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Dawn 'til Dusk Gifts from the Farm

Christmas Carrots

1/8/2021

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    The holidays, at least for me, are reminders of the special times and traditions Lee and I established in our family when our children were young.   Building of gingerbread houses, watching the cartoon movie “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and of course baking and frosting Great Nana Swanbom’s sugar cookies.  A Swedish style smorgasbord dinner on Christmas Eve and a gift exchange are other examples of the traditions that we carried over from our own childhoods.
      There is one tradition we still honor that began years ago, when I was a very young girl, with my Grandpa Landen, Oscar.  Grandpa was quite the Gardner extraordinaire.  He grew things in his garden we had no idea what they were, like zucchini, and concord grapes and raspberries.   My Grandpa grew amazing peas; and taught me to open them while in the garden, and enjoy a snack of green and sweet sugar snaps.  Delicious!
   One Christmas Day, we were all at Grandma and Grandpa Landen’s for dinner, when Grandpa told me to go get my coat; we needed to get something from the garden.  My first thought was “What were we going to get from the garden?”  The garden was dead, frozen and covered with snow.  He grabbed his shovel and we walked to the center of the patch and he began to clear away the snow and then, the straw that he laid out earlier in the fall. Then, under the straw I saw the green flat fern tops of the row of carrots.  He dug deep, next to the carrots snuggled in the dark cold soil and then up popped a bundle of brilliant orange carrots!  To my surprise, they were not frozen at all. He explained how the straw and the snow kept the carrots from freezing.  He said to me “Grandma want glazed carrots for dinner.” 
   Recently I shared that story with my niece and her children as we (you can guess what we were doing), digging carrots for Christmas dinner. The tradition lives on.
   I have so many fond memories of Grandpa Landen, and think of him often, but mostly when I’m in the garden digging carrots.











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Making Lemonade

10/25/2020

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   Living in Northern Colorado and on a small farm, weather can automatically change your plan for the day or in this case, the week!  
   Monday evening, we received a call from a member of our church, Katie, who lives in the county, east of us.  She was upset and wondered if our animals, goats, cattle and pigs could eat third cutting grass hay?   My response was “yes of course.” 
   Apparently, her neighbor cut his pivot section of grass hay and did not get it picked up before the wind started to blow on Sunday.  70-mile an hour gusts blew the entire field in to her 4 acres!  Lee estimated that 10 tons of hay lay on her property!
   Hay currently in our drought stricken and wild fire ravaged area, is selling at a premium price.   The idea of helping a friend and collecting food for our livestock was now our top priority!
  Early Tuesday morning the kids joined us and the four of us, along with Katie, began to rake up the unbelievable amount of grass hay.  The hay had blown into the trees, around the property, that serves as a wind block, so tight and five feet high.  The hay laid on the yard four feet deep!  When we arrived we could hardly believe our eyes.
   Raking all day, we filled two 20-foot trailers that first day.   We continued Wednesday and Thursday collecting approximately 6 tons of grass hay to feed to our livestock!
    When I talked to Katie on Monday evening, I knew she was upset and frustrated. When we left on Thursday, I think she was feeling better about her situation.   We saw this as a complete blessing, and even though we were exhausted, we are grateful for the hay. 
  It’s like the saying goes," when life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” I hope Katie likes lemonade!


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Lee and Hannah are working away!  Below we got some help fro the Coretex Crew
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Moving Home Again

