Herzog Family Farms: 2010.02

Quick Get Away 2.22.10 through 2.24.10

We recently had an opportunity to go spend some time with Sarah and Josh and Ein in east Texas. We had such a fun time! I so enjoy getting to visit with Sarah. It is fun getting to talk about being a wife, our children, meals, budget...and so much more. The kids enjoyed spending time with them as well. Here are some pictures of our trip...

Here is Millie holding Ein Wayne. He is such a cute little boy!

Bella is taking her turn holding the little man.

And of course, Elaina needed to have a turn too.

Josh came down to do some work on his Grandma Masters home place. Stephen had a great time working with Josh. Mr. Billy Masters, Josh Roy, Mr. Herzog, Stephen and Josh all worked together and got a lot accomplished.

Sarah, Ein and Martin playing cards.

Paw Paw and his grandsons.

Martin taking his turn holding Ein.

All the guys posing for a quick picture after working in the sleet and freezing cold rain. They really looked miserable, but were very diligent to get the last few things finished.

Miss Betty with Ein and James.

Miss Betty had a 48 question quiz that almost everyone participated in in regards to our diet and health. It was very fun and entertaining to watch everyone giving comments to the questions.

The kids enjoyed watching Robin Hood while that was going on.

Here is a picture of Robin Hood.

Papa playing with the kids

The ladies of the kitchen.

One of the many fine meals.

More of Robin Hood.

Sarah and I.

Granny Smith and Mo.

Keith and Kevin drove in and spent one night. Here are some of the guys sitting around the table eating supper.

On our way home we stopped at a park in Livingston and let the kids play for a while.

Here is Bella on a toy.

And Millie....

Papa and James sitting by watching all the action.

Elaina Marie.

And Martin.

We had a great time getting to take a little trip. Having our camper has sure been a blessing and makes traveling so enjoyable and fun. We are so grateful to the Lord for blessing us with that.

Just a Beautiful Day 2.18.10

It is so fun and encouraging when you get things done! It is great being productive! Sometimes it seems impossible to do, but that just makes it all the more glorious when you do get something done. Stephen had all 4 big kids outside one morning and they were doing some chores around the house. James and I were inside getting quite a bit done ourselves.

Here is James hanging on to the printer playing as I was buzzing around doing laundry and dishes and other ods and ends.

Stephen teaching the big ones how to roll up barbed wire correctly. They all followed along great.

Then the girls came inside and helped me make lunch. We made wraps together.

(Excuse Elaina's hair...it always seems like I take pictures when it is disheveled. I really do fix it, it just seems as if it is always coming out...so do Millie's and Bella's. I guess it is the hoods of the jackets constantly going on and off their little heads.)

Here is our small mountain of 10 wraps. I wonder how big it will be in 5 years from now????

Then we enjoyed planting some acorns along the driveway in-between the existing oak trees. The kids kind of made it a competition to see who could get the acorn in the next hole papa made. They ended up giggling together and rolling around in the grass in the nice warm sunny afternoon. Then we all came inside for an afternoon snack of a nice hot chocolate chip cookie and some milk. Yum!

It was such a beautiful day and doing things together as a family and having such a fun time creates such beautiful memories. We are so blessed and grateful to the Lord for our beautiful life!

Plantin' 'Taters & Moving Cows 2.15.09

February 14th is the traditional day to plant potatoes. We always shoot for that day, and most of the time get somewhere close to it. We planted them on Monday, Feb 15th. It was "a rather blustery day"!! to say the least. We all bundled up and headed to the farm to help Mo and Paw paw. Keith was also there. It is always so much fun to have family around and willing to help and work together. Mrs. Herzog and I were noticing that this year was a great improvement compared to last years planting as far as all the kids "helping". They seemed a little more coordinated and actually understood what they were doing and did a pretty good job. It was very enjoyable. We all love working outside together as a family.

James enjoyed his bottle in the backpack carrier nestled in between some hay bales that were blocking the wind.

