Miles Away Farm Blog

Spring. Squeeee!

March 13, 2014 in Animals, Farm Life | 1 comment

Garlic is UP!

You know, I’ve lived in a lot of different climates, from the ‘over 100 degrees for 5 months of the year’ Arizona desert to the ‘barely a 100 day growing season’ of 7,000 ft Colorado to the balmy languid growing season of Northern California. And no matter where you live, spring can not come fast enough. I’ve been pacing like a large cat in a small cage for weeks, waiting for sunshine and temperatures out of the 40’s. And it’s finally arrived. And it’s not even the middle of March! Read the rest of this entry »

Awesome Easy Key Lime Pie

February 20, 2014 in Baking, Meals | Tags: key lime, key lime pie, lemon pie, lime pie | 2 comments

The speckled eggs are turkey eggs. Yum.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a recipe, but we made this last night, so I thought I would share.

Now you all know that I’m pretty much a “from scratch” girl. If I can make it myself, I generally do, from mustard to yogurt to soap. But sometimes a simple recipe comes along using a processed ingredient, and it rocks so much that you just refuse to hang your head in shame and instead fight your husband for the last piece. This, my friends, is one of those recipes. If you buy the crust premade and used canned whipped cream, this is a five, count ’em, five ingredient recipe. Read the rest of this entry »

Go Big or Go Home?

February 7, 2014 in Farm Business | Tags: American Blackbelly sheep, Bourbon Red Turkey, farm size, the Bean, WSFMA | 3 comments

Hard to believe this baby is only a month old. “Am I big enough yet”?

I just returned from the Washington State Farmers Market Association conference in Vancouver Washington. It was a great opportunity to talk to other farmers and market managers, find out what the latest Department of Ag rule changes are (take home message: don’t put anything in a clam shell or a sealed bag, including twist ties – unless you have a food processor license, because doing so makes it “ready to eat”), and most importantly, get away from the farm for a few days. Bless my husband for feeding everyone (including the Bean), collecting eggs, and generally holding down the fort. Read the rest of this entry »

Seven Down, Four to Go

January 29, 2014 in Animals | 1 comment

Ginger, with Beulah, (a girl!) born on the 27th.

We have 9 baby lambs on the ground, from 7 mamas. Only two sets of twins this year, but a better ratio of males to females (4 girls, 5 boys vs last year’s 3 girls and 10 boys). We have one more older sheep, Sin, to go (she was the last one to give birth last spring too). And then we have the three girls that were born last spring, who should also be pregnant. They should be giving birth in late February, at the earliest. Read the rest of this entry »

Da Bean

January 19, 2014 in Animals | Tags: American Blackbelly sheep, bottle baby, lamb | 6 comments

Just born. If I saw the ground looking like this, I’d figure there wasn’t enough to eat too. Not sure which one is nursing here. We DO think she fed him for the first day or so.

The title of this post is in honor of all the football playoffs happening today. As in “Da Bears”. This is Bean. As in Little Bean. As in Beanie Weenie. As in the cutest little sheep baby you’ve ever seen. On January 8th, Wallula gave birth to twins, one girl and one boy. The boy was the smaller of the two. At first, everything seemed fine. But after a day or so, we started to see her push him out of the way when he tried to nurse. We put her and the babies in a stall for a couple of days, and secured her head so the little boy could eat 3 or 4 times a day. But she still wasn’t interested in him. Read the rest of this entry »

New Year, New Babies

January 6, 2014 in Animals | Tags: American Blackbelly sheep, babies | 1 comment

Newly minted. You can still see the umbilical cord.

On December 28th, we were finally going to make a trek up to Spokane to see my husband’s mom. We were out feeding critters in the early morning before we left, and I look over and see four new little feet. Maggie, one of our American Blackbelly/Soay sheep, has had a baby, and its a boy! We weren’t expecting any babies until late January. Surprise!

Penned up and safe. Shortly after this picture was taken, I watched this little guy make a nest in the hay and lay down. How’s that for instincts!

Read the rest of this entry »

The Holidays

December 23, 2013 in Farm Life | Tags: christmas, Scrooge | 1 comment

Rossi, Gideon and I, overlooking the Columbia River a few days ago.

I’ve never been a religious person, in any kind of traditional organized way. My religious views could best be described as Secular Humanist. I believe that people are capable of morality and ethics without the threat of an all-seeing, all-judging God to keep us on the straight and narrow. In fact, I think when we can choose this path without the fear of reprisal from a deity pointing a finger, we are much the better for it. I believe that human kindness (to animals, to each other, to ourselves, to the earth) is the most powerful force in the universe. I believe that there is power beyond ourselves, and that we are sometimes able to tap into it to profound effect. But celebrating the birth of Jesus, rampant consumerism and obligatory gift giving…not so much. Read the rest of this entry »

Warm and Toasty

December 13, 2013 in Farm Life | Tags: Norm Lewellen, Rossi, wood stove | 1 comment

So, in the last few weeks, we’ve gone from an old, outdated, not EPA compliant and down right ugly wood stove to a new, modern, Washington State and EPA compliant gorgeous wood stove.

Read the rest of this entry »

Soaping Newbies – 12 Common Questions

December 6, 2013 in Health | Tags: beginning soap making advice, soap | 4 comments

For those of you who aren’t soap makers, my apologies for this long post. But I’ve included some pretty pictures of soap to look at, in lieu of cute animal pictures.

Note: Edited December 24, 2020 to update links and screen shot of SoapCalc. Edited April 2018 to add a couple of new links and fix a few typos. I’ve been making my own soap since 2005. In 2011 I started to sell soap at farmer’s markets. I belong or have belonged to several soap making forums that field a lot of questions from people who are new to soap making. After the gateway skills of learning to bake bread, make your own yogurt, and make your own granola, homemade soap is often the next step in your homesteading evolution. Know what goes into your soap and onto your body? Check. Avoid ingredients that you don’t understand and can’t pronounce? Check. Make a product you can feel good about your family using? Check. Make products to help with skin issues? Check. Make inexpensive gifts for friends and family? Check. Use up all of that lard/tallow from your wild harvested deer or elk or bear, or your own butchered goat or cow or pig? Check. Read the rest of this entry »

Gobble Gobble

November 29, 2013 in Animals, Harvesting | Tags: Bourbon Red Turkey, harvesting turkeys, heritage turkey | 5 comments

I had not planned to end up with 13 turkeys this year. My intention was to raise 3 for ourselves, sell any extra as babies, and then butcher 3 in the fall for our own use, leaving 3 to carry over into next year. So I incubated a batch of eggs in April and thought I was good to go. The girls, Gracie-mae and Peggy-sue, had other ideas. They kept starting nest and brooding, and brooding, and brooding. I did sell a few, and we lost a few to predation, but we ended up with 13 mostly grown turkeys by the time Thanksgiving rolled around. Read the rest of this entry »