Just another Day on the Farm

Indoor Quail Breeding Box

Posted on January 25, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Now I have my little quail in for the winter, I had raised them in their rabbit hutch and they did great right up until it was truly winter, and the snow came, the cold came, their pen was wrapped and stuffed with bedding and we had our first loss, a lovely little hen, I do not know that it was the cold that got her, did she not burrow in the foot by foot stuffed full of bedding in the enclosed bed area. or was it something else.

Regardless, hubby took one look and declared it the cold and voila, I got house quail..

I must tell you.. I love it! They are the best little house pets, they sing, they purr, they are clean, they are easy to care for and some of them are moving right into tame to the point of silliness.

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Meet Quinten, one of my male quails, he not only likes to cuddle, he likes to shoulder serf and watch the world go by while I work on the computer.. Sorry for the bad Selfie, but its all about him.. never mind me 🙂

We had hit only one snag, and that is while there was lots of room for my four hens and two boys in my big 16 square foot plus height, the pen they are in house is smaller and I found that with the loss of the one hen it took us to two males, three hens and what happened was the stronger male Brutus keeps the females on the bottom floor and keeps the other male up on the second floor level..

That will not due

1) because I will not allow my critters to live in a set up that encourages in-fighting.

2) this lowers and limits my breeding program, right now, all my hens are being breed to only one male..

So a second quail habitat needed to be made for in house use.. it needs to be draft free, it needs to let the light in as I want those hens laying eggs, it needs to have good air flow and it needs to be sturdy and safe from the purr-pots and hounds.

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So we took a tote, trimmed out the top plastic, replaced it with wire top for air flow and for safety in case a purr-pot sits on it, we put it on the top, if you did not have to worry about that, it would look prettier under.

Then we drilled two holes, ran wire and twisted it into place, small zip ties would also work if you wanted to do so. We drilled holes to hang the feed dishes, put our straw in and voila! a perfect little two bird honeymoon suit.

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It can also very easily be used for other things at later date. Total cost.. 6.99 for tote (it was a after Christmas sale), recycled the top wire from a old item, the wire was a gift and 20 min or so of our time..

The wee breeding pair are very pleased, it fits well in a nook by the plant lights on the other side from where the other pen is. Let me tell you, this male was so happy to be given his own pen an female, he was strutting an getting busy lol I am in the process of collecting quail eggs for my first test hatch of the year.

Beeswax -Grades and cleaning

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

What a great gift I got yesterday, I brought home some lovely local honey but I was also able to bring home a big box filled with uncleaned beeswax.. The bee keeper had already graded the wax, I assume for his own purpose when planning to clean it at a later date.

I had hoped to bring home fresh wax for use in my salves for the year but I came away with much more then that.. I will get to play a bit for sure on what I do with it..

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This is a quite big box and it has what appears to be average color mix to it.

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this box is filled with very light and very clean comb. I expect that this will be my best wax for my salve making but time will tell me if I am right

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This is the smallest amount and its very dark comb indeed.. Below is a half filled white kitchen garbage bag filled with already partly prepared for melting wax.

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Have you worked with raw wax? I will keep you up to date on my process and how it goes. What would you make with it?

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged beeswax, grades of beeswax, local beekeepers, local honey, raw beeswax, using raw beeswax | 2 Comments

New Sheep on the Farm -Tess

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

Today we picked up Tess, aka Tesseracts, the black sheep.. There was a few to pick from but she was the stand out, her temperament, her size and her excellent hair sheep winter coat.

She was gotten in honor of Jason’s story in the book called, you guessed it.. Black Sheep

She is big (but young yet) she is chill, she is expecting and I like her very much, I have great hopes for training her for being a milk sheep in the future. She had her collar on and was tied for safety, she was totally just hanging out watching the world go by, sometimes sniff my hand and then just looking and watching..

The sheep flock however are “AH” its a new and its black.. Poor girl, we put out lots of extra hay, they will all settle down soon. I know the farmer I got her from, and was very comfortable putting her out with the flock.. (if you do not know where they came from or are in doubt, please be careful about just adding a new critter to the flocks)

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Bella

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

It is with great Sadness that I am letting you know that our beloved Bella, our sweet and always sassy little Yellowknife Rescue has crossed over. She joined our family at the tender age of six weeks and she would have been 16 years olds next month.

She moved with us across Canada, and never missed a single night sleeping between us, she was our wee girl, and she will be leaving a huge hole in our life. Please hug your pets and have a extra snuggle.. you just never know when their time will come.

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I did not know it at the time but this would be very last photo I would take of my little girl!

