Just another Day on the Farm

Buying Meat Chicks?

Posted on February 14, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

I am working on our meat production for the year and I am hedging on things, like most things in my life, I tend towards the prepared side of things, the have a backup to your backup.. or two is one and one is none..

So the first line of little fluffy chick’s, ducklings, goslings and Turkey pullets is of course their natural mothers.. All my females are given the extra’s and are encouraged to go broody and to sit their own eggs and hatch the next generations on the farm. I work hard to bring this back into my lines or I work with folks and buy proven stock that have sat and hatched and raised their own babies.

The second line is my incubator, it was bought to help with this, it allows me to collect, and hatch babies in the spring, this is huge because I can set more eggs in then a hen can sit, and just as important.

I can control when the eggs are set to hatch, so that my babies can get extra feed from the gardens and farm at the right time of the year.

The last line is to buy babies.

Which brings me to my list.. I realized that what I am missing in my flocks is Meat Chickens, I have only two hens and one rooster in my little over wintered flock that can produce nice big birds that would be great for the dining table but one of those hens is older and she is in the flock because she is a outstanding broody hen, and I want her sitting, that only leave’s my big gal.. and that means that at the most, she is a slow layer, she averages three or four eggs a week, that means in my max ten day egg collecting window, she is at best going to give me six to eight eggs, figure on four to six chicks max..

Not the numbers I want that ‘s for sure, I am wanting to raise and put up around 30 meat birds this year.. which brings me to buying babies..

And that brings me to cost.. locally a mixed dual purpose chick is going to cost you right around 7 dollars, plus gas and it will take a average of at least 16 to 20 weeks to grow to the four to seven pound kill rate.. (with a dressed weight of around 70 percent of live weight)

Now I have a couple choices.. I can do a straight run of a dual purpose meat breed for male chicks from the hatchery at around 2 dollars a chick, plus 20 for all the extra fees if I want to bring in 50 of them.. I can even lower that price to a mear 1.25 if I get a hundred.

But I don’t need a hundred, I want 25 to 30 birds to put in the freezer and canning jars but I can an will process more if it happens.. but the price really drops if you do 50..

Then comes the choice of what to get, I will not get white rock.. they are off the table.. the death rate and the very way they are breed and created bothers me.

But that leaves me with two choices pretty much.. a “special” blend of heavy birds that is the hatcheries recommended meat breed, and they are fast growing, they are healthy but they are called “firm” in meat and what that really means is that if you allow them to free-range and spend time in a more natural type chicken way, is that they are tough as can be if not cooked very slow and easy. Not this does not matter much for the canned meat but for just wanting a nice roasting bird.. it does matter to me.

I like flavour, I like them to chase bugs and eat grass but I don’t like tough as nails meat either.. and yes, I have been told that if I brine them for three days and cook proper that they will be tender..

or a one of the heavier dual purpose large brown egg layer, they take longer to raise, they are smaller at finish and they eat more.

Pro’s and Con’s on all of them..

I am still a bit up in the air on it at this time, but I need to get it figured out, the order I want to get them on is coming in on March 22 and If I want to know that I have them for sure on that date, I need to book them 4 weeks ahead. I could wait till april if need be..

At least I don’t need to worry about breeding, hatching and raising my laying hens, that I have well in hand.

I had hoped writing this post would help me figure out what I want to do lol but I am still unsure which route I will be taking..

Are you getting in meat chicks this year? How many are you getting in for your own families use? Are you raising for others this year as well? Are you planning on just working with what your hens or yourself hatch out? Will you be buying locally? Do you have your breed picked out?

Posted in Chickens | Tagged Buying spring chicks, chickens on the homestead, homesteading with chickens, Meat chickens, Meat chicks, raising meat chickens | 4 Comments

Happy Valentines Day, A Gift from the Heart!

