Not Creative

So, I'm feeling not very creative today and don't really feel like putting a whole lot of effort into today's post. Sorry friends :( BUT, I do have some other blogs for you to check out. Get ready to laugh...and drool.

Want to learn about Honey Badgers? Here ya go! You can thank me later :)

Want a little lady humor? Here ya go!

Since I've joined Pinterest, I've found SO many good recipes and things I want to try. What did I try last night??? Artichoke Bread. Here's the RECIPE.

Happy Hump Day people...talk to ya laters!!!!!

Awwwwwwwww :)

Today is hubs' and my three year anniversary...all together now....awwwwwwww :)

He sent these gorgeous flowers to my office today...what a sweetheart!

We decided that on odd years, I'll do the planning for our anniversary, and on even years, he'll do the planning. It's not going to be anything extravagant, but for now I have to keep it a secret in case he decides to come read this :) But tomorrow, I'll show you guys what I did!

Cooooorrrrrrnnnnnnn

Sadly, the corn did not make it into my garden this year. I simply ran out of time, and that's ok. I know that there will be a farmer that comes to our tiny farmer's market and sells it by the dozen out of the back of their truck. I was in luck last week-the same person I've bought it from for the past 2 years was at the farmer's market and you can bet your sweet ass I bought a lot of it! Eight dozen ears to be exact! Now, what does one do with 8 dozen ears of corn at a time? Well, let me show you :) And P.S., once you try this, you'll never eat canned corn again!

What I do, is shuck all of the ears of corn.  ( I feed all of the husks to the ponies-they love it!)

I then boil all of the ears for about 5 minutes.

 

Then I take it out of the boiling water to cool down before I start the next process of cutting.

 When the corn cob is cool, I set it in a deep bowl and cut the kernels off with a knife. I get as close to the cob as I can, as this is where all the juices that keep the corn moist are. (Note: I would recommend using one hand to hold the cob and one to hold the knife...I do not recommend taking lots of pictures while doing this part of the process :)  ) Also, you can see that I've lain a giant towel beneath the bowl and cutting board. This is because when the corn juice starts flying, it gets everywhere. This makes cleanup a lot quicker!

 After you've cut all the corn off of the cobs, you're left with a giant bowl full of the yummyness:

Then I scoop it into quart-size freezer bags, a put them in the freezer!

In all, 8 dozen ears of corn made 32 bags. I put about 2 cups in each bag. So throughout the year when we want to eat corn with a meal, I grab one of these puppies out of the freezer, thaw it, and cook it up on the stove with some salt and pepper. Once you have it this way, you'll never want to eat canned corn again! It takes a little bit of time to do, but 8 dozen ears took me about 3 hours to do. It's worth it knowing your food was grown locally and it's fresh! Oh by the way....it tastes SO good! Try it!

Challenge Day 7

Four Films...seriously? How am I supposed to write about four different films about the farm? As far as I know, there are NO films about the farm. So, you'll just have to put up with my talking about four movies that I LOVE LOVE LOVE, and could watch every day for the rest of my life.

1) My Best Friends Wedding.


2) French Kiss

3) Grease-I can recite this entire movie, including songs, and dance moves :)


4) Clueless


Yep! All chick flicks! What are some of your all-time favorite movies?

Update on the Garden

It's been awhile since I showed pictures of the garden, and there's LOTS going on. Here is a picture of the yummy stuff I picked last week. Peas, beans, cucumbers and MORE zucchini:


I went out this morning and took pictures of other things that are still growing. These first two pictures are of my broccoli:

Teeny-tiny green pepper growing:


Here is the random melon plant that decided to grow...it has 3 melons growing on it...I think it's cantaloupe:


I've got crazy amounts of cucumbers growing:


Here is my crazy pumpkin patch:


And wait for it...wait for it....my pumpkins!!! None of them grew last year, but this year I have about 15 of them growing. I have my own little pumpkin patch! This one is my biggest that I have growing. It's about 10 pounds I would say. You can already see if starting to turn orange :)


And that's my update of the garden! I'll be sure to post more pictures when my pumpkins are all turning orange :)

Flip On/Off Friday

I have lots to share today for Flip On/Off Friday!

