Just another Day on the Farm

Goose Down and feather bedding project..

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

So first let me say that the amount of down harvested off one winter goose shocked me, I don’t know why but I expected less, I got a my biggest steal bowl full, I did split it, there is pure down only and then there is very fine feathers and down mixed.

The best down came from under the wings, which brings me to a subject that is considered very touchy, harvesting down from under the wings on live birds, I have read horror Stories about the live harvesting and that its painful and stressing on the birds, and I have read that like many things that applies more to large scale then small scale homesteaders, that in the big push, they are large flocks of untame geese, grabbed, plucked in a hard way and released.. But I have also read that small homesteaders with treats, pats and training can teach their geese to have their down collected with no real fuss or muss.

The truth I expect is somewhere in the middle, it often is when you start your learning on google or in a book.. but I am game to find out.. I mean my geese are going to shed that down regardless, I can either teach them to let me pluck it, or they will pull it out and it will be floating all over my yard like last year,

I certainly don’t want big bald spots on them, I do not intend to harvest down from their breasts or underbellies, only from under the wings on live birds, this will give me good quality down but will not create anywhere that they don’t have covered with feathers, full details after I get them trained and do it, at least once or twice with results. If it turns out that this in fact does appear to bother the geese, I will report that and stop even trying to see if it will work.

Now that does not apply to harvested geese, clearly I will be collecting down from them as much as possible. I am challenging my sewing skills and that is being kind, but I indeed to make a homemade feather quilt and or sleeping bag

I want to make a small but good quality feather pad for taking camping at some point for when we are going to do overnight campouts with the horses, I figure between the warmth and the padding, it will be a very good thing indeed.

Has anyone ever harvested their own down? if so, only on butchered birds? or have you tried live down collecting? if so, did it work? did it hurt the birds? or was it more like grooming? Anyone worked with making their own feather pillows, quilts or ? If so, what weave of cloth did you use?

Posted in Critters | Tagged goose down, Harvesting goose down on the homestead, Working with goose down | 8 Comments

Snow Day, Horsin around

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

Posted in Life moves on daily | 4 Comments

March 2nd- Better

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

Good Morning World!

This morning started with a bang, we had a just born still wet new lamb greet us in the barn this morning, good job momma sheep, will be a bit to see if she has number two, she is one of my few first time momma’s so I am just fine if she only has one this year, as long as she has twins next 🙂

We are going to need to play round robin in the barn today, we are running out of lambing jugs, so we will need to open up one of the big critter stalls and move three momma’s with wee bobs into it, normally I would just turn them out with the flock at this time, but I am leary to turn them out in this super cold an with the coy-wolf issue, so they get a few extra days in the safety of the barn, playing, growing and getting bigger and stronger while their mothers recover.

This is will open up the other smaller jugs for the just born or the still expecting mothers as they bag up 🙂

Because of the insane power costs in Ontario at this time, (and trust me folks, its only going to get worse), I have taken to doing as much laundry, cooking, and baking and canning as possible on the weekend. I about fell over when I saw the dec/jan power bill so while I snap and snarl at the little amount of power we in fact use and the fact that I pay hundreds in “fee’s) I am working even harder then normal to do the things that use the most power on the off-peak hours.

Breakfast for me -Tea and omlet, Hubby – Hot chocolate and Blueberry cake

Lunch homemade donair

Supper- veggie rice soup, nice an light..

All good today!

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged March Challange 2014 | 4 Comments

Homemade Donair’s

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

Its interesting making homemade Donair’s

Making them Pantry Style is even more of a challange, so the pita is fresh made bread hand pulled and dry cooked in a hot pan..

The Garlic Mayo was Mayo mixed with dried garlic, Black pepper an fresh snipped green onion tops.

The tomato’s where canned diced ones, well drained, as I lacked pickled turnip, I used Pickled beet, it worked to a point, but I think I would try a sharp dill pickle instead next time and I will need to make donair pickled turnips for this use. The meat was very cheap cut of our beef, well seasoned with a pre-bought spice blend just for this from the bulk barn.

Overall not bad, not bad at all.. I will look forward to making this in season with fresh greens, tomato’s and onions all diced up for it..

Posted in Food Production and Recipes | Tagged Homemade Donair | 7 Comments

March Give A Way!-Garden Seeds

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

We have a winner of the Feb Give A way of the hard lotion Bars is Karyn Knowler and you are in luck, I have a planned day to get to the post office this week, (sorry Robin, for taking so long to get your mailed out, but its coming!) as I have a deadline on when things need to go out this week.

