down home at The Hennery

Coming Right Along..

2011-05-04T10:29:00.006-04:00

It is all coming right along.
Mayhaps next year I can just
go out into the garden and plant
without having to start from total scratch.
We have been here about 4 years
and I have moved the garden every
single spring.
I am sick to death of breaking
virgin soil.

But I am liking it so far this year.
We had just great success with planting
in the shade last year
that we have moved it all under the trees,
with the tomatoes being the exception.
If you look at the top pic you can see
a few orange lines stretching
between the trees and poles.
Beans.
Well, gonna be beans as soon as I get
around to planting.
I plan on picking what I can reach and
the vines that go too high
can hold the beans that I will use dry
over next winter.
This is an experiment,
but I have hopes that it will work out fine.

And I am slowing beating back the honeysuckle
and privett jungle to reclaim this dappled grove as my own.
I have cleared a path through it at least.
And in the sunny spot at the end of the path
are new herbs.. Feverfew, Pyrethrum and Sweet Annie.
They can grow and spread all they want back there.
And in the jungle along the path, Foxglove and Marshmallow
are tucked.

And everywhere I stick a shovel
into the ground I come up with
old bricks.
I have them piled and piled
so it doesn't look neat and clean yet.
But there are new Calendula seedlings and
Echinacea there and my Yarrow is beginning to bloom.

Sweet Woodruff under the holly
with Sweet Grass and Apple Mint.
And Valerian in the strange square formed of
chunks of old concrete.

In this bed there is my most favorite herb, Costmary.
It shares the bed with two kinds of Oregano, Parsley,
Rosemary, Evening Primose and an errant Peppermint.
Along the back there are about 70 Basil seedlings
and a new Tansy shared from a friend.
And sprinkled around are some Dianthus that overwintered,
some Sweet Alyssium and a few other little annual bloomers.

Ha!! That line you see stretching across the herb bed
towards the beans.. that's a hair that was blown across the lens.
I just noticed it and I am not going to start this
whole thing all over again.

A hanging pot of petunias, Rocket, which will bloom a
reddish pink border the blackberry patch.
There is a soft curve of dill, my comfrey
and a French Sorrel too.
There is my chard bed that has Lamb'd Quarter
growing in it too.
And peeking on the side is
the red Jerusalem Artichokes.

Chamomile that I found in the lawn in the front.
My White Horehound is taking over
and I need to start sharing it with others.
A lavender that I cannot find the perfect home for
and will transplant for the third time
to location unknown this fall.
A Curry plant, inedible, but very aromatic,
Lime Thyme, plain Thyme, an Anise Hyssop
and my Plaintains.
And a few petunias for color.
I hope that I can get the petunias to reseed.
One of my favorite fragrances is true petunia,
reverted petunia. So heady and sweet. But
you just can't buy them in the stores.
They have to reseed to have fragrance.

My compost pile pumpkins!
They are crowded, but I am not going to mess with them.
Compost veggies grow the best.
There are oodles of little peppers in there too.
But knowing my luck, they are all jalapenos.
I grew and dried so many jalapenoes last summer
that I never have to grow them again.

Chard and coriander and one bed of onions
leading back to the Jerusalem Artichokes.
If you stand and watch for just a moment
you can watch them grow.

From the inside looking out.

From the outside looking in.

And I am a bad, bad, bad gardener.
Naughty, shameful gardener.
Do not let my words and images fool you
into thinking I am on top of it all
and completely organized.
Instead of cutting new paths through the
jungle and planting pretty flowers
and hanging blooming baskets,
I should ahve been attacking the mess of weeds
that are taking over the western edge of the garden.
I have so many tomatoes that need to go in
their beds as soon as possible.
But as you can see, the tomato bed
is an utter disaster that nothing can be
planted in.
My priorities are completely screwed.
sigh...

A Lot of This...

2011-04-10T20:35:00.003-04:00

A lot of this fell in our yard
last night around 8:30.

Unbeknownst to me
Sweet Husband was up in the barn
gathering up a stubborn Ameracauna
hen that had refused to go in earlier.
I heard her screaming all the way
down and into the house and stuck my head
out looking for said husband.
I was going to send him up to the barn
because something horrible was happening up there.
I heard an awful 'CRACK'
but didn't see an immediate cause.
I heard another.
I went through the house and out the front
looking for Sweet Husband and by the time
I got to the front porch the 'cracks'
were much louder and almost constant.
It opened up and the hail began to pour from the sky.
Huge hail. Huge, huge hail.
And around the corner of the house came
Sweet Husband, just a gettin it.
I mean that man was moving!

He managed to dodge every ball.
Which is good because ice balls of that size
came from a great, great height
and would leave a mark.
We fretted over the windshields
and could hear the wind ticking smaller balls against
the windows of the house.
But in the morning light the
damage was minimal.
No holes punched though tin roofs.
no broken windshields adn only small
ping dents on the hoods and roofs of the
cars.
Some of my plants were a little beaten down,
but no lasting damage.
Whew.
It was AWESOME!

Over The Long Fall and Winter

2011-04-10T19:52:00.007-04:00

So....
there were changes here over the long Fall and Winter...
The goats had to go.
Poor Sweet Husband just couldn't take the
sounds they made.
With every Maaaa his 'daddy alarm' went off.
And with every claxon of that alarm came a jolt of adrenaline.
He began to fear he would stroke out or something
from repeated zaps.
So, off they went with a friend and now live
somewhere with lots of brambles to eat.
But it was great fun to raise bottle babies
and we may test him around other breeds to
see if it was just Saanens or all goats
that bother him. sigh....

And we lost Saddleback..
our Langshan flock sire.
Even now it kills me to think of it.
I kill fluffywuffy bunnies and
chickens often with no difficulties.
I even butcher things with names.
But losing Saddleback broke my heart.
I cried for 3 days.
Aw hell.. getting a knot in my throat
even now.
He was an exceptional rooster,
fine and noble and stunning and intelligent.
I have his son who carries the extraordinary
name of 'Junior'.
He is not his father, but I hope to breed him
and maybe I will get another that comes close.
sniff
My heart really did just break
like it would over a good dog.
sniff

And we have a new addition..
Someone dumped out this wee kitty
in an empty parking lot towards the end
of September.
I guessed the age to be around 3 weeks.
I still had to stimulate her bladder and bowels
by hand and wean her.
She smelled like house and not the 'wild'
when I found her.
And what was I supposed to do??
I couldn't just leave her there after I found her.
No way, man.
so....

She looked like a guy.
She walked like a guy.
She attacked everything in sight like a guy.
She slept sprawled out in
the most unfeminine fashion.
She was aggressive.
and it never occurred to me to look and make sure.
Everything about ths kitten screamed, 'BOY!!!'
until one day I happened to look at
her rear as she walked by.
I was shocked and horrified to see that she was
missing some bits in the back.
There was no junk in her trunk.
Yep.. I am a great farmer and ex-zookeeper.

Her name had been 'Fluke',
but that is not very girlie.
So we toyed with 'Athena'.
That didn't stick either.
So she is called either 'Kitty-Puss
or (in adult company)'Little Bitch Kitty'.
She is still aggressive and is the terror of the household.
And no other animal will kick her ass!!
If someone would just lay her out cold
she would stop deserving her name.
But since tiny kittenhood she has been allowed
to get away with atrocious behavior by the
other animals.
I have an old, old, old, old cat
that is notoriously foul tempered.
She will tear down any other animal if the mood strikes her.
I lived in terror the first week that LBK was here.
I was sure that Old Grandma would kill her on sight.
But she has allowed that little monster to
smack her, beat her,
chase her from food and
interrupt naps with no punishment.
And Bish, my huge blue intact tom
gets the worst treatment of all.
She rides him.
She chews on his ears.
She is relentless.
He howls and screams and cries
like he is being killed,
but will not lift one be-taloned paw against her.
If he would just beat her senseless one time..just once,
she might stop.
The poor old tom cannot even eat in peace.
Forget trying to come in and grab a quick
snooze by the woodstove on a snowy day.
She is on him like a tick.
And when she was little,
she looked like a tiny tick on his huge back.
The dogs slink away from her
and did when she was tiny.
She has never hissed or swiped a paw,
but they live in fear.
They allow her to steal their food
with nary a snap.

Children need discipline or they
become holy terrors.
We have a holy terror on our hands.
But she loves the barn and will be a fierce hunter
when she grows a bit more.

And I think those are the highlights around here..
Everything changes
adn nothing stays the same.

Violet Jelly

2011-04-09T11:20:00.004-04:00

"That which above all others yield that sweetest smell in the air,
is the violet" - Francis Bacon

Gorgeous
Delicate
Decadent
Dainty
Elegant

And easy.

Gathering violets is a medative process.
Quiet and green with the first
soft breeze of Spring dappling the sun.
You feel a connection with past and
those past that have harvested
the perfect blue cushioned in the first deep green.
With each pluck you reach further back in time,
envisioning crisp cotton aprons
and willow baskets..
because if you don't find something to distract you
you will notice your screaming back
and ripping hamstrings.
Picking violets is a test of your will.
Are you capable of enduring?
Can you fill the basket?
Can you endure to achieve the goal that you desire?

Ok.. it's not all that bad, really.
And it is nice to be out on a spring day.

And once you have gathered all
the violets you desire and more is better.
If you are there already,
you might as well pick every violet in sight
because you will be reluctant to venture out again.
It is just not the same as that first glorious day.

After you have brought them inside and given them
a quick, cold soak and drain,
measure them by the cupful as you
place them into a quart canning jar..or two.
Top with steaming hot water.
Use the same number of cups of water
as you did for the violets.
Put the lid on and set them aside to steep
until tomorrow.

You will end up with a
jar of beautiful violet tea.

A sidenote:
I have done this twice this spring.
As you can see, I have a jar of cloudy pink liquid.
That is a wee bit odd.
The first batch gave me a deep blue-purple tea.
It was dark and looked so refreshing and quenching
that it was all that I could do not to swig
it down as if it were the very elixir of life.
The desire was almost overwhelming.
There must be something in violets that I was craving.
But I could not bear to chug such a labor of love.
If you know of ayruvedic medicine,
then I am a blend of an air body type and a fire body type,
So think hot and dry.
Violets have been used medicinally for fevers and inflammation
as a cooling medicine.
I think that is why I craved the tea so.
My body recognized it for it's cooling properties.
Just talking aobut it makes me want a big icy cold jar
of violet tea with the sexy condensation trailing down
down the side.. aaarrghhhh.

But I am not sure why it has gone from a deep blue
to this cloudy pink.
I will pick more (oh gawd no)and see what it brings.
My thought is that it is later in the season
and the increased heat and sun have changed the petals
or the plants themselves have physically changed
in advance of the end of the season.

Back to it...
When the violet flowers are a pale white
and your violet tea is a rich color,
drain the flowers.
Don't squeeze to much or you will lose
the crystal clear of the jelly if that is what you want.

Now you can google 'Violet Jelly" and get tons of recipes.
That is what I did.
But I just couldn't follow them.
That is a LOT of lemon juice!
I didn't want to make a purple lemon jelly.
And they list a LOT of sugar.
I didn't want purple sugar goo.
I wanted a light, delicate and herb-y jelly
where the real flavor and aroma pours forth.

I used 7 cups of violet tea.

1 package of pectin...or was it two?? I think it was 2 for all those cups of tea.

Maybe a tablespoon of lemon juice.. maybe.
And I started tasting..
I would add a bit of sugar, taste, add,
taste, add, taste etc..
until it was sweet enough to be 'sweet'
but it was only to carry the violet taste
deeper.
Boil this for one minute.
Be very careful here.. it is my thought
that if you really, really boil it hard you
will lose all the oils that carry the scent and flavor.
I had it on a soft boil and for exactly one minute.
Seriously.. I watched the clock.
Ladle up immediately into your clean
and sterilized jelly jars,
lid them and into the water bath
for about 15 minutes.
Cool and wait for the most beautiful sound in the world..

*ping*.

I cannot describe to you the flavor or fragrance.
It is so unusual and different that I have no words.
It is delicate, yet strong and distinct.
It does not carry the same rich bite as a fruit jelly.
It is a flower petal jelly, light and soft.

Next year I really wanna make Violetum,
A Roman violet wine....

2011-03-21T22:20:00.003-04:00

Well.. it is officially Spring
since I refilled and plugged in the fountain in the garden.
I had some hopes that a tree frog
would decide it would be a great place for eggs,
but no such luck.

And Spring decided to appear around February 10th.
That was the first really warm day
and it never really got cold again.
I find the whole thing terribly freaky.
We have been over 90* already. That was last Friday
and it was HOT.

And we have expanded the garden further into
the trees.
Some of you may recognize the area
as the previous home of the pot bellied pigs
We had such success last year growing
under shade that we are putting it all under shade
this year.
It is the only way to garden really with the
new weather that seems to mean
screeching hot summers with searing sun.
I think I will let the beans vines
go up the trees. I will harvest what
I can reach and the rest can become
dried shelly beans for the winter
and seeds for next summer.
I think...
I haven't laid it out or anything yet.
I have refused to plant out anything but peas,
onions and chard.
I was afraid the ground was too hot for
the peas to sprout, but they finally made it.

See that wall to the left?
That was a wall of honeysuckle last year,
but I cleared it all and the peas are
planted all along it.
Though I have decided to cover that area
with spreading blooming things like
catnip, lemon balm and bee balm.
I have put the transplants in already
and am willing them to spread and
fill that whole wall.
I think it will be nice to have
fragrant and blooming things there to draw the
pollinators in.
The wall will end up outside the fence in the end as well,
so no use trying to plant anything I care about too much.

My horehound overwintered great and stayed green.
I was able to make a few teas out of it.
Horehound tea with honey is delicious!
It tastes just like horehound candy.
(that is..if you are one of the few,
the proud that like horehound candy)

And there is a small grove of redbud trees in the new garden area.
I have moved the costmary there and it is thriving.
The next tree has oregano - regular and hot and spicy varieties.
And I had this weird geranium come up in the tomato patch last year.
It got big, but the leaves were a bit smaller and I swear I don't remember it blooming, but..
I found teeny, tiny, teeny, tiny little weird geranium seedlings
and I have put them along the back edge of the copse of redbuds.
I have more to move, but they are too small yet.
I will have to post pics of this weird plant
when it gets big this year.
You need to help me figure out what in the world..

And here is the footing for the new kitchen extension.
My baking life will be so much easier with a shiny, new kitchen!

I have missed you and the only explanation I have
is a comparison ; it's like an aunt.
You know you should go see the aunt,
but it gets put on the back burner
for so long that you feel guilt whenever
you think of your aunt.
You feel to guilty to show your face.
You know that once you do go see her,
everything will be just fine and like it used to be,
you are just too ashamed to make that first move.
And so it was with me and thee..
But I am here now. I took the plunge.
Now I can come here all the time again.
And I have lots to fill you in on.
There have been changes over the winter...
(cliffhangar, ya'll!)

My Apologies..

2010-08-10T11:05:00.002-04:00

My dearest readers..
I miss you.

But I have a really good reason for being absent.
I have ...
OPENED A BAKERY!!
Ok.. it is just me and a legal kitchen,
but it is still a bakery.

It is going very well, but the start up has sucked much of my time away.
And it means that there will soon be a
new blog addition filled with cooking and recipes and baking stuff.
So those of you that enjoy my recipes,
please hang on and there will a whole page just for you.

As far as the farm.. it still moves along.
The garden suffers from the heat,
but planting it in shade this year has done wonders.
My pepper plants are higher than my head.
The squash is done,
but I have new squash in the ground and growing.
The goat babies are growing as well.
Joker has his beard now.
Too weird. I am tempted to cut it off.
Chickens are good.
Turkey babies are getting big too.
And I am getting out of rabbits.
Yep.. no more rabbits for me.
I am a bit butcher shy since 'the incident' with my finger and the knife,
so I am waiting on a friend to come do a full butcher.
Everybody out of the pool!
We need the space that houses the buns for the new on site kitchen.
We are going to tear down the garage
and bunny house and rebuild on that spot. Someday.....

Until I get another free minute..
be well and make do.
jen

The Goodness of the Garden...

2010-07-08T14:21:00.002-04:00

Today's harvest.
Even with the heat and drought
the garden has been producing well.
Chicken poop, bunny poop and straw
are a girl's best friends.
We have been eating well and tonight
those tomatoes and peppers
will become pasta sauce.
Ok.. that is a lie.
I will pull the last of last year's
tomatoes out of the freezer for sauce
because it is the right thing to do.
I have been using the fresh tomatoes,
but I must stop!
So tonight I will be good and
use the old stuff up.
But you know...
that bowl looks like salsa to me.

And I made the fountain for the insects.
I spent $20 on a small
submersible pump,
took the galvanized tub,
a length of old sewer pipe
and an anonymous pipe that I
found in the yard,
some bricks and
Ta Da! Fountain.
It was an instant hit with
the local insect life.
Butterflies, bees, wasps
and other bugs visit daily.
I placed a small stone on top
of the pipe to make a bit of a spray
that splashes down and wets the soil
and stepping stone and the old pot
that is leaned against the tub.
It gives wet surfaces for the insects
to land on and drink from
without drowning.
I have noticed an increase of insect
activity on all of my blooming plants,
including the important ones
like my tomatoes, squashes and cukes.
I knew it would help, but I am
amazed at how quickly and how well
it has worked to draw the bugs.
Never, ever again will my garden
be without a water source.

Garden Fix-Its..

2010-07-08T13:43:00.002-04:00

I usually don't plant squash in the
early part of the year.
The squash vine borers and squash bugs
are just too awful to justify
the effort.
But I forgot myself this year.
What was I thinking!?

But, as you can see,
they look healthy.
My secret weapon..?
The lowly syringe.
I sucked up organic insecticidal soap
into the syringe and
gave the squash vines a shot.
The vines/stems are hollow tubes
and the borers play around inside
the tubes and kill the stem
and the plant.
So, I shot the insecticidal
soap into the hollow tubes.
It worked like a charm!
I had borers and my plants were wilting
and then I didn't and the vines look healthy
and are producing great gobs of squash.
I think it also worked
upon the newly hatched borers
as they bore into the
vnes. They encountered the soaped
tubes and were killed.
Gotta think outside the box.

And we have the new tomato supports in place.
I love, love, love them!
No more struggles.
No more crazy vines everywhere.
No more collapsing supports.

And such a simple idea from Sweet Husband.
The fencing is attached to a board
and the board is hung from the
PVC with zip ties.
It can be easily taken down
and stored for the winter
and easily set up again
in the early spring
for early peas and then the tomatoes
come summer.
Great!!

Goats..

2010-07-08T13:12:00.005-04:00

So.. we have goats.
And I love my goats,
but unrestrained, free range goats
become a problem as they get older.
They think things like apple trees
and sunflowers are delicious.

I had to do a little creative
construction on the entrance to the garden

And we finally moved the electric fence
up to the upper foundation.
It needed cleaning.

And between the 20th of June
and today..they did this!

I really appreciate the eating power of goats.
They are a real bonus around here.
And today is the first day they are
staked out. I am not thrilled about staking them out
as it is not the safest thing for the goats,
but the area we need them to clean out
is a total jungle and there is no way
I could run fence through it.
For today they are close to the house
so that I can see if they will
kill themselves on lines. If it
goes well, them I will move them farther out.
They won't be left for long and
never when we aren't here.
We have about an acre of land we can't even set foot on.
Yippee goats!

It Is A Bad Scene, Folks...

2010-06-30T12:08:00.005-04:00

I will post later on the success here this year..
the beautiful flowers, the tomato
supports and the like,
but right now the only thing
on my mind is the complete
absence of insect life.
Blooming here now we have
gorgeous bee balm,
hyssop, catnip, lemon balm
and a butterfly bush.
All of these are taller than my head.
All of them are empty.
Not a butterfly to be seen.
No honeybees.. not a one.
This morning's count was 4 bumblebees
for the whole yard
and 2 little moth type creatures.
There are some very small little bee type creatures
buzzing around, but only a few.
I have never seen a butterfly bush completely empty.
Nothing on it today..or yesterday..
or the day before that.
I have never seen bee balm empty.
Used to be I couldn't see the blooms
for the butterflies and
I cannot find a single one.

I am in the middle of a massive freak out.
I am despondent and worried
and ..well.. I am just plain ol freaking out.

The one thing we do have.. grasshoppers.
The grasses heave with them as I pass.
They aren't doing any damage, they are just there.
Off to hand pollinate my squashes... again.
I managed to get 4 for a casserole the other day..
I guess I should do the cukes too...

What in the hell?

Spring Deepens Toward Summer

2010-06-09T21:01:00.006-04:00

The garden continues to grow.
And how about those poles!?
They are going to be my pride and joy.
7 tall tomato fences..
Yippee!!! Woo Hoo! Hazzah!
I kept hoping they would be up and finished
before I showed them off,
but blogger time was ticking
and waiting on a husband is.. well, it just is.
But, when they are all finished and the tomatoes
have been slowly lifted onto them,
they are going to be spectacular.
No more trying to control those crazy
heirloom vines, it will be easy as pie.
And they will have fencing hung on them
and I can just take the firewand to them
and burn off the old vines and plant
turnips and kale and whatnot for a
winter garden!
Sigh. It really is the simple things
that bring the most joy

Squash is squashing right along...