1) Flip ON to the farmer's market that I went to this morning! I bought 8 dozen ears of corn (I'll post on that next week), fresh tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, apple butter, salsa and dill relish! Is it bad to admit I had chips and salsa for breakfast today???

2) Flip ON to my garden! There's lots of new pics I took this morning, so I'll save that for a post later in the day.

3) Flip ON to hubs and me getting to carpool to work together sometimes now :) I even made him drive in the Bug yesterday, and dropped him off at work. It's only $35 to fill up the gas tank on the bug compared to $90 in my truck and $120 in hubs' truck YAY!

4) I get to see my niece and family in less than 4 weeks! YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!

5) Flip On to the random cantaloupe that decided to grow in my garden...didn't even plant them!

FLIP OFF

1) Flip Off to whatever happened to our combine. There was a big clanging sound, then a piece of metal came out the back end...NOT good! It's at the combine doctor getting fixed right now. NOT looking forward to that repair bill :/

2) Flip Off to the road construction happening on the main road in town right now. It's hard to get anywhere, and people can't seem to remember basic driving skills, or what a flashing yellow vs. flashing red light means. Ugh...very frustrating.

3) That's really all I have for this week. I can't complain! Work is good, home is good, farm is good (with the exception of the combine), family is good, friends are good...I'm a lucky girl!!!

More to come on my garden update this afternoon! And I'll leave you with the sunrise from this morning...too beautiful to not take a picture of!

Challenge Day 6

5 Foods:

This one will probably be one of my favorites of this challenge, cause, well, who doesn't love food? If you think about it, whenever families, friends, acquaintances get together, it's usually over food. What is something that is always part of family traditions? Food! The recipes/stories I'm sharing today are all from the farm.

1) Tacos. This is a Hackley family tradition. They're not fancy tacos or anything, but whenever somebody makes tacos, it's a whole family affair. I'm talking moms, dads, grandma, grandpa, cousins, aunts, uncles, you name it. We use homemade flour tortillas and corn tortillas. We just use regular taco meat and include cheese, refried beans, lettuce, tomato, salsa, olives and green chiles as toppings. So delish! It's practically a huge production and event for the family.

2) Potato Soup. I would share the recipe with you, but this is grandma's recipe that I don't know yet. We usually only have potato soup twice a year. It's on the days where we butcher beef. We butcher all morning and are usually not done by lunch time, so we take a break mid-day. Lunch includes potato soup, and saltine crackers that you put butter and jam on.

3) Wilted lettuce. This is DELISH! We have been eating it A LOT right now since I have so much lettuce in my garden. You wash and rip apart a head of green leaf lettuce. Dice up half a package of bacon and fry until crispy. Take the bacon out of the grease and set aside. To the bacon grease in the pan, add 2 Tbsp of red wine vinegar, about 2 tsp. of sugar, 1 Tbsp of lemon juice and salt and pepper. Bring to a slow boil and boil for about 2 minutes. Pour the hot mixture over the lettuce and add the bacon. Toss and eat right away! Note: Don't add the dressing until RIGHT before you're going to eat the salad, and this salad is NOT good for leftovers.

4) Grandma's ginger cookies. They're like a gift sent from heaven above. I don't have the recipe for this one either!

5) Pork choooooooops and applesauce! Whenever MIL makes pork chops she serves applesauce with them. For some odd reason, her and hubs always get this funny voice when they say, "Pork chooooooops and applesaaaaaauce!" I know you can't quite understand it over the computer, but I'm sitting here laughing in my chair as I type :)

These things are all very special and bring a smile to my face and hunger pang to my tummy when I think about them. It's amazing how food can bring families and friends together to create memories :) I would LOVE to hear some of your guys' recipes/food/stories...please share!

Deliciousness!

I learned this recipe from my MIL, and it has proven to be one of THE most amazing recipes I've come across! If you haven't heard of these or made them before, you're welcome :)

Homemade Oreo Cookies

2 Packages Devil's Food Cake Mix
4 Eggs
1/2 Cup Crisco shortening (not oil!)

Mix with hands. Form into small balls of even size. Bake on ungreased baking sheet for 9 minutes on 350 degrees. Cool completely.

Filling:

1-8 oz. pkg cream cheese
3 1/2 Cups powdered sugar
1/2 Cup margarine
2 tsp. vanilla.

