Just another Day on the Farm

Golden Morning!

Posted on November 3, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

I am sure I am not the only one that tried to look at in some way or fashion the bite out of the sun this morning, Dh did it a safe way for us, using the the binoculars to see the eclipse on a wall, I took a photo with the camera over the shoulders and got a awesome arty photo but no, sign to my eye of the bite out that we could see on the wall.

I did take photos of the wall image but it didn’t come out clear so no point in posting them, also snapped a great sam and sheep sunlight photo of them.. Did you get up this morning and enjoy the eclipse?

Posted in photography | Tagged photography | 1 Comment

Got out on Samwell for two hour ride today

Posted on November 2, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

I’m learning forward on the pats, what a good boy, and he is listening to every word 🙂

Getting much more comfortable with him, we are learning about each other, I am learning his cue’s better, he is learning mine, I am trying to do one ride on the farm, just working basic’s and building our connection and then one ride off the farm, working on him being willing to leave brandy and trust in the ride with me. We road down the “other way” today and road to the end of the road..

Its like learning to dance with a new partner.. I like him, more and more!

Saturday Health and Weight update

Posted on November 2, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

A fine Saturday to you, I didn’t plan on making this post a Saturday post, but as that was the start of my weigh-ins, I guess that its become the day 🙂

I was truly hoping when I stepped on the scale this morning, that I would have cracked down into the 40’s even by a hair but nope, I am using the last two numbers, so last Saturday, I was 54.6 and today I was an even 50, so I am down 4.6 pounds, I would have liked a bit more this week but it’s also the same week as that friend comes, so I am “hoping” that will be reflected in the scale over the next few days.

My first goal for losing is 24 pounds and the fast I can make that happen, the better it will be, I am not being stupid about it but I am not going for 1 or 2 pounds a week, I want to take that 25 pounds off as fast as can be done in a healthy way and then I will work on the next goal a bit slower if I need to.. ideally, I would like to have it done in six to eight weeks but I have given myself a full 12 to make it happen.

So while I certainly need to lose weight for just the sake of health and the sake of being able to do things, as well as the fact that I gained close to 15 pounds on my holiday (sigh!) I am currently on a pretty tightly controlled fertility diet, it’s a 3 month program to start with and let me tell ya, it’s going to be a tough one in some ways and not so bad in others.

The good news is that it focus’ on simple home prepared meals with whole food (which works with my personal goals of food from the farm, o mile food and hundred mile food shed).

One of the good things is that it’s not a diet in the sense of, buy our food, or eat this or that so many times per week, or have half a cup of this or that for lunch plus salad, its a lot more tailored then that and its also does not give you recipes, it instead gives me percent’s, and rules..

Examples, 30 percent protein, 20 percent slow carbs, and 50 percent veggies and fruit is my main plan for my body type. I am to favor, simple home cooked meals with lots of soups an stews, not a lot of cold foods, or drinks or veggies, for me, its recommended that I drink hot drinks, warm cooked veggies and even stewed fruits, I am willing to do so to a point.

No carbs without protein to go with.

The one that is ah! is no caffeine, no coffee, no tea, no chocolate, and of course limit white sugars as much as possible, I am allowed to replace within reason with raw local honey

I am also starting other fertility treatments to help with this, so we will see how it goes..

For a full tracking and my personal musings and at times rants and maybe even wheepish posts on this subject, you can find it in detail on

http://farmgalsweightlossdreamsandgoals.wordpress.com/

This week has been about adjustments but I am very proud of myself, I have had a perfect week, I have not cheated once, and unlike other times, where I have always given myself a day off or a meal off per week, that is not the case with this one.. its end goal is just to important!

Posted in Health | Tagged Fertility diet, local food, Weight lose goals, whole foods | 4 Comments

Custom Needle Felting

Posted on November 2, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

I have admired this blogger for a while and when this post came up and the amazing talent and skill on this, I am reblogging her post in case any of my readers might like to take her up on this amazing offer for xmas presents!

Bluestem Pond

I have sometimes custom-made replicas of people’s pets. If anyone would like me to do this for them, just send me a photo and I’ll make one and mail it to you for $15 plus shipping. Here are some I’ve done in the last year.

