The "new" greenhouse is almost complete!

BEFORE: Here is ANOTHER one of the UGLIEST buildings on the property getting a redo... (click the remodeling tab below) And ALMOST AFTER:

Stay tuned for the finished photos!

a peak at our morning...

movie of the "two" meeting

The GREAT HIM meets "Her"...

At age 2 with some apprehension...

He approaches so calmly and curious...
He reaches out to feel...

They are friends now...

"He" did not know "She" gave more than friendship and love...

Our Jersey Girl is FRESH! Sorry movies are not in order, watch last one first, etc.

It turned out wonderfully! At 7 p.m. we knew she was ready to "go"...

Then, with some mooing, grunting and pushing, 2 little hooves appeared about 7:05 pm.

Then for 25 minutes only the two hooves were seen and sticking out while Jersey Girl pushed and heaved and pushed to no avail. She kept looking at us like, "help me you people as you stand here gawking at me"!!!

So, the Gentle Giant, in his tender way, helped Jersey girl push here heifer calf out. The head was definitely stuck it seemed. I was a nervous wreck as you can hear.

And then at about 7:30 p.m. "she" emerged onto our farm in her warm and wet cocoon onto some fresh straw. All the children were so excited to see this miracle of life transform before their very little eyes! The Great Him exclaims, "THAT'S MY HEIFER"!

The minute Jersey Girl delivered, she quickly pushed us out of the box stall and is a very wonderful and protective mama to her baby.

Yesterday was a perfect day and we all finished with a homemade supper, together in the peace and quiet with an oil lamp and thanked the Lord for a wonderful day. Just 1 day every now and then like this makes this life we live even more worth it! I am so thankful that we can experience life on a farm...

Photo taken at 7 p.m. right as the hard work began...

March = busy!

our Kombucha tea station complete with scobbies

worker men of all ages and happy to help


other ways to use boxes!

into mischeif!

here is "that" off-grid family...

taken March 2010

we are blessed!

Our Mini Nourishing Conference was a huge success!

Here is Neeshan a new friend and a successful health coach from Lansing, Michigan. She studied under Sally Fallon. She enjoyed her try at making homemade sauerkraut the old-fashioned way! Now we leave it to ferment 3-5 days and take it to cold storage. No canning required! We had a great turn-out, over 30 people came through out the day.

Here is a view of some of the wonderful audience we had! THANK YOU all for coming! We are so blessed to have many new friends here at the farm!

And we loved seeing the 2 sweet nursing babies as well!

Some of our menu, homemade sauerkraut from January 2010, Jenni and Tammy pitched in with 2 wonderful deserts, Nourishing Traditions Macaroons (long story as to where they disappeared to) and Blueberry cobbler. I made the chicken type casserole with fresh Michigan herbs, organic brown rice with organic scallions, organic chicken stock and butter including Maple Valley Farms very own grass fed chicken meat. Michelle brought her wonderful ranch dip the NT way and some fresh organic veggies. Oh yes, don't forget the wonderful yoghurt soaked oat groats and fresh Maple Syrup we had for breakfast! You must come next year! We had a great day together and covered 90% of the book Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. We sell the books right here, no shipping and a good percentage off, we are comparable with amazon!

here is HomemakerAng and her sweetie taking a pound or two at the krat! Hope to see you next year! Don't forget our meetings each 2nd Tuesday at the farm. They are free and next month we talk about brewing Kombucha tea at home!

"And to think, we can abort our babies any day of the week (and now the gov't might even pay for it) but we cannot legally choose on our own to buy a gallon of raw milk from a local farm... Hmmmm? What's wrong with America!"

- Angela Kuncaitis

It's coming!!!!

Can you feel it? I CAN! We are up to our necks in maple syrup sap, visitors, classes, green houses, seeds and much more. Remember that calm before the storm I spoke of before? Well, the storm is HERE!

How about you?

