Gotta love the Snow!

Cranberry Acre in the snow!

Cranberry Acre woke this morning to 8 inches of snow and this time it's the fun snow. The past few snows we have had were not fun ones. Either too cold to be outside or it was not packing snow, but still we had fun.

On a few of those snow storms the kids were able to go sled riding. On this day Ms. Lady Hawk got to join in the fun. It was very cute to see this bird hanging out with her kids. Lady Hawk had fun! 

After her sled riding she was invited into the house to enjoy a warm fire and a snack of some scratch, while the kids had cocoa.

On those negative degree days we had our first ordeal with a frozen pipe. Now we have had cold days but nothing like this. I believe on the frozen pipe day it was -13 with the wind chill and our tub drain froze. Now we were lucky that it wasn't a busted pipe and no water but still it was a all day process of boiling hot water in the tub and a plunger, plus a hairdryer. 

Dingo tried his best to help daddy but seemed to have gotten more in the way then truly helping, but he tried.

I have been working on the new Harvest Apron during the snow storms and am starting a new kitchen apron for this years collection. I will say I haven't been in there as much as I would like, but with all the driveway clearing and entertaining kids, there hasn't been as much time as I thought!

This snow storm today was pretty.

Kids and the dog are having a blast. Now everyone else was waiting for me to shovel out paths so they could come out and play.

When the goats finally came out this morning and we went out to feed everyone. We were greeted by a lame goat.

Since we did not get the edition up for the barn I still do not have any stalls, so what we called the nursery for the chickens we rearranged to make it a stall for Luther to keep him confined. This morning before a cup of coffee was able to be finished was moving cages and cleaning stalls. We soaked his foot with Epsom salts and then trimmed the hooves to see if there was a problem with any of them. No punctures but his ankle was a little warm so we shot him in the bum with some penicillin and have him in his own day spa. You would think he would be happy but he is not. The only happiness was the fact he got an extra amount of grain.

His mother JoJo, came out earlier this morning before I got to shovel and seemed to enjoy the peace. I know her feeling, kids have been out of school now for almost 2 weeks, peace is nice.

The Barn Yard Bullies, Bella and Sparkles refused to come out until I shoveled them a path. Can we say spoiled?

Ms. Chocolate came out and she actually didn't mind the snow at all. The rest of the flock has taken refuge in the hayloft.

Ms. Coal, was having a great morning until she decided to take on a snow pile and got herself stuck. She then paraded herself back into the barn and under a heat lamp. I have not seen her come out yet.

Mr. Dingo and his girl, Ayla. I can't tell you how sweet of a friendship they have, but hopefully this picture shows you just a little. This little dog has been a great addition to our family. Even if Mr. Bayne is crossing his toes that we change our minds.

I will leave you with one very upset duck! Ms. Lovey is not happy, her night, night pen now has a goat in it. She hates the snow and proceeded to have an argument with the goat, but he had nothing to say to her, so she went in the hay loft. I am going to set her up with a new comfy spot tonight with the chickens, but I know she will try to argue with me about this also.

Everyone stay warm and stay safe. Spring will be here soon and I will be able to share the new design of the garden as Cranberry Acre is ever changing to make things improved from the lessons we have learned from last year!

Happiness

A Blind Duck in a Tub

I haven't been on here in weeks. The farm is at a slow point of just trying to maintain and survive the cold. I believe everyone is doing that right now. I spend my Winter months catching up on projects in the sewing room and getting new designs ready for the new season. I took a moment today to make a critter on the farm very happy. Ms. Lovey duck the past few days has been not as happy, so I decided to cheer her up a little. Her Spring during the Winter becomes a mud pit and I do not want to disturb the mud, because we have a lot of salamanders Wintering in it. What do you do to make a blind duck happy? Well kill to birds with one stone!

You give a duck a bath and clean your bathroom at the same time!

She had gotten so dirty playing in the mud and looked so pitiful, so I decided a detail cleaning of the bathroom was in order and the duck was going in the tub.

She has turned the bathroom into a mess, but what a happy duck!

She has been swimming now for about a half an hour and is just loving it. The little things in life give us the best rewards. If a duck could smile I think she would.

The New Year has begun!

Happy 2015

First I do hope everyone had a great time during the Holidays with family and friends.