And lookee!
Peppers are peppering too!

My supply of summer greens..
Lamb's Quarter.
I love this stuff.
It is a great weed and is ALL
over our place.
Tasty, heat hearty
and I have don't have
to plant it.
We eat it often.. on sandwiches and burgers
and any other way I would use spinach.

My Jersalem Artichoke bed is looking great.
I still haven't tackled the patch
over in the neck high weeds
and hard clay... I do solemnly swear
that I will dig it all up this winter.
Really.. I will.

Mammoth sunflowers are cruising right along
and that blooming thing surrounding it..?
I think it is parsnip.
I am letting it go all the way to seed
and then I will dig it up and see..
Right now it is busy drawing pollinators
into the garden and looking
airy and yellow.

The goat babies are really growing up.
Aaawww.
But they are still sweet lovers though.
Goats are...
um...
interesting.
It is like having toddlers in the yard.
They get into everything
and cry for their mamma (that'd be me).
They eat and get tired and whiny
and have to be put down for a nap
before waking rested and ready
to get into everything again.
It is challenging to keep the fence moved though.
As soon as we get it set up and electrified,
it is time to move it again.
They are eating the scrub and
weeds too quickly.
As a result, they spend most of their
days roaming free about the place.
Goats on the back steps crying,
goats in the garage climbing over the crap,
goats on the front porch if I don't
answer the back door.
Goats, goats, goats..
We love them.
Goats eat my lamb's quarter and
sunflowers by sticking their
snouts through the fence.
Bad goats.
Goats give goat kisses and want
snuggles when they are tired.

The side door to the big ol barn.
One day I will have to tell you about the big ol barn.
10,000 sq ft of barn.
That is a lot of barn.
Yes.. I did say 10,000 sq ft.

My finger..
well, it is still attached to my hand.
It is healing and I have gotten bold
enough as of late to take the splint
off. I was terrified at the thought of ever bending it again..ever.
But a few days ago I gave it a try.
I unwrapped it and stared at it and tried to bend it.
Nothing happened.. at all.
The animal part of my brain freaked all the way out.
But I started bending it
and manipulating it manually
and it could bend and eventually it
started to bend on it's own.
I fear it will never be quite right again though.
It has become obvious that I cut down into muscle..
the extender ones on the top of my finger that are
supposed to stretch when the finger bends.
Well.. they don't. Not really. But it is getting better.
And while the actual visible slice
will leave but a thin line,
the deeper slice has definite scar tissue under it
and makes a hump in my finger.
And I am hoping that the nerves grow back
because as of now, my finger is numb.
But I washed my hands like a normal
person day before yesterday.
What a wonderful feeling that was.
There are not words for how it felt to
have water run over my left hand once again.
Though it was weird to see
the water but not to feel it.
I will live and hopefully one
day it will bend and
I will have my kung fu grip back...

Did you know you could hoe one handed?
Do you know it is hard to wash one hand?
You cannot do dishes with one hand.
That is very hard.
I see the sink.
I see the dishes.
I cannot do anything about them.
I got busted once or twice trying to do them.
I got in trouble.
I have recently been able to cook dinner.
I was not allowed to chop veggies.
I have a deep butchering phobia
at this particular time.
I know I have to do rabbits soon,
but I have fear.. deep, dark fear.

A Quickie..

2010-05-23T00:32:00.004-04:00

Anna from the Walden Effect blog
(see my list of favorites to your right
and down a little.. yep, there it is)
brought up a point I will be covering shortly.
Comfrey!
Comfrey rocks.
You guys saw the cut..
well, I put my comfrey salve on it
and am here to tell you that the skin
is already trying to grow back together.
I am only using it once
every 2 bandage changes
because I do
not want it to close
too quickly.
If it needs to drain,
I want it to be able to.
This winter I cut my middle finger
(same hand) on my rotary cutter.
I thought it was bad, but nothing
like this one.
Still, the finger was splayed.
Now I have to search
for the teeny, tiny scar.

I love, love, love comfrey.
It has amazing restorative properties.
It promotes cell growth.. no kidding!

Some day very soon I will harvest and
dry some of my comfrey and
extole it's many wonders..
and make a batch of comfrey salve!!

Meanwhile..
I am useless..
I am one handed.
I cannot make goat baby bottles.
I cannot chop veggies.
I cannot put on my bra.
I cannot do anything.
It is driving me nuts!
If I use my left hand for anything
at all that is more than scratching my nose
the pull of the other fingers
and the muscle contraction
pulls at the wound..
this is annoying and painful.
Thank you to Sweet Husband
for picking up ALL my slack.
I cannot do dishes.
I cannot carry something
and open the door.
I cannot open anything...
sigh.
If I had broken it and had a cast
I could use it for all kinds
of things..

Weird Week...

2010-05-21T19:18:00.004-04:00

It has been a weird week here.
Not in that cool stuff kind of weird,
but all bad weird.

We had massive rainfall
and low grade flooding.
Well, not flooding as much as
runoff. We are living on hard pack clay
and heavy rainfall runs down through
our place like it would over concrete.
If I didn't have the garden planted in raised mounds
I would have lost it all.
As it was, we still had some cleanup to do
and, truth be told,
more cleanup to do because we
really didn't do that much.

I caught a snake in the Ameracauna
nest boxes chowing down on eggs again.
I caught it and put it in a feed bag.
this time I made sure it did not
have a hole.
Did you know that snakes can work
the weave loose in a woven feed bag?

We know that now.
I figure that it just wiggles it's head
back and forth
and back and forth
until the weave loosens up
and makes a hole.
Sweet Husband had put it in the fridge
to slow it down.
It was a very feisty, read aggressive,
snake and he wanted it a bit calmer
before he rehomed it.
The first time I opened the fridge
I squeaked.
Then I laughed.
Then I went for the camera.

We had a hatch go badly.
Shame too. We had a customer waiting
for those birds. We still have some,
just not the full order.

Then I had a clumsy week.
I fell down.
That hurt.
Then I stepped lightly on a nail.
No big deal.
I walked into a few walls.
I poured milk all over the counter.
The list really does just go on..
but then.......

I did this.

Sorry if it is gross.
So there I was..
butchering a chicken..

Now, as you may know
when I butcher I prefer to
break the neck of the bird,
then hang it and cut it's throat.

Well, Sweet Husband wanted to slit
the throat of the birds before the
neck breaking activity.

I had spent a long time honing my knives.
I mean a long time.
And they were very sharp.
I wanted to make sure the
bird died quickly..
So with ALL my might
I drew the knife across the
bird's neck and right through
my finger.
Oh sweet Mary of Mercantilism!!
I screamed. I really, really did.
Sweet Husband came flying out of the barn
and I headed for the house with my finger
clamped together.
I knew it was bad.
I felt it.. the slicing feeling
that is almost a sound.
I think I got bone.

I couldn't look after my first glance
and turned it all over to Sweet Husband.
I did not know I had that level of trust in him.
I put me head on the counter while he tried to
stop some of the horrific blood flow.
We wrapped it tight with gauze and electrical tape,
very tightly applied, to staunch the blood.
And I paced the house until the
FIRE in my finger and whole hand lessened
enough for me to sit still.

Later we took off the bandages and took a look.
(before the bandage removal,
I wrapped my arms around Sweet Husband's
neck and had a good cry.)
Wow.. if I was fortunate enough to have
insurance I would have needed stitches.
Some of the skin slides around in
ways it is not supposed to.

So, today I did the buttefly bandage
to try to pull the two parts closer together.
I have some nerve damage..
as in I cannot feel a good
portion of my finger anymore.
That may heal up a bit.
I am not getting microsurgery
on my hand. Not happening.
And there are no gurantees it would even work.

The main goal is to get it to heal
and to keep it clean and infection free.

Pictures just cannot do justice
to the severity of this wound
and how very, very deep it goes down.

I know it is a cut on a finger,
but today I am feeling the after effects
of adrenaline and pain. I am weak
and shaky and muzzy headed.
I am hoping tomorrow is better.
I do have a badge of honor though..
Sweet Husband, who has had some major league
boo boos in his life.. shit that makes me cringe,
says that I have bested him!! Woot!!

So...
Slow down.
Keep very sharp knives.
Pay attention.
And don't ever try anything new.
Ever.
Be careful.
Take care.

SPIDERS.....

2010-05-15T21:31:00.002-04:00

This is just a little side note
on my love/hate relationship with our
arachnid.. um.. not friends, so let's just say
'my love/hate relationship with arachnids'.

I never had a problem with them
until I reached adulthood.
A bite from a Brown Recluse
and another horrible bite from a mystery spider
squashed my ability to cope reasonably.
Then there was an apartment I had where
some type of wolf spider/recluse
looking spiders would crawl on me at night.
That really did it.
For years I have had a strict policy
and have wanted to make a sign to hang by the
front and back doors informing all spiders that
they are making a concious choice to cross
the threshold with the understanding that if I see them,
they will die.
But spiders don't read.

But in the past few years I have mellowed,
at least towards some types of spiders.

I like garden spiders, the yellow and black writing spiders,
and protect and encourage them.

I like my porch spiders, the ones that hang
in the corners and eat the bugs and moths
that circle the porchlight.

I like wolf spiders that hang on the edges
of the porch and also eat bugs and moths..
the ones that have circled one too many times
and crash and burn in a dizzy plummet.
I feed my porch spiders. If I can catch a moth,
then I will toss it into their webs.
This brings me joy.

I like the fat red and brown
garden spiders that build their webs
on the OUTSIDE of my kitchen windows.
I leave the light burning in the kitchen
in the evening to draw bugs to them.
They get huge by late fall.. Bigger than quarters.
And they understand that they are
best only seen in the evenings.
I do not know where they go during daylight hours,
but they are not where I can see them.

And this year I am allowing
the furry black and white jumping spiders
to inhabit my kitchen.
I even swept around one the other day.
I have a particularily large one
that hangs out by the compost bucket on the counter.
He hunts fruit flies and I am ok with that.

So I have come to realize that I like
black and white, furry, friendly
looking jumping spiders.
And I like garden and porch spiders.
And I like wolf spiders that live outside.
And when I lived in the mountains
I could even goggle in awe at the fishing spiders
(think wolf spider about the size of a taratula)
The darn things take your breath
away when you see them.
And they are big enough that you can feel
their presence.. their sentience.. shudder.
They look back at you.

What I do NOT like are the skinny
looking wolf spider/recluse looking
things that inhabit the house from time to time.
You know them.
They are the ones in your bathtub
in the morning and the ones that
you see zipping across the bedroom
floor just before you reach to turn out the light.
Those are the ones that I do not like.
I don't know what they are.
Are they harmless wolfs
or are they the dreaded recluses?
Who's to know without picking one up
and looking closely.. and that ain't happening.

And I do not like the grey ,alien looking,
long legged, blobular body,
spin around in circles so fast
you can't see them spiders
that get in the upper corners.
I hate those things.. yuck.
They don't look right.
But I don't mind the little corner spiders
in the house that are round bodied and small and boring.

Now I am a strong, capable woman that is
not phased by much in life.
I drove a cab - nightshift,
I lived in very seedy neighbors
in a dangerous city (rent was sooo cheap)
I went head to head with crazy,
whacked out street bums with no problem
and I managed lions
and tigers and rhinos and angry apes.

All of these things I can take on with nary a tremor.

But OMG!! Camel Crickets
make me scream like a 50's housewife.
You know them, but perhaps by another name
.. cave crickets, maybe.
They are huge and pale with those long pointy legs
that jut up from their bulbous bodies.. eeeeeeep!
Mostly one would find them in basements or garages
or other dark, damp places.
But sometimes.. sometimes...
they come inside and up to where the people dwell.
And if you try to stomp on them...
they jump AT you and if they land ON you
they STICK to you. EEEEEEEPPPP!!
If I try to stomp one and it comes towards me
I squeal. I shriek.
Not a womanly strong scream,
but a high pitched
squeal, a shrill squeak of ultimate terror.
I couldn't make that noise
if I tried at any other time,
but it pours forth
from my stress tightened throat
the minute that it charges at me.
I swear I would climb on a chair
if it were quicker than running away.
I feel helpless. I feel beaten and less of a woman
in the face of a camel cricket.

But I like spiders...
sort of.

Blog and Sniff..

2010-05-15T13:15:00.008-04:00

Don't you wish that it was Blog and Sniff..
Does anything smell better than magnolia?
Crisp and lemony, but heady and deep.

Ok.. so I posted this and saw it up on the page.
You truly can almost smell it.. I swear you can.
I love my magnolia tree,
except it is too close to the road to enjoy.
And it is too big to enjoy.
This one blossom and one other are the only
two that I can enjoy all year. How sad is that?
The rest are 10, 20, 30, 40 up in the air.
I can see them and when the sun hits the tree
in the morning I can get a little whiff,
but that is all.
I have to admire from afar and below.
So enjoy my once a year,
brief treat with me, won't you?

This is the first rose I ever bought.

It has just started it's bloom.
By next week it should be a cacophony of roses.
I dug and moved this rose 4 times.
I will not - I can not leave it behind.
It was my first....

And this morning's haul.
I wish you could smell and taste them.
The collander is no longer quite so full.
Between Simon and I it has been greatly diminished.
But, I grow them to be devoured.
Last year I limited the fresh eating and froze them.
It was nice to have them over winter, but this
year I am trying to be more lenient.

That ends the pleasantly aromatic section....

A hard working garden helper!
Go get 'em, Toadie!
Did you know that a well tended
and protected (read captive)toad can live
40 years!! Holy cow!
The joys of homeschooling. I learn something
new and amazing everyday.
But your average garden toad
can live up to 15 years.
That is a lot of bugs gone.

New little ones at the little homestead.
I love colony raising.
The buns get to groom and interact
and be as natural as possible.
See the hole under the old door?
That is the entrance to the burrow where
the little ones were born.
I saw them for the first time
just the other day.
I had no idea that they were even in there.
And no, I have no idea at a glance whose
they are. They know and that is all that matters.
Though I do desperately need to butcher
some of the adults. I will have to be very careful
as I choose who goes to freezer camp.

And these are the goats.
Damn near impossible to photograph.
They are always underfoot.
This pic was gotten by giving up,
leaving the pen and running, whirling around
and catching them as they headed for me.
But I am impressed with their
weedeating abilities so far.
They are really knocking it down.
I don't like where I have them
right now and will probably move them
deeper into the woods tomorrow morning
before it gets so blisteringly hot out!

We need rain and a break from the 90+ temperatures.
The funny/sad thing is that just days ago
I had to build a small fire in the woodstove.
It was very chilly out with a cold rain.
And here I am now sweltering and sweating.
It is truly miserable.
I will NOT turn on the AC. No, No, NO!
I refuse to do it before at least June.
I finally broke down and agreed to run it in the car.

Things move along. The garden needs water
and cooler temps
and I need to put in my cucumbers,
squashes and plant my beans.
I think the soil is warm enough now...
I think.
Yeah!!!! Spring!

I Am So Tired...

2010-05-01T19:27:00.008-04:00

I am really so tired.
I have no business trying to blog at this moment
and I will probably come back tomorrow,
read it and find it to be gibberish.
It already took me several tries
to put the pictures on
and I was interrupted to go out
and bottle feed the goats, fluff their
bedding straw and do a few last
minute pick up stuffs
trying to beat the rain.
As it is, the pics are a jumbled mess
and do not tell a coherent story.
Oh well.

This awesome pic was supposed to
be at the bottom,
but we'll lead with it instead.
Can I get an 'awwwww. How cute."?
Ain't it just?
I love my boy.

I spent my day in the garden.
I laid in more beds and transplanted
some flowers from the old garden.
Here are the peppers and they are looking great.

The garden is coming along.
I am still waiting for the permanent
trellises to be built
for my tomatoes.
I had to put the tomatoes in though.
They really couldn't wait anymore.
This Year's Tomato List :
-Amana Orange - My favorite tomato!
-Paquebot Roma - my favorite roma
-Abe Lincoln - this is a first
-Stiletz - another first
-Cherokee Purple - not my favorite, but I had the seeds
-Green Zebra - not in the garden yet.
I have some wee seedlings that will go in as soon as they are big enough
I think that is all,
but I swear I am so tired I can't think.

And here is the garden itself
in all it's glory.
It really is looking much better.
I still have work to do,
but a lot of that cannot happen until the trellises are done.
But I am enjoying the weed-free nature
of this new space.
The last garden was in the lawn itself
and that was an uphill battle.
This I can take care of with the hoe.

And here you can see my flower ring
and my squash graves (in the foreground)
I have some spinach, 4 O'Clocks, zinnias, cosmos..etc
in the ring around the tree.
And I have a 'pond' to offer water
to my beneficial friends
like toads and wasps etc.
I have a bottle hanging that drips water
into the bowl as dripping water
attracts good critters to the water.
And I have a hunk of concrete in the
bowl for a landing perch for butterflies
and dragons to take a safe drink.
Beneficials are a great bonus to the garden.
All of the flowers that I plant are for them too.

And I found the perfect spot to keep my whet stone.
And why would I have a whet stone in the garden?
A sharp hoe is an efficient hoe.
It makes a huge difference to have a freshly sharpened hoe.
I have been using nothing but the hoe
on the whole garden. I sharpen it often.
And I make it sharp too. I give it a fine edge.
Weeds don't stand a chance and the soil
moves around like butter.

Edited to add...
Do you see the little red tripod stool?
I love that thing!
I got it at Dollar General for $5
and that may be the best $5 I ever spent.
It is the right height to sit on and pull honeysuckle.
I have patches that are large and thick.
I put the stool down and work until I can't reach anymore
and them I move on.
It is also perfect for contemplation and rest
in the garden. It may not look comfy, but it really is.
Beats the hell out of sitting on a 5 gallon bucket.

And I think the verdict is in...
PLUM TREE!!!
Because there is no fuzz and the little fruits are a dark red!
Yeah..Plums!!!
Best weed I ever found growing in a yard.
Okay.. that's not true, but I can't talk about the best ever.

Dianthus is blooming and the costmary looks
and smells wonderful.

The comfrey is looking huge.
After this bout of rainy, stormy
weather I will do my first harvest
of the year. It will probably all
go for garden supplementation
in the form of comfrey teas...

I am going to have so many strawberries!
I went looking and I cannot believe
how heavily loaded my little plants are!

The snowball bush is blooming.
It was the only thing on this farm
that bloomed when we bought it.
How can a farm be
a farm for over 80 years and have
NO FLOWERS!??
Seriously?
I am fixing that as quickly as I can.
And all of the weeds and vetches and clovers that we
let grow to monstrous heights each spring
is our way of feeding the soil.
It was obvious that every single leaf
and blade was cut to within
an inch of it's life the minute
it was tall enough to reach the
mower's blades.
That is not a good way to grow good healthy soil.
So, in the spring when the super nutritious things
grow, we let them.
We pull them to feed to the rabbits and chickens.
We let them go to seed and then we cut them.
As a result, each year we have more and more
good healthy weeds on our place.
Yeah! Weeds!!
(and that is my story as to why
you cannot walk through my yard
and I am sticking to it..
sounds really good, doesn't it?)

Sweet Potato Chocolate Cake

2010-04-19T23:49:00.004-04:00

Yeah.. you're lookin.
It calls to you,
for it is chocolate!

I thought I would share my secret recipe
for this family favorite
special occasion cake.
This is pulled out for birthdays and the like..
I made one this afternoon.
Want the recipe?

Sweet Potato Chocolate Cake
preheat to *350

Ingredients..
Dry -
2 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Wet -
1 cp brown sugar
1/4 cp vegetable oil
3 cps cooked, mashed sweet potatoes
3 TBS cocoa (heaping TBS)
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 egg yolks (reserve whites!)

Other -
3 egg whites whipped until firm
1/2 cp milk

Mix the ingredients in the wet bowl until smooth.
I use the warmth of the sweet potatoes to help smooth the sugar.

Now, I am old school. I use a spoon to do my mixing.
And I use a whisk for the egg whites.

Add slowly to the ingredients in the dry bowl. Add the milk as you go along to make the blending easier. Do not mix too hard or stir too passionately. You do not want the gluten to get all stretchy in the flour. It makes for a tough baked good.
So, easy does it. More folding than stirring.

Once the two bowls have become one
you can fold in your whipped up egg whites.
Fold nice and slow and easy.
You want them to retain their fullness
and their air bubbles
to give the cake a light texture.

Then into a Bundt pan that has been
greased well. I put mine on a baking sheet
to help disperse the heat in my
piece o' crap oven.

Then out when it passes the clean knife test,
flip onto a plate to cool, then get a kid to
smear the icing!
Mine was doing barn chores this time,
so I had to do it myself.

(ok.. I straight up lied.
I don't do the clean knife test, I eyeball it.
And I go by smell. As soon as I can smell the chocolate
I know the cake is just about done.
But I have made this one a hundred times
and know it's personality)

This cake is rich and moist,
but still light and not heavy.

It is wonderful!
Enjoy!

New Additions!

2010-04-17T11:38:00.005-04:00

Yep.. your eyes are not deceiving you.
We have goats!
Who would have thought it.

