Prepping for the Deep Cold

Posted on February 12, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

So the news today has a warning to it.. it says that this weekend, that we are going to get down to -40 (including windchill) and let me tell ya.. that be cold!

we have been at -27 to -30 ish this week and its cold, you need your long underwear, you want your layers and your winter gear.. but when it its that -40, the air is cold enough that it hurts if you are silly enough to breath it in without wool wrapped around your face to warm it up..

Its cold enough that the moisture from your breath with create ice to form on hubbies beard and I will be wearing my hair down for just that extra layer tucked into my scarf and into my jacket..

It’s the type of cold where you understand and are so grateful that your deep cold winter jacket has either coyote or wolf fur on the hood, because no matter what the world view on fur is, we know that thick winter Canine fur will split the wind and creates a barrier that will allow your face to be degree’s warmer as long as you are not directly in facing the wind.

It’s the kind of winter day, that you will put on the sunglasses.. I know, I know. but sun, white snow and brutal cold.. you can freeze your eyes and gets a mild lovely case of snow glare..

Photokeratitis is caused by damage to the eye from ultraviolet (UV) rays. Sunlight is the main source of natural UV rays. Photokeratitis can be caused by sun reflection from sand, water, ice and snow.

But having said all that, the truth is other than worrying a touch about one of the ewes deciding to have lambs this weekend, I am looking forward to the whole farm taking a deep breath and hunkering down. Its going to be a slow weekend, they will burrow into their bedding and eat more food and give the outside world the stink eye, and the sheep and horses will come out of their barn with blinking eyes a twice a day and grudging do the walk up to the front by the yard for their fresh warm water (they can come any time for the big heated tough) but the truth is.. they will wait for that room temp warm to them water..

They will grin to themselves over the fact that it seems like there is extra in their feed..  o.. extra grain and did you see a scoop of BOSS (Black Oil Sunflower Seeds) into the mix for the extra fat and calories. And unlimited hay to stuff and chew, chew, chew..

For us in the house, I will check my kits, for just in case of power out, otherwise, frozen pipes is about the only thing I will give the eye to myself.. so far this year, we have done fine, our last fix so far as done amazingly well this year, but this will be the coldest yet.

So in the barns, out of the wind.. and before the animals heat, the temp is going to be -27 to -30ish.  the pigs will just borrow in their inside pen in a huge pile straw, and they will lay end to tail and when they rise out of their straw like big pig boats, they will steam and eat and drink and grunt  and then use their bathroom and go right back to bed..  The only sign of them, will be the steam rising from their bed..

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The sheep will sleep in a herd, the smaller will snuggle closer to the bigger, leaning back to back for that extra warmth and they will be on their deep pack that has been growing all fall and early winter.. it is a mix of straw, poo a urine.. we have had lots of warm days, which while odd has been great for the deep pack, its composting under the newest layer of bedding, which means that all the pasture critters when laying down in their deep pack have in floor heating.

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And the truth is, the horses will both join them and not..  they will spend the night in the barn and they will lay down and enjoy that warmer floor themselves, but they will also stick their heads out the door and they will wait.. and if the sun shines despite the cold, they will come out and they will park themselves in front of the barn, out of the wind, standing side by side and then they will sun doze..

As long as they have access to the barn, wind breaks and all their needs meet, who am I to tell them in their thick winter coats that they can not sun themselves.. because the truth is the sun is warm right now..  When the sun pours into my living room, it can add up to an extra 5 degrees over the day in that room right now..  I will take it.. free heat, and the purrpots and hounds are found sleeping on in the sun..

Speaking of the hounds, my oldest hounds have a heated bed to sleep on, and the purrpots will join him I am sure.

So Lets talk about the things that must be prepped  for this cold.

  1. Water.. you must have water and when it gets this cold, you do not know if you can have a freeze up or a power outage.. fill up an extra 55 gallon drum where it will not freeze, fill up an extra day or two worth of five gallon buckets ahead of time..  only you know how much water you should put up. While we certainly have enough gear and cloths, some folks choose to keep less in stock so get that laundry done up, get your dishes done up..
  2. Food-Feed For those of us that are in the house, cook up a head if you do not have a good supply of pop and heat meals already prepped ahead.. If you lose power, have a plan to heat up water, and soup, stews..  a hot cuppa and a hot bowl of soup is what is needed..  (none of this, I must run to the store for milk and bread) having said that..  If you do not lose power and it’s just cold, keep a pot of hot soup simmering on the stove.. dip in whenever you feel like it.. bake some fresh bread or cookies..  it will lift everyone’s spirits to smell it in the house
  3. Feed- Keep everyone topped up and loaded down.. in the bitter cold, add a bit of extra fat to the rabbits and fowl dishes, keep the hay in front of all your four-footed critters and keep that bedding deep and high for your pigs. Keep  your farm dogs in (unless it’s a livestock breed and then just makes sure its got a good pile of straw if it wants it, the odds it will bunk down with the sheep or goats.)
  4. .Shelter, it’s a must! Wind Breaks are good, but to me shelter means wind break, dry and with bedding. the bedding is important and for me, I used straw.. lots and lots of straw
  5. Watch the old and the young, they are the ones that will have the hardest time.

