Corner Post Meats
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Sunday, January 11, 2015
The Face of Farming
By: Kaysa Cruse
When I was growing up, farming was not a desired job, it was
a default for those kids who had family farms and no interest in college. The
face of farming that I pictured was one of hard work and little or no profit, a
tough existence.
As time
went on I educated myself in a variety of skills and put myself through
business school. Having all of the right opportunities with my degree to work
for numerous businesses, I chose instead to open my own. After meeting Nate,
now my husband, we were two individuals looking to get as much out of life as
possible. Nate was on his way to owning a family business, we bought a good
investment house, and worked hard to be successful as a couple and financially.
Eventually
it came to a point that we had a little breathing room, time and adequate
financial stability to sit back and think about our quality of life and decide
what we truly wanted to do with the rest of it. After thorough discussion of
short term and long term goals, as well as, personal desires, we came to a
conclusion; farming. Why you ask? Because farming could be profitable, it would
give us outdoor access, provide us with top quality foods, connect us with
a much more simple and satisfying lifestyle.
Now that we
knew what we wanted, it was just about feasibility. Where? When? What kind?
How? We considered starting our own, but without enough capital and farm
specific knowledge, it would be years of working in a different field to
support our farming. We wanted to get back to grassroots farming, not the
massive machinery and costly repairs, but the kind that was for the animals and
the environment, rather than for the people. The goal became, find a currently
functioning farm and work with them to increase their current revenue streams
or develop new ones. This lengthy search brought us to Corner Post Meats.
Corner Post
Meats is an amazing pasture-raised meat and eggs producer, with two young,
vibrant, intelligent people at the helm. Educated and motivated to make their
farm productive and profitable, Adrienne Larrew and Dan Lorenz, offered us a
home at Corner Post Meats as a way to try our hand at farming and possibly a
new business venture.
We changed our lives, sold our home
and respective businesses in Kent, CT. Left with just the basics and drove
cross country to Colorado Springs. At this point, we couldn't be happier, all
of our goals are coming to fruition and our lifestyle is already simpler and
more satisfying.
All of
these ideas and people make me realize the face of farming can be drastically
different. A face of individuals who have been educated and live in the worlds
of money and business and choose to come back to the lifestyle that farming can
offer, one of profitability and pleasure, a balanced life.
Now I can
proudly say that we too are a part of rebuilding the face of farming, figuring
ways to better the quality of life for the animals that support us and for
ourselves.
~Kaysa~
Monday, November 10, 2014
Thanksgiving recipes
Have you planned out your Thanksgiving menu yet? I'm not much of a Turkey eater so we usually have at least one of the following, if not all of them.
Lamb - usually Bone-In Leg but if we feel like a "light" meal then it is cuts like Shoulder or Arm
In addition to the main course, I'd recommend incorporating a few of these Larrew favorites.
- Above recipe also has Roasted Parsnip Soup with Ham
Cornbread and Andouille Stuffing - use Spicy Beef Kielbasa in place of Andouille
A few others that are rotated in and out are:
Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms
Bacon Wrapped Scallops
Dessert isn't my responsibility but every year I threaten to render lard for the pie crust to make my favorite, pumpkin pie even better. This year just might be the magical year because I have a package of Pork Fat in the freezer screaming my name.
Although food is one of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving, be sure to give thanks to those that you love and honor the things you are thankful for such as your freedom. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! We are thankful for you!
Monday, October 20, 2014
Sage and Rosemary Roasted Chicken
Thanks to the Morgan sisters, Kayley and Cory, for sharing this recipe. And of course, they used a Corner Post Meats chicken!
