I was nominated!

Thank you to The Farmer’s Wifee for the nomination!

Rules

This award is given to new or up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers…the award is then passed along to other bloggers in the same category to help spread the word and support one another.

What to do:

1. Each blogger should post 11 random facts about themselves. 2. Answer the questions the tagger has set for you, and then create 11 new questions for the bloggers you pass the award to. 3. Choose 11 new bloggers (with less than 200 followers) to pass the award to and link them in your post. 4. Go back to their page and tell them about the award. 5. No tag backs.

My Random Facts

1. I sing and play guitar.
2. I enjoy my robe, coffee and sunshine on a summer morning!
3. I am going to college online for psychology.
4. My grandpa and grandma still operate a cattle farm.
5. I am a Mary Kay consultant.
6. I love bottle calves, although we have them in the house for reasons like death of a Momma, or abandonment I love this part of my “Farmer’s Wife Job”.
7. I want to be as involved in the farm as I can. I am striving to be the best agvocate I can!
8. I am taking Annie’s project! I will post a blog about that soon!
9. I am wrapped around a 2(almost 3) year old girls finger far more than I ever thought possible!
10. I am a daughter of the KING!!

Questions from The Farmer’s Wifee

1.       Which would you rather do? Write, read or watch TV?

1. I would rather read! I love reading a good book
1. As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
1. I wanted to be a teacher, or a famous country singer!
2. Are you involved with agriculture?
1. Yes we have a beef cattle farm, with a little less than 500 head.
3. Do you have agriculture in your background?
1. My grandfather owns a cattle farm. Black and polled Limousine cattle. They mainly sell bulls, and I grew up spending every weekend on their farm. 
4. What is something interesting about your great grandma?
1. I do have a great, great, great grandmother who was on the trail of tears as a full-blooded cheeroke indian. Always my go to english/history paper subject.
5. What is your favorite color?
1. I never have ONE! Lol and it changes… right now I’d say Sparkly and Pink!
6. What is one thing you are addicted too?
1. Worship! I love to be jamming out in my car to Mandisa, and Kari Jobe. Jesus is King!
7. What is your favorite flower?
1. White Carnations!
8. What is your passion?
1. My passion is being a business women, and helping others in their lives. I am always up to something that can potentially reflect on another persons life in an uplifting way!
9. What is one of your personal goals?
1. To be as involved in #agvocating, and helping any person in need to the best of my ability
10. Who do you love most in your life?
1. God is the first love in my life!

Blogs I Nominated

I will be editing this soon!!

 

Farmhand Sausage and Potatoes

I love that my husband likes my cooking, and I really love that he helps me name my dishes! This is a simple recipe that I throw together when I have an hours notice for his lunch break from the farm, and he has named them Farmhand Potatoes. They are quite simply just that! Potatoes and Sausage is the basis for this recipe. Enjoy! 

Preheat oven to 425 Degrees. You will need about 8-10 potatoes depending on how many you are cooking for. I did a mix of small and medium since it is only two of us eating. Wash, peel and slice them, then place them in a 9X13 baking dish with olive oil. 

Next is the cast of Seasonings, From Left to Right in case it is too small to read.....Cayenne Pepper, Olive Oil, Black Pepper, Salt and Garlic Powder. Add the directed amount to the potatoes and toss them so all are coated evenly 

Next Add 3 TBS of Real Salted Butter like pictured above and place in the oven for 25 minutes. 

Slice your Beef Sausage, while the potatoes are cooking and place them in the baking dish with the potatoes after the first 25 minutes is done. The Sausage and the potatoes will together cook for another 25 minutes, You should use a spatula and stir them up every 10 minutes or so. This is so that the potatoes do not stick to the dish and burn. 

This is the end result: Mouth watering potatoes and beef sausage your farmhand will approve of after a long morning of feeding!

Recipe by Ashley Asbury

Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 60 min

Ingredients

• 10 Yellow Poatoes
• 1 Beef Sausage
• 3 tbs Real Salted Butter
• 1 tbs Salt
• 1/2 tbs Pepper
• 1 tsp Garlic Powder
• 1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper
• 2 tbs olive oil

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 Degrees.
2. Peel, wash and slice your potatoes and place them in an olive oil greased 9X13 baking dish. 
3. Add the Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder and Cayenne Pepper and toss the potatoes and seasoning until all are well coated. 
4. Add the sliced butter and place in the oven to bake for 25 minutes at 425 degrees.
5. Slice the sausage, and place in the baking dish in the oven with the potatoes for 25 more minutes. 
6. You should check them every 15 min and use a spatula to stir up the potatoes and sausage while cooking so they don't crisp up on the sides of the baking dish.

Valentines DAY!

Well today is Valentines Day, and its been a unseasonably warm day here in Carroll County, minus the few rain showers this morning! Just went to lunch with a friend and the sun shining bright, and I couldnt be more thrilled for it. Old man winter may have went into hibernation finally.... a girl can dream right??

I have lots of pictures to put up from moving cattle with John last week, and feeding this week with him. Unfortunately they are still on my camera, so today I am going to talk about love, and my faith. Faith is not something that iseperate from my life as a Farmer's Wife. They go hand and hand, so its something I will speak of often here.

Of course on social media there is ALWAYS going to be those people that are hating on the holidays, and they will do it to any holiday. I understand where they are coming from, a place of loneliness, discomfort, or sadness... but there is always someone to be our valentine. I read a morning blog post from Sharon Jaynes yesterday discussing this very thing. God is always wanting to shower you with his love and blessings, not just on this day but every day. He is just as captivated by you as you are him. She used the verse John 15:9 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you." How true is that, that the Lord God Almighty loves you that much. John 3:16 says it best.

