Poor Man’s Lobster – Boiled Northern

Posted on April 2, 2012 by wagfarms

My dad had a slight stroke last week…we use the word “slight” because he’s still here to tell about it. But, in reality, it could have been so much worse. He was lucky…and with determination, he came home without the walker they were predicting and he’s almost back to normal…whatever that is.

He asked Saturday evening if Big Bro could go with him fishing on Sunday, and although we usually go to church and Sunday school before any other events, I gave him a pass to spend the day with his grandpa. And he thought it was worth every minute!

The fishing was great, they were biting heavy, but better than that, the memories will be amazing for them both. And when they came home with four decent-sized northern, Big Bro was proud as a peacock.

I’ll share with you my new favorite recipe for northern…and it’s super simple:

Cut up your northern into bite-sized pieces.

All you need is fish and beef broth. This fish is fresh, so there are bones in it. (My Dad doesn't have his de-boning technique down quite yet.) Be careful with those!

Bring about 3 cups of beef broth to a boil.

Bring broth to boil, drop in fish.

Drop in fish and let it boil for about 5-10 minutes. Enjoy!

Fish are cooked through, moist and so yummy!

It’s a very simple, great-tasting dish, sure to please everyone! You can add other seasonings if you wish, but my family prefers it straight from the broth!

School Carnival Craziness

Posted on March 26, 2012 by wagfarms

Friday night was the Casper Carnival in Ellendale. It’s a carnival hosted by the SADD group and it gives the kids a chance to have some good, clean fun…but I also realized a few things:

The dreaded goldfish game.

1) The hot game at the carnival is the ping-pong bounce, where you try to get the ping pong ball into a glass jar. And win a goldfish. I must have my head examined for allowing my children to play the game, but they love it. For many years in a row now, my children tote home some goldfish and I wait patiently for them to die. The math ends up something like this:

Amount spent to win $0.50 goldfish – $20

Amount spent on supplies – $30 (tank, food, water…oh, and don’t forget the goldfish toys…yes, I said goldfish toys…you know, the cool stuff in the tank?)

And then, after spending all that time and money on goldfish “stuff,” I spend the next few weeks taking care of them…all while secretly hoping to find them floating in the morning. And no, they are still alive…today.

2) Scooter will spend $10 to win one can of pop…and then give it away to someone who hasn’t won yet. And that is awesome! (Don’t worry, he went on to win a 12-pack more…but I did convince him to share with his cousins, so he only had one to drink the next day.)

3) EJ believes that giving two tickets at the cake walk should be all you need to do, before walking home with a cake. This whole walking in circles until the music stops is for the birds! And then waiting for your number to be called? Not his cup of tea. Well, until he won a plate of cupcakes.

Just waiting on his fish.

4) The fishing pond will ALWAYS be the best game ever. You stand there, throw the line over and win something. Simple, to the point, and a no-brainer. That’s my kind of game-of-chance.

5) Duck ponds don’t work if you don’t like water. EJ was excited about playing the game, until he realized he had to get close to the pool of water. Then he thought maybe Mom should help him out. Sorry, son, I’m a little old for that! But I did hold his hand while he reached down…and neither of us fell in!

6) Big crowds scare George. He was excited about the games…until he realized that he had to share space with all those people. Grandma quickly realized that this wasn’t his idea of fun and took him to her house. He was much happier playing trains without his brother competing for space, than he was waiting in line. Just don’t tell his brother!

Scooter, right, and his buddy enjoyed playing on the pillow fight. I'm considering setting one up in the house.

All-in-all it was a great night, for a great cause! And the best part is that it will be another whole year before we get another goldfish!

Young Farmer Friday

Posted on March 23, 2012 by wagfarms

Just loving my day with the boys…and who can blame me? We head to Mayo on Monday, and that’ll be worries for Monday. For today, I’ll just enjoy what we have.

"Mom, will this be mine some day?"

A rare moment of stillness, and no one fighting!

