Category Archives: Farm Home

Mostly things about managing our busy, MUDDY(!), house and home, with a little bit about how we sit around on the porch and enjoy the flowers growing! {smile}

Key Topics: In the kitchen; kids and chores; cleaning; organizing and simplifying; crafting and creating; sending love; sewing; decorating and DIY; holidays; and flower gardening and porch sitting.

 

How to Have Real Food for Dinner on Crazy Busy Weeknights

Walking in High Cotton Posted on by 1

We have been in the midst of a very busy season around here. The kiddos have a summer full of family visits, sports practice, and fun camp experiences, against a background of our two full-time jobs and managing the homestead. I’d love to be able to say that eating a healthy dinner in the midst of all that running around is our number one priority, but can I be honest for a moment? Our #1 family wellness goal in this season has become just not eating fast food every night! … Continue Reading…

Easy DIY Luggage Tags

Walking in High Cotton Posted on by 7

As I wrote last week with our Summer Camp Packing lists (did you download your FREE copy?) our kiddos have been adventuring away from home a lot this summer. They visited my sister, my mother-in-law, and now church camp. This is Speedracer’s first year at church camp and we’ve developed several little rites of passage for the first year. One is that they get their first toiletry bag (or shaving kit bag for the boys) and one is that they get their personalized luggage tags. This is an easy and … Continue Reading…

A Simple Garden Gift Box Tutorial…Sending Love from the Garden

Walking in High Cotton Posted on by 6

It’s the season-of-many-cucumbers around here. And while we’ve already made cucumber sandwiches, cucumber cream cheese wraps, cucumber salsa, and now creamed cucumbers, there are still so. many. cucumbers. Also suddenly an abundance of green peppers, blackberries and raspberries, tomatoes, and parsley. (Why did we plant so much parsley?!?) Much like our sudden spring abundance of eggs, we like to use what we can, and then share the garden goodies. So we’ve been sending out boxes of fresh, backyard goodness to co-workers, family, and customers. Here’s a quick, easy, and frugal way to … Continue Reading…

How to Make a Great Outdoor Space for Summer Family Time

Walking in High Cotton Posted on by 2

I’ve written before about how hard it can be to leave the farm for a vacation in the summer time. So we staycation a lot. And honestly, that’s probably more liberal than it deserves. We “staycation” a lot in the summer. On Friday and Saturday evenings. On our own back porch. After working all day. {smile} We’re blessed that the farm provides everything one could need to get a little rest and relaxation without having to go anywhere at all! It can truly feel like a “family vacation” with very little … Continue Reading…

How to Use Google Calendar for Farm and Home Maintenance Records

Walking in High Cotton Posted on by 3

So, in the crazy-busy season of summer holidays and all the end-of-school “festivities” (annual testing, awards ceremonies, field days, summer camp registrations, etc.) I’m reminded again how glad I am that we’ve worked out a maintenance record-keeping system that is quick, easy, and efficient when I don’t have the time (or inclination) to go through the piles of paperwork that need filing in our home office. We’ve developed a system for using Google Calendar to track certain important information and events in our farm management–backed up by paper and digital records–so … Continue Reading…

8 Tips for Carefree Flower Beds for Busy Moms

Walking in High Cotton Posted on by 22

I love having beautiful flowers blooming all around the house in the spring and summer, but I’m no green thumb! And a lot of the DIY garden articles I love to read and google do not have the same definition of “low maintenance” or “easy-care” that I do! I don’t even bother with indoor plants anymore and I have a long history of killing outdoor plants by neglect. I just get too busy for all the weeding, trimming, deadheading, watering, splitting and replanting. Besides, our vegetable garden takes up most of … Continue Reading…

How to Steam Farm Fresh Eggs for Easy Peeling

Walking in High Cotton Posted on by 7

Have you ever had this happen? You buy a dozen beautiful, rainbow-colored, farm fresh eggs and can’t wait to eat them! You have visions of scrambled eggs, quiches, cakes, and a lovely tray of deviled eggs at the family picnic with those brilliant yellow yolks…NOPE. By the time you peel them, all you have left is the yolk! NOPE. By the time you peel them, all you have left is the yolk! Peeling fresh eggs is always a struggle, but peeling farm fresh, pasture-raised eggs can be a nightmare! Both the … Continue Reading…

