Posted in apple orchard, faith, farming, life, life in the country, random, spirituality, tagged buy fresh buy local, christianity, country living, faith, farm, farmer's market, farming, free range pigs, life, orchard, personal, random, self sufficient, spirituality, wisdom on November 7, 2009 | 4 Comments »
Tuesday my wife was putting laundry away and came across a pair of underwear- (I won’t tell you whose they were) filled with small seeds. “It’s a mouse“ I said- “Looks like you’ve found his stash.” The little bugger had been running back and forth from the kitchen counter to the laundry room carrying seeds. [...]
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Posted in Iowa, apple orchard, bed and breakfast, country living, enjoying life, faith, life, life in the country, personal, random, spirituality, tagged bed and breakfast, buy fresh buy local, chickens, country living, faith, farm, farmer's market, farming, hospitality, Iowa, life, orchard, personal, spirituality on September 27, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Photo of our rooster….. ”The Colonel“
It was l dark as I loaded the back of my truck with the 40 pound crates of apples this morning . I kept thinking to myself…”Why am I doing this again? ???
It can’t be for the money. If that was the case, I would be way ahead to work a half a day [...]
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Posted in Iowa, apple orchard, bed and breakfast, country living, enjoying life, faith, farming, life in the country, orchard, personal, random, spirituality, tagged bed and breakfast, buy fresh buy local, chickens, christianity, country living, faith, farm, farmer's market, farming, gardening, hospitality, Iowa, life, orchard, personal, random, spirituality on September 20, 2009 | 3 Comments »
“I had rather be on my farm than be emperor of the world”
George Washington
Today was a good day.
5:45 this morning, while it was still dark I was outside loading wooden crates of Ginger Gold and Royal Court apples to sell @ the farmers market.
I woke up the rooster. Normally he doesn’t start crowing until about [...]
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Posted in Iowa, apple orchard, bed and breakfast, country living, enjoying life, faith, farming, life, life in the country, orchard, tagged bear river concerts, bed and breakfast, buy fresh buy local, christianity, country living, faith, farm, farming, hospitality, Iowa, life, music festival, orchard, personal, photography, random, relationships, spirituality on September 17, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Apple trivia: Did you know that an apple will ripen 10 times faster at room temperature than in a frigerator?
We have a bumper crop of apples this season. Last night my son and I picked two cortland trees, each yielding about 7 crates of apples :
Tonight I noticed the Suncrisp apples were [...]
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Posted in apple orchard, enjoying life, faith, farming, personal, spirituality, tagged bed and breakfast, buy fresh buy local, christianity, country living, faith, farm, farming, Iowa, life, orchard, personal, photography, random, spirituality on August 26, 2009 | 5 Comments »
Grace:
An unexpected and undeserved
act of kindness.
Picture of our 2009 Honeycrisp crop
Picture of our 2009 Gingergold crop.
We planted our first 40 apple trees in 2002. In 2003 we planted 60 more. Depending on the age and variety of the tree, typically it takes from 5 to 7 years for the trees to begin to [...]
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Posted in apple orchard, farming, life in the country, orchard, personal, tagged buy fresh buy local, country living, faith, farm, farming, gardening, Iowa, life, orchard, photography, pick your own pumpkins, random, spirituality, wisdom on August 9, 2009 | 4 Comments »
“The most important ingredient in the welfare of an orchard is the sound of the orchardists footsteps.“
Quote on the front of my Orchard Journal
Here are some things I observed this morning as I was prowling around the property:
this is a photo of (2) Cortland apple trees I’m experimenting with this year. I [...]
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Posted in apple orchard, bear River concert series, bed and breakfast, country living, enjoying life, farming, life in the country, music festival, tagged bear river concerts, bed and breakfast, buy fresh buy local, country living, faith, farm, farming, gardening, hospitality, Iowa, life, music, orchard, personal, photography, random, spirituality, vacation, winston on August 1, 2009 | 6 Comments »
“We all have hometown appetites. Every other person is a bundle of longing for the simplicities of good taste once enjoyed on the farm or in the hometown [he or she] left behind.”
Clementine Paddleford
July has been a whirlwind of activity, hospitality and the making of memories.
My wife’s 6 siblings had a family [...]
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Posted in Iowa, apple orchard, bed and breakfast, farming, orchard, tagged bed and breakfast, buy fresh buy local, country living, faith, farm, farming, hospitality, Iowa, orchard, personal, pick your own pumpkins, random, spirituality, vacation on June 27, 2009 | 3 Comments »
“Each year, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere. He’s gotta pick this one. He’s got to. I don’t see how a pumpkin patch can be more sincere than this one. You can look around and there’s not a sign of hypocrisy. Nothing but sincerity [...]
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Posted in Iowa, apple orchard, bed and breakfast, enjoying life, life in the country, orchard, tagged bed and breakfast, christianity, country living, faith, farm, farming, Iowa, life, orchard, personal, photography, random, spirituality on May 29, 2009 | 1 Comment »
“John Chapman, or Johnny Appleseed was born September 26th1774, was the second child of Nathaniel Chapman and his wife, the former Elizabeth Symonds. of Leominster, Massachusetts. His father started young John upon a career as an Orchardist by apprenticing him to a Mr. Crawford, who had an apple orchard.
There are so many legends [...]
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Posted in Iowa, apple orchard, bed and breakfast, country living, enjoying life, farming, life in the country, orchard, personal, spirituality, tagged bed and breakfast, christianity, country living, farm, farming, Iowa, life, personal, photography, random, spirituality on May 26, 2009 | 3 Comments »
“Do you want to see a swarm of bees?” my wife asked me.
Paul and Deanne pulled into our driveway last night around 7:30 PM. They stopped to see if we’d like to see the swarm of honey bees Paul had spotted on an old wood fence post.
Here’s what we saw:
This is a large cluster of [...]
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