They are wethered Saanen bottle babies.
Seeing as how they were born on April Fool's Day
they have been named Joker and Jester.
They are natural brothers, though Jester is a bit smaller than Joker.

Too sweet! I mean really.
And already they have become the highlight
of the place. They are Simon's new best friends
and the three of them run all about the place.
Simon likes the dogs somewhat,
but the goats are just better companions.
They want to be right by him
while he is out in the woods
and jumping over the dry creek.

But they have actual jobs.
They are to clear the acre or so
of absolute jungle that we have.
Honeysuckle, rosa floribunda,
poison ivy and oak and privet hedge..
the wretched, wretched, wretched privet.

They are starting in already.
No slackers here.
I figure that our property value will greatly increase
when the jungle is passable.
You know, we lived here over a year before we realized
that there was an old pig barn
out in that jungle.
I told you it was bad;
bad enough to hide an entire building!

Simon took some pictures of the canopy
now that it is really filling out.
I love Spring.

And this is the huge old tree that hangs over
the old smokehouse building that is
now doing double duty as the goat barn.
We are only using the smallest room for the goats.
Eventually the old heap will
get torn down, but for now
it is being a useful building.

And the garden is coming along.
These are the post holes for the permanent
trellis/fences for tomatoes
and other climbing veggies.
Look at how ruby red that clay is!
You can see how much the amendments (chicken poop and old straw)
have darkened it already.
I would love to try to make pots
and the like from that clay one day.

A big shout out to Spinning Spider Creamery
in Madison County, NC for the bottle babies!
Great cheeses and a stunning herd.
These babies are about the best you can get!
We are thrilled!

Addendum:
Poor little fellas.
We turned on their electronet today.
Our electronet carries quite a powerful punch.
They each got zapped HARD
and then bolted into their stall where it is safe.
The world just bacame a painful and scary place.
They do spend most of their day out and about with me,
but have taken to sleeping on the back steps.
That is a bad habit, so they
will live as goats are intended now.
Poor goaties.

Forward Motion...

2010-04-09T23:12:00.008-04:00

Spring continues on
and it's forward momentum
drags us and the wee farm with it.
Just look how GREEN!!
This was the first winter where we lost all the green.
Usually there are warm waves,
but this year was continuously cold
with no reprieve.
As a result, we lost all our green.
It was as depressing as all get out.
But now it is coming back!
I am so glad.

And yeah!!!
The new garden is tilled and prepared and fenced!
All the tree stumps are gone and the clay has had
several hundred pounds of old straw
and chicken poo tilled in to it.
I began to lay out new beds
and then the storms came
and dumped several inches of water on us.
I am glad that it did.
I was able to see my new garden's
weakness before I put too much
effort in.
See that wall and collpased wall on the north side?
Well, water seeps, pours out from
under it and made a small
river that ran south through
the heart of the garden.
The solution..?
I need to dig a dry creek bed
through the heart of the garden.
I will create tributaries from various
spots in the wall where I saw the worst
of the water pouring under and guide them into
a main channel through the very center
of the garden and out the south end.
Conveniently there is already a low spot/hole
in the south wall that I can use.
I'll try to pretty it up with some rocks etc..
like a real dry creek bed should be.

My Gala apple is just blooming it's heart out!

And so are the strawberries!

The grapes that I rooted last year
and thought for sure were dry sticks
are actually grapes!

And some Jerusalem Artichokes are ready
to be moved into the new garden.
But where, oh where?
And I have a whole area that is
filled with Jersalem Artichokes
that I have to dig up and harvest and move this fall.

And the massive heat wave we had
this past week made my rhubarb bolt.
And by heat wave,
I mean it was in the 90s!!

Sigh.
I knew it was going to be a challenge
to grow it here. We are just too hot.
And now that I have shown you the
seed head, I can cut it off.

Yesterday morning this tree had no leaves.
It goes to show what a spring storm can do.
You could almost watch them unfurl.

This is also what a spring storm can do.
This yard needs to be CUT!
It grew to knee high overnight.
I am not kidding.

And here we have Sweet Husband clearing
the upper garden spot.
We hope to have corn and winter squashes
and pumpkins and chicken feed plants
like amaranth and millet and sunflowers up here.
So exciting!
I have been wanting these two
foundations cleared since the day we moved in
and to see them opening up
is thrilling.
I cannot wait to see what they will look
like in two weeks or so!

Deeper Spring ...

2010-03-28T09:32:00.004-04:00

Well.. you might as well get comfy,
this is a long one.
Let's start with last night's excitement..
Above is Old Blue Sue from a year ago..aaawwwww
Well, last night she got hit by a car.
She is fine, considering she was hit by a car.
No broken bones, no limping.
She is resting comfortably in her crate this morning
after having gone out to pee and having some warm
broth for breakfast.
She is understandably sore and slow moving.
We are hoping this will slow her down a bit
and calm her down a bit.
She is a wild dog.

And do you remember the mystery tree
from last summer?
The one that I mowed over
and pruned down for 2 years?
Well, it is blooming!!!!
It is too early for peach trees to bloom, I think.
So that would make it a plum tree..maybe.
I will have to wait and see what comes of it all.
And the apple trees are getting nice leaf buds! Yeah!!

And we have yet more new chicks.
These were supposed to be Black Sex Link chicks.
Sex Links are chicks where males and females look different at hatch.
The males were supposed to have white spots on their heads and the females not.
We made them with our big roo and our Cuckoo Marans hens.
It would seem that the big red roo is not all that he seems to be.
We knew he had 5 toes and that he was a mix of something,
but the other genetics have come into play.
Some of our black chicks were buff!

And they have 5 little toes just like their daddy.
I took a closer look at 5 Toe, the rooster
and came to the realization that he is half Salmon Faverolle.
Nice birds, the Faverolles, and 5 toed.
But some of our chicks did turn out the right way...

And things are coming up all over the place!!!
This is the costmary.
Wonderful stuff.
It doesn't look like much, but the smell!
Oh my.
It smells of vanilla and balsam and mint.
I have never smelled anything like it.
I may have to do a give away after it
gets up and going good.
Everyone needs costmary in their garden.

And my hyssop is coming back.
I will transplant one of them
into the new garden plot,
along with my oregano, sage and lavender.
And the mint is making one
heck of a comback.
I am going to dig it all up and
move it closer to the new garden.
And the bee balm, catnip and lemon balm
are all up and spreading.
I don't mind spread,
spread is good!

And the comfrey patch is filling in too.
Love the comfrey.
And maybe, just maybe this year I can harvest it,
dry and save it for comfrey salve
without the drying leaves getting destroyed.
Last summer I left it out over night
and the stupid Sue got into it
and the year before, Sweet Husband got into
it and destroyed it.
This year will be the year!! I just know it!

And the high queen of the garden is growing!
Rhubarb!
All hail the rhubarb!
I am so glad to see it doing so well.
Rhubarb pie and rhubarb crumble
and hot stewed rhubarb over biscuits
and rhubarb goo baked onto chicken!
I love, love, love rhubarb!
There was some question as to whether
or not I could grow it here.
It is a bit hot for rhubarb,
it prefers the mountains and the cooler temps.
But I have this in the shade
and I am hoping that it will
do well enough that I can
harvest late next spring.
Until then, I will have to go
back to the mountain home and
harvest as much as I can carry.

Oh!! I almost forgot!
I have new bunnies.
Not meat rabbits,
but fluffy, adorable,
unbelievably cute
Jersey Wooley rabbits.
They are small and fluffy
and beyond cute!
Now, I am not much into cute things
and tend to look down my nose at the cuteness,
But these are too cute to sneer at.
I can brush them and groom them
and get fiber for spinning
and knitting etc...
Soft, soft, soft
long rabbit fur fibers...
I'll get pics some day soon to share!
You are gonna want some...

Finally...

2010-03-16T18:12:00.006-04:00

Spring has come.
Man. What a long winter.
No real hard cold snaps,
but no warm spells either.
Just relentlessly cold with occasional
bouts of clouds and snow.
I didn't realize how much I needed
those warm snaps until I was
given a winter without them.
So, I hibernated.
I didn't go anywhere
and tried to not talk to anyone.
And then.. it got warm again.
And the blood began flow back
into me like sap into a tree.

And the old farm is starting to
come back around too.
I have spots of green in the yard
and the spring flowers are starting to show.
And it has been warm enough for me
to get some chores done.
Observe please..the garden spot.

Now, it might not look like much to you..
but believe me, this is freakin awesome!
Notice the wall on the left.
See how you can see it?
Until last week it was completely
hidden behind an
solid curtain of honeysuckle.
I took to it with scissors. Yep. Scissors.
I wore out one pair so they came apart
in my hand and I started with another pair and I won!
Then I dug each and every massive root ball
and all the little teeny root balls out.
Some of them were almost as thick as my wrist.
And the open area where the tilling
has begun is usually head high with wild asters,
honeysuckle, blackberry scrub,
goldenrod and morning glory.
Actually, I think it was higher than
my head in places and completely inpenetrable.
That wood pile in the middle was a pin oak,
now it is firewood
and we'll burn the brush tomorrow.
As you can see, the cleanup crew is hard
at work picking out seeds and little yummy
bits and turning the soil some more.
I am excited to turn this old
chicken house foundation
into a new garden. I have high hopes.
I can't wait to get it all cleared out
and ready to turn into beds
with nice little paths in between...aaahh...

And the little seedlings are raring to go too.
I have 5 varieties of tomatoes
and about that many types of peppers too.
A few eggplants and herbs are up in cups too.
I have leeks getting taller and
some basil cuttings rooting and lettuces,
chards and spinach coming up in the coldframe.

Do you have any idea how badly I want a fresh salad from the garden?

The comfrey is coming up
and the stinging nettles are starting to poke up.
It was a harsh winter for everyone and everything here this year.

And the first hatch of the year are growing well too.
Yeah! Chicks!
With more set to hatch this coming weekend.
Luckily, all of these and the coming
hatch are already spoken for.

This winter we have eaten well out of the freezer.
Turkeys and more chickens than I can count
and the lamb..oooh, the lamb!

We butchered him on New Year's Day.
Lamb stew, leg of lamb..all good.
I am hoping that we can find a way to afford
lambs this year as well as the turkeys.
We really need to find a way to make that investment.
It pays off in the end with meat sales and freezer stocking.
Now that it is warm and my brain and my soul
have thawed
I will be around more often.
I missed you.
Happy spring, ya'll!!!!

I am not dead..

2009-12-30T10:26:00.003-05:00

It has been both crazy and boring around here.
I will return in the very near future.
You so you know..you haven't missed anything. Nothing new, nothing old and nothing really 'farmy' going on.
We are beginning homeschool officially in a few weeks and the preparation for that has taken up large chunks of time, as have the holidays. Knit, knit, knit, knit....
So, please be patient and don't give up on me. I shall return.
jen

Turkeys Are Done!

2009-11-16T16:54:00.003-05:00

Isn't that just beautiful!?
Gorgeous!

This is Aaron Cookson from Red Dirt Ranch.

He is a dear friend who butchers

like an artist.

Many, many thanks to him for coming out

and making the day a breeze and

giving us a fantastic product.

See.. I couldn't have done this by hand

for love or money. Especially not with the great results the plucker gets.

A bird is done in mere seconds. Wow.

Getting cleaned up and ready for a wrap.

Ta Da!!!

Look at how nicely he did the legs.

You learn something new every day..if you are lucky.

All but 7 of the birds are done and those can wait until

Christmas.

The yard will seeem a bit lonely to me without my sweet boys.

I was very glad I could opt out of the deed itself.

It was a bit sad and usually I have no problem.

I really loved the turkeys.

I am very, very proud to be able to share them with others.

They will look wonderful as a centerpiece of a blessings laden table.

November Down Home..

2009-11-14T13:46:00.002-05:00

Well..here they are..
the very last pics of the turkeys.

Monday the 16th is butcher day.

Not all are slated for freezer camp

and I will have some left for Christmas

but the majority will be gracing tables

on the 26th.

I am proud of them and count our first year

of heritage breed turkeys as a success.

There will be more turkeys..many more

as I have loved having them in the yard.
And I am a wee bit sad at the thought of

slaughter. They really are like large dogs

in their affection and loyalty.

Gosh! Aren't they beautiful.

I just love them,

but you all know that already.

And here are some bold new additions..

They are meat birds, broilers, that were allowed to mature.

I got them from a fellow farmer and will use them to breed

large, scrumptious meat birds of my very own.

I know they look like chickens, but believe when I tell you they are

something entirely different.

They are HUGE and heavy..oh my!

Once they are back up to prime form and good health
and start to lay I will toss in a few choice roosters

and see what we will get. I have great hopes.

Some of my younger birds are starting to lay.

Check out that huge egg on top.

That was her first effort.

Oh, the squalling from the laying box with that one!~

Poor girl. But no blood on the egg etc..

so it did no permanent damage.

What a way to begin...

Kepp an eye out for an entry about turkey butchering.

I am not doing, but a traveling butcher is coming

for the task. Good friend and great guy.

A Pic Of Dead Birds....

2009-10-01T16:08:00.004-04:00

Now that the voting is over on Homesteadingtoday.com, I can announce that I was the one that took this pic!! Woot!!

I don't know if it will make the calendar as many folks don't want dead things hanging on their wall, but I love it and will hang it somewhere.

They were tasty too!

Some Things Are Yellow...

2009-10-01T12:37:00.005-04:00

The butt of a bee
sleeping in a squash blossom is yellow.

Freshly laid eggs are yellow.

Freshly made butter is sorta yellow.

Eggs and cornbread are yellow.

It tasted much better than it looks.

Weeds are yellow.
Some things are blue..

like hyssop.

And the sky behind a ....turkey!

(that is the now required turkey pic..)

Stuff has been going on around here..

just nothing really photo worthy.

The Great Chicken Sell Off is going ok.

I need to do one more advertising blitz to

unload the last group.
And, closely connected to the Sell Off,

the barn scramble is still going on.

Who to put where and with whom...

I have too many birds.

No wait.. I have too many breeding groups, that's what the problem is.

Black Copper Marans

Cuckoo Marans

Black Langshans

Ameracaunas

Blue Laced Red Wyandottes

a seller's pen, a rooster pen..

(ok.. I have three rooster pens..

The breeding roosters, the growing roosters

and the darn near edible roosters..)

and the laying hen pen.

See the trouble?

I think I am selling off the

White Rocks and White Jersey Giants, but they are not in the seller's pen.

I have to see if I am selling the 'point of lay' Ameracaunas.

And if you are confused and overwhelmed,

then you can see why I am too.

Bottom line - I need to sell more hens.

And eat more roos.

The ducks have moved out to the smokehouse

and are no longer free ranging all day and sleeping

the night away in the potting shed.

I had, had, had to move them out

so I could put the chicks we are hatching out there.

They cannot live in the laundry room forever.

One group of young birds have moved up to

the barn and I have one more

group that needs to move up too.

Add this to the above mentioned

tangle in the barn.

The chickens now hate to see me coming

because more times than not I have the

catching net in my hand.

But soon the potting shed will house only chicks,

which is the point of the potting shed.

And I can't take all of the complainig

about the chicken shuffle.

Much of it falls on the shoulders of Sweet Husband

I am utterly, completely and cripplingly night blind.

Oh, and the turkeys..

sweet, noble turkeys.

They do seem to have an aversion to
going into their pen in the late afternoon.

It is not that they don't want to go in, persay,

it is that they are stymied by the process.

I am sure that by the time they figure it out

it will be time for Thanksgiving.

Next year they will move to the barn

pen and out of the potting shed while

they are still young and have the brain

capacity to learn something new.

I love them though.

The new woodstove had a test fire

last night and this morning out in the yard.

Yippee!! New paint and it looks great.

I have to start gathering a barn stall of kindling

and Sweet Husband needs to start chopping firewood.

It is getting a wee bit chilly at night now.

Seems a bit early to me. As does the early

turning and falling of the leaves.

The poplars are looking ragged.

I do not think it will be a pretty autumn.

A busy time

helped along by the nice cool weather

Oh.. I have an adendum..

I read a great book recently..

'Farm City - The Education of an Urban Farmer' by Novella Carpenter.

She rocks on a vacant lot in Oakland California..

turkeys, ducks, bees and two Duroc hogs..

great read!

Look to my favorite links to find her site...

I Have A Mental Problem!!

2009-09-15T10:18:00.003-04:00

I am nuts!
Certifiable!
I seriously need HELP!
Won't someone help me....?

I can't freaking STOP
picking muscadines !
This morning by 9am
I had about 40 lbs. of those
beautiful little purple balls in my big bucket.
Ya'll.. this is the third time!
I went thinking that the scuppernongs were ripe,
but nooooooo.....
there was a whole nother harvest of muscadines ready.
I should have walked away.
It is heavy enough that I don't
dare to put in on my old countertops.
It sits in the kitchen floor..staring at me...
And the figs too...
Those apples are slated for an apple pie.
I don't know what they are, but I made a pie
last week that was the best apple pie I have ever eaten.
Sweet, tart..perfect.
But, today I will try to do the right thing.
I will try to wash them and bag them up and
give those muscadines away.. or at least some of them.
I said, 'try...'
And I will make more fig preserves.
The last bit I picked I set out to dry.
Every morning I carried them out ot the sun
and every evening I brought them loving back inside.
When they were almost dry, and I could put them all in one
pan, I started keeping on my dashboard in my car.
Sweet Husband borrowed my car and brought the figs,
the precious figs that I had sliced paper thin..
not an easy thing to do..they are squishy..
and put them in the oven.
Did he tell me this? Did he? NO.
I set the oven to preheat and went out to
pick basil in the garden. I sniffed.
I pondered that sweet, wonderful smell
that was filling the yard.. like burnt sugar..
Damn. It took hours to get all of the smoke out of the house.
sigh....
It is getting ready to be rainy and damp here
so I have to 'preserve' them instead.
No dried figs for me this year.

And I need help with the egg and incubator thing too...
yep.. I am incubating MORE eggs.
But these are spoken for... or so I believe.
I don't have to feed these 80! eggs.
But Sweet Husband is setting aside more eggs everyday....
gack.

Isn't this a pretty picture?
I love it.
Everything is sparkling in the morning sun...

Of course, this isn't shabby either.
I think I am going to slap some on a oatmeal roll
leftover from dinner last night...
yum.
Of course, the butter is still on the stove
buttering down.
It needs to hurry because I have 40 lbs
of muscadines to put in that pot!
Good Grief.

And I have crushing news...

Mr. White is gone.

He was my first ever rabbit.

I know you aren't supposed to love your food,

but I loved Mr. White.

Such spunk.

Such personality.

Such an independent thinker.

He escaped the colony last year and I caught him up

and put him back in another mini-colony

with his favorite doe thinking he would stay there with her.

He broke her out. He is..was.. a fence climber.

He and Mrs. White have lived free in my yard

and barn and in the neighbor's yard way

across the field since then.

I loved seeing him in the barn.

He would bring the wife for a snack

of chicken feed from time to time.

He would run and scatter the hens

away from the food.. it was an awesome sight.

Little white bunny chasing big old hens.

Then he would come over and stand on

my foot for scritches.

We were planning on a whole new area just for him

where he would be safe and could raise

new litters of kits for us once again.

I cannot tell you how heartbroken I am

Old Blue Sue killed him. Damn dog.

He must have gone cruising around dawn

yesterday in the front of the barn. He knew better.

She didn't bite or tear him, just played with him until

he quit playing back. Sweet Husband found her

chewing on his ear. Damn dog.

It is quite the shame. He was incredibly heavy.

It was uncomfortable trying to hold him one handed.

He would have made great kits.

I still have many of his offspring to carry on the good traits.

However, if I can catch up Mrs. White

she will have to be sent to freezer camp.

I don't think she would ever accept another buck

and I don't want to sacrifice one to find out.

RIP Mr. White.

Damn.

Old and New

2009-09-13T16:32:00.004-04:00

Big doings down on the farm
this week..
Lookee what I got!!
A Foley mill!
Now, this might not rock everyone's boat,
but it's rocking mine.

Look how shiny!!
Stainless steel! Oooooooh!
With a thingy that goes round and round
and everything!
This little gadget makes my
preserving chores into a fun
and easy event.
Ok.. maybe not all that great,
but look what I used to use
to remove those pesky pits
and peels...

Now you understand my joy.

The old way was a pain..literally.

My wrist and fingers would ache after

I gripped the collander and held it over the bowl

while mashing down against it with all my might.

My new Foley has clips that fit right over the edge of

my bowl or pot for easy processing.

And it is ever so much more efficient

than the spoon and collander.

I am feeding much less of the good stuff

to the birds.

I am picking scuppernongs

tomorrow morning and will be

cranking away on that handle

by afternoon.

I also picked up some

canning tools...real ones!

I no longer have to reach into the boiling

water with my hands to grab out

boiling hot jars full of stuff.

I have a jar gripper!!

And a new wide mouth funnel for

neater, cleaner jars.

I am so pleased!

You know, it is the little things

that make life worth living.

And for me to go out and get these

things is a big deal. I could have made do.

And I have made do for years without them,

but I am so much happier with them.

And this is our old woodstove..

A Boxwood by Vogelzang.

Now, when I was a kid the Boxwood

was a perfectly good stove, but then they started

making them in China.
This thing leaks air something fierce

and the first year all of the caulking

fell out and you can see fire in all

of the seams.

