I shared eight things I wish people would have told me when I was in high school in a recent presentation. Here’s another one I probably heard several times. I just wished I would have listened sooner! I will be sharing number eight today.

• Do a lot of planning and counting the cost. Make a list every day of daily, weekly, and yearly goals. Things may really start to happen!

There has been a lot of work to do on our new farm since we moved here about 5 ½ years ago. Before we moved here, I was a fly by the seat of my pants sort of girl. Living in a camper the first 18 months (which was way longer than I had anticipated) while we completely gutted and remodeled the house, cleaned up the farm, grew the size of all of our animals, planted gardens, orchards, and fields, expanded our 3 businesses, homeschooled our kids, grew, raised, and traditionally prepared most of our food, helped others, had numerous people out to the farm (even though things were a mess), and later had two more babies at home changed that. We did this all while my husband worked a full-time job about 45 minutes away from the farm.

We love making homemade tortillas! Once you get the hang of it, they become so easy. If you think you can’t, be encouraged, our seven year old has mastered the art of making them. You can do this! WARNING: Once you make these tortillas, you will never want to buy processed tortillas again! I use masa (corn soaked in lime water) so they are highly digestible and more nutrient dense. This gets combined with water and a little salt. You can find the organic masa that we use here, and the great thing about buying this masa is that the soaking has already been done for you. I have soaked my own corn if anyone is interested. You can watch the whole process of making tortillas here. We don’t have a “Martha Stewart” set up, and Kailey did some of this on our screened in porch (summer kitchen) so take us as we are. We just want to get the information out there! I really don’t enjoy getting in front of a camera so a big thanks to Kailey for creating this fun video! Please help her out by giving her a thumbs up or comment! It would make her day and encourage her to maybe do a few more cooking videos!

As part of our transparency on the Mentink Family Farm, we highly encourage coming out and visiting the farm. We are having so much fun on these tours! I love the excitement I have witnessed as children interact with the animals and learn about our farming practices. Thanks to Melinn for letting me share these fun pictures, with her adorable girls, from yesterday. Anyone is welcome to our farm any time they want to see anything they want, but if you would like a guided tour please get in touch with us so we can arrange a time. Have a great Thursday!

Continue reading “Fun Farm Fact and Video” →

I shared eight things I wish people would have told me when I was in high school in a recent presentation. I will be sharing number six today.

6. Understand that I am responsible and will have to live with every decision I make.

A few weeks ago, our family took a trip to the Hastings Museum. The most important goal of the day was actually to pick up some seeds from Green Cover Seeds, but since I like to multitask and get the most out of one trip (just ask my husband) ? we stopped at the Museum on our way. I had planned to do more, but maybe I’m learning that you can’t do everything in one day! Ha!

I get asked by a lot of people how we travel and still eat. Is there somewhere we like to eat out or do we bring our own? To be honest the last time we ate somewhere was over a year ago. I figure we eat out about once or twice a year. I am always disappointed in the quality of the food and have discovered that everyone feels better if I just bring all of our food and water. Here are some helpful ideas if you would like to start bringing your own food places.

Any guesses on what our latest project is going to be when it’s finished? Hint: Not for hauling livestock and/or children down the road.

There is always a lot of excitement in our house when the box of chicks comes through the front door. Little ones run to be the first one to hold the baby chicks, and they each enjoy holding them before they are put out in their temporary home. Spring has arrived and the work will be increasing on the farm. The work is fun and rewarding and we love getting outside more often. Aiden and the little ones helped to get the chicks’ room cozy and warm with heat lamps, clean wood chips, feed, and clean water. Each chick is dipped in the water to teach them where to drink, and they are monitored several times throughout the first day. You can watch a quick 30 second video that Aiden created this morning here. Since all of our chickens got reserved the first day we announced them, we have ordered another large amount for the fall. Stay tuned! Do you love chicken?

I’m skipping my “Eight Things” today in order to share a heart-warming story I read today. If you have a minute, I know you won’t regret reading this amazing story! I need to do so much better in investing in people! Please click her to read Joel Salatin’s blog post Inmate to Love here.

We enjoyed moving the sheep and cows to pasture last week and excitment was high as the new lambs started to be born yesterday. Sugar was the first proud mother of two lambs. We love this time of year and the work it brings! Do you love spring? Click to see these two cute lambs.