Will I see any of you next Thursday? Don't forget to RSVP soon please...

What did you do on this beautiful Sunday?

We have been a little under the weather with colds, some with fevers... Today as we were so cagey when the littlest fever broke we took the opportunity to get some fresh air and take a buggy ride. Our buggy horse, Barney, is at another farm for some R and R and use for a funeral but we took Jim (one of our Belgians) on the buggy today. It went ok for a while until he saw a large log and it spooked him. Lets just say this was something I never really enjoyed, horse and buggy travel, and today even though it went ok it reminded me of this past summer of our travels to church and more...

Today after Jim was spooked he took off into a corn field, buggy and all, all 2,500 lbs. of him. He was just scared and we got out quickly while the Gentle Giant calmed him down and righted him out of the field. I took a long walk heading home as he took Jim and the buggy back at the end of the ride, I WAS NOT GETTING BACK in that thing for nothing! An event like this really is/was no big deal at all if you are Amish... It happens so often to them, every day, as I have seen that horses do crazy things and because the Amish were practically born in a buggy it seems to be no big deal to them. Interestingly our children were not scared today at all, only mom :)... The horses particularly act up, especially after church when a horse wants to get back to their own barn. Its a wild time as the men hold the horse back while the family gets in the buggy and then the men let go and the horse just goes STRAIGHT home all on their very own... I had an interesting buggy ride coming home once from church on the hills of Ohio this past spring.

Yes, it is so intriguing to come upon a family traveling in a buggy. It is much different when you are that family and you just hope and pray that car sees you. I was a willing participant in the buggy travel all summer it was just something I did not enjoy :) but I will let you in on part of this ride with this short movie...Whatca think? *** SORRY WILL HAVE TO GO TO A HIGHSPEED PLACE IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS AS IT IS TO SLOW***

toughing it...

Hello, Hello! It seems that alas as of late, I have nothing to say! That could be a first for this writer, this talker! But stay tuned as it will not last long...

We have been busy tapping maple syrup trees, collecting sap, building a greenhouse, finishing the ice house and painting. Oh yes, finishing up the February newsletter to go out as well, ahem...

I am not going to kid you, it has been a tough couple of weeks! I hesitate to say this as there still seem to be quite a few waiting in the wings to jump out and say, "I TOLD YOU SO! WHEN DIDN'T YOU GET IT THAT IT WOULD BE HARD TO LIVE OFF GRID?" "Your life is so hard and so much work"! And to that I say, "hmpf and bah humbug"!. That is not what I am referring to in the tough department! It just has been tough ok and that could be why the posts have been boring and not as frequent :), so "there" to the nayfolk! :L. I will not quit!

But, do not despair dear friends! I am getting my groove back and I have lots to say when I can get away a few moments and I will be updating you. Nothing to exciting, just the daily grind.

On a great note, we had a wonderful evening on Monday giving our off-grid lecture at MCC. What a nice group of folks to talk to and they were wonderful and gracious to ask so many interesting questions. I must tell you, it is encouraging to know people are actually interested in what we are doing and they would give us their precious time to let us talk to them about our lives. Thank you to all who attended!

It was also encouraging to see the farm in all its "glory" in the summer slide show pictures. It brought resilience to me personally as to why we are doing what we are. It was a blessing to have our 16 year old speak un-prompted about her life here. What a remarkable young lady... I am only 10% of the woman this girl is! I take no credit for her but give all credit to Him who has blessed us with such a great God fearing daughter and He saw it fit to "loan" her to us for this short time. I pray constantly to have God fill in the blanks with my parenting skills and I got to see a glimpse of His faithfulness in that department this Monday evening. He is doing a great job!

Does this have absolutely anything to do with farming? NOPE! Its a small glimpse into my personal life which I do not share much about here. It is just a glimpse... I have to keep it real here too and honest...

In the SPIRIT of farming, family and faith,

Yours truly,

HomemakerAng