Cider Bend: February

 January and February are typically some of the hardest months on the farm. That hasn't been the case this year, because we've had such a crazy, mild winter. I've spent a lot of time outside in just a sweatshirt, and I haven't had to do any snow shoveling at all. It's felt a lot like the beginning of spring. No complaints here!

Random Stuff:

We've had the usual beautiful sunrises and sunsets on the farm.

The sunrise on my way out to feed the animals.

A pretty sunset as we finished up our goat walk.

We finally got a little bit of snow, and I was excited for everything to look white and pretty, instead of brown. It didn't last long.

Cats:

I didn't really get any pictures of Stormy this month, but she is doing great! She actually looked so good through the winter; I would say a little plump even. We see her on our cameras catching mice all the time, and I feed her plenty, so she never has that to worry about.

Michem and Floof are great. Michem has trimmed down so much! She looks like a normal cat now, instead of part hippo. I'm sure she feels better too.

I love this picture!

Every Thursday I try to scrapbook, and Floof is a HUGE pain in my butt! I give him five chances, and then usually end up kicking him out of the office. He either lays on my stuff, right where I'm trying to work, empties my trash faster than I can fill it, tries to drink out of my water bottle, etc. Good thing he's so dang cute!

We often find Michem rolling around on the floor trying to catch her tail. 😂

This is my grandkitty Bean. Sawyer got Amanda this snuggly thing to wear with a big pocket in the front for Bean. He loves it! He just snuggles down in his pocket while Amanda is gaming or working on stuff for school.

Chickens:

I think my chickens have really appreciated the mild winter. I don't usually sell eggs until spring and summer, but they have been producing so good, I'm already selling to some of my regulars. Their eggs are looking awesome too!

One of their favorite days is when I clean out the fridge!

I had another company reach out to give us free product if we'd make a reel using their stuff. We made one of how we clean the coop, but I couldn't download the reel with the audio. I put the boring, no sound version on here anyways.

Revitalime is the product we highlighted.

On Valentine's Day I gave the chickens a bucket of alfalfa, and they had it all spread out in minutes!

I've been terrible keeping up with my farm social media account, but I did manage to put up a couple chicken reels this month. I start the year off with good intentions to build our account, but I truly just can't find the time to keep up with it. 

We finished off the last of our garden pumpkins. It was a fun treat for the chickens.

Donkeys:

Willow and Clover are as cute and sassy as ever. I'm excited for our Airbnb season to get underway, so they get lots of interactions with people besides us.

Willow loves when I bring a bale of new bedding into their stall. She lets me cut in in half, and then she guards it from me and Clover so she gets to empty the bags and spread the shavings all by herself. She takes her job very seriously, and nobody better interfere. 😅

Here is Willow coming at me for treats. I'm asked quite often about the donkeys pinning their ears. This is not a mean or aggressive gesture. This is a sign of play. She really is the sweetest thing, with just the right amount of hilarious sass.

Hopefully in the next month, the trails will start dying out enough for us to start taking the donkeys out on them. We've got a burro race to get them in shape for this year!

Goats:

The goats are so chill and easy going that I feel like sometimes they get forgotten. I would never actually forget them, but more like they get the least amount of attention. My goal this year is to take them on at least 10 walks a month. We've been having fun on all of our walks. Plus they are pretty chubby, so hopefully this will help. Enjoy some little clips from our adventures around the farm.

Ginger-Roxie-Dolly

Here is Sawyer making fun of them for being chubby. 😆

Cows:

One of my very favorite chores on the farm is feeding the cows dinner. I miss half of the cute stuff they do because I can't get my phone out in time. Usually the more I cheer them on, the more they perform. By the time I dump the bucket of hay, Opal is so fast I miss most of her bucks and jumps. I can't wait until summer when I can give them a bath and get all the winter grime off them. I want clean, fluffy cows again.

The cows have been loving our sunny days. I went out one day and thought Ace was stuck in the fence, but he was just basking in the sun.

That's it for February's farm news. I hope spring is on the way and we aren't going to just have winter hit us extra late. I'm ready for the farm to green up, summer farm projects, hikes with the donkeys, fruit on the trees, etc...

