Just another Day on the Farm

The Peanut Foo is good!

Posted on December 21, 2021 by Just another day on the farm

The Blue Jays love peanuts.. I love a birds from the Corvid family, with ravens being my ultra favorite but crows and jays coming in a very close second.. but for flash, the jay is so crazy pretty..

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They are bird feeder bullies for sure, mob yard bosses.. but they are also bold as brass.. and so they are the most active in regards to being willing to play in my christmas wild bird photography..

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This is a mix of, that opps is awesome and got it! (with lots and lots of blur you will not see lol)

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Some of the action ones are pretty darn great..

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Some where taken in the morning light with the cold bitter frost used to good effect..

Other in the taken in the fading light of the evening sun on the longest dark day of year..

Today is a new day.. and the wheel turns and light starts coming again.. each day a little longer, a little brighter.. we still have the cold and winter bitterness to come but the sun will hold its promise.. the cats will seak it out.. the plants will turn to it in the house, and I for one am glad to see that the darkest day of 2021 is behind us.. onward..

So which one is your favorite? Did the action one catch your eye.. did you like the picture perfect one? or perhaps the one that almost looks like a painting but its real?

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged Bird Photography, feeding out peanuts, Wild Bird photos, wild bird photos set up in christmas scenes, wild blue jays, winter fun | 1 Comment

Finding Joy Fa la la

Posted on December 16, 2021 by Just another day on the farm

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When I need a break from this big old world, the news and more.. I take a deep breath, center myself and find that zen to work with animals/camera’s.. you can not rush it.. you can’t push it, you can’t make it happen..

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its a dance.. its creative.. Its playful!

what will I do on my set up.. what background will I use.. what depth of field do I want, do I want a full set up or do I want it clean and all about the subject?

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Or will I just let it all go and play and just live perfectly in the moment..

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Then the world comes crashing back and I am in silent mode..

We had a beloved pet get badly hurt and despite surgery, in the end needed to be helped across, which was brutal! it knocked me off kilter.. I still do not understand how it happened but it did.. and I am still not really ready to talk about it.. RIP to our beautiful an beloved Faith.

Then the news started.. small at first, now the news is like a thunderstorm, its a downpour of information.. and in truth.. so few answers in there but it won’t matter.. we are all going to get to feel this storm and its aftermath in 2022..

Last year I made the point to call peaple, to sit in kitchens explaining what was coming.. I was able to really get that push out a few weeks before the rush, before the lock down, before the sent home..

This time I do not have that urge, I feel no need really.. those that want to be prepared are and those that don’t are not.. I feel only for those who have had their own personal SHTF moments be that due to job loss, death due to the pandemic, be that covid, drugs overdose, missed cancer treatments, missed surgeries, or climate change.. All the peaple in BC who have no homes to go back to, all those peaple in the states who have had their lives ripped apart, those in my own province that have had their homes an farms pulled apart by the winds (we got lucky and only had one of my big garage barn doors taken out by the 110 km hour winds)

I am preparing beautiful Christmas Boxes for a few special families, I am beyond grateful for the one in person visit we got in Nov, it was wonderful to break bread and share a meal, words, smiles, laughs and seeds an compost lol..

I had planned on doing some visiting when I delivered the boxes but I expect now, I will be more along the line of drop them off and wishing them a wonderful holiday.. but I think that the visiting will have to wait.. because we are going hermit mode

I do not want to go hermit, it was not in the game plan but life at the moment is laughing at a number of our bigger “plans” so I am pulling inward.. We are pulling inward..

Dear Hubby is on the 3rd last chapter for his first massive full length novel, as well as having a number of short stories written (more on them at a later point 🙂 We will continue to live, work and thrive on the farm and if that is the case.. then we will have a better 2022 then many millions will and I am trying to keep that in mind.

With the holidays here, I am hoping to stay more on the lighter side of things but I will give fair warning that I expect I am going to get darker on a number of Jan posts..

I hope you are finding those moments of joy.. we all need them!

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged Cat photography, pet photography | 16 Comments

One more month in Declutter 365..

Posted on December 1, 2021 by Just another day on the farm

Hello December, Where has the year flown?

We set a goal of 365 declutter for the year and its been both a very good thing and a challenge.. a good thing as it means I have been very aware of things coming into the house and I can honestly say that we have bought or brought in maybe 10 to 15% of the amount we do in a normal year (I do love my second hand shops) I have spent most of the year saying, use what I have or do I really need 6 of those, when 4 will do.. I am certainly NOT throwing away things unless they are damaged so badly that parts can not be used and or they should not be reused.. otherwise, they have found their way to new to them second hand homes or placements.

