Happy Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

We love Halloween here on Cranberry Acre. Has been one of our favorite holidays to celebrate. Everyone is getting in the mood for dress up. Even ......

Mr. Luther has taken part in the celebration.I couldn't get him to cackle, but his Mom was laughing.

This past week I was busy with my children's Halloween Costumes. Ayla has decided to be Puss in Boots.

I think she may sleep in it after Halloween. She says it is so fluffy and warm. 

We spent the afternoon on Sunday carving pumpkins, since we have so many to carve.

Wyatt of course picked a rather meaty pumpkin to carve. Not sure of the type of pumpkin it was, but it would have made a great soup! 

 The finished product was a very happy pumpkin and my son's Sumo wrestler!

We have moved the goats to the Winter, Spring field on our one acre farm. They were so happy to get a hold of that pasture, that everyone had tummy aches from eating all day.

My fluffy little boy with his fat belly!

We have started with the winter prep also. This year we decided to try out this heating element in the water bucket. We have been for many years, wrapping the water bucket with a heating element wire then having to put up a huge guard around it so the goats wouldn't eat the wire. It was a pain to put together and then take a part in the Spring, so we are trying this.

Goats still do not know what to make of it but they love the steps and play on them all day. Takes a goat to turn it into a game or a child. 

With putting the goats in the 2nd pasture, we had to come up with a plan on keeping the barn wood we have collected goat poop free until we use it in the spring. Wayne made a fence to try and keep the little monsters off of it. It doesn't keep the chickens out but the goats, at least for  now, are off of it. I believe we have just set up a challenge for our furry little friends and they will also conquer this very soon.

My garden still has Kale in it. We have had a couple of freezes but this hardy plant is still growing. I think Italian sausage soup is on the menu!!!

Not the best picture but last night the moon had this eerie glow to it. I have never been able to master the nighttime shots. I think maybe this Winter I need to sit down and get to know my camera a little more so I can take better shots. It was so pretty.

My girls seem to be into everything lately. This is the Hospital cage that they complain about every time they have to go in it, but when on their own terms, are in it all day!! Kinda like children.

This is Ms. Chocolate. This bird has this look all the time and when you enter the pasture, be prepared to be followed by this bird,with this look. Always angry and grumpy. Plus she hates the cat.

She stays pretty close to the cat and when the cat's feet touch the ground......Chocolate is there to make sure she takes her furry butt out of the pasture.

Crazy bird!

Since the goats are in the winter pasture, Ms. Pico is able to sit under the dryer vent when it is chilly. She couldn't do this at all last year because this was Griffin's spot. She is a happy cat! Soon Ms. Pico will spend her nights in the Laundry room. Just to cold for the old cat to stay in the barn, she is now 12 yeas old, so she comes in for the Winter.

Larry and Curly, what can I say? They hate the cold and are in protest over the temperatures in the past few days. They stay in the coop after all the girls are out and wait for the sun to come through their window. Then it takes probably at least another half an hour or so to even make it outside, but they do complain the whole time about it. Clowns of our barnyard.

I'm starting as of today with adding stuff to my Etsy store and also if you are local, the Independence Farmer's Market web site ( http://independencefarmersmarket.locallygrown.net/market ) for their Winter Market. I will have eggs available for the Winter Market also since the girls are laying now. 

Christmas craft shows are staring and as much as I hate pushing the Holiday, I am having to start with the Christmas sewing. Here is a sneak peek of the Burlap Christmas stockings. I'm loving the Burlap this year, now that I have figured out how to work it.

I leave you today with the girls gathering at their own Watering Hole. I love my girls!

Everyone have a Safe and Happy Halloween !

It's 40 degrees !!

Cold nights and cool mornings

 It is getting to be that time of year again. It seems just like yesterday that we quit using our wood stove for heat, but here we are again. We had started a fire a few weeks ago, but the past few nights we have had one almost every night to get the chill out of the house. I haven't even gotten all the wood into the wood shed yet and we are burning wood, such is life I guess. 

The kids and I decided that the Guinea Pigs needed their baths and since we have had so much rain it, was a good time to do such a thing. You would think washing a Guinea Pig would be pretty simple, but no. They need special bath soaps so their skin doesn't rash and to top it off you blow dry them. Yes I said blow dry a Guinea Pig! I don't even blow dry my hair and I am blow drying a Guinea Pig. So Mr. Guinea 

and 

Mr. Dumbo got their baths on a cold and rainy day. We now have very clean and pampered pigs.

Oh with all this rain I thought we were all going to float away. The front of the barn became a mushy and stinky mud pit. The girls wanted nothing to do with it and would fight us when trying to get them in the barn. I have decided that I may do some gravel next year in front of the barn to cut down on the mud pit, but for now I have used large cut pine shavings to help with the moisture. Just plain yucky!

Last weekend, The Matthews Living Farm Museum, had an Oxen workshop, so Ms. Ayla was able to go and learn a little more on leading a team of oxen. She was able to lead this little guy which she has before and also she was able to lead this beautiful team.

