I did find out before we left for Disney, that we would miss the International Flower and Garden show by one week!  I was a little disappointed about that but don’t worry there were plenty of cool horticultural magic that I did get to see.I loved these topiaries.

At Epcot, I was able to get in on a walking tour of the greenhouses.  Disney does everything right and their greenhouses are no exception.  In college at UW-Platteville , The colleges greenhouse were being constructed and brand new when I was there.   Dr. Compton, who was picking the design for the greenhouse, picked a similar design to  Disney’s  because his wife had worked in the Disney greenhouses for years and of course they were the best.  It was cool finally seeing them in person after hearing about them all those years ago (12 to be exact) and I did see the similarities.  A few notable things about what they were growing in the greenhouses were the 9 lb. lemons, the mickey shaped cucumbers and pumpkins, and the different hydroponic and aeroponic systems they were using.   

This is a very simple hydoroponic system that anyone can make.  I’m pretty sure Cori and I are going to try it this summer.  You just have to look for a few supplies from a hydroponic supplier like High Tech Garden Supply.  Everything else can be found at Farm and Fleet.  This is how they grow pumpkins.  The large brown buckets at the left house the soil and roots and they train the plants along the PVC structure.  Then when a pumpkin gets too heavy, they support it with rope.  The plastic ear mold at the top of the picture is how they get pumpkins to grow ears.  They put the young pumpkin in there and it grows into the mold.  This Black Pepper plant is a “hidden Mickey”.  They have them all over the place.  Your supposed to look for them, but I think it works better if your kids are older than 7. 

At the end of the tour, Andy got a chance to put lady bugs on the eggplant.  This is an insect control method because ladybugs eat aphids.  Actually, I think some of those tiny white spots on the leafs are the aphids so we got there just in time.  This was the only thing that got Andy’s attention off of his game of Angry birds during the whole tour.This is the Tree of Life at Animal Kingdom.  It’s not a real tree, but man it was cool and absolutely gigantic.

We had a great vacation at Disney World.  There was too much to do in the time that we had.  I don’t know if I would want to stay any longer though because my waistline just wouldn’t take anymore Disney dining.  It’s all too good and too much.  I’m still paying for it.  The Beer and Cheese soup at Biergarten in Germany at Epcot was to absolutely die for.  I had to come home and modify my recipe to make it taste more like Disney’s.  Just a hint, the beer makes all the difference.  Great, great, food and on the Disney dining plan a dessert comes with every meal.  It’s not just a chocolate chip cookie, it’s like a huge piled high frosted cupcake with strawberries or carrot cake flavor with cream cheese frosting.  Deluxe, because it’s Disney type desserts, and you have to eat it because you’re not coming back to Disney anytime soon.  definitely, still paying for that.

The Farm Wife

]]> http://fourthgenerationfarmwife.com/2013/03/16/the-farm-wife-tour-of-disney-world/feed/ 2 fourthgenerationfarmwife Disney 144 Disney 133 Disney 134 Disney 100 Disney 119 Disney 124 Disney 108 Disney 151 http://fourthgenerationfarmwife.com/2013/02/20/its-my-one-year-blogovarsary/ http://fourthgenerationfarmwife.com/2013/02/20/its-my-one-year-blogovarsary/#comments Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:39:38 +0000 Fourth Generation Farm Wife http://fourthgenerationfarmwife.com/?p=1616 ]]> I can see why I started blogging in February.  Gardening is on my mind, but there is nothing I can do about it now but plan, read, and dream.  I can’t go out and pick, I can’t stand in my garden because I want to, I can’t catch bunnies with Cori.  It’s just the time of year when you need a gardening outlet.  I guess that is why I started my blog one year ago this month.

So I’ve been blogging for a year and I would like to share a few things about my blog and about blogging in general.

First of all, I am proud of my blog and the audience I have built over the last year.  My audience is not over whelming, but I do get comments and feedback, and that is something that not all blogs can say.  At my blogging high, I would receive about 50 visits to my blog/ day.  My record visit day, I had about 126 views.  On that day, my sister published Eye Of The Tiger.  Very funny story about cats on our farm.  Now, I have been  averaging about 30 visits/day.  I have 52 followers.  Those are people who have signed up to get e-mail notices when I post something new.  Over all, I have had 10,000 views to my blog in a year.  To me that sounds like a lot.  In the blogging world, it’s really not that much.

Over the summer, I did enter my blog into the Country Living blogger competition.  I didn’t win anything.  I sort of had a bad feeling about it when their first question was how many viewers do your get/ day?  I think they were looking for an answer somewhere around 1,000.   Not 30.    Then they asked how many unique viewers do I get/ month?  I don’t even know what that means.

