When you work from Home, do you really have a Hump Day? Is Monday really that bad? What does Friday mean? For us, none of that really applies. Friday's are bigger "work" days, since that is when I do all my baking for Saturday's Market. Saturday mornings are fun "work" days - I get to sell the items I've made, but I also get to talk to some really extraordinary people. Every day, though is a "work" day for us. But it is work I thoroughly enjoy and am blessed to be able to do.
I know I promised an update on Saturday. I could give you all my excuses, but suffice it to say, I've been busy and when I finally go around to getting on the computer, I was tired and didn't have it in me to compose in a logical manner, so figured I'd spare you the erratic post that would have occured.
Now, on to our doings!
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| Gaven's first butchering |
Two weekends ago, we processed chickens with our neighbor. We did 5 of
ours and 5 of theirs. It was a first time for them and a third time for
us. We had a lot of fun doing it. Don't get me wrong, killing
anything isn't "fun". It was the companionship that made it
fun. Gaven is learning all about where his food comes from and the
respect that should be given to an animal before it becomes that food. I
was able to show him all the different organs inside a chicken. Those of
you with boys will know how this went over. We will be butchering again
this weekend - 10 (possibly) 11 more! I plan on trying my hand at canning
some of this. I've canned chicken before but did not like the texture.
After talking to some others, I'm going to give it a shot again using different
methods. I'll let you know how it goes.
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| F - B : Hope, Tom, Orla |
Milking a goat is quite an experience! It started out as a not-so-good experience. I had to work to get Orla to get on the stand. She would try for the food bucket in every way possible EXCEPT getting on the stand. Finally, she realized she could stand next to the stand, put her knees up on it and eat sideways. I'd have to lift her heavy butt up onto the stand!! She's over 100 lbs! But, it worked. Then, when I'd start to milk (I have to milk her from the back as her udder sticks out the back and cannot be reached from underneath), she would stomp her feet something fierce. Jacob had to hold one of her legs up so she was standing only on 3. After doing some research, I came up with either hobbles, or tying her leg. I talked to a friend about tying (the hobbles would not work because they would have been in the way of her udder) her leg. It seemed somewhat "cruel", but I couldn't constantly depend on Jacob to be there when I milked and I couldn't keep getting those knobby knees in my hands and risk the milk bucket getting toppled. She agreed - tie her leg! So I used a horse lead rope that was thick and soft and tied her leg. Bit by bit, though, she's come around. I was able to lead her to the stand and just bump her on the butt to get her to get her own rear end up on the stand. Then, she stopped stomping, so I did not need to tie her anymore. Then, on accident one day, I managed to let her out of the pen without her lead rope! I thought "Oh no! I'm going to have to chase her down". Guess what? She ran into the milking shed, jumped up on the stand and started eating. I locked her in, milked her and back to the pen we went! She was/is trained!! It's a VERY good thing.
I've been experimenting with cheeses. So far, I have made ricotta, mozarella, Ziegenkase and yogurt cheese spread. It is a ton of fun and is well received at the market. I've also made yogurt, which is also well received. I love playing in the kitchen and this truly adds another dimension.
Here's a "recipe" for a wonderful snack - or even breakfast:
Yogurt
Jam/Jelly or Honey
Granola
Put about 1/2 the yogurt you think you'd want to eat into a bowl. (This grows, so I suggest 1/2 the amount you think you want - you can always add more later.)
Add a spoonful or two of jam, jelly or honey.
Add about a 1/4 cup of granola.
Mix well. Enjoy!! Sometimes, I will mix mine and put it into the freezer for 15 minutes, or so, before eating. It allows the granola to get a bit softer and the yogurt a bit colder. Most times, though, I mix and eat as I'm hungry right then!
Of course, if you're close, I'd suggest you come to the Lake DeSoto Farmer's Market on a Saturday and purchase the items from me, if you don't make them yourself at home.
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| New Microwave shelf and extended cabinet for my mixer |
Let's see - what else has been going on? Oh yea - we spent 3 1/2 days
replacing the floor in my kitchen! When we originally bought this
place, we hadn't planned on living in this home, we were going to fix
the other one up and live there so we did little to fix it up aside from
what was "needed". Well, over the last several months, the floor has
begun getting spongy. Hubby decided "it's time"! So, I had to take the kitchen apart. Well,
why do one thing only when many more things need to be done? While we had it apart, I painted (using 5 different cans of leftover
paint, I came up with a perfect sagey-green (or Americauna Egg Green as
Gaven says) - can we say Recycle??), hubby extended my counter space
(using plywood, he
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| Double Cabinet with cookbooks on the top |
burned it - totally made it awesome, the color and
grain is amazing!), put the microwave "up" and rearranged the
freestanding cabinets. It looks and functions so wonderful now, it
makes being in there even more fun.