For me, my oldest purrpots are in the house and use a litterbox, no need for them to be exposed at all. but my oldest Elder hound, that is hard, bathroom s outside, so my best advice, either bundle up and go out with and as soon as done, back in the house, or put on a leash – 30 foot long line and put out, watch out the window and as soon as done, bring in.  Consider a dog coat, make sure they have a heated bed to warm up in.

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For me, the young is a less them a week old nest of rabbit kits, they are in a big old pile of pulled fur in the back enclosed rabbit sleep area, lots of bedding, the key for them is to keep momma in lots of water updates so she can make milk, increase her feeding to unlimited and top with a tbp of BOSS and then because I am a worry wort, cover the whole hutch with a tarp to cut out the windchill factor.

Now I only checked the nest on day three, and I had at least 8 plus fat bellied warm kits and the night temps were -27, so if I can take the windchill out, then I have every reason to feel they will do just fine.

For the fowl, out doors are blocked keeping them inside and square straw bales have been placed in some areas to create draft blocking for at floor levels and in other cases, square bales have been placed  in the shelters so that they can be slept on.. goats love to be up higher 🙂

There you have the must do’s.. clearly if you have a wood stove, you should have wood for it, but as that is a daily thing for those that heat with wood, I did not think it needed to be on the list.. but if you only have wood as a backup heating source.. you should prep that as well.

Hope everyone has a grand weekend an just as a side note. I am luck when it comes to the garden, I have a snow pack with a ice cover on it.. it will go along way to help protect my plants, others are not so lucky..

 

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Applesauce Cake Recipe

Posted on February 11, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

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This recipe is listed as coming from Grandma Brownell..

Apple Sauce Cake

  • Half cup of Lard
  • 1  cup of sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup unsweetened apple sauce
  • 1  cup of raisins
  • 1 tsp clove
  • 1 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • 1/4 cup of water
  • 1 tbsp. baking powder
  • 2 cups of flour

Bake 350 for 40 min ,till a knife come out clean.. With as much clove as it has and no cinnamon, its a different taste them most modern Apple Sauce Cakes.

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Wordless Weds

Posted on February 10, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Have not had one of these in a while and I am running today….so you get photos today!!

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And last but not least.. its lock down day.. cross our fingers that we will have fluffy butts for Valentines day! on my first test run of the year.

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Posted in Life moves on daily | 4 Comments

No Buy Feb 2016- Week 1 Overview

Posted on February 9, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Hello Folks,

Well, the first week is done and it was both easy and hard..

The easy part was we are not lacking.. while I am already out of fresh fruit, we have lots of canned and frozen fruit, we have some dried and I also brought in my pre-potted rhubarb roots that was done in the fall to start thawing and growing for fresh rhubarb in the middle of winter.

I am out of extra greens, so we are down to sprouts and pea greens as well as frozen or dried greens..  nothing that you can’t deal with..  Lots of eggs coming in the house, so great there and I have three ewe’s that are walking baby bellies!

The harder was my day out, I was grateful that Deb paid for my breakfast so that I did not break the rules but while I really enjoyed my looking at the shopping trip afterward, I would have gotten a great granite bowl and grinder for sure and we went lee valley tools…

YES, I went to lee valley tools and left the store without buying anything.. talk about will power!! LOL

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/

Other then that surprise, we had a cord give out, and it was a important one, its the cord that runs the heater in the big water trough.. its needed..  its been taken care of but while we have smaller cords, at this point, we have nothing as a current backup longer then 25 feet for outdoor winter left.

If I did not believe in solar power so much, and was a normal person that has more cords around, it would not matter but its a area that I will need to increase the backups on the farm.

That’s it for now.. how did everyone else’s week go..

Savings for week one

  • Food Costs- 25
  • Coffee on girls night out – 2
  • Breakfast out 20 (meals plus tip, plus tax)
  • Not buying the bowl 16
  • Not buying at Lee Valley – (assuming that I was cheap that day) 60 at least
  • Church Basement – 5 dollars ( I need second pots for a few things I want to do)
  • Allowance -20 each so 40 total

Total Savings for week 1 – 108 dollars

 

 

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Our First piglets

Posted on February 8, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Now it might seem that given that I have a background which included time on a farm or two with my folks, a good amount of time in teen years at my uncles farm working with horses and farm critters that the story of our first piglets here on the farm would be a smooth one..

