Mr Anderson... The Farmer

Mr Anderson grew up on a farm in Southern Alberta.  In spite of his hard earned MBA, and business career, he is really just a farm boy at heart.  I grew up in the City, 3 hours north of his farm.  A classic case of City mouse meets Country mouse.  We have managed to find a happy medium - although we live in a lovely city (go dragons!) we have a "farm" in our back yard.  There are many good things about this, like the life lessons that come from having a "farm".....

Life lesson #1 - Every Saturday you need to take care of business. 

Most Saturdays include a working session on "the farm."  This can be, but is not limited to yard work, mowing (go C), planting, weeding the garden, hauling rocks, chipping fallen tree limbs, burning stuff (a favorite for everybody), painting, feeding, watering, building, chopping, sawing, digging (one of A's favorite), putting up a zip line, building a swing for your daughter (little L's fave), etc.  It is good for the kids and keeps the Farmer around here sane.  He needs to be outside sowing and reaping things. 

So, our "farm" consists of a garden, some clay pots of herbs, fruit trees, nut trees, two hunting dogs, a quail pen with real live quail (most of the time, when they have not been attacked by opossums or raccoons).  Just those few things keep us plenty busy.  Farm life (and I use that term very loosely with regards to us) is a unique experience and I am glad that on our 4 acres in the city we can offer a little taste of it to our kiddos.

Life Lesson #2 - The whole idea of taking care of an animal is an experience that all kids need to have the opportunity to partake in. 

Caring, loving and being responsible for something living teaches a child a lot about life and the circle of life - and we have had our share of life and circle of life experiences around here - let us start with chick hatching.  We (read: Mr Anderson) picked up 100 quail eggs and an incubator.  For 28 days we (read: me) rotated the hundred eggs 3x a day.  Of those 100 eggs - 60 hatched successfully and all got a name.  Yes, the children insisted and named each and everyone (and I recorded the names).  "Pecker" was the first and the immediate favorite.  He imprinted on Mr. Anderson and as such, he would not stop cheeping until Mr Anderson was in sight.  Which was sweet, but not so much at night!  The kids LOVED it... and the quail lived happily for a while.  A pen was built and the little covey lived very peacefully until the night of the attack of the killer opossum.  This (apparently, very smart and hungry) opossum climbed our tree, jumped on to the netted cage and nibbled his way into the pen, and gorged himself on our quail.  I mean like ripped the heads off and was laughing as blood ran down his pinched little face kind of gorge.  Mr. Anderson was.... NOT happy - a trap was set and aforementioned opossum was taken care of!

Life lesson #3 - Do not mess with a farmers animals!  Did I mention Mr. Anderson electrified the quail pen?  He sometimes likes not to tell people - consider yourself told.  FYI - we will be attempting a second hatching in the coming months - so stay tuned!

So this past Saturday, we continued our rituals...

Life lesson #4 - As Mr Anderson likes to say "You are either paying or performing!" 

Well, we performed!  I cleaned and cooked.  The slaves children did help with some peeling duties later in the day.  Mr. Anderson took the kids and did a run to Cabela's and the Feed Store (not the BBQ place - but a real feed store) to get some quail feed.  (We sound very traditional, and we are, but in a nice and balanced way, and I kind of feel like I should express that I could have left the house if I had wanted, but I did not want.) 

The quail got fed!

The lawn got mowed

Think L & A need some horses? I'm just saying....poor puppies!

Tomatoes we grew in our garden got put on toasted sandwiches with BACON! A & E's favorite food.

 Some trees got planted -  by moi!  I guess I did leave the house.

Broccoli got harvested and eaten!  (with some butter & cheese of course!)

 Boots got dirtied!  A must for pride, because the more scuffs and dirt you have on your boots = the harder you worked!

Leaves got swept up and we took count of the last of our watermelons!  We had to lock these up in the pool area so they would be safe from the dogs - they are insane for a number of reasons (the dogs not the watermelon), but I will only speak of the dogs love for eating our produce because otherwise it might get crazy over here.

I cooked.... and cooked..... and cooked - Sometimes I feel like I never leave the kitchen.  Which is fine - that is where the food is.... and the kitchen is known to be the heart of home, so I'm happy to be associated with that, but nonetheless, sometimes a change in scenery is nice.

Little A had himself a basket ball game - lost by one point but fought hard!  Gotta love little people Basketball - especially with the Cowboys kind of sucking right now!

I taught the boys how to dance with their mother (since Mr. Anderson has lost interest due to my fancy moves).  They are quick learners and as long as I teach them some of my trick moves like flipping them over my back and swinging them around and pulling them across the floor (I know, I am very tricky in the dance moves department) they are happy to be my partner(s).

I fell in LOVE with Michael Buble's new Christmas Song with Shania Twain "White Christmas" - and played it and play it and played it, over and over.... A little shout out to my fellow Canadians!

So, if you feel like cooking and not leaving the kitchen for awhile, here are some of my faves from this weekend...

Tortilla Soup

I like to make it CHUNKY this makes it easier for the picky eaters around here - they can just pick out anything that remotely resembles a vegetable.

Sunday Roast - a tradition around here

Peppermint Brownies (yes... again!)

I will post the recipes later - because I am feeling lazy and it is Monday and I want to leave my kitchen, which just so happens to be where the table is that I am sitting at as I type.