Ohiofarmgirl's Adventures in The Good Land is largely a fish out of water tale about how I eventually found my footing on a small farm in an Amish town. We are a mostly organic, somewhat self sufficient, sustainable farm in Ohio. There's action and adventure and I'll always tell you the truth about farming.


Friday, March 16, 2012

Two things I'm extremely grateful for right now

There are a couple of things that I am shockingly grateful for right now. First, that we didn't spend any money on heating oil this year. Not a penny. Our entire heating bill for this whole fall/winter/spring has been exactly $200. This is why....

The wood was only $50 for a whole truck load!

...we judiciously ran the furnace but mostly we heated with wood in our wood burning stove. Careful planning, wearing a sweater, and a warm non-winter saved us at least $600. We are so glad!

For anyone about to start screaming about climate change, please sit down. We got most of the wood from an Amish neighbor down the hill from us. He uses his big ol' draft horses to pull already downed trees out of his woods. The sawmill he uses is from the 17th century so, aside from the horse toots, I'm pretty sure the carbon footprint is pretty small. Much smaller than buying heating oil shipped from halfway around the world and such.

Next, especially right now (Thursday nite) I'm extremely grateful for our creepy meat chickens. They were incredibly cheap to raise over the winter and are extra delicious. I just had another pile of livers in a Marsala-cream sauce. Yum!

For my pal who requested the recipe.... This is sorta what I did... but substitute the Marsala for the brandy. One nite I had bacon in it but tonite I didnt. This version doesnt even really need cheese on it. The other nite I just poured it over polenta.. honestly it was so beautiful I couldn't even hold the plate to take a picture of it.

Just pretend that this is a perfectly framed picture of my supper. 

So a bit of housekeeping....Under the heading of "just so's ya know..."

It is a fact that I am a nerd. I don't step back from it, excuse it, or explain it. I embrace my nerd-ness. So you can imagine I was crushed on Tuesday when I forgot it was Pi Day! And I made no pie to celebrate.  My nerd card was summarily revoked (you know who you are). Well. I think I have re-nerd-i-fied myself.

One of you, you also know who you are, sent me on a Weird Al rampage the other nite. So I've been playing and re-playing my favorite video, White & Nerdy. Because... well,  I am. But here's the thing.... I didn't know it was based on a real song and video. Who knew?  This does, of course, make Weird Al's version even funnier.

Me = nerd

And I really, really need to get off farm more often. I'm gonna go watch something from popular culture just so I can keep up. Or I can quote Dune with some of all y'all... and you know who are are too.

Happy Friday everyone! Now get out there save some money on home heating, make some awesome pasta..and nerd it up.


13 comments:

Mr. H. said...

Got to love heating with firewood, especially if the electricity goes off. Oh, and thanks for making me waste time on two more Weird Al videos after the one you linked to.:)

freemotion said...

Farm nerds unite!!!!

Loved the videos!

Blue Feather Micro-Farm said...

I can't believe you didn't know white and nerdy was based on riding dirty! LOL If you want to keep your nerd card, identify the guy with the action figures in the Weird Al video and name his cartoon network show :D

Ohiofarmgirl said...

Careful, Mr. H., you'll be on a nerd rampage like me.. Its All About the Pentiums... ha!

Free - whoot! nerds!

A-ha, BFMF! its Seth Green! But I dont know what his show us cuz we dont have cable *hangs head, holds out hand* can i PLEASE have my nerd card back? ;-)

Traci Sumner said...

My 5 year old has been issued her nerd card. She's been watching Star Wars - all of them - with her Daddy. On my GPS, I have Yoda's voice (he he, extra stamp on my nerd card!) and when she realized that "my Yoda" and Daddy's Yoda were the same one and he was a Jedi Master - "Cool! That is SO Awesome!"

Anonymous said...

Wood heat is carbon neutral - anybody that has a problem with that can stick it in their pipe and smoke it!

BR

AZ desertFarmer said...

Holy poop! You lost your nerd card and your geek badge in the same day? WOW!! Must'a been a rough one.
**hands OFG back her geek badge** "Good Job Kid, You've earned it. Don't let it happen again"

Mulberry Bill said...

NERDS!!! For the win!

I can't believe I missed that it was Pi Day also, I feel so ashamed.

-WL

Chai Chai said...

Wood stove heat "feels" warmer and drier, plus it is fun to just watch!

Linda said...

http://video.adultswim.com/robot-chicken/watership-fraggle.html

David said...

Homesteader nerd... That sounds like a super-hero in and of itself!

Ann from KY said...

we did the firewood thing here too. Our goal is to only use 200 gallons of propane a year that is for all the gas dryer and the gas cooking stove and the furnace runs on propane. We have to buy 200 gallons a year from our propane co or they take away our big tank. Littler tank means higher price per gallon.
Can you share some math about the creepy chicken? I keep getting the story how we can buy them cheaper than raise them. It ain't apple to apples though. Thanks

Ohiofarmgirl said...

Traci - thats the way, start them young and then train them in the ways of the nerdiness....

You know it, BR! I'll tell them to drive their Prius over to get a load of firewood and then we'll see whats so funny. ha!

Thanks AZ, it was a hard day indeed.

WL - we were nerd losers for sure. ha!

CC - and a wood fire melts cats into puddles..which is very relaxing.

Linda- oh superduper now I have that in my head!

Aw shucks, Dave, not a superhero but a supernerd for sure.

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