George teasing EJ that he was going to beat him to the shop.

Well, he decided the reward wasn't worth it.

The blessings of social media

Posted on March 15, 2012 by wagfarms

I regularly hear people talking about the amount of time that is wasted on social media. When people ask what I do, and I tell them that I blog about our farm and our family, it’s almost as if I just told them I’m a stay-at-home mom…oh, wait…

"George" and I...towards the beginning of this journey. It's amazing the changes that have been made, to both of us.

My point is, that neither my chosen profession nor my hobby gets much respect in the real world. (You can decided which is which.) That doesn’t bother me, and for the most part, I ignore it…but last night it became very clear to me that all of my work and time “wasted” has not been in vain.

For those that have been following along a little while, you know that our youngest son, “George” on the blog, has been diagnosed with OTC. (You can read more about it on the OTC tab above.) It’s been a very crazy ride, but we’re feeling our way through, and have seen some amazing results in the last year.

But that doesn’t mean that we haven’t had problems, or that there were times when I wasn’t really sure who to turn to for answers, venting, etc.

And then I received an email. And not just any email, an email from the Executive Director of the National Urea Cycle Disorder Foundation, which just so happens to be the link I use in my blog posts describing OTC. Yeah, that’s big.

I think back to that meeting in August, almost two years ago, where I finally met JP in person. There was a round-table session where you could just sit and ask different people questions relating to social media. I sat at her table and asked if she thought that my story was worth telling (we had been “connected” through Twitter). I thought that my connections through Twitter and facebook were probably enough, maybe a blog would be too much, and maybe I didn’t have anything to really share.

With her encouragement, I started Wag’n Tales in September of 2010…and the rest, as they say, is history.

And I’m not the only one that Janice has positively influenced through social media. Just check out her latest blog post and see.

Yes, social media can take away time. It can be used for evil and wrong-doing. But when it’s used in a positive way, it can truly be life-changing…

In fact, it can be life saving.

WW – A Passion for 4H

Posted on March 14, 2012 by wagfarms

Sunday was the annual 4H carnival at a near-by town. Scooter was tickled pink to be a part of it, and eventually Big Bro warmed up to the idea. Check out some of the great pics!

Why yes, yes it does!

Great cake for the cake walk!

Big Bro kept playing the cake walk game until this cake was gone. He was disappointed that it didn't come home with us.

Face painting, er, arm painting booth.

Scooter wanted to help out with the face painting, but he's only 8 and I didn't think he would do a very good job. Mom was wrong, and is proud to admit it. He made this flame, with oranges and yellows, and did an amazing job. He was so incredibly focused. Thank you, 4H!

The beauty of calving

Posted on March 12, 2012 by wagfarms

This weekend was absolutely wonderful. The weather could not have been more perfect…well, maybe a little less windy yesterday, but it was still very nice. And with nice weather came a little boom in our calving.

When the weather is nice, though, it’s a little easier. The mud isn’t fun to mess with, but thanks to the wind, it’s been drying pretty nicely.

Here’s some of my shots from the weekend. And I’ll have more on Wednesday! Enjoy!

Hmmm...My calving instincts aren't always right on, but I'm thinking something here is telling me that she needs to head to the barn.

Just another beautiful bovine.

Our lilacs are trying to tell us that it's spring.

The cousins, in a race of epic proportions!

Mom, can't I just nap here?

A case for genetic markers

Posted on March 10, 2012 by wagfarms

Not so long ago, I wrote a post about how George seems to enjoy coloring himself from head to toe in markers. And I don’t mean just a little bit.

For Halloween, we'll be going as Smurfs.

After turning bath water several different shades of blue, green, black and orange the last few weeks, I was beginning to think that he had some strange sort of addiction to coloring on himself. (You know, like on that show where people say they HAVE to drink nail polish, eat chalk, etc.)

Well, I may have stumbled upon the answer…it’s genetic.

It appears as though 30-some years ago, this little blonde-haired beauty decided that she rather enjoyed coloring herself as well. Although, I like to think that I pulled off the look a little better.

