Hurry up now with the fall cleanup!!
CHRISTMAS IS ONLY 63 DAYS AWAY!
That means asking Burn 'n Design to get started on all of your amazing, custom gifts! Surprise your people with a personalized keychain, a custom beanie or hat, or maybe even a sign that suits them perfectly. I've got you covered!
Hello and welcome back to another Funny Farm blog! Join in our excitement and let us entertain you for approximately 5 minutes. We hope you are doing well and have enjoyed these stories so far... You're welcome for them. lol!
So, let's start with the most important question... how did the youth hunt go? I hope yours (if you can hunt during this specific season haha) went just as well as ours! Long story short, we've got two deer in the freezer! Short story long, buckle up and enjoy!
It started on a windy day. This was the second time I was out hunting this year. My dad was with me, and we were being tossed by the wind. My deer stand was a quite nice set up on a trailer. Sturdy at that, but that wind was testing it for sure. After a few long hours of being out there, a deer came out of the same trail where I saw one during the prior hunt. I lifted my gun slowly, but this nice doe looked directly in my eyes and ran off. So, I figured that I would go sit elsewhere that had a better view of the said trail- that was 10 feet away from the regular stand.
As I was sitting out there, my dad, who was still in the actual stand, started this intense sign language towards me. I looked at him with extreme confusion and said "Dude, just text me." He was on his phone anyway. Soon my phone buzzed, dad told me that there were two deer in the corn- which I couldn't see. I snuck back, and it was a literal miracle that the deer didn't run away as I jumped back in the stand. I looked through the scope to see 2 deer having a nice dinner. Dad looked through the range finder, it was a 173 yard shot. I was like, "okay!" And I shot.... and the deer got spooked. "Shoot again. Shoot again!" Dad was saying urgently. I reloaded and shot. I couldn't tell if I got it or not, but dad laughed, "It did a summer sault."
I ran out of the stand asking if I had gotten it. Dad said that we would slowly go out there and that we would have to track it. Soon enough, we were down looking for blood. I had never gotten to experience tracking a deer before, I thought it was quite exciting. After about 5 minutes of searching, we found it! A nice doe. Right then, dad checked his phone to see a text message from Megan- "It's down."
Yep, 2 deer, in one night, less than 5 minutes apart from each other. Kinda crazy if you ask me. We spent the rest of the evening and next day processing the two. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch of venison and potatoes after that! Comment below if you had a successful hunt OR if you're waiting patiently now for archery or for rifle season!
You know what deer really like? Apples. Our tree grew so wonderful this year! If anyone has any apple recipes, please leave them in the comments, they will be greatly appreciated!
My recipe to you is simple yet delicious. It's the perfect snack to go about your day, for hunting, hiking, etc. Simply cut up as many apples are you'd like- for this, I used 8, I think. Add maple syrup, rolled oats, and cinnamon. Mix 'em, toss 'em, throw 'em on the dehydrator. Let them sit in the dehydrator for about 10 hours. See, easy peasy. Enjoy! Let us know if you make them.
Moving on, Fall clean-up is going well. How far along is our list, might you ask. We're not sure, we lost it sometime last week hahah. Just kidding, it's on our favorite chicken notepad and not a whole lot has been crossed off recently... It's okay, we've got to acclimate to the cold first, right?
The photo you may be questioning is simply Grandma Roxie in a tractor bucket picking apples. No need to worry, she got down safely.
Now, the segment you have all been waiting for... the one and only... Grandma Roxie!! What's she been up to lately? It truly depends on the day for the answer to that question. One thing we do know, she's a certified pyromaniac. (Not really, but close enough.) What is a pyromaniac? The definition is "an impulse control disorder in which individuals repeatedly fail to resist impulses to repeatedly start fires, to relieve tension or for instant gratification." Thank you, Wikipedia lol. This lady has ALWAYS loved to start fires, big fires. To list a few things that she has burnt: a stack of boxes (normal until it gets 20 feet high,) candles, (which unfortunately melted all over in her yard,) and a chair (a rocking chair, a large one, a very large rocking chair.) So yes, be cautious.
The other day we had- what we thought- was going to be an all-day project. It was a huge pile of old branches and wood that the summer storms had taken out. At approximately 9am the fire was lit; we were just getting started. Soon enough, it was as if she smelt the smoke, Grandma Roxie rolled in hot and ready to help. To make a long story short, the HUGE pile was 100% GONE by noon. We greatly appreciated her help, but we noticed a few extra burn marks afterwards...
Has anyone noticed that the month of October somehow flew by? Either way, this month means garden clean out, but it also means planting precious garlic! The goal is to have any garlic planted around mid October to give it enough time to get prepared for a long, cold winter. This is our 4th year of garlic. Side note: the first 2 years were extremely unsuccessful. So don't fret when your plants aren't growing! Just remember that great things take time and to have a bountiful harvest, lots of love and labor needs to be had.
Last year, we were able to score some hard-neck garlic bulbs for planting from North Circle Seeds (a great, local company) and man did we have an amazing year with that! This whole story could probably be a blog post in itself, including a photo of mom holding her braided garlic like a prize fish. (See photo below.) But alas, we had a very successful garlic harvest. The Funny Farm is hooked on garlic!
We used the fruits of our labor (AKA our harvested garlic) to plant 43 cloves that will hopefully be even more successful next season. A little garden prep, planting and then covering with fluff from our chicken coop over the summer will hopefully provide some necessary goodness for these future beauties.
What do they taste like? How big are the cloves? What's the flavor? Well, let us inform you, the cloves are HUGE and the flavor is SPECTACULAR. Stay tuned for our next blog where we will hopefully show you the coolest tool ever, specifically made for garlic, that makes our lives a lot easier.
Thank you, you wonderful and peculiar homesteaders, for reading this week's blog. Stay tuned, as always, for more. Every Wednesday. Comment below what YOU want to see. Any questions will be featured next week.
Until next time!
- The Funny Farm