Posted on February 14, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

Over the years I have had some amazing presents from my hubby, who is working a crazy 16 plus hour day with meeting.. I hope you will enjoy seeing on of my favorites. Wishing you a great day!

Ok, this going to be a very photo heavy post, and I am only going to share so many of these but I had the most amazing wonderful valentines day present waiting for me this morning in my kitchen

A Sea of Big Pink Post it notes hand done by hubby covered every cupboard, up and down, the fridge, the stove, and even some on the fan above my head.. I stood and laughed and then I started reading and then I started crying.. but its the good tears! Love my man.. have I ever said, how much I LOVE my husband.. I am so blessed!! I truly hope that everyone of you has someone in your life that just “gets” you.. There are many, many more then what I am sharing… Happy Valentines Day Everyone!

Posted in Life moves on daily | 3 Comments

Snow.. Its a snow day..

Posted on February 13, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

They told us it was coming.. o yes they did, and we could see it on the radar, be blogs of green and pink as far as the screen could show, they said, a foot, then they said a foot and half, then they said.. hey two feet of snow..

Saturday is started to snow, just light snow.. pretty snow.. then it snowed all day sunday.. light falling snow, but steady.. the kind of snow that lets me take pictures like the ones above, the temp warmed up (compared to the deep freeze very cold temps for the past week) and the horse’s played and loved it..

We had a fire, roasted sausages and marshmallows over it as a treat, but mainly we did farm prep for the coming storm, we hauled extra everything, we topped up bedding, feeders and we put out double hay, because that is what they use to keep themselves warm.. they eat themselves warm 🙂

And then it really started to snow.. it was darn near white out conditions, we called and moved everyone into the barns, the stalls and the lean-to.. even the non-expecting sheep were moved inside.. so they could shake off the snow and settle in for the storm to come..

The ducks are as stubborn as always, sitting up on the snow bank in front of their warm house huts.. and with that darkness fell.. it had been a shadow less day.. so overcast that nothing was coming though..

We had moved the truck to the end of the driveway early in the day on sunday.. It was a good call. The alarm went off at 4am so that we would have extra time to shovel out the end of the driveway.. Thankfully Farmer R had the same thought, he was up before 3am to clear out the area on his farm to allow the ladies milking time an such.. so he was able to use the big blade to clean out the end of the driveway where the snow plows had closed us in but good..

He came back a few hours later with the bucket and tractor and cleared out lane, that had to be a record, twice in one week for us is very odd, normally if we get help even once a winter that is all.. but I am so glad.

officially without drifting, my measurements says we got 18 inches of snow in 24 hours, but that means that we got 4 inches on Friday, 7 inches on Saturday and 18 on sunday, for a grand total of 2 foot and 2 and half inches of snow in three days..

With drifting.. o my.. this is the top of my five foot sheep fence at the front edge of one of my gardens, (this is in fact one of my early, normally first planted gardens LOL).. what do you think folks.. 8 inches, 10 inches maybe showing.. We are going to need to dig out the fence line.. so much fun!

Well, I came in to warm up, grab some lunch and take a break, I had better get just a bit more done yet.. Stay safe everyone that got hit by this storm! As for the rest of you in warm climates and such.. enjoy the snow photos.

Posted in homestead | Tagged canadian winter storms, dealing with snow, snow days, snow on the homestead, snow storms on the farm | 5 Comments

Good Fire is awesome (even if in a snow storm)

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

Sometimes you just need a change of pace LOL.. A good fire can be just the thing.. we got four plus inches of snow last night and we are expecting another foot plus by tomorrow morning.. Ah Winter….

Pretty Snow though, big fat flakes yesterday!

Posted in homestead | Tagged Fire's in winter | 2 Comments

Not every day can be a good one..

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

Some times you feel like you just woke up on the wrong side of the bed.. you are snappy and cranky or weepy or explosive.. sometimes you just feel so full its got to over-flow and sometimes you feel so empty that you wonder if you can find even one more drop to get you though it..