10/18/2020

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   When you are in business making goat milk lotions, creams and soaps, such as I am, you are required to have lots of milk available. Earlier this summer our mamma goats gave us 14 new born babies. So of course, over the summer we re-homed them because we just don’t have the acreage to accommodate that many new goats each year.  During that time, we met Kathy and Jim.                                                                                                                   
    Kathy started emailing me in March inquiring about the new kids, and sharing with me that she wanted to purchase several from us when the time was right.  They came to visit several times and finally went home with five kids and plenty of goat milk to bottle
feed their new herd.                                                                                                                                              
   We kept in touch throughout the summer with fun pictures and updates on the progress the kids were making.  Even reports on the new barn that Jim had built for the goats, including the new “goat” weather vane he installed on the top. It was clear to me that these two loved their goats, and it always warmed my heart that these kids went to a perfect home.                                                                                                                                                        
  Then on Friday late afternoon, October 16th, I received a text from Kathy asking if they had to evacuate, could they bring the goats back to our farm?  Kathy and Jim live west of Horsetooth Reservoir, west of Fort Collins, Colorado.  Shocked, reading this, of      course, I said yes!                                                                                                                                                     
    That evening Lee and I watched the Denver news trying to get information about the   Cameron Peak fire and just how close was it to the Horsethooh area.   As we watched,    
and searched the Denver television stations, it became clear that the  news about the     fire was the wind made it difficult to fight, and the Metro area would be impacted by      smoke, which might interfere with trail running and bike riding.                                                        Then at 2:34, Saturday afternoon, the call came from Kathy, “we are on our way!!      We lost our house this afternoon!"  Just hearing those words, I began to cry.  I cannot          imagine watching my home of 30 years burn to the ground.      They escaped with only       a  few things, and of course, their goats.                                                                                                             Lee and I quickly got to the barn and began to prepare it for the soon arriving goats.  Lee jumped into the tractor and quickly cleaned the pen and I gathered straw, feed and water. Quite honestly, we have never worked so fast before!                                                     With in 45 minutes of the devastating phone call, Kathy and   Jim arrived              towing their precious cargo.  Tears and hugs exchanged, we worked together to get the goats settled in their new home for the winter. We assured them that they were                 welcome any time to come to the farm and visit their kids. Kathy and Jim finally said       their goodbyes to their goat family, maybe one of the hardest thing they had to do.                                                                                                       
   So, when you are at our farm and wonder why did Lee and Dawn move the swing in front of the goat’s pen?    You will know, it’s there to give Kathy and Jim a place to sit and spend time with their goat herd.

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   As a foot note, my family has encourage me throughout the Covid pandemic to start to blog on my web site.  This event yesterday, has inspired me now to share some of the events and stories from the farm.  I hope you will check back soon, because there are lots of stories to tell.




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Summer Time has Arrived on the Farm

6/1/2018

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     Since I last sat down to share a few thoughts, a lot has happened here on our little slice of heaven. 
  Starting in March, as planned, kidding season began.  Late nites, early mornings and even a couple of sleepless nites, but in the end 13 babies were born.   Milking began shortly there after.  We allow the babies to stay with their mothers for a few weeks, then separate them. We of course continue to bottle feed them with their mother's milk and also introduce alfalfa to them.   Now that they are all about 3 months old, it will be time for them to move to their new home on a cattle ranch in Wyoming were they will graze in open pastures.  
    In early May, the bee boxes arrived.   That is always an exciting time and a little nerve racking. As of current, the new bees are happy and busy!  One side note, if a swarm is spotted in Norther Colorado, please contact us , we  love to capture swarms.
      Gardens are tilled and planted. I always think about the quote that describes a Gardner as the the" eternal optimist", you have to be because why would you plant year after year?   Of course, we always have one eye is  on the sky watching for Summer storms that rack havoc in no time at all.    It is  not uncommon this time of year either  to see Lee glancing at his weather app on his phone watching the radar, then deciding if we will miss this cell or not.
      Summer time also means Market time!  We have a packed schedule again this year, always love visiting with our clients and of course meeting new ones.    We have a couple of new products this year, Goat Milk Body Cream and Goat Milk Bath.  Both are wonderful and I hope you will try them.   Please check the "Home" page  to see our schedule and I hope to see you soon.  d.

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January 28th, 2018

1/28/2018

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   Love comes in many different sizes, shapes,and forms each day.  From a cup of coffee brought to you in bed, or someone doing your evening chores for you,  Love on the farm is always present.  We have a beautiful one eyed black cat in the barn, Uno , she is so friendly and kind.  Most of the barn cats scatter when the door opens, but not Uno.  She loves to be held and her ears rubbed, she loves to be loved.   Who doesn't?
  This Valentines Day show the one's you love how much you love them with our beautiful goat milk lotions!   From the beginning to the end, all of our products come  from the animals we love most, our goats.  
    So share the love, on all orders $50.00 or more, we will ship for free!












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Welcome to the Farm.

1/16/2018

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  Dawn til Dusk Gifts From the Farm was created eight years ago in Northern Colorado.  My husband, Lee, and I were rebounding from a devastating blow to our family, and when we landed on this small and very old farm our healing began.  Here on the farm we realized that we could begin again and recreate ourselves. Or better yet be the people we always knew we were, and now we could live the life we always craved.  
   I always have loved cooking, and finally, now I had the opportunity to raise dairy goats and make goat cheese. After many failed attempts, I tried one more time, concentrating on the directions.  When I reached the end of the recipe, it read "if your cheese looks like ricotta, then you need a new brand of milk."  So, with that in mind, I took my daughters advice and began making goat milk lotions and soaps.    The moral of the story is, I make our soap and lotion and we buy the cheese!
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