Just another Day on the Farm

A photo a Day- Busy Bee’s

Posted on September 8, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Yup, I was thrilled yesterday to see four kinds of bee’s in the garden yesterday, but only a certain kind was willing to get its photo taken, still it was awesome to see that everywhere I turned there was bee’s, we didn’t seem to have many this spring and I went out of my way to leave certain area’s for feeding the whole season long, I left of water spots to make sure in the heat they had their drinks etc.. and now in the fall, the farm, the yard and the gardens are reaping the rewards, those queens have been busy! and I hope that they have lots put away for winter!

Fall Harvest are coming in.. Garden ..

Posted on September 7, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

The Cape Gooseberries, (Miss Molly) are huge, each plant is at least 3 feet plus tall and 3 feet plus wide, even though we were smart enough to place them in wire cages, they are still outgrown and flopping, but the fruits, hundreds and hundreds of them.. and the taste, heavenly, a bit of rich sweet citrus with hints of pinapple

Well, its that time of year, so much to do and so much to bring in.. here is a photo sample of some of the amazing farm goodness that is finding its way into the kitchen, pantry, cellar, freezers or canner this weekend and week.. going to do a full on farm feast meal tomorrow..

Fresh dug potato’s yum, yum, this weekend weather is good to start the curing on.. no rain in site for a bit..

Tomato’s are going to beat the band, and the pepper plants have stepped it up into high gear.

The fall rasberries are amazing, big, sweet and so so good!

The carrots, beans and so for that growing, and fall harvests are coming in..

But lots going into seed as well.. Lots and lots of raddish pods to fill jars of seeds for my winter sprouting.. perfect why pay for it, if you can grow and harvest it yourself!

Posted in Garden harvest | Tagged Aunt Molly Ground Cherries, Digging Spuds, fall fruit, Fall garden harvest, Fall Rasberries, green peppers, raddish pods, Raddish seeds | 12 Comments

A Photo A day..

Posted on September 7, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged Fall Rasberries | Leave a comment

Sept challange- Not short of Squash :)

Posted on September 6, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Be it summer squash, cucumbers or Winter Squash or pie pumpkins, my hay bale, rollout, hill, dryland planting Squash bed has outdone itself.. without a single doubt in my mind, it was the rock star of my garden this year.. my main garden got flooded out time after time, my one hugelculture did ok, and the new round bale one is coming along but it was done this spring, and so it won’t really come into its own till next year..

But this bed, was in a perfect spot, it got full sun, it got shelterbelts on both sides, it had around 1500 square feet before it hit the tree’s and being squash it just ran up them and around them for more sun!

Now the thing that did surprise me was that for the winter squashes, I didn’t get nearly as many as I should have considering the amount of blooms and vines, (but there is a second harvest out there still growing at this time) but what I did get is the weight.. while I might not have gotten as many large numbers as I expected, I got huge size.. massive, as in pretty much everything is at least double or in some cases triple in size compared to normal in my main garden.

Pound for pound, this garden just rocked it! Bring on the squash recipes, counties, benches, and all kinds of spare spots in the main floor are filled with curing winter squashes and pie pumpkins.. it feels so good to see them, that is food for the next six to eight months.. awesome!

Posted in Food Storage, Garden harvest | Tagged Curing winter sqaush, Harvesting winter squash, Pie pumpkins, Winter squash | 5 Comments

A Photo A Day- My Old PurrPot Priss

Posted on September 6, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Priss Priss is 16/17 depending on what her age was when I got her, the rescue said one age, the vet said another, but I can say that she has been with me for over 15 years, she was with me before DH and I got together, thankfully he loved my kitty as much as me, she is showing her age but I hope to have a few more years with her yet 🙂

She started life as a farm kitty, then was a bush kitty, a downtown city kitty, a northern kitty, and then became a indoor/outdoor farm kitty with grace again, she is a talker, she like’s her water fresh from the tap, as in still moving lol

Posted in Critters, photography | Tagged cat photo, old farm cats, priss the cat | 1 Comment

Owning up Dear Readers..