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Posted in Life moves on daily | Leave a comment

A new Month, a new challange.. The getter done Challange :) Rabbit Recipe

Posted on November 1, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Given the wide view of things that folks asked for, that’s the best name I could come up with, the getter done challenge for the month of Nov.. Its a mixed up thing that’s for sure, but I have a list, and a plan sort of 🙂

Today’s recipe is one I have done but never taken a photo of, I promise to add one to the post, the next time I make a version of this , its a single cast iron pot recipe, I love those, it can be done over a fire but I do mine part on the stove and part in the oven.

Take two rabbit saddles for a total of four, (also this can be done with two nice big duck breasts cut in two lengthwise), you will need some lard for your cast iron pan, I recommend lard for the higher smoke temp but you could use coconut oil if preferred

1 large onion, 2 cloves of garlic, a small package of mushrooms (whatever kind you like but darker fuller flavour mushrooms work best) a fourth of a cup of nice red wine, a pint jar or a 14 oz can of pre-cooked white navy beans, at least three cups of diced greens, 2 and half be it spinach, a spicy salad mix or horseradish greens, or a mustard green or even green cabbage, 2 and half cups of hard cider or apple juice, Salt, pepper.

Heat your cast iron to med heat with your fat, once well heated, sear your meat on both sides, about three to five min, take out, and allow to mellow, then add your onion, garlic, mushrooms, cook till clear and softened, add your wine, and do a in pan deglaze, then add your beans, greens and cider, cover and simmer for around 30 min, check at the 20 min mark to see if you need a bit more liquid.

At the twenty min mark, slice your saddles into bite size pieces and slip them back into the mix, finish cooking for the last min and they will be heated though, serve in a bowl with a fresh bun, roll or baking powder to sop up the last bits of that amazing sauce.

Posted in Food Production and Recipes | Tagged cooking in cast iron, Duck Breasts in a beans and greens recipe, One pot recipes, Rabbit Reicpes, Rabbit Saddle with beans recipe, recipes | Leave a comment

What is your favorite dressing for five bean salad !?

Posted on October 31, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Ok, so Dh does not like beans, as in when I meet him, he would not eat beans at all, its a texture thing or its a combo of a texture thing and a raised that way thing, when it comes to his food habits, I found often it was more what he had as a child, then what he does or not like per say but on some textures, he is stubborn..

Sometimes, I blend things into the sauces or the bases to hide them from him, but slowly over the years, his bean rules has been broken, the best one that he can handle is a navy bean or a black eyed bean, they are smaller and don’t seem to bother him near as much, I have been able to start adding them to soups, and thank god chili, but honestly, beanless chili is just not chili to me..

But a full bean salad is something I have not done in year and when I say, year’s I mean close to 15 by my memory, so when I made a five bean salad yesterday for lunch, I know that I don’t like the traditional oil and vinegar with spices, so I called mom and she said our family recipe for coleslaw will work, so I tried that, other then adding in some turmic, and it was good, but just good..

So I thought ‘I would reach out to the readers, do you have a totally amazing five bean salad dressing? Open to any and all idea’s

Posted in Canning, food | Tagged Beans and the fussy hubby, Dressing for a five bean salad, Five bean salad | 6 Comments

Do you beleive in something you can’t see?

Posted on October 31, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Well, if I believe the hounds this morning something unseen, unheard by me, is driving them all to the edge, soft woofing alerts at the windows with breathy growls, high steady rapid alerting outside, but the thing that has ME on edge is the quiet rumbling growls the soft whining and shaking, the hair coming up on spines, the freezing and stiffness as they scent the air.

They have very clearly shown me where they are scenting and staring, this is in no way random, but I see and hear nothing..

So I am going to take it on faith and trust that something is or has been out there, so what would trigger this, (pic from the net)

and the only answer I can come up with is bear

I have seen this breed of dog react the same way to black bear and even more strongly to polar bear scent and tracks.

Now, i’m certainly not going looking for it, but I am going to keep the farm in a solid lockdown this morning, no free ranging of any of the birds, not sure on the barn, if I should lock it down, if a bear wanted in, it could get in.

I have only seen a black bear once in our neck of the woods in all these years, but other locals have spotted them before so while not common in any way, not totally unheard of either.

What a way to start a day..

Posted in Critters | Tagged listening to your dogs, trusting you dog | 7 Comments

Rockland/ottawa Local lamb for sale 2013 – Ready 3rd weekend of Nov

Posted on October 30, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Hi Folks..

We first and formost raise our lambs for ourselves, but when our ewes have a few to many lambs in a year we sometimes find ourselves with a few extra that we are willing to do farm gate sales on.