I read a post this week about how this relates to the homestead, it was a sweet little post about all the tough things that no one tells you about homesteading, you know the things that when everyone is dreaming on paper that don’t just register the way they should..

Nothing will go as planned, Each year and growing season is different, that animals, and gardens, that high price fruit tree you just had to have will die and there is not a thing you could have done different to prevent it, that things are in some cases out of your hands

or even more so, that everything is in your hands.. that there is no break, that good weather or bad you still need to do chores, that taking holidays together or as a family is a thing of that past, that you will lock your days plans around chores, birthing or milking times.

That it’s a grind, that you never leave work, that when you come home from the pay-check work (because lets face it most of us need and do have off-farm incomes) that the farm work is always there waiting.

It ended with the note that it was all worth it..

I get their point, I do.. and I don’t disagree with it.. there can be no quit..

But that does not mean that there are not times where you just have a melt moment.. this morning, I had a total melt moment over a hot sock.. (now for those that are not living in Canada, a hot sock is a specially made sock, its thick, its soft and it reflects heat back to the wearer) its how you can go out into so cold winter weather or in a cooler old farm-house how you can keep your toes warm) and I wanted my pretty heart spotted hot socks and I could only find one..

I was in a right snit and even when it was happening, I knew, I knew that it made no sense.. it would be fair to say that my hubby would agree with that statement. As he was taking the verbal brunt of my search while my laundry room as taking the physical.

He finally looked at me, and said the perfect thing.. What do you want from me?

I looked at him.. paused and really looked.. took a deep breath and said, I need a moment, I made a coffee and drank it, he hummed around me, pausing, looking but waiting..

I was grateful for that pause, for that break.. for that moment of stillness and then I said, to tell you the truth, I am upset, I am hurting, I have held it together for the past few days, you see our daughter was born on Feb 2 but she passed on Feb 7th and our first meeting date is Feb 11th, I was so busy with the farm, the work, trying to just push though it one more year that I had not allowed myself the time to breath and grieve this year.

It all came out in a flood, Its such a strange thing to love your life, to be grateful for it every single day, to be humbled that you are so blessed to have your mate, your family, your friends, your farm and your so loved critters and yet to feel so deeply that something is missing, something that should have been, will not be..

There are many things in life like this and on the homestead, you will live closer to the earth, closer to the dirt, the wind, the weather, to the cycle, all good things but you will live closer to the other side as well.

It has to be faced, it has to be felt, it will get its teeth in you and it will dig in deep..

So for what its worth, its up to you decide if it will be a bad moment, a bad hour or a bad day. You need to look that moment, hold it, see it, bleed with it, let it happen, grab it with both hands, dig it out and give it the time it deserves.

Then…

Well.. Then.. you need to let it go..

and get back to life in the here and now..

Posted in Life moves on daily | 7 Comments

Working with your vet..

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

In my kitchen’s Dining Room, there are two of the biggest dog crates you have ever seen set up, each one has a cardboard box with a fat fluffy pillow covered with soft old worn flannel sheets from the church basement for easy cleaning on one side or end, with a wooden step up that hubby made and on the other end, is a kitty little pan.

Faith is in one set up, she will be one year old next month, she is a big and beautiful cat now, she was a stunning kitten and she is now a awesome house-farm cat.. she likes to go out every day but she comes running when called and she is pretty sure that the feather quilts on our king size bed are there just for her LOL

She came though her surgery with flying colors and she looks good, she is eating, drinking and using her litter box already.. while I will keep a eye on her, I expect the odds are very much in her favor that all is good..

The vet and staff just loved her..

In the other crate is a different matter, a middle aged, rangy freedom loving tom.. I laughed at the words shared with me.. he didn’t hiss at us this morning, but he is all hunkered down in the back with a look that says.. Don’t mess with me, and Don’t look at me.. I am not really here.