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Posted in Life moves on daily | 23 Comments

Roasted Winter Root Veggies with Sausages

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

Sometimes in winter, you just love to make it and forget it, and baking something not only increases the sweetness of your root cellar veggies but also helps warm your house at the same time.

the base of this is all root cellar veggies, the butternut squash is holding very well, it was harvested and cured in early oct, so its been in storage for 3 months.. the carrots however where starting to grow greens a bit on the end, and had some fuzzy white roots on them, the turnip is getting soft and had a spot on the one skin that needed to cut a bit deep, not bad per say yet, perfectly fine to go to the pigs.

I will need to process the rest of the turnips soon I think but a few more are still holding yet.

I filled my pot of half full with these three roots, no onion, no garlic, nothing to stop their own flavour from bursting though.. I drizzle my best olive oil and a bit of sea salt and then put the bangers on top, and into the oven at 375 for approx. 90 min.

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This was eat it like candy good! The squash melted down, the others where cook but firmer and the flavours.. o despite being held for 3 months, the taste was outstanding.

Posted in Life moves on daily | 5 Comments

Itchy Skin- Listernine Blend Spray

Posted on January 21, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

With winter comes dryness and with dryness can come itchy skin on one of my hounds, she tends to be the type that can itch from the grass, itch from rolling around in the hay and itch from dry skin, she has been tested and its not anything that needs a treatment per say, but we have shampoo that helps but when its this cold, bathing a double coated breed dog is not a good idea and she is only itch in a few spots in winter.

Gold Listerine Anti-Itch Blend to the rescue

1/3 rd Gold (Original) Listerine

1/3 rd Baby oil What ever kind you like..

1/3 rd Water

Measure out and pour into a spray bottle and shake well before use, spray on till fur or hair is damp, gently massage in and allow to dry.. Stops itching in the hounds, or the horse in summer

Now I am sure you want to know why this works.. the answer is simple.. Read below, the active ingredients are antiseptic (proven) anti inflammatory effect (not proven but only because it does not have the proper studies to say so).

What I can tell you is that if I ask my girl to come over and get her treatment, she runs up, lets me spray her, and sighs as she knows that it will take the itch away.

Inspired by Louis Pasteur‘s ideas on microbial infection, the English doctor Joseph Lister demonstrated in 1865 that use of carbolic acid on surgical dressings would significantly reduce rates of post-surgical infection. Lister’s work in turn inspired American Joseph Lawrence to develop an alcohol-based formula for a surgical antiseptic (Its exact composition was a trade secret.) Joseph Lawrence named his antiseptic “Listerine” in honor of Joseph Lister

The active ingredients listed on Listerine bottles are essential oils which are menthol 0.042%, thymol 0.064%, methyl salicylate 0.06%, and eucalyptol 0.092%.^[14] In combination all have an antiseptic effect and there is some thought that methyl salicylate may have an anti inflammatory effect as well.^[15] Ethanol, which is toxic to bacteria at concentrations of 40%, 26.9% in the original gold Listerine Antiseptic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listerine

Posted in Life moves on daily | 4 Comments

Homemade Suit Cakes for Birds

Posted on January 20, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Sometimes you need to do things the hard way and sometime you can do things the easy way..

While I guess that it would be easier to buy these (haha) trust me.. it would take me more time to go to town and never mind the cost savings. At my local Store’s, a single cake will cost you 1.99 Canadian at regular price, they do often go on sale or you can buy a pack of 3 at 4.99

However as the lard is from my boar, which means to me its totally free, as I would not be using that lard for house use, that is what my lovely female lard is for 🙂 and it cost me about 25 cents worth of scratch and 40 cents worth of BOSS (black Sunflower seeds) if I had not grown my own seed.

It took me a few min to measure 3/4th scratch grain, a mix of wheat, oats, barley and corn to 1/4th Boss, to which I added two pounds of just melted fat. Pushed it into pans and into the fridge they went. Can also use freezer if you want and after chilled up. I just cut them up into blocks, each block will go into a hanger or dish to help my fowl get though the very cold weather we are having at the moment.

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I made eight of them for around a dollar and for 3 to 5 min worth of work time.. and I know that my birds will thank me..

Farm Gal Tip of the day- If you are new to homesteading and you are in cold climates, you need to learn what is the engine for your chosen critter. For my horse’s in the cold part of winter, I want them to stuff their faces with as much hay as possible as the hay is what keeps them warm but with my rabbits, I want to add a heaping spoon of BOSS per rabbit to give them that extra booster of fat from the sunflowers.

Posted in Life moves on daily | 2 Comments

Grow Lights – Jan- Investing in the Farm 2016

Posted on January 19, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

This post is part of my Investing in the Farm 2016 Series.

