Butter Day 2

Since I'm only able to get a small amount of cream from Majesty's milk, I decided to freeze it until I had enough to do a proper batch of butter.

I thought two pints, plus the cream off yesterday's milk should do it.

It was still a little skimpy.  Next time I'll wait for three pints.  Any more than that would be too much for my mixer.

It made just a little over half a pound.  (Forgot to take a picture).

Making a year's supply of butter from a holstein/beef cross cow would be extremely over ambitious.

Majesty continues to improve her milk yield for us, as Queenie eats more and more grass.  It's just not very high in fat content.

Free Chicken Feed

So simple...

A few days ago I watched this video.



How easy is that?  I went to Lawton's site, watched the full video, and the follow up videos.   So easy.  When the chicken's free ranged they were always digging through the compost piles.  It never occurred to me to give them their own compost piles after we beefed up their security.

#4 unloading a trailer of heavily worm infested compost.

We've always given the birds the kitchen scraps, and weeds.  I've done the maggot buckets- meat in a five gallon pail for flies to lay their eggs on.

Building up a nice pile of barnyard waste.

 I've given them sunflower seeds, sprouted trays of barley, wheat, and lentils.  I've given them ant infested logs and the occasional scoop of doggy stew.  I still pay way more than I want to for grains.

Minutes after we left the pen.

And all this time, the answer was right there in front of me.  Free for the taking.

Happy birds working their way through a free lunch.

So sad that I didn't see this earlier in the year.  I'll be aiming for a grain free summer next year.  For this year, I'll watch and see how long a pile of manure keeps them entertained. 

Silage

I like small square hay bales.  Husband and the boys use the tractor, and put out 2 or 3 large round bales at a time, usually enough to last a week.  Then I am on my own through the week.  I don't use the tractor.

I like small square bales because they are easy to manage- handy for a single person to toss over the fence when we are out of hay.  Unfortunately, they are harder to find in these parts (a lot of work goes into picking up and storing all those bales), cost more, and are more complicated to store.

And then the goats, who never stay where they belong, get into them and make a mess.  Or it snows, (it always snows), and they freeze into solid lumps- turning convenience into a waste of money, time and energy.

Last year we didn't buy any small square bales.  Husband and the boys worked harder making sure there was always enough hay in the pasture.  And if there wasn't- I worried all day until they got home, expecting angry cows to break out and high tail it to the neighbour's.

Sometime through the winter, I watched War Time Farm (again).  This episode, where they attempt to create silage from sugar beet tops, which the cows ransack, and then try creating silage from nettles and weeds made me ponder.  I did some reading on silage, and found this video.  Well that's certainly easier than building a silo!

We often rake mom's yard after cutting, because her grass gets so thick and long, it's almost like mowing a hay field.  I thought to myself that I might experiment with the excess that the critters don't eat right away.

Winter passed, spring arrived in all of its glory, garden went in, fencing began...  It was on the back burner.

And then, as I weeded yesterday, I thought, why not?  The birds aren't even eating a 5 gallon pail of weeds this year (there aren't so many of them), and the cows don't need the weeds right now, since they're still working on mowing down the yard.

After filling two buckets with weeds from the garden, I went looking for garbage bags.  Except, as soon as I entered the house I saw a feed bag filled with recycling.  Because feed bags are plentiful around here, they tend to be put to all sorts of odd uses.  And then I thought, 'I wonder...'

On closer examination, I decided the cat food bags were suitable, more plasticy and air tight.  I gathered a bunch, along with some string, and went back to the garden. 

It takes about 2.5 buckets, or 12.5 gallons of weeds to fill one feed bag.

 Then I sat on the bag, twisted the top, and tied it off. 

Mom called, with weeds to be picked up from her place.  We ended up with four feed bags stuffed with weeds in just one day.  Since it involves so little extra work (bagging and tying), and may be a huge cost saver this winter, I plan to continue.  I mean, what's the worst that can happen?  I might have to compost it next spring.  Well worth the effort in my books.

For now we're storing them in the old coop, until the cows finish in the side yard so I can clean out the hay lean-to and fence it off to keep the critters out when they're back in that yard later in the summer.

Smoking

A couple of years ago my brother and sister-in-law gave me their smoker.  It's been sitting on a shelf in the garage ever since.  Until this week, that is.  I kept meaning to try it out, but when I'm butchering, well, I'm busy butchering.  And after butchering all day, it was easier to just make jerky in the oven, rather than pulling out the smoker and figuring out how to use it.

