Three years ago we set out to follow our dream of farming and moved to a working farm to become farm hands. The opportunity was like a dream come true, a place to stay, an employee wage, the promise of a work to own land/ home deal, land to use for our livestock, mentors...
Read MoreThe Ryder Family Farm Can Accept SNAP Benefits GOLCONDA – Eating fresh, local food is about to get easier for some families in Southern Illinois! Starting this Saturday, June 10th 2017 at the weekly Golconda Farmer’s Market, The Ryder Family Farm will be accepting SNAP EBT cards as form of payment for the foods they farm for the community. The USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program helps reduce food insecurity and hunger for low-income households. Households in the SNAP program can now use EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer) cards to purchase fresh produce and other food items from The Ryder Family Farm of Southern Illinois. The Ryder Family Farm sells homemade goat milk soaps, pasture raised eggs, seasonal market produce and also offers a summer CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)...
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CSA is short for community supported agriculture. We joined our first CSA about ten years ago back in Flagstaff, AZ. We heard about it and were immediately intrigued. We had no idea what we were in for but it was an amazing experience. We loved knowing we were getting food raised right within the community and we enjoyed really getting to know the folks that grew our food. I made us more eager to try new vegetables and we found we became healthier eaters as a result. Our CSA required upfront payment for our portion, commonly called a share. Later, when the growing season was underway and harvests were in we all met at our pickup location and were each given a basket of fresh food that was reserved for us, to last...
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Some big things are in store for the site. Some of you feed subscribers got wind of some changes thanks to the automatic feed that went out with lots of dummy giberish text after we did a website makeover *facepalm* Many apologies for that. Its also been a while since I posted an update. The most notable happening is my little guy, Grayson, crawling! He has been in physical therapy for a while now and hes mastered sitting up, is working on transitions between positions and just yesterday took off crawling! After a couple months of therapy he learned to sit up and to use sign language to communicate. A few weeks ago he saw a chiropractor snd had some major neck work done. For over a year we've had an immobile...
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I’m really unimpressed with electric fencing. We already decided that we wanted permanent fencing for our “barnyard” where the barn animals will have free rein. Heck, we even invested in the rolls of fencing and it’s laying out in the grass near the area that needs fenced in.
Last week was a roller coaster, we are still reeling from it.
You see we were pointed in the direction of a homeless livestock guardian dog. We’ve known we needed one since our beloved family dog lost her life last fall.
Luckily we’ve only had one farm predator issue since losing our farm guard dog, Dixie. You might remember my post about the mink killing my birds just before Easter.
We still have our herding dog that we are trying to train (she might be pregnant!)
We found ourselves another milk goat, one in milk! I was getting pretty panicky after getting a confirmatory negative pregnancy test on our Alpine dairy goat recently. Buttercup, our new goat, found her way to our home a week ago. Her two newborn kids also came along! I happened to see a craigslist post for a bred dual purpose goat who was about to kid...
Read MoreHalloween Decor Idea: Make this "Bats at the Door" halloween decor project by simply printing out this template, cutting and taping the shapes. Super easy and super cute dont you think? Halloween Nail Idea: Looking for some creative & festive manicure ideas? I thought this was creative! Halloween Baby Photography Idea: Got a new baby that can semi support themselves? Do a photo of them in a pumpkin. It's a once in a lifetime thing and can be super adorable. We've made it a family baby tradition. Instead of the oblagatory baby in a bathtub photo we have baby in a pumpkin :) Halloween Pumpkin Carving Idea: Pumpkins having babies? Why not! Especially if you are a birth junkie like many of my readers :P Hospital births, home births, lotus births and more...
Read MoreSomewhere along the way we discovered kombucha at a natural food store, it was actually Nathan and his love of tea. He was surprised when he took his first drink because of how different it tasted. Very much fermented with a hint of vinegar. He had me try it too, I wasn't a fan but he managed to finish his entire bottle that day. Kombucha is a probiotic rich, fermented tea beverage. It is considered a raw food that is beneficial because of all the probiotics and antioxidants that it contains. It's great for digestive health and is also said to be a powerful detoxing beverage. It contains lots of essential vitamins such as folic acid, vitamin B2, vitamin B6, vitamin B1, vitamin B3, vitamin B12. It also contains antioxidants including EGCG, Glucuronic...
Read MoreThere are only 4 months left in this whirlwind of a year! Remember all that madness? Need a recap? Last August we were living in Flagstaff, AZ and N proposed to me on the top of the San Francisco Peaks. Then we packed up a moving truck, the RV, said goodbye to all our family, friends and we drove cross country in our RV with our zoo of animals. N got a new job and we relocated. Once we got here we settled in and less than a month later we learned of our surprise pregnancy. We had been trying for almost 2 years before relocating with no success. We were planning our wedding when we discovered I was pregnant, I had just purchased my wedding dress. Once the pregnancy was confirmed we...