And if you look at the front

you can see a slide tray.

The slide tray is for allowing more

airflow into the stove. And you will notice

a coiled handle up by the stovepipe.

This is for the flue adjustment..also

for airflow.

Now, the one thing you just don't want in

a woodstove is airflow.

I cannot tell you how much wood we have stuffed into

this beast. And it will ot hold a fire overnight.

Nothing sucks worse than waking up in a Vogelzang

house, let me tell you. Cold, cold, cold!!!

Luckily, Sweet Husband is up long before me

and has had the fire going and the house toasty

before I crawl out from under my feathers.

And the new...

A FISHER!!!

Oh yeah!

A Baby Bear.

Airtight!

Holds a fire all night long!!

So, the house will be warm and toasty before

anyone gets up! Woo HOOOOO!

You will notice there is no slide

in the front and no coiled flue handle on the top.

These are the signs of snuggly winters and warm mornings

and fewer loads of wood to carry into the house.

I get so sick of hauling wood by the time February

gets here. We heat almost completely with wood and

I am quite sure that this winter we will be able

to heat every room but one with fire.

Now, the Fisher needs to be sanded and

given a fresh coat of heat resistant paint

but I am not complaining....

$100 off craigslist!

Are you sick of turkey pics yet?

It is just that they are all over me everytime they see the camera..

And these are my Jerusalem artichokes.

It is getting to be the end of the season.

They are starting to fall over.

If they are upright, they are taller than me.

I will harvest after the first frost when they get a bit sweet.

And on a sad note..

my smallest lamb died.

I do not know why.

He never really grew, just stayed small

and delicately formed. He also had testicular troubles.

They didn't descend until just a week or so before he died.

We are guessing that there was something

not quite right with him from the get go.

The other lamb is lonely,

but growing and I look forward to lamb stew

this winter..cooked on my ... new woodstove!!

And we are enjoying the sheep so much

that we are thinking of

getting three ewe lambs in the spring

and just making our own from now on.

Recent happenings..

2009-08-30T14:32:00.005-04:00

My turkeys are getting big and beautiful!
I just love the turkeys. They are much better all around
than stupid chickens! As you can see, my love affair
with my 150+ chickens is waning.
I am having a big chicken sell off soon.
And a several big slaughter days too.
Viva the turkeys!!
And last night was their first night in
the big new turkey pen in the barn.
They are not happy.
But, they have to stay inside for a few days
to acclimate to the new digs if I don't
want to spend every evening having a
turkey round-up. And turkey round-ups
involve long sticks and ladders if I don't get out there
soon enough. Turkeys can fly, you know.

And here is Mr White! My free range buck.
His 'wife' is around somewhere too. But they will soon be caught and
penned. I know they are breeding, I see them do it.
But without a safe home I am not getting any of the kits
for myself and that is wasteful.
The barn sure will be lonely without them underfoot
and chasing the chickens off their feed. I love Mr. White.

And what is summer without the obligatory tomato pictures?
And the things that taste great with them...
chard and basil!

I do dearly love basil! And it grows so well here.

When I make pizza it goes right on the dough

snugged down in tomato sauce and baked in..

So delicious to have homemade basil pizza!

Oh, now I want one. I wonder if I could

convince the family to go for pizza again tonight?

And other than the basic day to day

running of the farm and the setting by

of food for the winter, not much has been happening..

We did have a house full of people last week

and that was nice. I love cooking for huge groups

of hungry folks.

The next few weeks will see some changes though..

butchering and selling will empty the barn out some

and lower our feed bill in preparation for winter too.

Hard to think about winter now, but it needs to get done.

Soon it will be wood chopping time...

It is coming...

Figs and Muscadines!

2009-08-30T14:10:00.004-04:00

Aaaaah! Free Food!!
These came from the 'secret garden'
I found this spring. I have the owner's permission
to use the gardens as I will. Oh Joy!
Green Ischia figs and muscadines!

It took some internet digging to find the variety of fig.
The bright red insides are the give away.
They are gross raw though, but
all figs are. I am a cooked/dried fig kind of girl, I guess.
Note to self.. next time chop them finer.

Sure are pretty though.

And cooking down the muscadines!
Oh, if you could have smelled my house!
These are a different muscadine than I am used to.
They are darker and sweeter without the 'tang'
of wine I am accustomed to working with.
More like a Concord grape really.
And I haven't even tapped the haul yet.
It was just too hot to pick that day.
It will be much cooler
this coming week and much nicer to pick in.
Plus, the cooler nights will act to sweeten them even further.

And some of the finished product to line my shelves with.
I had some on cornbread this morning..
wonderful! Fig on one half of the wedge and muscadine on the other.
Decadence and plenty!

Sure will be good when the cold winds blow this winter!
I love putting food by, I really do.
Is there anything more satisfying than seeing the
shelves in the pantry bending with plenty?
I just don't think so...

WARNING! graphic bunny butchering!

2009-08-30T13:02:00.003-04:00

For those of tender hearts I apologize.
But rabbit tastes good!
So, here goes..

I dispatch the buns by the
'broomstick' method.
just as I do the chickens.
But I must say I don't like it.
It has a tendency to cause
a mass of blood to pool at the junction
of the neck and shoulders.
I am going to try slitting the throat
immediately upon the upwards yank
to see if I bleed them instantly
I can stop that.
Personally, I don't care, but I do sell many
processed rabbits and I like a cleaner
product...

So, here is a bunny in a dead state.
It's neck has been broken.
I will let the head dangle off the edge
of the table and remove the head or
slit the throat to bleed it.

I make a slit in the skin
on the belly and on the back
for skinning.
I slide my hands under the skin
and pull in opposing directions..

Until I get this..

I will remove the head and feet and tail

and pull the rest of the skin off.

Leaving me with this...
I will then make a vertical slit
up the body and hold it by the
shoulders over the bucket.
The innards fall right out.
I take two finders and reach up into
the upper chest for the lungs and heart.
I can do a rabbit from hopping to soaking
in about 2 minutes. It is wonderful!
Much easier and cleaner than
stupid chickens with all their stupid feathers!
(forgive my tone.. I am facing a day of butchering and plucking tomorrow)

And the wonderful finished product!
Don't they look delicious!
I am very proud of my rabbits.
I get great size and superb meat
from them. Each of these weighs in between
4 and 5 pounds- dressed weight.
That is a big! rabbit.

I attribute some of the weight to my

raising process. I do not cage my buns.

I colony raise. My buns have an indoor

room and an outdoor pen.

They run and hop and dig and groom each other

in a more or less natural habitat.

They get to use their muscles

which makes for good meat quality

and flavor.

My does and buck run together

and the does kindle in a vast underground

warren system of their own making.

I don't even know I have new babies

until I see them pop out into the

pen for the first time!

And I don't know how many I have in total

for about another week. They scoot in and out

of their bolt hole very quickly if they hear me approach.

But they eventually get used to me

and are all over my feet all the time.

I weeded the garden today and they are feasting
on piles of wood sorrel and peppermint and mulberry twigs.
I try to feed from the yard as much as I can
They are very efficient at turning weeds and grasses into protein!

The three hefty boys in the foreground are the next up for
freezer camp. Maybe next week.

From a few days in the mountains...

2009-08-16T14:37:00.002-04:00

I harvested some onions..

A crazy big squash plant..

Jewelweed and Steve's gate..

Weeds..
My favorite weed.. Joe Pye Weed.

Even in July this water will turn your feet

beet red and burning,

then blue.

It will take your breath if you are foolish enough to immerse yourself..

Preserving Perfection...

2009-08-16T10:33:00.005-04:00

Rhubarb.
Rhubarb is perfection.

I cleaned out and cleaned up the rhubarb
bed this week while I was home to the mountains.
There has been a lot of rain and the weeds
and rhubarb were out of hand.

See, all better.
And I decided to make preserves instead
of just freezing it this time.
The preserves last longer than the frozen.
I tend to eat too much if I turn
it into rhubarb cobbler.
With the preserves I can have a little on the biscuit
many times over.

Rhubarb is pretty stuff.
I chopped it and set it to cook down
I ended up having to use my
hand blender on this batch.
The stalks were a bit old and very stringy.
When I would stick the spoon in to stir
it would become entangled.
So, I made rhubarb goo instead.

I washed and sterilized the jars,
filled them and into my water bath canner.

I love my old water bath canner.
I think it is from the 40's.
I got it at the thrift store for $4!
Woo Hoo!!
I love the rack inside too.
It makes taking the jars in and out
so much easier.

Isn't that a lovely sight?

Sitting and cooling.

One didn't seal

and it lives in my fridge

ready to use.

I need to make biscuits.

The Simple Life...

2009-08-04T11:11:00.003-04:00

I keep coming across the phrase or description "The Simple Life'
in reference to lifestyle.
As in, 'I want to live the simple life'
or, "I want to get back to a simpler way of life.'

And I have decided that this bugs me... deeply.
So I did a wee bit of digging on the word 'simple'.

In many ways I suppose it is appropriate.
Meanings such as 'humble', 'unadorned' can fit I suppose,
as can 'unaffected'. When I catch my reflection
in the kitchen window in the evening
I fit some of those.
I am most definitely unadorned unless you
count a wisp of straw and streaks of dirt.
And I am unaffected in my dress and
hairstyle (or lack there of..the hairstyle, not the dress)
And my lifestyle is most definitely humble,
if you take that to mean
not having two coins to clink together.
So, I will concede to living a 'simple' lifestyle within those bounds.

But the rest of my life is certainly not 'simple'
when in the context of some other definitions.

'Not complicated, complex or compound' doesn't really fit the
farming, livestock and homesteading lifestyle at all.

Let's break it down, shall we?

"Not complicated"
My life is complicated.
I have weather, I have pests,
I have predators and I have illness.
Those are complications.
Any one of those things can bring a screeching
halt to the success of my lifestyle.
To my life, really.
Your average suburban, non farming bloke
can handle the weather etc...
without losing a winter's worth of food.
My job is here. Right here.
My payment is a stocked larder and some
scratch money from eggs and meat.
Ok.. so the scratch money goes right to the feed
store which goes right back into the whole
stocked larder and scratch money thing.
It is a complicated system.

Especially when you balance all that
in with the norms of daily life..
baking bread, running the house,
feeding the humans and finding time to do that.
Scheduling the day so that dinner is more or less
on the table before midnight,
making sure we aren't wearing rags of filth in public,
homework, bill paying, how many more loads
do I have before it is time to make more laundry soap
...blahblahblah.
And sometimes I find time to bathe.

"Not complex"
What!!???
I imagine it like a CEO of a business
with over one hundred employees.
But, unlike a CEO I have to be aware
of more than productivity.
I have to know how each employee should
act, look, eat, walk, sleep, breed etc..
I have to really KNOW my employees.
At a glance I must know if something is wrong and how
to remedy whatever that problem may be.
I have to decide if it is a life threatening condition
and how to address it.. successfully.
Every time.
And I have to provide all for those same workers.
Housing, water, food and entertainment.
And their safety. Their complete safety.
They must have a secure place to sleep safe from Death.
And I care for their children
in every way.
And that is just the animals.
The same goes for the garden.
I have to provide everything
and monitor everything everyday.
The same issues apply for observance and diagnosis.

And I have to be one step ahead all the time.
I must know what the weather will hold for today,
tomorrow and three months in the future.
And planning.. oh my!
When do I think the last frost date will be considering
how the weather is this year versus the last couple of years?
Do I have time to plant more of this or that?
How old are these?
Which day will the weather be right for butchering?
When should I breed them next?
What should I raise next year?
And how did the weather and growing conditions affect the outcome of each of these?
I must do constant analysis..
What grew best?
Which was the strongest at germination?
Who was the first to produce?
Ripen? Who was the most disease and pest free?
Who is laying and laying strongly?
Which cross breed grew out the fastest and had the best meat ratio?
This is all some complex shit.
Which counters some of the other words that popped up..
"ignorant' and 'unlearned'
Oh really??
I study constantly and in great, great depth
to make sure I have all of the knowledge
that is possible to gather in hopes that
I can be successful.
I will go head to head with any medical student
on hours spent with my head buried in a book
and in the volume and weight of notes taken every year.
Bring it on!

"Not compound"
is really just a conglomeration of the other two,
but still must be considered.
If I screw up on any two or more things
at any given time my pain will be compounded.
And it takes a sum of all of the parts to have any modicum of success.
All things in moderation and all things must be in balance.
None of the parts of my little world can survive singularly.
It is a complex and compound life.

A few other words popped up in my search of "simple'.
'Common'. No, my life is not common.
There was a time when it was common to have
people thinking and living this way. But not so much anymore.
The ease and convenience of technology has
made doing for self darn near obsolete.
But I also think of "common' as an insult,
as in not special which leads me to next word..
"Ordinary".
No, my life is not ordinary. I mean, it is to me because I do it everyday,
but ordinary in the context of what others around me do.. no.
I am one of only two people on my road that
have a garden. I am darn tooting the only
one who has the animals.
There are beef cattle across the road and a horse farm up a bit,
but not a homesteading, many faceted enterprise.
My kid is the only kid in school who does this
that I am aware of and I know a few adults who do.
Nope.. not ordinary.

And the last is the funniest to me..
"Inconsequential"
- of little or no importance-insignificant-trivial-irrelevant.
Hrrrmppphhh!!!
I find the work that I do to be very important
and significant and relevant. At least to me.
I would not do all of this crap,
oh! believe me I would not,
if it weren't all of those things.
The feeling of cooking food that I grew and
harvested with my own two hands,
the bite of a tomato still warm from the sun and
the deep pleasure at each and every egg I put in that basket
is what keeps me doing it.
The knowledge that I can provide fresh, good, healthy veggies
and meat for my loved ones
(and the nice people who are willing to pay me to do it for them)
fills me up.
I could and probably should have a job.
And many, many, many, many days
I am stricken with guilt and shame for staying
home all day everyday and playing while my
Sweet Husband struggles to provide monetary
sustenance for us to keep us alive and under roof.
But, he is willing to let me stay and I try to work hard.
And I try to provide my share and it is most definitely relevant.

Oh, hang on.. someone is coming NOW to buy some
chicks and I have to run and make sure the barn looks decent!.....
Ok.. I am back and $40 richer than when I left. Yippee!!
Now, where was I???
Ummm.. simple, relevance.. ahh.

But, to me, my life is simple. I know, I know..
negating my own arguments..
but it seems/feels simple to me because it is what I am good at,
it is what I do.
It is like breathing air.
I can walk into my barn and know in a split
second if something has changed.
I can tell by the sound or the quiet, the motion or the stillness.
I know my barn.
I know the different sound qualities of my dogs' barks.
I know if it is animal or human intereference.
I know how fast to head out the back door.
I know if my plants are dry or if they need magnesium..at a glance.
I know from the chew marks what ate my tomato leaves during the night.
I know how to find the time to knead and rise bread
and have it ready for dinner
and I know how much butter to make how many biscuits
and how the dough should feel in my fingers.
I do not measure.
This life to me is simple because it is mine
and what I was meant to do. I simply can and do.

And I wouldn't trade unless I absolutely had to.
The thought of 9-5ing it with afterschool care
and pantyhose and shopping after work
and hair products and makeup
and all that hell makes me feel sick inside. Sick.
And what do the folks that live that way look forward to?
What keeps them going?
For me, I love the constant change.
I look forward to fall and harvest, then putting the garden to bed.
I look forward to apple butter season
and the spiced smell of woodsmoke filling the yard.
I look forward to garden catalogs
and garden bed prep and spring planting
and the first warm days.
I look forward to the summer heat
and the first tomato and hatching time.
There is always something new right around the corner-
new and an old and familiar all at the same time.
I know what to do and what to expect,
but it is different than what I did last week.

If I was 9-5ing it, what would keep me getting out of bed in the morning?
Certainly not the expectation of the constant whir that is farm life.

Yep.. my life is simple
and complex
and complicated
and relevant
and vital
and mine.

Summer Doldrums...

2009-07-29T21:38:00.002-04:00

I am still alive.
And I apologize for being silent and leaving you all in the lurch.
There has not been too much going on around here
and I have the summer dumps anyway.
The dumps are a mixture of being tired from hard work
and being bored from hard work and heat.
But, the turkeys are growing
and the other birds are fine and dandy.

This poor little fella is a Silkie that one of my
broody Silkies hatched out. We weren't set up for a broody hen and chick
and just didn't want to fight her about it..
so, we brought it in and gave it a giraffe to be it's mother.
I had chicks hatching in a day or two,
so it has chicken company now.
But isn't it too cute anyway?

There have been barn chores,
garden chores,
house chores.
My favorite and only feedstore is struggling right now too.
Purina upped it's minimum order to 5 tons
and my fellas cannot afford to buy feed anymore.
I called Purina and spoke to them; both national and regional.
The stiff shirts (even women can be stiff shirts) don't even have animals
and just don't understand how deeply connected a farmer
can be to the local feedstore. I love my feedstore guys.
I can be found leaning against the counter, drinking coffee and shootin the shit
at least twice a week.
I have looked around for an alternate provider for the feedstore
and one for me. I have had to drive to the next county for feed.
I hate big corporations and their distant cold heartedness.

I did some rabbit butchering today
and I promise to post pics tomorrow.

They Are Outside!!!

2009-06-21T18:26:00.003-04:00

Today was the day!
The lambs are OUTSIDE!!!
Woo Hoo!!
Sweet Husband and I hacked, chopped and mowed
a fenceline through the weeds and tall grass
and put up the electronet there, plugged it in
and viola! A fenced pasture.
I walked them out to the shaking of
the grain bucket and they are happily munching away.
It was a long walk of 250 feet
past very loud and active chickens,
but they did great.
Of course, I have to worry about getting
them back in again. But for now..
They are OUT!!!

Ok.. they went back inside the barn too!
Not one bit of trouble at all.
Happily trotted behind me into their
stall where they were rewarded with a pan of
mixed grains.
I bet they will sleep well with very full tummies tonight.
I am so very happy!

Down Home in June

2009-06-20T21:04:00.003-04:00

The world is lush and green
from all of the rain. Enjoy it now..
in August the yard is usually brown and crispy.
Above you will see a tiny segment of
the Barn.
I love our barn... today.
Some days I hate our barn
10,000 square feet of barn is a lot of barn.
Yep.. I said it.. 10,000 square feet.
250 ft long by almost 50 ft wide.
Wow. I still can't believe it.

My Great Grandfather's bee balm is starting to get
it's bloom on. I wish the computer came with
a smell function so that you all could experience
the musky, heady and deep fragrance.
It is wonderful.

And critters!!!
The ducks are getting huge
and so are the turkeys.
They move together in a strange flock
along with a varied group of chicks.
Oh, speaking of which I have to run out and herd
them inside. They stay out too late now that the days
are so very hot and the evenings are pleasant.
They wait until the shed is too dark and they are scared to go in...
silly fowl. Be right back....
It is so annoying to have to hunt the little clumps of
birds that are snuggled down in various parts
of the yard and herd them all into the potting shed.
And it is not like they huddle next to stuff.
They just pick a spot in the lawn and lie down
all together. I hope I got them all....
Sometime in the next few days we are doing
the Big Summer Chicken Shift.
We will suspend our breeding program,
put all of the hens together and pull out the roos.
That way all the girls can be out all of the time.
We will also separate all of the wee ones into
'sell and keep' pens.
The turkeys will all go together and the ducks
will go somewhere....
I bought the Premier One poultry netting stuff..
what crap.
It bags and sags and won't even stop a duck.
Forget about it stopping a dog or anything else.
I am sorely disappointed and out a lot of money too.
I will try to find a way to make it functional
since I own it now. But, I do not reccomend the stuff.

Though I have got to say

I love having the ducks and turkeys roaming around.

They are not destructive like chickens

and they are pretty to look at and eat a ton of bugs!

Those turkeys just snap flies right out of the air and

strip bugs right off of blades of grass. It is awesome.

And no scratching or digging.

I jokingly speak of getting rid of all of my chickens

and just going for turkeys and ducks.

I do believe that we will sell down the chickens a bit and we will definitely increase our

turkey and duck population, but I can't totally get rid of all chickens.

However, I did get rid of a bunch last week.

I butchered a group and sold several groups. Cool.

Birds off the payroll (feedroll, really)

Aaah. Turkeys. What's not to love?

And the lambs are still in the barn.
But, we are getting closer to pasture day.
As it stands I hand cut pasture and bring it to them twice a day.
They are not as skittish and I can touch them.
They have FINALLY agreed to eat some grain
and act excited about it. I practice getting them to follow me
and the grain tub.
I am so terrified of herding them out of the big, long barn
and having them bolt right through/over the electric fence
and just be gone forever. That would suck. Hard.
So, I keep working them and waiting for the great day.
I like the lambs though and get satisfaction at how far they have come.
They almost like being touched now and will lean into the skritches.

In Response...

2009-06-10T20:29:00.003-04:00

I am not computer savvy and I do not know how to link up my 'comments', but this is in response to a recent comment about the snake that ate a duck.
An anonymous poster was upset because I had killed the snake and showed concern about the future of wildlife in reference to occasional farm necessity.