So, of course, I did it all wrong.  It's a charcoal/water smoker.  Charcoal...  not my thing.  I mean, I suppose I could make a batch of charcoal, but really, why can't this thing run on wood?  So I filled up the fire pit and lit it, and waited an awfully long time for all of that wood to burn down to a nice bed of hot coals.

#1 got out the smoker.  We hosed it all down, cleaned out the cobwebs, tried to figure out where all the parts went, then stuck it in the fire pit to burn off any ickiness that was still on it.  Good thing too, because it stunk really bad.  The smoker was coated with some kind of paint or something.  Yuck.

Then we went in the house to watch youtube videos.  We did find a couple showing how smokers were supposed to be set up and used, but most were videos about how other people had modified their smokers.  They all used charcoal.

Back outside, smelling better, I pulled the smoker out of the pit and brushed off all the ash and scum left behind from the paint.  In the pit, the temperature gage- warm/ideal/hot, no actual temperature- was reading hot.

So we put the grate on over the fire pit and put the smoker on top of it.  We put the bowls and racks in place, filled the water bowl, added mesquite chips (they came with the smoker) to the charcoal/wood chip bowl, and waited for the temperature to reach 'ideal'.

Then we added the meat.  One pork shoulder, and one small beef roast.  I coated them with BBQ sauce.  Experimenting with the smoker was enough for one day, I may try a rub or marinade next time.

With the smoker raised above the fire, it cooled down rather rapidly, so we had to keep adding wood.  Wood under the smoker, adding smoke...  Yeah, I guess this is pine smoked pork and beef.  Hmmm...

4 hours later they looked sort of done, it was after 10pm, dark out, and we were tired (and we ate burgers for supper hours before), so #1 brought them in and stuck them in the fridge.  Husband was going to make a sandwich for work the next morning, so he sliced off the end of the pork- and then went looking for sandwich meat in the fridge.  Not done at all.

I had to go to town that day, so I left #1 in charge of smoking them further.  It was a drizzly, rain off and on kind of day, so I told him to skip the grate and put the smoker right in the fire pit.  At some point in the afternoon he figured the pork was done and brought it back in the house.  He left the roast on all day. 

When I got home I looked at the pork, and although technically, it was probably 'done', it was not overcooked and falling apart the way I like it, so I put it back on again.  I never checked the roast.

At supper time, the pork was still not fall apart done, but it was browned all the way through and smelled delicious.  Yeah- where was the camera then?  Oops.  The roast was well done, with the outer edge so over done it was inedible.  Inside was a bit dry, but very flavourful and tender.

All in all, it was an interesting experience.  I think I'll try it again on our next drizzly rain all day type of day.  We tend not to stick close enough to the house on nice days to do a proper job of managing the fire- there be berries in dem woods! 

I think mostly the smoker is like an outdoor oven, which works well over the fire pit, and the smoke, well, it adds a different flavour than you get from the oven indoors.  I may skip the bottom bowl of the smoker, and just add the wood chips directly over the coals in the fire pit.  I'm also tempted to cut a branch or two from the cherry trees to use rather than the mesquite.  I doubt that I'll attempt to use it for jerky, as I'll still be busy butchering, and I can fit more trays in the oven and leave it on overnight without fear of wildlife looking for a snack.  I will probably just use it to break up the 'summer food' diet without heating the house up.

Pine Needle Tea

These are the pines on the edge of our drive.  I'm not sure what type they are.

They have short needles.  I trimmed some off with a pair of scissors, and after just a few snips I was both breathing easier and ready to sneeze.  Pines cause me terrible seasonal allergies when the cones open in the spring.

 I put them into my tea ball and gave them a rinse.  Should have taken the picture before rinsing, as half of them stuck to the top of the ball and settled on the edges and I had to fart around with them to get it to close properly afterward.

And of course, I'm not likely to start following directions today, so the tea ball went into my current pot of tea to steep and blend.





10 minutes later, I am drinking my first cup.  It's a Red Rose, Pomegranate White, pine needle blend today.  I don't notice a strong pine taste- not that I know what pine actually tastes like, but it doesn't taste like pine needles smell.  It does seem to have masked the pomegranate though, so I have a cup of tea that essentially just tastes like Red Rose, with maybe a bit of something...  that I can't quite place.

An interesting link: 
The Health Benefits of Pine Needle Tea

Other websites claim that pine needle tea may have up to 5 times as much vitamin C as an orange, but amounts and flavour may vary between species.  Sources claim rose hips have 426 mg per 100g, oranges 50 mg, and 5 times that puts pine needles at 250mg per 100g.  Pine needles have the added bonus of being available year round, thereby not losing any vitamin content to storage.

