Garden goodness

Posted on August 7, 2017 by Molly

My garden is a veritable jungle! We’ve had so much rain, and I’ve been so inattentive and absent that the weeds got a little agressive. But, I’m still getting a lot of produce out of it and that’s what matters! I’ll deal with the weeds another time. After all, tomorrow is another day! Tomatoes are just starting to come in! Whatever the hornworms leave for me, anyway! This first batch will be for salsa! Too bad I forgot to grow cilantro..again. I don’t think it would like this heat, anyway. Lots of cucumbers for pickles and snacks. I’m happy to share some with Jeremie’s mom. She is sick, and this is one thing she can enjoy still! This is the first time I’ve grown purple hull peas. I though they would climb the trellis, but it turns out they only grow to be about 18″-2′ high. Makes for easy picking! And it’s so much fun to shell them! We’ve been canning a lot of green beans. All the kids like to have canned green beans in the winter time. And, Oh! These sunflowers! They make my heart happy! So tall and bright and cheery.

Another project in the works

Posted on August 5, 2017 by Molly

Putting up this extremely tall pole had this mama worried. I had visions of it going up then falling over and dooowwwn onto Tommy who was pulling it with straps from the other side. The reason I was worried is because it wasn’t quite in the hole, Jeremie was expecting it to slide into the hole, once it got more upright. What is this huge post for? What are your guesses?

Volleyball

Posted on August 3, 2017 by Molly

The kids have a volleyball net set up in the front yard and boy, it’s seen some use this summer! It’s a great game for all the kids to play, no matter how good or short or aggressive or tall or fast or slow they are. It’s not to strenuous, and it’s especially fun in the cool of the evenings. I’ve captured some fun action shots of previous games.

Posted on August 1, 2017 by Molly

Chillaxin’ in the pool.

Pickled garlic

Posted on July 30, 2017 by Molly

Pickled Garlic
1# fresh garlic
1C red wine vinegar
1C water
1TBSP pickling salt
Water bath for 10 minutes

Come take a walk

Posted on July 28, 2017 by Molly

Come take a walk with me around the farm!

Benja loves to pick cukes!

Those are some monster onions, Jack!

Sweet flowers, sweeter girl!

Gloria loves to throw corn to the chickens!

Picking the last of the strawberries. Popping them in their mouths!

Feeding mama’s baby Americauna chicks. They should be laying soon!

Sunflowers for my boy with a sunny disposition.

Say what?

Posted on July 26, 2017 by Molly

Scoby leather! Yeah, I was a bit skeptical at first, too. But really, it’s delicious! I have all these extra scobys from making continuous brew kombucha and I hated to just throw them to the pigs. So after fishing a scoby out of my brew, I chopped it up into small pieces. It was rather difficult to cut through. Slimy and tough. Then I whizzed it up in my blender with a bit of ‘booch to make it go ’round. It took a bit of time to get all that blended smooth.Then I added some agave nectar (or you could use honey) and strawberries. Whiz again and spread on dehydrator sheets. You could also make this on a silpat in the oven set on low. When it was drying it smelled delicious! Like over ripe berries warmed from the sun! And it tastes sticky and sweet, just like real fruit leather!

Reunion

Posted on July 24, 2017 by Molly

Originally we planned to have the Schultz family reunion up in Wisconsin at Jeremie’s sister’s house. But because Jeremie’s mom was hospitalized at the last minute, everyone decided to come to Tennessee instead. Yeah! For not having to drive the big camper up Hwy 57 through construction! And all those cousins and aunts and uncles were so fun to have at the farm! Everyone tag teamed for food prep and clean up and visiting with Grandma Schultz, since she was too weak to come over. Jeremie ran like a little energizer bunny, running games, setting things up, swimming with the kids, catching up with his sibs. So many cousins…there are 27 grandkids in all. The oldest one couldn’t make it, with his new wife. But what a sight to see all the family singing and playing praise to Jesus during worship on Sunday! We do this every other year. I know it’s hard for people to work out school schedules and work vacations but we all leave thinking we should do this more often!

Disaster on the homestead

Posted on July 22, 2017 by Molly

Ugh! Sometimes you work, and work, and work and things still don’t go right. We are hosting a large family gathering here and Jeremie wanted to smoke a hog for them all to enjoy. Poor guy had been working hard all day in the hot sun on projects that needed to be done around the farm. It was close to midnight when he got around to slaughtering the hog. Then is needed to be scraped and gutted and smoked. Something happened during the night becuase he woke me up at 4am to say, “there isn’t any hog.” What a disaster! Grease from the hog had dripped onto the fire, causing the carcass to burn instead of smoke. This is result. Charred. What a waste.

Summer fun!

Posted on July 20, 2017 by Molly

Here at the Funny Farm we try to be intentional with our time. We do A LOT of work. But we also enjoy A LOT of fun. I think that’s why are kids are such cheerful workers. They realize we all do it together and then we all have fun together. We also believe in teaching life skills to all the kids. And we start ’em out young, lol! While they are working on a project that will result in hours of fun family time, it hardly seems like work or learning, but it is! Measure once, cut twice!

JM Funny Farm

A day in the life of two lunatic farmers