A pair of Jersey Oxen. She said she absolutely loved the Jerseys. One disadvantage of having an One Acre Farm, is you really can't have many grass grazers, so there is no cow in the future here at Cranberry Acre, unless we buy an acre or two somewhere around us. Which is not out of the question, just not in the plans anytime soon. We are just really lucky to have friends who have cows.

we have talked about teaching Luther the goat to do this. We will see how that goes next year.

Oh boy, if you have ever had chickens I'm sure at least one time you have had a broody hen. Well I have had a couple in the years but this little girl...... Oh she is something. Ms. Copper has been a broody hen for about 2 weeks now and has been driving me mad! All attitude early in the morning, through out the whole day. At night we put are small girls in their night time cages, so I remove her from her broody nest every night and remove her eggs, but she is back to the nest the min. you let her out again. To top it off at first the kids were a little frightened of her almost Eagle Scream as they approached her on her nest, so I would go to the hay loft and remove her for them. This is now on the 2nd week of Ms. Grumpy pants roaming the pasture and hayloft, she keeps this up I've heard they are a tasty bird! 

Just kidding.

This past weekend my sister and her husband hit the jackpot, some nice colored glass dishes. New bird feeders are to come from this stuff. Just so pretty. I find it hard to find colored glass, so it's nice when I get a surprise on my doorstep of some very pretty pieces.

Oh yes and my love for everything chicken, has grown. My step Mother and I went to a yard sale and found this complete set from the 30's. Early Christmas present for this girl!

I also found some very cool salt and pepper shakers to add to the ceramic flock.

They didn't have a partner so I took them home. 

Also found this cool hen that has two egg salt and pepper shakers inside the basket.

My Christmas cactus never blooms at Christmas!

It always blooms around Thanksgiving, but this time it is blooming at Halloween. If anyone has any ideas on how to get this thing to bloom around Christmas, please share. It's the only house plant I have, due to not enough windows with sunshine, but I would love for it to bloom on or around Christmas.

We have a big girl !

Ms. Fudge is officially a grown up. I was so excited to see a small blue egg in a nest she had made yesterday. I knew she was getting ready to lay, it was just a matter of when. She is the first of this years babies to start laying. We will have eggs soon, so excited.

I also spent this weekend getting their coop ready for Winter. It's so hard to imagine that it's coming. I am making a chicken water heater for the girls this year. I went to the Farm Supply to find the warmers were $40, I'm going to try something first to see how it does. If it seems to be doing well I will share. Changed out the old bedding in the coop and put new pine shavings in and got their nest boxes ready. Was a busy weekend in the barn.

We had such a pretty Fall afternoon yesterday that I took some shots of the girls under the Chestnut tree. Fall has some of the prettiest colors and lighting. 

Ms. Silver, Ms. Red and Short Stuff all nosing around in the leaves. This has been the most fun for them. Silver loves to play in the leaves and has taught these two in the past year to do the same.

Curly and Larry have been doing well with Mo being gone. They hang out with Ms. Red and Lovey the duck most of the time, so they are not lonely. It amazes me on how well they have adjusted to the change.

Camera hog Ms. Bella, while taking pictures she followed me around and kept tugging on my sweatshirt. She just wanted her picture taken, because after this photo she left my side. 

The sweetest little bird in the world! Ms. Puffy cheeks with not a care in the world. Talking to who ever will listen. Love this bird, always has something to say and quick to great you when you come out to the yard.

I couldn't imagine my world without my critters, they bring me a lot of joy, they are our family in some ways. Cranberry Acre with it's critters is my little piece of Heaven!

Well my crafting Season is slowing down, Thank God! I still have a couple of shows but they are spread out enough that I am not stressing so much, but soon I will be getting all my stuff on my Etsy store, so keep a look out on my store to see what is coming.

( Christmas Burlap Banners)

These guys are coming very soon to the store, along with new aprons and new bird feeders.

A Chilly start to the Fall.

  Is it really here already?

This year has blown by so fast, but it seems like every year they come and go without you knowing it. This is my favorite time of year, with the colors, cooking, and smells. I just love it! Here on Cranberry Acre, we love Halloween and we decorate the front yard with many Halloween decorations.

This year Wayne and I brought down the stuff from the attic and let the kids design this years Halloween yard. I think they did a great job!

We even have Halloween in the house! 

This is our freaky little friend who sits and stares at you from the corner of the living room, while you watch TV. He is one of my favorite Halloween decorations to set up. Cute but freaky!

As I have said all year, I am so behind on everything in my garden. Last week I finally made it out to dig up carrots that I had left in the ground! I have some kale, some flowers, some potatoes and some gourds left in the garden. Other than that we are done with the garden. I also started on getting the potatoes out last week.

The gourds look kinds spooky hanging on the dead vines, but close up,

They are beautiful. They are so pretty for a freebie item to grow up out of the ground!

I have 4 more rows to dig up and I will begin canning my potatoes. I love canning potatoes, it makes it sooooo much easier to make mashed potatoes when you are late for cooking dinner. If you have never done it before I will be posting directions on how to can them in the next week or two. Pretty easy, just takes a lot longer to can them.

