Locked in the Corn Crib - A Halloween Tale

Once upon a time, it was 6am on All Hallow's Eve. A [5 month prego] farm gal got up to feed her horses. Her husband was gone hunting but had everything ready for her so she need not have to lift hay out from the corn crib!

Exhibit A: The Corn Crib where hay is stored. Romeo's stall is to the left of it.

The Farm Gal went about feeding, in the dark, with a brisk chill in the air. She may or may not have been in her 'hole-y' yoga pj pants. All the horses were hayed, water and grained. Upon doing one more check before heading back inside the farm house, the Farm Gal noticed that Romeo, the pony with the buck teeth, wasn't much enjoying his hay. She decided it was too coarse for him and headed to the hay storage to find a softer bale for him to much on.

Exhibit B: Entrance to the corn crib - much less scary in daylight!

The Farm Gal entered the corn crib with the help of a light from a motion sensored & timed light. As she was yanking down a soft hay bale she discovered at the top of the pile, she heard the wind howl, turned around, and saw the door to the corn crib slam shut. Shit Shout!!

And then, the motion timed light went out. Farm Gal started pulling on the wood slats that make up the door to see if any were loose. Then she could pull one of and get her hand through to open the latch. No such luck.

Exhibit C: Loosened slat on door from Farm Gal pulling to try and save her life!

It's now 6-something in the morning and Farm Gal is stuck in a dark corn crib filled with hay (and lord only knows what other kind of varmints), no cell phone, no one else home to help her out, dogs loose in the house and no way out.

WAIT! She had a small pair of grooming scissors on her that she planned to use to cut open the hay bale. They were small, but maybe the could reach to the latch to pop it open for her.....seeing as pulling on wood and frantically throwing your pregnant self at the door doesn't do much!

Exhibit D: The Latch!

After 15 minutes or so of trying every which way to reach the scissors to the latch and pop it open, nothing was working. Finally, but the grace of the witches that fly past the Hallow's Eve moon ;), something triggered the motion sensor on the light! LET THERE BE LIGHT....for a minute or two, at least! She managed to get the handle of the scissors around the end of the latch and popped it open. SHE WAS FREE!

Exhibit E: Where Farm Gal was stuck....but it was pitch dark :)

So you see, if Farm Gal had no other choice but to wait until noon or so, when her husband was to be home, at least she hay a warm place to sleep...in the hay.

Exhibit F: From the inside looking out.....but in the daylight!

Happy Halloween Everyone!
This Farm Gal's day sure started out quite Spooktacular!

Halloween Eve!

When witches go riding,
and black cats are seen,
the moon laughs and whispers,
‘tis near Halloween.
~Author Unknown

Just before the sun went down.....

Milk - Where is YOUR milk from?

I found this website intriguing so I thought I would share! I found it by way of the blog, Eat Close To Home. The website is 'where is my milk from?' - you simply type in the code off your milk jug and it lets you know where you milk came from! Pretty cool I think...if you are into that sort of thing.

So, perfect timing, I have two gallons of milk in my fridge. One from the butcher down the road (who tends to be a tad pricey!) and another from *cough cough* Wal-Mart. The gallon from the butcher down the road originated from a dairy just about 30 minutes from us -- pretty cool! And then, da-da-dummmm, the gallon from Wal-mart....well, it tells me the first half of the code is the state code for Pennsylvania (which is a neighboring state to me), but it also says the second half of the numbers in the code, which represent the plant code, are invalid! Hmmmmmmmm

I think I might be ok paying a tad more for my milk, knowing it comes from just down the road! So if this kind of thing interests you, check it out the 'where is my milk from?' website.

Sunday Funday

Today was beautiful! My niece & nephew, Valaree & Austin, came over and we went for a hike in the back of the property to collect leaves! Then, we went with my sister and her baby, Madelyn, to an Elk farm! Pretty neat stuff! Valaree is learning how to trot Romeo over ground poles and they both seemed to love it today! Maybe next summer they can do some fun shows!!

Val & I [...and my baby belly!] at the Elk Farm

And here are some pics hubby snapped on his cell recently of Apollo showing off for the camera!

"Is she talking to ME!?"

French Onion Soup

My favorite fall warm up -- Homemade French Onion Soup!

I LOVE FRENCH ONION SOUP! I have spent many a years working on this recipe and it has certainly varied! I do like herbs in mine, but my hubby, not so much, so this is the tried and true version we both can agree on and we both enjoy immensely! I hope you enjoy it too! Serves about 6 people, pending your soup bowl size ;)
Ingredients:

• 4 large sweet onions, sliced
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tbsp flour
• 1/4-1/2 cup dry red wine
• 6 cups beef broth
• 1 tsp salt (or more to suite your taste)
• 1 tsp cracked black pepper (or more to suit your taste)
• 6 slices crusty french bread
• 10 slices provolone cheese

Melt your stick of butter in a large saute pan.

Slice your onions and saute them over med -med/high heat
While they are in the pan, dice up your garlic and then toss that into the pan too. Let the onion/garlic mixture saute until the onions start to brown a tad/caramelize.

Once onions have browned up, stir in your 2 tbsp of flour and get it incorporated.

Now, you have options! You can transfer your onions to a crock pot or to a dutch oven. (if you choose the dutch oven, you can just start off with it to being with, caramelizing the onions, instead of messing another pan to clean!) I usually use the crock pot since I put it on before I head out for work.

Dump your onion mix into your crock pot. Place your pan back on the heat and deglaze it with your 1/4 cup dry red wine. You can do 1/2 a cup if you like your wine ;) Let it simmer and reduce while you get all the goodness off the bottom of the pan. After the wine has reduced to about half, pour it over the onions.