Posted on September 5, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

You see this soap.. it looks good right.. but nope, I used a new pot and while I thought I saved it, that was not the case, it was ruined.. this is where all that soap ended up.. it could not even be re-soaped or used for laundry soap or floor scrubbing soap because the dang soap reacted to the new bigger pot I used and it went funky-and that’s me being kind..

My point of this post is simple.. not everything we do works, not everything we do turns out the way we expected, not everything is picture perfect.. Not everything can be saved or reused in someway.. sometimes things we do are just plain old failures and need to be sent to the rubbish bin! All 15 pounds of it..

The key is to do it.. learn from it…and then let it go and move on.. focus on NEXT! and you will enjoy life a whole lot more 🙂

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged Admitting failure, Soap gone wrong | 7 Comments

Hidden Treasures.. Winter Squash..

Posted on September 5, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Well, I will admit that I am both unhappy and ok with the fact that our last big rains have popped up mildew on my squash plants (just some of them so far but it will spread), as I have wanted to try the raw milk mix for this treatment and they plants have been so, so healthy..

But with the threat of frost in the forcast, its time to take the squash that is ready off the plants, treat them and then hope that they will do that final big push to grow and turn the smaller ones that I am going to leave on them.. I went out today to check and a good number of them are ready for picking, but I didn’t bring in a single one.. no sir!

I am waiting for the hubby to come home.. when its this kind of hide and go seek harvest, half the full is doing it together.. as we will pull up the fruits of our labour and oh and ah..

So here is just a few photo of the sneak peek of what will be coming, I will do a full weigh in on the winter squashes and of course we will need to cure them carefully so that they last as long as possible in storage and anything that is not going to keep will be canned up.

Posted in Food Storage | Tagged fall harvest time, Harvesting the squash, Homegrown winter squash | 3 Comments

Sept Farm Challange -Lets talk about meat..

Posted on September 5, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Now, as you know, I am doing a eat off the farm challenge this month, that means for me, we eat what we raised, grew and have on the farm.. now I just read the lovely Kitchengarden post and it appears I misunderstood a little, when she said, eat off the farm.. she meant eat nothing but what you could get off the farm at this moment in time, other then meat and what she could make from fresh milk.. hmmm, I might be wiling to consider taking that challenge for a week but I think I am going stay with my version for the month per say.

So she made a interesting point, that she had some beef left and lots of lamb but not much else.. of course the truth is she has much, much more then that, she is just not looking at her live critters as possible food.. she said no chicken but point in fact, she talked about rounding up six fat hens for a housewarming present, and i’m sure somewhere in that remaining flock is a hen that is just a bit older or a bit of a not so good layer or she is just the unlucky one..

That one chicken can be harvested and used carefully would be able to provide her with a number! of meals, my best to date for a rabbit or chicken is 14 servings for both myself and Dh, that means out of a single 3 to 4 pound critter, I made a total of 28 servings when combined with other things.. here is a more detailed post on a rabbit breakdown

So it got me thinking about what I have available for myself in regards to meat born, raised and most of the time butchered on the farm..

Currently, we have

Beef
Pork
Lamb
chicken
turkey
duck
rabbit

Available on the claw, paw or hoof

Veal
Pork
Lamb
Chicken
Goose
Duck
Rabbit
Guinea Fowl

We are most certainly not hurting in any way or shape for meat..

So there is only one clear big missing piece of “meat” in my staples, and that would be any kind of fish or seafood.. Makes sense given what I can raise on the farm.

What kinds of meat do you have in your freezer, pantry or live in the backyard?

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged Raising small animals for your own meat, raising your own meat, Sept challange, small Farm | 11 Comments

A photo a day-Foggy Fall Mornings

Posted on September 5, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Posted in photography | Tagged fog, photography, plants in fog | 4 Comments

Graveyard Soap cut -Needs new name? Idea’s?

Posted on September 4, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Well, its funky and I like lots about it, but it didn’t turn out colorwise as I expected, and now that’s its cut, I don’t think it looks very graveyardish at all..