Get a cup of coffee and pull up a chair and get ready to laugh at us..  and remember that it never works the way you expect.. no matter how much planning you think you have done.

First year on the farm, I want to raise pigs for the freezer, I start hunting down heritage piglet breeders and finally I find piglets available that are everything I want, natural born momma in big piles of straw, outdoor huts and lots of rooting going on.. so we drive 3 hours (one way) to pick up Fred and Barney. They are young, in the 40 pound range is my guess and we load them in the big old dog crate stuffed with bedding and they grunt and keep each other company.

Now back on the farm, I had a huge indoor piggy area all prepped and a pop out door to a small but sturdy pallet fence outdoor area so they could sleep in the sun and dig up greens. Now remember when we bought my farm, no fences, everything is open and the hundred plus acres around me are in hay, edges by the creek on one side and the river on the other..

So we get home, we carefully carry that crate down and I open it in the pig pen, they bolt out, zoom, zoom around the pen they go and the tiny holes that we had put up a board across that were to be small for them to get out.. WRONG!

Both piglets are threw and out and they run right out of the barn, into the barn yard and then freeze! This not their farm.. we try herding them with boards.. NOPE.. off they go.. now they running around the barn, zooming out into our pasture and hubby tried to cut them off..

Now I will not lie, at this point I have already said to my man, just stop. you can’t catch them and I am just standing there.. but hubby is slow moving up to them and then at times he bolting..  I finally lose my temper a little and pretty much say..

That’s it.. STOP CHASING THEM< I am going to the house.. and he follows me in.. at this point, they are specks and then they are down into the creek and gone..

Fine.. great! just great..

So we go out, and I move a pan of tiny bit of food before the place they came out of and nice big pan of food and goodies in the pen itself but can be seen from the doorway, I put out a second pan of fresh water, and I set a board ready to be nailed up to stop any further we are out of here moves

And I head to the house and it gets dark, and my man worries, ok, I might have worried a bit as well but I was pretty calm.. we only had two ways this can go..

The next morning at 4 amish but barely daylight, I gear up and head as quiet as I can to the barn.. and I look.. at first nothing..

Then I heard them..  grunt, grunt , the straw shakes and little fat snouts and wide floppy ears pop out of the bedding to look at me..

Did you bring us breakfast?  I say! go back to sleep silly piglets and we nail up the board..

I know that the fact that they were raised outside, coming back the shelter at night was taught to them but let me tell you, we did the whoop of joy after we left the barn and look at each other.

home again, thankful that they came home!

Posted in Life moves on daily | 2 Comments

From the Ground Up – Homestead Gardening

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

If this works out well, this will be a full years worth  of  weekly-monthly updates of posts on gardening on a larger scale from the ground up. I know that like many other folks we are worrying about the rising costs of everything related to food, food for ourselves, food for our critters as well..  As homesteaders, it’s not just us that need to be feed on the farm..

One of the other things I have seen often on other blogs is that first push of breaking a garden on a new homestead, starting with raw land so to speak..  now very few are starting with true raw land in the form of forest or prairie grass, and if you are, those both needed work done their own way..

But most folks are starting with land, or front yard space, a wild but disturbed land, raw land in many ways when it comes to gardening..

That is what we are going to be working with here..  I have looked at all our other garden areas and plans and while I can in-fill and I can do a number of extra planting. and I can increase our square footage by adding in vertical climbing space and also increase planting space by planting sides on mounds and hugelbeds

But in the end, it became plain to me that I just needed more garden to do what I wanted to do, and that lead to the question, where is that land going to come from.. hmm.. the answer surprised me..  I have decided to pull back the fence on a little corner of my pasture and turn it into more garden space.

So while I have not measured it, going by fence posts and doing approx math until I get out with a measuring tool, its going to be labeled at 60 feet wide by 90 feet long, or approx 5400 square feet.

Not nearly big enough of a garden for homestead, but more than big enough to bite off on your first year and chew, chew, and chew trying to get it to produce well for you.

As I have done on other years, when it come to the push and gardens, hubby will take his week off in the spring and I will get a bit of extra hands help, same with this project, I will be getting a garden helper on some of it.. this will be a very good thing for the blog readers and for myself. It’s a grand thing to see it happen from fresh eyes.