Sage and Rosemary Roasted Chicken
mini red potatoes (cut in half or quarters)
carrots
dried sage
dried rosemary
sea salt
pepper
olive oil
total cook time is 2 hrs
Sage and Rosemary Roasted Chicken
1
whole chicken with skin
yellow
onion (sliced)mini red potatoes (cut in half or quarters)
carrots
dried sage
dried rosemary
sea salt
pepper
olive oil
total cook time is 2 hrs
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- lightly coat the chicken with olive oil, salt, pepper,
dried sage and rosemary
- place coated chicken in a roasting pan and bake covered
for 1 hour
- while the chicken is baking, toss the potatoes, onion
and carrots lightly with olive oil, salt, pepper, sage and rosemary
- After one hour, remove chicken from oven and add the potatoes, onions and carrots to to the pan with the chicken and continue cooking for an additional hour (remove the lid or foil from the pan and cook uncovered for the last 20-30 min). Also, remember to baste the chicken a few times while it's roasting :)
Friday, October 10, 2014
66 Personal Development Habits for Smart People
My brother shared this with me a few months ago and I just had to spread the word. This is a very good list. Number 15 is something I REALLY need to work on.
66 Personal Development Habits For Smart
People
by SHANE
PARRISH on AUGUST
19, 2013
Steve Pavlina’s book, Personal Development for Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of
Personal Growth, offers an interesting look at self-improvement.
“Perception is the most basic aspect of truth,” Pavlina writes,
“If you want to improve some part of your life, you have to look at it first.”
For
example, if you want to know how your relationship is doing, you ask yourself
“How do I feel about this relationship? What parts are working well? What parts
need improvement?” Ask your partner the same questions and compare your
answers. Figuring out where you stand will help you decide what changes you’d
like to make. Perception is a key component of personal growth because
we react to what we perceive to be true.
The first step “must be to recognize that your life as it stands
right now isn’t how you want it to be.”
It’s easy to say you should face the cold, hard, truth but in
practice it can be very difficult. However:
You can’t
get from point A to point B if you refuse to acknowledge that you’re at point
A!.
There are two powerful ways you can apply your mind’s predictive powers
to accelerate your personal growth:
First, by embracing new experiences that are unlike anything
you’ve previously encountered, you’ll literally become more intelligent.
New situations shift your mind into learning mode, which enables
you to discover new patterns. The more patterns your mind learns, the better it
gets at prediction, and the smarter you become.
Read a book on a topic that’s completely alien to you. Talk to
people you’d normally avoid. Visit an unfamiliar city. Stretch beyond
the patterns your mind has already learned. In order to grow, you must
repeatedly tackle fresh challenges and consider new ideas to give your mind
fresh input. If you merely repeat the same experiences, you’ll
stagnate, and your mental capacity will atrophy.
If you want to become smarter, you must keep stirring things up.
The second way to apply your mind’s predictive powers is to make
conscious, deliberate predictions and use those predictions to make better
decisions. Think about where you’re headed and ask yourself, “How do I
honestly expect my life to turn out?”
Imagine
that a very logical impartial observer examines your situation in detail, and
predicts what your life will look like in 20 years, based on your current
behavior. What kind of future will this person predict for you? If you’re brave
enough, ask several people who know you well to give you an honest assessment
of where they see you in two decades. Their answers may surprise you.
A list of habits that can boost personal effectiveness (hacked and
lightly edited):
1. Daily
goals. Set targets for each day in advance. Decide what you’ll do,
then do it. Without a clear focus, it’s too easy to succumb to distractions.
2. Worst
first. To defeat procrastination, learn to tackle your most unpleasant
task first thing in the morning, instead of delaying it until later. The small
victory will set the tone for a very productive day.
3. Peak
times. Identify your peak cycles of productivity, and schedule your
most important tasks for those times. Work on minor tasks during your non-peak
times.
4. No-comm
zones. Allocate uninterruptible blocks of time for solo work where you
must concentrate. Schedule light, interruptible tasks for your
open-communication periods and more challenging projects for your blackout
periods.
5. Mini-milestones. When
you begin a task, identify the target you must reach before you can stop
working. For example when writing a book, you could decide not to get up until
you’ve written at least 1000 words. Hit your target no matter what.
6. Timeboxing. Give
yourself a fixed time period – 30 minutes for example – to make a dent in a
task. Don’t worry about how far you get. Just put in the time.
7. Batching. Batch
similar tasks such as phone calls or errands together, and knock them out in a
single session.
8. Early
bird. Get up at 5am and go straight to work on your most important
task. You can get more done before 8am than most people do in a full day.