Cream together. When cookies are completely cooled, dollop a large amount of filling onto the flat side of a cookie. Cover with the other flat side of another cookie. Complete until all cookies are used up. Best served after refrigerated for a couple hours.

ENJOY!!!!

Challenge Day 5

6 Places

I'm going to show you guys some of my favorite pictures from around the farm of my favorite places.

1) Cowtopia!!! I call it this because the first time I went out there we were just driving along in the pasture, no trees, no water, just kinda barren. Then we pop over this hill and see this oasis for the cows.

2) "The Hills" This particular place is quite the jaunt to get to. Unless you know exactly where you're going, you wouldn't be able to find it. It's off the beaten path and you climb up this hill. When you get to the top and look out, this is what you see:


3) Anywhere on the farm that I can see sunsets like this:


4) Our backyard firepit. My little brother built this thing last summer! We love hanging out here in the summer just hanging out around the fire. It's so relaxing and nice.


5) Kane's Grove. This technically isn't on our farm, but about 2 miles down the highway. There's an old road into a grove of trees, and a little hiking trail up to the top of the hill. There are these awesome sandstone rocks that you can climb all over, and even carve your name into. Up here, you can see for MILES! It's a VERY pretty view.


6) This old building stands in our front yard. I think it's really awesome, because it is actually an old house-the original house from our landlords' family homestead. It has itty bitty doorways (with the doors still attached!) teeny tiny windows and a dirt floor. It's cool to think about how much history it has and that it's still standing.


Since I was a big slacker yesterday and didn't have time to blog, I'm going to do another one today, later this afternoon. Happy Hump Day peeps!

Challenge Day 4

7 Wants

I think this may be my favorite one so far!!! I have LOTS of wants, so I'll try to just narrow it down to 7 :)

1) What I want is for the mosquitoes and gnats to go away. That would be GREAT. That way I don't have to worry about putting TWO, yes, TWO types of bug spray on when I go outside.

2) What would be great, is if my allergies were nonexistent. I also have to take two types of allergy medication during the summer to keep from having massive allergy attacks on the farm. And sometimes it still happens, so I have to go in the house, rinse my eyes out, shut all the windows and doors, turn off the fans, and lay in bed under the blanket with a cool wash cloth on my eyes. Then the next day I usually look like someone punched me in both my eyes. It's not a good look for me.

3) I want the winter to be shorter without so much snow. HA! Good luck with that one!

4) I want hubs to be able to have a flatbed pickup with a hitch for the stock trailer, a gas tank and bale thingy on the bed, with tool boxes on the side. He's wanted that for so long. Sigh...maybe someday.

5) I want to dig an underground tunnel from my house to the highway. That way during the winter the county (or anyone else with a tractor) doesn't even have to worry about plowing the snow out of our way. I'll just use my super-secret-neato tunnel!

6) I want wheat prices to go UP UP UP so we can make some money this year instead of just breaking even. It's sad that farmers work their tooshes off to grow crops, and sometimes the market isn't good enough for them to make any money. So essentially they grow the food for the amount of money it costs to run the operation. NO PROFIT. Hug a farmer and thank them. Or sleep with one...that's what I do ;) he he he, wink wink.

7) I want you all to follow HUBS' VERY OWN BLOG!!!! He started one!!!! Well, he started one last year but didn't keep up with it. He decided last night he wanted to start a new one. We worked a little on it, but didn't get anything posted. Now once you all start following him, he'll HAVE to post something :) There's nothing up there now, but feel free to check it out!

MEET MY HUBS!

Big Fat Liar

Yes, I know I said I would do a Flip On/Off Friday, but I left work early and took a nap. Can you blame me??? You'd do the same thing :)

Today I'm not going to do my challenge, but talk about something that's very important and serious.

Early this morning, I lost yet ANOTHER college friend due to a drunk driving crash. Yes, another. This is the second in two years. He was driving his pickup down a dirt road in Central Montana with seven passengers. Four others were injured and he was the only casualty. Alcohol was a factor. Knowing this person from college, it sadly doesn't surprise me. He and the other person who died 2 years ago were also in the same fraternity as my husband. I knew both of them fairly well and hung out with them often. My question is: How many more times does this have to happen before people get it? One person on Facebook wrote "Why does this keep happening?" I can tell you exactly why it keeps happening. People drink and drive. Simple.

