Just another Day on the Farm

Squash Bee’s Overview- Part 1

Posted on March 7, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Good Day Folks, it is finally warming up above freezing

One foot in front of the other and steady as she goes 🙂

I have been off for a few days but its been so worth it, we have new lambs in the barn (three more sets of wee ones), and I have been busy at training days.. I have great sheep day training course (more on that later)

I took a day long course on seed production for small scale farmers to produce market garden quality seed for community projects or for sale. I will be working on transferring 17 pages of hand written notes into something that can be useable.

I have also started my hikes so that I am in shape for my gardening, riding and some of the other planned summer events.

However lets get on target, one of the things I learned about was squash bees, now squash bees feed on all types of Squash, Pumpkins and summer squash and melons.

The bee’s moved along with the squash as it slowly made its way from south America to Canada. Lots of folks think these bees are honey bees at first glance but they are not. They winter underground and live under ground.

Now I have without knowing it in all places but one on the farm been hindering not helping my squash bees, I tend to have my pigs or my chickens work up my beds in the squash area to help control squash bugs.. but without knowing it, I would have been working deeper in some cases then I should have for the bees.

But I do have one area on the farm that they have had squash grow for a number of years now and the area is a no till, so I am quite sure that when I check carefully this spring, that I will be able to find my own tunnels and thriving center at that place.

So this year, do consider them when doing the cleanup the ground around your squash beds and grow areas but do not till or turn them, even if you move the squash to a different area, the bees when they come out in spring, will find the plants and make new nests under the new plants, at that point, you can dig or double dig the old areas if you want for other garden use or planting.

These bees do not sting, and love that bigger squash pollen, sometimes you might even find a male sleeping in the warm sun of the afternoon in the flower itself..

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged sqaush Bees | Leave a comment

Rice Water Rince – Overview

Posted on March 4, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

So while I tried to keep up on the blog during the storms, I ran out of time and the farm and the critters always need to come first, plus I lost the computer for a week and bit only having limited access to the net on hubbies in the evening. None the less, I wanted to do a overview of what happened when instead of using the rice water rinse, once a month, like I do for a deep condition..

Here is my normal hair, washed, air dried and then brushed.. this was done a two weeks before the challenge started..

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What o what happened when it became the main rinse for weeks.. the answer.. Volume.. Lots and lots of Volume! This is fresh washed, air dried and brushed.. after four weeks of only rice water or fermented rice water as my rinse. It also pretty much took out my color in a heartbeat.. Sorry for the bad photo, it was taken by the computer and it did something odd to it but it still shows what I want, which is the hair! LOL

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“The really hard was realizing that I am one hair wash away from being out of my favorite conditioner.. (how did that happen, why is there not any extra, because it’s not been on sale for months, or more like for at least a year plus) which let me tell you did not make me happy..”

My longer hair needs to have a softener added after being washed.. but we have eggs for a deep condition and we have lots of rice.. so I will be doing rice water rinse

Did you just go.. huh, rice water rinse? The joy of this is that you just need to soak your rice in water (which also cuts down the cooking time) and instead of putting it down the sink.. it has a job to do.. or you can make your rice with extra water just for this, either way, it’s very little extra work and because it can be stored in the fridge and or fermented to a point, it does not need to be made daily and it should be diluted

What is Rice Water?

Rice water, in its simplest form, is the water that is leftover after washing off rice in preparation for eating. It can be concentrated or diluted and even fermented to bring out most of its benefits.

Rice water contains nutrients that can fortify hair and renew skin when used as a facial wash or hair rinse, and unlike many products for skin or hair care on the commercial market, it is an easy and natural way to care for your skin and hair.

For more information, check out it all out on this link

http://www.healthyandnaturalworld.com/rice-water-for-hair-and-skin/

Posted in Life moves on daily | 6 Comments

Purple Pea Pod Jelly Recipe

Posted on March 3, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Purple Pea Pod Jelly

4 C pea hull infusion (see below)
5 C sugar
1 package Sure Jell (or other powdered pectin)…
2 T lemon juice

For pea hull infusion: I got 4 cups of liquid from a pound of pea hulls, weighed before removing the peas, of course! Wash empty pea hulls several times; place in a large pot and add water until hulls are just covered. Boil hulls until they are tender and the liquid is a purple color. Strain liquid through damp cheesecloth, a jelly bag, or an old kitchen towel and return it to the pot.