With a month to go, even though I have meet my goals for the year already, I am going to get a box or two and I am going to challenge myself to see if I can lean down another 31 items a min of one each day for the month of Dec, with the overall goal of 1 to 3 each day or 7 to 21 per week..

Ps, Uther says, I am the best! nicknac, can’t get rid of me ma.. me for life!

Posted in Life moves on daily | 2 Comments

Pet Photography

Posted on November 28, 2021 by Just another day on the farm

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I really need to have a bit of “zen” me time and as we had our first snow fall and it was cold outside, it was the perfect time to work on figuring out how to set up my indoor photo studio in the living room.. and then play with the back end photo programs.. In the above Remmi Photo, not only does that background and lighting have him just popping in this photo, (an O those eyes ) but we are working on figuring out distance of the subject from the background and its effects..

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This one is a combo of photography (its Uther/background) but its also taking the photo and turning it into something new.. into a different form of art.. See Above the Art Version I am calling Blue Mist.. See the Raw photo below taken one frame snap away from the one above..

Smudge decided that she was game for a photo session and some of the treats and pats and play of games that it takes to get them to pose..

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This one is all about her, that dense plush blue grey(silver hued) fur, those eyes and those Whiskers!

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This one is just playful and fun! If I could put a few stars, a little hat and call it Hocus Pocus! It just has that Magic feel to it for me.. she was just at the edge of the chair and so it creates that drop off feel to the bottom of the photo.. The angle of the photo itself is what creates the feeling of her ear blending into the background..

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This one is all soft and dreamy, silver and light.. Same session, same lighting but very different poses, angles and hues for me to work with on what I wanted to frame an bring out.. which one is your favorite? an why?

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This one of Bells Kitten was all about showing off his clean lines and stripes, that sleek tail with solid black tip, that Famous M.. and that he has grown from being a pudge kitten shape to starting to get his “little cat” teenage stage.. its a little crisper/harder edged then I would normally go but I wanted and needed it..

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Then he turned and looked the other way and I took four photos rapid fire and I knew I had something I wanted to work with in a playful way.. Love how this one came out!

Hope you enjoyed taking a peek into the photo session I did yesterday and some of the results.. What is your favorite photo, what do you think of this new background ( I have a few new ones).. I like it very much! Loving having proper Studio lighting.. what a world of difference it makes!

Posted in pet photography | Tagged farm cats, Farm dogs, pet photography | 7 Comments

First Snow Fall

Posted on November 27, 2021 by Just another day on the farm

I adore this photo taken on the first skiff of snow with Remmi (this is about the same amount of snow we got overnight) and I like that its perfect for the post..

Winter is here and keep on moving forward with FOCUS!

Well, winter is here both in terms of the start of the colder temps outside, the ponds have a skim of ice on them, the buckets are the same, time for the heated buckets, the big heated dog bowl for the barn cats, and the combo light/heat lamp has been put on for the laying birds.

Looking out my window, my landscape is White, Brown, Green and Red.. Christmas colors but in a all natural food forest.. White from snow, Green from the spruces, cedars, Brown from all the different small bird feeding seeds heads waving in the winds, and reds, Red branches on bushes, Red fruit on the hawthorn, and the tops of the high bush cranberries are covered in red fruit..

In between all that is flashes of colors, yellow, reds, blues as the birds are all a flutter from feeder to feeder.. We are running four feeders this winter, with the possablity of a 5th, we will see..

However there is a different take that wordings.. “winter is here” since early spring of 2021, right up into late fall, I have over and over in different posts talked about expanding the garden, putting up, stocking up, prepping ahead as “winter is coming”

Well, that winter is here as well.. In so many ways.. but lets stay in the here and now..

So how was your BLACK Friday? (if you live in a part of the world that does Black Friday) I had to be on the road in mid morning as I needed to take Bells Kitten for his second set of vaccine shots, rabies, health check up (perfect bill of health) I was truly surprised at how crazy busy the roads were..

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You see it was raining, freezing rain, sleet and snowing in a steady back and forth and trust me, if I had not needed to keep that appointment for Bells medical needs, there is no way whatsoever you would have gotten me out on those roads so I was shocked at how many peaple were out.. it was not the morning or afternoon commute timing and I took the back highways that have a max 80km speed, as I did not want to be on the bigger high speed (and so many more big trucks)..

