Best Chocolate Chip Cookies!

 Each Christmas I set aside one day to bake.  This is a day that I can focus on something that I love to do and put aside all of the aggravations of every day life.   It also guarantees that I will not be covered in poop like other days on the farm.  I promise I changed these clothes before I started baking.  (Notice the subtle cow manure pinstripe on this outfit.)

Today, I am still in my running pants, a sweatshirt, and my hair in a ponytail; while Sarah Katherine is watching Toy Story 3 and tasting whatever I make her eat. 

I am going to go ahead and apologize to any neighbors or extended family for their gifts not being fat free. It is bad when you leave the grocery store with 5 boxes of butter, 2 bags of flour, 3 bags of sugar, 3 bags of chocolate chips, vanilla, and baking chocolate. 

Here is my holiday treat menu:

*PW's Cinnamon Rolls (these are so wonderful!)

*PW's Chocolate Sheet Cake

*Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

*Lia's Butter Toffee 

I am very loyal to the "The Pioneer Woman" because everything that I make of hers is always FABULOUS!(just ask my husband about Marlboro Man Sandwiches-nothing to do with cigarettes) Today, I had felt like I was cheating on the Pioneer Woman because I found the BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE recipe ever! Granted, it was her fault because I followed her link to "Where Women Cook" Magazine and found the link to this recipe.  Here are these beautiful creations:

 The secret to these cookies is the vanilla sugar, but since I don't live near a gourmet super market, I made vanilla sugar the night before. Just take 2 cups of sugar and add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Mix them together and then put on a baking sheet and let it sit for 5 hours. (I let mine sit out overnight). 

 It was a good thing that I was giving these away for the holidays because I could have eaten them all at one sitting, along with the dough!

Go and make these for your closest friends and family or just for yourself. These cookies make about 4 dozen cookies. 

Keeping Warm for Winter

There is nothing better on a cold night then sitting in front of the fire and having a good drink to warm you up.  We have a wood stove that we use to warm our house instead of the central heat.  In order to do this, we have to put up a lot of wood, and I mean A LOT of wood!

Lions, tigers and pears, oh my!

I love my daughter.  After thirty minutes of fencing this morning she decided she wanted to go look for tigers and bears?!?  I have no idea.  Actually,  I wasn't doing a very good job of watching her and as I heard a horrible scream I ran around the corner of the barn to see her screaming her head off as she chased a chicken who did not want to be held.

Anyway, this search for "tigers and bears" ended up at the hog pen to visit Hamlet where she informed me that Hamlet loves "bears".  I still don't know how I made the connection, but I finally did.  Our neighbor had kept Sarah Katherine one afternoon and they had fed the pigs pears off of their tree so now that is something that she likes to do with the pigs.  So, I finally understood that she was wanting "pears" instead of "bears".  Here is a picture of her feeding hamlet her "bears"!  Probably one of the best mornings I have had in a LONG time.  I still have no idea what "tigers" could be code for.

That's a lot of bull......I mean cow!

Our first grass fed beef finally ended up at the processing facility!  She almost loaded herself on the trailer.  Every time until now this has been to move her to new pasture.  Danielle helped me back it up to the loading dock while Sarah Katherine snoozed in the truck.

This was the long alleyway that lead to the are where the animals go to be processed.  I couldn't help recalling a scene from the movie the Green Mile and whispering to myself, "Dead Cow Walking" as we moved her down the lane to her pen.  Sorry, it's just the way my mind works.

               

One last look as we close the door to her pen.  She has spent 14 good months living on the farm with no traveling on tractor trailers to put her closer to feed and being on dirt in a feedlot with 200,000 other head of cattle.  She has spent her days grazing and lounging in the sun with plenty of grass and fresh water.  I know that if I were a cow I would definitely choose the latter of the two scenarios.  

Breaking Out

What a trip!  I bought my first 80 acres when I was 22 years old and 3 days out of college.  After being turned down by dozens of banks I contacted the Farm Service Agency.  The agent was great and very understanding.  After I had built a farm plan, and done the necessary paperwork I had my first farm.  I still remember my hand shaking when I signed the papers!  

Why are we doing this?

One of the first questions that everyone asks is "Why are you doing a CSA?"  We have operated a profitable beef operation for several years and with our careers our time is very limited.  So why would we want to start a production system that stands to be less profitable and more labor intensive.  The answer is very simple... our daughter.  

This little piggy went to . . . . Clear Creek Farm Part 2

I almost rolled out of my chair laughing at supper as my wife told of her swine odyssey!  I have read part one of her story and unless your computer has an odor feature that would have allowed you to smell how bad she stunk then i think it is tough to get a solid idea of how bad it was.  After several minutes of laughing I realized that she was not laughing with me and I stopped and asked her if she wanted to try again.  She said she wanted to give me a chance to have some fun.  So, I found a sucker.....I mean a friend to ride down to Augusta.  We took our cattle trailer and some muck boots and figured we were good to go.

What is wrong with this picture?

So, as I was trying to do the "Sunday Shuffle" of making breakfast, feeding animals, bathing Sarah Katherine, and get everyone's clothes ready for church, I walked out to witness this . . . .

Do you see what a wonderful guard dog Josie is? Let me show you a closer look

She just laid there and let that cow belly up to the buffet! She wasn't alarmed at this enormous creature eating all of the chicken's feed right next to her. Lord help us if we have a real emergency! You got to love her!

Cattle Drive

We move groups of 50 to 75 cattle every couple of days with our rotational grazing program, but it was a whole new experience with our bottle calf Clover.  As Clover grew out of his original pen my wife constructed another pen that was in a better location and much larger.  Now it was time to move the calf.  Seemed easy enough.  Unfortunately Clover didn’t want to leave his old home

From the bottle to the pasture

This adventure of mine started a few days after St. Patrick's day in '09.  I had gone over to another property to check on heifers. When I arrived I counted all of the cows and their calves. As I was combing the edge of the property, I found this small calf on the other side of the fence.  I carried this calf and put in on the right side of the fence.  Much to my dismay, this baby didn't have a mommy. His mommy passed a couple of days earlier and all of the other cows shunned him. Being a mother and veterinarian, I couldn't leave this baby to fend for itself and hope that another cow would adopt him . . . .

The little piggy went to . . . . Clear Creek Farms: Part 1

Craigslist came through once again!  We have been searching for some Spot pigs for several months and found some about an hour down the road.  Craigslist is the ultimate tool for good deals and shopping locally.  

Spots are known for their great muscling, mothering ability and temperament.  They are also a heritage breed which is something we were interested in.  Heritage breeds are the non-traditional breeds that the factory farms did not use in their design.  If individual farms choose not to use these breeds then the breeding pool will continue to dwindle and possibly cause the breed to cease to exist.

Clear Creek Farm Supply

I truly believe everyone should shop locally.  Large department stores are choking out the little man.  I don’t understand why people will drive past local hardware and small mom and pop stores to save a nickel on a product only to spend more on fuel!  The number one way to decrease your carbon footprint is to decrease the amount of fossil fuels you use.  So, that means we all should make an effort to drive less and this means shopping in our own communitites.  Whew!  Let me climb down off that soapbox and let you know about our latest venture.  

Burt, one of our faithful customers, discussing the "news" of the town and farming

Hide and Seek

My favorite part of being a farmer’s wife is to go and “check” cows to see if they are all there.  If there is one missing, then it usually means that she is off having a calf. When this happens, there is a rush of adrenaline for the thought of new life and then the game is on!

Building Fences

We worked on finishing up the fencing for the hog pasture today and our little girl was there every step of the way. She loves to be outside and “working” with her daddy.