Cooking Through The States: Oregon

 Our state for February was Oregon. We weren't terribly excited about this one, but Noah and Jonnae had their baby, so we got to meet Aevelyn for the first time. That brought the excitement level back up.

So sweet and fresh from heaven!

I thought she looked so much like Adler!

So cute!

We had a bizarre combination of food to cover Oregon. We did salmon, which I didn't hate, but I wouldn't order at a restaurant or anything. Everyone ate it, and thought it was good. We also had OreIda tater tots. I had no idea OreIda meant Oregon-Idaho! Apparently we grow the good potatoes, and Oregon makes them into yummy stuff. We had Tillamook cheese sprinkled on our tots. For dessert Amanda made a blackberry crumble pie with Tillamook ice cream. Holy smokes, that part kicked butt! So good!

Here's our dinner!

This was bomb! 😋

I believe Oklahoma is next. That should be a fun one!

February Adventures

February was a great running month as soon as I got over a horrible cold.

Women's Runs:

I'm so glad to be back doing the women's runs. I missed this group of ladies! I'm also glad Steph has been joining in the fun. It's nice to do a couple miles ahead of time with her and then joining the group.

The first Women's Run of February was at Snake River Landing. Steph and I met early for a couple miles, and had a gorgeous sunset over the water. Then we finished off with a nice run with the ladies.

So pretty!

😍😍😍

Love this group!

Our second run was all about Valentine's Day! We ran and made a Strava heart, and then met back at Amanda's house to decorate cookies.

The 3rd run was along the canal path. We're starting to have some light at the start of our runs!

Our last Women's Run of the month was around Freeman Park and the Greenbelt. It was a beautiful night.

Ashton Runs:

I've been running a lot in Ashton with Joyce. I did four good runs up there this month.

The first one was an 8 mile loop during the week to get territory for the INTRVL game. I was sick and coughed like crazy.

This view is why I love running in Ashton!

The second run I did up there was a 22.5 mile loop for our long training day. I loved the loop! Teton views and lots of rolling hills to keep it challenging.

Joyce woke up with a bad migraine, so she couldn't run with us. Phil still came and was our aid station. He brought us water and snacks. We love Phil!

Once we left the road and got on the rail trail, we had lots of snow and mud to deal with.

My 3rd run up there was another midweek territory grab with Joyce. This one was 11.5 miles.

Our final Ashton run of the month was another Saturday long training day. We did 25 miles, and it was all on pavement. It beat us up pretty good. Despite the pavement being hard on our bodies, I felt like I did really good on this one.

Jenn-Tricia-Joyce-Mark

Bigelow's Beast:

Joyce and I climbed Bigelow's twice this month. The first time we did it 3 times, and the second time we did it twice. We're getting ready for the Boise Grand Slam, so we're gonna shoot for 4 times up it in March.

Wolf Flats:

I love Wolf Flats in the winter. This time we only had a little dusting of snow, which was crazy. Tonya, Mark, and I did 25 miles, and saw lots of deer, eagles, and even a moose on our drive there. 

Tricia-Tonya-Mark

It was so cold that our waters were frozen, so eating and drinking was a challenge.

This was all the snow we had, and that was just at the very end of Wolf Flats. Most of it was just dirt.

Deer Park & Horse With no Name:

We had a great 10 miler on Deer Park and Horse With No Name. We saw seven moose before we even left the trailhead! We continued seeing them, and counted 10 total, and one bald eagle for good measure. It was a great morning!

Two little cuties right on our trail.

An eagle across the river.

Becky-Cris-Tricia-Mat-Joyce-Tonya-Steph-Mark
I love all of these people!

Other than some treadmill speed and hill work, that covers training for February. Antelope Canyon 55k, here we come!

Cider Bend: January

 January has been weird on the farm. It's been such a strange winter, that has felt more like spring. We've only got a couple dustings of snow, and only a handful of days in the single digits or negative 'feels like' temps. I've been a big fan, but I know we need the snow, especially in the mountains.