My centennial farm features posts were popular.  I blogged about 2 farm wife friends, Nancy and Gail, and their centennial farms.  Another popular post was The Traditional Farmhouse Landscape, about landscaping features that are common among midwestern farms.  SInce I started blogging, I have published 87  posts.  Five of them are stories that my sister published.

If you are thinking of blogging here are a few tips that I was told and some I have learned myself…

1. Pick a specific subject matter and try to stick with it.
2. Pick  a subject you are interested in.
3. Try to have a regular blogging schedule.  You can’t neglect your blog.
4. Social media takes more time than you think it’s going to.
5. Computers are a pain in the buns.
6. Don’t publish anything you don’t want your grandma to read.
7. Don’t get overly worried about who is reading your blog.  Yes, anyone can read it, but generally only people who are interested in your subject matter are reading it.
8. I don’t use last names.  If someone goggles my full name my blog won’t come up.
9. Don’t worry about being popular in the blogosphere.  If you are proud of what you are putting out, who cares that Country Living doesn’t like it?
10. Every post doesn’t have to be a grand slam.  Just get something down and publish it.

I’ve had fun with my blog over the past year.  I would recommend blogging to anyone interested.  It’s  a great record of what you have done and are doing.   I’m sure I get a bigger kick out of it than anyone else, but that’s ok too.  It’s been and continues to be a fun challenge for me.

The Farm Wife

and the farmer is out-of-town

and you never checked the other farm like you were supposed to

and the water runs for two days.

The water line is at the base of the ice mess and it sprayed up to the top of the shed for two days.  The low temp at night got to be -7.    The high temp for the day didn’t get over 10 degrees.

I always remember, when I was little, dad having problems with the water for the cattle when the temp got this cold.  I really don’t remember what the problem was, but I do remember dad freezing and swearing.  Now I understand the swearing part.  Just looking at this ice mess and thinking about having to put my hand in there to see where the break is, made me want to swear.  The farmer did it though.  No way Jose!   He’s a better man than me.    This should thaw out sometime around June.    Things could always be worse.

The Farm Wife

Although February is my least favorite it’s not all bad because it is the month when I start to get my garden planning under way.  Besides pruning apple trees , I also start planning the seed starting process, and the garden layout.  This year I will be rotating the onions and tomatoes for sure.  I also will be starting seeds with newspaper pots again.  They worked very well last year, much better than I thought they would.  I also loved not having all those dumb plastic pots hanging around.  My herb garden was great fun last summer.  If you have young kids, I recommend a herb garden.  Cori never complained when I told her to run out and cut me some mint and basil for dinner, and she usually came back with the right ones.  I think I will add to the herbs, although a few herbs go a long way and are very easy to grow.

When winter gets you down, check out a few good garden blogs.  I have a few very good ones on my right tool bar.  Click on a couple if you have a minute.  Some of my favorites are The Museum of forgotten Pickles, A Way to Garden, and Garden Betty.  Some are already starting their seeds.  It’s fun to watch because we are still a month or so from that point.  Also go to the library and check out  gardening books.  That always helps me get through the end of winter. Keep your mind in a happy place, even if your body is somewhere where it’s 10 degrees outside.

The Farm Wife

The topics will still mostly be gardening and farming, that’s not going to change.  I would like to do more recipes.  I sort of feel that recipes are overdone in the blogosphere so I have always been hesitant to jump on that bandwagon.  I also like a certain kind of recipe.  A can of this and a can of that is not my idea of cooking.  With that being said, I do have a few gems up my sleeve I have been dying to post.  Do Jack Pot Drop cookies sound familiar to anyone?  If you grew up in Illinois, and were in 4-H, your mouth is watering right now.  I have more 4-H throw backs where that came from.  My daughter is just getting to 4-H age I can’t wait.

So please come back again soon and don’t forget to follow my blog ( click the follow this blog link and it will ask for your e-mail) also you can like me on Facebook.

The Farm Wife

I did decide to blog for another year.  There were just so many topics and activities that I didn’t get posted.   For example, apple cider day did not happen this year because of the drought and lack of apples.  Also, since my brother and sister do not live around here they love seeing pictures and hearing stories about what we are doing on the farm.

I do have a few blog posts in mind that will be coming out this year to wet everyone’s whistles.