Its full sun so that is great zone 5  its far away from anything that can be used to collect water, that is bad, even in order to start seedlings, we will need to haul water to it.. I can run hoses to the very edge and put 55 gallon drums there for spring use but its will be dry in the summer pretty much.. Currently in a mix of typical pasture seeded mix for sheep-goats.

there is some natural poo’s in the land, sheep, goat, horse and some fowl, mainly geese but some chicken..  still not nearly enough for our garden needs.

The question is what to grow in it.. and that is still up in the air, I am torn between growing what I want to grow in it as extra’s that work with the rest of all the other gardens or growing it with the basics that are needed for the homestead. I expect I will meet in the middle.

After all, I have read enough blogs to know that I what I consider to be a staple is not what others will grow.

So the first thing we need to do is track wind pattern, and snow melt and drainage on it, I know a fair bit on it already but we will assume I know nothing, and we will need to do a some soil tests on it as well.

Having said that, I will come out and say, that while the soil tests will give us some information, the truth is, I will treat it like I do all my gardens, lacking and needing soil to be made!

So any of you breaking in new land this year? Want to compare notes? Do you think I just HAVE to grow something in this raw new land that you want info on how I would do it? Speak up and I will do my best to add it to the grow list, even if you only get a few of them 🙂

 

 

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Thermos Shuttle Chef Review -5 years later!

Posted on February 6, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

I have now had my Thermos Shuttle Chef cooker for a number of years, now this is specially made steel pots, one that gets heated and the food is brought up to a boil and or is simmered at a slow boil for up to 15 min (which seems the longest time given in any of the recipes) and then you take it off the heat and put it into your outer steel pot and it continues cooking and staying safely hot for up to six hours.

(its a very fancy Hay Box*) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haybox

A hay box, straw box, fireless cooker, insulation cooker, wonder oven or retained-heat cooker is a cooker that utilizes the heat of the food being cooked to complete the cooking process. Food items to be cooked are heated to boiling point, and then insulated. Over a period of time, the food items cook by the heat captured in the insulated container. Generally, it takes three times the normal cooking time to cook food in a hay box.

During my reseach into this idea, I had found out that it was very popular in Japan, and was being used as a way to cut energy use and still be able to cook full meals that are served hot, this is backed up by my new cookbook that came with the  gear, while I do have a english version, its been translated from their recipes.. Stewed black mushrooms with conpoys and Black Moss anyone?

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So I got a fairly large shuttle chef, my inner pot can hold just over a gallon but as you are only to fill it 3/4 full, it should be able to feed a family or a couple meals for us.  My first test was as they directed with hot water, and dang, does that puppy keep it hot!  I checked it at 3 hours and 6 hours and was very pleased with the results.

My second test was to cook up four big suasages, I put just enough water to cover them, brought them up to a boil, which took four min of power on the small stove burner, and then into the shuttle chef for a continued cook time of two hours-Note, they didn’t have a cook time for this food , but as whole chickens, pot roasts and pork roasts were to get three hours, I figured it was safe to check at two hours, but it might have been done sooner?

I am having a hard time figuring out how much energy I used for my heating time on the stove, I have a rating on it for a per hour use but it does not break it down to per burner, so I can’t give a honest amount used but the average time to cook those same type of meat would be at least 20 min on the stove and at least 40 min in the oven.. either way, I used less power.

So the Ecozoom has my water boiling in 5 min with the use of half a branch worth of dead fall twigs and the leaves on the twigs, so in that case, no outside energy costs required to get the shuttle chef to its cooking point, it took about ten min from start to finish to get the ecozoom ready, heat up and on, the water done and the stove closed up and allowed to finished burning the coals and done.

I am unsure how you figure out any costs of deadfall twigs off one of my trees? but I guess you can factor in the cost of the ecozoom stove, the cost of the shuttle chef up to a point per meal till they are paid off but in any case, I am happy to have the choice to be able to cook with this, my next pot will be done on the ecozoom and I am going to try out a long cooking time item being beans or rice following the shuttle chefs cookbook on timing etc.

Update: the meat came out perfectly and was still hot enough that you needed a tong to lift them out, then I could not help but notice that the pouching water looks amazing, so I re-heated the pot to boiling, this time less then a two min to do so, and add in the right amount of rice and some seasonings and back into the outer pot it went, so I should have rice ready to go with fresh veggies with some diced in cooked meat for supper.

Most of the above post is taken from my first overview of the pot, I have since had it for 5 years, its been used in the house, its a crock pot that uses next to no energy, it works to keep hot drinks hot on trips, it packs up for a potluck dinners like a dream, it can be chilled and works well for cold dishes as well.