Halfway through my cup of tea, I'm noticing a bit of an after taste.  It's not entirely unpleasant, but noticeable. 

A funny little aside though, if you happen to look at the chart, how did oranges become so famous as 'THE' source for vitamin C? They're relatively low, trailing behind strawberries, elderberries, broccoli and brussels sprouts.  Marketing?

Another link, with tea remedy recipes:
Pine-Needle Tea

My second cup of tea, after steeping nearly 40 minutes, the taste of 'something else' has gotten a bit stronger.  I'm going to assume that is indeed the flavour of the pine.  My tongue feels a little odd , kind of coated.  The after taste is gone.  or not noticeable now.  My nose feels clear, though my sinuses are still compacted.  It'll be interesting to see if they drain today.

#4 has his first cup of tea, and I told him I put something different in it, but I didn't tell him what.  His opinion- it tastes the same as normal.  Since he's never had the pomegranate before (a bonus tea bag from Timmy's the last time I was out), I assume he's getting the same counter active effect I experienced.  

(Notice how I linked that for the non-Canadians?  If you tell your friend's you're going to Timmy's and no one asks Timmy WHO?  You just might be Canadian, lol!)

Ew- this might be too much info- I just horked up a big gob of slime.  And I haven't even been coughing or feeling any chest congestion.    I may have to make this a part of my routine.

Anyone else brave enough to try it? 

Yeast Water

Further research led me to this site:

Original Yeast Water

More information on this method is hard to come by, though I did find a sourdough forum with some discussion about it.  It appears to be another ancient method of capturing yeast, possibly from or common in Japan.

Yeast water.  Could it be that simple?  

Experimentation:  I started one jar with raisins, one with a blueberry pomegranate tea bag, and one with pine needles.  I added 2 tablespoons of sugar to each.

The link says 6-7 days in winter, so hopefully I'll be baking up a storm next week. 

Sourdough Starter

Because kymber told me to...

This time I'm following the very, very simple instructions found here for Dawson City sourdough starter and sourdough bread.

Very, very simple- equal parts flour and blood warm water.  I started it this morning with 1 cup of each.  It's in the cupboard above the fridge- the most likely spot to stay warm overnight.  Wish me luck.

Of course, before I could put it in the cupboard, I had to remove my previous attempt...

It's been in there for close to a year.  I had given up on it at the time, but looking at it today I think I must have achieved some degree of success, despite never actually seeing it bubble.

It smelled atrocious but wasn't growing new life forms, which leads me to think that there must have been some kind of established life present before I completely neglected it.

I stirred it up before tossing it, and while the smell was not pleasant, it wasn't that bad either.  Interesting.

Last time I read a bunch of websites, instructions, recipes.  This time I'm going to follow KISS.  If the miners could do it on the side of a mountain, surely I can create something edible in my own kitchen.  Right?

Fall Food Storage- Cold Room

I'm fairly happy with the state of the cold room this year.  Despite the lack of berries, I managed to fill it up with lots of other good eats, and even added two new shelves. 

The 'store bought' shelf has more home canned goods than ever before, and I'm hoping to knock a couple more things off the shopping list on that side yet.  Here's the breakdown...

salmon- 7
tomato soup- 10
cream of mushroom soup- pints- 9
mushrooms- 16
assorted canned fruit- 12
cream corn- 10
pasta sauce- 21 + 3 quarts
apple juice- 23
relish- pints- 16.5
cream of celery soup- 1 + 8.5 pints
pickles- 2
mustard- 1
hot pepper rings- 1
manwich- 2
zoodles- 2
ketchup- 3 + 8 quarts
BBQ sauce- 8
salad dressing- 4
mayo- 3
olive oil- 8L
vinegar- 1 white, 1 apple cider, 2 quarts raspberry
beet juice- 4 quarts
pickle brine- 4 gallons

assorted jams & jellies- 196 half pints
syrop- 9 pints
crabapple sauce- 8 pints

pectin- 12 half pints
ham and potato soup- 9 pints
stew- 3 pints
tallow- 1 quart
cabbage- 9 quarts
lemon curd- 4 pints
peaches- 2 pints
salsa- 49 pints
yellow beans- 15 pints
dog food- 12 pints (chicken noodle soup, not fit for humans)

grape juice- 12 quarts
squash- 5
pumpkins- 4
seed box

I had to buy 4 more cases of pint jars and 2 more cases of quart jars, in addition to whatever I picked up at the thrift stores.  I still have a case of quarts, but I'd need to buy more pints if I wanted to can anything that size right now.  I also used all but a few half pint jars.  Which means I'll need a bunch more before berry season next year.  Some will be ready to be reused, but most of the stuff we go through quickly is in quart jars, so it'll take a couple of years to get the smaller jars back.

