Just another Day on the Farm

Where to even start.. first four days is a long time but it was so worth it.. huge thank you goes out to hubby for taking two days off work to stay home and run the farm for the time I was off it.. I am very grateful, it allowed me to relax and focus knowing that the farm was well taken care of.

I will admit that on the first day I struggled with some of the process, but even as I was mulling and chewing on it, I could see `how`it could be a good thing, and I wanted to see how Steve was going to build on it though the rest of the clinic..

I was proven right, as I watched it come together, I found myself smiling and nodding, I would have loved if my foot had been up to that kind of work right now, but there was no chance of it.. but it did hold up much better then I expected.. I barely have a limp now!

I came home refreshed and excited to bring those skills and idea`s to my own way of training, it was a great blend..

I did my first training session with Brandy who has a lot of ground work done on her and she was just rocking the basic`s, so I decided to take her up in a challenge, she hates standing in puddles, she is a miss fussy pants when it come to walking in water but within ten min, I had her resting with four in the water, awesome..

Caleb we never really made it past the one lesson I wanted to teach but it was a good time and he was clicking in and was full of try an heart!

I will be reporting back on how training is going mostly on the horse blog but also some on here as well..

Tired today but it was a very good thing for my mind.. I needed to get out and put my thinking cap to use! and it was both hard and good on my body.. it needed the wake up!

Lots going on the farm but will get to that later..

Yummy Milk bread.. so good.. a treat indeed.

The last of the sunflower are finally cut, and de-seeded, the large heads were 12 to 14 inches, the med 8 to 10 inches an the small around 6 to 8 inches.

Summer Turnips rows were harvested, could have been bigger but not bad!

Not bad for second planting time for the carrots, I am going to learn in my third plants for overwinter to see if we can get carrots in the spring.

these little beans are from my third bean planting which is just starting to do a production push, they will need to be covered as we have a possible frost warning this coming week, its early this year..

These are going to make stocking stuffers for a certain brother.. and maybe  a few gift jars for other folks..

Cleaning, Canning, cleaning, picking, Prepping, cleaning, Canning.. repeat.. visit with friends, picking, processing, prep work and repeat.

Harvest the head, the leaves had all turned yellow, the black had white stripes on them, where full and plump in feel..

rub the seeds out, take care because the faster you go and more mess you make the more you will need to clean them later, they come out pretty fast once you get the swing of it..

Raw seeds, now they need to either be soaked over night in salt water or simmered on the stove in salt water or if you want unsalted, you can move right onto wash, rinse and into the roasting stage.

Into the oven for 40 min at 300 give or take, stir at least once at the mid mark, cool, and enjoy or if you need that extra salt punch, a tiny bit of oil and a sprinkle of salt over them fresh and hot out of the oven, let cool and enjoy! Store in a airtight glass jar ideally.

As these were simmered, I really didn`t find I needed any extra salt on them after roasting..

Don`t they look just yummy, now I must have a feast! of a yummy home grown 0 mile Splits!

Was cleaning out the rabbit hutches, sorting the growouts, sexing out the rabbits that are going to friends and doing a full count and health check on the younger kits..

Thumper has her first litter and she had a much harder time of it, her sister Flower had a nice big litter, no issues, she was a bit scared as a first time mom but just rocked along..

Thumper, well she has a much harder time, she lost a number of her kits to stillborn, so she only had six live ones, and she is wild about her protectiveness, she charges at you and thumps hard in warning, she is fine if you are in the front part of her hutch, food, water, and hay, no worries, open up the indoor back part of her hutch and HO MY..  I find it easier to block her from being able to come in.

Her kits looked at first glance, awesome, fat and glossy and very clean.. but a closer looks showed two of the six had one eye open and one closed, I found the first one and it looked like its eye was just crustied, checked nose and bum, everything else looked good, just crusty, but as I checked the others, the second one had a eye closed an it was clearly swollen, even a tiny tug on it, and thick white discharge popped out and a small glop..

Into the house they came, I got the eye open with warm water soaking and a lot of this white thick discharge came out,  no smell and it looked like rich cream in color, finally was able to flush the eye with sterile water till it came back out clean and then both of them had their eyes treated with antibodic drops..

And then I worried, should I have culled them, Despite having had rabbits for ten years on the farm, I have never had a single kit ever have a eye issue before.. I put the question up on facebook and was glad that a friend and fellow rabbit breeder said,  is the mom fussy, does she move the bedding a lot, well that is a great way to explain my fussy Thumper..

We said because they are in good health, nose is clear, rear is clear and its only one eye, and its just at the age that they are opening their eyes, that its possible that momma got a little bit of chaft in their eye..