One bigger ticket item that will reduce the farm work load, in some cases this means allowing myself to move over to power or gas tools, but only with non-power off grid backups in place as well. This ideally in most but not all cases should be something we have worked around for years and know we want. On the low end a big ticket item was gotten on a good enough sale to be in hundred plus range but all planned or gotten big ticket items will range from hundred plus to 300 to 400 per at full cost plus tax.

This is my big-ticket item for Jan, I have for years gotten by with having hubby haul up my empty shelves, you see as fall comes you fill the series big 5 level shelf’s in the cellar and as you eat them, they empty, and then they get shifted around and hauled upstairs to be used as seed starter and growing shelves. I expect the truth is, I will still need haul a few up, they are black and plastic and they cost a pretty penny, they are heavy-duty and should last us many years, but attractive they are not.

As we redid our living room last year, new floor, new paint and more, I sighed but knew that come later winter, it would change-up a bit, folk have commented that my living room becomes a bit of a green jungle in the spring, but I have the solar heating, huge windows and its one of the rooms that has the space.

This was the shelves after we got them home before we got the lights in and so forth.

But on my local plant group someone was offering to make and sell seed starting shelves, he would do it on the cheaper side with plywood or he would do it on the more costly with locally harvested hard wood from his wood lot and even better, he was willing to do some for cash now and some for farm gate sales for later.

I will be honest, I might have bulked more if I had to buy it cash outright but with the fact that I can grow my farm gate sales items he is interested in, it means that I can pull the cost down to a reasonable one. I am not saying it’s not worth the asking price- it is.

However when on the farm, and in the lean mode of winter months It made a difference at being able to say yes!

So we added in a lovely hand-made seed starting kit to the living room, Right now I have it up on a perfectly size coffee table but hubby will make me a base for it, one that I will be able to put storage boxes under it, it looks great.. He was kind enough to put a lip on the top shelf, which is great as I will at some point, move plants up top as well.

If you are interested in a unit for yourself, he makes single, double or triple units and he is in Ottawa proper, drop me a note in the comments and I will be pleased to connect you to him.

Its early for starting yet but I have a tray of greens planted, and I have little pots of herbs, greens, peas and others on the go now.

Ps, as a bonus, the lighting for the plants is also the perfect amount of lighting for my little house quail for laying so we have adjusted their pen as well so that its doing a dual purpose..

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged Saving money growing your own greens in winter, Seed Starting Shelving, Staring seeds, Using lights in starting seeds, Winter Greens, Winter growing of greens under lights | 4 Comments

Rhubarb and Dumplings Recipe

Posted on January 18, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

So at some time in the spring or summer, you picked, washed and chopped and either froze or canned up some of that amazing plant called rhubarb.

Here is a great way to use it on a cold winter day!

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Stewed Rhubarb and Sweet Dumplings

4 to 6 cups (depending on how you cut your rhubarb) one stuffed small ziplock freezer bag, 1/4 cup of lemon juice and one cup of sugar (less if your rhubarb is sweeter, perhaps a touch more if its a more older sour green kind) and a ten cup pot with a tight fitting lid.

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Put the frozen rhubarb or the quart of canned rhubarb in the pot and heat till at a steady simmer, if it was uncooked, cook till soft and just starting to pull apart, if it was canned, just heat till its simmering.

In a bowl, measure 1 cup of flour, 1 tbsp. of sugar, a pinch of salt, one tsp of baking powder and 1 tbsp. of butter, blend the dry together, then add the butter and cut it into the mixture till its well rubbed in, then make a well in the middle and pour half a cup of cold milk or water into the well, and stir just till mixed..

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Use your spoon to gentle cut and shape it into six equal portions, drop each one into the boiling -simmering stewed rhubarb (keep low just simmering heat on), each should go about half way into the stew very naturally, put the lid on and set your timer for 10 min.

Do not peek! Let it steam those amazing dumplings!

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I took a close up of them when done, I wanted to show how dry them will look despite the fact that they are steamed and just how big and fluffy they are. Here is a close one to show what it looks like inside?

Can be served hot or cold, can be served as seen above or can have a dollop of whip cream or a small scoop of ice cream.

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged dessert, Dumplings, hot desserts, steamed dumplings, stewed rhubarb, stewed rhubarb with dumplings, winter stewed fruit | 15 Comments

Handing Down Memories

Posted on January 17, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

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Got a lovely gift in the mail, my mother in law sent me her first tablecloth and napkin set that was got just after my hubbies parents got married, so she had it in her home for 50 years the little note says, that the main table cloth reminded them of the lace on her wedding dress and it was time to pass it down to us, how lovely, I figured it only fitting to dress the center pieces with past gift from her as well. Hubby comes by his love of rocks honestly.

Thank you for our old – new tablecloth set!

What was the last thing you where gifted from either family or friends that had age and story to go with it?