Now, pour in your beef broth and sprinkle in your S&P. Stir everything together, then allow the soup to slow cook for at least 6 hours. Mine is usually on about 8 hours before I get home from work. Same applies if you choose to allow it to simmer slowly on the stove. Of course, you can still enjoy this soup after only an hour or so of simmering, however, the longer it simmers, the more time it has for all the flavors to mesh!

Once you're ready to enjoy, toast up under your broiler your slices of french bread. (any crusty, hard bread works here). Pour your soup into oven safe bowls, then place a crusty piece of of bread on top of each soup bowl. Then layer 2 slices of provolone cheese on top of each bowl. I let them overlap the sides a tad.

Place bowls on a baking sheet under your broiler for about 6-8 minutes - time varies depending on how hot your broiler gets, how close your bowl is too it, and how burnt you like your cheese ;)

Enjoy! And be careful when you start picking off your cheese - your bowl is HOT!
**Notes: My husband isn't much of a spice person, but it is also good if you add a pinch of some spices, particularly Thyme. And, you can also simmer in a dutch over on the stove for a couple hours and it is good to go if you don't want to do the crock pot!

Quince

Ok, folks -- this is a Quince.

I have 6 (or is it 8?) of these trees in the orchard!

They are ripe; they are ready.

They are screaming for me to do something with them.

I tried to can some Quince Marmalade last season. It was a failure disaster.

What CAN I make with these Quince??

Donkey Escape....take 4?

I have lost count. Why bother! All I will say is, I have told these stories enough already ;) These is no way this baby will be late, beyond its due date, if I am going to be chasing a loose donkey down the road every other week!

The Dilemma

So I am pretty sure we are having a boy; I just *know*. It is my gut feeling. I am not quite sure what my husband thinks, but I do know one thing, we are in trouble. We cannot, cannot agree on a boy name!

My husband would like to name a boy 'Allen', after him naturally. I have gotten him away from making the poor child an 'Allen the III' - oy! But he would still like to name a boy Allen with the middle name of Glenn - after his grandfather. I get that; I dig it .... Glenn....there is meaning there and a perfect middle name! After all, our girl name uses the middle name of June, which was my grandmothers middle name also.

But I am NOT digging 'Allen'.
Few reasons:

• I just don't want to name my kid Allen, ok! I yell that name enough, don't make me have to double up on how much I yell it ;)
• We have two Allen's already.....My husband and his dad.....and two nephews with the middle name of Allen. Give my kid his own identity please! This isn't 1880 - we all don't need the same name! Gesh!
• Did I mention I just don't want to name my kid Allen!?

Ok, I digress. So anyways, hubby said to me the other night, in total seriousness, that he thinks one I give birth, I will look at the child, then at him and tell him to go ahead and name 'him'. I never FLAT OUT laughed so hard in my life!! And I responded, while laughing, by saying, 'Well, thank you for letting me know. I will save you the disappointment and tell you now that will NOT happen!'

And so, our name search continues...........

2nd Annual Harvest Hayride Recap!

Here are some pictures to recap our 2nd Annual Harvest Hayride at Apolloson Acres :)

I cannot believe it is over already! More pics to come soon, hopefully, from others. I misplaced my camera half the night!

My brother and his handy work! I showed his this witch diagram from Martha Stewart and it took him some plywood. This is the finished result. I LOVE IT! We set her up in the orchard for the hayride.

This year we incorporated a Clam Bake into the hayride. Here hubby's throwing the clams into the steamer :)

And here is hubby (in the oranhe shirt) with his friend, Skylar, cooking up the chickens. I baked them all in the oven earlier in the day and then we threw them on the grill to crisp them up for the Clam Bakes. It saved on time waiting for everything to cook together in the steamer....and tasted much better too ;)

Here are some of our nephews, Grady, Austin, Parker, and niece, Valaree, anxiously awaiting the hayrides to begin!

Kids carving pumpkins!

Nephews Ben, Grady, Parker, Austin & Johnny!

Everyone waiting for the pinata to break open!


Valaree and I waiting for a hayride!

My 'mini-witch' passing out glow bracelets!

Cupcakes

This is my sad attempt at making 'Jack Skellington' cupcakes for our Harvest Hayride & Clam Bake tonight!

And then I got bored with one style and threw in another Jack......Mr. 'Jack-o-Lantern'!

BOO!

Tis' the Season!

Well, I did it again! You think I'd learn. I didn't eat dinner as soon as I came home because I was feeling 'ok'....by the time I got in the house, I could barely eat cereal and wanted to just curl up in bed! *sigh* I can't WAIT to feel normal again!

Anyways, our 2nd Annual Harvest Hayride is coming up this weekend! We're getting so excited!! My whole family are a bunch of big 'Halloweenies' - we LOVE Halloween :)

What about you? Are you a 'Halloweenie'? Do you have any Halloween traditions?

2 Years Past

This time 2 years ago, I was off somewhere that looked like this!!

This is my husband & I in St. Thomas on our honeymoon; we took a Carribean Cruise. And too be specific, this time two years ago, I was probably on a plane headed to the actual cruise ship, but you get my drift ;)

Yesterday, October 4, was our second anniversary! It seems so surreal that it has already been 2 years....wow, really? It was such a great time! Here are a few pictures from our wedding.

My dad & I walking down the aisle

My Sister [& Matron of Honor] Mallory, Mom, My Sister [& Maid of Honor] Kellie & I


My beautiful niece and flower girl, Valaree, and I

My Groom & I after the alter :)

Leaving the alter

My husband never goes near the computer unless he needs to check the weather or look at pictures from his night vision camera during hunting season.....so I know he certainly doesn't see this blog, but Happy Anniversary Allen!