1. RAGBRAI  -Follow the link if you have never heard of this.
2. Apple Cider Day – of course we have to have a decent apple crop to accomplish this post, not to mention the cider.
3. Bread/ Brick oven- The foundation has been poured, I’ve been saving my birthday and Christmas money for 3 years, I think it’s ready for construction.  Now all I need is someone elses brain to do the calculations.  That’s why I married the farmer.
4. My garden is only in step three of five… at least.

If that doesn’t keep your interest, I don’t know what will.  Here’s to another year of blogging.  Thanks to everyone for reading and again I will soon have my official one year post up.

The Farm Wife

Being stuck at home is fun for 24 hrs.  After 48, it starts to wear a little thin.  I was able to get some good bread making done.  I tried my hand at Ciabatta.  It tastes awesome.  Crispy crust, soft crumb.  Exactly what you want in a good artisanal bread.  Although it doesn’t have the airy look that it probably should.  Oh well, good for a first try.  It’s edible.  Cori and I have just about polished off the first loaf.

I also was able to get out in my snow shoes for the  first time this season.  I took my phone with me and tried to catch some snow photos to show off.

This is our road and as of 4:00 pm it still looks like this.  The farmer lost his patience about an hour ago and tried his hand at plowing the road himself to go get me eggs from the store.  I told him it wasn’t an emergency.  I have a feeling it really had nothing to do with the eggs.  I guess there was nothing I was going to say to get him to stop.

Well, enjoy the snow!  I know that I will, until February, then I will not be enjoying it anymore and I will be dreaming of my garden.

The Farm Wife

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Enjoy your Turkey!

The FarmWife

Deer hunting has always been a source of eye rolling and laughing, at the expense of the hunters, when my sister and I were younger.  My father was not a hunter, so he didn’t care who hunted on our farm and would let any moron who wanted to come and hunt.  Much to my sister and my dismay.  A typical conversation with one of our hunters went something like this.  “Hey, girls tell yer dad we are going back in the woods ta hunt.”  “Cletus here is going to go over to the woods over there and scare ‘em out of the park.  Then I’m gonna be waitin’ in that tree there.  Hey, do you guys want to go over to the park and scare ‘em fer us?”  “No!” *door slams*  The comment that maybe they would shoot each other was made more than once.

Unlike my father, my husband really enjoys hunting, and does not let anyone hunt on our land except a few pre approved neighbors.  They also hunt as a team and share what is shot.  This is a great deal for me because I don’t mind a little venison, but I much rather cook with beef.  I take what I want and the rest goes to the others who want it.

This year is the first year my little guy went deer hunting with dad.  The jury is still out on whether he liked it or not.He enjoyed tracking the deer after they shot it.  He didn’t enjoy the dead deer once they found it.  Can’t really blame him.  He told me all about it in great detail so I think there is a hunter in him somewhere.  It might just be a few years before he gets used to it.

Happy Hunting!

The Farm Wife

We were only in Vegas for 3 days, but three days worth of Vegas fun is equivalent to a whole years worth of southern Wisconsin fun.   A little bit of Vegas goes a long way.  My sister met me for a spa afternoon in the Bellagio.  We entertained the ladies working on our toes and nails with some farm stories and at one point they were laughing so hard they had to stop working on our pedicures.  We have a few antidotes that bring down the house every time we tell them.  We should’ve been charging them for the entertainment.

Without any further adieu, This is the farmwife tour of the Bellagio….

I know it’s gorgeous.  As far as I could tell everything was real with the exception of the grapes.  The vines, pumpkins grasses, flowers it was all the real deal.  Of course my first question to the farmer was where do they ship all this stuff in from?  Vegas can’t grow this stuff.They had about 7 of these big boys, averaging about 800 lbs a piece.

This is a cool piece.  When I was walking around at 5:00 am, hunting for a place that was serving coffee, evidently no one else in Vegas is up at 5am.  Strange.    Anyways, the hotel staff was replacing fresh flowers by the cart fulls.  This pumpkin is a floral foam mold that is full of carnations to look like a pumpkin.  This lady replaces a few sections of the carnations by hand everyday.  There is a huge storage area in Bellagio, the size of the farmers shed, where they keep all their decor items.  I saw it when they were bringing carts of flowers out.  Still waiting for coffee…..

The kids would’ve loved the talking tree.

There was also a Monet exhibit in the Bellagio that we didn’t get a chance to go see, but this is a floral depiction of Monet’s painting of haystacks.

Vegas was a great time, I don’t think I need to go back for another year, but none the less it was a good time.  I’m happy to be back on the farm where it is dark when the sun goes down and when someone drives by I generally know who they are and where they’re going.

The Farm Wife

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