I am trying to push myself this coming year in regards to my photos.. try new things, try new angles, textures and more.. Caleb was my model today.. what a good sport! I thought the tootoo would go…
Source: Your just messing with me 🙂
Your just messing with me :)
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Presents .. Prespective..
The door to the truck was open, to this wonderful hound, this was a huge present.. sitting in the seat, waiting to see where we were going.. ( I had to drive him to the running road and back.. cuz.. can we say sweet!)
For my momma, I have sent her 25 cards with a lovely handwritten note inside with photos from the past year.. Each day we talk on the phone as she opens them and read them aloud together.. this to me is a gift that gives back.. I like the feeling of being closer to my mom.
I did wrap up the gifts that are flying out with hubby on his trip..
There is a wee stocking gift, and then a funny little gift and then the one bigger gift.. all color coded per person 🙂
and then there are gifts that come in each day..
I am up to four or five fresh eggs a day at the moment, and its increasing by the week, which is great as I have nine hens, the 5 young hens are just starting to lay and they will go all winter long.
I hope that in this season, that you will all remember that there are little gifts all around and most of them do not come from a store 🙂
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Pink Himalayan Salt Rock
So I was at the feed store, getting Caleb his wormer and the gentleman said, have you seen these hanging Pink Himalayan Salt Rock for the horses.. Now this block of salt costs more then the big sa…
Source: Pink Himalayan Salt Rock
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Great Morning on the farm..
So the rabbit hutches got their winter upgrades, two of them got their floors rewired (more on that later this week) and two got full new roofs for them.. Blackie is already showing her tummy is getting bigger by the day.. new kits soon.. I can’t wait to see what she had colorwise
Blue had to come along and give a helping hand in all ways including jumping up and into the rabbit hutches.. silly boy..
The goats are doing well.. Juno was breed the first week of sept by Jack and has not come back into heat since, so that means she is three months already this week, that is a amazing to me as I still have sheep being bred this week for spring lambs. Granted I also have a few ewes that are three months along as well.
Her son Crème is a sweetheart of a altered boy, I am in the strange part of the process where I am connected and adore him and also working on trying to disconnect as he is to got to freezer camp soon.. or maybe I will keep him as a buddy for Jack.. we will see..
The Seb geese trio are settled in so well now.. they are moved to their winter digs, they have their nice big new straw bale winter house and they didn’t even wait for the roof, they just went right in and settled down for a nap..
They are truly the sweetest, calmest most gentle geese I have ever meet.. As both are proven mothers, I am looking forward to getting each its own hut in the spring and for nice big batches of goslings.
Well, my coffee is done, fresh dark eggs , the hens are nibbling on the goats hay and so the eggs are so dark, with some chipped canned pork with grated spuds as a very hearty omlet for lunch.. time to get back at it..
Man it gets dark early these days!
Photo Friday -Purrpots
This is Freckles.. she is one lovely Ragdoll.. She had these two stunning babies with Sunny Cat this year before he was altered..
This big hunk of love is her son Patrick, he was fixed at six months and is one of the most gentle loving boys on the farm in the house and a total hunter outside just like his dad.. On a interesting twist, its their father Sunny that taught them to hunt, their mother showed them the kibble bowl lol
This massive fluffy and solid stunning calico is her daughter Faith, she is already 3 pounds heavier then her petite mom and has lots of growing to do yet..
Canning Deboned Rabbit
In the photo its the lovely Rabbit Tenderloins, but I also deboned out the big thighs and legs and cut them into smaller bits and canned them up as well.
Canned Rabbit is good but Its different then chicken canned up, this was aged in lightly salted water for three days before being cut up and prepared.. it was raw packed into half pint jars stuffed right full.. As anyone knows raising rabbits, these are amazing pieces of meat and so they will be used in smaller portions for more meals. plus there is nothing wrong with what starts out as 8oz of meat for two people.. Portion control of 4 oz per works just fine for me 🙂
So the first thing to note is that the color of jelly-water will be more dark and yellow then you are used to.. and if you had included bones in this, it would be a nice jelly but because I deboned, its more liquid.. so on the deboned meat, its got some flavour but nothing like the boned in does.
The second is that canned rabbit has a canned smell when first openned. I know, all canned meats do but rabbit is even more.. so do air your meat for a just a min or two if you are going to use it as a cold meat..
The second one is that tenderloin from the rabbit cans up into a firm meat.. its not fall apart tender like the beef will be.. its more like canned pork in that way.. it will hold pretty good.. but push down on it with a fork and it will shred out nicely! It will NOT mash out like a ground or a store canned meat will.. it will shred.. keep that in mind for your plans in regards to recipe etc.
Now I find rabbit meat quite flavourful in its own way and if used cold, mixed with pickles, sweet, dill, garlic or even hot just rock with it.. as a cooked meat, soups, stews, stir fries and so much more.
While I do love to use rabbit as a fresh meat but if you are doing a number at a time, this is a great way to put them up.
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Tagged backyard rabbit meat, Butchering Rabbit, Canning Deboned Rabbit, Canning rabbit, ra
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Black Friday-Cyber Monday
Well, the flyers came, the stores sent e-messages, facebook went crazy with ads and everywhere I turned on the news and the radio, it was black Friday sale, it was cyber Monday sales..
