyright 2009 FarmgirlFare.com, the washed and somehow eventually dried foodie farm blog where clothes can get pretty dirty, pretty quickly. I do my best to get out stains, but I'm not a miracle worker—and most of the time it doesn't matter. I can be freshly laundered head to toe and after five minutes outside you'd never know it. Joe says our laundry goes by the sniff test rather than the looks test: it may not look clean, but that's okay as long as it smells clean.
It's Gonna Be a Cold One Tonight