I finally went, it has to be peaple out coming and going for black friday sales, I watched on facebook as friends posted they were heading out for their christmas shopping and or folks that shared either that they were proud that they did NO amazon shopping and others that shared that they rocked it on amazon black friday sales..

We did not go out shopping, we did buy one thing on the sales.. What, O what could get us to fork over some of our hard earned cash, while saving a 100 dollars..

LOL fancy tooth brush systems.. while I will always keep regular old tooth brushes in the house, we are going to step up our system and see if it will help our teeth/gum health..

That’s it for us at this time.. a total 1st world, our life is still pretty normal choice.. It felt odd to read the news, to see all that is going on and then to do such a mundane buy..

Did you sit this Black Friday out?

Did you go out and shopped till you dropped?

Did you watch sales with a hawk eye and carefully crafted list by your side?

Did you spend less or more then last year?

Did you find the sales were there? Did you find what you wanted? Was there empty shelves, how was stock in your neck of the woods..

My mom went for a small sale in central alberta and all the shelves and sale areas were sold out at the canadian tire.. and yet my girlfriend in Alberta, was clearly very successful on her shopping trip.. It appears to be the same for other friends, depending on what you wanted, some things had lots and other had little amounts and went very fast..

Posted in At the kitchen table | 3 Comments

RIP Faith Kitty

Posted on November 26, 2021 by Just another day on the farm

Poor Faith, such a freak way to be hurt, I am not going into details but it was truly a HOW did this happen and we were hopeful that maybe we could get lucky and we would lose a leg and get to have the sweetest three legged indoor house kitty..

She always followed us everywhere we went.. If we were on the deck, so was she, if we were in the gardens, so was she, if we were working in the pasture/big gardens, on a fence post, or a rock or a higher spot.. faith would be talking up a storm and making sure you did a good job and maybe had time to give her a pat..

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Faith loved her yard time and the small croft by the house yard, she was always a indoor/outdoor kitty and would turn into pretty much a indoor winter kitty..

Sadly, it was worse then we first thought and that very hard choice had to be made.. The only good thing I can say is that we got to say goodbye and that she seems to understand that it was time to go..

We were able to give her a final resting place on the farm by one of her favorite spots.

Lift a glass to the prettiest, sweetest, Fluff you would ever meet, she was shy as heck with peaple she didn’t know.. but for her peaple, she was the most gentle, loving, purrpot you could ask for.. I can not even get to the point of saying gone to soon.. because it does not fit.. I am still in shock.. Its going to take time to wrap our heads and heal our hearts.

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Posted in Life moves on daily | 13 Comments

Bees, Honey and Wax

Posted on November 25, 2021 by Just another day on the farm

As most folks know I have a crazy amount of native bees of all shapes and sizes and that I am and have massively expanded my food forest and that has and includes more an more bee supporting native plants of all kinds..

One of the area’s that we are lacking on the farm is a 0 mile sugar, while I can and have tapped the sugar Maples, the one lot that I had permisson to tap has new owners and while they do not use their maples, they will not allow anyone else either, which is very sad indeed as they are big older trees that are outstanding.. then yet another area of bush that had sugar maples that I had forage/tapping rights on sold to someone else and they have clear cut the forest to turn it into yet more flooding crop land.. I used to within walking/wagon distance also had big huge old sugar maples along the creek and I sighed deeply this year in 2021 as most of them were cut down, sadly to be hauled away as fire wood..

Even if I planted on my own land (which is a issue as maple leaves and horses are not a great mix), it would take many years to grow the trees big enough to get to harvest stage, and I have limited land, but I have friends that have more land, run maple stands and sell maple syrup each year, I will support them.

That leave me with sugar beets or honey bees.. I am going honey bees.. I have signed up for a two day training course, pre-reserved two nucs from a beekeeper up the road about 15ish min away, who has been raising and breeding bees for the past 30 years locally, while his first stock started out as Russian, he calls them super mutts at this point and they are bred to thrive right in my neck of the woods..

PERFECT! I am only need/want what one productive hive produces per year but there is a lot of reasons to go with two hives, ideally it means that I can harvest less per hive, still get what I need and have them feeding on their own honey and not feeding them.. If one is struggling, I can use the stronger to help the weaker, if one hive dies over winter, I still have the other and so on..

It does mean I will need to do some “swath” row planting in inner pasture areas for mass feeding plantings while other things finish being planted/grow but that is fine.. We will all learn as we go

I am excited to be adding in the hives, not because I need the pollinators, I have them in droves, but to get myself a 0 mile sugar source while using what we already have to support it..

