NEW! "Hey, I usually can put up with a lot, kiddo - but this is going too far!"
NEW! Hollywood? Are you kidding?!....You're Down on the Farm with Holly Dolly Dun It and Jessica
NEW! "Did we ever say we liked sweet-corn???" Francesca and Jessica process corn for the family since they don't plan on eating any themselves
NEW! Forbidden fruit? A precious first crop peach
NEW! Along life's path we'll walk together...heart to heart and hand in hand
NEW! Lets count ourselves before the audience does and finds one missing!
NEW! Penny, Chief and Star won't be moving so slowly on the way back home!
NEW! Charlotte's newborn calf "Caboose" stands for the very first time!
NEW! Basement Root Beer factory with employee and supervisor hard at work
NEW! Muscle before beauty!
NEW! One of our favorite places to perform - the little, down home, country as they come, Lincoln County fair! Saturday night in the grandstand
NEW! Hickory, Dickory, dad and the twins participate in Heart of the Prairie Days parade 2006
NEW! Which WAY did he go?! This capable looking posse made up of a few Callens' and their friends, is sure to find out!
NEW! HURRY, Mario! It's only 5 minutes to showtime!
NEW! Down on the Farm is a reality at last! Jessica holds a hardcover version of her book in her own hands for the first time!
NEW! Golden sunshine preserved in a jar
NEW! ....And also with you!
NEW! Silvana and Marisa relaxing before showtime
NEW! Many hands make light work - building a shelter for the horses
NEW! We planted, we watered we weeded....we better like beans!
NEW! Pretty as a picture! Isabella Angel, our special little farm girl
NEW! Gardening is tiireesooome work...
NEW! A tiny watermelon to be enjoyed later in the hot summer months to come
NEW! Dad, master of the vineyard
NEW! A Sunday afternoon at the Yellow Medicine River - Marisa and Silvana
NEW! The outdoors - a beautiful shrine in itself!
NEW! Homemade sign welcomes, warns and informs Barn Dance guests. Check this thing out!
NEW! Maggie is all ready to strike up a tune for the barn dance
NEW! Pretty Scarlet Runner Beans in early July
NEW! The word "boredom" is alien to farm kids
NEW! I wish I may, I wish I might......Oh Misty, why do you have to belong to someone else?!
NEW! "It's ok, mom! Daddy said so....."
NEW! Francesca and Jessica help unload a rack of hay in the July heat
NEW! Are you sure you don't mind me taking a round on your clients horse? Oh Clayton beware...the sunset isn't so far away...and I've got half a mind to ride off into it!
NEW! Building up some energy before we tackle the load
NEW! These Granny Smiths are now tucked away in quart jars of pie filling to enjoy over a long MN winter
NEW! It's all mine for that little house on the prairie some day! A "Home Comfort" that brings home comfort!
NEW! After a long summer drought, an unexpected rainstorm is cause for great excitement!
NEW! 5,4,3,2,1.....
NEW! Raring to play! Let's giver 'er all we've got, kids!
NEW! Fruit of the vine, work of human hands....
NEW! Quit snitching, boys! Those are for later! The Jersey's get a taste of their winter fare
NEW! Look out Olympic stars- Marisa's on the rise!
NEW! The local grain elevator truck delivers hog feed for the coming week
NEW! The secret to a restful slumber: Fresh farm air!
NEW! What's good for the baby is good for us! Sam and Freddy our little Beagle Hounds
NEW! Clayton sneaks in some last minute practice before the barn dance while Jessica lends an ear
NEW! Hard working playmates..."Is there anything to eat?"
NEW! $4,000 and she's yours! That's SOME horse!
NEW! Jessica shows off the size of this years monstrous carrots...Was it the sheep or the cattle compost that produced such beauties?
NEW! Our Science lesson of the day - Clayton aids Charlotte in giving birth to her firstborn calf.
NEW! A very natural backdrop for the Callens Family Entertainers
NEW! Our own unusual sideshow act! Step right up folks!
NEW! 4 hours and 50 quarts later....corn processing delirium is setting in and we're getting sillier by the moment!
NEW! Steady girl - I'm preparing to mount!
NEW! Dad carefully clips bunches of delicious wine grapes
NEW! No, you're the crazy one!
NEW! Unloading the groceries....salt and melted butter here we come!
NEW! The vet plays "dentist" and floats Penny's molars
NEW! Clayton takes Chief, a runaway cart pony in hand and teaches him to drive from the ground.
NEW! 2006 proved to be a bountiful year for apricots
NEW! Just my Size! Bella on a J-Heart ranch pony
NEW! Bella finds the Asparagus patch the perfect place to hide from a hoeing job
NEW! Once again we march in the parade
NEW! It's too late to sing "Mamma's don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys"!
NEW! Early July found us dancing up another storm at our 3rd annual Barn Dance
NEW! Dolly, Charlie and Captain passed through training and though long gone are fondly remembered
Welcome Down on the Farm! Get ready for an extensive tour of the Callens farm! I hope you brought your overalls, boots and an extra pitchfork!
This is the "big barn" where the milking takes place morning and night, and many of the animals make their home.
There's no place like home!
Bagels the lamb ~ GOT MILK?