9. Pyramid. Spend
15-30 minutes doing easy tasks to warm up, then tackle your most difficult
project for several hours. Finally end with another 15-30 minutes of easy tasks
to transition out of work mode.
10.
Tempo. Deliberately pick up the
pace, and try to move a little faster than usual. Speak faster. Walk faster.
Type faster. Read faster. Go home sooner.
11.
Relaxify. Reduce stress by
cultivating a relaxing, clutter-free workspace.
12.
Agendas. Provide clear written
agendas to meeting participants in advance. This greatly improves meeting focus
and efficiency. You can use it for phone calls too.
13.
Pareto. The Pareto principle is
the 80-20 rule, which states that 80% of the value of a task comes from 20% of
the effort. Focus your energy on that critical 20%, and don’t overengineer the
non-critical 80%.
14.
Ready-fire-aim. Bust
procrastination by taking action immediately after setting a goal, even if the
action isn’t perfectly planned. You can always adjust course along the way.
15.
Minuteman. Once you have the
information you need to make a decision, start a timer and give yourself just
60 seconds to make the actual decision. Take a whole minute to vacillate and
second-guess yourself all you want, but come out the other end with a clear
choice. Once your decision is made, take some kind of action to set it in
motion.
16.
Deadline. Set a deadline for task
completion, and use it as a focal point to stay on track.
17.
Promise. Tell others of your
commitments, since they’ll help hold you accountable
18.
Punctuality. Whatever it takes, show
up on time. Arrive early.
19.
Gap reading. Use reading to fill in
those odd periods like waiting for an appointment, standing in line, or while
the coffee is brewing. If you’re a male, you can even read an article while
shaving (preferably with an electric razor). That’s 365 articles a year.
20.
Resonance. Visualize your goal as
already accomplished. Put yourself into a state of actually being there. Make
it real in your mind, and you’ll soon see it in your reality.
21.
Glittering prizes. Give
yourself frequent rewards for achievement. See a movie, book a professional
massage, or spend a day at an amusement park.
22.
Priority. Separate the truly important
tasks from the merely urgent. Allocate blocks of time to work on the critical
Quadrant 2 tasks, those which are important but rarely urgent, such as physical
exercise, writing a book, and finding a relationship partner.
23.
Continuum. At the end of your
workday, identify the first task you’ll work on the next day, and set out the
materials in advance. The next day begin working on that task immediately.
24.
Slice and dice. Break
complex projects into smaller, well-defined tasks. Focus on completing just one
of those tasks.
25.
Single-handling. Once
you begin a task, stick with it until it’s 100% complete. Don’t switch tasks in
the middle. When distractions come up, jot them down to be dealt with later.
26.
Randomize. Pick a totally random
piece of a larger project, and complete it. Pay one random bill. Make one phone
call. Write page 42 of your book.
27.
Insanely bad. Defeat perfectionism
by completing your task in an intentionally terrible fashion, knowing you need
never share the results with anyone. Write a blog post about the taste of salt,
design a hideously dysfunctional web site, or create a business plan that
guarantees a first-year bankruptcy. With a truly horrendous first draft,
there’s nowhere to go but up.
28.
Delegate. Convince someone else
to do it for you.
29.
Cross-pollination. Sign up
for martial arts, start a blog, or join an improv group. You’ll often encounter
ideas in one field that can boost your performance in another.
30.
Intuition. Go with your gut
instinct. It’s probably right.
31.
Optimization. Identify the processes
you use most often, and write them down step-by-step. Refactor them on paper
for greater efficiency. Then implement and test your improved processes.
Sometimes we just can’t see what’s right in front of us until we examine it
under a microscope.
32.
Super Slow. Commit yourself to
working on a particularly hideous project for just one session a week, 15-30
minutes total. Declutter one small shelf. Purge 10 clothing items you don’t
need. Write a few paragraphs. Then stop.
33.
Dailies. Schedule a specific time
each day for working on a particular task or habit. One hour a day could leave
you with a finished book, or a profitable Internet business a year later.
34.
Add-ons. Tack a task you want
to habitualize onto one of your existing habits. Water the plants after you eat
lunch. Send thank-you notes after you check email.