For jelly: Add Sure Jell and lemon juice to the liquid, Bring to a rolling boil; add sugar and return to a full rolling boil. Boil per the box or until wrinkle tests Remove from heat. Skim off foam. Pour hot jelly into jars. Process them ten min waterbath

ok, so this recipe came up on my old recipe group, I tweeked it to make modern canning safe an its said to be a poor mans grape jelly for those that live where grapes will not grow but peas will. You know I love finding ways to use everything, and I am interested in seeing if different heritage pea types will make different flavoured jelly..

So tell me.. have you ever made or eaten pea pod jelly?

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged purple pea pod jelly | 2 Comments

Lamb Hide Followup

Posted on March 2, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

So from yesterdays post, the brown curly hide is the hair sheep and the fluffy white one is the wool lamb hide.

Here it is green washed and wet, ready to be scraped and salted..

Here it is dried, stretched and rolled..

Here is the mock-up of the little sheepskin cutch purse I am going to make, I think it will be lovely when finished

Posted in Carfts an Hobbies | Tagged lamb hide | 3 Comments

Lamb Pelts

Posted on March 1, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

So, this is a fast little post but I will put out a little challenge for you.. Both of these are washed, cured by me stillborn lamb hides..

One is a full hair sheep lamb and one is a wool breed lamb.. Do you think you can spot which is which??

hair sheep newborn hide

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Posted in Life moves on daily | 2 Comments

No Buy Feb 2016 – Overview an final update

Posted on February 29, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

What can I say, this month has been filled with snow, rain, freezing rain, and the flu and yet another storm is coming down the pipes towards us as we speak-read. Its been a crazy winter month that’s for sure.. we have also have new chicks, new lambs and a few days of mild weather in there.

But none the less, No Buy Feb 2016 just kept trucking on.. something went really well..

While I did go out a number of times, my friends all cheated and they picked up the tab, so know I need to own up.. Gifted out meals, one breakfast, three tim’s large coffee’s, I had 9 timbits from a boxes that friends got, and it does not stop there.. my girl friend spent 3 dollars on a valentines day gift for me from church basement, and a teen friend got me, a really nice cap for 3 dollars as a thank you gift to me..
I did break my own rules once, while I did eat at the meals provided at the weekend events for breakfast, lunch for both days, I did go for supper with friends, and I paid for my own!
We missed our green food box due to bad weather and it went to the local food bank, which put me leaner then I expected..
I kept sprouts and micro-green going though-out the month, but I am craving fresh!

the rest of the month went as well as can be, and the savings added up.. between the different amounts, in the grand end of things, we finished the month 712 dollars richer then we would have if we had not done no buy feb.

712 hundred is nothing to sneeze at, its a good amount for sure, and its a good reminder that we should be able to save a bit more each month without it being to big of a hardship.

So how did you do on your no buy month? Did you see a good savings, did you find it hard, did you have a cheat..

Ps, never did make it out to that movie

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged No Buy Feb, no buy feb 2016, Saving money | 1 Comment

Lambing- Jugging

Posted on February 28, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

When it comes to lambing, there are a number of things that are important, starting with flushing the ewes, boosters, feet trimming, weight checks and so forth, and then there is lamb birthing kits, milking the mother for the important first milk and if needed raising a lamb on the bottle

But there is another thing that is huge, the jug! its just a pen, really it is that simple, but if you want your jug to do its job to its fullest, there is a few things to learn and do about it, ideally at a min you want 16 square feet per ewe but it can be bigger, but keep to the smaller size for first time ewes

it need great ventilation but it also must be draft free if at all possible at sleep height , they can be extra clean, done daily, or they can be deep packed (and turned after with the pigs-chickens) but when in use as a sheep jug, they need to be well bedded, dry on top, straw is the best, no sawdust as it can have issues for the mother.

lots of folks buy and make the movable pens that are sold for this, I use what I have in the big barn, I have two small jugs, a big jug, even bigger pen and then I have the big stalls and the huge pen, each has their own place.

its better to jug up a day or three early then have a opps, she lambed its fine to put the couple closest to lambing out into a bigger pen together for the night, as when your last feed is will effect the average lamb out time. For us, 90 present of our lambs are born between 5 to 9 am

Only give help, some moms are fast and others are not.. if the mother is not in distress, then watch, support and leave her alone, everyone is in a huge rush to pull.. stop it, you are just breeding in poor lambing ability into your flock, and you are doing it because it makes you feel better, she might want a nap between them, so be it..

Let them bond, again be there, watch, cheer, help if needed and otherwise, sit own and sit on your hands.. a good mother does not need you in there right away, the info you can learn sitting quietly is massive, watch, listen, smell, see the change in the baby, the sounds the mother makes, her breathing, the color of the after birth blood and so much more.. the more you learn the fine details, the more you know when to help and when to sit back an stay out of it.

