Flat Branch Farm Newsletter - October 16, 2025 - Vol. 9

Happy Thursday Reader!

Welcome to week 9 of our Newsletter. We’ve made it to the halfway point of October. And while this has nothing to do with the farm, our livestock, or any of the products we offer, I just wanted to share it…

I love the cooler months of the year - I say that a lot. I love fall. And I love the magic of Christmas. And every year it makes me more than a little sad how we (people) just smash everything together and have this 100 day mess of AutumnThanksgivingChristmas all rolled into one big chaotic season.

I recently came across a blog post - truly by accident - I don’t even remember how. But it really hit home for me. It’s worth the read if you find yourself hurrying through the season or stressing about the holidays.

​Stop Rushing Christmas: The Case for Waiting​

Dairy Cows

The cows are LOVING this cooler weather and so are we! Cheeto (who has been renamed “Rusty”) is settled in at his new home. His new roommate - a little Angus heifer - is named Daisy. My friend, Joanna sent me this picture of them getting to know each other.

Re-Quoting

“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.”​
​- Luke 16:10

Other Farm Happenings

We have a small “herd” of dairy-ish goats. There is no milking that happens with these goats. They’re just for entertainment and cleaning up our old pastures and fences. We have 7 does (females) and 1 buck (male). For the most part, they are purebred Nubians but there is also a little bit of Boer and Nigerian Dwarf blood in a few of them. We will be expecting babies in the spring.

Things I'm Loving

Recipes that use “a little of this and a little of that” are on my radar right now. I’m trying to be a more intentional about what I’m cooking and what we’re eating. Not so much from a healthy perspective (though I do pay attention to that) but more from a use-what-we-have standpoint. For example, we had spaghetti for supper earlier in the week. I only had 1 jar of pre-made sauce and I needed more than that so I used the 1 jar of sauce plus a can of tomato sauce, a can of diced tomatoes, and some spices (dried Italian seasoning, garlic salt, onion powder). We also had 3 partial bags of hamburger buns - I’m not sure why a person would open a new bag, when there is already an open bag, but that’s another topic. So I made cheesy garlic bread with the odds-and-ends hamburger buns and shredded mozzarella.

​
​

Recipe Share

Cheesy garlic “bread” from my story above:

Ingredients: assorted hamburger or hotdog bun halves, butter, garlic salt, shredded mozzarella (or any other) cheese

Directions: Preheat oven to 350*F. Lay out buns on a pizza pan or baking sheet. Coat the top of the bun with butter, sprinkle with a little garlic salt, and top with shredded cheese. Bake until the cheese is melted and the bread is toasted. It’s a fine line between done and the bottoms starting to burn, so don’t walk too far from the oven. I didn’t set a timer, but would guess they were only in there for 5-10 minutes. Since the bottoms did start to get a little dark, next time I will probably put them on the higher rack instead of the middle.

Good Advice

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
~ Peter Drucker

People have the ability to create their own future. Yes, many things are out of our control – but there are also many things that are within our control. The key is to focus on the things that are within our control – and then to take action. Make things happen! The world is full of people just sitting around waiting for something to happen.

~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~

If you know of someone else that would like to join our little-but-growing community, feel free to forward the newsletter to them. Anyone can join here. Just remind them NOT to click unsubscribe in your forwarded email...because that will actually unsubscribe YOU instead of them.

Talk soon,

Lori

P.S. We have quite a few new readers; that’s so exciting! You can go back and see all of our weekly newsletters here.