Happy Valentine’s Day or Happy Monday!

I am wishing all of my friends and family a special day. I know it is a "Card" holiday...but it is one more day I can make sure my friends and family know how much I love them.

I hope you got to spend time with someone you love! Farmer Chris splits his time between me and his Pigs (and the other couple hundred animals) --- and believe me they know how much he loves them.

As I was standing at the bus stop this morning (around 6:20) with my 12 year old daughter she was telling me a story! Kyra's class was discussing who was smarter - dogs or pigs. Most of the kids said pigs and her teacher thought they should test that theory and asked if anyone had a pig. Some kids jokingly raised their hands and Kyra spoke up and said no that she really did have pigs. The teacher said oh ok a Guinea Pig? and Kyra said no we have like 100 big pigs at the farm. Needless to say she was a little shocked. Kyra agreed that pigs are very smart, they know when her dad shows up they are going to be fed, they know if they bump Chris he will rub behind their ears, they know how to get out of the weather, they know not to touch the fence, a mama pig can deliver 15 babies all by themselves!

Don’t worry I am not jealous, I am just happy I married such a loving and caring human being!

Have a Great Valentine’s Day no matter how you celebrate it!

Happy 12th Birthday Kyra Addison Hebron...

Happy 12th Birthday Kyra Addison Hebron

Born: November 17th, 1998, on a Tuesday at 3:13 p.m., in South Bend IN!

8 pounds 4 ounces

20 1/2 inches

Brown hair, Slate Blue eyes (no more)

I put in her baby book that she resembles Chris --- but that isn't the case anymore, she is the only one that truly looks like I gave birth too!

She was our first child... the love of our lives and still is to this day.  She truly amazes me daily in all of her accomplishments, her drawing, her poems (she wrote Environment).  If you can't find her she is most likely reading...something she gets from both of her grandpa's (although I am pretty sure they haven't read the Harry Potter series once - let alone 4 or 5 times)!  She has been on the honor roll since they started handing them out in 3rd grade (a gift from her daddy). 

Now she is the 6th grade at a special academy still surprising me...and of course still being like a 12 year old should be and drive me crazy (my mom warned me I would get paid back for all that I did to her)... but we thank God every day for November 17th, the day our lives changed forever!

Kyra we are so proud of you and wish that all of your dreams come true!

Mom

Blueberry picking and Blueberry Bars yummm!

Friday night Chris called and asked if we wanted to go last minute Blueberry picking...so we did!

Luckily it was closing in the next hour -- so it wasn't too painful to the kids!

Then on Saturday Kyra made this...

BLUEBERRY CRUMB BARS

We have met so many wonderful farmers through Purple Porch - and one of them offered to teach Kyra how to bake (because everyone learns better from someone they aren't related too :)  So Marianne Christy from (Christy's Clean Crops) taught her to cook this last week!

BLUEBERRY CRUMB BARS

Ingredients
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cold unsalted butter (2 sticks or 8 ounces)
1 egg (from FFC)
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)
Zest and juice of one lemon
4 cups fresh blueberries (from the Orgnaic Blueberry Ranch)
1/2 cup white sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch


Directions


Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch pan.

1.  In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, and baking powder. Mix in salt and lemon zest. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of dough into the prepared pan.

2.  In another bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Gently mix in the blueberries. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.

Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares.
 
And since we ate it all, Kyra made it again yesterday and it was awesome.  Now Chris says if we keep the blueberries in stock she should be able to make it twice a week!  :)
 
Have a great week!
 
Michelle

Happy Mothers Day....from one mama to another...

From some of the moms at Family Farms to all of our moms out there...

we wish you a very Happy Mother's Day

front row: Kyra, Me (Michelle) and Jorja May

back row: Jackson and Cyrus

Mama pig and her babies...

Mama sheep and her babies feeding on our grass...

Some Moms, Dads and babies...

We wish you all a wonderful day!

Love,

Michelle and Family

Easter, Eggs, Piggies, and hiking on the farm...