When I said to the staff, I am working on him but mark him down as a wild boy, I love the difference, I took Faith out in my arms, and they carried her in.. my boy, the gloves to my elbows, I got to hold him down in the big heavy crate and they gave him the sedate in the back leg, at least I didn’t get blood drawn this time, he has never bite me but man, he can use those claws and he knows the back legs are for damage.

He was given the full treatment, altered, Rabies Vaccine and he was also treated with meds to clear up any fleas, ticks, ear mites, mange and some worms. A bit of a overload to point on him but overall, he needed it done.

This morning, I got to be the lucky one that got to move him from his area to the crate.. he was such a good boy, he was cranky, vocal and scared but he was not mean.. and when he was moved into his crate, he had a drink, eat his wet food and is now snuggled into his bed and pillow.. I bet that warm bed feels just great for him.

He will stay in the house for a min of three days, and if he takes to his litter box well, I might see if he settles well enough that he can stay in for a full week of healing before going back out to the little barn.

Faith will get to come out for walk around and snuggles but will spend most of her day in her little area as well, no jumping, no playing or running or having games that might pull those stitches. Its a short price to pay for her to heal nicely from her surgery.

Both of them were very excited that they are on soft wet cat food diets today 🙂

Now the reason this post is titled, working with your vet is because I was so surprised today when I went to pay my bill, my vet was kind enough to give me a discount on a few things on the bill as a thank you to me for giving my farm cats such good care.

It was unexpected but it was a touching thing for me.. Its a good thing to have a working relationship with your vets, and I have a few, there is the large animal vet, the small animal vet and the horse vet.

How many vets do you have for your homestead or farm? What critters do you do most of the vet care for, (example Fowl or Rabbit are almost always done by myself) the sheep and such are typically seen once a year just to keep the “working” relationship with me doing almost all regular work there as well.

But the horses get their vet care, the hounds and purr-pots are a mix, they get some things done by myself, and I am grateful that the vets work with me and are comfortable that I can do some of the basic’s and on other things.. its vet time..

Posted in Critters | Tagged Farm vets, homestead, Large Animal Vet help on the homestead, Working with your vet | 4 Comments

Lets talk about the farm’s Sugar use in 2016

Posted on February 10, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

So in 2016, we used a grand total of 126 pounds of sugar for coffee, tea, baking, canning and so forth..

My records show that approx. 76 pounds went into canning or curing items. Now it gets really trick at that point, because the sugar used in the cures is not eaten but it is needed for safety, the sugar in juice or fruit again does not need to be consumed in order to have the canning, same with pickles or anything else in a sweet brine, the sugar is there but its not drank..

However jams, jellies or syrups the sugars used in them are consumed, and I use canned fruit and jam and such in many of baking recipes, I add fat, a jar of the fruit, jam or jelly for the flavour and the sugar content in it then add the eggs and continue making the recipe, the fruit keeps it moist and the sugar is cut from the standard recipe but its also accounted for in the baking in that way.

So as I am truly unsure how to figure out the sugar from the canning because we will be eating that over the next two or more years coming, that said, we eat a percent of the sugar used in 2014 and 2015 in 2016..

So I am going to say that we eat a extra ten pounds of sugar per adult, and that the rest was used but not consumed in the finished products

The average Canadian consumes 88 pounds of sugar per year.. that’s split over everyone, but they had a handy chart that shows what the average is for 30 to 50 adults, males are said to consume 94 pounds of sugar and females are 74 pounds of sugar. hmm

So we used 50 pounds of sugar plus I am going to add in the extra ten pounds, for a total of 70 pounds, which means between us that 35 pounds of sugar per adult.

So that puts us with a reduction compared to the average of 53 pounds less of sugar..

I am happy that we are eating on average that much less sugar then the average but I still think its pretty high. Can I get that down further in 2017, I am going to try..

If you are on a homestead and you buy your sugar in bulk and or keep track of the amount used, do you have any idea how much you use per year and what it breaks down to per person in your family? Are you happy with it? Want to use less?