Our "Elf on a Shelf" I guess gave us good reviews because we had an awesome Christmas. Our "Reindeer in the barn" also must have told Santa that they were good because they got some very special presents too.

Two days before Christmas we gave ourselves the greatest gift, Dingo.

Since the loss of Corona, I thought as a family we were good without a dog, but I was finding myself looking for Corona during my long days in the sewing room. The house was so empty, I found myself on PetFinder, looking at first and then I decided to adopt! We tried with at least 4 dogs but for whatever reason they were no longer available. I thought we were to close to Christmas for a Rescue to make a decision to allow us to adopt but I was wrong. I saw him and had already decided that if this didn't work then I was done looking until next year. 

Dingo arrived 2 days before Christmas and there was no doubt in my mind when he greeted us that he was going to be a part of our family. He is very smart, very loving and a smart ass by every means, so it really works.  He has been a great addition to the family and has brought adventure along with love. A home is just not a home to me when there is no dog to be found. 

Christmas morning brought a surprise, I think the goats thought it to be a Christmas miracle.

My sister and her husband dropped off a roll of hay for the goats and the whole barnyard was so overjoyed with it. Even the chickens slept in it and played in it. 

It had to be one of the funniest things to watch this Christmas. 

At the beginning of the year my children suffered a very tragic loss. One of my son's guinea pigs, Ms. Poka  was found dead one night. It is hard to loose a pet but to loose one without any warnings is hard for me to handle, but for them, it was very hard.  My son had raised her since she had been born and she died before her parents. No words can be said to make a grieving child feel better, was a hard thing for us all to endure. Life at times seems so unfair. One thing learned from all of this is the lesson of how we should all take the time to be with the ones we love and quit making excuses. Our children unfortunately had to learn the hard way but understand it now. 

The 62 Shasta Astrodome!

Some know that I had plans last year to find an older camper and turn it into a store, well my wonderful neighbor had a gift for me. Ms. Ruby gave me this old camper with a title, to me. 

She is very rough, but she was free and came from a very wonderful, dear friend. I'm so happy, it's Wayne's worse nightmare, but in a few years she will look better than now.

I will be taking a lot of pictures and believe that I will also start a separate page so people can follow in the renovations that will be happening.

I absolutely have fallen in love with the wheels. they are so cool. Can not wait to polish them up to see their true beauty.

Inside has some surprises that have survived also.

This lamp is electric but.....

This is an old propane light.

Love that this survived and all 3 tables have also survived without getting any water damage. 

Most of the stuff will have to be gutted and replaced, but that is fine. 

This will be one of my biggest adventures for this year. It will take  time to get everything where it needs to be but, she is mine!! My goal is to try and do this by myself with little to know help, we will see how this goes. 

The New Year for Cranberry Acre will be exciting and hard, but it is just another step for our little one acre farm. Plans for 2015:

- Get the milking stall built and a birthing room

- gut the camper

- Cranberry Acre will be at new shows along with the same ones from the last year.

-Getting organized is the big thing this year. 

- Smaller family garden 

- Concentrate on more canning and freezing.

More demo's on the Blog

As I said it will be an exciting year and we will see how well I stay on the goal list!

Happy 2015 everyone, it will be a great year!

The Holidays

The Holidays

Hello everyone. with the Holidays upon us, I'm finding it very hard to keep up with a Blog at this time, so I have decided during the month of December, that I will take a break. I do hope you all have a great Holiday and come back to the Blog in January to see what we are up to.

Merry Christmas !!!

From Cranberry Acre.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving

I know it's a day early, but wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving before we all get to busy to say it. It seems like it came faster than last year, but I believe we feel this way every year when the Holidays come.

Today we awoke to snow! The kids have no school so we are all getting ready for Turkey day. All the animals are hiding in the barn. Except.....

Ms. Lovey Duck. Who I believe actually likes to play in the snow. She waddles around and flaps her wins and wiggles her little tail. The rest of the animals on Cranberry Acre thinks she is off her rocker, but I think it is absolutely wonderful. 

Pure joy when everyone else is frowning.... that is just simply great.

My new up cycled Christmas Tree! I'm so proud of this one. I didn't think it would be possible but we did it and the best part..

It lights up from the inside of the bowls! I may try this again in the future but what a bear this was.