If you read carefully you will see that we released 6 small snakes onto our property last year.
That is 6 new snakes.
You will also note that last year I rehomed a very large snake that was eating my eggs.
I carefully captured and moved him to a new location.

Of course, the rehoming of snakes is really just a delayed death as most snakes, no matter the size, do not survive being plonked down into a new territory. It may do fine. It may lose the confrontation with the in-resident snake. It may win the confrontation which would result in the death of the in-resident snake.

I killed the snake because it was eating my expensive livestock. Not the myriad of mice, chipmunks, voles and rats that abound here.
I killed the snake becaue it was taking food from my table and taking money from my pocket.
I killed the snake because it overdid and was not going to be able to digest that meal most likely.
It was already trapped within the pen when I got to it. It had overeaten to the point that it was no longer able to function properly and find safety.

We practice sustainable farming practices. And in doing so we actively sustain ALL life on the farm. ALL life is needed to have a healthy, balanced system.
We have no traps for rodents except for in the house because I just will not have droppings in my silverware drawer. Can't blame me there.
We do not poison insects here. All are welcome in the garden and the good balances the bad... except for squash bugs and they just win. I have the ducks for that, I hope.
But, just as in any healthy system, there is death when the balance is disturbed. A snake of that size is just a hazard and there needs to be corrections made.

I am not thrilled about killing the snake, but it happens.
And I look forward to those 6 little guys growing up healthy and happy here on our little space.

To all readers: I love comments, even ones that are unhappy at me. If there is confusion, I will do my best to clear the waters. I have put myself out here into the world and have no expectations of pleasing everyone all of the time.
Please continue to comment and thank you for reading about my life and experiences.
I do enjoy sharing with you all... my family gets sick of listening to me :)

Lambs!!

2009-06-08T11:36:00.002-04:00

Yippee! for me!

I have achieved lambs.

I have two Katahdin ram lambs.

And I met a wonderful shepherd

with great herding dogs.

I spent several hours working

the herd with him to get these two.

It was a great evening and I thrilled to

watch his dogs work.

I hope to go back one day and I

have pre-ordered some chocolate ewes

from next spring's lambing.

We shall see how this goes.

It will be our first time with sheep.

As a zookeeper in my earlier life

I am more accustomed to African

hoofstock than to domesticated

farm critters.

These boys are going to cut the grass

and then they will fill the freezer!

Lamb stew and herbed bread

on a cold winter's day.

I can't wait.

Oh and the ducks are growing

up quickly. We need to

drag over the bathtub so their pool

can be bigger. They are outgrowing this.

They still demand to stay in the potting

shed at night, so I must herd them back and forth

everyday. But they herd very easily..

much, much easier than chickens, so

it is not much of a problem. I actually enjoy

herding them.. they are so funny to watch

and are so happy when they reach their destination.

Turkeys love bossoms!

2009-06-04T22:42:00.002-04:00

My turkeys hatched the other day.

I have feed store turkey poults,

but these are the first from my incubator.

Apparently they imprint on a person.

Even now they stand and call me..

bee bee boo... bee bee boo... bee bee boo.

They will all rush to try to huddle under my palm

if I stick my hand in the brooder

and ho, the joy!!, if I pull them out

and give them the boob.

I wrap my arms around them and

lay my head on my arms and I have

7 little bodies just trying to snuggle closer.

Eyes close. Bodies droop. And little pink

legs go all akimbo.

And I softly say,' hi turkey'

which has the same three notes

that they call and they all say... bee bee booo

softly back and snuggle deeper.

I love my food.

HEY MA!

SHUT THE DAMN DOOR!!

oh and there are some Polish in there too.
I hatched those for other folks.
They do not compare to poults
who love their mommy.

ok. So I just had to go grab the

runt that wouldn't hush up.

So now I type with a turkey tucked into shirt.

At least it shut up.

And we had a mini tragedy today.

About 2 months ago we hatched a freaky little chick.

It never grew. Ever.

2 months old and exactly the size of an egg.

It never grew feathers. Just a teeny tiny chicken

that was a perpetual chick.

It was doing fine though and hanging with the bigger chicks.

Yes, I did put a little pile of food down on the ground for it as the feeder,

which is all of an inch high, was too high for it sometimes.

But today the teeny tiny chick's step didn't get put down

and the chick couldn' t hop up onto the brick and get

into the potting shed and out of the rain.

It got wet and chilled and that was too much for it.

RIP teeny tiny chicken.

We grieve for the little chick. It was so freaky and such a trooper.

Shame.

And we are having duck issues.

I have ten left.

The snake ate one and I sold 7

and have 4 more to sell off.

But they have a great new pen.

It's huge. It's fancy. It is filled with lush green-ness and a little swimming spot too.

Ducky paradise.

True, during the day.

But as the sun falls the ducks want back into the potting shed.

And every night they squeeze out of the electronet.. well, most of them do.

There is one that is just a bit too big to make it through.

And so, there it sits, stuck in an electric fence.

I am going to sell that one. It is going to end up fried in the head.

Stupid, cute ducks.

We are studying and figuring and thinking about how to deal with the escaping ducks.

It is an annoying problem.

Damn Thing Ate A Duck!

2009-05-30T20:55:00.002-04:00

So, I was walking past the pen

outside of the potting shed yesterday.

In that pen are about 80 chicks, 3 turkeys

and my precious, precious ducklings.

Ducklings grow very very fast.

Along the edge of the back of the pen

something caught my eye.

I took several steps backwards

and looked again.

It was a snake.

I went to look closer and saw the huge

bulge that denoted a digesting meal.

I counted the turkeys.

I counted the ducks..

I came up short.

I looked in the potting shed

to see if I had missed one.

I counted the ducks again.

And again.

Damn

Damn!

I killed it.

I killed it hard.

Then I gave it to Simon to play with.

What 6 yo boy doesn't LOVE a snake toy?

(and I may have snuck up on him with it first)

The lump you see is the duck.

The snake had gotten into

the pen and, upon eating the duck,

was too big around to exit again.

HA!

I am still amazed the snake could swallow it.

If I held it up to the top of

my head, the tail would kiss the floor.

I am 5'5. That is a good sized snake.

I usually bag and rehome the non venomous snakes.

But it ate my duck

and I lost my temper.

And I don't care.

My New Logo!!!

2009-05-26T16:46:00.003-04:00

It is soooo cool, no?
I love it.
And the nice lady did
one for our produce too.

I love, love, love, love them!!

When she has updated her website

I will have links available if

you guys want to have new farm logos too!

Very, very reasonable or I wouldn't have

been able to get them done at all.

Let me know if you love them too!!!

Oh and we walked through the house that

goes with the wonderful gardens.

Wow!

Termites have eaten everything that is not brick,

even to the point that in the downstairs hallway

I had to cling to the wall like Spiderman

inching along a tiny ledge of flooring that

was more or less secure.

The rest of the floor slanted away

and down, down, down.

The place would have to be gutted completely and redone.

Bummer.

And he still wants more than we could afford

especially since we would have to rebuild it

completely on the inside.

Of course, it would be worth a fortune

when we were done.

Sigh.

But we are still looking into it

and I do have permission to

be in the gardens anytime that I want.

That is better than nothing!!!

Weekend Back Home..

2009-05-26T08:45:00.004-04:00

I spent the weekend
back home in the mountains
of Western North Carolina.
And it was glorious.
The nights were cool and the days
were kissed with a cool breeze
though the sun was high
and the skies blue.
There were some showers
in the evenings and first thing
in the morning,
but that is the way
it should be.

Before the cloud..
Cloud is coming on...

In the cloud...

And the hanging mist

that gives the Smokey Mountains

their name..

While I was there I set a garden

for my relatives and harvested

some of the produce

that was ready to go.

Nothing, and I mean nothing,

beats rhubarb for sheer perfection.

I have a freezer full

and didn't make a dent in the

rhubarb patch.

And the blackberries are in full
and glorious bloom.
Come August that there will be some good eating.

Ducks, Turkeys and Chicks..Oh My.

2009-05-18T09:37:00.004-04:00

I have achieved Duckdom!

I don't like ducks, as a rule

but I am loving these ducks.

OMG! So cute!

I can't stand it!

The way they walk.

The way they swim.

The way they shake and twitch off the water.

Here you can see the set up in the potting shed.

There is a plastic pan with bread pans in it.

I won't be making meatloaf tonight.

There are stepping stones for ease of egress.

They are bedded on PINE NEEDLES!!

I am telling you.. brooding on Pine needles

is where it's at.

The hanging brooder light quickly dries

the pine needles, leaving the ducks with a dry

place to be.

The ducks are sharing the potting shed with chicks

and turkey poults.

There is a low divider wall with

steps on each side.

So, the other birds come to

stare openly at the ducks.

They stand in amazement

as the ducks swim and dunk and splash.

And thogh the ducks are but 5 days old now,

they fiercely attack the interlopers.

Kind of funny really to see little ducks

with rounded bills beating down

a big ol turkey poult.

I really don't think they

can hurt them, but they sure do try!

As more time goes by the ducks are

mellowing out and the battles are less intense.

But damn funny.

And here is the general population
side of the potting shed..there are over 100 chicks
in there. Wow! But all should be sold in
a few days.. all except the ones that hatched out
of those lovely dark eggs.... mineminemine!

The Secret Garden..

2009-05-14T09:03:00.005-04:00

Well.. before you even look
let it be known that it is too rich for our blood.
Heartbreaking really.
However, we may still meet with the late owner's son
and look inside and see what is what.

I did find out about the lady who built the gardens
and orchards. Her name was Vivianne
and it was her life's work.
I really wish I could be the caretaker
of such a magnificent place.

I found a secret paradise.
It is for sale.
We are thinking about it.
It must have been owned
by a master gardener...

The 'second' house

from the side.

It has three rooms.

I don't know what is was...

One of the many hidden garden rooms.

There are paths that lead to these...

One of the many outbuildings

Just one small corner of the pasture

The orchard.

It is fenced in with 10+ apples

cherries, peaches, grapes.

There are figs on the propery too.

The biggest pecan tree.

There are many of these on the place

and many trees I don't recognize too.

One of the paths..

this one with roses.

Another hidden garden...

And all of the buildings are full of stuff..

useful, useful stuff.

And the house appears to be furnished.

I will keep you posted.
though I seriously doubt this will happen.
I hope someone gets it that will love it.
It has been empty and alone for quite awhile.

Nothing in particular..

2009-05-08T10:01:00.008-04:00

I'll start with what Sweet Husband
brought me in bed this morning.
Can we get an 'aaaaawwwwwwwwwww'!!
I mean really.. how cute is that?
and what a nice way to wake up.

It has been raining alot lately.
I have a boy child.
I do laundry.
I clean the tub.

I have a turkey!
And I have many more in the incubator too.
This one is a Spanish Black...I hope! I hope!
Everyone has the favorite critter, their dream critter..
a Spanish Black is it for me..
google it and be in awe!

Of course I also have 70 chicks in my laundry room,
more in the incubator and more on the way via
shipped eggs.. help.

And we have a peach tree!!

This was a twig sticking out of the ground when we bought

the place. We have mowed it down continously

every summer since then.

This year it got big enough that we could see what it was.

Woo Hoo.. a peach tree and it just happens

to be in the perfect spot too!! What a trooper.

Blooming coriander.
Also known as cilantro.
One of my favorite flowering plants in the garden.
It brings in beneficial insects by the droves.
Especially the wasp that lays eggs on
the tomato hornworm.
Last year I bet I found less than 20 all total
on my tomato plants.. go coriander.

Bumble on comfrey.

I have a story.

It does not cast me in a good light

and it is a painful tale.

Last year while weeding a garden..

son: ' Mom, you are sitting on a bee."

me: 'Son, if I was sitting on a bee I think I would know it."

son: 'Mom! You are sitting on a bee!"

So muttering about my crazy child I stand up to prove him wrong.

What do you know? I was sitting on a bee. A bumblebee.

That was promptly trapped deep between my ample cheeks.

It stung me most fiercely to show its displeasure.

I am here to tell you.. if you have never been stung

in your holiest of holies, your nether regions.. you just don't

know how spectacular pain can be.

son: 'I TOLD you you were sitting on a bee'

and walks away shaking his head in disgust

at my stubborness.

The jumping. The spreading of the cheeks.

The screaming. The cursing. Not pretty.

The ow-iness. The itching..oh, the itching...

Don't sit on bumble bees.

I have a deep respect for the humble bumble now.

And the strawberries are starting to blush!!

Old Blue Sue..

2009-05-02T15:44:00.003-04:00

I had a call for an Old Blue Sue update.

Well, here she is! And guess what...

She is half Beagle!

Or that is our nearest guess.

Her tail is a beagle-type tail that bends over her back

with the white tip.

And when she runs in the woods it is with

nose down and in a zigzag pattern.

She has topped out so far at only 23 pounds

and is very short and long.

We are a bit bummed

as we were hoping for a bigger dog.

And she has hit the teenage years and is a chick killer.

Not to worry though.

I have hopes that this is not that big of a deal.

When I catch her at it and give the command to "leave it"

she happily trots over to me and sits down.

And she doesn't bother the big birds.

We are getting her a shock collar

and hope that after a very brief number

of corrections she can be off her lead

if the little birds are out.

She listens to me just fine,

but won't listen to Sweet Husband

for anything. In fact, she gets really

extra bad when he is around.

We need to work on that.

She was nuetered this week

as it is that time. No troubles at all.

I need to work her more and spend more time with her

now that my back is better.

She is a lovely girl and very happy

and very good...for me.

Just another week on the farm..

2009-05-02T11:45:00.008-04:00

We got some apple trees!
My mother asked me what I wanted for Christmas
and like any good farmer/homesteader, I said
"Apple trees!!"
And now here they are!
Granny Smith, Wolf River, Gala,
Arkansas Black and Early June!
I have set it up so that we have apples ALL the year long!
First.. Early June for eating and pies, then
Gala for snacking,
then Wolf River for apple butter
followed by Granny Smith for more apple butter
(because there is NO such thing as too much apple butter)
and Arkansas Black to store away
and last until the Early June bears again!

We are planting the Gala and Wolf River
on the south side of the house
to shade the house in the summer
and the others to shade the barn .
All are full size, around 30 ft,
except for the Gala and Granny Smith,
which are my two pollinators.
We are thrilled!

And here are some blooming type things...

A Walking Onion. This ball will fill with little onions and droop over
to the ground and new onion plants will come up.

A Buttercup.. a pretty noxious weed.
A Snowball bush.

My beautiful, gorgeous, oh, so helpful Comfrey bed!

Great as animal feed. Great in the compost,

especially if you ferment it first.

Great as an ointment or balm for booboos!

Nothing heals faster.

We swear by it and I use it on humans and critters alike.

Perhaps I will make a batch with you all this year.

The Lemon Balm is just starting to come out.
It will be a monster in about a month!
I use it on my arms and face and put a sprig
in my hat to keep away bugs when I am in the garden.

And in addition to the apple trees we have some more newcomers on the way.
I have ordered some heritage breed turkey eggs
and they will be here today or Monday.
I have Narraganset, Bourbon Reds and Blue Slates on the way.
This should be an adventure and I will share it all with you.
Yep... it will be interesting.
Thanksgiving, anyone??

And I have Cayuga Ducks on the way as well.
Perhaps they will be willing to eat
the pillbugs that plague me.
The chickens aren't interested.
And I hear tell that the ducks will follow me
into garden and work by my side.
They even pick the mosquitos off of your arms and legs.
Again, this will be an adventure. I don't like ducks.
But if we don't get along.. I'll eat them.
They will be the responsibility of Simon.
He is 6 and has been wanting some livestock of his very own.

And this is me - as seen in the garden ball that doesn't scare away the birds...

Oh, and I forgot to mention that we have 80 more

chicks hatching on Monday. Sigh

First one of the year...

2009-04-24T20:57:00.002-04:00

Oh, I saw the first lightning bug tonight!!
It signals to me the beginning of the best time of the early summer.
Days are warm (though today was almost 90) and the nights are
still cool and breezy.
It brings to mind childhood pleasures and memories of good times.
Sitting by the fire alongside the river watching the fireflies and dodging the smoke.
And I must share the story of the magic holler.
The last place we lived in the mountains was the home of fireflies.
We lived on a rise above a flood plain of a creek. Another low ridge was across the road and across the field. In that low place on a summer night gathered thousands upon thousands of fireflies. They would start the evening down in the pasture along the creekside. The ground
glowed and twinkled until well after dark. It was if you could step across it and your feet would
glow and the light would almost splash beneath your toes.
As the evening went on the fireflies would move further up the ridges on either side of the holler
and settle in the trees.
To look out across the field and up to the ridge top was like being in a huge arena with thousands of flashbulbs flashing all around you. They would continue that deep into the night accompanied, during breeding season, by 4 or 5 Great horned Owls hooting from ridgetop to ridgetop... an eerie, mournful chorus.
And the crickets kept a steady hum and scree the whole evening and in the late summer
they would be drowned out by the cacophony of cicadas.
And all the time the burble and song of the creek that ran behind and beside the house and the frogs and toads that croaked mellowed the heart and calmed the soul with cool murmurs.
What a perfect way to spend the evening, sitting in the yard being washed from head to toe in a cool mountain breeze while all of nature gave a show.

Great. Now I am homesick.

Help!! I am overrun!!!

2009-04-23T17:26:00.003-04:00

I have just been hatching, hatching, hatching.
And the Sweet Husband just keeps putting more eggs in!
I hope I can sell all of these little darlings!
Anyone need some pretty chicks from great stock?

I am loving the ear tufts on the Ameracaunas. It just doesn't get any cuter than this.

I seriously wish I could keep old "Spot" here. I will never know what it will look

like as an adult.

And this here is a Langshan chick.. I think Langshan mix actaully as the toes are two-toned black and white. Cute though.

So, my time is spent as a complete slave to the incubators and the chicks.

Making sure that every one is eating and drinking, not too hot and not too cold.

Raise the light, lower the light. Fill the waterer, fill the feeder. Boil some eggs, mash some eggs.

I am not going to get a tan this way. Nope.

But they are really pretty. I just love them and I have about 60 more too

and the incubator is full up. Oh my.

Opulent Ova!

2009-04-15T21:21:00.005-04:00

Aren't they just the prettiest things...?

Like Easter bunny droppings of the sweetest chocolate.

And they will hatch into lovely Marans chickens

Black Coppers and Splashes and Black....oh yippee!!!

I got these gorgeous things from a friend

http://pattycarson.com/poultry.html

so, if you are tempted beyond your ability to control

check her out and you too could be as happy as me!!

I am ecstatic, by the way. Like a kid at Christmas.

Thanks, Patty!

I fixed the link!!! It works correctly! My bad.

Moving a Drunken Pig...

2009-04-10T10:18:00.004-04:00

No. That is not a typo.
I did say, "a drunken pig'.
Now, you may think that moving a pig that
is a sheet or two to the wind is a
bad idea and I can see where you may think that,
but moving a stone cold sober pig really
is much worse.
The time finally came to move PigPig
out of the barn and out to greener pastures.
Of course we waited until dark to do it.
Not intentionally, but time does slip away.

How does one move a pig anyway.
This took some thought. But Sweet Husband had it all
under control...... yeah. ok.
The plan involved feeding treats to the pig
and then slipping a rope around him and then a
come-a-long band under the armpits etc....
Nope.
Now, PigPig is a sweet pig, given to wanting belly rubs
and scritches when ever he can get them.
But PigPig just didn't get that we were trying to do him a great favor.

After half and hour or so of teaching all the barn
animals some new and colorful words Sweet Husband
realized that the plan needed some tweaking.
So, on to Plan B... slipping a rope around PigPig's back feet.
Plan B was no more effective than Plan A and the chickens
learned some more new and colorful words.
Now, at this point I need to describe the scene.
A big double stall just absolutely filled with pig filth
and several gallons of water in various puddles throughout.
Can you smell me now?
Take a moment and think about trying to capture
and unwilling 100 lb. unaltered boar in such conditions.
Now you get where Sweet Husband was coming from on this.
Plan C- Beer.
We stood and scratched and thought until we lit
upon the notion that softening up ol PigPig
would be advantageous.
So off I trotted to the fridge for a beer.
Three beers in we figured we were ready to give it all another go.

That was one beer too many.

And with the spoken prayer that the normally sweet
and docile PigPig was not a mean drunk,
off Sweet Husband went again into the fray.
What he found was a drunken pig.
Drunk pigs can scream, let me tell you.
What the neighbors must have thought we were doing, I cannot imagine.
So, on the rope went.. under the armpit and around the belly by the haunches.
It looked great, it was a sturdy get up. Pig on a rope. Nope.

PigPig was both unwilling to go and somewhat unable to go.
So, up went the back legs a la a wheelbarrow. Nope. Too heavy
and too short. Sweet Husband was killing himself. He made it about 50
feet down the barn before calling it quits.
So, there he stood with a screaming pig on a rope.
He called for the wagon. The little RadioFlyer that we use
for firewood etc... and off I go to fetch it.
PigPig is failing on his attempts to stand now.
Seriously drunken pig.
Up goes the pig into the wagon. This is a big pig
on a very small wagon. I had point with Sweet Husband
bringing up the rear and keeping the drunk on board.
Down we go through the barn and down the slope
and across the old pig lot... did I mention that it is pitch
dark at this point?
After a few stops to reposition the pig onto his haunches
and to giggle uncontrollably at what PigPig must think...
what with being good and wrecked for the first time
and on a wagon ride and all, we made it to the destination.
We did feel a bit bad about PigPig's coming morning.
We figured it wouldn't be pretty, what with waking up with
little or no clear memory on how he got there
other than a few snatches about a wagon
and floating on air.
Three beers is a hard road your first time out. gigglesnort

Pig love. Aaawwwwwww. Ain't it sweet?

