Been looking at ways to extend our growing season. Found some interesting plans for a straw bale passive greenhouse. Basically, 3 sides are a straw bale construction with a stucco coating, with the south side and partial roof glazing. The article that I found most interesting was by someone from the mountains of New Mexico. The author claims that they were able to grow 9-10 months out of the year. It had a heat sink along the inside of the north wall to store up some of the solar energy for nighttime release.
We decided to try to build something along this line and have saved up some money to get started. It will be an interesting experience working with straw bales. If this works out like it is supposed to, we may try this technique on a new outbuildings at a later date.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Saturday, March 22, 2008
New babies
Our first babies of the year. Tuesday, Brownie gave birth to twin lambs. One boy and one girl. They are a suffolk/targhee cross. The girls went out to check on Brownie after school, and there they were. Hopefully, the rest of the ewes dont have any problems and the rest of lambing goes as smooth as this.Monday, March 17, 2008
Restaurant Review-Rib & Chop House
The wife, another couple and I went out to the Rib & Chop House on the west side of Billings for dinner Saturday evening.
The first thing that struck me when we arrived at the restaurant, was the crazy parking situation. We had to park on the street, as their parking lot was full. It seemed that the lot itself was undersized, but upon further inspection, there were some spots around back. The streets in the new development that it is located are all curved, so it makes for some interesting intersections. All the streets in this area are like this. It may seem like an aesthetically pleasing, but in the dark with no streetlights, it is a little confusing in which road to take.
We had reservations for 6:30pm, and were seated promptly when we arrived. We were led to our table by our hostess and our waitress arrived soon after to introduce herself, rather loudly, and to take our drink order. As we perused our menus, some of the local high school couples started showing up, dressed to the nines. It was prom night for one of the local schools, it seemed, and the place started to get busy.
Our waitress came back to take our order. I had the ribeye steak, rare; the wife had the stuffed seabass special. The other couple had the ribeye steak, medium, and the BBQ shrimp. All but one of us had soup for our starter. We also ordered some calamari for an appetizer.
The soups and salads arrived first; the soup tasted boxed, but had a good flavor. The waitress cleared our bowls and we waited for our appetizer. After awhile, we inquired about it, and our waitress said she would look into it.
The food arrived quicker than I expected, the steaks sizzling away on their plates. The baked potato that the wife and I had ordered for our side dish was HUGE. I bet mine weighed in at over a pound and a half-it dwarfed the steak.
Now for the moment of truth; I cut into my steak. It was done to perfection, the other steak was medium-rare instead of medium, but as I always thought "it's better to be a little undercooked than overcooked". The flavor was good; it could have used a little more salt for a bolder crust as it was about an inch and a half thick. The potato was good also. The wife liked her stuffed sea bass. I tried a piece of it and found it to be very good, but a little heavy on the cream sauce. The portion also looked very small next to her massive baked potato. The shrimp were not exactly what were expected, they were not BBQ'd, they looked sauted or broiled with a bbq style sauce over a mound of mashed potato. They were very good, however.
Overall the food was good, good enough to come back for. There were some troubling problems, however that would make me pause to book again. The waitress never came back to see if we needed anything, we never had a water refill, the appetizer never did arrive (it wasn't even on the ticket), no one asked us how our food was; it seemed as if we were forgotten (except when it came time to pay). These had more to do with the service over the food, so maybe the experience would be different another time. I realize that they were busy, but some of these problems were inexcusable in my opinion.
The tab for the four of us with our meal plus a drink each was $108.00. The menu is laid out a little different from what I'm used to; you pay for your starter and side seperate from your main course. Overall, I give the place 6 knifes out of 10. I think I would have rated it 7 if the service was up to par.
The first thing that struck me when we arrived at the restaurant, was the crazy parking situation. We had to park on the street, as their parking lot was full. It seemed that the lot itself was undersized, but upon further inspection, there were some spots around back. The streets in the new development that it is located are all curved, so it makes for some interesting intersections. All the streets in this area are like this. It may seem like an aesthetically pleasing, but in the dark with no streetlights, it is a little confusing in which road to take.
We had reservations for 6:30pm, and were seated promptly when we arrived. We were led to our table by our hostess and our waitress arrived soon after to introduce herself, rather loudly, and to take our drink order. As we perused our menus, some of the local high school couples started showing up, dressed to the nines. It was prom night for one of the local schools, it seemed, and the place started to get busy.