dill pickles- 52.5 quarts
pickled beets- 60.5 quarts
blueberry sauce- 10 quarts
watermelon preserves- 9 quarts
lemon lime concentrate- 17 half pints
lemonade concentrate- 13 pints
tomato juice- 11
coffee- 7 x 2lbs
assorted pop and juice

potatoes- 35 lbs (I need to see the potato man)
water
a bit of lard

mangels- 10 gallons
rice- 4 x 8kg
flour- 7 X 10kg
carrots- 5 gallons
assorted pop and juices

onions- 10 lbs

apples (no pic)- about 5 lbs

I'm waiting for sales to finish stocking up on rice, flour, onions, and pasta sauce (we use a lot!).  I'm hoping for a big apple sale, but I have my doubts on whether it'll happen or not.  Otherwise, just a few things needed here and there to top off the shelves.

Washing with Lye

For a few years now I've been planning to make some lye soap.  When I first read about it in an old timer's book, it seemed like a fairly simple plan.  I just needed to build this contraption to catch the lye.

The plan was to build a large wooden box to dump the wood stove ashes into.  Then it would be connected to a drain board connected to a bucket.  Dump the ashes in all winter.  Let it snow, let it rain, water it down, collect the lye.

And then make soap.  But the whole process was sounding rather time consuming, smelly, and somewhat dangerous.  I left it to simmer in my head.  TShadn'tHTFyet so, no rush.



And then I watched Tales From The Green Valley, a British documentary of life on a 17th century farm.  And they got a might dirty over their year on that farm.  And they had to do laundry down at the creek.  And they made themselves a batch of lye to wash that laundry with.

And they didn't make soap.  They poured the lye directly over the laundry, then beat it clean.

Well, that's easy enough, isn't it?  I could do that.  Well, I'll let the washing machine do the 'beating', but I could make lye for laundry.

I started with two 4L ice cream buckets.  They stack, and the plastic ridges hold the inner bucket an inch or so higher than the outside bucket.  I poked holes through the bottom of the inside bucket to allow the lye water drain.  I put in a coffee filter, and wood ash.  Added about 4 inches of water and waited impatiently.

It took forever to drain.  In my second attempt I removed the coffee filter.  Very little ash leaks through and it drains faster.  It seems to work best if I leave it to drain overnight though.

The lye water seems more potent.  The first load of laundry I tried needed to be rewashed.  The second load was ok.  But laundry after leaving the lye to drain overnight turns out quite nice.  I was also pleasantly surprised by the smell- almost like that fresh air scent from line drying.  A pleasant surprise in the winter.

Further research reveals that pine ash is not recommended, and soft water is.  I have pine and poplar ash and hard water, which could be why my results aren't great.

I think I'll be sticking to store bought soap for town clothes, but the lye water will be fine for farm clothes.  Time will tell, too, I'm sure.  If things don't seem to be getting clean after a few washes, I'll reassess.  

Winter Food

After yapping about the garden and the harvest all year, I thought it might be interesting to write a little foodie post here in the great white north.

I haven't been out to a grocery store yet this year.  lol.  Not a huge accomplishment, we're only three weeks in.  However, I don't do a lot of grocery store shopping in the small towns at all, and I haven't been to the city since November.

I was buying a lot of bread!  Yes, bread, of all things.  Husband was picking it up on the way home from work, parents were picking it up for me, and I even bought a few loaves at our little store.  I was still baking lots of bread, but no one wanted to eat it, least of all me.  I tried a bunch of different recipes, but I was getting nowhere.  It was all so disgusting, heavy, and smelled like beer when sliced open.  I finally gave up, and asked my dad to pick me up some new yeast.  That was definitely the problem.  We're back to light, fluffy, yummy, fresh baked bread.  Now when I think about how much money I wasted on store bought bread while trying to convince myself that that jar of expensive yeast was fine...  Yeash.  Should definitely have replaced the yeast sooner.

Vegetation wise, my few trips to the store since fall have yielded a few stocks of celery, which for some reason are hard for me to resist in the winter.  Maybe it's the crunch?  Celery is one of my favourite snack foods.  I'm up to three bags of frozen corn, because you can only eat so much turkey before you go on a corn rampage apparently.  And of course, I never leave a store without a bunch of mushrooms.  Do they actually count as a veggie?  Packed with Vitamin D, mushrooms are one of my best friends throughout the winter.