And the small transport vehicle.

The end.

More on nettles...

2009-04-02T10:27:00.004-04:00

Martian Chick, one of my followers, my sweet beloved followers
mentioned that she liked raw veggies and greens.
I am here to say that you can eat nettles raw/uncooked.
I do it all the time.
I like them in salads and on sandwiches and burgers.
And they are really good on homemade pizza.

I just pick them and let them wilt for awhile.
I usually stick them in a baggie in the fridge until I am ready to eat them.
They have a mild flavor and they taste very green.

I also dry them for a tea that is unbelievably good for you.
I pick them and lay them out in the shade on a sheet or on a screen.
I am lucky enough to have plenty of screens from old storm doors lying around
and use them to dry most of my herbs that don't get hung to dry.
I don't dry them in the sun for the leaves are very papery
and would dry to quickly.
I fluff them periodically until they are paper dry.
Then I crush them up and remove the stiffest of the stems.
They diffuse into tea better when crushed
rather than when you use the whole leaves.
I store mine in mason jars, but I make sure that they are
very, very, very, very dry first.
You can also store them in paper bags.

I use the tea as a drink. I mix with cranberry juice. yum.
And I use the tea on my hair and skin.
Nettle tea for your hair is great.
Stops dandruff and leaves your hair shiny, thick, full and healthy.
It was THE remedy for baldness for ages.
I just pour a cup of it over my head after I shampoo.
Don't rinse out. You can also work into your scalp when
your hair is dry. That is a great trick to get rid of the dry,
crackly, 'I heat with a woodstove' look that winter can give.

I use it on my face after I wash. It is like a vitamin infusion
for your skin. My skin looks fresh and healthy and moisture rich
which is good as I tend to have paper thin, dry skin.

To make the tea I take a good pinch of the dried nettles
and put them in my tea ball. I do a quart jar at a time.
I hang the ball chain over the side and screw down the lid
to keep the essential oils from escaping in the steam.
I leave it overnight usually.
Having a tea ball is a new and wondrous thing for me.
I have only had it for a few months.
Before that I would just toss a pinch into the jar
and then strain the leaves.
The tea ball is much better.

And don't toss your dregs. Put them in the compost!!
Like comfrey, nettles are great for your compost and for your plants.
Sometimes I use the tea in a sprayer to give my plants a quick mineral boost.
I also ferment my dregs and stems (like the ones from last night's meal)
in a quart jar. Ewwww after a week or two, but very good for the garden.
I use it on my seedlings.

And nettles are good for livestock. Back in the day
they would feed crushed, dried nettles to horses before
they sold them to improve the gloss and condition of the horses'
coats so they could demand a higher price.
It is said that nettles (again, crushed and dried) mixed
into chicken feed can make a dead hen lay an egg.
It is great for the lactation support of milking animals
like cows and goats... and nursing moms as well.
It is the high mineral content that does it. We really don't get
enough minerals in our diet anymore. And nursing babies
just rips it out of you... more than anything else.

And while I am on my nettle soapbox I will share another tidbit.
Nettles make great fiber!
Again, back in the day nettles were used for cloth
and rope. The fibers in full grown nettles are very long.
Healthy nettles in rich, moist soil and good sun can
reach 7 feet tall. I have never seen one that tall, but they say it can happen.
You rett the nettles by rotting the stalks until the meat
falls away. You can do it in an old bathtub or in a still part
of the creek.
The woven cloth from nettles is said the be softer than silk
and can be made to be stronger than canvas.
Now that is saying something!
Nettles make a high quality paper too.
One day. One day I will rett some and see what I can do.
I am not familiar with all of the process that go into
making cloth, but I can make paper.
We shall see.
I would truly love to just have a nettle farm.
But until the word gets out about nettles
I think I would just be sitting on a lot of product.

I hope that this has opened some eyes
about the wonders of stinging nettles.
So, next time you are walking the creek bed, take a look.
Best to pick them for eating when young and tender.
Just pick the tops and they can produce for you all summer.
In the fall I go through and gather large quantities
for drying to use through the winter.

But if you are harvesting wild please remember to pick one and leave three.
Let me know if any of you give nettles a whirl and like it.
If you don't like them...shhhhhhhh.

Nettle Soup..

2009-04-01T21:03:00.004-04:00

Though technically the nettles
weren't quite big enough....
I couldn't take it anymore.
And I had fears that I would have to wait even longer
for it was pouring rain all this morning.
But the sun came out and gave me a lovely afternoon.

You see above the nettle gear.
-Good gardening gloves.
These have rubber-like palms and fingers.
-Sharp scissors.
-A bowl (or a 13 gal garbage bag if you are really harvesting)
-Beautiful, succulent nettles.
Careful. Careful.
For the nettles do bite sharply and the feeling lasts
like a good kiss.
Except the nettles sting and burn and tingle
most unpleasantly.
Pick just the top few leaves.

As soon as they are picked they begin to wilt
and the sting leaves them.
Apparently after a good rain and while very young
and strong, the sting lasts a bit longer.
Ask my left thumb pad how I know. ow

My Nettle Soup

-onion
-butter
-chicken stock
-potatoes
-nettles
-savory
-salt
-milk or cream

-Put a hunk of butter into your pot to melt.
-Roughly chop one onion and sweat in the butter
until translucent.
-While that is going peel and chop your potatoes
and cook them in the microwave or another pot.
(leftover baked potatoes are perfect for this)
-Add your stock to the onions.
-Trim the nettles' stems and roughly cut the leaves.
I use scissors for this and hold the nettles by the leaves
and cut away the stems and let them fall.
-Add cooked potatoes into your pot.
After they cook a bit I use the masher to crush them into the soup.
-Add nettles, a pinch of savory.
On salt... if your stock is salty, add to taste. I don't like
salt very much and only add it if absolutely necessary.
-Let simmer for as long as you like, stirring occasionally
to keep the potatoes from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
-Turn off heat and let sit a bit, then add milk or cream to taste.

It is very good and very good for you.
Nettles are full of minerals and calcium and chlorophyl.
They really are one of the healthiest things you can eat.

I served the soup with a spinach salad
and fresh baked herb bread.
(please, please forgive the obvious
bread machine bread.. I was busy.
Oh lord.. I feel like such a 'not-a-woman'
for stooping to the use of a bread machine.
But sometimes...sometimes dang it all
I don't wanna knead bread!)
Dinner was great tonight!!! I mean, really, really good.

And on an unrelated topic.. check it out..

Those gossamer threads on my holly shrubs are just covered with teeny, tiny baby spiders!

Go Charlotte's Kids!

RATS!!

2009-03-25T10:43:00.002-04:00

Rats!!

I have rats!

At first I thought the warren of holes

under my butterfly bush was home to voles.

Voles are bad enough and the scourge of my garden

(right up there with pill bugs)

Last year the voles ate my brocoli roots just

as the heads were forming.

It looked like beavers, very small beavers,

had gotten into the garden.

But as I watched a heinie head back down

one of these many, many holes I realized

that it was a much bigger heinie than

what you would expect to find on a vole.

I was left with the conclusion that I have a warren of rats.

And right by the entrance to the garden too.

Under the butterfly bush there is

an ancient, underground stump.

And from this stumps the roots go ever onward.

The rats have dug their little highways along

the roots and can go anywhere in the yard they want

undisturbed and unmolested.

So... what to do?

My yard is full of holes like this one.

I cannot place poison, for the dogs

would eat the weakened vermin.

I cannot place traps for the dogs would

eat the bait and get their noses slammed.

I think I will have to plug as many of the holes

as I can and use exhaust fumes to drive

them staggering from the depths

of Rat City Underground and

into the path of my shovel's head.

Yeah. I know. Not the nicest

thing to do, but they are RATS!!!

Ugggh!

I know I have them in the barn,

but we put in 6 little King snakes last year

and they should begin removing

the little rat and mice babies as soon as it warms up.

And I have noticed a black and white cat

around the barn and I assume that the nice

kitty is helping me as well.

Other than the crushing realization

that I have rats in my yard that are flourishing,

nothing really new is shaking around here.

Though it is Spring there has been no

garden work done.

I have thrown my back once again

and am on garden restriction!

Egad!

This is the second Spring I have had to sit out.

Imagine it....

not being able to get out in your garden

when it is 75 outside and the sky is blue

and the weeds are emerging.

Horrifying thought, no?

And when I am able to get out

Sweet Husband (tyrannical, hateful bastard)

has made me buy and promise-pinky swear

to use an egg timer! I get thirty minutes!

And when the timer goes ding, I must put down the hoe

and step away from the row and come inside.

Thirty minutes!!?

I am a marathon gardener.

I work until the job is done!

I do not eat.

I do not drink.

I do not pee...

until the job is complete.

Limiting myself to a mere thirty minutes may just kill me.

Of course you realize that the marathon,

9 hours straight gardening orgy is what

has done in my back once again.

But that is logical and sensible reasoning

and BAH!, says I.

So, I sit sucking down herbal
muscle relaxers and stare out at the weeds
that giggle and shake as they spread their
leafy green selves across my garden plots.
I did weed the comfrey patch the other day
and got Busted.
"What Do You Think You Are Doing!!!"
came the bellow of Sweet Husband
as he came around the corner of the shop...
Woops.
I immediately began the song of mercy
and justification that the comfrey
absolutely had, had, had to be weeded!
And it was true. I had to weed the patch.
The comfrey was coming up and was getting
crowded out... I had no choice.

So, I sit and I stretch and I wait.
Hoping that someday I can hit the yard
for a mere thirty minutes and I pray
for the strength to be satsified with that.
And, Sweet Husband says if I am good
I can have a morning session and
and afternoon session!
oh joy.

*&^%#$!!

2009-03-18T12:34:00.002-04:00

Well, Anna from Walden Effect has informed
me that this poor rose has Rose Rosette Disease.
Piffle!!
Apparently it is a goner.

I know it looks none too good right now,
but this was a beautiful rose.
A Fragrant Cloud!
Truly. That is it's name.

The blooms are/were huge and a
vibrant, almost electric, pinkish orange-y bright sherbet color.
Just gorgeous. They seemed to glow at twilight.
Oh, and the smell! Filled the whole yard.

I have a thing about roses. I still have the first rose
that I ever bought. I have dug it up,
potted it in a 5 gal bucket and moved it more times
than I care to remember and across state lines.
I love, love, love roses.
I have a strange relationship with them
and in order to grow good ones I have to
follow strange rituals, but I love them.

For instance, I buy the rose in it's black pot
and bring it home. I prep the hole with compost etc..
and plant it. It does Great!! For about a year and a half.
Then I have to dig it up, chop it back to a stump
and pot it up in a bucket.
I plant it in very rich, almost pure, compost
and place it in a certain spot in my yard
that is sheltered from the afternoon sun.
I have to foget it is there and find it in the weeds
by the compost pile later on and freak out that I forgot it.
I must then begin to water it and it will leaf out again.
After it is full of healthy new growth I replant it in the yard.
And it will be just fine forever more after that...
unless it gets a disease apparently.

It that crap spreads to my first ever rose
I may just die along with it.

Now it is Really Spring..

2009-03-17T18:42:00.003-04:00

I know I have waxed poetic
and becried the arrival of Spring
before now,
but this time I mean it.

And to prove it....
NETTLES!!!!!
Aaahhh. My favorite.
Yes. I say this about
stinging nettles.
They are very good for you
packed full of chlorophyl and minerals
and calcium.
I eat them on pizza and in nettle soup
and I drink the tea of the dried leaves.
But not as often as I should.
Just be careful when picking them.
Long sleeves and thick gloves
are a must.
As soon as they are picked and begin to wilt
the sting is gone.
And if you are a cheese maker..
you can use the tea as rennet.

These are still a bit young to harvest.
When they are a few inches taller
the feasting will begin!

Does anyone have any idea
what is up with this rose?
It went all thorny over the winter.
It is serious.

And I have a seedling update.
They are up and growing.
The first this year was.....

Last year's Peacevine Cherry!

Followed by this year's Black Cherry.
The rest are coming along now too.

Spring green is everywhere.
It looks so pretty and fresh.
But I am not fooled.
It is all weeds!
Weeds! Weeds! Weeds!
I know I should be attacking
without mercy.
I should be pulling and yanking
and carrying buckets of them
up to the chickens, but
I just can't do it.
Not yet.

And I have new BUNS!!
I know it is hard to see, but they are camera shy as it is their first day out.
Smething got the last buns, but these are safely behind a fence.
We will be fortifying the pen as well.
So far I have seen 7 or 8!! That is a great litter!
I have whites and black and whites and grey and whites and a black one and a grey one!
Yummy!

As Begun, So It Continues..

2009-03-07T16:45:00.002-05:00

Hot.
Tired.
Sweaty.
Dirty.
And tired again.

But, the lettuces are out

and I found some little spinaches in an old bed

and there are some chards

and really pitiful looking brocoli

that I will eventually replace with flats

from the feed store. I know I will replace them,

but I planted them anyway. And I know

that the voles will attack the roots again,

but yet....

And while I worked the deep, dark dirt

I saw the bane of my existence,

the scourge of the earth,

my vilest enemy...

pillbugs.

Oh, you may wonder what could be so bad

about little, cute pillbugs. But do not

be fooled! They are destructive

prehistoric beasts that inhabit my yard

by the millions upon millions.

Dead of the summer, heat of the drought,

blazing sun or freezing cold, I have pillbugs.

They eat my tender seedlings and gnaw my full grown chard.

And they... they... they..

they crawl inside my tomatoes and I don't find

them until I slice them open.

I hate them and they are indestructable.

I pour DE onto the ground and they sleep in it.

I cover the earth with ashes from the woodstove

and they burrow into them.

I have poured pure Neem oil onto them and they bathe.

I went so far this past year as to make a very

nasty tobacco tea, made from soaking chaw

in boiling water for a day or two.

It could kill a full grown man (really, nicotine poisoning will kill you)

but it did not phase the pillbugs.

I am open for suggestions...

I just hope that these seedlings make it.

This is the old garden and will not really be used

this year. Instead I will use the nifty new garden

being tilled by the pig and the new long rows we

are going to put into the main field by the barn.

This old garden will be awash in volunteer tomatoes

that I will transplant into the big rows and maybe

I will use it for greens and lettuces and let the

strawberries really stretch out through it.

I still have some walking onions in it and my purple sage and lavender and thyme. Though I think I will move the lavender to a less rich part of the yard. I know I need to trim it up.
Oh, and basil grows gangbusters in the old garden.

I had basil stems/stalks as big around as my wrist

and as high as my head!

I think I will plants some there as well as in the main garden.

It is just great as a companion plant.

Tomorrow will be more hard labor.

I hate spring.

And now I have to go try to get all of the dirt out

from under my nails before I knead pizza dough.

Getting Down To It..

2009-03-06T17:59:00.003-05:00

Sigh.
I just couldn't put it off any longer.
The seeding has begun.
I piffled with it a bit earlier,
but now I fill cups with earnest.
Peppers and eggplants,
tomatillos and tomatoes.

Cup after cup after cup
and shelf after shelf, I fill.
Labeling each and wondering
what I will do as they begin to sprout and grow.
I really, really, really need that greenhouse, dear.

Perhaps this weekend I will cobble
together a small little hoophouse
for to move the cooler weather plants into.
Getting my first sunburn is also on my list!
Ok.. not really, but I will have to take care not to get a burn.
It will be 80 or so and the desire to over do it will be hard to overcome.
I will try to pace myself so that I may still be able to stand upright
come Monday morning.
I will not be taking odds on whether or not
I have that much self control.
I have sooooooo much to do.
It really is overwhelming. I must remember
that this is not the last nice weekend.
I must remember that I can space out the labor.
I need a mantra to chant.

Oh, I know..
'There is always tomorrow.'
'There is always tomorrow.'
'There is always tomorrow.'
ohmmmmmmm.

And this is the 'sprouting frog'.

May he bring bountious wealth and health!

To my fellow gardeners that are not in the far northern climes..

Take it easy and do much!

Happy heat wave, ya'll!!

A Fine Feast On A Snowy Day..

2009-03-02T20:07:00.008-05:00

Finally!
Snow!
Oh, you just don't know how you can miss it.
But, the soft fall in the dark made
me long to be further out and
away from civilization so that I could walk
and hear and be with no distraction.
Alas.

But a fine feast was had from the roo
I butchered with you all the other day.

I rubbed the bird with butter and herbs and black pepper...

I used rosemary, savory and thyme and threw some sliced onion into the pot too.

And slow roasted him stove top in my big dutch oven,

browning him off in the oven at the end.

He was tender and moist and flavorful which is great considering his age.

Without the slow covered cooking he would have been quite tough and dry.

I served the meat with stuffing, spinach casserole and corn pudding.

It just don't get no better than that!

And here are the obligatory scenes of idyllic snow

joyfully given.

And the happy old dog...

And the very best part of snow...

NO SCHOOL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Even I was thrilled to skip the drudgery of the morning routine

and spend my time out and about beating the snot out of my kid with snowballs!

Butchering.. WARNING GRAPHIC PICS !!!

2009-02-26T12:39:00.012-05:00

Today I butchered Fatboy
and I will share with you my methods.
First and most important is to take
a quiet moment to honor the sacrifice.
One life is to be given for the sustanance
of another and so the food chain goes.
Be pleased in the fact that you have provided
a good and rich life filled with the best feed
and greens and bugs, warm shelter and respect.

I enjoy butchering.
I know it sounds weird, but I find it a meditative
way to spend time.
It is quiet and peaceful.
I do it alone.
I have good music or a good book
in my headphones and my hands are busy.
I am following in the footsteps of
women that have provided food for their
family tables for thousands of years.
Good, fresh and healthful food.
And I am whole.

All that being said....

I use the 'broomstick' method to kill my birds.
I have tried all of the different ways in which to dispatch
a chicken and settled on the broomstick..or rather the stick.

Tie the birds feet.
Grasp it by the legs and lower the head to the ground.
Place the stick across the neck..
and do this quickly. Be kind.
Step on the stick to each side of the neck
and place all of your weight against the stick..
really press downward.
Pull upward on the legs.
Not too quick, but rather steady.
You do not want the head to slip out from under the stick.
That would be cruel and cause suffering.
Once you are sure of the force that the stick can bear
without slippage, give a good YANK.
You should feel the give of the neck separating.
The deed is done. It is all over.

The bird will begin to flap violently.
Fear not.
The bird is no longer functional, it is just the body's
reaction and is purely muscle and nerves.
Hang on tight for the movement can be strong in a large bird.
I try to hang the bird just as this begins to take
advantage of the movements to assist with bleeding out.

Once the bird is hung take a sharp knife and slit the neck.
Grasp the bird's head and tilt it to expose the neck
and slice across the sides.
There is no need to go terribly deep,
just through the skin and vessels.
As you can see, I have left the throat itself intact.

Now, here is where I veer off the page.
Against all textbooks and hand-me-down knowledge and
contrary to everything everyone else in the world does during butchering..
I dry pluck!

I hate to scald. God! It stinks and the smell stays on your skin
and in your hair and you can never be sure of the temperature
or the time and you mess up the skin and it tears and it STINKS!

So, I dry pluck. The method of killing I think helps
with the ease of the release of the feathers. I have tried to
dry pluck after the old axe treatment and found it difficult.

I take a few feathers in my fingers and pull downwards.
Then I tuck the feathers into my hand and pull some
more and repeat until my hand is full.
It is not unlike the hand movement for picking beans.
Do not try to pluck huge handfuls all at once.
This will tear the skin.
You will find that on the small belly feathers
that release easily you can take more,
but on the back feathers and on the feathers
with larger, thicker quills you can only take a few at a time.
This may seem like it would take forever,
but it really goes quickly.
Especially if you use two hands to go at it.

I have a large trashbag
lining a 5 gallon bucket to catch the blood and feathers,
]but without fail, no matter how calm a day,
as soon as I go to pluck the wind picks up.
So I trade up for a large black trashcan to catch the feathers and
hold them deep and out of the breeze.
I still have feathers all over the place,
but it is better than just letting them fly everywhere.

And, Yes! He is as big as he looks.

I do not pluck the wings or the tail feathers or the neck.
I know I will just be chopping these parts off anyway.
I also do not bother with the 'socks'
as I will be removing the lower legs.
Once the bird is more or less clean I take it down
and move to the gutting table where I chop off
the wings, neck, tail and lower legs and feet.
It may not be a pretty butchering job,
but we don't really eat the wings.
I do know how to make the clean joint breaks like you see in the
store bought birds, but I don't bother for just us.
If I sell a bird, I do it correctly.

You may notice the fiercesome looking weapon lying next to the bird.