So last night, back in they came and it was much better for the night cleaning, flushing and treatment..

this morning (which is when I finally got photos) much much better, while they have crusted eye, and the one that was less effected swelling and redness is mostly down, the one that was worst, had no discharge but it has much more swelling and redness in the eye itself.

However given that its only been 24 hours I could not be more pleased.. So has this ever happened in your rabbits, did you go herbal flushes, did you consider using EI, lavender in a carrier oil was recommended by a very good friend, or did you go with a anitbodic eye drops..

Ok, so we got the slips in june, and I will not tell a lie, they didn`t get put in the ground right away, in fact they were in holding for at least two weeks(Bad US) but we finally got their raised bed made, filled and they were planted..

the plants liked the area and grew well, strong and green, they both grew up the chainlink and out into the pen itself.

We harvested early but between a week to two, as we would need to track night time soil temps, but I needed the pen for critter use, the vines went to the pigs.

We got three different kinds of sweets, medium spud

fingerings

and in the words of my hubby.. sweet potato fries.

My scale read 14.6 when I weighted out the bowl before cleaning them. from a learning, I could not be more pleased.. Next as a first year growing them we learned lots, we will have the area prepped ahead of time, the soil mix we did, was a clear success and will be repeated next year. Both hubby and I agree..

We had to try some for part of our lunch, we both agreed that they the little ones didn`t taste like store sweet potatos, they were more of a sweet potato-fresh garden sweet carrot blend in taste to us. They were very good, just different, it will be interest to see if the bigger ones will taste the same or not

Well, lets get the sad news out first, my sweet Lily at just over the age of 14 has crossed from this world to the next.. she was a truly wonderful member of our pack from the age of eight week onwards and she will be sadly missed and remembered.. her BBF is in need of extra time and love.. Here they are at the age of ten, still both looking so strong and healthy.. RIP my sweet girl..

On a slightly related note, it was such a sad day, that I needed to get out and ride, not just a short walk like last time, Hubby came with on Brandy Girl, it was a excellent ride, both horse`s were well behaved (they did very well having been off for six weeks for Caleb and nine weeks for Brandy Girl) I was out for a bit over a hour and because I was able to get my foot into my boot finally, it really helped provide support.

We had a wild storm come though, it came with lots and lots of rain if you look in the photo you can see that the ground is so wet, its holding the water to it, well it came with strong winds, and the thunder gods were having lots of fun, the growls, booms and the cracks of pure power where coming hard and heavy..  Thanksfully the house and house yard and critters where fine but my big old 60 plus shade tree in the small pasture didn`t make it, it was split in two.. it will be a big job to finish taking it down and getting it cleaned up, I figure it will to a point make a new hugelbed and at the same time provide us with a good amount of firewood as well.

The garden is in full swing, and canning or processing  is being done daily, bowls of goodies are coming in.. but the storm did a number on it as well.. lots of knock downs, I will see if it did any longer terms damage or if most things can be saved.

Need to figure out when to harvest the sweet potato`s it will need to be done in the next week or so I figure.. I would like to do some yard clean up but its so wet out there right now. we will see ..

Well, had better get back at it..

Yesterday was a very busy day and then some.. but one of the things I needed to do was get a few things from the store.. I needed more pickling spice, I needed to add a couple more jars of olive oil for salve making, I like to use a very light oil cold pressed oil for it, I needed to pick up another 100 paper bags for seed saving, I also picked up a new herb blend for use on potato`s and I picked up a bag of taco spice, I also got box`s of different freezer bags and some rooboo tea..

I ended up between two mothers that were clearly shopping for both family use and for school, now the lady in front, her sale item was five packages of just turning spotted banana, which she smiled at me and said, Banana bread (so she does bake) she had what I am sure would be considered good food in the cart, greens, salad fix`s, bags of apples, oranges, grapes but then it got interesting, all of her bread was the cheapest white bread possible, her meats where clearly done to be frugal as well, she had family packs of chicken thighs but everything else in the cart, was pure carbs, fats and chemical`s.. I thought it was a interesting mix..

It was in effect a glimpse into a regular `town`shopper that was following the guidelines for health but also was buying what would be considered `norm`for the kids to take to school, she was clearly in her own way trying, she had bought the five loafs of cheap white bread for less money then I would pay for one of my good full rye loaf of bread from the same store, she had bought cases of things on sale for savings, (China apples juice box`s) she had clearly looked and tried to find the most cost savings meat, she had frozen breaded meats, and her fresh chicken legs, premade burgers etc

Overall, I would guess that she feels she s feeding her family well but is also trying to keep her food bill down, she had pulled her banking card and then watched the bill climb, when the final came in, she put her card back and put it on Visa, which to me just confirmed that she was struggling. She had wanted to pay for the food with cash but moved it to credit.