We completed a fun wheelbarrow restoration project! Mark's Dad bought this wheelbarrow new in 1970 for his firewood business. It was purchased before Mark was even born. He remembers getting rides in it as a kid. It served his dad well through a lot of years of his firewood business in Lakeside. Grammy and Papa brought it to Idaho with them when they moved here many years ago. When they sold their Idaho house and moved to Arizona full time, they passed the wheelbarrow on to us. We have used the heck out of it on the farm. The tire went flat and needed to be replaced. We noticed how old and worn the wheelbarrow was getting and wondered if we should just take it to the dump and get a new one. We decided that even though it's 56 years old, they just don't make them like they used to, so a restoration project was in order. We breathed some new life into the old thing, and it looks amazing! We hope to get another 50 years of use out of it now.

We've also been working hard on our compost piles. We have a 3 stage rotation process going. I collect the poop and old bedding from the corrals twice a day and dump it in the poop pile. Once the poop pile gets too full, Mark uses the tractor to bring it to the big compost pile that is breaking down. He uses the tractor to turn it often, and it's fun to see how hot it gets. Once it's all done breaking down, it gets moved to the 'ready to use' pile, and it awaits spring to be used on the garden and fruit trees. It's actually such a cool process.

Since it hasn't been very cold this winter, we haven't had many trumpeter swans hanging around our property. It's been nice when we do have a flock fly by. I miss them being in the snowy fields all winter.

I swore I would never own a pair of crocks. I think they are so ugly. 😅 I started seeing on social media how all the farmers wear them to work on their farms, so I decided to see what the fuss was all about. I'm now a huge fan, and I hardly wear anything else on the farm, including in winter. I officially wore out my first pair, and bought a second pair. Bailey thinks it's so funny that I wear them, so she got me some fun chicken bling for them. 😂 Now they are even uglier, and I couldn't love them more.

Perfect!

It's starting to get light earlier, but I've still been able to catch some good sunrises when I go out to do chores in the mornings.

We've known the Temples since their kids were babies. Kassie called me and asked if Landon could bring his girlfriend to the farm to see the animals. First off, Landon shouldn't have a girlfriend, because isn't he three? Okay, maybe he's a senior, but still! Brynlee was darling, and all the animals loved her!

Holding Tillie

Freda stole the show. She loved Landon, and his arm was the one she wanted to perch on whether he wanted her to or not. 😂

Ace was the usual attention hog. 😆

Donkeys:

2026 started out a little rough. There is so much crap going on in the world, plus I'm injured, so that doesn't help my mood. So this is where I find my peace, and my laughter.

I have a goal in 2026 to get the goats moving more. That means lots more walks for them. I was taking the goats a lot in January, and not the donkeys. Willow got very jealous and had plenty to say about it. She's definitely not afraid to share her opinion. 😅

Willow is the prettiest girl! 😍

I love how fuzzy they get in the winter!

Cute little fuzzy Clover!

Willow still helps me add new bedding to their stall. She takes her job very seriously!

Cows:

Bailey wanted to get the cows running, so she ran around the outside of the pasture with them. It didn't take much to get them all riled up. Nora's giggles in this video are the cutest.

Ace is the biggest, smelliest, attention hog around! 😆

My favorite thing is to watch the cows run in for dinner. They are the cutest! I see some funny jumps and bucks of excitement, but it's hit or miss if I happen to be filming. I've missed capturing some good ones. Here's a few I got this month. 

Goats:

We're working on the goat's figures, so they have been going on lots of walks. Come along on some walks with us.

Chickens:

We got our first sponsor! Roostys contacted us and said they would send us free product if we'd make a reel with it. Sure thing, because our chickens love the Roostys Nesting Herbs. I made a reel and it did pretty good. I can't post it on my blog because I used a voiceover, so I can't download the audio.

We got another sponsor too, but I still need to make that reel, so stay tuned.

Cats:

Stormy likes to sit on the tractor right after Mark uses it because it's nice and warm.

Cute little Stormy!

Just Mark and his bff sitting at the bar. 😂

Floof makes himself comfy in whatever room I happen to be in.

We got the cats a new feeder. This one automatically weighs out the food and distributes it as often as we want. Michem was getting huge, so we thought this might help. We are going through a lot less cat food, and in the first month Michem lost 1.2 pounds. Yay, it's working! She has about another pound to go, but she's looking so much better.

Cutest little besties!

I spy a Floof!

That's about it for January. I'm curious to see what the weather does in February.