There's also a reason I use the word "crash" instead of "accident." There is nothing accidental about drinking and driving. It is a choice, not an accident.

I'm embarassed to admit that I have done it before. I was in college, and young and VERY dumb. I had the mentality that "it can't happen to me" and that I wouldn't get a Driving Under the Influence ticket. STUPIDEST THING I'VE EVER DONE. As I grew up and matured, I realized how stupid I was to think such a thing and to make such a poor decision.

Part of my job that I get paid to do every day, is to help reduce drinking and driving. I do trainings, media, and different environmental strategies to keep this from happening. It happens WAY too often, and people don't often get it. It CAN happen to you, and sadly, this friend of mine's crash shows that it WILL happen. The sad thing is, I was talking to this friend 2 years ago about the first crash with our friend in it. I told him that alcohol was involved and he adamantly denied it (I happened to know for a fact that it was-I have a friend with insider knowledge). He didn't want to think that our friend could make such a stupid decision to drink and drive, and would get killed doing so. This same friend who was denying this, is the same friend who made that choice last night.

I'm sad, angry, and mostly frustrated. Seriously, how many more people in this same circle of college friends have to die before others stop drinking and driving?

Please...do me a favor and vow to never drink and drive. If a friend needs a ride home, take them home. If someone else needs a ride, call a cab or offer to call a friend (in our case, we don't have cabs where we live). If you need to, call law enforcement to give them a ride home. Do anything you can possibly do to keep this from happening to someone else.

Challenge Day 3

8 Fears

1) I fear snakes. Those damn things are always crawling in the grass and pretty much jump out of the middle of nowhere and scare you!

2) I am fearful of the way some things are put together on the farm...like when they have to change a lightbulb on the yard light. They put a ladder in the bucket of the tractor, lift the bucket, then lean the ladder on the light pole. NOT safe! Another time my sister was mowing the lawn. All of a sudden the blade shot out from underneath the lawnmower. Yikes!

3) I fear that one time a cow will turn around and start charging me. This happened to me before when I was a teenager and it was pret-ty scary.

4) I fear that if we have another winter like we did last year, I may go certifiably insane!!!

5) I am fearful of the porcupines that Harley comes into contact with when we go on walks down the county road. He found them one time and got quills in his nose. When he saw another one a couple months ago he chased it and barked at it, but no quills this time. Maybe he learned?

6) I am fearful of the owl that sits perched atop the telephone pole in our yard. Due to this fella, the kittens and Smoke are NOT allowed outside after dark, and not allowed outside at all without adult supervision! lol

7) I fear that someday they might actually make me learn how to drive the tractor...or combine...or grain truck...

8) I fear that I am already addicted to Pinterest. I showed hubs last night what it was...he wasn't as impressed as I am :) :)

P.S. DON'T worry about flip on/off Friday! It's still happening!

Challenge Day 2

9 Loves

My first love has nothing to do with the farm....I joined Pinterest yesterday and am HOOKED. Do it-it's like crack, only good for your soul! Ha! Come follow me-Nicole Hackley...woop woop!

Back to the farm....

1) I love that I cannot hear ANY traffic at night. It is dead quiet when I sleep and it is glorious!

2) I love driving around the countryside on the 4-wheeler with hubs. A lot of times this is our "us" time. If we're at the house we're cleaning or doing paperwork. If we're out in the field or at the farm we're usually working. I love to just drive around and look at stuff.

3) I love that I find old neat things out on the farm that are cool to take pics of. For example...I was looking through the old boat house-turned garage a couple months ago. I found 3 Cuban cigar boxes that had a price tag for .50 cents each on them! Those must be from a LONG time ago.

4) I LOVE the sunsets...they are amazing here!

5) I LOVE being able to have a garden and be self-sustaining for some of my veggies. Also, growing and butchering our own beef is cheap, and I know exactly where they came from, what they ate, and they aren't going to have mad-cow disease or anything.

7) I love our little church on the hill. It isn't active anymore, but I have gone exploring in it. I found Sunday School lesson booklets from hubs' dad and aunt and uncle in there, with their completed homework assignments. Those things are probably close to 40 years old!

