Farm News

Posted on by January 12, 2011

Well, today’s the day that we go back and finalize the application for the mortgage. Jessy and I have been up all night getting our 2010 taxes ready so that we can bring in a copy of that for the application. We actually made 10 thousand dollars more than 2009, and the banker liked the 2009 taxes just fine as income, so 2010 will be a little more icing on the income cake of proof! (gg) (Does that make sense? Income Cake of Proof??? Oh my!)

However, I was laying in bed last night thinking, plotting and planning and then I thought. Oh My Gosh. What if we are tooo close to the downtown area and that the property is zoned NO LIVESTOCK…. OH MY GOSH. Sure there are barns and coops and all on the property, but you never know how the zoning might have changed or who knows!

So this morning, I got on the phone. I started to make phone calls. And in the true Green Acres sort of small village situation, I had to make about 9 phone calls to finally reach someone that knew anything. You see, our little villlage was de-incorperated back in 2007 or 2008. I guess they decided it was tooo much work to rule themselves and they turned it over to the township. Well, there are only 293 people in the village, as of the last census. And I guess they just decided it was time to let someone else rule them.

I finally got ahold of one of the village trustees and he turned out to be the nicest sweet sounding man on the phone. Just a really neat fellow. We talked for quite awhile and he said that our little farm used to be one of the NICEST properties around. With gardens and vineyards and orchard and animals and horses, he said that the family lived there forever, and they really took great care of the place. He said he was sure that the girls and I would do the same…. (after all I had told him all about the moby and our produce haul and all that… gee, was I babbling? Probably. HAHA) And the best thing? He said the house was rented out as late as late last summer. That’s fantastic! It means that it’s habitable, and that there was at least water and heat and electricity and all those things. That should really help with the appraisal.

Well, today is going to be a long day of waiting until 3 PM… we need everyone’s good wishes and thoughts and prayers… I’m telling you all, that this adventure is one with a whole lot of people pulling for it to succeed. It’s SO wonderful all the good vibes and positive energy, this HAS to happen!!! It’s going to happen!!!

And thanks for all the name suggestions… keep them a-coming!!! We like quite a few and have been thinking on our own as well, trying things out. You see, we want the perfect name. It has to be something that is easy enough for people to say and remember…. (so a couple of Jessy’s really wacky Celtic Welsh names might be hard to use….) and it would be GREAT if it had some sort of meaning to us…. Gypsy Croft? Moby Hollar? and lastly, since we plan to do a lot of marketing/product/selling of some of our things (livestock breeding, veggies, flowers, herbs, photography) it would be great if it had a sort of well, marketable sound to it. Like, even though I LOVE these names…. Worththewait Farm…. Almosta Farm…. Holenwall Farm…. they aren’t exactly the best for promoting a serious venture.

(Sorry, Jeff…. he did have a very funny one… Almost Indiana Farm…. hahahaha)

Right now, we’re sort of torn between something to do with the rock and mineral business + the word Croft… (Stonecroft… Granitecroft, Ambercroft… since it’s the rocks and all that really are paying for the place… OR something with a slight bluegrass music taint… and our favorite right now is Shady Grove. (A very popular old song from the back mountains with a lot of Irish and Scotts tradition… and most of the livestock we’re interested in ARE old heritage breeds from the British Isles…..)

Sigh. That’s all we know at the moment!!! We’ll keep in touch!!!!

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Old Fashioned Butter Mold

Posted on by January 11, 2011

We love making our own butter. (Can’t wait to get a mini-cow… yep.. a little sweet Mini-Moo!)

And I found on eBay a while back, a beautiful old butter mold! And I got a little butter stamp. It’s a cheery little sun. But the mold is beautiful. Fellow said it was old, and Amish made, and when you look at it, it’s delightfully built with little dovetail joints and a lovely patina. Couldn’t wait to give it a try.

Yep, I did give is very complete dunking in boiling water, and then even popped it in the microwave a minute or so. Then rinsed it good in a weak bleach water solution. Wanted to make sure it was good and clean.


Isn’t it pretty? I can’t believe I won it for only $18. It seems like it should be so much more. But I guess, butter molds are not quite the rage any more.


