Oct. 28th - Nov. 1st, 2013 in Pictures

Oct. 28th - Nov. 3rd, 2013 in Pictures

in process and still adding pictures

With the stormy, rainy, horrible weather on Halloween night our whole area of Indianapolis called off Trick or Treating and postponed it for Nov. 1st!!  How weird to go out in November!!!  But, we did.  This was the first year Dd did'nt want to T or T very long.  She really just wanted to get all dressed up in her costume---that was her fun part!  She took her shower in the morning and we put her hair in curlers to dry all day.  Then we still had to curl her hair with the curling iron after that; not to mention lots of hair spray!


Christie's daughter went as Merida; and we thought that was such a great idea that Dd did that too!  It was a much warmer idea than a basketball player!!!  Do you know who Merida is?  It is the red-headed archer from the Pixar movie, Brave.



We spent all day on her hair and then the can of red hair "chalk" stopped spraying after we did her front---so she pulled up her hood and covered up her curls--but her hair looked like it was red all the way around, even though the red didn't get all the way around.  I was so upset the can didn't work!!!  Of course, she got the can to work the next day!!!

 Three going into Chrysalis-- the top one dropped it's last skin on 11-1-13

Three still eating--


One Praying Mantis left and lots of crickets and grasshoppers!

My two fallen friends

Archery:

Caterpillars and Fennel:

This is one of 4 sections of fennel I planted. 

Harvested our CELERY:

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Going to the Farm Oct 26-27, 2013

Going to the Farm Oct 26-27, 2013

This is what our trails in our woods looks like---since we ride the tractor through it is nice and wide and beautiful.

Guess who is posing for the camera!!

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Lone Pine Farm-field trip to a "vertical farm" 10-25-13

Lone Pine Farm-field trip to a "vertical farm" 10-25-13

in process

It is going to take a while to type out how this farm works b/c Adam Moody; the owner and tour guide did such an amazing job at telling us how everything worked.  He filled my brain with TOO much information!!  It is going to be hard to edit it all down for this post.  After I spent 30 minutes rambling to my husband about this tour, he said, "that's how my grandfather ran his farm too!"  To put it very simply-- this farm does things the 'old fashioned way'.  They use seeds that are NOT genetically modified; they don't use fertilizers and pesticides (except a 'safer' pesticide once every 7 years), they use the animals and the animal by products to farm with....for example the cow poop and saw dust from the barns gets worked back into the soil for fertilizer; etc.

This barn houses the youngest of the cows---we got to bottle feed the calves warm water.  We also got a good lesson in chemistry and how cow poop is an acid and needs a neutralizer like leaves or saw dust to attach to it to combine----and a whole lot that went over my head!  We also found out that all the unpasteurized milk that we and others around here have been buying is ILLEGAL!!  Who knew?  I sure didn't!  Adam Moody and his family own chickens, cows, sheep, and fields of crops in and integrated farming lifestyle.  They sell the eggs; and meat.  They own the meat butchering company, the meat shops that sell their meat as well as a few other farmers meats that they endorse.  They have 2 meat stores open now; and are preparing to open a 3rd store soon.  His son; Isaac and his wife and their 2 children were on the tour too.  They own a lot of the livestock and have started farming the fields too--next door on their own farm.

 

 

These are the oldest, biggest cows they own.
 

We got a ride on hay bales behind a tractor to the various areas around the farm to see.  Here we are seeing the Picker- Pick corn--they keep it on the cob, so the kernels stay attached to the cob and can take in or give off moisture and stay the right humidity.  Adam compared the kernels attaching to the cob like an embryo chord between a baby and it's mother--passing nutrients.  Then when it is time to feed the corn to cows or chickens they put the WHOLE cob and corn in a machine that grinds it all together into bits and they feed all the pieces combined to the animals.  Adam says the animals need the fiber as much as the kernel.  He went on for some length about how fiber is very important--and eating grass--access to fields; etc.  He discussed what things to look for in determining how a cow should look to be considered healthy---for example; a "fuzzy" coat.  

They grow the corn and grain to feed the chickens and cows.  They run their fields in 7 year cycles.  Each swatch grows for 6 years, then gets a year to rest.

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