Laundry for 11- No wonder we don't use the dryer!!
Mary is my mother too!
Slim pickin's guys! What kind of front porch picnickers are you anyway?
Potatoes for 11! One of our 2,1/4 acre vegetable gardens.
YES! Peach trees do grow in MN, IF you water them!
Mamma Molly enjoys breakfast in the sow-yard.
Jessica (right) and the girls in her dream truck!
4 of our 34 automatic lawn mowers! (And one more is on the way!)
Cocky shows the piglets the "Chicken Dance".
(sniff, sniff) It's NOT maaaa!!
The baby and Bagels get acquainted.
Twins with twins. Baby Nubian goats, Annie and Cornelius.
Nope, ma tastes better.
After a long, hot day in the garden we gather 'round the water pump for some cold well water.
Jake (Jakery-bosco-zaky-zooper-junior) Why do they have to grow up?
Anyone for a ride? Enough saddles for a posse! (Tack room in the "big barn" )
The girls head off down the dirt road for adventure in Omro Township
"Hey guys! I'm not hurting anything!"
"My mommy was the blaaack sheep of the family!"
An escaped jail bird- One of our Barred Rock laying hens.
Morning has broken-and the alarm is just about to go off!
The gander and his lady on a Sunday afternoon stroll
Three noisy Guinea Hens
"I don't mind eating my greens!"
"Yeah, I know what you're thinking; the grass is greener on my side."
The setting sun casts a glow over the barn and it's time for evening chores.
The 1955 Surge Bucket used in milking our 2 cows.
Clayton introduces one of his clients horses to the hitching rail as part of the training process.
"I'm glad to make your acquaintance!"
A new team of oxen go into training for the parade! Yoking up Hickory and Dickory.
The oxen are hooked up to the freshly painted cart.
All we need is a canvas top and we're set for the Oregon Trail!
Pigs and lambs share a meal.
Even doing laundry can be fun on the farm! What are you guys giggling about now?!
Star, our sturdy little pony who seats three. Seriously!
Mama Pina watches over her little kids. Look out for those horns!
Caleb performs his walking- on- a -barrel stunt inside the horse corral.
A young artist at work.
The girls take a break from chores and float on down the Redwood River on a lazy summer afternoon.
Introducing: Benedict, our Guernsey bull....
And Bonnie Bell the cow.
What a handsome couple!
The picture of peacefulness...just don't show him red.
A farm just wouldn't be a farm at all without one good tree house!
"Don't be stingy! Hey, I know you've got that apple there somewhere!"
Of course every farm has a nice, juicy, mud hole for those hot summer days!
It looks like Ben Hur got himself a new team!
Milk to go!
No wonder that lamb is spoiled!
Who needs a car! The kids riding in our trusty Gehl skid-loader.
What are you staring at? La Mancha's and a French Alpine/Nubian cross with horns!
A test of strength- Captain and Little Man with Dolly in front.
Good old fashioned fun at a real, live barn dance on the Callens Farm!
So photogenic! Coke, one of the horses Clayton trained.
Silvana, Jessica and Marisa in their chore cover-alls with "Cookie" the puppy.
Penny is put in the corral to get rid of some spunkiness on a cold winter morning.
Insta-family! A mamma sow with her brand new brood of 9 piglets.
Hey, it's MY turn to ride!!!
Once upon a time there were three little pigs...
Didn't your mom ever teach you any manners, Bonanza?!
Clayton and Jessica lay new cement flooring in the hog yard.
Baby Holstein calves snuggle to keep warm on winter nights.
Toting a wheel barrel of heavy, wet cement. We use alternate weight lifting programs here on the farm!
Twin orphan lambs warm up beside the wood-stove in a card board box.
"You were saying cheese!" Bernadette the cow joins the gang for a family photo.
Passing on knowledge. Dad shows Clayton how to run our 1958 Case 800 and mower.
Francesca sure loves her pets!
Minnesota winters can be long and cold, but also beautiful.
You better have that woodpile stacked and ready by the 4th of July!
Cottontail-one of many pet bunnies.
A winter landscape of the wide open prairies of the MN Heartland.
"Imported from Italy did you say? Well, I don't know about trying it, I'm a milk drinker myself."
Francesca, Jessica, and cousin Victoria scrape the shed before a fresh job of paint.
Thomasita measures me carefully and decides he doesn't like the camera.
Hoeing potato furrows builds muscles for Caleb.
Star the pony helps us plow the garden.
Everyone should have a wool sweater like this one for MN winters!
The kids throw a line in the nearby fishing hole on a Sunday afternoon.
"Gee it's hot, mom! Let's just stay indoors and take it easy!"
The Callens Farm is known for it's extraordinary silo stave fences. Some of the in-house construction crew hard at work!
Isabella is proud of a bountiful tomato crop from the family garden.
Dad welds recycled gate panels for use around the farmyard.
The kids take a dip in their homemade pool while Clayton and "Spirit" see what's up.
Spirit gallops across the yard with trainer Clayton astride.
Beginning yet another project with those silo staves!
The new archway takes shape, stave by stave.
Gateway to the Callens Farm - Paradise on Earth! Come again!!
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