Farewell

Edited March 11, 2013

The snow around Rusty is too deep, so his farewell is being postponed for a week or two when the gates have been freed of snow. We met the family and they are wonderful! We are so excited for Rusty's new life!

Edited March 15, 2013
Rusty's last day with us was March 14, 2013. He is already missed.

July 2009 (the month she got him)

Dec 2009

Summer 2012

Every girl wants a horse. When my parents purchased this old farm house in 2004 my sister immediately asked: "Can I get a horse?" My parents surprising answer: "Yes, but you buy it, purchase materials for its barn, buy all its food and medicines, and do all the work." For five years she saved, she worked, and in July 2009 she realized her dream. His name was Rusty, and he was her baby.

Time passes and the little girl grew to a young adult preparing for her future. A future where keeping and paying for a horse would not be a possibility. So a search began for a good home for her special horse.

On Sunday a friend (lets call him George) of a family friend stopped by to take a look at him. George was looking for a family horse for a friend. A horse that wouldn't mind children or other dogs, a horse with patience. Rusty is that horse.

Today Rusty heads off on a new adventure. There will be a new horse friend for him (a 'teenage' horse about 3yrs old), new kids to feed him, and new animals to meet. He will be well cared for and loved. And he here at the Hamberg Family Farm his presence will be missed.

Rusty the Snow Magnet

He does have a barn.

A nice one with a roof even.

Sure it's not heated, but he'd at least be out of the snow.

Like most kids though, he enjoys being outside.

Even if it means getting a little snow on his head.

If You Don't Like the Weather

There is a saying, and I'm sure it's true for many parts of the world, it goes something like this: "If you don't like the weather, just wait awhile." The sentiment is that the weather is unpredictable and constantly changing.

Maine sure did prove that on Thursday.

I went out in the morning to see if the duck's gate was unfrozen enough so I could open it. It was sunny and the pond had a foot of water over it and I thought they might enjoy a splashing around in it. Sadly the gate was frozen pretty much solid in ice and snow and I was unable to pry it loose. 

While I was out there I snapped a few photos.

"The Big Dog" :: Rusty

"Old Grandma Kitty" :: Pheonix

Beautiful, sunny, warm, and smelling of spring.. wait isn't it the last day of January?

Two hours later, the weather remembered that it wasn't spring....

Two hours! This is the same tree in the photo with the blue sky.

Thankfully little boys, bunnies, and kitties don't mind the change in weather. Just as long as Mommy or God has dressed them up warm.

It didn't show up in the photos, but when these last photos were taken it was snowing.

Kisses for Sarah Bunny

"Welcome to Maine, if you don't like the weather, just wait a minute..."

Saturday Farm Journal :: Green Tomato Relish

The batteries in the camera died right before I could show you the two gallons of relish I made Friday night. All the green tomatoes are from our garden. The peppers in the photo are from our garden, but the onion is from the store. I ended up purchasing onions and peppers from the store, but maybe the last batch of relish will have some from our garden. The story is the same with the garden, many weeds, few things to report. We are fairly certain we are not going to get the 5lbs of seed potatoes back in produce. We are hoping to break even. The good news is that the ducks are now taking care of the potato bugs for us, check out  this post for the all the waddling fun!

The tomatoes are doing awesome, regardless of their floppy, bushy state. Jason did manage to stake a few. He tossed some branches into the horses paddock, which is beside the garden, believing that the horse didn't like tomatoes. Wrong! The next day the horse helped himself to some plants and ruined some tomatoes! Gah! Luckily, there are tons of tomatoes so the horse can have a few.

Mom did manage to weed one row of potatoes in the last week. We have picked green beans twice, but haven't been able to put any up for winter because we're eating them. We have stored up four gallons of blueberries in the freezer. My sister in law picked about a gallon of blueberries yesterday and we have probably have eaten a gallon. That's six gallons of blueberries from three bushes! God is good! 

Last weeks list:

• weed: cabbage and tomatoes
• stake tomatoes
• pick tomatoes
• make relish
• pick blueberries

This weeks list:

• pick blueberries
• pick green beans
• weed something
• stake tomatoes