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.

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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 , , , | 5 Comments

A Photo A Day- My Old PurrPot Priss

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

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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 , , | 1 Comment

Owning up Dear Readers..

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

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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..

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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 , | 7 Comments

Hidden Treasures.. Winter Squash..

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

2013-01-01 161 (450x600)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..

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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!

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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..

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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.

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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.

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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..

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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

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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 , , , | 11 Comments

A photo a day-Foggy Fall Mornings

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

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

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

2013-01-01 154 (450x600)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..

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so give me a hand and throw out some names for it!

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Graveyard Soap.. Freshly made and setting up..

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

2013-01-01 142 (494x600)Wow, this soap took its time to figure out how to make, but once it was done, the name was so easy to come to me.. Three full loafs of this baby, while all made the same, I expect that every single soap will be its own..

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This is a rebatch of soaps, there are curls of my baby sheep milk soap, there is tombstones made out of my homemade soap, and it was all repoured over with a base soap.. crazy, its just crazy..

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Putting it together was a race against the clock that’s for sure..

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A Photo a Day- In the Corn..

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

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Happy Birthday to my wonderful Momma!

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

374854_2970481945169_1789070756_nHappy Birthday to you.. Love you so much!!! we may live way to far apart but we speak daily and I would not have it any other way.. thank you for being who you are!, thank you for raising me to be me! Thank you for being the best mother in law, that Dh hubby could ever ask for! I took this photo on our last holiday trip together, and I am looking forward to taking many more on our coming holiday, we be going north and to the mountains!!

 

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