March Give a way is fitting for spring. A mix and match selection of different heritage seeds, now I am not saying that you are getting huge amounts but there will be a few of this and few of that, and it will be a surprise, (don’t worry, I will take picture and write out a list) but not until after a winner is picked, so that its a surprise for her or him.

All seeds will do well in Zone 5 or better, if you are harder then that, let me know, it will be a limited selection for that but I will do my best.. If you win and you know you want something I have grown in the garden, talk to me and I will see what I can do 🙂

I know it does not seem that way at the moment for all of us with several feet of snow on the ground, but I swear spring IS! on the way.. Take a chance..

The rules are going to be dead simple, if you want in on the draw, comment! If you comment on the Give-A-Way post, you are entered, but! if you comment on other posts though out the month, you will get one extra ticket in the draw.

This is a way to say give a little extra thank you to my regular readers that interact with me, you make my day, sometimes a little comment or question is just the most perfect thing for me to get, so I want to give a little bit back on that.

PS, all things given will be made or grown or harvested or bought by me, all things given will be shipped at the most reasonable costs possible.

However, you only get one extra for the month, not one extra for each comment

No one can win more then three times during the year, and you can’t win more often then once every three months, so as an example, if queen wins month one, even if she comments on month two or three, she won’t be able to win until the next quarter.

Now if you enter and win, be aware you have to be willing to give me your name and mailing address to get it to you

So stay tune for the first announcement coming in for the Jan 2014 give-a- way!

Posted in gardens | Tagged 12 months 12 give a ways | 12 Comments

12 Letter in 12 Months – March… Its Growing!

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

Wow, when I started this little project, I had planned on two cards per month to be sent out, then I got wind that a certain family member wanted a card, then another, and then a friend asked to be included.. LOL its just keeps growing!

Just look at what will be heading out for the month of March.. Seven Cards and Letters, the little girls are getting those lovely little fake tattoo’s in their cards this time. One person is getting two things sent this month on a stagger, one at the first of the month and one mid month 🙂

Now the really exciting thing for me.. I got two cards with letters back this month, it was so nice to get them.. I was expecting one of them but not the other 🙂 Thanks D

Anyone else writing letters this year?

Posted in Family | Tagged 12 months 12 letters, Sending Old fashioned letters, Writing letters | 5 Comments

Seedy Saturday.. Seeds , Seeds and more seeds

Posted on March 1, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

Once again this event was busy! While my photo was snapped in a lull because the rooms with the seminars was full, full! the parking lot told the truth, it was almost impossible to find a place to park, once again, this was a huge success!

I went with a budget and cash in hand, I had a list of a few things I wanted but I was also open to idea’s when I saw them..

First on my list to find was Brown Mustard and it was found easily and gotten, very full package of seeds as well, love It! Going in both the main garden and in the food forest.

Next on my list, a new hot pepper for Big Brother, and after looking at least a dozen plus of them, I went with White Habanero Hot Pepper, this is the key pepper in Jamaican “jerk” sauce.. its got a 300,000 scoville units.. o you don’t know what is coming your way Big Brother ;P (no telling SIL who reads the blog!)

Then a certain friend on the blog was bragging up lemon Basil, so it got adding into the mix, I am still up for swapping but this way we can compare the two together 🙂

For the Food Forest and the herb garden, I picked up a lovely old Garden Sorrel, these are a perennial native to Eurasia, good for fresh eating greens, good in soups and can be dried as a herb.

While it is part of the food garden, again this one was picked for the food forest and as one that can be more for the wildlife to a point and as fodder, Amaranth Red Garnet, it should add some lovely pops of deep tall red, and I have just the spot picked out for a them. I got 250 seeds worth, so I hope to get a goodly number of them for harvest.

I got a lovely and cheap package of Chioggia beet (pre1840’s) which if you have not grown them are the amazing red/white/red/white beets, yes I know they bleed but they are so pretty! Its a Italian heirloom and this kind is so sweet to my taste buds.

Took me a while and some asking but I finally found a Bush Bean that was a very! rare heritage bean that could do everything I wanted as the beans for on top the hay bale hugelculture, its called a Blue Jay Bush bean.

I paid a pretty penny for these, if fact it was the most costly of all the package I bought and it only came with 30 seeds, so I really hope these do well so I can save more for later, they can be eaten as a young snap bean but they are mostly used as a dried bean, I will try them both ways.

