Archives for October 2011

I have absolutely no shame when it comes to making a fool of myself for something I believe in. Add to that a chance to win some serious cash and you have no idea how shameless I can be.

When Amanda called me and told me Chipotle Restaurant’s were having a “family farm” costume contest with a $2,500 first prize and five $1,000 runner up prizes, I practically ran up into the attic to see what I could piece together. The rules of the contest stated that you had to submit a photo that clearly showed that you were in or outside a Chipotle Restaurant. Plus, tonight after 6:00 if you went there in a costume you got a burrito for $2 with all proceeds going to Chipotle’s Cultivate Foundation and Farm Aid.

I had one adult chicken costume for me that I bought last year. I figured if business got slow on Free Range Friday’s I could stand out there in a chicken suit and attract customers. So far I haven’t had to use it, so this could be it’s big debut.


Believe it or not, I dragged down the India’s chick costume from when she was 3-1/2, and with a few snips at the seams and removal of the sleeves, I managed to stuff Maia into it! The costume was showing it’s age after 9 years of attic storage and there was some serious “molting” going on.



And we managed to get India into the scarecrow costume I made last year for our Wizard of Oz theme.

For Jim I went to the local Goodwill in search of a pair of overalls but they didn’t have any. I don’t think a lot of people in our area wear overalls. I did find them at the local army/navy store and they were pretty inexpensive compared to what they’re getting for normal jeans these days. They also had one of those caps with the fake fur ear flaps I’ve been wanting for winter farm chores that would be perfect.

Jim wore a flannel shirt with the overalls and the cap and we stuffed some hay in his bib and pants pockets. The finishing touch was Kiki. She came along for the ride. I’m quite sure grace was pissed that she didn’t get to go and I’m sure I’ll hear it from her tomorrow.

Evan was being a typical 11-year old boy and couldn’t squeeze his family in when he had trick or treating to do with his friends.

You should have seen the faces on the people working at Chipotle when we walked in. They couldn’t run for their phones to take their own pictures fast enough. They asked us where we rented the goat and chicken! Both goat and chicken were very well behaved and we didn’t have any unfortunate poop or pee incidents while inside. I figure that will help our chances of winning.

They announce the winners on November 15th, so keep your fingers crossed for us. If we win one of the cash prizes, I’ll give the girls each a little money for Christmas shopping and maybe some special treats for the goats and chickens too, but I sure would be thrilled to be able to send a bunch of it back to some farm charity or use some to for the membership dues the Connecticut Farm Bureau and the Connecticut chapter of the Northeast Organic Farming Association.

Although the weatherman predicted it, I have learned not to believe it until I see it when it comes to weather predictions. Well, for once they were right. By mid-morning it was snowing here, and by mid-afternoon the power and internet were out. Driving was a bit slippery, the highway was crawling, and it was really, really cold out for Connecticut on October 29th.

Our power came back on tonight around 10:00, which I’m very grateful for. Our house was beginning to get really cold and we were all walking around with hats and winter coats on. The internet just came on recently, and I’m even more grateful for that luxury.

As I said in the posts on Halloween Costumes Through the Years, I have lost my Halloween spirit this year. I don’t want to make a costume for anybody. I guess I’ve burned myself out. When the kids asked what they were going to be this year, I told them to go shopping up in the attic, where I keep all of the old costumes (or at least the ones worth saving).

The kids all had a Halloween dance at their school tonight, and although not all kids were going to go in costume, all of mine wanted to. There was a prize for “most creative” costume, and Maia had her eye on that prize.

Maia decided she would resurrect her sandwich costume from a few years ago. I really can’t remember what year she wore this, but I suspect it was that year that India was the mother dog with a box full of puppies, as that seems to be the only year I’m missing photos of the twins’ costumes.

India remembered that last year, until I got going with my Wizard of Oz theme, I had bought all of the materials to make her a jellyfish costume. While India did attempt to make this herself, I did find myself doing a lot of the work on this costume. Luckily it wasn’t that complicated of a costume to make, and I think it came out really cute.

Evan’s costume came about in a funny way. Evan loves candy — probably more than most kids do. In Jackson, Wyoming there’s one of the best candy stores I’ve ever been to. When Evan gets older he plans on buying the current owner out and re-naming it “Evan’s Heaven”. Evan also has an irrational fear of not succeeding in life and becoming homeless. Amanda came across this photo on Pinterest and sent it to me.


I sent the photo to Evan since it was a funny/sad combination of two things he could relate to. Surprisingly, he thought it was a great idea for a Halloween costume. Since it would probably be the easiest costume I’ve ever done, I heartily agreed. He already owned a red plaid shirt and jeans, so the only thing I had to buy was a plain black cap.

But then, while I’m searching for the original photo Amanda had sent to me, I come across incredible photos like these of real homeless people and animals.





And it makes me think how fortunate I’ve been in my life. How lucky my children are. And how lucky I feel to be able to give my animals a happy place to live with plenty of food to eat.

But it also makes me realize that Evan’s fears may seem irrational to me, but he has real anxiety issues, and they are very real to him at times. As his mother it’s hard to grasp it, but at 11 years old, my child can lose sleep worrying about things like this.

So I’ll let him wear his costume again on Halloween night. But this costume was never meant to poke fun at the unfortunate homeless people in the world. It was meant to make light of a two personality traits in my son. His love of candy, which is funny, and his anxiety, which is not.

Wow. What started as a nice, lighthearted post sure ended shitty, didn’t it?

As some of you may know, I long to leave my small plot of land behind and move to the country to a much larger piece of land. To a real farm. I’d like more goats, more chickens, my horses, some sheep, and at least one cow. Probably an alpaca for kicks and most certainly a donkey. And a barn cat. Jim and Maia are allergic, but I figure in a barn it could keep the mice down and it won’t bother them out there.

An area that I am continually drawn to is Litchfield County in northwestern Connecticut. It’s one of the few remaining areas of Connecticut that still has a small bit of farmland left undeveloped. I’ve been up there quite a few times over the past few months for various reasons, and I’ve yet to see anything I don’t like about the area.

While I was driving up there yesterday I had some extra time so cut off the main route to take some back roads. I found the most beautiful roads with old farmhouses from the 1800’s and rolling hills and pastures. This kind of land is becoming pretty scarce in Connecticut.


And many of them were still working farms. I actually saw a lot of cows.

I saw one simple but beautiful farmhouse that appeared to be empty. I turned into their driveway to take a better look, and there, behind a hedge, I was greeted by this lovely flock of ladies. I guess the house wasn’t empty after all, since they certainly looked happy and healthy.


Every street I turned down seemed to take me on an even more beautiful road than the one before it. It was a lovely fall day which certainly helped. I was coming up a rather steep hill, and I’d already been climbing quite a bit. I stopped to take a picture of the views.



All of a sudden, there on my left, was a field full of Randall cattle. This had to be Howland Homestead Farm. When I first became interested in heritage breed animals, Randall Cattle were one of the first I looked into after reading an article on them in Hobby Farms Magazine. I actually called this farm and took the kids up there one cold and snowy early spring day, where we all got a chance to milk a cow. It’s an image that the kids love finding on Google, and it was there on their website when I got home to confirm that it was, in fact, the same farm I’d visited probably 7 years ago.

One day I will own a Randall cow. Maybe in this very area.



It was a lovely day spent in a lovely area.