This is my tobacco knife. Built like a hatchet or a tomahawk, but with
a very, very thin blade that can be sharpened to surgical sharpness.
A nastier, more lethal weapon I have never seen. Light and easy to wield,
it makes butchering a very easy task.
One quick blow to go through the leg bones and the neck,
but delicate enough to be accurate to remove the tail
while I hold it in the other hand.
If I ever missed......

Now comes the part that gives everyone the most trouble.. gutting.
It has taken quite a few years for me to become proficient at it, so
fear not if you are not good.
Lie the bird on its back with the legs towards you.
Pinch the skin of the belly between your fingers and lift up.
Take your sharp kitchen knife and begin to saw back and forth
towards your fingers and lifting the skin more and more as it cuts away.
This gives you and opening into the skin.
Take both hands and stick the fingers into the hole in the skin
and pull the skin apart to enlarge the opening.
I cut away the excess skin and toss it into the bucket/bag.
You should have a membrane staring at you now.
Pinch the membrane up a bit and make a slice in it.
Stick in your fingers and pull it open.

Grab your knife again and lift some of the skin along the bottom of the opening
and begin pulling and cutting towards the vent.
Do this on both sides.
Carefully grab the skin near the vent...
I leave the vent feathers in place so that I can grasp
them ... and slice alongside the vent on each side
so that your birds looks like what you see above.

Now there is only one thing left to do... Stick your hand into the bird.
I place my hand in working along the outside edges first,
loosening the inner membrane as I go.
I do first one side and then the other and as far
towards the neck as I can reach. I work my fingers
and tear the membrane from the ribs.
Once I am in all the way I start working the innards towards
the opening, twisting my wrist as I do this.
Then just get a good grip and pull steadily.
You do not want to tear anything apart.

I am not going to kid you... this is just plain gross. It is warm and sticky.
The pieces parts squish out between your finger.
So, if this is your first time... just go with it. Beer helps alot.
Once all of the obvious parts are out you may cut the rest of the vent away.
This gives you intestines and your vent in one piece
and you don't have to worry about soiling
your bird with poop... which I have done.
Yep. I said it. I got poop on my bird.
And more than once until I got the vent thing down.
But be at peace with the knowledge that your bird ate well
and the poop is nothing but digested grass and veggies
and bugs and fairly 'clean'.
It also washes off.

Now, tilt the opening towards the light and look inside.

See those BRIGHT pink sponges laying against the ribs of the back?

They are the lungs and you have to go get those.
And they do not want to come out.
They are adhered to the ribs and the only way
to do it is with your fingernails.
So, stick your hand back in and begin to run your nails
under the edges of the lungs and lift away.
Then scoot a bit further and scrape and lift again.
Repeat on the other side of the spine.
You may not get all of them at first, but the rest can be gotten
out when you are rinsing out the bird and
you can see more clearly what you have left behind.

Your bird is almost done.
The only thing left is to deal with the esophagus and the trachea.
Rotate the bird until you have the neck facing you.
Take your kife and just start cutting all of that skin and membrane away.
You will see the two tubes. Pull them away from the membranes
and wrap them around your
fingers and pull. They will slip right out of your fingers.
I usually have to take my bandana or rag
and grip with that and pull.
If your crop did not come out with the guts,
this is the time to pull it out of the top.
This is where you will understand why all of the books
and websites told you to withold feed.
It is a much nicer task if the crop is completely empty than trying to pull it
out full of corn and grass and feed.
On occasion I have had to unexpectdly butcher a bird that had a full crop.
I have yet been able to do it without spilling the contents all over the place.

(Under what circumstances does a person have to 'unexpectedly' butcher a bird?
If I can catch a hawk in the act of taking one of my birds
I take the bird back and eat it myself.
I will not eat after a mammal, but I will eat after a raptor.
They make a nice clean kill.)

Your bird should be clean now and ready for a good rinse and scrub in the sink.
I run my hand in the cavity to make sure I have removed all pieces parts.
Then I place the bird in a cooler filled with salt water to soak for three days.
The salt in the water helps to draw the remaining blood
out of the tissues and the three days is to let rigor come
and go so that the bird will be tender upon cooking.
I have 2 qt juice bottles filled with water in my freezer.
I place these in with the bird to keep the water icy cold without diluting
the salt and replacing whenever they start to thaw.

And there Fatboy will stay until I cook him up.
I will be sure to post pics of him in all his yummy goodness.
There really is nothing quite like a fresh bird.

If you have questions or if I was unclear in anyway,
please speak up and I will answer and/or amend.
I hope that this has been interesting and that someone
took something away from it that they can use.

Butchering is not necessarily a part of homesteading,
but everyone should at least know how it is done on paper.
You just never know when you may have to use that info.

For me it is the culmination of why I put forth the time and money into my birds
and I view it as I do my garden and the harvest I glean from those efforts.
I take pride and feel peace from my time in the barn or in the fields.
I feel in touch with those who have come before me.
How many women over how many ages have swung a hoe
or slid their hand into the body of a chicken.
I think of them as I knead bread, my hands sticky
and floury and as I bend to taste my stew, bringing the
spoon to my lips to test for need of more herbs or pepper.
It is the completion of the cycle... from the hatching to the roasting
or from the planting to the harvest.
A bit of me and a bit of history in every bite.

A quick addendum:
I said that I butcher alone, but you will notice
Sweet Husband in the top shot.
See, I did not deal with Fatboy any longer.
He was in a large hutch at face level and he has
gone at me at few times when I opened the hutch.
So, in order to retain my beauty I refused to go near the bird.
Sweet Husband was nice enough to fetch him for me this morning
so that I could butcher.. thanks Sweet Husband.
but don't tell him his face ended up in the shot. sssshhhhhhhhh

And I am pretty sure that when I went to the school to pick up the boy I was the only mommy there who noticed a fleck of chicken blood in the cuticle of her nail. Out, Out damn spot.

A question to the people..

2009-02-24T12:41:00.002-05:00

Does anyone want to see an expo
on chicken butchering the Hennery way?
It is not text book, but it gets the job done.

This is FatBoy.

He is a Langshan/Barred Rock cross

and the basis of my meat bird flock.

He must go.

Let me know if ya'll want to

have pics and commentary

of the dirty deed.

It will probably be this coming weekend.

I will do it regardless, but blog coverage is optional.

A Noble Breed..

2009-02-23T11:33:00.002-05:00

I raise Black Langshans
among other things, but the Langshans are my favorites.
Large, huge, gigantic and as gentle as a spring breeze.

And they are beautiful.
Slick black with iridescent blues, greens
and purples in the sun.
Their legs are heavily feathered.
Pictured here and most often is my Flock Sire, 'Saddleback'.
He is not a 'good' Langshan as he has iridescent gold on his
collar and along his saddle, but I find the golden feathers
to be striking and beautiful.
His sons carry the trait as well
though sometimes they carry a gold so light as to
be almost silver.

The roos are tall and deep chested and calm.

They are true gentlemen. There will be no scrapping

or posturing in the barn or in the field.

A Langshan roo is more apt to walk away and forage

in a quiet place.

Saddleback can be counted on to run the barn as well

as a good farm dog. He willingly returns his ladies into his pen

to allow another group to be let out into the yard.

He fiercely protects setting hens from the curiousity of

the other birds by standing guard outside the brooder

stall and running all chickens back down to where they

are supposed to be.

He is my right hand bird and I adore him.

He takes supreme care of his hens,

saving all treats just for them and eating only after

they have had their fill. He even tries to ply

my affections by offering me bits of bugs

and the sweetest bits of greens with his beak.

He is the only bird I have that I will bend over face to face with.

I have never had a moment of concern that I would get

spurred in the face. Instead, he will run my hair gently

through his beak while sweet talking into my ear.

This is good because his spurs are several inches long,

curved like sabers and razor sharp.

The hens are plump and round and ultimately feminine.

They are good layers of light brown eggs.

A bit more standoffish than the roos perhaps,

but a pleasure to see in the yard.

I would recommend the Black Langshan to anyone

with an interest in a beautiful and noble breed that is hearty

and reliable providing a steady supply of good sized eggs and tender, sweet meat.

They have also been known to stop traffic when they are out

where they can be seen.

However, patience is needed as the roos are very slow to mature

with many gangly and unattractive months before the

full size is achieved. I have found that it takes a year, maybe a bit longer,

before the roos have filled out completely.

But once maturity is reached.. WOW what a bird!

Oh Joy...

2009-02-18T15:56:00.003-05:00

I just want to roll around nekkid
in them.. all of my beautiful seed packets.
Oh joy.
I do spread them on the table and run them
through my fingers though.
And no matter how complete my list,
without fail I notice something in the
online catalog when I order, add it in and then forget about it
so that there is a surprise in every packet!
This time it was Arumugam's Eggplant!
A lovely eggplant from India that
produces green white and lavender fruit.
Nice.

And I splurged a whole $2.50
for Clyde's planting chart.
Now, I do have a great little planting time booklet
that I printed off the computer and folded into a book
and I like it very much all tied with it's red ribbon....
but Clyde's slides! It is all nifty and it slides.
It tells me how terribly behind I am in my seed starting..
Oh cripes.
I will never catch up since you cannot gain time
and time waits for no woman and other time related quotes
that serve to remind me that spring is coming and I have so much yet to do.
And speaking of spring, there was snow mixed in with the heavy
rain that pounded my windshield early this morning.
But we have the woodstove chugging and are warm and snug.

And speaking of snug...
Here is Old Blue Sue on her throne of barn gear.
She has a soft and comfy bed all freshly laundered and fluffy,
but she chooses to pull down smelly jackets onto reaking shoes
to sprawl for a daily nap.
Dogs.

Oh, and I have eggs hatching today. 3 so far.
Oh joy

The sprunging of Spring..

2009-02-16T12:33:00.004-05:00

Even though it is the middle of February
spring has sprung here in the
foothills of the mountains.
Both inside and out.

My lettuce is growing, but that is no feat

what with lights and warmth,

but outside things are just

as enthusiastic to get going.

The honeybees are buzzing my winter honeysuckle.

And if you do not have winter honeysuckle in your yard...
go get some!! Now!!
There is no sweeter scent in the world
and to have it in the winter months
makes it all the more decadent.
And have no worries,
it is no vine, but a polite and well behaved shrub.

And the quince is coming right along.
Within a week my bush should be covered
in bright, lively blooms.

And the weeds are in full bloom as well.
I love the light purple haze that covers my whole yard
that False Nettle gives.
And I am not sure what the delicate little blue flower is
but I love it too.
And even the tree frogs are peeping at night!
Oh, I wish you could all smell and hear my yard
these days.
Though I know it is only February and there is
plenty of cold weather to come, I cannot help
but get itchy to hit the garden..
HARD!
But, it is still winter and if spring is really here..
it is the End of the World!

And my Great Grandfather's Bee Balm
is starting to rise! A true harbinger of spring.
When the sun hits this patch of green,
even in it's young stage, the whole yard
is infused with the heady, lemony, musky
scent of bee balm!

I love this bee blam and have never seen any like it.
It blooms a bright deep red and the top one
third of the stalk and stem turns so dark purple
that it almost looks black.
Just lovely!!
Perhaps a give-a-way is in order for my
wonderful followers!!
Hmmm.
Happy Spring To All..

Anna from The Walden Effect blog has informed
me that the spry little blue flower is Speedwell!
Thanks, Anna

Way off topic...Decoration Day

2009-02-11T12:46:00.003-05:00

Most of you are familiar with Memorial Day
and the placing of flowers on the graves
of fallen soldiers, but the tradition started
long before and far away.
In America, Decoration Day can be traced
to the mountains of Western North Carolina
and Virginia and the ceremony was taken
by the government after the Civil War and the date changed in 1971.

In Western North Carolina the tradition of Decoration Day
is still going strong. In the late spring families
and communities meet at the burying ground to
clean the graves and place flowers at the graves...
lots and lots of flowers. The graveyards look like this all year
round and I find them to be beautiful.

I am the keeper of all of the old, old family

pictures and have many photos taken on Decoration Day.

The family all lined up against a hill every year and had their photo taken.

I can see year by year how the children that would be my Great Grandparents

and Grandparents and my Great Aunts grew from childhood.

They would bring baskets of food and socialize all the day

and a good time was had by all.

It was the precursor to a family reunion, I believe.

I plan to attend the Decoration Day ceremonies at

Sawmill Hill this year and to bring my son. He is fascinated

by the family burying ground and the generations he can see

listed before him on the tombstones

and I think he would find the laying of the flowers

to be 'awesome!' I think I should reconnect with

the traditions that my family held dear for

so many hundreds of years too. I find myself too

far removed from my family and the rich history

of the struggles of the first settlers

in these rugged mountains.

It would do my soul good.

And no stone is left untended.

Even the ones that are so ancient as to be but

simple creekstone markers to show that a life was lived.

How long ago did this person laugh
and plant and harvest?
How many snows and springs went by?
Whom did they love?

Yep. I am going to Decoration Day this year
and a good time will be had by all.

Down the slippery slope..

2009-02-07T15:48:00.003-05:00

And now I am at the bid and call of
little green life.
'water me, I am thirsty'
'my roots are tight'
I'm hungry'
'My feet are wet'
'I wanna go outside'
'It's cold. I wanna come back in'
I love seed starting, but I miss
my life.

Seed List 2009:

Tomatoes:
-Wes
-Cow's Tit
-Paquebot Roma
-Amana Orange
-Abraham Lincoln
-Black Cherry
-White Queen
-Paul Robeson
-Cherokee Purple
-Peacevine Cherry

Cucumbers:
-Lemon
-Emp. Alexandre

Carrots:
-Parisienne
-Chantenay red
-Amarillo

Eggplants:
-Rose Bianca
-Ping Tung
-Early Long Black

Leeks:
-Musselburgh

Melons:
-Anne Arundel
-Chartenais

Okra:
-Emerald
-Fife Creek Cowhorn

Parsnips:
-Half Long Guernsey
-Hollow Crown

Peppers:
-Jimmy Nardello
-Frank's
-Quadrato D'Asti Russo
-Quadrato D'asti Giallo
-Fish
-Jalapeno

Radishes:
-Purple Plum
-Pink Beauty
-French Breakfast
-Helois
-White Hailstone

Squashes: summer
-Z. Rampicante
-Patisson Panache Blanc et Vert Scallop
-Crookneck Early Golden
-Costato Romanesco

Squashes: winter
-Kuri
-Butternut
-Candy Roaster - Old school family handmedowns

Gourds:
-Bushel
-Birdhouse - Old school family handmedowns

Fennel:
-Di Fierenze

Greens:
-Tatsoi
-several different mixes of lettuces
-Lucullus Swiss Chard
-Spinaches
-Red Purslane
-Rainbow Lights Chard

Brocoli:
-Green Comet
-and I can't remember

Beans:
-Pencil Pod Wax (bush)
-Dragon's Tongue (bush)
-Purple Queen (bush)

-Greasy Grit (pole)
-Jimenez (pole)
-White Willow Leaf (lima)
-Turkey Craw (shelly)

Peas:
-Early Alaska

I know that there are many more,
but I haven't gone through the
seed stores yet. sigh
I will update as time goes on.

I did start today though. It was a
gorgeous day.. warm and sunny
and I spent the day standing over the
chest freezer making plantings.

I started brocoli and chard and some lettuces.

The laundry room is lined with shelves.
Sweet Husband placed lights above each shelf
and it is a wonderful place to do seedlings.
The mounted lights heat the shelf above.

And I use the clamshells from the
salad bar at the grocer's. They make
little greenhouses during the beginning
and then when I open them, I can stack
the base of one into the lid of another.
I can also see whether the soil is dry
or whether the roots are getting
tight because the shells are clear
and I can see all that goes on in the soil.

And when the little darlings outgrow
the clamshells I prick them out
either straight into the garden
or into cups to grow more.

To prevent damp-off
I water only with chamomile tea.
It works wonders!! I never, ever have
mold or mildew or health problems
with my starts.
And when they get their second
set of little leaves I add
a hint of compost tea into my spray bottle.

And so it begins!
May we all have a bountiful harvest
and a full larder come the chill of winter next!
Hoorah!

Oh!! I forgot something!

Celeriac. You know, that ugly root from

a few posts ago. I need to start those today!

I plant Monarch Celeriac!

Winter Skies

2009-02-03T17:29:00.002-05:00

Doesn't the sky look ominus?
There is a front blowing in
and I have seen actual snowflakes!
I could almost count them,
but it snow is snow and I
shall not quibble over the amount.
I am hoping for a wee bit more snow
through the dark of night.
And if I were in the mountains.....
I miss snow.
I miss the quiet sound of snow on the pines.
I miss the heavy stillness of the woods.
I miss the deep feeling of aloneness
that comes with a walk through the empty forest.
I miss the patterns and swirls of the creek
flowing onward under a skin of ice.
Oh bother.
We aren't to get any anyway.

I caught a rare pic of the tree dwelling panther

that lives with us. Bishop spends almost

as much time aloft as he does curled

deep into the feather mattress of my bed.

And behind this door

I have kits.

Sweet Husband spied them out in the yard this morning

and gave a great groan bemoaning the fact that now

we have two free ranging rabbits and their offspring

and a garden coming.

I had to go investigate.

The silly little things led me right to this door.

Sweet Husband built the rabbit door for my

first meat rabbits. There was a lovely pen

as well, but when the two buns dug out

we dismantled this communal rabbit colony

and moved them to escape-proof digs.

Then Mr White escaped and then broke his favorite

doe out as well. Prison Break 07.

I have enjoyed them in the yard

and they have grown fat and sassy on chicken feed.

But when it came time for Mrs. White

(who is a broken chinchilla color)

to make her burrow, Mr White led

her back to his old home and she dug

a wonderful burrow in the hardpack dirt

of the old smokehouse.

To save my garden and to corral

my footed feasts all we have to do

is reinstate the old pen. Fantastic!

The kits are just lovely too.

And in preparation for the next wave

of bitter cold and gale force winds

I ahve hung a second heat lamp over the

chicks in the potting shed.

There should be plenty of heat and plenty of space for all.

Cross your fingers that at least we get enough

snow to cancel school tomorrow. I would

love to sleep in and spend the day curled on

the couch firming up my seed order.

My theory and practice of brooding...

2009-02-01T18:07:00.007-05:00

If you ask 10 folks about brooding chicks
you will get as many answers.
Everyone has their own way
and their own theory on how to go about it.
Not that anyone asked me, but here is my way.
Of course, my preferred method is
to use a good broody hen.
Nothing mothers better and the chicks that are broody
raised are healthier, heartier and fare better
all through their lives.
Start with a chick.
Well, you should start with many chicks
as they are communal, flocking critters.
They rely on each other for warmth and comfort
and they share knowledge as well..
like where the water is and where the food is
and what is good to eat.

You can either get them already hatched
via a good hatchery or through your feed store in season.
I start all of my chicks with boiled egg
mashed into little giblets.
When you first get them and place them in the brooder
grasp them individually and dip their beaks into the water
to show them how to drink and where the water is.
I place a splash of apple cider vinegar into their water as well.
The vinegar changes the PH in their systems
making it an unpleasant environment for the bad stomach bugs
that chicks are prone to. It wards off 'pasty butt' which is
chick diarrhea. The runny poop hardens to a crust on their rears.
That is not good and must be removed gently by hand.
This is not fun for you or the chick.
The best method is to once again grasp the chick,
this time with it facing the other way.
Drip hydrogen peroxide onto the 'paste'
and wait a few moments. Then begin loosening it
gently with a tissue or washcloth. Repeat.
Do not pull!! You can pull out the innards
and this is also bad.
But if you use the vinegar trick you should
never have to experience this particular joy.

Where to keep your feathered friends...
I am fortunate enough to have the potting
shed at my disposal and no longer have to
keep chicks in my house. At least not for very long.
I wait until they are eating and drinking well and then boot
them out the door.
They have a heat lamp for warmth and they do fine.

My brooder material of choice:
PINE STRAW!!!!!
I will never use pine shavings again.
Once I stumbled on the joys of simple
pine needles I realized I will never go back.
Pine straw is inedible so you do not have
to worry about the chicks eating it
and getting impacted.
It is very warm and they make
a nest under the brooder lamp.
The poop dries and falls through! No more
smelly brooders! Ever! You can lift the pine needles
up and sweep the dried poop away and lay the needles
back down again. They last forever.
If you take nothing else away from anything
I have ever said or may say in the future,
take this bit of advice. It is life altering.

After the chicks are eating well on the cannabilistic

diet of boiled eggs I switch to chick starter.

I choose a non medicated starter as I try to raise my birds as

naturally as I can. I prefer the Layena brand from Purina

as it has no animal by products in it.

I believe in feeding my birds meat and encourage

them to eat as many yummy bugs and mice as they

can choke down, but I don't go for the by products.

I try to keep the trough feeder filled

as young birds are voracious eaters.

I keep them on starter for a couple of months

and then swith to FlockRaiser which a good high protein feed

for growing them out.

At 16 weeks of age I start the pullets on Layena laying pellets

in preparation for the onset of egglaying and the culmination of

all the months of work.

The roos... I eat.

