I am going to be busy again today with adding in a few extra things but I will do my best to get at least two more posts up today, if I get in writer mode, I will get that last post caught up on the Wartime Challenge..
What do you say is keeping me hopping..
So having a bit of fun with water and wells, so two nights ago it was mild enough that we turned on the pipe that leads to the one barn, wanting to be able to use the hoses to fill things up, and nothing, but hubby thought he closed the pipe, which in fact did not happen. so at some point in the night, it ran and ran and ran.. woke up to the sounds of my water system whining in the cellar and sure enough we had run the dug well for the house dry.. sigh..
Big Back Well is a drilled well but its not online yet as its froze, so we have water for the house but need water for the farm critters, popped the top off our 3RD well which is a old dug well and yup, water, so we will be hauling up buckets of water for the critters today till the dug well fills back enough to put the system on again..
I knew there was a reason that I was so pleased that my farm came with three different wells.
But as it was melting, and water was running on all our roof collection systems, we hauled out 55 gallon barrels, which all filled and then twice, needed to be emptied and moved to more 55 gallon barrels, we also set up one of our roof systems to fill the big water trough and by the end of yesterday, it was full to the brim and we had moved it to collecting in a second system..
At this point, we have a number of days worth of water for the farm ready to go, lots and lots of water to be hauled in for grey water use in the house, and we are good on drinking water, its so much fun heating water to wash, heating water to do dishes and floors and so forth.. and of course it takes a full five gallon bucket to flush..
Now we have started the process of figuring out how fast at this time of year the main house well will refill or if we will have to call to have it filled.. We do have refill but its going to take a couple days from the looks of it..
Good day to practise using one pot cooking, it worked well with the energy saving in regards to the wartime challenge.
But despite the challenges of the day, and there was the water challenge, then there was the appointment for my food eating which included my old homework continuing and my new homework being added on..
We still needed to have some fun as well, so after supper, all chores done, we played redneck badminton, that is when you try up binder twine between to trees across your driveway, and if it goes in the snow its out LOL
I won but I think the fact that poor hubby was looking at the sun while playing, as you can see.. it was on handcap, it lead to many laughs but I gave him a three point lead.. it did not help, Way back in the day, this was one of my most favorite sports, I played both doubles but I loved singles! I was so excited when hubby gave me a set for Christmas. We are going to set up a better place to play later in the season..
Well, I wanted to get photos of my chickens today.. after I took the photo, I looked and went.. hmmm.. looking a little rough from their two months of winter lock down.. Boy are they enjoying their outside fresh air, sunshine, they have some lovely straw bales in their outside pen for them to sit on.
The Ducks came though winter with flying colors other then I lost almost all my hens to the fox or the coy-wolf, bringing me into spring with one chocolate and White Hen and Drakes, this will not due.. One drake has been sold to a friend, three will need to be butchered and the best two will be held back and another hen or two will join the flock.
I will include a review on my poor frost bite boy.. he is going to lose that whole comb but he is going to be just fine, strong and healthy otherwise..
Feel bad for him but as you can see on the others, he was the only one that got bite.
Hello Folks, I am going to be doing a bit of a cheat today 🙂 I have had a few things come up that are not only taking my time but have my mind so focused that I am not in writer mode! Plus I am a day behind..
So, today, we are putting up pages on desserts and calling it.. I will ideally come back to this post at a later point and fill it in more.. but in a nut shell, everyone loved their desserts.
So they really needed these recipes, plus they just liked their rib sticking fullness that came with them.. they were more concerned about being full and getting calories then they were about what would have been the most healthy at the time.. Although that was a changing in knowledge over this time.
Hello Folks,
For those that are new to the blog, having gotten here one way or another, heads up, we bounce 🙂 I change what I write about based on what is happening on the farm, and so in some ways, you get a very real true to life picture of a active busy farm, if you read back you will see the flow that happens, spring is coming.. that means march challenges, and then new life in so many ways..
But I also write the blog to keep my family out west and friends all over up to date on our life happenings, that means at times photos of trips off the farm, I have tried to a point to move more of the family things over to facebook but as not all my family is on facebook, there is a number of things still posted here on the blog.
So moving on to the topic.. Starting my brussel sprouts, some are going to be started early and some are going to be stagger planted, I do this with almost everything because the truth is we have no idea what kind of spring-summer-fall we will get and I also start some things to come early because we eat out of the garden as soon as possible.
These seeds were started with the baggy method, then once sprouted where moved over to the soil, they are the ones in the baggy covered pots, the other pots are planted with peas
http://homesteadbloggersnetwork.com/green-thumb-thursday-linkup-312/
Lets talk about Bacon shall we..
Boy did the folks love their bacon, they loved it as a meat but they loved it just as much for the fat it came with.. this was not modern bacon, this was fatty bacon.. and we as Canadians certainly produced a lot of pigs to feed this high demand..
Now if we look at the basics of how the meals where to break down.. we can see that the little bits of bacon and ham was very important as they would have been in a way considered the fresh meat.. even though both are of course cured and smoked to preserve it.. so both fresh meat and cured at the same time..
In England at least they did pig shares, I am not as sure that they did this at all in Canada, I can find no proof yet that this was in fact the case here.. but in England, they did save the scraps for the pigs and for the chickens.. Its my understanding that then everyone who was part of the pig feeding, got a little bit back in turn for it..
But in Canada, It would appear that we collected our bones and scraps for the war effort more then for the pigs or chickens.. Fat was collected as it was needed for the war effort as was bones. I am assuming this was because of the difference between our livestock being grown on farms, we just had so much more land available to us then they would have. We also would have had much more ways to feed our pigs of the time
There are no recipes per say for bacon in any of the books or menus I have been able to track down.. but I cooked a pound of my fatty large black bacon and got one and half cups of lard from it.. I have no way if this was close but I for sure know that its closer to par then what our modern breed to be lean pigs would be.. most likely a bit of a meet in the middle would be about right..
They would have rendered the fat down and then cleaned it with boiled water and used every scrap of it in their menus. this rendering was a new thing for most as they give very careful step by step on how to do it, its written out as clearly as possible, which leads me to believe that it was something that normally done by others, or not done at all..
Yup its that time of the year.. time to start putting pigs to work…
Lets see who is on our work team this year..
Apple is getting nice sized, she is a total sweetheart of a gilt, sweet as can be, loves her rubs and is very gentle but interested in everything..
Smaller, more excitable and very cute is Ella, she likes her job though and is getting to the point that she will touch my hand and let me give the softest lightest hip rubs.. She is always Apples shadow!
They were given their first pen to dig and turn and get ready to be hauled out and moved to compost piles for the year.. 
On the left, regular deep pack bedding, a mix of straw, hay, poo and urine.. but its just a mat of it.. but on the right, its the pig turned, dug and wetted and already well started compost.. you do need to pour and add water for the pigs to get it turned well. its heavier to move for sure but its already at least 30 percent further at the very start in regards to its compost process..
Go Piggy Power!
These four cute fluffy butts are not a pure breed per say, they are a land race breed from Iceland, they are quite small compared to most of the hens I normally keep but I have been told they will lay very well though the winter. They are unsexed, so here is hoping that at there is at least one hen and one rooster among them, only time will tell
Just another Day on the Farm 
