Author: TZHuntley

Hello from Little Iowa Farmstead, I'm Tara. A wife, mother of four teenagers & fulltime CST (surgical technologist). I love my job-- I also love to do projects of all kinds at home. My project To Do list is HUGE... That's where this blog comes in. I want to be accountable for the ever growing list of projects that need to be, and that I want to accomplish. With my favorite play ground Pinterest, we all understand the To Do is long. Spring-Fall has us at our busiest with gardening, spring babies, getting ready for the county fair, harvesting the fruits of the growing season, and time for travel. During the winter, while the season is short, it feels like we just can't get out to 'DO'. So the planning & preparing happens. Here's to a wonderful, productive, happy, healthy New Year and all that we are blessed with.

A bushel and a peck



Is there a song from your past that triggers happiness. Maybe you don’t really know all the words, there can be a lot in a song. After all, depending on how long in the past we are talking about, it may be just the sound of the melody, or the music that rings a bell.

I love you, a bushel and a peck – a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck – a hug around the neck and a barrel and a heap –    a barrel and a heap and I’m talking in my sleep about you.

 

This little song brings back so many memories of my grandma.  She sang this song often to the grandchildren. It starts out kind of like a nursery rhyme and was easy for us to sing along. Boy I wish we had her recorded. It’s been over 30 years since I would spend the day at my grandparents house. Oh the memories.  Anyhow– Just this part is all I could remember.  So I did a YouTube search.  I honestly don’t think I have ever heard the whole song. While I’m sure she played it, I don’t even know who it would have been by.  There are a few to choose from on YouTube.

Lately while on my Pinterest adventures, I have seen this saying. It just brings a happiness to my heart and I knew I had to make something myself. Sooooo, now what will that be??

It didn’t take long to decide. I had picked up a bunch of pallets last summer, so wood was available. (Disclaimer here, seriously, just go buy wood and rough it up. Pallets are terrible to take apart.)

I wanted something for the upcoming Valentine’s Day, yet I also wanted it to fit in after the season of LOVE.  This project was super easy.

  • Pieces of pallet wood, but any scraps or new or old will work.  Cut to your preference size
  • Lath scraps I had from a earlier project.
  • Staple gun
  • Paint — I used acrylic paint & brush, but wished I had a paint pen on hand.
Pieces cut to desired lengths. And lath cut to just short of what length would be of boards together.
Line up boards so the better of the two sides faces down. Line up edges if you prefer even. Lay lath and place evenly for more support.
Lath stapled to pallet boards.

See where I put the two red X’s.  When stapling, I lined up boards to my preference, then held them tightly together and stapled the end of each lath strip, followed by finishing up with the rest of the middle boards, this way they all stayed tight.

I know my saying, now it’s just placement play time.

I wrote out the words on paper and placed how I thought I would like.  This is a great way to play with sizes of the words and placement. We have several old notebooks from past school years, because goodness forbid a child takes a hardly used notebook back to school the next year for another hardly gonna use it class.  Once you decide on how it looks perfect for you, the transfer step happens.  I tried with shaded lead method, you know rubbing the back of the paper with lead, then tracing over lines on front to mark up the board.  DIDN’T WORK!! If I would have had carbon paper, that could have been an option.  Instead, I just lightly wrote the word on the board with pencil. Then painted over that. I feel that a paint pen would be much easier. I would have possibly been able to make the lettering more artistic. On hand, I had some craft paint. While I haven’t used this with many projects, I do like it. It’s a nice solid cover while painting.

Simply took a small firm brush and painted over the lightly penciled lettering.  It took some time due to not being able to hold much paint on the brush. And it was very thirsty pallet wood.

Possible steps that could have made project go smoother:

  • Sanding the boards even more
  • Putting on a clear coat first, this would have smoothed out the boards a bit and made them not so dry.
  • Using a paint pen!!  If anything, I would have used it as my outline for lettering. I then could have continued with the paint and brush method. (The pencil lines were hard to see, thus hard to trace for nice lettering)

This project was super easy, super cheap.


It all seems impossible til it’s done.



1-29-18

This quote is ringing pretty true to my ears.  The focus of these words are directed at this blogging set up.  Golly, if I can figure out where to link in posts to the correct page I want them on.  Wait, was it suppose to be a category to the page.  Pages are a one time deal, posts are often. UUHHHHH!!!!!!

I have watched so many videos, read a load of information.  So many article show the how to, but not the how to that I have in mind.  Maybe I have to big a plan and just need dial it back awhile. I know it should be able to organize it’s self in time as posts come together.  I will tell you, my draft page of ideas to start writing and the list on my phone it getting quite long. Exciting.

I even stopped to visit my cousin who blogs, aslightlybetterwife.com.  We talked instead.  Her kids are so fun. So no blog work that day.  It may be my stubborn nature, I just want to figure it out on my own. On the other hand, my impatient nature just wants to be told what to do so I can get on with it.

I bet this isn’t what Nelson Mandela was thinking about. I am giving him credits to the quote, as when I looked it up, his name followed.  Although I did find a site that says there are no records of him saying this.  Who really gets all their words recorded?

 

 

Launching a new website

Little Iowa Farmstead is a new adventure for me as well as my family.  Stay tuned for some Farmstead Happenings.  Gardening, animals, DIY’s, and recipes are some of the ideas we are up to.  I love to look for treasures in pretty odd places and great deals everywhere. Let’s see what we can get ourselves into….. at the Little Iowa Farmstead.