I like to give them a warm fresh drink with a vit-mineral boost to it, a bit of grain, but increase the grain or fodder if feeding it slowly over a few days so that she increases her milk flow at a steady rate. they need 24 to 72 hours in their own jug, and then can be moved to the baby pen, where they can meet, interact and play together. I like to keep them at least a week in it, allow me to watch weight gain, mothers an so much more.

Farmgal Tip of the day.. Jug me and my momma up!

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged lambing jugs | Leave a comment

Raising Baby Quail without Game Feed Ration

Posted on February 24, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Now I know why my girlfriends never sell me the baby quail until after they are three weeks of age.. Fragile little wee tikes they are ..

Between Snow, Cooler house temps and power outages, they have struggled with their temps, however when it comes to feeding them, I have been very! pleased with how things are working out..

I have nice straight legs, strong little bodies, great growth,

bright-eyed and active birds.. I will continue to watch growth and track things including age of first laying and so forth.

So Quail are said to need 28 percent protein for good growth and so its recommended per the books that you track down Game Bird Feed..

Well, I do not have Game Bird Feed locally, and I am not even sure where I would order in from if I wanted to..

I do have regular good quality locally grown, cleaned and ground bird feed at around 12 to 13 percent, which if was all they are feed would leave them in real issues..

So what is a girl to do? You know I got this right 🙂

My healthy, feathering strong little birds are being raised on

Soaked an fermented bird feed (which increases their ability to eat it, and get all the good stuff from my great locally produced bird feed
Fresh Sprouts (they love red clover, alfalfa and all sweeter greens), they dislike mustard sprouts, pea greens, herb greens or kale or turnip greens, I expect that they can be trained to them with age but they attack their preferred greens without any left, the other are tried and refused.
Hard boiled mashed egg, and this one is the key, which the other are very important as is the what they are being raised on an fresh water, the hard boiled mashed egg is what is the extra key that allows them to thrive. They are using one of their mothers eggs per four chicks per day.. this is great as the hens lay daily and so they keep me in egg for their own chicks.

They need fresh water and the correct bedding so they do not slip on their feet, but I could not be more pleased, I had planned on adding in meal worms to their diet once a week, but watching them closely and tracking feather growth, weight growths and overall bone development, I do not feel that its needed at this time, I will add it on week five to week 8 for when the females move over to laying if they start that young, their mother did not but only time will tell on that one.

I adjusted the feed amounts based on the chicks themselves, I did not want to waste food and they were feed four to six time a day, and I went by sounds and contentment after the feedings.

My ideal aim was that they were content until they saw me, but would call me when I was visual, they were feed and content until the next feeding, if I can any calls for food, without seeing me, I made sure to give more at the next feeding, we figured it out quickly.

If you did not have them in the house and did not want to do four to six times a day feeding, free feeding of the main feed and twice daily feedings of the sprouts and egg would do the trick.

So far, all chicks are growing well and are in good health!

Ps, new photo on a different day that is not in a middle of a blizzard- slash freezing rain..

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged Baby quail feed requirements, homemade baby quail feed, homemade baby quail feeding, homestead raising baby quail, raising baby quail | 2 Comments

The Weekend Part 2

Posted on February 23, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

What a day, in some ways it was great, the folks who put it together did a great job, the hotel did a wonderful job and the folks I shared the day with were fab folks..

BUT!

the paid seminar was mind numbingly boring and a total waste of my money.. I rarely expect to take a course where everything is new, I am looking for small tidbits of information and I normally get that..

What I got this time.. well, I got.. to be honestly I got snarky.. I was that person, the very person, that I would hate to have in my own talks, my whole table was “that table” the one that he really hoped would not raise their hand once again.

because at no point did any of us ask a question but instead our hands where flying up to correct information or details..

While the basic information was correct, the level of it was so low in its own way, I was just ready to moan.. I was a permaculture zombie..

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So the big “surprise was use whey” which those that have been reading my blog, I have been talking about using milk, whey in the gardens and the fruiting trees for years now.. and I shook my head because he was like.. no one in Canada knows this.. really, because he learned if from a old farmer in Quebec, and I learned if from farmers in Alberta and when I did a little digging, the date and the studies are all over the AUS.

The second big one.. mow in stripe to keep your useful bugs alive.. honestly I paid 75 dollars to learn to cut my pruning on a angle, to use Whey in the garden and to leave higher mowing for the bugs..

