Cooking Chili on the wood stove... Our first power outage of the winter, at least we have heat!
Mamma, Jay, Santa (Papa)
Jay's new bike (witha horn)- What a Happy Christmas
Jay playing with gifts at grandmas.
A day in my life. For all farmers their regimen differs... each to their own. 
Pre- Trick or Treat @ EMS Station(above). Carved pumpkin. (below) 
Below Jay helping me work on my truck in the shop.
Kyle and Chris came to the farm for youth gun season. Kyle shot a doe. Chris and I saw many deer, maybe we'll get 'em next time.
Below is pictures of processing the deer ( Yes we do it ourselves (year #5 for self butchering)). Kenny and Jay working hard grinding meat. We can usually process in about 2-3 hours total, with help. This saves us $50-$100 dollars; per deer. Note: Cayla and I have to buy no license per OH law because we are land owners; so no $ invested in license either. Cheap, Tasty, healthy, lean meat. Oh, how I look forward to Sloppy Does. (Does...Joes, LOL!)
First of all Concord Boy turned the big #2 last week, wow he's growing fast! On another note- The Homesteading Today (HT) 2010 Calenders are in print. As you may know the photos in the calender are voted on by HT members. See this link for more info on HT: http://concordmeadowsfarm.blogspot.com/2009/10/2010-homesteading-today-calender.html . Photos of our farm were chosen for two months: July and December. The calenders are for sale here (Paypal accepted) : http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=330759 . 
The hogs are doing very well, growing well. Below is a photo me building their new hog house which is on skids so it can be pulled by a tractor to rotation graze. 
Here is a photo of the new house in the pig pen (1/2 of our garden) where the pigs are harvesting the garden leftovers. And turning the soil. Below Jay watching his pigs (they're names are "Bacon"- that what he calls them).
Here is one of the calves which are being weaned in the barn and is currently for sale.
This past week we travelled to S.C. to watch my grandparents renew thier 60th Wedding vows. What a great time had by all. Here are some photos. Congrats Grandma and Grandpa on 60 years of marriage!!
On Sunday we visited Slate Run Historical Farm- run by Metro Parks. It is a fully functioning 1880's farm in Canal Winchester, OH. The farm is very activity filled with much to see. Please check out this link: http://friendsofslaterunfarm.org/home . What an outlook of the primitive ways of farming a century ago. As you can see Jay loved every minute!
Our son, covered in a dust of corn and soybean meal that he was supposed to feed to the pigs (not throw, LOL!) But he had fun, as you can see above. Below is a photo of our tractor. Concord Mommy took this picture or she would be in it too. It has worked well so far, and will be a great asset to the farm.
We have also been working on putting more firewood inside the wood shed and cleaning out the other half of teh shed for the tractor (to be parked out of weather). Monday morning was first of many firewood cutting parties to be had through the winter. The parties usal consist of myself, Matt and Andrew. We cut, split and load all 3 of our trucks with wood; many hands make the work go fast.
The Jeffries family has a great blog that I regularly follow. They raise pastured, naturally grown pork and sell locally in Vermont. Please follow this link to check out their Blog: http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/ .. As you may know we too raise pork and are striving for pastured, naturally and humanely raised also. In the near future I will be posting links to other blogs and sites that participate and promote local agriculture. 
A neat little list of farm facts from Farm and Dairy Newspaper. I think one the most interesting facts is: "It takes 40 days for the average American to earn enough money to pay for a year’s supply of food. It takes 129 days to earn enough money to pay a year’s worth of federal, state and local taxes." Follow link to read facts: http://www.farmanddairy.com/lighter-side/did-you-know
Above is the newest addition to CMF. Recently we have been in the market for a 50-70 HP tractor. On Wedsnesday we test drove and made a deal on this tractor. It is a 1966 Massey Ferguson 175 Diesel, 63 HP with 3 point and remote hydraulics ( It will do everything I currently and in the future will need). This is big enough to pull my haybine (mower), and disk and plow. It is going to be delivered on Tuesday or Wednesday. We are very excited. 
The camp set up, our camper.
Cayla Cooking on the fire
Family Campfire photo
Fresh Beets anybody? What a worker
Jay loved the rides at the Athens County Fair.
Ok, were tired now. LOL. Jay and I catching quality zzzzzz's.
Jay playing on his toy "trac-sher" wearing my old work hat. He has so much fun on that tractor, it has seen and will see many more miles.
Here my wife worked on brush hogging the pasture which has been grazed early on in season, but before weeds go to seed and spread, we mow, to stop the seed spread and help pasture growth. What a great job she did!
Fence is an ongoing project. This will keep our bull Travis from wandering to the neighboring farm when their cows are in heat. The light weight electric that shocks @ 4,500 volts did nothing to stop him 4 times this week, thankfully they're understanding and very helpful. We have finally finished the east side of the perimeter fence; it has been built in stages. It consisits of 4 strand barb wire and cow panels for gates. Big thanks to Kyle for his help!!!
This is our newest family investment: a pop-up camper. We are so excited to use it, we have planned to camp the first weekend of August. 
Times are busy as always! Since we are both working off them farm jobs and around the farm, days are long. Good news: all puppies have new homes; the garden is filling with fresh veggies (above picture) and we are late yet again splitting firewood but we have some done. There has been massive amounts of hay baled, stored and sold this season- possibly one for the record books. Everyone is doing well. Jay is growing by the day, its unbelievable; he got a pet Ki-Cat (kitten) for the garage/ barn/ outdoors... Mouse catcher... would be great for the feed storage area. Both calves are doing well putting on weight. adapting the pasture life.
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