Lots of updates to follow as I share how it goes.. Do you have bees? How was your learning curve? How many hives to you keep? Are you further north? Do you overwinter successfully often?

Posted in 100 mile diet, Life moves on daily | Tagged Bee course, Bee hives, Beekeeper, beeswax, honey, honey bees | 18 Comments

Avacado Pasta Recipe

Posted on November 24, 2021 by Just another day on the farm

This is a older post that certainly desires a little extra share, got one or two ripe Avacado’s that need to be used up.. Think outside the box, makes a excellent light but very tasty pasta sauce..

Just another Day on the Farm

Pasta Sauce

Two Ripe Avacado’s
Half a Cup Greek Yogurt
2 TSP Light Olive Oil
Salt, Pepper, Powdered Garlic, Parsley, Dill, a pinch of Italian Herb Mix

This can also be used as a veggie dip or as a sandwhich spread, example, spread this on a a flat bread roll up with a little diced peppers and some cooked chicken.. just yummy. Can also have some horseradish added for kick and used in your sushi rolls.

Put in a container and blend with hand stick, makes a nice thick light green sauce. Cook a pot of pasta, whatever kind you like.. I did small shells for this one..

One large Onion-Peeled and Diced
One large Zucchina -Diced
1/4 cup dried grape tomato’s (from our garden) cut in half..

Cooked Onions in a touch of olive oil till clear, add the rest, and cook for two min, then add the sauce above…

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Posted in Life moves on daily | Leave a comment

Sausage Stuffing

Posted on November 23, 2021 by Just another day on the farm

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Honey Garlic Lamb Sausage Full Coil

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Fall Harvest Beef/Pork Blend with onion, peppers, garlic/ginger

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Orange Cranberry Duck Sausage

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Added Bonus.. Gifted Delight.. Honey Garlic Moose Sausage.. So good!

Hanging, Smoking and Wrapping/Freezing.. I am looking forward enjoying these over the next few weeks/months.. and I love my new grinder that I used for both the grinds and for the stuffing, so much faster then my older (but still good) 5 pound manual stuffer..

Posted in 100 mile diet | Tagged Fall Harvest Sausages, honey garlic lamb sausage, meal preps, Moose honey garlic sausage, Orange Cranberry Duck Sausage, Sausage making, Stuffing Sausage on the homestead | 4 Comments

Beef Breakfast Sausage Patties

Posted on November 22, 2021 by Just another day on the farm

We really enjoy a good sausage in this house and they come in so many versions, sometimes I like to make big ones, sometimes little ones, sometimes they need to be smoked and cured.. other times fresh is best..

Most of the time when folks think about breakfast, they think pork an little links.. but not everyone has the sausage skins, the grinder or the stuffer.. sometimes you just need to go more simple..

Breakfast Beef Sausage Patties

2 pounds of lean beef, you need fat, if your meat is extra lean, you will need to add a bit of fat to the recipe or it will be dry..

Spices.. So crazy flexable but start with 1 or .5 tsp of onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper, salt, paprika and red pepper flakes..

or just go 3 tbsp Italian spice blend with 1/2 tsp of salt and pepper..

Pinch off a itty bit and cook it up and taste it.. adjust upward as needed to get to the perfect spice blend for your family!

Like your meat a little sweeter? Sprinkle over and add in 2 tbsp of brown sugar or 3 tablespoons of maple syrup to the blend.. personally I like maple with pork and brown sugar with the beef.. however your family might love the maple with the beef 🙂

Mix the spices well though the meat. it needs to be even so that you get some in all your meat but at the same time, try not to mix to much as the more you do so, the more dense the patties will become.

Try and work with very cold meat, now I used my handy little small patty maker, I have a bigger burger one as well, the joy of them is that they are all the same size, which makes single tray freezing them and stacking them a dream for future use and makes cooking them very easy as they are all the same in the pan.. plus they are lovely flat and much easier to cook because of it.

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Med heat in a pan with a good amount of olive oil or lard or left over bacon fat etc.. my point is simple, do not put these in a heated dry pan and think you can flip them whole lol.. you need to cook them with a bit of extra fat.. 4 to 5 min max per side and ready to go..

Can be pre-cooked and reheated, perfect size for little hands or sliders as well.

If you want to freeze them, layer on a tray, freeze on the tray rapidly, then let them thaw just enough to pop them off, layer between wax paper ideally and stack and freeze, ideally double bagged and just grab as needed.. ideally the night before so they can just be popped into the fridge to thaw and ready for use in the morning.. they can be cooked from frozen but it does change the texture..