What are we in for??

Enjoying January 

This new year has been quite the roller coaster of temperatures. 2018 came in with frigid negative temps reaching windchill lows of -45°. Almost two weeks of this. Crazy how that if temps of -20 really don’t feel so bad when there is no wind. Then two days later we only have -9 or so, but the wind is fierce. The burn is not a good thing.  Frostbite is not far away if we don’t be careful.

Chores become painful. In the sense of fingers freezing quickly. Naturally everything is more time consuming. There are so many more things to watch for. Water pails freezing, is the feed bunk full of snow, is there enough bedding, is everything Alive!

Photo taken the first week in January 2018

Thankfully our frigid temps have been short lived. Well, let’s rephrase this. Thankfully we have gotten a break a few times. We have just come out of a 3 day 40° heatwave. Only to receive a forecast of 8-14″ of snow over the next two days. I must say, the forecast also came with above 0° temps, so I’m good with this.

To help the barnyard out, a cure for cabin fever for the goats and ducks was in order. They were released into the great outdoors for two days.

January 20, 2018

Now let it be known, the goats are rather tame. In fact, mama Ally has made her escape a few times this last week with babe in tow. The girls just hang around the barn area, and will come running when they see a human. I have received a text or two asking what in the world was going on. “How were they out” we asked ourselves. If you have goats, you know only to well. All goats are blessed with the spirit of Houdini.

The last two days have done them well. And the animal instinct must be kicking in as well. My girls were ready to get back to the barn tonight as soon as I opened up the gate.

Now the ducks on the otherhand. Oh these feathered fowl have been quite stubborn with the lock-up.  The initial lock-up for my water birds happened only right before Christmas. They refused to go in. They spent a few flurries outdoors. I worried until morning, going out to count and make sure all were well. Finally, they must have had enough and allowed themselves to be herded in.

January 20, 2018

So for our heatwave barnyard party, I did have some concern with letting them out again knowing it was short lived. All in all, it was an easy round up.

Now we wait for the massive snow forecast to dump on us and we tackle the daily chores on the farmstead.

Shepherds Pie

Shepherds Pie has been our family favorite for many years. My husband made it early on while we were dating, and I quickly realized he wants the ‘farmers meal’ for supper. This meal is so versatile to the type of vegetables you have on hand, that is practically a meal you won’t get bored with. And if you have the “meat & potato” eater like I do, it’s a wrap in this one dish.
You can practically make this with one pan for preparing and one for baking. It’s super easy, and measuring is not required.

Ingredients are:

3-4 lbs. hamburger (we also use 2 lbs. hamburger 1 lb. ground pork)
2 cans (10-12oz) tomato soup
Vegetable of your choice. For this amount I use 4 regular cans or 2 large. We also use 1/2 bag frozen veggies. It is a preference of your own. How much or little you desire.
Potatoes You can use real or instant. Again it’s all your preference, and time.
milk & lots of butter
PREHEAT OVEN 350°

Fry up the hamburger. Today I used my Pampered Chef chopper and fried it really fine. Sometimes we have chunkier pieces of burger. Drain once completely cooked and put back into pan.

chopped up burger

What’s your veggie choice? Are you using cans? Drain water from veggie and pour into meat. Is frozen what you have available? Perfect, just put vegetables in a colander, run some water over it to get off any ice that may have formed. Drain well and pour into the meat. Now if you see some fluid in bottom of your pan, here is where you may want to turn on the heat and cook that down. Stir up the meat/veggie mixture so nothing burns. Once fluid is gone turn off heat.
Add the tomato soup, mix well and set aside.

Potatoes I prefer to use real potatoes, a 3 lb. bag for this amount. Peeled and cut up for faster cooking. When potatoes are cooked to mashable standard, drain and put back in pan. Add a little milk (for 3 lbs. potatoes it was about 1/2-3/4 cup) and 1/2-1 stick of butter. (We like the butter) It depends on the amount of potato you make and what your taste buds like. Remember I said you don’t have to get out the measuring cups, start with less, you can always add more. Use your chopper to whip these up to mashed material. Small potato pieces are alright. If you don’t have a utensil that is safe for whipping in this pan; after you drain the potatoes, put into a mixing bowl and whip up with your mixer. Today I added some sour cream for a creamier flavor.

We have many times used instant potatoes if they are on hand and we are short on time. Off hand I can not remember the amount, just use your best judgement. The good thing about instant, if you don’t make enough, it’s super easy to whip up some more. You can also add sour cream to these to help with the dry taste instant has.

This large amount fills a 9×13 baking pan. Naturally if you are making smaller amounts, just use what looks right. You don’t want a super thin layer of meat, but you also don’t to run out of room for your potatoes.

meat/veggie/tomato soup mixture

First layer in your meat mixture. Then top with potatoes. Spread to an almost even consistency. The little hill & valley area are just right for the added butter on top. I cut up one whole stick just for the top. I said we like butter. It also helps to keep the potatoes from drying out.

topped potatoes and butter

I put my pan on a cookie sheet because there is always run-over. Do not cover. Put into oven and let cook. Because everything is already warm, you are just getting it hot. The potatoes with get browned tips and the juices from the meat mixture with bubble up the sides. About a good half hour to 45 minutes.

If you like, make some biscuits or just buttered bread/toast is good too.
This amount will feed our family of 6 for two meals and have available left overs for work lunches.
I hope you enjoy this meal.