Posted in Food Storage, frugal | Tagged Canning, Frugal, homestead, storage sugar, Sugar, Using sugar for curing, Using sugar in canning | 3 Comments

No Buy Feb Update-Week 1

Posted on February 10, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

What a challenging start to No Buy Feb, It seems like every time I turn around, I am having to say no.. it got to the point that even my dear hubby had a bit of a bad day over it.

Nothing like feeling bad, when your man looks at you and says, I wanted to do this but could not, without breaking rules that we choose to place on ourselves.

Made me feel very bad, got him more baking that’s for sure, and at the same time, I love that he takes these things to this point.. because otherwise, it would just be a touch to easy to cheat.

So the good things so far, the house still have everything you could want as long as you raid the pantry, cellar and freezers.. I have been baking a touch more then normal, we have had very cold weather and we are all craving soup, stews and carbs and we have been making popcorn as our snack.

We still even have a touch of fresh fruit left in apples, oranges but we have lot of canned, dried and a goodly amount of frozen fruit as well.

We have spent far more then I would have liked on a no buy feb on the farm, its allowed but I still try and keep Feb to a min but there was a few things that had sales on that where a touch to good to pass on. The things got where on the my farm list of “get when on sale” and they came on sale.

We got a extra big extra strong new farm sled (its for outdoor work and fishing) but it will work perfectly for the farm, I have had my eye on this very sled at the feed stores but its a 400 dollar sled with parts including the bars for the quad.. and I could not just buy the sled… way to much money. So you can imagine how excited I was to see the same sled without the kit (available on the side) on sale for 160. Still crazy costly but its got a ten year warrenty on it and it will fit a lot of buckets or hay bale, and in a pinch, logs and such, its can carry up to 600 pounds.. Its a work horse! It was sold out, but they ordered in from a different store, so we don’t have it quite yet but soon.

Otherwise, this week also hurt on the critter cost front in terms of vet products and fees, between topping up the lambing kit (a post on that will be coming) and getting two more of the farm cats altered, it was a whimper worthy.. you will see the final cost total on that when I do the month round up..

So now for the bad.. I had a dear friend coming to the farm for the day, we were planning on a on farm visit and I was so looking forward to it.. the day came and it was very! cold, and then the power went out, for the whole day.. I blinked.. and then I blinked hard..

Now I take a total fail on this, because I could have stayed home, I could have figured it all out, but I didn’t, when my girlfriend pulled in the drive, I said.. I have no power, its not expected on till 4, and I promised you a awesome lunch and visit.. we are going to town..

She tried to pay for lunch so that it would not count towards the No buy feb and I am grateful for the offer, but I declined and said, I did it, I will own it.. so yes, I went for fish and chips, I got a lunch special so I had soup, lunch and coffee all included.. $20 dollars by the time I gave a good tip and paid the meal and tax.

I would like to tell you that was it, but then she said, church basement.. I can do church basement without spending I have done it many years before, so I was truly surprised when I walked out with a “walker” for my mom to use for uneven ground on the farm, and a cast iron pan.. but I did.. Now I could have not gotten the cast iron pan but it was a great deal and I snap up good cast iron when I find it and when I find a 40 dollar plus pan for 2 dollars, it’s coming home with me..

The walker was something that I have been looking for to add to my just in case collection and it was 5 dollars, its in very good shape and worth a lot more.. it might be a No buy Feb fail but it was one worth it..

I did allow one girlfriend this week to buy me a coffee from Tim’s as well.. but I have always allowed friends to do so if we are out and about and they offer ( I can not ask) and that own it here.

Now we are coming into a 3 day weekend here on the farm, and we have work planned but its so cold, we will see. we will be focused on getting the critters needs meet, a bit of a plan to do a build in the big barn but it had better warm up or that might not be happening..

Sometimes you need to let the weather help control what you will and will not due..