Otherwise on the veggie front, we're getting low on carrots.  We had some spoilage this year, I think due to that lovely weather we had in the fall, keeping the cold room warmer than usual. Beans and beets are the everyday go to veggies, pretty much alternating every third day.  The bean supply is getting slimmer, but not done yet.  Broccoli is gone, gone, gone.  A few turnips left, and still two pumpkins.  Finished our first ten pound bag of onions.  Onions are starting to get soft and grow, so I'm not too sure how much longer the second bag will last.  I'm into my third (and last) 50 pound bag of potatoes.  I'll need to make a trip to the potato man soon to replenish my stock.  I nearly forgot about the tomatoes, so I've just started using them up.

In the meat department, eating a few turkeys certainly helps to clear out some freezer space!  I'm actually pleasantly surprised with the reception the turkey is still getting around here.  No complaints from the boys, despite turkey sandwiches and days of leftovers.  Lots of roast beef, a bit of corned beef, and a fair bit of steak is gone, but still over half remains.  I am starting to dig for pork, which is kind of funny, considering how I avoided it for so long.  We will definitely be ready for new piglets this year.  The bit of pork we're eating is now a rare treat.  The bear has hardly been touched, on account of it all being in the garage freezer.  I do have room now to start shuffling some things around and bringing more variety closer for convenience.  A warmer day would be encouraging to get my arse in motion.

Fruit is crazy.  I think the boys are losing their sweet teeth as well.  They've eaten 1 jar of pears, and a few jars of jam.  My fruit shelves are still packed.  The apple supply has dwindled significantly, and they devoured a big pot of applesauce after I did my midwinter apple sort, removing apples with bad spots from the boxes.  Perhaps it's just that the pumpkin treats have been sufficiently satisfying.  At any rate, I will be trying to stuff more fruit into baked treats for the rest of the winter.  Blueberry sauce cookies anyone?

Reasons to head out to the grocery store...  We are getting low on rice, dried beans and pasta.  Pasta sauce has also taken a hit, and baking supplies (powder, soda, chocolate chips, and sugar) are at an all time low.

All in all, I'm quite pleased with our harvest from last year, and looking forward to doing it all over again this year.  It's definitely been our most self sustained year yet!

The Butcher, The Baker, The Candlestick Maker...

Usually I am well prepared for temporary power outages.  But the other day, the power went out first thing in the morning.  We had just gotten up, lit the fires, and made a pot of coffee.  Two hours 'til daylight.  -32°C outside.  Brrr.  And that was it.  Lights out.

Normally I have an assortment of candles sitting out on the hutch in the living room, one in the bathroom, a couple in the kitchen, and one in my room.  I know where they are, easily accessible, not too much stumbling around in the dark. 

But...  The candle in my room disappeared somewhere in the pre christmas chaos.  The candle in the bathroom disappeared somewhere.  Haven't figured that one out yet.  One of the kitchen candles was burned down beyond use last time, and I hadn't replaced it.  And my hutch?  Well...  We set up the little tree this year, on account of a chewing puppy, and I cleared the hutch off to place the tree.  And in my pre holiday hum bug, where exactly did I dump all of that stuff?  Yeash.  Stumbling in the dark.

I love candles.  Always have.  Like moths to a flame.  I love the colours, the warmth, the wet wax pooling up and running away.  I told husband not long ago that I should learn how to make candles so that I could be 'the butcher, the baker, the candle stick maker'.  lol.  And then, one of the blogs I follow posted about making new candles from old candle wax.  And then the power went out.

So, after I found the candles, while we sat at the kitchen table playing chess and battleship, warmed by the heat of the wood stoves, I watched the pools of wet wax grow and spread and harden.  I kept thinking to myself, I wish I had printed that blog post.  I got an empty jar and started collecting the used wax as it dripped away.  By the time the hydro came back on I had quite a bit of wax collected.  I also trimmed off the uneven tops of some large candles, and emptied the tiny bits at the bottom of some almost finished candles.  Then I went in search of that blog post.  And I could not find it.  I wish I could give credit where credit is due, but I'm at a loss.

Instead, I googled candle making and found a variety of different perspectives.  Most of them agreed that the wax should be melted in a double boiler.  I used an old pot full of water and inserted my collecting jar and a candle in a jar that had drowned itself long ago.  I heated it gently on low heat, the wax melted fine, no broken jars or explosions.

