The Spring is our favorite time of year around the farm.

Things begin to come alive. Grasses become greener. Wildflowers sprout forth. You can feel the warmth of the sun pressed up against your face.

Today felt like our first real glimpse of Spring. It was almost poetic around here. The animals seemed a little giddy.

But, then again, so did I.

I snapped this photo of the chickens meandering through the pastures. You can see the cows in the background (way back there) up on top of the hill.

We follow our cows with our chickens. The chickens go behind the cows and help clean up the pastures and break up the manure.

They also help when the flies get back as it gets warmer because they eat the fly larvae out of the cow manure.

In other news, we recently purchased a small herd of Spanish Goats.

The purpose of these goats will be for natural pasture renovation and parasite control.

Goats won't compete with the cows for grasses since goats are browsers and cows are grazers. The goats eat things that cows won't eat.

It is quite a sight looking out into the pasture seeing the goats romping around. 

The goats won't let us get too close to them yet. We aren't use to our animals keeping their distance from us. But, in due time I'm sure the goats will come around as well.

The girls can't hardly stand this though. They've made many trips out to the pasture that the goats are in with many coaxing efforts to end in,"They just aren't ready yet."

They have taken a liking to the dogs though. The ranch that they came from worked them with dogs. We can't wait to see what kind of goat wrangler Max will end up being.

We had a momma sow farrow the sweetest litter of piglets to date. She had some very uniquely colored piglets. Some where speckled and one of them was brown. We don't have one single brown pig on this farm, but little one.

The sow is doing quite well at being a first time momma. She is young and this is her first litter of piglets. But, we've been impressed with her so far. She had a total of 10 and hasn't lost any yet.

Losing piglets tends to be just part of the game sometimes. We've had tremendous success with huge litters of pigs. The average loss is usually 1 to 2 piglets per litter- sometimes none, sometimes more. Most of the time, they are stepped on by the sows or crushed by them when they lay down to nurse.

Today, we were outside playing in the yard. I heard the loudest piglet squeal coming from the barn. Instantly, I rushed over to the barn (common protocol) because I knew the owner of the squeal was in a very precarious position.

When I arrived, I saw the little piglet half under the sow and pinned up against the fence. I made the sow stand up and quit nursing the piglets. I'm just glad that she kindly obliged and didn't give me any resistance.

The little guy was up and running in no time.

And I felt like I had bonded with the piglet over saving his week old life.

This hearty potato soup has been a favorite on the farm this winter. I love it because it requires very few ingredients, but the flavors are incredible and satisfying.

This particular potato soup is definitely not low-cal, but we aren't affraid of butter around here- especially grass-fed golden butter. Yum Yum!

"Nourishing" is the best way to describe this soup and it's most definitely a crowd pleaser.

Who knew soup could be this simple?

Potato & Ham Soup

8 potatoes- peeled and cut into chunks

1 to 2 lbs of Yonder Way Farm's Ham Steak- thawed and cubed

1 whole Onion- chopped

4 tbsp of Stryk's Dairy grass-fed raw butter

water (refer to recipe for how much)

1 cup raw milk from Stryk's

1/4 cup of raw milk sour cream from Stryk's

1 tbsp dried chives

Sea Salt & Pepper

Place your cubed ham steak in a pot to brown with butter and onions on medium heat. Once the meat is browned, add potatoes, chives, salt, pepper, and enough water in the pot to cover the potatoes. Simmer on medium high heat and bring to a nice rolling boil. Boil potatoes until tender. Add raw milk and sour cream and simmer for about 5 more minutes until all of the flavors marry together. Enjoy!

Many of you know that our beloved Rowdy, farm dog extraordinaire, was hit by a car in November.

We've been wanting another farm dog, but were waiting for the right one to come along.

A man literally drove up our driveway and gave us our newest addition to the farm. Therefore, we assumed that this was indeed the "right one".

Meet Max. Isn't he a cute little fella?

He is a 7 wk old Australian Shepherd. He has to be one of the smartest, calmest, and cutest puppies I've witnessed to date.

The girls are smitten over him. I have to admit. I am too.

Farmer Jason has already taken him on errands with him and has high hopes that he will be a good working farm dog.

Max is quite fond of farm life and has received a total of 3 baths since he's been here- for a week.

On one occasion, he was sprayed by a tom cat. Can we say GROSS???

On another occasion, he discovered mud.

On the last occasion, he decided to eat pig poop.

I feel like I have a newborn living in this house all over again. Puppies are hard work. But, oh so fun!

(photo of cows taken on our farm, Spring 2009)

We get a lot of questions about how to cook grass-fed meats- especially beef.

The truth is that cooking grass-fed beef is entirely different. When we first began cooking our meats from the first wave of meats that came back from the processor, I was a little disappointed in the tenderness in the beef. Okay....really disappointed.

But, I was treating our wonderfully raised grass-fed grass-finished beef as I would corn-fed feedlot beef.

Once I figured out the cooking technique, I fell in love with our beef (and pork and chicken for that matter). The flavors are rich, the broths are thick, and the texture is just as it should be.

I found this article on Kelly the Kitchen Kop (wonderful site full of great info) to be extremely helpful with a lot of good information and tips on how to cook grass-fed beef.

5 Ways to Achieve Grass-fed Beef Cooking Nirvana 

Click on the link above to go to an amazing article chock full of cooking techniques. And then, be sure to subscribe to Kelly's blog. You'll be thrilled you did!