35.
Plug-ins. Inject one task into
the middle of another. Read while eating lunch. Return phone calls while
commuting. Listen to podcasts while grocery shopping.
36.
Gratitude. When someone does you a
good turn, send a thank-you card. That’s a real card, not an e-card. This is
rare and memorable, and the people you thank will be eager to bring you more
opportunities.
37.
Training. Train up your skill in
various productivity habits. Get your typing speed to at least 60wpm, if not
90.
38.
Denial. Just say no to
non-critical requests for your time.
39.
Recapture. Reclaim other people’s
poor time usage for yourself. Visualize your goals during dull speeches. Write
out your grocery list during pointless meetings.
40.
Mastermind. Run your problem past
someone else, preferably a group of people. Invite all the advice, feedback,
and constructive criticism you can handle.
41.
Write down 20 creative ideas for improving your effectiveness.
42.
Challenger. Deliberately make the
task harder. Challenging tasks are more engaging than boring ones. Compose an
original poem for your next blog post. Create a Power Point presentation that
doesn’t use words.
43.
Asylum. Complete an otherwise
tedious task in an unusual or crazy manner to keep it fun or interesting.
44.
Music. Experiment with how music
can boost your effectiveness.
45.
Scotty. Estimate how long a task
will take to complete. Then start a timer, and push yourself to complete it in
half that time.
46.
Pay it forward. When
an undesirable task is delegated to you, re-delegate it to someone else.
47.
Bouncer. When a seemingly
pointless task is delegated to you, bounce it back to the person who assigned
it to you, and challenge them to justify its operational necessity.
48.
Opt-out. Quit clubs, projects, and
subscriptions that consume more of your time than they’re worth.
49.
Decaffeinate. Say no to drugs, suffer
through the withdrawal period, and let your natural creative self re-emerge.
50.
Conscious procrastination. Delay
non-critical tasks as long as you possibly can. Many of them will die on you
and won’t need to be done at all.
51.
TV-free. Turn off the TV,
especially the news, and recapture many usable hours.
52.
Timer. Time all your tasks for
an entire day, preferably a week. Even the act of measuring itself can boost
your productivity, not to mention what you learn about your real time usage.
53.
Valor. Pick the one item on your
task list that scares you the most. Muster all the courage you can, and tackle
it immediately.
54.
Nonconformist. Run errands at unpopular
times to avoid crowds. Shop just before stores close or shortly after they
open. Take advantage of 24-hour outlets if you’re a vampire.
55.
Agoraphobia. Shop online whenever
possible. Get the best selection, consult reviews, and purchase items within
minutes.
56.
Reminder. Add birthday and holiday
reminders to your calendar a month or two ahead of their actual dates. Buy
gifts then instead of at the last minute.
57.
Do it now! Recite this phrase
over and over until you’re so sick of it that you cave in and get to work.
58.
Coach. Hire a personal coach to
keep yourself motivated, focused, and accountable. After several months of pep
talks, you’ll be qualified to start your own coaching practice.
59.
Inspiration. Read inspiring books and
articles, listen to audio programs, and attend seminars to keep absorbing
inspiring new ideas (as well as to refresh yourself on the old ones).
60.
Gym rat. Exercise daily. Boost
metabolism, concentration, and mental clarity in 30 minutes a day.
61.
Troll hunt. Banish the negative
trolls from your life, and associate only with positive, happy, and successful
people. Mindsets are contagious. Show loyalty to your potential, not to your
pity posse.
62.
Anakin. Would your problems be
easier to solve if you turned evil? The dark side beckons…
63.
Politician. Outsource your problems.
How many can be solved more easily if you define them in financial terms? …
64.
Modeling. Find people who are
already getting the results you want, interview them, and adopt their
attitudes, beliefs, and behavior.
65.
Proactivity. Even if others disagree
with you, take action anyway, and deal with the consequences later. It’s easier
to request forgiveness than permission.
66.
Real life. Give online life a
rest, and reinvest that time into your real offline life, which, if you’re a
gamer, is probably suffocating beneath a pile of dead smelly orcas.
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