So there is my first week, much more tough then normal, which surprised me to be honest..

Posted in No Buy Feb | Tagged Frugal, Homesteading, No Buy Feb, No Buy Feb 2017, No Buy Feb Challange | 1 Comment

Breaded Lamb Heart with Recipe

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

As those that have been reading the blog for awhile or poked around, you know that I like to use everything possible from the critters I raise on the farm. This is a really great way to use heart that’s different from the standard stuffed and baked.

The size of the heart and the age of the heart will make a difference on the amount produced and the tenderness of the heart itself. I am going to recommend that you consider doing a lamb or standard size pork heart for this.

Now if you are buying a heart from the butcher, then the odds are that it will already be well trimmed, and cleaned up, but if you home processed, you will need to this yourself, in the case of the fingers, you need to trim not only the inside but the outside thicker ridge of meat and fat off, you can chop that up for use in a different meal or you can grind it to be used in burgers or meatballs or you can give your hounds a major treat 🙂

You want the bottom 2/3rd of the heart that is very even in thickness and shape, you are going to trim these into lovely inch and half in thickness approx., this will give you a number of pretty even thickness and lengths to make your “meat fingers” from.

(at that point, you need to get a cast iron fly pan or your choice of fry pan and get a good covering of oil in it at a med-high heat going on the side)

You will need one bowl with 1 beaten egg and quarter cup of milk mixed together, and in another bowl, you will need a cup of flour or bread crumbs or cornmeal mixed with a goodly amount of your choice of seasoning salt. or salt and pepper. Take each of your stripes of heart, put them in the egg wash first and then into the flour, put each one on a different plate.

Then place them all into the heated oil in the fry pan.. flip only once after the first side is golden brown and then turn your heat down after the flip to the middle heat and finish cooking till that side is also well browned. This will make sure the heart is cooked but not over cooked, it should be moist and tender inside its breaded coating.

You could make a milk gravy to go over a few this served with a side of mashed turnips and a green salad.. or mashed tatters..

But I just eat them like you would like chicken finger, with a lovely ranch dressing on them 🙂 So good..

What is your favorite way to eat the med-size heart? from lambs, goats or smaller pigs?

Posted in odd bits | Tagged Breaded heart finger stripes, Breaded Heart Recipe, Eating Heart, Lamb Heart, nose to tail eating, Nose To Tail Lamb Eating, odd bits | 9 Comments

Food in Jars Challange 2017- Salt perserving- Salmon with Nettle

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

In week two of my months long Food in Jars Challenge 2017 – Salt preserving

Two lovely cuts of salmon were bought, thawed out and a bowl of salt-sugar at 50-50 in percent and a full cup of dried nettle greens where mixed together, into the bottom of the pan when about a 1/3rd of the mixture and on top of the salmon went the rest.. the mixture turned wet within 24 hours and I used a spoon to cover edges that had become exposed and the green bits leached color.. it was covered and left in the fridge for a total of four days before I used the first one as a lovely raw sliced, it had firmed up, the color brightened and I took thin slices for my home-made sour dough bread with keens mustard and radish sprouts into two bite delights.

The hit of chewy bread, hot mustard, the added crunch of the sprouts with the salty hit of salmon worked well for me indeed.

The next piece was allowed another day in the mixture and then it was pulled out and it was sliced lengthwise and rinsed and cooked just a bit.. I just wanted a bit of crispness to the edges.

It was then layered with a spicy mix of sprouts including my home-grown Bloody Dock (for that bite of lemon) sliced avocado and salmon, wrapped in a lovely rice paper

My sauce was made with a 50 percent mix of my homemade Hot pepper Jelly (mix of peppers grown here on the farm and canned for storage) with a touch of my horseradish and soy sauce mixed together. It was a perfect dip to my homemade spring rolls. I used this cute little bird salt and pepper set holder that my mom got me as the dipping sauce holder.. Adorable. Thanks Mom!