Well, I shook up 2 quarts of cream and got my butter ready to go. I have hence learned that I really should have had my mold in either ice water or in the freezer… it would have worked much better.

But you basically just load her up. Pull back that little knobbed flat board to the back and put in your fresh butter. Invert on a plate and press HARD. It’s a great way to get that extra little bit of buttermilk out of your butter.


Pull off the mold and you have a pound of butter ready to go. As you can see, my block was a little too warm and creamy still, so I took a butter knife and smoothed it out a bit. My next blocks were MUCH better, but I forgot to take a picture! I chilled the mold in the freezer for about 15-20 minutes. I think next time, I’m going to pop the mold in the freezer when I start to shake the cream and make the butter. Then it would be perfect timing.


Lastly, I pressed my little sun mold into the top of each chunk of butter. Again, I think chilling the press would have made for a little better impression. Still learning! But it still was super cool. I’ll get the hang of it in no time. I do like the way it makes neat little blocks of butter though. When we get our cow, this will be a great way to work with the extra milk and pop a bunch of yummy homemade butter in the freezer. And of course, make up for friends!!!

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First hurdle… and we’re off running!!!!

Posted on by January 10, 2011


(I’m showing this pic with Grandma Blue, Jessy’s car, in the driveway, cuz that’s how its gonna look when we move in!!!!)

We’re back! And it went well!!!!!

We were nervous for sure, but Todd, our mortgage officer, he was very nice, very business like and ready to help us out.

We talked, and at first were considering using the Fannie Mae program for first time home buyers and other things and all, but in the end, that would have taken 3-4 weeks for approval and he said we didn’t need to do that. Credit and all was fine for that amount and that a conventional loan should be fine. Our debt to income ratio was fine, and in fact, this mortgage amount will be half what we’re paying in lot rent!!! Hard to believe a house payment under $200. I mean, for gosh sakes, that’s SUPER low! And taxes would only be $100 a month. Tell me WHERE in the WORLD you could get a 3 acre homestead for $300 a month? Oh yeah, and only 15 year mortgage! Shesh…

Anyway. Everything looks good. He has to get a few bits of paperwork because of the self employment and all, and we need a few more little documents and so we’re meeting on Wednesday after to get the application finished and in to the loan committee.

Our next hurdle is that the house has to pass the appraising. I’m pretty sure it will. It has to appraise for the low value of $18,900. The house was last sold in 2007 for $50,000 and then AFTER that, the owner began to ready the house to flip. She put in a new roof, siding, new kitchen, new bath, new ductwork, overhauled the furnace etc. The house is empty and clean, and the only real roughness is that the inside is a little ugly and the flooring needs attention as it’s old carpeting, rough wood floors and all that stuff. But nothing horrid. No holes in the wall, no terrible situations that we saw. SInce the land ALONE is valued at $19,000, we’re pretty sure it will pass the appraisal. It’s really the nicest house of all that we’ve looked at!!!!

Kitchen of OUR FARM…..

The kitchen of our new #2 property choice, in Lyons, that we found this morning and is $10 grand more…. and one acre less….

Yeah. OUR FARM is soooooo much better and ready for move in. Totally ready.

Hopefully, we’ll have an answer in a couple days after Wednesday. First of the week is what I’m kinda guessing. Jessy thinks Friday… I’m like, well, maybe more like Tuesday. (haha)

Then we can officially make our opening offer.

We want to thank EVERYONE that is so excited about this. You’re all wonderful! We have people ALL OVER THE WORLD pulling for us! How cool is that?

So now, you have to help us. We need a name for it. OUR FARM is kinda not quite right… it’s only 3 acres, it’s a hobby farm at best. More like a homestead. Or a smallholding, a croft. We need a name. Me, I like Moby Hollar. HAHAHA…. Maggie likes Green Heart Farm…. and Jessy? She came up with Salty Croft. (Don’t even try and figure that one out. She loves salt bagels. It’s that simple.)

Give us some suggestions for the perfect name for our little homeplace!!! We need to name it and claim it and make it our own!!!!

Any suggestions?????? Leave a comment below!!!

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