When my chicks are 2 to 3 weeks old or so
I start adding toys into the brooder.
The first to go in is a large root ball.
I added one today.
The birds love to peck at the dirt and will eat the entire ball,
roots, dirt and all. I also add sand into the brooder house
and start giving them tender weeds.
Chickweed is a favorite and I am fortunate
enough to have tons of it.
Baby lamb's quarter is another
favorite, but whatever you have handy is fine.
Go easy on it and let their bodies adjust.

I also add a branch with many limbs.
They practice perching to gain balance
and muscle strength.
And soon they will be sleeping perched atop it.
King of The branch is also a fun game
and helps define pecking order.
They also will begin napping under it
in practice of flock safety.
'If you are under brush the hawks cannot eat you.'

Around this time I also add a dust box.
Yes, they eat that dirt too,
but they do bathe in it.
Dust bathing is the height of poultry
social structure. Think of it like a trip
to the beauty parlor
for little old ladies.
It is also good pratice for keeping
parasite free.

And that is my theory of brooding chicks.

The End.

If you can think of anything I missed
or if you have questions and/or thoughts,
please let me know.

I thought I would give an update...

They start too cute for words...

and enter the stage where they are so ugly it hurts to look at them.

yep.. it is the same bird.

And this is what a normal, healthy, well brooded
3 week old chick should look like.
Feathered, bright eyed, confident and inquisitive.

Ok.. I have 5 minutes...

2009-01-26T08:59:00.008-05:00

This is Old Blue Sue.
She has been here since Thursday.
Which is why you haven't seen me.
She is sleeping in her crate at the moment,
so I can spend a brief moment with you before
running off to do all of the other things that haven't
been done since Thursday.
She is a very malnourished pound pup, but is eating well
and putting some meat on her bones.
I am feeding chicken and rice
with eggs, nettles and oatmeal until she gets plump.
Then I will add in kibble slowly and see how she does.
She does not have a happy tummy
which is why we are up every few hours throughout the night.
We are mightly impressed with her so far.
She is one smart dog and we have high hopes for her.
They' say that Australian Shepherds are great dogs
and so far, I believe it.

Sue is to be the replacement for old Gilda who
is really slowing down. She has some years yet,
but is only moderately effective as a farmdog now.
She sleeps a little too deeply.
Of course, for Sue to be a farmdog
she will need to get off the couch sometimes.
yes. I am breaking the 'no dogs on the furniture' rule...
but just a bit. But look at that face..awwww

I also have chicks hatching and my house is loud
with peeping and chirping and screaming.
11 chicks so far with a few more pecking out.
They are eating time as well.
I will let you see them when they are all out and about.
Very pretty so far...

The seeds aren't started and the house is a wreck.
There is laundry piling up and the kitchen floor!! Oh my!
And I haven't touched the new garden space in a week.
I have company coming next weekend and I have 6 days
to turn this sty into Better Homes and Gardens.
And I have no idea what is for dinner tonight.
So, off I go to make a dent in something somewhere.

Oh, and DaintyPig was just yanking our chain!
I think she held her breath all that day
in order to look very round so that we
would build her a stout and warm house.
Yep. Fooled by a small pig.
Stupid pig.
Smart pig.
Stupid people.

I am still here..

2009-01-25T08:57:00.002-05:00

I apologize for not being around.
It has been crazy here.
We have a new farm dog puppy... A teeny tiny Blue Merle Australian Shepherd.
And as you know, nothing eats time like a new pup.
I am violently sleep deprived.
I also have chicks hatching.
I will try to post with pics this afternoon
and give you all a full accounting.
Again, my deepest apologies.
I know for me, it is a huge letdown
to want to check into a blog that you like
and find that there is nothing new.
At least I have great excuses.

Ugly Edibles..

2009-01-17T17:32:00.002-05:00

There are plenty of things that are ugly and unappetizing to gaze upon,
but are wonderful to eat. Here are two that are going around my house today.

These lumpy, rooty mutants are celeriac roots. I dug them up before
the bitter cold and they have been sitting and waiting on my counter since then.
Celeriac is wonderfully easy to grow, but takes a long season.
I started the seeds last spring in a flat and it seemed to take forever for them
to get big enough to prick out.
I planted them out and never touched them or looked at them again until fall.
I did make one error, though. I planted them in soil that was too rich in nitrogen for them.
Like all roots crops they prefer a lean soil or you get rampant leafy growth
and lots of little roots shooting off everywhere. As a result, my celeriac is a little small and very hairy. I washed them up a bit and gave them a haircut and stored them in the fridge.
If I were storing them long term, I would have just cut most of the leafy tops back and stored cool and moist dirt and all.
These will not last long around here. I will carve up several tonight to add to a roast root veggie dish.

And I as a bit bored today and wanted to use some black bananas I
had been keeping in the freezer. They are not an exotic type of fruit,
just uneaten and going downhill fast.
So I went poking in the larder and came up with the remnants of a bag of prunes. They were the cherry essence ones, and, Voila! A banana-prune bread.
I know it looks very much like a Bundt cake, but all of my bread pans are being used out in the barn for various reasons.
It looks ugly, but it sure is good, made with lots of ginger and cinnamon
to round out the flavors.

Off I go to tackle a smoked ham that I pulled from the oven. Now that I think about it.. it is pretty ugly too.

Hot Pink!

2009-01-16T12:05:00.002-05:00

I thought I would give a little spark to the cold, cold weather that most of us are experiencing. This is blooming in my laundry room under the lights. It keeps company with a jalapeno, 4 tomatoes and a pepper or two. Isn't it just too pretty in the middle of January? I look at it quite often.

It is colder than a well digger's tail out there, but not too bad inside..finally! Sweet Husband went on a winterizing spree yesterday and put up plastic on the worst of the old, rattle-y windows. It is like having a new house!!! The wind no longer whistles and howls through the house.. well, not as badly.

And I put up a window quilt over the double window in the living room. It works great! This morning and until around 10:00 or so there was ice on the INSIDE of that window. I could see it from the front porch, but no cold air could be felt when I slid my hand under the curtain. Can you imagine the amount of cold that would have been pouring through without the quilt?! As a result of the efforts, the house is not too bad, as long as we keep the woodstove fed.

And I have been working on the external winterization for the past few days. It was a frenzy to get everything set before the cold got here. I finished putting up plastic on the south side of the barn and did some more cloth on the north side. Sweet Husband came through yesterday and finished up the parts I couldn't reach. He built a 'house' for DaintyPig and I covered that as well, burying the ends of the plastic under a good layer of soil. I also laid in a good amount of hay. I put plastic up on the windows of the bunny room too. A deep layer of old hay and straw went down over the garden.. the strawberries, onions, cabbages and herbs. I hope it all makes it through.

And that brings us up to today. Not much shaking. Except that the bottom heating element in my stove blew out. We are searching around for a replacement part. It is an ancient behemoth of a stove, but I have gotten spoiled with all of the space it affords. I can place a full cutting board on the top between the eyes and it has a ton of storage. A two shelved 'warming' drawer that houses my smaller baking goods and a huge drawer underneath too. Plus, it is cheaper to replace the part than to buy a new stove, you know? Eventually it will get replaced and will spend the last years of it's life out in the summer kitchen (it is NOT a garage.. it IS a summer kitchen) so I can do my baking and canning without heating up the house. Oh, and because the stove was taken apart, I had a big bowl of black bean chile for breakfast. It was so good and filling.. heavy on the red peppers too.

I hope that each of you is as warm as you can be and I will not complain about the cold for I know that many of you live where this the norm. Though, for the life of me, I do not know why.

Jinx !!!

2009-01-13T20:28:00.003-05:00

I cannot believe I am saying this in public.
I am going to jinx it and mess it all up.
Or, I will be wrong and look like a fool, BUT......

I think DaintyPig is going to give us piglets soon.
The guy said she might be bred when we got her,
but we have seen no signs of her being bred at all.

Until today.

I did the afternoon feed and noticed she looked very round.
Very round, indeed.

Panic insued!!! I mean full blown panic!
She is afield!
She is a 'touch-me-not'
and cannot be caught or coaxed!
And the coldest nights of the year are bearing down on us.
Highs near 20 with hard winds and lows in the single digits with a windchill!
Nothing ever gives birth during a warm spell... ever!

Tomorrow, in the wee morning hours, Sweet Husband is going to
build a farrowing house for her in the field. He would have waited until Thursday, his next day off, but the winds will be howling and it will be miserable out and, the best argument from me..
"WHAT IF THAT IS TOO LATE!!!!!!"
Poor Sweet Husband!

So.. Piglet Watch 09 is in session!
Either that or I am a moron.
A panicky, foolish woman.
Though I did drag Sweet Husband over and we stared at her belly for half and hour.
He agrees that she suddenly looks very round. Very round indeed.

This time it is 'Butter' butter..

2009-01-13T10:16:00.007-05:00

Let me start off by saying, "I am, by no means, an expert!"
And that being said.. I made butter yesterday
And here is how I did it.

I started with a gallon of fresh, raw milk.
If you look closely you can see the cream line
at the top of the milk.
I used basters to slurp up the cream while
leaving the milk below undisturbed.

What I am left with is thick, rich cream.
Very good in coffee, by the way.

I chose to use the larger jar to churn in
and the more room and air in the jar, the quicker it goes.
Put the lids on tight and shake.
And shake. And shake. And shake.
I find that if you shake 'lid to tail' it goes faster.
I have gotten to where I can do many things while shaking
a churn jar in one hand. I can feed the woodstove..
I can do laundry..
It's amazing really.

The cream will start in the shaking jar by sloshing loosely.
After a little while it turns to a whipped cream like consistency
and is very light and quiet while you shake.
And then, without warning, it will return to the sloshing
and you will feel that the cream is a liquid again.
The jar even gets heavier.
This is what you want. The new liquid that is in the jar is
butter milk and within it... Butter!

I have had the butter to form in one solid clump and I have had
it to form in a myriad of little balls.
I prefer the clump.
This particular batch, of course, came in the little balls.
I used a strainer to separate the buttermilk from the butter,
carefully saving the buttermilk for cooking. I am thinking cornbread for dinner.
The butter milk you will get from this bears no resemblance to the
thick, vile stuff you buy in the store. I don't know what that is?
This buttermilk is as thin as regular milk and sweet.

I have no photos of this coming part because my hands were covered in butter.
I pressed the butter gently against the strainer to squeeze the buttermilk
from it. Then I placed it into a bowl and began to rinse it.
Fresh water and squeeze. Fresh water and squeeze until the water runs clear.
Then, with the back of a spoon, press the butter until no more water runs from it.
(ok.. I used my hands)

And there it is... butter!
Really sweet, rich butter.
Great butter.
And the jar of buttermilk.

I store my butter in a small Tupperware type
of container. Somewhere I have my Great Grandmother's
butter mold and I will dig it out soon and show you.

I love making butter!
I love not having to give my money to
the grocer for butter.
I love knowing what is in my butter!
So, if you have a source for good milk,
then give it a try!

No Boys Allowed!!!

2009-01-11T11:57:00.008-05:00

It has been an interesting week around The Hennery.
Especially if you are a Silkie. I have three broody Silkie hens,
three growing Silkie chicks
and three dressed out Silkie roos.
And two Silkie roos that have been kicked out of their snug home.

This is the old potting shed. I know it is not pretty, but boy!, is it handy.
The Silkies, being that they are Sweet Husband's favorites
are not forced to live in the big barn like normal chickens.
They get the comfort of the potting shed with it's brick walls and
big windows and access to the yard by the house.

Even if I am brooding chicks in there the Silkies get to stay
as they are all great parents.. even Papa Ppfootie.

But Papa Ppfootie is a bit of a control freak who bosses his ladies
mercilessly and when they are all brooding he just has fits.
They don't obey!
They don't eat when he says!
They are unresponsive to his romantic overtures!
And he harrasses them terribly.
So, Papa is out!
And so very unhappy. He keeps pacing the front and crowing and clawing at the door.
Poor Papa. No boys allowed.

Meanwhile, inside the potting shed...

This is my mother and daughter pair hard at work

And this is my favorite girl. So pretty with her top knot of fluff.

And these guys are growing up quick.

There is nothin uglier than a Silkie chick!

There is another chick in there too, but it was being shy and hiding under

Black Broody.

And this is what became of three members

of 'The Jackson 5'.
I had Black Broody and 4 Black Silkie roos.

(What would you call them?)

I butchered 3 of the Jacksons yesterday and had every

intention of butchering all of the roos, but I am a softie at heart.

I grabbed up one of the roos to carry outside

and instead of fighting and squawking,

the horrible bird was as calm and still as could be and laid his head

under my neck for a snuggle. *%!#@&$!!

So, I now have a black roo and a white roo.

I suppose it works well as I do have the black hen.

Sigh.

As you can see, the dressed Silkies look a bit odd.

They have black meat and in many cultures

their meat is valued as a delicacy and used as a health tonic.

I have yet to eat a Silkie.

Mine are sold before they are even butchered.

Maybe one day I will get a chance to try it out.

And this is what is going on inside this week.

I had 5 chicks hatch at the beginning of the week.

Time will tell what they are, but at least one is

a Blue Laced Red Wyandotte and one is

my Old Fashioned White Layers

(a homegrown breed of white birds)

As for the others.. time will tell.

And other than that it has been a week of garden planning,

seed catalog perusing and burn out!

I even dream about the damn garden and all of those seeds.

And it is fast approaching time to start seeds around here.

I need to just make the decisions and spend the money

and get the ball rolling.

Aaaaah..

2009-01-06T16:10:00.005-05:00

Anyone wanna guess the weather here?? Hmmm? Do you???
Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!!
That's right, folks. It is raining!
Again!
Please refer to the earlier post about the flood..
that is what it looks like now.. again.
The gulley is raging and there is water pouring through the woods in wide sloughs.
The sky is a dark as twilight and leaking... heavily.
The weather guys said we were in store for between 3 and 5 inches for today.
sigh
I wish it would save some of this rain for August.
We are in such a terrible drought here.
The past two summers the grass turned brown and I had bare patches in the yard
of just dusty dirt. It stayed like that for months. If it had rained I would have had deep mud everywhere, but grass is tough stuff and regrew when the temperatures lowered in the fall.
So.. I thought I would take you back in time.. or into the future...

It is a mighty warm day in early September.
Finally cool enough that I can hang out outside most of the day without having to hide in the AC until 5 in the afternoon. I have done some weeding and some picking and I have set out a few of my fall crops.
I have just come in from the garden with a bucket
brimming with tomatoes, peppers and beans for dinner.
In my basket I have a huge bundle of Lucullus Chard too.
My face is freckled and my hair is a mess under my widebrimmed hat
You know, the one with the chicken poo on the inside rim.

I have dirt under my nails and my back is sore.
I picked 8 hornworms this morning and the blister beetles have
yet to make their appearance.
The chickens are laying great and we are selling a ton of eggs
and the broodies are out in the yard with all of their hatches in tow.
I think I will set the bounty on the counter, grab a cold beer and sit in the shade and enjoy for awhile.
aaaahhhhhhhhh.

Forward...Hoe !!!

2009-01-04T19:37:00.004-05:00

Happy New Year to all!!!
I hope your holidays were warm and filled with joy.
Ours were good too. Thanks for asking.

I must mention how well Sweet Husband
did with his gift to me this year!
I got a WMA player (think Ipod)
It seems our library system has bought into
a digital library group and now I can download any book
I want to listen to while I work away in the garden or barn with just my library card number!
I read a lot of books, or listen.
It is just wonderful.. of course it plays tunes as well.
It is so nice to be able to be in the barn without having to
hear 80+ birds squawking at me. You just don't know.
Good job, sweet Husband!

And speaking of working in the garden,

it is that time of year again.

Oh joy!

I have been digging out and clearing out the new garden spot.

I know that digging up wild asters and yanking out miles of

intertangled honeysuckle may not seem like fun to most,

but it winds my clock!

In a few short months I hope this will be a neat and orderly

grouping of heaped beds, some with early crops already growing

and some with cover crops waiting to be turned under.

With nice woodchip paths intertwining and inviting me to walk among the beds.

I am leaving the one wild cherry tree at the back end. It has a nice shape and it will do well as a perch for wildbirds to hunt for tomato hornworms from. I will put a water feature under it as well to water my toads and beneficial bugs as well as the birds. You just can't have enough birds and good bugs and toads in a garden. ever.

This new plot sits in the foundation of an old chicken barn, one of the really big ones. The one that is still standing and that we use is 10,000 sq ft. 250 ft long and 40 ft wide. 5 times bigger than our house.

At one time this place had 23,000 birds. wow.

There is one barn still up and two foundations. We have plans to eventually clear and use both foundations...blueberries, blackberries, grain plots for feed, sunflowers, mangels and massive herb and wildflower beds to draw and feed beneficial insects.

You wouldn't have believed what this plot looked like this summer..a head high tangle of scrub trees, vines, weeds.. you couldn't even begin to walk through it. There were morning glories of every hue, goldenrods, the beautiful wild asters and other wildflower/weeds that I do not know the name of. It was a jungle and I know that I will have the devil's own time trying to keep new weeds from coming up all next summer.

We plan to till it up one good time and release the birds into it to clear up some of the weed seeds and then cover crop it and lay down feed bags and cloth and whatever else we can find the tamp out the new growth. I am under no delusion that it will be easy.

It is also a fairly clay-ey soil which is good in that clay soil is nutrient rich, but bad in that it is soggy and holds water. I am hoping by heaping the beds and adding garden/kitchen compost and composted manure and bedding that I can make it into a fairly quick draining garden.

I still have a way to go, but I have help. This is DaintyPig. She has been doing her best to get the beginning of the clearing underway. And as soon as we move PigPig down from the barn he can help. I think we are going to sell Dainty and PigPig in the spring and use that money to buy the

Tamworths that I have been wanting for so long. I met some nice folks that would be interested in these two and I think they would have a nice home with them. Especially considering the fact that we were going to eat them or their offspring.

Such a sweet girl. She followed behind me all the past two days rooting where I had been digging and just wagging away everytime I spoke sweetly to her.

Sing with me..

2008-12-27T10:19:00.008-05:00

'It's the most wonderful time of the year..
When the catalogs come
and the dreaming's begun
Oh- It brings me such cheer!
It's the most wonderful time of the year!'

I have been running to check the mailbox everyday for two weeks
waiting breathlessly for the good catalogs to come
and Finally!
Baker's Creek has come to live with me again.
Ooooh. And they outdid themselves this year.
what a beautiful catalog!

Let the list making begin!
And the garden plotting!
And the hoping..

Soon to be followed by the seed starting and the careful tending
as the new life pokes it's little wee greeness from the soil
on my laundry room shelves.

And I also hope that each and every one of you
had a wonderful Christmas this year.
It was a good one here
with gorgeous blue sky and warm temperatures..
and I wasted the whole day inside doing holiday stuff. Drat.
But now it is back to being cold and rainy.. AGAIN!!!
It has been dreary here since the 'flood'.
The sun came out once, but it never got above freezing that day
so it doesn't count.

Back to holiday cheer..
I received a wonderful gift from Sweet Husband.
a WMA player thingie. (think Ipod like contraption)
Our library system is hooked up with an online
library of audiobooks I can download for free
with my library card!
Just think... any audiobook ever right at my fingertips!
And it holds music too.
The barn was never so nice as it was yesterday doing chores
while Otis Redding and Millie Jackson belted it out in my ear!
I couldn't even hear the chickens!
Now that, my friends, is a great gift!

A belated Merry Christmas to all!!!

This topic is being covered more in depth in the 'comments' section.. feel free to join in! Input is welcome and opinions noted:)

It's Butter Time..

2008-12-19T19:50:00.005-05:00

Yep indeedy.
Butter Time!
Not 'butter' butter, but apple butter!
Truth be told, it is my second run for the year so far,
but nowhere near my last!
I do truly love apple butter.
I usually try to do it on the woodstove
since it is hot and chugging already, but it is just too warm to have a fire today.
So, the stovetop it is.

I know these are some ugly apples,but they are unsprayed and pure and delicious.

Ugly is only skin deep.

And this little jewel is not an ancient torture device,

but the hero of the day.

I can knock out a 15 quart Dutch Oven of apples in a flash!!

I have done it all by hand in the past and it is agony.

Never again..hahaha ha.

The apples look much, much better now, don't they?

And, oh! I wish ya'll could smell my house.

Sweet and tart. Man, it smells great in here.

I do not make 'black butter', which is apple butter cooked for so long

that it turns black. For me I like to be able to taste the actual apples in the final product.

Don't get me wrong. Black butter is good, just intense and not very apple-y.

I stop when my butter is a deep, rich amber and not too smooth.

My recipe is as follows:

Apples.

Some folks add a few cups of sugar, some cinnamon and nutmeg and other spices.

Not me. I find that apples are plenty sweet enough just the way Mother Nature made them.I may get crazy sometimes and add a splash of lemon juice if I find that it is getting too sweet and I may add just a whisper of cinnamon... maybe. I am talking less than half a teaspoon for a whole run and a whole run is several quarts of finished product.

I think that most of this run will end up as gifts this year.

Except for my mother.. she's getting cherry butter. Oh yeah. I said it.... cherry butter!!

You just don't know how good life is until you have smeared a fresh hot biscuit with cherry butter.

Of course, apple butter is no slouch on a biscuit either.

Or on hot cornbread.

How bad do you want some apple butter right now?