We have ewe’s outdid themselves this past year, we will sell half or whole lambs, this lamb was raised by their mothers till they naturally wean around the age of six to eight months, on pasture, they never had any vaccines, antibodics, they were not grain finished. If you want them lightly grain finished, please contact me ASAP, so that I pick a lamb for you and do so!

They will go to a small family run local provincal approved butcher, and they are cut in a tradional cut, one pds packages or four to six lamb chops, roasts, legs of lamb, lamb ground meat etc

Despite the increased costs in hay, hauling and processing costs, I have not raised my price on them per pd, its the same as last year. I charge a Flat rate of eight dollars per pound on the cut/wrapped lamb, there is a limited amount of extra ground yearling ewe lamb available to the buyers of half or whole lambs at five dollars a pound.

As a thank you to those that have bought from me before, I will offer a ten percent discount on the half or whole lamb.

Write me in the comments and I will get back to you and answer any questions.. I would be happy to help you find ways to use the different cuts of meat, please check out the recipe area of the blog for many ways to prepare your lamb.

Support a small local farmer.. Enjoy fresh local ontario lamb..

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged Local ontario lamb for sale, Ottawa local farm gate lamb sales, support your local farmer | 3 Comments

Well, that gives me a good wide choice..

Posted on October 30, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Here are the comments on idea’s of things to do, and boy they covered a good area..

Hey Farm Gal, would love to see something of a textile nature… weaving, quilting, sewing… I keep wanting to learn how to make sheeting for beds – I realize that it should be obvious but I am also sure that there are some tricks to making them fit better… Thanks… Lake Lili Lili

Well Lake Lili Lili, I have to admit that making something in regards to the above would be more like a month long project, not a daily LOL, so I will find one textile related project for the month of Nov and share it, it might end up being quite simple but it will be useful 🙂

As if you don’t have enough challenges running a farm and your daily blog stories (which I love by the way)…but if you need more, I am always looking to try new canning recipes and would vote for a recipe per day for a least a full 2 weeks. My challenge will be to try each one.
Denise

Hi Dense, ok, so you want canning recipes.. this is something that can be certainly looked at, I am unsure that I can plan to can a recipe every single day for two weeks, but I can figure out how to can a certain amount of days per week and in doing so, share canning recipes.. So yes, canning recipes coming soon.

How ’bout “Any or All of the Above”? They all sound like great ideas to me!
So, I guess Farmgal, should you choose to accept it; your challenge would be to teach us “Something New Every Day”; )

Something new every day, that gives me freedom and flexablity and I think Deb, that I will call it a Make something new Every day Nov Challenge.. Thanks for giving me the name and the overview 🙂 for the project.

lol…how in the world do you even have time to turn around??? You are one of the busiest people I have ever met and still would like a challenge?!@#…lol…I would love to learn old skills…you would think if you had a moments rest you would take it…take care & be good to you! lgsbrooks

Hi Lgsbrooks, awe, thanks girl, I honestly have spare time, and I do take rests when needed, I was in bed by eight last night and watched a movie before going down for the night, see, just wasted time, but it was relaxing that was for sure..

Old skills, hmmm, have to think about that one, I have some idea’s on how to do a few things that would fit this as well..

Well, thanks ladies, you have given me a right helping hand for figuring out a plan for the blog for the month of Nov 🙂

Posted in Goals | Tagged Goals | 2 Comments

Why would we want to walk over the flapping tarp thing??

Posted on October 29, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

As is Dh’s work from home day, I could go riding, so tacked up Samwell and we did a half off and half on the farm ride, he is a little herd bound with his girlfriend Brandy LOL. who gave herself a very very good workout racing around the pastures while we were riding off the farm, and then we settled down and I put Brandy on the cross ties and we used the horse equipment in the big pasture.

Sam is truly unsure why we would want to do this.. why go over and through the pile of poles, when we could just go around, why would we want to do figure eights, what do you mean, you want me to turn with softness ?

But the big one was, why o why would we want to walk over a scary white tarp in the field, we got to the do the side pass, the walk up an stop, the side step, the, hey farmgal, look we could ride over here?,

no, well how about over here?

well, then how about I just back up then?

No, really are you sure you want to do this?

don’t you understand, dark black mud is not scary to me, its just mud, water, no problem, I can do water but its white and flappy!

Did you hear me, rider on my back.. WHITE AND FLAPPY!