She had looked at my pile with a odd glance.. If you didn’t know me, I get it, it was a odd collection..

But behind me was a second mom, and she had a full cart as well but she was not even trying on the `balanced` I am not being mean, but I looked at that full cart, and there was not a single living food in it.. cases of juice, cases of pop, everything was premade, box`s of cookies, box`s of little cakes, Box`s of crackers, Box`s of fruit cups, Fruit rollups, even the lunches were all pre-made, the little box`s with meat, cheese and crackers, her soups were not even add water, it was serve as is, her rice was microwave instant, her potato`s were instant mashed.. EVERYTHING was premade and predone!

Even the yogurt was in tubes with fake flavours and colors, the jello and puddings were premade.. I looked for milk, thinking surely the milk will be in bags and whole, but nope, even it was in little flavored bottles..

She spent over three hundred dollars and never came out of the store with a single thing that had to be peeled, prepped or home cooked.. WOW..

To give credit, she didn`t even blink at the price and she did pay cash for it, she was a happy lady, smiled and nodded, I said, getting ready for school and she laughed and said yes.. then glanced at my pile and said. brown paper bags are not very poplar now with a smile, I said, its not for lunch bags it for drying herbs, and for seed collecting from my garden, she smiled back but her eyes went blank..

I moved on.. but it has stuck with me ..

What would we be eating if we had to be in town, my respect for those that are urban homesteaders, those that struggle to provide for their family when they can`t grow and produce the same lifestyle that we have..

My hat is off to you.. but let me ask you..  what was the last thing you thought of items in the cart before you in line.. any good ones.. lay it on me LOL

So as a followup, The ten year old ragdoll boy has a nice home, he is moving to a new place soon with one of the ladies that had been looking after him as a stray for the past couple years, which is great.. Still don`t know how he ended up lost in that neck of the woods..

But it brings up a interesting point, he was microchipped as a kitten by me but if you never update the chips info, and my information is not valid anymore, then regardless of the chip, there is no way to figure out where the folks that owned him are.. so there is no way to figure out if he was lost or left.

I have had no interest in Sunny, but that`s just fine, he has settled into the farm so well, he has joined the farm pride, he is welcome on the deck and he is a indoor and outdoor boy, when you are outside, he trails around with you.. Great kitty.. I will get a better photo of him outside.

Apple my new piglet is doing great! She is growing really well and her training it coming along very well, she has moved from the house to the main yard, she has her own pen that is viewable from the house, and she gets lots of daily interacts and she loves her pets and rubs to the point that she will fall over and give belly.. she needs to be a bigger before she moves to the barn, plus I am using her to root till the ground is frozen

I have a litter of growouts ready for breeding, I have second litter that is just a few weeks away from being ready for butcher, plus a litter in the middle of age, nice litter of nine buns an then two new little ones, all are doing well which is great! Total number of buns at the moment is 40, and trust me that is a lot of rabbit for the freezer, but given our lack of chicken, its a very good thing indeed.

The keets are doing great, I have two chocolate pied, and four more tradional coloring, I can only hope that some of them are female to go with my white male.. They are not allowed out yet, they don`t yet come to the whistle, which means there would be no way to get them to come back each day, so their training is still very much in process.

The ducklings which are not new to the farm but have been born here are doing very very well indeed, they coming up on ideal young butcher age.. I will not have many, I want to keep all the females, and the two biggest males, one chocolate and one black-pied as breeders for next year. I expect that it will mean that I only have two to four to butcher, my duck meat will be a much desired and very special this winter.

That`s about it for the moment..

these are my four feet plus double rowed fences, the beans are thriving but need them to get busy flowering, should have another three to six weeks of harvest time. The other fence which is not growing as well, but they are in fact three weeks early planted and are in in full bloom. if I like these beans, next year I am growing them up a ten foot fence.

They are loving this soil, it was amended with rabbit poo and a bit of hard wood ash this spring, then grew pea`s, the pea vines where taken out, it was turned and raked and re-seeded with beans..

Speaking of things that are growing! the sweet potato slips are up at the top of the ten foot chain link and they have also gone sideways into the one pen, (which was empty and now stays that way because everything on the farm likes to eat this plant) by a good five to six feet along the ground as well..  I hope I get some sweets out of all the space I have given them