Yep, he came by the habit honestly. Who would have thought this scene would be replayed 30 years later? Well, and on a little grander scale.

But that’s how it works, isn’t it? The next generation tries to find a way to do it bigger and better?

I’m a hypocrite

Posted on March 7, 2012 by wagfarms

I’ve been up a lot the last few nights. We head to Mayo in a few weeks again. This time it’s for lots and lots of testing…developmental testing. George will be the big 3 in April, and that’s when he graduates from Infant Development into a school-district led program (if he qualifies and we decide to go down that route).

Guess who's going to be the big 3 in April?

So why am I a hypocrite? Trust me. I didn’t come to that conclusion easily. And it’s not something I enjoy admitting, but I think it’s true. You see…I’ve been so busy planning for George’s future, that I forgot to let him live today.

Let me explain.

George doesn’t handle illness well. He dehydrates quickly and goes down hill fast. You can ask our speech therapist who was here last week when he became sick. He went from fine and playing to physically ill and very little response in a matter of minutes. By the end of the week, we were in the hospital. The culprit? Strep.

You can't see me!

There I am!

Which is funny, because we had his tonsils and adenoids removed in August to try to help with limiting his strep infections. We’ve had 3 positive strep tests since. I shudder to think what it would have been like without the surgery though.

So, now what.

We need to start making decisions. Like, do we send him to preschool? Are we going to send him to school? Continue speech therapy in a school setting? And I became so wrapped up in planning out his future, that I forgot about today.

He’s a little boy, and little boys want to play, and get muddy and make a mess. They don’t worry about developmental scores, school choices and speech therapy. They want to play with the calves, tease the puppy and make their brothers miserable.

I spent so much time reading about what could happen, that I missed what was happening.

I can’t promise that I won’t spend any more late-nights with tears in my eyes as I watch George sleep. I can’t promise that I won’t go into overprotective mother-hen mode again. But I can promise that I’ll try to let go of my planning tendencies and embrace today for what it is…another day with my children.

No, I can’t forget what the statistics tell me, I can’t pretend that there are not times when George is truly in danger…but I can’t forget that a life without living is hardly a life at all.

I’ve read the statistics, but I forgot one thing…God hasn’t finished writing George’s story yet. And those are the only statistics that matter.

The way to a boy’s heart…

Posted on March 2, 2012 by wagfarms

Is apparently through his…feet?

Just a few minutes ago, the mailman brought a package to the door that wouldn’t fit in the mailbox. I had an idea about what it was, so I asked EJ if he wanted to open it…

and I have the happiest boy on this side of the county.

EJ opened new boots in today's mail! And they're "tractor boots." How cool is that?

Yes, I splurged a little, but not too much. They were on sale through Zulilly (I l-o-v-e that site, by the way) and they are John Deere boots. I knew he would love them, but I didn’t know that they come with a little surprise…

Box for boots, and a BARN!

The box that the boots come in turns into a barn! How cool is that! I had to fold some pieces together, but it’s all one piece, and I have one little boy in heaven.

Checking to make sure there's enough room for his tractors.

Now, normally I would buy his boots from a thrift store, or off Craigslist, or something like that. It’s not that we can’t afford to buy brand new boots, but really, let’s be sensible. If their main purpose is going to be walking through mud, riding in tractors and traipsing through a barn full of….manure…would it make sense to buy them new?

I’m pretty sure the cows don’t care. And Iknow that EJ doesn’t. But these were a special surprise, and worth every dime, just to hear the squeals of joy.

The box is even printed on the inside. "Just like ours, Mom!"

In a world where demands and “I deserve”s are heard more than thank-you’s, hearing my not-so-little boy exclaim with appreciation and tell me that he’s so thankful for his new boots…well, that’s worth it’s weight in cowboy boots.

And, no…they won’t be allowed in the barn yet, but I imagine they’ll make their way there soon. 😉