My wicks are just thick cotton string, twice dipped in the melted wax with a plastic fork, and then laid out to harden.  For one candle I reused the little metal bit from an old candle, the other I just held in place with a bit of wax, let that harden, then continued pouring.  I used a pencil to hold the wicks somewhat centered in the jars.  More wax was needed as the wax cooled and hardened and left a dip in the center.

Both candles burn fine and bright.  The thicker one doesn't melt evenly, so I'm now searching for thinner jars and glasses for future use.  They're self drowning candles in the jars, so I poured the wax off periodically into my collecting jar as well.  Then I thought, why not make new candles while the old candles burn?  I had a little shot glass, and enough wick trimmed off from the first jars to fill it.  I poured the wax off the melting candle directly into the shot glass around the wick, making a third candle.  With a few prepared wicks and enough empty jars I could keep myself supplied with candles for future power outages during power outages.

How cool is that?

Other notes on being prepared...

-Lots of board games, cards, books, etc.  Zero boredom, short term.
-Short on snow this year.  We didn't need to melt any for this short power outage, however we'd be hard pressed to find enough clean snow to last 2-3 days this year.  The creek is not frozen, nor the spring, but  hauling water from either requires better planning.  I need to look into collecting better large jugs, and a sturdy, lightweight sleigh to haul it with.
-Tea pot.  I have a lovely little cast iron kettle on the wood stove all the time, to add moisture to the air.  However, it's rusting on the inside.  Unappealing for tea.  Of course, any pot would technically work to heat water for tea, but I'd really like a large stainless steel kettle.
-Breakfast.  I haven't really considered wood stove breakfasts before.  Low on eggs and bread,breakfast was a couple of apples each.  I know I can cook any one pot meal I might need for supper on the wood stove (roast, stew, soup, etc), but I need to pay more attention to simple meals for breakfast and lunch, especially in the event of a long term power outage, or come up with some other cooking methods.  The sun room wood stove has a small surface area, allowing for only one pot or frying pan at a time.

It's good to have the power go out at odd hours.  Helps jog the brain for future preparedness.

Beef and Turkey Stock

I found this processing times and pressures chart the other day.  Perfect. 

Turkey soup got put on hold, as I need to make a batch of turkey stock first.

I usually use chicken soup base powder or bouillon cubes when I make chicken or turkey soup.  I made a batch of chicken stock once, a few years ago, with the chicken feet.  It did not impress me.  It was very fatty, and not very flavourful.  I froze it, and then tried to figure out what to do with it.  I don't cook much with chicken stock.  I didn't like it in soup.  I think there might still be a jar at the back of the freezer above the fridge.  I should probably throw that out.

I had much better luck with my beef stock.  Did I post that?  Oops.  Doesn't look like it.

I made beef stock from Steaks' neck and leg bones.  I saved another batch of bones to do another batch of stock later.  Mostly following the instructions here, but I read over a few different methods before I started.  I think the big difference between my methods and most other peoples, is the quantity.  The instructions there said 3 hours minimum, 6 to 8 if you can do it.  I had my big stock pot (came with my propane cooker for roasting turkeys, bigger than a 5 gallon pail) over half full of bones, meat and veggies, with water to cover.  At 3 hours nothing seemed to be happening.  At 8 hours, the meat was just starting to fall off the bones.  I ended up letting it simmer for two days before I strained it and started reducing.  Then I froze it in ice cube trays.  2 cubes is plenty to flavor gravy or a big pot of stew.  I like it.

So today I am making turkey stock.  I'm using the big stock pot again, with the entire turkey carcass.  I didn't roast the bones, since I roasted the turkey yesterday.  All of the bones, skin, fat, cartilage, and a generous handful of meat.   Lots of carrots and onions, the last bit of celery ends I had in the freezer, half of a green tomato, sage, rosemary, thyme, a bay leaf, and 5 cloves of garlic.  The smell is already starting to make me hungry. 

Now I'm debating.  Should I pressure can the stock?  (less reducing)  Or freeze it in ice cube trays like the beef stock?  (less storage space)  Of course, I'll have to wait and see how much is left after I make turkey soup tomorrow.

Brrr...

Temperatures are dropping again. I really can't complain- it's October already!  We've had great weather this summer and fall.  The best since we moved up north.  But all good things must come to pass, so these cooler days are a friendly reminder that winter is not far away.  And I don't like to be cold.  And I don't like to work outside in the cold.  So I best get my ass in gear if I'm going to make it into hybernation before snowfall.