And then I hit the mother load.. the table was not as fancy as the others, no huge display cases, only one person working it, unlike others that had up to four, no banners and it was a box filled with big packages of seeds, a whole box of rare hertitage beans.. and her price was excellent, 3 dollars each..

As I stood there reading, she glanced my way and after she served the last one, she smiled at me and said, I can I help you and I said, the most old rare beans you got..

and here is what I came home with

Bean -Thousand to one

Bean-Hopi Black

Bean Cherokee Trail of Tears

Bean-Ocra/yin yang/Calypso

Bean-Provider

Bean-Wild Goose

And that is really pretty much it for my seed shopping, I have other things I am planning on adding, and a good amount of herbs, soft fruits etc but as amazing as it is to me, my seeds are pretty much all here and ready to go..

I love the look of the yin/yang and the wild goose, so pretty, if all goes as planned, I hope to be able to put together a really pretty and interesting mix of home grown beans for part of the homemade Christmas presents, everyone in the family loves their soups and their settler beans, it would be pretty awesome to be able to make some recipes with farmgal’s beans in the mix 🙂

If all goes as planned, I will be planting out a total of 17 different heritage beans this year 🙂

Posted in Food Forest, gardens | Tagged Seedy Saturday! | 13 Comments

March 1st – LOL..

Posted on March 1, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

Well, the morning started off bright and early, the hounds got us up half an hour before the alarm but it was still a sleep in compared to a workday, so we will take it..

Breakfast was Steak/onions with scrambled eggs and tea, I wanted a very hearty breakfast as I knew we would be missing lunch other then a snack later in the day..

It was snowing and the roads were crap but we packed up and headed into the “big City” for the annual seedy Saturday event..

I came out with 2 dollar’s underbudget, which is good for me. More on the Seedy Saturday post itself but I got some really cool organic heritage seeds for not bad prices overall and in some cases really good prices and combined shipping costs, splitting the cost of gas between them.

Wish I had been able to find more at the free seed swap table but I did find one thing I wanted, so I was pleased with that. Picked up my seedling starts, so will be able to share the process on them if you ever want to give it a try yourself 🙂

Then I had coffee and a visit with some folks and BAM, my first FAIL, I had a cuppa coffee, it was bad coffee to boot, and DH had a juice.. something that I was told.. I am sure it is a flavour but I don’t know which one.. kinda sad really, when you break the rules on the first day and for something that sucks.. but there it is..

On the other hand we had snacks in the van to hold us over on the way home, and for supper tonight, I made Dh’s birthday dinner with steak, and pasta with cream, mushrooms and green onions (just the tops as the bottoms are tucked into a pot for regrowing.

Dessert is made, its one of those rare things, its wafer cookies with chocolate pudding and cream, so its a mock tuffle but a firm one, with no extra juice or booze added..

I do plan a hot cuppa tea with honey before bed.. so that was my first day, good and bad.. to much steak (but I am not my man LOL)

Posted in Goals | Tagged March Challange 2014 | Leave a comment

Supporting the local food movement

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

“We’re all putting our green thumbs to work this season, growing a few extra trees for our city.

This online space is an opportunity to share pictures, successes, challenges, and questions along the way. We all have a little knowledge to share, and together we have wisdom!

Why are we growing trees? Ottawa needs more genetically diverse, locally-sourced trees that will feed people and mend our planet. Successful trees will be shared, you keep 1/3 and the remainder goes back …to HHO for community plantings.

Hidden Harvest will provide free seed stock and pot if needed, but otherwise it will be a community-supported project: an online community of sapling sprouters will share knowledge and questions.”

http://ottawa.hiddenharvest.ca/

http://ottawa.hiddenharvest.ca/featured/seeking-tree-lovers-to-raise-saplings/

I have applied and been approved as a seedling starter, I will be getting cherry, plum, nut trees, I am super excited to get to be active in this program, I look at it as a blessing in terms of learning and working skills, Sharing in the bounty as I am allowed to keep up to 1/3rd of the seedlings, (the nut tree’s will all be given back), but I am interested in the cherries and Canadian plums.

There is a facebook group and we will share knowledge and skills, we can also swap tree’s, among our 1/3rds, so if I am successful on the nut tree’s and someone wants them, we can barter between the seedling growers.

So far there are around 15 of us that have signed up and we will working to grow 350 new fruit or nut bearing tree’s, but if you are local to Ottawa and interested in this program, do send them a note, we are only half way there at the moment.

Come on out and support a great cause, and work to create future food for generation to come in our local food shed..