We used a lot of left over and recycled things to make the kitchen safe and even more functional. I LOVE reusing and recycling!!
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| Me, Adonis and Mumbo |
The chickens are doing well. I'm getting lots of eggs. Angel Food Cake and Chiffon cake are on the agenda for making this week. There will be a surplus of eggs this week, so these recipes are perfect. One uses a dozen egg whites, the other a dozen egg yolks - how perfect is that?
Two new chickens have joined the flock. 2 Americaunas, Frosty and Apache. Gaven and I traded two Australorps for the Americaunas. I like the novelty of the green eggs, as do my customers and he wanted another breed, so we both made out.
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| Australorp Babies |
The Australorps have joined the "big girls" in the big pen. There are a LOT of chickens in there now. In about 2 months, I will be positively swamped with eggs! Of course, we'll be processing several that are in there now, this coming weekend - starting with the 3 horrid roosters! They are noisy and abuse my girls! Imagine this: a 6 lb rooster trying to "service" a less than 1 lb hen. Oh yeah, they do. My poor babies. :-( I've chased them off the little girls too many times to count.
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| Morning Muddy Water! |
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| Breakfast Time! See Otter - she's the Gold and Black Streak at the bottom, |
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| Hey Lydia - it's Prince Charming! |
On the 21st, we went to Jacksonville to celebrate my Father In Law's Birthday. I made Pierogis for dinner. It was a great visit. We enjoyed a great day visiting with the kids (2 of our 4) and our Granddaughter. So much laughter and so many smiles. Family is Awesome!
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| Just give him a little kiss.... |
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| Um - No, I don't think so Aunt Rachel - YOU kiss him!! |
Last week, I started a new knitting project. I was invited to go to a new shop in Ft White a couple of weeks ago for a sit and knit. We had a GREAT time! I found their blog and have been following it. I'm now involved in a KAL. Haven't really done one before - I started one, but.... I'm using some yarn I originally had made a shawl for my Civil War reenacting from. I've since taken it apart and this is a perfect yarn for this project. It's black silk! Yummy! Here's the link to the blog post on the KAL: http://bellalunaknits.blogspot.com/2013/04/knit-long-instructions-and-videos.html
I have spent this week cleaning animal pens and weeding in the big garden. Whew! Not sure whether the animals poop faster or the weeds grow faster!! But, then again, if the critters don't poop, I don't have fertilizer, so I reckon I won't complain about that chore. :-)
The garden is coming along very nicely. The corn is about 18" tall, the lettuces, peas, carrots and spinach are being harvested and the rest is either still growing or has flowers and will begin fruiting shortly. I'm so excited. Have I mentioned this is my first year with a LARGE garden?
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| My ever present helper - Bullseye |
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| Apron |
I spent a few days the week before last creating more items from feed bags. I've made aprons and clothes pin holders now! They're so cute - and very durable. We'll see how they're received at the Farmer's Market.
Well, this has turned into a very long post. I hope you've enjoyed hearing about our farm. I'll leave you with some pictures - don't I always? I know I take a lot and you may get bored looking at them, but I never get bored taking them.
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| Tom, Jacob and Hope |
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| Night time Loving with Roxie |
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| Tom, Jacob and Hope |
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| Tom - What? |
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| Winnie's Favorite Thing To Do! |
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| Jacob and Hope |
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| Peanut sneaking up for some love.... |
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| Winnie doing tricks - opening and closing the kids' gate |
This weekend, we worked hard! I did a fair bit of sewing - made a skirt, made some feed bag totes and clothes pin bags, weeded the above mentioned garden and sent 11 chickens off to freezer camp. Whew! I was ready for Monday to get here. The Cornish X we raised are gone, as are the 3 annoyingly mean (to the hens) roosters and 2 hens - one was a Freedom Ranger (originally meant for the freezer but we did not get around to processing the hens and they started laying (so we kept them because they were producing) but this one went broody (and therefore stopped laying - ugh) and stopped laying so I did not want to keep feeding her for nothing!) and the other was a very old hen I'd gotten from a friend (didn't know how old she was at the time) who hasn't laid more than a half dozen eggs in the last 18 months. Our neighbors came over for a few hours to learn and help. We sent them home with 2 birds. Doing things like this with friends is a very good way to build community!! We are sharing the rest with family as well as freezing a few and canning the rest. I'm going to try a new canning process, so I'll let you know how it goes. 