We spent Easter at the farm...with my brother-in-law (Richard) and sister-in-law (Annette)!!!  What a beautiful day at the farm.  I wanted to share the pictures so you can see where your food comes from and who the special people are that raise and love it!

On our way to do chores...we found mama and babies had gone wild...

Apparently they wanted to take a walk for the day, so this is Cyrus leading the herd with a bag of bread!

Then Jorja May, Kyra and I went on a nature walk....

It is very pretty on my father-in-laws farm!

And of course they get to drive the mule!

On to chicken chores....which was pretty neat since it was Easter and we were finding eggs everywhere...

We hit the mother load here... and they are clean!

This is Kyra and Jorja May carefully picking up the eggs --- I broke two, they broke none!

Those eggs are from these pretty chickens!  We believe the more you talk to them, the more eggs they will give you!

This chicken wasn't done laying yet.  They do like their privacy, one was pacing beside it waiting for it to be free!

Daddy and his girls checking on his chickens!

Jackson getting feed for the pigs...he now is able to do the pig chores all by himself -- well maybe with a little help from Jorja May.

This is our free bird...

This is Jorja May after finding out we were having Pork Tenderloin for Easter Dinner!

Chris and his brother Richard solving the worlds problems...or trying to figure out how they are going to feed the world with our healthy food! (Gideon is in the back ground taking it all in)

We hope you had a wonderful Easter or Passover and enjoyed time with your family...because in the end that is what is really important!

Love,

Michelle and Family

Environment

Environment

The world is huge

and I'm so small sitting here

Now multiple me by a billion

This is what I fear

If everyone was me

The world would be so wrong

There would be no pure water

No birds to sing a song

So now I make a pledge

to keep this world clean

to reduce, reuse, recycle

to respect all I've seen

Sitting here I may be small

but what I do

will make a difference to all

Kyra Hebron

Michelle handed me this tonite when I sat down for dinner. Kyra (our oldest, 5th grade) writes down          poems all the time and some are good. But this one struck home. It seems that she was actually listening to me all these years behind all those blank stares. I'm so proud of her,as proud as a father could be.

Just the other night I learned the story of the hummingbird and this poem reminded me of that. Great job Kyra, love Dad

Pictures...aren't worth a 1000 memories if you forget to take them...

I am a huge picture taker...in fact I am not in many pictures since I am always the one behind the camera.  After the barn burned, I realized I didn't have any pictures of what the barn looked like before.  So many times I don't realize I never took a picture of something until it is gone.  Or when a loved one passes, I realize that I didn't have that many pictures of them. 

For one of my Christmas presents to farmer Chris I gave him a poster with farm pictures and our logo "Family Farms Cooperative".  We brought it tonight to Purple Porch Coop, one of the places we sell our food (meat and eggs), which was nice to show our customers who hadn't been at the farm yet.  Many of the customers asked about the fire and as we were showing them pictures we realized that we didn't have any of the actual barn...sure now I have them after the fire.  But Chris recalled a time back when my first son was only one and we visited.  This was before we were farmers, but my father in law had his horses there and I believe my brother in law was just starting to farm.

So guess what I had to do when I got home... you guessed it, I had to find the pictures....

And then I remembered I had ridden on a horse before, wow is my memory bad.  Please remember this was back in 2001 (farmer Chris made sure I wrote that), so be nice.  They had made changes to the barn since this picture.  This is me riding with Kyra, farmer Chris holding the horse and my nephew Gid in the back.  Our son Jackson wasn't even one yet, I am pretty sure he is sitting on a hay bale somewhere.

I am more aware of the pictures I take, I don't leave the house often without a camera...I hate the feeling when you lose something and you don't have a picture.  Especially for the kids...

While I was looking for the pictures the kids got to see things they don't remember doing...and then I got asked why I took them to Florida when they were babies, and don't now when they would remember it.  Well some day they will appreciate them...right?

Have a great night...

Michelle