Our waitress came back to take our order. I had the ribeye steak, rare; the wife had the stuffed seabass special. The other couple had the ribeye steak, medium, and the BBQ shrimp. All but one of us had soup for our starter. We also ordered some calamari for an appetizer.
The soups and salads arrived first; the soup tasted boxed, but had a good flavor. The waitress cleared our bowls and we waited for our appetizer. After awhile, we inquired about it, and our waitress said she would look into it.
The food arrived quicker than I expected, the steaks sizzling away on their plates. The baked potato that the wife and I had ordered for our side dish was HUGE. I bet mine weighed in at over a pound and a half-it dwarfed the steak.
Now for the moment of truth; I cut into my steak. It was done to perfection, the other steak was medium-rare instead of medium, but as I always thought "it's better to be a little undercooked than overcooked". The flavor was good; it could have used a little more salt for a bolder crust as it was about an inch and a half thick. The potato was good also. The wife liked her stuffed sea bass. I tried a piece of it and found it to be very good, but a little heavy on the cream sauce. The portion also looked very small next to her massive baked potato. The shrimp were not exactly what were expected, they were not BBQ'd, they looked sauted or broiled with a bbq style sauce over a mound of mashed potato. They were very good, however.
Overall the food was good, good enough to come back for. There were some troubling problems, however that would make me pause to book again. The waitress never came back to see if we needed anything, we never had a water refill, the appetizer never did arrive (it wasn't even on the ticket), no one asked us how our food was; it seemed as if we were forgotten (except when it came time to pay). These had more to do with the service over the food, so maybe the experience would be different another time. I realize that they were busy, but some of these problems were inexcusable in my opinion.
The tab for the four of us with our meal plus a drink each was $108.00. The menu is laid out a little different from what I'm used to; you pay for your starter and side seperate from your main course. Overall, I give the place 6 knifes out of 10. I think I would have rated it 7 if the service was up to par.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Fainting Goats
The next animals that we got we two baby fainting goats. Here is one of them, fully grown. Fainting goats get their name from a genetic condition they have where their joints stiffen up whenever they are startled and they can't move any of them. This lasts for perhaps 5 seconds or so, and more often than not, they fall over during this time. Afterwards, they get back up and go about their business like nothing happened. It does give you a start the first time you see it happen, but they are just fine afterwards.
More animals
We got Buddy, a 14 year old minature horse, from some friends who ran out of room for him at their place. We needed something to start eating all the grass before we needed a sythe to get out the back door. Buddy is generously sharing the spotlight with our two daughters, Jasmine and Racquel.
Our first animals
Our first animals-chickens. Here they are foraging for seeds and insects when they are about 3 months old. It is one of the funniest things to watch when they go after a grasshopper. They chase it around, hopping and flapping their wings, sometimes even flying clumsily until they catch it or the lucky insect gets away.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Welcome-a little about us
We are a small family farm located about 20 miles north of Billings, MT. We bought the place in April 2005, moving from a small cottage style house in the outskirts of Billings. Wanting a place for our family of four to grow up and be able to raise a few animals along the way, we found this house on ten acres of irrigated pasture. The land had been used hard by the previous owners as they had about 10 horses on it. The house was in good shape, but the land, outbuildings, and fencing needed some serious work.
We've always wanted a little elbow room and some animals, so that April, we took possession and started moving in. Of course, on moving day it had snowed about 3-4 inches and everything was a sloppy mess.
That spring, we bought our first animals: chickens. We bought 10 Deleware White hens, 10 Rhode Island hens and 1 rooster. We had always wanted chickens and they always remain one of my favorite animals. We then got a older minature horse for our two girls and a couple of faining goats for some weed control.
We've always wanted a little elbow room and some animals, so that April, we took possession and started moving in. Of course, on moving day it had snowed about 3-4 inches and everything was a sloppy mess.
That spring, we bought our first animals: chickens. We bought 10 Deleware White hens, 10 Rhode Island hens and 1 rooster. We had always wanted chickens and they always remain one of my favorite animals. We then got a older minature horse for our two girls and a couple of faining goats for some weed control.
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