This product was so worth the investment and at some point, I will get another one that has two pots in the same space for different foods, as that is the only thing that is not good.. its always one pot meals.

So what is your plan to be able to provide hot meals when the power is out? Have you added or replaced any of your cooking items to get better energy rates out of them? Anyone out there using a ecozoom to cook with, or using a shuttle chef to cut your energy use? If so, any hints or types on using this product?

 

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Green Pea Shoots

Posted on February 5, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

 

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Packed with vitamins A[1], C[2] and folic acid[3], Pea Shoots are a delicious, nutritious modern slant on the classic British garden pea. Lyndel Costain, B.Sc.RD, award winning dietitian and author of Super Nutrients Handbook, says, “Pea Shoots are a nutritious leaf with high levels of vitamin C and vitamin A. A 50g bag of these tasty greens offers more than half of the RDA for vitamin C, a quarter of the RDA for vitamin A and significant amounts of folic acid. It is great news that this healthy and simple to prepare British vegetable leaf is readily available to consumers

soak your peas for a few hours to overnight, heavily plant out a pot or pots and in three to seven days you will have lovely fresh three to five inch high tender greens ready for your cooking, keep planting out every so many days. if you want plant a bigger pot, put a wee three stick teepee up and grown them a foot to a foot an half to have a big feed in a stir-fry

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We had a feed last night on our homemade pizza, it delightful, and today I will start more sprout and plant more peas, before it wilted, there was a half cup chopped greens an vines mixed with our beef and mushrooms, it was local cheese, so looking forward to making my own again. the one I am craving is sheep feta, sharp and tangy..

So what are you waiting for, get out your seed box or tote and get some peas planted up, if you have already not done so!

 

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Investing in the Farm -Feb Item One-Bakers Couche

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

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My Flax proofing cloth has arrived, its huge, way bigger then I needed and going to give me a run for my money, I think I am going to need to use my big wooden cutting board to proof on.  It arrived in the mail and I started making bread right away..

this cloth is a higher priced item and then some.. this single sheet of flax linen regular is right around 75 Canadian plus shipping from France for the grade and quality I wanted.. I got it on sale for 35 plus shipping..

I got one that was made of 100% natural flax linen, untreated, unbleached.

  • Imported from France directly by BrotformDotCom.
  • Heavy weight, professional grade fiber.
  • 26 x 35 Inches, plenty of surface to work multiple loaves.
  • Finished seam on both sides so it will not fray over time.

I would have cringed more at this if I did not make bread so very often, I was struggling with me softer (higher moisture content) breads in regards to proofing and them sticking.  You can only deal with issues for so many years before you finally look for what the answer is..

In this case, the answer is a very heavy amazing piece of flax cloth 🙂

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I cracked out my huge wooden cutting boards, I get them from Ikea and they are very reasonable in price, I recommend one for veggies and one for meat.. they hold a huge amount of prep food and they clean up with salt like a dream, they have a ring around them, so the drips or juice run into it first and not over the side, I love that about them.

The above photo was taken just after cutting an shaping a very soft and wet type dough, and I can see that its going to take practise to learn how to mold it, I did two long ones and two short sub ones, With just enough left over to be used for a nice pizza dough for supper tonight but that is different post and for a different reason.

The finished Bread is at the top of the post, its a lightly sweet honey bread.. I can see that this proofing linen will be used for many years to come.

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Visiting with Deb

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

Deb found my blog in its first year, an she became a regular commentor, she lives a number of hours away, after a good while just being in touch though the blog, we decided to meet. the first time we meet we drove with vehicles loaded with plants

I got to meet hubby and it was a lovely lunch, and we started keeping the odd phone call as well as still writing on the blog,. Now a few more years have passed and we try an get together once to twice a year, half the time we double date and have couple dinner an visits and then sometimes us ladies breakfast or even better spend the day.

so we made plans to meet at our regular breakfast spot denny’s, and deb treated so I was not buying for no buy feb which was sweet but clearly I do not get to the city much as it was closed, gone.. as I sat waiting I snapped this great photo.. its the tree right by denny’s parking lot in the mall and yet, that photo is classic and timeless an placeless.. beautiful!

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Yesterday was a wonderful long girl only visit.. and we needed a new place, cora was tracked down and turned out to be a great place to spend a number of hours visitingP1050722

It was a lovely day, and it lifted my mood in so many ways, while my farm and critters are a great comfort, it was a good way to keep me busy, and there was a few tears, much laughter and hugs.

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I added a new piece of pottery handmade by deb to my collection of her work, its made by imprinting with a burdock leaf..  its quite a large platter love the color of it and the detail 🙂 An today we are dealing with and starting clean up on the freezing rain that is covering the farm

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