"For God so LOVED the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16 KJV

As a child I memorized that verse, and as a mother now I can fully understand the depth of that verse. God sent his ONLY Son, here on this earth to take the place of our guilt and shameful sins. He loved and loves you enough that he did this pardon our sins so that we, also, can spend an eternity with him. That is the greatest love story I have ever heard, and I am blessed to know that is my love story!  

Happy Valentines Day to You and Yours, and I pray that everyone reading this, has experienced this love story.

-Ashley

Snow Day #3 for January

It is indeed snowing AGAIN here at Circle J Farms. While it is a beautiful sight to see, it makes for a long day for my Farmer. 

We will be venturing out this afternoon to the Grocery store. (25 min without snow, 45 to an hour with snow!) Cabin Fever has sank in, and I definitely want to do some baking and crafting the rest of the week. Hopefully I will have some recipes up by the end of the week as well for you all! Yesterday Addy and I went with Daddy to feed horses, just to get out for a bit. She loves helping with anything but especially if shes helping daddy do something. 

Time with God

The best thing about Snow days is all this free time we have, and spending it diving deeper into my relationship with God. Lately I have been longing to feel closer and have been presented with a few obstacles in life. I use to struggle to find the time to read my Bible, and struggle with going to church every sunday, now realizing the only struggle was me not making time. With God, there is literally nothing I can not do, and there is no greater love than that from the heavenly Father. Life is so much more fulfilling when I just stop, and let God guide me. One verse that has been on my mind the last few weeks is Psalm 46:5, it reminds me daily of the promise God made for me, if I let him into my heart, I will not fail. 

^ That would be my backyard ya'll! ^

-Real Farm Wife of CC, Ashley

Good times, good company

It's been quite a whirlwind the last couple days, with temperatures in the 60s on Monday to yesterday's 20 degree weather! Cant believe it's the 22nd of January already either. 

On Monday after work I stopped by one of our lease places and brought John something to eat. (It was 4 o'clock and he still hadn't had lunch!) We went and fed hay to a bunch of Mama cows, and oh how I miss being smaller and fitting in that tractor with him!! There is NO buddy seat so you know that means sitting on the wheel, and halfway on the armrest in my case. It was still a beautiful day to enjoy riding around with him nonetheless. It sure made me miss being able to stay home with him 24/7 and being a part of the daily routines of running a cattle farm. Someday I will be back though (: 

Now yesterday was a little different story. I stopped by Sheena's home and rode around with her while she hauled some round bales. It was great to have some gal time and catch up, but I wish I had worn my cowgirl boots, because I didn't realize how much work we'd be doing! Lol. Trying to take that trailer off sure was entertaining if someone had been watching us. Ground frozen to one foot of it, trying to get it even, cranking it down just to crank it back up in the freezing cold, but it was definitely a good laugh!! We are so ready for springtime and summer time that's for certain. 

I thoroughly enjoy living a few miles from a fellow farm wife, it has many advantages. Our kids enjoy playing together and there is someone to talk to that understands where your coming from when discussing something like calving season or hay season. This is a picture of my daughter Adelyn Belle, and Sheena's youngest son Tanner. 

Hope you guys have a great week! And you can follow our instagrams for more photos Ashley- @arkansas_belle Sheena-@cashntanner 

-realfarmwifeofcc Ashley 

On Your Mark

Well today was day #1 of my health journey. I started my 14 day Tiny TeaTox from Your Tea! It taste much better than I would have thought and I can't wait to show you my before and after pictures from it. I jogged 1 mile on the treadmill and followed up with p90x legs and back workout. 

I just LOVE the feeling of working out, and am definitely keeping this up. But on another note it SNOWED AGAIN❄️⛄️

I got to go with John to feed cows this afternoon and burrrrr it was freezing! Here's a bred Mama looking at me like I'm crazy for taking pictures. 

 

Snow is beautiful, but these cold temps with these -20 windchill is not something I enjoy in Arkansas, I just admire my husband for getting up 7 days a week NO MATTER what the weather is like and going and taking care of these guys. 

With 400 head of cattle that takes hours, even with my Father in Law and Brother in law helping too! 

Well it's 8 o'clock, so off to snuggle with Adelyn I go! 

-Realfarmwifeofcc 

4 Days till Christmas!

Christmas Is Nearing

I don't know about ya'll, but Christmas is such a special time around here! Our daughter is 2 and 1/2 and understands that Christmas means presents. ("Is tomorrow Christmas? Is it Christmas time now?") Although she is only 2 and 1/2 she knows about Jesus Christ and that he lives in her heart, if you ask her she'll tell you where he lives! But when telling her the Christmas story her 2 year old mind is quite set on the gifts still. We will be focusing more next year on the giving spirit for sure and Jesus' Birthday!

Now my family is a blended family so we have SEVERAL outings to attend to this season, 8 so far, spread over a weeks course starting with tomorrow. This can be very exhausting, and rough some years but is nevertheless humbling knowing there is so many loved ones in our lives. We also volunteered (were told) to be in our church Christmas play tomorrow! Yes, John is in it too, surprisingly. My Grandpa is the pastor at our little country church, and the whole family is a part of this. 2 sets of Grandparents, my parents, my sisters, my nephew, and Addy, John and I! I will definetly be posting pictures afterwards.

On another note, the bad winter storm that was expected to arrive tonight, has turned into warmer temps and rain instead. We are praying the rain stays as far away or as minimal as possible. After the snow storm last week our fields are saturated so there is no where for the rain to go. In the spring of 2011 we had a bad spill of rain that flooded and destroyed some of our hay fields, so we're hoping histroy does not repeat itself in December!

I would love to know what your weather is like this week and where you are from! Comments are LOVED

-Ashley