We have four wood stoves, which each will hold different sizes of wood.  This is the sunroom wood pile.  It's almost done.  The lean-to is full, but I like to have an extra row in front that we use through the fall.  The sunroom is where we enter the house.  The stove is small, the box about 12"X12" square, and 18" deep.  I prefer the wood for it to be very dry pine.  it's the first fire we light in the morning, to take the chill off as soon as we open the door to let the dogs out.  We let it go out in the afternoon, except on the coldest days.

The real heat source is in the basement.  We have a wood oil combination furnace.  The box is 20"X24" and 24" deep.  We cut the wood for it much longer than the sunroom wood.  The basement holds 6 rows, 10'X8'.  I need another 2.5 rows right now.  We drop the wood in through the window and down the slide.  We also keep a pile of 'over-nighters' under the basement stairs.  Very large pieces that won't burn up over night with the dampeners turned down low.

Then there's Homework House.  It was the trailer and add-a-room we built for f-i-l, but he went to live with Husband's brother in the spring.  It's now Homework House because #1 uses Dragon Naturally Speaking to do his homework, and it doesn't like the background noise created by little brothers. 

It's also really nice to have a clean work space available, with all the supplies they need, and not have to worry about getting them off the kitchen table for supper, or canning, or company dropping in.  They take their back packs over after school, and they can work for a bit, take a break, and come back and find everything the way they left it.

The wood for this stove is dropped in from about a 12" diameter hole in the top.  We cut it at about 10" long.  We have room for almost two more rows in the lean-to, and three rows in front.  Since this is the first year, and it won't be burning all day long, we don't know how much wood we'll need here.

The garage stove is similar style, but smaller.  We use the little stubbies like these for it.  The pieces we cut off the ends of other wood.

The Littles and I have been busy the past couple of weeks cleaning up branches and dead trees in the pasture, and clearing the trail from my parents place to the spring.  There's enough dead fall and dead standing wood to keep our fires burning for at least two more years.  We just need to get it cut up and brought up to the house!

To Do List (Before Spring):

My to do list before spring.  Gotta love that little widget.  Before spring meaning, in my world, before it's time to start the garden.  March 20th is totally irrelevant as far as marking spring goes around here.  Heck, our frost free date isn't until June 8th!  Although it is definitely warming up out there and the snow is melting fast, we're a long ways from seeing anything green yet.  And it's snowing!  So I still have a few weeks to get the last of my winter chores and projects done before we dive into spring- gardening, yard clean up, fencing, firewood and what not.

-clean out & reorganize basement
-fix the wood slide/basement window so it will close properly
-refill firewood from wood shed
-clean out #3 & #4's room
-remove carpet
-wash & polyfill walls
-paint
-put in new carpet
-get ready for the tax man
-clean out the feed room
<-buy new feed bins> DONE
I bought really big rubbermaid bins for feed.  And the squirrels chewed through the lid of the oats bin THE FIRST DAY!  Little buggers.  5 squirrels have met their doom in the squirrel trap since then.  I never minded when they stole from the bird feeders.  I don't mind when they clean up the stuff we spill.  But the ungrateful little buggers that are causing damage are on the hit list.
-clean out chick brooder box
<-test heat lamps/buy new bulbs> DONE
<-order chicks> DONE
I decided on 50 non-sexed Columbian Rock X Reds  

and 25 Bronze Orlopp turkeys.

They'll be arriving May 11th.  I bought corn crib wire to fence in the garden, and we'll be building the new chicken coop/turkey pen at the end of the garden.  With it all fenced in, I'll be able to open the gate between them at the end of the season/next spring, and let the birds browse, scratch, dig, fertilize, and control pests in the garden.  Since I spend tons of time in the garden all summer, I think it'll deter the foxes and other predators.  I'm hoping anyway.  I've also got plans to make use of human urine.  It's supposed to work well to keep deer and other animals away from the garden, so why not?  Once the fence is up, the boys can start marking our territory.
<-get greenhouse ready> DONE
<-put plastic on roof and sides> DONE
<-put wood on sides> DONE
-build & install door
The greenhouse has plastic.  Lots of plastic.  

We used 1X3s at the bottom of all four sides to hold the plastic down.

