There's Gold In The Walls
August 30, 2008 By
While Michael was busy doing the farmers market, I was a bit bored. The shop was slow, and the gardens were all set for the day. So,??I decided to see what was behind the plywood walls in the kitchen. I took the crowbar , and gently lifted it from the wall. When I pulled it back, there it was…gold. [Read more...]
Winding Down
August 29, 2008 By
As the season here on the farm winds down, it gives us time to start projects that we were too busy for during the summer season. We decided to continue work on back dating the kitchen to the 1940′s. We had started in the spring by ripping out some unwanted cabinets, but we never got around to tearing out the rest of them. We ordered the wallpaper and paint. We will begin painting and papering tomorrow.
Down One Chicken
August 28, 2008 By
As the 1965 hit song, Turn, Turn, Turn, by The Byrds played in the background, we killed out first chicken. Wes, our “chicken expert”, helped us out with each step of the whole process of dressing a bird properly.
After getting it all processed, in the oven it went. A couple hours later, we ate the most delicious chicken we had ever eaten. It was nice to know that the food we were eating was totally organic, had not been fed antibiotics and other chemicals. It had a good life, free ranging on our farm, and was now giving back to us.
Working On The Pantry
August 25, 2008 By
Today I will start working on the pantry. The ceiling has been fixed, and it is time to start the painting. The ceiling is original to the building. The plasterer we had fix the ceiling dates the ceiling to the late 1700′s or early 1800′s. Since we are trying to keep the house as “original” as we can, we have had a tough job in choosing colors for the pantry. The ceiling now is a dirty gray color. After all it is 200 years old.
Three of the walls have the original reddish milk paint. We have been trying to match the red, but have found it almost impossible to attain the right color. We will keep the two end walls original, and paint one wall??a mustardy yellow, and then age it. The last wall will be taken up by an 1800′s pantry cupboard. The wall around the cupboard is still being debated. Many of the historical houses we have visited at Strawbery Banke have a similar mustary color in the??kitchens of that era.
Geraldine
August 23, 2008 By
We are in the process now of looking into buying a couple of goats. We??have been doing??our homework. It is important to know all about the animals before you purchase them. We want to make sure it is the right fit into our farm. We want goats for the milk. We can use the milk to make cheese, and also use it in some of my herbal products. Of course, we would have the milk for yogurt and just to drink as well. Possibly to sell as well.
The first goat we buy will be called Geraldine. This name came from a British sitcom of the late 1970′s called The Good Life (Netflix.com). It is about a couple who give it all up to attain a self sufficiency lifestyle. It is kind of ironic that we stumbled onto this show right after us deciding to do the same thing.
Move Over Sparky
August 23, 2008 By
We have ordered 25 more hens. They will be arriving around September 25. Now the task at hand is to build a hen house. The “old” birds will go in the hen house, while the coop they are in now will serve as a chick house. Once the chicks are old enough, they will be integrated into the rest of the flock. The small coop will become the “love nest” for the mating pair. This will give us a flock of 49 hens, and one rooster. Plus, one “rare exotic chicken for ordering now”. Not sure what it will be, but from the pictures on the catalog, it should be pretty intersting looking. We plan on incubating the old fashioned way of letting the hen sit on the eggs. We figure??it is senseless and a waste of money to go out??and buy all sorts of expensive incubator equipment, when Mother Nature provided us with one already. By January, we should be getting 49 eggs or so a day. At this point, we are not sure how many new chicks we will have by then.
Before and After Haircut
August 22, 2008 By
House and Garden Tour
August 2, 2008 By
This year, Cloverleaf Farm was happily part of The House and Garden Tour sponsored by the Friends of the Effingham Library.
We spiffied up a bit, donned our best 1860′s day??outfits, and showed people around the house and grounds. Most enjoyed the different time frames that we have each room decorated in. Some of the older folks in town were delighted, because they had never been inside past the kitchen.
We got to tour just a couple of the other homes, and are looking forward to seeing more of them in the future.
Joan did a wonderful job putting it all together, and we thank her for giving us the chance to show off all of our hard work on the house.
