A Trip Down Memory Lane

For this post I'll take you on a lovely trip down memory lane.. and a long trip it is! All the way down to Virginia and back. Actually twice. Us girls went down the end of August, and then Mom and Dad went down the next weekend. Following is a brief overview of our girls trip down to visit Josiah down at Polyface farm, where he was interning over the summer.

It was indeed a looong trip. 11 hours! We took my little car, Cubby, who was a champ going up hills... up big hills... up bigger hills... up mountains. Of course the best part was whizzing down the other side of the mountain (book reference not on purpose..) followed by Semi trucks and trying to stay out of their way!!

Finally after many curves and corn fields we arrived at Polyface farm!

It was wonderful to see "the boy" again! We made it in time for dinner, and had a wonderful time meeting all of Josiah's friends, eating a wonderful meal, and getting to listen to a talk by Joel Salatin. After dinner we headed back to Staunton (the nearest city) to rest up after our trip, and be prepared for the day of touring the farm with Josiah the next day!

The little motel we stayed at had a lovely garden in the courtyard. The owners were from India and he showed us some of his favorite plants from there that he was able to grow here.

It also had an elevator with Mirrors on both sides.... made for a unique view......

Driving to the Farm was always fun.. Lots of back roads, quick turns, beautiful scenery, roads just wide enough for wiggle room, but thin enough that you really hoped you didn't meet someone coming the other way. And then the road that the Farm was actually on, was dirt with some lovely potholes, but you didn't dare swerve to avoid them too much, cause the other side... 20-30 foot drop off! So much fun!!

This is the "Hunt camp" where the Guy interns lived. It actually is a very nice house, with a full kitchen, laundry, and a big loft room upstairs, and 2 smaller apartments on the side. Josiah got the reputation of being quite the cook while there. He made biscuits for the guys, pancakes, not to mention Jams and Jellys from fruits harvested mainly around the farm!

Please meet Mr..... Yep that's it. That's his name..  The Cat was Mister, and one of them had a dog named.... wait for it...

Girl.

After breakfast, made by the boy himself, he took us on a tour of the hub of the farm, through the store, the packaging room, the greenhouses etc. All the while he kept up an informative commentary. 

We spent a looong time at the outdoor butchering station looking at their set up, and discussing ways to implement certain things into ours back home.

We stopped by their enormous Brooders and talked to the thousands of little chicks scratching around inside. We also visited the starter pig pens, and got to walk through their cattle sorting "chute" (made after Temple Grandin's model).

One of our favorite places was the "Rakin" (Rabbit/Chicken housing) I mean just look at these little faces!!!! In fact when Josiah came home in October he actually brought home a pair of Salatin Apricot colored Rabbits for Faith to add to her "warren."

One of the many other things done at Polyface is harvesting lumber and planing it into boards. Josiah became the professional stacker while there.

After lunch Josiah took us up the mountain!! This was our mode of transportation. Faith and I got to ride in the back. It was quite the ride!

I don't know the exact point of elevation we got up to.. but I will tell you this. It was a loooooong way up! Along the way we saw Turkeys, the feather net for the chickens, the cows, their many pig pastures, as well as the multiple ponds they had dug for help in water control. It all was very fascinating and beautiful scenery.

We concluded the farm tour by visiting the broiler pens and sitting around in the grass discussing plans and ideas. Afterwards we went back to Staunton and visited the "Duck park," a delightful little place with a large pond full of waterfowl!

Dinner found us at an Intern favorite (though a first for Josiah.. he didn't take time to go out to eat much) New town Bakery, which had THE best Wood Fire cooked Pizza's ever!!!! We finished off the evening strolling down town and walking past it's many unique shops and restaurants and ended up at the Split Banana, a Gelato shop - Delicious.

The trip was wonderful, and the time spent with Josiah fabulous. But like all good things, it too came to an end.

We were able to go to church with Josiah and got to meet the Pastor and his wonderful wife and daughter, and ended up going to their home with the rest of the interns for dinner! 

After that it was homewards!! This time a lovely sunset accompanied part of our journey, and we arrived home late (well technically early).

And there is a little glimpse of what Josiah has been up to! I hope to get him to do a guest post with more details soon! We shall see.

~Chs

A Summer Birthday Party

 Since, it's kind of cold out I thought my first catch up post would be waay back in August. If you all can stretch your minds to that time when the sun didn't set till after 9, and it was "chilly" when the temperature dipped into the 50s, I'll share with you the Birthday party we did for the Oldest and Youngest in our family at the time ie. The Grandpa and Grandson. 

 I decided to go Farmer theme for the party. We had a fun time picking food that either resembled or had something to do with Farms and animals! :)

Everything from "Chicken Feed" to "Hay Bales" (the round variety) and a "Compost Pile" (also known as layered bean dip!!) 

Cheese & Quackers anyone?? :)

The chickies were probably the cutest thing there! 

Desserts consisted of "Piggy Mud Puddles" "Goat Pebbles" "Cow Pies" and cake. :) Doesn't that all sound delicious!! Farm humor.... they're all replicas of course. :)

A meal fit for a farmer! 

Hmmm... this farmer looks familiar! :) A mini Farmer Paul. Dad has been such a huge help around the farm. Originally a City guy, he loves animals, and being a former accountant is really good at remembering times and schedules.. so sometimes if it wasn't for him the animals might wait a little longer than normal for their meals! 

