The Rabb's Farm Life Adventures

When our home was originally built (1954), people didn't own nearly the amount of stuff we own these days.  My grandparents built this home with two small closets in their bedroom and the room built for their daughter was a little larger and included one "larger" closet.  John and I call her room our "master" bedroom.  There isn't a large walk in closet, and there isn't a master bathroom.  John remodeled the bathroom in the hallway a couple of years ago and we now affectionately call it the "girls" bathroom.  The boys all use the bathroom in the front of the house.  This bathroom will be remodeled during phase II. I wanted to share with you the pictures of our newly completed master closet.  Since it isn't a large space it had to pack a punch with storage.  Before the renovation we had two bars across the entire length which kept me from being able to hang dresses in our closet.  I really wanted to be able to keep my dresses in our room,...

I realized recently I promised photos the kitchen long ago and never posted them.  I must tell you we are very happy with the kitchen renovation.  We purchased all the cabinets and the counter tops from Lowe's.  We ordered the faucets from a local plumbing store and the bar stools were purchased from Wal-mart. I wasn't really sure how I wanted to design the kitchen but the staff at Lowe's have the right software and we walked through the design painlessly.  Because we had the installation completed by their installer, we didn't have to pay tax on the purchase.  This made the installation much more affordable and we are so glad we did. We have decided we will make a few more alterations to the kitchen in "phase II," the next phase of our renovations.  We will removed the wall between the kitchen and what will become the dining room, move the current island to the opening between the kitchen and dining room and we will finally put permanent flooring down....

Life on the farm can bring many emotions.  Sometimes it can be sad, and almost depressing.  But other times there is joy. My parents cows have been busy this year.  We have had a massive amount of calves born recently.  I would venture to say around 30 have been born in the last 4 months.  I have yet to actually watch the birth process of a calf, but this week I have stumbled upon a calf that was born within the last hour or so.  John stumbled upon a cow in labor and got to watch the entire birth process.  Apparently, they use gravity to help the baby out.  I am glad human babies don't have to fall on their heads at the moment of birth.  New baby John got to watch be born, still covered by part of the sack. Sunday, after church, we drove onto our road and noticed some buzzards surrounding a cow, so we drove quickly over to see what was going on.  As you probably know, buzzards usually mean something is dead.  The c...

Do you know what  a cattle guard is?  I take for granted that everyone knows what they are, but I imagine if you didn't grow up on or around a farm you may have no idea.  When I was a little girl, they were sort of my enemy.  You see, a cattle guard is designed so that a cow won't cross over into a different area.  As a little girl I was always afraid I would get my foot caught.  That was back when I had small feet, that is no longer a problem.  We have one at the entrance to the property and another at the entrance to our fenced in yard.  We have a small fenced in area where the house is.  That area is protected from, well, you know, the stuff cows leave behind.  It is the one place I know I don't have to watch for it.  Although, driving down the road is a completely different story.  Please don't think I mind, I love driving down that road.  I usually have the John Denver song stuck in my head.  Ok, everyone sing al...

When John brought home all the muscadines and scuppernongs the other day he also had a few small jalapeno pepper in the bucket too.  He said he wanted to make some pepper jelly.  I have never eaten pepper jelly so I wasn't sure what it tastes like, but hey, I'm game when it comes to canning.   John likes hot stuff.  He loves peppers, of all sorts, any kind of pepper or hot sauce.  There have been times when we had a collection of different varieties available in our pantry.  There was a period of time when we went grocery shopping he would tell me we were out of hot sauce and we would discuss it a bit and I would give in, knowing that we had some at home, but not wanting my husband to have to do without his precious hot sauce, inevitably I was right and we would end up with 3 or 4 jars at home when we got there.  It has become a running joke when we go shopping now.   Some of the places we have lived have had plenty of room for extra stock...

Have you ever had a muscadine?  How about a scuppernong?  I hadn't either until earlier this week.  John went with my dad to a friends house and he had a full crop of fruit that he wasn't going to harvest.  He told John to help himself, so he came home with a 5 gallon bucket almost full of muscadines and scuppernongs.   The dark ones are muscadines and the lighter ones are scuppernongs.  Muscadines and scuppernongs are wild grapes.  Muscadines are like concord grapes and scuppernongs like white or green grapes.  You don't eat the skin, it is very bitter.  You pop the fruit open and your mouth is filled with a sweet jell like ball, oh, and watch out for the seeds, they are very bitter.  I didn't want to freeze that much fruit so we decided to use the day to make jelly.  We ended up with about 27 jars (mostly 1/2 pints) of delicious jelly.   It was a long day, there are many steps in making jelly.   We have a lo...

I always loved coming to the farm to visit my grandparents, when I was a kid.  There seemed to be so many cows.  This farm was a dairy farm for quite a long time.  I remember going into the milking room and being fascinated by the operation.  The cows walked into the milking room and went to the feeding troughs and got ready to go to work.  Well, I understand now, they just wanted the feed.  I also remember my granddaddy dipping an old plastic measuring cup into this huge refrigerated box thing, where the milk was stored until ready for delivery I guess, and sharing the most delicious milk on the planet with me.  I didn't drink much milk as a child, I didn't like store bought milk, but when I got to drink the milk from the farm out of that measuring cup, I was very happy. The milking room. We don't milk the cows anymore.  They aren't working cows, they have a great life, a very relaxed life. I enjoy watching them wonder through the pasture ...

Geese that is.  I think we understand a lot more about geese now than we did a few weeks ago.  The terms, "lost as a goose," and "goosed," have a lot better meaning to us now.   No, we don't own or raise geese.  A few years ago some geese began coming to the farm and enjoying the front pond.  My parents are truly animal lovers so they began feeding the geese corn.  For several years now, the geese have returned.  Some have even raised babies here on the farm.  Some years there have been a lot of geese and some years not as many.  This year we have had  a large flock.  We have begun feeding them closer to the house near the large oak trees that the cows absolutely love.  Zach went outside last night and convinced a group of the geese to come all the way back here from the front of the pasture to eat the corn he was throwing out.   I am not much of an animal lover.  I would prefer not to have a dog in the ho...