8) As much as it might be inconvenient sometimes, I LOVE living in the country instead of in town. It's peaceful, quiet, and I don't have to deal with people :) Plus, on my drives home from work it enables me to wind down before I get home, so I'm nice and calm by the time I get there.

9) I love the baby calves. How could you not?!?! They're so cute!

Talk to you tomorrow peeps! P.S. it's Friday tomorrow :)

Challenge

I found this 10 Day Challenge thing over at Amanda's Princess of the Panhandle's blog. I have kinda been venturing a little far from my whole "farm life experience" theme on my blog, so I thought I would take this challenge and put my little farm spin on it! Here is the challenge:


So today we're starting with 10 secrets of Ye Old Farm Wife (that's me):

1) Nothing works better than Spray n' Wash to get cow shit out of jeans. During calving season, I literally go through half a bottle of Spray n' Wash ever time I do a load of jeans. Normally I put jeans on the cold cycle, but that doesn't work with poo-covered jeans. You have to Spray n' Wash the shit out of them, then run them on the hot cycle. Works every time!

2) When you drive a truck to a field for the worker to drive home in after they get off the tractor, you have to point the cab the opposite direction the sun will be facing when they are done in the field. That way, when they get in, the cab is cooler since it hasn't been sitting in the sun all afternoon.

3) Even if you think you know EXACTLY what it is that you're supposed to be picking up at the Grain Elevator/Farm Supply Store, you will NEVER be able to just simply pick it up. The people start asking all these questions you never know the answer to and you leave feeling like you've just been defeated. You have been defeated. It's fine. Go home and drink a bottle of wine.

4) ALWAYS make sure the gas tank is full on ANY vehicle you drive. Just cause the gauge says it's full, doesn't mean it actually is. Trust me, on a 10,000 acre farm, you don't want to learn the hard way.

5) Roll up all vehicle windows at night. You never know when a storm will randomly show up in the middle of the night!

6) Make sure you know exactly where it is you're going when you move cows. The guys definitely frown upon it when you open the wrong gate for the cows to go through. Whoopsie! he he he

7) DO NOT...I repeat...DO NOT believe any farmer when they tell you, "It'll only take 10 minutes." It never only takes 10 minutes. This is their clever way to trick you into helping for hours on end, doing whatever they can while they have the help. I have fallen for this MANY times.

8) Be ready to run out the door at any point in time, including the middle of the night, to run after cows. I've found that if I can hear them mooing from our house, they got out of their pastures. Those things are like ninjas, I swear.

9) Get all the sleep you can, while you can. During haying and haying season and harvest, there are rarely nights where you get more than 3-4 hours of uninterrupted sleep.

10) Carry bug spray wherever you go.

Wedding Weekend Extravaganza!

I decided that since I took so many pictures, I'm going to separate this into two posts (There's 214 pictures!!!). Today I'll do everything before the wedding and reception, and tomorrow I'll finish it up with those two. I'll let the pictures do the talkin'!

We got to Great Falls, MT on Thursday evening. Hubs and I stopped at our friend Jamie's house, to wait for my best friend Stef and her bf Kris to arrive at the airport. After they flew in we decided to go to a bar called the Sip n' Dip. It has mermaids. Yes, you heard me right! We keep it classy here in MT ;)


The next day the bridesmaids were all treated to a spa pedi as a gift from the bride! How awesome!


Then we decided the bride needed a little pre-rehearsal relaxation. You know you're from a small town when the bar owner has a crown waiting for you at the bar and charges you $5 for 4 shots!!!
Then we went back to Chay's parent's house to hang out until rehearsal started. This is her baby Lyndon and Stef.


I'm gonna eat your faaaaace!


The perfect spot to get married-This is in Chay's parent's backyard, right along the Missouri River.


Rehearsal time! Complete with a bottle of wine....each....


Chay and her daddy :)


The happy Groom:


Rehearsal dinner at the local park:


The boys decided it was play time:


Afterwards we headed to the bar for an RGT...A Real Good Time!


There's a TON more pictures, but let's face it. After this many pictures on here I'm sick of uploading them all :) Wedding pics to come tomorrow!