Well as you can see, it's been awhile since we have done an update.

     We now have a bunch of new calves. Since "Patty" (3/17/09) was born we have had 4 heifers and 3 bulls born. The calves' names, in order of birth, are Baby (H-10/12/09), Kobe (B-2/25/10), Kerry (H-3/9/10), Eddy AKA Houdini (B-5/4/10), Liberty (H-9/11/10), Samantha (H-1/7/11), and Yoco (B-2/20/11). Eddy is our "escape artist" even an electric fence doesn't bother him. We always find him in on our yard eating the grass.   Keko and Touille (our 2 older bull calves) were butchered in April 2010. We shared the meat with our daughter and her family. Half Pint, our other bull calf, we discovered in the field dead during the winter of 2009.

     Our grandson, Blake, is 7 1/2 and in second grade. Our granddaughter, Kylee, is 3 1/2 and a ball of energy. They have started skiing this year. Our daughter is still managing the local Subway store, and our son-in-law works for the local lumberyard.

     We raised turkeys this summer and boy did we raise them right! We ended up with a 39 lb. tom and 3 hens that weight 21, 24 and 30 lbs. We had the tom for Thanksgiving and was that fun. Had to buy a bigger pan to cook him in , he just fit into the oven. The hens went into the freezer for use at a later date. By the way, we did the butchering ourselves with the help of a friend. 

      This is our 2nd year running the church Community Dinners. It runs from the beginning of November and end at the end of March. The dinners are put on once a week and go on no matter the weather conditions. We serve about 60 meals a week.

      We are getting ready to start our 3rd year of maple sugaring (syrup). We have increased our yield as we have gotten better doing the sugaring. We had 10 taps last year (2010) and hope to do 20 this year (2011). We have become spoiled and don't like "store bought" syrup anymore.

     We are, also, getting ready for the summer Farmers Markets this year. Hope to add a market to our list of markets. John started selling his woodworking toys and cutting board to our setup for the market along with my jams. I make about 35 different flavors of jams & jellies depending on the season.

     Over the winter, John has been adding to the run-in for the cows. The cows don't mind the weather. The breed, Dexter, are very comfortable in the cold weather, they only need a place out of the wind.
 
     We are discussing trying to raise pigs next, and where to put their housing. Should be exciting for us. We are becoming "farmers" learning to raise and butcher our small animals on our hobby farm.