We had or first frost this weekend and my Maple Tree hasn't even gotten all of it's leaves turned yet. I can't believe we had to actually start a fire in the wood stove this weekend. By the looks of all the signs, many apples, nut trees producing well, we are in for it when Winter comes.

I am hoping we are ready! We got our first dump truck load of wood this Friday, just in time for the freeze. Now the hard work of getting it cut and piled in the shed. Right now the pile has been a good hunting location for Mr. Bayne the Cat. He sits on the wood pile and locates what he is going to kill or he just takes a nap.

For me, since I started back to sewing and doing craft show, is the busiest time of year. I am having to try and figure out how to juggle everything and still make everything to sell at the shows. You think I would have this down, but I don't. This year I have done some new things so it adds to the pile of sewing to do for the Season, but in the end it's worth it. Fabric Pumpkins are back and smell just as yummy as ever before. 

New this year for Cranberry Acre are Burlap Holiday Banners. I have done Fall ones, Halloween ones, and Thanksgiving banners. I start Christmas, yes I said Christmas, in a week. I absolutely love the Burlap Banners, so many possibilities for designs.

More bird feeders were made and then sold this weekend, which means I will be back in the garage again. So cold in there now.

While I was at one of my shows, my husband helped me put together a new towel rack. He did a great job with this one. I can't wait to let the public see our new Up cycled line of towel racks. I am trying to get one to stay in our home, I just love these things! 

Freezing cold mornings here on the farm have led to some funny ideas from the animals. One of these brilliant ideas is, when your feet are cold jump on anything and if one jumps they all jump. The wheel barrel became the place to be Sunday morning. The wooden handles were not as cold as the ground, so when chocolate jumped up and found out that it was kinda warm, they all proceeded to try and jump in the same spot. This went on for at least a half an our until the sun was over the hill and started to shine on the barn, then they all ran for the barn steps to fight there.

Oh the girls. Whinny all weekend, complaining about the cold mornings. All fluffed out and just ever so grumpy about the idea of the cold, acting as if I had something to do with it. 

Jojo and the babies, had the right idea by staying in the barn huddled up to stay warm. I think this year I may make some coats for them, they just don't seem to get Winter coats like the Pygmy mixes, so a nice Winter coat it is.

Mr. Luther looking ever so cute in all his fluffiness!

This weekend we made a trip out to the Blue Ridge Pumpkin LLC, in Fancy Gap. What a fun time we had with the hayride....

The corn maze.....

Oh we can't forget, the Corn Cannon!!!!!

I do believe we may have a corn cannon in the future here at Cranberry Acre.

There were also so many pumpkins to choose from, White one, Orange ones, big and small. Oh and the prettiest Blue pumpkins.

If you live close by go check it out. It was a fun afternoon.

Ms. Chocolate this morning was not amused with me at all. For the first time since we had her she wanted me to pick her up. I would pick her up and she would bury her head in my armpit. I would put her down when I would take a picture she would run after me and give me this look! Spoiled birds I tell you, spoiled birds.

As the sun started to come over the hill, the girls finally started to settle down and groom themselves for the day. Everyone in such a Tizzy about the cold.

You would think the smallest of out flock would be the ones with the worst complaint about the cold but they are not. They truly have nothing to say and have figured out the busier you are the warmer you all, so they are in constant motion until the sun hits the barn stairs. They then, lay in the sun and eat it up for as long as they can, until the goats take it over.

So yes the drama of laying eggs in front of the stairs is still going on, but I have a new member, Ms. Coal has decided to join the list of laying eggs in front of the stairs. Again Why in front of the stairs, Why?

The girls begging to come inside!

I moved the location a couple days ago of the protein bucket and now Sparkles has decided that she also has great ideas on where it should be. She keeps moving it to the back of the old Guinea house so no one else can get at it. Do not know how she gets it there, because I move it back to the salt block every morning but she does get it back there somehow. 

It looks like I am at a point of writing the Blog every other week. I may try to write more during the Winter, but for now this seems to be working for me. Hope you all understand the need to do this, just so much to do!

I will leave you with one of my favorite recipes. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies and a picture of an oh so happy goat!

Tis the Season for Pumpkin.

First Happy Goat!

( Oh yes, bring on the Sunshine! )

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe usually makes around 3 dozen depending on how big you like your cookies. Also the Cookie are very soft and moist.

You will need

2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour ( I use Organic). 

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 cup of butter

1 1/2 cups of sugar

1 cup of fresh pumpkin ( you can use canned)

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

Add Semi Sweet Chocolate chips, as many as you want for taste. I use a whole bag!

Mix all you dry ingredients together in a bowl or mixer. You will then add all your wet ingredients to the dry. Mix it well. I then add my chocolate chips to the mixture last. Grease a cookie sheet and dump spoonfuls of cookie batter about 2 inches apart from each other on your cookie sheet,. These cookies will get big. Set your oven to 350F and bake from 15 to 20 min. If you love pumpkin you will love these cookies. I do not put these cookies on a cookie rack( it seems to dry the bottoms to much and I like the moist almost like Molasses cookie texture), so I let my cookies cool on my kitchen table. For what ever reason they stay very moist, so I kept doing it that way since I started making them. Hope you enjoy them.