Hi people I’m back.  Sorry I haven’t written in a while.  I just got a break from school.  This Thanksgiving my family hosted a party so that many of our friends could get together.  A lot of work went into the meal.

Before we could even think about having a party we had to butcher some turkeys, two to be exact.  WeThree lucky turkeys left raised 13 turkeys from chicks and are really proud of our birds.  Cathy (who works for us) used a really big knife and unlike Mom who just chops off their heads Cathy slits their necks and lets the blood drain out, a more humane way to deal with them.  Cathy also plucks their feathers in the kitchen sink after scalding them in hot water.  It’s Mom that does the cooking. Mom cooked the turkeys two different ways—she roasted one in the oven and she smoked one on the grill.

For the party Mom and I baked a lot too.  The day before Thanksgiving Mom and I made pies.  One of the pies was an apple pie with a top crust.  The other was pumpkin.  I got to decorate the pumpkin pie.  I used really little cookie cutters to cut leaf and acorn shapes out of dough, and arranged them on the pie crust. I also baked some of the cutouts separately so I could place them on the pie when it was done otherwise the cutouts would sink into the pie!  All my hard work sort of went to waste  – we gave one pie to Silvia (our terrific housekeeper and friend – this wasn’t the waste part) -  it was Max, our seventy-six pound poodle, he saw pie and went to town.  He ate the center out of it when no one was looking!

Mom and I also baked a cake. We made a sour cream pumpkin cake with streusel in it.  That cake was Bad Maxone of the best cakes I could ever hope to try.  Mom and I whipped butter cream icing to go on the cake. I also put some candied ginger on it too. Then, I made one of my favorite things - whipped cream! – to add to everything!

At the party Patrizia, Dad’s Italian teacher, and her daughter Sofia brought Dad his favorite candy—red candy (or at least that’s what I call it) – from Italy.  Damien, Patrizia’s friend who is French, made French potato salad (Damien claims to be an expert in all things potato). I personally didn’t like the potato salad but the other people seemed to like it a lot. 

Mrs. Marshall, my godmother, brought in two of Mom’s corn puddings (we didn’t have enough room in our oven to cook everything so Mrs. Marshall cooked it for us). Corn pudding is one of our family’s favorite dishes.  Every summer we buy several bushels of corn at the height of the season and shuck it and scrape the kernels off the cob.  Then we pre-portion and freeze the corn for special meals.  We save the corn for holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas to remind us of summer.  And Mrs. Marshall made a pumpkin pie to replace the one Max ate. 

Vincent, Mrs. Marshall’s friend, made some yummy Brussels sprouts that were cooked in chicken broth with butter and garlic.  Vincent said that you couldn’t use too much garlic that’s why I can smell it in my room upstairs. 

And last, but never least – our good friend -  Kate!  Kate brought her famous onion gratin.  One unlucky, yet delicious birdUnfortunately, she had to leave her husband, our carver of roasts and birds, home because he was sick.

The party was so much fun—most of my friends were there and all of my family was there.  And isn’t that what Thanksgiving is about—spending time with your friends and family and being thankful that they are with you.
  
Peace to ya, Farm Girl

Sorry, I fell into the mud again!

This time I was chasing a turkey. My mom and I just got home and she told me to check on the turkeys. IBourbo Red communing ran as fast as I could down to the old playhouse where they live. But when I got down I saw the last turkey fly away!

I ran to Mom who said, ‘Go look for the turkeys; I’ll check the woods.’ Again I ran back down the hill to the stream this time. I saw the same turkey soar over my head to the branches on an oak tree (I think its oak) so I ran towards it not noticing that a big puddle of mud was right before my foot.  I put my second foot down and tried to lift my first. Both of my feet slid out from under me making a flack-flack sound coming out from the mud. My jeans and tee shirt landed in the mud but at the last moment, with a splat sound, my hair hit the mud. At that point I screamed. At first I thought I saw a giant hairy spider, but it was my hair covered in mud. I screamed again, ten times to be exact.

Mom came down and asked ,‘are you all right? Did you see the turkeys?’ I sniffled. Mom took me up to the playhouse just to see if we still had any turkeys. Apparently only three turkeys escaped. The rest were hiding in the grass in their pen.

So far I’ve gotten covered in mud twice, for nothing!

Editor's Note: The family started out with 20 turkeys and now sadly has only seven.  A young visitor held a couple of the chicks too tightly, new puppies became a little too playful, turkey wings need to be clipped regularly.  Thanksgiving saeson is going to be a little lean this year.  Life on a farm goes round and round and not something you are usually aware of when you purchase your turkey at the local supermarket.

Hi, I’m Farm Girl and I live on LittleHouseFarm which is located in the Hudson Valley.

Living on a farm isn’t easy ‘cause you never have a moment to yourself. But some jobs are fun. My Herding Ducksfavorite job is watering the ducks. Pekin Ducks. The ducks share a small kiddy pool so that they can have some water, since their pen is almost as slippery as the pig pen but it doesn’t smell as bad. How you water the ducks is by turning a hose on medium and spraying it on them. Once you have the ducks’ attention, they will most likely hold their heads up high and show you the muck on their chests so that you can clean it off. Once that’s done, they put their heads down so you can give them water from the hose. They jump in the kiddy pool, which has clean water. It’s their version of being pampered in a spa.

Yesterday, I was trying to get the ducks into their house, but since they are incredibly stupid, they were running all around the rim of the pen. It was so tricky, because I could not separate the ducks from each other. I led them one way, but they just ran to the back of their house, but not into it. I got one or two in at the start, but they went right out. While trying to chase the ducks, I put my foot in one of the gookiest spots and slipped and fell. Luckily I didn’t get my pink mini-dress gooky, only my hand, knee and shoes! And then I just gave up trying to get them in. Later that evening, I finally succeeded. They were a little sleepy and actually wanted to go to bed, instead of thinking of it as a game.

Next time I write, I will hopefully not have fallen into the mud and tracked mud onto the keyboard!