Bluebird Houses Made of Antique Rustic Barn Wood

We've enjoyed such success in attracting bluebirds with our own bluebird houses that we decided to offer them for sale as well.

Yet these lovely bird houses are not only useful, they are also beautiful being made from antique barn wood from our own farm. The wood has been weathered and grooved over many many decades. The old farm house on our property was built in 1910 so we suspect that the old barns are atleast as old, making this wood nearly 100 years old!

The pattern for making them came from the Missouri Department of Conservation.

The houses can be directly screwed onto a post outdoors or a picture hanger can be attached for hanging in your home as decoration.

If you prefer to have the bottom protuding wood pieces cut so that the bird house can sit flat on a mantle or shelf, please let us know and we will be happy to cut that for you. These houses are available for purchase in my etsy shop at www.belleadorn.etsy.com

Pony Riders at the party.

All the kids that wanted pony rides got to ride Grady the pony the day of Joey's graduation party. Joey graduated this summer, but we were so busy with the farm and other resposibilities it took until Nov.1 before we had time to celebrate. There were so many riders, but I have to pick the best 5 pics. It's too bad I didn't get any group pictures, because it's so hard to show everyone that was there.

Jacob was really good to help by walking Grady with a lead rope so everyone could ride.

We have several ponies for sale. Please contact me if you are interested. Tina @ belleadorn . com (remove spaces).

Latest Critter Catches ~ Bunny, Bull frog, Praying Mantis

My husband, Jim, caught all these critters over the last couple of weeks. He's so great about showing new things to the kids. Of course, Noah (being 3 years old), is enthralled with new things and especially new animals.
Keera is holding the wild bunny she named Fluffy. Fluffy scattered with her siblings as their nest was being mowed over. None were caught by the blades thankfully. She was big enough that we hope she was able to make or find a new nest.


This beautiful bright green praying mantis was surprisingly slow when we let him out of the mason jar. They are wonderful for eating undesirable pests in the garden, so all are welcome here. :)





Noah was very sad when his large bull frog hopped away with huge leaps. Isn't it gorgeous with it's beautiful spots underneath it's body and it's webbed hands and feet?! We suspect it was a female as we now have many little frogs all over the garden. Too bad the gardening season is pretty much over. Regardless, we always have frogs in our small ponds, evident by their loud croaking in the evenings. It's a welcome sound heralding the spring after a quiet long winter.

Best Old Fashioned Cucumber Relish Recipe

4 cups chopped, unpeeled cucumbers (about 4)

1 cup chopped green pepper (about 2)

½ cup chopped sweet red pepper (about 1)

3 cups chopped onion

3 cups chopped celery

¼ cup salt

3 ½ cup sugars

2 cups white vinegar

1 tablespoon celery seed

1 tablespoon mustard seed

Chop all vegetables with a food processor, place in plastic bowl and sprinkle with ¼ cup salt let stand 4 hours. Drain thoroughly in colander, squeeze with hand to get all liquid out of veg. Combine sugar, vinegar, celery seed and mustard seed. Bring to a boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Stir in drained vegetables. Simmer 10 minutes; add a few drops of green food color. Pack into jars to within ½ inch of top. Put on cap, screw brand firmly tight. Process in boiling water bath 10 minute. Yield: 5-6 pints.

This is another recipe from my mother in law, Doris. It is an old recipe from her old Ball canning book. It's not in any of my canning books and I could not find relish recipes anywhere on the web with celery. It's a wonderful recipe worth sharing and a great way to make use of all those cucumbers coming out of the garden. Enjoy!

The Best Salsa Recipe for Canning

30 tomatoes peeled and chopped
2 green bell peppers
2 red bell peppers
10 cups chopped onions
10 cloves garlic
4-5 yellow banana pepper or 1 cup chopped jalapenos
1/2-3/4 cup sugar
2 cups vinegar
8 teaspoons pickling salt
2 teaspoons black pepper
2 large cans tomato paste

Simmer 1 1/2 hr, stirring often, at the end of cooking time add 1/2 bunch of cilantro if desired.
Jar and process, 35 minutes for pint jars and 45 minutes for quart jars.
Makes 17 pints

Enjoy!

This recipe came from my mother in law, Doris. She got it from her Canadian friend Fran.

We use less sugar and more jalapenos. Either way it is delicious and a great way to make use of all those garden tomatoes.

We use this salsa in place of rotel for a cheese dip, also added to mashed avacados with lime juice for guacamole and my hispanic friends like to eat it on rice. And of course, it's used as a dip for tortilla chips or topping on other mexican dishes.

Baby Chicks Just Starting Out

This is how tiny our baby chicks were just a month ago. We ordered them from the cackle hatchery in Lebanon, Mo. http://www.cacklehatchery.com/ and picked them up from the post office early in the morning after the post office gave us a call to let us know they had arrived.

We got Aracaunas, New Hampshire Reds, Barred Rock Plymouths and two roosters called Partridge Rock, for their interesting colors. They've already grown quite a bit, so I'll post some current pics later.

This is how big they are now only after a month! The hens should be laying eggs by this fall.

How Does Our Garden Grow?

It's doing quite well with all the rain we've had. Our hay on the other hand is a whole other story. It was finally cut, but it has been rained on twice. My husband is turning it over. Hopefully it will dry out enough so it can be bailed up.

Butternut squash.

Corn.

watermelon or cantelope.......

Spring Activities on the Farm

We have had a lot of work on our small farm this spring. We are removing old fences in our west pasture in order to plow the meadows and grow some crops.

It's also been a challenge getting our garden planted as it has been so wet.

Some trees from the fence lines are now moved to our yard as well.

We have a new rooster that my sister brought to us. He's a beautiful Barred Rock Plymouth. She found it on Craig's list.

He was not getting along with another rooster at his previous farm. We had only hens before he came so he gets along just fine here.

For the first two nights though he went missing and we thought for sure he had not survived. But low and behold, he was with the ponies in the barnyard! I came to find out at his last home he was in a pen next to horses.

So he's our chicken horse...at least that's what he thinks. He's staying with the hens now and doing very well.

I taped my youngest son gathering eggs last week and quite a little ordeal with a hen that didn't want to move from her nest. She was pecking and squaking up a little tantrum like I've never seen our hens do before! Her name is Goldie and she is a Buff Orphington.