The Canadian news had a big report that no one was crossing the border for the big shop in the states because of our low dollar..
Then there was the Big sales and pushes in the local stores that again appeared to fall flat this year, no line ups, stores no more busy then a average Saturday after payday..
Even at my local grocery store which did have some amazing sales on in regards to local grown food, ten pounds of carrots, beets or potatoes for a dollar.. needless to say, I looked at my pantry and topped up.. amazing buys on massive pinapples as well, I got a extra 50 pounds of carrots and as they had bags of apples at a 1 a bag, five bags of apples for caleb.
However other then the cart full of local produce, there was nothing folks wanted, I was saddened to see so few taking so little of the fresh but I also watched as they looked at the others and walked by, so many with lists and so little in their carts, with a look about them.. and even sadder to me was so many that said at the till.. I would be getting more but you no longer (the stores) take a visa..
Store after Store shows the truth of where we live and what is happening, folks are being so careful, they are pulling in, they are looking at things from a different light..
Now I guess I had better own up on my own black Friday buys.. because I did use the sales, I got a top up on horse carrots-apples, I got extra turnips, winter ones for extra canning, I got pineapple at the local grocery
I got cat and dog food at sale prices and cat litter as well.. cat litter at half price.. good deal..
But they are pretty normal overall, I would have got the feed on-sale regardless of black Friday.. but I did get one thing that I did not need, one upgrade.. I got a 400 dollar Nikon camera for 99 plus tax, free shipping.
My older digital was ok, but I love my Nikons and I am glad to have it back.. the quality of photos is so much better.. Did I need it.. no.. do I regret buying it.. no.. it will earn its keep.
o yes, I like my new camera very much.. but I like it even more that we spent so little over the black Friday-cyber Monday madness..
So how did you do? what was it like in your town? your local neck of the woods?
Venison stew with dumplings recipe
The joy of this dish is it had all the tenderness an flavour of a long slow cooked stew with all the speed of just cooking the carrots and turnips took.. if you did not used pressure canned meat, you would need a slow simmer for hours to get the same effect.
- 1 large onion, peeled and diced
- 3 cloves garlic or 1 tsp minced garlic
- 3 stalk of celery trimmed and finely diced
- 1 small winter turnip
- 2 large carrots diced
- 4 average potatoes, peeled an diced
- 1 pint of canned meat and juice
- 12 cups of dark broth, I did a mix of mushrooms an beef
- 1 tsp of Montreal steak spice
- 1tsp of seasoning salt
Cook the onion-garlic in a tiny bit of fat or oil, if using fresh meat, brown it at this time then add all veggies and broth an spices and bring to a steady simmer and stir now an again till everything is tender, if added the canned meat and juices and heat though, if using fresh, simmer at low for at least another hour till meat is more tender
Make my standard dumplings recipe, step by step with photos on the link.
They will be dense but fluffy, moist and gravy on the bottom half but dry and o so good on the inside..
Winter Duck House
Now if any of you have ever tried to house your ducks with your chickens over winter you know the issues.. 1) they make everything wet 2) they will mess with your water if given a chance 3) they do not need to be eating that costly higher protein and laying feed while they are having a winter rest..
and to top it off, they don’t even stay in.. on the coldest day of winter, they will still be fluffed up and laying on the snow.. honestly unless its like snow blizzard, they are some of the most stubborn fowl about being outside that I have ever seen.
Having said that, they do! need warm and dry house and bedding for when they do go in.. so while I do not mind running ducks in the summer quarters when it comes to winter, I much prefer to give them outside runs with their very own quick, easy and o so warm straw bale winter house.
The back of the pen has a solid wall, I built on these, the pens have builds for wind block on two sides and the front has a half wall as well.. so this is not a out in the open pen, which already gives it a great leg up..
then we take full 60 pounds straw bales and we layer an stack them to deep, the small door is here on the right corner, we take more straw and stuff any gaps between the bales, and then we put down a full 4 by 4 6 inch thick straw chip on the bottom and loose straw on top of that, if cleaning it, I will pull the loose out and leave the chip to compost in place as a small form of a deep pack, over top this goes a full sheet of plywood, and when this is covered with a layer of snow.. its as snug as a bug..
My poor hens you can tell they are coming off a season of sitting and hatching eggs, they are all in the process of moulting as well.. look at those blood filled feathers growing back in.. they get the winter off, three hens, one big drake and they will get fresh sprouted grains, fermented grains and then come late winter, they will go onto layer rations, they will be first egg layers and if all goes well, they will help fill up my incubator with fertile duck eggs for my first hatching of 2017.. and I will be able to put a passel of ducklings out in spring to fatten up on all that spring goodness.
When I see photos of a flock and the hens look ever so pretty, and its the time of year for steady laying or for sitting birds to have been sitting and hatching, and I think.. Slacker! Working momma fowl are like all working mothers, they show it LOL
They were so happy to have a big outdoor water bathing area and they checked out their indoor digs and wagged their tails.. all is good..
Bush Hike (now that the main hunting season is done)
Stew simmering away, and we are spending the daylight finishing off prepping the big barn for winter.. time to get those extra’s we do between summer and winter done before the snow flies even more..
Just another Day on the Farm 