Read More... with a living room fail courtesy of the cats. Here is what we woke up to this morning: I am not sure how we didn't wake up to the loud crash. It seems we are only conditioned to wake for Everly's sounds or something. Also, how in the heck did the cats manage to do this? That glass table top is heavy as were the books sitting on it... Despite my ant filled bra and other unfortunate happenings I did have something to be pleased about: My students first halftime performance of the year....
Read MoreJust 10 short weeks ago I was literally living in bed. Recovering from childbirth and around the clock newborn care left little time for regular person stuff like showering, getting dressed for the day and cooking. I was crying at the drop of a hat (for no particular reason) and I was sure I (as a person) was gone now that the baby had arrived. I particularly remember crying and feeling like the world was ending the first day N went back to work and left Everly and I alone for the day. Many told me that things would get back to normal following Everly's birth and I didn't believe them. I thought for sure I would forever be a sleep deprived, tunnel visioned shell of a person who was just living...
Read MoreOur darling Everly was born 8 weeks ago and is now a two month old. Can you believe it? I know I sure can't! She came in to the world totally new to everything and has come so far in these past 8 weeks. When she was born all she was doing was sleeping and looking around. At 2 weeks old she had her first bath when her umbilical stump fell off. She's been to the State Fair and even back to her birth place for a followup appointment with the midwife who delivered her. She's learned our scents and has really bonded with us and adjusted to our home (pets and all). She learned breastfeeding and has grown so darn much. She now smiles and imitates some of the faces we make a...
Read MoreThis family will be in bed all weekend! After taking a trip last weekend and working all week in addition to taking care of Everly we are ready to do NOTHING for as long as possible. As it stands we have no plans for the weekend. We'll probably play Wii and take care of things around the house if we are feeling motivated or something. Mainly I just want to sleep and lay because my back, neck and head have been killing me. Carrying a baby around 24/7 is the worst part of parenthood for me because my darn muscles still aren't used to it. My back and neck are so tight that I've had a headache almost every day for 2 weeks due to the muscle tension and strain. I even went...
Read MoreOver the weekend we made the 4 hour drive down to Summertown, Tennessee for our 6 week checkup at The Farm. We got to stay in our midwife's cabin again, the same one Everly was born in. I had her right there on the floor where the rocking chair is in this photo. Ah, the memories. We had some playtime upon arriving at the cabin. We figured letting Everly stretch out on the bed would be a nice change from being cramped in the carseat all day. E had fun playing as you can see in the above photos. We learned that an increase in humidity impacts a baby's bottom. Poor Everly got kind of rashy while we were in Tennessee so we put a potty pad (left over from the birth...
Read MoreThe last week has been a whirlwind! Everly Charlotte was born on June 23rd 2009 at 1:16am. She weighed 8lbs 12oz and was 21 inches long, her head measured 34 1/2 cm. She was way bigger than we expected her to be but as you'll see by the photos she is darn good and healthy! She was even born with hair which makes me so happy (I was born bald), her hair is red too. Her Apgar scores were 9 at 1 min & 10 at 5 min, which is great. She was feeding like a champ right after birth too, they placed her on my chest right after she was out and she found the nipple no problem. I was even feeding her as they wheeled me through the hospital...
Read MoreJune 22nd 2009 7:45:15 AM: My water broke at 7:30 am! 39 weeks 5 days pregnant. Here we go! 9:40:53 AM: I'll do my best to keep sharing labor updates. Woot! Baby time! 9:49:13 AM: http://twitpic.com/83ov0 - Just finished the lettering. 10:46:21 AM: Blogged: My water broke at 7:30 am! 39 weeks 5 days pregnant. Here we go! http://tinyurl.com/koqacu 10:48:36 AM: Just had a big breakfast and am now laying dow 10:55:03 AM: Tried to say i am laying down for a nap now...
Read MoreThere are only two more days until I leave you all and head off to wait on my little girls arrival. I am totally feeling ready for this and am very anxious for labor to begin. Saw the chiropractor yesterday and was all out of whack again. Even more so now that Tater's bones are grinding against mine in just about every position I am in. Felt good to be adjusted and all put back in place. Here's hoping all stays that way for the delivery. With chiropractic care labor and delivery are supposed to be quicker and easier. Yesterdays adjustment was my last before heading off to The Farm. Before I head off I've been sure to write many advance posts and get them all scheduled here to tide you over...
Read MoreHopefully I am not jinxing us here but I just wanted to spread the upbeat news. With all the crappy happenings a bit of good is always nice, even if it is a bit premature...
Read More[POPUP=IMG1]We got in for our appointment and got some nifty photos of our little one today. We even got a little CD with the photos in addition to the ultrasound printout. N was way excited about our appointment and he is super stoked at the news. Lets see, I weighed in at 119 today and am super stoked. That is 9 pounds gained since the last appointment and the doctor even remarked at the weight gain being good. The ultrasound showed that Tater is measuring in the 56th percentile as far as growth goes, which is just above average. All the baby's measurements came back normal and the head is even a tad small which they think is a good thing since it makes for easier delivery. My blood pressure was 108/62 which...
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