Stephen was mixing the "fertilizer" together. It is a combo of Starbucks coffee grounds, compost, and goat manure. We piled it on top of each potato we planted. We'll see how they do. We have done it this way before and met with success although the concoction is always a little different. We try to do it as natural or organic as possible.

Paw Paw taking a break from tilling and holding Elaina.

This picture cracks me up. Millie and Bella planted a whole row's worth of potatoes all in about a 3 ft. line and totally decorated their faces with the lime that the potatoes were in. I think because the wind was so fierce and their hair kept getting in the way and they kept wiping it out of their eyes (even in poney tails and hoods from the jacket- it still managed to get blown out of there and bother them). We did spread these potatoes out and covered them with our fertilizer.

Keith and Millie using their hoes and covering up the row.

Martin found a little hand tiller and went to town. He had a great time preparing his land.

Then after working in the garden we moved the cows back to this side of the road. They have been across the road on the approximately 50 acres this winter. Stephen has been rotating them, letting them graze the standing hay that had been resting the whole year, and feeding hay when necessary.

Stephen and Keith are bringing up the rear. The cows did great going down the road. I blocked traffic at one end (thankfully there wasn't any), and Stephen and Keith held back the one big truck behind them at that end.

Then we drove back across the road to pick up electric fence and posts to put up where the cows were going to reside for the next few days. Martin resting after helping pull up lots of posts out of the ground.

Millie is always trying to stay busy. She helped pull up posts as well.

Working together.

Valentines Day 2.14.10

This was quite an eventful Valentines day for us this year. Many things going on...here are some pictures and details about it all...

The girls and I made Stephen some chocolate cookies for Valentines day. Chocolate chip are his all time favorite...especially soft, not burnt ones. Unfortunately, I have not yet mastered the art of baking cookies. They are still crispy and yes, sometimes black on bottom...

Here are my girl helpers all getting in on the fun.

I made some chocolate covered strawberries for Stephen,

and some for the kids to share.

Stephen brought me this beautiful arrangement. It was so lovely! I really like the 2 tone color roses.

We went out to check cows that morning, and wouldn't you know we had a new calf. This wasn't just any calf though. You see, Stephen and I bread our Miniature Hereford bull to a few heifers last May, and have been expecting them to calf any time now. We had been watching these heifers and were guessing as to when they would drop their calf. I guessed Feb 14th and Stephen guessed Feb 21st. I won!! I was so excited. It seems like Stephen always wins and is always right when we have little competitions going, but this time I won!! I named her Rose Bud since she was born on Valentines Day. She is our first little half miniature calf. She is such a sweet little thing. It was quite foggy that morning, so the picture didn't turn out the greatest, but you get the idea.

Later on that afternoon, we went to a farewell party for Stephen's cousin on his mama's side, Michael. He is being deployed to Afghanistan in a few weeks, so we all went to wish him well. Aunt Gina had the motorcycle group she rides with there to honor him.

A quick funny story...I mentioned my baking earlier in the post...black bottom cookies...well, Aunt Gina had a huge bowl of chocolate chip cookies that were perfect. I mean, perfect. After Martin finished eating his lunch, he chose to have a cookie for dessert. He looked down at it and with a delighted face said, "Look Mama, they're not black on the bottom!!" I busted out laughing and told him to enjoy every last bite. I still have some practicing to do :) Aunt Gina and Uncle Tom laughed when I told her the story, and she said her secret is to pull them out when they are still doughy and not quite finished cooking, then they will be soft and not black. Thanks for the tip, I'll have to try it.

Then we came home and checked cows again and got more pictures of our new calf.

Herzog Family Pictures

During the Christmas and New Year's Holiday we were anticipating everyone on Stephen's side of the family to get together at least once since this was the year for all the kids to be at home. Well, we did manage to get everyone together for 30 minutes. We took those 30 minutes and had planned for the Petty's (family friends who are photographers) to take our family picture. It was a freezing cold morning, but we all managed to be out at the hay barn by 8:15 am dressed and ready to go...smiling faces and all! We took some group family pictures, then individual family pictures. They turned out so well! Thank you so much to the Petty's!!