Celebrating 65 years and 1 year all together!

This little munchkin actually finished his first revolution around the sun on July 20th but his daddy was gone around that time, so we decided to wait till August 1st and combine the celebration with his Grandpa! He has become quite a smiley happy little fellow, and at this point of his life called everything "Doggy".

Birthday guests included Aunt Carmen and Uncle Tim, Mr. and Mrs. Eddy, and Shawn and Laura, Grace and Dad's Aunt Bev!! (Who we were thrilled was able to make it, as she hadn't been up to see our new farm yet!)

Opening presents is an exciting but daunting task when you're 1! So Auntie Grace helped out. 

We are so grateful for both the oldest and youngest (at the time) in our clan! That is a glimpse at our Summer party! Hopefully it warmed you up. ;)

~Chs

The Challenge

The Silence is broken... with a challenge.

Today we were reminiscing about our move last year, and to do so, we scanned through the blog. While there, Josiah noticed the extreme lack of posts this year, and was giving me a hard time about it! So I looked and saw how many posts I had done this year (I admit.. it's pitiful) and wondered out loud, if I could post enough in the next month to get 50 posts on this year. Josiah jumped on it. And we made a deal.. (he'll do something that I choose if I do get 50 posts by December 31st, and I'll do something he chose if I don't). 

So.. look out for a bunch of catch up posts in the next month! A lot went on with our family this year, and I'm hoping to share it all!!! Feel free to comment to encourage (or challenge/tease) me along!! :) I most likely will need it! 

With hopes of many future posts!

~Chs

Here!... and Gone Again...

 Since the brother is home now... I thought I should give a glimpse of the different times we were able to see him this summer, starting with his whirlwind visit back in August.

He arrived early Saturday (read around 4 AM) and then left around 1 after church Sunday afternoon. Yep.. not much time, but we enjoyed having him for even a little bit, and had fun showing him around the farm, and telling him all he had missed in the past 2 months.

Saying Hi to the Turkey-Lurkeys!

He helped us think through some different changes we could do as well, but more it was just good to spend time with him.

"Hello little Piggies!!"

Checking out the garden with Faith.

"Well Hello Miss Clara!!" Unfortunately we had to purchase both of our cows while Josiah was gone.. so we were all holding our collective breaths to find out just what he thought of our purchases.

Pheew!! Thankfully he was actually quite impressed with both of our Jerseys, and pronounced them "very nice cows!" 

Gabe (and his parents) came over to visit Saturday evening, which was fun, and Sunday afternoon after church, we hugged and waved goodbye to Josiah once again.

And there you have the here and gone again visit of Josiah. I promise to tell more about his time down in Virginia in the next (ish) post.

~Chs

Have a Cow

 Apparently I've started a new habit. Posting on this blog one solitary time a month... Pathetic I know. But don't have a cow, I'm desperately going to try to change that for this month!! (emphasis on the word "try") Because there is just too many awesome fun stuff that has happened both here on Liberty Oak Farm, and in the travels of the Sauve family, to not share! For instance... we do indeed "have a cow!" (and yes I promise that is the last time I will use that phrase in this post.. I already overused it I know...)

Please meet Clarabelle (mainly just called Clara) our first bovine acquisition. She is a 7-8 year old Jersey cow, or so we were told. She really is a big girl, and we're kind of suspicious of some Angus or meat cow somewhere back in her blood lines.

She is a super friendly, cow, a little bossy at times, but one of her best qualities, if you ask Faith is "she smells so good!" Yup. She says it all the time. Clara is not currently in milk. She was kind of a project, future investment cow. So, 

we got another one! And this one not only was in milk but came with a steer calf, whom Clara immediately tried to adopt; she's a very motherly animal. Rosie, and her (well not really hers.. but it's a long story) calf were a wonderful addition to our herd.

This is Rufus. At least that's what I call him. He came with the name Ribeye, and some of the less soft hearted people on this farm of ours actually call him that. There'll be plenty of time to get used to that idea when he's big and fat and pushy.. right now he is cute and little and his name is Rufus. 

His "mother" Rosie is one of the best Jersey Milk Cows out there!! Really. Don't argue. She is sweet and gentle, does well on grass, and isn't as mouthy and loud as her pasture-mate,

and gives around a gallon and a half of sweet creamy milk per milking. In case you're wondering that's 3 gallons a day, 21 gallons a week, 90 gallons in the month of September (and April, June and November) and 1095 gallons a year. Presuming of course she continually gives 3 gallons a day for the entire 365 days of the year. But that's probably way more than you ever cared to know! 

The dogs approve! 

After Rufus was old enough to separate from BOTH of his mothers, we rotated Clara and Rosie around our yard as movable, big brown lawn mowers and fertilizers all in one! Pretty awesome huh? :)

It also makes for some pretty interesting and unique photo ops.  

Oh, did I mention that Rosie was a wonderful milk cow?!? 

She ground ties!!! Like a rock! (well.... as long as your name is Faith, it's like a rock. Depending on her mood if you're someone else it might be more like an avalanche. :) No... she's pretty good!)

So there you go! That is our Cow venture. With all those gallons of milk flowing around we also have been making cheese and butter etc. But I don't have any photos of that. But I will say, Cheese Curds... simply amazing.

~Chs