I put my digital thermometer inside last night.  It tracks the lowest and hottest temperatures, as well as the current temp.  Last night it dropped to -1.7°C (28.9°F)  That's not bad, considering it was late afternoon by the time we got the plastic done, and there wasn't time for the heat to build.  Today it's at 10.4°C (50.7°F) even though it's -2°C (28.4°F) outside.  It feels nice in there.  It shouldn't take too long to defrost the ground at that rate, and all we've done is plastic.  I have some black 5 gallon pails to fill with water and place inside yet.  The black will absorb the heat from the sun faster, and the water will help to moderate the temperature inside longer.  No garden hose yet, so I'm waiting for rain.  I should have filled them with snow before it started melting.  We didn't build a real door, after all.  Just hung plastic with a board for weight.  Since the pig in the greenhouse plan is out the window- and the entire garden will be fenced to keep out goats- a solid door isn't required now.

 All done.  Awesome.  Getting excited to plant.

-start seeds
-spring cleaning

In other news- none of the eggs hatched from the electric frying pan.  I'm too much of a wimp to crack them open to see how they were coming along.  They already smell.  There is a significant weight difference between some of them.  I'm not sure what that means.  The little gray hen is still broody and has managed to lay/steal more eggs than she can cover.  I would think they should start hatching soon if they're going to.

No trees tapped.  I've been procrastinating.  Now looking at the weather forecast, I may have missed the opportunity.

Hubby got a new toy, an Arctic Cat 650cc quad.  That should haul some serious firewood.  We might be taking the pick up off the road- still not running.  We'll see, I guess.

Quiet Pastures

And just like that, my whole world has changed....

I wake up, look out the kitchen window, and there are my cows, standing in front of the barn, waiting for their winter hay.  The ground is covered by about two inches of snow now.  Not much grass left poking through.  The air is cool.  There isn't much romping around going on out there these days.  They're quiet and patient and waiting to eat.  Standing in the hay zone, waiting for hay to arrive.  Where they will stand eating for the rest of the day.

But wait...  Why am I looking at cows?  Since when are they not chased off to wait their turn?  Oh...

Goliath died.  We went out one morning to do chores, and he was laying down.  Goliath has been a difficult horse for some time.  He had string halt.  Special diet.  Always a fight to keep weight on him.  He laid there looking at us sorrowfully.  We tried our best to get him on his feet.  He wouldn't budge.  Hubby finally said it was time to let him go.  Put him out of his misery.

Goliath, last fall.

That was about two months ago.

Goliath was hubby's favourite.  He only worked with Blondie once this year.  He gets frustrated with the actual work involved with working with horses.  I mean, he can work with them.  They are amazing animals.  But a days work with the Belgiums yields so much less than a days work with equipment.  And hubby is not home very many days.  There is always more work to do than he has time for.

Blondie.  The working girl.

Bella has never been worked here.  Hubby harnessed her once, in the beginning, and she didn't cooperate.  Since he was just learning, and Blondie was more cooperative, and then later, Goliath was such a pro- he never got back around to Bella.  She was #1's 'pony' for a year or so.  It was amazing to watch them run barrels.  But her wide girth was hard on his small legs.  When we bought more riding horses he lost interest in riding her.  She was only taken out of the pasture for deworming and ferrier this year.

Bella.  The REALLY big pony.

And along came winter.  Our hay guy has had some medical issues.  Our winter hay hasn't arrived.  He's not ready to do a days work loading, transporting, unloading hay.  He's been bringing us two bales, twice a week in his pick up truck.  The herd plows through that in no time.  We've been supplementing with our small square bales- the goat hay.

And the whole thing got me thinking.  And we discussed it.  And it was time to move on.

Thunder sold first.  He was the little pony stallion that we bought for #2 in the spring.  He was a sweet heart, but easily distracted by the girls.  If no one was in heat, he was a joy.  But with 5 mares around, he seemed to have more fussy days than good days.  And rather than being fun, it all seemed like a lot of work to #2, when it was much easier to grab Tori or Sugar and go for a ride.

Thunder

Bella and Blondie went on Monday.  It was hard to let them go.  They've been a part of our family for so long.  But it was time.

Along with the girls went our future in sustainable farming.  Sort of.  We had dreams of harvesting our own hay, plowing our fields, growing our oats, harvesting our oats...  with horse power.  Without relying on fossil fuels.  The thing is, we were using massive fossil fuels to feed them.  Buying hay from another farmer.  Transporting it here.  Moving the bales with the tractor.  And all for a dream.  We're no way near ready to harvest anything.  I now know better than to start plowing.  We're still working on grass management to feed the crew through the summer.  We have many fences to build.  It all seems kind of crazy when you consider the relief our whole system will have by not having them here now.  Maybe some day we'll be ready to work with horses.  But right now it's kind of bass ackwards.

The hardest part is looking out the window first thing in the morning.  And missing their huge bodies watching the house.

There are new watchers now.

And I will adjust.  But it will take time.