How to Help Needy Families with Your Extra Eggs

Walking in High Cotton Posted on by 4

As I said on Monday, We have about 15 chickens in the chicken house right now and during peak egg season that amounts to about a dozen eggs a day! As we’ve downsized, marketing our eggs has been less of a priority and we’ve focused on using them up, or giving them away. Our last post talked about ways to save those eggs for your own family’s use. But farm fresh eggs can provide huge nutritional value to families that struggle to put food on the table! This post is about … Continue Reading…

Using Up Extra Eggs With Breakfast Freezer Cooking

Walking in High Cotton Posted on by 6

This time of year the chickens really get down to business and each hen start laying about two eggs every three days–not quite one egg a day. Egg laying is related to daylight hours, so longer daylight hours this time of years leads to the start of the spring egg glut. {smile} With 15 chickens in our chicken house right now, we get about a dozen eggs a day! Yes, we do sell eggs. But as we’ve downsized the farm, we have reduced our marketing time and focused more on self-reliance. … Continue Reading…

Lunch Gear When You Pack Every Day! {School Days Series}

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We’re getting ready to head into yet another school year in just a few weeks, and I know a lot of folks are already in school or full-on back-to-school mode. I’m still sorting and organizing to get us ready right now, and I thought this little {School Days} series might help any busy mommas new to the school scene–or frustrated because what they’re doing just isn’t working. In addition to managing clothes, chores, homework, and school supplies, there’s this whole time slot of our daily life that revolves around lunches. Yep, lunches. … Continue Reading…

When You Force Your Kids to Smile…Christmas Eve Pictures

Walking in High Cotton Posted on by 2

I make my kiddos take a lot of pictures. {smile} Sometimes they like it, and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they come out feeling a little forced… Sometimes I get the “eww…I’m not touching him!” Or I get fake smiles and James Bond {sigh}… And sometimes you just have to let them be who they are… And eventually you don’t get the “right” picture… But you get the best picture ever! Is that just kinda like life? Sometimes you just have to let it be what it is, and enjoy the … Continue Reading…

New Babies, New Jammies, New Year…the Daily Farm Adventures {96}

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As you may have seen on Facebook, we started off our Christmas holiday with a new calf on Christmas Eve morning! The Cowboy found him out there with his Momma while doing the morning chores. Molly is such a good momma that she’s never needed any help–and always has boys! Good for the freezer, but I wish she’d throw a heifer because we’d definitely keep her. Her calves also always start out such a lovely fawn brown, but eventually turn gray like our bull Chester. We spent the rest of … Continue Reading…

Spring Cleaning is Overwhelming (Here’s a Few Helps)…the Daily Farm Adventures {78}

Walking in High Cotton Posted on by 2

I’ve written before about all the Spring Cleaning we do around the farmyard. Well, this weekend I was busy with the traditional kind of spring cleaning. The house. Ugh! I’m not much of a cleaner, more of a straighten-upper–which I realize every time I start doing any deep cleaning. {sigh}So I made sure to take a lot of breaks to walk the dogs. And feed the dogs. And just watch the dogs. Did I mention taking a lot of breaks? Oh yes, and if you don’t follow us on Facebook, … Continue Reading…

Kids and Chores…5 Reasons Why We Don’t Give Allowance for Chores

Walking in High Cotton Posted on by 14

Our kiddo work. Hard. Every. Single. Day. And I’m not talking about making their beds or putting their toys away. They sweat, they haul. they dump, they drag, they scrub, they pull…you name it around here and they’ve probably put hands to doing it. And because we post so many pictures of outside work, sometimes folks ask if they do any inside chores. Oh yes, they do! They do laundry (every single step in the process!), load and unload the dishwasher, sweep the floors, empty the trash cans, dust, vacuum, … Continue Reading…

When Things Change…the Daily Farm Adventures {55}

Walking in High Cotton Posted on by 5

The Ladybug has been off at camp this week and it’s been just us and the boys. It’s made for an interesting change in the household dynamic, to say the least. {smile} We all miss her, but Speedracer really misses her. Monday evening the boys and I rounded up and penned the sheep. Then a red pick up truck rolled into the driveway with a stock rack on the back. They loaded up a couple sheep and a couple chickens and drove away. I may have cried. Just a little. … Continue Reading…