The speaker is a good speaker, but he is a teacher.. and it so shows.. he is used to being in charge and those around him are hanging on his words, that when he is asked a question that he does not know the answer to.. (which was done by a number of folks) he pauses, and then changes the subject..

Really dude! Would it be so hard to just say.. I am unsure of that small part of information and I would need to do some research into that.. I say, I am not sure on that, I will dig it out and hopefully have a answer next time I am asked about it, does anyone here having anything to share on this..

I was in that bad spot of, just leave and call it because its so not worth it, and stay because you paid for it and maybe, just MAYBE there will be something useful if I just wait it out..

I spent the whole day, I listened and I doodled.. and I doodled, and I can honestly say, that for this course.. it was a true waste of my day.. and while I know he was big on the up-sale, buy my book, buy my video, pay to come for a tour and so forth..

Unless you are just starting out and you have lots of money.. Miss him.. its not worth it, there are many more reasonable priced events, and a solid number of free events that can teach you these same basics, and one good book on permaculture will cost you 20 to 30 and will provide you with more life long bang for you buck..

You know, I think this is the first time in years and 50 plus seminars that I have attended over the past 11 years that I have been this unhappy! and have to say, If someone asked me, attend or not.. the answer would be.. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!

and then I drove home on dry roads (which was nice) and came home to great homecooked meal from hubby and had a lovely evening on my farm..

Up next..

Seed starting
Sheep milking
Cheese making
Raising Baby Quail without Game bird feed
Curing duck breasts..

But tomorrow, I need to get us caught up on my no buy feb updates 🙂

Posted in Life moves on daily | 4 Comments

The Weekend :) Part one -Saturday

Posted on February 22, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

I will go back and answer all the comment posts, I love my comments 🙂

What a weekend.. Some of the things will get a broken down posts including a great review of Eco-Farm Days, which once again was a success and the number turn out was huge, it was packed, in some cases standing room only.

I headed out a touch later on Saturday morning for my first day of one of my continuing education programs for 2016, and the first event was quite good, I was able to pick up the full seminar for pasture grazing (mob grazing and so forth) and ….

then I got a message, call home.. and as I had left hubby with a expecting ewe, I thought it would be about lambs.. NOPE

We had a water leak in our big basement to the new area of the house and he was trying to deal with moving things, wet vac and set up ways to stop the water from working its way across the room more..

Its tricky to explain on the blog but in the most basic terms the under ground pipes from the well come though the base of the wall and run across the floor a few feet before cut though the cement wall to the cellar for the older part of the house where all the plumbing and water tanks and pumps etc are.

The water appeared to be coming in from the pipe coming in, this would be very bad indeed.. as it would mean a underground frozen broken pipe an bringing in a backhoe to dig lines.. so I headed back to the farm..

Got here and took a good look at it and realizes that it was not coming from the pipe but from the wall where the pipe came in.. Called my big brother and talking it though.. we figured out what the heck had happened..

So you remember that we had crazy cold, Everything froze and I said, my plants should be ok because there is a sheet of ice covering the ground, then the storm and the cold came. three feet of snow give or take a inch or two on either side came down on top of the ice and then we went up in temp.. and it rained for 12 hours at plus 7..

So the water running off the roof, and the water-rain melting that snow pack and itself needed to go somewhere and normally, it would have drained away from the house.. but its hard to drain when its all sitting on a sheet of ice and so the water went to the house and ran down the cement wall and found the weakness in the area that the pipe comes in, and we had a flood.

the snow pack got shoveled off, and the edger and the shovel cut in drain lines away from the house and within an hour the water leak had stopped (now in the dry heat of summer, we will need to work on repairing the area coming into the wall itself but for now.. as long as the water is draining properly (which is has for the last years) it should not be a issue.

However, in the basement, we appear to have water damaged bookcases, and other items, some things can be saved and others are damaged to the point of repair.. Per my brothers advice, we took off the bottom three feet of the wall, plastic and fill and put the fans on it to properly dry it all out, as we do NOT want damp creep up the walls..

We thought from the water that we would have more damage, but hubby found it fast, and (thank you for the wet vac) we had much less wall damage then we expected..

I figure we should be able to repair and replace for around a thousand give or take, and I am grateful that it will be all stuff that we can do ourselves, which will keep costs down.

(just to keep things interesting, we also had a new set of twin lambs born on Saturday as well, doing great.. nursing and strong)

So back I headed to the event (I spent way to much time driving) and missed some of the things I wanted to attend, but I had a great visit with friends, was gifted some great new seeds for plants, went out for supper with friends and spent the evening talking about plants and things as I was staying overnight as we had a very early start to the next day for the Sunday Event Seminar.