Vintage Home and Farm

It has been a quiet and peaceful Christmas here on the farm. We've been relaxing and enjoying spending time with our family and all the little animals that live here on the farm. Sending warm and happy wishes your way for a cheerful holiday, and a New Year that brings you peace and prosperity!

We finally compiled some of the videos captured by our Blink cameras, merging them into one longer video, so that we could show some of the animals and other creatures that hang out here. Coyotes, deer, racoons, the barn cat, and more were captured both day and night on the farm. Take a look!

Today we had to say goodbye to Mojo. We adopted her in 2018 when she was about four years old, and have so many great memories of our time with her. We'll never forget you, Mojo.💕 We love you, our sweet doggy.💖💖

It's time to bring out our Halloween decorations, which include orange and black pillows, pumpkins, black kitties, and giant spiders. It didn't take long to put everything in its place. We thought we'd share a few photos and give some updates on how things are going at Vintage Home and Farm. Above, the Jack O' Lantern treat bucket is one Paul carried every Halloween as a little boy. You can also see Gray Guy, our elderly kitty boy, who followed me around as I took photos. Loki kitty also trailed after me, then hopped up on the chair to pose. Below is one of my favorite decorations: a picture of our daughter on her first Halloween, wearing a pumpkin costume. Mojo the farm dog, below, also followed me around for the photos. As you can see, she recently had a haircut. Mojo loves to sleep on the couch, and is known for tossing pillows this way and that as she settles down. Thankfully, all our furniture is quite old, so we don't mind the animals being on it. No sense buy...

About two weeks ago, we picked as many apples as our ladder could help us reach in the old apple tree. I then set about making apple pies, which I froze. I also made and canned applesauce, apple pepper jelly, and apple cinnamon jelly. The two kinds of jelly I made using apple scraps. Then came the apple cider. Paul helped me bring the cider press and apple grinder into the kitchen, which I then cleaned thoroughly. We find it easier and more sanitary to press our cider in the kitchen rather than outside. This time of year, there are too many hungry wasps around to be able to press cider outdoors. Above is the grinder. We bought the apple press and grinder in 2019 and have pressed cider every year since. We bought both from Pleasant Hill Grain, located in Nebraska. The grinder is a Weston apple and fruit crusher, and the press is a Maximizer 36-liter stainless steel fruit press.  Of course, before we could grind up and press the apples, we had to quarter and clean them. I always cut ...

Living next to a creek, we expect to see various wild animals coming and going, as this land is their home, too. We've got deer, chipmunks, raccoons, and a wide variety of birds, including birds of prey like barn owls and bald eagles. Once, a black bear was spotted behind our milk shed down by the creek, and our neighbor has seen cougar tracks on the trail that runs behind our house. Occasionally, we get word that someone has seen a cougar along Morse Creek. Even so, we were rather surprised when we spotted five coyote pups hanging out around here. They are not hiding from anyone and are present during the day. If they spot you, they don't run away too quickly, so they aren't all that afraid of people.  The coyote pups look like small dogs, and they spend much of their time hunting for field mice and other rodents in the fields on and around our property. All five pups were hunting together for rodents in the newly hayed field across the road at Elton's farm. We noticed...