HOMEMADE CRANBERRY SAUCE

This is so easy to make and tastes so much better than coming out of a can in my opinion.

You will need:

1 bag of fresh cranberries

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of water

This recipe takes only about 5 min. to prepare. First you add everything to a pan.

Now you want this mixture to boil but not burn. I usually set my stove to right below a boiling temp when doing this.

when it starts to boil, stir the mixture every once in awhile to make sure nothing is sticking. Now for the fun part ( at least for me and the kids) watching the berries POP !

Yes they will pop and this usually takes right around 4 to 5 min to pop every berry.

Remove from heat and let cool. 

You then will put in a bowl and let it chill.

You now have fresh cranberry sauce!

Everyone have a safe and happy Thanksgiving from everyone here on 

Cranberry acre. 

Been a long a busy three weeks!

I know it's been a long time for me to write a Blog and I apologize for that. things here seem to get ahead of me around Halloween through the Holiday Season. As it does for almost everyone else. we had a great Halloween, or I should say we tried to do the best we could with what the weather gave us on Halloween.

My little trooper decided rain or snow she was going to go Trick or Treating so we went. Puss in Boots was quit wet by the end of the night but she did it! We started to get snow around 4 in the morning on Nov 1st. What a mess! Was not prepared for almost 4 inches of snow and we were rushing around to get animals situated and clean snow off of everything, get paths stomped down so goats and chickens had a way to the water.

We are now in the Season of burning a wood stove almost every day now. Mr. Bayne is very happy for this and spends most of his days in front of the wood stove. We have finally gotten all the wood in the shed but not all of it's cut. Like I said we are so behind and I think this Winter is already here despite what the calendar says.

We have woken up most mornings with a light coat of frost on almost everything. So we have been feeding hay earlier than what we had hoped too. I guess we never truly know what Mother Nature has in store for us really. 

"Mom please turn on the heat, it's cold out here"

This is my babies first Winter temperatures and they have not been happy with it all. They will follow me to the gate every morning, I think in hopes that they could go back inside again. A friend sent me a link to make chicken coats. I may do it, even for a gag gift to the girls, how fun would that be.

Even with the cold we are getting the prettiest little eggs off of our girls. they seem to be happy enough to lay eggs.

Larry and Curly do not move from this perch until almost noon. They scream and tell me of the discomfort of the cold, but never come down until the sun hits the front door.

During one of our really cold spells, my husband and I finished the 1/2 gallon Christmas tree. I'm so proud of this, just so pretty.

The water heater works great! Even when the ice is about 2 inches thick in the morning, in about 15 mins the ice is almost gone. It has been a life saver so far. Now that it has been getting very cold at night, Ms. Pico gets to enjoy her nights in the laundry room. She is so happy to be in again.

Mr. Pitiful. He hates the cold and he like the guineas, refuses to come out until the sun hits the steps of the barn.  Maybe a coat this year for baby boy. I am making him a Christmas jacket for the parade in Independence, he is going to be one of Santa's elves for the Farmer's Market!

Ms. Griffin and goat Yoga!

We had a pretty day last week and the girls decided that it would be a great time to break ground! For what I do not know but they worked hard all day to turn the earth down by my Willow tree.

Ms. Pico and Midgey decided it was way to much work and they spent the day enjoying the sun on the steps of the barn. I always get a smile to see two different species getting along like this, just a small moment of peace in the world, but I'll take it.

Ms. Griffin also took the day to just lay in the sun, but not before she gathered the squash to sit on. She was so tired she didn't want anymore to eat, so she piled them up under herself for later. Silly goat.

We have a new baby on Cranberry Acre. Her name is Kiwi and she comes to us from a very dear friend, who had hatched her and her sisters, but unfortunately her sisters are no more. Kiwi has adjusted to her new home and has found her own place here on the farm, as the watcher alarm system for the barn. She wakes up every morning and gets to her spot on the Medicine cabinet in the barn. She sees everything and will alarm if she feels that there is an issue. Love her to death, all you can do is laugh at her. 

Due to the Holiday Seasons coming up, I will be writing when I have time to sit and share. So it may be a bit, I apologize for the inconsistency of it all, just hard pressed for time at the moment with everything coming so fast.  

Everyone be careful with all the beginning of the Holiday madness that is beginning soon. 

Be safe!